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Business Advisor, Crypto Aficionado, Husband, and Father, Chris Niemeyer On How to Forge Your Business Life So You Can Prioritize Your Goals Chris Niemeyer helps business owners design a business lifestyle they love by working smarter, not harder. As a business advisor and consultant, Chris' FREEDOM Business System™ helps you work in your sweet spot so you work less, make more - and spend more time with your loved ones. For years Chris ran his first multi-million dollar company mostly alone. When he became a father, he systematized, hired, and raised up a team to run his business so he could be more engaged at home and travel with his family. Nowadays you'll find him coaching and consulting other entrepreneurs on how to work smarter, not harder by systematizing your business. He's a family man to the core and is likely with his wife and 4 young kids at a beach in Florida or coaching their sports activities when not traveling the world together. I believe we were all created for a purpose and need to get realigned to that. I help people overcome the obstacles that get them stuck so they can work in their sweet spot and live an extraordinary lifestyle. This show is about talking with purpose-driven people. Connect with Chris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisniemeyer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niemeyerchris Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/niemeyerchris Website: www.ChrisNiemeyer.com   Episode Transcript Chris Niemeyer [00:00:00] Chris Niemeyer: [00:00:00] One thing that I I'll even tell clients or friends that asked me a similar question about this is, you know, they say, boy, it's just seems so risky to go on your own to, to be an entrepreneur. And, you know, there's so much risk involved and that could be true on one hand, but I still, you know what, it's also kind of risky to stay in a job that maybe you don't love and really at the end of the day, Your employer calls the shots. [00:00:30] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:00:30] Hi, welcome to the innovative mindset podcast. I'm your host Izolda Trakhtenberg on the show. You get my conversations with peak performing thought leaders, creatives, and entrepreneurs. We explore how you can innovate through creativity, compassion, and collaboration. I believe that innovation combined with compassion and creative thinking can save the world and I aim to bring you ways. [00:00:52] You can do it too. If you're enjoying the show, I'd be super grateful. If you could support it by buying me a cup of coffee, you can buy [00:01:00] me a cup of@buymeacoffee.com slash Izolda tea. And now let's get on with the show. [00:01:15] Hey there and welcome to the innovative mindset podcast. I'm your host. Izolda Trakhtenberg. I am so happy that you're here and I'm really honored and happy to have this gentleman here on the show today. And there are myriad reasons. One of which is we've both been students in the same. Classes. So you're going to hear us probably giggle about certain things. [00:01:34] Might Kim Lauren Davis, if you're listening, you know, we're talking about you, Chris Niemeyer helps business owners design a business lifestyle. They love by working smarter, not harder as a business advisor and consultant Chris Chris's freedom business system. You know, I love that already helps you work in your sweet spot. [00:01:53] So you work less, make more and spend more time with your lover. For years, Chris ran his multi [00:02:00] check this out. His first multimillion dollar company, mostly alone. When he became a father, he systematized hired and raised up a team to run his business. So he could be more engaged at home and travel with his family. [00:02:12] Nowadays, you're going to find him coaching and consulting other entrepreneurs, how to work smarter, not harder by systematizing your brain. I need all the help I can get with that. So I'm really excited to talk to Chris about it. Chris is a family man to the core and is likely with his wife and four young kids at a beach in Florida or coaching their sports activities when not traveling the world together. [00:02:32] Wow. Chris, thank you so much for being here. [00:02:34]Chris Niemeyer: [00:02:34] . Izolda thank you. It is a pleasure. You have some amazing guests and I have listened. You have. A great communicator and interviewer. So I'm just excited to be here. Thank you again for the opportunity. Oh, it's [00:02:46] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:02:46] my pleasure. My pleasure. I appreciate your kind words. [00:02:49] That's very sweet. I, I wanna just, I want to jump into something that you said. And I adore it. You said that you believe that we were [00:03:00] all created for a purpose and we need to get realigned to that. I would love to hear from you what you mean. First of all, we were all created for a purpose. And what purpose would that be? [00:03:10] Is it individual or is it something that's, that's bigger than one individual person and how do we get realigned to our purpose? What's the process someone would go through to, to be able to do that. [00:03:24] Chris Niemeyer: [00:03:24] Yeah, great question. Well, and, and I, I, I'm going to speak through and kind of talk through, I guess my, uh, my, my lens of faith. [00:03:30] So I just believe that there's a greater purpose that we all have. And, um, and so I think that regardless of your, your belief system or whatever, we're here for a reason, and there's those kind of three existential questions that I'd like to talk about. Who am I, why am I here? And where am I going? And I think sitting with those questions actually frequently, you know, whether that's on a, an annual basis, if you're kind of a planner and it's like, okay, turn of the turn of the calendar year is about to happen. [00:03:58] What did I learn this year? You know, what, what am I [00:04:00] good at? What am I interested in it? And how can I apply that toward a purpose here on this earth to serve others. So I've, I've just been able to. Take action on that over the years. And, and let me tell you, and then we can talk about a story about this, but it's not always been pretty and I've. [00:04:17] Misaligned in seasons two and had to kind of get back into that. So, uh, I'm, I'm a huge fan of just finding your purpose and, and living that out. [00:04:29] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:04:29] I'm taking all that in for a second. It's so interesting to hear you say that you're a fan of finding your purpose and living it out because I know that there are a lot of people out there who, uh, sort of, they, they, they, they live their lives to do their work. [00:04:45] And they perhaps watch jeopardy and this is not insulting jeopardy. Right? I love jeopardy. But, but the point is that it sounds to me like you're talking something that, that is a calling that's bigger than the day-to-day stuff of life. And I'm wondering [00:05:00] what the process is. What is, what is that, that you go. [00:05:04] Uh, is it a dissatisfaction like, oh, I, I, I don't want to watch jeopardy tonight instead. I want to go out and change the world or whatever. What happens to someone when they get to that place of either doing that assessment like you do, or finding that they're perhaps dissatisfied with their status quo and want to change it? [00:05:22] What would you expect someone to be going through at that moment? [00:05:27] Chris Niemeyer: [00:05:27] Well, I guess if I may then let me just share it a personal experience. Probably your listeners here and others that have these kinds of stories. And sometimes frankly, we don't want to talk about them, but, um, I've just. Okay, to be more open about it. [00:05:41] So my first career back in my early twenties of, of all things was in the political world, which is frankly, in our political climate, embarrassing to say, but, but you know, at an early age I got, I got thrown into, uh, leading, uh, the largest political action committee in Southern California. [00:06:00] And so I was around all these, you know, movers and shakers and big business people and had access to, you know, congressmen and all this stuff. [00:06:07] As an, as an early 20 something, it was a fascinating experience. And I learned a little bit about that whole world for a few years there, but it was also never ending. It was one of those. Do you remember the Blackberry w seven connected to the Blackberry? Oh, yes. There'll be iPhone today, but, uh, uh, yeah, these are early years, so. [00:06:29] It, it was just this kind of frenetic pace. You know, we, we were identifying candidates to run for office fundraising for them doing some lobbying. It was a never ending cycle. And I just remember this, this particular evening. And it's just one that you'll never forget, right. Is I'm just considering just the pace of life, by the way. [00:06:48] My, we had gotten married early on as a couple. And so my wife had gone back to school and we were just living this fast paced life and. There was this particular evening where I'm just [00:07:00] driving home. This is from downtown San Diego. You know, city skyline is in the background, uh, in my rear view mirror. [00:07:07] And I'm driving up, uh, north, north San Diego, right near the Miramar air force base. There's these fighter jets only as, you know, brave pilots going by is where they filmed part of top gun. Right. And I'm just thinking about man, what it must be like to be one of them. And they're just, they're they're bravery and, and no limits and all this stuff. [00:07:25] And I'm reflecting on just I'm feeling kind of boxed in and, and running ragged, you know, and, and just am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing? And a song comes on the radio. I'm listening to the radio song comes on the radio and it's by a band called Switchfoot and it's. It's lyrics starts singing out over the radio, says, this is your life. [00:07:46] Are you who you want to be? This is your life. Is it everything you dreamed it would be? And, uh, you know, I, I don't know how God speaks to people, but sometimes maybe it's in different ways. He's spoken through donkeys before. To me, it was, he was [00:08:00] speaking through the radio that day. And, and I think, I just remember pondering those words and then starting to just literally cry out. [00:08:09] This is not the life I meant to live. This, this is not in alignment with who I am and my values. Um, I found myself, you know, compromised in certain situations in that political world. And I literally had to pull over to the side of the road because I had to wipe the tears from my eyes. Cause I couldn't see. [00:08:26] And it was that evening when I waited for my wife to get home. That I said, you know, honey things have got to change. We've got to get back to, we have misaligned. I have misaligned my life and let's get back to what we're supposed to do and who we are. And literally that night as all of this is when we started this kind of process on a back of a napkin, we started listing out the things, what are we interested in? [00:08:51] You know, what do we start. What, what do we, you know, decent good at? Where do we want to go? What, what, what, what just motivates us and fuels us. And that was the [00:09:00] start of my first kind of entrepreneurial journey, again, just realigning. So I think there's people that have those stories where they either hit rock bottom, or they realize that. [00:09:09] I watched too many Jeopardy's in your example, I need to get off the couch and do something. [00:09:15] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:09:15] Yeah. It, it is interesting that what you just said, that you, that you went okay, what, what, what am I good at? What do I, what do I love? What, what are the things that bring me joy? And it took a huge amount of self-awareness I think, to be able to do that, that you went, that you'd realize something had to change, but then you had the. [00:09:36] Okay, let me step back and figure out what that is. And so when you did that, when you were in that space and you and your wife, and, and it's wonderful that she was there with you, you know, that she, that she supported these, these changes that you wanted to make. What was the next step? How did you go from, I work in politics and I'm not happy to the Chris I'm [00:10:00] talking to today who is, seems to be super happy. [00:10:03] And, and, and you're doing your own entrepreneurial journey all the way to today. How did that happen? [00:10:12] Chris Niemeyer: [00:10:12] Yeah. So literally taking that first list that we created, uh, along alongside that list, we had a values list and kind of what we anticipated for the next five years of our life as well. So really kind of vision casting too, and going from a, you know, a young, young, married couple to, Hey, we want to have kids. [00:10:29] And if we're one of kids and raise these kids intentionally and well, What's that going to look like and what is our, our time availability with them. So we, we outlined, I want to have a, a business that if she chooses to, she can stay home and raise the kids. And, and so I, I began literally that next week approaching some of my mentors and saying, Hey, I'm making a pretty big decision here, but I'm gonna leave this political world. [00:10:54] And, and what are your thoughts? And a few of them in the same week gave various [00:11:00] similar recommendations. And they said, Chris, you know, you, you're the kind of guy that you need to own and operate your own company. You need to find out what it is. You're passionate about. What is you're good at? So taking that list that we did and, and something bubbled to the top at that point in our lives. [00:11:17] This was back in 2006. And, uh, my wife had worked for travel companies in the past. So she was engaged with that. We love to travel. We also had background in, in missions and kind of giving back to the community and the world. And so missions and travel. We were married together and took my business experience and kind of her marketing and that awareness of that area. [00:11:37] And that was our first business. It was mission travel. We still own it to this day. Um, just the travel coordination, all that comes with these amazing trips that people take around the world to make the world a better place to, to give back. And so that was the foundation of our journey and it was one where, Hey, it's a home-based business. [00:11:55] I'm working from my laptop. I can choose, you know, when I want to take it. [00:12:00] Break to play with the kids or, or not. And, and, and so that was for us kind of how we started that next step. [00:12:07] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:12:07] I love that you're location independent. That's really cool. And it's, I feel like I'm dancing around a question that I want to ask, and I'm not quite sure how to ask it. [00:12:18] You went from, you went from being someone who had a job who was working for others too. Too, you know, you shifted to having your own business. What, what, what was that like? What was the, what was, you know, this is the innovative mindset. How did you innovate? What did you do after the, the business that you've the first business that you started to get you okay with it? [00:12:43] Because the thing that concerned. Honestly is that there are a lot of people who think that they could be entrepreneurs, but actually they might not be well suited for it. Or there are a lot of people who are well-suited to be entrepreneurs, but they are staying sort of stuck in [00:13:00] a job because they might be nervous or scared. [00:13:03] How do you tell what is the, the best way for your mindset to shift in order to be able to do what you've done? [00:13:15] Chris Niemeyer: [00:13:15] Yeah. Great, great question. And some complexities there too, but, um, you know, one thing that I I'll even tell, tell clients or friends that asked me similar question about this is, you know, they say it's point it's just seems so risky to go on your own, to, to be an entrepreneur. [00:13:31] And you know, that there's so much risk involved. And that could be true on one hand. Um, but I say, you know what, it's also kind of risky to stay in a job that maybe you don't love. Really at the end of the day, your employer calls the shots, your employer or your market, or your industry is the one that is deciding, well, you have a job or not, to me, that's risky because you don't have control. [00:13:58] You don't have the power to [00:14:00] make and pivot when, uh, an industry shifts or something happens as an entrepreneur. We have that ability and that maneuverability to. Tick and tack and Zig and zag. Right. And so I think there's, there's that awareness that it's like, well, I feel comfortable and, and safe in this job, but am I really, and I think that's a big step to just have some people understand is entrepreneurship while it might sound risky. [00:14:29] For me, it's pretty exhilarating because you have, you have quite a bit of control over how things go and, and, um, I think that's a big mindset shift mindset shift that people, uh, need need to do. [00:14:41] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:14:41] Hmm, there's something in. So, so fascinating about that. I don't know if you know who Tom Peters is. He's he's, uh, an author he wrote in, in search of excellence. [00:14:53] He's sort of a leadership guru. One of the things that he says is that the leader's job is [00:15:00] to support the people they're leading so that they can shine. And so if you're an entrepreneur and you are. And you're the business, the owner of the business. How do you reconcile this notion that you just, that you just stated about, about, you know, you, you have a lot of control too, I guess, hiring or developing the team that will help the business, but also that you can support so that they shine. [00:15:36] Does that. Th I, I hope that that question makes any sort of sense because it's a complicated one. [00:15:43] Chris Niemeyer: [00:15:43] Yeah, no, it is. And there's, there's a lot to unpack there. I think, um, you know, predominantly. In our culture, you know, perhaps, and maybe worldwide, there are just a lot of unsatisfied employees because they don't have the right kind of leaders, whether that's the [00:16:00] manager or the CEO or the C-suite folks, a lot of people are, they're just punching a clock. [00:16:04] And so they're not in satisfaction or alignment with their job, but there are those great exceptions of leaders who say, let's, let's make sure that everyone here feels they've got a purpose. They've got a role, you know, Starting as an entrepreneur, especially as, as a, as a solo preneur to, to start with like a lot of us, we're the ones wearing all those hats, right? [00:16:26] We're we're the salesperson, we're the founder. We're the chief marketing officer. We're the finance bookkeeper. We're, you know, janitor, whatever it is. And as I explained to my coach in class, A lot of those hats are uncomfortable. A lot of those hats, frankly, don't fit because you're supposed to be wearing maybe one, maybe two hats roles in general. [00:16:47] And there's other great people that fit those other roles with their own abilities and skillsets. And so it's your job as, as the leader, as the entrepreneur to bring in those right people. And I got [00:17:00] to that point, you know, years after mission travel, when I was still a preneur who was busy doing that at all, and then realized like, you know what, in order to. [00:17:09] Scale this and keep, I keep my sanity, frankly. Um, I needed to hire the right people who are gifted, talented, and motivated in those areas. Does that help answer that question? It [00:17:22] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:17:22] does. It's just, you know, like I follow Gary Vaynerchuk, I follow Tim Ferris and the things that they say are very similar to what you just said, that you have to hire the right people. [00:17:35] And Gary Vaynerchuk goes, go so far as to say, you know, hire. And fire fast. Right? So, so that if it's not the right person, uh, then, then no harm, no foul. You've had your 90 days you're out. And that sounds kind of harsh, but that's kind of, it looks like what he does or what he used to do. I don't know if that's what he does still with VaynerMedia. [00:17:56] So, so what is your thought on that, on that [00:18:00] notion? How do you find. The right people so that you can eventually sort of delegate and systematize your business so that you can play to your strengths. [00:18:11] Chris Niemeyer: [00:18:11] Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of common, common answers there in terms of making sure that there's an alignment with various tests or assessments or programs that, you know, to kind of screen and vet employees. [00:18:22] And I think that those are good. And I use, I use a lot of those, you know, everything from. Myers-Briggs and disks and all those kinds of assessments that we probably hear about in the work workforce. Um, but then, you know, I have a lot of things just in the interview process too, where it's like, tell me what you would do in this situation, you know, and just give them a lot of like this open-ended questions to really kind of understand their mindset, who they're, who they are, who they're coming from. [00:18:47] Um, you know, they're, they're joining you in, in a different culture too. And so you need to make sure that the culture is a good fit. You know, with my travel company, that's all worked from home. I [00:19:00] have employees that are scattered across the country. So I need to make sure that if you're coming from a, a regular brick and mortar retail store down the street, that you're going to be comfortable working really kind of isolated. [00:19:13] Um, you know, we've got. Chat features and video and all that kind of stuff. But at the end of the day, you're, you're kind of isolated and how are you with your time? And so just asking some of those questions about some of those things, to ensure that it is a good fit, um, you know, resumes, assessments that all helps, but sometimes just those really qualified open-ended questions can spur some dialogue and, and maybe raise some flags as well. [00:19:39] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:19:39] Yeah, I can, I can, I can imagine that notion of. Sort of disseminating, figuring out who, who is right for a role and who might not be right. Would be, would be, you know, it is important. And it's also, it seems to me that your. Uh, sort of [00:20:00] perspective and correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm just sort of putting words in your mouth, but your, your perspective seems to be that you can't do it all and you shouldn't do it all right. [00:20:08] In, in, in, in, in building or, or running your business. So if that's the case, If you can't do it all, how do you get to that mindset shift? We're going to be talking about shifts a lot, I guess. How do you get to that mindset shift that makes you go okay. I, for me personally, I I'm just accounting, accounting. [00:20:29] I, I want to run away screaming every time I have to do it. So, so if that's the case, how do I, as, as the, as the, um, I'll be the test subject here. How do I do that? How do I let go of the, of the need to do it all? A and how do I, uh, how do I assess someone in something I'm not good at? Like, if I were to hire an accountant and I'm not good at it, how, how do you know as a leader? [00:20:58] How do you know if you're not good at the [00:21:00] thing that you're trying to hire for? What do you need to do in order to make sure that you will find the right people. [00:21:08] Chris Niemeyer: [00:21:08] Yeah. Great. Great question. Um, so from a mindset perspective, I think it's just understanding too, that again, back to that hat analogy of all that you're having to do and all the hats you're wearing your business, understanding, recognizing I don't have to wear them all. [00:21:24] In fact, I shouldn't wear them all. If my business is going to grow and scale to where I want it to be. And for me to just work in my sweet spot, I've got to delegate. I've got to let other people. Do that. And that's, that's one thing. I mean, just taking a look at your business and go, if you have to show up every day, day in, day out, you know, hour by hour doing the routine maintenance tasks that you're doing in your business. [00:21:48] I hate to tell you, but you don't really have a business. You have a job and you've got multiple jobs. All [00:21:54] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:21:54] right. Many, many [00:21:55] Chris Niemeyer: [00:21:55] hats, right. Hats. Yes. And so you've got to understand that. [00:22:00] If I want to make this a business, things need to change. And, um, gosh, if we have time in another story that was really foundational for my business to, to pivot and to shift in a big way, was that realization, um, cause I mentioned, you know, we start our business without kids and, and then now we have. [00:22:18] Well, I remember when we got pregnant, right. My wife and I was, we were still in the business and she was like, okay, I'm pregnant. I'm having, I'm having this baby. This business is your baby. Now I'm running it. You know? And I just remember being so excited to be a dad for the first time. You know, we'd waited several years to have kids and, and just eager to, to meet him, to bond with him. [00:22:40] And so when that first baby came, I mean, I was pretty, pretty darn involved. I mean, really to like the point. You know, I roll here because it was like, you know, the, the baby would get up in the middle of night and cry and need to be fed. And I'm like, you know, flipping the light on honey. I'll, I'll get him from the crib and I'll bring him to you and I'll rub your back and we'll fight over who gets to do the diapers and all that [00:23:00] stuff. [00:23:00] And, and I really felt a close bond, you know, with him at that time. Well, fast forward a couple of years later, okay. Our business had grown substantially. We had, we had scaled a bit more, but I was still. Really wearing too many hats. I was doing too many of those roles, bookkeeping, like you just said, I was still doing bookkeeping at the time and just kind of going, oh my gosh, if I'm not at my desk or on the phone, like business, isn't getting done. [00:23:28] Well, sun number two comes around and, and I'm just busy and I, I, I need the sleep. And so, you know, maybe I was, I was maybe useful the first few nights or a week, but it quickly turned into. You know, eyes are closed the middle of night, honey, the baby's crying. Can you go get 'em I'm going, gonna, I'm going to roll over and go back to bed. [00:23:53] Well, something happens and it was, it was it's rocked us to the right. Uh, two months [00:24:00] into, into his birth and I'm not feeling the bond with them because I'm not around them and doing all this stuff. Uh, my brother and sister-in-law were coming down to, to spend the weekend and get to meet Noah for the first time. [00:24:12] And we're waiting up by the fire forum and they call in and say, Hey, you know what, we're going to be late. Just go to bed. And we'll, we'll catch up with the guys in the morning when we get there. And so we threw a few extra logs on the fire head upstairs, put Mila down in his crib. Well in the middle of the night, about one o'clock in the morning, we get this loud knock on our bedroom door and seconds later, my brother bursts in the door and says, Chris, your house is on fire. [00:24:36] Get out. And you know, we're just bewildered. I'm not sure what's going on. And, and my sister-in-law comes in. Grabs no out of his crib meeting him for the first time. And we throw on some blankets and jackets and rushed out of the house and sure enough, our, our roof was on fire. And, you know, we call the call, the fire department. [00:24:57] They were able to come pretty quickly and extinguish the [00:25:00] fire. Well, the next morning when we, I go back to the house to meet the fire chief and our insurance adjuster. And, and as he brings us in the house and starts assessing the damage and talking about what they've discovered, we begin walking upstairs and, uh, I'm getting goosebumps now, but just, I'll never forget that that feeling of when he flung the door open. [00:25:24] And he's talking and we look up and there's a big gaping hole in the ceiling and you can see right to the sky. And as he's talking, I looked down and right down there is our son's crib that was crushed and with charcoal and he is describing that this is the first place that the structure fell. Wow. And I just remember being cut to the core. [00:25:54] And going, I almost lost my son, who I didn't even feel a great bond with at that [00:26:00] time. And I remember driving back to the hotel where we're staying and just processing all that and realizing Chris, some things have to change in your business. You just have a job and multiple jobs. And so you've got to get the right people. [00:26:17] To come in and help you out. And that was a really pivotal time for us to make some big adjustments, make some big hires. And I remember going into that hotel room and my wife didn't know any of this, the time I had to tell her a lot about that, that circumstance later. But I just remember grabbing no in my arms. [00:26:36] It's two months old now just kissing his little bald head and going things are going to be right. Um, and, and that was just the start of a new chapter in our business, a new chapter in our life where, you know, I wanted to be a super present father. I didn't care what the business was going to do or how it was going to scale. [00:26:55] I just wanted to be engaged and active as a, as a daddy. That was my biggest [00:27:00] role in the, in the most comfortable hat that I wanted to wear and knew that everything else would, would work itself out. So for me, that's just one of those examples stories of going. You have to get to a point where you realize those roles. [00:27:15] Aren't going to work and you've got to find the right people to getting engaged with them. So for what it's worth, I don't know if that answers fully your question, but, uh, but that was a foundational time to have that shift in the business mindset. [00:27:30] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:27:30] Oh, well you answered a thousand questions there. I don't think it was just one. [00:27:35] Thank you so much for sharing that. And I'm so glad that that Noah and all of you were w w you know, that you were all okay. Wow. Uh, Let, I just want to honor that for a second. I'm just so glad that you ha uh, wow. I it's, you know, and it's funny because the, the notion of being purpose driven or [00:28:00] purpose led, uh, yeah. [00:28:03] It's it's very clear to me that you, that you have that, that you are purpose-driven and, and, and work from that truth, obviously, obviously. And so, so to, to bring it back to application, to, to, to sort of being practical, how. When you had that realization, when you realize that being a daddy was the most important thing, being a dad, a husband, a family member, uh, how did you take that into your business and systematize it and make it so that you could focus the bulk of your energy on your family? [00:28:45] Chris Niemeyer: [00:28:45] Yeah. Yeah. And I use this in, in how I lead coaching clients now, too, that are, that are entrepreneurs that want to get out of their grind. Like I was. Um, and I give this analogy that, you know, you need to take a look [00:29:00] at your business as a big skyscraper. So just pick a skyscraper from your, you know, nearest downtown and look at that building and go that building represents my business and every floor on that build. [00:29:13] Represents a department, a function of your business. So on one level, you've got your sales and one level you've got customer service one, then we've got finance or HR or whatever it is for your business. Where do you want your suite to be? Which level, which floor, where do you want your sweet spot to be? [00:29:31] And to understand you need to work in that, in that room. And you can take the proverbial elevator and, and, you know, go back and forth every once in a while and check in on the sales team or the marketing team or whatever, but you need to be in your sweet spot. And so just identifying that to take a look at your business from a 30,000 foot view and go, what are the key components of my business? [00:29:53] And then practically speaking, it's looking at okay. Is still inside my head, which [00:30:00] is, is usually the case for founders and CEOs. There's so much in your head that you've never documented that you've never systematized or put a standard operating procedure in place. And so I remember literally after that whole fire experience going okay, I need to do a really much better job of documenting everything that I do in my day. [00:30:23] And what are the. Top 10 procedures or SOP is I need to put in place. So literally that's what I did. I mean, for those next few weeks, I'm logging time I'm taking on calls or emails or bookkeeping. Getting back to that, all those things where I'm like, you know what, I need to start training people. And, and considering if I want to get a higher director of operations, if I want to hire a director of sales, what is it that I'm doing now that I can. [00:30:52] Document and explain to them, and then they can add even more from there. So that's just a very practical thing that anyone [00:31:00] can do is in terms of document in their time and how they're spending it and then getting the systems in play. [00:31:06] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:31:06] Mm. Yeah, I, I use something called toggle track, which allows me to. [00:31:12] Document exactly what I'm working on because otherwise I personally, my brain, the way it works, I wouldn't know. I wouldn't remember. So I have to, I've just spent 45 minutes on X and that's that's because otherwise I, I, you know, the way, the way my brain works. So, so how do we do that? If, if, if I'm an entrepreneur and if I want to do this system systematization, wow. [00:31:35] That's a long word. If I want to systematize again, I, and I'm not. I'm not good at it. My brain doesn't work that way or whatever it is. Do you have any, any guidance, any materials, any, anything that you would be willing to share? Uh, that, that someone would go, oh yeah. I need to know X in order to be able to do [00:32:00] Y is there anything that you can recommend, any books that you've read, anything like that, that you would be willing to share? [00:32:07] Chris Niemeyer: [00:32:07] Yeah, let me, let me think about the book's perspective, but you know, one of the things that we, instead of just logging undocumented stuff too, is really understanding what, what are the resources that you need in terms of software or hardware, if it, whatever your business might look like, um, you know, what, what checklists do you need in your business too? [00:32:29] To show someone and document kind of the process and procedures that you, that you go through. Um, you know, like I had to, I had to develop call scripts. I had a very certain way of doing things with certain perspective clients or, or in the process right. Of a sale. And so just what are some of the scripts or the, uh, email templates? [00:32:48] Right. We, we developed a whole library of email templates because we realized if you're sending the same kind of email more than twice. Just put it as a template or as a canned response. Right. So things like [00:33:00] that process flows are, are good. Um, I use a lot of tools like, like loom is an example of a video recording and messaging where you can document what you're doing in terms of ScreenFlow. [00:33:13] So if I'm trying to just describe to an employee, Hey here, here's how I do this. Or even to a VA, I use this a lot now with, with virtual assistance. If I'm going to give a project, I'll start that out and just hit record on my screen, talk into the mic process, what I'm doing in my own mind, out loud to them, and then take it from there. [00:33:34] So those are just little tips and tricks to use. [00:33:38] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:33:38] I love that. I love that notion of here's here's exactly what you would do and, and it would be okay. It would be something that relates to other types of, of professional services and businesses and nonprofits and all of that. It sounds like these are universally applicable. [00:33:56] Is that the case, do you think, or do you think that there are some things in the [00:34:00] sort of more for-profit realm that would not relate well to the nonprofit. [00:34:06] Chris Niemeyer: [00:34:06] No, I think they would. I mean, any, any business profit or nonprofit has certain functions, right? They have certain processes a way of doing things. [00:34:14] Um, I think really, if you, if you peel back the onion, a system or a systemization or whatever that mouthful is, it's really just a way of doing things and, and anyone. You know, uh, a child, a parent, a CEO, you have a way of doing things, so that can apply to just about anything. [00:34:36] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:34:36] Yeah. I wonder about that. I mean, I work a lot in, in the space of people who are doing, uh, as I said, social impact and environmental impact. [00:34:44] I was, I worked at NASA for over 20 years. What can I say? It, it, it doesn't go away. And so, so if that's the case, like someone like me or someone who's, you know, working for an animal shelter and all. Are there ways do you think for them to systematize as [00:35:00] well to make it so that for example, they could do more rescues or things like that, or again, do you think that, that something that's very, non-profit, that's very, almost volunteer driven would be able to do that. [00:35:14] And how do you handle if you're working on this, how do you handle people who are VAs? How do you handle people who are volunteers? How does that work? [00:35:24] Chris Niemeyer: [00:35:24] Yeah, no, I think you do. I mean, whether you're a, again, whether you're NASA or whomever you're working for, right. Um, there's a way of doing things. And so let's just say you're a volunteer and you're working for rescues. [00:35:36] You have a way of doing something when you get that call or that lead, that there's an opportunity. What do you do next? You know, who do you call? How do you vet, if that's an actual, real live opportunity, what, what are the metrics or whatever that might look like in terms of the industry language that's in place for you to say, I've got to make [00:36:00] this call or do this, or do that. [00:36:02] It's kind of like that if, then, then this scenario, which there's, you know, technology for now, but, but how, how would you do that? Or taking it to an extreme. You know, a pilot has something like 130 point checklist that he's got to tick off before he even turns on the propellers. And so that's just a huge, you know, huge safety precautionary type of checklist, but I think anyone profit or nonprofit has that ability. [00:36:29] And then the second part of your question about, uh, you know, training a VA or checking in or whatever, I'm just a big fan of, of checking in with people routinely. Um, so whether it's a VA or, you know, I do a lot of real estate deals these days on the side. Um, if I've got a contract to work on a project, You know, four months or six months project in our contract, we actually have something in play. [00:36:52] It's where it says, Hey, every two weeks, we're just gonna have a five minute call. I just want to check in how's it going? Give me some updates. You know, I do a lot of [00:37:00] stuff out of state, so I'm not even near where these projects are going on, but just to hear here's how things are going or snap, a couple pictures the same. [00:37:08] Are you done with a VA or an employee? Whether they're working, you know, the next desk over or. Countries away. Um, those kinds of things can be done. [00:37:19] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:37:19] That's that gives me such hope for myself. I certainly hope so. Yeah, I, that it I'm at that point, you know, where this podcast requires more help, more work than I can do in, in, in. [00:37:35] You know, in 1 24 hour, 7, 24 hour periods. So you mentioned something about real estate deals. And we talked a little bit about this before we started recording this chat that you have gotten into both real estate and cryptocurrency. Can you talk a little bit about that? What does, first of all, cryptocurrency is one of those things that I've read about, and I don't, I honestly have no real. [00:37:58] Fundamental [00:38:00] idea of what cryptocurrency is. So could you take a second and describe what it is and also what you're doing with it? [00:38:08] Chris Niemeyer: [00:38:08] Sure. Yeah. This is something I've just been talking a lot more openly about here in the past several months, especially on social media, but. Uh, and unless the first part of the question after by cryptocurrency really is, is a digital currency. [00:38:22] And so, you know, we're all now used to having it in our hands and our, our phones. We can do just about anything. Digitally, right. Whether you want to or not, you have the capability to load your credit cards and check out at the grocery store or, you know, Nordstrom and, and it's all done digitally. So we're used to that now. [00:38:43] And so cryptocurrency and Bitcoin's kind of the gold standard in that that people might hear about on in headlines. Is built on a technology called the blockchain. And, and again, this, this could be a whole nother episode, but, but the technicality of the blockchain [00:39:00] is just, it's an open, open sourced ledger of transactions. [00:39:07] And so. Let's go back to like bookkeeping as an example, coming up on this episode, for whatever reason, buy a bookkeeper, [00:39:17] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:39:17] because I'm so terrible at it. I keep gnawing away at it. That's that's what it is. [00:39:21] Chris Niemeyer: [00:39:21] Right. Right. So let me give this example. Right? So in the old days we had a file cabinet, right. And the file was in our, in our own office and we kept the ledger. [00:39:33] We can. The books, so to speak, but only we had access to that. Right. And the blockchain and technology, it's all open source out there in the, in the network. We can see exactly what's there. And so I give this example in, in, uh, The previous decade, there was this massive accounting scandal that was by Wells Fargo. [00:39:58] Wells Fargo created three and a half [00:40:00] million fake accounts, fake credit card accounts, fake checking accounts, savings accounts, all this stuff. They created that internally in people's names so they can get bonuses and kickbacks and commissions on this stuff. It was exposed. Wow. If that were on the blockchain, that couldn't happen, but because it was in house. [00:40:19] They had full control. They had secrecy on it. Blockchain provides the transparency. And so, again, there's a lot of complexities to cryptocurrency, but it's just a medium of exchange that can be bought or sold, transferred over, uh, if you own it and you can, you can start using it. People literally now. Buy a Tesla with Bitcoin, they can transfer funds into their Starbucks app and buy a coffee with it. [00:40:43] So it's it's usage is, is exponentially being, uh, being utilized in new ways these days. [00:40:51] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:40:51] Okay. That's very cool. And also immediately I go, what are the governments of different countries [00:41:00] going to say about something that does not seem to require their oversight? How does that work? [00:41:06] Chris Niemeyer: [00:41:06] Yeah. And that's a great question because I think you're gonna see a lot more. [00:41:11] Scrutiny and, and regulation about this. Um, you know, right now, even just here in this country, whether it's the sec or the IRS, they're looking at different ways as cryptocurrency currency, is it an asset there's, there's ramifications for how they classify that? Um, in India, there's a bill going through parliament right now to ban cryptocurrency. [00:41:34] And so how could that happen? You know, frankly, there's a lot of people in speculation saying they can't really do that because it's not something that's like a physical, you know, thing you can combine. And so there's a whole discussion about what will happen with that. Um, you know, I, I just got involved because I'm curious and, um, you know, back to my mentors, 16 years ago, [00:42:00] they, they outlined said, Chris, there's kind of three areas of. [00:42:04] A great way to, to make a living, make a life, you know, perhaps generational wealth for yourself. And that is number one was entrepreneurship, you know, owning and operating a company. Number two was, uh, real estate and various aspects of that development or construction business or top realtor. And number three was financial markets, you know, be a hedge fund, be a trader or whatever they said. [00:42:28] And these guys were respected greatly and they were very successful, uh, financially. Anyway, um, they said the secret though is if you're going to go that first route as a business owner, an entrepreneur is to take your profits and dump them in those two other classes as quickly as possible to really kind of grow the three-legged stool of, of financial wealth and independence. [00:42:49] And so I've just followed that advice over the years and become more focused on that recent. In terms of just building up a real estate portfolio of rental properties and [00:43:00] then crypto, I just sort of dabble in and have fun with and trade and, and investor speculate in because I, I like, uh, I like the technology behind it. [00:43:09] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:43:09] It's so fascinating that, that, that, that the three legged stool to me, what. What that does. What, what made me go, Ooh, sit up and take notice is the notion that if you want to have, like you said, independence for you, it, it seems to be time with your family and, and being, uh, being the best dad you can be. [00:43:31] And that's fabulous. And for someone who. For example like me, we have a nonprofit that, that works to stop poachers in Africa. Uh, then, then those kinds of investments, those kinds of activities would, would go well to free up the time, you know, so that I could focus on those things. So, so talk to me a little bit about that. [00:43:52] If you would, the allocation. You know, the way, the way I live is you've got one life, make it count. So, [00:44:00] so for me, I want to see what are the possibilities, right? And so it sounds to me like you are sort of the poster boy for, for this kind of, sort of triple threat, if you will, what are your thoughts on that? [00:44:14] As far as allocating that purpose driven life, maybe it's. For business, maybe it is for you, you, you set it up so that you can have your business, have your real estate or cryptocurrency or whatever those things are for each individual person so that you can then be free to do what else you want to do. [00:44:38] How do you feel about that? [00:44:40] Chris Niemeyer: [00:44:40] Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, it gets back to again, purpose and values too. And so like you described each person needs to understand clearly what, what it is they're focused on. What makes an ideal lifestyle for you? You know, is it involved in some nonprofit activities or. [00:45:00] [00:44:59] Things halfway around the world or across the street. That's gonna fill you up and fill up your purpose cup. So to speak. Uh, again, for me, it's, it's all about family, you know, and being the best husband and father I can be and raising these kids in a way that gives them. Um, opportunity and purpose within themselves. [00:45:18] And I'm involved in other, other things as well. And, and non-profits and such, but for me, that's, that's my biggest focus in this season of life. Um, you know, my youngest is five, so I've got what maybe 13, 14 years of. I've heard, possibly being under the roof. You know, I don't know how that's going to boomerang effect thing works, but we'll see, we've got four kids. [00:45:39] I'm pretty sure we'll have some kids around for awhile. Uh, but I think that that is my focus. Right. And so if that is the focus and I've been blessed to have some of these business ventures and, and, and just taking some of those profits to reinvest. The allocation question then becomes, you know, [00:46:00] what's, what's your risk tolerance, what's your, um, you know, asymmetric risk. [00:46:05] So for me, and this gets a little more into the weeds too, but cryptocurrency for example, is very volatile. And so the risk reward can be pretty high, but there's a major price fluctuations and swings. And so you're not going to bet the farm. You're not going to put your entire investment portfolio into something like that. [00:46:26] But if you. 2%, 5%, 10%, let's say. And that has the potential to go. 10 X or 50 X or these crazy values that some people have realized the last couple of years, um, that can do something pretty substantial for your own portfolio and net worth. And so, so you have to kind of look at that and evaluate that from a real estate perspective. [00:46:49] There's multiple, multiple ways to be involved in that. Whether you want to be a bit more active like men and finding deals and vetting them and putting offers in or buying cash or [00:47:00] whatever. Uh, but there's also. You know, REITs real estate investment trusts that you can buy, uh, from the stock market. And so that's just a question of your own allocation and risk tolerance, I think is, is, uh, the best answer there. [00:47:14] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:47:14] It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a valuable answer because a lot of people think they should be involved in things like this, but maybe they're not well suited for it. You know, that they're, that's not their temperament there to me. But that this whole notion of cryptocurrency and, and, and, and, you know, they say playing the stock market, it's not playing it's, it can be actually quite intense. [00:47:36] And yet, and yet the way for example, I live with all of this is don't invest anything you can't afford to lose a hundred percent. Right. So, so that seems to be, I am very low I'm risk averse, I guess. And, and yet the thing is that within that, when we're talking about this notion of it comes back, I guess, to self-awareness when we're talking about, you know, what [00:48:00] are you prepared to lose and how much are you prepared to risk? [00:48:04] And it sounds to me like that goes for everybody, whether or not you're working a job or whether or not you're an entrepreneur or business owner, et cetera, you have to know that about yourself. You have to know what are you prepared to lose and what are you prepared to risk? And so what do you think, how would, how would someone, how would someone figure that out? [00:48:24] What they're prepared to lose? [00:48:28] Chris Niemeyer: [00:48:28] Boy, that's a, that's a complex problem. Situation, uh, for most people, but I guess it boils down to, like you said, do you feel like you can just lose it all and be comfortable with that? Or do you feel like, yeah, cause there's extremes, right? There's people that would bet the farm and be like, okay, well I'll go save it again and make it up. [00:48:49] And, and that's fine. There's also those that are like, I'm going to stick this under my mattress. Cause I don't want to lose it. You know? So somewhere on the spectrum, we all lie. And so I think [00:49:00] just understanding. That and taking a look at, let's just say, you know, the whole wall street experiment, so to speak because really frankly, it's only been less than a hundred years that a normal individual can go and buy a stock. [00:49:15] So that whole financial services industry is, is relatively new. And, and that's what we get pushed. All the time, it's a massive, massive industry. And so, you know, are you, are you comfortable with seven, 8% and, and taking that slow growth approach of it's going to take 40 or 50 years of working or whatever to get to that retirement point, or are you comfortable maybe taking five or 10 or 20% or whatever that might be into these, you know, quote unquote riskier, uh, play. [00:49:47] Again, that's a personal decision you've got to just set with and go, how, how would I feel if this dropped 50% or whatever, do you need more money in the mattress or money over [00:50:00] here? Right. [00:50:00] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:50:00] And it's absolutely. And, and it's interesting. I mean, we're not giving financial advice here and I have to say that because no, no, no. [00:50:08] I am not qualified. I am the least qualified person to give financial advice for sure. And yet, this is something that I think it behooves us to think about because everybody is looking and assessing, especially this year of COVID, you know, where they are and, and how they're going to. Proceed, you know, I know a lot of people, a lot of my guests actually have, have made significant changes because of the time in, you know, in the pandemic and sort of really think being, being alone with your thoughts, like you said, being kind of isolated and being alone with your thoughts. [00:50:43] So I I'm wondering what were the realizations, if you had any that you had during that time, when you were sort of sequestered, if you will. [00:50:53] Chris Niemeyer: [00:50:53] Yeah. I, I think, uh, that whole, that whole year for a lot of us, right. [00:51:00] Probably brought on some awareness of, um, you know, am I financially secure or safe or whatever. I mean, everyone, everyone was losing their job or their, their company was, uh, you know, frozen for awhile or whatever that might be. [00:51:15] We, we all had a lot of fear grip us and. And I remember just having to sit with that and go, okay, where were we? Let's just throw everything out there on the table and take a look at that picture. So that's something that we can all do and go, okay, what are there changes that need to be made? You know, the savings rate went through the roof there for awhile because we were also. [00:51:40] Scared and scattered, oh my gosh. Um, I've been living paycheck to paycheck and you know, now I need to save up three to six months like Dave Ramsey says, or whatever the case may be, um, which is not bad advice, frankly. Right. Uh, to I'm looking outside and I'm looking at squirrels right now. I mean, they, they sock away their, their stuff for the winter [00:52:00] because they know that you need to do that. [00:52:02] And so I think there's a bit of that personal introspection to go, you know, where are we. Data in front of you doesn't lie, you know, w whether it's your paycheck or your business, or your bank accounts or whatever, and, and what are you more comfortable with? That's that's always a good place to start. [00:52:22] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:52:22] Yeah. Again, what, what are you willing to risk and what are you not willing to risk? Absolutely. Chris, I am so grateful that you took the time to chat with me today. This is I could keep you for another four hours and we could, you know, cause I have many more questions, but uh, but I know you've got, oh, thank you so much. [00:52:40] Yeah. You, I know you've got, you've got kids to get back to, so I, and, and, and I want to respect your time and. So I would love it. Actually, if you wouldn't mind, uh, I have just a couple more questions, but the big one is, would you mind sharing? How is someone goes that Chris guy, he knows what he's talking about. [00:52:59] I want to, I [00:53:00] want to go find him on social. Would you mind sharing where someone could find you if they were interested in learning more about what you're doing and how you're doing it? [00:53:09] Chris Niemeyer: [00:53:09] Yeah, absolutely. Well, and thank you again. This is really a pleasure. You're a masterful, uh, Conversation starter. So interviewer, so I really appreciate the time, but yeah, you can find me on Instagram at Chris Niemeyer. [00:53:24] Uh, maybe put that in, in the links there Niemeyers in I E um, and Facebook saying. And LinkedIn as well. So I'm pretty active on Instagram and Facebook. And then my website is Chris niemeyer.com. [00:53:37] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:53:37] Perfect. And actually I will put all of this in the show notes, but just so you know, the LinkedIn is actually Niemeyer Chris. [00:53:45] And so is Facebook. It's Chris Niemeyer on Instagram and LinkedIn. It's Niemeyer, Chris, N I E M E Y E R. Chris. And if you don't know how to spell Chris, I'm sorry. [00:54:01] [00:54:00] Yeah, that one, that one. Hopefully won't be, I mean, my name is older and I recently got a piece of a piece of snail mail address to  and I have no idea how they got from Izolda to a Zimbra, but I thought that was really amusing anyway. So. Yeah, it was, it was very strange. So I, again, I want to thank you. And I have just one more question. [00:54:23] It's a question. I ask everybody who comes on the show and it's a silly question, but I find that it yields some poignant answers. And the question is this. If you had an airplane that could sky write anything for the whole world to see, what would you say. [00:54:40] Chris Niemeyer: [00:54:40] Um, mine would be live on purpose, live on purpose. [00:54:46] And I think that would help people understand or at least to ask themselves what does that mean? And am I. That's [00:54:54] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:54:54] fabulous. I love it. That's so succinct. I love it. Love it. Love it. Thank you, Chris. Once again for being [00:55:00] here, I really appreciate it. I I'm so grateful. I learned so much just talking with you and I'm sure if you're listening, you learned a lot from this as well, and you need to go find Chris Niemeyer on. [00:55:13] Instagram, LinkedIn Facebook and on his website. See what he's up to because obviously he's doing some really cool stuff. This is his older Trakhtenberg for the innovative mindset podcast. If you're liking what you hear, do me a favor. Go to. Apple podcast rate and review. Tell me what you're thinking. I'd love to hear about it until next time. [00:55:31] Once again, this is his older. Trakhtenberg reminding you to listen, learn, laugh, and love a whole lot. [00:55:43] Thanks so much for joining me today. I really appreciate you being here. Please subscribe to the podcast if you're new and if you like what you're hearing, please review it and rate it and let other people. And if you'd like to be a sponsor of the show, I'd love to meet you on [00:56:00] patrion.com/innovative mindset. [00:56:00] I also have lots of exclusive goodies to share just with the show supporters there today's episode was produced by Izolda Trakhtenberg and his copyright 2020. As always, please remember, this is for educational and entertainment purposes. Only past performance does not guarantee future results, although we can always hope until next time, keep living in your innovative minds.  

Mark E. Rose is a CEO of Avison Young Commercial Real Estate. He manages all strategic, financial and operational activities of this full service commercial Real Estate firm, which just so happens the company Jesse works for. After holding executive positions at two globally publicly traded commercial Real Estate firms, he served as CEO of Grubb & Ellis from 2005 to 2008 and was previously a Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of the Americas for Jones Lang LaSalle also known as JLL.  In this episode we talked about: Mark's Background  Leading a global real estate firm Diversity, Inclusion and ESG The Investor perspective in Real Estate So called “prop-tech” The health of Real Estate industry Coworking and Flex Space Interest rates and inflation Mentorship Useful links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-e-rose-b1447724/ https://www.avisonyoung.com Transcription: Jesse (0s): Welcome to the working capital real estate podcast. My name is Jesper galley. And on this show, we discuss all things real estate with investors and experts in a variety of industries that impact real estate. Whether you're looking at your first investment or raising your first fund, join me and let's build that portfolio one square foot at a time. Welcome to working capital I'm Jesse for galley. And my special guest today is mark eeros. Mark is the CEO of Avison young commercial real estate.    He manages all strategic financial and operational activities of this full service commercial real estate firm, which just so happens to be the company I work for. Mark joined Avison young after holding executive positions at two globally, publicly traded commercial real estate firms. He served as CEO of Grubb and Ellis from 2005 to 2008 and was previously chief operating officer and chief financial officer of the Americas for Jones Lang LaSalle also known as JLL. Mark, how are you doing today?    Mark (1m 1s): Let's go ahead. Well, Jesse, good to be with you.    Jesse (1m 3s): Yeah, it's great. It's great to have you on, we were just chatting. You're now based in Chicago right now, where you're, where you're coming from. How's everything going down there given the last year and a half? Well,    Mark (1m 16s): You know, the good news is the USA has really driven vaccinations to a pretty high level. We are actually residents of Florida, so that was a COVID feet free state to be in for most of most of the winter. So that was all good, but things are getting better as I'm traveling around the country. I've spent some time in Texas. I've spent some time in New York already, and again, the great news is the things are getting better.    And if you want, you know, if you want to be vaccinated, you can in the U S are vaccines available for everybody    Jesse (1m 55s): Right on. Yeah. I think the takeaway for us too, is things are moving in the right direction, starting to get the first vaccines and honestly have to say in Toronto, we're a little jealous north of the border, seeing us seeing Florida and kind of the, the approach they've taken. But at the end of the day, you know, we live where we live. So mark, what we typically do with guests that come on is talk a little bit about your background in real estate, how you got into the industry. I know you got in at a fairly young age, so for listeners that don't know, maybe we could talk a little bit about that and then kind of take us to where we're at today.    Mark (2m 31s): Sure. Probably the, you know, the driver honestly was being in university of 16 and coming out so early, you know, into public accounting, New York started to work for a lot of real estate clients and really got the bug and fell in love. And, you know, at that point, the person that hired me out of school moved over to the bridge Cole pension fund Reed brought me with again at an early, you know, you know, at a young age.    So over there at 23 and by 26, I was the CEO of the company and writing some strategies that are read across an ocean in the late eighties, you know, yielding 3% with CapEx of, you know, 50 plus million needed that that really should be sold and liquidated. When, when back in England you could repatriate the money and put it to work at 14% risk-free in their own currency at that time.    So it was a pretty simple, pretty strategic view to real estate made sense, took British called pension funds team out of us real estate in the early nineties, which bodes very, very well for them. And then that turned into a career where just loved the business, started my own company, sold it to Jones, Lang wooden, and then merged and, you know, led from the U S side, you know, for JLW the merger to create JLL on March 11th, 1999 from there pretty simple move to Chicago was chief operating officer, chief financial officer, chief strategist, you know, at JLL for the Americas, ran the Canadian business for them.    And 2005 had the opportunity to put Robin Ellis back on the New York stock exchange, raise a hundred million for that bring in 400 people, sold that company in 2007 and started working on merging these Canadian provincial companies called Avison young. And from that point on, it's been history    Jesse (4m 47s): Right on. So I've always wanted to ask you this. And I should pause to note for listeners out there. You know, Avison young is a, is my company is the company I work for. So if you hear the saying your boss's boss, I think mark, you know, we run a different scheme here in brokerage, but that'd be the answer to that. I've always wanted to ask you starting university at 16, what's going on there?    Mark (5m 11s): Well, it was a mess. It was a matter of starting early as early as kindergarten and skipping a grade. And I, I would just say this. I had no issues being sick, being 16 in university. I did have a bunch of issues being 13 in high school. Those are pretty formidable years. And when you're going up against, you know, 18 year old seniors, it's, wouldn't recommend it for everybody.    Jesse (5m 41s): It reminds me of the Malcolm Gladwell. You know, most hockey players in Canada are born in January and February. And I'm just imagining starting university trying to compete with, with gents four years older than you.    Mark (5m 53s): Well, you know what, that didn't turn out so bad because I, you know, as you know, I would, you know, played D three hockey and my freshmen, my freshman year, I was 5 10, 1 55. And my sophomore year, I was 6, 2, 2 30. So went from a fairly flea footed center to having to go back to defense because I had to retrain my whole body with that sort of, you know, with that sort of growth with that said, no one touched my goalie.    Jesse (6m 26s): Yeah, well it reminds me too. Of, we went to high school with Stevie stamp goes, he was a year, a year before me and came into high school very, very tiny under size. Everybody said, no chance, no chance this guy's going to make it anywhere. And you know, the rest is history, but left high school a lot, you know, in different shape for sure. So when you first, when you were at Grubb and Ellis and taking the company public at that point, how much experience did you have in the industry? You know, we talked with Mike Emory who was on the show about how one of the most rewarding and stressful times of his life was taking allied public.    Well, what was that experience like as, as a pretty young guy?    Mark (7m 8s): Well, first you had, you know, I really started with a public company, so the British coal pension funds were read. And so 1987, I was brought in to take a quasi public read fully public, you know, so there was an awful lot of learning and that was 1987. We did have the stock market crash that then scuttled, you know, the public process, you know, at that moment that it, but it turned out to be a blessing. And I would just say Jesse, that I, you know, very, very comfortable.    I have been more in the public domain than I've been in the private domain. And one of the reasons why we wanted to keep Iveson young private was to build a culture based company and to have a private partnership where people own something together and put their imprint together. Public companies are great companies, they just are structured a certain way. And you have to have a top-down approach because, because you're not only need to govern, but you need to be able to report out earnings on a quarterly basis.    And that just mandates a certain amount of structure. So really the Avison young piece was in some ways, the first time I was in the PRI you know, you know, the private domain and, you know, I, I just don't see a whole lot of difference other than, you know, a bit more flexibility and the ability to drive a particular strategy that we were looking for, again, as I said, you know, a more collaborative,    Jesse (8m 45s): Yeah, fair enough. So moving to Avison young today, you know, it's been a, a trying year and a half, the, the company that you've built here recently has gone globally. Maybe you could talk a little bit about how, you know, the process of taking a company with the geographical footprint of ax and, you know, multiplying that. Yeah.    Mark (9m 8s): Well, again, you know, let's just say it was a passion of mine because again, growing up in the us at JLL working and running the Canadian businesses and the south American businesses, but starting out in Europe, particularly in the UK for British coal, and then for JLW having exposure to Europe, into Asia, it was really a passion and an understanding of the power of platform, but in a specific way.    So the specific way is it gets very, it's very difficult if you think about it, to get provincial collaboration from east to west Western Canada. Now think of that Eastern Western Canada multiply it by, by the U S Mexico, south America, moving over to Europe. And what you realized is if, and when you can acknowledge that a global company can build an umbrella set of belief, systems of honesty and integrity, collaboration, empathy, and growth, and let that culture drive the business.    Then it gives you the opportunity to let the sub cultures that are around the world in every different country rise up to their highest potential. And what that gives you is something that we talk about every day, which seems to me sometimes that w w it took the industry a little longer, you know, for those of us who understood it for decades, that is your diversity, right? So it's not just gender or racial diversity, but it's gender diversity, racial diversity, diversity of culture and country.    And so when you do expand, you take best practices around the world. We just think that makes for a better company.    Jesse (11m 11s): Yeah. Kind of like, you know, diversity of ideas, diversity of background geography, like you said, in addition to all those other areas, what do you think is the reason that commercial real estate in general has taken longer to adopt those aspects of, of culture,    Mark (11m 32s): Easy, very emotional asset class. And it's an asset class that has been governed by a specific demographic for a very, very long time. Family owned businesses, institutional businesses, as we all know, it's been predominantly white male driven, and there was no reason to change. Right. You know, again, if, if you have the sameness of, of leadership on something that's quite emotional, everybody's dream as to touch feel and own real estate, we have witnessed where folks didn't want to necessarily let everybody in, but that is changing for sure.    And we've got great leaders out there. I, I see a business, a, you know, an industry that's maturing day by day, you know, and so that that's, you know, you know, that's just something that it takes time, it's change management, it's Trent it's transformation, right. And the transformation, you know, I look to probably we'll see the next change in the next, I would have said five to seven years, pre COVID probably three to five years left post COVID where a certain group of leaders will probably leave the industry as a far more diverse, a far more culture-based set of groups who are tech savvy, ESG savvy, you know, will start to fill positions.    And I think that's our next leg up    Jesse (13m 12s): On that point of ESG. It means a lot of things to a lot of people. I think, you know, a lot of people have started hearing that term only in the last little while. W what does that mean to you?    Mark (13m 23s): Well, first of all, if you haven't been bit paying attention to ESG for years, again, you would have done that at your peril, but what it means to us are some basics of this evolution in this maturity that we're talking about. The quite frankly, I thought we really got to a strong foothold late 20, 19, early 20, 20, only to have, COVID sort of push this aside a little bit, but ESG to us is climate change.    It's sustainability, it's culture, it's DNI or DEI. So diversity, equity, and inclusion. And so the things that we're doing and the things that we care about, you know, and obviously since you're, you know, a valued colleague here, you see this all the time. We were stating a long time ago, that open plans were very good for the CFO to reduce the amount of your occupancy footprint to save money.    But the open plan was not particularly comfortable for top talent, you know, unbelievable talent that might've been suffering from mental wellness issues, you know, saying anxiety that needed to be in a different place. Obviously we have been attacking racial and social injustice, and the fact that there's been a lack of diversity, both from agenda and a racial point of view, but I would also throw in that you have the disabled okay.    And our, and our LBGTQ colleagues, you know, we're really, really starting to come together. And all of that falls under ESG, obviously from a sustainability point of view, we have been working on, on that I would say for four or five decades, but once we started to put names, labels, and awards to it, well, buildings green, you know, green initiatives, lead certification, putting labels to it really have allowed it to take form as people aim for recognition for doing the right thing.    But quite frankly, it's been here for a very long time. It just needed to be moved along. Add to that, that carbon neutrality now is just a tantamount to say, you know, to saving this planet. So in our European business, we've already signed up to carbon neutral 2030. I think north America will be slightly behind that whether we adopt 20, 40, or 2050, that's a conversation that's going on, but we will adopt, we have signed up to support the Paris Accords.    We know that we need to make the difference with building better buildings, managing better buildings, making sure that we ourselves are, you know, are executing to try to keep temperature and climate change under, you know, the 2% increase in these are things that are just critically important to work on. But again, in there is also, let's not forget about people and the people, part of ESG is as important, or we write about it.    We talk about it all the time that nobody wakes up or comes into the office perfect. Every day, you have to be mindful of that. It's normal, it's part of life. And so when you're able to embrace everybody's difference, then you start to build a great culture.    Jesse (17m 13s): That's great. And in terms of ESG, we hear a lot from the company perspective, you know, companies talking about it, and I've heard you speak about the investor's perspective and, and making the point that those things aren't disconnected. W w what did, what do you mean by that in terms of having alignment with investors, not just looking specifically for, you know, the dollars and cents, but understanding that ESG has an impact on those fundamentals.    Mark (17m 40s): Yeah, well, investors and real estate investors in companies, obviously Larry Fink and BlackRock have been very aggressive to promote what they think since they are representing many investors in many companies, you know, but it needs to be heard everywhere. And, you know, our investors are better when we sign up to, as we have to ESG disclosures in our financial statements.    So people can judge us and look to us for first of all, that we've made the commitment, but then what have we done? Are we measuring it? This is now in our financial statements. And that's where again, the world is moving to more measurement, more disclosure, so that investors can choose the companies. They're not, not only making money, but they're also making money and improving the world. And I don't believe those are mutually exclusive concepts    Jesse (18m 42s): Right on. So speaking a little bit about, you know, the commercial real estate being a little slow to adopt certain things the last year and a half as GE has basically pushed a lot of people that otherwise wouldn't use technology to the extent they do now using it that way, in terms of real estate and prop tech, what are you seeing that, you know, you're, you're really finding, encouraging in the industry and where do you think we're going technologically, when it comes to commercial real estate?    Mark (19m 13s): So there are a few things in there. The first thing is if you haven't focused, your company transformed your company to be tech enabled or tech led, you are falling behind everybody else. I would say not because we've done it Avison young, but during the pandemic, when revenues were down, because our clients really had put the pause button on transactions and projects that w that, that, that we were building, it gave us the opportunity to focus all of our energy, all of our initiatives into building the industry's leading data platform, data aggregation, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, over that, as we then continue post the acquisition of trust and September to add the digitization of the visualization of the transaction process, building that into the core powerhouse of Avison young, which is called avant.    And so all those things are happening now, there's far more to come because there are other back office applications, lease administration, things of that sort, but the transaction quite frankly, is going to give way to top talent with relationships, using platform, consultative skills and technology. And that the day of just pure relationship brokerage is coming to an end.    But I want to encourage everybody that doesn't mean brokerage comes to an end. That doesn't mean that transactions come to an end. Our clients are very clear on the value that they perceive and what they want, or strategy and solutions that result in transactions, not just transactions for transactions sake. The other thing here is, as we talk about it, the transformation, the understanding, the technology, we also have to be very, very mindful because you used a word that, you know, I'll tell you right now, I've gotten in trouble with this before, and I'll probably get in trouble with it here, but it's just open and honest and heartfelt to try to help folks there's prop tech and there's PropTech, okay.    Property technology that is embedded in, in your delivery system, or an idea that can transform and create value for our clients. That's awesome. There are thousands of PropTech companies where somebody has a great idea, but limited capital. I am still very concerned about those companies. I'd like to see a process where great companies and great ideas have a place to get funded and keep themselves intact and, and, and on a path to growth and profitability, because what we've seen in the marketplace is bringing great technology to clients, or if it's technology that is quote unquote acquired through prop tech at, at, you know, at one of the end-user levels, it is only as good as the technology sustaining itself and improving itself day by day, too many companies start to sign up a few key clients, but it's still not enough revenue to keep it alive.    And the worst thing that we can do in, in this industry. And certainly the worst thing that we can do as a service provider is bring something that may seem really sharp and really good. But if it's not sustainable, if it can't sustain itself, either through capital or revenue growth, then we're really not helping anyone.    Jesse (23m 12s): Yeah. That makes sense. If we talk a little bit about our industry as a whole right now, mark, maybe starting with the U S and Canada and, and, and kind of going global, you know, again, talking about the last year and a half, what is your view right now of the health of our industry and, and how you see this playing out over, you know, let's call it the, the short to mid term.    Mark (23m 37s): So you have to go. And I, you know, I'm going to ask the credibility for 36 years of this real estate. The real estate period is a gossipy industry. It is a soundbite industry which plays very well to the media these days, but let's take a step back. It is one of the most powerful industries that has ever been created. It is an industry, as we said, it's emotional. People want to own real estate. People use real estate.    If you look at, you know, if there are going to be 10 billion people on this planet next 50 years, if that's going to be the case, and most experts will tell you that, you know, that it is, then we need to build a million square feet of housing everyday, starting today to support that that's a heck of a safety net for the multifamily, the residential business, and clearly support. You know, if you understand the macro issues of population growth, but then you take just the basics, the office, which is the one that everybody's talking about, you know, is the office dead with work, from home work, from anywhere return to the office.    And if you've looked at cycles, and I think the one to look to, if you looked in the us after, you know, after nine 11, it took two years for people to want to come back to trophy buildings. It took two years for people want to be an upper floors. It, it took a couple of years for security to go from the pendulum swinging one way to it coming back to equilibrium. And we are probably in that same place now. And if you just look at our business and let's start short-term right now, anything industrial leasing, our capital markets hottest can be potentially even too hot, but hottest can be multi residential, really good, really, really good, and on a relative basis.    Very, very good. And it's been solid all the way through loan, servicing and debt. Solid people are doing things from that perspective. So what's down while hospitality, retail, and office hospitality. Honestly, there were probably too many hotel rooms right now. If you own a resort hotel, I think you're going to have the greatest summer that you've ever had in your life because people can't wait to get out of it. Their homes and, and resort properties are going to be in demand probably for the next 6, 9, 12 months, hospitality that's centered around the business person, probably going to take a little while to come back.    Okay, retail again, I think overplayed, there are certain areas, you know, again, dip into the U S they were over retailed. Canada was less over retailed, but there also is a change in the difference between showroom space and a fulfillment distribution and et cetera. I do expect that that takes a little bit of time yet. We're starting to see retail capital markets activity. I E some distress coming in that I think can open up the buying and selling of retail.    Although the fundamentals and leasing are still gonna take a little time. So it really comes back and brings you back to office. Long-term rock solid. We're going to have population growth. We're going to have business formation. There's already a massive increase in business. Formation. Midterm looks just like the longterm. That's great. You know what? Short term, we may have another year for people to start to figure out what does the office me, and I'm going to stay on this for, you know, for a moment we have run office space.    Office utilization has been at 40% for decades, and you would quote, unquote, have salespeople they'd come in, but they were never really in the office, but they wanted an office. But when you actually looked at the utilization of seats was 40%. Well, no manufacturer would ever run their business like that. Now I still think there's a need for people to be together. We at Avison young asked everybody to come back the Tuesday after Easter, and we're doing that because we're starting every day. We're getting a little more people back in the office so that when we hit September, most, everybody will be back with a huge caveat where the domain of occupancy used to be either the CFO for cost or the CEO for brand purpose decisions now are even more strategic.    And it's the CFO with the CEO with strategy with HR, and just think about this. Let's say that we all agreed to every Monday, everybody has to be in the office. Every Tuesday. Everybody has to be in the office. Wednesday, you can work from anywhere, be it a satellite office, a flex office. And on Thursday or Friday, you could work from home. Well, think about this. If you came, if everybody came in on Monday and Tuesday, you would have the same 40% utilization.    So I'm not sure that ultimately there's going to be a big change, except for the fact that the big change is how we're going to process this and the strategy that one size does not fit all that city by city company, by company, country, by country occupiers. Now need to say, this is what our strategy is. And we are helping many of those clients from large institutions, stout to smaller occupiers, helping them understand what those needs are.    And as soon as that happens and it's happening, it will again open up for the owners and investors to understand what the ultimate tenants needs are. And that's when everything starts to work its way through    Jesse (29m 47s): From a, a more, I guess, structural level, while we're on the topic of office. Do you see office changing from term lengths? You know, we, we've always seen 5, 10, 15 years as the status quo, even pre COVID. We've started to see more younger users, more youthful companies want flexibility there. Do you expect that that trend to continue or if not get kind of shoved into high gear as a result of the lockdown?    Mark (30m 17s): Yeah, I think, you know what I think in the short term, you will still see headquarters offices and main hubs will still be 5, 10, 15 year leases, depending on what the strategy is. So longer-term leases. I still believe that there will be a subset of, let's just say, older school thinking that other satellite and expansion offices will look like what they've always looked like.    I do think that you're going to see flex used more, the, the hub and spoke thing. I didn't, I honestly didn't believe in it at the very beginning. And I don't necessarily think that's the way this, you know, that this is going to go, will, will businesses accommodate their people with a work from anywhere strategy that could involve flex, you know, touchdown stations.    Could it be that we're going to have landlords that will grant a block of space in any of their buildings for 15 years to, to an enterprise so that you could have certain employees going into a building that acts as a kind of a flex hub for you. All of these things are quite realistic. Now that's really the change. And it will come down to, again, a strategy that the occupier will use as opposed to something that's dictated    Jesse (31m 57s): And further to that. Do you find that this change, this potential change with flexibility is going to run parallel with what we've seen in coworking over the years? Or do you think it'll start crowding out the users in coworking?    Mark (32m 11s): I think that co-working suffered through a year and a half of a pandemic and people questioning whether it's a health concern or not. Okay. So I think coworking has a different view. Ultimately, everybody adjusts. So even in coworking facilities, you're going to have to adapt and adjust what the space looks like to meet the needs of people and their either their anxiety to come in or their once they're in their flex office, I think is something different right back to your question, least lanes.    I mean, like I said, it could be a 15 year lease where you have rights to different buildings in an owner's portfolio, or you might have shorter lease terms with flex arrangements, but I see flex being more of a driver than coworking going forward.    Jesse (33m 12s): Just the, the point on retail, you know, mentioned us, not surprising overbuilt Canada, a little bit more European, but still overbuilt. Do you buy into this idea that there's going to be that creative destruction through, you know, repurposing, you know, older sites into either industrial or residential over the, maybe even the mid to long-term for those assets? Yes,    Mark (33m 35s): Because you have to, there's a change there, there, there there's a change because the fundamentals changed and how we distribute retail properties. And again, I'm just oversimplifying rather than going into the details, but retailers can still grow. Our retailer is going to take more showroom space or are they going to potentially increase their actual square footage, your real estate, but it'd be less showroom space, more distribution and fulfillment space that does look like it will occur.    I think that's a transition and yes, for obsolete retail, B and C malls retail, that's just not placed well for the demographic regions sitting in. Those will need to be repurposed and, you know, life sciences, storage, multi res, they're all fulfillment. These are all possibilities and really smart developers or developers are out there working on this    Jesse (34m 45s): Right on. So in terms of the last time we've had a, you know, a technical recession, whether oh 8 0 9, there was a fundamental difference in that there wasn't capital available than there seems to be capital available today. It seems we see it on the side, on the industrial side. So all these asset classes have to play within this broader economy. What are your thoughts on, you know, we're where rates are right now and keeping them as low as, as they currently are necessity or, or something that we gotta look out, look up    Mark (35m 19s): As, you know, interest rates, having a material impact on, on the real estate industry. I wish we were in to, you know, 2022 already. You know, I know everybody wanted to get out of 2020, but there's equal and equal need to get out of 2021. You're seeing year over year numbers that are significantly above the 2020 numbers. Of course they were, there was a pandemic. We shut everything down in a 20, 20, some places around the world were still shut down in 2021.    When you see the soundbites, the blips, the media clips of inflation out of control, GDP up five, 6% producer prices, more than we've ever seen. Well, yes, those are year over year numbers. Of course they were. We were down because we saw on the downside numbers we had never seen before in 2020. I think once you get to 20, 22 and 2023, you'll see that there is virtually no reason for interest rates to go up.    And it's not just because governments. Well, first of all, governments are going to be hard pressed to raise interest rates based on the amount of debt that has been pushed out there. The amount of liquidity that is in the system is certainly the most I've ever seen in my 36 years. But I also don't believe that after you get past the comparisons of a year, that businesses were shut down as opposed to a year, you know, a year where things open.    It doesn't really look that post that period that there's a ton of inflationary pressures after that. So I'm sure people will take the other side of that discussion, but I'm feeling pretty good that once we get past the initial stage of the, you know, looking at numbers that are big and surprising, which quite frankly, they are big, but they shouldn't be surprising that we will start to see that we are just not sitting in a terribly inflationary period of time.    And that will vote very, very well for, you know, for low interest rates and for alternative investments in the yields that they produce. So, which real estate is one of those    Jesse (37m 50s): Positive for us. I want to be mindful of the time mark, talk a little bit about, you know, what the future holds for Avis and young. But before we do, I just want to briefly ask you your thoughts on mentorship right now, and, and in the context of young people coming into our industry or any other industry for that matter, I can only imagine coming out of school at this time and, and trying to navigate, you know, what you're doing in your career, what are your thoughts on that and what people should be doing?    You know, if they're not already and you    Mark (38m 22s): Know what, you know, again, I'm almost sad that you're asking about is this a period of time that we should have more mentorship? I had the benefit of having a great mentor, one of the most people in the finance industry, and he was instrumental in my career and I have paid that forward ever since, even to this day, I have, I believe 16 or 17 active mentees right now, there are people who are friends and mentees who were working for competitors that I still help out.    And I'm always there for them. And obviously industry wide, you know, I've been involved with most of the organizations and their mentorship programs. So I think they should always have been there. And it shouldn't be a question whether folks should have vermin, you know, you know, a mentor program or not, Avison young, clearly has one. We believe in it. Mentorship of all mentor mentee relationships are, are part of our culture, our women's network.    You know, you know, we focus on making sure that both for gender and racial diversity, that there are mentors in place for, for everyone. You could not be doing more for your people. If you're, you know, owner and occupier, a service provider, you could not be doing more than to actually mentor your people. There's a period of time where the adage that people know what they know, and they don't know what they don't know needs to be filled in by mentors that can help people, particularly through anxious periods of the subtleties, the verbals and the non-verbals to pick up during a period of dislocation.    And there are many people who have forgotten more than others know. And I just think that again, if you weren't doing it decades ago, you should be doing it now because to your point, there is no greater time than a period of uncertainty for those with experience. And those who are, who will commit to mentor, not just be named a mentor, but actually commit to doing what you need to do to mentor somebody and get the mentee to commit as well.    It is the greatest growth driver for a person's development and their ultimate career success.    Jesse (40m 60s): Yeah, couldn't agree more. All right, mark. Well, we're kind of wrapping up here. If there's anything you want to just add here from Avison young Avison, Young's vantage point things on the horizon that you want people to know about, you know, what, what is the world at AYA having store, you know, for those in our industry and abroad?    Mark (41m 20s): Well, you know, Jesse, we've been very good of not necessarily telling anybody what it is that we're doing. We just do it. You know, everything we do is per strategy. There was a strategy built on the day we started in 2008, launching this growth plan into the teeth of the recession. There have been updates to the strategies, you know, over and over again. And I would just say, watch for more of the same from us, we still believe that there are regions that we need to expand our platform into.    There are service lines that we need to continue to fill in. If there are any gaps anywhere around the world, we are very excited about things like working with impact, which was a company started by Nelson Mandela and their commercial real estate division is now part of Avis and young in South Africa. So we've now brought ourselves sub Sahara and to go along with the north American and the European businesses or offices and soul, you'll see us expand throughout Asia.    But the focus for us is very clear. Our clients are demanding value. They will pay for value. They'll pay slightly less for commodity and consulting led and tech led approaches to solving the needs of our clients that are embedded in a people solutions business. It's been very clear what our clients want and we are going to do to deliver the data and the solutions that support the action items to then overachieve the objectives of our clients.    That's what you can be looking for. Okay. And so there's a lot more of everything you've seen us do. There's a lot more of a kind of    Jesse (43m 19s): My guest today has been Mark Rose, mark. Thanks for being part of working capital,    Mark (43m 24s): Jesse. Great to be here with you and thanks for doing this.    Jesse (43m 37s): Thank you so much for listening to working capital the real estate podcast. I'm your host, Jesse for galley. If you liked the episode, head on to iTunes and leave us a five star review and share on social media, it really helps us out. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on Instagram, Jesse  F R a G a L E, have a good one take care. 

This episode of the Hunt Series I give a race recap and my diet motivation. I also dive into upcoming scouting trips and a look into how I E-scout for upcoming hunts this fall. Last, I ask for prayers as my wife and I embark on a 15 hour total road trip with two kids under 5. Heaven help us!

 In this episode we cover:What is a human behavioral specialist? 7 Area's of Life that You Need To MasterLifeWhat is  Symptomology?How many medications people are on when they see him?It's up to you to understand who we are going to.We are treating our bodies like a rent bomb! (Find out what that is!)Started healing his body over 11 years ago Do What You LoveWatching what you are putting into your body  Emmanuel Anthony is a researcher, writer, teacher, Inspirational speaker, Demartini Facilitator, and consultant who works 1-on-1 and 1-on-many to assist human beings globally to overcome mental disorders, common challenges, achieve their goals, expand human awareness, maximize human potential, gain clarity on their mission and lead highlyinspiring lives within all areas of life. He has served thousands of clients over the past 11-years and his teachings have been shared online, on radio, on television, and through workshops and speaking engagements.Emmanuel AnthonyDirectorDemartini Method® Facilitator   I   Consultant   I   Inspirational Speaker   I   Researcher   I   Writer   I   TeacherP: 1300 792 552   I   M: 0422 218 710   I   E: info@emmanuelanthony.com.au A: Suite 3, Level 27, Governor Macquarie Tower, 1 Farrer Place, Sydney NSW 2000 Australia W: www.emmanuelanthony.com.auCompany MissionQuantum Equilibrium™ is a research, empowerment, and education institute, dedicated to advancing human potential and conscious awareness. Our company mission is to empower, educate and inspire humanity globally to mastering their lives in all areas (Spiritual, mental, vocational, financial, familial, social, and physical).Business ABN: 40 094 338 145Client bookings:Got a question?: 15-Minute support and challenge callBook your next consultation: 1.5-hour consultationNew client bookings/questions/inquiries:Discovery call: 20-Minute discover callAmanda Elise LoveHave a conversation with me about your 2021 health goals -http://bit.ly/2ko8lSpInstagram - https://bit.ly/3fhjmfJFacebook personal page- https://bit.ly/2Wlwc4aFacebook business page- https://www.facebook.com/amandaeliseloveWebsite - http://www.amandaeliselove.comGot a question? Or maybe a guest suggestion? Email me at amandaeliselove@gmail.com

The hidden sickness that destroys most humans, mostly entrepreneurs as well. And this has been a thread that's been coming up across my desk, in my zoom calls and at the event and in coaching. I'm going to give you some energy through osmosis. I was in Mount Shasta, California a couple years ago, doing some deep men's work on myself. Six days of deep work practice, transformative work healing, some childhood trauma and really deciding on who I wanted to be in the world and making a declaration to go build this person to build this man. And I was sitting out in the grass and if you've never witnessed Mount Shasta in California, it is a sight to behold.  You can see it from, I don't know, 40, 50 miles away and we're right at the base of it. And so this thing is massive and I sat out there and I just spent a couple of days in silence at the completion of this. And I was sitting there thinking, reflecting, and this is what I wrote, and I want this to be thread. This is just something I'm sharing with you, but it's called, I am a mountain.The man who becomes a mountain does so by staying focused on becoming a mountain inch by inch, the foundation gets wider, stronger, and more stable storms come earthquake shift. Man tramples and the mountains still always grows. Every storm brings rain that helps the plant grow and thrive the cracks from the earthquake, widen the base and that rainwater naturally filters giving man drinking water.As they trample, see the mountain knows there are things happening outside of its existence, but it never allows them to influence its mission. So with every trigger storm disaster, the mountain finds a new opportunity to evolve and grow to his mission, to be a mountain.I wrote that as a permission slip for myself to focus as a way to realize there's nothing outside of my control. I can't control anything outside of my sphere. I can control my reaction. I can control my intention. I can control my energy and I can control the actions that I take, but I can't always control.What's going to come in. I can't control when the world's going to happen. An ad account is going to get shut down. An employee is going to quit. Somebody is going to steal a competitor, rip us off. I can't control those, but I was always can control myself. My response, my reaction and the choices that I make.And so I wrote that as a reminder of myself to take action, which feeds perfectly into what I'm talking about on today's episode, which is finding, okay. And eradicating the hidden sickness that I watched destroy most entrepreneurs, myself included.We’re entrepreneurs, right? We're the ones who stand here and we look out into the future. And we look out into the future and we determine what we want it to look like. And then we have the courage to come back into the present and start building it to be true. That is exactly what entrepreneurship is and even deeper, even if it's not entrepreneurship, even if it's fitness, even if it's nutrition, whatever goal it is that you have in life, your deciding on what you want it to look like for you, which means the, how can only be determined by you. And I always love asking this question because people come to me like, okay, here's my vision. How do I do it? And I was like if I answer how, then you're building my vision to not yours. And so it's a really important distinction to understand is that the, how has to come from you? What, how stands for in the world that I live in?Wait, waiting on progress. Waiting on dreams, waiting on action. Waiting on permission, waiting for someone else waiting for it to magically happen. But the truth is that if you plant something, you have to tend to it to grow it. If you plant something, you'll have to water it to grow it. If you set a destination, you have to step towards it every single day. And how is the biggest sickness that I see we will live in how. And overanalyze how, and try to come up with a perfect plan in how, as a form of validation and justification that we just haven't taken action or gotten the results that we want yet, because we don't know how well news flash, none of us know how.Business is just a series of guessing and testing, and then continuing what works and then guessing and testing again. So as our life, so is our fitness. You can have the best trainers, the best coaches, the best people in the world give you a plan. And if you want to succeed, eventually that plan becomes nothing more than a lane guide and you build your own parameters inside of it because you are unique. And how was my biggest enemy as an entrepreneur? How, and I thrived under the pressure. I loved the trauma response, loved the pressure but I really didn't. It was just a new form of distraction for me and what was missing. And you hear me talk about this all the time, which was space. It's that I want to build something. I want to build the vision that I feel or that I had clarity on in my brain, but I don't want to give myself the space to lead into my own soul, my own heart and my own mind and trust myself enough to take a step in the direction to build the vision.So instead of building everybody else's cause I'm copying them and replicating them or waiting for somebody else to tell me to do it. And this is mild and trivial, but it happens all the time. We're entrepreneurs, we're human beings that want to be different. We carved the path. So right. If you drive up to an off-roading section in a remote part of the country, you've never been to before.And there's a mountain in front of you or a Lake you want to get to, and no road has been paved. You have to make one. And if you really want to get to that Lake, if you really want to get to that mountain, then you will find a way to make a road. You might drive over it. You might hike through it. You might chop something down, you might do a million things, but if you really want to get to that Lake, and if you really want to get to that mountain, you're going to find a way.But ultimately it will always come down to the person holding the tool, not the tool itself. And as I hear this question over and over, everyone's tell me what tool to use. Tell me what tool I need. Tell me what strategy and tactic, and I'm like, Hey, listen, you can have 18 hammers, but if you don't know how to use one, the other 17, aren't going to matter.So I would challenge you to use you for you to be the tool for you to find the how for you to make the commitment for you to take the step and realize that along the way. If you get to a point where you're an action and you realize you need a tool, will then you pick it up. But I watched people trying to build toolboxes with thousands of tools in them before they're ever taking action.So they can have a tool to go, but they don't realize that their packets too heavy and they can't even start. You need real-world feedback to determine which direction to go. You need the inputs from you taking action to see what adjustments should be made. You need to put yourself in motion. To build the momentum and confidence and figure out where your honor you're off. But none of that comes from standing still in how, which you now know stands for. Hold on, wait a minute. I E stagnate, I E stay stuck. I E don't progress. And if we're not progressing, we're regressing. And I'm going to give you a couple of steps that I use, that I have my team use, that I have my students use.But first you have to understand that if you want something, it's your vision. If you want something it's yours to build, it's your step to take? It's your vision to design. It's your dream to find. It's yours. It's always going to be your step. It's always going to be your race, your tool, your game, your business, your relationship, your fitness now.Can you call on help? Of course you can. Can you get some advice? Of course you can. Can you get some direction? Of course you can, but ultimately it will always be down on you taking the action. And so rather than planning a perfect race, I'd rather you start running and call for help when you're in the middle of it. Because at least if you stop at mile seven and you need to take an hour break and we can address a blister, you're already seven miles in, rather than spending an hour at the starting line, how's it going to work? But this might happen. But what if I have this? I don't have mole skin here. I didn't tie my shoes tight enoughIt's not going to work. I'm going to tell you right now that I've made a lot of mistakes. I've made a lot of mistakes in entrepreneurship in life. I've screw it. I've made a lot of mistakes in life. And I will say that when I look back at my life and all that I've succeeded with and all the big labels and the things that I had on my vision board, and like basically me living a life that I dreamed of, and I have everything I want right now.There were really only a couple of things that were underneath all of them, one of them was taking action and my willingness to take action. And the second one was consistency over a long period of time, but consistency can only begin if you start.Stop moving the starting line. This is a deeper iteration of that same concept, except this one should cut all of it out. Because if you tell me you want to become an entrepreneur and you haven't started yet, if you have a general idea, like I want to coach people, or I want to sell a product, I bet you, if I asked you what are three things that you could do today? That would be a positive input and helping you accomplish that goal, you could identify them and you could do them. And instead of planning and overthinking, if you just did those three things, you would be closer to that goal. And I know I use so many metaphors and analogies that I need to keep them congruent, but the one that always comes up to me, that always seems so, so simple is you come to me and you're like, George, I want to run a marathon. I'm like, that's amazing. Okay. Cool. And they're like, this is what I did. I watched a hundred YouTube videos. I hired a running coach to work on my gate. I got the best shoes in the world. I'm doing my diet. I'm going to study all of this for six months and I'm going to run. I'm like, or that's dope. You could put your running shoes on and go for a five minute run and then study it and then go for a six minute run and then study it. And you can be in the practice of it. And I'm going to say it. It's scary being an action. It is scary being in action. I don't know if anybody else feels that way, but I feel that way, like when I'm standing on stage and I have 75 entrepreneurs in the room and I'm like, I have a schedule, but the schedule doesn't feel right in this moment.I feel if I threw that out of the schedule and did this, it would work. And then to take 75 preneurs that have no idea what I'm doing. And the lean into it is a very vulnerable and scary place, but it's also very rewarding and the ability to be seen and to take a chance and to push and to trust because what's the worst that happened.So Hey guys, that didn't work. And they're like, yeah, that sucked. I'm like, all right, let's go back to the schedule. But what's the best that happens is that it does work and it was 10 times more effective, 20 times more effective. Because I trusted and I took the action, but it's scary. Like I'm not sitting over here being like, Oh, it's so easy to go keynote for all those people or to go on that big podcast or to do coaching calls or to realize that I could give them a strategy and tactic answer, but I think it's deeper, but I got to say it anyways and they might not like me.It's scary. It's scary to put money and time and energy into things that might not work. But I believe 95% of everything you put in will work if you give it the right intention and the right energy. But it starts by taking action and not asking how. Because how stands for hold on. Wait. And you don't get to wait any more. No waiting on progress. No waiting on your dreams. No waiting on permission. No waiting on somebody else. No waiting on funding. No waiting. If you're met with a roadblock assume it's going to be there. So find a way around. If you're waiting for funding and it's not coming, but great. What might it look like 10 other ways if you're waiting for that one thing don't wait, what might it look like to do differently?What might we do anyways? Can we do both? Like you have to start challenging your thinking and you have to start finding a bigger range to sharpen that edge so you can iterate because the only guarantee in business is that it's going to change every single day. And the truth was is that I remained stuck in the how, because I was scared to take the action and trust myself enough to live in the uncertainty because taking action means I can't rely on a book or a coach or a strategy or tactic. It means I have to rely on myself. And that wasn't an edge that I practiced. I never sharpened that edge. I ignored that one, watching videos, reading books, coming up with plans, the best things ever, but those were distractions for me taking action. Because at the end of the day, I was afraid to take a step because I didn't trust myself enough to step.And really that boiled down to me, not spending enough time with myself to get clear on where I wanted to go and realize that all I have is my ability to step. And the only thing stopping me is me. And so when I think about the, how disease, cause that's what I'm labeling it. I literally think that it's the hidden sickness that destroys most human beings.We want it to be perfect. We'll wait and we'll do it really big, but then we'll quit instead of just doing a little bit every single day. And Wes Watson said this in a video, I heard it a couple months ago. Success in life doesn't come from hitting a home run. It comes from hitting base hits every single day, and it's not as fun. It's boring. It's completely boring. It really is, but I would rather be bored, happy and successful than miserable, reactive over hustling, not sleeping and always thinking the world is going to end because I'm hiding and waiting for this big home run that's not going to come. The home runs come, but they come occasionally and they come as surprises when you're consistent every day. And the consistency starts by taking action.You never find the how you build the how. You never find the, how you build the how. And that was probably the biggest secret for me in achieving happiness and success at the same time, because it was something that I struggled with. I want to use the word horrendously. Like I struggled with it horrendously because it consumed everything that I did. I would be like this isn't working. What do I do? And then I would go study and obsess and I would find thousands and thousands of things of ways I could do it. But then I would have so much that I wouldn't know what to do or what to choose first. So then I did nothing and stated an action instead of realizing that, Hey, what I just didn't work.But let me step in a different direction and then ask myself how as I go. And so there will never be a how for you that anybody else can lay out because it's your vision, it's your goal. It's your life and it's your race car. And so your job is to realize that you will never find the how, but you can build the how starting right now.Let's get into defeating the how monster. So step number one is get fuzzy. Step number two is get current .Step number three is find yourself and step number four is take one step. And so here's what I mean by that. So step number one, get fuzzy. Okay. There's this concept of fuzzy goals. And I know my buddy, Brad told me about it. I don't remember who teaches it.But fuzzy goals are the easiest way to win. And so the way that I think about this, as long as you have clarity, I E you have one iteration different than your current life that you want to be different. You have a fuzzy goal. And so the mistake that I made was I'd be like, okay, where do I want to do?And I'd be like, I need to have contract type clarity on what my life looks like before I take action. But that doesn't really happen. It doesn't exist and it's not going to be that way. And so what you need is a fuzzy goal and a fuzzy goal means Hey, you know what I do want to be in better shape.Cool. You might need a couple of weeks figure out what workouts and diets, but can we agree that if you want to be in better shape and that's a fuzzy goal, then you could take an action. Just go for a 10 minute walk today, but accomplish that, or you could drink more water and it would accomplish that.So like for me in my business, I don't have a revenue goal. I don't have a team size goal. I have a minimum what I want to pay my employee goal. And I have a lifestyle that I want to live by giving back to charity and rescuing animals. And we want to open our own school for children here. And we want to run retreat centers for healing modalities and breath work.I have a vision of what that will look like in Montana. I don't know how much revenue it's going to take. I don't know how to get teachers. I don't know how to do any of that stuff, but I know that when I record a podcast and I'd run an event and I. Work with consulting clients that I'm generating revenue, that's going to be used in that direction and we'll figure out how to best use it.Once the business is funded, where it needs to be. And so what you need to get is you need to get a fuzzy goal. A fuzzy goal means you need to have a general direction in which you want to go. And as long as you have. Clarity that you're moving forward. I E if the circle's 360 degrees, as long as you're moving in the hundred and 79 degree range, you're making forward progress.And listen, there's sometimes you'll take a step back, but you can step forward again. So you need to get fuzzy. And by fuzzy, that doesn't mean in 85 areas. You can't accomplish 85 things at once. So you gotta look for the common denominator of the input. And so like for me, if I wanted to output more in my business, everyone would think Oh, produce more.But for me, I would need to work on my personal health more because I already give a whole lot of energy out and I have the capacity to give more, but it wouldn't be sustainable. So I would work on. Increasing my cardio eating, even cleaner, prioritizing sleep. And then in turn, I would have more capacity in business.And so what you want to find is the common denominator, right? And so maybe it's just connecting with more customers. Cool. If that's a fuzzy goal for you, like I just want to connect with more customers. Awesome. Then you have a good direction to head in and you can ask yourself every day. Did I connect with more customers today?So step number one is you want to get fuzzy. Okay. Get fuzzy. Step number two is you've got to get current and current means, where are you? Because in order to go somewhere different, you have to know where you are, where are you spending your time? Where's your energy being depleted? What are the things that you're doing that are moving the needle and making you happy.But also what are the things that you're doing that are making you miserable and draining you? And you need to know where you are. Because if you call me on the phone and you're like, George, I don't want to live here anymore. I don't know what to do. I want to get out, but you can't describe where you are.We can't help you. You got to turn some light on your current situation and get really current to where you are. And that might be just in one area. You might be like, God, I'm not going to bed on time. I'm using my phone too much. I'm addicted to social media. I'm not eating clean and boom, I really just want to be here.And that will give you that will give you the path or direction in which to go. Because when you're current, you now know what levers you can pull. So that's step two. Step number three is you got to find yourself, and this is my favorite one. Find yourself means you're not going to accomplish your goals, your fuzzy goals, or change anything by just filling all of the space to distract from yourself.You're going to have feelings you're going to have to start breathwork or walking or silence, or do something to get yourself plugged into your intuition. It's your vision. It's your life, it's your world. But you have to know how to use yourself as your tool, because you are the most effective tool that you have.But if you don't practice your own tool, It will never work. And your tool isn't consuming YouTube videos or podcasts or other people's social content. It's being in a relationship with yourself, going for a walk in silence, having a five minute day stillness practice, spending time in boardroom going and filling your tank going and doing pottery, going for a hike, going for a Lake swim, going for a mountain bike, but present with yourself so you can explore that.And you can check in with that and you can be there. And so my big recommendations breathwork and stillness, and that will help you find yourself. So you can start to develop that relationship with self and trust to just take an action and take an action and take an action. So that's step three and step number four. This is the hardest one for me. Take an action. Identify those one to three things every day that if you do, you're guaranteed to move away from your current state and closer to your fuzzy goal and do them prioritize them, put them in your calendar, get accountability, make the choice to do it. And remember that you might want to build the Taj Mahal or one of the Seven Wonders of the World. But all of those started with one thing, one brick. One shovel one worker, one thing. And as long as you are doing at least one thing, every single day, I guarantee that you're progressing closer towards your goals. And that is how you defeat the how monster, the house sickness, the how disease, whatever we're going to call it.I'm going to call it the how disease and it stands for hold on, wait. And you're not going to win by waiting now. One disclosure, one, disclaimer. I'm not saying to be frivolous with your money. I'm not saying to go, take your entire life savings and invest it in blank. It's a little bit different, have common sense and have some reasoning with yourself.But in anything else I'm asking you to take some more action. And so my challenge for you. My challenge for you after today's episode is to just take some time, take 20 minutes, 20 minutes, and reflect in the last month, three months, six months, and ask yourself what's something that's important to me that I haven't been taking action on. Is it my health, my fitness, my business, my relationship, my kids, my art, my craft. I want you to find. One area that you haven't taken action on. And I want you to get a fuzzy goal around it. When you might know what that is. I want you to get current. I want to really check in with yourself and I want you to take a step in that direction.And I want you to commit to it. I want you to commit to doing it at least every day for seven days, maybe five minutes, maybe two minutes, maybe 20 minutes. But if it's important to you, you'll prioritize it. And if you really want it. You'll do it because it's not building itself and it's not getting any closer by staring at it. So I want you to bring it into your view and I want you to start walking towards it

ปาร์ตี้ที่ร้านเริ่มขึ้น คนแออัดกันเข้ามาจนแน่นขนัด แต่ไม่นานนัก โซนพื้นที่ก็ถูกจัดแบ่งไปตามลักษณะบุคลิกของแต่ละคน พวกที่อยู่ตรงกลางห้อง พวกที่ไม่สุงสิง พวกที่เฮฮาเอิกเกริก พวกที่นิ่งสงบ อะไรมันจะหลากหลายขนาดนี้ อีพีนี้เราเลยพา เจน และพี่แชมป์ ตัวแทนของ extrovert และ introvert มาพูดคุยกันทำความเข้าใจถึงความแตกต่างของบุคลิกตาม personality test เราสามารถดูออกคร่าวๆได้ไหมว่าใครเป็น I หรือ E เคยเจอคนในลักษณะไหนมาบ้าง วิธีปรับตัวกับคนที่ต่างกันมาก เครื่องดื่มวันนี้อุดมไปด้วยความหลากหลายของรสชาติ อาจมีรสที่ไม่ชอบแต่ก็ขอให้เปิดใจนะครับ

Welcome show Jason bye will meet with prime burger Texas real estate radio network we were just talking about the the 10 house video that rob did. T. leads yet. Pretty legit it is a it's gonna get you guys in the field. It was a great movie trailer it's awesome and then you go to Europe. Perfect talking about families and 10 houses and. Piano recitals and all that other stuff so you're at your if if you are on our email list it just went on the email list I posted on Facebook if you guys are just watching or listening to is just go to our you tube channel it's on there somewhere so when I when I got the email I was looking at it and you were in the meeting with robin and the other guy and I was I text you is like this is amazing and I was looking through the glass looking at just like come on look at me. We're we're too busy doing work stuff so I was doing that negotiating a package of properties right now I'm doing like not I feel bad these partner meetings a lot of times just texting stuff like don't worry guys I'm listening but I'm also doing like 900 other things here so sorry case today the theme of today's show. Is actually doing remember with it what is it the Ritesh show Iraq. Getting a PC action I was about equity I just remember we called getting a piece of the action so this is getting equity we've we're about to launch 3 new funds and the folks that are going to participate in the fun I E. investors are going to get a piece of the action meaning they're gonna get equity yeah so we're not just raising money to pay a preferred return 567 percent whatever the number is but we're also gonna give a percentage of the equity so when the fund does well you do well right kind of makes sense right instead of just giving a straight like a note right and there's a couple reasons we do that the the main 1 is we think and things are about to get really expensive we think inflation is going back to go run rampant and if you're on a fixed income that's for long term that might not be the best decision if you've got years towards retirement already retirements probably not that big a deal but if you've got a lot of years ahead of you you really want to be exposed to that equity yeah you know it's it's funny because 1 of the houses that that we're talking about we it was property that 1 of the bar was put on the market that we we listen to and they they look up lowering the price of the property to work like 500 and then right under 500 and so we took it off the market and then we re listed 2 months 3 months later at 525 and we've had like a ton of people I go in the house now probably gonna get an offer at you know the public at 5255 Yanni range but. I did some of it is worth waiting a little bit to dump the property you know there's a there's a temporal nature meaning during the year time based kind of during the year where sometimes properties in certain neighborhoods just kind of set up Cyprus has always been one of those markets where it's what I like to call the breeder schedule in other words if you're trying to sell something and it's during the school year it's not gonna be as lucrative as if you were put on the market around the holidays November Christmas or if you were put on the market the summertime because people gotta move kids and all that other stuff so if you can match that what I call the breeder schedule whether kids are in school. You have a higher likelihood of getting a much higher offer up I mean we essentially took our hearts property off the market for a year for that reason we just there were 5 other houses like right around there and they it turned in kind of a bidding war we're like you know what let's take it off the market and see what happens and my guess is we're probably gonna get 150 grand more by listing it here the next couple weeks as opposed to a year ago it's a great house too.For more information visit mrtxre.com (Copyright Mr. Texas Real Estate)

The poison is sneaky. A single 15 minute workout increases your brain's ability and efficiency to create neural networks required for learning. So that means what you were moving and working out your brain is actually more efficient and retaining information and programming your subconscious as compared to being dormant. Now think about that for a second. When you moved last, what were you listening to guns, drugs, be trash, like swear words, cuss words? Songs about scarcity. The world is happening to me songs. My life is miserable songs. Listening to the news of people, complaining about everything. Think about it.When the last time you moved, walked, worked out, even drove just apply this to everywhere. What was the last thing that you were listening to see every moment of your day, you are absorbing information and training yourself on how you see. And how you show up in the world. It's not in the 20 minutes of reading or the 30 minutes of meditation, those help, but it's in the other 23 hours a day that the teachings are happening that they've have a compound effect three months, six months, nine months from now that an hour, a day can't un-train. As it's been said, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. I think that deserves an update. You're the average of the 24 hours of programming you allow into your world? 18 months ago, I made a rule that I wasn't allowed to listen to music with lyrics, unless it was from a shaman. Or it was just instrumentals. And then I took it one step further and said in any moment of my life, I only have the option to choose one of the following six things. Number one, silence, try it. Working out noise, canceling headphones with nothing, driving in silence. Number two. Audio books that I intentionally choose to either propel me forward, or I think it's fiction words that aren't real, that are good, positive stories. Number three Chemonics music, number four, instrumentals number five, incantations or affirmations. I E like guided meditations, positive affirmation tracks. Tony Robbins, that cart totally. Or even better. Affirmations that I record in my own voice. There's an amazing app out there called subliminal. And you can record your own affirmations in your own voice and listen to them, which gives your brain. It's like a fast-forward button because your brain recognizes your own voice. And so there's that one. And number six is musicians with positive messages and music. And so two musicians that I'm obsessed with lately are Will Evans and Sat Sang and they actually tour together. Travel hall is another one.So I listened to music about presence and consciousness and forgiveness and growth and love and all those things. So if it has lyrics, I listened to it. India Arie is another one that I listened to. So I wonder if that has any impact on the fact that everything in my life has been a rocket ship, including my happiness. So my question is, are you aware of all the programs that you are installing in your computer every day and are those programs propelling you forward or are they holding you back? I wrote this post the first time a year ago, and then I updated it and then I really have had the chance lately to look back and see the positive effects of this decision in my life.I don't watch television. We don't have cable, so I don't watch the news. I don't consume much social media. Outside of people that I'm supporting, like my mastermind, my students, or my friends, I try not to consume any agendized media. I try to make sure that anything I'm consuming, I'm controlling, I'm intentional with. And when I say that the poison is sneaky, I can literally see a direct correlation between what I've allowed in or what I've even allowed to touch me. And my success and my happiness. And so I don't think I can ever go back to just blatantly listening to the radio or watching the news or letting other people dictate what I do or consume. I have to stay intentionally consuming because it is literally me writing the programming of my super computer that runs me every single day. And yes, I still have sadness and anger and joy and trauma and all these different emotions that I experience, but I don't numb them out by disconnecting distraction.I intentionally sit with them and then I'll listen to the right thing or I'll journal or I'll do something. But when I say the poison is sneaky, I realized that most of my career when I had success and lost, it was because I became victim to the noise of the outside world. I started to believe what I was hearing or comparing myself to others or listening to other people, complain or finding skepticism when I didn't have any before. And I've now very much realized the power of what I allow into my space and just to be clear, I still have FOMO sometimes. I still have fear of missing out like, Oh, what if I know? And I'll still catch a headline on social and want to go dive down the rabbit hole and Google it. But then I ask myself why is my life going to be any better knowing what happened in that scandal? Is my life going to be any better? Knowing what happened in that fraud. Am I going to be a better husband, a better father, a better human, a better business owner, a better entrepreneur. Am I going to help you listen to this more by reading about that? Probably not. And I still catch myself I'll find it, I'll catch myself reading it and I won't do it anymore. I'll stop the activity and I'll shift it. But the poison is sneaky and whether we like it or not, we are surrounded by negative programming. We are surrounded by scarcity by not good enough conversation.But when we think about most marketing, a lot of it harps on pain. And a lot of it harps on us staying in pain. You think about that. And so when we know that we're surrounded by that televisions, drama, reality, televisions, controversy, headlines, more blah, like we're not sitting here watching the happy go lucky news. And for whatever we see reported on the inference of that, maybe that's not the right word, whatever you see your part on the other side of that, there's also positive stories to report on, but those don't get attention. Those don't get consumption, but we have to be really intentional about what we consume and what we allow in now.so the poison is sneaky and I wrote this post around my workouts because for years I only worked out to music. And one of the hardest things that I did was I started working out in silence. Now I'm one of those interesting people when I would run, I would always like to run in silence and just listen to nature. But when I was in the gym, I always wanted to listen to music, the hard stuff or anything. And I started working out in silence and running was easy for me, but working out like lifting weights and moving a lot in silence. Was actually really difficult and most gyms play loud music. So I was just started using my noise, canceling headphones and keeping them on and may end where there's some interesting thoughts in there of self-doubt you can't do it.Do one more like without any external fuel whatsoever, but it ended up being really powerful for me. And now what's really funny is when I work out with heavyweights. I actually listen to like lectures from philosophers or doctors or audio books or things like that. Like now I don't even listen to music when I work out. I just listened to good positive talks, but I wrote this post because I was going through that phase and it was really interesting because as my body's working on and moving. I have an increased ability in my brain to create neural networks for learning. And as I'm working out, I'm actually more absorbed full of all that stuff coming in.And I worked out once or twice a day, and I was thinking about all that rap music that I listened to and things like that and what it was saying and what I wasn't even like consciously hearing, but with subconsciously programming my body. With subconsciously programming, the computer that would then go relate to my wife, relate to my customers, relate to my team and wondered why I was acting or behaving the way that I was, because I was a little disconnected from self and my values because something else had programmed it in.so I wanted to talk about this because, as entrepreneurs. As business owners, as people that are listen, you're listening to this podcast, you're changing the world. The end. Thank you for doing the work that you do, but your job isn't to shine somebody else's light. Your job is to shine your light. Your light is what makes the difference, your light, signature the brightness of your life, your message, your product, your story, your offer, the way that you lead your team, the way that you lead your family, the way that you speak words into people, the way that you speak words in yourself, like every single thing that you do is your gift. And the more time that you have connected to you. And your intuition in that space, the brighter your light becomes. It's your message. Not somebody else's message that stuff. Isn't going to help your message. I need you to spend more time in relationship with you and your message or disseminating your message. Like instead of listen to the musical, make music, instead of listening, just go do a live video, make content, do something. You need to be intentional about every single thing that comes into your world. Every single thing that you hear that you watch, that you listened to, you have to be intentional about it, including the environments that you're in. if you're not consuming leave space so you can create. So if you go into the sauna to sit there and silence and watch what happens, you'll consume your own thoughts and you'll have the best clarity you've ever had. Go sit on the couch, look out the window and just stare at nothing and practice boredom for 30 minutes.These are the seven book recommendations that I have. Book number one, I'm going to preface book number one. With a statement that I learned to love and understand more and more every single day. You are guaranteed to be in a relationship with one person for the rest of your life. And that is you. And it is a relationship shift that needs to be practiced and pursued no different than your significant, other than your kids, then your business partners. It has to be pursued. So book recommendation, number one, Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It by Kamal Ravikant. So book number two is the wedge by Scott Carney. Now Scott Carney wrote another book. I think it's along the lines of what doesn't kill us. How cold exposure he studied. Wim Hoff. I got into cold therapy and breath work through Wim Hoff cold therapy is what helped me start to be. More proactive and less reactive to situations outside of myself. It was huge for my PTSD, my nightmares, the things that I struggle with. And so book number two is the wedge by Scott Carney. And basically my summary of this book is this book talks about and gives you ways to teach yourself on how to control your autonomic nervous system. So in the world happens when trauma happens, when your ad account gets shut down, that employee quits, when you lose money. That you are given a moment of awareness to pause and choose your response instead of reacting. And so it puts you in the driver's seat of awareness and it gives you tools to train yourself, to be able to hold what's coming in from the world. So you can respond versus react.Book number three, the secret to life, the secret to life. The thing. That we don't appreciate until it's taken away and that most people wish they could have one more of. Breath. So the book is Breathe by James Nestor. Now I had done breath work and understood breath work and use breath work. But once I read this book, it changed my relationship and I realized how breathing is the secret weapon of success for entrepreneurs and human beings that utilize it? It's absolutely mind-blowing. I could not do this book justice. Breathe more, but breathe more now. And then after you finished that book brief by James Nestor. Book number four, in my opinion, is a manuscript, a manual of how you should live your life and how you should live in business. This book is a playbook. It is literally a playbook that guarantees your success both in life and in business. And this book is called the Go-Giver by Bob Burg. The Go-Giver by Bob Burg. It'll change everything. Guaranteed. If you use this book as a manual, there is zero way. And zero way that you can lose in life or in business. So book number four is the Go-Giver by Bob Burg. Now book number five is about toxic thinking and toxic thinking is something I didn't really understand and toxic thinking. When eliminated is just a simple choice in the way that we have an internal dialogue and the way that we relate to certain things, this book is by an author named Jamie smart. And this book is a really easy read or a really easy lesson. It is called the little book of clarity, the Little book of clarity by Jamie Smart. And let me give you the overview and the premise for me. So basically I lived, most of my entrepreneurial career of I'll do this when right. I'll buy that. When I will start working out. When I hit this number, I will hire this employee. When I get that, I will spend more time with my family when I hit that thing. Here's the truth is that thing never comes because the finish line. Always moves. And so toxic thinking is thinking just that there is any other moment, but now, and it gives a really simple tools and practices to shift that, thinking to create the results now, which actually amplify everything that you do. And so that book is absolutely amazing. Book number six, books. Number six is extreme ownership by Jocko Willink. Now I might have an affinity for this book because I was in the military and I really appreciate directness, but Jocko. I don't care if you've heard of him or not the way that he delivers the wisdom through his life experience. And what he has is mind blowing Jocko was a commander in the Navy seals. I believe, I don't remember his specific rank. He was in the Navy seals. For most of his career has seen stuff that most human beings should never wish. That another human being saw he has had experience with things that most people never experienced and the way that he delivers this, plus being a husband, a father, and a human being is just absolutely beautiful to me. And so I've never met Jocko personally. I consume a lot of his content. I love his books. I love a lot of his social posts. I love the example that he is, but this book is extreme ownership. Is really an important concept to understand as a human being, no one's coming to save us as a business owner as an entrepreneur. No, one's coming to save us. If you have low sales, nobody's going to come magically show up at your doorstep and bring you on a unicorn, a sales bucket. We have to find the solution. We have to empower somebody, inspire somebody, do it ourselves. Nobody's coming to fix that situation. Nobody's coming to have that hard conversation. Nobody's going to come lose the weight for us or make the money for us or change this for us only. We are. And back when I used to be in the personal development world, when I was going through trainings, they always used to say a hundred percent responsible, a hundred percent of the time. And it was this concept that I really didn't understand. And what took me a long time to understand it wasn't even, it wasn't even the fact that like I might be responsible. It's the fact that I look at every situation like I am responsible, which empowers me to always choose my next input. And so no one's coming to save us. Nobody's coming to save me. And so extreme ownership is a very amazing way and an amazing book that reminds me of that. And it gives me the tools required to put me in action. And then my final book is about perspective. And my final book is about deep perspective because I have a story in my life, I've experienced the life that I've utilized as a story. I have life experiences that most people, when I share them, give me sympathy or empathy. And I have a story that I've been able to hide behind before. Where my story has been my crutch. It's been my distraction. It's been my kind of excuse card, my get out of jail free card. Like I don't have to do the whole work side of the story. And I used to hide behind this story and my story was missing some perspective because I wasn't using my story for good all the time. I was using my story, but I didn't know better at the time. I was just afraid to feel and afraid to be really vulnerable with those close to me. But this book. Oh, man. I listened to this book like once every six months and this book just has a way, it has a way of like slapping reality. And to me, like slapping perspective into me where I was like, I would give anything to have my life again, a hundred times over from this book.And though that book is man's search for meaning by Viktor Frankl, man's search for meaning by Viktor Frankl. I can't say anything else about that book. I won't even do it justice, if you have never read or listened to that book, do it. If you have listened to it again, and then consume a lot more of Victor Frankel's work, I found writings from him and things like that. It is absolutely mind blowing.

Welcome back to another episode of the mind of George show. If you're watching this on video, you'll notice that the video changes every time, because I am still figuring out my new studio. I have my lighting nailed, but I'm working on the background. The cameras I'm getting all fancy over here.And truth be told, this is my first time ever in my entrepreneurial career that I've ever had my own dedicated office outside of my home. And so it's like a kid in a playground like that movie big with Tom Hanks, except I have like decision fatigue. So I actually cracked the other day. And I bought a course from an amazing creator online on how to design my own studio.And it's actually been great. It's the first course I've ever bought that I've actually sat down to go through cause I'm excited, but I really want to look perfect. And I want my background to be amazing and I want cool stuff in it, and this has nothing to do with today's podcast, but it's a really good way to start.So I'm here in beautiful Montana today. It's raining outside, but it's heavenly 50 degrees rain mountain view. And I'm telling you this because you're supposed to come visit Montana. Because if you haven't gotten your event ticket yet we are 60% sold out and we haven't even fully marketed it yet.So they're going to go quick. The first 60 tickets went in about a week and a half, two weeks. And so we're about to start pushing it because there's only about 14 days left. So if you haven't gotten your ticket to Montana yet, Go to mindofgeorge.com and it's linked on the homepage. If it is not linked on the homepage, they are gone.So I challenge you to go look because today's episode is about sales and it's about how to get more of them. And I'm going to be breaking this down in depth in person with work. Breakout rooms and overview and feedback circles and everything at our event in Montana. And I'm not, I've lost my mind a little bit.I'm doing the event tickets at cost because I miss human beings. We're going to be hugging high-fiving unless you wear a red bracelet and says don't touch us, but most of us are going to be wearing green bracelets and we're ready to party in Montana. So we're going to talk about time sales and retention, but today we've been talking about sales. Specifically how to get more of them. And so what I'm going to talk about today is what I call our three-step visibility and marketing strategy. So this is our three-step visibility and marketing strategy. And so when you think about it, it's broken down into three very simple parts. Part number one is attention.Part number two is context. And part number three is customer journey. My favorite little thing to talk about ever and customer journey is the one thing that I will obsess about for the rest of my existence in this existential meet suit, however long that may be but my goal is for it to be at least another 75 years.So you have at least 75 years of listening to me talking about customer journey because there is not one point in the entire world universe existence from now into the future where customer journey will never matter. And so sales, so attention, context, and customer journey. So when I say attention, what do attention and we're going to use our lighthouse analogy here. Is that when you shine the light out of your lighthouse, that boats see it, see cars. They don't do any good seeing light at lighthouses cause if they drive straight to the light, they're going to bump into stuff. They're going to crash through houses, right?Lighthouses are designed to help people in the water. And the attention part of sales is stopping your ideal customers, dead in their tracks and getting them to see and hear what you have to say. Yep. I watch so many people right now, trying to hoard attention for potential, right? If you post cat memes and humorous videos, and then try to turn around and sell educational content, you're going to lose.There is a such thing as bad attention. I don't care if I have a million social media followers. If none of them are my ideal client, I would rather have a hundred of the right people who actually consume my content, move one step closer and can actually become my customer because here's a newsflash. If you sell a women's weight loss supplement, and you have all dudes that follow you, it's not going to do well.If you sell a car and you are getting the attention of 11 year olds, it's not going to help your business. And it probably won't for 10 years, cause they're probably not going to buy your car in five or six years either. And so it actually matters that you focus on getting the attention of the right customer.And the secret of selling is not trying to convince people to buy your product. It's enrolling the right people into what they realize that they now need or want based on your content. For example. I can go run all the ads I want for my women's clothing boutique. And if all I get is men to walk through the door, very few of them are going to convert because they're not going to know what size to buy their partner, what to get, and she's going to return it anyway.So I'm not really advertising to my ideal clients. So yeah, maybe I have a hundred thousand followers, but if they're all dudes and none of them are my demographic, it's not gonna work. And so you have to make sure that you are aligning yourself as a business and a brand, or I E as a lighthouse consistently and congruently with the right messaging.And so when you think about attention, there's only a few places to get attention when it comes to selling and that's understanding traffic. Traffic. I talk about traffic. I'm going to keep talking about traffic, cause there's only three ways to get traffic owned, traffic earned traffic and paid traffic.And other than that, there's nothing really to focus on. And the reason that those things aren't effective is because people try to get the wrong traffic or the wrong. Let's say it again. They get the, they get traffic, but for the wrong reason, they're using messaging or they're using content or they're posting things that aren't relevant to their ideal customer.And so they're getting all this attention through earned media. People are sharing these cat memes and funny videos, but they're not really earning the right attention. They're earning the wrong attention. And the wrong attention will cost to your business. You will have customer service costs. He will have team costs.He will have a whole lot of costs. Some of these people might buy your product, but then you're going to have high refunds, high complaints, high chargebacks, because it wasn't the right audience. And so the foundational part of selling is being clear on who you are and who you serve, and then being consistent and congruent to that messaging. So that everything that you're doing to promote your product, your service, or your offer through whatever channel it is, whether it's owned traffic, earned traffic or paid traffic is going out to the right people so that when they see your light, they're like, ah, that's the light I need. Oh, that's the destination. I'm going, Oh, that's the direction I want to head. That's what's likely to help me. And then the people like, Oh, that's not my flavor. Nope. I'm not interested in that. Go away with a positive experience to tell other people how awesome you are or the color of your light.And so consistency and congruency is the name of this game. And so the first part of selling is making sure that you're stopping your ideal customers dead in their tracks and getting them to pay attention so they can see and hear what you have to say, moving them one step closer into your ecosystem.So that's part one. Part two is what we like to call context. And context is the overview of the container. So I want you to think of context, like the Truman show. If you ever seen that movie with Jim Carrey, or your world, and they're just living in it or your version of the matrix, pick your movie analogy.But context is you building a world that only your ideal customers live in, but they have a place to live while collecting touchpoints to make a purchasing decision. Because newsflash, every time you see a billboard, you don't pull over and buy. Every time you hear a radio ad, you don't pull over and buy every time you see a Facebook ad, you don't pull over and buy.Sometimes you do. Sometimes it's a touchpoint, but it's part of a big world so that you're encompassed and touched moving you closer to that product or service, if it's a good fit. And so context, when it comes to selling is enrolling your best customers into what you have to offer and getting them to salivate over it.And here's a secret, successful businesses have customers lined up at the door to buy their product, tell their friends about the product, share their experiences about their product. And I see people all the time. I think it was Justin golf, who I heard say this. And he's an amazing copywriter writes. Copy massive success. And he's everybody thinks when they get a hundred buyers that they want to go get a thousand buyers. And I'm like, I shouldn't just get  a thousand buyers that can scale to a thousand buyers. And is if your offer was good enough, it would already have a thousand buyers.It's not a ads problem or a traffic problem. If you only have a hundred buyers and you get more attention, you're not going to match the go to a thousand because there's an ingredient missing because you think about the best products, the best offers, the best services they sell out. They have waiting lists.They have people screaming to buy it because it's the right people. And so context is you building a world where your ideal customers, once you get their attention, like you stop them in their tracks, they can move into your ecosystem. Like they can head into your direction and they're in this world. And remember in this world, there's only four journeys that they can take, but the world has to exist for them to take this journey.And so think about it. Like it's a brick and mortar store. People are driving by on the road and attention as you getting it. But once you get it, you get him into the parking lot and park, and then they get to walk into your department store. And when they're in your department store, that store is yours. In that store, you have your brand story, you have your messaging, you have consistency and congruency throughout the store. Like you're not trying to sell toilets next to a hot dog, stand with a movie theater, pizza, popcorn. You know what I mean? Like you have your consistency and congruency as your brand in that store.So then. You've gotten their attention and the context as you've moved them into your container. And now that they're in your container, they can window shop like Ikea, right? You can hand out Swedish meatballs and let them walk laps around the store as they figure out what they want. And there's a chance that they'll walk through the whole store and have a good experience, but not buying anything.There's a chance to walk through the whole store and sign up to get coupons via email or this in exchange for this or a free consultation or a free blank pick your lead magnet or the walk-in and be like, I want this, let me buy it. There's only one of those four journeys exists when we get there.But your job is to build a world so that when they're in your world, they are engrossed in your world. And your goal is to do one of two things to either get them. To realize through your consistency and congruency in your messaging and your story that they belong there. That way they are your ideal customer or them to realize this is not my world.I don't want this. I don't need this and have them leave on a positive note. Because you can have the wrong people in your store for as long as you want, you can even trap them, but the wrong people are never going to buy your products. And here's the secret. The people that buy your products are the ones that actually build and fund your business to then go find more people.And so attention doesn't pay the bills. Attention utilized correctly, can help get the right people to pay the bills, but you have to have the people paying the bills to start with Mike  covers this the best and his books fix this next, where he has his business hierarchy of needs. And we all have needs. There's different holes in different businesses at different points. But at the end of the day, one of the hierarchies, the, one of the needs in that hierarchy or his pyramid, right? Like he took Maslov's hierarchy of needs and made it for business. It's mind-blowingly genius, but one of those needs is sales.And so you can have all these different holes, but if you don't have the money to fund them, it's not going to do any good. Context is building this world. So you get their attention. They're driving by and flashing lights. Maybe I'm on the street, waving banners. If you're not watching this some dancing up and down right now, I get them to park and I only want them to come in the store if they're somewhat interested, but the store looks appealing from the outside. Maybe that's the messaging that they can see. They can see the branding, the story they come inside and everything. Stores around what I have to offer. It's all around the same thing. And no matter what, as they go to the store, they're consistently getting a touch point. This is what we do. This is how we help as they identify what their needs are. Or they're like, God, I thought I needed this, but I really don't. And then they leave, but they had a good experience.So they send their friends. So context is you. Building that world, that's it. And so that's your consistent and congruent brand messaging story. And then where you're promoting it out there, right? You then take that to promote on earned media owned media, paid media, and you're getting the right attention to the right customers into your world to then move the third aspect and the third aspect, my favorite one customer journey.And that is the easy part that is leading your best customers forward to the next step of their journey. And so what do you have to understand here? You have to understand that it's a journey and you can't determine how that journey looks, how long or how short it is. You can determine how you show up consistently congruently.Your ideal customers take that journey or become your ideal customers. This is simple. You show up consistently and congruently. And then people are really clear that this is what you have to offer. So if you're showing up and giving them pits and pieces, let's say it's design studio, right?This is how to decorate your home. This is how to decorate your bathroom. This is how to do blah, blah, blah. And then your store is around decorating where they can either opt in. And you'll give them your free decoration guide, or they can buy your products and they can do it themselves, or you'll do their consultation and sell them products.And that's done for you. All of that can be accomplished in the same store. And then every day that they're in there, you're just talking about designing your home and how to do this and how to notice. This and what colors go, where and how that makes it feel in the funkshway of this and the flow of this and the layout here and the space in the room here, and the way that looks on the wall and the size of the mirror by no matter what it's helping lead your best customer one step forward in their journey.And so for your sales to be effective, summarized. You have to get the attention of your ideal clients and customers to stop them in their tracks, to get them to park in your parking lot. And once you get them to park in your parking, lot, the context comes in where that's your store. That's your world.That's your brand. That's your presence that you're building online and you need to think of it. Like it's a brick and mortar store so that it matches what you advertised on the street. And they get to come in that store and they get to start their customer journey. They get to walk around and learn about your.Products and your offerings and get to realize Oh, I didn't know. I could design my room this way. Or I didn't know that I could have that, or, Oh, that's really simple. And they get to pick their path in your store. They come up to you. They're like, God, I'd love your help. And God, I really love it.If you just help me with this, you're like, cool. Give me your email. I'd love it. If you help with this. Cool. Give me your credit card. It's only $97. God, I really just need your help to do it all. Cool. Hire me. I'll do it with you or I'll do it for you and I'll go through. Boom boom. And this happens in your business, whether it's a physical product, whether it's a digital product, it doesn't matter.And so you effectively selling is understanding how to get the attention of your ideal customer building the world. I either context building the world or the container for them to live in and comment. And then inside of that container, They're taking the customer journey at their pace because you understand that they're navigating this customer journey and everybody's coming in at different points.Some might have their home built, ready to be decorated. Some might be building it, some might be doing the blueprints and designing it, but either way, they're all your ideal customer. They're just. Different stages of their journey. And if you build the world to keep them in, they'll stay in that world.They'll spend money over time. They'll tell the friends about you and they will keep coming back to support your business because you're supporting, moving them one step closer and one step closer and one step closer, and one step closer to their ideal end state, which is whatever that's identified in your business.Oh, I think I forgot to breathe most of that conversation. But when you think about your business, physical product, digital product, doesn't matter to me, coach consultant, service-based doctor practitioner, you could sell batteries or do oil changes. It's all the same. Cause it's all about the principles.And so what I just shared with you is the overview of the sales section of our TSR method, right? So we talked about time that sales, and in a future episode, we're going to be talking about retention. So you have an understanding of it. And this is what I really help people do. This is what I love doing, identifying how.You get the attention of that, customer with belief, shifting content and things that are enrolling them in. So it's not about can I post 28 times a day? Who cares? Who cares? It's can I post once every couple days and have people come salivating over my content? Like pre-sold and ready to go and ready to consume my content. Yeah. And do I have a world that they can live in? Always moving consistently congruently closer to their goals? Yes. Do they get. Rewarded in that world. Do they bring their friends in that world or they opt in, in that world or they buy in that world? Do they refer customers that world they become testimonies and world.Yes. Yes. And yes. So you got to take a 30,000 few foot view of this one and you gotta take a step back and realize that the quality of attention that you get comes from your ability to be clear. Consistent and congruent with your messaging. So you're only attracting that right attention and that's the baseline of your sales.And then once you have that attention that there is a walking storefront, right? There's curb appeal here in your business, imagining your digital business has curb appeal. What your profiles look like, what your website looks like, what your social looks like. And that appeal is what gets them to walk in the door to then be a part of that journey.And when they're on that journey, you only want them to do one or two things, identify that they belong and stay in or identify that they don't belong. And then go tell their friends who do belong to come over because there's a better fit for them. And you can keep the wrong people and the wrong attention in your store, as much as you want.And you can have the wrong people, consuming your content and filling your ego, but none of those wrong people are going to become the right customer. And the right customer is one. Who's going to fund your business and help you build it to achieve your goals, have the impact, and then find more of them.So that's all I want to talk about today. That's it. Beautiful rainy day in Montana. Looking if you're watching this on video, my studio that changes, I get a blue light behind me today, but I think I look really flattering on this camera and tell you to get a ticket to Montana. And if you're listening to this after the event in Montana, while you're going to have to go sign up for the next one, cause I'm going to keep doing the lighthouse business accelerator, but I want you to take this and I want you to take some time to think about this and I'd actually challenge you.I'd actually challenge you when you're done listening to this. To go take 30 minutes with a pen and a piece of paper and just sit in silence and reflect on this. Ask yourself these three questions. Question number one. Am I getting that right attention. And be honest with yourself. No, nobody's engaging or yeah, people are commenting, but nobody takes action.You have to start there. You have to be aware of where you are. If you want to do something different. The next question. Do I have the right world built? Do I have the right curb appeal and storefront to attract my ideal customer repel my non-ideal customer and give them the desire to walk in, reflect on that one.And then the third one. Is that once I've gotten them in the door, do I have a world designed that no matter what, they're always moving one step closer to their goal until they self identify. It's time to take one of those four paths to the pier that George talks about to either leave or give me your email. Or leave giving your attention, consume some more content, give me your email or buy something. And I want you to just take a time to reflect on those and reflect and see like, where can you find holes? Where are you doing it? Great reward yourself, acknowledge yourself, and then be like, wow, where can I tweak this? Where can I clean this up? Because at the end of the day, Your business is simple. You have to get the attention of your ideal customer. You have to give them a world that they want to come into, and then you have to allow them to be in that world as long as required for them to learn what they need to learn to then give you their email or credit card to then achieve their goal. And then once you have that process nailed you, then repeat it and then scale it and scale it. And that's how you're going to generate more sales. This has been another episode of the mind to George show. It's been a pleasure. I love spending time with you. I love this podcast and we have some surprises coming on the podcast soon, but either way have an absolutely beautiful day.

This week we sit down with Gavin Coombs from Dead Man Gravel. We get into the details of this new July event in Colorado including conversation about the events' efforts towards diversity and the financial investment it takes to get an event off the ground.  Dead Man Gravel website and Instagram The Ridership Forum  Support the podcast   Dead Man Gravel - Full episode transcript. [00:00:00] Craig Dalton: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the gravel ride [00:00:03] podcast i'm your host craig dalton on this week's episode, [00:00:07]We have Gavin Coombs, one of the founders of the dead man gravel event in Nederland, Colorado.  [00:00:15]The event is scheduled to take place on July 31st, 2021. Our conversation ranges from diversity and inclusion. To the economics of event production. And obviously the ins and outs of dead man gravel. Before we begin. I'd like to apologize for about a minute of poor quality audio. In the last episode, I only learned it after the fact. [00:00:39]From a listener. In the ridership. I appreciated that feedback, but thank you for bearing with me. I apologize for that. I'd also like to say a big thank you to those of you have supported the podcast via buy me a coffee.com/the gravel ride. In particular, those of you who have chosen the membership option. [00:01:00] Having a consistent baseline level of support from you? The community means a ton to me, more and more. I'm having to move things around in my life. In order to hustle to get these episodes out the door. But knowing that you're counting on me, puts a little fire in my belly. When I first started the podcast, my intention was to cover an equal mix of athletes. [00:01:22] Product designers and event organizers. [00:01:26]As the COVID pandemic took hold in 2020. [00:01:30] It largely took events out of the equation for the podcast last year. So I'm happy to be slowly bringing them back into the fold. I'm cautiously optimistic that in the latter half of 2021. We will see events safely going off with riders and organizers, both sharing. [00:01:47] In the responsibility of safety. I have a ton of respect for advent organizers as you'll hear in my conversation with gavin even with a modest event size it often can carry significant expenses associated with it i hope you'll walk away from this episode with a little bit better understanding of what organizers go through in order to give us these experiences in the gravel community With all that said let's dive right in to my discussion with gavin about dead man's gravel. Gavin, welcome to the show. [00:02:21]Gavin Coombs: [00:02:21] Thanks Craig. Excited to be here. [00:02:22] Craig Dalton: [00:02:22] Yeah. I'm excited to talk to you about dead man. Gravel. It ticks a couple things that I really like about events. [00:02:30] It's got a funny name and it looks really hard and adventurous. [00:02:36] Gavin Coombs: [00:02:36] Yeah, definitely. We wanted to be a really fun event. And, I think the area that we live in up here in the mountains is a pretty special place. And yeah, it's going to be a great event. I think [00:02:47] Craig Dalton: [00:02:47] Before we get into the event, let's learn a little bit about you and your background as a cyclist. [00:02:52] And after that, I'd love to learn a little bit more about what inspired you to create an event. [00:03:00] [00:03:00] Gavin Coombs: [00:03:00] Yeah. In all, honestly, I am a new cyclist and I know lot of people pretty new to gravel riding. I was a professional trail runner for a number of years and would occasionally ride as like cross training. [00:03:13]I've been riding a bike, for a really long time. But just never in any kind of like structured or organized way. But it was always a runner and in my leader, Career was like a trail and ultra runner. And what really drew me to that is just the ability to be able to get out into the mountains and explore and just see just everything that. [00:03:31]That all has to offer. And then recently I ended my running career and then had a a skiing accident where I messed up my knee. Pretty good. And after a couple of surgeries, I've gotten more into cycling and just as a way to, to continue to do the things I loved about trail running I was able to do on a bike as well. [00:03:50] And was that's what really drew me to, to gravel cycling and in terms of starting an event I've been wanting to do something like that. I operate another business that runs dead, man gravel called peak-to-peak endurance. And we do like retreats and camps, and then wanting to get into the event world for a while now. [00:04:08] And saw this as an opportunity to create an event where there wasn't one here in Boulder County, Colorado, there are a few bike races not. A ton of gravel, specific ones, there's a couple races or one race in the winter. That's a little kind of gravel bike. And then but there's not a lot of races in this [00:04:30] area. [00:04:30] And so we saw an opportunity and kinda just threw ourselves into it and just went after it. That's [00:04:36] Craig Dalton: [00:04:36] awesome. So I want to go back to something you said about how gravel cycling is ticking some of those same feelings you might have had of adventure. W when you were doing your ultra marathoning, it'd be, if you drill into that a little bit, do you feel like it has similar elements in how you feel after doing a big adventurous workout? [00:04:56] Gavin Coombs: [00:04:56] Absolutely. Yeah. The similarities, on the surface, there can it's easy to see some similarities between, gravel and trail running. And then as I've just gotten more into the gravel community, the similarities are just incredible. Just. Based on the community, everyone's like super welcoming and that's what drew me to trail running initially from the roads. [00:05:18] And like just the fact that everything's just super chill and people just want to have fun and adventure and explore. And the same thing I've found the exact same thing with gravel riding and that, it was just a huge draw for me. And And you can still do the same things. [00:05:32]Obviously you can't ride a gravel bike everywhere you can run, but you can still get a lot of, to a lot of really incredible places and can get, go a lot further, it's yeah. It's one thing to go run 50 miles. It'd be completely trashed, but you can go out and ride 50 miles and, be able to see, just as much or a lot of different stuff in, not it doesn't totally destroy your body and Yeah know, so there's just a lot of similarities there. [00:05:56] Craig Dalton: [00:05:56] I didn't draw it connection until this moment about the ultra running [00:06:00] community and the gravel cycling community, but that's so spot on, I think, sport to sport. There's those elements that you described of once you started running off road, it just became this different thing. It wasn't about running a six minute mile. [00:06:14] It was about covering this amazing mountainous terrain by any means necessary. And sometimes that meant walking. Sometimes it meant running all the time. It meant getting dirty. Oftentimes it meant getting bloody. But it was, just really about getting out there. And obviously there's so many similarities from road cycling to gravel, cycling where all of a sudden a light bulb goes off and roadies are discovering, getting dirty and getting out there on these mountain roads that are right there in their community can be so much more rewarding than the same road routes they've been doing forever. [00:06:50] Gavin Coombs: [00:06:50] Totally. Yeah. And I think you're definitely seeing that in the industry. Obviously gravel is exploding and in a lot of that's driven by new people getting into cycling because it is more approachable. I feel like. But you see a ton of people going from the roads to gravel because, honestly I think. [00:07:05] That being like a former road runner. I know how exhausting that world can be. Yeah. Just mentally and physically to come to a place that is just so much more laid back. And it's not about, like you said, it's not about hitting a specific time or pace. It's just about. The overall adventure. And, I think people are really drawn to that, [00:07:25] Craig Dalton: [00:07:25] Not to drill too much into the ultra community. and I certainly won't profess to be an active [00:07:30] member of it, but I do remember in the ultras I've done, there was just a creativity in the wardrobe and attitude of all the athletes. I remember going to an event and, seeing like tie, dye, tall socks, and people running in Hawaiian shirts and it just immediately broke down. [00:07:47] Any kind of performance anxiety, because it just felt like we're there for an experience. And whether you're, this amazing 60 year old runner with a long white beard or, a new athlete in their twenties, like everybody just wanted to be part of this experience in the wilderness. Totally. [00:08:09] Yeah. And then gravel's obviously the same way. And I love that about it. I love, I think it's just this great reminder. Anytime I see someone wearing a Hawaiian shirt or doing something goofy on the bike that, we're just out there acting like kids and just, triggering that element of our psyche. [00:08:26] Gavin Coombs: [00:08:26] Absolutely. Yeah.  It's just fun, and. Obviously there's becoming as with anything the more popular it gets a level of professionalization that's happening which has bound to happen. And I don't think it's bad for the sport because I think ultimately people are still the majority of people out there riding gravel and doing a lot of these events are just having fun with it. [00:08:43]Like wearing jorts and like you said, like Hawaiian shirts and it's just about having fun, and that's the most important thing. [00:08:49] Craig Dalton: [00:08:49] So that obviously plays a role in any event design, just to set the stage for everybody listening, who may not be familiar with Colorado. [00:08:58] Can you just talk [00:09:00] about where the event is located and maybe a little bit about what the terrain looks like? [00:09:06] Gavin Coombs: [00:09:06] Totally. Yeah. Generally we're in the, what's considered the front range of the Rocky mountains, which is the Eastern edge of the Rockies. And most people are at least familiar with Boulder. [00:09:16]We are about 15 ish miles West of Boulder and about 3000 feet higher. The race. Is all at elevation starts about 8,200 feet. Never goes below 8,000 tops out at about 10,300 hundred feet. And so it's hilly, there's there's, you're up and down the whole time. There's not really any flight section whatsoever, and that's just kind of part of the geographic nature of where we live. [00:09:41] It's. It is mountainous. We're at the base here at 8,000 feet. We're at the base of a whole string of 12,000, 13,000 foot mountains. We see, right out our front door and that you get to look at pretty much the entire course, you get The views are just incredible. [00:09:57] You never get up like about treeline or anything, but it's just pretty incredible views. And but it's not in terms of setting the like elevation and the altitude aside, it's really not that much different than what you could find in gravel roads anywhere. Most of the roads are really well-maintained County roads. [00:10:17] And the kind of our long course, which is about 66 miles is about 70% gravel. And so those are just really nice, normal dirt roads that, nothing special about there are a couple of County roads that are a little bit [00:10:30] further out that are a little bit Rocky. [00:10:32]Some kind of like baby head kind of staff and but are easy to To maneuver through definitely it's all very much gravel bike friendly. You certainly wouldn't need a mountain bike or a hardtail mountain bike to do anything that, that th these courses offer [00:10:46] Craig Dalton: [00:10:46] Do you think that terrain is going to be ultimately what, or the climbing is ultimately what breaks up this race? [00:10:52] Is it the type of event that riders can likely stay together from a technical perspective, but ultimately it's going to come down to horsepower. [00:11:00] Gavin Coombs: [00:11:00] I think so. Yeah. There's not really any sections where that are going to favor someone with more technical bike handling skills. [00:11:07]Are like I was saying our, I guess we were considered like the premier race, the, we call it our tungsten course. Cause tungsten was a mineral that is, and it was mine out here. And it's also. The hardest mineral that's mined. And that's what we're calling our hardest course. [00:11:20] And like I said, 66 miles with about 8,300 feet of climbing so pretty stout. And there are a few. Big climbs. And so I think that's really ultimately, what's going to end up separating people and who can adjust to the altitude to, coming someone coming from sea level is going to, have a little bit harder time. [00:11:37] Craig Dalton: [00:11:37] Yeah. I was going to say it's it's always been one thing for me to be in Boulder at 5,000 feet coming up from sea level. But getting up to 8,000 feet is definitely, it definitely has a huge effect physiologically on me. [00:11:50] Gavin Coombs: [00:11:50] Yeah. And it does honestly, with people From Boulder to, it's the the effects of altitude are not like in a linear way. [00:11:56] It's ex it's exponential. So like coming from Boulder to up to [00:12:00] here is about the same from going from sea level to Boulder. And for those who don't know, Boulder sits about 50. Three 5,400 feet. But [00:12:07] Craig Dalton: [00:12:07] yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. So that's definitely going to play a role in it. Why don't we look? Course, by course, and I think it's, always like to tease out as an event organizer, how you thought about creating these routes and what type of challenge did you want to create with each route? [00:12:25] Gavin Coombs: [00:12:25] Yeah. So we really set out when creating these routes when we wanted to keep it's simple, we didn't want to make it overly complicated with more turns than were necessary. And we wanted to highlight, some cool features. So one, we wanted to make sure we got some really Yeah, Epic views in there. [00:12:41]Highlight a couple of the big climbs in the area. And then there's just some cool historical stuff, there's a ghost town that you go through that's been abandoned for. Oh, I don't know about a hundred years or so. And so there are just some cool historical features and some just interesting areas that we wanted to highlight. [00:12:59]And so breaking it down by, we have. Breaking it down course. By course we have three course offerings. We call them our tungsten course, our gold course and our silver course which were all minerals, mined in this area. And the gold course and the tungsten course start and they share the same first 20 miles or so. [00:13:18]And They both hit, that really big the first, really big, long climb. It's about five miles with 1500 feet of climbing. That's pretty Rocky. You need to, pay attention to pay attention when climbing it for sure. And then they [00:13:30] diverge in the tungsten course continues on and hits another big climb before coming back into town and doing another loop that all describe it a second, but, and then the gold course continues on, in a different direction, which stays on the road a little bit more. [00:13:43] So the gold course, if someone's coming in and wanted more of a like a bit more, maybe coming from road background or, is not Feeling like super strong at altitude or something. The gold course is a really good option just because it does have a little bit more pavement to it. [00:13:57]Takes out one major climb. And so that's at 40 miles with just under 5,000 feet of climbing. Yeah, there's just a little bit more approachable. And then we have our will, we're really pushing as like our, or really beginner friendly course. And I think we'll get to this a little bit later, but the. [00:14:12]We wanted to have a course that was really approachable to anyone who maybe had just an interesting gravel if they had never done a race before. And it's about, it's just about 20 miles. Just just over 2000 feet of climbing. So it's still a challenge, but it's about 50, 50 pavement to road pavement to gravel. [00:14:31] And so it's just a much more approachable. Approachable kind of course. There's no technical sections. You could probably do it on a road bike and be just fine. Tire size and selection, isn't that big of a deal. And I'm sure we'll even have probably some people do it on a mountain bike and that's great too. [00:14:46]It was just a really Beginner friendly course, to get your feet wet with some gravel riding. [00:14:51] Craig Dalton: [00:14:51] Yeah, I think it's so important. You want people to be able to hop into a course and get the thrill and invigoration of being out there in the [00:15:00] woods and get the feel and sense of gravel without putting them in a situation where. [00:15:05]They're going to come home crying because it was a horrible, too difficult experience. And, I think it's great when race organizers are able to embrace that and be inviting into the community. [00:15:15] Gavin Coombs: [00:15:15] Yeah, totally. And, we've scaled back and we may end up doing, in and then next year, or, maybe a following year, more like an adventure style race where, it gets. [00:15:24] It gets pretty gnarly and really pushes your bike to the limit. We didn't want to do that this year just because we wanted everyone to come away from this race, having a really good experienced that's one reason why, like all of our courses have a downhill finish. They all start and finish in the same spot, which is right in the town of Nederland. [00:15:38]But so they all have a downhill finish, which we felt like. No one wants to finish a hard race on an uphill climb. And we made sure that, the last few miles are going to be really fun. And so it kinda end with, that, that good feeling, and at the front of your mind. [00:15:52] And and so we did we authored the courses quite a bit before we ended up on a final final course. And we just wanted to make sure that, regardless of which course you choose. You're not going to walk away from it with any bad feelings. Obviously there's always the chance you could wreck or, flat out a bunch of times and, we have hopefully the support for that, but we want everyone to have a good time with it. [00:16:12] Craig Dalton: [00:16:12] It sounds like there's a solid chance. We'll all be gasping for air, but besides that it'll be a lot, [00:16:16]Gavin Coombs: [00:16:16] definitely. Yes, for sure. Everyone will be struggling for air at one point or another. [00:16:22] Craig Dalton: [00:16:22] You've also put a stake in the ground about your desire to be super inclusive for the race. Do you want to talk about that [00:16:30] kind of value and what it means to you? [00:16:32] Gavin Coombs: [00:16:32] Absolutely. Obviously, and I feel like there's slowly but surely beginning to be a change in the general cycling world. And I think he's see that very specifically in the gravel world. And we, me as the race director and also the team that I have around me recognize that we have a certain level of. [00:16:52] Of privileged that we can, just decide to start an event like this. And that we have a certain platform that comes with that. And so from the very beginning I wanted to use that platform that we have to try to lift other people up and and not exclude anybody, we don't want we don't want our race. [00:17:12] To be a part of the problem that is the kind of homogenous. And typically at least on the surface appears to be, exclusionary world of that road cycling has that connotation too. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm not, I guess I certainly would not make that broad statement to everyone who rode rides on the roads or anyone who rides a bike is just a middle-aged white man that doesn't care about anybody else. [00:17:35] But but there is that sort of that perception in the world of cycling and so we wanted to be very conscious of that and do what we can in our own small way, realizing that we're not a huge race and we're not going to have, Just, hopefully we'll have a big impact in our local community. [00:17:51]Colorado is not exactly known as the most diverse place in the world and but we want to do what we can to help other people Experienced [00:18:00] new things, find a new passion have a chance to express that passion that they have. And and so we felt this is a perfect kind of vehicle to be able to do that with. [00:18:08] Craig Dalton: [00:18:08] Are you, if you, are you making any sort of adjustments in the way, the number of slots that are available for particular gender? [00:18:15]Gavin Coombs: [00:18:15] Yeah, so we are. First off, the one thing that we're doing, which is just an easy, thing that we felt like we could do right away is our first week of registration is going to be open for people who identify as female or by Bach. [00:18:29] And That is just one way. So like they get first dibs on all the spots and so if it sells out in that first week and all of our women, all of our writers are women or athletes of color that then that's great. And so we didn't, we don't necessarily have a set number of spots set aside, but we are trying to create opportunity where If you want to be able to register, you should have hopefully that time to be able to do we are, I guess I shouldn't say we aren't setting aside any spots because we are also partnering with a couple of organizations. One of which is an organization based here in Denver called ride for racial justice. And we have a number of Athletes from them that are coming, that we've committed to and helping provide resources for to get to get them to come to our race and just be able to participate in something like this. [00:19:11] And there's that, and we're working with a couple of local, like women's teams to provide spots for. And we really just want to create. A space where people feel welcome and are able to to join, if they still want. [00:19:25] Craig Dalton: [00:19:25] Yeah. I think it's just important to model that I often find myself lacking [00:19:30] the right words. [00:19:31] I have the sentiment and the feeling, but I often find that I struggle with how to make the sport more inclusive, but it all starts with efforts like this, where you're just opening your arms and saying, Hey, we can't solve a lot of the problems that make cycling a difficult sport to get into. [00:19:47] I E like affording equipment, et cetera. But what we can do is say, if you can get over that hurdle in some way, Everybody's welcome. [00:19:56] Gavin Coombs: [00:19:56] Yeah, definitely. And that's part of the reason too. Why lie? We wanted to. We're trying to set up our race and the feel of our race, and try to toe that line between like just recognize yes, they were high level professional athletes that were probably be at our race and that's great. [00:20:10] And we want to encourage that and we think that's good for the sport, but we also want to be able to create a space where people can just come and have fun and enjoy their time out in the mountains, push themselves and challenge themselves. But they can also do it on. Whatever bike they don't need, a $6,000 gravel bike. [00:20:27]They can come on, there are some bikes we would probably discourage, but you don't need to gravel specific bike and necessarily and we don't want it to, we wanted to create just the whole event, have a feel of. It was just open and welcoming to whoever wanted to come and do it. [00:20:41] Craig Dalton: [00:20:41] Yeah. It's important to just with gravel ride, what you've got, find out if that sport is something you're interested in. If you have an old mountain bike or even a road bike, you may have some issues here and there, but just go for it. The community and the infrastructure of these events are going to try to support you with whatever bike you show up on. [00:20:57] Gavin Coombs: [00:20:57] Totally. Yeah, absolutely. [00:21:00] [00:20:59] Craig Dalton: [00:20:59] So the other big issue with an event, your events, July 31st, 2021 is obviously COVID safety. We don't know where we're going to be as a society or where Colorado is going to be as a state. At that point, obviously things are trending in the right direction and I probably wouldn't have had this conversation if your event was in. [00:21:20] June, or certainly may, because I really have strong concerns that those events just aren't going to be in the best interests of our country. But why don't you talk about how you're going to approach COVID safety and what it's going to be like during the race? [00:21:34] Gavin Coombs: [00:21:34] Yeah, absolutely. So that is obviously our number one concern. [00:21:38]We wouldn't in your you're, we wouldn't be having this conversation if our race was any earlier, we. We feel like we're going to be, we're positioned that to be in a really good space. I think in terms of vaccinations, just on a national level we're really optimistic that things are looking are trending in the right direction, at least. [00:21:57]And so we feel good about it. We are very confident that our event is going to go off in person. And that, it's going to resemble. A quote unquote, normal bike race. Now that being said, there are certainly going to be some changes. There are a lot of local restrictions that we have to abide by. [00:22:18]Probably the biggest one is just going to be limiting the size of the event based on the town that we're in and the, just the general area. We're never going to be, several thousand people we don't have that desire to have, a [00:22:30] 3000 person race. But I think we will be probably limited a little bit more and the numbers that we're going to be able to have and, the powers that be aren't even giving me a number yet. [00:22:39] So I don't know exactly what that, that. Final number is going to be a registered, but so that's going to be the number one thing is just going to be, it's going to be a smaller event. We're not going to have a mass start, so it's not going to be all two or 300 people or whatever. [00:22:52]On the start line at once, we're probably going to be starting in waves rolling out waves every minute or two for probably a couple of hours, honestly. Everyone will be required to wear a face mask which, makes sense. Unfortunately, if they feel like most people are used to now and not during the race, but while they're at the start finish area at aid stations when you're, in line for the port-a-potties or whatever, like you have to have a face mask on. [00:23:15]And fortunately we don't have to require that while riding which is a big plus and so that's a pretty common thing. And then and we're going to be doing all this social distancing stuff and having, hand sanitizing stations and, a ton of porta-potties that we'll be rotating through. [00:23:28] So there they stay clean and just even for, we think we're still going to be able to have like our vendors and sponsors have tents set up we're going to have a one-way traffic flow and, in. Yeah, Mark. And that's six foot social distancing, kind of guidance. [00:23:41] And so we still feel like, because we're because of the timing we're going to have, it's going to resemble, a typical bike race with kind of the same stuff that people are getting used to now, at least with the face masks and the hand sanitizing and, keeping your distance from each other. [00:23:54] Craig Dalton: [00:23:54] Yeah. I think that makes sense. A lot of times when I talked to race organizers, I'm sympathetic because a lot of the [00:24:00] responsibility actually is down to the writers because you can set the stage. You can provide all the materials and hand sanitizer stations and rules, but writers really need to take to heart that if we're going to continue to have these events, we just need to be buttoned up. [00:24:15] When we're in the start finish area, we need to take. Maybe be overly precautious, just to make sure that events can be successful and are pointed to as, a super spreader event. God forbid. [00:24:28] Gavin Coombs: [00:24:28] Yeah, definitely. And, like just start finished areas as clearly the easiest example of what's going to feel a little bit different. [00:24:36] And so ours will look like we'll have, cones on the ground that are spaced six feet front and back and side to side. And you got to stay at your cone with your mask on. And then we're gonna, shuffle people from, One group will go off and then we'll move that the next group up. [00:24:48] And so it'll be, logistically it's not super easy and it's going to feel a little weird probably for most of the writers but it's something I think that it's worth it. I think, people are excited to get back out there. Yeah, we've seen that with other events and  Steamboat gravel is sold out in two hours in lie. [00:25:04]People are excited to get back out and, participate in these events again. [00:25:08] Craig Dalton: [00:25:08] And yeah  at the end of the day, I think the start line experience is such a minimal part of the overall day. I will say, I think we are all missing that finish line, have a beer and taco kind of experience that. [00:25:22] Yeah. Yeah. It'll be back. It may be different this go around, I think we'll get there and hopefully sooner rather than later. [00:25:30] [00:25:29] Gavin Coombs: [00:25:29] Yeah. We're still have. Some festivities, most of our post race activities will take place actually at a brewery in town. That's separate from the start finish area. [00:25:39] And that it will still be all outside and plenty of space, at that specific location. And unfortunately you're right. Like we're not going to be able to, to. Even, we still haven't even fully decided what an award ceremony is going to look like. [00:25:52] And just because we can't really have people gathering and that makes sense. Yeah. So some of those logistics are still, we're still waiting to hear, to get some more guidance and, there's even different guidance from County to County and, we're just Trying to figure all that out with everybody else. [00:26:05] Everyone's trying to figure it all out. [00:26:07] Craig Dalton: [00:26:07] Yeah. And then it definitely. So just so that when we send this out to your registration, registered riders, they get a little bit more detail on equipment. Can you drill into it? You've you mentioned it a little bit, that you felt like some of the sections could require, a pretty lightweight gravel bike, but others are more intense. [00:26:25] Where do you find the sweet spot would be for tire size, for example? [00:26:30] Gavin Coombs: [00:26:30] Yeah. We definitely have some of that drilled into a little bit on our website. So anyone who wants to check out Dedman gravel, we do have some equipment recommended. We strongly disagree, courage like a gravel slick. [00:26:42]I think you got to have something with some tread on it is definitely going to be beneficial. We're recommending A minimum tire width of about 35 which is certainly on the small end of gravel tires, nowadays. And that would be, I know people who have written parts of our course with a tire size like that. [00:26:58]And it's not always the most [00:27:00] comfortable, obviously the bigger tire you have, the more comfortable a ride you're going to have. And like we talked a little bit about before it's not. This is not like an all-out speed kind of race. Having it better, having a little bit larger tire, that's going to give you a little bit better traction and stability and some, some little rougher areas. [00:27:19] It's probably going to be beneficial. Even if you lose a tiny bit of, top end speed, because you, there, aren't going to be many sections where we will have a lot of top end speed. And just having something a little bit bigger is probably better. We're not going to be out there measuring tire sizes. [00:27:34] And if you choose to run yeah. 35 something smaller than a 35 a slick kind of road tire and you flat five times, like that's on you, we want you to be safe and be smart about it. But we're not going to also can't really be out logistically. [00:27:48] Can't really be out there policing everyone's tired choices. [00:27:51] Craig Dalton: [00:27:51] Yeah. Not at all. There's guaranteed to be some good ones and some bad ones. Now, in talking to you, it sounds like when you started this event, you had a multi-year horizon and vision for the event. I know for a lot of listeners and people have pinged me on just understanding as a, kind of a, someone who created an event financially, how much do you need to put on the line to get an event off the ground? [00:28:17] Gavin Coombs: [00:28:17] Yeah. So that's a great question. And that can, that varies. To a huge degree. And it really, I think ultimately you got to start with what type of event do you want to have? So are you looking [00:28:30] more at a grassroots local sort of just fun event or are you looking to put on like a, world-class like. [00:28:37] Big time event and super professional or whatever because there's probably, a hundred thousand dollar difference in there. And yeah we're a little bit in the middle, we want to certainly have that hometown feel, but also put on a really high level event to give everyone, an idea and to be totally transparent our budget's going to be around $50,000 which is not like. [00:28:57]No, certainly I don't want just have $50,000 laying around myself. There's been some financial commitment from us personally to get the ball rolling and so we feel like and from what I've heard from other race directors that I've talked to, you could probably bet on somewhere between 40,000 and $60,000 as like a for a small to medium-size event. [00:29:18]It would be about what your budget is. [00:29:21] Craig Dalton: [00:29:21] And do you, and is there a vision as a race organizer that, perhaps it's obviously not year one, but over time that you can break even with event registration fees, et cetera. [00:29:32] Gavin Coombs: [00:29:32] Yeah. So certainly, it's a fine balance of. We wanted to price our event in a way that was not exclusionary for anyone. [00:29:41]But obviously we still have to cover our costs in order to continue to be an event. And so we, we feel like we struck a pretty good balance between, sponsorships that we were able to bring in. Plus registration fees that we are, we're expecting. And as of now, I can say we're looking pretty good and at least [00:30:00] staying in the black a little bit for our first year, which can, which I know is hard for a lot of first year events than so I feel like because of that, I feel like we've struck a good balance between registration fee prices and sponsorship dollars that we were able to bring in. [00:30:14] And obviously the better we do, the better event we can put on next year and,  continues to build on itself. [00:30:19] Craig Dalton: [00:30:19] Yeah, I appreciate, I appreciate you being transparent on that because I, putting some real numbers against it, it starts to make a lot of sense. I think for athletes coming in right. [00:30:26] It's pretty easy. And I haven't looked at what your event registration fees are, but just for simple math, if it's a hundred dollars registration fee and you have 300 riders, you can then generate $30,000, which still hasn't taken care of all the expenses, so to speak for the event. [00:30:42] And that's maybe at the outside, that might be hard for a rider to recognize, like how much is actually on the line to put off a great event. [00:30:51] Gavin Coombs: [00:30:51] Yeah, absolutely. And, you definitely you're a hundred percent, and it is hard. It's obviously sponsorship dollars come into play in that and help make up that difference. [00:30:59]And and it's not, we're not really making a lot of money, no one at least at races, like our size, no, one's like getting rich off of this, we're doing it because one, we love it. I love doing this stuff. It's super stressful. It takes up a ton of time and work, but we love it. [00:31:13] And so that's why we're doing it. But almost all of our money goes to Paine police officers to be out on the course and providing food for the athletes. And there's a lot of things that cost a fair bit of money.  And so it's not that like we're making a ton of money on it? [00:31:28] Craig Dalton: [00:31:28] No, exactly. Like I imagine [00:31:30] when you chop up that hundred dollar entry fee, and again that's just my made up number. You're talking about 85, 90% of that likely going to just overhead costs that have already been spent and day of event, experiential things like, food and safety things like the police officers. [00:31:47]Gavin Coombs: [00:31:47] Yeah, totally. The margins are pretty low. And it does, and we want to put on a good event and so we want to make sure everyone's having fun and and all of that, but, we also don't want our entry fees and just so you know, you're so our. Our long course that are 60 mile course is is a hundred dollars starting off with, for registration. [00:32:05] And then our gold course, which is like a medium distance is 80. And then the short course is 35. And so we try to keep our. Yeah, price is reasonable and approachable. While still being able to, cover the bills. And that's why I think too, when you know, so many races being canceled and obviously certainly no one anticipated COVID just decimating the race season. [00:32:26] And I it's I've certainly gathered a new appreciation for race directors, like not being able to give back a hundred percent of the money, cause so much money is spent upfront that, most of your registration fee is already spent, months before the race. [00:32:39] And so it is hard for, especially for a new or small race, we rely on those, that money each year. We don't have a huge, war, chest of money sitting around that we can survive another year without. [00:32:51] Craig Dalton: [00:32:51] Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You wouldn't fall to any event organizer who lost a ton of money in 2020 for not [00:33:00] wanting to get back in the game. [00:33:01] So I, I think it's always been part of my mission at the gravel ride podcast to interview race and event organizers, because I think. You guys are definitely putting yourselves on the line every year to put these events, whether it's financially, emotionally, and certainly all your time and dedication that it's important for athletes to understand and just give a socially distance high five to the next event organizer you get in front of them. [00:33:26] Gavin Coombs: [00:33:26] Totally. Yeah. And it's actually, I feel like driven more of a comradery even between, event organizers is, there's, I know there's a couple of groups of, some events that are really large in Colorado that are working together to even help, lobby the state in their local municipalities to like, let's get some clear coverage on this and so everyone's trying to, everyone's trying to work together because ultimately, people realize that. [00:33:47]If we can work together as race directors and not as competitors necessarily, then you know, it's going to be better for everyone. [00:33:53] Craig Dalton: [00:33:53] Yeah. And at a statewide level, just being able to provide economic opportunity for these rural communities, I think is a very noble and important thing to be doing. [00:34:03] Gavin Coombs: [00:34:03] Yeah, absolutely. [00:34:05] Craig Dalton: [00:34:05] Yeah. Gavin, thank you so much for giving the overview of dead man. Gravel I'll have links to the event and your social media handles in the show notes. And it sounds exciting. I can't wait to continue following it. [00:34:17] Gavin Coombs: [00:34:17] Yeah, thank you for having me and for giving us the opportunity to share about our race. [00:34:22] Craig Dalton: [00:34:22] My pleasure. [00:34:22]Big, thanks to Gavin for joining the show this week. [00:34:26]I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more about the [00:34:30] dead man gravel event. And in particular, I hope you walked away with a little bit better understanding about both the time and financial commitment. These event organizers have to go through in order to bring you to these types of events. Next time you get in front of an event, organizer, give them a high five. [00:34:48] Let them know that in addition to paying for the event. You really recognize the amount of effort they put in [00:34:55] Because for most organizers, these clearly aren't big money-making events. [00:35:00]So that's it for this week's episode of the podcast. I appreciate you joining us. If you're a new listener. Welcome. If you're a frequent listener thank you it's great to be part of your life each week If you're not already a subscriber please go ahead and hit the subscribe button that's a big deal for us in the podcast community as it's really a big signal that what we're doing is taking hold. [00:35:24] Until next time here's to finding some dirt onto your wheels.

And so I'm sitting here reflecting and I was asked by my team and a few other people to record a podcast on how to basically easily and effectively scale to your first five figures, six figures, or even seven figures. And recently my team and I sat down  over the course of maybe two months, we ironed out with some of my mentors, some of my teachers, some of the people that have been in my world, students of mine, mastermind members of my team.And we distilled down, what are the names? Nine steps or nine areas of focus that are required to easily scale to your first five, figure six figures, seven figures and beyond. And we identified this model. We made this model and it's been  really refreshing and also eyeopening to me because in making this model, it's forced me back into an area of focus in my own business.And our business is greater mastermind grades. My consulting is great. All of that is great. And it's been really interesting since I started teaching this model a couple of weeks ago, what's happened in my life. And I say this because before we moved to Montana and before I started teaching this model, I was spending every day working somewhere between from 7:30 AM until I don't know, let's say 5:00 PM with a couple small breaks in between.And I was working six days a week. And since living in Montana, it's  put some pressure on, in adjusting to lifestyle. We have a long commute because we're still in temporary housing and Parkinson's law means I'm going to fill whatever container I create. And now I also have a separate office outside of my house.And I have a rule that my laptop stays in the office. I can have my iPad and iPhone at home, but I'm one of those people that has to work on a laptop. Like I can read stuff on my iPad, but like I can't work. I can't have multiple windows open and a mouse. And. I really thrive on actually having my computer.And so I started teaching this model a couple of weeks ago, and it's really interesting looking back in retrospect now, because since I started teaching this model, I'm only working four days a week. I'm working less than six hours a day and I'm working out again. Spending three days out of my seven days with my family, either supporting them, doing stuff around the house, doing activities.Wednesdays are now board, Wednesdays board meeting Wednesdays. So my wife and my daughter, and I have quote unquote board meetings where we go snowboarding all day, Wednesday. And I just realized as I hit record on this episode that it came from the day I started teaching the TSR method. And the TSR method is something that I have used since I started as a consultant and a digital marketing strategist five years ago without identifying what it was.And because I did an identified, I would get off the rails. I would lose focus. I would get distracted, but since teaching it, I've worked probably 50% less than I was. I'm probably 60 to 70% more effective money is flowing. I'm happy. I've reprioritized my health. I've fallen back in love with my priorities, and it's created a whole lot of awareness and especially a whole lot of boredom to where now I'm just reorganizing my office a whole lot and snowboarding a whole lot and taking a really big Digger on the mountain yesterday.And  so today, To summarize  I'm going to be teaching you and going over the TSR method and the TSR method, in my opinion is the easiest way to build and scale to five figure, six figures and seven figures and beyond. And I now have friends and myself included that utilize this that are in the multiple seven figure range and even one or two in the eight figure range that still utilize just this model.And so I'm going to be sharing this with you because this is what I'm going to be teaching at the event in Montana, which if you have not gotten your tickets yet, get them  go to mind of george.com.  And if it's previous to the event, it's right there on the homepage. If it's post event, you've got to get tickets for the next one or join our lighthouse business accelerator.But this is why I'm going to be teaching this in depth over three days in Montana, because this is the secret. And I say, it's the secret because the secret is consistency with intention and clarity. The secret is consistency with intention and clarity. And what I've seen in entrepreneurship myself included is that for years, I would know the one to two things a day that I had to get done, but then I would spend time.Throwing spaghetti at the wall, 45, 50, 60 times a day, thinking that one or two of them would stick. And then I'd find one that stuck and that I would add it to my list tomorrow. And then I would do that and repeat the process at every level of success. My first five figure month, my first six figure month, my first six figure deal.My first million dollars. It was always the same. And it was like, I would give myself a little bit of clarity, but I wouldn't get the rest of it. And then I would basically flounder and why I floundered as for a whole another episode or something we talk about in person. Maybe I'll do an episode on it, but I think it's really important to remember that the only secrets quote, unquote secrets to success or secrets to your first thousand dollars, $10,000, a hundred thousand dollars million dollars.Isn't because there's a secret it's because there's clarity, that's executed with high energy and high intention consistently until it happens no different than if you've never run before in your life. And you make a goal of running five miles on broken, there are a lot of different ways to train and a lot of different ways to eat and recover.But at the end of the day, what's going to really get you moving. The needle is running and running and running and increasing that and doing it consistently over a period of time that sustained where the end result is, the result that you're looking for. And so when I think about how we made this TSR method for you, how we made this TSR method to teach, because it's what we do, it is basically lacing up your running shoes and hitting the pavement every day with nine really clear areas that you're supposed to be in knowing that if you consistently do it with a high level of intention and a high level of energy,  that's where success comes now.Is it a million dollars overnight?  Maybe not. Is it 10 grand overnight? Maybe. Maybe not. None of that is predictable, but the inputs are always predictable and this is the game of entrepreneurship and business. If you've never run before and your goal is to run an eight minute mile, you might be able to do it in a month.Or it might take you three or it might take you six, but I guarantee you, if you continually practice and pay attention and measure against your clarity, you will get there if you really want to get there. And  we're going to talk about the TSR method. And if you're watching this on video, you see me squirming in my chair.Just for a good laugh for you. I'm 37 or 38 years old, and I've been snowboarding for 20 years, 20 years ish. And it took  a six year break. And I started snowboarding again when we got here. And I feel young being in the park with all the kids that are like 14 and 20 and flipping and spinning, and me being able to go off the same jumps and hit the same rails and  play well, I go a cocky the other day on my last run. And I was showing my friend how to do a 50, 50 grind on a box with a, with  a nose grind. And    I lost a little bit of awareness and the tip of my board caught  in the metal edge of one of the boxes. And so I flipped. My oblique hit the box in my head, rattled a little bit on the snow. And   I'm just reminded that I'm not 15 or 20 anymore, but I'm happy and I'm alive.So you can have little giggle that you can imagine me  flipping, spinning, and then eating crap. And it was fun and I laughed about it gut up, but of course it was on my last run. And then I came to the office to work.  Let's talk about the TSR method. So what's the TSR method. TSR stands for time sales and retention.And so the foundation of your success comes down to your ability to know where you spend your time and then where you have to spend it once  your time. How you generate the right sales. And then once you make those sales, how you retain those customers and turn them into lifelong customers and a referral machine.And so your focus as an entrepreneur and I don't care what type of entrepreneur you are, or course.  A coach, a consultant, an e-commerce brand, a B2B, a B2C. It does not matter this works. And so when we think about  time is broken down into three areas. Area number one is clarity area. Number two is needle movers and area number three is containers.And so when we say  clarity is you being able to really clearly identify who you are, who you serve. How you serve them, where you're going, what you have, what you're doing, what's working and what's not. And so in order for you to have clarity of your time, you have to know where you're spending your time to have an audit of what you have available.And then you have to have a very clear picture of where you should be spending your time based on those inputs, because you have to know who you are. You have to know who you serve and how you serve them. So you can go meet them where they are on what we would call hell Island is my copywriter. Alex calls it hell Island, and they'll meet them to drive them over the bridge to have an Island.And so the first part of the time section is having clarity. Once you have  clarity of your vision, where you want to go, how you're going to help people get there, where you currently are, then you move into your needle movers. And your needle movers are your super power. These are the three to five things that you are the best in the world at doing that.Nobody else in your business organization or anybody that you hire could do it as well as you. These are your needle movers. These are the things that every day, when you pay attention to them, you give them your energy for five minutes, 10 minutes, an hour, that they have a tangible and measurable, positive result, both on you and the business.These three to five needle movers are the things. That lace up your running shoes and get you hitting the pavement. They are your run. They're your recovery. You're stretching you putting on the right running shoes, drinking the right amount of water and getting coaching from your coach. Like these needle movers.They're your superpowers. Mike Michalowicz took calm there. Your queen bee role as Bo Eason would say, it's your a game.  If you're like, I'm a professional football player, what's your position. You're like, I'm a wide receiver. So one of your needle movers is being a wide receiver. And so once in your time section, you have clarity and where you spend your time, then you move into your needle movers and you identify what are those three to five needle movers that only I can do.And I can do better than everybody else. They're not something I want to outsource. Like I am the expert. You identify those and you move into the third area, which is containers and containers are how you protect those needle movers needle movers can also be called non-negotiables and containers as a way. And you learn how to building your schedule and your time to protect those non-negotiables. So they are in your daily, weekly, monthly calendar to protect them and ensure your success to make sure that if you have to run every day for 30 days to achieve your goal that these containers allow you to run before anything else to guarantee your success.And so that's the time section of the TSR method, time. Number one, clarity number two, needle movers and number three containers. You identify where you spend your time and where you need to, you identify your needle movers, and then you build containers around them to protect. Then once you are clear on that, you move into the S, which is sales.And sales is  really fun for me because sales is where the rubber meets the road. Like sales are where we spend our time. We get excited. Like everybody loves selling, right? Everybody loves selling. And so in our TSR method, we have our three step visibility and marketing strategy. Why is this so powerful?Because it attracts pre-sold customers and will help you easily scale five figures, six figures, and sometimes even seven figures and only 20 hours a week because that's how many hours I actually work. And so I'm speaking from experience that you can generate seven figures in revenue working 20 hours a week.No joke. That's all of this. And so when you think about the sales section, the S in the TSR sales is broken down into tension context and customer journey. Now, what is attention? Attention is you being able to stop your ideal customers dead in their tracks and get them to see and hear what you have to say.How do you do this? This is my understanding going all the way back to the time section, taking that clarity of who you are. What you do, how you're served them and who your customer, and then applying it into the traffic tripod, applying it into the earned traffic owned traffic and paid traffic to have a strategy to implement into your business.And so sales attention is making sure that if you're using the lighthouse analogy that I teach all the time, that you're shining your light out of your lighthouse and the right people are catching it. The right people are catching it. And so attention is you basically shining your light out, being in action with all that clarity and those Needle movers and putting it into the world.And once you are clear that you are doing that and you're getting the attention well, now context comes in and context is the most neglected, but also the most important part.  I watch people get a whole lot of the wrong attention. I watch people hoard potential and hoard attention thinking that eventually some of these people are going to buy their products, but instead they get these potential customers that are on their door being like, Oh, it's too expensive.Or I don't know if I'm ready or I don't know. And they're met with  resistance and resistance. And here's what I'll tell you. It doesn't matter what your product is. It doesn't matter what your offer is. If you don't have a line of people, salivating over what you have to offer and excited to pay you and thinking that your getting in the way of them doing it fast enough, then you haven't built the right context for your offer or your messaging.And so context is enrolling your best customers into what you have to offer and get them salivating over it. So this is having very crystal clear messaging, a crystal clear story, and then consistency and congruency  over and over. Here's the secret cat memes. Won't get you. Content posting viral videos will get you the wrong attention.Attention is not always the right currency now. Yes. Could you have a video go viral and get 7 million views? And of those 7 million views, 50 of them happen to be somebody that you would like to work with in 20 of them by, yeah. Chances, one in a billion. Most of the time, you'll see that when you're getting all of this attention for humor or when sex sells on social or for memes or for controversy, and it's not consistent and congruent to who you are and who you serve it doesn't end well.And I always find that story of that one influencer.  I'll never forget this and I don't remember her name, but you can Google it. She had  2 million Instagram followers and  a  very engaged audience, a very engaged audience, but they were engaging in her content that she was posting.And so she went to launch a t-shirt company basically, and the company had the minimum of. 36  sales in order for it to be printed and out of the 2 million followers and the thousands of comments she got on every post, she didn't even manage to sell 36 t-shirts. Why cause that isn't who she was and who she was serving.And so all the attention that quote unquote attention currency that she collected was not the fit for what she really wanted to do. And so in the sales section of the method, step number one is attention. Step number two is context. And then step number three is customer journey. And customer journey is once you have the attention and the context, I either write customers.Pre-sold ready to go. You lead them forward in the next steps of their journey. And that is a  very important step. Because your customers can't get to where they need to go. If you don't know where they need to go before they get there, whether you have a physical product and it's a supplement. If you sell a supplement and you don't have a journey designed to help them use it, overcome objections, get them into best habits.You have not thought about your customer journey. If you have a. Sales program or a course, and you don't have it set up to where they're prepared to take the course will, it just became shelf help and they can't turn around.  And refer customers to you. Customer journey is the most important secret of any single business that exists in the world.And if you don't think it exists, look at a grocery store. Do you think grocery stores are laid out? Accidentally. No they're laid out intentionally. Think about restaurant. When you sit there with the hostess, you're not ignored, you're guided and led to your table. You're given your water. You're given your menu.They have an amount of time to come to the table. They know how to upsell specials. They know how to offer desserts and when to do it, they know when to come to the table and not come to the table. And have you ever noticed that they always come ask you how your food is when you're biting and chewing it?So you can only give a noise or a one word response? It's probably. So you can't say anything negative. I'm not joking. Like I noticed this all the time. They always ask when I have a bite of food in my mouth, like, how was it? I'm like    good. Thank you. And then I'm like, Oh, it's good. Every single thing is intentional and everything in your business has to be intentional and centered around that customer.Achieving the result that was promised. And so from the TSR method, the T is time, the S is sales. And then the third section, the R my favorite section is retention. And retention is the secret to building a successful business. There's no business that's been successful when it has an entire pipeline of customers.They get in and they're like, I hated this. I quit. I got a refund. I'm going to refer my friends. Boom   boom. No. Any successful business is built on the back of its existing customers. 93% of marketing is word of mouth people share when they have positive experiences and they become walking billboards and testimonials, regardless of the product, the service or the offer.And so retention is broken down into three sections. Section number one is fulfillment. Section number two is communication. And section number three is asks. And so section number one, fulfillment. I cannot believe I have to say this, but the most important thing or focus about retention is creating a world-class customer experience.A world-class like I made white glove customer experience that gets your clients top notch results. If you have not thought through how to get every single one of your customers, the result that was promised or deliver a world-class experience, then you have more depth to be had, and you have more money waiting on the table because those people will refer you until the cows come home.So fulfillment is making sure that your customer achieved the after state that you promised. This could even be with a lead magnet. I'm going to help you lose five pounds in seven days.  If you haven't done everything in your power to make sure the very last person of those hundred people or a thousand people that opted in achieve that goal, there's a hole in your game and it must be plugged.And so when you think about  fulfillment is ensuring that if this is what I promised and they gave me something in exchange, they gave me their email, their attention or their credit card. My job is not done until they have achieved, or I've done everything in my power for them to achieve the promised result that I made your job as a business owner is not complete when somebody buys your job starts when somebody buys and your job is complete when they have achieved the promised result.Think about it as a personal trainer. If somebody came into a gym and they hired a personal trainer and the personal trainer didn't own their outcome or own their results, that person would never remain a client. If the personal trainer was like, Oh, it's your fault. Or you should have known, they would never have a business.Every business that exists in this world, the success is predicated on people actually achieving the desired outcome and that becoming a testimonial that's how word of mouth marketing works. That's how referral based businesses work. And all it takes is a little bit of foresight. Empathy and intention to create that world-class customer experience.So fulfillment is actually fulfilling on the thing that we promised the next section communication. Communication is building a two way relationship with your customers, not a one-way dictatorship, your customers, the one that have bought your product or bought your service or bought your offer are the cheat codes to your business succeeding.They will tell you everything, what worked, what didn't work, what's missing. What's getting in the way, what objections they're having, what words they respond to, who this product is, services for, what gets in the way, how fast they can achieve it, what they need more of. Like they literally are the cheat code to your business succeeding.And when somebody is in the fulfillment stage of your business, And you're in the communication stage or knowing that this is an important part of your business. You have to give every opportunity for every one of your team members to be in as many touch points in a relationship with your customers as possible, getting on the phone with them, DM-ing them following up with them, following their journey, asking about their experience.Like literally this is the secret. The more time, energy and intention you can spend being in a two-way communicated relationship with your customers who are using your product the faster, I guarantee you that your business succeeds. And so that's the communication section. And then the third and final session.Section of the retention section is asks and asks is the secret sauce. This is utilizing your best customers that have achieved a result to become your walking billboards, to do your marketing for them, for you, and to be your biggest advocates. And it has to be done intentionally to build an effective relationship.And so when you think about the TSR method, T tot get clarity on where you spend it, who you are, what you do. And then Nita movers. What are those three to five non-negotiables that you need to do every day? Build containers around them. Sales, how do I get the attention of the right customers and keep them in a container with context that serves them and moves them closer and fills them into a customer journey and then retention, fulfillment communication and asks.Now this was 25 minutes of me talking about it. So probably 20 minutes of me talking about it. And I'm talking about it at a very high level, because I'm going to be teaching you this and be teaching this at our event and over the coming weeks and months.  Listen for more information, I'll be tossing the intros outros.We'll be posting all of it on our Facebook group if you're not there yet.  But I say this because this is the only place you need to focus. These are the only things that you need to focus on and you can hand me any business, five figure business, six, figure business, seven, figure business, eight figure business.And I will show you how the core of their business all boils down to one of these areas. That's it. And my biggest struggle as an entrepreneur for years was not having a roadmap and not having a blueprint and full disclosure. It took me 11 years, 11 years of doing this to have this level of clarity. And I've been doing this the whole time, except I wasn't just doing this.I was wasting time in other places and elsewhere and expecting this result. This is the secret, and this is all you need. You need to know your time. You need to know your sales. And you need to know your retention, which is why we called it the T S R method. And within those, when you now those areas and all you do and focus on them, your success is inevitable.And then you focus on the variables that you can control, which is what your intention to achieve that result is and how much energy you put forth into achieving it. Because we all know that we can all go work out. But we all get drastically different results based on the clarity of our goal, I E our intention and the amount of energy and effort that we put into that workout consistently over time.And once you identify this, you have a very clear roadmap and picture that gives you a tangible result and measure. Of your intention and your energy and gives you clarity on how to shift it and focus it so you can achieve your desire goal, no matter what your business, no matter what the industry, no matter who your customers are, no matter what this levels the field, because this is the quote unquote secret.And so that is our T S our method. And so I'm assuming if you're listening to this, it's most likely for our event in Montana  at the end of April of 2021, and. If you are listening to this and you don't have a ticket yet, go to mind of george.com right now and get a ticket.  If you're listening to this after, go to mind of george.com and check for the next event, because this is my home.We are taken over Montana and I'm going to be teaching this until the cows come home or until every single one of you has all of your dreams. Six-figure business seven figure business. I will do this on repeat  over and over. I might ended up doing an event a month just to have you out here because this.This is what I needed 11 years ago. And this is what I have every single day now. And I want to give it back and Montana's my home. So I'm not leaving. I want to bring all of you here because this place is heaven and it's just perfect. And so this is what I'm going to be covering, but I want all of you to keep your eyes peeled, make sure you're in the Facebook group.Make sure you're listening to this podcast. We have a little bit of a structure change to this show coming up to better serve you in the future. Make sure you keep your eyes peeled in our Facebook group for announcements, because I'm going to be helping you go deep with this model and method for your business based on where you are and your level of commitment into our world.And so if you're in our Facebook group, we'll be talking about it. If you join our monthly coaching program, I'll help you a little bit deeper with two to three calls a month. Of course you are always welcome in my mastermind. And when we talk about this, literally every single week and multiple times a week, and you can come to the events, but I want you to keep your eyes peeled because if you're listening to this.This can benefit you. If you're listening to  this applies to you. If you're listening to this, I want you to keep focusing on this listening as to repeat, where am I spending my time? Am I that clear on my sales? And am I really delivering that experience in my retention and lean in for support as you need it, but that is what I wanted to talk about today.And so thanks for listening to another episode of the mind of George. So I'm going to cue the outro in a minute, but remember relationships, always beat algorithms. And I will either see you in the next episode, or you will hear me in your earballs, but either way, it's time to cue the outro.

Some big distinctions are different in Montana. For example, in California, everybody's home has the fastest internet in the world. In Montana, they don't really care if you have internet in your house because they want you to spend time with your family. And so it's like the slowest in the world. I E so slow. I couldn't even record a podcast or do a zoom call. And so there are a lot of differences and this is a brand new place I'd never been to Montana until we moved. now am official Montana resident. I have a license I'm never leaving. This is my home, but I was met with some very unique challenges getting here. One of which is I had already committed to running a virtual event. And so I had an event planned thinking like, Oh, I'm going to get to Montana. I'm going to have my Airbnb.There's an office in the Airbnb. The internet will be fast enough. And so within the first day I realized that there was no working in the Airbnbs none. I need to find an office, but that's going to take awhile. So what about coworking? And I was like, Oh, no, coworking. Either every coworking space has like a six month wait list. And so I got to this point and I was like, okay. What am I going to do? And so we were here for maybe 36 hours. And I had two days to find a place to go.I had four national media appearances interviews, podcasts on some big platforms that were scheduled months in advance. Like two days into the future. I had a virtual event to plan for Ron. I had to set up the space and I was like, okay, what do I do? And it brought me to this very important lesson and distinction that I forget about.And what I realized is that. Being an entrepreneur online, understanding digital marketing, Facebook and Instagram, and email and ads and paid media. I become really, or became really complacent and compartmentalized because of the internet. And I started to dull, my ability to be in relationship in person.And so what I was left with was a very unique.Challenge. And it gave me this force perspective of where I realized that I isolate my business and I isolate the potential of my business by keeping everything online. And so I said, this is what I'm going to do. We were here for one day and I said for the next two days, I'm going to introduce myself to every single person that I meet. I'm going to ask them about their business, why they're in Montana, what do they do? And I'm going to share them like what I do, like what I'm committed to, what I want to do in Montana. What my vision is for being here, how I want to support local businessesThe next day I meet my now friend Christian. And he's talking about how he was in the Marine Corps and he was the owner of the restaurant. And he's talking about how he was in the Marine Corps and he was the owner of the restaurant. And so I listened, he listened, he came over, checked on the table about half an hour later, is it, can I do anything? I'm like, Oh, were you a Marine? And he's yes, I was, it was like me to simplify. And we started this really deep conversation.So I got connected with him. I got to meet him. This is his restaurant in town. They do catering, they'll do event catering. And I was like, Hey man, like I'm new in town. This is what I'm doing. These are some of the challenges that I'm having.Then I drove to the co-working space and I introduced myself to the owner and he said, we have a six month waiting list, but we have a conference room that you can rent for $20 an hour. And so I spent about a half an hour getting to know him and meeting him and then it wasn't available though.For me to do my calls and the next day. And so then I started meeting local people and reaching out to people that I knew.so then they introduced me to a woman who lives here, who was like, I work all day from nine to six. My internet at the house is extremely fast. The fastest you can get here. You can go use my kitchen. You can use my house. You can set up your studio. If I'm there. Awesome. If not like you can literally, here's the code to my front door. You can go set up for eight hours to all your recordings and then leave when you're done. And if we see you, that will be amazing. And so that offer came on the table all through the power of networking and meeting.I met the owner of the bed and breakfast and figured out they had moved from California as well. They had purchased the bed and breakfast, but they are former construction and now entrepreneurs.And so I got plugged into them. And then I found out that the owner of the coworking spaces, his father was the biggest broker and realtor for commercial real estate in town. And so in my needs of saying, I need a place, the internet, I need something to use. He's my dad will help you find an office space.Now I live in a Valley with 250,000 people. So there's a decent amount of people here spread across like an hour of driving distance, like 60 miles in the Valley. And so it's not small by any means. But it's really powerful when you start to make these connections and you start to really put yourself out there. And so in the first 36 hours of me being here, I met five people that I now consider friends. I got a. Coworking conference room to rent to run my virtual event. I got somebody's house to use, to utilize their internet, to do all of my interviews. I found a caterer and a restaurant to do my events When my mastermind comes to town at the end of April this year. And when the public event comes to town at the end of April, this year, for any events that I do, I found a commercial real estate. Person who helped me start looking at offices and finding properties while I was utilizing the rental space.And so within the first 36 hours of me being here and being really open and connected and utilizing the power of relationships, I basically had a creative solution to absolutely every challenge that I was met with ones that if I turned inward. And what it led me to remember is that. Power of relationships is everywhere. Like just because our businesses are online, doesn't mean everything we do is online. We need to use the power of in-person networking and in-person relationships. And in-person sharing of our vision and sharing our challenges and asking for support to find creative solutions and to build community and to support other businesses. a common thread of humanity is that we all want to help. We all want to support each other. there's goodness in everybody's hearts.And one of the things I've learned in this game is that it's really not about what you know, it's about who, and I love people. I love hearing about people's businesses. I love hearing about what they're doing. I love hearing about their mission and they I'd love to hear about mine as well, but they'll never know if I don't take the time to introduce myself or to ask questions or to dive a little bit deeper and to really network. And I will say that the power of relationships. In the first 36 hours of living in Montana. Genuinely saved about a month of stress.a really stark reminder that we're surrounded by potential. We're surrounded by solutions. We're surrounded by help. We're surrounded by support. We're surrounded by community, but we have to be the ones to initiate. We have to be the ones that, that, that cross, that line of demarcation.We have to be the ones that guide that relationship. We have to support them and ask for support. We have to be crystal clear on what our strengths are, and then we have to be clear on what challenges we have or what we need solve so that we can ask people to help us. And one of the things that I think is so powerful is that we as entrepreneurs, whether we're online entrepreneurs or we're a mixture of both, or we're Amazon only, or Shopify or we're service-based coaches, consultants, is that we never forget to leverage. The power of the relationships that are around us.We never forget to build community around us and nobody's going to build the community for us

The effectiveness of your email comes down to the context, not the content. so when we think about a customer, I think about a customer journey. If somebody is receiving an email from you, there was something that got them on your email list. There were some way, unless you're shady as shit and you stole it or took it against their wishes. And now you're emailing them. There was a relationship of some sort that got them on your email list could have been a giveaway, could have been an opt-in could have been a bottled product, could have been a joint venture that other company could have been a content upgrade. It could have been a numerous amount of things. That started this relationship that got them on your email list and what tends to happen most of the time. They come up on our email list, we deliver something, we disappear for periods of time. Then we start emailing again. Then we disappear for a period of times and we start emailing again and it always feels transactional. They don't respond well.so then we spend all of our time trying to convince them with copy, to take an action that could have been solved by building a better container or a better context. In this case, a customer journey. And so if you think about it, our job is to lead people. When somebody gives us their email, no matter why they give us their email, we are promising them something that they are willing to give their information in exchange for. And then it's our job to see them through that promise. And then through what's required to happen next.so what do I mean by context, if somebody is on your email list and you're doing a launch, if you take a cold email list and go email them, There's a good chance that you're going to take some time to re-engage people have to warm them back up, but a lot of people take a cold email list and just hit it hard and get upset at the results. so you have two options, let's say you haven't been emailing people. That's okay. Don't send a cold email out of the gate. Be like, Hey, here's my stuff, buy my stuff, do my thing. No. Build the relationship re-establish boundaries. Use my AAA nine step method for re-engagement and say, Hey, I've been gone. I'm sorry. I promised you this. And I haven't done it, but I would like a chance to make it up for you and offer you this over the next couple of days, I'm going to be teaching you about AB and C and then once you're done teaching them, pitch them, there's a 99%. More likely chance of that stat, that adjusts made up that that works better.But when I say context, instead of me writing, how can I write this email? It's going to sell all these people. It's how can I design this journey and take them on a journey where the container or the journey itself makes the conversion easy. Because they take cared for, they feel safe. It's taken over time. We don't need somebody to tell them, but again, we don't need somebody to sell us again. When you're a hundred percent clear on the car that you want to have, when you walk into a dealership, you don't want them to sell you another car. You want them to get out of your way and give them the car that you want. so when you apply those same principles and you think about email the same way, and you create a container, I E the context to allow our journey to happen, to allow our marketing, to help people realize that they need us, or don't need us to help people achieve something before they ever pay us. and we have the patience to do that. I guarantee you. 10 out of 10 times that the context is always going to be more important than the copy.

How to add rocket fuel to your race car.You’re a race car. You are the only one and you don’t get a replacement. You can't trade yourself in. You can't swap your engine. You can't start over. You are in this amazing machine called your human body. Also known as an existential meat suit. what I've seen and what I've noticed extensively with myself and those in my mastermind with private clients with everything is that we think we're invincible until we're reminded we're not. But the first thing that we do is we sacrifice ourself. For the quote unquote, betterment of our business, or to hustle one more time or two, give that last inch. And one of the things that you realize when you say study champions, when you study the grades. So when you have coaches that are champions, and if coach champions like 40 gold medalists, you realize that winners don't play like that. Champions don't play like that. They practice restraint. They practice temperament temperance, not temperament and temperament, but probably not temperance. They have a plan. They methodically go after their goals. They're constantly making micro adjustments to increase their performance and to making recovery periods and tweaks as needed to optimize their performance to function at the highest level.So if you think about it as a car, they're changing their oil, they're rotating their tires. They're reading the gauges every single time that they drive, not until the check engine light comes on, they're proactive in their pursuit of their performance. And they know that eventually the wheels might fall off of the engine might break down. But why wait until it starts to show signs of wear and tear instead be proactive and prevent the wear and tear, find it and create it before it happens so that you can run your best race so you can optimize your performance.The five things I think every single entrepreneur needs to add to their arsenal to increase their performance, increase their longevity, to take care of themselves, to bring presence to what they do to absolutely give you a competitive advantage and be proactive in the pursuit of your greatest performance. Not passive waiting until the check engine light comes on and then forcing you into a breakdown, trying to compensate and catch up because once you are behind, you never get back to where you were. You're just putting band-aids on a bigger problem.Waterfirst thing in my opinion that every entrepreneur needs to do more of needs to have more of needs to ingest more of a needs to have a better relationship is water. My buddy, Alex Charfen harps on this all the time. And he has the hydration challenge. It is probably one of the single biggest and fastest game-changers for human beings, proper consumption of water, proper hydration, drinking enough water. I E waking up in the morning. And before you do anything else, like before you even get out of your bedroom, you drink 16 to 20 ounces of water to start your day. Like that level of water, it's waking up and putting a rocket fuel in your gas tank. So you can shoot off to Mars that's what water does, and we all need to drink more of it. Our bodies are made of what, like 76% of water. Most of us walk around dehydrated. Most of us do not drink enough water and I have done Alex's hydration challenge.Number one is water and drinking of water. Number 1.1 is using water in its other forms to support you in your healing, in your recovery and in your growth. Some of those ways include cold therapy, taking a cold shower, doing ice bass, dunking your face in an ice cold bucket of water to reset your nervous system and trigger your vagal nerve and your mammalian diving response. Cold water therapy is mind blowing. It is the reason that I am no longer on opiates. It's the reason I'm no longer an addict to pills because cold water and the breath associated with cold therapy helped me kick those habits because I can manage my pain. I can get my body working properly. I can reset my mitochondria. I can deliver oxygen and nutrients into my blood and into my muscles. I am utilizing my body and the most natural forms of recovery possible.Love your body from the inside outNext is one of my favorite products and it is called a morning routine. People have been doing this for years. I've seen it for 10 years, morning water, Apple, cider vinegar, a little bit of lemon and sea salt. Does wonders for your body. It's a thousand times better than a cup of caffeine. And luckily for me, one of my friends decided. we made it into a stick pack and there it's called morning routine. So the website is your routine.com. It helps with hydration, digestion and wellness. It's dairy, gluten, soy sugar-free it's keto friendly it's made in the USA it's non-GMO and it's vegan.It works wonders. It helps my digestion and helps my Bibles. It helps everything. I feel amazing. And so I'm looking at their website because I'm just going to read their notes at age digestion. It helps reduce weight at detoxifies, the body and improves complexion and it enhances energy and it strengthens the heart. Organic lemon powder, a hundred percent vegan product, no preservatives, no synthetic dyes, no yeast or gluten. It's made in an allergen free facility. It's proudly made in the USA. They give back with every single one of them, and it's the only blend on the market. Combining organic lemon, organic Apple cider vinegar, Himalayan, sea salt, and electrolytes in a delicious sugar-free drink. And here's a secret. My four year old absolutely loves it.daily superfoods detoxA daily superfood, a chocolate detox sake that I absolutely love. I personally love having it with water in my shaker cup to keep it really simple. I also have it with macadamia nut milk. I actually have a daily superfoods detox, organic shake. The amount of quality ingredients in this product is absolutely mind-blowing. It's dairy free it's non-GMO and its gluten free. They have their detox and cleansing blend. Inside of it. They have their alkalize and energizing blend inside of it. They have their digestive support blend inside of it calories, just in case anybody's thinking it's 130 calories, a serving with one gram of fat, nine grams of carbs and four grams of protein.CollagenOne of the best ones that gets the best and highest quality collagen that also has a social mission that I support fully because they give back 10% of gross to the military community. And veterans is Bubs naturals. So collagen belongs in my opinion, in every single person's diet, every single person needs college and to be a superfood from the inside out.CBDAnd this whole thing of self-care. One of the things I like to do is intentionally force myself to relax, put a container of relaxation in my life. And so I like taking baths. I really do. I think they're really powerful. I think they're really healthy. I think they helped me a ton. And so I use their CBD bath bombs all the time. And so they have CBD bath bombs that I use. So if you don't want to ingest CBD, you've never ingested CBD. There are so many benefits that CBD has. I can't even begin to list them all because I don't even understand all of them, but I feel amazing. And they basically have CBD gummies that you can take that they help with anxiety. They help with energy. They help, just my body, feel good. They also have a secret product from them that helps entrepreneurs absolutely thrive. So if you've ever seen that movie limitless, we hear entrepreneurs talking all the time about smart drugs and nootropics and all of these different things called the alert CBD capsules. If I'm having trouble focusing. I go right to these and I take them. I take them maybe once or twice a week, but I literally feel like I got the cheat codes to life. I feel focused. I feel clear, feel calm. I feel energized all at the same time. And so their alerts CBD capsules are literally my secret weapon.So this is the list that I share for us to find a way to optimize your performance, to love your race car, to give it what it needs to perform its best. I need you to take care of you because this is the only vessel that you have and restraint and temperance, and you playing like a champion is what's going to help you impact the world and starting by taking care of your race car and taking care of your body and giving it what it needs is the best and the fastest way to do that.

Welcome back to another episode of the mind to George show. Today is a winning Wednesday. I had to look at my notes. It's been a couple of days since I've recorded since we just moved across the country. From the bottom of the country to the top of the country, but we are here. If you're watching this on video, you see a big Montana state image behind me because I am officially a Montana resident. And for those, and you're like no. I already got my license. I already have a Montana license. What, so we are here. I am happy. I am so glad to be here. This is home. This is where my family wants to be. My kids are in school and they are super happy.Everything is good. And I love the weather. It's 30 degrees every day. So I get to wear shorts with my pink shoes and my hoodies walking around. The road trip will have to be a podcast all on its own, the lessons, the reflections, and all of those things, which I will do soon because I had a lot of breakthroughs as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, just from being in the car for four days and meeting different people all over the country through five different States as we drove.But today we're going to be talking about the customer journey. When we talk about the customer journey and what I call the PIP method. PIP analogy. I don't know. I just put the words together, but I like the word  PIP. And so PIP for customer journey stands for planning, intentionality, and patience.Nd I get asked all the time, like, how do you create customer journeys? How do you create customer journeys? What do you think about when you do it? What do I need to think about. And so I took some time and I literally went through my entire process numerous times and wrote down, okay, this is what goes in. This is the question I asked myself, this is what I put into it. This is what I think they should do. And these are the exact questions I use for myself, my clients to create customer journeys. And so before we get into the customer journey, You're watching this on video. You're going to see me moving in my chair a lot.Normally I have a cup of coffee to wake up in the morning and not really, it doesn't wake me up, but I know a lot of people do. It's like the best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup. I found a new way today. I found a new way to wake up in the morning and I have more energy than I've ever had, and I can't stop moving in my chair.And so I'll tell you about that. I'll just tell you right now, I fell down the stairs this morning. I literally fell down the stairs. We're staying in an Airbnb with some really steep stairs and I was carrying the trash out and I slipped and I landed on my back and fell down the stairs, proceeded to lay on the floor and cry for about five minutes. I couldn't move. I actually my wife came down and I thought I was going to have to go to the hospital. I couldn't move. It hurts so bad. And then I had a family pile around me, Branson and Cheyenne, and my wife were all standing around me playing on the floor at the base of the stairs, like bawling. And like dry heaving, I was nauseous. It hurt so bad and I couldn't really move. And they were just sitting there witnessing this. And I don't know if you ever had that feeling. You get hurt. You want to be alone because you just want to dope. Really it's from the level of vulnerability that's expressed in that moment, but it was amazing and I'm okay.I can walk really slowly. I think I'm just going to have a big bruise and I'm going to pay attention to it, but yes, if you see me moving in my chair, it's because before I had my coffee this morning, I decided it didn't wake me up enough. I decided to take a trip down the stairs. And so that's, what's feeling up for me right now in my back as I move.So let's talk about PIP. Let's talk about the customer journey. So when we think about the customer journey, when you think about the customer journey, when I think about the customer journey, one of the ways that I like to envision the customer journey is if this customer, if this amazing human being was standing right in front of me, like if they walked into this office that I'm in right now and they're like, Hey, George, I could really use your help.With my email marketing, I could really use your help with my team culture. I could really use your help on my social media marketing. I would ask them a couple of questions and I would give them a solution that let's have Hey, buy my yeah. Now course. Or do whatever. Or, start here. I would give them one thing to do.And then as soon as they have that kind of path, I would be like, okay, go do that thing and come back. And I envisioned, they come back into my office the next day and I'm like, okay, what are they going to do today? And I'm like, okay, go do that thing. Come back tomorrow. They come back, go do that thing.Come back tomorrow. I like to envision customer journeys with people standing in front of me, think about our experiences. When we walk into the grocery store, when we walk into an Apple store, when we walk into a car dealership, when we go to get our taxes done, when we have to go to the DMV, like you want to talk about somebody who should really hire me to help with their customer journey, it would be the California DMV.Now that I'm not in California. I got my license in 10 minutes at the DMV in Montana yesterday. And I live in a big town, like big town. I walked right in 10 minutes later, had a license. I've been here for a week. Totally different subject. But I like to envision what it's like when somebody walks in, when somebody gets in front of me, when somebody is like, Hey, I need your help. I'm like, I got you do this one thing, do this one thing. And I do that because. In my opinion, with what I've noticed in the world of digital marketing is that people tend to try to compress an entire journey into a day or into an email, which actually makes your customer have less of a chance of success.It's okay to have patience that it takes seven days to do something it's okay. That you should only do one thing a day. None of us can do 8 million things a day. And so I like to envision that when I'm thinking about the customer journey, and so now let's get into PIP. Pipit PIP. This is like the PIP method.I'm still building it out, but it's the PIP method. It's what I like to call it. So PIP is for planning, intentionality and patience. So planning, what goes into the planning stage of a customer journey? These are some of the questions that I like to ask, and I'm literally telling you exactly what I use, what my team uses, what we teach over and over again.So the first thing is we have to identify who we're talking to. So you have to know who are you talking to? And when we think about the who, these are the questions that we ask, what information from their before or after state, do we know that we can speak to to entice them or attract them to take a next step.So think about permission-based marketing, using story. What story can we tell? Can I tell my story? Can I tell one of my team stories? Can I talk about something that I felt in the realm of a story that would entice them to take the next step with us? So when I'm thinking about who are we talking to, what information from the before after state, do we know that we can speak to what information do they need to know? What belief do they need to have and what present pain do they want to move away from? What do I have that can help them get to their after state? So when I'm thinking about planning, step one and planning is knowing who I'm going to talk to. Step two under the planning is what do we want them to do? So now that I have the, who I go to the what? What do we want them to do? If it's to buy what's the best sales mechanism? Is it a call? Is it an order form? Where do we want them to go? If it's a lead magnet? Is it better to be a video as an audio? Should it be seven days or 14 days? What would we give to our ideal customer? Or what would we want if we were going through the same journey, what do we want them to do?And so the first thing I do in the plan is I get to the who, the second thing I do is I get to the what, and then the third thing I do is I get to the, where. Where do we want them to go? So I know who, I know what do I want them to do? And then I know where do I want them to go? And then the most important part of the plan, the most important part of the plan is what happens if they don't join. And this is where most people miss it, but what if we want them to buy? And they don't buy. We need to have a plan. Otherwise they just get pushed away and they feel transacted upon what happens if they opt in or they go to the landing page and don't opt in.Have we thought about Oh, that's going to happen. We're not going to convert a hundred percent, but if we think about it, can we have a retargeting ad? Can we do blank? What happens if they opt in, but don't download it. What happens is that they opt in and don't open the email. You have to ask yourself all of these things to plug all the holes in the bucket, and then you take all of those ingredients and you ask yourself, what are the next steps?And so when we think about the plan. The purpose of the plan is to gather all of the ingredients you need to potentially make a recipe. And so the worst thing that can happen is you in the kitchen, cooking a family meal for 20 people of your family on a holiday everybody's expecting to eat in 30 minutes, and then you get into the middle of a recipe and realize you don't have all the ingredients. You're not going to be able to make it to the store. You're not going to be able to feed everybody. You're not going to be able to switch it. You're in a situation that's impossible to get out of because you didn't have all the ingredients to start with. That's a really important distinction when it comes to customer journey is the planning stage you gathering all of the ingredients required. In order for you to build the customer journey.So that's what goes into the planning stage. And then after the planning stage, we get into the intentionality phase. We have all the ingredients, right? We know what recipe we want to make. And so in the intentionality phase, this is where I start to think about how can I serve these people best not, how can I get in and out as fast as possible now, how can I send them one video with 85 things, but it's like, what would be the best. The most effective for me and for them to deliver on the promise after state that I made, whether you opted in and I promised you something, how can I get you there? Whether you bought? And I told you, you'd get there. How can I best get you there? And so under intentionality, the first thing that I like to think of is my cadence. What is my cadence? How often do you need to hear from me? And for how long do you need to hear from me in order to trust me or for me to stay on top of mind for you? To help you or encourage you or support you or nudge you into achieving the particular goal that you've set out to accomplish.And so we know that if I'm helping somebody write emails, I don't need to email you in your inbox every single day to be like, write this, but could I email you to check in? Yeah. And would that check-in make you feel safe? Probably would that check-in give you an option to get support. Yeah. Would that check-in remind you of what you're building? Yeah. Could that check and be some wind in your sails? And you're like, Oh, I'm feeling frustrated with writer's block. Totally. So what is the cadence? How often. Do you need to hear from me, but how often do your customers need to hear from you to achieve what you set out in the plan?Who, what you know, where, the next steps, what to do in case they don't get in. And so once you build all that, it's wow, I know it's for these people. And I want to take them here. And this is about how long it's going to take. And if it's going to take 30 days, I actually think I should talk to them every day, or I think I should talk to them every day for the first seven days. And then every other day, nobody gets mad when you talk to them every day when you're serving them, when you're supporting them, like none of us are like, Oh, I'm so mad that you helped me this morning. I'm so mad that you made me feel good this morning. I'm so mad that you supported me in accomplishing my goal this morning.No people only get upset when you communicate with them in a, I don't want to call it abundant. Cause it's not the right word when you over-communicate with them when it's transactional and it's about you and not serving a purpose. And so in the intentionality section, what's your cadence going to be? How often do your customers need to hear from you and how long do they need to hear from you in order for them to trust you for you to stay on top of mind or you to support them accomplishing their goal. And then the other part of intentionality when you're planning, this is looking at the reflective side of what you've done in the past, how you've communicated with your customers in the past, what you've seen on social media in the past and asking yourself, what's working, what's not working and what can we adjust?And when I think about customer journeys, I like to look at them as like a volume knob, right? Or a radio tuning knob. I'm going to date myself. But back when, after you listen to the radio, when it was cassettes tapes and I was making tapes, but I would turn the DOB, like you tune the radio station in the car and if you was a little staticky, you didn't turn the radio off. You just tuned it a little bit. And you're like, Oh, there it is. As you drove further and further away from your home or that tower, it would get staticky again. But you weren't like, Oh, I hate my radio. I'm never listening to it again. You turn the dial. You turn the dial and you turn the dial until you got it into focus where it belonged and that's what customer journeys are.So when you're thinking about customer journeys, they're living and breathing, they're iterative. They require attention just like you. Most of us don't do the same thing, or maybe we don't get up at the exact same time, drink the same amount of water, the same cup. Like we're not robots. We modulating soda, customer journeys.So part of the intentionality is being aware, looking at what worked, what's working, what's not working. How can we adjust and making sure that you're doing it to serve a purpose and not making adjustments that would sabotage your success. But let's say people aren't opening your email. Could you send a prep email before the sequence starts to frame their mind?Let's say people don't open your first email. We'll go back to the thank you page. What can you say on the thank you page? What can you put on the thank you page to get them into their inbox? Let's say they're not doing that. Lynn, tell them on those sales page, on the opt-in page, the most important thing they can do is check their email once they sign up and on the thank you page.Tell them again. Hey, the most important thing you can do is check your email because your results are in that email. Oh, and there's a gift in there. Oh, go check your email. Here's the subject line. In your business and your game and your customer journey. It's just a series of inputs put into a process to create an output.And so you have to start thinking about this customer journey as leadership has breadcrumbs Jack and Jill  and so if I have all of you going to an opt-in and I'm like, Hey, I'm really going to give you these sequences, which we do. I'm going to give you these sequences. And I sent you to the opt-in page and you get the thank you page, but I see nobody's opening the email. That's not your fault. That's my fault. Why aren't you opening the email? If it's not going to spam and I checked it with Glock apps and I know it's hitting the inbox well, there's something missing in the journey. There was something missing for me in communication or guidance or direction to get you into the inbox to know that's where everything was.I'm like, okay, cool. If nobody's opening the email, the first thing I can do is I can make sure the subject line is congruent. Once I do that, I can go back to the thank you page and I can encourage people on the thank you page to get into the inbox and let them know it's sitting right there. And then that's how I start to play the game with customer journey.So that's what we say. That's what we mean when we say intentionality. Okay. So the first P in PIP, PIP is planning. I is intentionality and P is patiences and patiences. And I'm going to say this. The goal of customer journeys is not to convert everybody. You can't convert everybody at one time.You cannot. People are in different phases of their journey. They're in different phases of their evolution. They're in different phases of their growth, but what you can do, what you can do is you can convert everybody who is ready right now while having a positive touch point. And helping these people that aren't ready become one step closer to becoming ready to becoming your customer.That's really what the goal of a customer journey is. It's to show up consistently and congruent early. So when the right people are ready, they have the path to convert. They feel safe. They know what you offer. They know that this is the right thing. You're consistent. They know that if this is what they're getting here, imagine when they pay and then for anybody who's not ready, they're going to keep implementing what you teach and be accountable.And they're going to capitalize on what you're giving them, but you're going to capitalize because they are going to be talking about you. You'll never believe it. I didn't buy it from this guy, but he's still helping me with his email. He still responds to my questions. Can you imagine what it's like when I pay him, I'm going to set a goal to pay him.patiences, the goal of the journey is not to convert everybody, even if you're in direct response marketing and you're like aggressively selling, you're never going to convert a hundred percent of the people you might aggressively sell to 10% and get them to convert. But if you don't nurture and transition that other 90, you'll never get them back.But one of the ways to win is to make sure that. Everybody feel seen, heard, and respected, and that's where patiences come in. And so what I like to think about is how can I design these journeys so that when anybody gets ready, they can come in and anybody who's not ready, doesn't feel bad or wrong or pushed away. They're like, okay, I got it. This is a goal. This is a goal. This is a goal. And in order for that to happen, you have to have patience. If you look at your buying decisions, like I'll use Apple again. If somebody is on an Android and they walk into an Apple store and pick up a phone for the first time morally, they're not going to buy it, but they can come in and they can get an iPod. They can touch it, they can play with it. And eventually they'll have enough condition touchpoints and social proof that they'll make a decision. If you go into an Apple store and you have a laptop and you love your laptop, but you see the new one, you might not buy it on the spot. You might come in, you might visit again.You might research it online. And then when you collect the evidence requires you make a conversion. But can you imagine if Apple only let you in the store, if you pre-committed to buy one exact product before you walked in? They wouldn't have a business, right? They would, but it wouldn't be as successful as it is because I think one of my buddies is a general manager at Apple. And I think he told me that 90% of the people that come into the store every day, don't buy on that visit 10% do, but they'll come back and come back. And so it's like a window shopping machine and that's what digital marketing is like. That's how you play this game. So think about it as a grocery store. They're walking through and you're telling them what I'll, but if they happen to grab something else, realize they don't like it, then they'll come back or you tell them where they want to go. They're like, yeah, I'm going to play that game. I'm going to check out here. But they can stay in the store and collect whatever they want in the store. They can fill their car with whatever they want in the store, whether that's their bucket of safety or confidence or making sure it's the right fit. And then as long as they're in that store, I E as long as they're in your ecosystem, when their cart is full, they're going to come to the checkout stand.Very rarely when their cart is folding and abandoned it in the middle of aisle seven and then run out the store without you realizing. But if somebody was filling their cart and you walked up to him and said, Hey, it's time to go. You're done. You don't need anything else. Check out. Now, if you don't get this, now you won't save this money.If you don't do this, you're going to miss this. They're never going to come. And it's the same thing. So patiences is the third P in my opinion, what most people think should be done in one to three emails should be done in five to 10 emails. What most people think should be done in one to five days should be done in 15 to 25 days.When we're selling, when we're giving value, when we're giving lead magnets, we don't have customers that have eight hours of open time in their day. We have customers that are in a bit of pain or not happy where they are, and they're looking for a solution and they're looking to us for the solution, but we have to understand that there is a microscopic amount of space in their day, in their business, in their life to put into practice what we give them. And so if we give them too much, it doesn't fit and they don't use it. But if we give them just enough, they use it and then they create more space and use more and create more space and use more. And they start to build endowment into your brand, into your business, into your product, into your world. And so the third P is patience.So the PIP method for me, designing customer journeys is planning, intentionality and patiences. Planning  intentionality andpatiencets. And if I could summarize up the most important part of a customer journey for you, it would be make it longer than you think, lean it out. No, make it longer, not lean it out, extend it out.And so if you're like, ha yeah, I'm gonna help these people, do these three things. We'll call, like it gets seven days, prep them, give them an overview, help them with thing. One, check in with thing. One, help them with, think, to check in with things, to help them with things. Three, check in with things, three wrap thing three, and be like, Hey, here's your next steps?That's eight days. But you have a lot better chance of succeeding that way, by making sure that you're getting people into momentum, getting micro-commitments getting that stuff going, and I'll say this, I guarantee you, it works because it does. We use it every single day. I use it in my clients. I use it for myself.And so that is my PIP method for customer journeys, PIP method for customer journeys. And so think about it. When you're thinking about your customer journey, your lead magnet, your physical product, your service, your coaching business, your consulting, maybe you just do zoom calls to close deals. But what happens if they don't close? Do you follow up with them? How often. Do you forget, and then you just leave them in the ether with you not realize that if you just simply follow up with them three weeks later to check in and six weeks later to check in with no agenda, they're either going to convert or they're going to tell their friends about you.And they're really like, God, this guy really wants to help. This lady really wants to help. They really care. They're not just trying to take my credit card. It's a different game. And it's a game that plays the infinite game assignment cynic would say. So that is the PIP method for customer journey. So I'm going to go, I'm going to put some ice on my back.I'm going to jump off the call and get ready for another one. I absolutely love you guys. I'm going to say it again. I am a Montana resident and I'm so happy. I don't think I'm ever leaving. I really don't. I'm so happy. But I am a little sore. So I'm gonna go get a cup of coffee. I'm going to ice my back a little bit. I'm gonna stretch and I'm gonna get to it, but I want you to think about this with your customer journey. So remember that relationships always beat algorithms.

GEORGE: Welcome back to a free for all Friday. And I could not be more honored to have the yang to my yang. One of my dear friends, the guy who understands that relationships need algorithms and helps you automate everything in the middle so that you can spend more time doing what you're supposed to be doing. But I'm going to tell you something right now. I've never met a man and this man I love deeply. We'll get to it him in a minute that literally has more software and tool recommendations in his toolbox than anybody. I know he has a chronological list in his brain of probably 500 ways to solve every quote, unquote challenge that we run into as entrepreneurs. And what I love about it is, Ari who we're going to talk to in a minute, doesn't come at it from a tool can solve your problem. He comes at it from, we have to understand what you need and where you're getting, and then let's pick the tools for the job to help you do more of what you need to do to be in relationships with the things that matter. And so you can do more with less and then go take a woodworking class like he's doing tonight.  Did I get it?ARI: Yeah, that's right. Best intro I've ever heard. Thank you GEORGE: So good to have you, man. I'm stoked to have you. It is. It is see when we're friends and we spend numerous amount of conversations and times, even though I avoid being on your favorite platform in the world, which we'll get to in LA, you know what I'll say? This, I would make a comeback. If we talked every day, I would literally, instead of iOS I'll come back. I'll publicly make it right now. I'll come back just so we can talk more because  I know like iOS audio messages probably make your skin cringe and  they make mine too. So before we get into the show, I have the one question that I ask everybody that sets a really kind of good context. And you can answer this however you want. So you've been in business for a long time from real estate to  having an entrepreneurial brain your whole time to being an EMT and some of the other crazy things that you do to running a team and doing intensives and doing all of it. But when you look back at that career, when you look back at, from the beginning of Ari as an entrepreneur, what is the biggest mistake that you've ever made in business? And what is the lesson that you learned that you bring forward with you every day? ARI:   Wow. Ah, that's a great one.  I don't know if we call it the biggest mistake necessarily. I'll tell you this.  I severely strongly vehemently wished that I had started therapy a lot younger that would have been a big one. And  there was, I went to the best business school in the world for  undergrad. I went to Wharton,  the best in  the world.  And I didn't get particularly good grades. I had a really interesting, good experience there. I had really great relationships with some of my professors, but the point, the point of that is that  there's so much advice. I feel like that you get about business,  through so many different people and that's  I guess I'm technically. I'm a millennial, right? But I'm like a cennial. I was born in 1982. So  the, the big thing that they said about Daniels is wake, we grew up analog and then  shifted it to digital.So I've really seen a lot of that transformation. So have you obviously, of how social media really makes that even more and more. It was just worse. I think there's so much more bad advice out there than there is good. Also a lot of the really great advice, like classically really great advice. I feel like it's not relevant anymore. And people still refer to that. So you're the, all that to say, like  you're constantly bombarded with all this very bad information,  and some people are better at discerning the good from the bad. My biggest problem, I can say and we'll probably get into this at some point, is that it took me a  very long time in my life. And I'm still doing it to develop a true, like core sense of self. Yeah. Now to know that what was right. I always went with my gut and all sorts of things. Unfortunately it led me to the right path most of the times, but I never really had this sort of guiding internal compass, which I honestly, I feel like therapy would really help.GEORGE:  Yeah, that's this is why I love that question.  I think, you  one of the things you and I talk about a lot offline and  we've had deep conversations and we've been around 50 entrepreneurs is we're helping them. And like we're having, they're all like give me tools and we're like, we're trying, it's not the tool,  or you put me in front of a Roman, hand me a bottle of a wine and you start asking me questions and I start.going off the top here, but with that a few things that you said that I think are so important.  Number one  is really like discernment and understanding,  when you should let something in and when you should even have the space to let it in. And then number two is  not going at this alone. Like I think,  for me, you and I talk a lot about this and we both do.  we both, you  pursue therapy outside of it. We both pursue coaching and guidance and mentorship. And I think there's this thing with entrepreneurship and I hate the label.I like how Mike McCollough woods goes about it calling a shareholder, but  you have to do it alone. Everybody does it themselves and you have to figure it out on your own. And I,  I feel like I was blessed to meet people like you  and have some mentors that I have, but I've burnt my fair share of like bridges and I've trusted my gut that I've somehow ended up here positively, but I feel like it could have been here,  five years sooner.If I don't know, maybe I listened to my wife,  who is always right or something along those lines.  but, but with that when you talk about this, you and I talk about,  protecting our containers, we're both actually moving right now. We're like, get us out of the hustle and bustle. We want to do less with more. How do you go about now looking at all the things that surround us, the bad advice, the distractions on social media,  all the bombardment of messages all day, right? Like I got Slack going off, Facebook messenger going off, insert. I don't. I don't have those things anymore. My team does. But when you look at that, like how do you go about discerning that now in the place that you are, and then how would you do it differently if you went back.ARI:  Yeah, sure. So  that's a, that's a,  there's a lot to unpack there. GEORGE:  Totally. And I'll remember all of it I'll guide ARI: So first of all, one of the biggest things that I teach in my replaceable founder program is all about communication. And that sounds very  like nebulous, but the truth  is that like, I feel like 80% of the problems that we see in businesses are around communication. And it's not, when I say communication, it's not  you know, Not people not being active listeners or that it's really  there's methods and means of communicating. And then also the way that we actually convey messages. So the three things are one is that people generally, in my experience, don't convey.What success looks like when they're delegating and they don't cause they realistic expectations when they're managing opera or however you  want to say it. And there's a myriad reasons why that happens, but that does happen. So  that's one of the big things.  and then the way that we communicate.So fortunately COVID. Unfortunately has I think changed this quite a bit, but as  as I talk about all the time, asynchronous communication is like  the, the nuclear weapon in my arsenal.  that is the most powerful thing that I have at my disposal. Voxer happens to be the tool that allows that to happen really efficiently, but asynchronous communication as an idea is huge.And unfortunately, again, we've had this sort of culture, so many people feel like you have to be synchronous to do certain things. Now, this is a great example. What we're doing right now, we're synchronous makes sense, because we can really vibe off each other, but synchronous doesn't make sense. When you have a financial advisor who has to fly to London, just to sit at a table, to shake hands with the client.And we've seen so much of that now, again, less of that, fortunately, because of COVID, but it's still something that's just so ingrained in us. And then. The third element there in communication is, and this is where it really gets troubling. I find with all the information, all the social media, everything.Most people are not very good decision makers.  and when I say not good decision makers, I don't mean that they're making the right decision. I mean that they're not effective in the decisions that they might,  so many people suffer from paralysis or analysis paralysis, right? And the other side of things is the people who are like the fly by the seat of their pants,  go with your gut.There's a balance in between there. I would say that a lot of people really struggle to find. So when we're presented with all this information, And all of these different things coming at us from email, Slack, text messaging, and all the social media and all that kind of stuff. Most people,  most, most people.And I would say  99% of people, whether it's conscious or not, they approach those tools as if they were almost  a victim of them, right? It's just a necessary evil to live in the world. We have to experience these things. We have to put up with it and take our beating basically. But what people have to understand is no matter what level of life you're at or business, these are your tools to communicate with you or world and the way that you see fit and having that somewhat subtle shift of understanding that can have  really powerful implications.So email is a really good example of this. Email is a unique experience that most people. So when I speak around, when I used to speak around the world, I'd always like to ask,  what's your biggest productivity challenge? And the number one question, the number one answer that always came up was email.That was the number of work that a challenge and the email problem is not an email problem. It's a decision-making problem. And if you think about it, your inbox, and you can use your inbox to represent,  Slack, Facebook, whatever you want. Is it very unique opportunity in your day to make thousands of decisions.I really have that in any other place. And most research tells us that the average person is good for about 24 decisions in a day. So what if you didn't have email?  and I there's very few topics. I didn't mean really riled up.  productivity wise email is one of them. And the biggest one is when you see people post on Facebook, they're like, Oh, I really want to have a VA that can manage my inbox. Anybody have recommendations? And it's  are you fucking kidding me? Yeah. First of all, it's totally, that's so demeaning to another person,  like that's that's, to me, the visual of that is somebody who is sitting in their kitchen with their feet off, like doing their nails, eating,  pumping chocolate and they send someone out to get their mail from the bow, the postbox and bring it in and it's  you look through it and they're like, Oh,  there's a gift certificate. Or there's a coupon to bed bath and beyond. Yeah. That's totally worth five minutes of your brain to do that for me, because I can't manage my own shit. Yeah.  So the idea there is if they're manageable well, and there's all ways of doing that. And I have one there's other people that tell you how to manage email or don't have email,  rather than say, Oh,  my assistant's going to deal with or whatever. Same. I don't have email. If you want to get in touch with me, you can call me, or you can email my assistant directly, because what also ends up happening is you have people who have their assistants managing their inboxes without necessarily telling people. And then it's just this broken barrier of trust that can't be recouped. So to me, that it's like to have somebody else manage your email is such a lazy cop out kind of a thing. Yeah, because you want me to just have the balls to say I'm not going to have email. GEORGE:  I think, I think  that's such a hot button, right? Because you, you said a few things, number one,  don't be a victim of your tools. What we forget is it's our house and I've used this analogy before. I'm like, you would never let somebody walk in your front door, sit down at your dinner table and insult you and let them stay in there.  And I was like, so don't do it online. Like these are your house, your rules, your container, your just using a tool to get there, but it's yours.And I think  that's really a  hot thing to understand. And what you said that  really a few things. Number one,  The communication part. I feel like for me personally, every time I struggled with email was number one, it was ineffective communication, right? Like I was sending messages to send messages or it was like always open loops, back and forth, nothing clear, getting there,  replace, it was basically a tool to be lazy.Cause I didn't want to pick up the phone or I didn't want to just take two minutes to come up with a solution. So I was like, Oh, it's in my inbox. Let me just fire off a quick response. And then when they respond again, I will handle it, put it back in their court, right? Like we're volleying back and forth of  yes, let's  play tennis.  and then three was this belief that  we had to have email. Like we had to have email. And what's really interesting is  you know, this tool, but I use superhuman for my inbox.  That's I love it. It's amazing. But I basically spent a couple of days cleaning everything up and doing it. I get less than three important emails a day, less than three,  literally less than three now. And so when I look at my inbox, now I open it and on my primary tab, it's  my wife's  Hey, I need you to remember to reschedule this. And then  one of my last friends was like, Hey man, I forgot to send this to you. And then there's like one like billing thing and everything else isn't there.And so I think  that one is probably one of the biggest ones. Cause it's the same thing that I see. And it's funny to what happens in front and behind. Behind the scenes of companies. What I see people struggle is like, how do I write emails to my customers? Like they struggle with it on that side, but then they're also a slave to their inbox and think they need emails on the other side. And so I think  that's one of the best ways. So then everyone's gonna be like, all right, Ari, fine. I don't want my fucking inbox anymore. What do I do? ARI:   Okay. Well,  and you pointed out something really good there.  You're getting, you're getting very females and I am too.  honestly the majority of the emails I get are from school. I have four kids, four kids in two different schools for different classes. There's  two newsletters every week. And then one with photos, that's like the majority.  so if you had a. Boat that was leaking water into the boat.  And you have a bucket and you're trying to catch the water in the bucket at that point. Is it like, Oh  no. I just need more buckets.  you know, more email folders. That's what I needed  that'll fall  apart. Oh  no. You know what it is. I need to your bucket. I know it's heavier, but I need it. The inbox is just a container, as you said,.  You need to fix the problem is upstream, right? So  you, you have to first of all, separate great communication, two different methods. So  this is a big one where a lot of people and a lot of people take a very different stance from a lot of other productivity kind of people.I actually think that you should have more communication tools rather than less, but they need to have specific purposes and you need to be intentional about what they're for. So if you're going to use Slack, that's fine, but don't use Slack for project management. Don't do what a lot of people do, which is have these slip, these shared Slack channels with clients, right?So that you're talking to your team and your clients in the same place, bad idea. Yes. And email should never, ever be used for internal communication. Cause it's really just not designed for that. So you should never ever look at an email in my opinion and open your inbox and be like, there might be a message from someone on my team that shouldn't be a thing.So if we reduce the number of emails or the number of,  if we reduce the dependence on email to begin with, by using other tools, for other kinds of things, we're going to reduce the number of emails to begin with. And then it becomes much more appropriate for our brains because the typical inbox is like super important email kind of important email. total junk, super important email, junk spouse,  and that kind of rapid switching back and forth just does not work for the human brain, which is why most people end up just saying  Oh, I'm out.  like  I can't manage this anymore. Yeah.  GEORGE:  and then you ended up with 26,000 unread emails that I've seen. And it gives me anxiety. Sowhat you said, I want to unpack this one a little bit, cause this one was really good.  you got to go upstream and fix it.  And so for me, when we think about email, so just, if everybody didn't catch it, I stole this from Ari. I say this in every single consulting trip that I do,  email is for external only. And Slack is for internal or another messaging app. But I want everybody to understand that they're just messaging, like you said, they're not project management. They're not, here's my to-do list. There's not go pick me up coffee on the side of the street.  there's, you  you have to understand what you use the tools for, right? If you're like, Oh, I'm going to drive my kids to school. You're not going to get on your bicycle with your basket in a snowstorm going to get in your car and you're going to drive them. ARI:   Great. That's a great image. So they're there. Basically what I always say is that there are four tools that a minimum four tools that every company should have. And by the way, you mentioned, Lindsay emailing you, in an inbox. So I got her out of Oxford, which has been amazing, and she's the only person on my Voxer that is on the walkie-talkie setting. So when she sends me a message, it just starts talking like an old Nextel.  so there's four tools at minimum.One is for casual conversation. Second one is for procedural information. Third one is for bridging internal and external. And fourth one is for things that need to get done. So we'll break that down for a second. So the first one's casual for me, that's Voxer, right? So you need to have a tool in your company. This is for in the company where you can talk freely,  and what that looks like for some people, maybe that's WhatsApp, maybe that's Slack for some people. It  depends on the culture and who the people are. If they like texting or voice or whatever.  there's also like Marco polo, which is like Voxer with video. They needed a tool for casual conversation, something that is unstructured, where people can. Emote a little bit maybe, and also feel like they have a space where they can come converse about things. It's  like the digital water cooler, if you will. The second one is for procedural information and that's usually going to be Slack again, it doesn't have to be, but usually it is.And procedural information for me is the stuff that people just got to know.  So like, You'd post a Slack message being like, Hey everybody, our next workshop is going to be on December 14th.  who's going to be there? Whatever or,  you this is,  what does everyone want for lunch? Like very, really transactional information for lack of a better word. The third one is something that bridges the internal versus external. Because if we're going to tell you, if I'm telling you that email should not be used internally.The natural question that most people have then is what happens. If I get an email from a client that I need to show to a team member. Which we see all the time, some clients pissed off, they forward an email. You forward that to the boss, right? GEORGE:  It's  you're just ducking getting punched in the face by letting somebody else ARI:  Exactly. And also,  I've seen far too many companies where it's common practice for an assistant or a direct report to CC the boss on it. Free email. Yes. And so  for that, I like things like Intercom or Front or Frift, like a lot of those common sort of shared team inbox tools. Now that's, it's still,  it's email in that case, but you're not creating email to converse about it internally. And the fourth tool is a place where things get done. So this is technically a project management tool. And for me, that's always going to be Trello, but it could be anything. But the reason  that's part of the communication sort of SOP is that when you're discussing something in any of those other tools, as soon as it becomes something that needs to get done or a project or an action or something like that, it needs to leave the communication setting and go into that project management setting. And that's where you converse about it further, because what we don't want to see ever. It's a Slack channel where somebody is like, here's the new flyer for our event?  what do you guys think? And somebody was like, Oh, I don't like the font. And this person's  well, I don't like that color. And then fourth, person's  Hey, what are we getting for lunch? Yeah.  it just, that's not where it belongs project, man projects need to be managed and project management setting. So it's part of the conduit of the communication tools and just those four things alone. Massively reduces your dependence on email. GEORGE:  I love it. And so that pulled,  that closed the loop for me, but my Zeigarnik effect is going nuts on this one. So the upstream one that I was going with, and I just want to plug this,  the part of,  not using email and you say going upstream, I think one of the defaults is as email's the new business card, right?  I'll give you my business card. I'll give you my email, send me an email, send me an email, send me an email is something that I see a whole lot of, even like when you and I are traveling or we go keynote and it's like, You don't right. But  I used to just give out my email, give out my email, give out my email. Cause I was like, Oh, it'll prevent me from getting in some of these details, but there's a thousand different ways to do that a lot more effectively. And now I still get emails from people like four years ago that I don't remember.I don't remember why we meet. And so I think,  when we go upstream there, I think taking the time for me. And I'm going to say this very publicly taking the time to realize  is this a relationship that's going to serve me and serve them?  Does it even get to the email or  should it be somewhere else? Like now my default is  Hey, just add me on Facebook.  we'll get connected at some point,  like just add me on Facebook. But I think really understanding that Your inbox is your home. And it's  everybody doesn't get to come get a room in your house. Like you have to protect it. You have to protect it before it becomes a, how do I get everybody back out, but going all the way up, we're going to be really careful. Like when we think about like our business cards, like we think about our websites, like everybody throws their email out, like it's out there and I'm like,  if you're going to do that, you might as well just do your phone number. You're like, Oh, I don't wanna do my phone. And I'm like,  don't do your  email either.  And so I think, yeah. I don't. I dunno,  what are your thoughts on that? ARI:  So  for a very long time, I mean, I guess I would still do it, but I don't have the team now for it.  So we've had oaolessdoing.com since for a year now.Which is,  optimize, automate, outsource that's my system. So you have, I have like  info app or help app, but these sort of general inboxes, it's very obvious when the name that is not a person specifically.  So oaolessdoing.com would always go into Intercom, which,  at the peak of it, I had a seven person team and every one of them was an Entercom. So I could answer that. So I gave out that email freely all the time, whenever I spoke or anything, I never give out my personal email. And it wasn't even because  If I'm protecting. It necessarily.I agree with what you're saying, but it was more  that's not where that communication happens for me. So it's like, here's,  everybody email me oaolessdoing.com sending your questions. Somebody comes to me, we'll get back to you. Maybe I'll get back to it,  personally,  but that's,  that's the best way to reach us at this point.  So that's one and again, I don't know why people have such a hard time with being like.No,  you know, you can email dan@goldmansachs.com, but you can email  dansassistant@goldmansachs.com and she'll let me know or he'll let me know whatever it is that I need, if that's how you want to GEORGE:  It's almost like we've just accepted that.  business dealings and,   communicating with people and networking has to go that way. And it doesn't always have to go that way. And I think  that is such a powerful way to think about it. And so I'm gonna ask you how you get people to hold you in a second. Cause we don't wait until the end of the episode, but. One of the things that I started doing. And for those of you understanding Ari and I are like really dear friends on similar pass, but we don't talk as much. So I'm updating him as we speak on the podcast. One of the things that,  I used to do and I used to do really  is I would give a keynote. And at the end of the keynote, I would come and I would answer questions. I'd have them sent me a personal email. And  I closed multiple seven figures of deals that way, because it was  it was such a different thing. And then I started thinking about it and I was like, is there a better way to do it? And then I realized that if I just have a vanity URL that goes to an intake form and they give you the same information that they were going to send me via email, I get an email with the summary, but then I choose like how to reach out. I can hit them up on my calendar link. I can decide if it's a good fit. And so I think for me, one of the things that I always think about is. How can I always move something one more level upstream to prevent it from getting downstream?  Can I get a phone number? And so  for me, when like somebody gives me their phone number, they're like, can I have your number? I'm like, yeah, I literally stand there with them. And I record a video in front of them sending them a video with their face in it. So I have it at the beginning of the text message. If I ever forget what was there or what context was, I'm like, Hey, let's do it right now. And I'm like, Hey. I'm going to send you a video right into the camera and you're in it.Why do we meet, how are we here? Let's go. And I was like, see this. And I was like, Oh, and here's your thumbnail? And I like pose for a selfie, but then I'll have it.  I'll get a  random text,  six months later and I'll just scroll right to the beginning. I'm like, Oh, that's who it was.  And I'm still figuring out ways, but I think. I think what you said, and this is to close it all the way back.  don't be a victim of your tools, right?  just because they are that way right now, it doesn't mean they always have to be that way. And I think there's two ways to go about it. One is  what you have is what you have, but you have to figure out now, how do you optimize automate and outsource that and build that the best. But then  the next question I always ask people is how do you go one step up to prevent that from happening again? And how do you go one step up to prevent that from happening again? And so I just think it's a really good topic. I dunno that's just any other thoughts on that one? Cause I love your brain when it comes to this stuff. ARI:   Yeah, absolutely.  so there are a few things.  One is that, people when they're in it,  and they're overwhelmed. So overwhelm is like a very specific yeah.  And for a long time, I  have been known as the overwhelm ologist. The extreme state of overwhelm that we see that I see,is when people get to a situation where they feel like no matter what they do, they're going to disappoint someone. And that could be that they're going to disappoint their clients, their team, their family, their friends themselves. But no matter what you do, it's  there's, someone's going to get screwed over. And that's our really dark place to be.  and we see it all the time and  the sort of natural. Human response to that is to just keep digging, right? Like we can just keep going in those situations and hopefully it will get better, maybe not, but eventually you just get into this state where you're overwhelmed. And the biggest thing with the overwhelm is that you just can't see the forest for the trees.  actually I always like to say, you can't read the label from inside the jar.  I love it. It's a greatest restaurant.  and so. If  if you're in that state,  you're just, you're just treading water.  So like you're,  you're doing the prescriptive, the boring, the,  the minutiae, and you're just dealing with ever sort sorta comes your way and  hoping that  it'll maybe get better to do the upstream thing, honestly, like it does take an effort,  and it does take you like sidestepping and,  who, uh, what's his name that does the masters of scales.Reid Hoffman who  founded LinkedIn. He says some of the,  people always talk about putting out fires. He's right. He said, but the best entrepreneurs sometimes let fires burn, and you have to be willing to do that. If you're going to make a change. Sometime now that's not the case for everybody. Some people it's a little bit easier to  side stuff with that and make that shift. But for other people, You're going to have a big dip in income, right? You might have a hit to your reputation.  but ultimately you're gonna end up having more control over what you do and control is the antidote to overwhelm.GEORGE:  Yeah.  I was, uh, it was driving me nuts, my brain, the, it was,  I couldn't remember the name of it because it literally just read an article that sunk cost fallacy was what I was thinking about. The,  And there's a, I'm like, obviously, actually, since I've seen you, I read a lot. Now you should be proud of me. I read  60 books a  year now,  just so everybody knows. When I met Ari, I was like, what are books? Why do you need books? I don't read books. And he read my notes. I actually read art's book, but  I didn't read books,  one of the things I've understood, and this is an undertow of everything that you've said, which is why I think it's so important.Like we. In the beginning of this, like it's us, we're the ones driving the car. We're the ones who are like, Oh, we're going to let somebody down. We're the ones that are letting our tools become like  our master and us, the slave of them, like it's us and it's us and it's us. And there's that level of awareness that we have to get to, which what we talked about is like surrounding yourself with people, good people that see you and don't have it. and the sunken cost. One is a big one. And Jonah Berger talks about this a lot because when you are in something. And the thought or the path out seems so overwhelming. It's outside of your zone of acceptance. Any evidence that even would be supportive actually makes you more reactive and dig in even deeper because it just feels so much harder.And so  you push and you push and you push. And so what I love that you said, and I'm going to go all the way back to your asynchronous communication. Is that the biggest benefit of asynchronous communications that it's not right now, it's when you choose for it to be. And I think that's one of the biggest gifts of entrepreneurs is like always giving ourselves the space and the time. And I say this to my students all the time. It's like you would be hard pressed to find me one thing that happens in your business that's actually life or death. It's not going to happen in the next 30 seconds. Like you're not going to go out of business in the next one minute. The IRS is not coming to seize your accounts. 37 seconds from now. Like the FBI is not at your front door, even though it feels like that. It's not happening. And what I love about what you teach and what you do with asynchronous communication. And then I'm going to close this all the way back to the beginning. Is that what it tends to do? If we're intentional, that allows us to practice creating an identity of self.It allows us to create that space of okay, I don't have to respond to that Vox right now. I don't have to get into my inbox right now. I don't have to get those Facebook messages right now. My phone's not ringing right now. And it is that pause button to  let things settle. And I think one of the biggest gifts in what you do is like you have to get to a point where everything you do is intentional. And it's not intentional for being reactive to it. And so I think it's  really, really, really important. And I don't think it's talked about a lot. I've learned probably 90% of my efficiency on like backend business management from you.  it's hilarious. Like I have a channel on my Slack called water cooler because of you.I was like, screw it. We're just going to call it the watercolor and our mastermind. It's our combulsion here.  What do you want to talk about? How was your day? And then we have these things, but it  really is interesting over the years of knowing you and I.  It's been a while. I don't even know at this point,  these little things that have come in that have made it like  really easy, but really what you've helped me buy back is space. And with that space, the work of becoming self, and then being the person who's driving the race car. Because in business, what scares me for most people, I'm gonna get emotional, but we're both past this point now. But what scares me for most is I'd spent most of my life in my career thinking that I was in the driver's seat, but my fears and insecurities were in the driver's seat.And I was just strapped in holding on in the passenger seat. And communication and inefficiencies were what was destroying me.  Because I was like, Oh, the world is ending. What are we going to do? Things are down sales. They're like, you can't read it from the inside of the jar.  I had to pull it up.ARI:  Also. How else were you going to feel important?  GEORGE:  you would have cried about this together. I was like, all right, nobody loves me because I didn't win the game. And he's  bro, you doubled their company. I was like, but it wasn't triple. Yeah.  like legitimately. And so  I'm, I'm summarizing this and we are nowhere near done, but I'm summarizing this because I want everybody to understand that like at the end of the day, it's us,  we talk about like space for our worth.We talk about the ability for us to make decisions. Like we're the ones, we're the entrepreneurs,  we're the people, we're the decision makers. And we have to have the space to do that. And we have to have tools in place that allow us to use them. But. How serendipitous that, right before this, I recorded a podcast that came out before this called tools and a tool doesn't build a house, the person who picks up the tool builds the house and you can't use two hammers at one time. It effectively.  But you also have to realize the grass isn't always greener on the other side. And so like, when we think about everything you've said already, like you have to be able to understand what the outcome is. You have to be able to set expectations. And then you have to be able to make decisions. But I think the one secret that I think the power of automations creates a space. And I think it's the last gift of entrepreneurs is space. ARI: It's a really sort, really pointed way of putting it.  I agree,  it's. I know we're gonna get into this, but the relationship versus algorithms idea, like so many people, when I talk about automation,  you see it all the time, but people always assume that automation,  so I'll start talking about some really cool automation or something.  Somebody in the audience will be like, yeah, but I don't want to lose that human touch. It's  well, I agree, this is making it so that I can have the human touch more and that I can answer my own messages and that I can respond to Facebook comments if I want to or not. If I don't,  and so there's just so many false beliefs about how these things work and what they can and can't do and then we build this like wall around ourselves too. That makes it unique.  And so. Yeah,  replaceable.  not to use my vernacular here, but the,  there's a pretty much, one thing that I took away not took away, but that I remember from college and that's not because I was drinking. It's just because I wasn't paying attention.I had a professor. They never be a replaceable because if you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted. Yep. And a lot of people,  maybe entrepreneurs don't think about them being self, being promoted, but moving onto a new company, getting the car that you've always wanted. If that's important to you or having moving, having a new baby, right? Those are all promotions for an entrepreneur. And if you make yourself you're replaceable, it's  very difficult, not impossible to do those things. So we create all these false attitudes around us that are then reinforced by everything that we see online.  and it's, it's sad. And a lot of it really is. And I think it gets in the way of a lot of  really good ideas too. So as much as I love it, when people are like, self-proclaimed like disruptors,  or their innovation is their biggest strength. And they're just doing the exact same thing that everybody's been doing for 20 years. And I'm not  saying that  I'm some trailblazer either. That's not the point here, but  it's so easy to just fall into these, Groos fall into these roles and then tell ourselves  that's the way it's supposed to be. GEORGE:  I'm gonna, I'm gonna put myself  on a platter here, just cause I think it's an important talking point that you can talk to one of, one of the things that you just said, that's been a thread for me,  and I've been doing this. I think about 11 years now.  So not my first rodeo. It feels like yesterday, but  as I do it, one of the reasons that I was afraid of automating is because with automations, I actually had to measure. And if I had to, and if I had to measure, I couldn't hide in busy work anymore, which means I actually would have been successful because I would have had to look at what I was doing. Figure out where my time was being spent, what of, what I was doing was actually moving the needle and won't just wasting a shit ton of time. And then I hid in this wall, like I hit in this place and I had the story,  I was like, nobody can beat me. I'm me.  And then at the end of the day,  like now hindsight being 2020, I come back down to like clockwork from Mike MichalowiczSo there's no plan B for your A game by Bowie Son.  And I start picking it out and all of us are, or all of us do have a gift. We all have something that  we lean towards. There's a proclivity for us in that comfort zone, but we have to be able to measure and be replaceable. In order for it to happen, whether you're replacing yourself to buy more time, to only work two hours a day or one hour a day, or just not to have an inbox anymore, or to,  not do communication.And like for everybody listening, like for me this year,  this year was a gift for me. I launched a podcast that I waited nine years for. And now we're on hundred, I think you're episode one Oh three, one Oh four. I don't know. Like where did that come from? But then  the biggest thing  is like I'm bored a lot because I don't have access to my website. I don't have access to one password anymore. I don't know how to get into any of my stuff. I feel really vulnerable. At times. And then at the same time, and I was like, good. Now go do something different.  You're not  there. And  now this is what's hilarious to me. Like the ultimate goal was realized faster than possible because I did one thing I never thought I would do.I think you'll appreciate this, going back to that conversation of  but I'm not important. I'm important. I don't want to let somebody down. So it was like a month ago and I was like busy Lindsay had just, we were dealing with some personal stuff and so I wasn't working a lot. And I looked at my Facebook and I do a lot of communication on Facebook messenger. I love it. It's where I build relationships. That's where I nurtured your Voxer.  Except I don't have to listen to people ramble for 12 minutes and then try to disseminate through what that was. And so I looked at it and I fell behind and I was on top of it, but I had  180 unread messages. 180 of them. And I was like, Oh man. And I was like, and I kept putting it off and putting it on,  I'm going to do, I'm going to do it and do it. And then I had like probably 400 Facebook notifications and I was like, I got to know what they said. I got to know what they comment and I'll never forget this. I made a conscious decision to come in one day and I sat down at my computer and I marked all is red.And I cleared every notification and I was like, I get to be human. I don't have to be a robot. I don't have to be perfect. I just get to be human that day. Everything in our company, like two months ago to where now I don't have logins to Instagram. I don't have logins on social. I don't check it. I don't do messages.I don't have any project management stuff. I sit down on my computer and I have one Slack message every morning that says, Hey, this is what needs recorded by when, where it's going. Here's your schedule. Have a good day. And then it normally ends with when you're done don't message us, go work out, go spend time with your family, go do something. And it all came from that day. Like literally I look back at that day and it was like this. It felt like this ego, death and defining moment of  wait, but I'm the guy who responds to everything. And then after I did it, my team's  well, we responded the other day.  I don't know what you're worried about. you just have this FOMO, like you're going to miss a comment or something like that. But then it was in that moment that I realized that  there was a sea of notifications from  four days ago, five days ago that everybody already forgot about 37 seconds later.  there's no way of getting them all, but  it was a big deal for me. It was a  really, really big deal for me to be like, fuck, here we go. And now though, I'm bored. Just quite frankly, I'm just bored. I'm bored because  I know it moves the needle and I have to do it. And then I have to go find a hobby, like would lathing tonight that you're going to, or walking or meditating more.ARI:  First of all, There's a, there's something to be said for port them. you have kids,  like, right.  Yeah. Boredom is a great thing. I think boredom is where a lot of really good ideas come from. . So you pointed out something  really interesting and really important for people to,  focus on for a second. Entrepreneurship, I feel like so often it's about freedom.  a lot of people become entrepreneurs because they want freedomand in a lot of cases, it's freedom from something right freedom from the job, freedom from debt, freedom from the grind, whatever you want to call it. And that is what's known as the negative Liberty, right? So freedom from something. But ultimately what we really want, I think as entrepreneurs and as people is to have the freedom to do something right. Which would be a positive freedom to move towards something. And ultimately what the freedom that I hopefully provide people in our program is the freedom to leave the business right. And not leave forever unless they want to. But leave so that they can go out and explore and learn and then bring those learnings back and contribute back into the company. And while they were gone, the company continues to grow in their absence.  That's what we should all want. And that's clearly what  you've achieved.Now at this point, the. The message from the person, basically telling  you know, you gotta do this, you gotta do this. Gotta do is have a good day, go work on your family. That's  that's almost like you have this. There's a voice inside all these entrepreneurs that are like, don't tell me what to do. No,  I don't want my freedom. It doesn't work that way as human beings,  I always say this  it's great to be thinking outside the box, but there still needs to be a box.  We don't do well with unlimited resources. Innovation doesn't happen there.  it's actually one of the reasons why,  I will not work with venture backed companies. I think that I think it makes them lazy and complacent. You can,  I know anyone here and that's going to get pissed off, but it's true.  bootstrapping is where it's at. Innovation comes from that and this example that I always give, but I think it's just the best one is nobody ever said to MacGyver, Hey Angus, there's a home Depot across the street, grab a shopping cart, whatever you need and go across the street and blow up that building. It was always like, here's a paperclip and a box of Bisquick. Now go blow up the building.  that's where innovation comes  from restrictions, not from this idea of freedom that everyone has, where you just  do whatever you want whenever you want, because you get bored.  In a lot of times, a lot of times, as you well know, Whether you're an entrepreneur who has a past with various different issues, which we know a lot of them do. And one of us do boredom is a very dangerous place for those people oftentimes. We need a box. It's okay to step outside of it. We need to have the box. We need to know where we need to know where we stand. And so it's the same idea in like yoga appropriate reception.  You need to know, you need to have a sense of where your body is in space, because if you don't, you freak the fuck out.GEORGE:   I said this on a podcast couple months ago, somebody said this to me on a podcast the other day. But as entrepreneurs, as humans  in my experience, I spent most of my career trying to avoid being in a relationship with the one person I'm guaranteed to spend the rest of I live with, which was me. And then I would create this space and then I would fill it. And then it would be this like never ending cycle. And I it's something I still see to this day, we have really tight containers and  my team has carte blanche permission to tell me to F off. And they are very clear that I work for them. And not the other way around.  there is no, no divisiveness of power here. Like I am not the boss. I am  I'm I literally see myself as an employee. And I was like telling me what to do. Yeah. Tell me what to do. Like I, all of you helped me do this, tell me when to open my mouth, stick a quarter in it and tell me to go and for how long and then double it, because I'm going to go no matter what.And it's  really powerful, but what I've had to  really spend time with isn't who am I? It's who do I want to be? In that space, and this is going to get really like non-duality esoteric, like quantum mechanics, quantum physics, but it  really what that box, as you said, it's given me, is given me the space to figure out myself worth. And there's only two options. It's either distract myself with,  dopamine or working out or eating or busy work or lean into it with boredom. I E space and really reflect on  who do I want to be like this trap of  as an entrepreneur, Jamie smart covers this in a book called the little book of clarity. It's toxic thinking,  I'll be with my family when, and I'll spend time doing that when, and I'll start doing this when, and I'm like, but when never happens, that's the trap.  Like life has happened. Like we are dying  moment to moment. It's  if you ask your three-year-old, mine's four now and 15, and it's like, Hey, do you guys want me to play with you in three years or now? And they're like now,  and that's, that's the only, now that we get it and you have four kids, I almost introduce you as the guy who had a,  a group, a sports team living in his house.  but I couldn't think of a sport with four, but I was like, Oh, but with you guys, you have a basketball team. And I think it's  really powerful. Just to even have these conversations, like just to raise the awareness of  what are we doing and why are we doing it?  you talk about worth in the beginning, talk about being replaceable, which is an absolute gift.  And by the way, the other side of that is also supporting your employees and your team to leave. Like helping them. That's so good that they leave or so good that they promote like  that's the other side of this, but you have to be in that same bucket to be able to do it. And yeah. I think the dangerous part of me, and I've seen this too, by the way, with not all venture backed companies, but I've had very  similar experiences in my consulting career.One of the things that I've run into already, and I think you might be able to speak to it and maybe just summarize because you've covered it. But I think a summary is here is that I've gone in and helped people with efficiencies and  freed up a million dollars a month in capital or freed up like 17 employees of time. But then. Within 30 days, it's all full again with what we did and then everything just starts to break. And so it's one of those things that like, that's the double-edged sword of like automation is  you have to have that measure. And I say to people like people misinterpret me, but I'm like, success is boring. It's supposed to be.  like success doesn't come from getting fucking dopamine hits every day. And  as Jeff Spencer  says to us,  like Olympians are Olympians because they train at 70% every day until it matters. They have temperance and I look at it and automations allow us to do it.To close everything you said in the beginning, like this level of intentionality,  what are we doing?  why are we doing what's the measure? How can we handle this?  there's no accidents in any of this, how do we be replaceable? And then in that space, how do we figure out who we want to be? Maybe pick up a fucking hobby, do something. But I think  that's the part that scares me because I remember like I would automate,  everything and then I would create more space and create more space  and we're good, but I think it's something that comes up for people because there's this fear of like, how do I automate this? And then I have to measure it. And if I measure it, then it's there and what's not there. That's what it is. It's like a dose of reality. It's like taking the red pill. So I don't know. What do you think?ARI: And I feel like it's actually more so the case than when you actually, when you hire a team,  some people maybe before it would have been like, Oh, I've got five people working for me. Like now this is real, but now I feel like actually it's when you set up the systems and processes,  that's when  it becomes  real, like in some ways, because not that I'm,  I'm not a fan of like infusionsoft by any means, but you have to invest a  significant amount of money in,  a cool life that obviously time and money and energy and effort and just dollars. I feel like that's one of those things where it's  wow, we've made it,  we needed to use Infusionsoft and Salesforce, something like that.  so a lot of those tools I think do well and also. Just logistically, right? Like you don't, you can get away with,  you know, doing your own QuickBooks for 40 bucks a month when you're small, but when you get bigger, you need to hire an accountant, you need to use a system or you have to have methods. Yes. You have to keep track of things.  So yeah, a lot of those things make it more real and it's a  very good point that you're making about,  you know, then if a measures thing is right and not actually know whether or not you're successful. You touched on something that. Then I want to address,  the two things that actually, you mentioned everything, but I want to address.So the first one is that I'd like to point out to people, right? That a lot, none of what I'm saying, and none of what I'm hearing George saying either, is that  there's a, there's a good or a bad to this necessarily. It's really just about knowing what's right for you. Yeah. So  I did a consulting job. Actually, I think it was my last big consulting job where I did a full day. And then I told the guy didn't want to come back and give him back $75,000 because I said, I didn't want to travel anymore. But it was a really interesting company doing $20 million a year and really successful. And the founder, the CEO was a really big personality and he loved it and he lived it and he was very, honestly, it was very real everything that he did on social media. that's what he was like in person. And. His wife, they was having some struggles with his wife who was also running a very successful company. And he was creating issues with their marriage, not surprisingly. And it gave me the whole sort of story. And I looked at him and I was like, she's just not a wartime CEO, which is fine. but don't try to make her, you are, she's not, and these are different kinds of situations,  so, and that was really clarifying for them. And so they, you have to didn't know that about yourself, first of all, the way that you lead and who you are as a leader.  And not just shouting off something that you read in a,  um, How to be rich or whatever kind of book.So that's one thing. The other thing I wanted to just point out too, is that anybody,  this is your audience, obviously, George. So  they I'm sure they know you better, but some people might listen to this and think  it's really easy for George and I to talk about this,  and being bored and picking up a hobby and stuff because we're successful. So we have a couple of things to say about that one. Yes. I'm very successful. And I have been very successful on different times. I've also been 23 and in $3 million of debt, but that's not my story about how I clawed my way back from that. The thing to keep in mind here is that again about knowing yourself, if you really want to make sacrifices,  then move someplace where the cost of living is cheaper, right? Like it's not a sacrifice to kill yourself by working 20 hours a day that's not sacrificing yourself. That's just being stupid.  whereas the,  I live, I live in Brooklyn with my four kids, we have an apartment that's very nice. We also have a house in the country that's very nice.  But we're going to be moving out of this city for a number of different reasons. And it just so happens that the place that we're moving the cost of living is like a quarter of what it is here.  Give up the scene and you don't need to have a really nice car. Now, maybe at some point you do. Although I have a whole other issue with that too. But if you do want to like sacrifice for your vision and your cheat, your then move somewhere cheaper, like  that's the  sacrifice.  So it doesn't require. Like I have, again, I have a family of six. We don't need millions of dollars. We don't need many hundreds of thousands of dollars, honestly to live the lifestyle that we live. I drive a five-year-old used pickup truck and at least minivan,  because that's what I like driving and what's practical for us.  Soagain, if you're listening to this and be like,  Jordan already, already successful, so it's really easy to say this. It's not, it just doesn't fit.GEORGE: And I feel like it's actually more so the case than when you actually, when you hire a team,  some people maybe before it would have been like, Oh, I've got five people working for me. Like now this is real, but now I feel like actually it's when you set up the systems and processes,  that's when  it becomes  real, like in some ways, because not that I'm,  I'm not a fan of like infusionsoft by any means, but you have to invest a  significant amount of money in,  a cool life that obviously time and money and energy and effort and just dollars. I feel like that's one of those things where it's  wow, we've made it,  we needed to use Infusionsoft and Salesforce, something like that.  so a lot of those tools I think do well and also. Just logistically, right? Like you don't, you can get away with,  you know, doing your own QuickBooks for 40 bucks a month when you're small, but when you get bigger, you need to hire an accountant, you need to use a system or you have to have methods. Yes. You have to keep track of things.  So yeah, a lot of those things make it more real and it's a  very good point that you're making about,  you know, then if a measures thing is right and not actually know whether or not you're successful. You touched on something that. Then I want to address,  the two things that actually, you mentioned everything, but I want to address.So the first one is that I'd like to point out to people, right? That a lot, none of what I'm saying, and none of what I'm hearing George saying either, is that  there's a, there's a good or a bad to this necessarily. It's really just about knowing what's right for you. Yeah. So  I did a consulting job. Actually, I think it was my last big consulting job where I did a full day. And then I told the guy didn't want to come back and give him back $75,000 because I said, I didn't want to travel anymore. But it was a really interesting company doing $20 million a year and really successful. And the founder, the CEO was a really big personality and he loved it and he lived it and he was very, honestly, it was very real everything that he did on social media. that's what he was like in person. And. His wife, they was having some struggles with his wife who was also running a very successful company. And he was creating issues with their marriage, not surprisingly. And it gave me the whole sort of story. And I looked at him and I was like, she's just not a wartime CEO, which is fine. but don't try to make her, you are, she's not, and these are different kinds of situations,  so, and that was really clarifying for them. And so they, you have to didn't know that about yourself, first of all, the way that you lead and who you are as a leader.  And not just shouting off something that you read in a,  um, How to be rich or whatever kind of book.So that's one thing. The other thing I wanted to just point out too, is that anybody,  this is your audience, obviously, George. So  they I'm sure they know you better, but some people might listen to this and think  it's really easy for George and I to talk about this,  and being bored and picking up a hobby and stuff because we're successful. So we have a couple of things to say about that one. Yes. I'm very successful. And I have been very successful on different times. I've also been 23 and in $3 million of debt, but that's not my story about how I clawed my way back from that. The thing to keep in mind here is that again about knowing yourself, if you really want to make sacrifices,  then move someplace where the cost of living is cheaper, right? Like it's not a sacrifice to kill yourself by working 20 hours a day that's not sacrificing yourself. That's just being stupid.  whereas the,  I live, I live in Brooklyn with my four kids, we have an apartment that's very nice. We also have a house in the country that's very nice.  But we're going to be moving out of this city for a number of different reasons. And it just so happens that the place that we're moving the cost of living is like a quarter of what it is here.  Give up the scene and you don't need to have a really nice car. Now, maybe at some point you do. Although I have a whole other issue with that too. But if you do want to like sacrifice for your vision and your cheat, your then move somewhere cheaper, like  that's the  sacrifice.  So it doesn't require. Like I have, again, I have a family of six. We don't need millions of dollars. We don't need many hundreds of thousands of dollars, honestly to live the lifestyle that we live. I drive a five-year-old used pickup truck and at least minivan,  because that's what I like driving and what's practical for us.  Soagain, if you're listening to this and be like,  Jordan already, already successful, so it's really easy to say this. It's not, it just doesn't fit.GEORGE: and, and, and, sorry, one more thought on that and I'm going to be the first one to say it. I was the one to run around, be like, I'm doing this for my family. I'm doing this for my family. I'm doing this for my family, but yet my family didn't want it. And then my business partner, Craig from high-speed daddy, who I love dearly, we own high-speed daddy together. We both looked at each other and he had the same conversation and we had  a come to Jesus talk and it's  no, we're doing this for our insecurity and egos. So we can tell all of our friends that we're running a multi-million dollar company and we're working so hard. And then I was like, and then that's where I leaned into design thinking.  And you know, about design thinking. I was like, what might it look like if it was easy?  what might it look like if there were no labels? What might it look like if I didn't post on social media that much? What might it look like if I had a really hard stop? And when I started asking myself those questions, there was a period. I didn't like the answers because it meant I had to be present. It meant I had to be intimate with my kids, with my wife, with myself, with you, with my friends, which meant I had to be vulnerable and authentic, which meant I had to feel. And which meant that I couldn't derive all my worth from the results I created in the business and that transition's taken some time and it's been a gift, an absolute gift. And like we talked about this in the beginning, like entrepreneurs, like I do, I have nine coaches. Nine, if you say to healing, I have EMDR, I have plant medicine.I have hypnotherapists. And like I'm pursuing, I'm using that time to pursue a relationship with myself. And I think it's just a really important topic. And  something we talked about when you say like sacrifice, because it's been easy to in the,  one of the biggest ones, Arias, I don't know what anybody else is fucking doing anymore. I don't follow anybody. I don't subscribe to him as podcasts.  sounds like someone asks me, they're like, who's your competition? I'm like, I actually don't know. I really don't. I  really don't and  it's been a gift, but I think it's a really powerful thing for people to hear. And  just for me to say,  I was scared this year, like I was legitimately scared.And then I think it was, my wife just looked at me and she's  yeah. Okay. Like the other 64 times you've been in this situation and somehow you've always made it. So when are you going to start proving that it has to be so hard and when you're going to make it easy. And I was like, I'm going to go for a walk for a week. I love you. I'll be back. And I really had to reflect on it. And at the end of the day, what I realized that if I just go back to what made me successful 12 years ago or 11 years ago, And I focus on that and I keep it simple and I show up and add value. And then I build a relationship with people and then I help those people achieve their results. And then they pay me money. And all we do is that without the Instagram followers that are all the crazy paid media, without all the, like the glitz and the glam that we're going to get there a lot faster than we would have tried to do it the other way.  So I just think it's important because you're doing the same thing.ARI:  Yeah. I bridge them pretty much started over  two weeks ago, basically. So yeah. So I had,  you know, as you mentioned, I'm in the EMT, right? So I've been a volunteer EMT for. A decade now, basically, but over the last, during the pandemic, I got  very active. So we went up to our house in the Hudson Valley when things got crazy. And we stayed there for the, until like very recently. And,  we're in this relatively small town and the head of our department.  so I joined up right away and because it was a small area,they're basically like three MTS for the whole town, including me. And,  we had pagers on us all the time. So I was on call 24 seven it wasn't a huge call volume, but I was on call 24, seven and two really big differences between working in the city,  as an EMT and working in the country. And it's transport time and population size. And what that means is that,  in the city you're transporting patients for three to fou

And we are back back at it's not like a go anywhere. I'm just really excited today. I woke up with this zest for life and I think I'm about to sneeze in a minute. So don't say, bless you or else they're going, I'll say, bless you. Maybe it'll go away. Bless me. I don't know if it's going away, but either way I woke up with zest for life today and I was super excited to record this podcast.I'm just finished an amazing weekend. Awesome family time. Getting ready for Halloween with a four year old and a 15 year old is absolutely amazing. And my son turns four next, in two weeks. And I have to say that he is like a comedian. He is just like a walking standup comic and it is absolutely beautiful to witness and it's hilarious and I love it. And his ways that he says things and what he does, it just makes my heart happy. So I'm just really happy today. Rocking the pink sweatshirt, drinking my greens, have my cup of coffee and I'm ready to talk about. How to sell without selling. And I think this is one of the most important topics to cover. And also probably one of the biggest lessons that I've learned in my career as an entrepreneur. I don't even like calling myself an entrepreneur anymore. I actually think. Tangent. I think the label entrepreneur carries away too many negative connotations right now. Like I've seen this perpetuation of like the hustle cycle and hustle harder and work harder, which in my mind translates to being disconnected, spending less time living the life that you're trying to build and spending less time with the things that actually matter because equity and wealth and capital. Isn't just money. It's not just a piece of paper. Relationships are the best equity and best capital that we could have. Alone time, presence, people, memories, laughter joy. And so Mike Michalowicz says this in one of his books and he says, you've got to stop calling yourself an entrepreneur and start calling yourself a shareholder.And I love the. The shift that happens in the brain. When you do that, I love the shift when it goes from, Oh, I have to work harder, harder, harder, harder, cause I'm a shareholder. This is a business. I put certain inputs in. I get outputs. If I don't like those outputs, I change the inputs or the process, but it's not about hustling more and hustling harder.And I think the same thing needs to be talked about with selling. There's this thing it's like sell more, sell harder, give them back doors, be the hardcore don't close their back doors. Be the hardcore closer like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But really what is selling? Selling is serving. Selling is serving. Now imagine this you're walking through the shopping mall and you're walking through the mall and every time you're walking down the middle aisle back when malls were popular, there would always be people, Hey, try my hairdryer. Hey, try my makeup. Hey, sign up for this brochure signer for this brochure. And we ignore them every time. We'll be walking through the streets of New York city in times square. And if you want to collect flyers for a living walk through times square, but you'll go walking through times square and in a five block radius, you'll be offered 25 flyers.And normally it's for, you know, some inappropriate things, some club, if you're in Vegas. Vegas, it's all for the guns. They're like come to this machine gun range, come to this, come to this. But it's like forced upon you and forced upon you and forced upon you. Go to the airport. You're walking through the airport at the terminals. They have people selling credit cards, right? Sign up for this, get this many miles, get this many miles, get this many miles. They heck they used to do it on the airlines, which drove me. Absolutely nuts. But all of it is just like shoving it down our throats. They have no idea of our intent. No idea of our interests. No idea if we even want to. And so what it is, it's a very aggressive shotgun blast. A very, very aggressive shotgun blast. So they're playing a game of numbers, they're playing a game of numbers. And so maybe for every 100 people that walk by two take the  card or five take the flyer and have every 100 people that take the flyer maybe to go into the range and so they're okay. Burning that bridge, but you also have to remember. When you're walking through the mall, you're not going to remember those people. You aren't going to be like, Hey friend, I met John Smith at the mall and he was an idiot or he was mean, or he wouldn't listen to me when you're walking down Vegas, you're not going like, Oh, I met this street guy. I kept trying to throw this gun range of me. So kind of advocate the pain. They advocate the  discontent out. But when you think about your business, And how easy it is for somebody to talk about your business. And you're talking about this and it's like, yeah, for every hundred people that come in, cause I shotgun blast and I DM them or I spam them on LinkedIn to say, yes, the other 98, get to go be like, Hey company A was mean to me, company A didn't listen company a is sleazy company a is slimy, but it never works in anybody's favor.Never ever, ever works in anybody's favor. And just like, if we go car shopping, if we go car shopping and you're like, I want a new car and you are set on getting a BMW or you're set on getting a Honda. And you go to Honda and I'm next door at the Kia dealership. I can't come over there and like, you need a Kia. You need a Kia here, come buy a Kia, come buy a Kia, come buy a Kia, come buy a kill. You already know what you want.  And so it doesn't work on any of these things. And we also have to remember that there's two sides. This coin side one is us. The people who are serving and selling, we have a responsibility. I'm gonna use a big word, a fiduciary responsibility to actually sell what makes a difference to sell something that's useful to sell the after state, not just the product. Then we have our consumers, our customers, or our potential customers. These are the people who also have a responsibility to not support the spams, not take the shortcuts and we all have it and we see it. But I see the two sides of being complacency and complicitness. And for on our side, we can't be complacent. Like we have to go the extra mile we have to serve. We have to take the three seconds it takes to be like, Hey, have you ever shot a gun before? No. Would you be interested in going? Yeah. Well, here's a free, you know, 15 rounds for this range in Vegas. Hey, I have a question. Do you fly a lot? Yeah. Would you actually be interested in getting a free flight in exchange for a credit card? You know, not really. I don't need anymore. Okay. Have a beautiful day or yes, I would love one or, you know, walking through the mall maybe look to see that I have bald head before you offer your blow dryer to me, right. Or maybe ask me if I wear makeup or if I believe in makeup or if I have any allergies to makeup before you offer to do a free facial or make over me in the middle of the mall. If we take the time in the beginning to make sure that what we're doing is for the right audience, for the right potential reason. We're no longer being complacent. We are being active, proactive, and going to make a massive difference with a long wave. Now, on the consuming side, we also have to be active in standing up for what we want in choosing the options that best support us in understanding that nobody else can get us there. And we have to do that in our industries with our products, with our team, but then also we train our customers on how to do this by how we treat them. And the reason that there's this massive shift. Not even massive, this disgusting paradigm in the market of like sell, sell, sell upsell, upsell, upsell, upsell, upsell down, sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down is because people do it. People buy it, people take it, they go for the shortcut. And so our job is to remain constant and consistent in service in value in the right people.You would never want, you know, you would never send your child to a school that didn't support them. You would never let your child eat a food that didn't make them feel good.You would never let your child eat poison, nor would you ever let them buy something that wasn't going to support them. And we can't do it. And we have to train our customers how not to do it as well. And when I say train customers, I mean that in a very, very good way, you can't really train a customer. I'm going to figure out a way to shift that we have to change the view. We have to shift the paradigm and we have to show up in such a manner that our customers can get the value, feel safe, make a decision, but also can smell a snake in the grass from a mile away because they feel so safe in our container that's our job. So what we have to make sure we're doing, when we think about this from a sales perspective, if you are selling a service, if you're selling a physical product, if you are selling a digital product, field of dreams does not work. And I've done an entire podcast on this video, on this but field of dreams does not work. The job is not to build something and then expect them to come. And then when they don't come to go find people, shotgun,blast them and try to shove it down their throat. The plan is to figure out who your customer is, what their pain points are, what they're struggling, where they want to go, what they need to get there, what support they need, what products, what modality. And then when you gather that information, build something with them that takes them along the journey and makes them a part of it. And then utilize that leverage to sell that product or service to all the other people like them to get them to the finish line. And then once they are at the finish line, they become a testimonial and a sell it to tell all of their other friends, will you attract more? Like-minded people like them. And then you work on creating the next bridge for that customer that achieved the first goal. This is where upsell or cross sells or value ladder escalations or other services or higher levels of accountability, or just more of the same product would come in. When somebody has bought something and utilized it. And achieved the promise. They are going to buy more for a lot longer time than if they never achieved it.  Pet rock for perfect example, pet rock did a couple million dollars. This guy made a rock, put a smiley face on it, sold it as a pet rock. But once the novelty wore off, nobody came and bought a second pet rock. Nobody bought a pet rock for their friends. It was like this joke and they went on a business pretty quick. They hit this big hockey stick and failed. Right. And then when was the last time you saw chia pet? Being sold at CVS or Walgreens or online. You remember chia pet.For some reason, it was this novelty to put this ceramic hedgehog on your counter and have it grow grass out of its side and become a pet or this bald head dude, which is the one I remember. Put it on your counter, spread some seeds on it and water it. And then it grows this grass that you can't use that doesn't do anything. And I get it like it was fun, but they disappeared as well. It didn't solve a problem. There was no clear path. It was just a novelty item. But then you think about people that buy a supplement. And they buy a supplement expecting to feel better or perform better. They buy the supplement, they don't take it. They don't use it. They don't achieve a result. They can't buy anymore. They buy a supplement. They take it. They feel better whether through placebo or through real life, or just commitment. You help them in all the other areas of their life. They can never stop taking that supplement or recommending that supplement or telling it to their friends.But it wasn't me saying, Hey, Jane, I made this supplement that will help you with AB and C. And I know you want D but I'm going to tell you that you can go about D later, but just buy it for ABC. I'm breaking your experience. I'm not meeting you where you are and I'm not taking you on a journey. So when we think about selling, we need to "sell without selling" .We need to serve into the sale. We need to serve and tail the sale. And so we need to talk to people. We need to find out what they want. We need to be in a relationship with the people who are making the decisions that keep our business going. What I find really interesting about. The world of business that we live in mixed with the current state of society is that we tend to stay as disconnected as possible from the people that are actually creating the funds in our bank account and funding our business. The amount of business owners, where I talked to them and I was like, we've got to call a customer. I can't call them. Why would I call them? I don't like being on the phone. I was like, How else we're going to talk to them. Why? I don't know, these are the people that are making decisions. These are the ones that are going to whip out their credit card and give you $20, $50, a hundred dollars, sometimes a hundred grand. But yet we don't talk to them. Connection. I E relationships are at the core of every single thing that we do. And we need to be. Where we can be in a relationship so we can solve these problems, create solutions and create products that take them on that journey. And so relationships will always win. But you need to take the time and invest in them across, ask the board at every opportunity so that you are noticing everything you're noticing what works, what doesn't work, what they say, what they don't say, what they respond to, what they don't respond to, what their feedback was, what their testimonials were even go so far to be like, Hey did you recommend this to a friend? And you're like, yeah, like what'd you say? And listen to what they say, because how they recommend it to a friend is how they're talking about their experience. And so we need to be in a relationship with the people that are buying our services, consuming our content and doing the work for us. And if you think about right now, two companies in your head, Think about this. I want you to envision this right now. You're just sitting here thinking, I want you to think about a company that you have heard about that you didn't see natively from the company, not their ads or advertisements, but your friends told them. There's probably a company or your friends told you about a supplement or a shoe brand or makeup brand that you'd never even heard of the company before. And the moment you heard about that company through the friend, you immediately trusted it. You immediately had a likeness because it came from a friend, it was a trusted recommendation.And then think about a time that you've met a company that you've never heard about from a friend. But came through advertisements or commercials or through direct mail or phone calls. The time it takes for you to become endowed to that brand is a very drastically different timeframe. The trust factor, the know factor it's like a cold. And so the reason that customer number one or the one that you hear about from your friend lands so much is because your friend felt seen, heard and respected had their needs met, accomplished something, or was excited to accomplish something and had confidence that they were going to because of that company being in a relationship with them.And so they could turn around and confidently recommend you to them, knowing that when you came into that world, That company was going to take care of you and that you would look at your friend in a brighter light, or a higher regard because of how well that company would take care of you. And all of that happens not because this company sold your friend a product, not because the company sold them a supplement, not because the company sold them a service. But because of how they felt and that entire relationship. In confidence in safety and support in accountability. That was then going to allow them to take that journey either with the company and you, but no matter what, and the ultimate confidence that they would get one step further because the offer or the service or the product was speaking to them where they were. Giving them a desired after state and the plan or the path to get there. And then you guys were in relationship to help them get there. And none of that happens by shoving something down somebody's throat. By somebody telling you they don't want dessert. And then you're like, well, we have this one and we have this one. Just try this one, take a bite of this one. None of that happens. Force is not the way to play this game. Our job is not to convince people. Our job is to enroll people. And so if you spend your time being in a relationship with your customers and potential customers, and you figure out where they are, then you know that you have the right product or service to take them to where they want to go. Or you need a new offer or a new audience. And it really always boils down to that. Because if you have an offer, your offer might not be bad. Your product might not be bad, but it might be the wrong audience at the wrong time. Or the wrong pain point for the wrong audience or your offers golden or no or your audience is golden and you love that audience. And that's who you are. That's who you want to spend your time with, but your offers just missing the mark a little bit.Maybe it's not speaking to their before state or moody meeting them where they are. And so the gap between where they are and where you are talking to them about going is too big and they can't close that gap in commitment. So therefore they don't buy because it's easier for them to stay where they are then go to that unknown or that big commitment or that period, or leap forward that they must to complete what you have to offer. So your audience might be right, but you might have to change the wrapping paper. You might have to get one step closer to where they are. You might have to give them a small win or focus in on one pain point, but that still brings me back to the big point of this. Is that in order to do that, You have to be in a relationship with them. You have to talk to them, you have to respond to their comments. You have to get into their DMS, you, your team, anybody, you have to be in relationship with the people who you're serving or trying to serve to be effective in business.And so that is how you get into serving and not selling. The reason that people have to sell or"convince people" or go hard in the paint or do some of the things that we see is quite frankly, because they're not in a relationship with the people who are making the decisions. So they waste a whole lot of time, money and energy, throwing spaghetti at the wall, burning bridges, burning money, burning time, burning energy, and burning their reputation to get the one to three out of a hundred. Without realizing the compounding effect down the line. And that compounding effect gets crazy and you've seen it. I've I saw it with actually this company called Progenics. They were a massive supplement company in CrossFit. They kind of came up, we're all over, crossfit,everywhere. I mean, everywhere. Title sponsors doing everything. And then overnight they disappeared. And I mean, dis appeared because all they were focused on, all they were focused on was the image, the image of the brand, the image of the company, wasting all their money, not building relationship to their customers, not giving us a reason to stay. And then they just disappeared and I mean, disappeared hard. And that top line was massive that they lost. And so you have to have to anchor yourself in that your job as a business owner, your job as a company, your job as an employee of a company is to serve and allow your service to sell because it's a whole lot easier for somebody to have a win. To be enrolled in something to have momentum and have progress, and then just want to pay for more than it is to find somebody. And try to sell them something. That number one, they don't want, number two, they don't think they want. And number three, they don't really need. It's never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever going to work.And so if you really take the time, cause I'm going to boil it down to this before I wrap the episode, if you really take the time to be intentional and focused, know who your customer is. Take the time to understand where they are, where they want to go, what's getting in their way. And then you utilize that information to create a solution. And then you spend your time marketing your product through value, through teaching, through education, to people that are just like the customer you are in a relationship with your business will skyrocket. And the more that you do this, the bigger it will get.And so why one example for here is Apple doesn't make iPhones for everybody. They don't add the features in the iPhone to solve everybody's problems. They know who their customer is, and they know what they want. So they create a solution for that. And if people waiting seven days outside their door for a phone, they've never touched, never held and never used. And then some of us, myself included will go complain about Apple. We'll complain about how expensive they are. We'll complain about how they're overpriced and blah, blah, blah, and how my iPad bent on my iPhone bent. But then at the same time, you look at my office and all I buy is Apple products. They've nailed it. They've nailed it. They've nailed it. Nailed it. And so our job is to nail it the same.And I'm not saying make inferior products and I don't believe Apple makes them for your products. I love Apple. I love the simplicity. I love the technology. I love what they've done. Like I literally am in love with Apple. And it's because they speak my language. I am their customer through and through to the core, but Apple doesn't run commercials telling you about the features of the phone. Apple doesn't run a commercial saying here's what you get. Here's your feature benefit stack. Here's your value ladder? Here's the law, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Nope. Apple runs commercials showing you who you get to be by using the phone. Showing you how good of a photographer you get to be by using the camera, showing you how you can connect with your family members by using FaceTime, they are enrolling you in your vision. Not selling you a phone. And I think that's one of the best examples that I can give you. So today, as I wrap today's episode another winning Wednesday, I want you to change the way that you think about this and carry this forward in everything that you do. Just have this lens every day of who is my customer. How can I serve them? How can I enroll them? And how can I build it with them to get them all their friends, all their distant, distant friends. They're second cousins. They're third cousins. They're family members, everybody in their neighborhood than everybody in their town and everybody in their state. And then everybody in the country into my business. And it's by doing this. And so that's somewhat to wrap today's episode. I'm going to go chug my cup of coffee. I'm going to drink my vegetables cause I've just been addicted to drinking greens powder lately. And I'm going to go have a beautiful day. Remember that relationships always beat algorithms. I love you to pieces and I will see you in the next episode. Bye.

And we are back with another Wednesday episode. Here's a funny story for you. So I know I talk a lot because I love talking. Like I really, really loved her. And the truth , is that I like talking whether I'm happy or sad, see if I'm like sad or down. I like to talk my way into movement, happiness, clarity. And then when I'm happy, I talk my way into more clarity and creation envisioned. And so I love talking. And with that today's topic is one of those topics that I could talk about for 45 hours straight because of the traumatic impact that will have on your life and business, when it comes to relationships with customers and utilizing the resources that are in your space.And so here's what I did. This might be TMI, but you guys know I'm kind of past the TMI point. I have to pee really bad, but I gauged my interest that I figured I could hold it for 20 minutes, which means that this should be a less than 20 minute episode, because I'm going to hit a point where I'm not willing to hit pause and I don't want to get a UTI.And so today we're going to talk about the two most wasted pieces of real estate on the internet and how you can optimize them and by on the internet, I mean, in your world. And so. I've talked about this a lot, but I still don't think people have truly understood the gravity of these two pieces of real estate.And there's other ones besides this are just as important, but these tend to be the two most neglected ones. So the first one is confirmation pages, right? So when you think about somebody getting a lead magnet, the thank you page, the next one would be like a confirmation. Should they order something? Their receipt page, they sign up for a webinar or there. Webinar confirmation page, you know that whatever it is, a confirmation page, that's the first one. And the second one is transactional emails and by transactional emails I mean, emails that are auto-generated. So like you'll send out a newsletter, you'll send out the sales email. You'll send out a fulfillment sequence. Transactional ones are order receipts, shipping notifications, rebills subscription  purchases, sometimes depending on your platform, webinar calls. But transactional emails are regulated a little bit differently than emails that you send through your CRM.If you run a Shopify store, legally, a customer has to get their receipt. And so those transactional emails are treated differently. They do not go through as many spam filters. They're not great at the same because a customer has to get it. You don't have to worry about a transactional email hitting a spam folder.  And so most people neglect them and leave them at default. But sometimes it's your actual only end to get into an inbox because of your reputation score or their relationship with their emails or things like that.So the two most wasted pieces of real estate when it comes to digital marketing or even straight business in person like you might run a brick and mortar business, but if you do anything online, you're having customers give you their information exchange value. And in a confirmation page, it is the first touch point that a customer feels sees or experiences is post a transaction with you. They gave you their email, they had a confirmation page. They gave you their credit card. They had a confirmation page. They gave you something and hit this page.That experience normally dictates and sets the paradigm for the entire relationship. That thank you. Page has the ability to turn a onetime customer into a lifetime customer, or turn a potential lifetime customer to give me a refund. I don't trust you. And people neglect them all the time. Everybody focuses so hard on getting the yes to the date or getting the engagement or getting somebody to marry them, that they forget that marriage takes work relationships take work. You can't plant a flower and expect it to grow on its own. You have to water it. You have to tend to the soil. And if you plant that flower, I E you just cut the sale, or you just got the email. You're going to end up with a whole lot of dead flowers or no vegetables in your garden to feed yourself. And so when we think about this, we have to remember that saying nothing is saying something, and it's not saying something good.If you give somebody a lead magnet. And they had a confirmation page and there's nothing on there to help them, or you're upselling them into something different. You're creating an anti-marketing machine. You're literally saying like, Hey, I promised I'm going to help you lose weight over the next seven days for free. But now that I have your attention, I'm going to bait and switch you and try to sell you something on this confirmation page, instead of making it optional or telling them to check their email or helping them lose the weight for seven days, then realizing that all of them will commit. Or you think about somebody buying a product?This is why confirmation pages are my favorite, most wasted pieces of real estate. Especially if you're in like the digital marketing game, like where you sell digital products. But think about it. When we buy things, we buy things based on emotion. We make emotional decisions when we buy things. And there's this emotion that a lot of people experience when they buy things and it's called buyer's remorse. You go buy something you've wanted forever. And you have that period where it's like, Oh, did I get it? Do I need it? Or now that I have it, that I really want, it was an impulse buy, blah, blah, blah.Regardless of where it comes from, the worst thing you can do. The worst thing you can do in marketing is run. Find somebody how much money they spent and increase their buyer's remorse. Like if you're selling a $25,000 mastermind and they check out you better not have the first thing that they see, the fact that they just gave you $25,000 and now they have to jump through four more hoops to get it. How about you have a video of yourself? Walking them through what's next, giving them something that's there helping them take the first step in their journey, acknowledging them for taking the first step of their journey and moving their seat down to the bottom of the page. If you're selling somebody a supplement, right?There's a gap between when they bought the supplement and when it's going to be in their house. But the truth is that, that if they bought a collagen or a whey protein or a pre-workout or a vitamin D or a fish oil that they're taking it for one of the feature benefits that you promise them and you and I both know that there are other things that they can do in their life that will help that supplement work better, but also help them in the current moment. And so instead of having the thank you page and be like, Oh, by the way, here's the $322 you just spent on supplements, have a video there, or a gift there, or a PDF there or something there that says, Hey, I'm super stoked. I'm going to kick the ups driver in the bow and make them drive as fast as possible. But there's still going to be four days till we get these to you. But right now I want to give you a win. Here's my video on proper nutrition or sleep or a weight loss protocol or a keto recipe, or my favorite smoothie or my favorite post-workout smoothie, or my favorite pre-workout stretch, or my favorite meditation that I want you to do today. And every day until your supplement arrives and then take your supplement on top of it. And it's going to help increase your results and the efficacy of the supplement.You have to remember that thank you. Pages and confirmation. Yeah, the first step in the fulfillment of a customer journey. That you promise them. And if you're not utilizing them, you're failing your customer. You're making it harder for them to achieve the results. And in turn, you're making it harder for them to become a repeat customer because the enemy of your business is not that somebody doesn't buy your product, the enemy of your businesses, that somebody buys your product and doesn't use it, or doesn't achieve that desired result because of a lack of accountability follow through or intention on our part.Because if somebody buys your product and doesn't achieve the goal or doesn't use it, they're going to forever blame you. They're going to tell their friends, you're going to create an outside marketing machine. If somebody buys your product, but you help them drink more water, sleep better, move better, accomplish a goal before your product even gets there and then are permeating other parts of their life and helping them achieve the goal.They will not only buy more product, but they will sell more product for you than anybody else could ever do. The more than any Facebook ad could do any YouTube ad could do. And that power is.great. It is great. But if you leave somebody hanging, somebody buys a product, you hit them with a default confirmation page.They don't hear from you until your product gets there in the mail six days later, and then you never emailed them again, except to tell them about another sale. There's a good chance that product became shelf help. It was a supplement that went in the cabinet was a product that they never opened the box. It was all of those things. And so you are setting yourself and your customer up to fail by not managing that customer journey at every single step of the way. And no matter what you do, whether it's mobile or desktop, the first touch point in a customer experience post a transaction is a thank you page or a confirmation page that has to be utilized.And so you need to acknowledge them for what they did. Oh, my God congrats. You just took the hardest step in losing the weight and over the next seven days, I'm going to help you take all the easy ones, but you already did it. Commitment was the first step, or I bought a setup to lose weight. You did it.Like the hardest step is committing and you just did it and the supplements are on their way. So let's make it easy right now. Here's the thing I want you to do right now to take you two minutes and it'll set you up to win, but I want you to know that I'm proud of you or thanks for buying my email. Of course, the truth  is that you just separated yourself from 99% of other marketers, because you actually care about your customers and I'm proud of you.You want to acknowledge them for where they are, acknowledge them for the choice they made, acknowledge them for the decision that they made, because you are filling their. Bucket to give them the energy and momentum to achieve the results you promised. And that's your job to do is to be that coach. Next thing, like I said, deliver a product, deliver a gift, surprise and delight. Get rid of buyer's remorse. What's the easiest way to get rid of buyers remorse is give something, someone a surprise or a new value. Like, think about it. You go buy a car, right? Literally you buy a car and then the moment you're done buying the car, they're like, Oh my God, just wait around. Here's what we're going to do.We're going to put a bow on it. We're going to detail it. We're going to give you 25 free tanks of gas. Bring the car back to the dealership as many times as you want for us to wash it. And they're trying to get you to forget about the purchase so you can enjoy that experience to let you play with it.They'll touch it. They'll tell you all the features about it. Like it happens everywhere. And you need to be delivering that same experience. Another thing you can do, and this is a really, really big one. When I say it's the first step of the customer journey, give them very clear, intentional, next steps for success. And so if you promise them a lead back then and you delivered on that page. Then you delivered on that page, but then you tell them there's also an aversion in their inbox, so they can save it for later. Or, you know, if you send them a video and you give them your workout guide, but you can't put it on that page, tell them to check their email with this civic subject line and go download it.So they put it into practice and learn how to open emails, but do not. And I mean, do not under any circumstances, just give them a receipt. And when you think about it, you think about a conversion. You think about an optin you think about whatever it could be a warm customer, be a cold customer, but no matter what they felt warm through that whole journey, pre transaction, they felt warm on your ads, on your emails, on everything.And then the first thing that gets delivered. Post that sequence is cold and it's a letdown. It's like, you just used me. You got what you wanted and now you don't care about me, but we need to make people feel seen, heard, and respected at every step of the way. And that confirmation page sets the context for the rest of the relationship, which then brings me into the second, most wasted piece of real estate, which is transactional emails. And transaction emails,primarily are in the transaction world of like monetary exchange. There's not transactional emails when it comes to like opt-ins and stuff, except a double opt in. And so when we think about transactional emails, primarily. The monetary exchange, they bought a digital product.They bought a physical product. And if you're speaking about it with content like lead magnets or newsletter, opt-ins, you're only transactional email per se. The first one would be the double opt in confirmation. If you do double opt ins. But what do we do on these. We do the same things. We acknowledge them for the next steps.We fill them with content. We give them very clear steps for what they need to do next. So if you think about it, I'll give you a tangible example and I'll just use supplements. Cause everybody understands supplements, right? If somebody buys a, let's say they buy a whey protein because they want to build muscle.We know  that person works out, eats clean is into nutrition. So we can make up that they're going to benefit from sleep and mindset and movement and hydration and all these different things. And so then we think about this, we go through the customer journey, no matter what, if they buy whey protein, even if they bought it once or 10 times, they're not going to lose by getting.A gift on that page. Maybe we give them our ultimate biohacking guide or our guide to building the ultimate muscle. Or maybe on that page, we record a video and we tell them we're here to support them. And we want to help them accomplish their goals, whether it's to build muscle, lose weight, or maintain, but they need to go check their email because.I sent you a receipt, but on that receipt email, there's  a surprise for you. So go look for the subject line, boom. And then in that email is actually their receipt. But above that receipt is talking about their after sale and be like, we really want to help you. We couldn't put this on the thank you page, but we put together these three PDFs for you.We have a weight loss guide, a muscle building guide and a maintenance guide. And I want you to. Pick the one that best supports you so well, we're shipping your product. You can get to work now and putting this into practice so you can achieve the best results. And now all of a sudden that receipt that was like, Oh, you just spent $340 or $79 has content and value in it. And then they're going to get it in their inbox no matter what, because it has to be delivered legally because they transact and that receipt has to go. And now you're setting the context of the relationship. Plus you're guiding them on a few different modalities. So I say this a lot leadership. Isn't saying something once it's saying something as many times as required to the last person gets it.So on that confirmation, and thank you page, you're going to tell them, this is the first thing you need to do. This is the first thing you need to do. And in that email, you're going to tell them again, this is the first thing you need to do. This is the first thing you need to do. And you're delivering the same message because what you're doing is creating this container of accountability that lets them feel safe and creates momentum for them to accomplish the goal that was promised. And so then you got it. It's sitting right there and you can do lots of things with these. I give tons of examples of this, and I cover this fully in our email course, because obviously this is a big topic in writing these out the mapping, these depending on the industry. And I teach all that, but really just think about it.What could you give somebody? What could you put on that? Thank you page. It would get them excited to go into their inbox and use that transactionally mode to deliver something, to surprise and delight, add value. Given the next steps of their customer journey or take them path. Think about it. Just meditate on it.Think about it. Your customers pay attention to what they're doing. Go look at what all your competitors charge for and give it away for free on the thank you page. Give it away for free in the email. Add more value than everybody else out. Care the competition. So then let's say that first email was the receipt. Well, now we know that we should be sending shipping emails if we're selling a physical product. Well, I talked about this a couple minutes ago. What's the worst thing that could happen. If somebody bought your product, that they don't use it or become shelf help. Well, are you going to assume that when they get the box, they're going to know what to do with it? No. So you have to tell them, so in that second transaction email, like a shipping email, what could you do? You could be like, we just kicked the ups guy and threatened. If he stole your supplements. One more time. We were going to fire him. So keep your eyes peeled because they've known to be so good that the delivery guys steal them. But here's what the box looks like. The number one mistake people make when they get our supplements as the males, they put them in the cabinet. But the truth  is that the supplement start to working. The moment you take it. So in your box arrives, I want you to open it and I want you to put it on the counter next to your bed in the cabinet, in your refrigerator or under your car keys.So you have it readily available where you can't forget to take it. And. I want you to take a picture of you taking it the first time, the moment it gets to your door, posted on Instagram with the hashtag blank and tag me, and I'm going to pick one person a week to giveaway a six month supply of their favorite product.And then of course it's like, Oh, here's your shipping number? Here's your boom. But now I'm creating a reason. I'm opening a loop for them, the Zeigarnik effect.  But I'm leading them. I'm like, Hey, when your box comes, do this and I've gone so far as like, when your box comes, grab it, grab a knife. Walk to your counter or mail opening spot of your choice. Open it, take out this. And I tell them specifically what's in the box, because then they're curious about it and then take out this and then do this, mix it into this smoothie and go, and that's your job to figure out what's gonna work the best for your customers, but isn't that better than a boring, Oh, your product shipped.It's like surprise the, yes. God is not the only gift I'm giving you.  Like play with it, play with it.  Santa Claus is out for delivery dressed as a ups guy, like play with it, play with subject lines, play with what's in there, but then you think about it now on that receipt, they got a gift, they got something done. And then on the shipping one, you told them what to do. You showed them what the box would look like. You gave them on a deal. When it OB be there, you told them what to do to set them up for success. You held them accountable to what you promise them. And then if you do deliveries, If you do delivery confirmations, then you can utilize those as well.You can play with humor, you can remind them again to open it and use it. You can give them your favorite recipe to use it. You can give them your protocol, but I want you to use those transactional emails to further enhance the customer journey that you have promised to take these people on. And so that's why I see these as the two, most ways to piece of real estate, right?So you have the transaction emails, right? Which we just covered. Then you have the confirmation pages. And if you pay attention to those things and you utilize those things, they are assets and they are forced multiplier assets because now you're not competing against an inbox or other emails because you get them in that moment and they come looking for you versus waiting for them to find you when that email. And then there's a good chance. Is that in your fulfillment sequence for your product? That it might hit spam or it might hit their promotions tab. And so when you think about that, you're like, Oh, well, I send a transactional receipt. You know what I can do in that transactional receipt? I can also tell them there's another email in their inbox with a subject line and to make sure they check it just in case it hit the spam or promotions tab, because it has a secret recipe in their form, or it has our five-minute printout workout print out today. Or it has a bonus training I forgot to tell you about, cause I want it to surprise you like Santa Claus. But you have to remember that if you're not utilizing every ounce of real estate that somebody comes into contact with, you're not improving upon the silence and you're not helping them take that journey.You're actually creating a lot of back doors out of your business and creating an anti-marketing machine. So when it comes to the transactional emails on the confirmation pages, I see those as the two most wasted pieces of real estate. In digital marketing or in marketing in general. And so you need to take some time. You need to look at those. Now one caveat here is if you're on Shopify and you're not on Shopify  plus like the big tier you're. You're limited to what you can edit on that page, but you can still use tax and you can do it. So that is up to you. We've done everything depends on what platform you're on and things like that.But I want you to be intentional about all of this. I want you to tell people, I want you to design this journey so you can help achieve the results that your customers are expecting. And then they associate that success with you. They buy more products, they tell their friends, they come back and get more.As a reminder, the confirmation page and the transactional emails are the very first things that people see after they commit to sharing personal information with you or giving you money, greet your people at the door and help them feel confident in their decision to trust you. That distinction is the biggest difference between your company working longterm.And not working that touch point, that paradigm setting touch point, determines the entirety of that customer journey. That first impression of like, okay, I've been courting you for a year. You finally trusted me and gave me your credit card. What experience am I giving you? Or you saw my cold ad and I promised you I'd take care of you.But then the first thing you see as an upsell or the first thing you see is a transactional email, or I promised you a seven day guide, but now I'm trying to get you to pay me. You have to be congruent with your word across the board, or people can not trust you. So those are the two main, those are the two, two most wasted pieces of real estate digital marketing that I see and how you can use that.Now as some bonus ones before I go pee, because I'm coming up on time because my bladder is shrinking as we speak, or that's what it feels like. Think about all the other areas where you touch customers that are wasted, what are their boxes look like? Are there inserts in their boxes? Are there handwritten letters?What's on your packaging? Where can you improve? When you ship somebody a supplement or a physical product? Could you get their address? Cool. Do you want to send them a separate handwritten card? Did you collect their birthday? Do you want to automate a birthday card? Did you get their mailing address and want to give them a.A bonus gift, like think about it. And don't always try to cram it in. You can mail somebody, a letter for a dollar and 7 cents. That's handwritten. Once you have their address, then technically if you did it yourself and had a staff member doing it or team, or you did it yourself, you could mail somebody a letter for 43 cents plus the cost of paper and an envelope, but don't send it the same for their product.Does you have the ability to dictate the success of your business by dictating the depth of the relationship with your customers? And only you can do it and only you can make it work. So that's today's episode. That's another winning Wednesday. I can't wait to see your confirmation pages. Your thank you pages and your transactional emails.

Feel the rhythm feel the rhyme buckle up your seatbelt because it's podcast time. And I have two cups of coffee next to me because that's just what Monday is today. It's a beautiful, beautiful Americano and an oat milk latte because I'm getting fancy, but today's winning Wednesday. Today's winning Wednesday is going to talk about how we can win now because how I lost and I lost hard in order to understand how to win, but we're going to particularly talk about the one mistake that was costing me $60,000 a month and how you can avoid it.Now, I wish I was joking, like, and I wish this was clickbait. It's not, there was a time, there was a time in my career as an entrepreneur where from the outside, looking in, you would have think that I own 20 houses, 10 cars had it altogether, was working two hours a day and was the happiest that I had ever been. And it couldn't have been further from the truth. My life was completely in shambles. I was disconnected from my business, disconnected from my numbers, making choices based on emotions and other factors I'm going to talk about later today., I was depressed. I was avoiding my feelings. I was avoiding deep connected relationships with my family and it was costing me and at the time I was a food blogger. And I took that business. I got that business up to seven figures by myself and doing what was right in the one thing we're gonna talk about today. And then in  that seven figures, I also created the same amount of expenses. Once I lost focus on the one thing I was supposed to be doing and got distracted.And at one point for a prolonged period of time, like four to five months, I was losing between 40 and $60,000 a month in unnecessary expenses, overhead wasn't generating in revenue. I didn't need any of it and then I was fighting those closest to me, my wife, my accountant, my friends, and my family who knew. And I was in so deep and in such denial that I held on like you're wrong. I'm going to show you, I'm going to show you. And really, I was just more addicted to being right than I was to being authentic and vulnerable and accepting the help. And it costs me a lot. And I was literally losing 40 to $60,000 a month, all because of this one thing.And the one thing was I was looking in the wrong direction. I was spending my days making decisions in reaction to what everybody else was doing. And so basically I was living this life where, like I built a company, I built a business based on my heart, based on my soul.I'm I might cry on this one based on my heart, based on my soul. And then my ego and the pressure of the world that. I was living in that industry took over and I changed my measuring stick to all the wrong things. I was spending my days staring at competitors, looking at what they were doing, thinking that they were doing it better than me, that I could do it better than if I transacted that way. Or if I did it that way, or if I did it this way or five followed that, or if I made this that it will be different. And then I got stuck in the endless game. I would spend most of my days looking at everybody else. Comparing myself, scrolling through the end of the scroll of social ,funnel hacking  everybody like literally I was out collecting evidence that what I had built wasn't good enough. And I was looking for reasons to self-sabotage silently. And I did, I completely self sabotage to the tune of the numbers that I shared with you. All because I lost track of where I was supposed to be looking. And literally I had this belief that if all, if I did was consumed content and look at other people's stuff that my vision was somehow going to build itself.Also simultaneous, mostly believing that I wasn't good enough to build my vision because look at all this evidence I have of all these people that are doing it better. I need to go be like them. I need to go be like, damn, I need to go do it. So I was just stuck. I was literally stuck just sitting there stuck. And it was killing me. It literally almost single handedly killed my life, destroyed me, depression, anxiety exacerbated my PTSD, but it destroyed my relationships. It destroyed my marriage. It destroyed my relationship with my kids and my family and those closest to me for a long time, it felt like an addiction but at the end of the day, it was a deep distraction.  It was completely sneaky.And so I read this thing from Benjamin Hardy, and I want to share it with you on this one thing. I never wanted and I'm not gonna raise quote yet. I never wanted to be reactive. I never wanted to procrastinate. I never wanted to fail. But there became a point where what I had done, the success that I had done, I lost focus on the small things. I lost focus on the things that got me there, and I allowed doubt to creep in. I loved self-sabotage to creeping. And then that led to this belief that I already had failed or it wasn't good enough, or I was going to fail again. And then I started to procrastinate. And then when I started to procrastinate, I would fill that time with consumption and what I was consuming was poison. And so then I would consume the poison and react to the poison. And I was living in this vicious cyclical rate of things that you do not want to be living in that basically guarantee you tear yourself down from the inside out. And that was basically what happened. So this quote from Benjamin Hardy always sticks to me. Okay. Listen to this one. It's a paragraph long.So I'm gonna read it to Benjamin Hardy says it best. It's incredibly easy to get distracted. It's easy to get pushed off course. It's even easy to get sucked into behaviors and addictions that take your life somewhere you didn't plan to go. It's easy to take our loved ones for granted. It's easy to be disengaged and disinterested. But what's the cost. When you have a clear future self, the person and life you truly want, you must actively choose it. You can't let little distractions come in because little things, if not checked will become a slow boil. If you want to be a conscious and intentional human being, you've got to pay attention to what is distracting. The more focused you become the less you'll even notice all the noise out there. You'll be too busy to engage and to inflow to see it. Your attention will be exactly where it needs to be. You'll be making huge progress and therefore you'll be increasing in confidence and commitment. You'll show up much differently. You'll create more peak experiences for yourself and others. Your future will keep getting bigger and therefore your behavior will keep getting better.That was from Benjamin Hardy. And if you have not read the book personality isn't permanent yet by him. I highly recommend listening to it or reading it.But that is such a poignant reminder.  And I use this, I use this analogy a lot. I'll use the Olympics analogy and each one of them as a unique gift in this world, we are a unique light. It's a, each one of us has our own color, our own temperature, our own signature. We have it it's us. Right. And we are the only ones that can turn the light switch on or off.In our own lives and we have to choose to shine our light. We can't shine our light when we're looking at everybody else's life. And I learned after I think, 12 years of entrepreneurship now. I mean, I've really been an entrepreneur since I was like 12, when I started hustling and taking on paper outs and lying about my age to get my first job as a skate guard at an ice rink.So I could yell at people for going too fast. Well, I went fast to yell at them. I was quite hypocritical at 12 and 13, but I've been an entrepreneur for a long time, but I'd say like, seriously, like as a career for 12 years, our success is boring. Success is boring because success is the culmination of the little consistent things you do with intentionality and discipline daily.I just made that up, but I think that's a good one. Let's see if I can say it again. Success is the culmination of the little things you do intentionally with discipline. I can't do it again. Someone's gonna have to remember that one. But success comes from being boring every day and focusing on the things that matter.It's the culmination of those little things adding up, right? Like what you put in your body, right. We know when we look at our bodies, we look at in the mirror where either loving ourselves and we're not, and if we're not loving what we see, we need to love ourselves internally and work towards getting there.But you don't gain 20 pounds overnight and you don't lose 20 pounds overnight. You don't go from never running to running a marathon overnight. You don't go from, you know, there's a lot of different things you don't go from. But like you don't go from here in California to Boston by saying, I want to be there right now. Like you gotta go to the airport, got to get on a plane or gotta get in the car and drive 3000 miles.  But no matter what we do, we have to do a series of little things over and over that make progress to get us to where we want to go while also protecting ourselves to not get pulled down a fork to our demise, that's where the distraction comes in.And so when I really look at what happened, like why did I go from generating, seven figures a year, right? So 150 to $200,000 a month to then losing 40 grand a month is because I stopped doing all the things that made me successful. I stopped pulling the levers or another analogy would be watering the flowers that I planted that were continually giving me fruit.And I was like, you know what, the grass is greener on the other side, I know that I'm going to walk away from those vegetables and those plants that are giving me food. And then I. I think I'm going to skip famine by taking a chance over here. And the truth was is that I knocked down one bridge, while attempting to build other ones that were never going to be built because they were misaligned. And they came from me focusing in the wrong direction and looking at the wrong things. And so we have to stay r crystal clear and connected on who we are today and who we are going to be in the future. And like Benjamin Hardy says is we have to be intentional about building it. We have to actively choose to become our future selves and we have to give it away.We have to choose it. We have to choose when we get up in the morning. When we open our email, when we get on social media, are we creating? Are we consuming? Are we being distracted? Are we being intentional? Am I utilizing this moment? And this time to give away my gift or to shine? My light is this moment helping me move forward. Is this moment helping me move one step closer to my goal. Even if that goal is 25 years away.We have to stay on that path. Now we don't have to do it alone. But when you think about the Olympics, there's only one person that can compete in the event and win the gold medal, the coaches there, but the coach doesn't run the race. The coach doesn't do the action. The coach doesn't compete in the sport. The coach. Helps them navigate the blind spots or hold them accountable or see things that they can't see or protects them from things they shouldn't know or shouldn't see, so they can win their game. And my buddy, Jeff Spencer, who is an Olympian and responsible for, I think, over a hundred gold medals in coaching people. in his mindset he's competed at the Olympics and what you'll re what you'll remember what you'll hear him talk about with the champions mindset. Is that in order to win the Olympics, when that race starts, you don't even know where your competitors are. They might be three feet to your right or left in a running race or on a bike but if you look at them, you'll lose. But if you look at yourself and focus on running your race, the race that you've trained for, the race that you're training for, and you focus on what you can control. It is the only way that you have a chance to win that gold medal.In entrepreneurship and business is no different. We need to focus on our race and then have the right triggers or the right pushes or the right accountability or the right people in our corner that keep us on our path, not try to pull us to their path and support us in running our race so that we can win a gold medal. But it starts by doing it for ourselves.So here is what I recommend doing. This is what I recommend doing. Number one is you have to create containers that keep you focused on your target. What does that mean? You have to protect your time and your energy. You have to be intentional about what you do, whether it's a morning routine or an afternoon routine, whether it's both, whether it's a, I'm only allowed to check my email this time, I have a newsfeed blocker on Facebook and I'm only allowed to create, if I want to look at anything on social media, I have to go type it in and find it.I am only allowed to work in one hour chunks. I have to non-negotiable do 60 minutes of alone time in the morning. I have to eat this way. Like, whatever it is that, you know, You have to look out into the future about who you want to become, and then you have to create containers in your life that put bumpers up like a bowling alley.So I ain't think about a bowling alley and you take your kid or me. Right? Cause I suck at bowling. I love those bumpers. They make me a really good bowler, you know, pretend they're an outside like bull zero. But you have to bumpers and what a bumpers and shore. Bumpers don't make sure that you get a strike every time, but the bumpers ensure that 9.9 out of 10 times, unless you bounce that out of the lane, you're guaranteed to at least hit one pin.And I want you to think about the containers in your life like that. We're not striving for perfection, we're striving for progress. That's what we're working towards. So where the containers  when you look at your life where your energy leaks out, where your focus leaks out, where your attention leaks out.I know, I know that I struggled for a long time in my life with addiction and with eating disorders. And so there's no common social event for the addictions that I had. But if like I was, you know, if I had a problem with, you know, binge eating a certain food and I still hadn't had under control and my friends go invite me to this restaurant, I know it's probably not going to be good for me, so I will avoid it. I have to protect that. I can't leak out. I know that if I go to a dinner after a full day of meetings and work that I'm not going to sleep, like I need to, I'm going to skip my evening routine. It's going to affect me the next day. So I politely turned down the dinner.You have to look at your life. Everywhere and you have to protect it. You have to put containers on it. And so I recommend putting containers on your life and don't overwhelm yourself. Just pick one, look at your life right now and figure out where in your life or wear in your business you're leaking the most or you're distracted the most. Neal talks about this and in distractible one of his books, but where are you distracted the most?And then where can you create a new technology? And technology is like a series of anything that protects you. Where can you create a technology that protects you from leaking out that hole? If it's Facebook, download the free Facebook news Eradicator, and don't allow yourself to look at Facebook's timeline only be intentional. You can post or you can type in somebody's name and go there directly, but you don't get sucked into the endless scroll that distracts us from our vision. So number one is you have to create containers that keep you focused on your target.Number two another book recommendation here, you have to stack your habits like James clear talks about an atomic habits. And so habit stacking is absolutely amazing.  and so you create a base habit. You make a small commitment. Maybe your small commitment is to work. Maybe your small commitments to go for a 10 minute walk every morning. You commit to that and you go your 10 minute walk, but then you realize that habit carries momentum.And so then you look at it. And so for me, what I do is I go for my 10 minute walk now and I eat my vegetables in the morning cause I make a smoothie to drink on my walk. And so now I'm accomplishing two things in one, but I'm carrying that momentum. And I know that when that walk is finished, I have a lot of clarity. And I have a lot of energy. And so then what I do is I sit down and I journal for the day and I allow my habits to stack upon each other that support them. And so I can stack them vertically or I can stack them horizontally, but I highly recommend reading atomic habits by James go to the book is absolutely amazing.And really what we want to get to is we want to get to a series of events or our day set up that no matter what. We're progressing towards our goal and we're protecting ourselves from forks in the road. And those things are all added up, no matter what your goal is, where your business is, where your life is, no matter where you want to go, it needs to be broken down into chunks or into pieces that you can step towards every single day.And then you need to protect those steps that you can make them.Number three, you need to eliminate anything from your life that doesn't give you the feeling or results of growth and or momentum forward. And this one sometimes requires a hard conversation with yourself because we as human beings do not like to be uncomfortable. We seek comfort, but comfort can keep us stuck. It's easy for me to sit on the couch and binge watch movies. It's hard for me to sit there in silence and think or read a book. So I try to do that. It's easy for me when I finished my workout to not do recovery, it's hard for me to do cold therapy. So I work on cold therapy to make it easy.We have to constantly be challenging ourselves. Like I know that I perform a thousand times better when I wake up in the morning with intentionality and an alarm clock. And so I have to remove things that make me feel like crap, which means I have to wake up with an alarm clock, whether I like it or not, because that temporary feeling of discomfort is so much is so worthed for the results that I get versus a day of like fault or blame or guilt or shame as I work towards building myself into a better version of myself. I know, let me be really Frank with you. I know this one restaurant that we go to with our family, that if I go, I'm going to go off the rails and I don't do it reactively or emotionally I do it cause I want to. And so I make sure that if we're going to go to that restaurant, I'm not in the middle of anything where it's going to pull me far off my path, and then I have the discipline. Hey, can we wait like three weeks until I finish this fitness challenge? I'm done training for that race or I have a few days that I can have some mental fatigue and fog because men eat all the food there.But you got to eliminate anything from your life that doesn't give you the feeling or results of growth and momentum.  And so that could be social media that could be deleting all the apps off your phone and only using it on your computer. That could be that could be not listening to the news anymore. That could be doing a social audit and removing a friends that could be cleaning your inbox. It could be emptying your inbox for the first time, whatever it is, you have to go through the process of removing it. And on the process through, you'll learn a lot about what pulled you off the fork and what keeps you going, but that's step number three.So step number one, create containers that keep you focused on your target. Step number two, stack habits. James clear teaches this, Google it, Google atomic habits by James Clear,you can watch some YouTube video summaries of it and get the gist of it.  That's how I get the gist of books before I read them to see if I want to read them.Number three is eliminate anything from your life that doesn't give you the feelings are a result of growth and momentum forward. And then step number four, stop looking at what others are doing and winning your race. I E what I talked about with the Olympians. Win your race. If you're looking elsewhere, you're looking for support, guidance, information, or feedback that's going to give you another tool to use in your race, not change your race based on how somebody else is running theirs. Because remember what you're looking at is just the tip of the iceberg. You're looking at 10% and there's 90% that's happening underneath that. You have no clue. And most of the time, what you'll see is it's not as pretty as it looks on the outside.And so you need to make sure that you stay focused on running and winning your race and that step number four. And if I could fast forward, no, I did fast forward. If I could go backwards. 12 years, 13 years when I was starting this journey and I had a mentor sitting in front of me and they could give me one piece of advice that would have made the difference for me, like would have like really, really set my mind. Would have guaranteed to support me foundationally, no matter what it would have been them telling me that in that moment, I already had everything I needed to succeed. It would have been them that telling me in that moment, I already had everything I needed to succeed and I might not have believed it.I might not have liked been like, yeah, this dude's a crook.  But looking back now, I did. I did. And you do, and we all do. It's your light and you're going to build it no matter where you go in life, no matter where you reach financially in health and fitness and relationships and impact in the world, no matter where you go, there's always going to be another level, but it's always going to be you and your light and your vision, and you already have it all.And so protect your energy, protect your time and stay focused on building that vision because every day that you can take a step towards that vision as another day, it's realized. And another piece of impact that has on this world through impacting you and those around you. Okay. You're here. You're moving forward. We're a family. If you're listening as to where family and I do have something, I want to tell you one of the ways that I protect my time is I don't read emails at all. there's only three newsletters that I read. There's only three of them. One of them is my own. The one that I write for you guys. And I make my email consumption, like actually reading an email. I give myself less than five today to read those three newsletters. I read mine that I wrote and I am behind my own emails too weeks. And so I coach myself. I'm not joking. I literally read my own emails. I read the morning brew and then I read notes from the universe, which are like positive affirmations that come in and no matter what without fail, I pretty much read all three of those every day. Other than that, I don't read any of them, all the ones that I want as reference, go to a folder in my inbox called swipe or reference. And I only go open them when I'm searching for something or inspiration or clarity. But other than that, I don't read them.And so what do I use email for? I use email in the morning. I don't, when I open my inbox for the first time. I don't go and triage my inbox. I go right to that folder where it's only those emails are in my email, morning brew and notes from the universe all come into one spot, one folder. So that's the only thing I open. And then I give that gift to myself because that fills my tank. I get inspiration. I get ideas. I'm actually either taking my own advice or I'm proud of myself for writing a daily newsletter and I read them and then I get to work. And so you have to make sure that no matter what you do, you're stacking your day in your favor, you're filling your tank and you're moving yourself forward, which is why I started writing daily emails.And so some of you listening to this are already on them. Some of you have no clue talking about but a couple months ago I made a commitment that I was going to write a daily email and we call it the light keeper lessons. And my intention was that. I could replicate my success through sharing what I do.And so I wanted to create an email every Monday through Friday that did that same thing that gave you less than a minute of time to consume, but set your direction or focus or heart or love or friendship or support. And let you take that every morning and put it into practice in your life and move on from it and carry that throughout your day.And I try every day to put these into emails and I write them every single day. And so we call them the light keeper lessons. And a lot of you have been asking and I wasn't going to open it up yet, but we're fine. We're 50 emails in. And the feedback has been amazing and people are loving it. 30 seconds, 20 seconds, some days, 10 seconds and other day, 55 seconds. Another day, everything on mindset on business, on entrepreneurship, on marketing, on marketing laws, on email and customer journeys, but all really simple, tangible hits that you either focus your attention on you put into practice, or you think about to help you navigate your course for the day. And so I called them the light keeper lessons. And so I do want to share just on this podcast.So. If you want to go, sign up. I'm going to give you a link in a minute, it's going to send you to a tight form. You have to apply to be on these. I look at the applications and I will tell you right now, and I'm going to share a little secret with you.The emails are set up that if you don't open or click them, you stop getting them. And so I did this because this is the best of the best. This is how I coach myself daily. It's for me, my students, my mentors, and it's all of the things that will make a difference in your life, but they can't work. If you don't read them and they can't work. If you don't click on them. And so the rule  is that by reading this, and you'll see this on the type form, you just have to commit that during that week, you'll open them every day and you'll click on them. And it's less than a minute. I think somebody said one took them like a minute and 15 seconds, but I try to keep them really short.And so I have it set up as a fail safe if there's five days. That you're on vacation that's about your top limit, but you can only progress down those emails because I set them up with automations to track whether you open or click them. And I'm being really open with you right now to set you up to win.But I guarantee you that if  you set a calendar reminder in your phone to read the email every day at 5:00 AM Pacific standard time, when it comes or 9:00 AM or 10:00 AM, whatever time is good for you. And you set a five to 10 minute block every day and you do it every day consistently, no matter what. That I guarantee you that your life and business will be better.So if you're into that, if you're game, if you want to try it, you have to go to this address. It's www.lightkeeper.clubSome browsers,will mess up your address a little bit. So if you type into your browser as lightkeeper.Club, it might work that doesn't just add the www. You'll see a picture of me with my family. And a type form application. Please fill that application out. I read every single one of them and then check your inbox and get to work.So today's episode for winning Wednesday went a couple minutes longer than I thought, but I really appreciate you sharing this time with me.And there was a lot in there that I wanted to cover and I wanted to get through. And so the four things that I want you to do. Based on today's episode. Number one, create containers that keep you focused on your target and protect your energy. Number two, stack your habits. Number three, eliminate anything that doesn't support you or your momentum or your feeling of growth forward.Number four, stop looking at what others are doing and win your race, and then. A fifth one is a bonus is go to www.lightkeeper.club and sign up for our daily newsletter. It's Monday through Friday only and sign up for it so you can get it. You can get those nuggets and only sign up. If you're going to take it seriously. I love you. This is all from the heart, but please only sign up if you're going to read them and you're gonna use them. Cause that's the only way that they're going to make a difference. But other than that, that's the end of today's episode. Remember that relationships will always beat algorithms.

GEORGE:   All right, guys. Welcome back to another episode of the did George show, where I make up intros off the top of my head, because people are amazing and I'm stoked to have them. And today's guest is somebody that I've wanted to interview for probably five years, except I didn't have a podcast nor reason to talk to him.And then we became best friends overnight. And so I'm excited beyond belief to have somebody that I look up to. I've considered a mentor through his teachings and what he's done. He stands for absolutely everything that is ethical entrepreneurship, caring about human beings, making a difference, building legacy businesses, and tolerance absolute zero bullshit will doing any of it. Well, Also leading by example, you know, that magic thing that we don't see a lot of on the internet where it's do, as I say, not as I do, because I don't want you to see what I do. Well, Alex Charfen is here today, CEO Charfen. He has built massively successful companies, navigated some of the biggest downturns of our world and my lifetime, and always come out on top with a smile on his face, grounded in the values that are important to him, his family, and leads by example.And so without further ado, Alex, welcome to the show. ALEX:   Thanks George. That was one of the best intros I've ever gotten. And that was awesome. GEORGE:   I feel like M and M and eight mile on Sunday mornings at 8:00 AM before I have my coffeeALEX:  I want that on my phone so I can play it each morning. Before I start workingGEORGE:   We'll send you the audio clip and then we can do it like the rock used to do as alarm codes, right? Like get up. And he yells at you. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm super, super excited to have you, man. I'm honored. This has been a long time coming and before we get into the deep, deep, deep stuff for the show, whatever, you know, navigating turns, we're going to end up in today. The first question that I always ask everybody to set context, the humanizes, and you have a lot of these, so feel free to take creative freedom with this one.What is the biggest mistake that you've ever made in business? And what was the lesson that you took away from  it?ALEX: That's like trying to like walk into an Amazon warehouse and say, which is the best box. Cause there's so many options. You know, George when I consider mistakes in business, so many of them, I don't look at them as mistakes anymore because. I've learned from them to find where I am now.I feel like almost every mistake, every huge challenge that I created has, has actually taught me something and moved me forward. And I think the one place where I would say that. That there were actual mistakes that I regret. And, and, and here's why I regret them. I don't regret the learning from them, but the mistakes that I made were with people when I was younger, especially there was a tremendous amount of collateral damage and the businesses that I ran. I was one of those people, not any more or not at all anymore, but I was one of those people that if I was going to separate with somebody, I actually had to break them, break the relations.I had to make it okay with me.  I had to make it so that it was so horrible that like we can never talk again. And when I look back at some of the separations that I had where people were either terminated or left, the companies that I ran, I feel like those are some of the biggest, the mistakes I made.And, and, you know, if I could go back and do it over again? I would, I would, you know, I would tell my younger self that you don't have to completely destroy a relationship to put it on pause. And you don't know, I have to completely demonize somebody to have them leave your company. Like those are all natural things that happened in the world.And  today with contrast,when somebody leaves our organization now, or when somebody decides to go to another opportunity, doesn't happen often anymore. But when it does. It's totally different. You know, I've actually, I've, I've led several several employess because of COVID and some other reasons we've actually let a few people go.And it's interesting cause I've remained connected with them. We connect every once in a while, you know, we talk. And so having that experience of being able to work with somebody and then continue the relationship, even though it's no longer a working relationship, it has been extraordinary. And when I was young, I did not even allow space for that. And I think that was, this longterm mistake, honestly, that comes from a childhood of trauma and a childhood of bullying and a childhood of really challenging relationships where I didn't understand how to navigate them. And I brought that forward into my business career. That's the biggest reason.GEORGE: And there's so much gold in there. This is why we get along. So for some context guys, when Alex and I reconnected, we got on zoom for a half an hour and then were like, we need an hour that we need three hours. Now let's just keep talking all day every day because I was like, I was like, sorry, Katie, you can have them back now. I'm like, I'm getting my very much dopamine hit and I'm not gonna deny this, that I wanted this. Like, this was very much my drug today. And I'm okay with this one, right? This is one of those, like, I can go seek it as I need, you know, Alex, one of the things that I think is so imperative and we talked about this, but you and I have so many similarities in this.Is that in the beginning, right? Is this collateral damage? Right? I got feedback that there were trails of dead bodies behind every success. And there were two sides of it for me that were tough. Number one is I never celebrated, right. There was no space because it was never good enough. Right. And so that took from everybody and made it.And then really, I think, as an entrepreneur and a self-aware entrepreneur, and you talk about this as like evolutionary hunters and the way that you do this, I think it was your EPT, your entrepreneurial personality types. You know, one of the things that I think is so amazing as entrepreneurs is that  we're driven for change.We want things to be better, but I think what the razors edges or the tight rope that we like to ride a unicycle down from is to come from when we go down the middle. And there's that part of us as entrepreneurs we're down there, the middle, all the one side was insecurity ego. It doesn't matter.It's never enough I'll sacrifice anything and then we've spent our life at this point, working towards self-awareness. You love, compassion, empathy, relationship, even you just said.I didn't think this was possible a couple of years ago. Like, wait, somebody can leave my organization and be better than when they got there.And we still have a relationship, like can still text. We can talk, right? Like this isn't, you know, purgatory exile, like we're going back in Mayan culture. So, what are some of the things? Cause you have like five core values at your company. You guys stand for humans. Like you stand for change, you stand for being, but I know that this is prevalent everywhere.And I had one of my mentors at a very young age Allen out.  Alex told me that and I learned this as a Marine, too. Like my job wasn't to keep people underneath me. My job was to get myself fired and get them better than me. And there's a point where. You know, they have to leave the coop and they have to grow.But I think the biggest distinction is it was talked about in there world, but really it's our, our growth as a human, like on our side, like the self-awareness side. So what are some of the things that you do that you focus on? Like you help companies with operations, with culture, with flow, with team and people like, how do you go about that?And what are some of the things that you keep to keep your keel in the water as you navigate that? ALEX: Oh, man. There's that question, George.GEORGE: So that's the point. Now I can drink my coffee over here and go to town. Yeah. Where did you go? ALEX: George, I think in order to answer that question, I kind of have to take a step back and, and talk about where, where, like, I've come from.If you want to know how things are kept in motion now, I think we have to first draw, contrast as to how things were before. Yes, sir. When I look at when I was younger and well into my twenties I experienced a tremendous amount of trauma and I had the same, like this is, this came up in our, we just had a three day event with 200 companies around the world and it came up this week.I started, I taught, I talk openly about trauma and how it drives us in the present. And I often tell our clients until you are ready to work through your trauma, you are destined to create, or, and you will only continue to create trauma. Cause it's a pattern for people, hurt people. And that's really how it works.You know, when I look at somebody who's causing havoc in the world, what I see as somebody who's severely traumatizedand acting through those things. And so for me, when I was 26 years old, I went through a really severe breakup. I'm 47 now and at the time to do okay. I actually was, um, I was uncomfortable enough that the only time I felt comfortable in it was when I was drinking.The only time I really fell asleep and stayed asleep was when I was. Kind of loaded and I wasn't used to having those feelings like I had when I was younger. I had definitely I,  was no lack of time in bars or drinking and entertaining and doing those things. But I hit this period where it almost became a necessity and not almost it became a necessity and it was severely challenging to go through that.And. My mom was a therapist in California and I was talking to her about it. I had tried cognitive behavioral therapy. I don't know if you've tried this too. You go in like, I don't, I don't want to demonize all cognitive behavioral therapy, but for me, CBT was so hard because you go in, you spill your guts and the person across the room.I see. How does that make you feel? And then you spill your guts more and then they say, I see, how does that make you feel? And then you spend more. And by the third time they say, I see you, how does that make you feel? I actually responded one time to a therapist. It makes me feel like I want to get up, knock you out because you're not helping me.I feel like you're just, this is frustrating. , I feel agitated and yeah. Triggered and all that stuff. And so I stopped doing that. And I remember calling my mom and she said, there'd be called EMDR. And, it's eye movement, desensitization and reprogramming. It'sa very weird sounding therapy, but it's actually amazing.I, you know, George, it's interesting that you were in the military and we, we talked so much about trauma because even back then, when I was 26, I had some friends that had been in the teams. And, they were VR for Navy seals. Yep. It was actually this huge experiment in the military to see if EMDR would help with the offloading of  trauma and return to service.And they were getting incredible results with it. So for me that growth process has been understanding my trauma. Understanding where so much of my reactivity and almost automatic behaviors came from. And, and so much of a processing, what had happened to me has now allowed me to become more present and aware and you know, it's interesting, George.I used to think that I was so present and so aware when I was in my twenties and now I look back and it's like the funniest thing in the world because I was so detached and , not even feeling my feelings and understanding what was going on. I didn't even know how to interpret what was happening.And then I thought I did so much better in my thirties and I'm like, you know, nailed it. And then I look back and I'm like, no, I just had a better understanding, but I was still working through so much of it. And finally, I feel like in about the past 10 years in years, I've gone into another year of really being able to release things and process things and, and work through things.And that's been a combination of a ton of breath  work. Breath work, I think has been one of the most effective things that I've done a tremendous amount of EMDR therapy and, and going back to then as needed, not like just when it's acute, but when I feel stuck or when I feel like I have writing blocks or anything like that.And then, really a lot of self exploration and a lot of and if you wanted to put a layer on all of that, It's process, structure and routine. And it's you say that this is what a day is like the process structure and routine that allows you to grow a business, grow your life, have what you want in your life.But for most of my life, I fought process, structure and routine more than anything else. Oh yeah. I had that, that, that impression that like, as an entrepreneur, What makes you successful is being whatever you want, anytime that you want. And so I held onto that myth, that illusion, that totally illusory place, it does not exist where you can be a successful entrepreneur and just wake up and do whatever the heck you want every day.It doesn't really work. I mean, you might be able to be a yeah, no, , there's not a situation where it works. And so. Um, I think the biggest shift for me has been committing to process, structure and routine, like up to and including even on a Sunday this morning, I got up, did my morning planning, went through my morning routine.Like I do every other day, sat down in a line with my family. It's like now it's an edict. It's not an option anymore. Cause I know that's where my strength. And really that's where my be present and productive and persuasive and influential. That's what it comes from.GEORGE: Totally. There's so much in that And I want to, I want to nail some, so people have heard me talk about EMDR before. Um, but I glance over it.  Cause very rarely am I across from somebody who I'm like, Oh, you too. Right. Like, Oh, I, I remember, like I remember we did CBT and my wife actually walked us out. She was with me cause I was trying to process childhood trauma stacked on military trauma, stacked on battle entrepreneurial trauma.And she's like, this is not going to help you this like ALEX: 70 creative relationshipGEORGE: Oh yeah. Oh you, Oh, you, you re like, I mean, it's like a trauma definition, right? Like you open the book and the generic and it was a picture of every instance of my life. How they all exacerbated each other in different scenes.Yeah, right. Like, yeah. It was like, it was like almost like a storyboard for a movie at this point. AndI remember one EMDR appointment and I came out my wife's like, you're a different person, like one appointment, one appointment. And I think you nailed something too. And I think what's so important, Alex.And this is like the undertone of what you're talking about. And if anybody hasn't caught this yet, this success as an entrepreneur on the outside, comes from the commitment to the work on the inside. A hundred percent and it is a daily and I mean, daily committed practice to come in. And like EMDR for me was two years of, I think once or twice a week.And then it was like a once a year if needed. And now I just texted him and like just texting him, like gets me back into like where I need to go but I think, I think it's so important, like to reach the levels. When we talk about this, the two things that being number one is this commitment to self.Right. And like, it's what you teach now. It's the discipline, the intentionality, the process, the structure, everything that you're doing, but also the awareness of what it really means to be an entrepreneur and what we're doing.  And you hit this and we live in a world right now where it's like, Oh, laptop, lifestyle, and boom, boom, boom.And yeah, you do whatever you want. I'm like, that's not what it's like. That Instagram life is not real. And entrepreneurship is amazing. It is the most freeing, powerful job, you know, whatever business opportunity on the planet. But within that, we also have to create our own containers and structure to make it that efficient.If not, it's just a new form of addiction to hide from the traumas and the pain that we've never worked on. no question. And I think, I think, and for you, like you say, yo, you're in your forties, I'm like, I became aware yesterday of things I was doing that I wasn't aware of. , I think it's this process and awareness, but I think it was like last year, maybe after the birth of my son, where I was like looking at it and I was like, Oh, you mean that?Like my name can't carry everything. And I say something and magically a million dollars appears like, why? Like, I don't understand, like, why didn't my launch crush? Like why don't my Facebook ads work? And nobody else's does, like, why don't they just work? Cause I deserve them to work. Right? Like there was this.There was this thing that like I had to be aware of and process through and eat some humble pie. And so there's so many golden nuggets that you said. Um, and, and the first question I asked you was like, how do you know, operate forward and this point, and you nailed it. But I think one more thing I want to unpack before we even get there is in the very beginning, when I asked you what was the biggest mistake or lesson, you said something so subtle, but so empowering statement to where you are. And you said the challenges I created. Not the challenges that happen to me, not the challenges that somehow magically fell on my plate, like the challenges I created and there's this level of ownership that we do in breath, in work, in life, in modalities that puts us in this situation of awareness and the ability to shift something.But I see a whole lot of time and we both coach entrepreneurs a whole lot of like, I don't know why this happened and this happened and they did this to me and they did this to me and it's like an advocation of responsibility and it was so subtle when you said it, but it's so powerful to hear you talk about it.Can you unpack that a little bit of like the difference between, you know, my business partner failed and walked away versus like I created this challenge.ALEX:   Yeah, no question George. So. Years ago. I read this book. I think I can't remember who it was by, but I think it might've been Mark Victor Hansen. I think it was called the millionaire messenger.And it was a book that you read in two directions. So very interesting book where it had kind of a nonfiction and a fiction book together. I don't remember a ton about that book. I remember on one page, they had this graphic and it was the word responsibility with a line and underneath it blame and then underneath it said live above the line.And I remember that I actually have that on my well now with a couple of other equations that we've created as a company. But that responsibility over blame. I remember when I read it, I saw it and it was so 19. I'm like, no, you can blame. You can still like, yeah, you don't have to take responsibility for everything.And that was a journey that was probably a few years of like really working through that and understanding it. And then I remember one day it just clicked, you know, as honorable the faster we realized that we are for everything and we can take responsibility for everything. The faster we start to actually control our lives, create our destiny and be able to go in the direction that we want.I used to be the same as most people when I was younger and I had my business. You know, 911 happened for about eight weeks before. One of our biggest events when I owned a huge events company in Latin America. And I remember it happening and having the feelings of like, how could this happen to us?How insanely selfish and egotistical was the statement. 911 happened to us. Like, as I say it right now, I actually get kind of sick feeling in my stomach that I ever thought that way. But I remember actually saying it out loud and not even feeling like not feeling the. Body reactions and negative feelings, you should feel of making a statement that egotistical, which in retrospect shows me just how separated I was from my true self, just how detached I was.And as entrepreneurs what we work with our members on is responsibility over blame. Like how do you live in a world where you take responsibility for everything that's going on? And I have people, especially in today's timeframe, say things like, Oh, well, you can't be responsible for COVID.Sure you can be responsible for your reactions. You can be responsible for how you show up. You can be responsible for what you're going to allow and not allow into your mind. You can be responsible for how you lived through this situation. And, you know, I always tell people the bigger, the crisis, the bigger, the opportunity there's going to be more self billionaires made in this timeframe that at any other timeframe in the human history, And anyone who wants to argue that?Just go look, it's all ready. Oh, ready? We're all. We're only six or seven months in and look at the hundreds of billions of dollars of company value that has been added to the companies that we're well positioned and ready to go forward. And I think for us that's one of the things that are not for us, for me.That's one of the things that's really shifted for me is that now, regardless of what it is, I take responsibility and I put this on Facebook the other day. One of the observations that finally got through I've learned so much of what I understand in business and so much of what I know about relationships and how to create momentum as an entrepreneur has been observational.And one of the observations that has become crystal clear over time is that the more successful and entrepreneur. The more quickly, they turn every obstacle into an opportunity. The more quickly they turn every crisis into an opportunity. I've been around people that regardless of what's going on, they're just constantly shifting to housing and opportunity.How is this an opportunity? Most negative thing in their entire life. How can I create something better out of this? How do I grow from this? How do I move from this and that? You know, not that I'm a hundred percent there. I don't think, I don't know that I ever will be, but I'm so much closer to seeing everything as an opportunity.Than I ever was before. And so when Covid hit, I actually had somebody text me after one of my lives. And they're like, Hey man, it sounds like you're hearing the crisis sign. I'm like, Oh dude, that is not the impression I want to give. I'm not sharing it on. But I am fully conscious that this is the biggest opportunity a lot of us have had, and we should admit that to ourselves and get ready for it and go out and change the world because the world needs us now more than it ever  has.GEORGE:   totally.I think too, and you nailed this and, Oh man, there's so much here and you, and I think we might've been separated at birth at this point, which is so. Yeah, no, no, it was, it was like, and for those of you wondering like only like 32 people or so have my phone number and Alex doesn't give his out connected years ago.Never really talked to him. We both realized we both had our numbers in our phones,  totally.I think too, and you nailed this and, Oh man, there's so much here and you, and I think we might've been separated at birth at this point, which is so. Yeah, no, no, it was, it was like, and for those of you wondering like only like 32 people or so have my phone number and Alex doesn't give his out connected years ago.and we were like, okay, there's a reason. And the timing and everything. And what you said, Alex, Uh, it's about the pursuit of turning things into opportunities, not the perfection of what it looks like.And I think as an entrepreneur for me, you know, cause my ego needs some love at this point in this moment. So I'm going to make a statement, you know, because I'm learning so much in this time. But when I think about it, for me, one of the things that I really fell in love with after processing the belief around it was that there is no finish line, but it's what I choose to do every day about it.And. You know, there were parts of COVID like I lost over a million dollars under contract. I lost two companies and 70 grand a month in MRR in basically like 60 days. And I'm like still on paper. I'm in financially. One of the hardest places I've ever been in. And I'm the happiest and clearest I've ever been.And it wasn't an overnight, it was a, I feel like, crap, what am I going to do today? I feel like crap, what am I going to focus on today? And instead of it taking six months or three years, eight years of depression, it took like a week and it was, I feel this way. I acknowledge how I feel. That's not going to change.What am I going to do about it then that created the opportunity for opportunity. Like it created the ability to see the opportunity. Yes. It's like when we sit in these rooms as entrepreneurs, consider it a virtual room of made of Rome, a metaphorical room, whatever you want to call it. I say this all the time, you know, from breath work and the therapy trauma that I've done in the work that I've done in personal defense.And it's like the worst thing you can stay as stock. We are evolutionary creatures. We are supposed to evolve. We are supposed to move forward. And you know, I heard this the other day and it's like, you want to know what anxiety is? It's unused energy move. Yeah. And I was like, Whoa, like I've been doing it for years, but it was this simple thing.But then when I think about the compartment of entrepreneurship, what is anxiety, I'm like it's stagnation in our biggest enemy, which is our brain. It knows our fears. It knows our insecurities. It knows our habits. It knows our addictions. And yet we think we can out convince it that somehow we're going to feel better about it.Where, what you talk about this is how I feel. I'm aware. This is how I feel. Breath gets you there. Cold therapy gets you there. Movement gets you there. Okay. If this is how I feel, I have two choices. I can either succumb to this feeling and surrender and die, or I can acknowledge it, which that this feeling is here.And I can take a step in a different direction. And it's something that like I've been obsessing about, like on a different level of obsession. And it's probably had one of the most profound effects on everything in my life. And, you know, financially to gain will come and it has already, but even outside of that, like the happiness, the joy, and go back to deployments.Like I remember like I'll never forget. I hit some, all I'm about to cry. I hit Somalia. When I was 19 years old, I just turned 20 and I spent 13 months in my life and probably one of the worst places on this planet. And I'll never forget, like, seeing people wrapped in carpets on the side of the road, cause they couldn't afford to throw them out of them, burning dead by.And I was like, I was like, I'm not a tough guy. I want to go home. I didn't have a home to go to, like I left trauma to get there. And like I remember for 13 months I was like, get me out of here. Like I can't be here. I don't know habit. I didn't have that choice. So luckily I found a few people that mentored me and I found waits and I found, you know, certain therapies and things that I could do, but I'm just, I just remembered, like if I say came to any of that, I would have died.Like I would have just died. I would have just stopped moving the whole world crashed and crushed on me and it wouldn't have gotten me anywhere. And it took me a long time to be able to talk about it, some of these things and to process them in for me, what I struggle with sometimes is that like, what I saw is like 1% of what some of my friends saw.Like 1% and I can't even imagine, you know, what that was there, but I think the biggest thing that I always took away from everything, and I thank the Marine Corps for this is like, I wasn't given the chance to stop. I wasn't. It was like, Hey, and like we say this, like, Oh, they don't want you to feel, no, they do.They don't really totally do, but they don't want you to stop. And it's this thing of like this pursuit for full word and growth and movement as we go. And so, you know, with what you're saying, The one thing that I wanted to hit and this is a really big one and this is so subtle, but when I did personal film, I was getting coached and they were teaching the distinction versus responsibility.Victim versus responsible victim versus responsible, right. They really push the boundary on the belief of this, right? Like a hundred percent responsible, a hundred percent of the time. And it was this interesting thing because we would get in trouble for saying, I take responsibility. And I was like, I don't get it.I'm taking they're like, you can't take it. You never didn't eat. There was no point in which you never had it. ALEX:   There's no point in what you gave it up. And so you can't take it backGEORGE: You just feel like it did. And this distinction, like, it probably took me 10 years to understand, because there's so many times in business, right.Or as a consultant or with a student, or even in my own business, I like, Oh, I'll take it. And then I have to be like, Oh wait, no way. That was mine. The whole time. Yeah. And it's like this embodiment of it that is powerful. Like when we think about it. And so I didn't, I've never, I've never talked about a lot of the stuff that I, I experienced, like from a mindset perspective, they don't think I've ever been in the point to like really, um, process us.But you know what I love about you, Alex, and what I, you, you have this childlike curiosity and excitement mast with this tight container of structure that basically guaranteed success. ALEX: Thank you, but I appreciate thatGEORGE: Like, um, yeah, like I'm surprised I'm not walking around in diapers is my son's out of them. Like at that level of management. Cause there's times I feel like that, but you know, with that, I think what's so important and so powerful from like what I noticed with you. It's like when you get self-aware right.So you were talking about basically being, self-aware identifying what's here, understanding that we're responsible understanding that, you know, results equals opportunity depending on how we choose to see it. What I also love about that is that as you do this work on yourself, that awareness gives you a tool to see possibility versus resistance, right?And again, gives you the ability to react or not to react, to respond on a diamond pivot. Because there's no insecurity ridden. And I think about the times as an entrepreneur or where I was stuck and it was stocked because I had a belief that I was supposed to look a certain way, or it was supposed to be a certain way.And here's the news, flash entrepreneurship is basically a guaranteed. It's not going to look like you think it is every day of every moment for the rest of your life. Right. It's a commitment to chaos and it, and it's navigating that. And so in your, in your journey, and, and you've been in this game a long time, I mean, you, I don't even remember this specific you got, but like single-handedly denting the real estate crash market recovery and, you know, building like half a billion dollar businesses and I'm over here doing it for everybody else, but myself.And I'm a self jab on that one, but Oh, well, George, I've done some of that  myself too.ALEX:  I've you know, and, and I just, I don't want to, I don't want to like leave you on the hook there as a coach, as a consultant. One of the things that I'm now dealing with at 47 is that I've helped hundreds of entrepreneurs build businesses bigger than I have.And, and I, you know, I really like year before last, I sat down with Katie and I'm like, you know, Katie. I've done this too many times for other people this time, the business plan has to include us doing it for  ourself.and this is, this is like my realization really in just like the past 24 to 30 months.And when the reason we restarted this company from scratch was energetic, not legal or anything else. It was, we wanted to shut everything down and start over. Cause this is going to be different. Yeah. And so July of 2017, Katie and I hit the reset button, shut everything down, went down to no team members started from zero, and this is the business that we're going to create the success out of that. just like, we help other peopleGEORGE:  I'm  for those of you listening, if you can't tell, like I've been an Alex fan boy for a long time, but like out of, out of respect, like out of like genuine, pure. Respect because there's these things like we, Alex, and I joke a lot.We talk about the state of the industry that we're in. We're probably going to unpack that in a little while, but yeah. You know, like people don't even pretend to be like snakes in the grass anymore. They're like, no, no, no, no. I don't care if the grass is there not, I want you to see me. And like, there's these people that walk it and they talk it and they believe it and they do it.And it's congruency. And Alex is one of those people, which I hide, we admire and respect. And I think it's an important point. Alex is an entrepreneur. I don't know about you, but you know, for me, I needed to build it for other people. To get those lessons, to have the awareness and understand why I was doing it to then be able to come in and be like, Oh, I still get to do it.And I think healed that part of me that didn't think I was good enough that I could only do it for other people. And also give myself a back door out of those daily routines and commitments and structure that would prove my core trauma wrong as a child. That I'm not good enough because that's really what it is like for me.If for me, it was like, Oh, it's so easy. I'll go, I'll diagnose your problems. I'll give you the things. I'll help you do it. I'll pour all my energy into you. Then you'll like me, and then I'll be good enough. And then at the same time I'm living on that dopamine and validation will also deny my own sovereignty of that.I can do this and I know this. And then the belief system there, and the pain that I had to experience was you do deserve this. You can have a bigger impact this way, but you're good enough. And, and that had to happen in silence. Yeah. You're worth it. Right. Like for me, my core wound is I'm not good enough.ALEX:  I'm having like so many different, like first, I just want you to know this is a very validating conversation. And when you operate at the level that you and I operate as entrepreneurs, they're not maybe not the level, but when you operate at the level of awareness that we operate up.You often become, you often get invalidated because the other people around you don't even understand the conversation. Right. You know, I think what you just said, that is so true for so much of my career. Now, in retrospect, it's only, you see this in retrospect, I was not in the pursuit of success for myself, cause I didn't feel worthy.And I actually felt like the people around me were so much better than I was. That I put all my energy into helping those people all my time in it.  Other people get become far more successful than I was because in so many ways I still felt like I was, you know, the, the short, you know, Mex, lat, Latin American accent, chubby kid in school.Cool. That everybody made fun of it. And I really, you know, when I was at, I did not have a lot of friends. I had a really challenging childhood. I wasn't good at relationships and all of that carried forward to the business world to the point where. But, it made me an incredible consultant because I wanted to help everybody so bad so that I would get validation and be okay and be worthy and not be that kid that I was running away from.And dude, Oh man, now I'm going to get emotional. And, um,as time went on, what I realized was, and what I am realizing is that I could honor that kid. And that I could actually love that child,and be okay with who I used to be and understand why I was the way I was and understand everything that I went through. And the more that I was able to process it and be aware of it.And the more I was able to let go of the common entrepreneurial belief that  other people had it worse than I was. You kind of said it earlier. It's like a habit for us. As soon as we claim any type of trauma, we almost, I have to let out this relief valve. Oh well, but it wasn't as bad for me. You know, there was other people who had them and it wasn't that bad for me and it, but I I'm just going to claim a little bit of it.Yep. And the reality is every entrepreneur I've ever worked with has trauma that needs to be explored and validated and understood so that they can show up in the world the way that they want to, and the excessive reactivity that we carry around with us and the feelings we carry around with us, you know, George's, it's, it's one of the things that drives us into pursuit because.Here. Here's where I am today in my career. I understand that the goal is not the goal. The goal is the journey. Yes, it really is. It's the process it's going through it because here's what I know as an entrepreneur, as I have this analogy or theory that we are evolutionary hunters and I call it an analogy.But to me, I really do think this is evolutionary fact. We are that small percentage of the population that gets up every morning. Can't turn the motor off. It's always running we can't relax. We don't sit right. And we have this innate motivation to go into the future, create a new reality, come back to the present and then demand.It becomes real, no matter what we put up with. But the reality is, is no matter what goal or outcome or whatever it is that we put out there, as we are crossing the finish line, it loses all importance to us. As we're approaching the finish line, we start going, does this really matter? And it's because if you think about, if we're evolutionary hunters, The goal was never  the hunt just keeps the tribe alive.The goal is you go back on the hunt. Yeah. The goal is you stay hunting. The goal is keep doing it over and over again. And there's food for everybody for the whole time that we needed. And so, you know, I look at it, I, I feel like we are programmed to be in pursuit, but not really finished. And so the whole goal is entrepreneurs is how do you keep.How do you keep creating that future? That is compelling enough and bright enough and exciting enough and engaging enough that you do what it takes to put yourself through the crucible. GEORGE: Yeah. Yeah. Oh man. When you said, and by the way, thank you for the accountability on the, uh, I had it way worse or they had it.ALEX: it twice this week in my own event. I said, and then, and I even pointed out like, Hey, I just use the release valve. I want everyone to know that that's like an unhealthy behavior of invalidating yourselfGEORGE: And it's basically saying, I don't believe in myself enough, or I'm not in my space or power enough to own the fact that this was my truth.Yeah. And, and what I'm looking for. And quite frankly, as everybody wants to get into the monitor, George, what I'm looking for is for you too, without realizing and liked me a little bit  more because I experienced that while also add vacating it and doing it in a very subtle manipulative way and not in a bad manipulative way at heart bins in our subconscious all the time.Um, but this is why I love having friends like Alex, we get to talk about these things. Um, And the real, the real stuff. Well, I think what's so important about the real stuff. Alex is like, we talk about this, right? And we were talking about like, why we did what we did and why we consult them, why we still consult.And what I love is looking back. Cause I love my process through all of it. Like I had to do that. I had to learn that I had to be there. I had to not get that check. They had to not pay me that million dollars. Like I had to have all that happen. And now looking at it too the other side of it for me is I never understood the consequences of doing it for everybody else.The amount of sacrifices and collateral damage I caused because I wanted everybody else to like me versus everybody else respect me. And it was like, I'll go to a dinner. I didn't need to be at that dinner. I'll go to an event. I didn't need to be at that event. I'll go to that meeting. That was not a meeting.Like there were all these like ego fests that were. You know, validation collection, dopamine collection causing collateral damage and the ones I think that we swore as entrepreneurs, that we were doing it  "right". Like I'm doing it for my family. I'm like, well now pretty sure. My three year old son, isn't going to be like, daddy, don't go to them zoo with me, or don't see me for three days because you go to this meeting because you want these people to like you versus do the work that it's there.And I think, you know, if I could give a gift to any entrepreneur, uh, it's the gift of awareness of the. The impact and the consequences, both positive and negative. That happened when we do advocate that sovereignty as entrepreneurs. And we, and we get into that because it took me a long time. And I think it's still a practice, but it's a practice that I've, I love at this point.Like I kind of love saying no at this point. Sure. Can you do now? Why we don't need to, like, we have a dinner meeting. I'm like, no, we can have a zoom meeting. I'm not leaving. Right. ALEX: Well, you get to the point where it's saying no, actually becomes the dopamine hit because you have, I mean, and this takes a while, so I don't want anyone listening, not to think that it's going to happen by Monday, but what happens is.When you stop abdicating the responsibility, you have to create the life you want. And you start actually, cause man, George, when you were just talking about going to the meeting and doing this and doing that you just described like most of my thirties,  if there's, if there was an attention, getting the opportunity, I was in that attention, getting an opportunity with a whole line of justification for it.If there was a time and I got tons of opportunities, if I could get up on it. Really important stage with famous people. Like I was there no matter what. And a lot of the time it was for nothing else than the ego hit. Like really, it didn't even really build our business and build notoriety, but it was just building an ego hit. And I, when I look back at so much of that need for approval that need for validation that need for confirmation as an entrepreneur, when you finally realized that is so much of the, almost the automatic programming that's running, the decisions you're making, when you can start backing out of that and rising to a level of intention, everything changes.I had this really confronting Meaning with a coach of mine. I had this coach a while ago named Kirk Dando, super talented two guy and, um, Kirk and I became friends. That's why he was working with me. Most of the work that he did was with privately funded companies where he took a percentage and he was like a non named board member in dozens of companies.And we became friends. So he, he started working with me and we did a few, one days and he did a 360 for me and came in and interviewed my team. And he was doing the delivery of the 360. And we were in the middle of like, what about my team and what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go. And he said, you know what, Alex.You don't have investors behind you. Let's just cut the BS, man. What's the most important thing in your world. And the reason he said you didn't have investors behind you is cause I had options. Most of his CEOs didn't have options. He said that he was like, you have options. Let's talk about this. I said, well, George, that's not George.I said, Kirk, that's easy. The most important thing in my world is Katie and my kids. And he goes, great. Let's take five minutes, get your calendar out and get your bank account out. And let's look at your spending time and spending money on Katie and your kids. And that way we can see if you're growing and you're the most important thing in your world.And I know he could see the blood drain out of my face. Cause at that point it was like getting called to the principal's office. I remember immediately thinking, Oh, there's no way my calendar or my bank account are going to show any type  of like allegiance or affiliation to my family. Because up to, and including in the time I was with Kirk, I had been pushing them aside to get all this stuff done.And here's, what's interesting that meaning changed things. I actually went back to my room and sat down with Katie and I'm like, Katie, Kirk asked me this question that kind of knocked me backwards and I shared it with her and we talked about it for a long time. And from that point forward, I started shifting and I started saying, I need to assign responsibility to the things that are important to me.I needed to put more time to things that are important to me. You know, and, and I, I started building process, structure and routine around what was important to me. It's structured have spend time with family structure to make sure I was connected with my daughters structure to make sure that Katie and I had the time that we needed, otherwise, everything else just competes and wins.And here's, what's interesting, George by demand. Yeah. Ending the space and time for myselfby making that the most important thing. Suddenly my decision making in business got infinitely better. And almost overnight, we started moving in the right direction rather than spinning our wheels and not having things happen.And this is the thing that always like for most people feels like an oxymoron. When you first started doing this, I was putting less time in, but getting more results because when you start throwing up the constraints that are important, you look at time differently and you spend it differently. When you start allocating time to where you should be, not what you know to where you actually, when I say should be when you started actually allocating time around.What you want your life to look like your business will shift in a way that it actually gets to be the business that you want. You start building an organization that you really want. You start doing the things that you want. And it's interesting today at 47, you know, we, we, like I said, we reset a few years ago.We're around a little, little over 2.1 or 2.2 million in recurring revenue, right? Yeah. Now we're building this company completely differently. I'm, I'm absolutely not responsible for delivering. I built myself out of a lot of the responsibilities. And today I have a  business that I love working with people that are like incredibly fun people to work with.And I'm more focused on people development than anything else right now. Cause that's where we're going to grow the nexttime in our business. But what's most important is I wake up every morning. I align with my kids. They hang out with me, they know what we do. We talk openly. There's a completely different dialogue in our house.And all of that, I think makes me not think all of that I know. Makes me the entrepreneur I actually want to be, and it actually allows me to start making decisions for the person I'm becoming instead of the person I'm running away from. Yeah. And I think for entrepreneurs, you know, I think that the same, I've heard the same, say, you know, make the decisions for the person you're becoming, not the person you are.And I'm like, that's not how it works for entrepreneurs. We either make decisions for the person we're becoming or the person we're running away from. We don't make decisions for the person. We never get to the place where you're making decisions in the moment because we don't live in the present. Nope.What that small percentage of the population that doesn't really even deal well with the no.GEORGE: That's why we have to practice breathALEX: That's what I, you know, what was I did it this morning. I did like, like three huge empty breath holds this morning and just like feeling the experience of whether my body was calling for oxygen or my mind.And where was it coming from and how does this make me react during the day? And, you know, I get up from breathwork sessions now I laid down on my floor and do a breathwork session. I actually feel like I'm in the present moment for a period of time. Yeah. It's interesting. You like get up and you're like, Whoa, the world is really intense if you're here, you know?GEORGE: Yeah. That's why I get up so early in the morning, like I used to get up at four 30 for my ego to show everybody I got up at four 30. Now I get up at three 30 now I get up at three 30, so nobody knows. And like, people think I'm nuts, but I was like, I wake up with my kids at six and when I was getting before 35, like my, I would get home, my son will be awake. My wife wanted to sleep in, but she'll be up. And I was like, am I doing this? And I was like, I'm doing this for the wrong reasons. Like if I get up at three 30, I get. Two and a half hours of alone time I'm home before my son wakes up, I'm done with my writing. I'm completely present for the day. I'm supporting my wife with what she wants based on her job and like her responsibilities.And I was like, yeah, that feels better. Like, and that's like, and like, by the way, I don't listen to music. I don't listen to podcasts. I work out in silence and I'd say five out of six times a week, I'm crying, I'm yelling, I'm looking at myself in the mirror. Like I'm a silver back gorilla and patting my chest and then crying two minutes later.Like I'm processing whatever's coming up in that moment you know, one of the things, yeah, ALEX:   Let's not run past that because that, what you just said is so crucial. So let me, let me tell you how I used to work out. Yeah. So what I would do is, and this is during my four 30 in the morning taking a picture, so I could prove to everybody that I did it.So when I was doing the four 30 in the morning, prove to everybody that you did it, it was get up at four 30 in the morning, drink coffee, then wait about 20 or 30 minutes, drink a pre-workout because the coffee wasn't enough. You need to back it up with a pre-workout. Then go into the gym, close the doors.And we had a gym in our home. We close the doors, put towels under the doors. And then put on like limp biscuit or something ridiculous where it's just screaming and raging and yelling, and then get myself into a state where I could lift weights and not feel it. So I would get myself into fight or flight and then fight for an hour and a half with my gym.And it was like going, you know, and, and I don't mean to use this term in a way that indicates that I don't understand what it is really like to go to war because I don't want to minimize anything. Guys. What guys like you and the people that you were around, did George. But I feel like I went to my own little private one in the gym every morning.Totally. And, and it was cause it was instead of feeling the feelings and moving through them, it was creating so much noise and so much pain that I could push the feelings away. Yep. And, you know, I, I remember at my biggest, I looked back, it was probably like seven or eight years ago. I was about 240 pounds and going on Fox news.And I remember like seeing myself in the suit, my shoulders didn't fit in the screen. I looked completely inflamed. My neck and my head were kind of one thing. And recently a person on my team found an old Wistia video on me on Fox. And she's like, man, I saw Alex on Fox news from a while ago. I'm so glad I worked for this Alex and not that guy. Just watching the videos. He could tell, like how, how accelerated and how angry and , how detached I was. And I think, yeah. So many entrepreneurs think that they're, they're doing this incredible thing, working out and getting themselves in shape. And then I watched the workouts on not online and I'm like, man, why that might not be going in the right direction.GEORGE: Workouts for me are a tool like breath and they didn't use to be, they used to be an escapism for me. Right. And trust me, I was doing three days. I taught a world record for standing box shop. I was a competitive CrossFit athlete. Like my numbers are stupid. Stupid right. I'm five, seven. I can dunk. There's like, it's not mind blowing.And I was also dead lifting like six, 15 squatting, like five 85. I weighed 170 pounds. Like it was gnarly. Nowhere does that help me be a better human to my family? Right. But my ego loved it. ALEX: Standing there practicing the jump box jumper.Oh yeah. At one point I went not being a runner to actually going out and winning races in Austin, winning five Ks, 10 Ks, like going out and getting first, second or third place. And if there was a Clydesdale division, I always wanted it. 7,000 person race. I was first placed in Clydesdale. I was 240 pounds and I was the first place in Clydesdale.Because I was willing to do whatever it took. I finished that race and threw up about seven or eight times. Cause I pushed my body so hard. I still got first place. That was all I cared about. But I look back now and I'm like, dude not only will you, not in your body, you weren't in Austin during that?GEORGE:  and then given more trauma and then came out without doing any of the work.And I remember my wife's like, you know, you should do personal development. Like I read books. That was my answer. Yeah. That didn't go well fast forward, eight years. And there we go. And now we're here we are now. Um, but yeah, I was, and then I had this like really big shift after my son was born where I realized like, wow, I can be in shape if I want, I can look, however I want, I can function however I want, but it's also a tool like it's an hour and a half a day or two hours a day that if I utilize it correctly, I can do it.I'll never forget. I was in the jungle with a shaman and, you know, lots of wise wisdom come from shamans to me.  You know, one of them was like talking about relationships happening for a reason season or lifetime. And then you know, then a personal development teacher looked at me one day scrolling, and I said, what are you pretending not to know?Which hit me like a ton of bricksand then somebody else is like, what are you trying to avoid feeling? And that was the one that got me and it was the feeling part. Right. And so then I like looked at my day and I was challenged by Shaman said, I want you to eliminate. Any music with lyrics for 30 days, just get rid of it, get rid of it.Okay, cool. And I would listen to like music, like upbeat music, like I wasn't into like bitches and hoes, like all that stuff. And you know, but I would listen to music, but I would listen to music that allowed me to be romantic about who I used to be, or pretend that something was going to shift for me by doing nothing.And it was programming my brain into like the stagnation. And I was like, okay, cool. And I remember it was one of the hardest things ever to not have the radio on, in the car because what did I have to be present? I had to be with whatever was coming up and then going to the gym. I was like, okay. Right.And I'm like, don't lift. And all of a sudden I lost a hundred pounds on lift because I didn't have anything to like put me into that sympathetic state. And it was crazy, crazy what happened. And then for a wild, like this adoption period, I started to fall in love with it. And then I realized that. When I was there, the days that I was present and grounded, I felt like in my body and like emotionally good, I was lifting like crazy.And then there were days that like, It hurt to do a warmup and then I would scream or I would cry or I would laugh or I be like, I don't want to be here today. And then I could never walk out the door, but I was literally in the moment experiencing my experience and my feelings and it kind of became therapy for me.I rank it out? Can I yank it out? And then, or where can I go plug into somebody else's world to avoid mine? Right. Right.And then it was like, I have more work to do. I have more work to do. I have more work to enlist and entrepreneurs, your list will never end. And that's why it's so important. Like when you talk about structure, Alex structure gives us the container because no matter what we do, we're going to fill it. So if you give yourself a 24 hour container, you're going to find ways to fill it.But if you give yourself a two hour container, you'll fill it, but you also have to fill it with the stuff that moves the needles, move the levers and eliminates the bullshit. And that's been one of those things for me that I think in what you do and there's this belief like this paradigm around entrepreneurship, right?Like I can do whatever I want. I can do whatever I want. And I was like, yes. And you have to realize that the moment you start being that is you lose the thing that built it and you end up right back where you started. ALEX: Yeah. Yeah. I love Maxwell's. You know, John, there's a lot of stuff that John Maxwell's put out that I just, that is so true.It's just truth. And he has this chart of  the more leadership responsibility you have, the less freedom you have. And it's this very confronting belief system that the more responsibility I take on as a leader the less freedom that you actually have. And what you're doing is you're exchanging that freedom for making a massive contribution.And I think that. People want to argue. I have entrepreneurs all the time. Like one argue that and debate it. Yeah. And I always like at the end of the day, if you'd want to debate it, you can. But the fact is right only going to slow you down over time. And man George, that was intense. What you just shared because I think it's probably seven or eight years ago.It's definitely living in this house. I know, because in my gym here, I have a huge sound system and I built it so that I could go down into the gym. So I didn't hear anything in the world. I didn't even hear the weights clanking together because that sound was so high. I probably haven't turned that on in six or seven years, because now I look at my workouts, totally different.My workouts used to be an escape. It used to be like, go in, check out, get all this stuff done, working out with your body and then come out. But really not a lot of recall or recollection of what happened. And I, and a lot of like feeling here, like I did something, but not really connecting to everything that happened in the gym.Yeah. Yeah. I love Maxwell's. You know, John, there's a lot of stuff that John Maxwell's put out that I just, that is so true.It's just truth. And he has this chart of  the more leadership responsibility you have, the less freedom you have. And it's this very confronting belief system that the more responsibility I take on as a leader the less freedom that you actually have. And what you're doing is you're exchanging that freedom for making a massive contribution.And I think that. People want to argue. I have entrepreneurs all the time. Like one argue that and debate it. Yeah. And I always like at the end of the day, if you'd want to debate it, you can. But the fact is right only going to slow you down over time. And man George, that was intense. What you just shared because I think it's probably seven or eight years ago.It's definitely living in this house. I know, because in my gym here, I have a huge sound system and I built it so that I could go down into the gym. So I didn't hear anything in the world. I didn't even hear the weights clanking together because that sound was so high. I probably haven't turned that on in six or seven years, because now I look at my workouts, totally different.My workouts used to be an escape. It used to be like, go in, check out, get all this stuff done, working out with your body and then come out. But really not a lot of recall or recollection of what happened. And I, and a lot of like feeling here, like I did something, but not really connecting to everything that happened in the gym.GEORGE: Like the guy over here covered in tattoos that had a blue Mohawk. When you met him, Right. Like that guyALEX:  Something like that. You know, it was like, I'm never going to be in a place of being traumatized again by a room I'm gonna walk in and have everyone back at, you know, take a step back and.Now, you know, when I go work out, one of the, I have for a workout is a dry erase pen. My whole gym is surrounded in mirrors and there are so often I will be in the middle of a set. And this is like the Cardinal sin of working out. You're like almost to the place where you're done and I'll just drop the weight it's and go write down everything that just came to me.Yeah. Because yeah. Now it's more important. The realization is more important than finishing this app. And the belief system, you know, the beliefs that I can work through and the processing that I do is so much more important than the weight that I'm lifting. And I remember there was a point in my life where if I had a workout where the next workout, I didn't do more. I couldn't deal. It was demoralized thousand percent out. I don't even feel it. I'm like, wow, that was a great workout. I lifted half the weights, but look at the whiteboardGEORGE:  Well, even, even the point of like stopping a set, like way to diminish seven reps of progress. RightALEX: It's like, man, I just threw it all away. Yeah. And you know, the, the, like the beliefs that we built when we're in the gym, the last set is where you earn over the last rep is where you earn it. So you're always chasing the last rep. Now I'm like, man, I don't want to lose this thought. GEORGE: Well, and then like really looking at what sets us apart as leaders.Right? Cause we're, we're when we say entrepreneurial, we're talking about leaders, we're talking about the small percentage of the world, right. That's willing to stand in a new belief system and I love the way that you described, like going into the future, but really. You know, when I wrote my personal mission statement for my life it's to stand with structure in the face of resistance to create possibility.Like, that's it. That's, that's what we do. And it's like, it's actually, the wind was when you made a commitment and you kept your word with integrity to get to the gym. You've already won. Everything at that point is bonus. Right? It's strengthening it's fortification it's reflection. It's you know, and like, yeah, if you have 30 pounds to lose and you do one wrap, like don't expect a result, but be aware of like, what's there, but it's really the intention that we put behind everything.And when you say it, right, you got up, yes. You create the structure and you commit to the routine and that's, it's the combination of those things. That is the wind. And you, I mean, I'm the same way, except for me right now, I realized. You know, in the last couple of years, I fell out of love with myself again, like at a deep, deep, deep level.And I was looking at it and I was working out crazy before lockdown. And I was like, okay, cool. And I was like, I'm posting videos every day. And I was like, looking back when it locked down and I didn't have a gym, we went up to the mountains and I was like, man, I really don't want to do anything. I don't want to do anything.I don't want to do anything. And I literally was like, why. And I was like, because I can't, because I don't like why I'm doing it. And I don't know why I want to. And I gained a lot of weight again, and I fell in love with my dad bod, but I gained a dad bought first.  And then I looked at it and then I was playing with my son and I'm up here and I'm like, You know, this isn't what I want.And I was like, why? And I was like, I somehow fell out of love with myself, or this was an opportunity where I hadn't fully loved myself yet. Like, I hadn't loved where I was versus the guy with the big muscles or the tattoos, or could do this. Wait. So it was really interest because I started working out again and it feels different.It feels different. And then all of a sudden I wanted to get up here and it felt different and my workouts are very different. It felt different and I'm not humble, bragging. Like I just enjoy the process, but what's really interesting, Alex is I went through this point and I always wear like cutoff shirts.I won't take my shirt off. I still was struggling with self-consciousness and everything else. And then this, then I'm going to cry. But like 35 days ago, I went to the gym one morning and I was like, I'm not working out with a shirt on. I get to look at myself. Every moment of every rep every day. And every time I look in the mirror, I just get to tell myself I love myself.And it's a really interesting, because I started this challenge with my, with my business partner to lose weight, right. Like I was like, okay, I'm two 10, my fighting weights, like one 75. I want to be back there. 55 days of eating ma

And we're back for another episode on winning Wednesdays. Sometimes they even forget to call them that. So remember there are Monday minutes, cause everything's like five minutes or less, or maybe seven if I go over winning Wednesdays. Cause the only goal of today's show is to listen, apply and then implement into your life or into your business.And then of course, Fridays free for all Fridays where we take everything, we take the hinges off the door basically. Right. But today's winning Wednesday. It was probably one of the most transformative lessons that I've ever learned in business that I carry with me forever. Now I'm going to tell you a quick story, right?So when we think about like my life and if you've listened to my life, it's an interesting one, lots of extremes, you know, world records, crazy CrossFit stuff, physical fitness, things. I look back at my entire life with health and fitness and one of the biggest mistakes. That happened in my life with my health and fitness is that I always only looked at the next finish line, not the entire race.So what do I mean by that? Meaning there were a lot of times where I'd be like, okay, I want to tie a world record. So I'm gonna train every single day to tie the world record till I tied it. But then I was like, what's next? And I never knew what was next. So then it would lapse down.  But what am I really going for? What comes after CrossFit? What comes after? And so I think about it and there were always roller coasters in my health and wellness and fitness journey. When you think about my life intake with my sleep, my supplementation, my macros, my movement was it cross training?It was whatever. And it was dictated by the moment because I was responding to my circumstances. I was responding to what was around me and, and reinventing myself to meet those, but never holding a vision. For once I met those circumstances, or once I utilize that energy or momentum to create a result, what would come next?And so then I was always left with what our friend Christine Hassler calls expectation, hangover. She wrote a book on it called expectation hangover. But then I would deal with like this reflective period. And then what am I going to do? Where am I going to go now? There's nothing wrong with that but it's just something interesting. I notice I was on this one journey that was right in front of me.  I'm going to tie the world record for a standing box jump. So for seven months, all I did was train, jump mobility, explosiveness, flexibility, legwork, and everything. Until I tied the world record when I was in Afghanistan and then I moved on today, but the next thing wasn't right there.And so I kind of just lolly gagged through my fitness. I checked a box, I did everything, but there was never that big pole. Because I had never bothered to sit down and ask myself . We're playing a game of chess this is the long game I'm going to have a hundred years on this planet. This is fun. This is an awesome goal. This is an awesome thing to work towards, but this isn't the finish line. And so now where I am in my life, I realized that it doesn't matter to me, whether I tie a world record, whether I'm a competitive athlete, whether I can lift a thousand pounds or not. My goal is strength, functional fitness, health, recovery, eating clean, like treating my body like a well oiled machine.And it's so easy now because I am so clear on that vision that I have no problem getting up at 3:30 AM or eating clean and cravings are gone. And all of those things are gone. Now the difference is  that now I have a mentor in my life. Who not only knows where I am, but knows where I want to go.And so when there's times that I can't think about where I want to go a year from now two years from now or three years from now, they keep me on track to hit my goal today to do the small things today that are going to help me get there. And then reminding me of what that big vision is. And so fitness and health seem easy to me now.When we think  about you customers in your customer journey. One thing to simplify marketing forever and I opened with what was the biggest lesson that I learned or something that I learned and I implement taking forward. And the one thing that you can do to simplify marketing forever is to know where you're taking people, but there's a big distinction here.When you think about your customers or potential customers, every single touch point that somebody has with you. Or your business is a part of a customer journey. It is either moving them one step closer to their goal through you, or one step further away from you, which might even be putting them on a path to their goal. But one of the mistakes that I made for a long time that I see a lot of people make is they have a customer and they're going to sell this course. Are they going to sell this product? And then all they think about is that front end journey.But what happens when they complete that product? What happens when they've used it for 20 days? What happens when they've achieved one of the four goals that you promise, but need help with the rest? Not enough people take the time to map out. What that customer journey looks like or what that dation destination looks like.Not only to where the customer can see they're going to go, but where they're going to go next. And it doesn't mean you have to build anything per se. It means you have to know, you have to think about it. Because when we find our customers, our customers are normally only able to see to their next touch point or their next goal or their next right.Like they migh want to lose a hundred pounds.But if you say like, okay, we're going to lose a hundred pounds today, it's not going to work. All they're going to be focused on is moving for 10 minutes today, drinking water and eating clean. Your job is to hold the hundred pound vision. Well, their job is to do the work and the small things every day to get them there.  When you think about your job on social media, email marketing, through your products and through your offers, just like everything in marketing. Your job is to take your customer, your viewer, your subscriber, your follower, whatever label you want to give them your family member, because these are beating hearts on the other side of your marketing on a journey from point A to point B one step closer to their goal being one step deeper in a relationship with your brand. Because you see when there's a customer journey happening, there's really two things that are happening. Number one is they're progressing. Like I said, they're either moving forward, they're moving backwards.  And they're progressing toward their goal, but they're also progressing in their relationship with you and your brand.And these are two very important distinctions because people only buy or take action or enroll into things or businesses or products or services with people that they trust people that they feel safe with. And so all of this has to be there. And so think about it.  Most of our customers, even if they're thriving in life, they're coming to us because they have a problem or a challenge and we have a solution for that problem or challenge. And so a lot of the times, and you can think about this for yourself when we're overwhelmed. When we get stuck, when we get confused, we just want somebody to tell us that it's going to be okay. We want somebody to be like, Hey, I get it. I know where you are and we're going to get there. But today I just need you to do that. And we either want somebody to verbally tell us, or we want to feel that way when we engage and enroll.  And so if you gave a customer a choice and they're like, Hey, I want to lose 30 pounds in the next six months. And I want to use your product. If you gave them the choice of like, yeah, buy the product, here's your nutrition plan. Here's your workout plan. Here's your workouts. I'll see you in six months or you buy the product. We're going to email you every couple of days for six months. And we're going to be in this journey with you. Don't worry about losing it. We're going to get you there. We know your goal. We know where we're taking you. And we know that you're going to get there with our support because where your teammates, which one do you think they're going to choose? They're going to choose the latter because they feel safe.They get to advocate a lot of that pressure. They get to feel relief and safety on that customer journey with you and with your brand. Because not only have you thought about where they're going tomorrow. Because they saw you on social media and they committed to buy your product. And they're like, that was their step one. They're not thinking about how they're 60 pounds lighter. They're thinking about, what am I going to do? I got to change my schedule. I got to eat clean. I got to move clean. Oh my God, there's 8,000 things I'm supposed to be doing. I'm not going to do any of them. And your job is to come in and have that clarity in that vision to create that container and hold that space for them, that allows them to be present where they are and put in the work that's going to actually get them there.And so your job in everything that you do in marketing is to take somebody on a journey from point A to point B, you can do this in a social media post. We talk about this with the captain's assessment. When you talk about somebody before state their objections, their after state in their asks, you can do this in one phase. You can take an after state be like, let me guess you want to be waking up with more energy working three hours less a day and having 20 minutes of meditation time. But what gets in the way of actions? Time two kids running in my room, not setting my schedule up, not making a priority. And so what are we end up? Well, you end up right here in our, before state overwhelmed, stressed, wanting something different, but not knowing where to start because we're overwhelmed constantly. And the thought of starting and planning feels harder than it does just maintaining. So now I'm left with frustration and resentment and I don't know what to do.So I want to take the thinking out of this for you. So today, all I want you to do is take out a piece of paper and in five minutes, just write down. Where you would like to see yourself in 30 days, 60 days at 90 days. And I want you to do it in under a minute. Just use a couple words to describe it. Use feelings, happy, clear working two hours a day and in Lynn, leave it and then come back tomorrow on social. We're going to get into the next part and leave me a comment when you're done. That's a full journey. I told them where they wanted to go. I related with some objections that were getting in their way.I identified where they were so they could identify. And then I gave them a tangible call to action, to put into practice that would move them one step closer to their goal, or one step closer, wherever they want to go, whatever that thing is towards clarity or whatever. So it's towards their goal. And so when you truly understand your customer's wants needs, fears, and objections, then you can design these journeys.Because if you think about it, content without structure and calls to action is just noise. What do I mean by that? If you're out there, where in your business doing social media marketing, doing email marketing, doing podcasts, doing advertising, doing whatever you do to advertise your business, and you get somebody to stop what they're doing to consume your content, or to give you their attention.And all it does is capture their attention for a moment, but doesn't progress them forward. Then by default, it regresses them backwards because that was an option tunity that they could have consumed something different or moved forward or drank some water or worked out. And they didn't. And so that is a touch point that is developed with your brand that has somebody remembering whether consciously or subconsciously that the last interaction they had with you.Felt shallow felt empty, felt unsafe versus a really simple one where like, if you're going to post the photo of that recipe, Don't just give them the photo, give them the ingredients, given the directions and be like, and tag me when you make it. I recommend making it in the next 48 hours. Or leave me a comment and let me know when you're going to make it this week and add it to your menu. Or you'd tell somebody that drinking water, right. Well, we can tell somebody the importance of drinking water. They're probably stopped and interested cause now they're waiting for you to tell them what to do our businesses and our marketing. Lead people. That's why they follow us.We post because we lead, which means at every moment we are leading and we need to be leading people forward. So as you think about this, start thinking about in your business, Hey, I have this 30 day program. And I love it. It's converting really well. All these people are coming in or what happens when they're done? Where do they escalate? Where do they get to the next level? Where do they take the next step, right? Or let's say you sell a physical product and on average, your physical product lasts 30 days. Well, the default you're going to be like, yeah, well, they're going to use it for 30 days and then they're going to buy more.Not if in that 30 days it solved their problem or it doesn't solve their problem. But think about it. Let's say you sell a supplement that helps people sleep better, have a better mood and more energy. They're probably tilting and leaning in for one of those reasons. And so then after that 30 days you'll have to know I should probably produce content on energy and mood. To take them on that journey to solve all three. And then when they're done, Oh, I should introduce my next product, which is going to help them sleep better, which would be a cross sell or an upsell that would be a cross sellthat would help them do it. So now I have a subscription to have a habit maintained, or you're like, everybody's buying my product to fix something. Because you either have preventative or regenerative. And so a lot of people buy supplements for one of those two or products. One of those two, I have a pain point in my life. And I'm buying your product, your service, or your offering to regenerate that or to fix that. But once they hit that journey, it's not over because now there's more that they must do to prevent it from ever happening again.And it's your job to not only know where your customers are today and where they're going to be tomorrow, but to know where they're going to be next week. It's your job to know where your company is going to be in a hundred years.But the only way that you do this is to start thinking through that. If you don't have a next logical step in your mind for your customers, there's not one that they can take. And so if you're putting a post up and all you want is engagement on a post, number one, it's not going to get engagement.And number two, they're not going to have that touchpoint to move forward because you don't even know where they're going to go. And so you need to be thinking about this. You need to be running this through the spectrum. I'm about to post on social media about water. Once they start drinking water, what would be the next step? Maybe they can have some sleep hygiene. So tomorrow I'll let them know or I'll let them know today that tomorrow I'm a news story on the three tips to help them sleep better so that they can absorb that water correctly and feel better. And then you know that after they're drinking water and they're hydrated, and then they're sleeping better, that the next step for them is to join your seven day challenge or to grab your product.But you have to be thinking about these things when you post, because if not, it's just noise. It's just screaming for somebody's attention. And then when they give it to you and not doing anything with it. And so every one of those touchpoints is an opportunity for you to be moving your one step closer to their goals and why one step deeper in a relationship with you and your brand.And so I might do like a full episode of it this next month. I break this down in the lighthouse method course like you guys hear me talk about all the time. If you're in, you know, how amazing it is, if you're not, and you just want to check it out, go to www.Becomealighthouse.com.  I map out the entire journey from you. I take you through all of it. I help you understand the copy. The pain points, the offer, the modalities, I E what content to post to what lead magnet, to what paid product, to what the journey looks like on the back of the paid product. And so it's there. Okay. But, well, you don't understand this, everything that you do from this point forward, you need to think in every piece of content, where am I meeting my customer? Which is their before state. Meeting them where they are and where am I taking them from here? And you need to remember if you're my age, you'll know this movie. What about Bob? My favorite thing about what about Bob is the biggest takeaway was baby steps..  People can't commit to three things at once. Six things at once 12 things at once. People can commit to one thing at a time, people will tell you they can commit to three, but they won't. Your job should be breaking things down by step, by step and bread, crumbing people into their journey. Bread crumbing people from social to a lead magnet, to a piece of content, to a product bread, crumbing people from an ad to a content, to a product, but thinking meticulously through that journey and what it could look like.So that no matter what you can't lose the game. One caveat of this, I'm going to have to do a full episode on this one. I get asked all the time. I have a product, I have an offer and it converts, how do I scale it and get more buyers? How do I get a thousand? I'm making 20 a day? How do I get a thousand? If you delivered at the best of your ability, there will be people knocking down your door and begging you to let you sell, to let them sell your products. And you would be kicking people away with a stick.  Normally the difference between 20 products a day or 10 products a day, and a thousand is the completion of the journey so that everybody gets through it can tell all their friends and they come in like wildfire and then other people want to come promote your product.And so when you think about this you need to ensure that that journey is clear everywhere in your soul content, on your blog content, on your ads, on your lead magnets, on your paid products. If you sell a 30 day program, you sure as shit better have 32 emails. If you sell a 90 day transformation, you better have a 90 day journey designed.And the next 90, where they're going to go after that, you need to know. If you're going to plant your flag in the ground and say, I'm a business, I help you do blank. I helped you lose weight. I help you feel better from the inside out. I help you double your marketing. I help you with email marketing, pick your business. That means that you need to know. Where they are and what you're going to help them with in that moment, and then where they are going to go. When that part is done, you are proclaiming to be the leader. You are proclaiming to be the lighthouse, which means that you have to understand their journey. Where they are, where they want to go and where they need to go a year from now and five years.And now, before they ever do, and that is a guaranteed way to simplify your marketing and to make every single thing you do intentional and serve a purpose so that you can create the results that you want for them and in turn for your business.

The United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA), a leading pan-African financial services group, has acted as the lead arranger of a consortium of Nigerian commercial and international banks in a $1.5 billion pre-export finance (PXF) facility for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its upstream subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC).The bank is providing $200 million (N78 billion at I&E exchange rate of N390/$1) to support investment growth and liquidity requirements.A statement from the bank on Tuesday explained that the facility would provide the much-needed capital for investment in NNPC’s production capacity, which is of strategic importance to the Nigerian economy and the country’s leading source of foreign exchange earnings.Other participants in the NNPC deal included Standard Chartered Bank, Afrexim Bank, Union Bank and two oil trading companies, Vitol and Matrix.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

And I am excited about today's episode. As I sit here, drink a  gorgeous cup of coffee. Cause I don't know. I guess coffee is gorgeous that's what I call it. Actually, as you're listening to this, I want you to send me a message or leave me a comment. How do you take your coffee? I have this theory that you can tell a lot about somebody by how they drink their coffee and it's totally made up, but I love thinking about it too.So just in full disclosure, I want to tell you. How I drink my coffee. I drank my coffee the same way every single time. And it is a black Americano. I love Americanos. I have no idea why I've loved them for a long time. I also love espresso, but I like the ability to take the flavor of that espresso and spread it out over a good half an hour. And enjoy it for a prolonged process. So I love drinking. Americanos are my drink and every Americano I drink, I add two scoops of Bubs collagen., Bubs naturals.  Every single day my cup of coffee is the same. It is a black Americano with two scoops of Bubs collagen included because I'm all about habit stacking here. And speaking about habits, let's talk about the habits of building or scaling your business. So as you know,  I did an episode, I think it was last week on the five non-negotiable books  for leaders. And today we're going to be featuring another book. But we're going to be talking about your business hierarchy of needs.  So Mike Michalowicz, which is an absolute genius when it comes to business. The way that he's able to take complex ideas, break them down and put them into book form, and then literally give you a seat step by steptep guide on how to implement or fix it is mind blowing. And he's written books called the Pumpkin plan, Profit first. Clockwork which is one of my big favorites. And then his new one, which is now my new favorite book by him and a book I'm going to recommend for the rest of my career is called Fix this next.  Now, if you're familiar with human psychology  you have what's called the Maslow's hierarchy of needs. And basically what that states is that at the bottom level, if you don't have access to safety, food, water, and shelter, you can never ascend up that hierarchy into greater things. Growth, enlightenment or anything along those lines. And so Mike took the Maslov hierarchy of needs and made the business hierarchy of needs and talk through every single thing you need in your business, to be able to ascend up to the very tip top of your business.And the truth is we see a lot of companies all the time that have  some thing but they have a big hole missing on the bottom of the pyramid. Or they have a few holes on the pyramid and they start building from the top. They build in the wrong order. They don't plug the holes. They don't set themselves up to win. And these are the companies you see that have to raise rounds, arounds or they build it and then it crashes. There are certain things that are required to sustain a business. And the first one is really simple. You need to make sales. Unless you're a nonprofit and you're raising money, no matter what your business is predicated on your ability to sell.So Mike breaks this down in the business hierarchy of needs and the visual is insane. So, two things I would recommend right away. Number one, go buy fix this next by Mike Michalowicz,  non negotiable. And I actually bought the physical version, the audible version. And I'd go to his website, www.Fixthisnext.com and he will give you a printout.Just give him your email. He'll give you a printout and I don't even know Mike. So if you know Mike, tell Mike, I talk about him all the time, please. Actually, what would be amazing if you listened to this, I would absolutely love it, if you bombarded Mike with this episode, like Mike, you don't know this George Guy, but he talks about you all the time.Send him this episode because Mike. If you listen to this, when you listen to this, I'm going to future cast right now, and I'm going to speak like it's happening when you listen to this. I just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart, as an entrepreneur and the hundreds and of thousands of entrepreneurs that you have helped you genuinely solve a giant problem and a big gap in this industry. And so for everybody listening, I recommend all of Mike's books.  So in Mike's book fix this next, he breaks it down into the business hierarchy of needs. And there's five levels in the business hierarchy of needs. The foundational level, the base of your pyramid is sales. The second level is profit. The third level is order. The fourth level is impact. And then the fifth level is legacy.  And we see, or we talk about building a lighthouse. We talk about building a hundred year vision. We talk about building a company that can sustain past your time. And in order to do that, it has to be built from the bottom up so that it can we stand. The pyramids weren't built from the top down, lighthouses aren't built from the top down houses. They're built from the bottom up because the bottom is where the core is and at the core of your business is sale.  So when Mike breaks this down, he talks about all the things that are required for you to do this. Now, I want to be clear with you and what I love about Mike, when he talks through this, it doesn't mean that you necessarily have to do all of these things in order means these are the things you want to come back and look at because you might hit a point. Where your sales were good, you're up in the order wrong, but then something in your process changed, you have to come back down and look at the sales, reinforce that foundation before you can ascend back up.And he's way more eloquent at breaking this down in his book than I I am. But I'm the sales level all we're really doing the reason this is the base. Is because without cashflow, you don't have a business. If you're not generating revenue, there's no point in investing in $30,000 website designs or 8 million influencer campaigns, or you know, thousands of units of inventory when, at the core of it, there isn't creation of cash.And so what Mike breaks down in this and the five notes I have from this absolutely loved number one in that sales level in the hierarchy of needs. It's, you're focusing on the creation of cash, but we talked about the lifestyle congruency. Like how much do you need for your lifestyle because we're entrepreneurs. You have a monthly nut, you have bills, you have school, you have food. And you need to know what that number is so you can generate it separately. You need to know what that number is. So you can generate that number and sustain your lifestyle, which will allow you to be an entrepreneur. So the first level of sales is number one, lifestyle congruence.How much do you need for your lifestyle? Number two is prospect attraction. Where are you going to find your potential customers? How are you going to communicate with your potential customers? Then next level or the next I don't want to call them levels. The next section of the sales level is client conversion. Once you find all those prospects, how are you going to convert them? Are they converting? Can it be improved? Can the process be improved?  Then he next step is delivering on commitments. You found a prospect, you converted them because you made a promise. Then you have to deliver on the commitments of the promise that you made. And then you can collect on those commitments. I E getting paid on time or clients fulfilling their commitments. And one of the things that I want to note here is you don't have a business because you sell a service or a product you have to deliver on all of those commitments in order for you to collect.So the base level of the sales or the business hierarchy of needs is sales. So that's level one, then level two, we get into profit. And this is where you get to focus on the creation of stability.  Focus on the creation of stability. And Mike recommends doing this in five areas.  Number one, debt eradication. You need to be eradicating debt. Not piling on debt right now. There are creative things that you can do. And in this, Mike wrote a book called Profit First, we run all of high-speed daddy Profit First. My amazing business partne, high-speed daddy, Craig Rizzoli. He's a mechanical engineer and he's got that brain, but we run the entire company on profit first. Like the entire company is run based off that book. Our job is to always be eliminating debt. So debt eradication is step one.  Step two is margin health. And, but margin health means is that before you go out and try to scale your business, you need to figure out if you can increase your margins, right? Because scaling something with a small margin, a thousand customers to make a thousand dollars. But if you increase a $10 margin, well now you only need a hundred customers to make a thousand dollars.  And so margin health is massive. Now every industry has different margins. But you can figure it out and you want to make sure that you're setting yourself up to win, especially in the beginning, because in the beginning, if you're doing a lot of this organic or small paid traffic, and then you start to scale and you have small margins, you won't be able to effectively scale because you won't have the cashflow or the margins to be able to pay for that traffic. Because as you go wider or deeper,  your ad cost or acquisition costs, most of the time goes up.  So in the profit level, we have debt eradication. Then we have margin health. Then we have transaction frequency. So these are repeat buyers, working on transaction frequencies. You know, we, this longterm nurture, we tell this lengthy customer journeys, like. Transaction frequency. Then you have profitable leverage and I love this profitable leverage is strategic debt. Debt without strategy is just debt, strategic debt. It means, you know that when you use this hundred thousand dollars, it's going to generate. X not. I'm going to get this a hundred thousand dollars of this $5,000 to $10,000. And I'm going to try,no without a plan you are guaranteed to fail and then you are going to increase debt. And then you're going to have to go back again to start eradicating that debt again. So strategic debt.  And then the last level of the profit tier is cash reserves. And in the business, that's a minimum of three months or longer. So the first level of the business hierarchy of needs is the sales level. We went over that. The second level is the profit level. Now we get into the third level, which is the order level. And in the order level, what your focusing on is organizational efficiency. So you want to be minimizing wasted effort.You want to remove bottlenecks and inefficiencies because at this level you have a consistent sales cycle. And a consistent profit cycle. And so you've increased your margins. You have predictable business coming in, and now it's time to increase the efficiencies with your systems and processes to start replicating yourself and being well to move out of the business. Hiring people in. And so the first thing is you want to as wasted effort, you want to remove bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Then you want to get into role alignment. Our roles matched to the talent, everybody in the company doing their best work. And in this Mike wrote another book called clockwork, which helps people identify what their queen bee role.  In your company you have a queen bee role, but also in the roles of the people, they have a queen bee role. What their sweet spot is to where they're aligned to the role that's going to deliver the maximum amount of results. After that you want to get to outcome delegation, the people well close to the problem are they empowered to solve it? And notice how this doesn't say micromanagement or tasks. It's delegation. This has outcome delegation. You're outcomingyou're delegating the outcome. You're delegating the ownership to where your not a bottleneck to where they are empowered to solve it with or without you. But primarily without you or without anybody else. And that means they have to be in the right role so they can empower that and they have the support to do that.  Then you get into linchpin redundancy. Is your business designed to operate seamlessly. If key employees are not available? Can you take a four week vacation and just disappear tomorrow? Can you get sick for three days? Can one of your employees go on maternity leave? And if the answer to that is no. Well, you know that you have to have that redundancy. And then the last one is mastery reputation.  So the last level of order is mastery reputation. Are you the best in the industry at what you do? And what I mean by that, if you're going out and telling everybody how good you are, you aren't. If everybody else is telling everybody how great you are, you are. And so we covered sales, then profit then order. And then the fourth level of the business hierarchy of needs is impact. And this is all about client alignment and transformation.  So you want to have a transformation orientation. So we talk about this all the time. I say people don't. You know, when, when transactions, they, when the transformations, people don't buy the best product or service, they bought the best relationship and you don't have a business unless everybody has transformed with what you promised. And so you want to be focusing on transformation, orientation, transformation beyond the transaction, then mission motivation. Is your team motivated by the company mission? Are they excited to come to work? Do they own it like it's their own? Do they embody it? And if not, how do you get there?  The third one is dream alignment. So is your work aligned with the individual team member's life dreams? Like, do you know, where are your employees want to be in their life? Are you supporting them in getting there? Do you know what they want? Their financial situation look like their house situation, their family situation, their hobbies situation to look like. When you can get your your business and your team all aligned and you can align your company to support your team members dreams. You'll be absolutely unstoppable.  The next one feedback integrity. Are you receiving honest, constructive feedback and compliments from team and customers? And then the last one in the impact phase is a complimentary network. Are you collaborating withother businesses and competitors? Now? This is the entire impact level of the business hierarchy of needs.  And then the last level and the very tip top of the pyramid of the business hierarchy of needs is the legacy level. And your entire job here is to focus on the creation of permanence legacy forever with, or without you.It's not a legacy if it's involves you with legacy. It has to be bigger than you. It has to live on without you. And so what you're looking for here is community continuance. Do your clients fervently defend, support, and help the business. Are they more invested in the business than you are because they've received such transformations from the previous level that you've promised them. Is there intentional leadership turn? Is there a plan for leadership to transition and stay fresh for people to grow for them to escalate up the ladder for them to transition out and put new perspective and fresh purpose perspective in.  The next one, do you have heart-based promoters? Do you have people inside and outside of the organization promoting the company without the need of direction? Now this is a very big one. We cover this when we talk about contagious with Jonah Berger. I don't know if I've done that episode yet, but I've recommended a book a lot. To where your job is to show up in such a manner that your results speak for themselves, but also your customers have a clear understanding of what it is you do and how you do it so they can go tell the world about it. And these are your heart based promoters.  The next section is quarterly dynamics. Do you have a clear vision for the future and dynamically adjust quarterly to make that vision come true? And then the last one is ongoing adaptation is the business designed to constantly adapt and improve, including finding  better ways to invest in itself.And those are the five tiers of the business hierarchy of needs with the five. Chapters per se, or containers or sections within those tiers. And so I'm going to cover them again before I wrap this episode. And when I say this again, this book by the way, I've read this book three times in the last two months and I've utilized it on myself quite a few times. And I look at it, add it fresh all the time. I keep this chart just near me on my phone. I can look at it and like, Oh, I need that today making sure that I'm aligned to where we're going, the impact we want to having the legacy we want to leave. And so in your business, you are the person responsible for the vision. You are the person responsible for looking at this chart. You can be an employee and you're still responsible for looking at this chart because leadership doesn't have to happen from the top. Leadership happens everywhere. When we're intentional about business, we're guaranteed success because at the intersection, right so you have intentionality, you have disciplined and then you have a vision. If you have the vision and you are intentional about going there and you have the discipline to follow it, you are guaranteed success. The road might not look like you want it to look and it might not be as straight as you think, this is entrepreneurship after all, but you're guaranteed to get there as long as you utilize this in your business.  So the five levels of the business hierarchy of needs, again are level one is sales, level two is profit. Level three is order, level four is impact and level five is legacy. And I'm going to run through the individual components one more time, really quickly. And then I want you to go pick up Fix this Next by Mike Michalowicz . It's on audible. It's also, I recommend getting the hard copy so you can take notes and then go to his website, www.Fixthisnext.com  And yes, I mean this gold bombard Mike and let him know how big of an impact in the world, because I'm recording an entire podcast for him on this. I've read all of his books. We've sold. Hundreds of them recommended them all to you. And Mike needs to know Mike. You're amazing. Thank you for doing your work and thank you for not quitting back in the day after you published that book, and you didn't get a sale on your first book on the first day. And thanks for sticking it out, brother.So when we think about the business hierarchy of needs, the sales level, your job is to focus on the creation of cash, lifestyle congruence, prospect, attraction, client conversion, delivering on commitments and collecting on commitments. The next level profit focus on the creation of stability, debt, eradication, margin, health, transaction frequency, profitable, leverage, and cash reserves.Then order, focus on organizational efficiency, minimize wasted effort, role alignment, outcome delegation, linchpin redundancy, and mastery reputation. Then you get to impact, and your goal is client alignment and transformation. Transformation, orientation, mission motivation, dream alignment, feedback, integrity and a complimentary network.  And then the final level is legacy where you are focusing on the creation of permanence community continuance, intentional leadership churn, heart-based promoters, quarterly dynamics and ongoing adaptation.  And that is the business hierarchy of needs. And so my question for you is when are you going to download it and go look at it and start intentionally plugging these because this is probably one of the best gifts to business I've ever seen in the last 10 years. And it's been transformative in my career. Hundred of my clients lives, my mastermind, students, yours and everything and it is the best representation of what it takes to build and scale a business ethically. Focused on the right reasons, having the impact on the world that we need to have to make a difference. And we're all responsible for getting it done. So go grab the book, gall bombard, Mike, and I will see you guys in the next episode to remember that relationships always beat algorithms. 

This week Lisa shares her insights into what Heavy metal poisoning is. It is the accumulation of various heavy metals in your body. Environmental and industrial factors expose you to high levels of heavy metals every day, including the foods you eat and air you breathe. Some of these metals — such as zinc, copper, and iron — are good for you in small amounts. But overexposure can lead to heavy metal poisoning over time.  Heavy Metals damage our bodies and brains in so many ways and none of us living in this toxic soup environment of our world is immune to it's effects so what can we do to support our bodies in detoxifying from things like Mercury, Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium, Thallium and co. In this webinar Lisa shares her heavy metal detox methods and what you need to be careful about. Symptoms of heavy metal toxicity vary depending on the type of metal you're overexposed to. Mercury, lead, arsenic and cadmium are some of the more common overexposed metals. Acute symptoms associated with these metals include: headaches abdominal pain and cramping nausea vomiting diarrhea fatigue difficulty breathing In more severe cases of chronic heavy metal poisoning, you may experience symptoms including: burning and tingling sensations chronic infections brain fog visual disturbances insomnia paralysis   This Webinar was developed as part of Lisa's new Brain Optimisation course.   We would like to thank our sponsors for this show:   For more information on Lisa Tamati's programs, books and documentaries please visit www.lisatamati.com   For Lisa's online run training coaching go to https://www.lisatamati.com/pag... Join hundreds of athletes from all over the world and all levels smashing their running goals while staying healthy in mind and body.   Lisa's Epigenetics Testing Program https://www.lisatamati.com/pag... measurement and lifestyle stress data, that can all be captured from the comfort of your own home   For Lisa's Mental Toughness online course visit: https://www.lisatamati.com/pag... Lisa's third book has just been released. It's titled "Relentless - How A Mother And Daughter Defied The Odds"   Visit: https://relentlessbook.lisatam... for more Information   ABOUT THE BOOK: When extreme endurance athlete, Lisa Tamati, was confronted with the hardest challenge of her life, she fought with everything she had. Her beloved mother, Isobel, had suffered a huge aneurysm and stroke and was left with massive brain damage; she was like a baby in a woman's body. The prognosis was dire. There was very little hope that she would ever have any quality of life again. But Lisa is a fighter and stubborn. She absolutely refused to accept the words of the medical fraternity and instead decided that she was going to get her mother back or die trying. This book tells of the horrors, despair, hope, love, and incredible experiences and insights of that journey. It shares the difficulties of going against a medical system that has major problems and limitations. Amongst the darkest times were moments of great laughter and joy. Relentless will not only take the reader on a journey from despair to hope and joy, but it also provides information on the treatments used, expert advice and key principles to overcoming obstacles and winning in all of life's challenges. It will inspire and guide anyone who wants to achieve their goals in life, overcome massive obstacles or limiting beliefs. It's for those who are facing terrible odds, for those who can't see light at the end of the tunnel. It's about courage, self-belief, and mental toughness. And it's also about vulnerability... it's real, raw, and genuine. This is not just a story about the love and dedication between a mother and a daughter. It is about beating the odds, never giving up hope, doing whatever it takes, and what it means to go 'all in'. Isobel's miraculous recovery is a true tale of what can be accomplished when love is the motivating factor and when being relentless is the only option.   We are happy to announce that Pushing The Limits rated as one of the top 200 podcast shows globally for Health and fitness.  **If you like this week's podcast, we would love you to give us a rating and review if you could. That really, really helps to show get more exposure on iTunes**   Transcript of the Podcast:   Speaker 1: (00:01) Welcome to pushing the limits. The show that helps you reach your full potential with your host. Lisa Tamati brought to you by Lisatamati.com. Speaker 2: (00:11) Well, hi everyone. Listen to how many here again and fantastic to have you back on the course today, we're going to be talk, talking about heavy metals and what they do in the body and why you need to be aware of this and why you need to get a test support and why it's important for brain health and a whole lot of stuff. So heavy metal poisoning. It affects nearly all of us. We are pretty much living in a toxic soup and now modern day environment that our bodies were not made for all the chemicals that are out there. There are a heck of a lot of heavy metals in our environment. Things like mercury thallium, Arsenic, Nickel, uranium, and lead and others. And this is leading to a boat up and our bodies, unfortunately, that everywhere in our environment, from our water supply and the soils that grow our food and the fish that we eat and the meat that we eat and even in the vegetables that we consume and the ear, of course, that we breathe not to mention all the chemicals that are in our houses. Speaker 2: (01:18) You'd be surprised at the amount of chemicals in our houses and offices and the like, and of course, through our cars and so on and through industry. Now, as these metals slowly build up over time, it's like a slow poisoning of the systems. And many of the things that we think of as aging are really just, well, can at least be partly attributed to heavy metal toxicity. So heavy metals slowly, we can ask some agents and cause cellular damage, and that can suppress also our thyroid functions, making us feel quite sluggish, cold and fatigued, and our immune system can also take a hit so we can get more infections and have immune system functional problems. So arsenic, cadmium lead and mercury are the most toxic and the most ubiquitous metals in our environments. The ones that we really need to be aware of, and these are all carcinogens. Speaker 2: (02:14) I E they can cause cancers. Now, there are others like chromium iron, copper zinc, and these are actually needed in the body. But if they are also into higher levels, it can be not actually optimal for us. Now, all of these metals are naturally occurring metals but through activities like mining and smelting and manufacturing, or they use some things like fuels and paint sucks, etc mean that they're no longer just deep, underground, like they were, but that they're actually up here with us in the soil, air and water. So what does the heavy metals do? Well, they affect our mitochondria. So our mitochondria, you're going to be hearing more about this in the, of a little factories. If you like that are producing energies in our cells via an electrical process. Now, these heavy metals and our bodies mess with that electrical process, and that causes a big impact on oxidative stress and cellular function, which leads them to aging and decline. Speaker 2: (03:19) Now, babies and children are even more vulnerable to these metals and pregnant woman has to be especially careful because if they are exposed to these middles, they can experience miscarriage. Carriages are premature birth and low birth weights, which can really affect a child for, for life. And if the child is exposed to this during the early childhood, this can cross the blood brain barrier and cause things like a lowered IQ and cognitive problems. Now lead exposure, for example, has been shown in studies to increase the cardiovascular disease dramatically. And it can double the risk of mortality for coronary heart disease. So really, really bad stuff. So lit damages, the cells that line, the blood vessels, it hardens the arteries and causes plaques to form. Now, once the Plex are present, the blood pressure increases, which increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. Speaker 2: (04:20) Now, anything that's gonna damage the, in the Lisio lining of yourselves is something that we want to avoid. So it's not only heavy metals that would do that or live that will do that. But it's one of the things that can cause inflammation on the endometrial cells. Now, nowadays we have, luckily they have taken the lead out of our fuels and paints. Thank goodness. And there was less of that in our environment now, but they have replaced in our fuels at least overseas. I haven't been able to get the data for New Zealand, but they have replaced the lead with cellular and sound. Liam is even worse than the lead. And they're like, there's no safe level for lead and there's no really safe level for failure. So Telium is used in things like rat poison, someone sick decides, and then the glass manufacturing end and the pharmaceutical industries, and it's a colorless tasteless poison. Speaker 2: (05:18) And it's, it causes the potassium in your, in your cells to fail. And potassium is really, really important. In fact, I nearly died of a lack of potassium in my late twenties when I've been doing too much sport and my electrolyte levels have fallen so low that my, my potassium levels got down to a point where my entire body cramps from my head to my toe all at once, including my heart and I nearly died. So I know that a lack of potassium can really effect now that wasn't caused through Sally and poisoning, but it belabors the point that if your potassium in your sales, then you're in big trouble. So even in small doses that causes to generate a changes in many of your organs. And it's most apparent in the nervous system who is lesions in the Bazell gang, it's really a part of the brain. Speaker 2: (06:11) And this is an area of the brain that can that has to do with speech and movement and posture. I know with mum's aneurysm that she had, that that part of the brain was damaged and she has problems motor problems and postural problems, but lead can also cause damage and lesions and that part of the brain. So, and another thing to be aware of now it's shown to be in many of our soils, which grow our food. So stellium, so Becky, sorry, tell me I'm not leaving as I was meaning before. So salium has been showing that it's a mini soils, which grow our food and there are a family vegetables the kales and the cabbages and the brassica families that are especially good at taking thallium back up out of the ground. It's actually so good that a one Chinese study, they found that the soil could be decontaminated terminated from planting a whole lot of cabbages that then sucked it up. Speaker 2: (07:14) Now, if we go and eat that cabbage or that kale, then we're obviously doing ourselves a disservice. So next time someone offers you some cold sore or something cabbage or something with kale in it. You might want to think about it. Where did it come from? So I want to talk now about mercury. Now this is while we're all probably aware of it's very problematic, heavy metal, it causes high blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases and neuro toxicity. It can appear cognitive function and motor skills. And it's found in fish, which unfortunately is a really important food source that has all our migas, DHS, and EPS, which are really good for our health, which are great. So unfortunately, those that fish also have mercury. Now there's something like 600 tons of mercury every year going into our oceans. So there's becoming more and more of the mercury around. Speaker 2: (08:12) So if you eat a lot of fish, which ostensibly would be healthy, this can lead to mercury toxicity. Now fish that are higher up the food chain are more effective than fish that had lower down the food chain and the, the fish that live here. They accused me. You mean like more mercury, so you don't want to be eating things like shark or swordfish. For example, you want to be having the smaller fish that aren't too old because the older fish will have higher levels of mercury in them. Then the, the smaller and younger fish, another major source of mercury poisoning is the amalgams our fillings, which, you know, growing up in the seventies, that's what they did. They stuck amalgam in our mouth. I had a mouth full of it. And I went into a dentist who knew how to get rid of amalgam fillings and make sure you go to a dentist who knows how to do that safely, because it's very important that you don't get the mercury toxicity because you went to a dentist who was not really equipped to deal with the amalgam and removing it because it can cause a spike of mercury poisoning and your body when they remove this. Speaker 2: (09:27) And that's definitely not something you want to have happen. If you have amalgam fillings, so now then I can guarantee you that we'll be shortening your life and it will be detrimental to your health. You want to get that sorted as quick as you can. I know you deserve expensive, but if there's any, which way you can make that happen, do so. There are other sources of mercury as well. Things like a compact fluorescent lights, and it's also used in some manufacturing processes. So don't buy compact fluorescent lights. So no good, no matter how good you think you are with your diet and your, you know, your, the way you live and your lifestyle chances are you've been exposed to heavy metals in some way, shape or form. And there is this booting up in your body. And we aren't made to live in this toxic soup that we have unfortunately created for ourselves. Speaker 2: (10:28) Now there's a couple of ways that you can test for heavy metal poisoning. You can get a hair tissue, mineral analysis. And I have a podcast with Gary Miler, who is someone who does this heat tissue, mineral analysis. You'll be able to listen to that later. I've had mine done. And I come back with arsenic poisoning, for example, and mercury poisoning asked Nick because I was a Goldsmith for many years and did a lot of smelting and melting of metals, which I believe is where I picked that up from. So you need to be able to, to do these tests, the other way to do it is to get a urine test. Now, if you want to detox your body from metals, and you should be thinking about this, because even if you're unaware of what's going on in your body, it's doing the damage, then you do need to be under the auspices of probably a functional doctor. Speaker 2: (11:22) You're probably not going to get my success with a normal conventional medicine, try to get in touch with a functional doctor who can analyze your heavy metal toxicity, or you can reach out to Gary Mueller and do a hair tissue, mineral analysis, to find out where you're at as well, doing a detox on your own can be dangerous because you can shift it out of your fat cells, where it's being stored and into your brain, which you really don't want to do. So you want to do it in a, in a, in a way that is controlled. Now I'm going to go through a few of the supplements that you can take that will help with the detoxification process. Again, please go and see a doctor to make sure that you do this all right. Some of these are quite safe to take regardless and would help you with your general health. Speaker 2: (12:13) Now, the first one I wanted to talk about is glutathione. Glutathione is known as the mother of all antioxidants. It's that powerful. Now this is a collating agent, meaning that its molecules can create several bonds to the metals chelating agents bind to the metals in your body. And in that debate them, they cause them to be inactive. So they can't do the dangerous things anymore. It's part of the phase two detox system that your body has. You're a body. Your body eliminates them when you have the right levels of glutathione through your urine and your bile and glutathione is one of the ones that has the ability to stop mercury from entering the cells in the, in the very first place, which is really, really important. And also just as a side note, due to science also protects fats from oxidation. It supports your mitochondria and boosts immunity and helps brain function. Speaker 2: (13:10) So it's a really, really important thing. And this declines with age, your glutathione production, recline declines with age, it also helps to recharge of the antioxidants and make them able to fight inflammation. And as a cofactor for dozens of enzymes, that neutralize free radicals. Now, as we age, our glutathione levels drop, as I said, and the risk for all the major killers go up, things like heart disease and Alzheimer's and cancers and so on. So our bodies produce our own glutathione, but it often can't keep up with the demands of this toxic soup that we're living in. And with the demands of the free radical production as we get older. So if you are loaded with heavy metals, then you should take extra glutathione. Now you can take this as an Ivy or as a supplement. And I will issue a word, a corny, a word of warning here in a minute, but what you want to do with gratifying as you want to do this and for a little while, and then have a break. Speaker 2: (14:16) But when you take it, take a break from the glue define, and the reason you don't do this all the time is that if you taking it all time, it will cause your body's own glutathione production to downregulate and you don't want to do that. So you want to have breaks every now and then from having lots of glutathione. However, the one caution I also wanted to bring out, and this is from an area called functional genomics, which I'm studying at the moment. And you will have a couple of really good episodes on the podcast list from dr. Mansoor Muhammed. And he is the number one's world's number one expert in functional genomics. And he says that when you are giving glutathione, you have to be aware of one thing. If the person that you are giving the glutathione to is one person who doesn't have the GST T 1 or the N1 genes, or if they have only one of each of those genes. Speaker 2: (15:20) Now, the GSTT1s in the GST N1's are part of your detoxification. glutathione trains for H G is T that is just the residue from somewhere, but it's the glutathione transfer res. Now this is a family of genes. You have the GSTT1 N1 and P1. However, the GST T1 and the N1 can be affected by what they call a C in V a copy number variation. And some individuals will not have inherited the normal two genes from one from your mom. One from your dad is what you usually get with all your genes. And if I didn't get two sets of genes and they only got one GST T1 gene, then they will only be producing, Oh, they have the ability to process half the amount of glutathione the same with, N1, if they only received one thing or none, then they are going to have a significantly impaired ability to process glutathione Speaker 2: (16:31) Now that means they going to have issues with detoxification. And you would think that by giving your body more glutathione, that would be a good thing, right? You want to help them get more glutathione, but this is the, it's not the glutathione production that these are genes are responsible for, but for the catalytic reaction of what it does with the glutathione you have it, I know this is a bit of a mouthful, and we will be talking about it more in the functional genomics, but there is a significant portion of the population who have the less than optimal GSTT1 And N1 genes, if you are one of these people, your ability to use glutathione and the catalytic reaction is reduced. Now you can benefit from so having some group of firearm by way of supplements, but not too much in an Ivy is liable to be too much. Speaker 2: (17:32) In this case. It is also dependent on your phase one detox genes, and again, more about that in the functional genomic sector. So before you go out and get glutathione, I V it would be who've intelligence to actually get a functional genomic test, which we will be talking about later in the section and which I am studying currently to be qualified, to be able to read those. So I will hopefully hit, be able to offer you that service later on. So it's really important to know some of our genes so that we know how we are going to react to certain supplements or to medications or what predispositions we have, but, but we will get onto that later. So back now to the heavy metals. So we've just covered off the glue to sign as being a great supplement and a great Ivy for supporting the body with that caveat that you get your genes checked to see what your GSTT1 AND N1 genes are doing. Speaker 2: (18:37) Now, we're going to move on to alpha lipoic acid. Now, this is an antioxidant that can cross the blood brain barrier to protect neurons from heavy metal poisoning. It also regenerates glutathione. As we mentioned before, both inside and outside of the cells increasing glutathione levels in the body. It also helps your mitochondria, those little battery cells or power that create the energy in the cell that I talked about before perform better. So alpha lipoic acid is a very good and safe supplements we taking to help you detoxify and support that process up to 1800 milligrams is considered a safe dose of alpha lipoic acid. So that's really something that you could go and grab right now. Vitamin C is also a crucial antioxidant and should be part of your regular regime. Low levels of vitamin C mean also low levels of glutathione on the body and more oxidative stress. Speaker 2: (19:42) So vitamin C can also specifically help you detox from lead a toxicity. There is with glue to fly on, give your body a break some days from vitamin C and especially for all the athletes out there do not take vitamin C after a high intensity workouts or hard workout is the workout itself causes oxidative stress. That is good for you because that's what you're doing. You wanted to cause the stress to make the body respond by making your muscles stronger. Your team's stronger. You are your cardiovascular system stronger. Now, if you have vitamin C straight after a high intensity workout, you're going to be undoing all of that oxidative stress. So that's, it's not a good combination within 12 hours after a hit. So that's just as a little tip as an extra benefit, really. Have you bought them and see a way from your workouts and give yourself the right to renowned need from taking regular vitamin C. Speaker 2: (20:48) If you take it straight after a hit workout, it will interfere with the signals for your muscles to grow and get stronger. So that would be counter productive to your training. Okay. Now over to zinc, good zinc levels prevent your body from taking on lead and cabinet cadmium. And zinc has a very important, as well as an immune regulator. And many, many Kiwis are deficient in zinc. I don't have the statistics, but I have read studies before that there's a huge deficiency in the population for sync. So if you don't want to have lead and cadmium poisoning start adding some zinc to your regime, it's also really good as an immune regulator, as I said, the next one I wanted to talk to you about is activated charcoal. Now you may have come across this. When you were in third world countries, it's very readily available in those places because it helps with gastrointestinal bags that you get. Speaker 2: (21:49) And, you know, places like Bali and the POL and feeble countries where you're able to eat something, that's got some horrible bacteria on it, and you take activated charcoal to bind to those horrible things and get it out of your system. Right. But what you might not know is that it's also very, very good at detoxifying the body. Sorry. So it's very, very good at detoxifying the body. And it's a really good thing to take on a regular regular basis. So activated charcoal, what you need to be aware of where you're taking this is that you take it away from other supplements because it will detract from other supplements medication. And you like, for example, you don't want to be taking it next to taking your, sorry, I've just had a message coming up up here and I have to get rid of it. Speaker 2: (22:58) That's interfering with my notes here. So activated charcoal, you don't want to be taking it next to say your antidepressants, because it will lead to you passing that out without having it's been official response and the same with supplements. Another thing that's important too, to understand with, with Choco is that you want a very fine grade of charcoal, so that it's been ground up to a really fine, fine level. So then it has a bigger surface area in which to bind to the metals. So activated charcoal has a strong negative charge, and it binds to chemicals whose molecules have a positive charge, but once it attaches to them, you can pass them out through your store. You can then scrape them out from your body before they do any harm. When you eat food containing lead, cadmium copper, copper, Nickel activated charcoal, bind up these toxic metals before they get into cells. Speaker 2: (24:04) So doing this as a really good anti aging and longevity intervention, which is a low risk thing to be doing, you can have this two to three times a day. If you want all in it, the stomach away from other foods, it has also been shown in heart disease patients to lower the cholesterol levels and to improve your HDL to LDL cholesterol levels, your ratio. So really, really important. The next one that I wanted to talk to you about, and we're nearly there on this section is chlorella Corella. I have done a podcast on with Catherine Arnston who is the CEO and founder of energy bits, and she has spirulina and chlorella, and she has a hell of a lot of research about how amazing chlorella is. But one of the things that the chlorella LG does is it binds very well to mercury and the gap. Speaker 2: (25:02) So when you are eating fish, a really simple tip is to have some chlorella tablets when you are eating the fish, and that will negate will stop the mercury being taken up into the cells and help you pass that out. So Corella is a really good detox medication. I take it every night before I go to bed and it helps detox my body in general, but especially for, for for MITRE and for other heavy metals, I want to stop eating fish and fish has got a lot of good for us. And you can see find that podcast. It's number one 39 on my pushing the limits podcasts. And you'll have a list of those below in this, in this course as well. Now, the very last one that I wanted to cover off is digestive fibers also help us to remove toxins. Speaker 2: (25:54) Now I'm talking about here, the soluble kind of fiber, not the insoluble. Now the soluble kind of fiber helps feed the bacteria in your gut, which is a good thing. You want to keep those good bacteria well feed. Now there is a pro product called modified city trust pick done, and this is a very, very powerful, great NTI aging supplement for you to take it's good at removing lead and cadmium arsenic, and salium they did one study that with 15 minutes grams, a day of modified citrus pectin for five days lead to test subjects to he'll be made. It was out through the urine much, much higher quantities. For example, as snack, leaving the bar 130% more, and me I'm at 150% modified citrus pectin also reduces cancer's ability to spread in the body, which is another very, very good reason to try and try this low risk supplement and get this good fiber. Speaker 2: (26:58) And so a low dose of that would be about five grams a day for several months. And a high dose for an adult would be 15 grams per day for a year, which is considered a high dose for children. You only want to do this intermittently because it does reduce galectin three. And that's something that children need a lot of, but that's going beyond the scope of this. Okay. So that's it for metal poisoning today. I hope you've learned a lot. You probably want to relisten to this a few times to get it in your brain, and maybe you want to go and try just one or two of those detoxing supplements out some of the low risk ones like your Corolla, your vitamin C a no brainer. Some of the other ones, EDTA is also one that I forgot to mention, and also very powerful as an IV, or is rectally. Speaker 2: (27:51) Or you can take it as supplements and this will also help detoxify your body, but with EDTA, with gratify on infusions you want to be a under the auspices of a, of a functional doctor to do this, and you need to do that to get your testing done. And you also want to just be a little bit careful when it comes to just detoxing flat stick. Because again, it's something that you want to do slowly and controlled because you don't want the heavy metal toxins to be pulled out of the fat and then deposit somewhere else or in the brain, which would be catastrophic. So you want to do that in, in a, in a bit of a controlled form. So I hope that's helped today and we look forward to the next session with you and we'll see you again. Soon Speaker 1: (28:37) That's it this week for pushing the limits, be sure to write review and share with your friends and head over and visit Lisa and her team, at lisatamati.com.

 Engineering Influence sat down with Karen Erger, the Director of Practice Risk Management at Lockton Companies, the world's largest privately held insurance brokerage firm to discuss managing risk when returning to the jobsite during COVID-19. Host:Welcome to ACEC's Engineering Influence podcast brought to you by the ACEC Life Health Trust - www.aceclifehealthtrust.com. I'm pleased today to be joined by Karen Erger. She is the Director of Practice Risk Management at Lockton Companies, the world's largest privately held insurance brokerage firm. And today we're going to be talking about all things risk management, especially in the age of COVID-19 and what engineering firm leaders need to think about when returning to the office, not just the office, but the job site and dealing with clients, with paused work, and contracts and all these things that six months ago, we didn't have to think about. And now we are living in a time of complete and utter economic shutdown that starting to restart, and that's posing a lot of, a lot of questions. So Karen, thank you for coming on the show, number one, and number two, tell us a little bit about what you do at Lockton and how you would approach this massive issue.Karen Erger:Thanks, Jeff. It's a pleasure to be with you today. Appreciate being on the program. So my job at Lockton is providing education risk management, education, resources, to Lockton's clients, and specifically our group of clients are architects and engineers. I have the privilege of working with about 40 professionals at Lockton whose sole focus is architects and engineers all sit on the eighth floor of a building in Kansas city. And so my job is to prepare risk management, education, resources, and programs and advice for our clients, but also for my internal clients, for the people who serve our architecture and engineering clients. My background is being an attorney representing architects and engineers in malpractice suits. So I'm a good, witch not, not a bad witch. And so I did that and for all the rest of my career, I've been a broker pretty much exclusively working with architects, engineers, and contractors.Host:So you know, the industry, you know the ins and outs and the challenges that firms have to deal with on a regular basis. But of course the COVID-19 is anything but regular. Have you ever really approached something... I mean, have you ever dealt with something of this magnitude because it's just been so widespread and also just from your position both as a broker and as an attorney, how do you get your arms around this whole issue? And, and, and the fact that there has been such a disruption and that firms are not only dealing with questions about keeping their businesses afloat at any given time, but then also dealing with reopening the offices, how you doing with employees, but then also with their clients. And then a lot of what we're going to be talking about today is on the client side, which is getting back to that worksite, getting back to that paused work in a changed environment and world after this pandemic or, you know, as it still happens, like, how do you get your arms around this whole subject?Karen Erger:Well, Jeff tough and unprecedented times, for sure. And you're right, that firms have really, they have to fight this battle if you want to call it that on so many fronts dealing with what's going to happen internally with employees and how they will work and externally with clients on projects and how we handle those, how we get those started, how we manage them at cetera. My specific focus is on practice risk management. So the thing that I'm usually looking at is how can engineers and architects run their practice so that they no other way to say it, get in less trouble and are able to have better relationships with clients, which is kind of the foundation of having fewer problems and also do better projects. So one of the things I've noticed is though this is a very unprecedented time as you point out, I'm always amazed in the 30 years I've been doing this, how we're usually going back to the toolbox of risk management and deploying some of the same tools, despite the fact that this is a very difficult and unique situation.Karen Erger:So communication and documentation. I mean, I I can just, I can feel your audience groaning. Like here comes the lawyer talking about communication and documentation again, but it's really one of the things that I think is going to be critical in restarting projects and dealing with clients and probably on the home front too, although that's not my specific focus in what I do. So I think whenever there's a situation like this, whenever there's some big moving event, we're, we're, we're all pulling together to try and make things better. I think it's very tempting to skip and skimp on communication and documentation because we just want to get the project moving. We're all in this together. And we all, we're all people who are of good intent and we all understand each other, which can be absolutely true. Even people of good intent though, can misunderstand each others actions after the fact.Karen Erger:And that's why it's so important to communicate with clients about, okay, so COVID-19 presents certain problems to us, whether that be in actually accomplishing the project or doing site visits. Now that now that our ability to do that can be compromised by the need to follow safety procedures by the fact that people are at home by the fact that people can take mass travel communication with clients about those issues is key. It's always tempting to assume that we know what's in the other, other fellow or gal's head, but we need to have those conversations and we need to document those conversations. We need to give our clients the information that they need to make good decisions. So the pros and cons of for example, here's how we're going to do site visits. And here's, here are the ways we can do it. And here are the pros and cons of those agree on that. And then commemorate that in writing, whether it's, you know, just, just a piece of paper, but ideally an amendment to the contract, if that is what is needed here. So that later we all understand what's going on, but also forget about the covering your butt aspect of this for a minute also, so that we're sure that we're on the same page. There's something about writing things down that can be very helpful and no, no, no, that's not what I meant or I didn't hear you when you said that. That's not what I wanted here.Host:Yeah. So that's a really good point. I mean, for firms that a lot of this is kind of hindsight because it's hard to really, you can't go back in time and start that communication process now because we're so late into the process, but looking ahead, God willing for the next shoe to drop the next big challenge. It's a good point that starting that communication early are there any recommended processes or, or best practices in that communication that firms should really adopt in, let's say future contracts with clients. Is there any addendum, is there any language or instruments that affirm a general counsel should say, okay, we're going to add this now into our, you know, our contracts moving forward because the situation that we find ourselves in?Karen Erger:Yeah. Well, that's, that's a great question. And I love that you've struck on contracts. That's a good way to get a lawyer wound up and talking. So thank you for that, Jeff. Yeah, let's, let's talk about contracts going forward. And actually this is also a contracts looking backwards because one of the things that I recommend to our clients is that this is the time to pull out the contracts for your existing project and see where you stand with respect to your rights and duties to the client. So some of the things that I would expect people to be more thoughtful about now that we've, we've had this very momentous experience of COVID-19 are things like understanding what your rights are when the project is suspended by the client, which of course, lots of them are. Do you have the right to additional compensation and additional time?Karen Erger:Does the contract spell that out? So we know that the AIA and the EJDC documents do that. They're very clear about this, but we also know that not all documents are AIA and EJCDC, and lots of times our engineer and architect clients are not in a position where they can dictate what the contract form will be. So what I would expect, or what I would hope for is that firms will start to think about what are our non-negotiables here, what is very important and what have we learned from COVID-19 that needs to be incorporated in our contracts going forward. You mentioned kind of what, what can we do now that we've, we've had this experience. Another thing that there's going to be a lot of focus on, I think is what are what are, what is the damages delay situation? If there's, if there's a delay that is beyond our reasonable control, do we have responsibility for that?Karen Erger:Or does the contract expressly say that we do not? So I've heard a lot of talk about, perhaps we need a, force majeure or clause, which is just law, French for superior force, and contractors typically have them in their contracts, but often design professionals do not. I've seen some insurance carriers proposed different, different different provisions that actually talk about a pandemic virus that might be wise. There's also language in the AIA and EJDC, excusing delays, if they are, I think AIA is due to reasonable cause and EJDC is delays through through no fault of the engineer. So we'll want to look at things like that. And finally, one last thing. So that's two, the third would be additional services. So what does the contract say about your ability to claim additional services? Because as I'm sure we're going to discuss today, some of what's happening here is going to, I think really mandate looking back at the project and perhaps making some changes in it.Karen Erger:Can we be compensated for those changes? And that's something that additional services will be valuable for. And I guess this is a sub point. I said, there were only going to be three. So this is a sub point to that one. Being very aware of what the notice requirements of your contract are. If the contract says you've got to get five days, notice to the client or confer with the client before providing additional services, know that and do it contracts, aren't just something to be sitting in a dusty drawer someplace. They can really help you, but only if you know what they say and you're aware of where you stand contractually.Host:And that's a really good point. And the thing that popped in my mind was I guess, two questions. The first is that that nature of force majeure not really being part of design contracts, is that, why is that, is that more of a, the perspective from the design side of things saying that, well, you know, our work is kind of controlled. We don't we don't need that force majeure in there because when are we going to actually have to exercise it? Has it been just a kind of a generational thing where, you know as contracts with developed over time and as the legal cannon developed over time that it's just been left out because it's not like, wow, you know, it's design work. We're not, we're not on the site. We don't have to worry about that. And, and, and is that a perception that needs to change now that everybody's kind of been tossed into the whole situation together? No matter what you're doing, if you're at home working on, on a computer or, you know, in an office, you know, doing the work?Karen Erger:Oh, that's a, that's a good question on a really timely one. I just want to make it clear just because something isn't labeled force meajeure doesn't that it doesn't accomplish that intent, that language that I mentioned in AIA and EJDC which is that delay beyond your reasonable control is something that you won't be penalized for that really is force majeure it. So just kind of practice pointer pro tip. When you're looking at your contract, don't just look for force majeure, look at something like time for performance, because that's where I would expect to see those, those provisions you asked about how did we get here? Why is that the contractors typically have force majeure clauses, and we don't have such expansive and explicit provisions in our contract as design professionals. I think part of the reason that something that you touched on, which is we don't go to the site, we're not affected by kind of the physical forces of it's raining, and we can't make concrete in the rain. We work at our desks. And soKaren Erger:Maybe there's less emphasis on what will we do if it's raining or what will we do if there's wildfires nearby and we can't go to the site. And to a certain extent, it's still true that we can work from our desks, that we are a little less impacted by it than we think we are. But, you know, this is a bigger question than this podcast probably admits of, but I think one of the things that's going to be terribly interesting is it seems like people are able to be productive from afar. It seems like remote work and work from home is, is working. That people are being productive and, and whatever like that. So two things, one, can we do this forever? Is there going to be a point where we're kind of grant kind of grind our gears? Cause we can't all sit around a table looking at things and shoving stuff around and, and I guess too, are we really being productive at home? I think so. I hope so. But kind of the proof of the pudding, isn't going to be evident for a little while.Host:A little while. Yeah. and the only followup to that is kind of the position between prime and sub. So if you are, you know, if you're a prime, if you're a prime on the contract you know, I can imagine that you're, you're maybe more inclined to have that language in there or, or to consider what do we, what maneuverability do we have should something happened like this disruption, if you're, if you're a subcontractor you're, I would imagine your hands are a little bit more tied or, or is it something where if you're a subcontractor coming into, to a project and you're going to be, you know signing on the line to start that work, is it, should that perspective change, should you be more aggressive in creating room to maneuver in that contract?Karen Erger:Right. So the sub-consultant is usually stuck with whatever the prime negotiates be that for good or ill, or at least I guess from a risk manager standpoint, I kind of hope so we're, we're always preaching to the prime to flow down what you've taken on and not, not give better than, than you got. So if you've taken on some higher than normal standard of care that isn't perhaps entirely insurable, unfortunately you've kind of got to share that with the sub consultant and that is kind of the sub consultants burden, but I think it's important that sub-consultants be aware of what is being flowed down to them so that they're aware of their contractual obligations, I guess, ideally I do know of primes and subs who work together time and again, and who have a course of dealing with each other, joining forces and negotiating or talking in advance about what we're going to negotiate would be a wise move here. And, and let me let me just speak from the about the sub-consultant issue for a second, because one of the things that, and this is not just pandemic related, one of the things that always concerns us about our clients big and small is sub-consultant risk. So when a prime takes on when a prime seed's part of the scope to a sub,Karen Erger:The prime is still stuck with the liability for that. And they know that I know they know that, but the sub really holds some of their liability wellbeing in their hands. So two things that are always important that are never going to go away and maybe are more important now are choosing subs who are well qualified and that's not just the firm is well qualified, but the team is well qualified and also making sure that the subs have good and sufficient insurance. I'm not saying that insurance is the solution to everything, and that should not be the risk management plan, but making sure that the subs are adequately insured is, is terribly important because as the prime, you don't want to be holding the bag for the, for the whole thing, if there is a problem.Host:Yeah. That's probably more important now than ever to really look at who you're doing business with.Karen Erger:Absolutely. And if I can just expand on that, I've seen it happen where, you know, let's say our firm is in Kansas city and there's a sub locally that they really like, and they work together all the time. Well, now they have a job in Portland and fortunately the sub has an office in Portland, but a]is the office in Portland, the A team, like the Kansas city sub, or is it the Z team that we don't really want to be working with and qualifying your team is important too.Host:Let's, let's talk about that additive design work that we kind of talked about a little bit earlier, because one of the things that is a hallmark of, of our industry is that, you know, engineers should be trusted advisors to their clients, which means they should be able to provide solutions. They should not just do the work, but identify challenges, potential solutions to improve the project, to be that expert, to get the best result from the design through the construction, really from start to finish. And in this world that we're living in now know, we, you know, we had a recent round table with our Research Institute, which is kind of an adjunct to ACEC. And one of the things that was brought up during a panel discussion on the buildings that we live in work in, and what they're going to look like after COVID are really the challenges of designing buildings that have now different humidification systems, different air flow systems, air exchanges, what's the code now?Host:Well, should we do more than code? You know, all these challenges, you know, that are now there, if you have a project that you're working on either, you know, and as a design stage right now, and you're looking at it and saying, you know what, this isn't going to work the way that the offices have are set up in this design, the way that the mechanical, the, all that stuff is, is, is, is placed right now that, that, that works six months ago. But now not, you know, not now so much, you know, how, how should engineering firms approach these issues and, and, you know, how could, how should they broach that with the clients to say that, you know, the project was great when we started, but we have to look at what we now need to do to make this a workable solution.Karen Erger:Yeah, Jeff, this is this is in a way this isn't a new problem. This kind of goes back to what I was saying before, because even pre COVID-19 that we had periods where the economy was slow and clients mothballed a project, maybe mid design, and then when they want to get going on it again, the design firm really needs to take a hard look at everything that's been designed in light of what the circumstances are now. And those are things like scope, schedule, and budget, but also have laws and code change. What about the owner's objectives? And the design criteria are those different? Do we still have the people necessary to, to do this project? What about our sub-consultants, et cetera, et cetera, going to a client and saying, we need to spend time doing that may not be met with, you know, clapping of hands.Karen Erger:They feel like they've paid for this design and they should be, they should be done. We should just be able to re animate this thing, but that's not, that's not the way that design works. And I guess my hope is that in the face of covert, it's going to be really plain that no, we cannot just pick up. And especially with the, with the built environment, sort of things that you're talking about, things like, like an office structure, I'm thinking that to a sophisticated owner, it's going to be pretty clear that no, we need, we need to rethink a lot of things here. And maybe fortunately there is, there's no way somebody could have anticipated that this would happen. Right. I think that's the one thing that we all I hope agree on is that there's no design professional out there who, who last July could have been, like there could be a pandemic.Karen Erger:So we're going to have to put the workstation six feet apart. And in fact, no owner would wear that, right? Because they, they want to have those people closer together. Cause real estate is expensive. So when projects restart a lot of these factors that I was talking about before are going to have special relevance. And you touched on this one, the initiatives to try and control viral, spread through HVAC design in a, in a way it's a pretty exciting time to be mechanical engineer, because that does seem like it's going to be an important part of the solution set to a lot of these problems. I was just re a design firm, just released a very interesting paper about indoor relative humidity. And it turns out that having indoor relative humidity of 40% does a lot to control viral spread. It can substantially suppressed, all means of COVID-19 spread.Karen Erger:But most most buildings in cold climates or mixed climates have a relative humidity that's 20% or lower, but you can't just stuff humidifiers in there. I mean, I'm a lawyer. That's what I would do like, Oh, Hey, let's get a humidifier and stuff it right in the room. And then that will fix everything up, except that's going to impair other systems, walls, ceilings, floors those will buckle. Those will have problems and it will create other health problems too, like mold. So that's where that's where design professionals and their special knowledge come in. This is a problem that they can solve. I mean, nobody would wish this problem on anyone, but it's, it's a great time to be a mechanical engineer. This really is an opportunity to do something significantly important.Host:Yeah. That's where it comes to like the challenge and opportunity. It's it's, you know, the one thing that was the takeaway from a lot of the the engineers and experts on the panel was it's actually a great time because we have the ability to improve on designs, offer new solutions, create new areas of focus and business that we didn't have before. And now, you know, we can start talking about these other issues and, and expand our, you know, it's an opportunity for expansion and, and, and really not just expansion of existing businesses, but, you know, new disciplines to come out. So it, it, you know, it's, it's the double edged sword it's having to go back and saying, okay, well, you know, and you're right. The client on the client side should have that interest of saying, well, at the end of the day, does your end consumer I E the person who's going to be signing the lease for an office building, or for, for, for a couple of floors, do they want to sign a lease for an office that isn't going to be the best for their employees?Host:And, you know, so hopefully it is that give and take and understanding that the end result has to be beneficial for everyone. But it's going to be interesting to see how this does impact, especially the private vertical market because, you know, a road is a road you're not really going to be changing anything related to, to do the pandemic when it comes to, you know, surface infrastructure or a bridge or a rail line, but yeah. And the development of a train car and the development of of the office building that will change. Well, let's talk about the job site itself and getting employees back onto that job site. Cause you can do as much as you can to make sure that the office environment is a security bubble and that you're doing everything you should to minimize the spread of COVID within the office environment. But the minute an employee leaves the office and goes to a job site they're out of that security bubble. And how does affirm do the most it can to protect their employees? Because then they're interacting with contractors, with the builders, with a number of other people in other companies that probably all have different levels of response, right? Risk nightmare.Karen Erger:Yeah. Well, you know, when, whenever, whenever we're interacting with other people who are partially responsible for the outcome, that can be tricky not to fall back on my good friends communication and documentation, but I think that's where this begins is thinking about, okay, so now that we are facing this pandemic, what, what are our challenges going to be as far as doing what we need to do on site and having that discussion with the owner, having that discussion with the contractor, again, going through here, here's our plan, given what we know from the CDC and other credible sources about how we might be able to do this, talk about the pros and cons and document what that go forward plan is including contract amendments. If that's, if, if our, our scope is changing, which it may be, and then, you know, you, you touched on the contractor's control and that's, this is tricky because the contractor does, should have plenary control over job site safety and the design professional doesn't want to be in a situation where they're starting to call the shots on job site safety. On the other hand, we need to keep our employees safe when they go to the job site and you, ACEC, have put together a lovely new resource guide to returning to the office and the job site that is incredibly detailed and even includes a checklist, which when I site checklist, I see my clients smile. Cause they like those. I think that will be very useful.Host:Yeah. That's new ACEC, New York Jay Simson. I'll give him a shout out for putting that together, but it's nice. But yeah, that, that, and Charles, our GC was very, very engaged in getting this thing together. And as you know him, you know, his work, he's very detail oriented I tuned in. But yeah, that's, that's a really good point because one of the things that we always talk about is duty of care and, and that, you know, engineering, shouldn't broach that line into, you know, extending beyond it's core responsibility for the design, because at the end of the day, the, the construction firm should have that responsibility of, of actually producing the design to specification.Karen Erger:So, so you I won't read the entire guide to cause cause people listening to this podcast can go find it, but just touch on a couple high level things just to think about obviously things I would think about are don't don't force employees to go to the job site, obviously sick people shouldn't go, but no one should be forced to go. If they're, if they're not comfortable doing this, do the education that you need to do so that they understand social distancing and other COVID-19 safety guidelines, give them the PPE that they need to be safe on the job site. And I think this is terribly important to empower them to suspend site visits. If when they get there, the situation is not per the COVID-19 plan, or if other concerns exist, they should stay that they're leaving the site state. The reason document that in the email to the project manager and perhaps the client.Karen Erger:Yeah. Nobody should feel forced to do that. And I think it's important to impress that on staff who go to the site because some of them tend to be less experienced staff. They might feel like they have to do it no matter what, it's their job, take one for the team. No, this is about their safety what's best for the firm is that all of their employees, their most precious resources stay safe. And that really needs to be impressed upon them because they want to do their job. They want to do the right thing, but it's important that they know that that's an important part of it. If it's not safe, it's okay to leave.Host:Yeah. And of course, I think I should be imparted at the top down. Right. So the project manager, even, even, you know, leadership at the firm, you know, has to be, yeah, that has to be a kind of a charge given from the top so that the people at the bottom know that they have air cover to make that decision when they have it. And they're empowered to make that choice.Karen Erger:Yeah. You mentioned something earlier. If I can, if I can tell them to this kind of, you didn't, you didn't say stay in your lane, but, but that was kind of what you were saying about, about the contractor is don't, don't mess around in job site safety, do what your, what you're skilled at doing, stay within your skillset. And just going back to what we were talking about about design. I think it's important that design professionals do that too, because there may be aspects of this that are not within a particular design professionals, competence, maybe they will need to retain or recommend that the owner rate retain, for example, an industrial hygienist or whatever like that. It's important to know where your competence stops and were additional help is needed. And I say that mostly because after working with A/E's for 30 years, they want to help the client. And it's important not to let that, that really wonderful desire lead you into taking responsibility for things that you don't have within your professional competence.Host:That's a really good point because you don't want to overextend yourself and again, expose yourself to risk.Karen Erger:Exactly.Host:And the positive on that, it provides the opportunity for firms to enter into strategic partnerships with other disciplines that they otherwise wouldn't do work with. So instead of coming up with an answer on the fly, find somebody who's good at what that, you know, industrial hygiene or something else and, and bring them into the fold.Karen Erger:I definitely see evidence of that happening and would also remind folks that insurance is still important. If a contract is going to flow through us, it's that's time to talk to your broker about, will we be covered for this? If we are sued on a primary basis, is something better to be assigned to the owner and also what insurance does their sub-consultant have. In fact, it might even be important to ask what insurance could our sub-consultant ask. Since we're not talking about the kinds of disciplines that we're used to engaging with this, isn't a matter of a structural engineer, engaging someone else to do a report that they would normally do. This is something a little different and a great time to call on your broker for help.Host:Yeah. I really appreciate you bringing up the the guide. That's you can find that up on the ACEC website -the Coronavirus Resource Page right there in the home, on the home site, you'll see a link to it and a guide version one, because things are changing. So we're going to be updating that a lot. And you brought up a good point, I think is a good way to round everything out is, is really kind of figuring out what you may or may not need. And talking to an expert experts such as yourself, where can people find you? If you are in the A/E industry and you're have these questions and you need some, some counsel on some risk management you know, we're, what's the best way of getting in touch with you or, or your colleagues at Lockton?Karen Erger:Yup. I will answer, anybody's email that at Kerger@lockton.com. That is definitely the best way to get in touch with me these days now that we all duck unfamiliar calls on our phone because they're afraid someone's trying to sell us a used car warranty, but I'd be happy to hear from anyone. One of the best ways that I learn is through our clients and other architects and engineers questions.Host:Well, Karen, I really appreciate you coming on the show. This is where there's a lot to talk about here. And I don't think this is going to be the only conversation we'll have. And you know, as things develop and, and as new information comes out or, or, you know, if there's something that peaks your interest, let us know and we'll have you back on. But for now, we've, we've kind of covered the top line of, of, of kind of risk management in the age of COVID-19. Hopefully it's food for thought for a lot of our member firms and check out the guide that we have, the ACEC Guide to Returning to the Office and the Jobsite. And Karen, you have a great rest of the week happy belated, 4th of July.Karen Erger:And it's been a pleasure. I hope I can come back and talk to you again.Host:Wonderful. We'll have loved to have you back on. And again, this has been ACEC's Engineering Influence podcast brought to you by the ACEC Life Health Trust. We'll see you next time.

Katy Dolan is a Harvard-trained sociologist with years of experience in marketing and research. Katy leveraged her expertise in the varied fields of tech, venture capital, politics, and non-profits to launch Katy Dolan Consulting, strategizing and executing marketing campaigns and research projects to serve growing clients. Just 23-years-old, Katy admits that becoming self-employed this soon out of college was not part of her master plan. But she's on a mission to shine a light on the darker sides of life as a young professional. More info about Katy. Learn more about The Passionistas Project. Full Transcript: Passionistas: Hi, and welcome to The Passionistas Project Podcast. We're Amy and Nancy Harrington. And today we're talking with Katy Dolan, a Harvard trained psychologist with years of experience in marketing and research. Katy leveraged her expertise in the varied fields of tech, venture capital, politics and nonprofits to launch Katy Dolan consulting, strategizing and executing marketing campaigns and research projects to serve growing clients. Just 23 years old, Katy admits that becoming self-employed this soon out of college was not part of our master plan, but she's on a mission to shine a light on the darker side of life as a young professional. So please welcome to the show, Katy Dolan. Katy Dolan: Thank you all for having me. Passionistas: What is the one thing you're most passionate about? Katy: As you alluded to in my bio there, I became very passionate about work life balance and how to navigate your career as a young professional. After I graduated from college and found that, you know, I wasn't having the most fun time navigating the professional world myself as a 22 and early 23 year old. And so as I began to have those issues, I of course talks about them with my peers and my friends and discovered that those issues were actually very, very common. And we didn't feel like enough folks were talking about how difficult it can be to graduate college and enter the professional world and not really know the best decision to make or know whether the things that are making you unhappy are your fault or someone else's fault, or, you know, all sorts of things like that. And so I've become really passionate about talking about those first years out of college and your profession and what you can do to make that experience a little bit better for you both in terms of your professional success, but also more importantly, your mental health and your kind of sanity. Passionistas: If you will talk about how your passion relates to what you do for a living. Katy: To be honest, I'm still exploring the best way for my passion to relate to what I do for a living on the one hand, my passion relates to what I'm doing for a living, because what I'm doing for a living with my solution out of the problem that my passion relates to, if that makes sense. So I was very dissatisfied in my career in the first couple of years out of college. And so ultimately the best decision that I could make was to become self-employed and launched my consultancy and worked for myself. And, you know, that was my solution to the problem that I'm passionate about. But that solution has helped me to kind of enjoy professional satisfaction at this point, but it's not helping the many, many, many other young people who were in the same boat. And so I'm still working on that solution. It's maybe a book it's maybe a company it's maybe a blog series. I'm not quite sure, but I know that there is something there from all these conversations I've had with young people who are feeling the same things that I did right out of college. Passionistas: So what are the common threads? What are you hearing from these young people? Katy: On the one hand, there are issues with your manager or your boss, your supervisor at your workplace. So I think a lot of folks are trying to navigate in many for the first time working full time with a manager, with whom they do not necessarily get along on a day to day basis. And it's very difficult. I think to tell when you are shortly out of college, whether the challenges that you have with people in the workplace, particularly your manager, but also, you know, colleagues or other folks, whether those challenges are related to your attitude in the workplace to your contributions, or whether in some cases you are working in more of a dysfunctional workplace and your manager isn't really well equipped to manage folks. And so really where to put the blame is the question that I think haunts a lot of young people that I've spoken to. And I certainly felt that myself, right, when you come home after having a hard day where you had a bad interaction with your manager, it's very difficult to get in your head and wonder if that was your fault. And in some cases, it almost certainly is because you're a young professional and you don't know how to navigate that situation, but in other cases, it is your manager's fault, or it is your workplace's fault for not setting you up to be better prepared in that situation or whatever the issue may have been. And I think that anxiety about, you know, whether it's you all the time, whether it's other people, whether it's some blend of both can really cause you to spiral into wondering what's going on in your workplace and why it's affecting you so badly. So one thread is kind of managers. I think another big thread of course, is just satisfaction and feeling fulfilled with what you're doing. So, you know, so many people get their first job out of college. And I think it's a very common cultural trope that your first job is just supposed to suck and supposed to be bad. Even when you talk to family members or friends or people you meet at a cocktail party or whoever it might be. And you describe that, well, this is my first job out of college. The instant response is this sympathetic like, Oh yeah, first job out of college. Tough. Right? And I think so many people recognize that that first job is so often not particularly fulfilling. It's not really what you want to be doing. You haven't yet found what it is that you want to be doing. And so you're toiling every day doing often kind of menial junior level work sometimes in industries and fields that you're just not passionate about. You're not interested in, you've maybe realized through working there for the last one to two years, that it's not what you want to do for the rest of your life. And so that meaning is really not there in your day to day experience. And that is only worsened by working 10, 12 hour days, which a lot of people are doing in these junior level positions. And so particularly when you combine that kind of the trifecta of those bad experiences, you maybe have a bad boss or a bad manager. You're not doing work. That's fulfilling to you. And you're working 10, 12 hour days with very little time for a personal life that can be really oppressive as a 22 and 23 year old. And you're not sure where to go in terms of your career to make it feel less oppressive than it is. Passionistas: Talk about your personal experiences after you went to college and your first job. Katy: I think in my first job and really couple of jobs out of college, I struggled with a lot of the same issues that I described previously. There were certain interactions with people that I wasn't sure why they kept happening and why they were so unpleasant, why I was having such a hard time proving my value in the workplace, why I was having such a hard time, even kind of fulfilling requests and, and meeting the expectations of my colleagues and my managers. I think I certainly struggled some though, not as much as some of my peers with hours and balance. I think it's, it's difficult to come from college and then suddenly have an email, a professional email inbox that needs to be responded to at all hours of the day. And, you know, receiving emails late at night that you feel pressured to respond to. And those things are difficult. And I certainly dealt with that. And then also I would say just as a, as a broader point was just struggling with what I was supposed to be doing and whether this was what I'm supposed to be doing, whether this is fulfilling enough to sustain a 30, 40, 50 year career from this point. And it got to the point where most, every day I was sitting there wondering if I really could, if I could stomach doing this for even six more months, much less, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years. And that was in some ways the industry I was in, but in other ways, just the day to day work that I was doing and the culture of the places I was working, wasn't sure it was sustainable. And so just a lot of questioning I would say is what I was doing in those first couple of years, wondering what was wrong, whether it was me that was wrong, whether it was my fault and what to do about it, if there was anything to do about it. Passionistas: Let's go back a little bit. How did you get your start in marketing and tell us about the charity you founded in high school? Katy: In high school, I was a very, very enthusiastic member of the band and I had played piano for a long time, but I played flute in the school band and our band program at my high school was pretty serious and pretty elite and pretty competitive, particularly when it came to marching band. And so we had a marching band. I ultimately became the drum major of the marching band, which is the student conductor. And we traveled in competitions around the Pacific Northwest where I grew up and were pretty successful in competitions and things like that. So band was really a huge, huge portion of what I was spending my time on and music and student leadership within the band. And one of the issues that became apparent to me being involved in the band is that at least where I grew up in this is not the same everywhere across the country, thankfully, but at least where I grew up, you had to provide your own musical instrument in order to participate in the band or also the orchestra. And obviously for many students that poses a financial barrier instruments are very expensive. Obviously purchasing an instrument can be several thousand dollars, but even just renting an instrument from, you know, the local music shop can be anywhere from, you know, $50 a month to several hundred, depending on the quality of the instrument. And so for many families that additional expense is not feasible and it caused many families where I was from to, you know, lean away from choosing band or orchestra in favor of other activities when band or orchestra has significant scientifically proven positive impacts on adolescent development. And so my best friend and I in high school kind of came together and realized this problem. And at the same time that we realized the problem also kind of realized a potential solution, which is that many people keep musical instruments in the top of their closet gathering dust from when their child played it 30 years ago. And so they have these trumpets, these clarinets, these violins, all these instruments that really aren't doing any good for anyone and don't have a ton of value but would have a ton of value if they were in the hands of the student learning how to play. And so we created a nonprofit organization that kind of matched those two sides of the market, if you will. So we tried to collect musical instrument donations from those who had them laying around the house and then put those instruments into the hands of kids who wanted to participate in band or orchestra. That was our core programming. In addition to that, we also did some kind of music instruction clinics with community centers and youth groups and other kind of young people around the area. And then we also gave some scholarships, some monetary scholarships to participate in band or orchestra to cover some of the, you know, more monetary fees that are separate of instruments. And so we'd started that organization and really kind of started a business if you will, when we were 15 years old and ran it for several years. And at that point, the most exciting part of running that little business, which was a nonprofit, was the marketing and the getting the word out about what we were doing. And that was everything from designing the first logo, which looked absolutely horrific. And I believe I designed in Microsoft paint, which I do not recommend all the way from this really janky looking logo up to actually, you know, putting that logo on a website and on social media and developing content for social media that could get the word out because a study and more followers get more people to understand that they could donate instruments and all of those sorts of things. And so my starting marketing was really that when I was 15, it was marketing the organization that my best friend and I had started together and trying to make as much of an impact as we could, by getting more and more folks in our community to realize what we were up to. So that was really the start in marketing and have obviously kind of expressed it now in many, many more ways in the eight plus years, since we started that nonprofit. Passionistas: Where did you go to college and what did you study? Katy: I went to Harvard for college. Harvard does not have any kind of quote unquote practical majors in the way that most colleges do. So it's a, it's a liberal arts school. And Harvard is very laser focused on maintaining that liberal arts focus. And so that means that all of the majors at Harvard are disciplines like sociology, which was my major, but, you know, even a business major at Harvard is the closest thing is an economics degree, which is, you know, much more theoretical than a typical business degree from other schools. And so there was not a way to study marketing specifically at Harvard, but I studied marketing if you will, through internships and extracurricular experiences that often put me close to marketing, whether directly or indirectly. And so for many of my kind of extracurricular commitments at Harvard, I found myself doing a lot of the same things that I had done for my nonprofit, whether it was brand strategy and kind of creating a visual aesthetic and expressing it on a website and on social media, whether it was developing content that could, you know, get more eyes to our programming and whatever, you know, toward whatever objective that we needed to.  And then in internships also worked on various marketing initiatives. I worked at the Make-A-Wish foundation and my first summer in college and helped them with things like press releases and kind of packaging all these really inspirational, wonderful wish stories into content for social media and beyond. And in my senior summer, I worked at a public relations firm that assists democratic campaigns and progressive causes with advertising public relations and communications. And so kind of furthered the informal study of marketing there, if you will. Passionistas: And did you also intern at the White House? Katy: Yes. I also interned at the white house. That one was not so much marketing focused, but in my sophomore summer, I interned at the white house. This was my politics will show through here. This was the last golden summer of the Obama administration, the summer of 2016. And I worked as an advanced intern at the white house, which means that whenever the president and this is true in any administration, not just the Obama administration, whenever the president makes any sort of public appearance, that's outside the white house, whether it's a speech in DC or whether it's a big international trip to France or Japan or wherever here, ultimately she might be headed.  The administration sends an advanced team out to prepare for that event. And so I worked as an advanced intern. We were helping to prepare all of these appearances and speeches on behalf of the president. And so that was everything from booking travel and managing the receipts of that travel booking, which obviously it was a scintillating job all the way up to actually getting to staff the president at those appearances in DC. And then ultimately, I also took a trip to California with him in August of 2016 for a speech on climate change. And so that was a really wonderful, wonderful summer, obviously, to be so close to an area of politics that I was very passionate about. But really if you do want to kind of project a thread onto it in the past, there is some marketing involved in advance. You're dealing with members of the press. That's actually a big component of advanced work is wrangling press that obviously show up to presidential appearances. And you're also trying to, you know, in your setup of the event, help to craft the narrative that the press and the public can interpret from the president's appearance. So that's everything from who sits behind him or her when they're making a speech all the way to the experience that those, that those attendees have when they first walk in the room. And so there was a little bit of marketing involved, but that was definitely not one of my more marketing focused summers, but it was still a very fun summer. Nonetheless. Passionistas: We're Amy and Nancy Harrington, and you're listening to The Passionistas Project Podcast and our interview with Katy Dolan to learn more about her business, visit KatyDolan.com. Now here's more of her interview with Katy. In 2019, you founded Katy Dolan consulting. So talk about what inspired that and why you wanted to focus on startup companies. Katy: Specifically, as I have described, I was having some professional difficulties, I would say in my first year and a half or so out of school and realizing that I was perhaps not cut out for the kind of typical nine to five job. I desired a really high level of work life balance. So meaning that it mattered greatly to me to take the nights and weekends off and to have a reasonable amount of vacation and that I wanted to learn a bit more than I was really able to learn. And then in the roles that I happen to have, I wanted to be more exposed to different kinds of projects, and also get back to some of the work that I have really loved from the beginning, which did happen to be marketing and branding. And so I was beginning to realize that there was maybe an opportunity to act on some of these wishes and hopes. And I began taking on a bit of freelance work here or there while I was still employed full time. So I began kind of leveraging my network to get back in touch with a couple of startup founders that I had met in VR through various ways prior to that point and asking if I could do just little projects here or there for them, these were not major moneymaking projects. These were not projects that were really core to the business in most cases, but anything to help me kind of build my independent portfolio as a freelancer or as a consultant. And ultimately I kept doing that work to kind of prove to myself that there was product market fit. If you will, to use a startup term to prove to myself that I could basically generate enough income from freelancing and consulting to replace a full time job income. And so ultimately I did, you know, kind of demonstrate that fit and prove to myself that it was possible. And from then made a pretty hasty decision to quit my job and launch my consultancy full time and become self-employed. And in doing so, I had been exposed obviously to many inspiring people who also are freelancers or consultants. The vast majority of the ones I know and am inspired by do happen to be women. And many of these women had showed me or told me directly that one of the most important things to do if you're launching a consultancy or freelance career is to have a bit of a brand or a bit of a niche for yourself. And as I began to think about what I wanted that brand or that niche to be startups really made the most sense because when I looked back at my experience thus far, whether it was starting my own nonprofit, whether it was working for other organizations through college. And then when I worked in venture capital post-college and it was obviously working with startups, the common thread was really organizations that were just starting organizations that were really young. Didn't have big budgets, didn't have 50 staff members had a really lean and scrappy team and a lean and scrappy budget, but we're still trying to get the word out about themselves as much as possible. That was true with my nonprofit and it's true with most every startup company. And so I decided that my niche and my focus within my consulting business would be startup organizations. And so I call myself a startup consultant. And when I say that, I really don't just mean startups as our culture typically interprets that word. I E like venture capital backed tech companies, startups. I also mean small businesses and nonprofits and political movements and campaigns, really any type of organization that is small growing and looking to get the word out, which is pretty standard, you know, the, the motivations and kind of the tactics that you use are actually pretty standard, whether you're for profit, nonprofit, political, whatever it might be. And so that was the reasoning behind both launching the consultancy and then ultimately focusing on specifically startup clients. Passionistas: And you also mainly focused on marketing and research when you work with clients. Why those two areas specifically? Katy: As we've kind of spoken about marketing had been a big thread of mine throughout much of the work I've done, whether it was my own nonprofit many years ago, all the way through several of these organizations that I've worked with since. And it's really the most exciting work of startups, in my opinion, it is, as I said before, that process of using all of the resources you have available, which is often very few to actually teach people and get the word out about what you're doing, which is at least as a, as a founder, in my experience, one of the most exciting things that you can recognize when people, when you realize that people actually know what you're doing, and you didn't actually tell them they found out organically, or maybe by a paid advertising or whatever it might be, but they found out by some other method than you telling them. It's very exciting to learn that someone actually knows about your company, your knows about your organization, that they just came across on the internet somehow. And so I think marketing is very exciting work, not only as a marketer and myself, but also to work with founders who get really excited and realizing that, you know, we've done something that actually allowed them to have greater reach and their messages resonating with more people. And so marketing was kind of a natural fit. It's something that I knew a lot of the tactics about a new, a lot of the strategy to accomplish. And then the research angle was perhaps a bit less intuitive but was something that mattered a lot to me. So we haven't really spoken about it yet, but in college at Harvard, I studied sociology, which I'm also very passionate about and the discipline of sociology, which is, which is the study of really how people relate to each other. So there's psychology, which is kind of how you relate to your own mind. But then we move into sociology. When we start to talk about how more than one person relates to each other, whether it's in a pair or a small group, or even, you know, whole societies at large. So I studied sociology and a big component of the field of sociology is in depth interviewing and trying to get people's stories from them directly and use people as primary sources. And I had done a lot of interview based studies, including my senior honors thesis, which had been entirely interview based. And I knew, and I know to this day that there is so much power in talking to people about their experience. And it's not an area that a lot of startup founders are really thinking about when they start their company or their organization or whatever it might be, but it's really critically important toward understanding your consumer, understanding your target audience, or even understanding your own employees or your own folks within the organization. There's many ways to use it. And so I really wanted to kind of share that gospel if you will, with my clients, that it's really important to take the time to do these in depth interviews and to actually get the stories of people who you're impacting and use those stories to impact both your marketing efforts, but also your product development or whatever it is, whatever else it might be. And so, in addition to marketing, which is kind of my core service at this point today, I also do research studies with certain clients. And that typically takes the form of user research where in advance of launching a product or launching a new feature of a product, we go out and speak to a whole bunch of members of the target audience of that product or software in order to see how the products will impact their lived experience in this, in this certain field or industry that we're working in, and then translate all of those insights into kind of actionable tips and things as a company or organization can do in their product development, in their marketing, in whatever it might be to make sure that what they're doing really resonates with that end user. So that's the, both the marketing and the research components of my consultancy. Passionistas: What do you think is the most important marketing tool in the modern world? Katy: I think it depends on whether we're talking tool and kind of an abstract sense, the most important voice or content we can share, or whether we're talking tool in a tactical way, whether it's like email or social. So on the ladder, if it's the tactics, obviously social media is very ubiquitous in today's day and age. And I think when we were, you know, back eight to 10 years ago, social was seen as kind of the next area that any company needed to get up to speed on and their marketing program, obviously, because many of these social media platforms had only even started at that point. And so we were still learning how to do social, in my opinion. And I think this is not necessarily the opinion shared by every marketer. Social is at this point. So ubiquitous that as long as you accomplish kind of a base level competence in it, I think you're kind of all set and people will always go to your Twitter and expect you to have tweets there for them to read, but honestly, the kind of margin of improvement that you can have on all those tweets over any other brand's tweets is it's fairly small, I think at this point, because social is so ubiquitous. And so for me, I think the real area of opportunity for many brands is, is more content marketing. And it's actually having more in depth content, whether that's written content in the form of like a blog or audio content in the form of a podcast or video content, obviously in the form of video, all of those things are kind of the next level that I think many brands can get to, to really take them from zero to one. And so I work with a lot of companies and encourage many other prospective clients or folks that I just talked to really think about how they can begin telling some stories via content. Once I, once again, whether it's in writing or by audio, because I think that's really the thing that takes consumers now from just this base level appreciation of, okay, this brand has an Instagram page. Cool, got it. But, Oh, this brand has all this cool stuff that I like to read and watch and listen to. And this makes me feel much more close to the people that are running this company and makes me much more likely to buy or endorse or promote within my own network. And so I think content marketing is, is kind of the next thing to be unlocked by a lot of companies and organizations out there. Passionistas: So what type of clients have you worked with, and what's been your biggest success story? Katy: So far, I have worked with a wide range of clients at this point, and that's very intentional at this pretty early point in my career. I don't really want to be a really niche down specific strategist. I want to be more of a generalist. I want to be exposed to all sorts of different companies across all sorts of different industries. And so unlike many other freelancers or consultants, I try not to work too much within say e-commerce consumer package goods or within B2B software as a service or, or any of those niche disciplines. I try to work with a lot of clients and that has been my focus in the last year or so of running. This consultancy has been a diverse client set, which I do have, but I think one client that I've worked with a, for a long time and pretty extensively, and B has been really successful in that time that we've worked together is tiny hood, which is a company made by parents for parents, the founders of tiny hood or two moms themselves. And they in their own parenting experience decided that there had to be some way to make parenting a bit easier and more information out there. So you didn't have to feel so lost and uncertain when it came time to breastfeed your baby or introduce solids to your baby for the first time, or make sure you were up to date on CPR, infant CPR. And so Becky and Suzanne, these two moms created a company called tiny hood that is trying to help parents feel more confident in their parenting. And in the previous history of the company that was really expressed as forming communities of parents and connecting parents to each other, which is obviously vitally helpful for a lot of moms and dads out there who don't necessarily know a lot of parents, or just need more input from a network that is a bit more expert than they are in parenting. And so the company was pretty successful with those communities, but in the last year or so, what we've been working on more together is the launch of really a new class of product for tiny hood, which is online parenting classes. The challenge has been, how can we communicate this expert led content? So these classes are all taught by certified experts in their field. How can we use these experts to speak directly to new moms and dads about how to take care of their babies and children? And so in late 2019, and I believe December of last year, we really went ahead with like a launch of the online parents class product. But that product launch had been proceeded by a lot of user research that I had assisted with on talking to a lot of new moms, a lot of pregnant women and a lot of new moms about what they needed to know about parenting, what they weren't getting from the current parenting market and how a new company could really come into and significantly assist on their parenting journey. And so what the result has been is a suite of online parenting classes that I think, and I think the company agrees are really well tailored to what we heard from parents throughout that user research process and have been really, really successful in the several months that they've been online thus far. And I've also been proud. This was not at all my decision in any way in March, but I've been proud of the decision that the company made to offer some of their breastfeeding classes for free in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Obviously a lot of pregnant women and new moms were planning to go to the hospitals to take certain classes specifically on breastfeeding. And now the hospital has canceled their classes. Even if the classes aren't canceled, a lot of pregnant women don't want to go to the hospital and risk infection in their sensitive state. And so tiny had made the decision to offer a lot of these breastfeeding classes for free, and there's been really enormous demand that has been demonstrated. And so once again, we've gotten reassurance that these products really do meet the needs of a lot of moms. So that's a great client case study if you will, and has been a company that I've really, really enjoyed working with over the last six plus months, Passionistas: What's your definition of success? Katy: My definition of success is, is balance is just true balance both personally and professionally. And obviously I think that different people have a different balance that works for them. I am in no way saying that, you know, for every single person, it should be 50% and 50% professional in terms of the way you spend your time. But having a balance is the definition of success and is crucially important. And I think there are a lot of folks, particularly in my generation who have not yet achieved that balance because we are not told that that is the most important thing. We are told that professional success that, you know, the amount of money you make, the prestigious of your job title, you know, working at a McKinsey, working at a Goldman Sachs is success. That's the best thing you can do for yourself. But really success is actually not feeling incredibly overwhelmed with work all the time. It's feeling like you do have very solid friendships and relationships with your family and romantic relationships. If you so choose, and that you have hobbies that you're genuinely interested in and dedicated to that you're able to travel and see the world and broaden your mindset. That balance that comes from not being such a devotee to the hustle-porn culture. That balance is for me, at least the definition of success and was a big motivation towards me launching my consultancy because I could then better control that balance for myself. Passionistas: What advice would you give to a young woman who wants to be an entrepreneur? Katy: Fake it till you make it really, even when you do not think that you are prepared, you are probably prepared somehow, you know, and you're pro you're probably not considering doing something that you are wholly unprepared for because you probably wouldn't be considering it if you're wholly unprepared for it. Like, obviously if you studied, like I did say you studied sociology, you're more of a marketing and businessperson. Then you're probably wholly unprepared to take on like a medical tele-health startup that requires a lot of medicinal knowledge that you don't have, but you probably wouldn't be considering doing that if you were in this position. So anything that you are reasonably considering doing, you're probably prepared to do because the idea came to your head as something that you could do. And so faking it till you make it and taking those ideas and running with them and seeking the opportunity always saying yes is really the best thing you can do. I think early in your career to learn as much as possible to get a wide and diverse range of experiences that you can then help to triangulate what exactly you really want to do when you grow up, which is probably not what you're doing in many cases when you're 23 and 24 and 25, but having a lot of diverse experiences and, and faking it until you make it specifically in terms of entrepreneurship helps you to be better prepared to make those crucial decisions when they come a bit later in your life and career, that help you actually find that core central place where you'll land Passionistas: Thanks for listening to The Passionistas Project Podcast and our interview with Katy Dolan to learn more about her business, visit KatyDolan.com. Go to thepassionistasproject.com to get more information about our podcast, subscription box, and the first annual Passionistas Project Women's Equality Virtual Summit this August 21st through 23rd, featuring panels, presentations, workshops and more — all with the mission of empowering women. And be sure to subscribe to The Passionistas Project Podcast. So you don't miss any of our upcoming inspiring guests.  

Welcome! Craig’s walking you through a deep dive of the Pros and Cons of Online Collaboration Tools for Businesses and the Security implications for Businesses who have Regulatory Requirements.  For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Read More: Twitter wants to know if you meant to share that article DHS Warns on New Exploit of Windows 10 Vulnerability FBI Says Sudden Increase in Mobile Banking Is Heightening Risks For Users What COVID-19 Teaches Us About Social Engineering UPnP flaw exposes millions of network devices to attacks over the Internet --- Automated Machine-Generated Transcript: We're going to finish up our discussion about Microsoft teams. What are some of the things you might want to use it for? What is this? How was it different from Zoom and everything else on the market? So let's get going. [00:00:21] Hi everybody. Craig Peterson here. Thanks for being with us today. I really appreciate all your comments to me M E at Craig Peterson dot com. A lot of people just respond to my weekly show notes. You get those by signing up for my email list to find out what's going on, what you should be doing, what free trainings we have, what paid courses there are. [00:00:46]We are coming out with a free again, free, free, free. I'm trying to help out here. It really is for you. Okay. A free, special report about all of these apps we're talking about today. So Karen's been working really hard on that with me, and we hope to have it out either this week or maybe the week after. [00:01:09] And it's going to be. Pretty detailed about some of the pros and cons when you should be using it, what policies should you have in place for your employees when it comes to these collaboration apps? So I think it's very important topic, you know, so many of us just knee jerk our way into this with the COVID-19 thing, and we needed something now, please, anything. [00:01:36] And we jerked into Zoom. Most of us, some of us started using Slack. All of these things are, are up in usage. In fact, WebEx had so many people applying for it because it's really the only one. If you're a business that you should be using. That they had to cut back. They were giving it away for free for like two or three months. [00:01:58]Even though they have a huge worldwide infrastructure, they still had some problems with the onboarding, getting everybody set up and ready. So there may or may not be free WebEx stuff going on right now. They're supposed to go. Maybe it was through the end of June until the end of July. I'm not sure what it is right now, but anyway, We're talking about Microsoft teams right now. [00:02:21] Okay. so as I mentioned at the very end with Microsoft teams, you need to integrate your Skype went and we already know Skype is not. Considered to be overly secure. It was actually a little more security before Microsoft bought it. And then Microsoft changed its entire architecture to one where it goes through Microsoft servers. [00:02:45] And that way, if you're in China, Microsoft can sensor you. Or if the law enforcement agencies in the US want to hear what you're saying, Microsoft can provide it to them and they couldn't do it before. So yeah. A little bit of resentment there. You probably noticed in my voice, right, Danielle, back to Microsoft here. [00:03:07] The second big thing is it has this integration that a lot of people are looking for with your business apps. So you can use word Excel, PowerPoint, one-note planners, share 0.1 drive. All integrated with Microsoft teams. And that is a huge win because all of that stuff is right there. Now the integration isn't as clean or as neat or as easy as maybe it should be. [00:03:36] But it is there and it will get better over time. You can still use all of those tools, word, Excel, PowerPoint, et cetera, et cetera, with pretty much any of these apps. They're all designed to be integrated to varying degrees, but Microsoft ultimately will win this battle. Because they own the source code, right. [00:03:58] They own the programs. They're going to take care of themselves first. And they've been sued about that before. So no, no news there. Next point, customized workspace, and every team is different. So Microsoft teams is customizable so that you can integrate it with third-party apps, as well as Microsoft apps. [00:04:21] You know, that's really the trend right now. I see that across all of the industries, Cisco has done an interesting thing, and that is a couple of years ago. They decided to do a policy called API first. Now Microsoft is not doing this, but the whole idea behind API first is. That I'm like Microsoft that tries to play everything close to the chest and give itself advantages over all of its competitors. [00:04:49] Right. And we've seen suits on that forever, like integrating internet Explorer, right into the kernels, supposedly. And so that you could not use other browsers. You always had to have a ye initially, and then they allowed other browsers, but you still had to have I E, and then the courts ruled against them yet again. [00:05:09] And so unlike Microsoft's approach to try and lock you in, Cisco has decided that they want to make. All of the Cisco software uses the same interfaces that third-party vendors have to use. And that is phenomenal when it comes to integration. So if you want to use WebEx or WebEx teams or any component of any of the Cisco stuff, including their firewalls and the routers, et cetera, et cetera, you can. [00:05:41] They've got API APIs for everything. Cause that's the only way they can access their own software. It says absolutely phenomenal. So Microsoft teams do have some third party integration available on it, which can be handy. You also get real-time communications, which as I mentioned can be a problem. [00:06:02] This isn't just true with Microsoft. This is true for WebEx teams and Slack and everything else out there. But it's real-time. So a smart person's going to do something different with email excuse me. something caught in my throat, but, email, you typically try and delay, right? I try and read my email once a day and that's it. [00:06:29] And if someone really needs to get ahold of me, but they probably know how to really get ahold of me. Right. So I'm not getting interrupted. I can work on the stuff I need to get to work on. No, I'm putting his stuff. Together for my lives for my webinars, for my radio show for everything else. And if I get interrupted, particularly if I'm doing some programming work, it can cost me hours of time. [00:06:56] So I put off email and only go through it maybe once a day. Sometimes I'll go two or three days without really paying attention to my email. So I apologize to you. If you send me an email and you're hoping for a quick answer, I don't always get back to you very quickly. Right. I have other people in my team that that's what it's for. [00:07:15] So when we're talking about communicating in real-time with some of these collaboration apps, It's a double edge sword. So instead of having emails, bouncing back and forth, which might take hours and hours, right? Because someone says something and half an hour later, another person reads it and responds. [00:07:36] Now, then that first person an hour later read to them a response, you can just have it go over very quickly. It's phenomenal for productivity. When you need quick productivity, the high priority initiatives that you have can really move a lot faster because it's not an email. It's not getting a push back while you were waiting. [00:07:57] This is really instant messaging. Think of it like texting, right? So everybody can be on the same page with these team's apps you can see who has seen your messages and people can respond to them. They can start a thread. normally how does it work? You're well, you might send an email to everybody. Giving them an update, right? [00:08:18]they reply to you, but maybe not to everybody that happens all of the time. I know people that I, you know, I expect them to copy all because I, you know, I've got two or three people on it that are need to know, and they don't, they just reply directly to me. with these types of teams, apps, everybody's on the same page. [00:08:39] Everybody can see everything. This conversation with email can split into a bunch of different conversations with ideas, being directed at one person when it really should be a group discussion. So keep that in mind as well. When you're considering some of these team's applications, everybody knows what's going on, what the status is, and productivity. [00:09:04] Just keeps flowing. You're listening to Craig Peter's son. I appreciate your being with me today. And of course, you can get me online as well. Craig peterson.com. Make sure you sign up to my email list. Kirk peterson.com/subscribe. And that gets you an email every week. Oftentimes it's Saturday mornings lately. [00:09:27] It's been more like Mondays, you know, summertime COVID-19 every excuse in the book, right. As to why it's been a little bit more delayed, but you know, expected by Monday. And it's got my summary for the week. It's got links to my podcast and also info about classes and courses and lives when they happen. [00:09:46] And then of course, here on the air, take care of everybody. We'll be right back, stick around. --- More stories and tech updates at: www.craigpeterson.com Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating: www.craigpeterson.com/itunes Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at: www.twitter.com/craigpeterson For questions, call or text: 855-385-5553

Entrevismos a la parlamentaria de I-E Marisa de Simón, hablamos con el movimiento Pro Amnistia de la manifestación de este próximo sábado, Federico del medio Sputnik nos hace una radiografia de la situación en Latinoamérica, Natxo habla con Igor sobre la radio, Javier e Iñaki nos acercan noticias de ámbito internacional y se cuela el ... Leer más Marisa de Simón de I-E, manifestación Pro Amnistia, situación en Latinoamérica y crónica internacional

Durée : 1:08:00 - Lamont dozier - going back to my roots Radiance & andrea stone - you're my number one Yvonne gage - garden of love The circle city band - my place Livy ekemezie - friday night Commy bassey - we want togetherness Rainbow team - bite the apple Krystol - you ask too much Rare pleasure - let me down easy (danny krivit edit) La compagnie créole - A I E (larry levan edit) Dayton - the sound of music Pagoda - finders keepers Arnie Love & The Loveletts - We've Had Enough (alkalino edit)

Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, turn up your volume it's podcast time. And that was probably the cheesiest way that I could start an episode. But today, today we are going to be talking about the two keys to scaling a business, and it is literally impossible to scale your business without these two major keys that make it scalable, sustainable and simple for the SSS method just I made up. Here we go. Ready? So simple, sustainable and scalable.  I'm actually really excited about this episode. And I'm sitting here recording this live in my office. If you're listening to this, or if you're watching the video, you can see me staring at my iPad. And I have some notes here to talk about with this, because you know, for me, when I think about the last 11 years of my entrepreneurial journey, I mean, really like my whole life has been entrepreneurial. I should probably stop lying to myself. Okay. So I have my first job when I was 12.So, you know, I lived in Massachusetts when I grew up and I was in a situation where there wasn't much provided for me. And some of, you know, my story send me know my backstory. And so basically from a very young age, if I wanted anything, if I needed anything, I had to create it on my own or find it. There were points in my life where I stole it and things like that. And when you're living in a face, not you, when I was living in this space of survival as a child, Really every single thing in my day, every single thing in my life was designed to do one thing. And to help me basically meet my Maslov's hierarchy of needs, food, water, shelter, and safety. And, I always had water, food, not so much, shelter, not so much in safety, not so much.And so I went through a lot of these different experiences in my life where I felt like I was a wild animal backed into a corner and I had to survive and had to survive and had to survive. And so. I say my entrepreneurial journey starts here, but most of my life from a very young age, I had to be entrepreneurial or what we would call entrepreneurial. I had to be resourceful. I had to be resilient. I had to create things out of nothing. I had to find things that didn't exist. I had to find ways to have it. And so, I mean, for me, my first job. Started when I was 12. Now that was my first like, official job. But before then I think at nine or 10, I was already delivering papers. I had three paper routes and most people had one. I would walk or ride my bike for two to three hours a day. And it was before school that I had to get myself to because my parents were pretty unreliable. And quite frankly, they didn't want to be in my house anyways. And so I would get up at 4:00 AM, once a week, because I did like one of the local newspapers, they would all get dropped in my driveway at like 3.30.I would roll them all. I would put them all in my satchels, if you have this image and I had this blue BMX bike, cause my favorite movie, was Rad. And now in this episode, I think I've officially dated my self. I used cool running in the intro. And now I'm using the movie Rad, but Rad racing was one of my favorite movies ever.I probably watched it. I don't know, 6,000 times I was told we had seven copies of the VHS tape. Cause I watched it so much, they would burn out. And so if you know what I'm talking about with cool runnings and Rad, you're my friend. And I love you. And you should tell me, you should send me a message or leave it in the comments or, you know, wherever you listen to this episode and this all has to do with.The two keys to scaling a business, but a story times are important for me. And help you understand kind of how I got here. So I would then roll my papers. I'd get on my blue BMX bike. And this thing was awesome. It was like a light baby blue, like a Justin Timberlake blue. And then it had a white rims.And, it was for show cause it was like a BMI strike bike, but I would drive it long distances and deliver these papers. And so I would deliver these papers at nine or 10 on my paper outs, in the rain and the snow. It didn't matter. And then as soon as I was done, I would come drop my bike off at home and then I would go to school.And I did that, that with like, you know crazy neighbor hustle and I mean, neighbor hustle, like they wouldn't have leaves in their yard and I would convince them they did so I could, you know, rake them up. I would go shovel their driveway first and then go to their door and ask for payment. And I didn't know that at the time, but I was like, okay, I was just doing it.Someone had given me that advice. So I was an entrepreneur at a very young age. And so my first official job was at 12. I was a skate guard, at an ice skating rink and a few other places. And then I got into construction, like under the table construction. And so for me, How I got into business, how I got into entrepreneurship, how I got into, I mean, basically life was born out of survivalAnd in that though, there were some lessons that served me really well and some ways in which I was being, and living and working that served me really well and got me here and they were needed to get me here. But then also once I reached certain levels, there were also needs to audit. And to remove things that were no longer needed, they had served their purpose.Like I had this very wise shaman in Costa Rica,talk to me and I was talking about some things that had come up for me during,like  A spirit journey, a solo quest Iowasca plant medicine, a couple of different things. And I was talking about relationships, but like relationship with myself, relationship with some friends relationship with business partners.And he looked me dead in the eye and he said, I believe he called me son or brother, but I think called me son. And he said, son, relationships only happen for a reason, a season or a lifetime. And I don't think that really sunk in for me for about six months. And then once it finally did, I started realizing the parallels between business and life, personal business, personal life, and all the things in between because we don't compartmentalize.And then I started thinking about business and entrepreneurship and, and growth through that lens of everything I'm experiencing either happens for a reason. A season or a lifetime and the end goal of every single entrepreneur, the end goal of every single business.? Like the, non-negotiable not like our hundred million dollar goal, our $500 million goal to change the world.Like all of those are required. All of those matter. They're all in your beacon of belief that we talk about, but really the goal is every day in business in life, there should be two things that we are seeking. Unapologetically, but as aggressive and resilient as possible. And I mean like blood, like a devil dog is what comes to my mind. Cause I was a Marine for so long, but like a level of commitment that we've only experienced a few times in our life or when we turn the switch and we know, or when our life is at jeopardy or are, are we're backed into a corner and we're trying to figure out like where we're going, but we're like, it doesn't matter if we know the path.If we know how we're going to get there, it doesn't matter what I have to do. If I have to blood. If I have to sweat, if I have to, you know, cry, I'm like not speaking right today. If I have to blood, if I have to bleed sweat, Cry push. It doesn't matter. Like when I am crystal clear that I want to get to that finish line and I have enough evidence in my corner. I either why and my beacon of belief, I'm going on a level of which you can't even imagine. Because I'm really, really, truly rooted in that. And I'm like, this is my life. This is my existence. There was no reason of being here unless I have this, this is the level of commitment I have. And that's the level of commitment that we as humans, as leaders, as parents, as friends, as bosses, as employees, as entrepreneurs, as business owners, as influencers have to have in pursuit of these two things to build and scale a business.And those two things are really, really simple. They are simplicity.And at the end of the day, we should be in a relentless pursuit of those two things every single day in order to build or scale our companies or our lives. And so, as I tie this together, the reason I'm saying relationships happen for a reason, a season or a lifetime is that our business has have things that come into play.There are ways in which we have to be as a business owner, as an entrepreneur. To get off the ground and even get an idea into the world. That's not easy work. I don't actually recommend anybody go launch physical products or sometimes digital products or internet marketing, unless they really understand that we're giving up working 40 hours a week for somebody else to work 24/7 for ourselves, and to have potentially one of the best bosses in the world.And other times some of the worst bosses in the world and not being ourselves and our beliefs and how we see things and how we treat ourselves. But it's not an easy undertaking by any means. I it's rewarding. I love it. I wouldn't change it. I believe entrepreneurship. I believe helping customers. I believe solving problems. I believe marketing. Like I love it. It's in my DNA.  And there are times that it's challenging and there are times that things are hard. And there are times that we have to do things that might not be aligned with what we want to be doing, but they are required in that moment. They are required for a reason to get us to the next level.And so for me, when I look at the mistakes that I've made and the successes that I've had, and there's a lot on both sides of it from losing. And here's a record. I don't share this publicly. That often the most amount of money I've ever lost the day is I actually lost $43,000 in 19 minutes because I was running a Facebook ad and this ad account that I was running, that I was a part of. We were spending over a million dollars a month. Than ads. And so I ran an ad that had multiple broken links in it, like multiple ads with broken links and we had tested them, but somehow the redirecting plugin that we were using stopped working. And so we were spending at such a volume that by the time we caught it, we were out almost 50 grand.And then on the other side is I've helped companies sell for billions of dollars, just helped another one get like a $400 million cash infusion have broken records, New York times bestseller, all that stuff. And I've been on both sides. But really the core of all of it when we get down to it is that we need to have simplicity and clarity in order for any of it to work.And there's parts where things get muddy. And sometimes the muddiness is required. Like we have to be everywhere in this one moment, but that's not everywhere forever. It's everywhere in that moment until we can reassess an audit to get back to simplicity and clarity. And when I say this, I say that the two keys to successfully building or scaling our business are having simplicity and clarity.It is almost an accountability tool that keeps us in check because if every day you're like, is this the most simple way I can be doing this? And am I clear that what I'm doing is moving me towards my goal. It becomes a feedback loop. It becomes a feedback loop where we have to look at what we're doing in our lives and in our business, and make sure that it's aligned to where we want to go.But everything has a purpose. It has intentionality. It's like, Hey, I don't want to be on social media, but I have to be for now because I'm not generating enough revenue to outsource that or hire it. And it's a chicken and egg conversation. So I'm going to put a container around it. And then I'm going to do as much as I can to build the best systems and processes until it generates X amount of revenue. And then I'm going to immediately hire that out. And then that was for a reason. And then you move up to the next level, constantly seeking that simplicity and clarity.  So that feedback loop is really, really important because the trap of entrepreneurship and especially the trap of solo preneurs, like working in an echo chamber, or just behind our laptop on the only interactions we choose to have are the ones in which we go out on social or go out on email or text people when you and I both know that most of the time when things are hard or we're struggling, or in doubt, we avoid those communications. And then we'll like, you know, go consume more content or test a million different things. And we kind of get stuck in that, in that I didn't even want to like the muddy water. We kind of get stuck in the washing machine cycleWhen we're around, people were around our friends or when we're with our business partners or when we share these things, it's a pattern interrupt that shifts it. But when we're isolated away from them, then it kind of becomes this cyclical thing that goes too long. We repeat the patterns, then we get frustrated and we're like, I did it again.And so for me, my accountability is simplicity and clarity. So every day I have to check in with myself, like did what I do today. Move me one step closer. Yes or no. Yes. Cool. What worked, what didn't work and what am I going to do differently? And then I make adjustments.And the reason I say this is because for me, and to close this loop, the trap of entrepreneurship or solo partnership, as I was saying for me, is allowing us to maintain a path or driving down a road that we've been driving down a little too long and we need to stop and turn around. We're kind of lost per say because the road is where we needed to go.But at some point we just kept driving, missed our turn though. I go, we're lost. We'll keep going. We'll lost. We'll keep going. We're lost. We're keep going. That's what we call being romantic about how we do things and in our world. Like today's world and in business and marketing today, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, there are going to be some absolutes that ring true.One of them is that it's going to be different every day. I guarantee you it's going to be different every day. And if you are doing your job and marketing correctly and doing business correctly, and you have customers and you have a product, the fact that there is uncertainty and ambiguity every day means you're doing it right.Because if you're crystal clear that like, this is how our marketing is, and this is how our messaging and this is our product and you stick to that, your not meeting the needs of your customer, seeing the words, the pain points, the current state of the world, or the ways in which we can constantly approve, because none of us have perfect products because there is no perfect product because the moment it's complete and perfect, something in the world changes something in you change as something in the model, changes something in the information changes, and we have to be committed to being lifelong students.And so for me, Having this lens or this North star per say of every day, I need to find simplicity and clarity gives us the ability to pattern, interrupt ourselves and to audit ourselves, to catch ourselves and be like, Oh my God, I'm still doing this. This isn't simple. And I don't even know why I'm doing it.Stop. Pattern interrupt. What's working. What's not working. What can I do differently moving forward? And so for me, these two keys encompass all of that. They encompass the ability to have a honest conversation with ourselves. Not that we lie to ourselves intentionally, but what I mean by honest conversation is an accurate view of what's really happening.What do we do with our time? Where did we put it? What was the output? What was the result? Was that the best use of our time? Is that really where we're going? I'm doing that. Cause I don't know where I'm going. Okay. Time to unplug, figure out where I want to go and then create the way points to get there because we all have these destinations in our mind.We all have these places that we want to go in business in life and in entrepreneurship. And in order to get there, we need two things. We need to know where we want to go. Clearly not like I want to go to this state, like don't tell me you want to build a business in California that doesn't help me get you an address or a building.Tell me that you want to build a business in San Diego, in the Gaslight district with a 2000 square foot building that requires you to be there 10 hours a day with seven employees as you create products that help solve water crisis is throughout the world that you deliver as a part of your for-profit company with a nonprofit arm attached. And this is how you're going to do it. That's a destination.  And then when you know, okay, well, here's where I am. I'm sitting at my house in Temecula, just for me to get down. There's a 65 minute drive. And then this is where I am. This is what I'm doing. This is what I have. And this is the clarity. You now know where you are, what ingredients you have and then where you want to go. And you can clearly see the gap. And in that gap has all of the things that you need to create or to learn or to bring on, to get to that destination. I E every turn, how many miles and where you're going. And the key to that is having clarity and then simplicity. And then every business and I mean this, every business, every successful business, every large business. And I mean success, and I'm not talking about success. Like they're a fortune 100 company I'm talking, they've been profitable. They're profitable from day one. They take care of their employees. They know their numbers. They think in decades, not in weeks. And really good book recommendation to pattern interrupt on this one. The infinite game by Simon Sinek, he gives a lot of examples in that book. One that rings true to me that I referenced all the time is Victorian X, which was the, which is the leading Swiss army knife manufacturer in the world. And on September 10th of 2001, this Swiss army knife accounted for, I think, 80 plus percent of their revenue and on September 12th of 2001, it accounted for less than 10%.And so there's an entire story on that and I can't do it justice, but how they pivoted and how they used their clear vision, their clarity. And then very simple levers to basically thrive through that. Come out the other side, 25 times greater and now is completely unrecognizable as a company compared to where they were.And so for me, for you, for everybody, this is one of those things that will never change. Simplicity and clarity will always be the secret to success. And it's where we need to drive ourselves. It's where we need to hold ourselves. It's where we need to readjust ourselves back onto that lane. And there's going to be times that we jump in the fast lane and it feels so good, but we realize that we're not supposed to be there.We've been in there too long. We were only supposed to pass and either we catch it and move back over into the clarity and simplicity lane or somebody else catches it, IE a cop and gives us a ticket. But in the world of business, Normally the market catches it or the financials catch it, or the team catches it and culture is affected finances and cash flows affected marketing and social media is affected because when you spend too much time distracted or distracted from the simplicity and clarity, that is your business, it becomes a liability.And so that's why we constantly have to audit. And be in observation and be an integrity about our businesses and what we're doing and what we're not doing so that we can maintain in that lane. And so the two keys are simplicity and clarity, and I'm going to talk about some of the parts of them that I have that are really, really big areas of focus that I think are important in my area.Expertise and my experience and what I've done. And I still have a whole lot of learning to do. But this is what I've found to be important and effective. So when we think about simplicity, Why is simplicity so important? And number one is we can't scale a complicated business. That's when things start to break or people just straight up don't buy because they don't get it.You have to be simple. Your messaging has to be simple. Your offer has to be simple. Your pain point you're solving has to be simple, knowing your customer has to be simple. That is really the key to it, but yet we live in this. Give me more society. And even in digital marketing do more, add more value stack.And I was like, but by the time you're done value stacking and you're getting all those customers, you've attracted 99% of the wrong ones. Yeah. Because you convinced them to buy, not enrolled them and actually solving their problem. And you don't want to deal with the follower of that down the road. If you ever want some examples, hit us up in the comments somewhere, or send us an email or come to our social and ask, and I'll do an entire episode on it.But it's really, really important that you maintain simplicity because simplicity is what gives you a control. It's what gives you the ability to be like. Every time we post about these three topics on this platform with this call to action. My ideal customer sees it. They make a commitment and they achieve their results. And so now I can double down, but if it's like, Hey, here's our 65 different messages this week. Here's our 240 Instagram posts that are all about these different ideas. With some calls to actions, no calls to action. And I'm telling everybody they can choose one of these 19 entry points. You're not going to have anything.No business, no life, no success, no customers, because even if something does start working, how do you know what it was? Was it that post, that call to action, that journey, that customer, that day, the news that day, the current state of the world, you don't know. And if you can't measure it, you can't build it or scale it.Another thing is people are attracted to simplicity. Nobody wants to bring complicated into their lives. Customers are in a complicated situation, looking for clarity and simplicity employees that you're going to hire are leaving their job or looking for a job because they're in a complicated situation. And they're looking for simplicity. Simplicity speaks to your authority. And you know this to be true. Think about some of the best speakers. Think about some of the best teachers. They do one thing more than the other thing. And it's the reason that we have two years in one mouth and I'm still working on this one.There's a lot of times that I vary much recognize that I have diluted my power or diluted my delivery because sometimes I take it too far and it's something I work on every single day and there's nothing wrong with it. It's about being iterative, but if you came to me and you're like, George, I would do anything. If you could help me fix my email marketing, I'm like, okay, cool. And I could do one of two things. I'm like, I got you. I just need you to do this one thing. And I guarantee you, it works or yes, I got you. I need you to do this one thing. And then I have 67 other things in 42 different places to start. Which one are you going to choose?Of course, you're going to choose the simplicity, right? Simplicity creates authority and it creates safety. When you were a simple, like speaking simple and clear and simple doesn't mean cheap or devalued, but when you are simple, you know exactly what you're saying, how you say it, where you're going, what you're charging.That comes with a level of power and authority and safety baked into it that most people don't understand. And when your messaging and your branding and your marketing and your communication both internally and externally is simplistic and clear, you are the best that there is like, think about Nike.Nike is not like, just do it when the weather's perfect and you want to, and you're this person with these running shoes in this clothes now. It's just do it. And Nike is not like, maybe do it. I'll do it later. If you want to do it, it's like, no, just do it. And there's simplicity and power in that message.And so simplicity is a good thing to have everywhere. And I watched business owners, complicate, email marketing, social media, marketing, customer insights, journey mapping, and everything. And I also see that. That's why the reason that 99% of businesses are struggling because if all you do. In every time you create space or you have a little extra time in your days, you're like, Oh, we're going to add this. We're going to launch this. We're going to go here. We're going to go on that platform. We're going to launch a second account. All you're really doing is diluting your depth and your business is built on depth. not with, there's not one business that was built and successful and profitable because everybody came and had one transaction with no result.People have to feel the results. They have to be enrolled into it. They have to be able to win. And then they have to be able to take a next step. And so the key here is being intentional and if you're into marksmanship, it's the difference between a shotgun with birdshot and a sniper rifle, right?Bird shot. You're going to hit the target you're going to, but you also don't have to aim and you kind of can get away with slop because anywhere between eight and a hundred pellets come out of that bullet or that per say, that, that shell, that cartridge and hit the target. Whereas a sniper rifle, you might take an extra two seconds to get on target and pull the trigger. But where you aim when you pull that trigger is where you hit to, because that's where you intended to hit. And that's what we need to be in business simplicity. No reason to be on 12 social media platforms and follow your audiences on Instagram. They're asking if you on Instagram, we've gone through this.Everybody listening to this right now, all of you, we were like, everyone's like, we want you on Instagram. So we spent the last. Four months on Instagram posting two to three posts a day of the best content I've ever put out on social media and nobody consumes it. Nobody engages it. And you all know it's there and there's nothing wrong with that. But we also realized that it was being detrimental to our core business, which is our Facebook group, which you know, is that mindofgeorge.com if you're not in yet. And we weren't able to really go deep with people in that group because we were spreading focus and there really wasn't a need. Or the capacity to be on Instagram. I didn't want to hire somebody in to do it. It didn't have a measurable, tangible, positive return for the customer or for our bottom line. And so I said, Hey, let's pause it. We're going to put a post up that says, Hey, we're here. We love you. We're not running this right now because it's not aligned with our vision of helping and empowering you. And we had to look at that, but then on the other side, I got on tech talk and I was like, Oh, I'm not going to build followers here. Like, I don't know, but I'll play with it. And then in my first month I had over a million video views. I had to go viral and it's very minimal effort because it only takes me five to 10 minutes max a day. And I get a very dramatic return on an investment from attention. My team doesn't have to do anything. I don't have to do anything besides create. And it automatically links to my YouTube channel and they know where to find me. So that was a pivot that I made to be aligned and simple. I'm like, this is where people are responding. This is where they want it. This is where I'll be right now.  But in three months, if it stops working or nobody's, there, there's no point in me maintaining it. And so we always have to be chasing that base of simplicity and clarity. And so for me, this starts first with ourselves. It starts with our day, it starts with our calendar.And if you haven't listened to our perfect calendar, if you haven't watched that video, we have it in video form. It's in our group, reach out to my team in the Facebook group and we'll see if we can send it to you. It's included in our lighthouse method course, probably the most important, way to go about this and having simplicity and clarity.And it was created by my buddy Clay Hebert. Yeah. And I've been considering bringing him on the podcast to talk about it. So if that's something you want, I need you to let us know.Let us know on social. After you listen to this episode, let us know in the Facebook group, let us know somewhere, share this episode with your friends and tell them to come convince me to get him interviewed.I've never heard him share it publicly, but I could probably convince him with some really good wine or I'll make a mistake, dinner or something, and we'll talk about it, but it starts with us designing our perfect day. Right. And making sure that there is simplicity and clarity there. Then once we've done that, we empower our team. If we have one to do the same, and then once we're there with the individuals, then we go into the company and this is internal our systems, our messaging, our processes, how we do things. From customer service to marketing, to email, to a three PL to our Amazon ads, our listings, our rankings, working with agencies, getting all of it there.And then once we are there internally on the outside of the world, our customers and the people that interact with us will already feel it. But then we take it to the next level. And then we start intentionally creating more simplicity and clarity on the outward facing part. Or the light out of our lighthouse because the internal is good.And so that's how I go about doing it and it needs to be done and it needs to be done. Often. We constantly need to be auditing. Is this working? Is this not working? Is this for today or tomorrow? And it doesn't mean that if we spend a month planning a marketing initiative and we do a quarterly initiative and a month, then it starts to flop and it's not really there.And people aren't liking it. It doesn't mean it's trash forever. It just means no right now that's good. That's good. Like I love when I come up with ideas and they flop because I get told very easily that wasn't worth it. That's not what we want, which also tells me what people do want. And then I'll bring that same idea back six months later and it'll be viral or a home run because it had to be the right offer or the right message for the right market or right audience at the right time. And so that's kind of how I look at it.  So just constantly be an audit, constantly being adjustment, not big sweeping changes, changing email platforms, firing people, changing the company, but like iterative audits, right? Like just like when you do the same thing in the gym over and over and over again, you become used to it. It becomes your new normal. You have to increase stimulus a response when you eat the same foods and you're trying to gain weight. Sometimes they work. Then they stop when you're eating the same foods and trying to lose weight. Sometimes they stop and sometimes they start and we're constantly making these micro adjustments and it starts by looking at our game and being like, wow, this is how I played today.This is what worked, and this is what didn't work. This is what I'm gonna do differently. And so that's what I want you to do. When you think about simplicity, our base mission every day is how can we simplify this? Because business and life should be simple. If it's complicated, we're adding unneeded stress that really detracts from us accomplishing our goals and mission.  And then the next one is clarity. And this is my favorite one. So if you're listening to this, I'm not going to edit this out. I'm taking a sip of my coffee. If you're watching this, it's a really delicious iced coffee with almond milk. 20 grams of honey and cinnamon and it makes my heart happy. So when we think about clarity, these are some of the questions that I ask. If I were to ask every person on your team right now, what is the primary goal or focus of your company right now, when I get the same answer for members, single person, yourself included, or would they your team andn that includes agency owners, outsourced, part-time VAs yourself, even your family with their support and what you do, would they, or you be able to clearly tell me what the primary initiative for your company is this quarter, or can they describe what the company is going to look like a year from now, according to your company, vision planning, is there a clear, obvious queen bee role for your company?And then, is there a clear, obvious queen bee role for each member of your team? And if you don't know what a queen bee role is, I'm going to give you a mandate right now. I'm going to give you an ultimatum. You need to go read the book clockwork by Mike Michalowicz  as soon as possible or else I'm not going to be your friend anymore.I'll of course will be your friend, but I highly recommend it. And then when you're done with that, read an amazing book by my friend Bo Eason called there is no plan B for your A game. And then when you're done read the rest of Mike  books, cause we're not friends yet, but I really want to be his friend, but there's no reason for me to reach out to them.But if you know, Mike should tell him that I've probably sold 10,000 copies of his book because there's some of the best things I've ever seen in my life. And so clockwork by Mike Michalowicz , then there's no plan B for your, a game. And then. The next question. Do you and your team have clear, measurable goals?Is there a stick to measure success against? Is there a target that everybody's aiming at? This clarity is crucial and  I would venture on a limb to say required for you to even have a chance to have a business nevermind for it to succeed. This has required. This is like, if you don't have that, you shouldn't be allowed to have a business.You shouldn't be allowed to take a loan. You shouldn't be allowed to sell to a customer if you don't have that, because you need it internally because you also need it externally. Because one of our jobs as business owners is to know where our customers want to go. Or plan on going before they do and hold the path for them to get there.We might sell a product for step one of their journey, but it's still our responsibility to help them get to step 30. And you require clarity internally in your company before you can ever give clarity externally for your customers and without clarity and simplicity, they can't trust you and they won't feel safe.And if they don't feel safe and they can't trust you, they sure as crap cannot pay you. And so clarity. And simplicity are the two most important things in your business. They should be the keel of your boat in the water. They should be looked at every day. You should live in this state. Is this clear? And is this the simplest way I can do this?Is this clear? And is this the simplest way I can do this right. And on this episode, I made a couple of book recommendations. I'll run over them again. A book number one I referenced was the infinite game by Simon Sinek. Book two was clockwork by Mike Michalowicz and book three was there is no plan B for your, a game by Bo Eason. And then book four through five, six, seven. Books four through seven would be the rest of Mike  what's books  and that would be the pumpkin plan profit first, and then his newest one that I've read twice. Now, fix this next.  And so here's what I want you to do. You've made it this far. You're listening.  You're intrigued. I'm going to ask you those questions for clarity. One more time. And I just want you to check in with yourself. Do you know the answers? Does your team know the answers? And if you do amazing and if you don't amazing, I don't know most of these answers every day when I wake up. So I have to check in meditate, checking with my team and we're like, where are we going?What are we focusing on? And we have our goals and stuff, but we always plug back into it to make sure that we're on target and we're heading in the direction that we need to be not. We turned around and ended up going in another direction.  So the questions again, if I were to ask every person on your team, And yourself included. What is the primary goal or focus of your company right now? When I get the same answer from every single person, would they, or you be able to clearly tell me what the primary initiative for your company is this quarter? Can you wear them? Describe what the company is going to look like a year from now, according to your company, vision planning, your beacon of belief and all the different pieces that we offer you. Is there a clear, obvious queen bee role for your company, for N for each member of your team? And do you and them have clear, measurable goals. And I have more questions than that, and we have some in our Facebook group, but that is a great place to start.  So here's exactly what I want you to do. And this I want you to do in the next seven days. And listen, if you don't great. If you do amazing. I do this a lot. I've been behind the scenes more than, you know, and under the curtain and hood of more businesses. And, you know, and I live this every single day and I don't feel the need, my ego wants to name drop and be like, well, I did it with this company.I did it with this company and they, that doesn't serve us. It doesn't serve you. It doesn't serve me. It does serve my ego, but I'm not insecure right now. I'm super secure and grounded and loving this episode and you for listening to it. So thank you but I want you to take this serious. I do. Look at it like a prescription, because at the worst, what comes out of this is more clarity at the worst, at the worst, at the best everything you've ever needed.To have a clear path for your business to work. There's no way to lose this game. If you're just intentional and take a little time to do it, I'm about to share. So I challenge you in the next seven days to commit to doing this and put it in your calendar and make it a priority because without it, there's no easy way to get to where you want to go.And I'm telling you right now, You can name me a company. I'll tell you they do this. You can ask me any of my clients. They'll tell you they do this. And they range in revenue all the way up to from zero to $30 billion. And it's the same everywhere. Okay. So I want you to take a half an hour over the next week, and I want you to sit in silence and ponder the questions I just mentioned.I wind up upon to them. And I mean, this no phone, no computer, no music go to a place that you're not going to be interrupted for 30 minutes to an hour. And on a piece of actual paper, real paper written paper. I want you to write on the top, all those questions that I asked you in the clarity section. If I was to ask every person, your team, what's the primary goal of folks, your company, would I get the same answer?Would they be able to clearly tell me what the primary initiative for your company this quarter, you come up with these ones and use these ones, or you come up with your own. But I want you to write these questions on the top of the paper, and I want you to ponder all of them. And it doesn't matter if you get clarity in five minutes, you sit for at least 30.The clarity that comes in five minutes is reactive and temporary. You need to sit with it and you need to be with it. And if you get super clear in 10 minutes, will you have 20 minutes to meditate and manifest that vision for you and your company and your team. And I want you to ask yourself some of these questions, where am I unnecessarily over-complicating things? Where is there a lack of clarity? Where can I be more simple? Who do I need to enroll in order to address and fill these holes? What do I need to learn to order in order to address and fill these holes? What do I need to share with my team in order to in addressing affiliate holes.What areas of my business need the most love and attention right now, and don't act on it right away. Here's the best part of this. You're going to spend 30 minutes to an hour minimum writing this down and I mean, jot it out, let it come out and flow chicken, scratch notes, shorthand pictures. Doesn't matter.The whole point of this is to start processing and getting these thoughts out into the world. So you can get deeper and deeper into clarity. And when you are done with this session, You then have to take that piece of paper and put it away for 48 hours minimum. Put it in an envelope, put it in your desk, write the date and time in which you wrote it. And then write, I can't read or act on this until nd then at minimum 48 hours later. Minimum 48 hours later, because if you do it's reactive and it will create more of the same problems. We need to focus on the foundational principles. We need to focus on foundational shifts and those require plans, blueprints are needed to build a house.Well, you need a blueprint for how to do those things. And so don't act on it, just be aware and allow yourself the ability to celebrate that. You had all that clarity. If you do find something that's going to put you out of business and the next hour or 48 hours address it. But the rest of it can wait.So document any realizations you have, this is seriously and the most important step in building or scaling your company.So I want you to document it. And then after your two days, I want you to look at it and then you have to prioritize it and you have to prioritize it based on what moves the needle for you.And then you make a plan for it. You prioritize it. You're like, this is number one. Okay. I'm going to do this one. And these time blocks, put them in your calendar and it will be done by this day. And then when it's done, I can move on to the next one. And this is just a little glimpse. I teach this at full length at full length in our lighthouse method course.It's my nine step process for building and scaling your company from pre-revenue all the way up to 10 million. And it doesn't matter if it's Amazon only Shopify only both physical or digital. It is the same nine step model I've used forever. 500 companies and some of the accolades that you've seen and it's pretty, pretty mind blowing.And I decided to take it all. And because of the current state of the world and the things that were going on, I basically tried to put myself out of business for what I priced to that. So if you're super interested in it, you want to check it out. You can go to our Facebook group, we post about it all the time, or you can just go to becomealighthouse.com.I also think it's linked on our website with this podcast, mind of george.com. But I would love to have you in there because this is just one small section and it can be done easily. And then how these things get implemented into practice, how you use this in your systems, your processes, creating our offers, finding your audience and all that stuff.We include all of it. So if that resonates with you, come in, I love you either way, but that is what I want you to do. So just to be clear, I want to say it again. There are only two things that you need to build and scale your business, and it is simplicity and clarity and your mission every single moment of every single day should be trying to get yourself there and then sharing that love with your team and then allowing your customers to feel the results of that love that you've created.So that is the end of today's episode, having. Absolutely beautiful day, whatever day it is. Remember to subscribe. Remember to leave a review, please tell your friends, and I'm going to be specific. If you could please tell five of your friends about me, just five of them. Just tell five of your friends about this episode or an episode that supports them or serves them and will help them.It would mean the world to me and a world to them. And if you want to send 500, do it. If you get 500 people to subscribe to this podcast and leave a review, you should probably call me. Cause I'll probably give you the. Biggest gift of your life that you can't even imagine what would come out of my mouth.So I absolutely love you guys all have a beautiful day. I will talk to you soon and remember that relationships will always bet algorithms. 

The CoVent-19 Challenge The CoVent-19 Challenge is the creation of 13 anesthesiologists and advisors from Massachusetts General Hospital and the Boston-area who have come together to help overcome the ventilator supply crisis during the devastating the COVID-19 pandemic. As experts in mechanical ventilation and frontline workers fighting COVID-19, they seek to develop low-cost, rapidly manufacturable solutions to support heavily burdened modern medical facilities. CoVent’s goal is to close the gap between our actual resources and those in need around the world. The CoVent-19 Challenge is an open innovation 12-week Grand Challenge for engineers, innovators, designers, and makers. The Challenge launched on the GrabCAD Challenges platform on April 1, 2020. The general admission round resulted in over 213 entries from 43 countries. Seven teams were invited to participate in the invite-only finalist round (details below). The Baxter Academy team is one of the 7 finalists. The invited teams are receiving access to additional resources for completing their ventilator designs and support in creating functional prototypes, including test kits, test lungs, and testing protocols. The prototypes will be evaluated using a test bed to determine which design provides the best combination of performance, safety, reliability, manufacturability, affordability, and simplicity. The final ventilator designs are due to CoVent on June 21st and will then be evaluated by a team of expert medical and technical panelists. Team Name: Team Baxter Academy Product Name: The Baxter Ventilator About the Team: The team is based at Baxter Academy for Technology and Science and is composed of teachers, students, and alumni from Baxter Academy who live predominantly in Portland, Maine and across New England.   Members: Jonathan Amory, Team Leader, Engineering Teacher, Baxter Academy Emmalyn Armstrong Ben Bernard Josef Biberstein Casey Burhoe Rowan Connor-McCoy Norris Dale Zackary DiCelico Olivia Fowler James Heffernan Travis Libsack Emily Mickool Nick Nelsonwood Amanda Palma Alexander Willette Jack Yebba Toby Roy Bodhi Wilkins Caden Theriault Gordon Fream The Baxter Ventilator was designed specifically to address a shortage of ventilators during a pandemic. The ventilator provides volume control continuous mandatory ventilation (VC-CMV). The tidal volume, respiratory rate, inspiratory to expiratory time (I/E), positive end expiratory pressure (PEEP), and fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2) can all be set on a touch screen or through manual controls. For the patient's safety, the maximum Peak Inspiratory Pressure (PIP) will not exceed 40 cm of water. To allow for use in field hospitals, the ventilator can use ambient air, high or low pressure oxygen. When evaluated on a Gaumard HAL S3201 simulator, the prototype met the target criteria and produced results similar to industry-standard ventilators. In a pandemic mass production and supply chains for ventilators may be disrupted, while surges in demand for medical device components and market failures may limit availability. The Baxter Ventilator was therefore designed to be built by individuals with limited skills in distributed locations, as well as at scale. A single person can assemble a ventilator a day with an only an Allen set and crescent wrench following Ikea type assembly instructions and videos. Using readily available industrial COTs components costing only $1,500, the ventilators are not dependent on specialized equipment or parts and are cost-effective. The design features tried and true mechanisms for long life cycles in harsh environments. The Baxter Ventilator also provides a robust platform for expanded capabilities. Additional sensors and controls are currently being added to the Baxter ventilator to allow features like pressure control continuous mandatory ventilation (PC-CMV) and pressure-support ventilation (PSV).   Press Release from Baxter Academy PORTLAND, Maine — Engineers like to solve problems and there is no exception in Baxter Academy's engineering teacher Jon Amory. In March, when Amory saw the critical shortage of medical ventilators facing hospitals as they try to help patients afflicted with COVID-19, he started doing research. "I drew up some schematics, did some calculations and said this is something that I could produce," Amory said. Although he was quickly convinced he could build one, he wanted to create an emergency ventilator that even under dire circumstances could be built and used by almost anyone. To do that he decided it needed to be built inexpensively, using over-the-counter parts, and only a few tools. It also had to be simple to build. "Anyone who can put together something from Ikea, has a basic knowledge of putting things together, can build it." "It's one thing to produce one ventilator in one lab, it's another thing to produce something anyone can build." Amory knew that he could put the machine together most efficiently by himself bouncing ideas off his colleagues but he wanted to include his students. He reached out to them about the project. It wasn't required and there would be no grade. Dozens of students wanted to help. Maine teacher and students create working ventilator   Working remotely, through virtual meetings a group of about twenty current and former students began to meet and work on the ventilator, including Junior Dennis Slobodzian who has been working on the controls. The ventilator is built on what looks like an iv stand and is controlled with a touch screen pad. It has a motor that controls a belt that goes up and down. "Basically my job was to make sure that the motor could move in the correct way that we wanted it to," Slobodzian explained. He needed to work on the device in person but is not leaving his home, so his Amory brought it over to him so he could work on it for a few days. "I was working from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on that thing making sure that it would work for a demo," Slobodzian said. "It was definitely a worry that we need to make it the best product that we can to make sure it's reliable so we don't harm anyone and once that sunk in it was definitely something that is kind of crazy to think about what these things can do in the real world," Slobodzian said. Also working on the controls from his apartment in Cambridge, Mass. is MIT graduate student, Baxter Academy alumni Josef Biberstien. When he heard through the grapevine about Amory's project he said he had to help "because it's the right thing to do." Biberstein, from Freeport, explained when the patient needs to breathe a piston pushes air into the patient's lungs. When the patient needs to be allowed time to breathe out, the piston is drawn back. "We designed this so that if it fails it fails benignly. It's designed so that it will fail in a way which it doesn't hurt the patient," Biberstein explained. Students have started called the emergency ventilator OSV, it stands for open source ventilator because they intend to share the plans with the world. "We’re going to put together like an Ikea pamphlet on how you’d assemble this thing," teacher Jon Amory says. Sophomore Emily Mickool is part of the documentation group that is working on that Ikea-like assembly pamphlet. She says she doesn't want to see the emergency ventilator have to be used. Amory started his initial plans and drafts on March 21, by Thursday, April 9, the machine was being tested at the University of New England with a simulation specialist and Dawne- Marie Dunbar, a clinical professor of nursing and the Director of the Interprofessional Simulation and Innovation Center. The emergency ventilator was hooked up to a patient simulator. "What was very exciting was the data that we got from the patient simulator very much mimicked what we would see if it was on a real ventilator," said Dunbar. Baxter Academy ventilator tested at UNE   "To take parts that are readily available and basically put them together with three tools and to come up with a prototype that worked as well as it did on our patient simulator we were fascinated," Dunbar explained that UNE is committed to allowing Jon Amory to continue to test his emergency ventilator at their facility. In less than three weeks, Amory and his students build an emergency ventilator for $1,500 - a medical-grade ventilator costs anywhere from $25,000 to $50,000. The machine requires a set of Allen keys and a crescent wrench to put it together. All the parts can be purchased from three different suppliers and all the supplies are in stock. Amory may have built the emergency ventilator for a worst-case scenario but it has been an amazing learning experience for his students. "I think where it's really important is to see that they (students) can put their skills to use right away. That when there's a crisis or a challenge that comes up, they can rise to the occasion... implement the skills that they've learned so far and see themselves being relevant to help find solutions to the problem," Amory said. The emergency ventilator still needs to undergo continuous testing and Amory says his students

This week on the podcast we talk with Coach, Frank Overton of FasCat Coaching about gravel training and racing.   FasCat supports both elite and recreational athletics in achieving goals both big and small.   Remember #FTP. Sponsored by: Cycle Oregon Support the Podcast:  Buy me a coffee Automated Transcript, please excuse the errors. Frank, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, Craig. Pleasure to be here. Right on. We always start off by learning a little bit more about the cycling background of our guests and how they first came to riding, drop our bikes off road. So how'd you get started? In 1995, I graduated in college and I got a job within three weeks of graduating. I came home from work the first day, five o'clock, and I sat on the couch and like ate chips and watch TV, woke up the next day, said I'm not doing that again. And I played tennis in high school and college and you know, like NCAA, all that and you need two people to play tennis. So when I got to a new town, a new job came home that second day and I didn't have anyone or know anyone to play tennis with. So I had a mountain bike that I use for commuting and I wrote it around the neighborhood and the neighborhood rods. I started to go a little bit further away, a little bit further away and it was all on pavement. And I actually was riding on the sidewalk until someone yelled at me. And then I started riding on the road and you know, 30 minutes turned into 45 turned into 60. And then I rode over to a bike shop and said, where are the trails? And cause it was a mountain bike. And lo and behold, one of the guys that I went to college with own the bike shop and he, he took me under his wing a little bit enough to like say, Hey man, you need to get a helmet and here you need to get these, these shoes. But anyway, this is in Winston Salem, North Carolina. And I started riding in the woods after work and loved it and that, that, that's how I got started. I E. The other way I got started, sorry to be long winded right off the bat is when I was 11 and 12, I would come home from school and my parents, you know, I would go out in the neighborhood and play, this is before phones and everything. I was a free range kid and I had friends from school that lived in different neighborhoods and I had a lot of friends in my neighborhood that we would all play. And I had this like, I don't know, like a Sears 10 speed bike that my parents had bought me and I started riding that to neighborhoods other than my own afterschool to go play like basketball and, and, and like, you know, pick up flag football. And my parents would always let me go wherever I wanted to on, they didn't even know how far I was going. So the bike was a lot, a lot of freedom for me to go rod to different neighborhoods to, you know, do other sports. So that slippery and love of just peddling around the neighborhood ultimately led you to racing mountain bikes and road bikes, right? I guess so. Yeah. Yeah. I mean yeah. You know, because you've done it as a kid and then you start doing it for exercise after, you know, in your adult life. I got started in mountain biking later in life. You know, I didn't do it in high school. This is before Nika and that, and I didn't do it in college. So back to the woods and Winston Salem and my friend did that bike shop, you know, it went back like the second time and he's like, Hey, you know, you should come and race with us. And you know, it's like, yeah, let's do it. And he was an expert mountain biker and I was a beginner and he said, okay, you can, you can rod with us, you can get a ride with us. And I wasn't gonna go to the race by myself cause I didn't even know where to go or what to do. But he was leaving at 8:00 AM for the like Cunningham expert race and he's like, well, you got to do this one if you go with us, cause like my race, the beginner race was like later in the day, but I wasn't cold by myself. So I kind of like just dove right in and you know, trial by fire and I was hooked. I loved it. And, you know, I kept doing it and it just kinda yeah, blew up from there. And then ultimately you raced semi-pro on the mountain bike and cat one on the road. That's right. Yeah. Fast forward, whatever, six to seven years. Raced for the Schwind homegrown grassroots team. Raced for specialized Nantucket nectars for a year. And and then the Richie grassroots Mount bike team in 2002 and I broke my hand at the Northern national and Alpine Valley. It's the same place where Stevie Ray barn's helicopter crashed. And I like, I was like pre-writing the course. I was like in the best shape of my life. I was going to use that race to get my pro upgrade. And lo and behold, you know, just stupid crash riding in the woods in a, put my hand, right on a baby head rock and just folded over the metacarpals and you know, so I couldn't race, but I mean, like really good shape. And I, I use this expression with my athletes, you know, my legs were not broken and got on the trainer and you know, this is like right around, you know, I'd always done road racing and crits, you know, for training in between the, the mountain bike races, the Northern national circuit and like the courts now bike series in, in Colorado, the cross country series. And this is also right around during the Lance wave when road racing was cool. Kind of like the way gravel is now. I mean it was the thing to do. It's like what all the mountain bikers are getting into. Cause it was just, you know, awesome. And there was a lot of opportunities. So I went to super week that year at with a broken hand because I could put my, my phone around the ski lever and I can still race. I mean I was like in really good shape. I couldn't wrap my hand around the bar, but I could, you know, pulled the right STI lever with my thumb. So I go to super weak, you know, race from two weeks in a row. Love it, come back home. And then I just drove myself out to the cascade bicycle race in Oregon. Loved it. And you know, I didn't really do that well, but I, and I can hold my own in the pro one, two field. So in 2002, the Mount bike sponsorship dried up and prior to that it was like gravy train. I mean, you know, they were giving people like me cash money and two bikes and you know, all the equipment we needed, but after nine 11 and the.com boom. And the combination of the Lance wave there wasn't as many opportunities. I really didn't have a team for 2003, so I decided to race on the road. I mean, it's the same thing that gravel racers are doing now, just different disciplines. So I I turned to race and on the road in 2003, you know, did a, you know, a lot of the NRC counter events, Redlands and Salono, central Valley classic he LA cascade obviously super week. Oh, it was called dairy, dairy land all those races. And it was during that time. What else? Oh, in 2002 also because of the.com boom. And nine 11, I lost my job is in biotechnology. Biotechnology was incredibly volatile back then and most of the companies that I worked for were startups. I was like employee number 12. It's the longest running company I worked at. But the market tanked and funding dried up and layoffs happened. And one thing I realized in biotech is every time you go to a new company, it takes about six months to learn new technology. And the other thing I learned was there's two types of people in biotechnology, those with their PhD and those without, and I was without, because I had chosen to ride my bike a lot more in life than to spend time in the lab, in the, in the library. And so I realized I needed to do something different. And I decided, I I was, that's when I got into coaching in 2002 I was in between biotechnology jobs. I was training full time to be a road racer, try to be a professional level road racer. And yeah, that's when I got the help of a friend. I built a website, wrote some training tips, came up with the logo and the name and yeah, that's when it all got, yeah, that's when fast cat coaching got started. And had you gotten some coaching previously in any of the sort of semi-pro and pro racing you were doing? Oh yeah, absolutely. I was coached by a fellow by the name of Dave Morris. Hi day. Shout out Dave was a exercise physiologist. He worked on project 96 for any of the old timers out there. Project 96 was the title of the project given to basically the team charged with winning gold medals at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic games. And he worked down in Colorado Springs in the human performance lavatory and he, you know, day was one of the first coaches. He's a peer of Chris Carmichael and Dean Golich from, from that air. And he had written a book, I think the name of it was like racers ready anyway, Gaye was coaching some people in, in, in 98. I, I like trained as hard as I could and I didn't really get any better at the end of that season. I was like, I gotta hire a coach and man I had to like call around. I mean this is like I called Dean Crandall who put me in touch with Dean Golis. She said he was too busy and that was back when in coaching where you had to like, you had to like be good enough to be coached for a coach to take you on. And I was like a no name but Dave was trying to make some money and he had an affordable coaching and I was coached by day for like four years and went from a sport class, Mount biker, you know, all the way up to like count one, you know, borderline professional mountain bike level. Yeah, it's interesting you hear that story a lot when people just have the raw talent and get it organized by a coach to kind of progress to that next level. So that's an interesting tale of how you came to founding fast cat. I should note, as I mentioned in the intro that you guys have been producing a really great podcast. How long has it been a couple of years on that. Oh thanks. It has been 84 episodes and may of 2018 so little over. Let's see. Hey, we're coming up on two years here. This may. That's awesome. I think you know what's, what's interesting to me is you guys put out such depth of information on your site and the, it's sort of a lot of, it's freely available, lot of great plans out there and obviously you guys offer customized coaching. A couple of the episodes that really kind of grabbed hold of me and I got a ton of questions for you about a variety of subjects, but there, there was the concept of winning in the supermarket and winning in the kitchen. That really resonated with me as someone who feels like he consistently fails in those departments. Can you talk about just a touch on, on that philosophy and where you guys are coming from with that? Absolutely. Well and when I hired Dave is my coach, you know, we did a one season 98, 99 completely didn't even pay attention to nutrition. In fact, I was losing in the grocery store. I was losing in the, in the kitchen and you know, one day in 1999, you know, Dave introduced the concept of power to weight ratio to me. And then, you know, I talked to some of my teammates and I, and I looked around and you know, it turns out power to weight ratios, one of the greatest determinants of performance in the type of racing that I was doing, which was now biking, which was a lot of climbing. And to you know, go up these Hills faster, you had to weigh less. And you know, so I started paying attention to my nutrition and, and in October of I guess that was like 2000, I started you know, eat more salads, more vegetables. You know, I still had no clue what I was doing. You know, this is 20 years ago. But I, but back then I was, you know, you're young you know, you're, you produce, you know, your endocrine system is still, you know, you know, firing away and it's really easy to lose weight as like, you know, a 28, 30 year old compared to when you're 48 or, you know, in your fifties when your Intercom system has slowed down tremendously. And so you know, I got really skinny and got really fast and that's how I upgraded up to, you know, be in a semi-pro and a cat one. And I really didn't make that much more power. I mean, I got more powerful, but really the biggest, the, you know, the huge leap that I took was from losing weight. And so that's the impetus behind winning in the kitchen. It's super important and really just comes down to a lot of guys think they can just ride more and eat less and that's what you can do in your 20s. But that is not the path to longterm sustainable success. You know, when you're a masters athlete, you in your thirties, maybe you can kind of get away from it or again, account and blend the two. But you know, for many years it was the Eddie Murks rod more eat less. But really 80% of weight loss comes from healthy food choices that emanate from the kitchen that's winning in the kitchen. And really 20% of weight loss is you know, just from riding more like, you know, rotting a ton of hours, like when you can do when you're in your 20s. So it really just comes down to eating more vegetables, eating more fruits you know, staying away from added sugar partially hydrogenated fat, saturated fat, you know, it's really simple. One of my teammates from back in the day, the Richie team, he had a term that I adopted. He said there's two types of foods. There's the go fast Khan and there's the go slow con. And I guarantee you everyone listening right now can put a label on either. And so really it's just paying attention to the go fast foods and you know, going to the grocery store, choosing those foods and you know, trying to wait in the kitchen and it's a healthy lifestyle. And I can go on and on and on about that cause we do in our podcast. Yeah. No I encourage people to go back and listen to those episodes of your podcast cause I found it interesting. I think it's pretty easy for us as kind of middle-aged athletes, masters athletes to look around and think about what we're eating and realize the percentage of go slow foods to go fast foods is highly skewed in the go slow category. And you know, you know, clearly I think we need to acknowledge that, you know, most of, most of the gravel athletes that are listening to this, I suspect are out there for the adventure. They're taxing their bodies, they're going for these big events like dirty Kanza. But at the same token, you know, they're not trying to be a skeleton, Chris Froome type athlete. It's just not important to them. It's important for them to get to the finish line. So there's, you know, there's clearly some balance there of, of enjoying life, but also, you know, making those choices that all enable you to be more efficient on the bike and have more success at these long distance events. That's right. And success at the event comes from the second part of the winning and the kitchen philosophy and approach is you got to fuel your workouts and fuel your, your long distance rides. And you know, back then I would, you know, put five you know, gels in my pocket and you know, suck those down every 30 minutes. But nowadays, you know, we'd talk about gels, blocks, bars, every 30 minutes we'd talk about making rice cakes from scratch, lads and Dr. Allen Lim. You know, we talk about you know, just eating well proportion meals before and after and, and, and all that in everyone that does these races, these long races, you know, where they can all, they probably want to lose five or 10 pounds. They may not want to get down to you know, 7% body fat. But you know, as you age, your, your body just instance, natural tendency to put on more, more fat and store fat and, and you know, you'd neglect that for a few years and then you're, you know, that's when you got the spare tire and when you do decide to choose more go fast foods and try to win in the kitchen is that's where this can come in. Cause we don't advocate like dieting and like, you know, restricting calories. We just advocate eating more, really just eating more fruits and vegetables and greens and, and, and making those go fast food choices. Yeah. And I think that's where I am as an athlete. It's really, I just would like to start making better choices. At the beginning of 2019 I became a vegetarian, which has helped. But I found that just being a vegetarian doesn't necessarily mean you, you make good food choices. So 2020s about kind of combining that with a little bit better choices. And you know, one of the things I struggle with, and I wanted to kind of get your opinion as as a coach is you know, as a, as a family man, as someone who works for a living, my time windows are off often outside of my control. So you know, I think about getting on a training program but then I think to myself, okay, in any given week or any given month, my long ride window may open up serendipitously. So it may be on the program that I'm supposed to be resting this week, but all of a sudden I have a five hour block of time because my wife has decided to take my son somewhere. How do you kind of work with athletes who are grappling with the challenges of time, opportunity versus training schedules? Well, I mean, the first thing that we try to do is teach and not tell. And that I would tell you as a contradict myself, I would teach you to just go for it. When you have that five hour window of opportunity, first of all go for it because that's what you, you know, need and want to do and then just figure out everything you know, downstream as far as the training plan goes. So it's, you're the type of athlete that would benefit from like a coaching relationship to be taught that. And, and, and a lot of, we, a lot of athletes are like, well, I'm not ready for that. And then so we have these training plans and in these training plans we obviously you have the long rod and we have a, a private athlete forum where we have figured out a way to kind of teach athletes if they do want have questions, just like for the, you know, the conundrum that you just presented. And it's like, how do I follow the plan but still, you know, adopt to these. And it's just really just asking the question. And, and in training peaks, you know, moving your workouts around is this simple left click, drag and drop and the software and you move like your longer OD to like a Friday instead of a Saturday or a Sunday instead of Saturday. And then you just, you know, you just work, work your way through the plant. We teach consistency. You know, we do have the hashtag FTF P which is follows up bleep in plan, which is a derivation of the velum Menotti rule number five and HTF view. We joke about that but we also use that as an opportunity to teach people good training habits and to be flexible with themselves. So like you may be coming from the, the angle, I've got to follow this plan just right. Maybe you're like a perfectionist, but really what you want to do is be flexible with yourself and just go for it and then, you know, kind of adjust your rest days around that opportunity. Right. The other thing I have is, you know, I often work in San Francisco four days a week and I commute in from mill Valley. So I've got this sort of hour long, not certainly not junk miles because I'm enjoying going through Sausalito and over the golden gate bridge, but it's not pure training. And then I have the opportunity to ride home in the evening. So, you know, there's the potential for me to be riding two hours in any one of those days. But to date it's just sort of been plot along, you know, not put any more effort in or less effort than just required by the terrain in front of me. Okay. So I have an athlete that lives in mill Valley and he works in San Francisco. So we worked that into his, his training plan. He's in di, I wouldn't say he's a die hard commuter, he just enjoys it. I mean, why don't we, do you want to, you know, sit in traffic across the golden gate bridge when you can rot across it. Super good weather. It's pleasurable. I mean, I've written across the golden gate bridge. It was scary as heck with the tourist oncoming and the cross winds. But other than that, it's a great view and a lovely way to maybe, you know, commute to and from work. What I would say to you, and this is the teaching moment is, and this, this is, I think we were corresponding by email about this. It's like what are you training for? Identified the demands and the requirements for performance in that event and then back that up to what you should be doing in your training and say you are training for like a dirty Kanza or any other gravel event out there. You gotta have a really good aerobic and endurance. You need to ride your bike a lot. You know, like the Omni podcast that we just recorded with her. She rides her bike a lot. Therefore that's why she is good at riding 200 miles and you don't have to ride your bike a lot on just one day. You just need to ride your bike a lot over time, six months. And so getting back to your commute, riding two hours a day, four to five times a week, totally fits in with trying to ride a lot over the course of six, six months in preparation from any gravel event. I mean during that time, at the very least you spend time in zone two, that's a robotic endurance increase your mitochondrial density. Yeah, that's the foundation of all gravel racing. And then I think there is a client and I don't know the name of it, but as you kind of head South from Sausalito and mill Valley and start to go up to the bridge, you can get in a like good eight to 10 minutes of like you can do tempo, you can do sweet spot, you do threshold, you can do like five minute work, a park Hill, you know, before you cross the bridge. Yeah, I mean, I mean you might just need to take like a 20 minute detour. But I did that. The athletes that I worked with, his name is Sean. We were, we were always coming up with these like custom workouts. Like, okay, you'll do like threshold work on the way to, on the way to work. But then rod zone two on the way home and then the next day run zone two to work. But on the way back, let's do this tempo. So it's just kind of getting creative. But I would say overall I'm staying consistent and trying to ride your bike a lot in a flexible manner is going to net new greater gains than, than you know, trying to do like a six hour ride. You know, once one day a week, consistency is King and I would just encourage you to commute as much as possible. Yeah. We've also got the luxury here. We can head into Tennessee Valley and actually ride the gravel pretty much all the way to the golden gate bridge and there's plenty of add on opportunities. So there's a number of people who do what's referred to around here as the dirty commute where we head off road, which is pretty, it's pretty incredible to kind of have that experience and then drop into the golden gate bridge and be downtown in the financial district for work an hour later. Makes me want to move to the Bay. I know you've enjoyed it out here, the riding, so it's not lost on me that we're blessed, but as are you in Boulder? I spent a number of years out there and I love it. There's so much fun. We are, we live in gray places. The other thing that I grapple with is and this kinda goes on with opportunism around my time windows is I, you know, I often get last minute opportunities to ride events, whether it's locally or you know, even traveling a little bit. So I struggle with kind of choosing an a event. And for me like the concept of a events is a, is almost irrelevant at the end of the day. I want to experience new gravel. I want to enjoy the gravel community wherever I am. So I was trying to think back as to in, in last year I think I did maybe four or five kind of 60 to a hundred mile events around the country and there wasn't much rhyme or reason to them. And, and to your earlier point, I did feel like all my commuting miles enabled me any structure whatsoever to kind of get to the finish line and enjoy those long events. But any, any further advice in that category of like someone who is opportunistically taking these, these event opportunities and isn't really focused on anyone in particular? Yeah, I have two answers for you that kind of parallel with each other. The first thing is I would encourage you to choose an M and a event and you may want to like, like we did a whole podcast on this a couple of years ago in the fall about choosing your a event and cause we were introducing the term a event B event, the event to our, to our listeners. And, you know, really, I think everyone knows what we were talking about, like in a event is your dirty cans and 200 or your lost and found or your crusher and the Tuscher BWR you know, mid South, you know, Steamboat, gravel, that, that sort of thing. Those are the races that you dream about, that when you are on a long run and you're wondering what you're doing in life, you, you fall back to remembering what you're training for. They're, they're the races that, that motivate you and they're fun and, and for years the crusher and the Tuscher was my a race and that's what motivated me prior to the crusher and the Tuscher. The big bear Norbert national was that those, the first mountain bike race of the year that kicked off the notice season. And that's what got me through the winter. You know, when I was, you know, lifting heavy in the gym, doing intervals, rod long, you know, that's your reason. I think Rebecca Rush calls that. What's your, why? You know, that that's, that that's the a race. But then for your B race is in kind of your spontaneous you know, nature. Well, yeah. You know, definitely go for him and, you know, participate. They, so I would call those your B race races. And the the other thing I would say, you may be like, well, I don't have any race or, you know, life doesn't really fit in with that. And then that's okay. You know, keep going you know, through your journey in gravel racing and one of these days of life or open up, you know, not be as busy. And you'd be like, Oh, I'm getting, this is my goal. I'm gonna go for it. And it may be like a, like, like last year I had an athlete do the dirty cans and 200, and he, he completed that. And then this year the rift in Iceland is his big, big goal. And that's what he lives in Pennsylvania. And he, you know, it's not the greatest weather, but you know, the, the idea of being his best in, in Iceland, you know, keeps him, keeps him going. And maybe that's for you and it's not something that I can tell you as your goal. It's something that you're going to just come up with one day or think about and, or decide upon. Am I answering your question? You are, and I mean it has posed some sort of questions for me and I, I'd been a bit hurt with a back problem throughout the winter, so it kind of had put my 2020 plans in question as to what I was excited about and what I really wanted to do. I, I'm, I'm thinking for me, Rebecca's private Idaho might be my, my sort of a race for the year and build the season around that. So now that you have an a race, someone like me, I mean, I can go to town. I mean, now we have a timeframe ripping, you know, that's labor day. That's where we have March, April, may, June, July, August at six months away, 24 weeks, you know, now, now from someone like me, it's like, okay, we should do this, this and this. To prepare you have the opportunity to build your base. Like we, you know, from commuting here, you don't want to neglect interval training, you know, threshold, you know, there is a 20 minute climb that starts off, Rebecca is private auto course. And after that climb, there's a big selection. It's a bunch of chunky gravel after that. So your power to weight ratios is big and important and you want to work on your threshold power to get over that climb in the best possible group and selection and time. And so, you know, being in mill Valley you have awesome 20 minute climb. So then you can structure your training going up and down Mount Tam and the Alpine dam and yeah, so then, but it also helps you peer dyes, your motivation. And we always say, you know, training for these races is kinda like a crescendo and, and piano and you know, you start off small and gradually get louder and louder and louder as you get you know, towards the Rebecca's date. Yeah. And I think that's a good schedule for me this year. Just because sort of coming off this back injury, I want to make sure I'm healthy before I'm really firing and working too hard. What I appreciated on your site in addition to all the great video and podcast content was that you did have specific training plans that people can purchase for specific events. I thought that that was really cool when someone's getting into the plan and let's say for example, they, they don't actually have power on their bike. How do, how do you begin that process of setting whatever kind of measurement or milestone you need to set at the beginning of the process? Yeah, so we get this question a lot. I do I need a power meter to follow your plan? The answer is no. All of our plans are zone based. So zone two, you can do a zone two training a by feel a rate of perceived exertion. You can do it by heart rate using a heart rate monitor and that's relatively affordable. I think you can get like a wahoo ticker for $50 and that's like the top of the line. And so hurray based training is tremendous. It's very, very good. And then of course there's the power meter and you can get a power meter for $350. I think stages has some nice affordable options there. One of their slogans is the power meter for every day. The everyday cyclist, not necessarily, you know, world tour level, but anyway, so you have zones and the training plan teaches you how to use the zones. On the second day of a lot of our training plans, we'll have you perform a very simple and extremely effective task. We call it a field test. You do it out in the field. You don't need a lab, you don't need, you know, lactate or [inaudible] and, and you can do it with zero technology, which some of our athletes do. I learned this from Alan Lamb when he was working with some of the world tour and guys. But basically you go to a Hill and you go up at as fast as you can for 20 minutes, and when the clock strikes 20 minutes, you'd like put an X down on the pavement or the client put a rock or you notice which mailbox you're next to or treat. And then you go off and you do some training. You went in the kitchen, you weigh less, you, you know, you get more powerful and you increase your numerator and decrease your denominator. Power to weight ratio is, is better. And then you go back to that same client and you go up it just as hard and then you measure how much further you got past that log or X or mailbox and you got on a previous time. And so that's like the super low tech way. And we teach athletes, you know, how to, how to do zone based training and, and really, you know, suites by very good. With power meter or heart rate zone two, you can do it. Rate of perceived exertion. VO two max threshold zone six. Really, that's just as hard as you can. You don't need a power meter or a heart monitor to do that style of training. It sure is nice to, to measure it and look at it afterwards. The analysis that, that piece, The main attraction for a power meter from me would be just kind of getting that satisfaction is seeing some numbers move. The other thing I see referenced a lot in your plans and conversations is this concept of sweet spot. What, what exactly you're referring to there. That's so sweet. Spot is a it's a zone. It's a style of training. It is a percentage of your functional threshold power, which is another fancy pocket protector term for your threshold, which is why I was just describing you find in a, in a 20 minute field test, it's technically it's 84 to 97% of your FTP and it is the place in your physiology where the stress is at a sweet spot in relation to the, the, the strain. And I think I misspoke on that. It's where the benefits of that work physiologically are in proportion with the, the physiological costs, like the, you know, like when you go do a hard hard ride, you get benefits from it, but then you're like, you know, you're tired, your muscles are sore, you know, and you can't really ride that fast for a couple of days afterwards. That's the strain and the benefit is what you happened, you know, during that hard ride. But sweet-spot training is asking athletes to not go as hard as they can and to be able to do a lot of that training for a less physiological amount of stress. And that enables them to get what we've, you know, kind of like, I guess like the slogan of sweet spot, more bang for your buck. And so it's, you get more physiological benefits than by rotting in zone two. But you, and then you benefit more than doing full-on threshold training. So that, that's what she means by training is I developed sweet-spot training in 2003 to 2005 with a group of coaches and sports scientists. People like dr Andy Coggin Hunter Allen, who I listened to your podcast, that was really good. And it, you know, just like some other coaches like John virtual, Adam Meyerson Olympic silver medalist Brian Walton was in this group and you know, this is before all this that was our empower based technology and was unknown. There was no technology or sports science behind it. And we figured it out. And one of the things that came out of that was sweet-spot training. We were using sweet-spot training to build big aerobic engines to help us go fast. We were all using our own data and developing our own training methods to validate this performance manager chart that is a big piece of the training peak software now. And yeah, so I wrote about it in 2005 on a website called Pez cycling news, introduced it to the world. And I started prescribing sweet-spot trained to all the athletes that I coached, guys like Tom Zirbel and Alison powers. Ted King did a lot of sweet spot training. I coached him back then. You know, Frank Pitt, you know, a lot, a lot, a lot of athletes and they got really fast from it. And that's kind of how I made a name for myself when I was coming up in the coaching world. Awesome. Awesome. Well, you know, for the listener, again, I encourage you to check out Frank's podcast and check out his website cause there's a ton of backstory to everything we've been talking about today. I know you've given me a lot to think about for 2020 and I think this would be a really good year for me to kind of buckle down and just try to add some structure to my gravel cycling as I kind of enter maybe my third or fourth year doing the gravel thing. So Frank, thanks so much for all the great content you're putting out and for the time today. I appreciate it. Oh, you're quite welcome. And I would say if you have any further questions, feel free to ask me. I love helping people. I mean that's kinda like our mission. That's one of the joys of being in the coaching realm as we get to help people with something that they're passionate about, just like us, which is cycling and nowadays a lot of gravel and long distance riding. So yeah. It's a dream dream come true to be able to do this for a living. Yeah, I bet. And I think it's, again, this great takeaways from this podcast, anybody listening is if you're tackling your first gravel event or maybe your first kind of ultra distance event like DK 200, I think there's a lot of these gains that can maybe be made very simply, if you can kind of step back and think about it because they are super taxing these events in a way that just kind of jumping into a local 45 minute long crit never taxes the body. That's right. I mean, crits, you can fake, but I'm a gravel race. You cannot. And being prepared for these gravel races is just so fun. And, and having, you know, six months of work culminate and having a great ride, that's, that's a rewarding experience. And, and I also know this from experience, personal experience, you know, doing a a hundred mile or challenging gravel event under-prepared. That's not fun. And we're doing this for fun. And you know, what we always say is as a fast is funner. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks again, Frank. You're welcome, Craig. Thank you again for having me on.    

Yapmak zorunda kalınırsa, nasıl yapılmalı? Çaresizlik insanlara şaşırtıcı şeyler yaptırabiliyor.Veronica Roth Maalesef soru bilmediğimiz yerden geldi. COVID-19 tüm dünyada hızla yayılmaya devam ederken, tıp camiası hastalığı tanıyıp tedavi edebilmenin yollarını aramakta. Ancak vaka sayısındaki hızlı artış birçok ülkede sağlıkta arz-talep dengesinin bozulmasına ve sistemin çökmesine neden oldu. Yoğun bakım ve mekanik ventilatör ihtiyacı olan hasta sayısının giderek artması, çaresiz kalan hekimleri şimdiye kadar hiç görmediğimiz, duymadığımız yaratıcı çözümler bulmaya yönlendirdi. Öyle ki, bir ventilatör ile birden fazla hasta solutulmaya başlandı. Bu konuyla ilgili "Life in the Fastline" FOAM sitesinde Dr. Simran Kaur Matta'nın yazısını okuyunca sizlerle paylaşmak istedim. “Shared ventilation” olarak tanımlanan bu tekniği “ortak ventilasyon” olarak Türkçeleştirmenin uygun olacağını düşündüm; belki anestezistler daha uygun bir terim bulurlar. Peki, umarım gerek kalmaz ama yapmak zorunda kalırsak ortak ventilasyon nasıl yapılır ondan bahsedelim​1​. Editörün Notu: Aşağıda okuyacağınız bilgilerin oldukça zor bir afet döneminde kullanılmak zorunda kalabileceğimiz önerilerden oluştuğunu unutmamak gerekiyor. Bu yazı bildiğimiz kanıt değerlendirmelerinden geçmemiş bir yöntemin en akıllıca nasıl uygulanabileceğine dair önerilerden oluşmaktadır. Ventilatör modu Ortak ventilasyonun en önemli dezavantajı, ventilatörde tetiklenmeyi engellemek için, hastaların sedatize ve paralize edilmelerinin gerekliliğidir. Bu önemlidir çünkü diğer türlü bir hasta takipneik olduğunda, diğer hastaların da hiperventile olmasına neden olacaktır. Dolayısıyla bu durumu engellemek için hastalar uygun şekilde sedatize ve paralize edilip, sürekli zorunlu ventilasyon (CMV mod) yaptırılmalı ve tetik eşiği arttırılmalıdır. Basınç kontrollü ventilasyon (PC-CMV) modu ortak ventilasyon için en pratik moddur çünkü klinisyene ortalama hava yolu basıncı ve sürücü basıncı kontrol etme imkanı sağlar. Basınç hedefli ters oranlı ventilasyon (PCV-IRV) modu oksijenlendirilmesi zor olan hastalarda, inspirasyon (I) süresini uzatarak, kapalı akciğer ünitelerini açmak ve oksijenasyonu iyileştirmek amaçlı kullanılabilir. Zaman döngülü bir moddur ve ekspiriyum (E) süresi kısa tutularak I/E oranı arttırılmaya çalışılır. Bu mod ekspiriyum fazı uzun olan obstruktif akciğer hastaları için uygun değildir. Hacim kontrollü ventilasyon (VC-CMV) modunun ana dezavantajı ise hastaların akciğer mekaniğine bağımlı olmasıdır. Diğer bir deyişle bir ventilatöre bağlı iki hasta düşünürsek, hastalardan akciğeri daha az etkilenmiş, kompliyansı korunmuş olan gelen tidal volümün %50’sinden fazlasını almış olacaktır. Bu dinamik bir süreçtir ve bir hastanın akciğer kompliyansındaki değişiklik diğer hastanın akciğerine giden hava miktarını etkiler. Öte yandan PC-CMV modda hastaların durumu birbirini bağlamaz; eğer hastanın akciğer mekaniği değişiyor ise bu hastaya gelen hacmi etkiler, ancak basınç sabit olduğundan diğer hastaya giden hacim etkilenmez. Benzer şekilde yapılan test modellerde endotrakeal tüpte bir tıkanıklığın PC-CMV modda diğer taraftaki test akciğerde havalanmayı etkilemediği gösterilmiştir. VC-CMV modda ise devrelerden birinde tıkanıklık olduğunda, açık devrede volüm sapmaları gösterilmiştir. Uzun lafın kısası ortak ventilasyon yapmanız gerekirse en mantıklı mod PC-CMV gibi görünüyor diyebiliriz. Ancak bunun da bazı artefakları var tabii! Ortak ventilasyonda, ventilatör devreleri farklı hastalara paralel olarak bağlanır ve PC-CMV modda her iki devrede basınç aynı kalır; devrelerdeki değişken parametreler akım ve hacimdir. Bu değişken parametreleri her akciğerin kendi kompliyansı belirler. Bu durumda kompliyansı daha iyi olan akciğere daha yüksek bir tidal volüm (VT) ulaşacak bu da aşırı distansiyona ve gerilime bağlı ventilatör bağımlı akciğer hasarı (VILI) oluşmasına neden olabilecektir. Kompliyansı düşük olan akciğer ise,

Lisa interviews this week Dr. Mansoor Mohammed immunologist on what exactly makes the Covid-19 virus so dangerous, how it's transmitted, how it enters the body and what it does once it's there.   He talks about who exactly fits in the high-risk group and how long the virus can live outside of its human host on various surfaces.    They also discuss how containing it and taking drastic action will not stop the spread but slow the spread and therefore the load on the public health system so as not to collapse the system and to give those suffering severely the best chance at surviving.    He talks about the history of this strain and our past experiences with it and the long term implications.   He also brings to our attention the need to especially protect `our elderly population and the immune-compromised.   This is a time to consider other people and to avoid hysteria and panic but to take the risk seriously so as to avoid the worst possible scenario.   Dr. Mansoor also discusses the need to boost the immune system to lower stress levels and the need to continue exercising and staying fit and avoiding poor food choices.     These are unprecedented times but with good strategies, in place and coherence from the majority of people, we can and will be stronger as a community.   Dr. Mansoor is the founder and president of The DNA company who specializes in functional genomics and DNA testing. You can find out more about Dr. Mansoor at www.thednacompany.com     We would like to thank our sponsors for this show:   www.vielight.com   Makers of Photobiomodulation devices that stimulate the brains mitocondria, the power houses of your brains energy, through infrared light to optimise your brain function.  To get 10% off your order use the code: TAMATI at www.vielight.com   For Lisa's New Book Relentless visit the website below to order https://shop.lisatamati.com/products/relentless   When extreme endurance athlete, Lisa Tamati, was confronted with the hardest challenge of her life, she fought with everything she had. Her beloved mother, Isobel, had suffered a huge aneurysm and stroke and was left with massive brain damage; she was like a baby in a woman's body. The prognosis was dire. There was very little hope that she would ever have any quality of life again. But Lisa is a fighter and stubborn. She absolutely refused to accept the words of the medical fraternity and instead decided that she was going to get her mother back or die trying.   For more information on Lisa Tamati's programs, books and documentaries please visit www.lisatamati.com    For Lisa's online run training coaching go to https://www.lisatamati.com/page/runningpage/ Join hundreds of athletes from all over the world and all levels smashing their running goals while staying healthy in mind and body.   Lisa's Epigenetics Testing Program https://www.lisatamati.com/page/epigenetics/ Get The User Manual For Your Specific Genes Which foods should you eat, and which ones should you avoid? When, and how often should you be eating? What type of exercise does your body respond best to, and when is it best to exercise? Discover the social interactions that will energize you and uncover your natural gifts and talents. These are just some of the questions you'll uncover the answers to in the Lisa Tamati Epigenetics Testing Program along with many others. There's a good reason why epigenetics is being hailed as the "future of personalized health", as it unlocks the user manual you'll wish you'd been born with!  No more guesswork. The program, developed by an international team of independent doctors, researchers, and technology programmers for over 15 years, uses a powerful epigenetics analysis platform informed by 100% evidenced-based medical research. The platform uses over 500 algorithms and 10,000 data points per user, to analyze body measurement and lifestyle stress data, that can all be captured from the comfort of your own home   For Lisa's Mental Toughness online course visit:  https://www.lisatamati.com/page/mindsetuniversity/ Developmental strength, emotional resilience, leadership skills and a never quit mentality - Helping you to reach your full potential and break free of those limiting beliefs.    For Lisa's free weekly Podcast "Pushing the Limits" subscribe on iTunes or your favorite podcast app or visit the website  https://www.lisatamati.com/page/podcast/     Transcript of the Podcast     Speaker 1: (00:01) Welcome to pushing the limits, the show that helps you reach your full potential with your host, Lisa Tamati, brought to you by Lisatamati.com Speaker 2: (00:14) Well, hi everybody. Welcome back to pushing the limits. This is Lisa Tamati again. And once again I have the fantastic doctor mental all the way from Canada who has sacrificed and I mean sacrifice in time to give you guys the, the rundown on what the Corona virus is all about from a scientist point of view, point of view from an immunologist point of view. Dr main soar is not only a leading functional genomic specialist and you heard him on the show just last week, but he is also a immunologist. So welcome to the show again, dr. Mansoor, it's, I'm so pleased to see you. I just, Speaker 3: (00:50) Well thank you so much for having me back Speaker 2: (00:53) Then. This no, it's fantastic. So Dr Mansoor, you've written a couple of articles that I've also had up on my blog and sharing it with my, my audience. It certainly gave me pause and it was very much the facts and not the hype. But still very, very concerning. Can you give us a rundown on the history of a coronavirus for staff and you know, how do we get, Speaker 3: (01:21) Well I think not to trivialize or make light of a serious situation, but to start off at a point that highlights something and that is the more of these podcasts and video custody I'm doing in the coming weeks. I am pretty much self isolate and not pretty much I am and I don't have access to a Barbara anymore. So as these videos go on, I'm looking grapher and you know, sort of scrub your, as each video goes on. So that's a good place to start that you know, we are taking this seriously, but to make something of, you know, to, to lighten the mood for the audience members yet this is what documents are, looks like, what he does not have access for the company. Speaker 3: (02:10) So coronaviruses the first thing I think as a community, we've got to understand, we've been exposed. So the SARS cough too, which causes, which causes the covered 19, this, this pandemic. So this pandemic is caused by a virus, by bacteria, by a virus, number one. Number two, the pandemic, the disease, the infection to the degree that someone gets it, it's called the covet 19 pandemic. The covered 19 disease as it might be infection and it's caused by the SARS called to a virus. Now, it's not by chance that the the agencies that had to come up with a name for this, they used that SARS as a prefix to that. This virus comes from the same species of the virus that we dealt with almost two decades ago. I saw ours acute respiratory syndrome, which of course at the end of the day, that will be likely the clinical concern for anyone who gets a clinically concerning infection. Speaker 3: (03:18) It typically is manifesting itself as acute respiratory syndrome. I E difficulty breathing up to an including needing to be hospitalized. We'll talk a little bit about that a bit later on. But the point of this then is this, this is a virus. It's a virus that we've seen the, the, the family of this virus, the Corona viruses, humans have been interacting. In fact to deal with infections for coronaviruses for several decades now. So to the population out there listening to this know that this is not some sort of, you know, came out of the blue monster virus. Have no ever, no one ever knew about? No, not at all. It's the same family of viruses that do tend to crop up. They tend to come from animals, specific animals that tend to, you know, they act as vectors. They act as carriers and ever so often these viruses that we're evolved to live or to reproduce an animals ever. Speaker 3: (04:16) So often as they mutate, they develop the ability to leave an animal host and come to human host. Okay, so this, this is what we're dealing with. We're also dealing, this is this virus, this thing that we've seen before. It's not actually that much more virulent. In other words, the, not to some too cold, but the mortality rate of this virus, the number of people that will ultimately die from this virus is actually, it is more than the common flu. The common flu tends to have a mortality rate of about a 1% give or take, depending on the ethnicity, the country's health factors and so on and so forth. SARS, for example, that virus that we dealt with a couple of decades ago had a mortality rate closer to 10% Merz, same family. The middle Eastern respiratory central virus had a mortality rate that was even higher than that. Speaker 3: (05:13) The current virus has what we, based on the current epidemiologic studies and the data, which is still young, we're still collecting data. It looks like the mortality rate is about three to 4%. So it's not something to Scott that, but in the big picture, it's not something that human beings haven't had to deal with in the past. Okay. Now on the note of that, mortality rates, so there's a virus that we can be infected by. We'll talk about some of the factors of infection that for the most part, and for many individuals, the symptomology, what they're going to deal with is going to be nothing more than the common fruit for the vast majority of individuals. But for that smaller percent individuals, it can and it will develop into something more serious. We've got to understand this. Three to 4% on percentages are averages. Okay? Speaker 3: (06:07) So we take a hundred people, we take a thousand people that we knew that were infected and then we follow the course of their disease. How many people didn't even know, they didn't even know they were infected, they went above luck and they will never know that they were infected because it just never got to the point where it was serious. And by the way, a large percentage of people will fall into that category, which is what is unique about this virus. And it creates a dichotomy. On the one hand, the virus for so many people, the symptoms are so mild, so as took for the person not even know they've got the virus or think that it's just another just passing flu. And on the other hand it can and will kill a small percentage of individuals. This duality is what makes this virus so concerning in reality, because what is happening is many, many people are asymptomatic, they're traveling. Speaker 3: (07:01) And of course until and unless the countries that's countries are now starting to seriously the spread rate. And this is what is concerning. The spread rate of this virus is higher than previous strains. So I'm going to start divvying up these points and we'll address each one of them with a little bit more care coming back to those. So we've got this virus, we've got this percent. I need individuals to understand that when we talk about percentages, there are averages. So the mortality rate on average is three to 4% but when we isolate the at risk group and who are the actress group individuals that are elder, okay so we say 65 70 years old and above that there's no hard line there. But basically those are the folks that we're seeing that can be at significantly greater risk. Individuals that are there does seem to be Lisa, a male preponderance and there are some, there's some reasons for that. Speaker 3: (08:02) We're still sorting through the data without getting into that, which we know without getting into that, which we're uncertain of and we have to be so careful in these times. So only represent what we know. Okay. So it is not absolutely clear when the data is all looked at, whether we will see a greater number of males versus females. Currently it seems that way and currently there does seem to be some indicators as to why that might be the case. Okay. Regardless, 65 17 older individuals with existing all motor, all form, all community cardiovascular disease, so hyper hypertension, bonafide beyond hypertension, bonafide cardiovascular disease, individuals who've had strokes before, individuals who've had cardiovascular events before. Okay. Second to that risk factor seems to be a diabetic individuals and again there's a reason why these things are clustering as such. So if we were to put the highest based on the thin data we have, we would say men above the age of 70 who are hypertensive, who who've had cardiovascular events in their life are at the highest risk. Speaker 3: (09:20) Then we would say like age men who may be diabetic. Then we would say like aged woman in either of the categories and then we fall into a broader category that seems to transcend age. So other than above 65 70 and that is anyone who has been a greater risk. And of course this now expands the population for asthma, bronchitis, people that may have had pneumonia in the past and they find themselves more susceptible to it, I. E. these are individuals that you know from the basis of their physiology, there are greater risk of what hyper inflow inflammatory responses in the respiratory track. And that's a no, that's independent of the age two genes independent of the race to gene if, and this is age a, this is not age limited, independent of age independent if the a sturgeon and very quickly for the audience, the ACE two gene is the gene that makes a enzyme receptor on the surface of your cells. Speaker 3: (10:31) And this receptor has been found to be the doorway. The thing, the door through which the saws called to virus enters the human cell and it's always important for viral ologists epidemiologists to know how the virus is getting into the human cell. Keep in mind that viruses, unlike most micro organisms or other living organisms, viruses can also exist independent of a host. So a virus needs to enter a cell and animal cell or human cells in order to survive. And what do they do? And, and I, I made reference to this to be, you know, if you actually looked at what happens when a virus enters a cell, it's something out of an alien movie. You know, literally the virus co-ops it, it sabotages the, the human cell. It hijacks all of the machinery of the human soul and directs it towards reproducing that virus. Speaker 3: (11:33) And then when the virus has basically usurped, it has basically used up all of the resources of the human cell. It releases itself from the human cell and now you have one human cell bringing forth from it, many, many copies of that virus. Okay, so the virulence of the virus, just how dangerous it can be are in pots. How easily kind of enter the human body. You know, is it something that you've got to go, you know, lick the floor before you get infected? Is that something that you just have to breathe it from a ma, you know, from meters away. So that's the first couple. The second component is often it enters the human body, which cells of the human body is the virus getting in six different viruses can enter an infect different cells and depending on the organ system of the body, you might imagine that a virus that is able to get across the blood brain barrier and affect the brain, the neural cells or virus that can get into, you know, the liver of ours. Speaker 3: (12:38) There are certain organs that depending on if those cells were being ruptured and being taken over, you can imagine correctly that the impact of the health impact on the human being is going to be more severe than other organs. Now, for the most part, the coronaviruses, when they infect the human being and they get it, they're entering into cells involved in the pulmonary cardiovascular system. They're basically infecting the lining of the lung and other cells. Mind you. Okay. Now. So the other components that makes up when we look at how dangerous are viruses, we want to see how easily can it be contracted when it gets sensitive body, which cells are going, are they going into, how quickly are they usurping? How quickly are they using up the resources of the cell? Okay. Compared to how quickly can the immune system of the body attack and get rid of the virus. Speaker 3: (13:37) Right. So there's a game being played here, awarded as being waged. The virus gets into ourselves using a PA cells to multiply. At the same time, our immune system is trying to respond and decorative those microorganisms from the body. Okay. And for the vast majority of people that come in contact with coronal viruses, including the SARS to our immune system is beautifully equipped to stop it from going beyond that, which is tolerable. Okay. No, any infection, it will be beneficial. And this is something that we might touch upon. Lisa. So many scientists, so many health professionals, we are looking at the immediacy as we should be the acute infection. But what we're not considering is this because of the ramifications of this infection. What do we see happening? People are having to stay indoors. People are stucking up in food. They're there. They're afraid to go out and shop, so we're stucking up a non-perishables which happen to be processed foods Laden with sugar Laden with salts. Speaker 3: (14:48) We're not getting the type of activity that keeps us healthy, that sleep cycles are disrupted. Our stress levels are up when we're stressed out because we've got to go and we've got a lineup for two hours in order to get, because of frankly hysterical buying patterns that should not be in our communities. We are doing a disservice to ourselves, to our loved ones, to the actress population. By that uncalled for hoarding and rushing out and buying. Why you creating stressful environments, these stressful environments elevates your cortisol levels. That elevated cortisol suppresses the immune system. Okay. Then we're going, what are we buying? Are we buying fresh fruits and vegetables and no, we're buying canned foods. We're buying pasta, we're buying processors because those are the non-perishables and then we're thinking of a journey where for the next four months or however long we're cooped up, think of what this is going to do to not just the immediacy effect on health of the infection but the longitudinal effect of people not exercising for months and then being cooped up eating horrible foods, stress levels up. Speaker 2: (16:08) Yup, and I mean this is one of like I'm an oil company, obviously we're a health and fitness company and we, we look at all the health suicides we are pivoting is you are with your company into providing online training programs online, you know, lives passes to people in their living room in, in making them think about lowering their stress levels, getting into meditation and deep breathing and all those things that are going to be great. Speaker 3: (16:32) I cannot stress enough from a scientific perspective, from a medical perspective and unfortunately our medical communities because we're swamped and having to deal with the immediacy of the acute care. Few people are speaking about the radically important component that you're dealing with, the service that you're providing. The, the lesions of individuals for whom they don't have to be worried, even if they were infected about it being an overly dangerous infection, it will be, they'll have a flu and there'll be down for the count for a few days. But what they're not looking at is the transients. And yes, it may be transient, but the, the, the impact on our cardiovascular system, the longitudinal impact on our immune system, the impact on our mood, mental behavior, wellbeing. Right. I just read an article just before coming onto this, onto this podcast that in one of the, in one of the provinces that here in Canada, their, their, their, their assault domestic abuse, sorry. So they're, they're domestic abuse hotlines are ringing off the clock now because what you're getting is this ripple effect. Now you're getting people having to be locked up in homes exacerbating latent behavioral, you know, misgivings and tendencies, these repercussions. Lisa, I'm going to have greater societal impacts than the repercussion of the virus. Speaker 4: (18:05) Okay. Speaker 2: (18:07) I'm so glad you brought that up. I mean, I know with myself like, you know we got some financial impacts from this for their business. Is you know, most people at this time and that is creating stress. You know, and this is just an, you know, not too much of we have people. And what, what I've been trying to put in, in, in my social media and in my videos and things is the importance of having honest, calm discussions with each other and being positive about finding the opportunities because every horrible, you know, cloud that comes upon us all side brings benefits and it's like, okay, what, what, what is the benefit of this? Instead of just looking at the threat and changing it into this is a challenge. This is an interesting time we're living we have a chance to pivot and you have a chance to have more time with our loved ones to reflect on our direction of our lives. And we have this world is going and the will be benefits and not to just go into a panic state. And it's very easy to do when you are losing your income and when you're stressed about your elderly loved ones Speaker 3: (19:17) And you know, God forbid and horrible and me to say that I can sit and be a pundit when you know, if I'm not entirely concerned about next months, you know, rental income over paying the bills and that there are individuals for whom because their store was closed or because their day job was affected and they can't. So please to the audience out there, I cannot, it would be utter hypocrisy of me to say that I can understand the stresses that that will bring. But what I can say is this, that regardless of what you're facing, no, that those stresses are in and of themselves further exacerbating your own health, number one. Number two, two, two, two, two do have in the, the sooner and the greater portion of the society that takes up a positive outlook of this is the sooner that the society is going to get back to the operationality that we need to get back to. Speaker 3: (20:17) And of course that that operationality we will find that there are different things. Ingenuity, often sprouts from times of hardship. And again, I'm not trying to publicize from a lofty position. I know that there are people out there, I can't imagine, I can't, I can only empathize the struggles some individuals are facing. But you know, the incredible thing of the human condition is that when we band together, when we, when we show the care that is needed, the and we step out of ourselves, that we suppress that narcissism and we watch out for the greater community, we will find that there will be things. When this is over, we will have inventions, we will have things, we will have a way of going about business that is now more resilient to the next thing that we will face. I will always face these things as human beings. Speaker 3: (21:12) So coming back to I, I really want to emphasize that yes, we must look out at the virulence level, the virus and the, the direct causation, all things we need to look at. But it is so important and Lisa, what you're doing. And in fact, where your business can grow with this, this is not the point of this podcast is to say people more and more individuals, the individuals that are reading books, because there's, what are you going to do? Your home, you're reading, educating yourself, picking something that you see. You know what? I know have some time. Let me use that time and, and let me pursue something that I otherwise didn't have because I was stuck in traffic two hours every day going back and forth. So in gender, that, and then nothing can be better purpose, nothing can be better positioned than in gender and helping individuals. Speaker 3: (22:01) Here's something that's going to happen, Lisa. So when this event has passed, a much greater percentage of our society will recognize, I need to take my health seriously. I need to, you know, I need to, I need to recognize that. You know, what if I were entirely dependent on my governmental institution that are doing amazing jobs on my medical institutions to take care of me, you know, I'm putting myself at some risk. Okay? So, so let me take the steps to improve my wellbeing. So here's the point. Absolutely. Regardless of whether it's Corona, viruses, SARS, Cabi two specifically. If we are healthier as human beings, just in all of the definitions of healthier, we are better equipped to deal with infections and that's a very generic statement but it's a very accurate statement. So now let's get into a little bit of more of the specifics and we can tie them back. Speaker 3: (23:00) We got to the point that when the virus, this particular sauce copy to enters the body, here's the two things that are making this virus. Three things that are making this virus a bit more despite the lower rates of mortality, a bit more concern. Before we get to those three things, let me finish the point on the percentages. As much as the average mortality percentage is about three to 4% that number significantly rises. When we look at the population, it's closer to eight to 10% of people in the actress elder population as we defined. And so of course at that point now we are getting to a number that is concerning our loved ones who yes, they're 70, but that, you know, they've got beautiful long lives. I've lived them, but certain factors can make them quite at risk for this virus. Now other than what we've mentioned in terms of age possible sex, dimorphism hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes of obviously we have to be super careful these smaller percentage of our population that are recipients of organ transplants and therefore they are immunosuppressive medications. Speaker 3: (24:18) These individuals, their caregivers, their families. We've got to be so concerned about making sure we do not expose this segment of the society patients that aren't chemotherapies. And therefore because of the, you know, the real pounding the chemotherapy does to the human body, cancer patients and patients on chemotherapy should also a need to also be added to that ultra protective part of the population. Okay. Now let's the, there there was, and so I would be hypocritical to say that the data is clear to the degree of making a final comment. It appears actually, and by God's grace, it appears that the youth are much less affected by the virus, much less effected. Okay. And, and what's that timeline is a toddlerhood our baby's back in the risk category. But, but then from two years to 15, we don't have those ages. But what we know is that when we look at the broad epidemiologic data, we're not seeing much comorbidities or mortalities in the youthful pay population with the exception of obviously any children, you know, gosh, that are dealing with cancers or that are dealing with you know, individual increased predispositions to asthma new pneumatic pneumo pneumonia. Speaker 3: (25:52) If you are that person, regardless of age, what are these symptoms? A person who when they get the cold or to get a flu, you know, we all tend to have different responses. You know, some of us will get a sore throat, we'll get a stiffly nose, we'll get a headache, we'll get maybe some achy joints. And that's it. And then there's some individuals, the first thing that happens is, you know, they'll say, it's my lungs. I, I get that. You know, I'm, I'm at risk for the upper respiratory bronc bronchial infections and I get the lung pump, okay. If you fall into that category, what it means is individually, physiologically, and actually very often genetically the lining of your, the alveoli, the little sacks, the little air sacks of your lung, the lining is at risk for what we'd the hyper inflammatory reaction. Okay. Speaker 3: (26:48) And so I, and, and this is where, this is where we have to be a bit more careful. Okay? So, so if you know, you fall into that category, then anything that causes inflammation of the lining, the luminal linage, which could be, for example, these individuals would have known never be the person locked in a close back through using harsh chemicals. That alone can bring on a really bad episode of shortness of breath and something worse than that. In the case of the virus. Well, of course this particular virus coming back to where we started, these viruses are entering these cells because this H2 gene happens to be expressed. The doorways, the cells with the doorways through which this virus enters happens to be expressed in the lower respiratory tract and it happens to be expressed in different parts of the cardiovascular system, which is why it's unsurprising that the deleterious symptoms of the virus are exactly in those parts of the body. Speaker 3: (27:49) Okay. Now let's come back to the virus. We said there are three things that are that are making these, this virus and this pandemic dangerous, not because of what you would think it to be, not because it's killing high percentages of individuals, but for the following reason. Number one, ironically, this virus is dangerous because when it does enter the human body and we said viruses have to enter the human body, co-opt the cells and then reproduce it can be so mild, Lisa, every governmental agency knows for a fact and it's not to create a steric hysteria. Many more people than are being tested positive, have the virus. Actually have it. Okay. But that's okay. In some ways they're not, they're not going to have any deleterious health outcome for themselves, but they are going to be the transmitters without knowing they're the transmitters. So this is where a degree of maturity and a degree of ownership and a degree of responsibility comes in where you've got to be able to say as far as humanly possible, did you travel recently? Speaker 3: (29:04) Do you fee how you know? And of course using how you feel only goes so far because you may be feeling Sosa really hold yourself to account. Have you been traveling while you in hot zones? And keep this in mind because the first of the three things that make this virus so dangerous is actually it is so mild, but mildness does not equal the the, just because you're mild does not mean you're not emitting the virus. Okay? So a person who can be asymptomatic next to a person in bed with a fever, with a sore throat, symptomatic and they both cough or they both just happen to Excel too much. The virus in the sputum, which of course is the saliva. And the mucus that comes out of the mouth of the nose. Both individuals can have as many viral particles. The person that is asymptomatic and the person that is symptomatic, so lumps is there in fact. Speaker 3: (30:06) So this is the first thing that makes this virus a bit more dangerous. And it's actually the thing that we're not even talking about, number one. Number two, the second thing that makes this virus quite dangerous is so one of virus enters the cell as we said, and it, it, it has, it hijacks that. So for its own, its own reproductive, you know and goal, we, there are these metrics, what these metrics are, we say for every one human cell that the virus enters, how many red, how many baby viruses, how many offspring viruses are leaving that, you know, when it's used up the human cell, this is where the saws Covey to virus is showing a little bit. If it's dangerous colors, again, not because it was causing really harmful symptoms, but it is emitting what appears to be, no, this is early data. Okay. But it's, it's emitting per ruptured per, per human cell that, that it tie jacks up to a thousand times more viral particles than, than previous. Coronaviruses Speaker 2: (31:19) That means in your Spotium when you're breathing, when you're coughing is Speaker 3: (31:24) Yeah, you have, it doesn't mean that it's any more serious of virus, but it means that it's transmitted ability. How many people? This is huge. Okay. And this is why we're seeing that classical exponential doubling. Now this is what we call the row of a virus R O. So for example, influence a row might be around, let's say about one also the row numbers, just a number is that estimates for every person that has the virus that has it and that is reproducing it and that is transmitting it. How many people do they stand to infect the current SaaS? Coby two seems to be about two to three times as much infect ability than the common flu, for example. Okay. Speaker 2: (32:21) Wow. So, so for Everage and I know get it early data, but so for one person who has a bar, Speaker 3: (32:29) Well of course that absolute number just has to do with how many people they're coming into contact with. But what the point is, is mano a mano, the person with the comes. So here's how you want to at it. The person who has the common flu versus the person who has the saws copy two virus, both of these individuals walk into a supermarket and they're going about their own daily business because they didn't think anything was also ultimately wrong. The saws Cabi two individual will infect almost three times as many people as the common flu person. Okay. That's the way you want to look at it. And again, these numbers may seem a three. No, you have to look at what this happens with doubling criteria. Exactly. So the other, it's 100% 100% all we need to look at is we need to look at the data that came out of Italy in one day, one day only. Speaker 3: (33:26) I think it was March 15th on March 15th alone. The number of infected people jumped by 50% 50% in other words on a document. And then we had 10,000 people infected and then on the next day we had 15,000 people that were infected within one day. Okay. When you take these factors, again, not fear mongering, keep in mind most of those people infected are not going to have any really, you know, trouble some health concerns. But we're getting there. Now the third thing that is concerning about this virus, so we spoke about the actually the fact that it's so asymptomatic but doesn't mean that you're not transmitting it, that you are transmitting are lot more viral particles than previous coronaviruses or other viruses. The third thing is this, that yes, because of the symptomology, and this is really now putting aside the ripple health effects that you and I addressed a little early in the conversation on the acute side, on the direct viral concerning side of things. Speaker 3: (34:39) Here is the thing that I highlighted in my first message because when you add up the transmitted bility of this virus as per what we've said, it's just a numbers game and I'll, I'll tell you how this plays in the U S we have X number of beds per per thousand individually per thousand population. So it means that at any given point in time in any healthcare system, your system in New Zealand at any given point in time, God forbid, X number of human beings can go to the hospital and receive care and we'll host the hospital to receive care from a broken limb because they fell off a bicycle to, you know, needing to give birth to a child, to something more serious than that at any given, all of these requirements in our hospital system are fixed. They're only X number of ventilators, X number of anesthesiologists, X number of respiratory and so on and so forth. Speaker 3: (35:41) Now when you take the rapidity of spread of this particular SARS COVID 2, and you take the percentage that will ultimately develop concerning enough breathing concerns concerning enough short breathlessness, not mortality, just enough. You know, and for anyone who's ever had an episode where you can't breathe, it's a horrible thing. It's a very visceral response. You need care. You need to be, when we look at the capacity of the healthcare system and we look at what these numbers, even if they're non life threatening going into the medical facilities, this is what is breaking the system. Okay. And that's what's, that's the part that I, that's the part that every intelligence scientist researcher, biologist, epidemiologist has said this is the concern, not the concern of ultimate Lee, the severity of the viral infection. Ultimately the percentage of the mortalities, but the ripple effect of when more and more people are infected. Speaker 3: (36:50) It just becomes a numbers game that more and more people will show up at hospital facilities requiring care. And of course at those facilities we have acute trauma care patients that are there. We have cancer patients that are receiving, we have expecting mothers that are giving birth. We have all of these things that our healthcare system on a daily basis has to handle. And this is exactly what Northern Italy experienced. It's what Spain is experiencing right now is what the British government has had to try to say, we know this is going to happen. So we just have to figure out, you know, and they, some of the press releases from the British government seemed very stock that they just said, look, we can tell you this is going to happen and we're going to tell you you're going to lose loved ones. And now it's a matter of mitigating as much of that as possible. Okay. Speaker 5: (37:43) Okay Speaker 2: (37:43) So the, the, the pandemic paradox, the the flattening of the curve as what we want to achieve. We know I watched a video from an epidemiologist who was saying if, if it all happens very quickly, we're going to hit this. We can have a long tail and, and the S. So that's why the self isolation and the that can containment nations as so important. The total number of people going to be infected is going to be similar. But it's from the right at which the heading, the hospitals and the Speaker 3: (38:19) That's that is the critical, that's the break points. And so the only way that we can do this with any degree of in the, and I'm going to say this carefully in the best case scenarios, which of course are often hard come about. You know, we, if you look at how Singapore has addressed this issue, it was a best case scenario. You know, and now mind you, that has a lot to do with the history. They were better prepared than most countries. They took the threat of it. The moment they heard rumblings from China before it even became a news, you know, they acted. Of course not every country has the control population that they do and the resources that they do. But what I'm trying to say is that we can learn from both what happens when the system was broken as well as from when the system works. Speaker 3: (39:07) And what we can draw from this is exactly what you pointed out. There has to be a balance. You know people who have been talking, and in fact I'm so sad that some people have been talking a bit uneducated about the concept of herd immunity for herd immunity to work. When you enter into the realm of saying that, okay, let's quote unquote that herd immunity take taking space. The first thing is you've got to know is you've got to be willing to lose a certain percent of your community. Okay? And you've got to make a value proposition of what is that percentage, number one. Number two, all right? Okay. All these things flippantly, if it doesn't impact you. Number two, for her to unity to work, and this is again from a core scientific perspective, there's several provinces that people are so uneducated, Lee, not talk, but one of the promises of herd immunity is it cannot be a transient population. Speaker 3: (40:00) A herd immunity has to be a closed population. If you've ever population where people actively coming and going, you don't have a herd. What you're doing is you. It's the opposite of a herd immunity number two and number three that you assume there's homogeneity in the response to the infection, but we know there isn't homogeneity in the response. We know that there is a relatively benign response in about 80 to 85% of the population. That's a good thing, but in that 15% there's the individuals with whom they are preexisting conditions and then there's that 10% 5% 7% that is a not really, really high risk category. Then the fourth component of herd immunity is those individuals are not somehow excluded from the herd. They're embedded in the herd. They're there. There are parents that are living in our homes. They are, you know, God forbid, but for the families that have to deal with patients that are dealing with organ transplants and cancer, our myths, so the parameters of herd immunity do not match in the way that people are talking about it. Speaker 3: (41:17) So ideally what you do want to have that curve flatten. You do want to the 85% of the population that can get the infection so that they are been immune after a period of time so that they're longer emitting the viruses. This is what matters so that we can have 85% of the population walking around going back into communal businesses and communal discourse, not emitting the viruses so that sooner rather than later that that that curve starts to flatten flat. But we do our best for the 15% of the population to shield them. They cannot be included or be thought to have the means safely to address the infection. So we need the infection to die off before they can. Again, I'm speaking here in utopia. I'm not saying this is easy, but the sooner we do this is the sooner that we can reintegrate this actress part of the population back to normal activity and not be concerned about them then being infected. And of course not having the means to successfully deal with this infection. Speaker 2: (42:39) So anybody who is in that at risk category, whether it be through having asthma or being elderly or having cardiovascular disease or diabetes or any of those talks of things Speaker 3: (42:50) As best as possible. But then being an absolute isolation is a very little value unless the community around them are taking the steps to flatten the curve. Right? So, so what we need this almost a dichotomous response to what needs to happen. We need to be one can even say a triad response. We need to ultra protect that actress population as best as we can. Recognizing that they will be the ones that if infected can quickly cascade into an unhealthy outcome or mortal outcome for the individuals that are, that are conclusively infected. We need to have, you know, proper isolation so that they can healthily, cause you know, they're not in that office, they'll go through their infection. It's just, you know, it's going to be a few days, sometimes very little, sometimes three to five days I prefer. And we allow them to get through without being properly isolated so that they're not passing it on. Speaker 3: (43:57) And of course then the other part of the society that will never come into contact or hope not comes into contact and as the viral load, think of the space that we're in as the sum total of where that viral load can be. And what we need to do is we need to keep reducing the viral load. How do you reduce the viral load by reusing that which is emitted? How do you reduce that which is emitted by reducing and secluding the individuals that need to deal with their infection and let it go away so that once you're, once you went to immune system has dealt with the virus that is in you. Then once you're over the infectious phase, what happens is once you go back out, you're not spewing it, number one and number two, even if you were exposed to it, you no longer go back into the cycle and then now we have to really a little careful here. Speaker 3: (44:51) We don't yet know the full immunity curve. We don't yet know the full immunity behavior to this virus. Okay? So we have to be careful there. Okay. And this brings up, wow. So, so you know, all things equal for the most, for the most part, when the human body, when the immune system both the, what we call the humoral and the innate. So both these for, for viral infections, we need both antibody response, but we also need our innate T cell response as well. We need, we need all aspects of the human immunity. When we deal with a viral infection for the most part, as we recover, we are immune to that virus such that, and here comes such that if the same virus we were exposed to it, we are now able to deal with the virus. Potter comes into the body, but we're all immune system snuffs it out before it starts to replicate. And before we become spewing engines again, right? Speaker 3: (46:01) We develop antibodies and we develop your immune system is not just for example in viral infections, IGA, one of the major subgroups that are involved in viral protection, but also innate. There are your T cells, there are natural killer cells. There are cells that bring about the inflammatory response. And here we speak of inflammation as a good thing. All right, so, so we were bringing about the, the, the, the alarm bell response to deal with the infection. Now not every virus has such a clean cycle in the human body. Some viruses, the, there are ripple effects, the immune system, we were able to get rid of the first wave and you know, you've got better, but you may not be completely immune to the virus such that if you are re exposed to it, you do, the virus can enter yourselves, can reproduce for a period of time, often shorter, often not as vigorously before we snuff it out again. Speaker 3: (47:04) So of course during that little period of time, again, you become a spewing engine, right? You're spewing out. So we've got gotta be careful about that, but there's something else we have to be careful about. And that is one of the things that is a little bit noxious about the coronaviruses is they have a fairly high rate of mutation. Okay? And so, so the evolution of the virus means that you may become immune to one virus, but then the second or third or fourth iteration of the virus is a beast. All F all on its own and your immune system is not equipped to handle that one. Okay. Speaker 2: (47:47) Nope. Is this like, why are we being exposed to these viruses? Is it, are bad animal husbandry processes? Has, is always affected humankind since time and Memorial. We just don't not aware of it. How are we going to see this happen? Speaker 3: (48:04) It's a question that I am not entirely equipped to answer. I know what, what I know where my strong points are and these are people far more intelligent than me and broader topics. But here's what I can add. Here's what I can give to that question. We've always been exposed to these things. Viruses are there viruses that fine as the original hosts, the animals that we either interact with through animal husband read through food sources. We've always, as a human species been exposed to these. But the one of the ways that it's controlled is, well, depending on the virulence of the virus and those that are affected die off much faster. All the populations were not as dense. And so these things leave animal sources, get into humans and then whittle out from the sharp curve and then they flatten. And then we move on several factors that as you does have to human population how much more we're interacting with animals and what is the context within which we're interacting with those animals from Dame that was simply wild game to now animals that are on them through animal husbandry closed through simply because of our expanding populations. Speaker 3: (49:20) We were encroaching into areas and interacting with the animals or the ripple effect of animals such as one of the major transmitters are carriers of the coronaviruses or bats for example. I mean, you know, there's very few societies do bats play a role of some active interaction with human life. And you know, we're not few societies, we're not eating it, we don't keep them as pets. We are not, you know, and so on and so forth. But as we do encroach upon areas, you know, we're going to start being in greater interaction with animals that we previously weren't as interacted with or we interacted with offshoots, whether it'd be the feces, if those animals, whether it be those animals infecting bats that are infecting the animals that we do live from and so on and so forth. So there is a bit of that going on. Speaker 3: (50:12) A radically important thing here and it's just our new world. We are much more mobile world than we've ever been, right? That's, that's, you know, we're a much more mobile world. On any given day you could have someone literally on one half of the globe and within 24 hours, that person's on the other half of the globe. And this is not to be hysterical or hysteria causing. This is just a reality of life. And it is something that we have to be cognizant of. Does this mean that we close our borders and definitely does this mean that we're suspicious? These viruses have no ethnic bias? None whatsoever. None whatsoever. Speaker 2: (50:51) Okay. This is the danger that I see too happening is as becoming fearful of people from other you know, from overseas or from other ethnicities and stuff. And I hope that the, the society is mature enough, Speaker 3: (51:07) Did not, Speaker 2: (51:08) You know develop developer are bias Speaker 3: (51:11) Any human being or simply a matter on it and really are their hygienists use that can contribute to this. Yes. But at the end of the day, hygiene or all the hygiene in the world, if you're in contact with you, if you, unfortunately, second, you know, through direct means or secondary means are in contact with this virus, especially viruses that can transmit at such alarming rates, you will be infected. Okay. And so coming now, let's, let's take all of this and package this into something that is, as I keep saying, moderated of the first of the things and if the first of the statements, our population, our societies, we need to look beyond the fear mongering and we need to recognize this is not in the big picture an overly deadly virus speaking in plain terms, just in plain terms. You know, it's kind of he or she had, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a violence money. Speaker 3: (52:10) Many more people than think they know have this virus already or have had this virus and they've gotten over it and they don't even know what they had. They thought they had the regular January flu. Okay. So, so number one, put that into perspective number two. Having said that, recognize that if this virus does make it two segments of the population that are at risk, it is a killer or it can be a killer. And then beyond the segments of the population for which it can have rapid unfortunate health outcomes, there is that buffer eight to 10% of the population that if they get this infection, it will not be a mortal infection, but it will be an infection that causes them to require hospital care. And eight to 10% of any society needing hospital care is more than the usual machinery of our healthcare system at any given point in time. Absolutely. Usually it's about we can handle change 3% you know, in terms of times of peril. Okay. All right. Speaker 2: (53:21) Not 10% okay. Can I ask one question? The flu vaccine, the normal flu vaccine at a time like New Zealand, it's going into winter. And I'm dividing with myself. Do I take my parents to get a normal flu vaccine because we don't want a double whammy, you know? It will, it won't have any effect on the Coronavirus, but for, Speaker 3: (53:45) I must admit again, for the audience listening, this is, this is more than I am capable of answering. So what I will give now has to be colored from the perspective that it is beyond my, my knowledge base. But what I would say is this, I would say of course the regular flu vaccine is precisely a vaccine against a strain that is not the size, at least not as yet the SARS cognitive strengths. So the immunity that that flu vaccine will bring about or could bring about will not benefit them if they're in contact. Now having said that, the two more considerations, of course, what you don't want is what you have highlighted or what you hinted at is absolutely a person can be infected with multiple strains, can get infected with the regular flu, be dealing with the health consequences of the regular flu and then get the size coffee too. Speaker 3: (54:42) And of course the simultaneous or additive impact on the human body to the degree of additional inflammatory responses. We have what is called the cytokine storm response, which by the way is what is causing the real, it's one of the real killers for this particular this particular strain. It's the cytokine storm syndrome where because of the inflammatory response, because it came about so quickly, you go from not breathing to not being able to breathe or you have a vascular event because of rapid inflammation of the vascular lining. Okay. So I think what you were hinting at, and that is what I would concur with, if we could at least bring down the potential risks of co-infections during this period, I might say it's a reasonably enough objective that you should consider. That being said, recognize that when a person, especially some segments of the population, when you get certain vaccines, including the common flu vaccine, you do go through a period of inflammation and you do get a micro inflammatory response, which really then becomes a throw of the dice. You do not want elevated inflammatory responses coupled with, from what we can tell, you just don't. And that's why things, you know, something is why were type two diabetes via co-morbidity? Well, diabetics are dealing with an increased risk of what inflammatory responses. So the name of the game here is we've got to be careful about the inflammatory, an acute and uncontrolled, and that storm response is what we've got to be careful with. It makes sense. Okay. So, yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Speaker 2: (56:40) It's a, is a, is a funnel, and I know you've probably got other interviews to get to documents or in you explain the contagiousness of the virus outside of the human body. How long is it sounds, surfaces. Speaker 3: (56:52) Oh, this is, this is, this is, this is where we and others have put you know, some degree of effort in, in, in looking at these things. So once the virus leaves the body, so in the body, it co-ops to cells, it multiplies, it erupts in the body and of course it rubs in the body, but then it can leave the body via what we understand. Obviously sputum is the major source, those little microdroplets that leave the body, whether it's leaving the body via blood, it's a question. And whether it's leaving the body via feces are fecal contamination is another question that let's leave that alone for the time being. So sputum. Now, once it leaves, we have to know that these sputum droplets are exceedingly small. And when a person is speaking, just as I'm speaking to, if I'm not, I tend to be passionate about certain things, you know, and I've got, I've got my computer screen in front of me. Speaker 3: (57:54) If I, if I given, you know, and one hour podcast at the end of the podcast, when I look at my computer screen, right? It's a little bit gross. It needs some cleaning, but it shows how much leaves the mouth. Okay. For the general person. So we're to warning and we'll get to this, these little things. Horrible transmitters, horrible transmitters. We'll get to that shortly now. So when the spirits and leaves, what were the simulation of studies that are going on? These droplets can actually survive in the air for several hours. They just, they're like little dust particles, you know, being carried along by the waves of here. Several hours. Your sputum can exist in the air. That period the virus in the sputum that's been emitted appears to be able to live in the air before it settles for about three hours. Speaker 2: (58:59) Wow. So you can just walk into someone else's cloud of, of spirit that they were talking to you. They Speaker 3: (59:05) And you are breathing. And that's what we can talk about this containment area. Now, having said that, obviously there's a big difference walking by someone in a park that you are walking open air versus someone in a building of which there's, you know, industrial air flow versus versus versus a, now you get to a closed, you know, I don't know, being a room full of people poor ventilated and of course going into the winter times, all your windows are closed. Your, you know, your ventilation may not be as good as you otherwise wanted or plain, you know, and you know, these times or, or a, and this is why governments are correctly attending a conference that might otherwise not be a concern, but you packed 500 people into a room, you know, and the air circulation wasn't the best design for that. So, so we've got to be careful three hours once in the air, the virus can exist and stay, stay animated, I. Speaker 3: (01:00:05) E infectious for up to three hours. Now once they settle, once they settle on different surfaces, they can survive for different periods of time. And it's, it's a whole field of study as to why viruses exist in the air versus surfaces. Let's leave that alone. Here are some important ones. It seems to be able to survive on cardboard surfaces for up to 24 hours. Now you might ask why in God's green earth that someone studied viruses, COVID 2 on Cabo? Well, all of our food supply and all of the things that were in 24 hours, 24 hours, it seems to be able to survive on harder surfaces. Wooden surfaces steel surfaces for up to three to five days. Okay. This is, if I were to add a fourth characteristic when we said three that make this virus pretty naughty, the fourth would be this. Speaker 3: (01:01:09) It's surviving outside of the host for longer periods than others. Some, some other viruses, which of course simply adds to why it's rule value. It's contagion. Value is about double some of the previous viruses we've seen because of these attributes of this particular virus. Again, that's survivability doesn't mean that it's more or less deadly. No, it just means that it survives and then you can pick it up and then you'll have a mild flu, but then you are transmitting. All right. So, so we've got to understand the transmitter ability. This is the thing we've got to keep coming back to. And of course the more that we can do to avoid being in those areas, the more that we can do to practice the hygiene. There was an intelligent article it went a little too much in one direction and w w what the medical expert was highlighting was of advising that people not wear mass. Speaker 3: (01:02:09) Okay. That's no, we've got to understand this wearing a mask, assuming that it is a mass that has the filtration properties that can withstand to five micrometers, because those spits those, those sputum three to five micrometers. Not all mass can filter for that. So you've gotta be, if you're going to wear a mask, make sure you're wearing one. That ma that meets the filtration characteristics associated with this, number one. Number two, what the, what the medical proof, what, what the, what the expert was trying to convey is don't think that that mass, which is, which is an important protection or certainly by the way if you think you, if you think you have the infection and you have no choice but to have to deal with and take care of, you do wear the mess so that you're not putting those spirituals out into the environment that you're in now, but for your own protection. On the other hand, what we're noticing is people when mess and then they think that, okay, that's it. And then they're no longer aware of their touching, rubbing of the eyes, rubbing of the nose. They're constantly shifting the mass, which of course is constantly putting that and what they're not realizing is the mask is protecting you from something of a three hour circulation. The mask is not protecting you for the two, three, five days of the surfaces that you're in contact with. Speaker 6: (01:03:36) Okay. Speaker 3: (01:03:39) So it is a good thing to be doing, but don't, don't forget the hand washing. You know, I am never, ever, ever, ever a fan of those, you know, Senator re, you know, this time, you know what, no, you do. No, you do. You know, there's a time and place for everything. Right. so let's, let's just, let's just track now and maybe we'll close the miss Lisa, just the average person, if you have to go out, you have to go and get your groceries. Okay. Be mindful of your environment. Try, try, if possible to not go during high traffic times. And I realize how silly that might sound. Thankfully, certain chains, certainly here in Canada, they're actually establishing hours for the elderly, so they're actually parceling out the hours of open store to account so that they can vow and keep the environment and the store as healthy as possible. Speaker 3: (01:04:42) Okay. When you go into such environments, any mindful of your environment, it's not to be schizophrenia, but be mindful, you know, on a, on an average day you were pushing your cart. Maybe you're eating while you're pushing your cart or drinking your coffee, rubbing your, this is not an average day. So still, you know, don't be drinking your coffee and have an open lidded something as you're going about your daily affairs right now. That's, that's, that's not for now. Okay? So avoid those things. Be purposeful. You want to go shop, you say, I'm going, you know what you need. You know where it, you get in, you get out, you try to touch as few surfaces as possible. It doesn't mean, did you call me pleasant? You're not shaking hands, you're, you know, hi Mrs. Jones. Nice to see you and you get about your business and everyone just knows that we're here to protect each other. Speaker 3: (01:05:33) Okay. When you come home, make it a habit. We don't quite know. It's seems that the fabric, the poorest fabrics, you know, cotton jacket or whatever have you. They seem to be a shorter half life for the virus, but, but not zero shorter. Okay. So you come in, dedicate a closet, you know, whether it's in the garage or whether it's at the opiate or at the entry of the home where you come in and you take your outer garments and you hang it up there. For example. Okay. And that you don't enter into the rest of the home. You know what your outer garments and sorts of take your tip, take your jacket out, hang it up on that closet out, nothing else in there. The next time that you're gonna use it, all things equal. That seems that the virus isn't gonna survive that long. Speaker 3: (01:06:21) Getting yourself to a washroom, wash your hands. Ideally, you know, just you'll know to what extent you've been exposed to the environment. And ideally, ideally, again, not trying to increase wastage here and water load. Ideally to the extent that you are out there, to the extent of what environment that you out there. You may be take your clothes and you put it into the washer, right? But, but, but you know, if you knew, do you in and out, you had an outer garment. That's the only thing you need to hung up. That should be perfectly fine. What is the end point of this? The end point of this is we do not need to be hysterical. We do need to be more purposeful. We do need to be more aware of our environment and just aware the things that we wouldn't have thought of walking around with an open lidded coffee as we're shopping or you know, whatever it might be. Speaker 3: (01:07:10) Not now, not, no. Okay. You know, you know, and I'm so just being are these things may seem as, Oh my gosh, but life can go on doing these things. Right? So, so in other words, taking these steps do not mean that we stop living. We're just going to be a bit more careful. Okay. We're a bit more mindful, I'm sure by now it goes without saying gyms and recreational facilities are not the place that you're going to be in this period. And that is not to put an onerous you know, to, to, to snakes stifle these businesses. It's to say that, look, when you go to an enclosed environment, what are you doing more? If when you're exercising, you, you're, you're, you're, you're emitting a lot more spirituals and you know, and there's only so much we can do to keep surfaces clean just for this period of time. And this is where you come and Lisa and people like you helping individuals know what can you do at home, you know, what can you do to, to, to still maintain some activity. You can control your surfaces a little bit more than, you know, in a commercial setting. These are the practical things. I underline, I on the line, do not make this something that it's not, it's not something that is a killer virus for the vast majority of individuals. It is for a small segment. We need to protect. Speaker 2: (01:08:36) Yes, we need to protect the bat. Indeed, it's about protecting vulnerable. That's a massive systemic approach that we have to ha

Well, fellow writers, when we recorded this we were just at the beginning of it all. It’s safe to say things have already changed—all of us have families at home, we’re all shut down, with noisy houses full of people trying in various ways to work online.We went from “trying to work anyway” through “I give up for a few days” and now we’re back to “trying to work anyway.” So this advice still applies—we’re setting small goals, giving ourselves schedules as best we can, and trying to strike that balance between cutting ourselves necessary slack and still trying to be who we want to be as writers. It’s true that this keeps happening: And when it does, we’re trying to find things we CAN do with absolutely zero attention span. Like share our friends’ books on Instagram. Or record a podcast about how crazy we feel. Which we will keep doing. So, same time, next week?Now’s actually a good time to check out our sponsor, Author Accelerator—get matched with a book coach, or send some of your forced isolation time becoming one! Here is a list of great writing-related resources that are all available for FREE. Those marked with F are great for fiction, M for memoir, and NF for nonfiction. Feel free to share them around!Author Accelerator's Writing Challenge – This mini course introduces you to the first six steps of our Blueprint for a Book process to help kickstart your next book or figure out what might be missing from your draft. F M NFThe Inside Outline course – We're offering our renowned course on how to use an Inside Outline to transform your story for FREE until the end of March. Take your book to the next level and propel your draft forward. Use the coupon code SPRING2020 at checkout. F MThe Outcome Outline course – The Inside Outline equivalent for nonfiction writers is the newest tool in our arsenal – and it can be yours for FREE. Use the coupon code SPRING2020 at checkout between now and April 1. NFWriting fun for families – Certified book coach Jen Braaksma put together some writing activities that you can download and use for yourself or with your kids.And for the aspiring book coach:Author Accelerator's The Basics of Book Coaching – This mini course introduces you to the world of book coaching, where it came from, who makes a good coach, and how you can get started, even if you've never edited before. If you've been thinking about dipping your toe in the water, why not now?We create transcripts of the podcast every week with the help of an AI. That means there are always mistakes. We usually try to clean them up, but I won’t lie. This one is particularly bad.Hey, fellow potential carriers. Welcome to our #Howtoworkanyway episode.Will it be the first of many, or outdated and boring in no time at all?We can only hope for the latter and probably do a lot of sighing, but hey, as long as we're all going uber virtual, let me suggest spending some of your screen time at authoraccelerator.com Get matched with a book coach, or look into becoming a book coach. The side gig many of us are perfect for, complete with social distancing. If you've got some unexpected downtime maybe now is a good time to set yourself up to do something new.That recording now it's recording. Yeah, in a... It is the part where I stare blank and so I remember what I supposed to be doing. Alright, let's start out award has...I'm gonna wrestle some papers. Okay, now one to it is a one-to-one OneNote. I'm delete.And this is a hanging Ting-A-team writing is the podcast about writing, all the things under all the circumstances, fiction, non-fiction, proposals, pitches emails. This is in short as I say a very weak the podcast about sitting down and getting your work done, and I'm justly I am the author of The Gift of Failure in the forthcoming addiction inoculation. That'll be out in 2021. and yeah, I write at various places including The New York Times, The oleic and The Washington Post and I'm seeing about the author of 30 old romance novels and my newest one is going to be called sure shot and it comes out in May, is an even number. And you gonna start saying 30, I don't know, or even a... Do you know... What do you know how many Suresh makes by the way, in?Okay, so I think it's amazing. It's an amazing number.Yes, we love it. Well, I am Jess Lahey.Yes, I come on. You guys know who I am, but that you... At the author of "How to Be a happier parent and of the novel, the chicken sisters coming out in June of 2020 and super excited about that one. I also write for a number of other publications occasionally including the New York Times, and we are recording this on a... Oh, I, 5th and the Ides of March indeed 20020, and the world has gone crazy. And so the title of this is so that you guys know because you all are listening is hashtag how to write.Anyway, I quick got a... At first, at first I really resisted this topic because I didn't think that I was a very good advertisement for it, it just took me twice as long to do the final edits on a project because that's what happens when you refresh the New York Times, home page all day long.Yeah, and as we've been talking all week anxiety was a problem, but then, while I sort of settled down and got to this place of...Okay, so this year is not going to go the way that I thought. And as we discussed this in March, we haven't been personally affected by everything that's happening yet, but still it requires a big attitude adjustment, and as we all know, writing through an attitude adjustment is pretty tricky.Actually, I think Jess and I would both differ with the... Haven't been personally effective. Yeah, for me, it's taken me. I'm finally getting to a good place today where I was in a holding pattern until I knew whether or not Is my speaking gigs. Were gonna be cancelled and for me I couldn't plan ahead until that happened, and people were taking really wanted to wait till the last minute to make those announcements. So for me, and because a lot of my travel is a domino effect in then I was scrambling to plan the travel from somewhere else instead of where I was supposed to be, but it's actually been a relief in a way in a... Now everything is cancelled for the most part, because I'm not having to constantly be playing catch up with. Okay, well, so what next? So this week has been really emotionally challenging for me, not only because of the financial problems I make. A large percent of the majority of my income was coming this month, so that's been an adjustment. But for me being able to get myself in the headspace of, of... Okay, well now is gonna be for at home.That really was a big adjustment, right? And when I said we weren't affected I meant we weren't coughing.Right, right, exactly. None of us is coughing but I think we should own here because they are universal and pretty gender neutral. The family challenges that we are dealing with Jess has been struggling to get a family member out of Europe, the struggling, but we are fortunate that we can do these things. I've got a house full of notes, my kids, but extra kids which I recognize is probably not gonna happen for very much longer, because everything major, major sporting events in their lives were cancelled this weekend. And also I, I don't know, I'm coping with parents that are not worried enough about this that are too far away for me to get to so I'm not very happy about that, but yeah, and it's stressful. Is this super, super stressful?So, not null. Wanted to do this so that you guys could help me. But I will say after like RNA refreshing the news constantly. I did finally today, managed to sort get my head background play. It's also the little voices in the my back of my head going. Or am I writing a book about the olden times?That's an interesting opening is it gonna be like, "Is it gonna be super-dated because nobody does anything this way I use, I don't think so. We're gonna get back to normal we are, we are we at a cantus people shake hands in your novel, they don't touch feet. I'm pretty sure they do. Shake is what's really interesting. That was a total game in my novel. People go to a football game. What's also really interesting from my perspective at my house full disclosure is that my husband is helping run the task force in Vermont that's doing incident. There's sort of this thing called Incident command. So, even when he's home, he's feeling these conference calls and his pager going off, constantly, and so my husband will not be able to stay home during this period. And so there's the added sort of thing, where I feel like, "Oh my gosh, I need to keep him as healthy as possible, and so I'm making sure we have healthy meals and making sure he gets enough sleep and the chaos that would be... That would especially once we get our other kid home the chaos that could happen in our house, can't really happen because we do have to keep someone on the straight and narrow, and healthy and going to work every day.So that's been interesting too.It's all... Yeah, interesting. These are the interesting side times for which a Chinese famously put in A, the I and I, because that's the best description for it. I love what you said the other day, Serena. Everything is different, nothing is different.And that's kind of, unfortunately, where we are at least for the moment. So I, through this topic out on our Facebook page a hashtag am writing on Facebook and I'm getting calls for and requests and commentary on basically the real nitty-gritty of this.Like, how are we doing this? If the kids get quarantined how are we moderating our news intake, how are we trying to maintain our focus? So, anybody got Serena? You sound like you kind of pulled it back together, do you have any good... Yeah, so... Or tips, launched something launches off. First of all, we're going to... And we never do this, just shut off the internet at our house for a few hours every day.You heard you say that you and I thought "Oh we're gonna need to do that too.Singapore's gonna be home, which they are sooner or later. I think I got an alert on my phone today, saying that I hit my internet usage had gone way up and I was like, Oh, that was a nice little alert to remind me that I need to keep the lid on that. So I love your idea, Serena.Well, I would just like to remind us because this comes up from time to time that when you're writing a book, there's a certain amount of cognitive dissonance that happens anyway. There's the world inside your book where you have to put your head and then there's the world of your family and everything else that's going on. And I'm constantly constantly struggling to maintain two realities at once. And now we've got a third one. It's like the life inside my house is actually not changed all that much yet, but... But the world is blowing up in various other ways. So now I feel like the burden just went out. 50% of all the things I have to keep track of and shutting off the internet for a few hours every day helps. It eliminates one of those vectors.I love it, I think that'll be a relief that sort of exhalation, that happens when first you panic and you're like, Wait, where to go and then you go.I-A...Oh, that's, that's kind of nice, yeah, it will also stop what is continually happening, for me, which is that I get my head into the space where I need to be. And then someone bursts in shrinking the nail just suspended its season and then I take a deep breath and I get my head back where it needed to be, and then someone burst in shrieking card against not going back to school until April. 26, literally I just don't you feel like you're just walking through your life carrying a box with a little punching glove, you're like... No, those cartoon punching glove. And every time I turn someone just punches me.And I think we all feel like that it's not and we're punching each other, it's not like I don't immediately grab my phone and text you guys the exact same thing. Somewhat date to me off, I forgot to pay at the grocery store yesterday because while I was paying one of my kids' opened up their phone and said, "Hey sections, I try to walk out. Oh yeah, it was like, "Oh no, I did not mean to do that I... Well, the economy is also gonna hit us a little bit. I feel so bad for anyone who's launching there once a year, once every two year or three year but a great now, yeah, because it's hard to... We have some people like that in the Facebook group. I-E and to get news it's hard to get attention versus stuff.Yeah, and you also feel bad for asking for that attention too. There's the guilt factor. Nobody likes to run around shouting about their own book all the time, but it's even harder when people are sick.Well, we're gonna meet, we need other things to talk about, right?If you've got a non-fiction book on a different topic, we're we need that and we certainly need escapist fiction, so sure if you're in that position, and you've got that book go ahead, you tell it tell us about it thoughtfully acknowledging and we may both be. Well, you're in, you will be 'cause sure shots coming out any minute.No, it's not your once a year thing, but I know well, so here's a thing. I just had to adjust my expectations and that was quite difficult 'cause I have real-time data about what distraction is doing to book sales. So we're recording this on a Sunday. Yesterday was a Saturday which is usually like the second best book selling day in the week for me and I was down 19%. week over week yesterday and the day before that was Friday, and I was down 22% week over week.So those are real numbers that are going to pile up and affect my bottom line eventually, but I'm... As you mentioned, sort of insulated because I have more than one release a year and that short shot is part of a series and the people who are reading that series are gonna probably wake up and see it in so there's some, there's a little less selling I have to do and I, in the book selling curve for me, than for other people, so I feel the most pain for those whose curve is movable. Well, and can I clarify for those who are not as familiar with how Serena cells or books and how we sell ebook? So if I wanted to get the information that Serena has available at our fingertips, I really can't because my publisher holds on to that information and even if I wanted to go through book scan or something, that's not all the information and it's behind, but because series, you could you could not Tortola. It's not necessarily super it accurate, but it's there. But I just wanted to clarify that because Serena is she's got a three is she is the publisher, so she has up-to-date, minute-minute data on her own book sales, which is really interesting to have. And for someone, especially like Serena who loves data, it's a teething to be able to look at... Well, the... There's this other one in yet. Go ahead, in economics called an inferior good and friends. I don't like to refer to us as inferior if I can help it, but an inferior good is something that people buy when they can't buy more expensive things. So the classic example of an inferior good in economics is bus tickets poor people buy more bus tickets than rich people in general, but books could in a pandemic, behave like an inferior good where people buy more of them because they can't buy the more expensive thing they want which is like a trip to Italy.Well, that would be nice. And I am hoping for that but we also have the problem of where the people are gonna hear about the books, right?So I am the once-a-year release at best and I'm not out tooth so I'm super hopeful that by June 30th, for one of a couple of possible reasons I will still be able to get out there and do my book tour and people will be wanting to grab books for their beach bags and they'll be going to the beach, but we don't know it. And this is the moment when book sellers would be ordering my book and book sellers are in big trouble.Independence, so that is definitely... I am not without I've got a stack of books that I've addressed to all the... And book stores in Kansas and a bunch of other ends. And I wrote the notes last week, and now I'm like, "Oh those are out of date now. The ease, not gonna send them. I guess I'll put a post-it on them or something, I don't know. Well, but they are like the world has changed dramatically.I'm still feeling helpful, but definitely a little bit of worry, and I guess... But here's a small...I'll probably do a little... Well, I do less launch related stuff.No, that would be bad because I think this is still... I have reason to think it could still go the way that I would like it to go, and if it doesn't, the social media stuff I will still need. I'm trying to see if there's a silver lining in which I get more time to work on the other new book.Yeah, I'm not really seeing that the entire...I'm planning to Here's a silver lining with all sports cancelled. I'm doing a lot less driving. That is actually... That is definitively more time. And since my kids are older, once I get them in the habit of doing something useful then, then yeah, it is more time and hey, you won't have to pick anyone up from school, perhaps in a couple of weeks.That's right, I just have to make sure they actually do their school work and deal with the fact that if there are three people trying to be in Zoom classrooms in my household, the US that I can record a podcast or going to be extremely slim and they'll all be running in, freaking, my Zoom class where we work because that person zoom as room is sucking up all the internet.Yeah, it's gonna be, it's gonna be good to one being a fine as we in a line at work anyway, yeah, but speaking of podcast, actually, this is really interesting and this is about how to work anyway because I was supposed to be on two podcasts next week that are in-person podcast. They sort of really pride themselves on being in-person podcasts and I... And it's still up in the air, but those probably are not gonna happen. So I have to say, we are so ahead of the curve because we tend to... We tend to record online, so we've been social distancing. Since the beginning. So, since for... It was cool, so that exactly.I have been wondering to myself whether as we record podcasts people are gonna want us to touch on this with the people that we're writing and listeners, I would love some input on this. I have a feeling that I'm gonna want my podcasts to be fairly virus-free. Yeah, but you also don't wanna sound like you were recording in some alternate reality which we were, and several upcoming podcast that you're gonna hear, and I'll probably say something at the top of the episode. I'm definitely gonna want my podcasts, to be non. I would prefer them not to be that punching right? I love that comes out of the box. So I think that's a good plan. The "Alans will strike there.I think we'll see as it plays out, but I think we wanna be able to talk about how people are managing to get their work done and stick with that, but try not to harp too much on the bad, the bad value.A year from now, and people are listening to the back list, they're like, "Oh yeah, then as the days... Yeah, that's a... Well, I got a say I'm very optimistic, I actually... Now that I'm making my mental shift away from... Honestly, I've talked about this on the podcast before. This was gonna be me on the road for the pretty much the entire month of April, and March in April, so now that I'm not once I know that I'm not gonna be... And PS, in the back of my mind, my kid, I still have one kid out of pocket, I need one more kid to come home before my brain can finally settle in to being able to work very well. But once that happens, I'm shifting to new book proposal, so that's been my plan to that was my plan A... But a lot faster now that's gonna happen a lot faster now I can move that up. And now that my edits are pretty much done for the substance abuse book, I can sort of mentally put that away for a little bit and make room for the new book. So in a way that's really exciting for me, I really... You know me, I love the deep dive into the research, and that's where I have to start with the book proposal, so that's where my brain is gonna be very much for the next couple of months, and my speaking stuff will get rescheduled. Maybe in the fall, we'll see, but for now I've gotta let that go and move on with what is rather than what I could have been. I have to let go with that regret in order to be present for the stuff that is on the table in front of me.And what you're basically saying is that goals episode we recorded so recently, so right, but I... Or definitely revisiting those things. And there's this temptation to look at those goals for the year and think what was the point of this? But of course, there was a really good point to that. And even if we all end up ripping that page right in half, it doesn't mean it wasn't a useful exercise for establishing our priorities and what we hope to get done.Absolutely, and that kind of attitude adjustment is what I'm trying to hang on to... I was just looking at my goals from March only, and I just added at the bottom, I get through March and April with sense of humor intact, because that soil... It's important that that is a very good goal.Yeah, I am thinking an interesting side thought about this, is that nothing about my work life or work goals changes because of this. There's nothing that I was previously expected to, other than a few small travel things, there's nothing that I was previously expected, to do that. I am now not expected to do. There's nothing, there's nothing that I should let go or put off everything stays the same, it's just I am going to have to look at it and go. Okay, well my time is going to be different because there is both the mental coping with this and then the... Yeah, when I have three kids to homeschooling, all day even, no matter what the schools provide that's gonna be... That's gonna be on us to some extent. So yeah, it's a revisiting but you might have to revisit with the project you're working on, too. Like I write pretty fluffy. Books and people keep saying... But we need your fluffy books. But the truth is, I don't know if I can be all that optimistic. And I a first kiss seen this week, right?I might have to pick up a different project, instead and shuffle some things around because I'm maybe not in the head space for the things that I thought I was going to be in the head space for.I always like there was a tweet or a text that you sent us one time about the fact that it was really, really hard to write a sex in when your kids were home from school, and in the next... So I can imagine that's the head of space, you have to be. And sometimes to write your books is not having a lot of clamor and kids around the house is not conducive to that, but I think not sticking this into our work is gonna be the emotions are gonna creep in. So, maybe choosing things that emotionally are gonna resonate, but we don't need an entire six months, from now, we're not gonna need the entire world to be nothing but essays about your experience with it.And nobody's gonna wanna take those... Let's just... Unless you have some... And I did have a particular experience and I did write an essay about it, but unless you have a particular expertise or something very particular going on the moment when anybody's gonna wanna hear about this has already expired, other than sort of in your own personal in your email if you have a weekly email or in your personal social media anyway, I think we have to sort of try not to let this take over what we're working on.Definitely, that's a personal journals are for... We can write about how we're grappling with all our stuff and our own personal writings all we want, but that does not mean that we need to have published 3000 essays on how, in personally coping with the loss of income and kids being a net right, so says they just are gonna have to be about something else.Yeah, it's a time, it's a time.Some of the stuff that I'm hearing on our Facebook group is get up is stuff we've talked about before. It's the same thing, I guess, this is just like writing during the Nanaimo and trying to do it during Thanksgiving when you have your whole family home, get up early. Take advantage of the small verse for me today, I was like, okay, an hour I just want an hour and I admit to watching. The clock but I didn't take any internet-connected. Well, I have my laptop, but I turned out the Tintern it was just an hour just in our... Just gonna do it our... And if you pull yourself back and pull yourself back and pull yourself back to it for an hour, you are going to progress and three months from now, two months from now, six months from now, whatever we're gonna wanna have progressed.Yeah, I was actually thinking today about how that works best for me and for me that means Writing deadlines that I self-imposed writing deadlines, and of course, I have very few, I have two book reviews, one that's due in two days, and one that's due in about a month, so I have those deadlines, but I think I'm gonna need to sit down and get back to my calendar and create some deadlines for myself around this book proposal so that I can feel like I'm staying on some sort of track rather than just floundering about and thinking. Oh, I have all this time to write because I'm actually home I need to have some structure, so self and post deadlines for me are my structure and sometimes that means and this is always a little risky for me but sometimes that means that I email my agent and I say look myself and post deadline to have this to you is X date and then I actually put it on my calendar, send X to my agent by this date and that helps keep me. And sometimes it's just telling you if I tell you A and Serena that I really wanna have this done by. Oh, could you ask me about this a week from Friday? That helps to... And I also observe the of this is a little bit like when summer descends upon one if when whatever if our kids are out of school and even for me with the disappearance of all the extra-curricular activities, what had been a fairly regimented schedule of every day there would be four or five very set things. So then I was slotting stuff in around it. That creates a structure for me, that I rely on more than I know.So when that structure suddenly disappears, it is entirely possible for an entire day to waffle away into nothingness. Because I didn't have to get someone to school at 8, and therefore did not have to sit down immediately when I got home to... So I'm thinking about ways to create to rebuild that schedule for me and probably for the other people in my house, and I think Serena, year two hours without the internet, is gonna be good. I'm thinking about putting together some daily extra... Well, I exercise every day anyway, but if I put it on the schedule and sort of they get something I have to work around, I think that is gonna help me.That's been tricky is a co-other interesting goals to set up my yoga studio that I like to go to with my IT every night with my husband and my kid. We've been going for the past couple weeks to get ourselves back into it and I'll get the whole family going to yoga again, which we love.Yoga studios, closed. So it turns out there are some great online options, and so I'm just having to sort of insist that we keep that routine up except we do it here, instead of out there. And I think that's gonna help me with my sanity too, 'cause it would be real easy to let that fall well and it weirdly, weirdly, might be better to find an option where you're actually watching something life like as it. We must all gather here to do this thing that we want. I mean, I'm just a... That would be better for me.So I'm trying to put things on my schedule that are at five, I'm doing this and at such and such, I'm doing that because that it, it gets my brain into that, working spine.There are various ways to do that live thing too, and it's been... It's nice 'cause like you feel like... Because the people are there in real time, if you have Peloton YouTube, there's some online yoga people in some online exercise, people that have these sort of real-time classes and it really makes you feel like you're actually there and present with those people as opposed to... Yeah, it's a good thing, I... Well, there's a community there going on which we're all desperately going to mean. Probably I was in a book club in New York City. Let's see, I left it 11 years ago, I guess, and I just got a text yesterday from my friend Barbara who said Listen, or doing book club on Zoom now and look, it's like six of the same people from 20 years ago. Are you in... And then all that to see. I was co... You're a genius.Okay, so that's a brilliant idea. Book clubs create virtual date with you and we have... You could have a resume writing club too. We could co-work and sit here with our laptops able to see each other and the various screens. That would be another way to do it. A co-working date or even a you know text somebody go and then text somebody stop every morning that would... Yeah, but that's really cool. I like that, I moved away from these women 10 and a half years ago, so I'm just so excited I have. I lost touch with them completely. So this will be one weird way that I get those friends back that I wasn't going to. Otherwise.Everybody started selling in a... Yeah, there it is. That's my first entry.Well, here's my... They're silver lining.Hopefully we will have more time. Yeah, red.I actually picked up with e-books yesterday just for that reason.Oh, I have picked up so many books, and I'm actually meeting a friend to have coffee at the bookstore while keeping six feet apart? In washing our hands and doing all the things because we wanna support the book store. I'm pretty sure I'll come home with a few more books that tell me what to buy, but have you guys...I guess this is kind of about like what are you buying the stock up because...Well, I can start, because I bought books yesterday, I bought a book, so when I was little, I was positive, absolutely positive that I was gonna be... As "Cetacean biologist, I was gonna be a whale scientist and I was obsessed with Wales, and I haven't read anything about whales in a long time and so I bought a book by this guy Nick Pinson, I hope I spelled that I pronounce that right. He's actually the curator of mammal of marine mammals and fossils at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, and he has a book called spying on whales, and it's about whales today and well fossils and all that kind of cool stuff. So I'm reading about whales I'm reading. I decided to listen yesterday when I was working in the woods, I was listening... Re-listening actually to Diana NI ads book, find a way about when she swam across the from "orest Cuba and it's an incredible, incredible story and I read it, I listen to it, first a long, long time ago.So there's sort of a... I'm noting an escapist kind go other places, kind of thing, because if I'm gonna be in my house and in my yard, for the most part, I wanna be other places I wanna be underwater with whales, and I wanna be in Florida women to Cuba, that kind of thing. So, I'm definitely on an escapist jag at the moment, other places.Well, speaking of the box with the punching glove in IT, I flipped over my phone, to look at the name of a Bo and I just got a text that was game cancelled a night, let me know what to do, I just stop. People just stole just a ton.Okay, I'm still looking for the book name because I got sucked. So, I am a... Or know what you got. I'm about to buy a copy of the mirror and the light the new Hilary Mantel. Oh, I wanna hear what you have to say because I'm really excited about that too.You know I'll probably read it first, because he has been checking her website every month for five years, but eventually, yeah, I can't wait. Okay, well, just that these are things that I have bought that I am Ying Amanda air awards, the jet setters. I did not just eyeing it I actually bought it and I'm super excited about that. And then we've got a couple of...I've got a bunch of arts because I the... And then somebody just texting me again, stop in How can I look at my picture of books if you keep doing me in, I don't care what's canceled, but don't care.Oh, I'm super excited about mother land by Lea... Frankie. I'm not... I think that comes out.Let me make the picture a little bit bigger. Oh, that's not out 'til July, sorry people, I'll let you know how it goes, but there's a lot, there's a really lot of good stuff out there now, so I go to your book store by some of it, tell us what it is and if you like it, we'll have a writing Facebook page book group, and please, don't forget. So you can order directly from your local bookstore. In fact, I saw it was interesting, I saw there was someone on Twitter who owns a bookstore. Oh shoot, I can't remember where it was, but she was saying that they were actually hoping to set up delivery to people that they could say they could leave books in their mailbox are on their door step for books they had ordered from the bookstore, so that they could expand their sales beyond just okay if people aren't coming to our store will deliver to you, so check to see if that's an option.Well, the guests that the guests Arena, and I interviewed a couple of days ago but which you listeners will be hearing next week probably, or possibly the week, after said that politics and pros and DC is doing free shipping, so some of the bigger ends may be able to do that. And I know my bookstore still north and Hanover, New "hansi and also Norwich books in norm. You can call them up and say, "I would like a copy of... Don't overthink it by an BOGO. That's another one that I actually... I'm gonna be looking for that at the book start today and such and such by so-and-so can I just pay you on the phone and you could put those in a bag, and when I pull up, roll down light wind, you can come drop them into my car. They will totally do that they will absolutely do that, and we gotta think these are our people, out there with the book stores, we wanna take care of them as best as we can while we're taking.Can I just add also keep an eye out for what books are coming out. If you normally find out about new releases because you go to a bookstore keep an eye out for what's coming out week to week. I know, for example, not that she's gonna need much help but you...Glennon Doyle's book, came out last week and she had a huge national tour planned to promote the book and get out there and do signings and stuff, and the entire tour has been canceled. So there are people who are putting books out and aren't able to go out and promote their own books. So keep an eye out for new releases, and buy those.We will try to do some little new release of a... Yeah, in our spare time, let's try to do some new relates updates on the Facebook page. On my Instagram, I'm constantly doing new books. That's at DA. Serena, does too. She's always got... Especially if you love the romance genre, she's cut that all over her stories. She's at Sinai. We're in a... We're gonna try to be noisy about King. Keeping the reading going, keeping our link to that strong yeah, especially since I think that you normally... My kids excuse for not reading for pleasure at home is... But I was reading so much at school today. But if he's gonna be out of school, then I'm gonna make sure he is quiet reading time with the internet, off at my house. So we will be a point is like a night.Alright, we good everybody, we're as good as we can be. Yeah, that's alright, everyone.If people, if you would like to get an update in your email inbox every time we release a new episode you can sign up for that at am Writing Podcast, dot-com, it's gonna invite you at that point to support the podcast and while we would love your support, if you just click "No subscription at this time, you will be signed up for the free weekly emails and that that's fine. We love that, too. Please do it. There's usually something extra and the emails, depends on the week.And if you do wanna support the podcast as I think just said recently, maybe use again some of that extra spare time that Hey, that just kinda has... Let's don't call it spare to create things to keep us all on track and to keep us working that we'll send out to hash again, writing sports sounds good, okay, I'm done talking about the right until next week. Everyone stay healthy, stay safe, to keep your butt in the chair and your head in the game. A "dinaric by Andrew parlour intro music Apple titles unemployed Monday was written and played by Max con Andrew Knox were paid for their time in the creative output because everyone deserves to be paid for their work. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Easily one of our best vent podcasts.  Good sound! We are in the process of fixing the sound (of course by a NY PJ- not me). This talk covers the basics but also blast lung, TBI and trouble shooting from an experienced respiratory tech with deployments under his belt. He is currently at Baltimore Shock Trauma where we have a great rotation going. Your Flight Doc knows how to get you set up. Notes from Sgt Noll- Vent Bullet Points BASICS Initial calculation for TV is 6ml/kg increasing RR or TV lowers C02 decreasing RR or TV increases C02 increasing fio2 increases pao2 and sat increasing peep will increase pa02 sat o2 sat initial peep setting on vent is usually 5, can increase 1-2 at a time to 12 maximum CONTINUOUS SEDATION Primary indications for resedation of intubated Pt: Increased HR, Increased BP, Is Pt diaphoretic? Bucking? Consider using “Boom stick” Take a 10cc syringe if Flight Doc approved: Draw up 3cc Ketamine (150 mg) Draw up 5cc Fentanyl (250 mcg) Draw up 2cc Midazolam (10 mg) Recommend a 1cc push PRN every 10-15 mns Re-paralyzing the intubated patient: sTBI Patient – consider re-paralyzing w 100mg ROC if: continuous bucking and not responding to sedation and is hypertensive. Management of intubated patients (pulmonary contusion, blast lung, sTBI,) Pulmonary contusions: S/S: hypoxia, build up of fluid (blood) in lungs, high PIP ie: above 30 or 35 (if no DOPE issues) -Can be bi-lateral but more often unilateral from blunt force trauma TX: -increase Fio2 -If contusion is unilateral (only one side is affected) consider placing in recovery position with the “good” lung down (more blood will go to the lung) -consider lowering TV and increasing RR in order to maintain proper minute ventilation Blast Lung BLAST LUNG S/S: -hypoxia, dyspnea, cyanosis, increased Etco2 -high PIP over time as lung compliance decreases -reverberations for the blast can damage AC (alveolar capillary) membrane -damaged alveoli become damaged and cannot get rid of C02 properly TX: - increase fio2 -consider lowering TV and increasing RR (note: this is only temporary as Pt will clinically deteriorate as compliance will be poor) sTBI S/S per PJmed handbook Tx: per PJmed handbook Vent: maintain target 35-40 etco2 COMPARING THE IMPACT 731 AND SAVe II Impact 731 Pros: manipulation of I:E times, advanced synchronization settings, can detect patient effort and be triggered by Pt, can maintain 100% fio2 w supplemental O2, can be used down to a 5 kg Pt Cons: weight and cube size, complicated to use if not current, must manually calculated weight/size of patient SAVe II Pros: Small, light, automatically populates initial settings after pushing Pt height, simple to use Cons: Does not detect patient effort resulting in patient-ventilator “desynchrony” THAT OTHERS MAY LIVE!

Vad innebär det att vara motiverad, och vad betyder motivation i en klassrumskontext? Vad kan en lärare göra för att få med omotiverade elever? Vi pratar om skillnader på inre och yttre motivation, och tar oss an hur forskning om motivation kan användas praktiskt i skolan. Betty Tärning, forskare i Educational Technology Group vid Lunds universitet, och doktor i kognitionsvetenskap, med specialisering inom digitala läromedel. Björn Sjödén, lektor i utbildningsvetenskap vid Högskolan i Halmstad och doktor i kognitionsvetenskap. Han undervisar på lärarutbildningen och forskar om digitalt lärande. Kalle Palm, gymnasielärare i fysik, filosofi och matematik samt kognitionsvetare. Tekniker var Trond A. Tjøstheim. Varje avsnitt är granskat av Agneta Gulz, professor i kognitionsvetenskap vid Lunds och Linköpings universitet. Tillsammans bidrar vi med vetenskapliga referenser till varje avsnitt, för den som vill veta mer. Referenser: Bass, H., & Ball, D. L. (2015). Beyond “you can do it!”: Developing mathematical perseverance in elementary school. The Collected Papers. Chicago. [available online] Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House. Gärdenfors, P. (2010). Lusten att förstå: om lärande på människans villkor. Stockholm: Natur och Kultur. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2002). An overview of self-determination theory. I E. L. Deci & R. M. Ryan (Red.), Handbook of self-determination research (s. 3-33). Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press. Ryan, R. M., & Di Domenico, S. I. (2016). ‘Distinct motivations and their differentiated mechanisms: reflections on the emerging neuroscience of human motivation. Advances in Motivation and Achievement: Recent Developments in Neuroscience Research on Human Motivation, (sid 349-369). Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing. Wery, J., & Thomson, M. M. (2013). Motivational strategies to enhance effective learning in teaching struggling students. Support for learning, 28(3), 103-108. Willingham, D. T. (2009). Why don't students like school?: John Wiley & Sons.

It’s comical that there’s still an argument and hatred about the drumming style depicted in the movie Drumline, and it seems to be one sided. DCA Finals were last weekend, we’ll talk about the drum scores and the trend of I&E participants. Plus, what can you do when you’re too old and don’t want to teach? --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/LotPatrol/message

Kapital finns det gott om, men det krävs drivna entreprenörer och erfarna rådgivare för att lyckas med att bygga miljardbolag inom e-handel. Patrik Hedelin, som är medgrundare av riskkapitalbolaget eEquity, delar i avsnitt #51 av podden E-handelstrender generöst med sig av sina erfarenheter och spaningar om e-handel. eEquitys recept för att lyfta 100-miljonsföretag till miljardföretag är att fokusera på kundnöjdhet, automation, värdefinerade affärsprocesser och att mångdubbla sortimentet. Ni får också svar på varför Footway är besvikna när Zalando drar ner på marknadsföringen. Och varför startar eEquitys portföljbolag fysiska butiker. Patrik Hedelin förutspår att mellanhänder som inte tillför något i värdekedjan kommer att försvinna. Han tror också att många detaljhandelskedjor kommer att slås ut av när kombinationen av nästa lågkonjunktur och digitaliseringen slår igenom med full kraft. I E-handelstrender #51 samtalar programledaren Urban Lindstedt med Patrik Hedelin, medgrundare av riskkapitalet Equity som har investerat i bolag som iDeal of Sweden, Karma, NA-KD, Eleven, Caliroots och Royal Design.

Köper du en hoodie av Zlatan för 800 kronor så kostar det Zlatan och delägarna till sportmodemärket A-Z 4000 kronor. Hur blev det så? Varför lyckas inte A-Z bygga ett varumärke på nätet? Kan det ha med Zlatan att göra? Köpcenterns tillväxt planar ut på grund av e-handeln. Det är hög tid för detaljhandelskedjorna att ta e-handeln på allvar. För kundernas skull och kedjornas överlevnad måste kanalerna integreras. Och blir det några butiker kvar i Motala? EU har trots goda intentioner att skapa en gemensam digital marknad åter skapat en papperstiger som förbjuder geoblockering. Panelen är inte imponerad. I E-handelstrender #50 samtalar programledaren Urban Lindstedt med Carin Blom, detaljhandelsexpert på Postnord och Patrik Müller, e-handelsexpert på betalföretaget Dibs.

Det är uppenbart att vi behöver flera logistiklösningar för att bevara kundupplevelsen när e-handeln växer med minst 15 procent om året. Samtidigt är vi är mitt uppe i ett paradigmskifte inom logistiken bort från fokus på att optimera flöden mot att optimera kundupplevelse och hållbarhet. I E-handelstrender avsnitt 49 diskuterar programledare Urban Lindstedt med Fredrik Svedberg, vd Logtrade och Ola Bergqvist, produkt och konceptutvecklare på Postnord hur vi ska få bort skavet den sista milen. Ett tecken på att ett paradigmskifte är nära inom logistiken är att företag som tidigare alltid arbetat med externa logistikaktörer börjar köpa egna lastbilar, enligt Fredrik Svedberg. Samtidigt som han förklarar att lantbrevbäraren är framtiden. Panelen funderar också på vad den optimala placeringen för Amazons serverhall/logistikcenter är i Sverige. För att Amazon-säkra svensk e-handel måste e-handlare och logistikaktörerna arbeta mycket nära varandra för att optimera kundernas upplevelse. Framtiden ligger i att förutspå kundernas behov och leverera innan kunderna förstår att de behöver beställa. I podden E-handelstrender #49 samtalar programledare Urban Lindstedt med Fredrik Svedberg, vd för TA-systemet Logtrade, samt Ola Bergqvist, produkt och konceptutvecklare Postnord.

E-handelns drivkrafter som bekvämlighet förstärks i julhandeln. Därför kommer var tredje julklapp att köpas online i år. I podden E-handelstrender #48 pratar vi också om hur Black Friday skapar nya beteenden bland svenska konsumenter. Det finns till och med Black Friday-vakor. Det sker stora konsolideringar inom svensk e-handel där livsmedelskoncernen Orkla köper Gymgrossisten av Qliro Group. Och Musti Group har köpt både Vetzoo och Animail för att stärka sitt multikanalerbjudande. Det finns stor potential inom djursegmentet på nätet och Musti Group tror stenhårt på en multikanalstrategi. Logistikaktören Urb-it har stora problem. Under årets första nio månader brände de 100 miljoner kronor samtidigt som de hade intäkter på 410 000 kronor. Är konsumenterna överhuvudtaget intresserade av entimmesleveranser? I E-handelstrender #48 samtalar programledaren Urban Lindstedt med Carin Blom, detaljhandelsexpert på Postnord och Christer Pettersson, e-handelschef på Arvato.

Dr. Emily A. Sellars joined the Department of International Affairs at the Bush School this fall as an assistant professor. Prior to coming to the Bush School, she was a postdoctoral scholar in political economy at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Dr. Sellars received a joint PhD in political science and agricultural and applied economics from the University of Wisconsin—Madison. She also holds an MA in political science from the University of Wisconsin and an AB in economics magna cum laude from Cornell University, where she was a College Scholar. I/E/mmigration has an overarching impact in society, which is why it often carries charged debates and feelings among people fueling its controversial nature. In the podcast the host initiates a conversation about Dr. Sellar’s dissertation ‘’Essays on immigration and politics,’’ which received the Mancur Olson award for the best dissertation in political economy in the last two years. With current developments in the American political and policy scene there has not been a better time to ask questions pertaining to political dynamics of immigration and the relationship between immigration opportunities and collective action. The United States relationship with immigration is a complex one. The very existence of a wide constellation of immigration statuses, both legal and illegal contribute to the lack of clarity of the nature of migration in the US and approaches to tackle it at the policy level. What do these intricacies and complexities mean for people coming to the US and how the lives of those already here are influenced and impacted. Who are the winners and losers? Do we place more importance on security considerations when thinking about migration or basic human rights? Sources: To read about Dr. Sellars’ research interest and publications follow the link. https://emilysellars.com/ To read Dr. Sellars’ profile in the Bush School page follow the link: http://bush.tamu.edu/faculty/esellars/ Sellars, E. A. (2013). Does Emigration Inhibit Reform? Evidence from the Mexican Agrarian Movement, 1910-1945. Article available here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/s814fa8w9zhm9qw/SellarsMigReform.pdf?dl=0 Sellars, E. A. (2017). Communities left behind: Migration, Wealth and Public Services in Mexico. Article available here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/f6k5w92ocw0kbqq/SellarsPublicGoods.pdf?dl=0 Sellars, E. A. (2017). Emigration and Collective Action. Article available here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ct5fqvga7xd368g/SellarsEmig.pdf?dl=0

Svensk detaljhandel ligger efter när det gäller multikanal. Handelsforskaren och docenten Jens Hultman vid Centrum för handelsforskning vid Lunds universitet saknar integration mellan den digitala och den fysiska kanalen. Och detta i ett land där nästan alla har en smartmobil. Podden E-handelstrender diskuterar vad multikanal är egentligen? Vi vet att kunden rör sig fritt mellan kanaler och struntar i etiketterna. Men begreppet multikanal speglar en förändring hos detaljhandeln, enligt Jens Hultman. Vi diskuterar också vad som kännetecknar en fungerande multikanalhandel? Jens Hultman menar att handeln måste puffa för den digitala kontaktytan i butiken, men också puffa för den fysiska kanalen online. Det gäller att lyfta fram fördelarna för varje kanal. I E-handelstrender #47 samtalar programledaren Urban Lindstedt med Jens Hultman, docent i företagsekonomi vid Ekonomihögskolan i Lund och koordinator för Centrum för handelsforskning vid Lunds universitet.

Frågan är vilka svenska B2B-företag som klarar konkurrensen från Amazon Business? E-handelstrender #46 spelades in på plats på Dfokus B2B bland gräddan av Sverige B2B e-handlare. Byggplåtsföretaget Bevegos Andreas Nilsson berättar om deras e-handelsresa som gjort det möjligt för säljarna att bättre vårda sina kundrelationerna. Vi ser också hur gränserna mellan B2B och B2C allt mer suddas ut. Vad betyder det för framtidens e-handel. I E-handelstrender #46 samtalar programledaren Urban Lindstedt med Åsa Lundborg Ling, marknadschef på Litium och Andreas Nilsson webb och marknadsansvarig på hos B2B e-handlaren Bevego

En väl genomförd personalisering hjälper kunderna att hitta rätt produkter och får dem att köpa mer, men de flesta e-handlare har en bra bit kvar till en optimerad personalisering. Podden E-handelstrender #45 tar ett ordentligt grepp på personalisering inom e-handeln. Idag kan du personalisera vilka produkter och innehåll som visas för olika kunder, vilka erbjudande som kommer via mejl och sociala annonser, förval av frakt och betalsätt. Men det finns det en gräns där personaliseringen blir obehaglig. Ingen vill förföljas av annonser om produkter du redan köpt. Det är knappast okej att höja priserna för kunder som köper via en Iphone. Eller? Rikard Andersson, Nordenchef på personaliseringstjänsten Nosto, menar att teknisk personalisering blir som bäst när den kombineras med riktigt storytelning och fokus på det egna varumärket. Vi diskuterar också varför Apoteksgruppen lagt ner sin e-handel. I E-handelstrender #45 samtalar programledaren Urban Lindstedt med Rikard Andersson, nordenchef för Nosto och Christer Pettersson, e-handelschef på Arvato.

(*This is a fictional case) Your patient has just had a very difficult instrumental delivery in theatre after a prolonged obstructed labour. Unfortunately now her uterus won't contract despite oxytocin and ergometrine and she is bleeding pretty briskly. You clean her deltoid with an alco-chlorhex wipe, inject 250mcg (1 ampoule) of carboprost i.m. and cross your fingers that this will do the job. You lean over the drapes, talk to the obstetric team and start rubbing her uterus while they repair the episiotomy. Suddenly you hear a raspy wheezing sound from the head of the bed - you immediately jerk your head around and glance at your patients face - she looks terrified. Bronchospasm! She has pursed lips and is struggling to breathe, her sats probe says 75% and you suddenly wish you had signed up to do dermatology back in your intern year..... Your assistant runs around trying to find a nebuliser and salbutamol and over the next 4 minutes she becomes unresponsive, her breathing becomes progressively worse and she takes on a mottled colour. Everyone in the room including the IT technician fixing the PC in the corner can see she needs you to manage her airway & breathing...... 1. How would you induce anaesthesia? Which drugs would you use? 2. Once you get the endotracheal tube in place how are you going to set up the ventilator to safely ventilate this woman? You notice her ETCO2 is already 75mmHg and you can't even get a pulse oximtery reading. You decide that her hypoxia and the acidosis from all that CO2 is causing her some serious harm - time to get some oxygen in. You set the ventilator to VCV with tidal volume 700ml x 16 breathes per minute and a PEEP of 8mmHg. 3.After a few minutes your patient has no pulse!  What has happened (what is the differential diagnosis) and what are you going to do...? 4. You sort that issue out but now what bronchodilators are you going to use? 5. Her uterus is still bleeding and in fact the tone is much worse - what are you going to do about that! SAFE MECHANICAL VENTILATION IN BRONCHOSPASM KEY POINTS: Use a volume-control mode of ventilation. Use minimal PEEP. Use a small tidal volume, 5-7ml/kg Use a slow respiratory rate, 10-12 breaths per minute (or even less!) Use a long expiratory time, with I:E ratio 1:3 or 1:4 Increase inspiratory flow rate to maximum. . Reset the pressure limits (i.e. ignore high peak airway pressures).  . Use heavy sedation. Use neuromuscular blockade. Use lowest FiO2 to achieve SpO2 of 90-92% Minimise the duration of neuromuscular blockade. Keep the Pplat below 25cmH2o to prevent dynamic hyperinflation.   Resources: http://www.derangedphysiology.com/main/required-reading/respiratory-medicine-and-ventilation/Chapter%206.1.1/ventilation-strategies-status-asthmaticus http://intensiveblog.com/    INTENSIVE podcast - The Alfred ICU. "Asthma and Mechanical Ventilation Pitfalls by David Tuxen"    

Digitaliseringen driver fram nya butiksformat som Ikeas popup-butik i centrala Stockholm. Hur ser kopplingarna ut mellan butikslokalen och den digitala kanalen? I avsnitt 43 av podden E-handelstrender funderar vi hur Ikeas nya butiksformat hänger ihop med deras ökade fokus på e-handel. Detaljhandelsjättar som Biltema, ÖoB, Rusta, Lidl och GK:s saknar fortfarande e-handel. Hur är det möjligt? Vad blir konsekvenserna av att ignorera kundernas efterfrågan av e-handel? Hur hade svensk detaljhandel utvecklats om Amazon hade etablerat sig i Sverige år 2001. Vilka av dagens bolag hade överlevt kampen med världens bästa e-handlare? Hade dagens kunderbjudande sett annorlunda ut? I E-handelstrender #43 samtalar programledaren Urban Lindstedt med Åsa Lundborg Ling, marknadschef på Litium och Christer Pettersson, e-handelschef på Arvato.

I E-handelstrender 20 pratar vi om finalisterna i Retail Awards: Care of Carl, Sportamore och Apotea. Urban beklagar sig över bristen på drinkbiljetter på D Congress. Vi konstaterar att Jula återlanserar e-handel nästan sex år efter nedläggningen. Slutligen är vi oense om värdet av appar för svenska e-handlare. Medverkande är journalisten Urban Lindstedt och Christer Pettersson, e-handelschef på Arvato.

Eric continues our update of ventilator application in part 2 of this series. Discover the proper use of I:E ratios and I-time, a breakdown of manipulating PIPs and pPlats, and much more! Download, subscribe and rate wherever you get our podcast! Don’t forget to check out the brand new Ventilator Management: A Pre-hospital Perspective (2nd Edition) book available now!

Kay and Taz discuss the episode I E.T. and talk about how important this episode is for relationships in the crew and how John is very manipulative in most of his plans.

We all, especially women, have struggled with body image, at least one time in our lives. The media and society at large do not make having a healthy body image easy. I want to highlight the fact that if we took all the mental energy people spend on thinking about, obsessing over and criticizing their bodies, and shifted it into thinking about how we could serve the world, change the world and solve big problems, imagine how different the world would be. If you are expending a lot of your own mental energy focusing on how you look rather than on how you feel and what you want to contribute, consider re-directing it.  In my 20’s I was never diagnosed with anorexia or bulimia but I definitely would say I had body image issues. I possibly had body dysmorphia, which is when your obsession with how you look and what you eat gets in the way of your happiness and your ability to connect. I don’t think I saw myself accurately. I was working as a personal trainer and nutritionist, so I was super obsessed about what I ate and I possibly had exercise bulimia too. If I ate “bad”, I would be driven to tears with guilt. This went on for a few years until some major things shifted. It finally subsided when I committed to the type of personal and spiritual growth work I teach on this show. I focused more on working out and body image than I did on really diving in and doing the work. I also dealt with feeling out of control in my life. I had left my job and I didn’t know what I wanted to do in my life. I had a huge expectation hangover in terms of where I thought I “should be”. I had so much uncertainty. That is when I started a meditation practice and that really helps me to feel more settled and more present. The out of control feeling comes from when our mind is just going and going and we are future tripping all the time. That led me to create a much stronger spiritual practice and relationship with God. I was so self-obsessed I felt very, very separate. I didn’t have a strong spiritual connection to begin with but the more I leaned into it, the more I talked to God and read spiritual books, the more the connection deepened. I got a purpose which was bigger than me. I got clear on what I was truly hungry for. I was hungry to serve. I was hungry to learn. I was hungry for spiritual connection. When I started to feed myself with what I was truly hungry for, the obsession with food, diet, exercise and body began to melt away. Any disorder, addiction or illness is there to get our attention. It is an indicator that there are unresolved issues we are working hard to suppress. It’s a red flag that we are craving something and we are trying to feed ourselves through whatever the addiction and disorders are. These disorders reinforce the pain of separation. When we do things that are dangerous, even hurtful to our well-being, it’s a cry out for God, for remembrance, for the awareness that we are so loved, whole and complete exactly as we are.  Today’s caller, Anne, has been in and out of therapy for her eating disorder so I took a different approach with her. We worked on healing her bulimia with love.  I invite all of you to join me for my retreat in magical Bali will include meditation, yoga, one-on-one coaching and the opportunity to meet soul friends. I E-mail Jill@ChristineHassler.com for information on how to join the festivities or to join me in Los Angeles in July for my signature retreat.   Consider/Ask Yourself: ● Are you so obsessed with your body that it affects your emotional stability, everyday decisions or relationships? ● Have you gone through treatment for a disorder but just can’t seem to be free of it? ● Are you aware of what you need to do to heal but cannot seem to integrate it?   Anne’s Question: Anne has been struggling with bulimia for over 12 years. She has informed herself about how to get better but can’t seem to take the necessary steps to free herself from its grip.   Anne’s Key Insights and Aha’s: ● Her bulimia is a coping mechanism ● She felt insecure while growing up ● She is trying to get to self-acceptance by not accepting the bulimia ● She doesn’t know how to get by without her bulimia ● She doesn’t feel lovable   How to get over it and on with it: ● Realize her bulimia has had a higher purpose in helping her to get love ● She may try to fully accept it and heal it with love ● Tell her bulimia it has a new job description ● She needs something to take the place of her disorder   Tools and Takeaways: ● If you realize you have an eating disorder or body image issue, please reach out for support. ● Don’t judge your issue, be honest towards it and heal it with love. ● Write a letter of gratitude and appreciation towards what you would like to release. ● Set up two chairs and talk to your disorder, asking it what it needs and how it serves you. ● Don’t go into hopeless/helpless state, believing this disorder is yours to carry for the rest of your life.   Sponsor: Onnit Wellness - Receive a 10% discount on your purchase when you order through this link (including my favorite Alpha Brain).   Resources: Christine Hassler Expectation Hangover @christinhassler on Twitter @christinehassler on Instagram Christine@christinehassler.com Jill@christinehassler.com

composed of the a- and ß-chains of the MHC class I1 I-E molecule fused to antibody V regions derived from anti-human CD4 mAb MT310. Expression vectors were constructed containing the functional, rearranged gene segments coding for the V region domains of the antibody H and L chains in place of the first domains of the complete structural genes of the I-E a- and ß-chains, respectively. Celltsr ansfected with both hybrid genes expressed a stable protein product on the cell surface. The chimeric molecule exhibited the idiotype of the antibody MT310 as shown by binding to the anti-idiotypic mAb 20-46. A protein of the anticipated molecular mass was immunoprecipitated witha nti-mouse IgG antiserum. Furthermore, human soluble CD4 did bind to thetr ansfected cell line, demonstrating that the chimeric protein possessed the binding capacity of the original mAb. Thus, the hybrid molecule retained: 1) the properties of a MHC class I1 protein with regardt o correct chain assembly and transport to the cell surface: as well as 2) the Ag binding capacity of the antibody genes used. Thgee neration of hybrid MHC class I1 molecules with highly specific, non-MHC-restricted bindingc apacities will be useful for studying MHC class 11-mediated effector functions such as selection of the T cell repertoire in thymus of transgenic mice.

The best type of success is the one you built from scratch, the success that started because you've been through multiple and different levels of hardships, the success in which you've done all the steps to scale up. That's the most fruitful type of success, isn't it? Wouldn't you feel more accomplished if despite the challenges, you still pushed through and you used these as your drive to scale up your life? Take for example how our guest for this podcast, Rob Moore did it to be successful. Being a bullied fat kid, he used this experience and emotional drive to strive harder to be useful and valuable. And until now, he hasn't lost that drive to scale up and help people. Rob is The Disruptive Entrepreneur and investor of multiple businesses. He's also authored 17 best-selling business books such as Money: Know More, Make More, Give More. He's continued to share value by being a prolific podcaster, content creator, and public speaker. Here's what you missed: *Turn your pain into gain* * "...really what I am is a recovering fat kid. Who's still trying to get noticed and appreciated and feels useful and valuable." (01:23) * "And it will never be enough. And I don't feel in any way accomplished. And even as I say those things, I just feel like I've got so much more to do." (03:01) * "And. I think that's because I'm still trying to get the recognition and the praise and the approval and the respect and feeling useful and valuable because even though I lost all the way. I never lost those needs to be..."(03:24) * "what you've done is you've turned that pain into gain. You've turned that pain into a mission, into a message to inspire the masses with your work and. That's what I'm doing the same thing. And that's why I'll never rest." (4:50) *The biggest drivers of change* * " We all want to be noticed. We all want re recognition." (05:57) * " The schools I out there was a long summer holiday. It was nine weeks and I lost all the weight." (07:34) * "and so that taught me that I could do anything I wanted to put my mind to, but it didn't, I didn't lose the feelings. I didn't all of a sudden become a confident person because girls started to notice me and guys didn't take the piss out of me." (08:12) * "Basically. I was complacent. I was lazy. I didn't like rich people. I didn't like successful people that I was better. I felt everyone else was lucky. I felt I'd been dealt a bad hand and. And on that day, everything changed over the process of a week. I met my business partner, who I'm still business partners with today. " (09:19) * "...what drives me now is to help as many people on this planet start to scale their business and get a better financial education." (11:12) *Give me anything, I'll try anything* * "My dad kept telling me I should go into property or real estate, as you say in America. Um, and I just, nah, I can't afford it." (12:45) * "...just dismiss, dismiss, dismiss, dismiss. And then when, with what happened with my dad, I was just like, give me anything, give me anything. I'll try anything." (12:57) * "He helped me get a job in a property sourcing company and locally, and I was prepared to work for free just to get the knowledge, but, um, they gave me minimum wage, but they gave me 500 pound commission for property sale." (13:19) * "My share of that got me out of debt and got me up to nearly six, a six figure earner." (13:54) * "We'd already got 20, but we started full-time sourcing for ourselves and then sourcing for other people as well. So selling deals onto others, the deal packaging. And we bought another 30 that year. And in that year we divided up roles and responsibilities because in the first year we were just doing everything together." (15:32) *Turn your vocation into vacation* * "Well, look, I think the most important thing is to do something that you're inspired by. Turn your passion into your profession, your vocation, into your vacation..." (16:59) * "The key is what do you love to do? You know, what are you inspired by now 30 years ago, you didn't get to do what you love." (18:15) * "But whatever you love to do and you're passionate about." (18:39) *Fear of not pushing through* * "…find something that you love, you know, what you love to do. You just have to have the courage to go...because I think what stops a lot of people is one, how do I make it work? * " I think another big fear is why would people listen to me? " (19:45) * "So anyone listening people like you for you, they like your style your way. And all right, there might not be any new information under the sun, but they liked the way you share it. * They like your values, your vision, your energy, your enthusiasm, your style, whatever it is that makes you, you... The next thing, and this is the most important thing is the single most important thing is the thing that stops nearly everyone. You have to have the courage to be disliked." (20:15) * "Knowing who you are and showing the world who you are and with no filter, I E not over-exaggerating yourself and, you know, bullshitting and not minimizing yourself. And pretending that you're less than you are just who you really are." (21:17) * "I think the single biggest blockage to most people's success is they fear ridicule, judgment. They fear making mistakes. They fear what other people will think about their failure. They fear what other people will say about them. You have to get over that. You have to get over it. Cause it doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter." (22:04) *What are you most proud of?* * "I think I'm the most proud of, um, raising two children who are, yeah, they're really good kids, 10 and six, and that's mostly thanks to my wife, but we're a team and I build the empire and she looks after the empire" (22:51) * " I'm proud of all the people that I've helped. I get daily messages from people who say they're inspired by me" (23:27) * "...money's money, isn't it funny is money, whatever, you know, that's making millions and tens of millions and hundreds of millions is it's not something to be proud of. It's shifter. It's just the result. It's the outcome of the value you give. " (24:18) *Build a team early* * "I think now more than ever, you have the ability to build a team quicker and in a more lean fashion." (25:31) * "... you can get a lot of help virtually online for not much money. You can have remote Teddy salespeople on no salary, only commission. So I'd say embrace that as quick as you can, because like, if you go, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." (26:01) * "But, you know, if you've got a family and you know, you're not completely new to business, or you've got a bit of experience in a career, um, and you want to scale quicker and you don't want to do it at the expense of your health and your family. It doesn't have to be that way. " (26:44) * "So I would definitely recommend people start outsourcing as quick as they can and get used to outsourcing tasks because also the quicker you outsource task, it teaches you to manage people." (27:39) *How to get noticed and be memorable* * "...honoring your own talents and strengths and greatness and being yourself, I think finding a way to get noticed and be memorable." (29:49) * "I think, you know, doing things for people first people are often trying to get first, but doing things for people. " (30:26) * "there's always a way that you can find to do something nice for someone that's a bit further ahead of you to, to get noticed." (30:48) *Partnerships, collaborations and hiring people* * "It's two things and I did it, but I did it too slow. I didn't focus on it. Enough. One is partnerships and collaborations and two is hiring people." (32:00) * "And so I should have definitely staffed up or outsourced much quicker. Number one, and I should have embraced partnerships and collaborations much quicker. I did them, but probably didn't focus on them enough." (32:20) * " I could name another 10 people like that, who I've I'm in partnership with, um, you know, whether they're speakers or trainers for our company, or we do collaborations together." (32:53) *Have impactful partnerships* * "It depends. They're all different... That that would, that would be one way. It could be that we promote each other and speak each other's events." (33:30) * "You could call that a partnership or collaboration because obviously he's got great reach, so many different ways to do them, but most areas of business, there is a partnership or a collaboration opportunity." (34:24) *Quotes and Advice from our host and guest:* * "I just want my whole life to be driven by pain. I don't, you know, I don't live in pain all day every day, but I'm driven by not wanting to go back to those places." - Rob, (10:19) * "I don't want my life to be about pain, but I just want to know the feeling of never having to go back there. To know that I had the choice to change things " - Casanova, (11:40) * "I think the most important thing is to do something that you're inspired by" - Rob, (17:00) * "But at the end of the day, we didn't really care about the money. What we care about is what it allows us to do with the money." - Casanova, (24:35) * "...if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together" - Rob, (26:13) * "one minute, planning, saves five minutes doing" - Brian Tracy, (28:59) * " And I'll say it now, if you don't risk anything, you risk everything." - Rob, (35:27) Books, Mentions, and Links: Rob Moore: ( https://robmoore.com/ ) * Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/robmooreprogressive ) * Instagram ( https://www.instagram.com/robmooreprogressive/ ) * Twitter ( https://twitter.com/robprogressive ) * LinkedIn ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/robmoore1979/?originalSubdomain=uk ) * Money: No More, Make More, Give More ( https://www.amazon.com/Money-Know-Learn-money-transform/dp/1473641322 ) Brian Tracy ( https://www.briantracy.com/ ) Zig Ziglar ( https://www.ziglar.com/ ) Jim Roan ( https://www.jimrohn.com/ ) Tony Robbins ( https://www.tonyrobbins.com/ ) Grant Cardone ( https://grantcardone.com/ ) Jack Canfield ( https://www.jackcanfield.com/ ) Alexander Mcqueen ( https://www.alexandermcqueen.com/ ) Jordan Peterson ( https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/ ) Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy