Podcasts about Ic

North Carolina's past trips to Atlanta to face Georgia Tech have been adventurous over the years. The Yellow Jackets have given UNC fits across the sports down in Georgia and while the 2026 Tar Heels are - on paper - a much better team that Damon Stoudamire's group, winning is never a given down there. Inside Carolina's senior reporter Greg Barnes joins Tommy Ashley to preview this weekend's game and the IC pair discusses the keys and the need for Hubert Davis and his team to get the win on Saturday.   This show is brought to you by Inside Carolina, the No. 1 site for UNC sports coverage and community. Visit http://www.InsideCarolina.com   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

David Shedd, former Acting Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and author of The Great Heist: China's Epic Campaign to Steal America's Secrets, joins the show to discuss Chinese spy craft. ▪️ Times 02:05 Early days 06:49 CIA 09:28 Sandinistas and revolutionaries  15:14 IC preparation  18:35 A great awakening 26:11 Industrial espionage  30:50 National Intelligence Estimate 34:11 The MSS 44:19 The culture of the 18th Bureau  50:17 Battlefield consequences  55:20 Counterarguments Follow along on Instagram, X @schoolofwarpod, and YouTube @SchoolofWarPodcast Find more content on our School of War Substack

Setting up an IC-DISC the right way can mean the difference between maximizing tax savings and having issues down the road. In this episode of The IC-DISC Show, I sit down with Brian Schwam, IC-DISC specialist and tax attorney, to walk through the complete IC-DISC setup and compliance process from start to finish. This conversation was inspired by a CPA request for a comprehensive guide covering every step of the IC-DISC journey. Brian breaks down the entire process chronologically, from the initial consultation to determine if a business qualifies, through the critical formation steps that can make or break your IC-DISC. We cover proper capitalization requirements, the infamous 90-day election window, why non-interest bearing bank accounts matter, and the draconian 60-day payment rule that catches many businesses off guard. He explains the difference between simple and transaction-by-transaction calculations, sharing an example where detailed analysis increased a client's commission from $4 million to $17 million on $100 million in export sales. Whether you're a CPA learning about IC-DISC for the first time or a business owner considering this strategy, Brian's systematic approach demonstrates why working with a true specialist matters when navigating these complex regulations.     SHOW HIGHLIGHTS A detailed transaction-by-transaction calculation increased one client's IC-DISC commission from $4 million to $17 million on the same $100 million in export sales. Missing the 90-day election filing window requires a private letter ruling costing $35,000-$40,000 to fix, making it cheaper to just set up a new IC-DISC. The 60-day payment rule requires paying at least 50% of your estimated commission in cash or promissory note within 60 days of year-end to avoid disqualification. Setting up an IC-DISC with no par value stock is a fatal error that will cause the IRS to reject your election, regardless of everything else done correctly. A non-interest bearing bank account is essential because even $1.50 of interest income can disqualify your IC-DISC if no commission is paid that year. Export sales typically need to reach $3-5 million before an IC-DISC makes economic sense, though exceptions exist for businesses with exceptionally high profit margins.   Contact Details LinkedIn - Brian Schwam LINKSShow Notes Be a Guest About IC-DISC Alliance Brian SchwamAbout Brian TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dave: Good morning, Brian. Welcome to the podcast. Brian Hey, good morning David. Good to be here. Dave: So I, I now refer to you as the Bob Hope of the podcast because I believe that Bob Hope holds the record for the most appearances on the Johnny Carson Show. So that's why you're like the Bob Hope of the podcast. You have more appearances than anyone else with today's appearance. Brian That's good company to be in if you're of a certain, if you're of a certain age. Dave: Yeah. And I'm not even sure you and I are quite old enough to even be of that certain age. Brian I probably never saw him on Johnny Carson. Dave: Yeah, me too. So this is an episode that was requested by a CPA of one of our clients who was retiring and he had a new. Partner taken over and he said, Hey Dave, can you send over a link to the episode that just goes through all the details of the IC disc from start to finish? And I'm like, well, we don't have that episode, but it's a great idea. So that's what's behind this. So let's start at the very beginning. Somebody calls you up and says, Hey Brian, I need an IC disc, or I want an IC disc. What's the very first step? Brian Very first step for me is to say why. Dave: Okay, Brian tell me about your business. Dave: Okay. Brian You know, do you have qualified export receipts? Do you have qualified export property? That those are very complex areas. And some people might think they do when they don't, and others might think they don't when they do. Dave: Okay. Brian And more likely than not, they heard about IC disc from. Somebody they met at a, you know, business leader meeting or something and somebody said, oh, hey, I have an IC disc. You should have one. Dave: Okay. Brian And not everybody can utilize one, but there's many out there that can utilize 'em that do not. Dave: Okay. And do you charge anything for that consultation? Brian No, because to me it's just a fact finding. Dave: Okay. So step one, figure out if their fact pattern warrants having an IC disc. Brian Right? Right. Well, it's, it's actually, that's one step. If you deter, if we determine that yes, an IC disc makes sense because they do have qualified export property, they do have qualified export receipts, then we have to talk about volumes. Because, you know, if you have 500,000 of export sales, most like more likely than not. Disc isn't gonna make sense. Dave: Economic sense when Brian you factor Right. Economic, the Dave: costs Brian not right. There's not enough benefit to offset the cost at that, at that level, most likely. Of course. It [depends on what, what it is they're selling. Dave: Sure. Do you have a rule of thumb you typically use? Is it like three or 5 million where it typically makes sense or every case Brian For most, for most businesses, that's sort of the range that where it starts to make sense, but there are always exceptions to that. Dave: Sure. Brian So like I had a client that had, you know, 600,000 of export sales, but their bottom line profit was 80%. Dave: Okay. Brian So in that instance, hey, it made sense, but for most companies that have 600,000 of export sales, it, it probably doesn't make sense. Dave: Okay. So let's say they have 5 million of exports, good margins, looks like it makes economic sense. What's the next step then? Brian Well then we talk about what is the tax structure of that exporting company? Is it a flow through entity? Is it a C Corp? And how is it owned? Sometimes [00:04:00] it's owned by a foreign company that makes things way more complicated. Okay. It's owned by a combination of different shareholders, some of which are individuals, some of which are corporations. So that can be complicated. And sometimes it's just a, it's just a pass through entity that's owned by, you know, let's say it's an S corporation that's owned by a family owned. Dave: Sure. Brian You know, so you, you can have a lot of different fact patterns and that will dictate a lot of things with, with respect. Dave: Okay. Brian To how the disc is organized. Dave: Might that also be the time? You inquire as to whether multiple discs might make sense for their structure, or do you typically just focus on kind of getting the initial disc in place and then exploring that over time? Brian Probably the latter. Dave: Yeah. Brian Initially I, you know, the goal is, you know, do you have enough activity? Do you have the right kind of activity? What kind of benefit is it that you think you can, we can get for you? And then, okay, if the answer to all those are in the positive, then it's like, okay, how should this disc be owned based on what we're trying to achieve and where should it be set up? Because that also can have a lot of negative surprises if you set it up in the wrong place. Dave: Yeah. So let's say and I think there's some rules of thumb like if if the. Exporting company is a C corp, you typically don't want the C Corp to own the disc, is that correct? Brian That is, that is correct. And that's because a C corporation pays tax on a dividend. It receives from the IC dis, so effectively there's no benefit. Dave: Okay. So with a C corp, typically it would be the individuals, individual or [individuals that Brian are Oh, the, the shareholders typically, Dave: yeah. Brian You know, possibly a management group could be involved as well, but typically we're talking about the shareholders of the C corporation. Dave: Yeah. And the shareholders of the disc do not necessarily have to mirror the shareholders of the C corp. Right. Brian That is sort of up in the air. I, I prefer that to be the case, but it doesn't have to be the case. Dave: Yeah, like in a simple example, census C Corp owned by one person and when they set it up, they wanna add a couple key employees to it. Brian Yeah. That, that, that's probably fine. You know, there's some old revenue rulings out there from the early 1980s that have a bad fact pattern, which the IRS held that the structure created gift tax issues, but that was like a mom and a dad and a son and a daughter, and mom and dad set up a disc and then gave the stock to the son and the daughter. And, and so that, that's, I see that's a bad fact pattern. What you described is a completely different fact pattern. There's no donative intent in that fact Dave: pattern. Yeah. Okay. In Brian fact, that I have a client that started out where the disc and the C Corp was. It did have mirror ownership, but over time, that has changed dramatically. But still, there's no donor of intent because we have all these unrelated families that own shares in the company in this quote company. And when there have been redemption opportunities over the years, they have the choice redeemed, the disc shares redeemed. The, the C corp shares redeemed them both. So some of like kept their dis shares, but gotten rid of the C Corp shares and vice versa. But really without the donative intent, plus some court case you know, precedent, I, I'm not [00:08:00] so concerned about that issue. Dave: Okay. Now let's switch gears and let's say it's a flow through an S-Corp partnership et cetera. Do you typically want the individuals to own it in that situation? Say that the company has three shareholders, would you just make them the three owners of the disc? More often than not, no. Okay. And why is that? Brian Because it, you get the same benefit by making the disc a subsidiary of the S corporation without some of the extra complexity associated with having the disc be owned by the shareholders. Now that, that's, that's preferred, but there are also situations where that doesn't make sense. Dave: Okay. Brian So let's say the, the S corporation is in California and the shareholder lives in Texas, or Florida. Or Nevada. Dave: Okay. Brian So they might want that dividend income flowing directly to them so that there's [00:09:00] no state Oh. So that there's no state income tax on the dividend. Dave: Sure, sure. Brian Okay. Okay. Yeah. So again, it's just another fact you need to uncover in the process of trying to figure all this out. Dave: Okay, so you've met with the client, you've figured out a disc makes sense, you've dug further you figured out the ownership structure of the disc. That makes sense. So then I guess you have to figure out where to incorporate, huh? Brian Yeah. And that again, there are good states and bad states. Dave: Okay. Brian Some states will tax an IC dis as a regular C corporation, you wanna avoid those states. Some states don't have an income tax at all, and those are good states to deal with. Dave: Okay. Brian And the three, you know, I'd say there's three states that are predominantly viewed as positive, and that would be Delaware, Texas, and Nevada. Okay. They're all fairly similar. For filing. And, and none of them have a corporate income tax on the dis so that's, that's all good in terms of not adding additional costs to the, the structure. Dave: Okay. So I'm in Texas and thus you, it seems like most of my clients end up incorporating in Texas. Do you just so here we are January 8th. We're recording this of 2026. So do you just do you just get around to doing it anytime before the end of the year and then you could use the disc the whole year? Is that how it works? Brian It's not how it works. It's generally a prospective opportunity. So you wanna get that entity formed as quickly as possible. Dave: Okay. Yeah. I've had people, I've heard [00:11:00] people say that if you don't do it on January 1st, you just have to wait till the next year. Brian No. That, well, that's certainly not true. And from any date forward that you set it up, you can certainly get benefits or shipments. Okay. That they, but one other item that I forgot to mention earlier, they also like to ask if the, if the related supplier entity, which is the exporter, if they're an accrual based company or a cash basis, Dave: ah, Brian that's an, that's an incredibly important issue Dave: Sure. Brian Dealt with. That's why. Dave: Okay. Brian Because the disc is an accrual base taxpayer by default. Dave: Yeah. Okay, we'll get into that when we get further around the, Brian okay. Dave: I think about when I was a kid, there was a, there was a Saturday morning TV series I think called schoolhouse Rock. And one of the episodes was how, how a bill becomes a Law [00:12:00] And there's the whole steps, the Brian episode, everybody remembers. Dave: Yep. Yep. So everybody our age at least. Okay, so you've got the disc set up and say you do it in Texas and let's say they make the decision January 8th, takes a few days to, you know, just kind of get stuff, you know, information from the client set up. And let's say you get it set up January 15th, so then they're good to go, huh? They can just start using that disc and away we go. Anything else? Ha. That has to be done Or is it, is it that some Brian on the, on the surface, yes, that's true. Dave: Okay. Brian But beneath the surface, there's other things that have to take place. Dave: Okay. What's the next thing that has to happen after you've formed the disc? Brian Well, you have a, there's a 90 day window to file a disc collection with the IRS. That's probably the most critical thing that has to happen. You have to file an actual paper form with the IRS to elect disc status for the company, because the company, when you set it up, it's just a corporation. Without that election, it's not a disc. Dave: And that election, is this the famous form 48, 76 dash a, is that said election, Brian famous or infamous in some cases, Dave: yes. Yeah. Okay. So you have to, so you just well, you just go to the IRS website. Download the form, send it in, bing, bam. Boom. You're done. You're good to go. Brian Not exactly. Dave: Okay. That's the Brian first Dave: step. Brian Skip. That's the first step. But the I mean, first of all, when you're setting up the disc, you have to make sure you incorporate it properly. Dave: Okay. Brian I kind of glossed over that. Dave: And what are some of the elements of proper incorporation? Brian Well, for example, when you go to a, the Texas website or any other secretary of State website to organize the company, because it can be done all online, [00:14:00] like the default is always, you know, no par value stock, right. Brian If you just select the default, you are going to have a problem because Okay. Dis rules require, you know, par or stated value of $2,500 on the, issued an issued an outstanding stock of, of the disk. So I had a client that came to me years ago. They had set up a company in, well, they used Wyoming, which is also possible to use, and it's not a bad jurisdiction. And they had, he had his quote unquote friend that who was an attorney, set it up for him. And there were some issues with the DISC collection and it went back and forth and then ultimately took a look at the articles of incorporation and it had, you know, $1 power stock, 1000 shares. Dave: Ah, that's a problem. Brian That's, [00:15:00] yeah. So no matter what happened with the disc election and the back and forth with the IRS, the disc election was ultimately never approved because the entity didn't meet the requirement. Having enough outstanding capital stock. So you have to have one and it can only have one class of shares. So there are, you know, there are some hoops you have to jump through in terms of not doing things incorrectly or doing things correctly. So you have to make sure there's one class of stock, $2,500 par value. There can't be foreign sales corporation in the same patrol group, which years ago was a big deal, but now it's not really a big deal because those have been gone for many years and almost nobody has one left. Not, not really an issue there. And what, you know, those are the formation matters that, that mattered, that are important to make sure you, you meet when you form the entity. Okay? If it's formed wrong, right from the get go, you have a problem. If [00:16:00] it's formed correctly, then the next step is yes, file a disc election. Dave: And, but before you file the disc election, there's a step we're missing, right? Doesn't the DISC election require. To put the corresponding EIN for the distance. Oh yes. I mean, I just assumed we, yeah, you obviously you have to apply for an ID number for the new entity that does not come automatically with the incorporation. Brian 'cause that's done with the state as opposed with the IRS yes. Dave: Yeah. And that's become more challenging. It used to be pretty easy to get an EIN you could apply under a corporate name or Brian yeah. But there, there's a, you know, there is an online portal with the IRS to get an EIN for a domestic company. So it's not, it's not Dave: terrible. Yeah. Brian It's not terrible. Dave: Yeah. So you have the EIN that you need for the 48 76 ae. Brian Right. Dave: You have you have 90 days, Brian you have the proper capitalization. Dave: Yeah. Brian You figured out who's gonna own the disc because the, the disc collection is. Signed, you know, it's not just made by the disc entity. It's made by the disc entity, then consented to by the shareholder. So you have to make sure that all that takes place. I can't tell you the number of times where somebody filled out part one, the disc signed it, and then the shareholder forgot the consent to it. And if you don't do the 48 76 dash eight correctly, you get it filed timely. It's an extremely expensive fix to try and get that Dave: rectified. Brian Generally, you have to try to get a private letter ruling, which will grant an extension of time to file the late disc collection. Dave: Okay. Brian And that's that's an expensive process. It's a 25 to $30,000 exercise to [00:18:00] file the private letter, really. Plus you have to pay a user fee to the IRS of 10,000, 11,000. Dave: Wow. Yeah. It seems that seems inconvenient at, at best. Brian And for most companies, they're better off just setting up a second dose Dave: Sure. Brian As opposed Dave: to process, Brian because how much volume there is. Dave: Yeah. Yeah. And I understand the IRS itself refers to these as a, a paper entity. So I guess since it's a paper entity, that's it. No need to fuss around with a bank account or actually have to capitalize it with actual money is there. Brian It's, it's recommended, but you're right, it's not required. There's no requirement in the disk rules to set up a bank account. Dave: Okay. Brian So there it could simply have. A receivable receiv for the capital stock. And that can be, its working capital doesn't have to have a bank account, but that's sort of a misnomer that people think it must have a bank account. Okay. In the original regulations, that was a requirement, but when the regulations are finalized, the requirement was removed. Dave: Okay. But practically speaking, it you probably wanna have a bank account. Brian Yes. Practically speaking, it makes all the sense in the world to have a bank account, a non-interest bearing bank account. Dave: And why is the non-interest bearing important? Brian Well, it, it has to do with one of the annual requirements of a disc. That 95% of its receipts have to be qualified export assets. I'm sorry, receipts. And so let's say in a year the company decides. You can't always decide not to use the DIS even though you've got it in place. So let's say the company says, well we're not gonna use the, this year we had a loss. In our business there's no using. Dave: Okay. Brian We say, okay, and then the DIS bank account earned a dollar 50 of interest income. Dave: Okay, Brian well 100% of the receipts are now not qualified receipts. Okay. Income and no other revenue. If there was a non-interest bearing bank account, it would just have no receipts and then it would be fine. But the earning, the dollar 50 of interest would disqualify that. Dave: Okay. So non-interest bearing account and then I guess the dollar amount in the bank account, what you start with, $2,500 initially. Brian Yeah, pretty much keep it there forever. Dave: But, but it doesn't matter if you end up, oh, if you're a little lazy and you forget to distribute all the money and you end up with 50 grand at the end of the year, that, that's not a problem, is it? Brian It is. Dave: It is. Everything's a problem Brian with you, Brian, because everything, 'cause the, these rules are draconian and everything can become a problem. So a commission dis anyway, a comm, [00:21:00] you know, a paper entity commission dis doesn't need $50,000 of working capital. And the IRS would hold that, that that's not a qualified export out. Like having too much working capital in DIS will cause it to fail. The other test, which is the 95 qualified export asset test 2,500, you know, an amount of cash equal to the capital stock is fine. Dave: Sure. Brian Amounts above that start to, you know, raise questions as to whether. That's reasonable working capital or not? Given that the entity's a paper entity, it doesn't really have any expenses. Maybe some bank fees. That would be about it. In most cases, it really doesn't need cash sitting. Dave: Yeah. Yeah. So maybe 3000, 3,500 to account for some bank fees or, Brian yeah, at most, yeah, we start getting about 5,000. It really starts to [00:22:00] look questionable. Dave: Okay. Oh, I just realized, I think in the initial assessment there was a step we forgot and that's, do they want to make it a buy sell disc or a commission disc? What percentage of your clients are commission discs? Mine a hundred percent. That's Brian 99%. Dave: Yeah. So we're just stepping ahead assuming that it would be a commission disc, Brian right. I mean, the only time you would really have a buy sell disc. 'cause if you have a business where. They're buying inventory from unrelated parties. And all the inventory is manufactured in the US and all of it is export. Dave: Yeah. Brian Okay. That, that, that I do have, like I said, two clients that have adopted that structure. One was commissioned disc with an S-corp and they converted, they merged the S-corp into the disc and just became an operating disc. You know, and that's a little different than a buy sell disc. I mean, an operating disc. People think of buy, sell dis an operating disc for the same thing. They're really not. I mean, 'cause you could have a, the equivalent of a commission disc, but have it be by sell where it could buy product from its related exporter and then export it. Dave: Okay. Brian It's possible that, that, that tho that fact pattern, I don't have any clients in. Dave: Okay. Brian It's possible. Dave: Okay. So we've got the election filed and then at some point the IRS will send the taxpayer letter approving the election, right? Brian Correct. That is, that was true. Dave: And then so we've got the, the B and usually it makes more sense to have the disc bank account at the same bank as the operating company, right? Brian It typically does, Dave: yes. Yeah. And we'll get into that when we get further into the operation of the disc. Okay. So it's all set up. And elections filed, election approved. So now certainly we're done with incorporation and government governance matters, right? Brian No. No, Dave: not yet. Brian Not yet. Not yet. Okay. We still have to make sure there's a a call, a related supplier agreement or disc commission supplier agreement in place between the, the exporting entity or entities and the disc itself. This document is, it's not, again, it's not required in the regulations, but it is recommended. It gives the related supplier a lot of flexibility in how it uses the disc and if it uses the disc and it gives it unilateral powers to decide not to use the disc. It also lays out the, you know, sort of boil legal boilerplate language about an inter intercompany agreement between the two business. Dave: So you could just go to chat GPT and have them spool up a one page sales agent agreement. Is that right? Brian Maybe. I don't know. I haven't tried that 'cause I don't wanna teach chat GPT how to, how to do that, but because every time you ask it a question, you teach it, right? Dave: Sure. Brian General, no, it's a pretty specific agreement and it has very specific provisions in it. Provisions and so somebody that knows what they're doing really needs to draft them. Dave: Okay. Okay. So this is kind of pointing away from just having your general corporate attorney who's never heard of a disc, do all that quote paperwork. Brian Yeah. I never recommend. I always recommend that a specialist do it, namely myself take care of it. Dave: Okay. Yeah. 'cause you are, in addition to having an accounting background, you're also a tax attorney, correct? Brian Correct. Dave: Correct. Okay. Brian Yeah. And you know, some of the documents that need to be created, yeah. That can be done by a general corporate attorney like bylaws and those as well and or other organizational documents that aren't disc specific can only be done by any attorney. But but if, but really it doesn't make sense to split that work up amongst different attorneys. Dave: Okay. Sure. Brian It all sort of be done by the same party to make sure that it's, that everything gets taken here. Dave: Okay. Brian And timely because there's a 90 day window to get this, in my opinion, to get this all done. Dave: Yeah, to co to coincide with the election filing. Brian Right. Because typically I don't provide any of the documents, including the election, to the, to the client until all these things are done. Dave: Yeah. Oh, I see. Sure, sure. Because then there's, Brian you know, they have to sign the disc election and there's all these other documents they need to sign and put in a minute book. And so rather than piecemeal it, we just give it to them all at once. Dave: Okay. So they've got their binder with all their signed documents or a signed copy of the 48 76 A that was filed a copy of the approval from the IRS. So now finally, are we ready to get started using our disc? Is there. Brian Collection the I. Yeah. As you've probably seen in the news, things are changing at the postal service as far as postmarks and what they can be relied on as when something was considered filed. So they're not promising the postmark things that they, you drop them in the mail anymore. Dave: Oh, really? Okay. I hadn't heard that. Brian Yeah. So it's recommended to go, like, walk it to a counter and have it hands stamped with [00:28:00] a postmark. Yeah. But more importantly, and unfortunately not everybody listens to this, send the form certified mail return receipt requested. 'cause many times document is sent to Kansas City and they lose track. Oh, we never got your dis election. We can't process your dis return, whatever. And then there's proof that it was sent and then they have to, you know, find it basically. Dave: Okay. Or Brian at least accept it, maybe even if they never find. Dave: Yeah. Brian But there's one other thing about the disc and that we didn't talk about and, and I'm reminded of it because something you asked me in passing last week, which is something about the year end of the disc, the year end of the disc must coincide with its principal shareholder. So if I have a C corp that's a fiscal year, but the owners of the disc aren't gonna be [00:29:00] individuals, that disc will be a calendar year disc. Dave: Sure. Brian Not be a fiscal year company. And you know, if. It's owned by, let's say an S corp that has a fiscal year, then the disc will have a fiscal year. It, it must have the same year as its principalship. Dave: Okay. Yeah. Good. Thanks for the reminder of that. Brian And sometimes the disc collection gets filled out incorrectly. Somebody assumes one thing and, and then when a return is filed, the IRS, they're like, they, they dunno what to do. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Alright. Now finally, do we have a little bouncing baby disc to be delivered to its proud parents? I think so. Dave: Okay. Okay. Okay. Brian And that's usually, it's usually about three to five months after it was formed. Dave: Okay. Brian Is when it started eating solids. Dave: Okay. Alright, so now we've got the disc set up and 9:45 AM I'm, I'm sorry, I keep touching my watch and it says the time, apparently it's time to just take off my watch. Okay. So now, so let's just say that they have not yet set up the bank account. They've done everything else, and now it's time to set up the bank account so they, you know, call their local banker. They get it set up at the same bank, so it can be on the same online banking platform. And then they fund it. And does it matter where the funding comes, comes from for that bank account? Can they just like say the company. I mean, can just anybody fund it? Say there's three shareholders, can just one shareholder write a check for $2,500 to fund it? Or how does that all look? Brian Well, I mean, there, there will be a subscription agreement that shows how much each shareholder owes for their shares, and each shareholder should pay for them. Okay. Can't just be one. Dave: Okay. So we have the bank account set up, we're ready to go. And so now we're at the end of the year, or approaching the end of the year. Let's say we're in November of 2026. Anything we need to do before the end of the year Brian for an accrual based taxpayer? No. Okay. There's nothing paid to do, but before the end of the year. Dave: And what about for a cash basis? Brian For a cash basis, taxpayer, if we want a deduction in 2026. We need to pay the DIS in 2026, so Dave: we Brian would need to gather information in order to estimate a DIS commission for 2026 before the end of the year. Dave: Okay. So cash basis, that's what we need to do by the end of the year. Accrual basis. Basis, no. Do I need to do [00:32:00] anything by the end of the year? Brian You don't need to. You have an option to, if you'd like to, if you wanna have an idea of what the disc commission might be, or you actually wanna pay it before the end of the year, but there's no requirement. Dave: Yeah. And if you don't, and if you don't pay it by the end of the year, you get a deferral benefit Brian possibly. Dave: Yeah so say, say you did a hundred million of exports and your commission was $20 million. You just get to defer that whole thing till the next year, right? Brian No, Dave: no. Brian, all you say is No. Every good idea have you just say No. Brian It could defer 10% of it to the next year because only the income related to 10 million of export sales can be deferred, and it'd be a little less than 10% because the disc wasn't there the whole year. So we'd have to prorate that 10 million for the number of days the disc existed. And then some sliver can be deferred, but the rest of it is gonna be taxed to the shareholders as a deemed dividend Dave: in the current year. In the Brian current. Dave: Okay. Brian Then not taxed when physically distributed in the following. Dave: Okay, so we have an accrual tax payer. We get into the to 2027, and let's say they're extending their corporate return and they're planning to file that in August of 27. So we're done. We don't have anything else to do before August. Right? Brian That's not true either. Dave: Brian, Brian you're Dave: killing me. Brian Yeah, well, it, I mean, it depends. If nothing was done before the end of the year, then something needs to be done within the first 60 days after the accrual base taxpayer. Or, you know, let's say the cash base taxpayer says, I don't [00:34:00] care if I get my deduction next year, so I'm not gonna pay anything this year. Something needs to be paid at this within 60 days of the end of the year. Dave: So is this one of those things like the sales agent agreement, that that's just recommended? Brian No, this is required. Dave: Required. Okay. Brian Yeah. This is required. This is, this is one of the hot buttons the IRS will try to use to disqualify your disc. Dave: Okay. Brian So the disc accrues a receivable at the end of the year, even though it doesn't know the amount at the end of the year for all, for, for disc purposes and books an an accrual for the income at the end of the year. That accrual or the receivable is only a qualified export asset if, if the payment rules around that receivable or satisfy. Dave: Okay. Okay. Brian One Dave: rule Rules. Rules. There's always rules. Brian Yeah. It's very draconian. You have a 60 day rule and a 90 day rule. 60 day rule says you must pay a reasonable estimate of the disc commission to the disc within 60 days of the end of the year in cash or. It could be cash, it could be a note. Dave: And reasonable is just any old amount. You just put your finger in the air and ah, I think a hundred dollars is reasonable. Brian Again, that's not the case. There is a safe harbor for what is reasonable, and that safe harbor is f at least 50% of the final commission amount that you Dave: determine. But how do you know that in February Brian you have, Dave: if you're not preparing the corporate, Brian you have to try to compute an estimate before the end of FE Dave: and you have to nail it exactly at 50%. So if you think the commission's gonna be $1,217,412, you need to pay exactly 50% of that, Brian at least. [00:36:00] Dave: Oh, at least. So you could pay more. At Brian least you could pay more. And we always recommend maybe paying 75 to 80%. Dave: Okay. Brian Because if you pay whatever you pay. That amount is gonna be your limit. So if you thought it was gonna be a million and you paid 500,000 and it turns out to be 1,000,500, too bad. So sad, you only paid 500,000, you're capped at a million. Dave: Okay? I mean, that's the safe harbor. I suppose there might be circumstances where, where one could argue that they maybe the first year of the disc, and you know, they, they, Brian you can argue it, you can try to argue it, but there's no guarantee that the IS will accept any of the arguments. And the private letter rulings that exist from the 1970s would imply that they, they're really not going to accept just about any rationale for being reasonable other than that 50% bright [00:37:00] line safe harbor. Dave: Okay so you make the payment, Brian make that payment, and. Dave: Can you just book a journal entry? Do you, do you actually have to really move the money? It sounds like a hassle. Brian I mean, in, in general you have to, you have to either create a note or move cash. Dave: Okay. Brian Okay. Dave: But that might be a lot of money though. Like what if, what if it's like $2 million and million? The company only has a million dollars in the bank. Brian They could use the same capital multiple times. Dave: Oh, okay. Brian And roundtrip the money as many times as they need to, or like I said, use the, use the promissory note. Dave: Okay. Brian Short term promissory note to satisfy that requirement because it does say cash or property. Dave: Okay. So we get through February, we've made our, our 60 day payment. We've, we've, you know, sh sh we've, we, instead of doing 50%, we did about 80% of what we thought it was gonna be to give us some cushion, and now we can go take a vacation till the till the corporate returns ready. Brian Yeah. I, I, I think so. Dave: Okay. Brian I think so. Dave: Okay. So it's time to now. So it's time. Now, if they extend that corporate return, I guess they're gonna have to extend the disc return as well. Brian Well, the disc return is due September 15th as a matter of course. Dave: Oh, Brian are handy. There are no extensions. So really as far as the disc and its compliance goes, once you make that 60 day payment, there's really not much you can or should do or are able to do until the related entities tax return. Prepared. [00:39:00] So a lot of times they'll say, well, that's not gonna be done till September 15th, and we have to have a discussion about how that doesn't work because the disc return has to be done by September 15th, but in order to do the disc return, you need to basically a completed within it supplier returns. So then we have to work backwards from September 15th to figure out like when's the latest they can have that, that other return done in order Dave: to Brian get the disc return done. Now that's relatively easy in the past through context because all those pass through returns are also due September 15th on extension. Dave: Sure. Brian Whereas a C corporation, it's not so easy because the extended due date for a C corporation, if it's a calendar year is October 15th. So it may be that you have to file a disc return with a made up number on time and then amend it after. Okay. After September 15th. I've done that a number of times. Dave: Okay. So that makes sense. Brian Because as is good as CPAs are, they're deadline driven. So if a return is due October 15th, they're unlikely to have it done by the end of August. Dave: Yeah. Okay. So it's time to file the disc return. I assume the CPA firm probably has that disc return and their standard tax software with all the other forms. So you just have the CPA go ahead and prepare the disc return. I've looked at it, it's a short return. It's like 10 pages long. So you just go ahead and have the CPA prepare the disc return, then bing, bam, boom, you're done. Brian Could do that. Dave: Okay. Is there a drawback to doing that? Brian Yeah, it would probably be wrong. Dave: Okay. Why do you say that? Now, remember [Brian, we have a lot of CPAs who we have very good relationships with that we share clients, you know, saying that they're probably gonna do it wrong. I mean, heck, I don't really wanna annoy all my great CPAs we work with Brian Well, okay, but it, well, it's just a fact. It'll probably okay Dave: be Brian wrong because they might see one or two or three a year. They, they think they know what all the different terms on the district return mean, but they're not as familiar with that as they are with a S Corp return or a partnership return, or 1120. So they do what they think is right, and it may be right, it may not be right. So again, I, in my opinion, you want a specialist preparing the district return. Dave: Okay. Brian Okay. Because we know exactly how it's supposed to be filled out. And then if, if the calculation is done on a transaction by transaction [00:42:00] basis, there's this schedule P that gets attached to the return. Well, if you don't do a T by T, there's one Schedule P. If you do a T by T, there could be thousands of them. So I don't think CPAs and their software are equipped to complete thousands of schedule Ps and attach Dave: Yeah. Brian To the district. Dave: No, good point. And you're, you're getting your your enthusiasm to get to T by t had me, you got a little ahead of me. 'cause I was gonna ask, so client says, Hey, we have a desk. Our accounting department's busy. What's just the bare minimum of information we need to send you? What's the bare minimum? Brian Bare minimum would be qualified export sales. Dave: They just need to send you a number. Brian Yes. Dave: Then you take that number and how hard can it be? Right. Just take the, Brian it's not, it's not necessarily that hard at that point. Dave: Yeah. But say the profit on those sales [00:43:00] is the average profit of the company and taxable profit. And you compute the disc commission, you go through the Schedule P and compute the disc commission and pick the higher of the two numbers that you, that you compute. So you would just be like the final draft, corporate return and that total export number, you know, dollar amount for the year. And, and that's really all you need to, to do. That's Brian the bare bone. That's the bare bones, yeah. Dave: Okay. And that's what some people would call the standard calculation or a simple calculation, Brian I'd call it simple. Yeah. Dave: Okay. And that's also known as the 4% 50% calculation in some circles. Right. How does that work? Brian Well, it's also known as the safe harbor calculation in certain circles as well. Back to that, Dave: back to that safe harbor again. Brian Yeah. But that's actually not a safe harbor, so that's why I bring that up. Dave: Okay, well Brian that's the safe harbor calculation. I'm like, no, it's not. It's just the [00:44:00] calculation. There's nothing safe harbor about Dave: it. Okay. Brian Okay. It's just the rules that are found in the code and regs for computing and disc commission, and they're the two predominant methods. 4% of sales and the 50% of net profit, Dave: you just cherry pick whichever one works better. Brian Yeah, but the 4% method has limitations. So Dave: more limitations probably. Why? Why can't this just be simple? You said it was the simple calculation and now you're already telling me there's inherent complexity. Brian Even if it's simple, it's not totally simple. Dave: Okay. Okay, Brian so the, and I've seen this done wrong. Millions, well, not millions, hundreds of times, and I can say it is hundreds of times. Client computes the 4% method just by choosing 4% of sales. They don't look at what their net income is on the, on the [00:45:00] activity. They just say, oh, I'm allowed to use 4% of sales. The limit there is you cannot create a loss. There's something called the no loss rules. You can't create a loss with a disc commission if one doesn't already exist. So if the profit on, say, on the sales are 2% of sales, you can't take 4% of sales. You're limited to 2% of sales. And if, for example, you have a loss of the company, you're limited to zero. But I've seen situations where that's completely ignored. Dave: Okay? Brian Properly computed this commission of 4% of sales, but it should have been something less or possibly zero. Dave: Okay? So more complexity, but the good news, that's the extent of the complexity. One, schedule P, 4%, 50%, you know, make sure you, you don't create a loss. Now we're, we're all done. Pop. You [00:46:00] know what, what? Dusted and dusted and delivered we're, we're good to go. They've maximized their dis commission, right? And we're all done. They have a nice 10 page return to send to the IRS. Which by the way, can they file that electronically, that return? Brian Fortunately, there are no provisions for electronic filing of the disc return. It must be, Dave: what is this, the 1970s or something? Brian Pretty much Dave: Okay Brian with, with regard to the disc? Yeah. And, and some other forms. Yeah. But the, the, the benefit of that, here, I'll give you a benefit. The benefit of the fact that you must file a paper return is they can have an electronic signature on it. Okay. It doesn't have to have a wet signature. Dave: Okay? Okay. Brian So you could theoretically, for example, send your client the return using DocuSign, have them sign it. You print it, you file it for, Dave: okay. Okay. But, but now we're finally done. It's signed, it's done. And they say, boy, thank you very much, Brian. You've done, your team did a great job, and boy, I really appreciate, you know, we had 10 million of exports. We have all kinds of variability in our profit margins. And, but thank you very much. You, you created the amazing $400,000 or you calculated the 400,000 disc commission. Thank you very much. I couldn't imagine you went above and beyond. I couldn't imagine you could have done anything more. And then what do you say? Do you graciously say, oh, you're welcome. It was our pleasure. Brian I would graciously say, you know, we, we've just computed your minimum disc commission. Dave: Okay, Brian not your maximum. Because you have Dave: vast, lemme guess. Lemme guess. There's more complexity coming. Brian More complexity, which relies on more data being. Pulled from the client's [00:48:00] records to, to allow for a calculation of the DISC commission at a more detailed level, ideally at a line item by invoice level, Dave: line item. That sounds like a lot of work. Brian It can be. Can be a Dave: lot. What if the client says, our accounting department's busy? Sounds like we're gonna have to spend weeks gathering all this data for you. Eh, it's just, we're too busy, it's not worth it. What do you say then? Brian I gu I almost can guarantee you it will be worth it. Okay. Because looking at the detail is likely to cause at Disconnect commission to be anywhere from 50 to three, 400% higher than what it otherwise would've been. Now, unfortunately, in that first year, since you've already filed with a certain number, you're limited to two times what you paid in that 60 day window. But going forward. You know, there's no limit. Dave: Okay. Brian Whatever we compute can be your disc commission. So different industries have different amount of variability and t and transaction by transaction calculations have different impacts depending upon the industry, the profitability of the business, how many products they have, who they sell to. But it can vary. But I'll give you an example of one that we worked on recently where company had a hundred million of export sales. They took 4% of sales, and they've been taking 4% of sales year after year, after year, after year, after year, Dave: okay. Brian They brought us in like three weeks before the district return. Dave: Okay. Brian And we went through the calculations and we actually calculated 17 million Dave: as opposed to 4 million. Brian As opposed to four. Dave: [00:50:00] Yikes. That's a big difference. Brian It's a huge difference. And fortunately they were, you know, well, I mean they were very pleased with the result. And so now on a going forward basis, we're not doing 4% of sales. Dave: Okay? But you still have this. But if they were able to get a $17 million commission, then that means their corporate taxable income must have been at least 17 million. 'cause didn't I hear you say the disc commission cannot cause a loss. Brian It cannot cause a loss at the level at which you're computing the commission. So there's no, you're killing me, Brian. Just more complexity. Yeah. Well, it's very complex area. There's, there's no overall no loss rule. Like if you, you can, as long as you're meeting the rules as they're written, you can cause your entity to go into a loss position. Now, this particular instance, it did not do that, but [00:51:00] you could do that. Dave: Okay. And then if you get into a loss position, there are other non disc complexities that come into play that impact whether you want to maximize the loss in that entity or you want to target a particular loss in that entity. And that's not something that we get involved with, but we're certainly sensitive to it. Sure. Sure. And so you're saying for this client, even though I've heard some people say you've got the simple calc and then the hard calc. And so you'd wonder why would anyone do the hard calc? Well, it's because their commission went from 4 million to 17 million, which saved them hundreds of thousands of dollars. You created hundreds or millions of dollars with additional tax savings. Brian Right, right. Dave: Okay. Brian And by the way, after the first conversation we had with them, they said, oh [00:52:00] yeah, this is not something we can do. The accounting department said, this is not something we can do. Then the owner said, this is something you're gonna, Dave: it's funny how that, how that works. Okay. And then I'm guessing this extra work. You, you're probably gonna have to create another schedule P or two. So now the disc return, it's gonna be 10 pages. It's what? 20 pages? Is that kind of a typical page count? Brian No, it could be Dave: no. Brian Thousands of pages. Dave: Thousands. I mean, Brian, a ream of paper is 500. So thousands would be reams of paper. Brian Yes. I've had some returns that have like 15 binders of paper. Dave: Yikes. Brian Yeah. Just goes in a big box and I'm sure the IRS types, all those schedule Ps into their, Dave: I'm sure they do. Okay. So the return gets filed, so the return's ready. You take that box, you just slap a you print off a postal label online, drop it off at the post office. And you're done, right? You just give it to carrier, Brian understand, Dave: carrier, carrier your house or whatever. Brian Well, you can send it via FedEx. You can send it via UPS. And actually, in some ways, I think that might be better these days than the postal service. Dave: And why do you have to do that? Can you just slap, I mean, if you have your 15 binders, couldn't you just put a hundred stamps, you know, on the, the box and ship it in because they'll get it, right? I mean, it's not like they're gonna lose it or anything. Brian They might, they could very well lose it. And you definitely want proof of delivery and you want proof of mailing. So again, it's a certified mail if you're using the postal service or if you're using a private carrier like FedEx, you know, you get all that documentation about when it was shipped and when it was delivered.[00:54:00] Dave: Okay, well now at least we're finally done. Right? You ship it off. The CPA pulls the numbers from the disc return, puts it on the corporate and shareholder returns. Now we're done. It's gone to the IRS. We never have to think about it again. Right. Brian I'm not sure if that's a trick question or not, but in some ways that could be true, Dave: right? Yeah. But it, but I guess you could get audited, right? Brian Could get audited by an agent who has no idea what they're doing, which is typically the case. Dave: So that's why you want your CPA defending you in that case. 'cause then it's like the blind leading the blind. Brian No, I think it's better if someone with site is involved. So again, the specialist who did the disc work should represent the taxpayer or be involved with the representation of taxpayer in the case of the audit. Dave: Okay. Brian And the should be involved. Because really what's under, what's really in question is the [00:55:00] deduction on that entity's tax return. The dis itself doesn't pay tax. So they rarely audit a dis quote. Dave: Okay? So if I break it down, you to do it really right? You need a specialist to guide you on the initial structure of the disc. You need another specialist to set up the, the disc. You need another specialist to do all the paperwork, make sure the document's correct another specialist to prepare the return, and then another specialist to defend you. So is that about right? So do you need like five different people to make sure everything's done right? Brian? Isn't there some way that you could just have one person that could just do it all for you and be done with it? Brian Well, of course. Dave: Okay. Finally, finally, I get a simple answer, Brian right? So if you, if you engage a disc specialist, that [specialist should be able to do all that. Dave: Okay? Brian Okay. Now, not every disc specialist is created equally. Dave: Sure. Brian You know, I brought up during our conversation that there are some non disc things that can also add complexity to the situation. Not every disc specialist will be sensitive to those things. Not every disc specialist will understand those things. So the benefits that like our organization brings is that. Least myself in particular, I didn't always just do IC disc work. I, I, I have a well-rounded knowledge of all of the, of the tax world. And so I am sensitive to non disc things. You know, for example, you know, another example, oh, a company has a lot of export sales. You would think it's a no brainer. They should have a dis, they should use the dis. They should, they, they should want to convert that ordinary income to qualified dividend [00:57:00] income. Well, what if the S-corp is owned by an ebit? What if there are passive shareholders? All of those things impact whether the disc commission actually helps or hurts their tax situation. And I would get, I would venture a guess that, you know, if you went out and Googled, you know, I see this specialist, you would find a handful. At most that understand all that stuff and how all it all interplays together as opposed to the multitude of those that won't understand any of it. Dave: Okay. Brian So I think a, a disc specialist that is sensitive to all the other tax rules is, is definitely something that is valuable. Dave: And you probably want someone with some experience who's done maybe, you know, what a dozen disc returns in their career, maybe 50 if they're really good. Like how many, how many have we done organization wide? Probably Brian probably 10,000. Dave: 10,000? Well, that's a lot more than 50. Brian Yes. Over the years it's probably close to that number. And we've probably claimed billions of dollars of just deductions and saved clients, hundreds of millions of dollars of tax. And, and I'm proud to say that every dollar we've ever claimed we've. Okay. Dave: So Brian I've never had an adjustment from the IRS. Dave: Well, that sounds like a, a good a good record. So bottom line, Brian that's, that's the best you can come up with a good record. I'd say it's Dave: well, I didn't wanna say a perfect record. I didn't want to jinxy. Brian No, but it's, it's, it's, it's pretty outstanding record. Dave: Yeah. It's a, it's an impressive record Brian because there are also just providers out there that say, well, you know, Dave: it's the Wild West. Brian The wild west, the IRS doesn't really understand it, so let's be as aggressive as possible. And, and that's not the way we approach it. Dave: Yeah. Wow. Well, this has been this has been a lot. So really it's that simple. So the person who wants to just do all this themselves, we've laid out the whole playbook for them. Brian Yeah. The only simple thing they have to do is call us. Dave: There you go. That is it. Yeah. And, and oh, the other thing, not only are you the Bob, hope you now have moved from number two to number one for the most experienced icy disc guy. I know now that Neil Block is retired. Brian Well, that's, I don't know if that's a plus or not. Whether I'll take it just means I've been doing it a long time myself. So Dave: yeah, Neil was, I think my second, first or second guess. And and I was just happy. 'cause his billing rate back then was like $1,500 an hour. I was just glad I didn't get a bill a month later for him being on the podcast. But he, [01:00:00] he did it for exactly 50 years at one firm, baker and McKinsey in Chicago. He had one office, one phone number, like the whole 50 years. Brian Yeah. That's, Dave: that is something you don't see much anymore. Brian Definitely not, no. It's, but it's very, that's. That's very cool. And Neil is a very, you know, is a very intelligent savvy guy. Dave: Yeah, that is for sure. Well, Brian, anything else that we didn't cover that you can think of? Brian I can't think of anything. I think we covered a, a great deal here. Dave: Okay. Brian Can't think. Dave: Well, I, I'll let Brian we omitted. Dave: Well, great. Well, hey, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate it. And I'll let you get back to your, your exploration of your yard there. Brian Yeah. I feel like, it's funny I shrunk the kids. Dave: I know. Well, hey, well, well again, thanks again, Brian. We all appreciate your time. Brian You're welcome. Have a good day. Dave: You too.

Allen visits the Faskally Safety Leadership Centre with Mark Patterson, Director of Safety, Health, and Environment at SSE, and Dermot Kerrigan, Director and Co-Founder of Active Training Team. They discuss how SSE has put over 9,000 employees and 2,000 contract partners through ATT’s innovative training program, which uses actors and realistic scenarios to create lasting behavioral change across the entire workforce chain, from executives to technicians. Reach out to SSE and ATT to learn more! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy’s brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering tomorrow. Allen Hall: Mark and Turnt. Welcome to the show. Thank you.  Mark Patterson: Thank you.  Allen Hall: We’re in Scotland, present Scotland and per Scotland, which is a place most people probably haven’t ventured to in the United States, but it is quite lovely, although chilly and rainy. It’s Scotland. We’re in December. Uh, and we’re here to take a look at the SSE Training Center. And the remarkable things that active training team is doing here, because we had seen this in Boston in a smaller format, uh, about a year ago almost now.  Dermot Kerrigan: Just Yeah,  Allen Hall: yeah. Six months  Dermot Kerrigan: ago.  Allen Hall: Yeah. Yeah. It hasn’t been that long ago. Uh, but IC was on me to say, you gotta come over. You gotta come over. You gotta see the, the whole, uh, environment where we put you into the police room and some of the things we wanna talk about, uh, because it, [00:01:00] it does play different. And you’re right, it does play different. It is very impactful. And it, and maybe we should start off first of Mark, you’re the head of basically health and safety and environment for SSE here in Perth. This is a remarkable facility. It is unlike anything I have seen in the States by far. And SSE has made the commitment to do this sort of training for. Everybody in your employment and outside of your employment, even contractors.  Mark Patterson: We have been looking at some quite basic things in safety as everybody does. And there’s a fundamental thing we want to do is get everybody home safe. And uh, it’s easier said than done because you’ve gotta get it right for every single task, every single day. And that’s a massive challenge. And we have like 15,000. 15,000 people in SSE, we probably work with about 50,000 contract [00:02:00] partners and we’re heavily dependent, uh, on get our contract partners to get our activities done. And they’re crucial.  Speaker: Mm-hmm.  Mark Patterson: And in that it’s one community and we need to make sure everybody there gets home safe. And that’s what drove us to think about adding more rules isn’t gonna do it. Um, you need to give people that sense of a feeling, uh, when a really serious sense of cars and then equip them with tools to, to deal with it. So. We’ve all probably seen training that gives that sense of doom and dread when something goes badly wrong, but actually that needs to be. Coupled with something which is quite powerful, is what are the tools that help people have the conversations that gets everybody home safe. So kind of trying to do two things.  Allen Hall: Well, SSC is involved in a number of large projects. You have three offshore wind farms, about a more than a thousand turbines right now. Wind turbines onshore, offshore, and those offshore projects are not easy. There’s a lot of complexity to them.  Mark Patterson: Absolutely. So look, I I think [00:03:00] that’s, that’s something that. You’ve gotta partner with the right people. If you wanna be successful, you need to make it easy for people to do the right thing. Yeah, as best you possibly can. You need to partner with the right people, and you need to get people that you need to have a sense that you need to keep checking that as you’re growing your business. The chinks in your armor don’t grow too. But fundamentally there’s something else, which is a sense of community. When people come together to, to do a task, there is a sense of community and people work, put a lot of discretionary effort into to get, uh, big projects done. And in that, um, it’s a sense of community and you wanna make sure everybody there gets home safe to their friends and family. ’cause if we’re all being honest about it, you know, SSE is a brilliant company. What we do is absolutely worth doing. I love SC. But I love my family a fair amount more. And if you bought into that, you probably bought into the strategy that we’re trying to adopt in terms of safety. Uh, it’s really simple messaging. Um,  Allen Hall: yeah. That, that is very clear. Yeah. And it should be [00:04:00]well communicated outside of SSEI hope because it is a tremendous, uh, value to SSE to do that. And I’m sure the employees appreciate it because you have a culture of safety. What. Trigger that. How long ago was that trigger? Is this, this is not something you thought up yesterday for sure.  Mark Patterson: No, look, this, the, the, what we’ve done in the immersive training center, um, really reinforces a lot of things that we’ve had in place for a while, and it, it takes it to the, the next level. So we’ve been working probably more than 10 years, but, uh, certainly the. Seven years we’ve been talking very much about our safety family, that’s the community and SSE with our contract partners and what we need to do. And part of that is really clear language about getting people home safe. Uh, a sense that you’ve, everybody in it that works with us has a safety license. And that license is, if it’s not safe, we don’t do it. It’s not a rural based thing. It’s how we roll. It’s part of the culture. We’d, we, uh, have a culture where, and certainly trying to instill for everybody a culture. Where [00:05:00] they’ve got that license. If, if they think something’s not right, we’ll stop the job and get it right. And even if they’re wrong, we’ll still listen to them because ultimately we need to work our way through, right? So we’ve been, we’ve thought hard about the language we wanted to use to reinforce that. So the importance of plan, scan and adapt. So planning our work well, thinking through what we need to do. Not just stopping there though, keeping scanning for what could go wrong. That sense that you can’t remember everything. So you need to have immediate corrective actions and that immediate sort of see it, sort of report it. If you see something that isn’t right, do something about it. And that sense of community caring for the community that you work with. And those are the essence of our, our language on safety and the immersive training. Uh, is not trying to shove that language down everybody’s throats again, particularly our contract partners, but it’s, it’s helping people see some really clear things. One is if a [00:06:00] really serious incident occurs at what, what it feels like here. And I’ve spent a lot of time in various industries and people are different when they’ve been on a site or involved when there’s been a really serious incident and you need to do something to. Get that sense of a feeling of what it feels like and actually make people feel slightly uncomfortable in the process. ’cause that’s part of it,  Allen Hall: right? Yes.  Mark Patterson: Because you know,  Allen Hall: you remember that.  Mark Patterson: You remember that. Yeah. We’ve had, you know, we’ve had people say, well, I felt very uncomfortable in that bit of the training. It was okay. But was, I felt very uncomfortable. And you know, we’ve talked about that a lot.  Allen Hall: Yeah.  Mark Patterson: We know you kinda should because if there’s something wrong with you, if you don’t feel uncomfortable about that. But what’s super powerful on the guys in at TT do brilliantly. Is have facilitators that allow you to have that conversation and understand what do you need to do differently? How do you influence somebody who’s more senior? How do you, how do you bring people with you so that they’re gonna [00:07:00] do what you want ’em to do after you’ve left the building? And. Just pointing the finger at people and shouting at them. Never does that. Right? Uh, rarely does that. You’ve gotta get that sense of how do you get people to have a common belief? And,  Allen Hall: and I think that’s important in the way that SSE addresses that, is that you’re not just addressing technicians, it’s the whole chain. It’s everybody is involved in this action. And you can break the link anywhere in there. I wanna get through the description of why that. Process went through ATTs head to go. We need to broaden the scope a little bit. We need to think about the full chain from the lowest entry worker just getting started to the career senior executive. Why chain them all together? Why put them in the same room together? Yeah. Why do you do that?  Dermot Kerrigan: Well, behavioral safety or behavioral base safety kind of got a bad rep because it was all about. If we could just [00:08:00] make those guys at the front line behave themselves,  Allen Hall: then everything’s fine,  Dermot Kerrigan: then everything’s fine.  Allen Hall: Yes.  Dermot Kerrigan: But actually that’s kind of a, the wrong way of thinking. It didn’t work. I, I think,  Allen Hall: yeah, it didn’t work.  Dermot Kerrigan: What the mess, the central message we’re trying to get across is that actually operational safety is not just the business of operational people. It’s everybody’s business.  Allen Hall: Right.  Dermot Kerrigan: You know? Um, and. Yeah, everybody has a role to p play in that, you know? Right. So site based teams, back office support functions, everybody has a role to play. And, you know, there’s a strand in, in this scenario where, uh, an incident takes place because people haven’t been issued with the right piece of equipment. Which is a lifting cage.  Allen Hall: Yes.  Dermot Kerrigan: And there’s a whole story about that, which goes through a procurement decision made somewhere where somebody hit a computer and a computer said no because they’d asked for too many lifting cages when they, somebody could have said, you’ve asked for five lifting cages, it’s takes you over the procurement cap. Would four do it? [00:09:00] Yes, that would be fine. That would be fine. Yeah. As it is, they come to a crucial piece of operation. This incr this, you know, this crucial piece of kit simply isn’t there. So in order to hit the deadline and try and make people happy, two ordinary guys, two technicians, put two and two together, make five, and, and one of them gets killed, you know? Yeah. So it’s, we’re, we’re trying to show that, that this isn’t just operational people. It’s everybody’s business.  Mark Patterson: Well, that’s why we worked with you in this, because, um, we saw. Why you got it in terms of that chain? Um, so in, in the scenario, it’s very clear there’s a senior exec talking to the client and actually as SSE. We’re sometimes that client, we’ve got big principal contractors that are doing our big construction activities. We’ve got a lot in renewables and onshore and offshore wind obviously, but, and the transmission business and in thermal, so, uh, and distribution. So I’ll list all our businesses and including customer’s business, but we’ve got some big project activities where we’re the client sometime we’re the principal contractor [00:10:00] ourselves. And we need to recognize that in each chain, each link in that chain, there’s a risk that we say the wrong thing, put the wrong pressure on. And I think what’s really helpful is we have in the center that sort of philosophy here that we get everybody in together mixed up. Probably at least half of our board have done this. Our executive team have all done this. Um, people are committed to it at that level, and they’re here like everybody else sitting, waiting for this thing to start. Not being quite sure what they’re gonna go through in the day. Um, and it’s actually really important you’ve got a chief exec sitting with somebody who’s, um, a scaffolder. That’s really important. ’cause the scaffolder is probably the more likely person to get hurt rather than chief exec. So actually everybody seeing what it’s like and the pressures that are under at each level is really important.  Allen Hall: SSC is such a good example for the industry. I watched you from outside in America for a long time and you just watch the things that happened. [00:11:00] Here you go. Wow. Okay. SSC is organized. They know what they’re doing, they understand what the project is, they’re going about it. Mm-hmm. Nothing is perfect, but I, I think when we watch from the United States, we see, oh, there’s order to it. There’s a reason they’re doing these things. They’re, they’re measuring what is happening. And I think that’s one of the things about at t is the results. Have been remarkable, not just here, but in several different sites, because a TT touches a lot of massive infrastructure projects in the uk and the success rate has been tremendous. Remember? You wanna just briefly talk about that?  Dermot Kerrigan: Yeah. But we, we run a number of centers. We also run mobile programs, which you got from having seen us in the States. Um, but the first, uh, center that we, we, we opened was, was called. Epic, which stood for Employers Project Induction Center, and that was the Thames Tideway Tunnel Project, which is now more or less finished. It’s completed. And that was a 10 year project, 5 billion pounds. Allen Hall: Wow.  Dermot Kerrigan: Um, [00:12:00] and you know, unfortunately the fact is on, on that kind of project, you would normally expect to hurt a number of people, sometimes fatally. That would be the expectation.  Allen Hall: Right. It’s a complicated  Dermot Kerrigan: project, statistic underground. So, you know, we, and, and of course Tide, we are very, very. Very pleased that, uh, in that 10 year span, they didn’t even have one, uh, serious life-changing injury, uh, let alone a fatality. Um, so you know that that’s, and I’m I’m not saying that what ATTs work, uh, what we do is, is, is, is directly responsible for that, but certainly Epic, they would say Tideway was the cornerstone for the safety practices, very good safety practices that they, they put out. Uh, on that project, again, as a cultural piece to do with great facilities, great leadership on the part of the, of the, of the executive teams, et cetera, and stability. It was the same ex executive team throughout that whole project, which is quite unusual.  Allen Hall: No.  Dermot Kerrigan: Yeah. [00:13:00] Um, so yeah, it, it, it seems to work, you know, uh, always in safety that the, the, the, the tricky thing is trying to prove something works because it hasn’t happened. You know?  Allen Hall: Right, right. Uh, prove the negative. Dermot Kerrigan: Yeah. Um,  Allen Hall: but in safety, that’s what you want to have happen. You, you do know, not want an outcome.  Dermot Kerrigan: No, absolutely not.  Allen Hall: No reports, nothing.  Dermot Kerrigan: No. So, you know, you have to give credit to, to organizations. Organizations like SSE. Oh, absolutely. And projects like Tideway and Sted, uh, on their horn projects. Who, who have gone down this, frankly, very left field, uh, route. We we’re, you know, it is only in the last 10 years that we’ve been doing this kind of thing, and it hasn’t, I mean, you know, Tideway certainly is now showing some results. Sure. But, you know, it’s, it’s, it, it wasn’t by any means a proven way of, of, of dealing with safety. So  Mark Patterson: I don’t think you could ever prove it. Dermot Kerrigan: No.  Mark Patterson: And actually there’s, there’s something [00:14:00]fundamentally of. It, it kind of puts a stamp on the culture that you want, either you talked about the projects in SSE, we’ve, we’ve done it for all of our operational activities, so we’ve had about 9,000 people through it for SSE and so far about 2000 contract partners. Um, we’re absolutely shifting our focus now. We’ve got probably 80% of our operational teams have been through this in each one of our businesses, and, uh, we. We probably are kind of closing the gaps at the moment, so I was in Ireland with. I here guys last week, um, doing a, a mobile session because logistically it was kind of hard to come to Perth or to one of the other centers, but we’re, we’re gradually getting up to that 80%, uh, for SSE colleagues and our focus is shifting a bit more to contract partners and making sure they get through. And look, they are super positive about this. Some of them have done that themselves and worked with a TT in the past, so they’re. Really keen to, to use the center that we have [00:15:00] here in Perth, uh, for their activities. So when, when they’re working with us, we kind of work together to, to make that happen. Um, but they can book that separately with you guys. Yeah. Uh, in, in the, uh, Fastly Center too.  Allen Hall: I think we should describe the room that we’re in right now and why this was built. This is one of three different scenes that, that each of the. Students will go through to put some realism to the scenario and the scenario, uh, a worker gets killed. This is that worker’s home? Dermot Kerrigan: Yeah. So each of the spaces that we have here that, that they denote antecedents or consequences, and this is very much consequences. Um, so the, the, the participants will be shown in here, uh, as they go around the center, uh, and there’s a scene that takes place where they meet the grown up daughter of the young fella who’s been right, who’s been, who’s been tragically killed. Uh, and she basically asks him, uh, asks [00:16:00] them what happened. And kind of crucially this as a subtext, why didn’t you do something about it?  Allen Hall: Mm-hmm.  Dermot Kerrigan: Because you were there,  Allen Hall: you saw it, why it was played out in front of you. You saw, you  Dermot Kerrigan: saw what happened. You saw this guy who was obviously fast asleep in the canteen. He was exhausted. Probably not fit for work. Um, and yet being instructed to go back out there and finish the job, um, with all the tragic consequences that happen,  Allen Hall: right?  Dermot Kerrigan: But it’s important to say, as Mark says, that. It’s not all doom and gloom. The first part of the day is all about showing them consequences. Allen Hall: Sure. It’s  Dermot Kerrigan: saying it’s a,  Allen Hall: it’s a Greek tragedy  Dermot Kerrigan: in  Allen Hall: some  Dermot Kerrigan: ways, but then saying this doesn’t have to happen. If you just very subtly influence other people’s behavior, it’s  Allen Hall: slight  Dermot Kerrigan: by thinking about how you behave and sure adapting your behavior accordingly, you can completely change the outcome. Uh, so long as I can figure out where you are coming from and where that behavior is coming from, I might be able to influence it,  Allen Hall: right. Dermot Kerrigan: And if I can, then I can stop that [00:17:00] hap from happening. And sure enough, at the end of the day, um, the last scene is that the, the, the daughter that we see in here growing up and then going back into this tragic, uh, ending, uh. She’s with her dad, then it turned out he was the one behind the camera all along. So he’s 45 years old, she’s just passed the driving test and nobody got her 21 years ago. You know,  Mark Patterson: I think there, there is, there’s a journey that you’ve gotta take people through to get to believe that. And kind of part of that journey is as, as we look around this room, um, no matter who it is, and we’ve talked to a lot of people, they’ll be looking at things in this room and think, well, yeah, I’ve got a cup like that. And yes. Yeah. When my kids were, we, we had. That play toy for the kids. Yes. So there is something that immediately hooks people and children hook  Allen Hall: people.  Mark Patterson: Absolutely. And  Allen Hall: yes,  Mark Patterson: they get to see that and understand that this is, this is, this is, could be a real thing. And also in the work site, uh, view, there’s kind of a work site, there’s a kind of a boardroom type thing [00:18:00] and you can actually see, yeah, that’s what it kind of feels like. The work sites a little bit. You know, there’s scuffs in the, on the line, on the floor because that’s what happens in work sites and there’s a sense of realism for all of this, uh, is really important.  Allen Hall: The realism is all the way down to the outfits that everybody’s worn, so they’re not clean safety gear. It’s. Dirty, worn safety gear, which is what it should be. ’cause if you’re working, that’s what it should look like. And it feels immediately real that the, the whole stage is set in a, in the canteen, I’ll call it, I don’t know, what do you call the welfare area? Yeah. Okay.  Dermot Kerrigan: Yeah.  Allen Hall: Okay. Uh, wanna use the right language here. But, uh, in the states we call it a, a break room. Uh, so you’re sitting in the break room just minding your own business and boom. An actor walks in, in full safety gear, uh, speaking Scottish very quickly, foreign American. But it’s real.  Mark Patterson: I think  Allen Hall: it feels real because you, you, I’ve been in those situations, I’ve seen that that break the,  Mark Patterson: the language is real and, uh, [00:19:00] perhaps not all, uh, completely podcast suitable. Um, but when you look at it, the feedback we’ve got from, from people who are closer to the tools and at all levels, in fact is, yeah. This feels real. It’s a credible scenario and uh, you get people who. I do not want to be in a safety training for an entire day. Um, and they’re saying arms folded at the start of the day and within a very short period of time, they are absolutely watching what the heck’s going on here. Yes. To understand what’s happening, what’s going on. I don’t understand. And actually it’s exactly as you say, those subtle things that you, not just giving people that experience, but the subtle things you can nudge people on to. There’s some great examples of how do you nudge people, how do you give feedback? And we had some real examples where people have come back to us and said even things to do with their home life. We were down in London one day, um, and I was sitting in on the training and one of the guys said, God, you’ve just taught me something about how I can give feedback to people in a really impactful [00:20:00] way. So you, so you explain the behavior you see, which is just the truth of what the behavior is. This is what I saw you do, this is what happened, but actually the impact that that has. How that individual feels about it. And the example that they used was, it was something to do with their son and how their son was behaving and interacting. And he said, do you know what? I’ve struggled to get my son to toe the line to, to look after his mom in the right way. I’m gonna stop on the way home and I’m gonna have a conversation with him. And I think if I. Keep yourself cool and calm and go through those steps. I think I can have a completely different conversation. And that was a great example. Nothing to do with work, but it made a big difference to that guy. But all those work conversations where you could just subtly change your tone. Wind yourself back, stay cool and calm and do something slightly different. And I think that those, those things absolutely make a difference,  Allen Hall: which is hard to do in the moment. I think that’s what the a TT training does make you think of the re the first reaction, [00:21:00] which is the impulsive reaction. We gotta get this job done. This has gotta be done. Now I don’t have the right safety gear. We’ll, we’ll just do it anyway to, alright, slow. Just take a breather for a second. Think about what the consequences of this is. And is it worth it at the end of the day? Is it worth it? And I think that’s the, the reaction you want to draw out of people. But it’s hard to do that in a video presentation or  Dermot Kerrigan: Yeah.  Allen Hall: Those things just  Dermot Kerrigan: don’t need to practice.  Allen Hall: Yeah. It doesn’t stick in your brain.  Dermot Kerrigan: You need to give it a go And to see, right. To see how to see it happen. And, and the actors are very good. They’re good if they, you know. What, whatever you give them, they will react to.  Mark Patterson: They do. That’s one of the really powerful things. You’ve got the incident itself, then you’ve got the UNP of what happened, and then you’ve got specific, uh, tools and techniques and what’s really good is. Even people who are not wildly enthusiastic at the start of the day of getting, being interactive in, in, in a session, they do throw themselves into it ’cause they recognize they’ve been through [00:22:00] something. It’s a common sense of community in the room.  Dermot Kerrigan: Right.  Mark Patterson: And they have a bit of fun with it. And it is fun. Yeah. You know, people say they enjoy the day. Um, they, they, they recognize that it’s challenged them a little bit and they kinda like that, but they also get the opportunity to test themselves. And that testing is really important in terms of, sure. Well, how do you challenge somebody you don’t know and you just walking past and you see something? How do you have that conversation in a way that just gets to that adult To adult communication? Yeah. And actually gets the results that you need. And being high handed about it and saying, well, those are the rules, or, I’m really important, just do it. That doesn’t give us a sustained improvement.  Dermot Kerrigan: PE people are frightened of failure, you know? Sure. They’re frightened of getting things wrong, so give ’em a space where they, where actually just fall flat in your face. Come back up again and try again. You know, give it a go. And, because no one’s, this is a safe space, you know, unlike in the real world,  Allen Hall: right?  Dermot Kerrigan: This is as near to the real world as you want to get. It’s pretty real. It’s safe, you know, uh, it’s that Samuel Beckett thing, you know, fail again, [00:23:00] fail better,  Allen Hall: right?  Mark Patterson: But there’s, there’s a really good thing actually because people, when they practice that they realize. Yeah, it’s not straightforward going up and having a conversation with somebody about something they’re doing that could be done better. And actually that helps in a way because it probably makes people a little bit more generous when somebody challenges them on how they’re approaching something. Even if somebody challenges you in a bit of a cat handed way, um, then you can just probably take a breath and think this. This, this guy’s probably just trying to have a conversation with me,  Allen Hall: right. Mark Patterson: So that I get home to my family.  Allen Hall: Right.  Mark Patterson: It’s hard to get annoyed when you get that mindset. Mindset  Allen Hall: someone’s looking after you just a little bit. Yeah. It does feel nice.  Mark Patterson: And, and even if they’re not doing it in the best way, you need to be generous with it. So there’s, there’s good learnings actually from both sides of the, the, the interaction. Allen Hall: So what’s next for SSE and at t? You’ve put so many people through this project in, in the program and it has. Drawn great results.  Mark Patterson: Yeah.  Allen Hall: [00:24:00] How do you, what do you think of next?  Mark Patterson: So what’s next? Yeah, I guess, uh, probably the best is next to come. Next to come. We, I think there’s a lot more that we can do with this. So part of what we’ve done here is establish with a big community of people, a common sense of what we’re doing. And I think we’ve got an opportunity to continue with that. We’ve got, um, fortunate to be in a position where we’ve got a good level of growth in the business.  Allen Hall: Yes,  Mark Patterson: we do. Um, there’s a lot going on and so there’s always a flow of new people into an organization, and if people, you know, the theory of this stuff better than I do, would say that you need to maintain a, a sense of community that’s kind of more than 80%. If you want a certain group of people to act in a certain way, you need about 80% of the people plus to act in that way, and then it’ll sustain. But if it starts. To drift so that only 20% of people are acting a certain way, then that is gonna ex extinguish that elements of the culture. So we need to keep topping up our Sure, okay. Our, our [00:25:00] immersive training with people, and we’re also then thinking about the contract partners that we have and also leaving a bit of a legacy. For the communities in Scotland, because we’ve got a center that we’re gonna be using a little bit less because we’ve fortunate to get the bulk of our people in SSE through, uh, we’re working with contract partners. They probably want to use it for. For their own purposes and also other community groups. So we’ve had all kinds of people from all these different companies here. We’ve had the Scottish first Minister here, we’ve had loads of people who’ve been really quite interested to see what we’re doing. And as a result of that, they’ve started to, uh, to, to step their way through doing something different themselves. So,  Allen Hall: so that may change the, the future of at t also. And in terms of the slight approach, the scenarios they’re in. The culture changes, right? Yeah. Everybody changes. You don’t wanna be stuck in time.  Dermot Kerrigan: No, absolutely.  Allen Hall: That’s one thing at t is not,  Dermot Kerrigan: no, it’s not  Allen Hall: stuck in time.  Dermot Kerrigan: But, uh, I mean, you know, we first started out with the centers, uh, accommodating project. Yeah. So this would [00:26:00] be an induction space. You might have guys who were gonna work on a project for two weeks, other guys who were gonna work on it for six months. They wanted to put them through the same experience. Mm. So that when they weren’t on site. That they could say, refer back to the, the, the, the induction and say, well, why ask me to do that? You know, we, we, we both have that experience, so I’m gonna challenge you and you’re gonna accept challenge, et cetera. So it was always gonna be a short, sharp shock. But actually, if you’re working with an organization, you don’t necessarily have to take that approach. You could put people through a little bit of, of, of, of the training, give ’em a chance to practice, give ’em a chance to reflect, and then go on to the next stage. Um. So it, it becomes more of a, a journey rather than a single hard, a single event experience. Yeah. You don’t learn to drive in a day really, do you? You know, you have to, well, I do transfer it to your right brain and practice, you know?  Allen Hall: Right. The more times you see an experience that the more it’s memorable and especially with the, the training on how to work with others.[00:27:00] A refresh of that is always good.  Dermot Kerrigan: Yeah.  Allen Hall: Pressure changes people and I think it’s always time to reflect and go back to what the culture is of SSE That’s important. So this, this has been fantastic and I, I have to. Thank SSC and a TT for allowing us to be here today. It was quite the journey to get here, but it’s been really enlightening. Uh, and I, I think we’ve been an advocate of a TT and the training techniques that SSC uses. For well over a year. And everybody we run into, and in organizations, particularly in win, we say, you, you gotta call a TT, you gotta reach out because they’re doing things right. They’re gonna change your safety culture, they’re gonna change the way you work as an organization. That takes time. That message takes time. But I do think they need to be reaching out and dermo. How do they do that? How do, how do they reach att?  Dermot Kerrigan: Uh, they contact me or they contact att. So info at Active Trading Team, us.  Allen Hall: Us. [00:28:00] There you go.  Dermot Kerrigan: or.co uk. There you go. If you’re on the other side of the pond. Yeah. Allen Hall: Yes. And Mark, because you just established such a successful safety program, I’m sure people want to reach out and ask, and hopefully a lot of our US and Australian and Canadian to listen to this podcast. We’ll reach out and, and talk to you about how, what you have set up here, how do they get ahold of you? Mark Patterson: I’ll give you a link that you can access in the podcast, if that. Great. And uh, look. The, the risk of putting yourself out there and talking about this sort of thing is you sometimes give the impression you’ve got everything sorted and we certainly don’t in SSE. And if the second you think you’ve got everything nailed in terms of safety in your approach, then, then you don’t. Um, so we’ve got a lot left to do. Um, but I think this particular thing has made a difference to our colleagues and, and contract partners and just getting them home safe.  Allen Hall: Yes. Yes, so thank you. Just both of you. Mark Dermott, thank you so much for being on the podcast. We appreciate both [00:29:00] of you and yeah, I’d love to attend this again, this is. Excellent, excellent training. Thanks, Alan. Thanks.

Guiding Question:How might we empower our students by giving them freedom and agency to explore local issues that they are passionate about and utilize their public speaking skills to connect with local policy makers to raise awareness and inspire change?Key Takeaways:A different take on service learning and advocacy to raise awareness about important issues in our local community through public speaking.Modeling best practices in PBL by presenting work to an authentic audience.Using service learning as a vehicle to get to know more about our local community.How service learning experiences build essential skills and mindsets that shape students' next steps as they move on from high school by giving them real-world experience.   If you have enjoyed this podcast please take a moment to subscribe, and also we'd appreciate it if you could leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. The way the algorithm works, this helps our podcast reach more listeners. Thanks from IC for your support. Learn more about how Inspire Citizens co-designs customized student leadership and changemakers programsLearn more about the amazing service learning program at COJOWAConnect with more stories from the Inspire Citizens network in our vignettesMeasuring the IMPACT of Service Learning projects and initiatives Access free resources for global citizenship educationShare on social media using #EmpathytoImpactEpisode Summary On this episode, I meet Matilde, Dominique, Laura, Marianna, Sophia, & Miguel, an amazing group of seniors from Colegio Jorge Washington (COJOWA) in Cartagena, Colombia. These students were involved in a service learning project where they had the freedom and agency to choose a topic important to them that impacts their local community. This was an interdisciplinary project that was part of their Spanish language and sociales (Spanish social studies) classes that involved public speaking. Their job was to create a speech to inspire change in their community and to add a level of authenticity, the final speeches were delivered to influential members of their community, including the mayor and local media. These students were the finalists from their class selected to give their speech to these important policymakers, as well as fellow students and members of the school community, allowing them to reach a large audience and advocate for an issue that they care about. Hit play to learn more.Discover a transformative podcast on education and learning from a student perspective and student voice, exploring media, media literacy, and media production to inspire citizens in schools through a media lab focused on 21st-century learning, empathy to impact, Global citizenship, collaboration, systems thinking, service learning, PBL, CAS, MYP, PYP, DP, Service as Action, futures thinking, project-based learning, sustainability, well-being, harmony with nature, community engagement, experiential learning, and the role of teachers and teaching in fostering well-being and a better future.

Here's the Supporter-only Q&A from January 22nd, 2026. All comments and questions are fielded through the supporter service Q&A page. Please consider supporting this channel via monthly support services, tips, or even just by using our affiliate links to purchase things you were already going to buy anyway, at no extra cost to you: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.retrorgb.com/support.html⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠T-Shirts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://retrorgb.link/tshirts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon Recommended List: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://retrorgb.link/amazon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TIMESTAMPS (please assume all links are affiliate / paid links that pay RetroRGB a commission on each sale.  Even if links are currently not affiliate, I may update them with one, should a partner list that item for sale in the future):00:00  Welcome!00:08  Genesis wireless controller adapters can cause interference02:22  Game Gear replacement screen IC's?  Decapping?05:06  Small or big screens for retro?11:45  2-Player Light Gun Games on MiSTer?14:09  What happens when a gig goes bad?20:35  Thank you!  https://www.retrorgb.com/support.html

! JOIN SHERI HORN HASAN for this & more Astro News You Can Use! @ https://www.karmicevolution.com/astrologically-speaking which drops today, January 23!Ok, so we're in the first quarter waxing stage of the Cap New Moon since January 18, that asked us to stand our ground through group strength--since this lunation had not only both luminaries but Mars & ME in Capricorn trine to UR Rx in Taurus.In addition, all of these planets—the MO, SU, Mars, & ME in Cap—were sextile NE & SA in Pisces. These sexiles provided opportunities to take action to stand our ground by drawing lines in the sand, while the trines provided the wind at the backs of groups doing so.Venus entered Aquarius January 17, & as this lunation began to wax after January 18 the Sun & Mercury did likewise this past week. In addition, we witnessed Venus conjoin Pluto, the Sun conjoin Mercury, Mercury conjoin Pluto, & then a Sun/Pluto conjunction all between January 19 & today, January 23.Essentially this has moved these inner planets—so prevalent during their conjunctions to the Capricorn Sun at the January 18 Capricorn New Moon providing the seed of standing our ground was planeted—into the sign of Aquarius now.So, the message of this month's lunar cycle was to hold fast to our foundational humanitarian beliefs—those shared by large groups of others as that lunation since it trined progressive forward thinking Uranus, still retrograde in Taurus, & sextiled Saturn & Neptune in empathic Pisces.As we watch this lunation's seeds begin to sprout at January 25's first quarter waxing square of the Taurus Moon to the Aquarius Sun—as all of these planets have not only shifted into Aquarius but conjoined with Pluto there—we can see what the “crisis in action” phase of the lunar cycle calls us now to do. And that's resist fixed Aquarian idealistic philosophies that have hardened into ideological beliefs that do not serve the masses. With the normally placid, calm, & change resistant Taurus Moon in square to the Aquarius Sun, Mars, Pluto, Vesta, Mercury, & Venus, we've got massive tension brewing.The Taurus Moon wants to protect its resources—including its physical body--& faces resistance now from those who believe that cutting healthcare resources for its citizens & that tossing out all immigrants in a xenophobic fit will make America great again.  As we approach this first quarter monthly lunar phase, the Taurus Moon portends such resistance by citizen groups against those groups who hold such fixed ideologies. For example, those tasked to round up, detain, or even injure or kill anyone who looks or sounds “different” (read: not part of the ideologically-inspired socially acceptable “group”) without abiding by any formerly adhered to legal restraints.This may spark some violent actions—we won't know unless & until it happens—between now and January 27 when Mars conjoins Pluto exact in Aquarius. An aspect that can bring the perpetrator & the victim together in the same place at the same time, Mars/Pluto frictional aspects such as the conjunction can lead to an emotionally volatile & intensely physical kind of energy.An energy where one faction tries to disempower (read: overpower) another. Mars is a physical planet, one that takes action. On one hand martial energy represents motivation, ambition, & self-assertion. On the other, it can go over the top and become overly aggressive, bloodthirsty, vengeful, & violent.Pluto, discovered in 1930 when the U.S. was working on creating the atom bomb, represents explosiveness that can lead to an evolutionary transformation. The Mars/Pluto combo perfecting January 27 portends the possibility of a potentially explosive situation between “victims” & “perpetrators” that might spark a wider conflagration.This may be in evidence as residents begin a massive general strike in Minnesota today. According to Aaron Parnas in The Parnas Perspective: “Hundreds of Minnesota businesses, workers, and students are participating in the “ICE Out! Statewide Shutdown,” an economic blackout urging people to skip work, school, and shopping to protest intensified ICE activity in the Twin Cities—sparked by the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good by an ICE officer.”“More than 300 businesses [are] or donating proceeds, [with] some schools offering remote learning, and organizers framing the action as a nonviolent show of solidarity with immigrant communities despite major financial losses,” he adds.It's called “civil unrest.” It's happened before in this nation. And it will happen again. The results of such actions remain to be seen, but as Martin Luther King—who's memory we just celebrated this past week—said: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." NEPTUNE RE-ENTERS MARTIAL ARIES JANUARY 27: DISSOLUTION & RECONSTRUCTION?That brings us to the fact that Neptune re-enters the Mars-ruled sign of Aries on January 27. When Neptune entered Aries for the first time in 165 years on March 30, 2025, it conjured up the recurrence of the start of the U.S. Civil War which began the day before Neptune's ingress into the sign of war on April 12, 1861.Saturn follows suit & re-enters Aries February 13, & then conjoins exact with Neptune at 0'45” Aries on February 20. This combination heralds a whole bunch of things, but as these two planets have traveled closely together since last spring, we've clearly seen the dissolution (Neptune) of foundational structure (Saturn), as well as the dissolution of the rules of war (Aries.)That's been obvious since last September when the U.S. began bombing small boats in the Caribbean & the Pacific with no proof that they were carrying drugs headed for the U.S. Hence, it was a violation of international maritime law when shipwrecked survivors were then killed in follow up strikes—rather than captured & interrogated, as per—again—established international maritime law.We've seen the dissolution of U.S. Government structures since the second term of President Trump--one of the most “us versus them” vengeful people hell bent on retribution against anyone who called him on his illegal activities including inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.As this Saturn/Neptune in Aries takes greater hold, we also know that it's heralded the downfall of nations in the past. In 1989, this planetary conjunction was followed by the fall of the Berlin Wall & the decimation of the U.S.S.R. Now, whether it does the same in Iran—or here in America eventually—also remains to be seen. What we do know, however, is that Saturn/Neptune cycle has major implications for the next 36 or so years. Meanwhile Neptune's 14-year transit through a sign means it will remain in Aries until 2038.However, faster moving Saturn transits each sign for approximately 2.5 years. Given that these two will conjoin close to the U.S. natal Sibly chart's IC, or Mars-ruled 4th House of home, security, tradition, the past, memory, & represents this nation's psychological roots, we may well be witnessing the beginning of what's known in traditional astrology as “the end of the matter.”That's because when planets cross the 4th House cusp—in any chart—they begin their upward trajectory, first toward the partnership-oriented 7th House cusp's Descendant & then to the Midheaven's 10th House cusp.Saturn will take seven years from now to reach the U.S. Descendant, then come above the horizon to be more clearly seen, & hit the Midheaven in approximately 14 years. It's then that the reckoning of the past 14 years will become obvious.For more on all of this—including Astro News You Can Use from last week's Davos, Switzerland's World Economic Forum & Trump TACO'g again on his threats to invade Greenland & tariff European nations--as all of those planetary conjunctions to Pluto occurred—tune in @ https://www.karmicevolution.com/astrologically-speaking starting today, January 23, at 11 a.m. PT & 2 p.m. ET!See you then! Namaste…#karmicevolution, #astronewsyoucanuse, #astrologicallyspeaking, #firstquarterlunarsquare, #neptunereentersaries

Let's talk Monday Night Raw that aired January 19th, 2026. One that saw AJ Styles confront Gunther, who then agreed to face him again if AJ puts his career on the line at the Royal Rumble. We also saw Maxxine Dupri vs Becky Lynch for the IC title, a big heel turn and much more.Go AD-FREE at Patreon.com/WWEPodcastBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-wwe-podcast--2187791/support.

Mek Stittri, CTO at Stuut, breaks down a leadership skill that sounds simple but gets messy fast, trust, then verify. You will learn how to delegate without losing control, how to stay close to the work without becoming a micromanager, and how AI is changing what it means to review and own technical outcomes. Key takeaways• Trust and verify starts with alignment, define success clearly, then keep a real line of sight to outcomes• Verification is not micromanagement, it is accountability, your team's results are your responsibility as a leader• Use lightweight mechanisms like weekly reports, and stay ready to answer questions three levels deep when speed matters• AI is pushing engineers toward system design and management skills, you will manage agents and outputs, not just code• Fast feedback prevents slow damage, address issues early, praise in public, give direct feedback in privateTimestamped highlights00:41 Stuut in one minute, agented AI for finance ops, starting with collections and faster cash outcomes01:54 Trust without verification becomes disconnect, why leaders still need to get close to the details03:42 The three levels deep idea, how to keep situational awareness without hovering06:33 The next five years, engineers managing teams of agents, system design as the differentiator11:40 Feedback as a gift, why speed and privacy matter when coaching16:54 The timing art, when to wait, when to jump in, using time and impact as your signal19:43 Two leaders who shaped Mek's leadership style, letting people struggle, learn, and then win23:29 Curiosity as the engine behind trust and verificationA line worth repeating“Feedback is a blessing.” Practical coaching moves you can borrow• Set the bar up front, define the end goal and what good looks like• Build a steady cadence, short weekly updates beat occasional deep dives• Calibrate your involvement, give space early, step in when time passes or impact expands• Make feedback faster, smaller course corrections beat late big confrontations• Use AI as a reviewer, get quick context on unfamiliar code and decisions so you can ask better questionsCall to actionIf you found this useful, follow the show and share it with a leader who is leveling up from IC to manager. For more leadership and hiring insights in tech, subscribe and connect with Amir on LinkedIn.

In our 150th episode, astrologers Kristina Martin and Tara Redfield walk down the red carpet and into the astrological charts of Hollywood stars Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst. The Oscar nominees met on the set of Fargo and have been together ever since!   First, Jesse's chart reveals an active Aries Sun, perfectly suited for his role as a headstrong football player in Friday Night Lights. However, a square from Neptune and a Full Moon in Libra suggest his identity can sometimes be hidden, favoring side-character roles. This same aspect grants him great sensitivity, refined by a harmonious Venus-Mars trine.   In Kirsten's chart, a Leo Rising and Leo Moon destined her for fame from a young age. A square to her Taurus Sun, however, indicates the spotlight can feel uncomfortable, particularly regarding agency over her own body and sexuality. With a dreamy Venus in Pisces squared by Neptune, themes of naivety and sacrifice play large in her relationships, while a Mercury-Uranus opposition reveals a rebellious thinker and speaker.   Together, their synastry is striking. Multiple positive aspects—including sextile Moons, Venuses, and Mercuries, plus trine Mars'—show they are excellent friends highly in tune with each other. The coveted Sun trine Moon and Venus trine Mars amplify feelings of mutuality, attraction, and complimentary energy. Yet, Pluto on the IC can dredge up deep-seated issues, and challenging Mars squares confirm this relationship isn't without its fights. Can the rest of their chart connections mitigate these tensions? Listen to discover what Venusian score this cosmic pair is nominated for!   Book a Reading with us! Connect with Kristina Martin Book a Reading www.klmastrology.com astrologyklm@gmail.com www.instagram.com/klmastrology   Connect with Tara Redfield Book a Reading www.anotherdaygreener.com anotherdaygreener@gmail.com www.instagram.com/anotherdaygreener/ www.tiktok.com/@anotherdaygreener    

What if your website is quietly turning people away without you ever knowing it? In this episode of Unstoppable Mindset, Michael Hingson talks with Lori Osbourne, a branding strategist and web accessibility advocate whose personal health journey reshaped how she helps businesses show up online. Lori shares how unclear messaging, weak branding, and inaccessible websites block trust, visibility, and growth. Together, they unpack why accessibility is not just about compliance, but about inclusion, credibility, and better SEO, and how simple changes like clearer messaging, alt text, contrast, and video captions can transform both user experience and business results. Highlights: 00:01 – Understand why disability is often left out of diversity conversations and why that needs to change 13:56 – Learn how a life-altering health crisis forced a complete reset in career and priorities 27:10 – Discover why a website alone is not enough to establish authority or visibility 34:19 – Learn why unclear messaging is the biggest reason websites fail to convert 44:43 – Understand what website accessibility really means and who it impacts 59:42 – Learn the first step to take if your online presence feels overwhelming About the Guest: Lori Osborne, affectionately known as The Authority Amplifier, is a Brand Strategist, Website Consultant, and the founder of BizBolster Web Solutions. With over 25 years in technology and nearly a decade of experience helping coaches, consultants, authors, and speakers build a profitable online presence, Lori is the powerhouse behind The Authority Platform™, a complete done-for-you system designed to transform overwhelm into opportunity. Her signature branding process, The Authority Blueprint™, helps clients clarify their message, define their visual and verbal identity, and identify what truly sets them apart in their field. She then brings that strategy to life with an authority-building website - strategically crafted on the Duda platform to reflect credibility, connect authentically, and convert consistently - without the headaches of WordPress maintenance or tech confusion. Unlike agencies that offer cookie-cutter sites or developers who disappear after launch, Lori builds long-term relationships by delivering personalized, high-touch service. Through The Authority Platform™, she combines brand clarity, trust-building web design, lead generation funnels, SEO, accessibility, and sales systems into one cohesive, visibility-driving engine. Lori is known for her warmth, resilience, and insightfulness, and for making her clients feel fully seen and heard. If you're ready to stop spinning your wheels with digital tools that don't deliver, and finally create a platform that amplifies your voice, authority, and impact, Lori is your strategic partner. Ways to connect with Lori**:** https://www.bizbolster.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/loriaosborne/ https://www.facebook.com/bizbolster https://www.instagram.com/bizbolsterlori Link to Freebie: https://www.bizbolster.com/vip-visibility-audit About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. Michael Hingson  01:17 Well, hello everyone. Welcome to unstoppable mindset where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. I am your host, Michael Hingson, or you can call me Mike, it's fine, and I gave the full title of the podcast for a very specific reason. Where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet, typically, diversity people never want to include disabilities in what they discuss or what they do. And if you ask the typical diversity people, what's diversity? They'll talk about race, gender, sexual orientation, and they don't deal with disabilities. But the reality is, and they say that disability isn't a real mindset. Well, Balderdash, it is. Just asked the 25% of America's population, according to the CDC, that has a disability, and they'll tell you that disability is a minority. But the reason I bring it all up is today, we get to talk with Lori Osborne, and she is a person who's been very deeply involved in website development, in branding and coaching, and she is very concerned about and likes to try to help deal with the issue of accessibility on websites. So we're going to have a fun time talking about all of that, much less the platform she uses, as opposed to WordPress, and I'm really curious to hear more about that, because I've my website is a WordPress website, but, but, you know, I think there are so many different ways to deal with things today. We'll, we'll have a fun time. But Lori, welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're glad you're here. Thank you Lori Osbourne  02:56 so much for having me. Mike, I love being here. Cannot wait to talk. Michael Hingson  03:01 Well, let's do it. Why don't we start by you telling us kind about the early Laurie growing up and all that stuff, and kind of how you got started. Okay, start at the beginning. Lori Osbourne  03:14 At the beginning. All right. I was born in San Diego. More your neck of the woods. San Diego Naval Hospital, but only got to live in California for two years, which I've always been disappointed about. My my family had my grandfather built a home in La Jolla. So you know, I was I've always been jealous of how my mom got to grow up, but I only got to spend two years there and then I got moved to Norman, Oklahoma, home of the Sooners, never watched football, never went to one football game my entire life. Michael Hingson  03:51 I've never been to a professional or college football game. My wife had, but I never got to go to a football game. I think it'd be kind of fun to do once, as long as I could still pick it up on the radio and know what's going on. Lori Osbourne  04:03 There you go. Yeah, I had zero interest in football until I met my current husband in 2011 and he doesn't miss a professional football game, an NFL game. So I have, I have come to embrace it and enjoy the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Kansas City Chiefs. So there you go. Michael Hingson  04:24 So you're in Florida and you don't root for a Florida team, huh? Lori Osbourne  04:29 I don't, we won't hold it again, you know. Well, you know, I'm one of those. So I moved from Oklahoma to Colorado to Denver area. So I was a Broncos fan when I lived in Colorado, but that was the days of, oh my gosh. Now my mind is going to completely go blank. This is so embarrassing. The the Great, the greatest Broncos player who is now a general manager, John, oh my gosh. Can think of a it'll come to me. But anyway, he, you know, we. Were actually like, yes, thank you. Thank you very much. Elway. Yes, I was a guest. So we were actually, like, winning Super Bowls when I first moved there, so, you know, and then it went, kind of went. Then I became a Peyton Manning fan, and my husband's from Pennsylvania, and he's like, you can't just change your mind about who you support every time we move. And I'm like, but I can't, yeah, why not? So when we moved to Florida, I Michael Hingson  05:26 the Jaguars, jaguars, yeah, yeah, they Lori Osbourne  05:29 just haven't been a great team. And I I watched Mahoney, Mahoney play for Kansas City, and I just fell in love with how he plays and just his style and his leadership, and I just became a Kansas City fan, just because I love watching him. And last season was a little disappointing because he didn't throw as much, but, but, you know, he's, he's amazing, so that's that's my reasoning. Michael Hingson  06:03 So So you you didn't fall in love with Travis Kelsey and try to go steal him away from Taylor Swift before things got serious? Lori Osbourne  06:12 No, no, I was already in love with my current husband. Michael Hingson  06:15 So see, tell him that there are some things and some loves that do transcend location. Lori Osbourne  06:23 There you go. Yes, absolutely. Well, you know, he's so obsessed with football that we I actually included in our marriage vows that I would support him through his two fantasy football teams and a lifetime of football in my future, because I knew I was marrying football when I married him. Michael Hingson  06:46 One of the things that spoils me about sports out here, and it's not so much anymore, but it used to be the case is, I think that here in especially southern California, we had the best sports announcers in the business. We had Vin Scully doing baseball, and I think that it'll be a long, long time before anyone comes up to the caliber of Vince Scully. And there, there are things that they do now that that really messed that up. But Vinnie was a was was the best. We had Dick Enberg, who did football and and other people. And Chick Hearn did basketball. Chick hurr had talked so fast that I don't know how he was able to do it, but I learned how to listen fast because I grew up listening to Chick Hearn new basketball. I love it. So, so I got spoiled on sports, listening to those announcers. I keep up with football from a news standpoint, especially when it gets close to the Super Bowl, so I can decide who I'm going to if anybody for for in the Super Bowl when they have it. Yeah, I do kind of like the Rams, because I live out here and I've always kind of liked them, although I was mad at them when they moved to St Louis for a while, but, but still, they're the Rams. I mean, we'll see what they do this year. I think they've got a good coach, but I by no means am a football expert or anything like that. I keep up though. Lori Osbourne  08:08 Me neither. I, yeah, I kind of joke, you know, my husband will watch like, you know, eight games at once, the red zone or the whatever, and it's flipping around. And I just can't, so I just joke I'm a fourth quarter watcher. On Sunday nights, Monday nights, I'll watch the fourth quarter and because that's where you know if it's gonna happen, that's where it's gonna happen if it's gonna be worth watching. Michael Hingson  08:30 Yeah, well, I'll be interested to see what happens tomorrow, because the Chargers are playing the chiefs in Brazil. Lori Osbourne  08:41 Yes, and I don't, I don't even know if we're going to get to watch it, because, you know, the NFL spread out across all these different platforms now, and if you don't have the platform, you're out of luck. Michael Hingson  08:52 I think it's going to be on TV. It'll be watchable, but it starts at 530 Pacific Time, and I don't quite understand that. If they're doing it live, that would mean it's going to start at nine. Start at 930 in the evening in San Paulo. So I don't know how all that's going to work. We'll see. Lori Osbourne  09:07 Yeah, yeah, we shall see. Yeah, we're I don't know if we're watching tomorrow nights, but my husband's definitely watching tonight, for sure. Well, I Michael Hingson  09:15 don't think there are more games on tomorrow other than that one, so maybe he will. And maybe you actually get to focus and just see one game, Lori Osbourne  09:24 right, right? That's, that's, that's the nice part about the non Sunday games. Usually it's just, Michael Hingson  09:31 well, so you, so you grew up and you, you only lived in California for two years, and then where did you go? Lori Osbourne  09:40 I lived in Norman, that's right, until I was 29 I actually found my birth father when I was 23 and moved to Colorado to get to know him and his family. Michael Hingson  09:55 So you were a diamond. Lori Osbourne  10:00 Not really. I just, he was just never part of my life. Your mom married someone else, yeah, okay, yeah. I always had. My mom just didn't have my dad. And it's, you know, it's been an interesting experience, because, you know, being in my 20s when I met him, and my mom and I were opposite growing up, and I never understood my personality, because she was quiet and passive and wanted to work in the same job her entire life, and I was the opposite. I was vivacious and loud and aggressive and always wanted to be self employed. Then I met my dad and went, Oh, it explained it all, I'm just like him. It's crazy how the you know the genes work for sure, Michael Hingson  10:51 but you got to know him, and the relationship was a good one. Lori Osbourne  10:55 Yeah, yeah, right. We just, he's in Idaho now. We just got back a couple of weeks ago from visiting. I mean, it's been interesting, trying to enter a family, you know, in your 20s is is bizarre. I kind of, I kind of equate it to being an in law, like, I'm not quite all the way in, because I, you know, I didn't grow up with these people. They don't know me. But, yeah, it's been interesting. So where in Idaho, near Coeur d'Alene Sand Point near Michael Hingson  11:25 standpoint, I have a brother in law who lives in Ketchum, in Sun Valley, and who is an avid skier, and has been an avid skier basically his whole life. Now the real big question is, of course, where is your father when it comes to football, Lori Osbourne  11:46 my father does not sit still. Okay? That is, that is one way that we are different. He I joke that he'll probably outlive me. I mean, he lives on 14 acres. I think he just, they just sold 40 Acres. But he doesn't. He never sits still. He He's always going, going, going, working on, you know, he had, he had his business, which he sort of still does. But he works on fences or helps with the does something with the horses or the hay or the, you know, it's just it. He works his plan does not I don't think he the TV when we were there was on music the entire time. Yep. Michael Hingson  12:30 So hardly a person who tends to watch football. Well, that's okay. So you, you grew up in Norman? Did you go to college there or in the area? Lori Osbourne  12:43 I went for a year and then couldn't figure out how to keep paying for it. I honestly didn't even realize financial aid was a thing. So I started in the workforce and became a recruiter, technical recruiter, pretty early in my career. I did that for 12 years, and then started my own recruiting business and got my degree during that time. So I got a bachelor's degree in business administration, 4.0 average while working. Proud of that, but I was in my 30s, and then I got cancer right after that, had colon cancer at 36 which I blame an 18 year abusive, horrible marriage, I think really led to that, but it pushed me To get out of that horrible abuse of marriage. And then a few years later, I met my current husband, and I am the happiest I've ever been, Michael Hingson  13:51 but you also were able to, in one way or another, beat the cancer Lori Osbourne  13:58 I was, yes, it was actually stage one colon cancer. Only had surgery so that one, yeah, didn't even have to have chemo or radiation. And actually, what got me into my current business? I was a when I got divorced, I did this is kind of funny to me. I when I got divorced, I decided I no longer wanted to be straight commission, and because I had gotten a job after after the cancer, and now I'm self employed. And so why? I think I wouldn't want to be straight commission, but it's okay to be self employed, but it's a completely different mindset. You know yourself very much a different mindset. But I was in tech. I moved from recruiting into hands on technology. I did project management, software testing, I looked at websites and helped design websites from a business perspective, but I was never, never a coder, never, you know, did the visual design? Nine and in 2015 I we had just moved to the opposite side of Denver. We had just changed, I had just changed jobs, had a brand new home, and then found out I had a brain tumor. Michael Hingson  15:15 Oh, gosh, yeah, you're just an attention getting person. Lori Osbourne  15:19 That's all you. I know. That's it. I just walk around going, yep, that's it. So, yeah. So I, I ended up leaving the job because it was, it was very traumatic. I ended up having two surgeries. They couldn't remove the tumor. It's part of my carotid artery. It's a meningioma. It's benign, but it's part of my carotid artery, and it was causing my left eye to droop, so they went in to get it off the optical nerve and nicked the carotid and caused a brain bleed. And that brain bleed caused that drooping eye to become a half blind eye. So I ended up, for about a year and a half, I had double vision. I also had found out I had a stroke from it, I was having problems with words and forming, you know, the right words. And I had no tolerance for stress for a long time, so there was no way I was going back to project management in the IT world, right? This wasn't so I literally, I spent about a year recovering and just started messing around, going, Okay, well, what can I do with the talents that I have? And I started building a website on Squarespace, and it was called Health Net, like grandma. And it was just talking about my I lost my mother and my grandmother to cancer at 63 both at 63 and then I had gone through what I went through. And I just wanted to share the stories, you know, the what I've learned from a health perspective. And in doing that, went, wow. Why have I not been developing websites the last 20 years? This is what I should be doing. I love this, and I bet other business owners could really use some help doing this. And that's when my business was born. Michael Hingson  17:20 Wow. How did they discover the brain tumor? Lori Osbourne  17:26 It started with me falling asleep at my brand new job desk. Was I could not hold my eyes open. I actually thought it was an adrenal reaction to leaving a super high stress job to a very boring job, but it was not. They did all these tests. They put me on thyroid medication, which helped, and then my left eye started drooping, like literally within weeks together and and it was funny, because they they sent me to an eye doctor, and the eye doctor sent me to an eye surgeon, and they wanted to do surgery on it. And I'm like, don't you want to figure out why this is happening? Like, I don't want you to touch my eye until you know why my eye is drooping. And my doctor thought that was the craziest thing she'd ever heard. So she goes, Well, have we done an MRI yet? And I said, No, so they sent me for an MRI that day. And lo and behold, not only do you have a brain tumor, but you have had a stroke. Okay. Gosh, you know, she did not want to share that news, those news with me. She was very embarrassed. Probably, well, Michael Hingson  18:43 but you need to know, yeah, and clearly you already had demonstrated that you had an analytical mind, and it would be valuable for you to know, because it would help you in dealing with making decisions, or thinking about what decisions to make going forward, right? Yeah, so you did. So you went through the surgeries and all of that, and what, what happened to your your left eye, Lori Osbourne  19:10 it, it's still mostly blind. I have a sliver of vision that I can't control. So if I go to the eye doctor, they try to get me to look at the chart, and I can't focus it on the chart, and I get very frustrated. I blocked it for the first year. Now my eyes are so it's it's developed its own way of working, so I can't even block it anymore without causing worse headaches than I already have. Bad headaches kind of came out of all of this. So I really just live with it. I live with the headaches, and I ignore it as much as I possibly can and and hope it's improved slightly over. The last 10 years, they told me it would never improve. But, you know, our brains are amazing things, and it's it's trying, but it's still not. I just tell them make the left eye prescription the same as the right eye because it makes no difference. Yeah. Michael Hingson  20:17 Well, so with, with with all that you've you've dealt with, with, with this clearly, you figured out a way to go forward, and you've, now, I assume, used all that happened to you, and you've analyzed it in some way or another, that you have made some decisions about what you want to do with your life, which is namely the whole brand development and web development and dealing with accessibility, which is pretty cool. Lori Osbourne  20:51 Yeah, yeah, I am. Once I discovered that passion and the I honestly never realized I had the creative side of me. I knew I had the analytical I knew I had the project management and tech, but once I realized I actually have a very strong creative side, then websites were the way to go. And it's it's really I can be working on a website for four hours straight and feel no pain, and that that alone tells me I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I love it that much, and I feel like I'm that talented at it. Michael Hingson  21:30 I think you've made a very interesting observation, and one that I relate to very well, which is working commission is one thing, but working for yourself, which, in some senses, is the same, but it's totally different, and you have to have a different mindset to make it work. Lori Osbourne  21:48 Oh, absolutely, yes. I mean, I'm I'm not selling a product for someone else. I'm selling myself, and I am the product, and I have to live by my my values and my mission and my why, which is completely different than selling services for someone else, for straight commission. Michael Hingson  22:12 I have always told my the people who I hired as sales people to analyze and and think about what they do. And one of the things that I did with every person I ever hired was I would say, tell me what you're going to sell. And literally, all but one person said, Oh, we're going to sell the product. This is the product we're selling. This is what it does. But the best sales guy I ever hired, when I asked that question, Said, the only thing I have to sell is myself and my word, and I need you to back me up when I give my word about something, Michael Hingson  22:50 great answer. It was, it was the actual, it was the answer I was looking for. And I said, well, as long as we communicate, and I know what you're going to say, and that's all about trust, I'm going to back you up. And never had an issue. And in fact, he and I worked very well together, because we figured out how my talents in sales and management could augment and accentuate what he did, so that the two of us could work together. And I think that's that's so important, but you're right. The only thing any really good salesperson has to sell is themselves, and you have to be true to your own attitudes. Yes, yes, which is so Lori Osbourne  23:33 integrity is everything. I mean, if you especially as a small business owner, I mean, and I'm in a very small community, and I this. I only lived here since 2018 and it's kind of been shocking to me how how a small community works. But if you do it right, everybody knows your name. If you do it wrong, everybody knows your name. Yeah, it's you know when, every time I get a call because the chamber has referred me again. I just smile, and I'm like, Okay, I'm doing it right, you know? And it's, to me, it's all about integrity. If you, if you say you're going to do something, do it, and if you can't do it, say you can't do it, say you can't do right, or say I'm going to figure it out. Yeah, you know, I didn't. I charged very little my first few years, and I always my first few years, I told clients, I don't know what I'm doing yet, so I'm not charging you for the time that I'm learning. I'm going to charge you for the time that I'm actually accomplishing something. Michael Hingson  24:30 One of the things I always told every again, every salesperson I ever hired is for at least the first year. You're a student. No matter what you think you know and what you know about sales, when you're working with customers, you're a student, ask them questions, really learn from them, because they want you to be successful, even if you don't think they do. And the reality is that, in general, they do want you to be successful, and the more you encourage them to teach you, the better relationship you're going to develop. Lori Osbourne  24:59 Absolutely. And 100% yes. Michael Hingson  25:02 So how long ago did you end up having the brain tumor? Lori Osbourne  25:07 I was diagnosed in August of 2015 So wow, I'm, I'm at exactly 10 years. 10 years. Yeah, I didn't, oh my gosh. September 22 will be my my first surgery dates. There you go. Wow. Right at 10 years Michael Hingson  25:23 See, I'm glad we we help you remember, Lori Osbourne  25:27 I can't, I can't believe that was, like, not even on my mind. I mean, it was actually September 17. Was the first surgery, that's right, and it's the same day as my dog's birthday. And we were just talking about my dog's birthday yesterday, but I didn't even think about the tumor. So well, it's all good Michael Hingson  25:47 a week from next Wednesday. But you know, you you obviously are doing well, well, so how did your your business in the the way you do things and what you do? How did all that change after the surgery, or had you already started down the road of branding and being a branding coach and website development and accessibility? Lori Osbourne  26:10 No, all of this came as a result of all of it. So it literally just grew with me, as I, you know, transitioned into life again, and being able to function mentally and physically, I would just start, you know, working on a little bit of, you know, a couple of websites. The first website I built was from for a realtor that we worked with. We did three different deals with him in two years. He was this great Scottish guy, great personality, and his website was horrific. And I begged him to let me do it. It was a I think we ended up doing 39 pages total, and just read redid the whole thing. He loved it. A lot of it's still in place 10 years later. But I just, I just started building, and then we moved to the area we are now outside Jacksonville, and I found a local networking group and started meeting people and getting introduced to businesses and just slowly built and learned a little bit at a time, and learned a little bit more. And then it was not actually until last year I realized that I have branding skills and talent that I haven't been promoting. I was using the skills and I was building on brand websites, but I didn't say that, and I didn't recognize it as a separate talent from website development. I kind of thought everybody did that, until I realized that that's not true. So I've been doing it, and a lot of it is just, I the natural, just natural talent for color and almost like designing houses. Like I knew I was really good at designing houses, but I didn't recognize that that translated to websites. And so for last, like, year to 18 months, I've really kind of bought into the brand strategy piece of what I offer. Michael Hingson  28:19 Well, how did you develop this concept of authority platforms, and what is it? Lori Osbourne  28:27 So the authority platform is what I'm calling the full package. It kind of started when I got really frustrated with everybody telling me or everybody's an exaggeration, but so many people saying, Oh, you don't need a website. You just need landing pages. And I would try to educate people that landing pages are not enough, but I couldn't put it in the right words, and when I started really looking at it, going, well, landing pages are great, if you have the visibility to get people to the landing page, and if you've built a relationship in a different way, if it's through speaking or through a book or through other types of promotions, then yes, the landing page can help or maybe replace the website. But where that led me was a website alone is also not enough. We need full visibility. We need to be seen in a lot of different ways to establish our authority as experts. So with the authority platform, I'm looking at the brand and understanding the brand, the website, the lead magnet, the funnels, the search engine optimization, and then helping them also have a good CRM to manage all of this, hooking them up with with good speaking coaches or podcast. Opportunities and just looking at it from a full life cycle of being visible and showing that authority online. Michael Hingson  30:10 And how's that gone over? Lori Osbourne  30:14 It's, I'm still building it honestly, the website's absolutely I'm I'm really working on building the collaboration pieces for the rest of it to truly say, Yes, I have the authority platform, the branding packages that I'm offering and the branding pieces that I'm doing are making a significant difference in the quality of the websites I'm building, because I come out of it with a custom GPT that they can use, and I can use that really establishes that baseline for the brand and the bringing in their values, bringing in their communication style, and bringing in their ideal client and how to speak to that ideal client. So the GPT is built around all of that, which is perfect when we're building the content for the website. So I would say, you know, we're 75% of the way there to having my true authority platform. But I'm still building, you know, authority building websites every day. Michael Hingson  31:20 Well, I gather that you don't tend to like to use WordPress. You use Duda as a platform builder and so on. Tell me, I'm curious why and what, and I don't have any any disagreement or or really knowledge to talk intelligently about it. But tell me why you use Duda and what, what it brings. Lori Osbourne  31:44 So my my challenges with WordPress started with my first client in Florida. They there was a nonprofit. They had no idea what they were doing, and I'm like, I I'm techie. I can go in, I can figure it out, and I could not figure out WordPress, and I got very frustrated with it going, how in the world does anybody else do this? So I kind of stayed away from it for a little while, and I was building on Squarespace for a time, and then I discovered Duda. I consider Duda to be the best of Wix and Squarespace. It's very similar. But the things I don't like about Wix, I don't like about Squarespace, Duda has resolved. It's also very customer oriented and SEO oriented and accessibility oriented. So there's a lot of advantages to the platform. The reason I don't support WordPress is I've had too many, too many people come to me with broken websites. Too many WordPress people do not educate their clients that that you have to update the plugins, and they don't. They just leave them and don't offer to do that for them, and it's it's an unnecessary addition that I don't think most people need for their website. There's plenty of things that we can do and do to that we can do exactly like WordPress without the headaches of that extra tech and plugins breaking and security breaking because the plugins are breaking, and it's it just it's too unnecessary, in my opinion. I tried to support WordPress for about a year and a half, and I found that I was not helping my Duda clients because the WordPress was always so much high maintenance. And those were the websites that were going down, and those are the websites that were having issues where my due to clients, their websites were never down, they never had issues. Michael Hingson  33:51 But don't need, but don't you, from time to time need to provide any kind of updates to Duda doesn't. Aren't there as the as the whole website evolves, doesn't, don't you need to find ways to evolve what they are and what they do Lori Osbourne  34:05 on the front end, on the front end, absolutely I mean, but from the back end, from a platform perspective, Duda handles all of that. It's self contained. Got it? I don't have to worry about that. And they're also always adding new features, which is another thing I absolutely love about them there, and I have yet to find, let me rephrase that. I've probably found a couple of things that if I could not duplicate on Duda to match WordPress, it would require code, and I don't code, but I can still achieve the goal of what my clients are looking for. There's nothing that they've said I have to have this that I can't provide. And the offset of not having the worry around the tech is has always been worth it. Michael Hingson  34:55 So the creators of Duda in the background as. They make updates and changes, they go out to everybody who uses it to create their websites automatically. Is that? Is that what happens? Lori Osbourne  35:07 Okay, yeah, it's seamless. Yeah, you don't even, you have no idea that there's even updates being done. It's completely seamless. Michael Hingson  35:15 Yeah, okay, well, I understand that. That makes a lot of sense. What's the one mistake that you find that keeps business owners from really progressing and keeping their websites and them invisible? What's the biggest mistake you see? Lori Osbourne  35:36 Messaging unclear, messaging which, which really goes back to the brand. If you don't understand your brand, you don't understand your why, and you don't know how to express how you solve problems for your ideal client, let me, let me rephrase. If you don't even know your ideal client is and you're trying to speak to them, a lot of people think they sell to everyone, and when you try to sell to everyone, you sell to no one. And if you are trying to speak to the masses from your website, you're going to lose the people you really want to reach. So it comes down to that, that niching down factor and really understanding your ideal client, so that when they hit your website, they immediately know you understand my problem and you can fix it. And it really comes down to that versus I can fix, you know, I can build a website for anybody. Well, then that makes me no different than a website developer down the street. Then it comes down to a price comparison, and then we're just bidding against each other. So you've gotta, you've gotta what makes you special, and what and and your why is a big part of that. Your values are a big part of that. And speaking the right language and that messaging. Michael Hingson  37:03 Can you tell me a story of maybe one customer that you worked with where you can demonstrate exactly what you're talking about here and why it made a difference without mentioning customer names, but the story? Lori Osbourne  37:17 Oh, yeah, um, you know, it's been a while since I did that realtor, but that realtor is still just such a great example, because you the fact that he was from Scotland doesn't necessarily seem significant, but it really does, because, you Know that Scottish accent made him endearing. He was a very professional, good looking guy. And you go out to his website, and it was, I can still see it today. It was like green and this old, funky text, and it, it represented him in no way. And I remember the first thing he told me was, you know, I've got this video where I introduced myself and I went, why in the world is that not on your homepage, like what people need to hear you speak and see you and experience you. He was phenomenal. And we did three deals with him. He was phenomenal at what he did, and that what, you know, if we had just rebuilt his website and just did the video, it would have that alone would have made a huge difference in people knowing who they were working with and how he was different. And another example I can give more recently, I work with a mentor who mentors seven figure coaches on how to work harder, make more money and and do it in less, less investment of your time. And when I took over her WordPress website for for two years, I just kept repeating and rebuilding the same crap, basically. And finally, when I decided to leave WordPress, I said, you know, I really want to start all over. And I realized in that two years, you know, I had not taken the time to really get to know her brand. And when we sat down and really learned what made her special and different, and we were able to capture that in in the website, that the difference in the experience was night and day, you know, before it was just text, and, you know, a little bit of information. She never referred anybody to her website. And now it, you know, opens with a video. She's also a professional speaker. Opens with a video of her speaking. She is very she's a. Ballroom dancer on the side, she's very elite. So we, you know, pulling in things like gold and video, I have a lot of motion on the website with gold moving because it, it, it's that brand of that dancer that, you know, that eliteness of it and it, it's subtle, and it has nothing to do with the messaging side that I just mentioned, but it's still back to the brand and the representing of who you are, who she is, what we're selling, you know, we're selling ourselves. Michael Hingson  40:33 Yeah, well, websites and website developers put all sorts of things out there and that that's not necessarily a good thing. But what are some signs that a business's online presence don't necessarily match their real life expertise? Because I I believe that people see through people who just sort of talk, and I think that that all too often, you get this reaction, oh, they're just talking that isn't what they really believe or that isn't what they really know. So what are some signs that the online presence doesn't match what they really know and what they really are? Lori Osbourne  41:15 Part of it is that that genericness, if you if you can't even say who you are serving, then you're obviously the person you're looking at is obviously not clear about their ideal client. If it's not clear who they are serving, and if it's this just generic message of not in these words, but we're the best use us. You know, there's, there's no detail about what makes them different and how they specifically solve your problem. If the website is completely outdated or generic, that may or may not allude to anything but it, it definitely shows that they don't, are not using their website to show their expertise. The other huge thing, I would say, is testimonials. Every website should have reviews. I mean, what better way to sell ourselves than to have someone else say how we're different, how we operate and why we're the why we're the best. That is huge. If it's all about them, as in the person's website you're looking at, if it's not, if I'm, if I'm getting on a website and they're not even acknowledging what's in it for me and how they're going to solve my problems, then I'm not going to have any confidence that they have any idea how to solve my problems. They haven't even they haven't even talked about my problems. They haven't even mentioned my problems. They're just telling me that they're selling me something, and this is how much it costs, and this is what it's going to do. But I but do you get me? Do you know? Do you understand me? I think all those are it's really important that we are speaking to the ideal client in their language about their problem. Michael Hingson  43:10 I have heard so many times and totally agree with and work to do this myself. Michael Hingson  43:18 The whole concept of when I'm invited to speak, it's not about me. Yeah, I'm invited to speak, but my job is to enhance, to help to make life as easy as possible for the event organizer, to help the event organizer make this, the whole conference, even better than they thought it would be. And and I have to do that because it's not about me, and it should never be about me as such, right? Lori Osbourne  43:48 It's also about your audience and your audience, yeah, so that they know you want them to want to know more. Yeah, that's also the purpose of your website to make people want to know more. Michael Hingson  44:01 Yeah, very true, and it should be that way. And if you're doing it right, you'll also provide more for them to know. Right? Lori Osbourne  44:15 Absolutely. Well, that would be something else that I would say I I always encourage people to give away as much as possible on their website. It if people know that you really want to help me solve my problems, and you're willing to give me something for free that starts a relationship. And that's really, at the end of the day, that's the point of the website. It's not to sell, it's to start a relationship. It's like the first step of dating. We're not getting married yet. We're dating, and if you're if you're giving away a piece of yourself through a video or a download or even a free course. Course, that's it. That's going to endear the audience to to want to come back for more. And even blogs, great blogs will get people coming back for more. And people always go, Well, you know, if I give everything away, I'm not going to make any money. No, you give away what? What doesn't cost you time, but is giving some knowledge so that they want more, and they know that you you get them, and they can trust, you know, like and trust so they can build that, that base for a relationship. Michael Hingson  45:32 Yeah, and it, it makes perfect sense. It is all about building trust. And everything that we do is all about building trust, and the more trust you build, the more loyalty you'll create. Lori Osbourne  45:47 Absolutely, yes, absolutely. Michael Hingson  45:49 So we've talked about website accessibility. What is website accessibility and why is it something that people really should focus on? Why is it important? Lori Osbourne  45:59 That feels weird coming from you, Mike, Michael Hingson  46:03 because I know you are an expert in this, but I preach it, but I preach it all the time, so I want to hear what somebody else has to say, and I want people who are watching and listening to this hear from somebody else other than me. Okay, that's the motivation behind it. Lori Osbourne  46:18 All right. All right. Well, website accessibility is at its core. It's making the website available and usable for everyone, including those with disabilities. So whether it's blindness or inability to use a mouse or you said it earlier, dyslexic, Michael Hingson  46:40 epilepsy, any number of things, right? Lori Osbourne  46:43 So anybody, just like accessibility for a ramp into a store, it's allowing me, from my home, as as a disabled person, to be able to function on your website. And as we know, I believe the stat is 20% of people have some kind of disability. It's also an inclusion. It is a piece of I consider a piece of your marketing, because if you are excluding 20% of the people with your website, why? Why are you doing that? It also builds strong Search Engine Optimization. Because if you look at all of the guidelines for accessibility, they're very similar to the guidelines you need to have in place for good search engine optimization. Google is looking for the exact same things. Yep. So it's it's really just making your website available to everyone Michael Hingson  47:42 well, and the reality is, well, let me ask this question, rather than me just saying it beyond legal compliance. Why should accessibility be a priority in website design? You've kind of alluded to it already. Lori Osbourne  47:56 Yeah, part of what I just said, it's including everyone. It's not excluding 20% of your market, and it's building trust, inclusivity and credibility. It's, it's, and it to me, it's showing that you care. It's, it's very bothersome to me when someone says, Well, I probably won't get sued, so I'm not going to worry about it. Okay? But why do you want to not do these basic things so that everyone can access your website? Well? Michael Hingson  48:33 And also, in reality, it does get back to if you're a website owner, that is, you're a company that has a website, and you recognize that the job of your website is to help people see why you have something they need. The fact of the matter is, do you really want to not make available to 20 or 25% of the population your website, or to put it another way, don't you want to make sure that you are making your information available to everyone? And that's what the real reason for website accessibility is truly all about. The fact of the matter is that it's good business to make your website accessible. Lori Osbourne  49:24 Absolutely, yes, absolutely. Michael Hingson  49:26 What are some high impact changes that you think that website owners can make, to make their websites or to have their websites be more accessible, maybe even just some simple things? Lori Osbourne  49:38 Oh, there are so many simple things. I mean, the easiest thing that so many people miss is adding alt text to images. I mean, it's, and it's one thing I love about Duda, by the way, it they do it with AI and do it for you, and you can edit it. It's so, so wonderful. But it's, it's a simple step. It also is. Great step to even help with SEO, because you can include some keywords there, but that that alt text tells someone that's using a tool that's blind exactly what that image is, and what is the point in putting that image on your website if it's not going to provide any value to those that can't see. I mean that, in my opinion, another thing is the contrast in colors. A lot of people don't understand that contrasting colors has a lot to do with readability, and if you are putting two colors together, I mean, think about it even from a scene person, if you're looking at it and you can't read it. It's not accessible, right? So, you know, have high contrast in the colors of text on anything over it. Don't try to put something over an image that can't be read that just just, don't do it. Skip that. I was just doing this on my website today. I was trying to put an image, and I went, you know what? That's just not going to work. I'm going back to a solid color. It doesn't it's it and it, you know, that's from a business perspective as well. Because even if you're not thinking about accessibility, if someone can't read the text or can't read the button, they're not going to click it. You're not going to read it. They're not going to buy it if they can't read it. So simple little things like that. Those would be the two biggest things I would say. And then just, you know, little additional things like making sure that your website is converting properly to mobile, if it's if it's not, if things are coming off the page, because you didn't bother to look at the mobile side, which is easy to miss on many platforms that can have a huge impact on the scene and those that need the tools or need accessibility pieces that's, you know, commonplace design and very easy thing to fix. Michael Hingson  52:11 It's been a while since I looked at this website, and I think it's not quite what it used to be, but for a while, my favorite website, absolutely. My favorite website for accessibility was the website of the National Security Agency, nsa.gov, Michael Hingson  52:31 of all the websites in the entire world. The reason I liked it is that not only did they have all text on images if you were using a screen reader and you moved your cursor over an image, you suddenly got a very detailed description of that image, like you. Michael Hingson  52:55 You moved your cursor where you used your screen reader to move over the American flag. It would say the American flag on a flagpole hanging in front of the opening to the building of the National Security Agency. Yada yada yada. I mean, it's just everything was there. It was the most amazing website. I don't know that it's that way anymore. I haven't looked at it in a little while, but I was very impressed with how much they did and relative and relevantly and appropriately so to make sure that everything on that website was totally usable. And a lot of people could say, Well, why do I have to do that? And the answer is, you have to do it for the same reason that you want to make your website accessible, if you will, for people who don't happen to have a disability. The reality is, all those things that you put on the website for people who can see them and so on, like pictures and so on, if you don't make those things accessible, you're doing a disservice to a significant amount of the population. Whereas, if you do it all, then while you can look at the picture, I can hear all about it, and that's the way it ought to Lori Osbourne  54:10 be well. And there's so much I mean to me that is an opportunity to to even go further with the folks that need the screen reader. Because, I mean, when I'm and I mentioned that dude, it does it with AI, but they, they do it too generically. When I go in, I'm doing exactly what you're talking about. I want to, I want to build the presence of the picture. This is who they're doing, who it is from the business, and this is what they're doing, and this is what you know, this offer is talking about that's an extra sales opportunity right there. For those that you know, need the alt text, why not use that? Michael Hingson  54:49 And also, I'm amazed at how many people may look at pictures and so on and look at words and not really pay attention to them very well, because they just kind of skip over it. So the more you can do to attract people's attention to the right things. Is relevant too. I'm amazed at how many people just gloss over so much. Lori Osbourne  55:09 Oh, absolutely. Well, you know, this kind of become our society, yeah, short attention span for sure. You know, I want to mention two videos. I really feel like people need videos on their website, especially of themselves, because it helps people get to know you. But you need to have that closed captioning and again, dialog. Michael Hingson  55:33 You need to have dialog so that a person who can't see the video will also know what the video shows. Lori Osbourne  55:41 Explain, explain what you mean by that a little bit more. Michael Hingson  55:44 So you go to a website, and there's a video, and you click it, and you start hearing music, and that's all you hear, even though, on the screen you see a person walking down the street, walking into somebody's store, finding a product they want and buying it. But if you don't have a way to make that information audibly accessible to people who can't see the images and who don't see the videos, then what good is it you haven't made it accessible? Yes, closed captioning works for deaf or hard of hearing people, but again, there's so much more that needs to be done. Wow. Lori Osbourne  56:25 Thank you for sharing that, Mike. You just gave me more to think about on videos. Michael Hingson  56:31 One of my favorite commercials to pick on today, and for the longest time, I had no idea at all what it was about. It starts out with music, and somebody says something like, so what do people over 60s show and bring out today? And they talk about love and they talk about something else, and suddenly the sound goes dead, and all you hear for the next 20 seconds or more is this high pitched whistle sound. Ooh, yeah. And I finally got somebody. I finally was in a room with somebody when I heard the beginning of this, and I said, What is it showing? And all it was showing, and what, apparently it is, is a promotion for people getting the RSV vaccination. Lori Osbourne  57:19 Oh, right. Oh, I do know what commercial you're talking about, yes, but text just goes on the screen. Michael Hingson  57:26 RSV, RSV, RSV. But there's nothing that says what that is at all, period, Lori Osbourne  57:33 because they're trying to make the point that you're that your life shuts down when this hits. But yeah, for someone like you, that's completely worthless. Michael Hingson  57:41 Not only does my life not shut down, my life gets very active, and I want to go off and find those commercial designers and show them what true accessibility really ought to be about. But that's another story. But yeah, Lori Osbourne  57:53 yeah, exactly, wow. I mean, I think about you every time I see that commercial, those rare times I see commercials, Michael Hingson  58:05 what's one of the what's one of the myths about branding and websites that you could erase, that you really wish you could race forever? Lori Osbourne  58:18 I probably told you to ask me that question, and now I'm stumped by how I want to answer it. I think, I think I know where I wanted to go with that. Yes, a lot of people think branding is just colors and fonts, and honestly, when I first started doing it, I thought it was just colors and fonts. And I kind of go, I went into Okay, colors and fonts, and then consistency, okay, we want to make sure we got we're consistent with our colors and fonts across everything that we do that's that's branding, that's visual branding. But real branding is Our Story. Is who we are, what we stand for and who we serve. It's the package of everything around what we're selling, back to selling ourselves and really understanding this package and making that consistent across everything. And consistency is huge, in my opinion, when it comes to branding, if you have a different header image or marketing image on every single thing you do and there's no consistency in the look, then you're not going to be memorable. You. I can't help you see this, Mike, but anyone that does go out to anything of mine, I have a very consistent image that was used to build my logo, and it's on everything that I do. I also wear very bright, colorful glasses. Everything I do is very bright and colorful, and it's memorable when people see me and they see my glasses, it can be three years later and they go. I don't remember your name, but boy, I remember those glasses. You know, it's, it's, and that's part of my branding. When people say, I love your your glasses, I go, thank you. It's part of my branding. Yeah. So it's a, it's an overall everything about you. When people describe me, they usually describe me as bright and colorful, like, that's, that's one of the first things that comes to their their mind, and then they it translates to energy, because they think bright, colorful energy. So it's, you know what branding really is, is, what do people say about you when you're not in the room? Michael Hingson  1:00:30 Yeah, that's, that's a good that's what it is. Well, if there is a business owner who is in our audience today who feels overwhelmed by their digital presence. What would you suggest is the first step they should take to change that? Lori Osbourne  1:00:47 Well, the the first thing I would love to see anyone do is sign up for a visibility review or audit with me, so that we can look at your presence and talk about it, and I can give you some very specific suggestions for how to improve your online visibility. If you're wanting to do something on your own and you're you're trying to figure out where to start, sit down and look at first, your your homepage, in your first line of every bit of your marketing and ask yourself, does it say who I serve and how I serve them, and the problems that I solve. Because every ounce of your marketing needs to say that immediately you have less than eight seconds when someone hits your website. And there's all kinds of some people say three, some people say 10s and 15. I just leave it at eight. Do eight or eight or less seconds on your website. So start there is my messaging clear? And then look at your website overall and does it represent me and the message I want people to see. We can go into a whole lot more about it being up to date and everything else, but that's where I would start, right there. Michael Hingson  1:01:58 So how do people reach out to you to get your help to deal with all of this. Lori Osbourne  1:02:02 Well, you can obviously go to my website, which is biz bolster.com, B, I, Z, B, O, L, S, T, E, r.com and I believe you will be sharing a link to that visibility audit. Just sign up for that or a free strategy session. But I encourage the visibility audit, because it literally takes about an hour of my time to check out everything about you and then share that with you. So this is an investment that I'm willing to give you to help you all understand how you show up online, and then what to do about Michael Hingson  1:02:45 it, biz, bolster.com, I hope people will do that, and they can reach out and contact you through that website. Lori Osbourne  1:02:53 Yes, click on, let's chat, and it gives you all the all the calls that you can sign up for in my calendar, and I would absolutely love to speak to anybody that has questions or wants some direction. Michael Hingson  1:03:07 Well, cool. Well, I really appreciate you being here today and spending so much time talking about all this, and I hope people will take it to heart. Wherever you are listening. Reach out, biz, bolster.com and get some insights and get some help to improve the website the web world, because only about 3% of all websites are really accessible today, which means there are a whole lot that are not, and there is no real excuse for that being the case. So reach out and Michael Hingson  1:03:41 you can get all the help that you need. I'd love to hear from you, to hear what you think about today's podcast. Please feel free to email me at Michael H, I m, I C, H, A, E, L, H, I at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, i, b, e.com, and wherever you're listening, please give us a five star review. We value your ratings and your reviews a lot, and I but I do want to hear from you. I want to hear what your thoughts are. Also, if you know of anyone who might make a good guest for unstoppable mindset, Lori, including you, would really appreciate you introducing us, because we're always looking for people who have great stories to tell, and today has certainly been one of my favorite podcast recordings in a long time, and that's because we really did have fun, and I think we accomplished a lot and we learned a lot. So I want to thank you, Lori, once again, for being here and for being a part of unstoppable mindset. Lori Osbourne  1:04:35 Thank you, Mike. It has definitely been a pleasure. I've enjoyed talking with you a lot. Michael Hingson  1:04:42 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

This week we are recapping the Golden Globes looks and discuss the late Renee G00d and most recent victim of IC*. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this powerful continuation of our conversation, Annie Bertrand returns to take us deeper into her signature work: ancestral astrology, mother wounds, karmic cycles, and the soul-level patterns that shape our families across generations. In part one, we explored the foundations of astrology and how to understand your chart. In part two, we turn toward the lineage-level healing work — the real-life applications that influence how we mother, how we relate, and how we break the cycles we were born into.Throughout the episode, we explore the real-life tension points most moms face: the self-awareness trap, the fear of “messing up” our kids, the feeling of holding three generations' worth of emotional weight, and the challenge of navigating growth when our partners or families aren't on the same path. Annie offers a grounded, compassionate reminder that healing our own patterns is what shifts the lineage — and that change often ripples through our families without forcing, convincing, or controlling anyone.If you've been craving a deeper understanding of your family dynamics, curious about ancestral healing, or looking for tools to better support your children's emotional world, this conversation will leave you both expanded and grounded. Annie's approach to astrology is practical, accessible, and deeply validating — offering a map for healing your lineage, supporting your kids, and embodying the parent you were meant to be.In this episode, we explore:Ancestral astrology as a tool for understanding inherited patterns, family karma, and the soul contracts we choose before birthHow mother wounds, generational trauma, and lineage stories show up in the Moon sign, Saturn, Chiron, and the IC (lineage axis)The difference between talk therapy vs. energy healing, and why emotional patterns must be addressed through the body and nervous systemHow past-life imprints, karmic memories, and unexplained fears can resurface through motherhood and parentingThe ways parents unconsciously repeat generational patterns — and how to break cycles with awareness, compassion, and energetic workHow to navigate sibling dynamics, emotional mismatches, and conflicting personalities through family astrologyThe “self-awareness trap” and why mothers often feel pressure to parent perfectly when doing lineage-healing workWhy children under seven are especially attuned to their mother's emotional field — and how your healing directly shifts their subconsciousHow to show up as the energetic invitation when your partner or family isn't on the same growth or healing journeyHow astrology helps you honor your unique blueprint, break free from conditioning, and parent from intuition rather than fearBe sure to hit subscribe so you never miss the latest episode!Connect with Annie:Website: anniebertrand.com

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Bienvenue dans le trois-centième épisode de CacaoCast! Dans cet épisode, Philippe Casgrain et Philippe Guitard discutent des sujets suivants: electricite-quebec.info - La demande provinciale au bout des doigts Electron Liquid Glass - On n'arrête pas le progrès! Swift concurrency - Enfin un guide simplifié Icônes dans les menus de Tahoe - Vous pouvez les enlever dans votre application Subtext - Un éditeur de texte pour iOS simple et gratuit Unixv4.dev - Unix original dans votre navigateur Sloppy - La nouvelle mascotte IA de Microsoft Drone et ski - Un petit film de Philippe Ecoutez cet épisode

Bron Breakker loss to CM Punk on WWE Raw negatively affects his character development: AGREE or DISAGREE?CM Punk Defeats Bron Breakker In Instant ClassicAJ Styles Confronts GuntherBecky Regains IC Title From Maxxine DupriHot Tag!We're kicking off 2026 with a hot one! This week, we recap the 1 Year Anniversary of WWE Raw on Netflix featuring a crossover with Stranger Things, which was headlined by 2 title changes in the women's division, as well as a classic main event and the beginning of a potential main event level feud.Bron Breakker fell short in his efforts to capture the WWE World Heavyweight title against CM Punk, leaving the internet wrestling community stunned. Did WWE make the right decision to not switch the title to the younger Bron? Does this loss hurt or help Bron Breakker's stock and position moving forward as a main event talent in the current scene?We also saw AJ Styles confront Gunther, who continues to disrespect John Cena following defeat of him in his retirement match. Is it too soon for AJ to step in the ring with Gunther? Could there be a bigger story to tell?New women's Tag Team and IC Champions were crowned, as Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky defeated the Kabuki Warriors in the opening contest, and Becky Lynch regained her IC title against Maxxine Dupri. We debate a whether these women are all in the right places, as well as their positions moving towards the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania season.Finally, we come in with the HOT TAG! We'll cover a variety of topics, including a big return on Smackdown, NXT talent on the move to the main roster and much more!Join our conversation on the first episode of the Lazy Booking Podcast for 2026!S/P: Specialized Physical Therapy | specializedphysicaltherapy.com

I really enjoyed this conversation with Natalie and her mother, Mary, because it reminded me how an unstoppable mindset is often built quietly, over time, through creativity, learning, and persistence. Together, they share what it has been like to navigate life across generations while facing learning disabilities, health challenges, workplace adversity, and the constant need to adapt. We talk about Natalie's journey with attention deficit disorder and anxiety, how creative outlets like baking, art, music, and storytelling helped her find focus and confidence, and why returning to school later in life became an act of self-trust rather than fear. Mary's story adds another powerful layer. She reflects on growing up with low self-esteem, navigating male-dominated workplaces, and dealing with sexual harassment long before there were systems in place to address it. As a mother, artist, and professional, she shares what it means to keep moving forward while supporting her daughter's growth. Throughout our conversation, we explore accessibility, creative entrepreneurship, lifelong learning, and why accommodations and understanding still matter. I believe you will find this episode both honest and encouraging, especially if your own path has been anything but linear. Highlights: 00:00 – Hear how creativity and resilience shaped an unstoppable mindset across two generations.08:35 – Learn how attention deficit disorder and anxiety changed the way focus, learning, and confidence developed.14:33 – Discover why stepping away from a demanding career can open the door to new growth.21:23 – Understand how workplace sexual harassment leaves lasting effects long after it happens.35:16 – See why protecting and celebrating local artists became a personal mission.59:09 – Learn why accessibility, accommodations, and empathy still matter in everyday life. About the Guest: Mary Dunn: Mary was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA.  She was the only child of Norman and Lucille Rump.  At a young age, she liked to draw and as she grew older she enjoyed painting.  Her first painting was in oil and Mary was eleven years old.  However, because of the expense of art supplies, it was difficult to pursue a continuous endeavor in that particular form of art. While in high school, nothing really exciting happened as Mary was on the shy side.  She didn't belong to any groups and she really just wanted to graduate.  She graduated in the upper third of her class.  The most momentous part of the graduation was that Jeff Goldblum was also a graduate of her class. After graduation, Mary continued her education at The Pittsburgh Beauty Academy.  There she studied cosmetology and acquired a teacher license.  Although she never taught, she did work at a few different shops and also managed a shop.  These experiences helped Mary to become less shy. At that time, she met her first husband and had two children.  The marriage lasted for eleven years, and Mary was left with two small children.  Mary realized that her background in cosmetology would not be sufficient to raise two small children. She decided to go to college. With the support of her parents, she was accepted to attend Carlow College which is now Carlow University.  There she studied business and minored in theology.  She almost minored in art, but she needed one more credit to have that as a minor.  It was important for her to graduate in order to take care of her children.  While in college she belonged to several organizations.  One organization was an honor society called Delta Epsilon Sigma.  There she became an assistant chair of the organization.  The second organization was OASIS.  The organization was for non-tradition students.  She was vice-president during her senior year at Carlow.  She graduated in 1991 cum laude. After Carlow, she found her first employment opportunity working the Equitable Gas Company as a “Technical Fieldman”.  In this position, Mary would draft pipeline installations, work up costs for those installations, and fill in for supervisors when they went on vacations.  The job was difficult as it had usually been filled by men prior to her.  She was thrust into a job that she learned on her own and was subject to sexual harassment.   At that time, sexual harassment was not spoken about.  Mary didn't even realize that her peers were doing these things to her.  When she supervised union personnel, they were nice and valued her expertise.  However, when she returned to the office, more harassment continued. During that period, Mary decided to get a Master's Degree and enrolled in Carnegie Mellon's Heinz school of Public Management.  Her classes were very valuable as she learned about leadership, information systems, and marketing communications.  She graduated in 1996 with distinction.  Even though after she graduated from CMU, she continued to be sexual harassed.  She thought it might be a good idea to document the issues that made her position difficult.  She began to take notes on these incidents.  When she went to Human Resources, Mary was told that she should confront these people and tell them how she was feeling.  Mary couldn't do that because she felt it would make matters worse.  She applied for another position within the company.  In 1997, Mary became Program Manager of Energy Technology. While there, Mary developed and implemented a marketing plan to promote the use of alternative fuels.  As a Program Manager, Mary became a member of Pittsburgh Region Clean Cities which focused on alternative fueled vehicles.  During this time, she became a board member and focused on grants and wrote the Pittsburgh Region Clean Cities Newsletter. In 1999, her position was eliminated at Equitable.  In some ways, Mary was relieved about the elimination, but in other ways, it was the first time this ever happened to her.  She was now remarried and was concerned about her children. It was very scary. Thankfully, Mary was not unemployed for long.  She was hired at Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission as a Transportation Planner.  In this position she implemented a newly designed client tracking system of their products and services that helped to increase revenue. Additionally, she worked on a communication plan to implement branding and crisis communications. Eventually, Mary became a Marketing/Communication Specialist for Southwestern Pennsylvania Communications.  She was responsible for multi-media communications connected with branding. Mary designed logos for special projects, arranged special affairs, open houses and conferences.  She remained a part of Pittsburgh Region Clean Cities.   Mary additionally prepared presentations for executive management to deliver regarding the Joseph A. James Memorial Excellence in Local Government Achievement Award that recognizes a municipal government elected or appointed official in any local government, agency, or Council of Government for a lifetime of exemplary governance or management. Unfortunately, a new Executive was hired to replace the past Executive who had passed away.  Because of this, our whole department was eliminated. After Southwestern, Mary was hired as the Manager of Administration and Human Resources for THE PROGRAM for Female Offenders.  While at THE PROGRAM, Mary was responsible for maintaining the policies and daily operations in THE PROGRAM.  She implemented a cost effective foodservice program, introduced staff ID cards and implemented the Windows NT network server and computer security using a Digital Subscriber Line which is a type of high-speed internet connection that uses existing copper telephone lines to provide internet access to three PROGRAM facilities. Additionally, Mary implemented a human resource database for directors and managers that targeted specific employment information. Mary maintained safety equipment and introduced a safe evacuation plan for her building.. Unfortunately, because THE PROGRAM was grant based and when it was time to acquire grant money much of the previous grants were not renewed and Mary lost her job.  Mary eventually was hired by Roach and Associates, Inc. as a Project Manager. In this position, she negotiated oil and gas leases for exploration and productions of future gas wells in Clearfield County Pennsylvania.  During this time, Mary was responsible for permitting activities with the state, county and federal agencies as well as prepared training seminars to meet pipeline safety regulations as per U.S. Department of Transportation, CFR49, Parts 192-193. Mary authored documentation regarding pipeline regulations for various housing authorities and gas production companies within Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New York.  Besides working at Roach, Mary became part of the Transition Team for Peduto for Mayor of Pittsburgh.  That was such a memorable experience as my team focused on some of the issues facing the newly elected Mayor. It was nice to be a part of change. After working ten years at Roach and Associates, Inc., Mary decided it was time to retire in 2015. While working at Roach, Mary began dabbling in art again.  It had been quite a while since college and painting.  But she began to work in pastels and eventually more in the line of acrylic painting.  She became president of the Pittsburgh Pastel Artist League.  She no longer is president of that group.  Mary now belongs to the Pittsburgh Society of Artists where she was juried into the group.  She has had her work display at The Galaxie in Chicago,  Pittsburgh Technical Institute, Monroeville Library, Gallery Sim, Boxheart Gallery, Southern Allegheny Museum of Art, Saville Gallery in Maryland and various other galleries around Pittsburgh.  Her Study in Pastels won an Award of Excellence from Southern Allegheny Museum of Art.  Mary also came in second place in the Jerry's Artarama Faber Castel Contest. As time went on, Mary decided to focus more on her art work and began teaching students how to paint with Acrylic.  She also began a YouTube channel, Pittsburgh Artist Studio, where she gave free art lessons in acrylic to future artists around the country.  Unfortunately, Mary developed chronic back issues, and she had to give up her teaching.  She has had two back operations to alleviate the pain, but the second operation really didn't help.  It has caused more painful issues.  Therefore, it is difficult for her to paint a long period of time.  Currently, Mary devotes her time to illustrating her oldest daughter's books for children.  The books are a series about a little boy's adventures in his life.  Her books can be found on Amazon under her name “Nicole Leckenby”.  Additionally, she has illustrated a book for her younger daughter, Natalie Sebula, entitled “The Many Colors of Natalie”. In conclusion, now that Mary is retired, she has had more time to work on different art projects a little at a time.  She lives with her husband Steve and two dogs Grumpy and Sally.  She belongs to a group of wonderful women who review Bible Psalms each week. Since my minor in theology, I do enjoy reading various books on different religious subjects.  I am thankful for each day that I have and continue to work on the gifts God has given me. Natalie Belin: I am focusing on the arts. I am a creator with an ambitious attitude. I have no problem thinking BIG and dreaming BIG. While everyone else stays inside the lines, I boldly color outside the lines. Natalie resides near Pittsburgh, PA. She is 40 years old and loves adventures. Within these 40 years Natalie has experienced highs and lows. However, during the low points she was like water: adaptable, resilient, and always finding a way through. At toddler age, it was brought to the attention that she had high pressure in her eyes. However, nothing was really done about it because of her age. Typically, high pressures occur in older adults. After many years, one eye doctor took it seriously.  He prescribed eye drops and finally recommended a laser technique to open the tear ducts.  This alleviated the high pressure and since no eye drops have been needed. In 5 grade, she was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. Her mother, Mary Dunn advocated for her until someone listened, and her teachers realized it was a real problem. Steps were taken to help Natalie focus more.  As she grew older, it was important to do activities that helped her focus such as cheerleading and possible careers in culinary. Because of the importance of focusing, Natalie decided that culinary arts would be beneficial.  Natalie graduated in October of 2004 from the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute with an associate's degree in Specialized Technology Le Cordon Bleu Program in Patisserie & Baking.  While there, she was elected class president. The Pennsylvania Culinary Institute offered externships to various prestigious areas to hone the craft.  Natalie's externship was at the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulpher Springs where she was ultimately hired. However, Natalie decided to return to Pittsburgh after a car accident. Natalie continued to work as a pastry chef for about five years. After, she decided to further her education, and Natalie graduated in December of 2023 from the University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities. Some of her academic achievements are National Society of Collegiate Scholars, National Society of Leadership and Success, Alpha Sigma lambda-Alpha Chi Chapter at the University of Pittsburgh, Delta Alpha PI Honor Society. During her academic life, Natalie became an Emmy nominated producer for Pitt to the Point (a class focusing on the news as well as behind the scenes of a news/magazine program that covers the City of Pittsburgh, the University of Pittsburgh regional campuses as well as national and international events.) Currently, Natalie is in a Graduate Certification Program which is also at the University of Pittsburgh. The Certification is in Sports, Entertainment, and Arts Law (SEAL). She hopes to use this program as a steppingstone to complete her master's degree in Sports, Entertainment, and Arts Law. In addition to the SEAL certification, one could say that Natalie is a woman of many colors.  She works full-time as an Administrator for the Rehabilitation Science Program in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. This is where she provides administrative support for general program management, advising and faculty. Another aspect of Natalie's many colors is writing.  Several years ago, she wrote a poetry book called The Many Colors of Natalie. This is a book for 18+. There are several illustrations in the book that complement the poems. Mary Dunn, Natalie's mother, created the illustrations. In August of 2020, Natalie launched The Many Colors of Natalie Blog. She started this blog to give a new perspective to Pittsburgh other than being known for sports. This allows individuals the ability to educate themselves on different variations of Pittsburgh's art or artists as well as bringing awareness to the art scene. Natalie's motto is Love Art & Support Your Local Artist! Additionally, Natalie has been a model/actor since 2012. Most of her work consists of being an extra in various music videos and movies. Furthermore, she is an ambassador for Ambassador Sunglasses and Just Strong Clothing. Just Strong Clothing's Mission “We are a clothing brand on a mission to empower those who are not just strong for a girl, they are just strong. Whether you are an experienced lifter, a new starter or have simply overcome great adversaries in your life, the JustStrong community are here to empower and motivate you to never give up.” “Ambassador was formed to extract, refine, and exhibit the marriage between what was and what will be in fashion culture. When wearing Ambassador, you break the mold of the mundane to embrace your unmatched individualism.” Besides being an ambassador, Natalie became a Creative Percussion Artist in 2020. “Creative Percussion is a family-owned business, established in 2018, and run by husband-and-wife team, Kevin and Cheri Feeney.” Her picture is on the site as a CP percussion artist. Not only is Natalie a musician, but she dabbles in various mediums in art. Her mixed media piece Peace, Love, and Woodstock is currently in the Woodstock Museum located in Saugerties, New York. “The purpose for the Woodstock Museum is: To gather, display, disseminate and develop the concept and reality of Woodstock, encompassing the culture and history of a living colony of the arts, with special emphasis placed on the exhibition of self-sustaining ecological technologies. To encourage and increase public awareness of Woodstock by providing information to the general public through cultural events, displays of artifacts, outreach programs, communication media events and personal experiences, and to contribute, as an international attraction, to the cultural life and prosperity of our region; and to engage in all lawful activities in pursuit of the foregoing purposes.” Lastly, Natalie and her mother Mary Dunn started a side hustle several years ago. Mother and Daughter Collaboration (vending show name) is a great opportunity for Natalie to showcase her entrepreneurial skills in addition to her art. Their Etsy name is Maker's Collab Studio. In conclusion, Nat is excited for the future, and to see what is in store. She considers herself to be dynamic and resilient. Even those who know Natalie would say the same.  Regardless of what she has been through, she keeps going. She realizes that the tough times eventually do end. In self-reflection, the “tough time” may have been a life lesson, or a possible steppingstone to what's next in her life. Only time will tell. Natalie will always be a supporter of the arts, and she will always create in some way. As Natalie ages, she sees the importance of advocating for the disabled. At one point in her life, she was embarrassed about sharing her learning disability because she felt that we live in a society where having a disability isn't necessarily welcomed and is frowned upon. Do not fear individuals who need special accommodations.  Instead, educate yourself. Try being that individual who needs certain accommodations, and the accommodations are not provided or easily accessible. Progress has been made in educating the ignorant. However, there is more work that needs to be done. Ways to connect with Natalie & Mary**:** Blog website: Home - The Many Colors of Natalie Personal website: Home | natalie-sebula-belin Book of poetry: The Many Colors of Natalie: Written by: Natalie Belin - Kindle edition by Dunn, Mary, Leckenby, Nicole, Merlin, Grace, Palmieri, David. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. Facebook: (1) Facebook Instagram: Natalie Sebula (@themanycolorsofnatalie) • Instagram photos and videos Etsy: MakersCollabStudio - Etsy About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. Michael Hingson  01:21 Hi everyone, and welcome to another edition of unstoppable mindset. We're doing something that we've done a few times before, and we get to do it again today. We have two people as guests on unstoppable mindset this time, mother and daughter, and that'll be kind of fun they have, between them, lots of experiences in art, but in all sorts of other kinds of things as well. They live in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, and I'm not going to say a whole lot more, because I want them to tell their stories. So I want you to meet Natalie bellen and her mother, Mary Dunn. So Natalie and Mary, both of you, welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're glad you're here. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  02:03 Well, thank you for Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  02:03 having us. Yes, we're happy to be here. Thank you. Michael Hingson  02:06 Well, let's see. We'll start with mom. Why don't you tell us something about the early Mary growing up, and you know what? What life was like growing up? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  02:18 Well, growing up, I was born in Pittsburgh. I was actually born on in the south side of Pittsburgh, and it was called St Joseph Hospital, and now it's an apartment building, but we lived here. I've lived here all my life. I lived in Hazelwood until I was about the age of three. Then we moved to Whitaker, Pennsylvania, and now I'm in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. So it's like we hopped around a bit. Growing up in my family was a little bit difficult. I had been bullied quite a bit by my cousins, so it kind of like left you know how it does with bullying. You know, it's not like today. Of course, I didn't want to go out and do something terrible to myself. It's just that it left my self esteem very low, and I just kind of stayed and was by myself most of the time. So until I grew up, I graduated from high school, I went to West Midland, North High School, I graduated in the same class as Jeff Goldblum. Although I didn't know him, I knew that he was very talented. I thought he was more talented on a piano than he was with acting, but he is still he's still very good with the piano, with his jazz music, and that's basically it. I've been in West Mifflin now for she's been quite a bit Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  03:49 since I was in seventh grade, and now I'm 40 years old, so we've been here a long time. Michael Hingson  03:54 Yeah, so it's sort of like 3027 years or so, or 28 years? Yes, well, Natalie, tell us about you when it was like growing up in and all of that. Sure. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  04:08 No problem. So I grew up in Whitaker for the most part, my yearly eight years, like until about fifth grade, I guess about like fifth grade, and then we moved, well, we just moved to a different house and whatever. Yeah, that when we moved for the second time, it was more in a neighborhood with kids, so that was, like, a lot more fun. And we played like tag and all that. So that my early years, I remember that like playing tags, swimming, I love, like skiing on the water, jet skis, stuff like that. Definitely. I loved running around. And I loved dance as a kid too, that was a lot of fun. Michael Hingson  05:00 Okay, and so you went to high school? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  05:05 Oh, yeah, I went, Yes. I went to West Midland area high school, and I graduated in 2003 in 2004 I graduated from the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute as a pastry chef and part of the things that I had to do to graduate, I had to do, like, about a six month internship where I resided in white sulfur springs, West Virginia, and I got to do my externship at the Greenbrier, and that was pretty exciting, because it has quite the history. There. People love it there for Well, one of the things that sticks in my mind is Dorothy Draper, who decorated that resort. Her taste is very cool, because she went bold, like with flower print and stripes mixed together for wallpaper. There's stories in history behind the sulfur water there. And then most people might know the Greenbrier for their golf courses, for the golf course actually, or in history about the sulfur water Michael Hingson  06:26 now, you had high eye pressure for a while after you were born, right? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  06:31 Oh, yes, the eye pressures. That's quite the story, let me tell you so at a very young age, like different doctors and eye doctors that I went to. They knew that I had high pressures, but they didn't seem like it was a big issue. But my mom had the inkling that I needed to go to a different doctor when I was like, I guess you Middle School, Michael Hingson  06:58 yeah, yeah, you were about now, was there a lot of pain because of the pressure. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  07:02 I didn't even know was happening, so I wasn't in discomfort or anything. So they said, don't they kind of dismissed it. So I wasn't worried about it, Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  07:14 Neither was I. But you know, like eventually we did go to a doctor and he said, Oh, my goodness, you have these high pressures. And it's, it could be like glaucoma. We don't ever see that in a young person, you know, they haven't ever seen anything like that. He was just amazed by it. And go ahead, you can finish this. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  07:36 Dr Al, I have so much respect for him, because he truly took care of my eyes for a very long time. I started seeing him in middle school, and I saw him up until, like my late 30s, and he I would see him quite frequently, because he would always monitor those pressures, because he knew the importance of that and how they could damage my eyes and I can lose my sight. So he always had me do like fields test eye pressure checks, because your pressures in your eyes can fluctuate throughout the day. So I would come in in like different times of the day to make sure they're not super high and stuff like that. He would prescribe me on different eye pressure medications like eye drops, because the they like the eye drops would help my eyes to it to regulate the pressures to a certain point, and then my eyes would get used to them, it seemed like, so then we would have to go to a different prescription. I caused that doctor a lot of stress, I think, because he was always thinking about my case, because it was so rare. And he went to a conference, actually, and brought that up at a conference, and at that conference, they said for me to get the laser, laser procedure done to Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  09:10 open the tear ducts. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  09:12 Yeah, yeah. And luckily, that solved it. Michael Hingson  09:18 Wow, so you so the the tear ducts were, were small or not draining properly, correct? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  09:26 Yeah, it was points where, like, if I wanted to cry, no tears would come Michael Hingson  09:31 out, no tears would come out. Well, yeah, yeah. Then you also discovered, or somehow you you learned about being Attention Deficit Disorder. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  09:45 Yeah, so, um, when I was from like one or like, from kindergarten to third grade, I went to a Catholic school, and I didn't seem like there was anything. Being really wrong. But then when I went to a public school, I was really having a hard time grasping the material, and I would get really frustrated when I was at home trying to do the homework and I just wasn't understanding. I believe the educators there said like I was also behind, which could have been part of the issue. But my mom would like try to help me with my homework, and it was like Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  10:28 it was hard. She would, she would get so frustrated and throw the papers and just, you know it, because it was very difficult for her, and we really couldn't under I couldn't understand why. You know this was happening, because my, my other daughter, I never had issues like that with so we had, I guess we were told to go. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  10:53 I think that was Miss Lenz in fifth grade. Yeah, she had me get tested for a learning disability, and with all the testing that was done with that, they said that I had attention deficit disorder. So whenever that diagnosis was made, I was able to get like teacher teaching aids to help me through tests to help me understand the curriculum a little bit better. Tutors did the counselor Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  11:28 I well they I did take her to get tested outside of school, and that's they actually told me some things that could help her with this. And then I went to the teachers, and the teachers, some of them, didn't, like, actually take this into consideration. They, they didn't really realize attention deficit disorder at that time. It was new. And so they, they kind of said, well, we don't, we don't believe in that or whatever. And I said, Well, can you just have her, like, sit up front, because she would pay attention more and she would focus better, because that's the problem she couldn't focus on. So it took a while, and then finally, the principal in the fifth grade, he had a meeting with the teachers us, and he actually was the one who brought that to their attention, that this is a problem, that attention disorder, you know, does occur, and some of it is hyper, just hyperactive disorder. So it luckily she didn't have that part of it, but it was the focusing, and we just got her more involved in things that she could learn how to focus. They recommended cheerleading, they recommended culinary school, and I think that really helped her to learn more on focusing. But she still has anxieties and things like that. It's still Michael Hingson  13:03 it's still there. So why culinary school? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  13:07 So that is such a fun question. When my grandma used to watch me, she was very particular on what I was like watching. She didn't want me to watch anything like super crazy or out there. So I would always watch cooking shows, and I thought he was so unique, the different recipes and everything that these chefs were making. And I love some of their personalities, like emerald, he was always so hyper and loud, so fun. And it was interesting to see the different types of foods that they were creating that, like certain countries make. You know, I love Spanish food. It's so good. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  13:55 She decided not to even get into that part. That was the thing. She wanted to be a pastry chef, yeah, Michael Hingson  14:02 something to be said for chocolate chip cookies. But anyway, go ahead. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  14:07 Yeah, she makes a good one, too. At Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  14:10 this point, I don't even know why. What drew me to baking more than culinary I think the two different styles are cooking are very interesting, because like with cooking, you don't have to be so exact with the measurements and everything with certain things like the spices and stuff. If you don't like rosemary, you don't have to put it in there. But with baking, it's definitely more scientific. Have to be more accurate with the measurements of certain ingredients, like baking soda, because it's lavender and like, altitude will totally screw up your baking Yes, so many reasons that elevation is so important. So yeah, so Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  14:59 mine's to it. Or whatever, you know? Yeah, Michael Hingson  15:01 so you went and did an externship, and then what did you do? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  15:06 So with the externship, I was there for a little bit over six months, I was officially hired, and I graduated from culinary school, but, um, I got in a car accident. So that's like, why left? So I was in baking professionally for about a total five years, and then I went back to school. Sorry, that's grumpy. Can you hear him barking? 15:36 I'm sorry. I'll go. No, no, it's fine. Michael Hingson  15:41 So why did you leave culinary? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  15:43 Um, I was just ready for a change. Because I started working professionally when I was like 19, so by my mid 20s, I was just ready to go back. I mean, that is a very demanding field. You're working several hours. Um, you're working with all types of personalities, certain pressures, long days sometimes. And I was just ready to see what else was out there for me. Michael Hingson  16:12 So you went back to school to study, Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  16:15 yes, so my when I graduated in 2023 with my undergraduate degree, it was in humanities, and it focused on three areas of art, music, studio, arts and theater. The main focus was theater, okay? Michael Hingson  16:39 And so, what did you do with that? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  16:42 So with that degree, I did several different things. I wrote a poetry book, which I provided a link so people can access if they would like to purchase it. I created a blog in 2020 called the many colors of Natalie, and I created a blog to help bring a different perspective to Pittsburgh, other than just it being a city for sports, because there's a lot of talented artists out there, and plus, like during a pandemic, that caused a lot of strain on a lot of things, and I was really worried about certain venues that were iconic here closing and completely wiping out the whole art industry here, you know. So, um, with that too, I also, um, I was doing music at the time as a percussionist, and that's when I got introduced to creative percussion products, and I was using that with the different performances that I was doing. And I ended up being one of their artists featured on their page, website or website, yeah. Okay, yeah, and I also volunteered at a local dance studio called Lisa de gorrios dance, and I got to work with the younger kids, and I did that for a couple years. So that was interesting to see what it was like to teach and put on performances. It's a lot of you get to see the behind the scenes and time management and stuff like that. Also, I'm thinking here for a second, sorry. How about, oh, we, my mom and I created an Etsy shop. So we started a few years ago, called Mother Daughter collaboration, a vending that was like our vending show name, and we did that for Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  18:56 we've been doing that for a while. Yeah, we, we put different products up. I kind of tend to do my artwork, and she puts up some things also in art, we have, we have interesting things like CD, telephone, covers, cases, purses, you know. And we're working on a new product now to to put on to the Etsy shop this year. We didn't do many vending shows. I had surgery last last year on my back, and I had a hard time recovering because it was pretty expensive. So we're hoping to get that going again this year, or towards the end of the year, when the Christmas shows start happening, Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  19:47 we did, um, create an Etsy shop called makers collab studio, and we were focusing more on that this year. Um, so we do have, like, a variety of different products. Um. Um, which I also provided the link to the Etsy shop. If anybody wants to check out our products and what we have, that'd be great if you stop checked out that. Michael Hingson  20:11 Yeah, my late my late wife, was a quilter and tried to run an Etsy shop, but people didn't want to pay any kind of real prices for handmade quilts, because they just thought that quilts should be, like, 50 or $75 and that just wasn't realistic. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  20:30 But, well, that's, that's the trouble. What we're seeing also, yeah, we do, I do, like, we do t shirts and things like that too. But people it. I don't think people realize what's behind the whole process. No, or they don't care. No, you know, I mean, there's a lot involved as far as your equipment. When it was covid, I was, well, I'm retired, but I was working part time, and I was able to, you know, get what is it, you know, workers, whatever, yeah, you know, yes. And with that money, I actually bought like things to do, T shirts, like the heat press and different parts to like a cricket that we can do things with. And so, you know, like the things that you know, you still have to buy supplies, even with my artwork, it's so expensive anymore, when I first started back in, you know, when my kids grew up and they were on their own, where I really focused on it, and I can't believe the expense of it. You know, it's just, it's everything's expensive these days. So, yeah, really watch what you're doing and how you approach it too. You know, you can't spend a lot of money on things. We don't have, like, a whole backlog of products. I mean, we just do a few things and hope that the things that we make are sellers, you know, Michael Hingson  22:05 yeah, well, and I hope it, it can is more successful for you going forward. That's a useful thing. You You've done a lot Mary with with art over the years, but you've also had other, other kinds of jobs where you've worked for some pretty large companies, and you've been reading your bio, you faced some sexual harassment issues and things like that, haven't you? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  22:29 Yes, yes, that was difficult boy, and I didn't realize that at the time I went to college late in life because I was getting divorced and I needed a job that I could take care of my family, my girls, and so I decided to go to college and my my mom and dad watched my kids while I went to school, which was nice. And the first job I had was with the gas company here, and I was called a technical Fieldman. And what I would do is, like, I would draw pipeline installations and the and sometimes I would fill in as a supervisor. When I filled in first as a supervisor, it was great. I mean, the guys were decent. We always came to a conclusion. I always trusted what they're you know what they would say about pipeline? Because I knew nothing about pipeline. It was all new to me. But when I would go back to the office, it was, it was just like crazy things that would happen. I mean, I won't go into detail, and I started writing these things down because I thought this just doesn't seem right, that these people are saying these things to me or doing these things to me. I had a nice little book of all these incidents that happened, and I went to the HR department, and they wanted me to confront these people in my office, to tell them how I felt. Well, that, to me, would have made everything worse, because that's just that, you know, kind of work environment. So luckily, I was, I was promoted into a job that lasted two years, and then my job was eliminated. So that was my first, my first thing with that was the only time I really had sexual harassment that was really bad. I went on to another which was the program for female Well, I worked for a university for a while, and then I went into the program for female offenders, which was really interesting work. I enjoyed that it was like people that were out on that needed to, that were like drug addicts and and they were looking for a new way. They had been in jail and this incarcerated, and they came into this. Program they had that was part of their incarceration or parole. They had to do this, this program, and that was so interesting. I mean, it was just heartfelt, because you just saw these people that were trying so hard to make a good life for themselves and not to go back to their original way of living. And unfortunately, that was all grant money. And that job ended also so that, you know, and I was a transportation planner, I did a lot of things, and then I ended up going back into the gas industry. I worked for an engineer, and we were working in the production side of everything. So he had drove to you wells, and we had leases, and I took care of those. And I liked that job for about 10 years. I stayed there, and then I I retired. I was getting tired of it at that point. Michael Hingson  26:02 Yeah. Why was your first why was your first job at the original gas company eliminated? Or when you were promoted and you said it was eliminated, yeah? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  26:10 Well, that's what I like to know why it was eliminated. I think sometimes that job was just to keep me quiet. That's how I felt. I mean, I, I they, they knew that I was upset and that I didn't like what was happening. And I think it was just to keep me quiet, and they realized that that job wasn't going to last, but it was a marketing job. We were using different ways to use gas, alternative fuel vehicles, fuel cells, you know. So it was an interesting job, too, but it it didn't really have the supervisor we had was not really a person that pushed the product, you know. So that could have been the reason, too, that they eliminated a lot of that. Yeah, so I wasn't the only one that went I mean, there was another person in that at that time, and eventually that whole department was eliminated. Now that gas company, they sold all that off, and another gas company took it over and equitable. Still is EQT here, and they work, I think at this point, they work with the leases and things like that, and horizontal drilling, they call it. Michael Hingson  27:38 So now that you're retired, what do you do? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  27:41 Well, for a while there, Michael Hingson  27:44 in addition to Etsy, yeah, for Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  27:47 a while, I was actually doing hair. I was my first, my first, I guess, employment type, or whatever. I went to beauty school, and I became a cosmetologist, and I also became a teacher in cosmetology. So when I first became all that the money wasn't so great. I worked my first job. I was so excited I had this job because I thought I was going to be making millions. You know, they they really pump you up in in beauty school that you're going to really succeed and you're going to make this money. Well, my first job, I worked over 40 hours at that job, and I only got $15 in my first pay. It was like we had to stay there the whole time until everyone was finished working. So the girls that had their clientele that they worked the whole day and into the evening, like till eight o'clock. Maybe we had to stay till eight o'clock. Even though I didn't have anybody to do. I might have had one person that day, yeah, so that that wasn't too I just worked at that for a few years, and then I decided to leave and take care of my family. Yeah, well, that that I went back to it when I retired, and it had changed significantly, making pretty good money. I was only working three days a week, and I did pretty well. But then my back. I had the issues with my back, and I couldn't go back to it, which really upset me. I really love that job. Michael Hingson  29:29 Well, things happen. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  29:31 Yeah, it does. You know, I'm happy not to stay at home. I figured now that I'm actually 73 years old now, so I think I I should retire Michael Hingson  29:47 and enjoy my life a little. Well. So Natalie, you graduated in 2023 and so then what did you start to do? And what are you doing now? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  29:57 So what I'm doing now is I'm. Still focusing on the Etsy shop, but I also got into a graduate certificate program, and this certificate is in sports entertainment and arts law, and I really hope to use this program as a stepping stone to complete my master's degree in the sports entertainment and arts law program. Michael Hingson  30:25 What exactly is a graduate certification program, as opposed to a master's degree? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  30:32 So that's a great question. So the certificate program is like a newer program, and it's like the only one in the world, I'm pretty sure, that focuses on sports, entertainment and art. So it's like a newer, more modern type of learning program. And this certificate is a great stepping stone, and for me to check it out before I actually go in to the master's program. This is, like, my second week, and I love it so far, and all these classes that I'm doing, and if I keep my grades up and everything, will apply to the master's program if I get in. Michael Hingson  31:15 Okay, well, so Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  31:20 less credits than, like, what you would need for a master's program, and it's less I don't need a textbook. I have these things called nutshells, where I'm pretty sure, like, I'll be studying different types of cases or something like that through that. So it's like online stuff. Michael Hingson  31:43 The Okay? And how long do you think it will take you to complete that Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  31:49 the certification program should be about a year, and it's all online, okay? Michael Hingson  31:55 And how, how long have you been doing it so far? Just two weeks. Oh, so next August, yeah, yeah, yeah. And the hope is then you can use that to go forward and actually work toward getting a master's degree. Which, which sounds pretty cool, yeah, for sure. What do you want to do with it once you get a master's degree? Well, like Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  32:20 all those points like sports entertainment and arts, I think is Pittsburgh is a great city to represent all of those. And I hope to help represent like clients, maybe do like to protect their works and them as an artist. And I would like to hopefully get into paralegal work. That's what I'm focusing on right now. Michael Hingson  32:47 So is school pretty much full time for you these days? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  32:51 No, it's still part time, and that's what I like love about this program, because, like all week, you'll be doing 10 hours outside of so I still work full time as an administrator in the SHRS program, and I am the administrator for Rehabilitation Science. So yeah, it's great to have like, bosses and everything that support me in my educational journey, because that makes my life a lot easier too. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  33:26 Yeah, that's some great bosses. Michael Hingson  33:29 Well, it's good to have some people who tend to be a little bit more supportive. It helps the psyche when you get to do that. Yes, yeah. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  33:39 Because the one thing that I noticed with this program, it is definitely more manageable, because, like the undergrad program, I did enjoy the process. For most parts, some of it was really challenging. But the undergraduate program, it was really hard for me to get late night classes. Most of those classes that I had to take were I had to be in person, so like late classes were pretty hard to get, but my bosses allowed me to take earlier classes so I could help finish the program faster, but I just had to make up that time. Right? Michael Hingson  34:28 When did you discover that you had artistic talent? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  34:32 Um, I don't know if I ever really discovered that I had the talent, but I was very passionate at a young age, like when my mom was going back to school, I always loved watching her paint, because she had like the painting classes. I always thought so I like sit on the floor and watch her paint. And at a very young age, I was in the dance class. Do you remember the name? A France Dance School of Dance, France School of Dance. And I love dance class so much. I remember one time the dance school was closed because of a holiday, and I was, like, so upset, like, I didn't believe, like, the dance school was closed and I didn't understand, like, why I wasn't allowed to go. So they called the school and it went straight to, like, the answering machine so they could prove, like, it was closed and nobody was there. I was like, ready to show up. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  35:30 She wanted to go, yeah. She was just about three or four when she was taking the dance classes at that time. Yeah. But then it became on, you know that they both the kids were involved, but I couldn't afford it anymore. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  35:45 So dance is very expensive. Yeah? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  35:48 Well, you know, like, at that time too, I was going to school, and I didn't have much of a salary, and I was living with my parents, so, I mean, and they were retired, so it was, like, very tight. Yeah, right. Michael Hingson  36:04 Well, it nice to have an enthusiastic student, you know, Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  36:13 so true. Well, Michael Hingson  36:15 so you've created the many colors of Natalie blog, tell me about that. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  36:22 So I reach out to different artists that were that are located in Pittsburgh or at one time, working or living in Pittsburgh. So this is like musicians, photographers, actors and they, I I create questions for them, for them to answer in their own words, like advice that they would give, or funny stories that they had while working in the field. And that's that's the main point of the blog, because I want it to be a resource for people and for them to also see, like, why that genre is cool. And I think another reason that motivated me to create that blog is some people just don't see an importance to art, and I find that so offensive. Like, yeah, so I just wanted it to be as an educational type thing as well. Michael Hingson  37:28 How long has the blog been visible? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  37:33 So it's been visible for about five, six years now, five years, yeah, and I did over like 50 some posts. Michael Hingson  37:45 Do you do that with consistency? Or So do you have one, like, every week or every three weeks, or every month, or something like that? Or how does that work? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  37:53 So when I first started, I was consistent with the posts I don't ever leave my blog, like, not active for like a year. Like, I always try to post something, but it's a little more challenging to do a post. Like, every month, whenever I'm working, going to school, volunteering for different things, running the Etsy shopper, vending so I had to cut it back a little bit because that is just me running it. Michael Hingson  38:30 So you've also created a mixed media piece. First of all, what is a mixed media piece? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  38:35 You want to explain Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  38:36 the mixed media? Oh, well, a mixed media is like different mediums. It could be paint, it could be pictures, and it's posted on a board, a canvas, or whatever it can be in a journal. You know, you just use various types of mediums. It could be using lace, it could be using fabric, it could be using, like I said, pictures, paper, and they call it mixed media. So she decided she wanted to create a mixed media. I had a huge canvas that was given to me. It was like 36 by 36 giant. It was huge, and I knew I couldn't do anything on that, because I don't paint big. I like to paint on smaller canvas, like an eight and a half by 11, or eight and a half by 14. So she, she decided she wanted to use that Canvas for something. But you go ahead and tell them. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  39:38 So, um, whenever Woodstock had their 50th anniversary, and I believe that was around 2019 I had the opportunity to go to yaska's Farm and camp where the original campers from the very first Woodstock would stay in that. Campsite was like, right next to this yaska farms. So I took some pictures of it, like me with the yaska farm house. And so it was very inspirational to go to that because I was doing research on what Woodstock was, the original Woodstock. And what that was about, I talked to Uber drivers that were actually at the original Woodstock. Jimi Hendrix is one of my favorite musicians, and for him to not be there, I was like, so sad. Very sad. So with all the education experience. I needed to release that. And I took my mom, let me have that canvas, and like I created a mixed media giant collage, and I got that into the Woodstock Museum in Socrates, New York. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  41:01 Wow, it's actually there now, Michael Hingson  41:04 yep. How long has it been there? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  41:07 I believe got that in there? Yeah, about two years. Michael Hingson  41:13 Wow. So it's kind of almost a permanent piece there. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  41:17 I hope so. I hope they keep it there for sure. What? Michael Hingson  41:21 What prompted them to be interested in having it there. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  41:25 So I that piece was so giant, and I loved how it turned out, and I wanted that more than just in my house, my art pieces are very close to me, because that's like my soul and my work, and I want it out there to somebody who cares about it. So I reached out to Shelly nation, Nathan, because they, I believe, are the owners of the Woodstock Museum, and they were more than happy to have it. I had it shipped out there. And then, whenever the season was to reopen the museum, I went out there and visited it. And it's a very great it's a very cool place. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  42:10 Recommend, yeah, she, she was interviewed by them, also, right? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  42:14 Oh, yeah, we did go on a radio station. And that was also a cool experience, because I was never on a radio show at that time. Cool. Michael Hingson  42:25 Well, that's pretty exciting. I have not been to the Woodstock Museum, so that might be something to explore at some point when I get get back there next that'd Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  42:35 be great. Yeah, Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  42:37 all those things like, you know, like I grew up during that period, of course, I didn't go to the Woodstock. Original Woodstock wouldn't let me do that. I was only 16 at the time, and but I mean, you know, like, like looking back at that and and seeing how all those people were there, and not nothing terrible happened, you know, I mean, hundreds of 1000s of people, and nobody got hurt. Well, they might have passed out, maybe from things, but nobody was, like, shot or killed or and like today. I mean, you can't you're so afraid to do anything today, you don't know what's going to happen. And it just was a different time. And the musicians that were there. I mean, that music was is still good today. You know, it's it, it hasn't faded. And I wonder sometimes about today's music, if it will continue to be popular in years to come, or if it's just going to fade out. You know, we won't know that, and so well I won't be here, probably Michael Hingson  43:44 we won't know for a while anyway, yes, but I did hear on a radio station a rebroadcast of a lot of the Woodstock concerts that was kind of Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  43:56 fun. Yes, yes. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  44:00 Sorry I didn't mean to cut you. Go ahead. Go ahead. When I was talking to like the Uber drivers and stuff like that, and people who were at the original Woodstock, it seems like they were reliving that experience when they were telling the stories. I mean, it was great. Michael Hingson  44:15 Yeah. Well, you play creative percussion. First of all, what is pre creative percussion? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  44:23 So I actually have that written in some notes, what it actually is. So do you mind if I read off my notes? Michael Hingson  44:30 You're welcome to however you want to answer, perfect. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  44:33 So I was asked to be a creative percussion artist in 2020 and creative percussion is a family owned business established in 2018 and run by husband and wife team, Kevin and Sherry Feeney. They're great. I've had the opportunity to talk to them very much a couple of times, and my pictures also on the site. Um. Uh, under like my stage name now is a Bulla. So if you scroll down spell that it's S, E, B as a boy, u as in unicorn, L, L as in Len and a is an apple. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  45:16 Okay, what types of things, kinds Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  45:18 of there's various types of shakers that I played because of various bands that I was in, I was the percussionist, so I played tambourine and stuff. But like, they have uniquely shaped shakers, like there's the hatch shakers, which I love them. They had a baseball shaker, and these little golf ball shakers, and they all carry different sounds, and they really blended differently with the type of song that I was playing was playing, yeah, so it's cool, Michael Hingson  45:53 yeah, so interesting. So you you play them as part of being with a band, or what Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  46:01 for the most part, yeah, sometimes there was an acoustic band or just like a full band, and either way, I tried to have those pieces blend into the song. What I didn't learn when I was doing that is and an acoustic you really have to be on your game, because, like, if you mess up, like, people are gonna hear it more than if you're in a full band. So, yeah, right. Michael Hingson  46:38 So you do you still do that? Do you still play Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  46:42 at this time? I don't, um, just because I wanted to focus on other things, so I took a step back from that. Michael Hingson  46:51 Do you think you'll do more of it in the future, or Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  46:56 possibly, but like, that's how I am. I kind of just like, experience it, do it until I'm ready to move on to something else. Michael Hingson  47:04 So you flit, you flip from thing to thing, yeah, yeah, yeah. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  47:10 So, like, if you ever follow me, you might just see, like, me evolving and just trying other things. Michael Hingson  47:19 Well, you're adventurous. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  47:22 Yes, I love adventure. Michael Hingson  47:25 Nothing wrong with having an adventure in the world and getting to really look at things. So what are you doing now if you're not doing creative percussion and so on? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  47:38 Well, for the last couple months, I was helping my mom recover from like the back surgery. And then I was I was focusing on my blog, just really paying attention to that, getting certain interviews, and then schooling, getting ready to go into the certificate program. Michael Hingson  48:05 So you think you're gonna go ahead Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  48:09 and I'm setting up the Etsy shop. Michael Hingson  48:13 So you're pretty excited about seal, the sports entertainment, art and law. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  48:19 Yes, I'm very excited about that. I was very excited to get into the program. The professors are great. The whole programs like really good. The people involved in it, they seemed, they seem really organized and let me know what I need to do to get into the program. And they are really nice. If I have a question, they're happy to answer it. I love the curriculum, so I hope you go, Well, Michael Hingson  48:46 do you experience anything any more dealing with like attention deficit? Oh, 100% it still creeps up, huh? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  48:55 Well, it's more anxiety than anything. But like this program, I think, is to help calm my anxiety with just different things that are set up. And like, how responsive the professors are and how nice they are. But my goodness, when I was in my undergraduate program, like I was really pushing myself, and I would like, of like, when 2020, came around in the pandemic, I needed to talk to my doctor and get on meds, like I could no longer not do that without meds. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  49:29 Yes, she was, she was struggling. It was tough. Yeah. I mean, when I went for my Bachelor's, I I I wasn't working. She was working. When I went for my master's, I was working, but, and I know how hard that is, you know, trying to balance things, especially I was working at equitable at the time, and the things that I was going through and being, you know, filling in for supervisors was I. I was on call, like, 24 hours a day, and it, you know, like that was, I can see how difficult it is to do both. It's just, I know what she was going through there, and she goes through it, but she did well. She graduated sigma, sigma cum laude. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  50:17 Yeah, I did get some honorary, like accolades for like, whenever I graduated. So that was pretty exciting, because the hard work did pay off. Michael Hingson  50:29 What do you think about studying and attending classes virtually as opposed to physically being in the room? Hybrid learning? Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  50:38 Some people may have an issue with that, but I personally, cause I was working full time and it was hard for me to get later classes, I preferred the online learning, but I understand, like some of the classes really did need me to be there, like the theater classes, and I was okay with that. I don't mind either, either or, but it just seems like online learning is more manageable. For me, it Michael Hingson  51:08 takes more discipline to to stick with it and focus on it, as opposed to being in the classroom. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  51:14 Um, yeah, I agree, but I think which, which is not a negative thing, by the way. Oh, yeah, no, no, no, I totally understand, but I think, um, I forget what I was going with that. Michael Hingson  51:26 Sorry. Well, we were talking about the fact that more discipline dealing with, Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  51:33 Oh, yeah. Oh, that's right, thank you. It's just, um, I think if you truly want it, you're gonna put forth the effort in anything. You know, it's may not always be enjoyable, but like, if you want it, you'll put through it. You'll push through it, like with high school, my mom knows, just like from elementary to high school, like that curriculum, I was just not feeling it, but I knew I had to stick it out. I wanted to be a high school dropout. I voiced that many of times, but like, I knew if I wanted to get to culinary school, I had to really focus on my academics through then and just try to push through and just do it, do what I had to do to graduate. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  52:19 Yeah, it's such a different environment to high school, I believe, you know, like I found that I really enjoyed college. I enjoyed my subjects. They went fast. The classes went fast. It was fast paced, but it was an I learned more. I you know, I think that slowness of the way that they do things in in the high school, it takes them like three weeks to get through one chapter, you know, and so it, it just, it just made it a big difference. And I, I wished I could continue to go to school. I think I was a really good student. Michael Hingson  52:59 I think one of the things about college is, and I've talked to several people who agree, is, you certainly learn from the courses that you take, but College offers so much more with with with the extracurricular activities, with the interaction with people, with The greater responsibility. College offers so many more life lessons if you take advantage of it, that really makes it cool. And I, I always enjoyed college. I liked it a lot. Natalie Belin & Mary Dunn  53:29 Yeah, yeah, I did too, I think with some of my challenges and frustrations, not only with my learning disability, but like the fact that

“A recent study examined emotional intelligence scores from 28,000 adults across 166 countries and uncovered an alarming trend: global emotional intelligence has dropped nearly six per cent between 2019 and 2024.”- Read more here from The Conversation Guiding Question:How might taking a systems approach to social emotional learning and global citizenship education create opportunities to live your school mission, and shape the future of education?  Key Takeaw ays:We have standards and learning outcomes in other academic subjects, so why not in SEL?Resources, frameworks, and professional learning opportunities from ISCA.Next steps for your school to enhance SEL and GCED.If you have enjoyed this podcast please take a moment to subscribe, and also we'd appreciate it if you could leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. The way the algorithm works, this helps our podcast reach more listeners. Thanks from IC for your support. Connect with Kristine Mizzone and ISCADownload a free copy of the ISCA Student Standards Learn more about how Inspire Citizens co-designs customized student leadership and changemakers programsConnect with more stories from the Inspire Citizens network in our vignettesMeasuring the IMPACT of Service Learning projects and initiatives Access free resources for global citizenship educationShare on social media using #EmpathytoImpactEpisode Summary On this episode we do something just a little bit different. Our mission for our podcast is to feature students and give them a voice and a platform to share their work as global citizens and changemakers. On this episode, we have an adult guest on the podcast. Kristine Mizzone from ISCA joins me to unpack the intersection of social emotional learning (SEL) and global citizenship education (GCED), how schools need to take a systems approach to this, and why this work is essential for the future of education. Join us to learn how your school can take important next steps to support and empower the students in your care.Discover a transformative podcast on education and learning from a student perspective and student voice, exploring media, media literacy, and media production to inspire citizens in schools through a media lab focused on 21st-century learning, empathy to impact, Global citizenship, collaboration, systems thinking, service learning, PBL, CAS, MYP, PYP, DP, Service as Action, futures thinking, project-based learning, sustainability, well-being, harmony with nature, community engagement, experiential learning, and the role of teachers and teaching in fostering well-being and a better future.

The "join a hot company" narrative gets even more complicated once you enter the AI-native part of the market. In Part 3 of our PM Career Framework for AI series, we close out with the doors everyone's obsessing over: AI labs, hot AI startups, ex-growth companies, and founding.We unpack what these companies actually look for (spoiler: it's not "AI experience"), why hands-on builders win over managers, how location and pace become make-or-break constraints, and how to think about risk and chaos when the upside is real.If you're trying to figure out whether you should stay put in 2026, or make the leap into the AI frontier, this episode breaks down the tradeoffs.Key topics• What AI labs are really hiring for (and why "productized research" is the core skill)• Why AI labs want radically hands-on PMs, not managers• Why Big Tech experience can become "inside-the-building skills" that don't translate• Which companies expect 9-9-6 culture, and the self-selection problem it creates• Why some struggling-company VP roles are still worth taking• When equity becomes a psychological trap (and when to cut losses)• Why remote leadership roles are rapidly disappearing• The founder litmus test: why it's an emotional decision, not a spreadsheet decision• The upside of founding even when it fails: the career story compounding effectWhere to find other the parts of this series:• Part 1: https://theskip.substack.com/p/the-pm-career-framework-for-ai-how• Part 2: https://theskip.substack.com/p/the-pm-career-framework-for-ai-partWhere to find Nikhyl:• Twitter/X• LinkedInWhere to find Carly:• LinkedIn• She Leads Podcast• Twitter/XJoin The Skip:• Skip Coach• Skip CommunityFind The Skip:• Website• Substack• YouTube• Spotify• Apple PodcastsTimestamps(00:58) The “doors” framework: building a personal stack rank for AI(04:57) The “productized research” skill: turning magic into product(08:29) Why AI labs want hands-on builders, not managers(15:00) Does AI domain expertise matter?(19:14) Location constraints: The SF requirement for PM roles(21:39) The Atlassian → OpenAI decision: Upending everything for the skip job(30:16) Inside the high pace at AI Labs(32:00) Hot AI Startups: the IC role that's a step forward(39:12) The 9-9-6 Reality: who's actually doing it(41:59) The power years problem: Gender, biology, and self-selection(46:13) The brand value of hot AI startups(48:32) When equity becomes a psychological trap (and when to cut losses)(54:12) Why some struggling-company VP roles are still worth taking(58:53) Why remote leadership roles are declining(63:10) The ex-growth equity risk: Why your compensation might never materialize(65:24) Choosing between YC offer vs AI lab internship vs college(73:41) The founder litmus test: why it's an emotional decision, not a spreadsheet decision(80:24) When to join vs found(82:31) Constraints + doors = your personalized career advice This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theskip.substack.com

Tommy Dreamer reacts to the first RAW of 2026 including CM Punk defeating Bron Breakker to retain his World HW title along with Becky Lynch defeating Maxxine Dupri to reclaim the Women's IC title. To visit our partners at Chewy, click here. The Master's Class is now available on its own podcast feed! SUBSCRIBE NOW to hear over 50 episodes of Dave, Bully, Mark, and Tommy taking you behind the scenes like only they can, plus BRAND NEW episodes every week. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Busted Open ad-free and get exclusive access to bonus episodes. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Download the FREE Job Descriptions for Travel Business Roles: tiquehq.com/job-descriptions?utm_source=Podcast+Episode+180&utm_medium=Podcast+Shownotes&utm_campaign=Job+DescriptionsWhat if growing a team isn't about scaling faster, but scaling smarter? In this episode, Jordan Rush and Kim Hebert, who took over Explorateur Travel after Jennifer sold the agency, pull back the curtain on what it really takes to expand a team with intention. They break down how they prepare each new IC cohort, what onboarding looks like behind the scenes, and why a cohort-based model creates stronger consistency, accountability, and retention. You'll also hear the honest realities of growth, including the time and profit tradeoffs of running a team, how they balance mentorship while still managing their own clients, and how they know when it's truly the right time to expand again. If you're considering growing your agency or wondering what it takes to support ICs well, this episode offers a refreshingly honest look at building a mentorship-driven model that lasts!About Explorateur Travel's Kim Hebert & Jordan Rush:Kim Hebert stepped into ownership of Explorateur Travel in 2022, bringing a people-first leadership style shaped by her background in marketing, advertising, and travel design. After joining the agency as a Travel Designer in 2020, she quickly became known for her attention to detail and ability to turn client visions into seamless, highly personal itineraries. A Louisiana native, Kim is driven by connection and collaboration—values rooted in her time with Kappa Delta that now guide both Explorateur's client experience and internal culture.Jordan Rush also became co-owner in 2022, inspired by the agency's mission to create thoughtful, one-of-a-kind travel experiences. With over a decade of experience in hotel sales and event planning, she brings a strong foundation in hospitality, relationship-building, and service excellence. Her Kappa Delta roots continue to shape her leadership, emphasizing community, purpose, and meaningful partnerships that support clients at every stage of their journey.Today we will cover:(02:30) Why Jordan and Kim chose a cohort-based model for growing a team(12:45) What onboarding actually looks like behind the scenes(22:30) What they look for when selecting new ICs(30:50) How interviews are structured and what questions they ask(34:00) The real cost of running a mentorship-based model(45:50) How Jordan and Kim balance mentoring with client workJOIN THE NICHE COMMUNITYVISIT THE TEMPLATE SHOPEXPLORE THE PROGRAMSFOLLOW ALONG ON INSTAGRAM

Hello and welcome to episode 85 of The DX Mentor – A recap with Dave, KJ9I.If this is the first time you are joining us, Welcome! We have a back catalog covering many aspects of DX in both podcast and YouTube format. Please check us out. If you like what you find, please subscribe to always be notified about upcoming episodes!     If you have a comment or a question, please drop me a note at thedxmentor@gmail.comSince the end of the year holidays are a great time to get together with friends, it seemed appropriate to check in on Dave, KJ9I, to see what he has been up to. We had Dave on for episode 30, all about 6 meters, and episode 41, all about EME operation. It was very instructive and popular. Dave is back with us so we can get caught up. Lets check it out!Below are the links that we alluded to. Episode 30 - 6 Metershttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY9aFr68y7oEpisode 41 - Operating EMEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr7B03G5YVYARC Club Site: https://www.qrz.com/db/KD9BOGThe Battle Creek Special Antennahttps://ok1rr.com/the-battle-creek-special-antenna/Q65 Modehttps://k5nd.net/2023/03/wsjt-x-and-the-q65-mode-for-6-meters-and-up/Moon Sked Softwarehttps://www.dxzone.com/dx2036/moonsked.htmlW7GJhttps://www.qrz.com/db/W7GJAj8b@arrl.netWhatsApp - +5135039901Website: www.aj8b.comYoutube & Podcast TheDXMentorReal Time DX Info (DailyDX https://www.dailydx.com/Southwest Ohio DX Assoc. https://www.swodxa.orgDaily DX https://www.dailydx.com/DX Engineering https://www.dxengineering.com/Icom https://www.icomamerica.com/IC-7760 Product Page: https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-7760IC-PW2 Product Page: https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-PW2IC-7300 MK2 Product Page: https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-7300MK2/IC-9700 Product Page: https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-9700/IC-905 Product Page: https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-905/IC-R8600 Product Page: https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-R8600/IC-52A Plus Product Page: https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/ID-52APLUS/

Новый год, новые цели, новые разочарования? 90% людей бросают свои новогодние обещания уже к февралю.Как не стать частью этой статистики? Как поставить цели, которые реально достижимы?И главное - как прожить этот год так, чтобы в декабре не чувствовать себя выжатым лимоном?Обсудили в прямом эфире.Андрей Микитюк (Andrei Mikitiuk) - Senior Technical Program Manager в Palo Alto Networks,эксперт по Data и ML, преподаватель GMAT (99-й перцентиль).Получил MBA в UNC Kenan-Flagler и степень по Educational Psychology в Harvard.За плечами - карьерный путь от разработчика до руководителя больших команд и обратно к IC.Живет в США, пишет об иммиграции, карьере и личностном росте.https://www.linkedin.com/in/amikitiuk/Эфиры с Андреем:Какие софты решают карьеру в США, особенно если вы - выходец из СНГ? Марша Подоляк и Андрей Микитюк https://youtube.com/live/sT7bR9WSAQw Как не сойти с ума, когда вокруг все теряют работу, а ты застрял в корпорации, которую ненавидишь. https://youtube.com/live/A2w1H51Gd_Q 40+: Жизнь после сорока только начинается или все же нет? Перезагрузка или Game Over? https://youtube.com/live/t-v4gbKksow Записаться на карьерную консультацию (резюме, LinkedIn, карьерная стратегия, поиск работы в США)https://annanaumova.comКоучинг (синдром самозванца, прокрастинация, неуверенность в себе, страхи, лень)https://annanaumova.notion.site/3f6ea5ce89694c93afb1156df3c903abСоцсети:Телеграм:https://t.me/prodcastUSAИнстаграм:https://www.instagram.com/prodcast.usТикТок:https://www.tiktok.com/@us.job⏰ Timecodes ⏰00:00 Начало11:38 Как прожить год хорошо?1:00:49 Общение с чатом1:16:50 Как строить планы?

The following DX information comes from Bernie, W3UR, editor of the DailyDX, the WeeklyDX, and the How's DX column in QST. If you would like a free 2-week trial of the DailyDX, your only source of real-time DX information, just drop me a note at thedxmentor@gmail.comLZØA, South Shetland Islands - LZ1AAW, Ivo, is onhis way to the South Shetland Islands where he will be working during the 34thBulgarian Antarctic expedition. He plans to be QRV in his spare time as LZØA. The dates are from December 28 to February 16, plus or minus two days. Ivo expects to be on 20M, and possibly other bands, on SSB and FT8/FT4. Theactivation is registered under IOTA reference AN-010 and WAP reference WAP BUL-01, and falls within CQ Zone 13, ITU Zone 73, and the DXCC entity VP8, LU -South Shetland Islands (#67 on the Club Log DXCC Most Wanted list). CE0X - San Felix and San Ambrosio - Felipe, XQ7IR, ispreparing for his upcoming 3G0XQ DXpedition to San Ambrosio, scheduled from January 12 to February 15.  He recently drove 14 hours to the Port of Valparaiso to oversee his equipment being shipped to Juan Fernandez.  Once all necessary paperwork is completed, Felipe and his gear will continue on to San Ambrosio by charter vessel in the coming weeks. This update is courtesy of DX World. XU - Cambodia - DL7BO, Tom, who is QRV until January 18, is using the callsign XU7O. He will be active on 160-6 meters using CW, SSB, and FT8, with a focus on the lower bands. QSL information remains direct to DJ4WK, or via LoTW, Club Log, or eQSL. FO - French Polynesia - FO/JI1JKW is QRVuntil January 6 from Tikehau and Tuamotu islands.  The band plan is to operate 7, 14, 18, 21, 24, 28 and 50, and SSB, CW and FT8.  QSL to his home QTH or use LoTW. FY - French Guiana - F4GPK, Peter, is QRV as TO2FY until January 15 from Kourou. C5YK, The Gambia – Andre, ON7YK, is QRVfrom The Gambia as C5YK until January 25. He is operating on SSB, RTTY, PSK, FT8, FT4, and some CW on 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10M. QSL only via LoTW, eQSL, or direct to ON7YK. He posts his logbook on his website.   VP8 - South Shetland Islands - LZ1AAW, Ivo, is heading to the Bulgarian Antarctic Base "St. Kliment Ohridski" on Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands (IOTA AN-010). He plans tooperate as LZ0A during his free time from late December 2025 to mid-February 2026. The base, located at 62¯38'S, 60¯21'W in the eastern part of Livingston Island, has been permanently staffed since December 11, 1993. 5Z – Kenya- Not an expedition but on the air casually, "holiday style," will be OZ6ABL/5Z4, Michael Johansen, January 15-28.  He says he will try to get on the air as much as possible.  It is his 14th trip to Kenya but the first time taking a radio along. Michael will be on 80-6 but did not get permission for60.  QSL to his home call, OZ6ABL, and LoTW and Club Log will also work. Z3 - Republic of North Macedonia - The specialevent callsign Z380CEF is being used to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Ham Radio Club "STEVO PATAKOT" in Bitola, Republic of North Macedonia. The club, formerly known as YU5CEF and currently Z37CEF, has been active since 1946. Operations will continue until December 31, 2026. XT - Burkina Faso – Max, DK1MAX, will be in Burkina Faso from January 4th to January 11th, 2026, operating as XT2MAX. He plans to use an IC-7300 rig with up to 100W of power, working mostly on 20m to 6m bands, and possibly lower bands if conditions allow. Modes will include CW, SSB, and FTx (MSHV, no F/H). QSLs will be handled via EA5GL and Club Log, with daily free LoTW uploads. 

/// Support The Scalpel with Dr. Keith Rose - Experience a Healthier You with LifeWave Phototherapy Patches. These non-transdermal, drug-free patches capture infrared light emitted by your body, reflecting it at specific wavelengths. Visit https://lifewave.com/RoseMD to learn more or call 866.202.0065 In this NYE episode of The Scalpel,Dr. Keith Rose delivers a 2025 SITREP (Situation Report) and is joined by Bazzel Baz. **Bazzel Baz is a former CIA Intelligence Special Operations Group Officer, U.S. Marine Corps counter-terrorism officer, and founder of the Association for the Recovery of Children (ARC). Known for his expertise in child rescue and human trafficking prevention, he shares invaluable insights as a public speaker, author, and producer.** This is a powerful conversation that is a combination of warnings. desires, responses and solutions. Its an open report for American citizens, honorable members of the IC, and "47" . We hope this message reaches President Trump since good information is the only way to make good decisions. We will continue this conversation in 2026, and wish you and your loved ones a Happy New Year. /// The Scalpel is proud to partner with Brickhouse Nutrition. Dr. Rose uses and highly recommends Field of Greens. Your purchase through this link supports The Scalpel Podcast. /// https://scalpeledge.com/brickhouse Connect with The Scalpel: Website: https://scalpeledge.com Email: KFR@scalpeledge.com TruthSocial: @scalpeledge Rumble: @TheScalpel X: @TheScalpelEdge Instagram: @TheScalpelPodcast

This is our annual recap episode. We talk about how things went in 2025 and what we're hoping to see in 2026.Personal goals for 2026Rick Getting back to basicsGoing from reactive to proactive (and surviving to thriving)Shifting from a strategy of playing it safe and reducing risk to taking smart risk and being ok looking a little foolishTyler Handle the transition back to full-time work (as it impacts parenting)Find clarity on what level of wealth we're comfortable exposing our daughter to.Help Shelly find more ways to go out at night while I take care of SydFinalize will+trustStretch goal: Start vibe coding personal appsProfessional goals for 2026Rick (hopes to achieve at least two of these goals) Outsource, delegate, or automate recurring tasks that I no longer value doing and/or others don't value me doingTry to grow LegUp Health by 50%, but do it in a way that we are all excited aboutRebuild personal website + read 10 really, really good nonfiction books and publish notes on themExperiment with AI to generate 1 additional revenue streamTyler Spend almost all IC time on design, product management, and coding. Fewer distractions!Management: Get the team up to speed on AI, and make it self-sustainingProduct management/design: Figure out how to keep up with the devs (especially if AI allows them to move even faster)Product Ship Mobile and KanbanReduce support by making things more self-serveMain theme: The first 30 minutes Onboarding improvementsRebuild the importing flowSimplification Separate contacts and companiesOpen contacts in page dialogStatuses on the contact recordTable view of contacts

Maxxine Dupri is a rising WWE star blending confidence, charisma, and rapid in-ring growth as she continues to carve out her own identity on the main roster. Known for her evolution from outspoken personality to determined competitor, Dupri represents the next wave of WWE's women's division. In the newest "Casual Conversations with The Classic'' episode, the Wrestling Classic Justin catches up with the reigning and defending Women's Intercontinental Champion Maxxine Dupri! They discuss her journey up the ranks in the WWE, winning the IC Title, her families reaction, the support from her old teams from her time as a cheerleader, Becky Lynch, Chad Gable, overcoming fan criticism, teaming with her soon to be husband and much more! Enjoy!My Official Website + Demo Reel - https://www.justindhillon.com Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thewrestlingclassic/ TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@thewrestlingclassic X - https://x.com/twcworldwide Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheWrestlingClassic/ Limited Edition TWC Tee https://headquartersclothing.com/products/headquarters-x-the-wrestling-classic-logo-tee?_pos=1&_psq=wrestlinhg&_ss=e&_v=1.0 WWE Shop Affiliate wwe-shop.sjv.io/RGRxQv 500 Level https://www.500level.com/ Join the Discord Community https://linktr.ee/thewrestlingclassic All Episodes are on "The Wrestling Classic" Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOQOYraeFlX-xd8f3adQtTw#MaxxineDupri #WWE #ICTitle Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/twc-show--4417554/support.

Nous sommes le 10 octobre 1895. Le journal « Fin de siècle », fondé à Paris, quatre ans plus tôt, s'interroge sur le départ annoncé de la danseuse star de l'Opéra Garnier, Cléo de Mérode. On murmure qu'elle pourrait rejoindre, en Belgique, celui que l'on prétend son amant : le roi Léopold II, de quarante ans son aînée. On peut lire dans l'hebdomadaire à potins : « S'il faut en croire les on-dit, MM Bertrand et Gailhard, directeurs de l'Opéra, quoique désolés de se séparer de leur pensionnaire, lui ont galamment accordé la résiliation de son engagement, sur un simple désir exprimé par S.M. Léopold II, roi des Belges. Six jours plus tard « Le Petit Troyen » qui se définit comme quotidien républicain radical, confirme la décision, qui pourtant ne figure pas dans les registres de l'Opéra : « Melle Cléo de Mérode quitte le ballet de l'Opéra pour le théâtre de la Monnaie de Bruxelles. Les bonnes camarades qui n'ont pas la langue en poche, je vous prie de le croire, donnent à ce départ des raisons plus ou moins romanesque. Un grand personnage de Belgique aurait décidé ce changement et les commentaires vont bon train. » Qui est Cléo de Mérode que les mauvaises langues appelleront Cléopold. Qu'en est-il, en vérité, de sa relation avec le monarque ? Cléo de Mérode que, bien plus tard, Simone de Beauvoir comparera à une prostituée, était une icône, celle de la Belle époque. Adulée, copiée, on en a fait une séductrice, une manipulatrice, une scandaleuse. Allons chercher, aujourd'hui, la nuance … Avec nous : Yannick Ripa, autrice de « Cléo de Mérode – Icône de la Belle Epoque » ; Taillandier. Sujets traités : Cléo de Mérode, icône, belle époque, Opéra Garnier, Léopold II, Simone de Beauvoir Merci pour votre écoute Un Jour dans l'Histoire, c'est également en direct tous les jours de la semaine de 13h15 à 14h30 sur www.rtbf.be/lapremiere Retrouvez tous les épisodes d'Un Jour dans l'Histoire sur notre plateforme Auvio.be :https://auvio.rtbf.be/emission/5936 Intéressés par l'histoire ? Vous pourriez également aimer nos autres podcasts : L'Histoire Continue: https://audmns.com/kSbpELwL'heure H : https://audmns.com/YagLLiKEt sa version à écouter en famille : La Mini Heure H https://audmns.com/YagLLiKAinsi que nos séries historiques :Chili, le Pays de mes Histoires : https://audmns.com/XHbnevhD-Day : https://audmns.com/JWRdPYIJoséphine Baker : https://audmns.com/wCfhoEwLa folle histoire de l'aviation : https://audmns.com/xAWjyWCLes Jeux Olympiques, l'étonnant miroir de notre Histoire : https://audmns.com/ZEIihzZMarguerite, la Voix d'une Résistante : https://audmns.com/zFDehnENapoléon, le crépuscule de l'Aigle : https://audmns.com/DcdnIUnUn Jour dans le Sport : https://audmns.com/xXlkHMHSous le sable des Pyramides : https://audmns.com/rXfVppvN'oubliez pas de vous y abonner pour ne rien manquer.Et si vous avez apprécié ce podcast, n'hésitez pas à nous donner des étoiles ou des commentaires, cela nous aide à le faire connaître plus largement. Hébergé par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

In Human Design, your Incarnation Cross is your core life theme, or what you might call your life's purpose. In one way or another, it's what you're here to get done. But, like, what if you read the description, and…  The job/career/life experiences you want don't seem to fit into that? You feel drawn to something, but aren't sure if it's "correct" according to your cross? You can't see how it applies to you? Your cross is vague or doesn't make any sense? Or (worst of all) your cross sounds, like, SUPER BORING????  Do you have to change jobs? Do you need to move countries? Do you need to turn your entire life upside down? Nope

CardioNerds (Dr. Colin Blumenthal, Dr. Kelly Arps, and Dr. Natalie Marrero) discuss anti-arrhythmic drugs in the management of atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter with electrophysiologist Dr. Andrew Epstein. We discuss two major classes of anti-arrhythmic drugs, class IC and class III, as well as digoxin. Dr. Epstein explains their mechanisms of action, indications and specific patient populations in which they would be particularly helpful, efficacy, adverse side effects, contraindications, and key drug-drug interactions. We also elaborate on defining clinical trials and their clinical implications. Given the large burden of atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter in our patient population and the high prevalence of anti-arrhythmic drug use, this episode is sure to be applicable to many practicing physicians and trainees. Audio editing by CardioNerds academy intern, Grace Qiu.  Enjoy this Circulation 2022 Paths to Discovery article to learn about the CardioNerds story, mission, and values. CardioNerds Atrial Fibrillation PageCardioNerds Episode PageCardioNerds AcademyCardionerds Healy Honor Roll CardioNerds Journal ClubSubscribe to The Heartbeat Newsletter!Check out CardioNerds SWAG!Become a CardioNerds Patron! Pearls Anti-arrhythmic drugs should not be thought of as an alternative to ablation but, instead, should be considered an adjunct to catheter ablation.   Class IC anti-arrhythmic drugs, flecainide and propafenone, are highly efficacious for acute cardioversion and a great option for patients with infrequent episodes of AF who do not have a history of ischemic heart disease.    Class III anti-arrhythmic drugs like ibutilide, sotalol, and dofetilide, are highly effective for acute conversion; however, they require hospitalization for close monitoring during initiation and dose titration given the risk of prolonged QT.   Amiodarone should not be used as a first line agent given its toxicities, prolonged half-life, large volume of distribution, and drug-drug interactions.   Dr. Epstein notes that, “All drugs are poisons with a few beneficial side effects,” when highlighting the many adverse side effects of anti-arrhythmic drugs, particularly amiodarone, and the importance of balancing their benefit in rhythm control with their side effect profile.   Notes Notes: Notes drafted by Dr. Natalie Marrero. What are the Class IC anti-arrhythmic drugs and what indications exist for their use?   Class IC anti-arrhythmic drugs are anti-arrhythmic drugs that work by blocking sodium channels and, thereby, prolonging depolarizing.   Class IC anti-arrhythmic drugs include flecainide and propafenone.   Class IC anti-arrhythmic drugs are good agents to use in patients that have infrequent episodes of AF and do not want daily dosing as these agents can be used by patients when they feel palpitations and desire acute conversion back to sinus rhythm (“pill in the pocket” approach).    What are the adverse consequences and/or contraindications to using a class IC agent?  Class IC anti-arrhythmic agents are contraindicated in patients with a history of ischemic heart disease based on increased mortality associated with their use in these patients in the CAST trial.   Given the results of the CAST trial, providers should screen annually for ischemia via a functional stress test in patients on these drugs at risk for coronary disease.   These drugs can increase 1:1 conduction of atrial flutter and, therefore, require concomitant use of a beta blocker.   These agents are generally well-tolerated without any organ toxicities; however, they can precipitate heart failure in patients with cardiomyopathies, cause sinus node depression, and unmask genetic arrythmias such as a Brugada pattern.   What are the class III agents and what are indications for their use?   Class III agents are drugs that block the potassium channel, prolonging the QT, and include Ibutilide, Sotalol, and Dofetilide.    Class III agents can be considered in patients with or without a history of ischemic heart disease that desire effective acute chemical cardioversion and are willing to go to the hospital for close monitoring during dose initiation and titration.   Other specific circumstances in which one can use these agents, specifically Ibutilide, are in patients with recurrent atrial fibrillation and Wolf Parkinson White (due to slowed conduction via the accessory pathway).  What are the adverse consequences and/or contraindications to using a class III agent?  Ibutilide, Sotalol, and Dofetilide prolong the QT and increase the risk of torsade de pointes, which is why they require ECG monitoring in-patient during drug initiation and dose titration.    These agents are generally well-tolerated.   Sotalol should be avoided or used cautiously in patients with left ventricular dysfunction, while dofetilide can be used and has dose-response beneficial effects in patients with left ventricular dysfunction.   Both sotalol and dofetilide are renally cleared with specific creatinine clearance cutoffs (CrCl < 20 for dofetilide and CrCl

Deck the halls and join the chaos!!! All hell breaks loose in this special.......Nando and Jonathan have a step brothers moment, Jonathan almost got buried alive. Slices of Jake "Humble" Pie were given out and Arianna brings are favorite wrestling family on!!! Get ready for a helluva show with our favorite segment "You Just Made the List", Christmas Wishes and so much more......CHEERS!!!JERKING THE CURTAINROUND TABLE OF TOPICSNEWSZilla Fatu coming to NXT???Rumors of WWE signing an AEW superstar (Danhausen) Prayers for Jerry Lawler after a recent stroke SI's wrestling awards for 2025 raised eyebrows “You Just Made the List” Top 5 WWE Video GamesSMACKDOWN Cody in black looks really good……just saying Priest kicks off Smackdown, Zelina interrupts and the new look is fire I am drinking the Lash and Nia kool aid……let's gooooNick Aldis showing off the guns, Drew has demands for reinstatement…..Cody at Drew's house is grrrreat for business When will Chelsea get another agent???Cody putting Nick in the middle of his feud with Drew is damn good for business Dragunov continues to cook……let's throw some bigger names at him Jade building a list of enemies she might not be able to keep up with RAWHold the press……Je'Von's a free agent???Austin Theory is not asking and taking…..are we drinking the kool aid???Asuka and Rhea put on a banger of a match Is Becky's obsession with the IC title or Maxine??? When will this endIs a triple threat match the best idea for Stephanie???Usos vs AJ Lee should be a PLE I'm loving the version of Bayley……it's working, speaking of not working……what's going down with Judgement Day???How would you rate Gunther's current heel level???Nikki and I got beef Breaker cuts a solid promo Punk is still pissed and Theory looks great in his return…..is he with the Vision now? NXTXmas wishes and predictions New Years Evil January 6th Check out the Smackdown Siblings on TikTok Episodes dropping weekly!!!Follow on the gram @the.funkaholiks.pod THEE POD THAT TALKS WHAT THEY LOVE 

Winning consistently at North Carolina has proved a challenge for Hubert Davis. Now in his fifth season, Davis has a team that fits his brand of basketball and his talented roster, led by veteran Seth Trimble, transfer Henri Veesaar and freshman stud Caleb Wilson, sits at 12-1 heading into ACC play. Davis's team has been solid and has yet to reach its full potential. Inside Carolina's Greg Barnes and Tommy Ashley discuss the job Davis has done in the 2025-26 so far. The Inside Carolina Podcast network features a wide range of current UNC sports topics, from game previews and instant postgame analysis, to recruiting breakdowns. IC's stable of writers, insiders and analysts -- plus special guests -- comprise each program. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Standing 12-1 heading into ACC play, North Carolina has met or exceeded expectations for many that follow the program closely. Inside Carolina's roundtable crew of Greg Barnes, Sherrell McMillan and Spencer Haskell join Tommy Ashley to discuss the Tar Heel season to date - player surprises, areas of concern and more - and then look ahead to the conference race and the challenges a ramp up in consistent competition can present for Hubert Davis's squad. The Inside Carolina Podcast network features a wide range of current UNC sports topics, from game previews and instant postgame analysis, to recruiting breakdowns. IC's stable of writers, insiders and analysts -- plus special guests -- comprise each program. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Inside Carolina's lead basketball analyst Rob Harrington joins Tommy Ashley for a breakdown of North Carolina's complete domination of East Carolina on Monday night in the Smith Center. The Heels started hot and kept the hammer down for the full 40 minutes and head into ACC play on a high note. Harrington and Ashley dig into Carolina's win, further discuss the 12-1 start to the season and Hubert Davis's managing of the rebuilt and talented roster. The Inside Carolina Podcast network features a wide range of current UNC sports topics, from game previews and instant postgame analysis, to recruiting breakdowns. IC's stable of writers, insiders and analysts -- plus special guests -- comprise each program. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Inside Carolina's senior reporter Greg Barnes joins Tommy Ashley for a discussion of what's next for North Carolina after Monday's announcement that long time college coach Bobby Petrino will be hired as UNC's offensive coordinator. The IC duo talks talent, the need for a stronger QB room and how expectations are now viewed going into 2026. The Inside Carolina Podcast network features a wide range of current UNC sports topics, from game previews and instant postgame analysis, to recruiting breakdowns. IC's stable of writers, insiders and analysts -- plus special guests -- comprise each program. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE8yHySiJ4A Hosted by Tony Darnell. From  Sep 21, 2012. This video was done by request from a Space Fan.  Hope it's what you had in mind. IC 1101 is over one billion light years away in the constellation Virgo, just over the border from Serpens. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_1101   We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs.  Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too!  Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.  Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org.

Watch The X22 Report On Video No videos found (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:17532056201798502,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-9437-3289"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");pt> Click On Picture To See Larger PictureThe [CB][WEF] is struggling, Trump and team has designated the offshore wind projects as a national security risk. They have been paused. The people are still struggling with the [CB] system, soon the people will get their buying power back. The [CB] will try to stop Trump’s new economic system, it will fail. The [DS] is feeling the pain every step of the way. The criminal syndicate money laundering system is being exposed is the blue states. The people are waking up to the real system that has been hidden from them. The [DS] continues to tax the people for the money laundering system. Trump is continually countering the [DS], he is using Emissaries to negotiate the peace deals. The [DS] is blind to the conversation. Economy Trump Administration Announces Change to Offshore Wind Construction  President Donald Trump's Department of the Interior is pausing offshore wind project construction due to “national security risks.” “Due to national security concerns identified by the Department of War, Interior is PAUSING leases for 5 expensive, unreliable, heavily subsidized offshore wind farms!” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum wrote on X. “ONE natural gas pipeline supplies as much energy as these 5 projects COMBINED,” Burgum added. “POTUS is bringing common sense back to energy policy & putting security FIRST!” Leases with Vineyard Wind1, Revolution Wind, CVOW, Sunrise Wind, and Empire Wind will be paused. Source: dailysignal.com https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/2002605302932517339?s=20 Gas is About to Get Expensive . . . A gallon of gas costs about twice as much in California as it does pretty much anywhere else in the United States. The reason why, of course, is that California makes it cost about twice as much – by reducing supply and by adding costs, chiefly for “environmental” reasons. This includes a new requirement – going into effect very soon (Dec. 31) that all gas stations must either replace single-walled underground storage tanks or permanently close them – no matter whether the tanks are actually leaking and no matter how much it costs to replace them. It is estimated that about 473 gas stations in California are going to close – because the owners cannot afford the mandatory underground storage tank upgrade costs or the $5,000 per day fines for non-compliance. At the same time, the state's regulatory bureaucracy has essentially shut down supply by denying 97 percent of permits for new refineries to supply the extra-special (and extra-expensive) gasoline formulations that all gas stations in California are required to sell. If this hypothetical scenario ends up becoming the actual scenario it could result in the collapse of California as a state. Source:  ericpetersautos.com  https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2003104230945464505?s=20  As a % of total employment, multiple jobholders rose to 5.8%, nearly matching the 2 previous highs seen over the last 25 years. At the same time, Americans working primary full-time and secondary part-time jobs jumped to 5.3 million, the 2nd-highest in history. As a % of employment, this metric now stands at 3.4%, the 2nd-highest since 2000. The cost of living crisis is real.   (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:18510697282300316,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-8599-9832"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs"); https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2003109247232655382?s=20 Political/Rights Teary-Eyed Bus Driver Speaks Out After Getting FIRED for Posting a ‘Racially Insensitive' Sign on School Bus Window In Response to Unruly Spanish-Speaking Kid – DOJ to Launch Investigation (VIDEO) An elderly bus driver terminated earlier this year for posting a so-called ‘racially insensitive' sign toward a Spanish-speaking kid has broken her silence and the DOJ is launching an investigation. The note on the window read, “Out of respect to English-only students, there will be no speaking Spanish on this bus.” Crawford, who had served the school district as a bus driver for more than 30 years, was promptly suspended and later lost her job posting the note.  https://twitter.com/_johnnymaga/status/2002937980013650119?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2002937980013650119%7Ctwgr%5E9387ff3c86f279c9837393510bf08034917fc6bd%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2025%2F12%2Fteary-eyed-bus-driver-speaks-after-getting-fired%2F https://twitter.com/AAGDhillon/status/2002952621032677759?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2002952621032677759%7Ctwgr%5E9387ff3c86f279c9837393510bf08034917fc6bd%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2025%2F12%2Fteary-eyed-bus-driver-speaks-after-getting-fired%2F Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/2002782448191693130?s=20 https://twitter.com/C_3C_3/status/2002906389560414648?s=20 SEATTLE https://twitter.com/KeenanPeachy/status/2002902633439445012?s=20 https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/2003099681778499980?s=20 https://twitter.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/2002822669507379549?s=20   This is part of a year long effort FBI has undertaken with state and local law enforcement all across the country to crack down on child abusers and take them off the street. That work has seen historic results. -6,000 children located or reduced – up 22% from 2024 -Nearly 2,000 child predators arrested – up 10% -300+ human traffickers arrested – up 15% Lives being saved. We're not letting up. DOGE Geopolitical https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/2002602838149697684?s=20 https://twitter.com/AlboMP/status/2002974532475490578?s=20 https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/2003101218076545039?s=20 Cyberattack disrupts France’s postal service, banking during Christmas rush A suspected cyberattack has knocked France's national postal service and its banking arm offline during the busy Christmas season The postal service, called La Poste, said in a statement that a distributed denial of service incident, or DDoS, “rendered its online services inaccessible.” It said the incident had no impact on customer data, but disrupted package and mail delivery. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.   France and other European allies of Ukraine allege that Russia is waging “hybrid warfare” against them, using sabotage, assassinations, cyberattacks, disinformation and other hostile acts that are often hard to quickly trace back to Moscow. Source:  tribdem.com  War/Peace Kushner and Witkoff Reportedly Draft $112B Plan to Turn Gaza Into ‘Smart City' With Beach Resorts, High-Speed Rail, and AI Grids — U.S. Pushes Back on Claims It Would Foot $60B    Project Sunrise,” envisions a decade-long, $112.1 billion redevelopment effort featuring beachside luxury resorts, high-speed rail, and AI-optimized infrastructure. The draft proposal was developed by a team led by Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law, and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, along with senior White House aide Josh Gruenbaum and other administration officials. The plan is being presented to prospective donor governments via a 32-slide PowerPoint labeled “sensitive but unclassified,” U.S. officials told the Journal. According to the presentation, Project Sunrise would convert Gaza's devastated landscape into a modern coastal metropolis. New Rafah (Credit: Wall Street Journal) Smart City (Credit: Wall Street Journal) However, the proposal does not specify which governments or private entities would ultimately finance the project, nor does it detail where Gaza's roughly two million displaced residents would live during reconstruction, according to WSJ. The draft estimates total costs at $112.1 billion over 10 years, including humanitarian relief, infrastructure rebuilding, and public-sector payrolls. https://twitter.com/StateDept_NEA/status/2002545412729942278?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2002545412729942278%7Ctwgr%5Ef3310cb42b34b4ad502fd5957962a1d8fbe38397%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2025%2F12%2Fkushner-witkoff-reportedly-draft-112b-plan-turn-gaza%2F The proposal also assumes that Gaza could begin to self-fund portions of the development in later years, eventually paying down debt as economic activity expands. Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/2003088356876677484?s=20 Macron Seeks New Talks With Putin, Forcing ‘Alternative’ Path To Stalled US Negotiations Suddenly French President Emmanuel Macron is deciding to revive his diplomacy with Moscow and is     Macron wants to step in to force France’s say in any future outcome or settlement, rather than wait on the diplomatic sidelines. Arming Kiev to the teeth has done nothing but prolong the needless killing, and perhaps at least some European capitals are beginning to realize this. Source: zerohedge.com https://twitter.com/BRICSinfo/status/2003114957060137421?s=20   to be killed in a bombing this year.” Russian General Killed By Car Bomb In Moscow, Marks 3rd Top Officer Assassinated In A Year This adds to a growing list of high profile assassinations related to the Ukraine war. To review: —Darya Dugina was killed in a car bombing in 2022 which was likely meant for her father, prominent political thinker and often dubbed “Putin ally” Aleksandr Dugin. —Gen Igor Kirillov died in December 2024 outside of his residence when a bomb planted in a nearby scooter detonated. —Gen Yaroslav Moskalik, who served as deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, was killed in a car bomb attack last April. A “homemade” explosive device detonated under his Volkswagen Golf in a residential neighborhood. Throughout the course of the war there’s been a string of these high profile assassinations on Russian soil involving car and even cafe bombs. America’s CIA or Britain’s MI6 has long been suspected of being involved in these targeted killings, or at least assisting in such brazen Ukrainian-linked operations, but ultimately little has been uncovered or proven in terms of a potential Western hidden hand in this ongoing ‘dirty war’. Source: zerohedge.com https://twitter.com/LeadingReport/status/2002809124674035943?s=20  Medical/False Flags [DS] Agenda DOJ Charges California Food Stamp Official for Sending Benefits to Dead People – Then Spending Them Federal prosecutors have charged a longtime California welfare worker with carrying out a multi-year fraud scheme involving food assistance benefits and dead people. The U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest of former Madera County benefits eligibility worker Leticia Mariscal, 55, of Madera. Prosecutors alleged that Mariscal stole tens of thousands of dollars in CalFresh benefits by exploiting her access to county databases. CalFresh is California's version of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. According to the Justice Department, the alleged scheme took place between December 2020 and April 2025. https://twitter.com/FBISacramento/status/1999625371268886611?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1999625371268886611%7Ctwgr%5Ee26f93739a10984d47aeb35b0088270daeb01aef%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2025%2F12%2Fdoj-charges-california-food-stamp-official-sending-benefits%2F Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/KevinKileyCA/status/2002791344566411594?s=20   “high-risk.” This means they exhibit serious “waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement,” costing taxpayers billions. The number has doubled during Newsom’s tenure. I bet you California fraud is 10 times worse than Minnesota. https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2002457150904238280?s=20   taxpayer dollars, per NYP. A HUD audit found that at least 221 deceased people received grants. MORE FRAUD! Expose it all! (VIDEO) Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna Announce Plans to Bring Inherent Contempt Charges Against Attorney General Pam Bondi Over Epstein Files – “We're Building a Bipartisan Coalition”  Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), the authors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law by President Trump last month, announced their intention to bring charges for inherent contempt against Attorney General Pam Bondi.  Under the rarely used congressional power, “the House or Senate has its Sergeant-At-Arms, or deputy, take a person into custody for proceedings to be held in Congress,” according to the National Constitution Center. However, it is unclear how effective this would be in the face of legal challenges and the executive branch's power. This is the latest in an escalating saga of threats, with Massie and Khanna claiming the DOJ has not complied fully with the law due to redactions in the files and not releasing every document available. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche appeared on NBC's Meet the Press this morning, where he dared Massie and Khanna to “bring it on,” maintaining that the DOJ is simply following the law and taking the necessary time to make redactions before releasing all of the files. Blanche told NBC's Kristen Welker that ensuring victim information is redacted “very much Trumps some deadline in the statute,” and he dared Khanna and Massie to file Articles of Impeachment. “We are complying with the statute, we will continue to comply with the statute, and if by complying with the statute, we don't produce everything on Friday, we produce things next week, and the week after, that's still compliance with the statute,” Blanche added. Source: thegatewaypundit.com Trump is ‘bored, tired and running on fumes’ — and he’s given up the fight: analyst A year into his second term, Donald Trump has undergone a major change in “tactics” as he deflects questions about his policies — and it’s an indication that he is now “just running on fumes,” an analyst wrote Monday. Salon's Amanda Marcotte pointed out that the president has developed an over-reliance on deflecting questions while claiming he is not up to speed on the topic or person he is being asked about, and that often begins with, “I don't know…” That is a change from his previous deflections, where he promised everything would sort itself out in “two weeks.”  Source: rawstory.com President Trump's Plan https://twitter.com/amuse/status/2002836773236306381?s=20   polygraph which they claim he failed to justify keeping their activities secret from Trump’s team. Scott isn’t blocking Plankey because he’s unqualified, he’s blocking him until Trump restores a Coast Guard shipbuilding contract for one of his major political donors Brian D'Isernia – he’s the CEO of Eastern Shipbuilding Group. Scott's hold has blocked Plankey from being included in the bipartisan nominations package the Senate GOP leadership is advancing before year-end. Because the Senate is winding down for the session, that procedural blockage likely means Plankey's nomination will expire unless resubmitted in the next Congress. Career staff at CISA repeatedly denied Acting Director Madhu Gottumukkala access to intelligence programs and urged him not to ask questions. After arranging an illegal polygraph, they used a claimed failure to freeze him out and leak to reporters. DHS acting security chief Michael Boyajian suspended at least six officials for misleading leadership and blocking classified access needed to run the agency. Trump to replace nearly 30 career diplomats in ambassadorial positions with ‘America First' allies The U.S. chiefs of mission in at least 29 countries were informed last week that their tenures would end in January 2026; all of them had taken up their posts in the Biden administration The Trump administration is recalling nearly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial and other senior embassy posts as it moves to reshape the U.S. diplomatic posture abroad with personnel deemed fully supportive of President Donald Trump's “America First” priorities. All of them had taken up their posts in the Joe Biden administration but had survived an initial purge in the early months of Mr. Trump's second term that targeted mainly political appointees. That changed on Wednesday (December 17, 2025) when they began to receive notices from officials in Washington about their imminent departures.  How Trump shifted America's policy in a week Ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the President, although they typically remain at their posts for three to four years. Those affected by the shake-up are not losing their foreign service jobs but will be returning to Washington for other assignments should they wish to take them, the officials said. Africa is the continent most affected by the removals, with ambassadors from 13 countries being removed: Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia and Uganda. Second is Asia, with ambassadorial changes coming to six countries: Fiji, Laos, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Vietnam affected. Four countries in Europe (Armenia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovakia) are affected; as are two each in the Middle East (Algeria and Egypt); South and Central Asia (Nepal and Sri Lanka); and the Western Hemisphere (Guatemala and Suriname). Source: thehindu.com  Denmark Furious After Trump Names Special Envoy To Greenland Following Landry’s appointment, Rasmussen told Reuters in an emailed statement, “The appointment confirms the continued American interest in Greenland. However, we insist that everyone—including the U.S.—must show respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark.” This prompted Denmark to summon the U.S. ambassador. Danish officials also summoned the U.S. ambassador in August after a report that at least three people with connections to Trump carried out covert influence operations in Greenland. Source: zerohedge.com Deep State Apoplectic with Trump's Use of Emissaries to Deliver Results President Trump is ducking and weaving through some of the deepest Machiavellian constructs, while maintaining forward progress. To put context to it, these creeps have had four years to strategize how to control Trump and manipulate policy with their retention of all sorts of government agencies in alignment with the status quo.  Yet, remarkably President Trump is dancing through their deep state minefield while keeping dozens of plates spinning on sticks.  The use of non-traditional emissaries is really making them angry.  , the use of emissaries outside the govt framework of traditional policy was going to be a key facet in any America-First agenda. The Deep State does not like President Trump's use of emissaries to conduct foreign policy.  In fact, they oppose it strongly; they hate it. The “emissary” is the person who carries the word of President Trump to any person identified by President Trump.  The emissary is very much like a tape recording of President Trump in human form.  The emissary travels to a location, meets a particular person or group, and then recites the opinion of the President.  The words spoken by the emissary, are the words of President Trump. The IC cannot inject themselves into this dynamic; that is why it is so valuable. The emissary then hears the response from the intended person or group, repeats it back to them to ensure he/she will return with clarity of intent as expressed, and then returns to the office of the presidency and repeats the reply for the President.  The emissary recites back exactly what he was /is told. This process is critical when you understand how thoroughly compromised the full Executive Branch is.  More importantly, this process becomes even more critical when you accept the Intelligence Community will lie to the office of the President to retain their power and position. (read more) Source: theconservativetreehouse.com https://twitter.com/TheStormRedux/status/2002736237996646560?s=20   signature on the absentee ballot he didn't even ask for. It was clearly forged. @GaSecofState please explain how this is a “clerical error.” https://twitter.com/CynicalPublius/status/2002795573490143432?s=20   3. The Congress of the United States shall determine the type and nature of documents that qualify as valid proof of citizenship for purposes of voting in federal elections. 4. Any federal, state or local official who knowingly allows any person to vote in federal elections without such proof of citizenship being validly presented shall be subject to such criminal penalties as the Congress of the United States may prescribe. 5. In the event of any conflict between this Amendment and Article 1, Section 4, the terms of this Amendment shall control. (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:13499335648425062,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-7164-1323"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="//cdn2.customads.co/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");

Inside Carolina's Jason Staples and Tommy Ashley react to the news that Bobby Petrino is set to be North Carolina's new offensive coordinator. After Freddie Kitchens was relieved of his duties following one of worst statistical seasons in memory, Bill Belichick makes the move to Petrino, widely considered one of the best offensive minds in the game. The Inside Carolina Podcast network features a wide range of current UNC sports topics, from game previews and instant postgame analysis, to recruiting breakdowns. IC's stable of writers, insiders and analysts -- plus special guests -- comprise each program. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The UNC Tar Heels stacked another two-win week, beating ETSU at home and gutting out a moxie-filled close one against Ohio State in Atlanta. Seth Trimble's return makes for much discussion about the team's ceiling, but the change in rotation and minute share is also quite the development to watch moving forward. Sherrell McMillan and Sean Moran join Joey Powell to dive into two distinctively different wins for North Carolina. The Coast to Coast is delivered by Salvio's Pizzeria in Cary, an award-winning, go-to local pizza spot for game days, catering, family meals, events, and more. They've been serving Tar Heel fans for over twenty years. Pickup, delivery, or dine in. More info at Salviospizza.com. The weekly Caleb Wilson Segment is brought to you by Alex Swire-Clark: alexswire-clark.com The Inside Carolina Podcast network features a wide range of current UNC sports topics, from game previews and instant postgame analysis, to recruiting breakdowns. IC's stable of writers, insiders and analysts -- plus special guests -- comprise each program. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

  Episode Cancellations and Card Collecting Jefry and Scott discussed the cancellation of "Nostalgia" this week due to scheduling conflicts with predictions and a "Top 11" episode next week. They also talked about the delay of the "WCW Revenge" episode for the Nintendo 64, which will now debut in the week after next. Scott shared his thoughts on the bizarre concept of "rip cards" in baseball card collecting, where a card is destroyed to reveal a smaller, potentially more valuable card inside. They also discussed the recent retirement of John Cena and the high value of his autographed cards, as well as the discovery of a rare Tom Brady card.   Wrestling Era and Figure Discussions Jefry and Scott discussed their opinions on the recent era of wrestling, particularly focusing on John Cena's last run. They both agreed it was rushed and poorly executed, with Scott giving it a rating of 2 out of 5. They also talked about the potential for Mattel to create action figures of Jimmy Garvin and Steve Regal. Finally, they briefly mentioned upcoming wrestling events, including WrestleCon in Vegas.   WrestleCon Autographs and Collectibles Scott and Jefry discussed the rare autograph signing opportunities with Don Morocco and Kevin Vaughn Eric for WrestleCon, with Jefry considering a day trip to attend. Scott shared his excitement about receiving a blue card Hogan LJN figure, and they discussed the appeal of Dusty Rhodes figures, particularly the polka dot era, with Jefry having a blue card Dusty and Scott considering a black card version.   Wrestling Figures and Nostalgia Scott and Jefry discussed Dusty Rhodes' wrestling character and how he embraced a negative gimmick. They then shared their experiences with the new LJN-style wrestling figures, with Scott describing the nostalgic feeling of holding a figure from his childhood in 2025. Scott also read a message from Russell Cartwright who had canceled pre-orders for Hogan and Cena figures after listening to their podcast, and instead found them at retail, which brought back childhood memories.   WrestleCon and Upcoming Product Releases Jefry and Scott discussed the rarity of Rick Martell's autograph signings and speculated that Martell's participation in a New York signing could indicate an upcoming announcement for WrestleCon. They then reviewed new products, including a limited-edition Undertaker bobblehead inspired by the Backlash 2008 poster, and discussed Funko's upcoming releases featuring Uncle Howdy, Jesse Ventura, Bray Wyatt, Jey Uso, and two Rhea Ripley variants. Finally, they mentioned that Junk Shop Dog is releasing three different looks for Tanahashi, who is retiring early next month.   Wrestling Tag Teams Legacy Debate Scott and Jefry discussed the legacy of various wrestling tag teams, including the Hardys, Dudleys, and Road Warriors, and debated who should be included on a hypothetical "Mount Rushmore" of tag teams. They also talked about Ringside Collectibles' new Joe Hendry figure, which is ready to ship and includes a bass that plays his theme music.    Mick Foley's WWE Departure Discussion Scott and Jefry discussed Mick Foley's decision to part ways with WWE due to concerns about the company's relationship with Donald Trump. They admired Foley's ability to stand up for his principles and walk away from the company. The conversation then shifted to new wrestling figures, including Tito Santana in his El Matador gimmick and a highly anticipated Coco Beware figure, which Scott placed on his top 11 list for 2026.   Rob Reiner Event and Licensing Jefry and Scott discussed the upcoming Rob Reiner annual event, which will be the first official one and will feature a "Top 11" list. They also talked about action figures, including the inability to use the Superman logo on WWE products due to licensing issues. Scott expressed surprise at learning that Andre's license is no longer with WWE. They briefly discussed the possibility of future DC-WWE mashup figures and the likelihood of John Cena being featured as Peacemaker. Lastly, they mentioned that WWE is open to working with Target and potentially using other LJN lines for future products. LJN Product Line Future Discussion Scott and Jefry discussed the future of the LJN product line, agreeing that it would likely continue for about 4 years before a reevaluation. They emphasized the importance of including a ring and cage as a package deal, as well as releasing tag team sets. They decided against producing thumb wrestlers and stretch wrestlers but expressed interest in potentially creating Bendy figures in a few years if the LJN line remains successful. The conversation concluded with a brief discussion about potential upgrades to wrestling belts, with Steve mentioning that the classic IC title was next on his wishlist for belt upgrades. Wrestling Belt Nostalgia and Upgrades Jefry and Scott discussed the nostalgia and upgrades of wrestling belts from the 1985-1986 era, highlighting significant improvements across major organizations. They expressed hope for the release of the AWA tag team titles, with potential candidates like the Road Warriors or Hall and Henning, though Scott noted limited options for tag champions. They also discussed the possibility of signing legends like Marty Jannetti to future deals, and Jefry confirmed that Barry Wyndham is still under contract, despite no new figures being made since 2010.          

Inside Carolina's Rob Harrington and Tommy Ashley break down North Carolina's 71-70 win over Ohio State in Atlanta. Harrington and Ashley discuss the performances of Seth Trimble in his return and his inclusion into now a trio of big time Tar Heels performers joining Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar with impressive showings against the Buckeyes. The duo gets into the near late game collapse by the Heels and Hubert Davis's management of second half leads and in close out situations. The Inside Carolina Podcast network features a wide range of current UNC sports topics, from game previews and instant postgame analysis, to recruiting breakdowns. IC's stable of writers, insiders and analysts -- plus special guests -- comprise each program. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Inside Carolina's Greg Barnes joins Tommy Ashley to discuss UNC's trip to Atlanta to face the Ohio State Buckeyes and the prospects for Seth Trimble's return. Barnes and Ashley share their thoughts on the chemistry of the team and the re-working of the rotations with Trimble's return imminent and how the backcourt can complement the elite frontcourt of Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar. The Inside Carolina Podcast network features a wide range of current UNC sports topics, from game previews and instant postgame analysis, to recruiting breakdowns. IC's stable of writers, insiders and analysts -- plus special guests -- comprise each program. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

North Carolina football's roster reconstruction is in full swing ahead of the transfer portal opening on January 2nd with the positional needs changing by the the day. Inside Carolina's Greg Barnes and Tommy Ashley discuss the latest transfer portal exits and the need for retention and continuity while Bill Belichick and his staff continue to implement their culture into the program's DNA. The Inside Carolina Podcast network features a wide range of current UNC sports topics, from game previews and instant postgame analysis, to recruiting breakdowns. IC's stable of writers, insiders and analysts -- plus special guests -- comprise each program. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As the UNC administration moves closer to a decision on the future of the Smith Center, Inside Carolina's Greg Barnes joins Tommy Ashley to discuss communication and how former players and coaches have spoken up demanding to be included in the process. Barnes discusses what's been done to gather information and keep the Carolina family in the loop, but explains that any effort to get a uniform and a unanimous agreement may not be possible given the nature of the debate. The Inside Carolina Podcast network features a wide range of current UNC sports topics, from game previews and instant postgame analysis, to recruiting breakdowns. IC's stable of writers, insiders and analysts -- plus special guests -- comprise each program. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Henri Veesaar and Caleb Wilson continue to lead the way for the now 10-1 North Carolina Tar Heels. On Tuesday against East Tennessee State, Veesaar dropped a career-high 26 while Wilson had 20 as the Heels woke up late in the first half and left the visitors behind winning 77-58 in the Smith Center. Inside Carolina's Rob Harrington joins Tommy Ashley to discuss the win and look ahead to the return of Seth Trimble and games against Ohio State and East Carolina before the Christmas break. The Inside Carolina Podcast network features a wide range of current UNC sports topics, from game previews and instant postgame analysis, to recruiting breakdowns. IC's stable of writers, insiders and analysts -- plus special guests -- comprise each program. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Inside Carolina's senior reporter Greg Barnes discusses the looming decision on the Smith Center's future at UNC. Renovations, locations and capacity debates have gone of for years when it comes to the aging legendary arena on south campus and as Barnes reports, those making the much anticipated decisions are ready to move forward into the new era of Carolina Basketball. Barnes outlines the details and the timeline and what fans can expect in the years to come. The Inside Carolina Podcast network features a wide range of current UNC sports topics, from game previews and instant postgame analysis, to recruiting breakdowns. IC's stable of writers, insiders and analysts -- plus special guests -- comprise each program. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

North Carolina only played once this past week as they had their usual exam break to wrap the fall semester. The Tar Heels looked every bit of a distracted team, and will need to tighten up before ACC play begins in just over two weeks. Sherrell McMillan and Sean Moran join Joey Powell to dissect it all. The Coast to Coast is delivered by Salvio's Pizzeria in Cary, an award-winning, go-to local pizza spot for game days, catering, family meals, events, and more. They've been serving Tar Heel fans for over twenty years. Pickup, delivery, or dine in. More info at Salviospizza.com. The Inside Carolina Podcast network features a wide range of current UNC sports topics, from game previews and instant postgame analysis, to recruiting breakdowns. IC's stable of writers, insiders and analysts -- plus special guests -- comprise each program. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Inside Carolina's Greg Barnes and Tommy Ashley discuss North Carolina's offensive coordinator search, what Bill Belichick is after in the hire and when the timing is right for the Tar Heels to have the new coach in place as the opening of the transfer portal looms in early January 2026. The Inside Carolina Podcast network features a wide range of current UNC sports topics, from game previews and instant postgame analysis, to recruiting breakdowns. IC's stable of writers, insiders and analysts -- plus special guests -- comprise each program. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

North Carolina's win on Saturday, 80-62 over USC Upstate, was not pretty. But several positives came from the messy outing, including improved three point shooting (10-23 overall) and Jonathan Powell's performance eased some questions about bench play for Hubert Davis's team heading deep into December. Greg Barnes and Tommy Ashley team up on the Inside Carolina Postgame to discuss the game and key takeaways from UNC's ninth win on the season. The Inside Carolina Podcast network features a wide range of current UNC sports topics, from game previews and instant postgame analysis, to recruiting breakdowns. IC's stable of writers, insiders and analysts -- plus special guests -- comprise each program. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greg Barnes and Tommy Ashley turn to basketball in this edition as Hubert Davis successfully navigated both the high school ranks and the transfer portal to acquire his two impressive big men - Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar. Barnes discusses the two early season UNC stars and the commitment to the money game North Carolina has made to reestablish the program among the elite in the ACC and nationally. The Inside Carolina Podcast network features a wide range of current UNC sports topics, from game previews and instant postgame analysis, to recruiting breakdowns. IC's stable of writers, insiders and analysts -- plus special guests -- comprise each program. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.