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  In this episode Helene talks to Jane Clift about her role as the Chair of IAF England and Wales. They talk about: How Jane got involved with the IAF and the facilitation community “the game changer for me was coming to my first IAF conference,I had never met so many people interested in facilitation” How Jane became the Chair of IAF England and Wales Highlights and challenges since becoming the Chair  The importance of the IAF and community events “I think there's been a recognition in our chapter, in our community, we can all learn from each other.”  And future plans for both the IAF England and Wales chapter and Jane A full transcript is below. Links Today's guest: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-clift/ Email: chair@iaf-englandwales.org  To find out more about Facilitation Stories and the IAF and the England and Wales Chapter: Facilitation Stories website: https://facilitationstories.libsyn.com/ And to email us: podcast@iaf-englandwales.org IAF England and Wales: https://www.iaf-world.org/site/chapters/england-wales The Facilitation Stories Team: Helene Jewell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenejewell/  Nikki Wilson:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolawilson2/ Transcript H.J Hello and welcome to facilitation stories brought to you by the England and Wales Chapter of the International Association of Facilitators, also known as IAF. My name is Helen Jewell, and today I'm going to be talking to Jane Clift, consultant, coach and facilitator and Chair of IAF England and Wales. Welcome Jane.   J.C Thank you very much, Helen. I'm very happy to be here.   H.J So I've got lots of questions for you, mostly about your role as chair, but before we do that, it'd be really nice to hear a little bit more about you as a facilitator and the type of work that you do.   J.C Very good opening question there. So I have facilitated in quite a wide range of contexts, and I think I was doing it before I knew it was called facilitation. So I'm currently have my own business, but I've also worked a great deal for organisations, originally in sort of technology and consulting roles. So I think I was setting up and running workshops well before I knew that there was a term called facilitator, or that facilitation was a thing. So I would say that my practice started very, very organically, very organically. It's   H.J It's funny, if I listen back to all the different podcasts we've done, we've done, I would say that that kind of thing is a real thread through all of them that people have kind of come into facilitation accidentally, organically, or discovered that it is called facilitation after they began doing it in the first place.    J.C Exactly, yeah, something that I've also, I've always really loved stationery and stationery shops, like I really, really enjoy going into rymans and places like that. So obviously, when you're working as a facilitator, you have got the best reason in the world to be stocking up on colourful stationery craft materials. So there's something about that aspect of it that I don't know,  just I've always really, really liked that idea of bringing, like, colourful stationery or objects into the workplace and having a reason to use them. And that reason is facilitation.    H.J I love it. That's a great reason. I am also a self confessed stationery nerd, so I totally, I'm totally on board with that. Is there a particular type of facilitation that you enjoy doing, or that you feel is your kind of forte? J.C So I've done a lot of facilitation around agreeing, like a strategy or a road map, or like, identifying things that are getting in the way. So one of the areas that I've actually facilitated on quite a lot is risk management, which is really an important topic if you're doing large scale programs or projects, which I've done quite a lot of in my career. So I actually really like that as a topic, whether you do that in person or online. I have done quite a lot of those workshops where you end up with a room covered in pieces of paper, covered in sticky, you know, in post its and so forth. But during lockdown, like many people, I became very adept at online facilitation, and that's probably the space that I've worked in the most over the last few years, and I, I really, really like that, and I'm amazed that it works, because you're connecting up people that can be all over the world, and you're just in this virtual space, and yet you can, you can make magic happen if you can facilitate it well, and I find that an incredible and unexpected gift that came out of lockdown. Having said that, there is nothing like the energy of being in a room with people. I also absolutely love that I had the great pleasure of being facilitated myself recently, large scale workshop, 30 of us in a room, all talking about something, and it was just so much fun. So I'm not sure I've really got a niche. I'm quite a versatile person, but I tend to be better with topics that are a little bit more creative or future oriented, or that are kind of attached to something that's happening right now. Hence the interesting risk.    H.J Ah, interesting, okay, and it's, yeah, also good hearing about that adaptability, which I think also flows through a lot of facilitators, practice or facilitation, and yeah, that whole movement online. I think it is amazing sometimes, as you say, to think how people can be connected online, but somehow, well, it's not somehow the magic happens. It's because we're brilliant facilitators.   J.C It is because we're brilliant facilitators and we can create a safe and a fun space. It's, it is incredible, and it's also something that you almost don't realise that you have a gift for until you get that feedback. Oh, that was great workshop. Oh, we made, you know, we made progress, or I felt I could speak up. During the lockdown, I volunteered as a facilitator for action for happiness, and I ran a monthly session, and each month we get to, oh, I've got to do that session again. Oh, like an hour and a half, and I go into it, and I had a co facilitator, and we'd be part way through the session, and the magic would start to happen. And you could feel, because lockdown was a very tough time for many people, and you could feel the magic of facilitation happen. You could feel people relax, open up, and at the end of the session, we'd always do this check in, and everybody without exception, every single one of those sessions we ran, people said, Oh, I feel better. All my energy levels have lifted, or I feel relaxed. And I just thought, wow.   H.J Yeah. And you get that real kind of lovely feeling in your body where you think, oh, yeah, this, this is, this is good. This is why I do this. Okay. And so you talk about, you know, your work, and then sort of almost discovering, I guess, that you are a facilitator, or that that's the thing that you can call what you do. When did you get more involved in the kind of the facilitation community and the IAF in particular. J.C So like many people who facilitate, I had been doing quite a lot of facilitation, without much formal training or orientation and without any awareness there was a facilitation community. So what kind of got me into the IAF was I, I'd been doing some team, like away day workshop, and I had, this is classic me, by the way, I kind of reinvented the wheel, not realising that there were lots of methods out there and and like ways of doing things. And after I did this workshop and probably kind of gave it far too much effort, I thought I actually need to get learn some technique here. I've got the interest, I've got the motivation, I've got the aptitude. I haven't got enough technique. So I went and did some training with ICA UK. I did, I think that their group facilitation skills course. And I think the trainer was Martin Gilbraith, who, at the time, I think, was very much a leading light in the IAF. And I joined the IAF, and then I kind of washed in and out of it a little bit. And when I started to get more involved was at one of the London meetups. That's, I think, when I started to become more actively involved. Realised it was a community. Realised that you could come gather, meet other people who facilitate and talk about facilitation. Wow, amazing, it's a thing.   H.J A big network of geeks where we get to talk about all of these tools and techniques and stuff and stationery, probably. And so you discovered, I guess then this community, what kind of drew you in more, what kept you going to, you know, maybe the London meetups or ?    J.C I really like, I like being part of communities. So even though I have my own business, I do like to collaborate with other people. I do like to be connected to other people. It's quite important for me. So there's quite a lot of community attached to coaching, which is another area I'm involved with. And I think once I identified there was community attached to facilitation, I was just interested in finding out more. And the meetups were definitely really good for that. And then the game changer for me was coming to my first IAF conference. I don't think I'd ever met, I had never met so many people interested in facilitation, all in one space. And also the diversity of practice was really, really, it was really inspirational for me. I had been toying with some more creative practices, not necessarily having the confidence to implement them. And at that conference, I saw people that were just going, you know, all in on their more creative facilitation practices. And I was like, wow. So I think it was that very first conference which really said, thought, these are my people, these are my tribes. We're all different from each other, and yet we've got this thing in common. And so it was the creative thing, a kind of curiosity about people, and I think another common thread was this desire to, desire to make an impact in the world, but in quite a practical way.   H.J It does, I recognize that feeling of finding your people and just feeling really comfortable in a space, whether that's a meetup or something bigger, like the conference, and just thinking, oh yeah, people get what I'm talking about. And, yeah, that, yeah, making a difference I think is, is part of that, isn't it? How can we spread the word a bit? How can we share our, share our inner geekery, our love with other people? Okay, so pulling you further in, then you've been chair for the last couple of years, since January 2022, I think. And so how did that happen?    J.C Well, I have to say I wanted to get more involved in the IAF, and I think I stood for the board, and I guess I didn't intend to be chair, but I'm one of those people who I think it's called situational leadership. I don't choose to be a leader unless I feel in a context I am the best person to be that leader. So so I don't have, I don't have a burning desire every day to lead, but when I'm in a situation where I think in this context, I'm the best person to lead in order for us to get a good result, that's when I get involved. So that's I think, in with that group, when I became, when I joined the board and joined the leadership team, I was, I felt I was the best person, or the one who had had the capacity and the willingness. There was plenty of other people who had the expertise to do it, but I had the capacity and the expertise and the motivation to be the chair. So that's why I became the Chair. And it's been incredible, incredibly interesting thing to have done.    H.J So that's interesting, that kind of sweet spot of having all those things come together at once, as you say, the capacity and the sort of, you know, the space and the skills to actually do that. And so thinking the responsibilities is quite a it's a big deal being the chair, especially of, you know, a group of people that are all volunteers all coming together, you know, all sort of, all having their own day jobs as well. What have been your main kind of responsibilities, I suppose, as a chair, knowing a little bit about having done the role already?   J.C So the responsibilities are quite varied. The way I've worked as the chair is, there's a lot of structuring of the leadership group so that we can work effectively. So I guess there's an administrative element to it, and there's also an aspect to it where you're trying to move things forward in what you feel is the general direction that the group is interested in, whilst being mindful of the fact that everybody is indeed volunteering their time, and that, you know, it's a volunteer organisation, with fairly sort of Slim, slim but stable financial capacity. So it's it's been, for me, about like moving us forward, taking us further away from that sort of post COVID environment, where I think many organisations, you know, they had to get back on their feet, and I think you had steered the leadership team beautifully through the incredible challenges of lockdown. And I think I've been able to pick up from where you left off, continue the great work. And I think move us into an even, you know, into a stronger position. And definitely, I feel we've fully recovered from lockdown now, and I think evolved somewhat as well in some really, like, great, sort of great directions.   And I think we've also, and I've done this quite frequently when I've been in leadership roles, is I've tried to sort of streamline. And so sometimes with all organisations, particularly ones where a lot of people are very ideasy, you can spread yourselves too thinly, you can chase hairs, you can have an inconsistent practice because you're trying to do too much because you've got so many ideas. So I think one of the responsibilities of the chair is to sort of say, yes, these are all brilliant ideas, but where, where do we feel we can really make the most difference? Where should we? Where should we focus our energies to have the greatest impact? So that's definitely one of the, one of the responsibilities of the Chair is to sort of provide that, that leadership to, but to, you know, to acknowledge all the great ideas, but just to say, right what are we actually capable of doing as a leadership team, as an organisation, given it's entirely volunteer led.   H.J And especially maybe with a group of facilitators, you know, we do tend to like ideas, don't we? We've got all sorts of, you know, things that we think should happen and could happen, and so I guess containing them then and making sure that, yeah, some are driven forward, some aren't lost, and people are still on board with with all of what's going on is definitely quite a challenge. And thinking, also back to my time as chair, it felt like that was a period of, as you say, in COVID, treading water, just making sure that things sort of carried on really but definitely your era has been much more of a moving forwards, progressing, improving things, I think. Thinking then about highlights, I suppose, things that have really stood out for you, things that have gone really well. What are those?    J.C The highlights for me, from my time as chair the sort of the red carpet event every year is our conference. It's so much fun. It is two days of learning, connecting, getting totally out of your comfort zone, talking about facilitation, meeting your community, making friends, being grateful, thanking everybody for all that they're doing. So the two conferences in the time that I've been chair, they've both been really, really wonderful events for me, and I am so grateful for being part of them, even though, as Chair, I'm actually quite second hand to the conference because it's organised by a different group. But when I'm there at the conference, I have felt this is such a celebration of facilitation, it really is. And I've also been really pleased I've brought new people to the conference and introduced people to the leadership team and so forth. So that's the red carpet events.    I've absolutely, also really loved our leadership away days. And in fact, can you just describe them different? Yes, we're calling them retreats now. I also love, yes, our leadership retreat. So they've been absolutely wonderful events as well. And I remember thinking, Oh, I'm going to be facilitating facilitators, uh oh. So I remember that was thinking that was quite the challenge. And yet, you know, I think we've, I think I've been involved now in three of the retreats, and I think they've all, they've all gone well, and I've learned a lot about facilitation from, from running those, from designing those sessions, and from also witnessing people in our leadership team facilitating sessions within the session. So they've been really wonderful as well. And I guess I do love the in person activities, like I do love being in a room or a space with other people, so any opportunity to do that has been great, and I think inspired by meetups that I went to in London, I'm now based in Sheffield, and I've also kicked off like a facilitate Sheffield group. I'm not sure I would have done that had I not had the experience of being a chair. I've just realised sometimes it's just like, shall we do this? Shall we try and get something moving? And that's been really interesting as well, that sometimes you've just got to have a go.    H.J Oh, that's interesting. That the Sheffield meetup sort of grew out of your position as Chair, if you like. It's interesting thinking about that facilitating, facilitators bits? I totally Yeah, that really makes sense to me. That whole, you know, you, it's really good to see other people and experience other people's facilitation, but at the same time, I think possibly we are the worst participants, but it is nice to kind of get together and have that, have that all sharing of how we do things as well. I think it's quite inspirational.   J.C It's really, really inspirational for me. I find the diversity of people's practice, of their life experiences, the fact that people come from different parts of the UK, and we've all converged, actually, I think it's been in Manchester or Birmingham. So we've kind of all come together. I find that very, very interesting. And everyone's paths into facilitation have been quite different. So so for me, I kind of find those sessions are very opening up, and afterwards I go away and I've learned something that's often quite significant for me and I've then carried forward with me. So I'm not going to those sessions and think I'm going to boss everyone around. It's been, they're very collaborative.   H.J Definitely. No, that's been my experience as well, that feeling of collaboration. So what's changed, you know, quite a lot, probably in your time as chair, from this period of, you know, COVID, where things weren't moving forwards very much perhaps. What are the main changes you think you've seen in the last couple of years with the IAF England and Wales leadership team and board, but maybe beyond that as well?    J.C So there's been quite a lot of changes. I think facilitation itself as a sort of professional and area of expertise is more understood, known, celebrated and in demand than it's ever been. That's quite interesting. I think in the time I've been chair, I'm, I have a tendency to want to structure things, so I probably have brought in some structure more, perhaps some more structure than there was previously. And I've, as I said, maybe done some of that streamlining activity. And I think everybody that I know in IAF England and Wales is really keen to, you know, expand our community, welcome more people in ,work on the diversity. I think that we are slowly becoming more diverse. We acknowledge that there's a lot more to do in that space, but there's a sort of appetite and a sort of momentum around that now, we're not just talking about it, we're doing something about it. So, for example, most of the leadership team have now taken part in anti racism training, which is, you know, really, really important. So I think perhaps we were a little bit more focused than we were.    The other thing that I think changed is, and I think you 100% laid the foundations for this. I think we are more tightly or better aligned with the EME region for IAF. So I've participated in our, the regional like leadership team meetings, and they've been very interesting. And I think there's been a recognition in our chapter, in our community, we can all learn from each other. And when we've had people come to the conference from other other chapters that survive other geographies that's been really, really interesting and inspirational. So we can, we can learn so much from each other. And we've also, I think also we as a chapter have been able to do a little bit of support for other chapters as well. So that's been really great, too. So I guess I'm just trying to summarise what's changed. So I think a little bit more structure and focus, and also, yes, totally recovered from COVID and the lockdown era, and I'm feeling we probably contracted a little bit during that time period, as many organisations did, I feel we're now expanding.   H.J It's really interesting that Europe and Middle East Regional link as well, because I personally really value that diversity and looking outside, you know, our chapter, and seeing what other chapters are do, are doing, and, yeah, forging those links is a really, really nice thing to be doing I think.   J.C It's a wonderful opportunity. One of the things when we hear, it's easy to look at the news and think, Oh, so many bad, bad, dark things happening in the world. What I find is when you connect with people from other geographies, other cultures, when you form those links, when you extend your community, it just makes all those bad news stories, they seem a little less important, because on a very practical, like, I don't know, day to day basis, or you kind of you're ignoring all that. You're reaching out and saying, no, there is, there are, It is worth doing this stuff. It is worth connecting. It is worth still believing that we can change things through our facilitation practice. You know, I just, I like the aspect of it. I find, actually find this, I find this idea of being part of a global community, I find it very optimistic and positive.    H.J It's almost quite, quite a skill, I think, to be able to find that optimism. Because, as you say, you know, there's a lot of doom and gloom around but I really like that way of thinking about things. Find the kind of the good stuff in, you know, all that's going on around us. Okay, and then flipping that on its head, however, with any role, with any you know group such as we are, there will have been challenges. What have been the main challenges? In a few minutes?   J.C So one of the challenges has been my own time. So I have my own business. Sometimes I'm working full time, and then I'm supporting this activity in my free time. So that's been a personal challenge for me. The other personal challenge for me is with my desire for structure and focus, I've had to really temper that, because I have had to learn, and it's been really, really good for me, that we've got to let the ideas flow. We, people need that space to let the ideas flow, to connect. We can't, I've got a tendency to go straight into right what are we all going to do? Action, action, action. And that doesn't work with this community, because that, they that's not how this community operates. So it's been, for me that's been a tremendous learning curve, and I am now much, much more respectful and aware of that need to sort of have a lot more flow before you sort of, so that's been, that's been, as I said, it's been that's been quite challenging for me. And. And then, equally, it's also challenging that with the best one in the world, we are all volunteers, and everybody's time, you know, time constrained, or they have things going on in their personal lives which may inhibit their ability to do things, even if they're highly motivated to do that. And we are trying to be smart about this now, work at how we can outsource some of the more rote activities to to, like virtual assistance, so that we can, almost, like, use our time in a more clever and a smart way. And what I'm thinking, what are the other challenges have been? Well, it's always, you know, I think this is something we all suffer from, is, and I'm the, I'm also guilty of it is, is trying to do too much.   H.J And it's, I think, that bit about us all being, you know, we're all all volunteers. We're all doing this in our own time. We're all doing it because we are invested in our community, and we want it to be better, and we want more things from it, and we want it to still be the fantastic thing it is. But actually, you know, there's only so many hours in a day, and and then finding that time to do that, and the energy, and then collaborating and coordinating, coordinating that with with a whole heap of other people all around the country is, you know, it's definitely not an easy task.   J.C It's not easy at all. And I think at one point I was trying to, sort of almost like fly solo too much, and doing too much on my own. And then this year I've been really busy. And I, it was actually, this is a kind of a sort of, you know, people make New Year's decisions. So one of my decisions for 2024 was whatever I'm trying to do in life, I want to do that in collaboration with others. So I've been a much more collaborative leader in 2024 for our chapter, and I think that's been really beneficial for the chapter. So rather than thinking, I can, I'll do all this stuff on my lonesome, I've actually asked people to come in with me, and I think that's been much more successful for the chapter and for me, and again, it's another sort of smart way of working and sort of not being that kind of lonely leader marching up the mountain on their own. It's much better if you are, if you're doing stuff in small groups or with a partner. So that's just been a personal learning for me and a decision and a change of a change, like a change of sort of operation.   H.J So it sounds like there's been quite a lot of learning, you know, over the last couple of years for you as chair and probably for all of us as the leadership team as well. Thinking then about, you know, all that hard work that goes into making this stuff happen, and the IAF leadership team and the, you know, England, Wales, and the wider community, what do you think that that we kind of bring to people, you know, what? What's, what do people get from it?   J.C I think the most important thing that we offer is community. I think, I think many people who work in the facilitation space, I don't know if it's solo entrepreneurs, you know, or small businesses, and I think creating a community that's actually really easy to connect to, you can be in our community, don't have to be a member. You know, many people aren't members. It doesn't matter. The important thing is that there's a community that you can be part of, and we offer different ways of connecting. We have our online meetups, we have in person meetups, we have our conference and then I think what I've I've seen happen which is a very beautiful thing to witness. I have seen people who I know have only met through the conference or through the community start to do collaborations together, which shows you that these relationships are really, really building and developing and supporting people professionally. So I think that community thing is, we never did anything else, that's that's, for me, is the most important thing.    But the second thing, I think, is really important, is sharing practice and acknowledging when we see good work and supporting practice. And it can be really something quite practical like, has anyone done this type of thing? Can you recommend an exercise to do this? How do you price something so, so it can be, like the very practical things, but it can also be, I mean, at the conference, quite a lot of people will showcase something that perhaps they're still working on, in terms of offering it out to clients. It's a place where you can do some experimentation. I think that's just, I feel we are very much a community of practice, and I just think that's another huge benefit to all of not just the paid up members, but everybody in our community that we can support each other to develop practice, and we can learn from each other's practices.    H.J And it feels like that community, or our community, is growing all the time, and the more it grows, the more you discover new things. And you think, Oh, I didn't realise that was a thing that's interesting. I want to know more about that. And like, it doesn't seem that there are any edges to facilitation most. It's like just a constantly changing picture, which for me is someone who's got a fairly short attention span, I think is great. Always like, Oh, I've found something new to do, to learn about. So what do you think, then, is next for IAF, England, Wales and the broader community, whether members or, you know, not members.    J.C We've done quite a lot of work on, like, quite futuristic visioning, and I think we slightly rode back from that, because it almost became something that was inhibiting our more immediate development and growth. So I quite like the fact that we've been a little bit more realistic about our capacity. And we've kind of, we're focusing on a few things we want to do really well. So one of them is this wonderful podcast that I'm on today.   H.J Of course.   J.C  We want to support all of our meetups, online and in person. We want the conference to be a great success, I think, we, we obviously want to continuing offering this. It's very hard to sometimes crystallise it, but this informal kind of community support. I think, where I think there's potential is I think we could actually promote ourselves or promote the practice of facilitation more on social media, and perhaps be more structured about that. I would really like to use the, we have the IAF Global website, which is currently being updated. I would like to see that also used as a vehicle to promote, share, practice and support the community. I feel there's quite a lot of things we can do around diversity and also connecting up with our global community. So these are some of the things I find interesting and exciting, and I feel we could do more in these spaces, we could perhaps do more to support other chapters in our region as well. So there's some of the topics, I think, Oh, that's interesting. I feel my energy rising when I think about that. So there's quite a lot of opportunities. And it's just there's, again, there's so many opportunities and ideas, and there's only so much time and so much money at the bank. So so I think lots of opportunities, but we have to take a realistic perspective on it as well.   H.J Opportunities tempered with a bit of fear, bit of can we actually do this stuff? And your time as chair is coming to an end at the end of this year, I think. So what's next for you? What are you going to do with all those spare hours?   J.C So I have really, even though it's been very challenging and time consuming and sometimes frustrating, I've absolutely loved the opportunity to be a situational or servant leader for this chapter. It's been a wonderful opportunity for me. It's reconnected me with a lot of leadership practice that I hadn't really done for a little while. So so I'm really keen to stay involved with our chapter and stay on the leadership team and support a new chair, whoever that will be in 2025. I also want to continue developing my own facilitation practice. And I think the thing that's come out of it for me, there's two things, one more opportunity to do leadership in life, and I'm pretty confident I want to replace, replace, I'm definitely going to be pursuing, probably a trusteeship with another organisation as I think that's a really nice segue from from what I've done here, but a slightly different way of doing that. So I like to be busy, and I, I like to serve. I don't want to say be too idealistic and optimistic, but there is something wonderful about feeling that you are doing some good public service, or some good service for others without it being a huge strain on yourself. It's really good to know that you are committing some personal time to some activities, which we hope are going to do good in the world.   H.J Thank you so much for talking to me today. I've just got one last question, and that is, how can we get in touch with you? So if people want to talk more to you, what, how should we get in touch with you?   J.C The easiest way to get hold of me is via LinkedIn. I've got a LinkedIn profile and I'm on LinkedIn very frequently. That's guaranteed. And you can also reach me by the email address for the chair.   H.J We'll put any contact emails and your LinkedIn link in the show notes afterwards.    J.C Brilliant.    H.J Thank you so much, Jane, and I will see you soon.    J.C Thank you very much. What a wonderful opportunity to be interviewed by you. Thank you so much Helen.    H.J So listeners, we've reached the end of another episode of facilitation stories, the community podcast of IAF, England and Wales.   N.W If you'd like to find out more about the IAF and how to get involved, all of the links are on our website. Facilitationstories.com   H.J And to make sure you never miss an episode, why not subscribe to the show on whatever podcast app you use?   N.W We're always on the lookout for new episode ideas. So is there a fabulous facilitator you think we should talk to?   H.J Or something interesting emerging in the world of facilitation you think listeners need to hear about?   N.W Send us an email at podcast@IAF-Englandwales.org .   H.J We hope you'll join us again soon for more facilitation stories.   N.W Until then, thank you for listening.  

In this episode Helene talks to Cath about her role as Senior Engagement Advisor and internal facilitator with the Environment Agency (EA) Cath tells Helene a bit about the EA and the type of work they do. She explains how her role as Engagement Advisor includes facilitation and also how she works an an independent internal facilitator for other projects withing the EA. Cath gives some examples of what she really enjoys about her role as a faciliator including working with the public on a climate adaptation project and working alongside external independent facilitators that the EA also use. She explains that external faciliatators are often used when more complex conversations need to be had, or where there has been a breakdown of trust and someone independent is needed. She shares some insights as to how the internal facilitators network of aroudn 200 facilitators was set up and how she balances her work as Senior Engagement Advisor and facilitator.  She tells Helene about a role play technique that really made a difference and about how asking good questions are crucial to her work as a faciliator. Cath also talks about how she keeps her faciliation skills up including attending the IAF England and Wales conferences, and local IAF meetups and EA facilitator learning days. She also shares some advice for other internal facilitators.  A full transcript is below. Today's Guest Environment Agency - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) facilitationnetworkmailbox@environment-agency.gov.uk   To find out more about Facilitation Stories and the IAF and the England and Wales Chapter   Facilitation Stories website: https://facilitationstories.libsyn.com/   And to email us: podcast@iaf-englandwales.org   IAF England and Wales: https://www.iaf-world.org/site/chapters/england-wales The Facilitation Stories Team  Helene Jewell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenejewell/  Nikki Wilson:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolawilson2/ Transcript H.J Hello and welcome to Facilitation Stories, the community podcast of the England and Wales chapter of the International Association of Facilitators, also known as IAF. My name is Helen Jewell, and my guest today is Cath Brooks, senior engagement advisor with the Environment Agency. Welcome, Cath    C.B Hi, yeah. Hi. How are you doing? Alright?   H.J I'm good. How are you?    C.B Yeah, good. Thank you. Yeah, thanks for inviting me. I'm Looking forward to it.   H.J It's really good to have you on the podcast. Okay, so I have a whole load of questions to ask you, starting with the Environment Agency. I just wondered if you could tell us a little bit more about what the Environment Agency does and what your role is?   C.B Yeah, for sure. So yeah, I hope that it'll inspire people. I've worked at the Environment Agency for almost 20 years, and I still absolutely love it. It's a great organisation. So we're a public sector organisation, and we aim, quite simply, to protect and improve the environment. We employ about 12,000 people, and some people work nationally across England, and then some people work in area offices. We've got 14 different area offices across England, so you either work on national issues or you work on local issues in one of our area offices. And I guess to create places for people and wildlife, we work on quite a lot of topics that people are deeply concerned about, and finding ways forward can be difficult on some of the issues, people have strong opinions about the environment and how we should be managing the environment quite rightly. So Facilitation skills are really important in that context, with some of the really difficult issues that we're managing. So some of those topics are things like managing major industry, making sure they're not polluting the environment, and waste, dealing with contaminated land, making sure water quality of our rivers and we've got enough water so water resources as well, working on fisheries, conservation and ecology, and my area that I work on is management of flood risk. So those sorts of issues are really interesting, and people have strong opinions about how we should be managing those issues. So there can be quite a lot of conflict, I guess, which is why facilitation is so important.   H.J And so then, obviously that's quite a broad even under the umbrella of the environment, that's quite a broad range of different areas, and in your particular area then, in your role as senior engagement advisor, what does that actually involve? Sort of before, obviously, I guess facilitation is part of that, but I know you also do it sort of separately as well. What does your main role? What does your main role involve?   C.B Yeah, so we've got engagement advisors. Obviously, the organisation's quite technical organisation, quite science and engineering led, but we also have engagement and communications experts within the Environment Agency, and I'm one of those. So I work alongside quite technical teams, and at the moment I'm working, I've worked in lots of different parts of the organisation, but at the moment I'm working in flood risk management, supporting our teams. I work nationally, and so supporting our national teams with big projects where there's, they're difficult topics, where people have strong opinions. And my job, my main job, is engagement planning. So we're whatever the project is thinking about what are our engagement aims? Why do we want to work with our stakeholders? Why do they want to work with us, making sure we're not just thinking from the perspective of the Environment Agency, my job is to help our staff to think about the impact it's going to have on on a range of stakeholders, and plan the best methods that we can for that particular project to work out, how can we get the best from our stakeholders? How can they get the best of us? How can we find solutions that work for all of us, not just for the Environment Agency?    So we try to avoid taking what we've called in the past the ‘decide, announce, defend approach'. My job is to help staff to be more, to sort of take a more ‘engage, deliberate, decide', so to help have quality conversations about these difficult issues, really listen to our stakeholders, designing the right methods, really to help create that space for those quality conversations about what can be really difficult issues. And that's my job, is designing those sorts of engagement methods, if you like, and then facilitation sits really nicely alongside that.    H.J And so when you do that facilitation, I as far as I understand, you're part of an internal facilitators network. How, how did that kind of come about? When was that set up?    C.B Yeah, that's right. So when I joined the Environment Agency, back in 1996 we didn't have many people who worked in engagement roles or facilitation network. So we started really by setting up the engagement roles and setting up training for staff around comms and engagement and how to do that engagement planning like I've just talked about. And very quickly we realised actually there's another set of skills that that we need to develop as well, which is facilitation. So when you are designing methods that involve dialog, you know having facilitation skills, having skills to be able to design those interactive sessions in a way that you're making the most of that time when you've got your stakeholders in the room is really important. And it's quite a different skill, actually, than just engagement planning, being able to design a face to face or an online session where you've got people in the room making the very best of that time. So we're all really busy. Our staff are busy, our stakeholders are busy. So making the most of those opportunities, that's why we developed the facilitation skills courses.    So first of all, we started off by getting some expert engagement professionals in to help us design facilitation courses that were for in-house facilitators. And then very quickly, and within about 18 months, we realised that people were going on the training, really enjoying the training, but then struggling to apply the training in their day jobs, because, you know, you could go a couple of months and not use it. And we very quickly realised that if you're going to facilitate, and you have to do it quickly, you have to do it very often, and you need, you need to support each other. So we set the network up to give people safe space to be able to facilitate internally. So to develop people's skills and create opportunities to be able to facilitate not in your day job. So that's why the network was set up, was to, so people could put forward a facilitation request and get someone who wasn't their day job, they went and practised their skill outside their day job, which, which means you can facilitate in a more pure way which was, which has been fantastic. It's, it's worked really well.   H.J And I want to ask a little bit more about that, actually. But before I do, I just wanted to pick up on the differences between engagement and facilitation, and where you see the differences being?   C.B yeah, I do think they're quite different skills. So I think being able to do good engagement planning across a project, you think we've got big projects that might go on for years, and they're quite technical. You need to understand the, you know, the technical context of that bit of work, what the business objectives are, what the engagement objectives are, what best methods we can apply, you know, to help people to engage with us, and for that to have an impact on on the decision making, that's quite different. You could do that, and then you can realise in that process, there's usually going to have to be some kind of series of face to face events. But the person doing that engagement planning might not necessarily have this skill to be able to run that face to face content, and sometimes actually, we do need a completely independent facilitator.    So there might be a topic where we might have lost trust with some of our stakeholders, where it's not appropriate for the Environment Agency to facilitate those conversations and we do need an independent facilitator. And that is whether it's an in-house facilitator and an independent facilitator, being able to design that's more in depth, designing how to make the most of the conversation, how to create a space where people feel safe, to be able to air their concerns and feel listened to. I guess it's like engagement planning, but it's really specifically thinking about that particular conversation and what you want to get out of that conversation. So it's micro design, I guess, within a particular moment in time, and you might use that facilitator, or you might use a facilitator that then exits the process, whereas the engagement person stays throughout and they use the results of that conversation, and they kind of have to carry on, whereas a facilitator might just come in for that particular moment, then they might not be involved again. So they are quite different skills.   H.J And so what determines how you choose a particular facilitator, be it an in-house one or an external facilitator. How does that process work?    C.B Yeah, so we'd use an in-house facilitator for a process where, so quite often the engagement person needs to be, needs to participate in the conversation. And if the engagement person involved in that bit of work needs to be involved in the conversation, then they'd use an in-house facilitator to help make sure that, you know, they just come in, offer the service, create the space so that everyone in the team can participate. And often there's other people outside the team, you know, other stakeholders and things. And if the topic is not too controversial, it's all to do with positionality and trust and the way the Environment Agency is viewed. If there's good trust and good relationships between all the people, then an in-house facilitator can do that role. When I'm doing that, I upfront say, I work for the Environment Agency, but I'm not here today as someone who works in the Environment Agency, I'm here to facilitate and make sure you're heard. I'd work with all the different stakeholders before to make sure that the design was taken their, you know, that their needs into account. I wouldn't just turn up on the day, so do all the things that an independent facilitator.   Obviously, we're a public sector organisation, so it has to make the most out of me as a facilitator and engagement expert. So I try and do that as much as possible. I'd only use an independent facilitator, which obviously costs us money as an organisation. We'd only do that in a situation where we genuinely needed that independence, and lots of reasons for that, but normally it's to do with trust and transparency and making sure that, you know, there might be awkward situations where things might have gone wrong in the past, and stakeholders would feel more comfortable if someone independent is facilitating, even just for a small period of time, just to help us through that.    H.J And how many facilitators have you got as part of your network then?    C.B Yeah, I knew you were going to ask, I think there's about 200 at the moment on the facilitation network.   H.J Wow. Okay, and how do you manage that kind of balance of work in your, let's say, day job, versus facilitating for a different, a different project that you're not part of then?   C.B Yeah so for me, I mean, we all do it differently. So we're allowed 11 development days a year. And so I use those Development Days aren't just, you just, don't just go on training courses and things. I use my Development Days to do independent facilitation for other people within the environment agency. So each quarter I have a maybe do one event per quarter for someone else, if it's a chunky event, because you need to do the planning for them, you need to facilitate and then help them with the results. So I think we all do that. We view it as part of our development, and we, you know, discuss it with our line managers and carve out time to go and do it. It's completely up to each individual facilitator to decide, and we have peaks and troughs in our work. If you're working on a project that had a lot of facilitation within that project, then you might not do any facilitation for anyone else in that quarter. But yeah, generally, people use their development time.   H.J Okay. And what kind of facilitation do you particularly enjoy?    C.B My favourite thing I've done in the last 12 months was when we were at the River Severn, when we did, when I have opportunities to facilitate with members of the public who are not part of the Environment Agency. And I was really fortunate, we were sort of testing a new methodology on the River Severn about adaptation pathways, they're called, so thinking about climate change and the impact of climate change, and we did something called Community panels, where we got members of the community. So an independent facilitator designed the process and needed some sort of support facilitators, and I acted as a support facilitator, and that was really, really fun. It's just a real privilege to be able to hear from members of the public who don't know anything about what the Environment Agency does, and yeah, to help them to have conversations about the environment and flood risk management, and their ideas were absolutely brilliant and really refreshing to hear. And that was, that was great, because most of my work is either internal or with partners that know the Environment Agency well. So that was something that was different for me and really stretched me as a facilitator, bringing together people that didn't know each other. We were doing it online, and, you know, I didn't know them, and it was, yeah, it was helping them to feel relaxed very quickly and heard, that was, that was really good. It was good for me as a facilitator. Good stretch.    H.J Nice and how often, I guess, do you get to do something a little bit stretchy? Let's say that you actually learn from rather than, let's say a bit more day to day type stuff?   C.B Probably only a couple of times a year, because it did take up quite a lot of time. It was four evenings and a whole day on a Saturday. So that's quite unique. But again, very much supported by the organisation, and was viewed as part of my development. And it was, it was a brilliant part of my development. It really blew the cobwebs off in terms of my facilitation skills. Took me out of my comfort zone, and it was really good. And I guess it would be easy not to do things like that, and it would be, you know, easier just to kind of do the day job. But where's the fun in that? You know, it really, it really helped me, and I took a lot from it back to the day job, and it reminded me about the importance of making sure people are comfortable and active listening. And it was good for me to hear how people view the Environment Agency, who don't know much about what we do. And so, you know, they came up with these brilliant ideas. Like, as an engagement person, I was able to come back in and sort of talk to people about so. But realistically, yeah, time wise, probably once or twice a year.   H.J And how easy is it for you then to kind of just thinking about that there's different hats that you wear. How easy is it to be sort of, you know, independent facilitator versus engagement professional, and, you know, to kind of remember which hat you're wearing, I guess?    C.B Yeah, it can be hard. I think when you're, we get quite embedded in the projects that we're working on. So I'm working on one really big project at the moment, and, you know, you have weekly calls within the technical team, and you become part of that technical team, and that's where it becomes hard to add value I think. When you're fresh and you go into a team, that's when you know you can sort of challenge in a really constructive way. So I think we just, yeah, I just I do, I need to have reflective conversations with people on a regular basis. So my manager is brilliant for that. She's quite sharp, she's really useful for me and sort of challenging me and making sure that I am still doing the job and not sort of just blending into that technical team.Because facilitators and consultants, the benefit of using independent facilitators is that they challenge on our cultural assumptions, and we have got a lot of cultural assumptions, and we do make a lot of decisions, which means that we probably sometimes can push engagement down the track a bit further than we should. So yeah, so that's it's difficult, but yeah, using, using my manager and and also independent facilitators, that's where they can really add value. I think when we're using them on projects, it's really having really useful conversations with independent facilitators about what I'm working on, and they can give really good advice and just keep you remembering about how to challenge teams in a constructive way. But it is quite tiring. I'm not part of that team. I am there to challenge constructively, and it, yeah, can be tiring, but it's,  you do get a lot of rewards as well from it, but you're not part of that team. And that's, I guess that's a bit like what it's like as a consultant, is that you're not, you're not fully part of that team. You're there to kind of help them as a team, to work well together, but not necessarily be embedded within that team.    H.J Which definitely has its pros and cons. So thinking about then, the kind of the learning, the development, the support that you have to work as a facilitator, what kind of opportunities? I know you said you have your development days, and that you use those to do facilitation. But what else are you able to do to kind of keep your skills up and to learn more?    C.B So we get together as a network, so we have network learning days. So we've got one next Monday, so we run those about every six months where we get the whole network together face to face. We have network days more locally, like we, me and you run one in Bristol, which is really good. And the thing I love about the Bristol one that we do with the International Association of Facilitators is it's so refreshing for the Environment Agency, half the people that come are from the Environment Agency, and half the people that come are just independent facilitators doing all sorts of facilitation across all sorts of sectors, charity sectors, you know, finance sectors all around the world. You know, some of them work in Africa and all sorts of different places. And it's really exciting meeting, and really, really good for us to to be challenged and meet people that are doing facilitation in other places, and they you know that those days are brilliant, and although only a couple of hours, probably learn more in a couple of hours than you could learn, you know, in a whole day online and things and just little conversations and testimonials and, you know, different methods that people are testing out and what's gone wrong and what's worked well. That works really well.    And the two day conference that the IAF run in April. So I went to the, I went to that for the first time two years ago, and I went last year as well. And then every year I'm bringing more and more people from the Environment Agency, because that's when I learn the most in the year is just immersing yourself in two days of just learning sessions and being exposed to people that are facilitating in really different contexts. But there's so much that we can learn from each other. So yeah, and just techniques that you just wouldn't even dream of, I just techniques that I wouldn't even dream of, you know, like last time I went, there was an amazing session about using your body and not talking, but just how you can just facilitate using movement and using your body and help with conflict resolution and different difficult conversations with people just using your body. It sounds really strange, but it was really amazing. It's really interesting.   H.J I guess it's the same for for any of us that facilitate, we tend to do our particular thing, or even if you're an external independent facilitator, and even if you work across different sectors, you can get a little bit stuck in your own, you know, you have your preferred tools and techniques, and you use them again and again. And so any of those kind of days, you know, for me, definitely I learned so much and been to so many sessions where I think, oh, yeah, that's a thing, I've never thought about doing that. So it's definitely not just internal facilitators that have that, because I think the rest of us do as well.   C.B Yeah, yeah, it's great, isn't it? It's amazing. Yeah.   H.J It's really nice, the Bristol meetups you mentioned, I think that is a really nice mix of, I think it's about 50-50 split, internal and external. And I'm always amazed myself at the breadth of different types of facilitation, and the more you, you know, you talk about facilitation and what you can facilitate, you know, it's actually quite a huge array. The edges are very fuzzy, but it's really nice to see all those different methods and different conversations that we have together.    C.B Yeah, yeah, it's amazing.   H.J So thinking about the actual tools and techniques and all that kind of stuff, what's the one thing that you really, really love? I know you've talked about working with the public, what's the one methodology, perhaps, or tool that you really love using? Is there one or a few? Perhaps?   C.B So I worked on a research project called ‘adapting to a changing climate flooding coast'. It's like in difficult situations where flood defence is not the answer for lots of different reasons, but there's not a straightforward, this is how we're going to manage the problem. It was a really good opportunity to take ourselves out of our comfort zones and think, what methods within, with these communities could work? Because we've not got all the answers, actually. And so we developed some more conversation based techniques. And so we did role play simulation. I think when people say role play, everybody's like, Oh, but it's a 90 minute role play simulation where everybody gets a chance to hear different perspectives. And so that was a real privilege being involved in testing that and very emotional. So things like role play simulation and those sorts of techniques that support better quality conversations. I sort of we experienced a situation where people have been working together for years and years, like the local flood Action Group and local planners, our members of staff, and people got to the point where they didn't want to go to the meetings anymore, but because it was redesigned around this role play simulation, and they all went along and took on someone else's role for 90 minutes. At the end they, it was quite emotional, and people, I think, were able to empathise and stand in the shoes of I didn't realise I was making you feel like that. And it was a building block for completely redesigning how the different stakeholders then worked together, and then they got together after the role play simulation, said, What does this mean for the way we're going to work together in the future? And it was just, it was very powerful. It wasn't very long. It's only 90 minutes, like I said, but it was just the fact that it was like a key I suppose that sort of opened up people's eyes to realise that they'd all been exhibiting behaviours that were really unhelpful if they did genuinely want to find a way forward with each other and help each other out to find solutions.    And also, everyone went to the pub afterwards, which I think also just really helped for them to see each other as human beings and to realise that it's not easy for people to just work in a professional role and take their hat off. We are all people and we, you know, we do really need to respect each other within conversations. And it was a yes, it was quite a simple technique. And in the past, I would have been one of those people as soon as you say role play simulation, I would have been one of those people that's really sceptical, but it's really changed my view on the power of standing in someone else's shoes and pretending you're that person and doing that in a safe space. So that in the last few years has probably been the technique that I think has been most powerful in helping people that are really stuck in positions and the meetings have become very adversarial and difficult, and where our staff don't want to go, the stakeholders don't want to come. You know, it's the worst situation that you sort of as a facilitator and engagement expert that you bump into more often than you'd like to. And it's trying to help people reset their relationships. And it was a really powerful technique.   H.J Wow, it's good I guess that you have such a technique that you know definitely works in a given situation. And it sounds like those perhaps conflicting, difficult conversations do come up a bit, I guess, with the very nature of the work that you do.    C.B Yeah, absolutely, yeah.    H.J And do you get to kind of play around much with different tools and techniques? Because I presume you've got quite a lot of time pressure to actually do the facilitation and do all the rest of the work that you need to do. Do you often fall back on tried and tested things?    C.B Yeah, absolutely, we absolutely do fall back on tried and tested things, especially when we're doing things in-house. I think if we were, if there was a situation like that, we would use an independent facilitator to come in and help us. Even if I was doing some of the design work, I would be working alongside an independent facilitator. Yeah, I haven't done any roleplay simulation without an independent facilitator. And I think that is really worth it, and it can make a massive difference. So yes, it's recognizing those situations, I think, where something's become unproductive and difficult, mental health wise, for everybody involved, and it is worth then the investment of we need to do something different here. So we do support those situations.Most of the time,yeah, we're just using run of the mill techniques, like we love online since covid, you know, lots of online workshops, mural boards, or, you know, whiteboards that sort of thing is our go to run of the mill. What we would use all the time, slido polls, things like that. Yeah, that's just the everyday stuff that we're doing.    Although, like having to be very wary about not making assumptions about people's sort of not everybody's comfortable with using those, those sorts of techniques, you know. So having to remember that you do need, you do need to give people space to understand how to use the mural board. And I think people, yeah, so the mural boards and concept boards, whatever you use, they're brilliant, but you do have to always remember to do a little intro. It sounds really obvious, but otherwise, I think it can be a real barrier for people. Some people just don't know how to move the bits and bobs around, and just not getting too comfortable with whatever technique you're using, I think is really helpful.    There's loads and loads of techniques, and I think one of my favourite ones that I learned at the last International Association of Facilitators is like the role play simulation is a difficult technique, like, as in, difficult to design, and you need to do loads of prep. But the really quick technique that I learned was called, ‘I wonder if', and that was a really good technique, and it's just a different way of framing things so and that can be used at any moment with even within a meeting, you know, and that thinking about how you frame questions is maybe the, maybe the use of questions and how you frame questions is the most powerful tool that we've got as facilitators, in terms of, even within a session, that can make a real difference and turn a conversation around.   H.J And I guess, particularly when you know you can't necessarily redesign a whole session each time for every piece of work you do, and sometimes, if it's about, perhaps just making those small changes, by asking those powerful questions then, and they get you the results, much easier to focus on doing something like that than thinking about sort of grand redesign and using all sorts of different tools and all the rest of it, which is nice, and I think does keep us kind of interested. But actually, there's a question about, I suppose, who are we doing that for? Are we doing that for us as facilitators, because it's interesting, or are we doing it for the participants?   C.B Yeah, absolutely, yeah. I love a new technique.   H.J I was gonna just a sort of extra question, really, about that online versus in person? What's the kind of balance?    C.B Oh, yeah, like 95% online now, I would say. We've always been really careful, I think, as an organisation in when we get people together because of the carbon footprint. So, you know, ever since I joined the Environment Agency, there's, there's always, quite rightly, does this have to be face to face? Yeah, and we obviously use the trains and things like that. And, yeah, now is, since covid, I think it's, I guess, you know, we've realised the potential of online and invested in, you know, the government, just generally, I think, has invested more in sort of tools and techniques to help us as as people working for the government that to use those sorts of tools and techniques to have more effective online meetings. So the vast majority of the comms engagement work I do on projects is online workshops, rather than bringing people face to face. And that's a big change in the last five years, because when I was working on the National Flood and coastal risk management strategy four or five years ago, we did bring stakeholders together, at key points for face to face meetings. I think if we were doing that now, a lot of that would be online, so you still have, you still have meetings with people, but you know, they're virtual, which brings its opportunities and challenges. It's more inclusive for some people, because they don't have to travel. And, yeah, it's, but it's, there's something magical about having people in a room, and that's the bit you miss.    H.J Yeah, definitely. I was going to just pick up on the challenges bit. So I've asked you about what you enjoy about facilitation, and you know, nice, all the nice stuff, but what are the main challenges of being an internal facilitator?   C.B I think the main challenge is, I'm working on a project where, you know, where I'm always, whatever I'm working on, when you're working on the project, and you're part of the project team and you're the engagement advisor on it, how independent can you be? And that's a challenge. And so identifying when I need to bring in another in-house facilitator, or when I need to bring in an independent facilitator is really important, and I do, I do have to do that often on the big projects I work on. So, yeah, so that's that's a challenge, is recognizing when you need that and being able to see that far enough in advance so you know, so you can plan for that.   And the other challenge, I think, is it's easy to get really busy on your day job and on your projects and that they are it is busy, and there is a lot to do,making space for me to go and be an independent facilitator for someone else, when you're really busy making space to do that as often as I can. Otherwise, I don't keep my skills fresh, and six months can go by and I realise I haven't gone and done something. I've done lots of facilitation, but I've not done anything for someone else that's completely independent of my day job. And so that's what I have to check myself on, is making sure that I am, I am still doing that, and when I do it, it's so brilliant. And that's when, like I said earlier, that's when you get taken out of your comfort zone of facilitator, which is what sharpens us up, I think. Because facilitation is hard, it is it's exhausting, but it's brilliant as well, when you have those magic moments, when people have understood, you know, understood each other better, and you've helped, by the way, you've designed that meeting and created that space. You've helped people to move forward more in a more positive way, and that's worth it.   H.J Definitely. That's a definite similarity. I think, you know, as external facilitators, exactly the same. Well, certainly for me, you know, it's that feeling, I guess when you've you've done something right, you know it's gone well. And you know that people have come to a good place at the end, it's like, yes. Nice, big glow.    C.B Yeah, ready for my Mars bar at the end.   H.J Yeah. And so, I guess, last question really is, what advice would you give to anybody else that is working as an internal facilitator. Any words of wisdom?   C.B Yes, I would say, keep taking opportunities for training, because I think formal training has its place. And I think going and doing more formal training, it's easy to sort of just do your training initially and then never do any more formal training. I think formal training has its place as facilitators. So going and regularly doing formal training. Definitely mixing with other facilitators who are not part of your organisation. So the International Association of Facilitators provides that perfect opportunity in April. It's you know, and so if you're able to go along, even if it's just for a day, not the whole thing, I think that's really helpful. And then the last thing is, as often as you possibly can, is to facilitate outside of your day job. And I know that's difficult, it's difficult to make the time, but that is, I think, where you'll build your confidence as an independent facilitator. And getting, you know, getting feedback, I guess, is the last bit that links to that other one. So yeah, that's the things I would encourage people to do.   H.J Brilliant. Thank you. It's been brilliant to talk to you today, and thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and bits and pieces about all of your experience and all the stuff you love about facilitation.   C.B Thank you too.   H.J So listeners, we've reached the end of another episode of facilitation stories, the community podcast of IAF, England and Wales   N.W If you'd like to find out more about the IAF and how to get involved, all of the links are on our website. Facilitationstories.com   H.J And to make sure you never miss an episode, why not subscribe to the show on whatever podcast app you use?   N.W We're always on the lookout for new episode ideas. So is there a fabulous facilitator you think we should talk to?   H.J Or something interesting emerging in the world of facilitation you think listeners need to hear about?   N.W Send us an email at podcast@IAF-Englandwales.org .   H.J We hope you'll join us again soon for more facilitation stories.   N.W Until then, thank you for listening.  

This episode is one of our quarterly “Chapter Chats” where the team talks to leaders of other IAF Chapters.  In this episode Helene and Nikki chat to Sara Tremmi Proietti and Andrea Panzavolta from IAF Italy.  They talk about How the chapter began in 2013 and the successive leaders since then; Initiatives to extend the reach of the chapter in Southern Italy: The co-leadership model used for the past two leadership terms;   “Our jobs are a little bit different. So it's very interesting because we see things from very different perspectives. And this is also always very, very rich, and something that I really, really recommend” (Sara on co-leading with Giacamo)   The Chapter's Annual Conference- its volunteer-led model and support provided to people who'd like to run a session; Working collaboratively with other Associations in Italy; Twinning with other IAF chapters including Romania and Syria; Plans and aspirations for the future of the Chapter;  “we would like the chapter to be a point of reference at the national level for organisations who are seeking facilitator facilitation services or just want to learn something more about it” A full transcript is below.  Links  Today's guests:  Sara Tremmi Proietti: saratremmiproetti@gmail.com  IAF Italy website: https://iaf-italy.org/  IAF Italy email: italy@iaf-world.org   Today's subject  LinkedIn Article about Co Leadership by Andrea and Deborah: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/stepping-leadership-iaf-story-deborah-rim-moiso-fmdwf/   To find out more about Facilitation Stories and the IAF and the England and Wales Chapter  Facilitation Stories website: https://facilitationstories.libsyn.com/  And to email us: podcast@iaf-englandwales.org  IAF England and Wales: https://www.iaf-world.org/site/chapters/england-wales The Facilitation Stories Team  Helene Jewell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenejewell/  Nikki Wilson:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolawilson2/   Transcript   H.J Hello and welcome to Facilitation Stories, the community podcast brought to you by the England and Wales chapter of the International Association of Facilitators, also known as IAF. I'm Helene Jewell (HJ) and   N.W I'm Nikki Wilson (NW)   H.J And this episode is one of our quarterly Chapter Chats, where we talk to people leading other chapters in the IAF global community. We ask them about how they see the status of facilitation, where they are, and the history, priorities, current projects and aspirations of the chapter. Today, we're joined by Andrea Panzavolta (AP) and Sara Tremmi Proietti (SP), co chairs of IAF Italy, welcome.   S.P Thank you, Helene.   A.P Thank you so much for the invitation and also for your perfect pronunciation.   H.J Thank you so welcome to you both. And to start off with, we would like to know a little bit more about both of you and about the kind of work you do. So if you could tell us a bit about yourselves, that would be great.   S.P Thank you Helene. Okay, so my name is Sara, and I live in Rome, which is in centre of Italy. I have been working in public administration for over 10 years now, and for the past three years, I've been drawn to the world of facilitation, first attending a course and then starting to work also in in this field, public administration, I focused initially on economic programming, but then I turned more on teams like innovation and process optimization. So that's how I met facilitation, because during an office reorganisation attempt, we met a lot of conflicts and resistances and difficulties with our team. And so I understood that I needed to, you know, to discover and to learn something more about people, about relation, about group working. So that's how I met it and how I am.   A.P So may I introduce myself, and first of all, thank you for the invitation and for this amazing initiative, because I also listened to the past podcast and were very, very, very well done. I'm not the actual chapter leader. I was the past chapter leader with Deborah Rim Moiso. So thank you also, Sarah, who invited me to join you. And I'm an urban planner and the facilitator, of course, our 20 years that I practise as a facilitator. I'm a founder of the formative collective, that is a project that focuses on the team of non violent communication. And of course, we use the participatory techniques, methods. And I was awarded with the Platinum Award 2020 by the International Association of Facilitator. So I'm very proud about this, in a project that I follow it by region Emilia-Romagna, that is my region in the north of Italy, and the team was about the Community of Practice on participatory policy making. So that's all for me.   H.J Thank you. Really interesting to hear how you both got into facilitation and congratulations on your award too, Andrea.   A.P Thanks so much. It's a past award.   N.W Great. So today we're going to be talking about IAF Italy, which we know had its 10 year anniversary last year. So what can you tell us about how it started and how the chapters developed over that 10 year period?   A.P Yeah, thank you for the question Nikki .The Italian chapter born in 2013 on the initiative by Giancarlo Manzone and Gerardo de Luzengerger that I imagine you know very well. And from 2019 to 2021 was coordinated by Paola Martinez. That is another IAF member, very active. And since May 2021, has been coordinated by me and Deborah Rim Moiso. And now the coordinators are Sara Tremmi Proietti and Giacomo Petitti. And the chapter started to create collaboration between facilitators, and mainly to explain what the facilitator do. At that time nobody in Italy know the term, the word facilitator. And I was scared to present me as a facilitator, because nobody, nobody could understand what I did. So this is our first mission in that time.   H.J Thank you. Really interesting. Sorry, Sara, did you have something to add?     S.P Yeah, I would like to, just to add that the professional facilitator now it's spreading a little bit more in Italy, but still, we have a lot of resistance among organisations. And there is a great concentration of facilitators in the north of the country. So we are our initiative now is also to bring facilitation to the southern regions of the country. And we are quite pleased about an initiative that came from our members, which is a small initiative, because they just decided to have a WhatsApp chat called like facilitators from the South. And the nice thing is that this initiative came from a Canadian girl, who is a member who lives now in the south of Italy, and but, and she's a member of IAF Italy, and she formed this WhatsApp chat, and we are quite proud of this, even if this is a small step, but it does mean something for us.   H.J Wow, that's so interesting. And also that kind of organic movement of yeah, people starting up their own, yeah? Well, WhatsApp chat   S.P Exactly, exactly, yeah.   H.J  And I think what's interesting actually for us is, the more we do these Chapter Chats, we hear a bit of a consistent theme, actually, in this people don't really know what facilitation is. That certainly, when we spoke to Bogdan from IAF Romania, that was one of the things he was talking about as well. So it's definitely and in the UK. So it's definitely not, uh, not something, uh, specific to where we are, which is interesting. Okay, so, um, thinking then, uh, well building a bit on what you were saying, Sara about, you know, you've got some new initiatives. Can you tell us a bit more about the chapter as it is today?   S.P Yeah, sure. So the chapter today has about 30 to 35 members, as I was saying before, with the predominance in the north of Italy. So it's like 20 to 22, members in the north, and four of them are certified facilitators. So now we still have two co-leader, a co-leadership. It's me and Giacomo Petitti. We have been holding this role for a year now, so it's midterm kind of. And what we do is we basically carried on the work, the job that was began by Andrea and Deborah, because we hold monthly meetings. So it's pretty regularly. It's like the third Monday of each month we meet. And we also provided IAF Italy with a Zoom account so that we can, we could, uh, ensure you know this regularity. And this is a place, this is a moment of the month where people can meet and discuss and also participate in building and nourishing the community and to identify together goals and activities. So we wanted to be a participated chapter, no. So since we are kind of scattered among, you know, along the country, across the country, we cannot hold, like in person events so frequently. So we have our national event, which is held in Milan every year. So we keep it, you know, online, mainly. And then we we have, like, some activities, like, you know, things that we participate in, in events with other association for the promotion of the participation, or for the promotion of facilitation as well. Like, we went to an event last September in Bologna. So we travel a little bit, me and Giacomo sometimes. And then to, you know, to keep up with members, we have this WhatsApp chat, and then we have a sort of newsletter. We can call it like monthly, where we give, we keep them updated to with the international events and initiatives that are going on into the IAF Ward and yeah and that, that's pretty much it. And then we have, you know, like a specific also, activities that we were following, but maybe Andrea will tell you more later about it.   N.W And you touched on the kind of Co-leadership model that you follow. What do you, have you found works well in making that work when you're co leading?   A.P Yes, before the 2021 the chapter had always been led by an individual, but when Gerardo asked me to became the chapter leader, I was very scared. And in that period I had less time to dedicate to the association. So I asked to Deborah Rim Moiso to help me, and she joined, and she was very happy to join this experience. And we together were inspired by experiments in Co-leadership adopted by the global ecovillage network and and we not, we're not sure, but they may have too been inspired by the Kurdish democratic and federalism practices. So this was our approach, and it's very simple. Our co-leadership started, I don't know if now work at the same, but I think it's very similar. And any leadership position is taken at the same time by two people of different genders. So we suggest different genders, both are leader together. And you know, as IAF you need to have only one reference, one the chapter leader, but I was the person who did the senior tour. But for me and Deborah, we have the same power. And for me, was very important to share the season and to share also that after the meeting with the IAF International. And was very, very useful also to define the future strategy, also to when we decided to engage more members from the south of Italy, we decided together this and we decided to to have regular meetings with us, with me and Deborah. We call the coffee time meeting, or the beer meeting, the beer time meeting. So every week, we had a short meeting of half an hour to share ideas and also to share information that we took from from different meetings that we participate. So we shared also the duties you know about, to be a chapter leader. And so was a very good experience, and we suggested this managed model to all the chapters.   H.J Nice, and for you Sara, does that, is it a model that feels nice working alongside somebody else?   S.P Yeah, very much. I really appreciated this initiative. And when Andrea proposed me to take the role and told me that Giacomo was in as well, I was really relieved. I was like, Okay, now, now I know that I can do it like this. You know, in pairs. Yeah, I think it's very interesting to be together. And also you can, you know, divide activities, such as the previous one I was talking about, when you have to travel around. And also you can, you know, share meetings where you have to, that you have to attend, but mostly you can discuss and share fears and projects for the future. And also Giacomo and I have very different backgrounds. How are you know, we live in different places, in different type of communities, our jobs are a little bit different. So it's very interesting because we see things from very different perspectives and this is also always very, very rich, and something that I really, really recommend. So I'm really, really enjoying this. And also the nice thing was that at the last general conference, we kind of hosted the conference, which is organised by Gerardo every year. But also we decided to have a session together for a session. So we brought a workshop so we could test, you know, our Co-leadership in person and during work. So that's nice.   H.J So it sounds great from sort of lots of different perspectives. And yeah, interesting thinking about that diversity perspective that you both bring two sort of different mindsets or different ways of facilitating to your leadership. And I can absolutely, having been passed England and Wales chapter chair, I can absolutely relate to that being a bit scared of doing it by yourself. So if you've got somebody to work alongside with that must feel really good. So the other thing you you've just mentioned again, leading us nicely onto, my next question is about your annual conference. It would be really nice to hear a bit more about about the how that works, about your plans and past conferences as well. You tell us a bit more.   A.P Yeah, maybe I could introduce some themes related to the past conferences. And what I could say a lot of subjects. We started with ‘the collaboration era' was the title of the first Italian conference. Was the first conference to make know better the professional facilitator, and to start also the collaboration with different professional you know. At the time, each facilitator was very jealous about his work ,his profession, because it was, was something very precious, so we decided to start collaboration to share experience methods and what what we know. In our conference, everyone bring his or her experience and the share methods could offer a free workshop so you have to share something of your professional experience also. And another theme that I loved, it was “where the donkey falls”. So when you are a facilitator, you do everything very well, but when you start to converge to the, to take the decision, here come the problems. So how we could take good decision, how we could go in the conversing way and respect our participants or the group's members. And after that was very good for me, the covid free editions conference, because we shared all we learned in these months of pandemic situation also about the online. But were moment to share those feelings as professional, as individual, as a member of a family, and what does. Also the last conference we organised were about the facilitate in a few words, so no verbal facilitation. How to use the body, arms? You know, we are Italian. We could was very, very well para verbal. But you never stop to study. You have to improve your skills. So we decide to face this team. And the last in the in 2024 the team was neutrality in facilitation. I mean, it's possible to be really neutral as a facilitator in a group, how you can do to be natural, what methods, what you have to do before the groups works before the workshop or after, to be more neutral. And at the end, one of the most nice for me experience of the conference was the agile and facilitation conference that was there during the European Middle East, original conference of the IAF, so was a very, was an international conference. We mainly, not mainly, all the conference has been organised in Italian language. This was the only conference can I organise in English. Always in Milan was dedicated to Agile. So to work with an agile methods, and also to go in deep in the Agile methods that it's not only for person that work with computer and engineers but it's also good for design thinking, the facilitator. And I don't know if Sara wants to add something more about this experience?   S.P Yes, thank you  Andrea, it was very exhaustive. Yeah, what I would like to add is more like a personal, maybe, point of view for in a way, because I, as I said before, I met facilitation three years ago. So I just attended a couple of conferences the last two. So the first one was, yeah, the one like facilitating in a few words, and that, for me, was really amazing, because I just met facilitation and I had no idea, like not no idea, but I was very young in facilitation. So experiencing facilitation through the body and through paraverbal was very enriching for me, because I could learn a lot and experiment on myself a lot. And the second one, and the very nice thing for me was that I was asked by Andrea, I think by Andrea, or by Delfino, I don't remember, to to facilitate the open space technology that we always have during the conference. And it was the first time for me, and that was absolutely amazing experience. And in general, the great thing about the conference is that it brings together very different people, and you get to know that, other words, you know, exist in facilitation. And this is something that being new. It's always you know, something to discover. So it's very interesting. And another thing that I would like to add is that in the this year, last conference, which was held in March, the one about neutrality, was organised in a slightly different way, because there was like a preparation path conference. And people were, are kind of supported and not tutored, but supported in their planning and designing of the workshops that they wanted to to offer. And these, and they were like, they were like feedback, attentions, so that people could improve and take care of, you know, details supported by by a team of, you know, facilitators, and these ensured great quality of of workshops during the conference. It was really, really, really high quality. And I believe that it helped also young facilitators to, you know, to offer workshops with less anxiety. I don't know how to say that, you know, so, yeah, that was really, really nice. I think   A.P If I put up just a very practical thing that is not obvious, the conference is all organised by volunteers, and this is a choice, because the fee is very low, so it's about 180 or 150 euros. It depends about the year. So we want to be very open also to person that are not facilitator, are curious about facilitators or facilitation methods and stories, and that's all.   H.J Sounds kind of similar to the conference that we put on in England and Wales, actually there's, yeah, definite similarities. Nice. Thank you.   N.W Brilliant. And so I suppose building again on that kind of peer led nature of the work the chapter often builds collaborations and partnerships, both within Italy and beyond. So if we just start off with Italy, could you share some examples of some recent and current collaborations that you're involved with?   A.P Yeah, thank you, Nikki for the question. Yes. When I became chapter leader, together with Deborah, we decide to enforce relation with National Association, because we understood that we have to grow, and to grow we have to enforce the relation to know more association that are interested in the same subjects. So mainly we did intervention to explain what I effectively do and what are the core competencies, support, facilitator, and, you know, just to present ourselves and to explain what a facilitator is. We invite all the members of different association to share information and objectives, to find common ground. So we work, in particular with IP two, that is an association in Italy that work on public participation. And if the members are more academic, are more are not professional facilitator, but like to work in the field of facilitator and the public democratic choices. So they are very engaged about what IAF is. And also, we decide to start collaboration with Association like Facilit Ambiente, that is an association, a private association that is offered by the Chamber of Commerce of Milan Monza Brianza Lodi. And it's a sort of service offered for preventing environmental conflicts through facilitation. So they trust in facilitation. They want to support and promote the facilitations approaches and also IAF approaches and the core competencies. So also we work with the open gulf consultation, that is the national consultation, that aim to engage citizens, normal citizens, in the decision related to the government. And there is a national platform, online platform, and you can vote, you know, like this deal, but it's a national platform. So very, very hard to participate because you need, you need to use a lot of personal data to vote before, but for us, was a must. As an international association, as a national association of facilitation, we have to speak also with the Italian government about these, these subjects.   H.J Thank you. Sara, was there anything to add from you?   S.P Yeah, just that this, we are with the associate association that Andrea mentioned, the Association for Public Participation. We are now reviewing the Participation Charter, which was elaborated, created 10 years ago. So after 10 years, this charter has been reviewed. And the Charter is a document promoted by IAF Italy, and this AIP through association with other associations that establishes principles and objectives and guidelines for promoting public participation in decision making processes and the process of reviewing this charter just ended. So we will present this work at the Festival of the Participation, which would be held soon in Italy. So we are quite, quite proud of this. And yes, in general, we try to connect with the associate Association in order to spread facilitation, and also to promote the recognition of the facilitator, facilitator profession in Italy, because this profession is not yet recognised here.   H.J Amazing, Wow. Sounds like you've got lots and lots of Yeah, lots of work that you're doing, and perhaps lots more to do, just thinking about collaborations, but more specifically about the twinning that you've been doing with other chapters. I wanted to ask you a bit more about that. So we spoke to Bogdan, as I said before, from IAF Romania in a previous Chapter Chat and we know that you've twinned with IAF Romania, and you have started, I think, to twin with IAF Syria. And I just wondered if you could tell us a bit more about that.   S.P Yeah, yeah. We, Giacomo and I, decided to carry on this, this initiative that was started by Andrea and Deborah with the Romania when but we did with this training with Syria. And it was a very, very enriching experience for us, because it could help us expand our horizon, you know, also beyond, beyond the Western culture. And so we had a series of virtual workshop, online workshop with with Syrian, in order to share knowledge, resources and best practices between our chapters. We had four meetings about the first one was like, like, the role of facilitation in post disaster recovery. And this was really interesting, because we exchange different stories, and we could see how different it was to, for example, recover after natural disaster. Like it was like in Italy, because we have, we had a few earthquakes in the last few years that and then we had to rebuild, you know, buildings and communities. Whereas in Syria, they had to rebuild after war, and then also after earthquakes. So we could share this experience, and we would see the differences and the great job that they did, and that we also tried to do here in Italy. And also it was very nice because each, each each meeting, the other meetings, were about the conflict management and cultural diversity. So it was, it was very nice to because there are, there might be great differences, you know, in culture, especially when you, when you compare Italy to Syria. So it really makes you think and reflect even out of the session. You know, you have to think about cultural diversity at the basis of the relation. I don't know how to explain it better. And it was nice because we had the chance to co facilitate. So it was an Italian and a Syrian facilitator. And so it was really enriching and but what I saw and what I really liked is that, because I did facilitate one of these meetings, and it was the openness and the human connection that we could find and share when doing something that we really liked. So it was something that went beyond cultural diversity and went beyond the barrier, also the language barrier that you can meet when you go facilitate. You know, maybe Andrea wants to tell us a few more about the Romanian experience.   A.P But, yeah, sure. Just something to add about the idea, the idea, when we decide, with Deborah to propose this twinning during a meeting of the European chapter, we decide to propose a twinning that was composed about three, four meetings, thematic meetings. And of course, that will not take more than two years twinning, because, from our idea, also the Chapter must be in charge for two years. And every two years we want to change chapter leaders and as well, co chapter leaders. And so the twinning at this time about the Romania was amazing because was the first twinning so we decided together, also with bogdan and his and their colleagues, we decided also to share how it's different the professional facilitator in Romania and Italy. So starting from, what are your clients? What are your fees? And something very, very practical, but also if you work more in the private or public sector and what you did, what are your institution? So the line was to enrich each other with methods, but also take inspiration how to work in a different way with different clients that together are not you don't know. And so was very fun also to understand that we are in the same boat, so everything is the same in your nation. So a very good experience that I suggest to each chapter to start.   H.J Thank you. So then thinking about, actually, I just wanted to pick up on one thing you were talking about there, the language, which obviously we as native English speakers have as the kind of luxury, if you like that, when things are in a shared language, they are often in English, which is quite easy for us. How does that, How hard or easy is that to for example, work with Romania, work with Syria and have to use for both of you to be using a language that isn't your own.   S.P Well, actually, I mean, I do really like languages so and I think it's fun to when you meet someone who is not a native English speaker, to find your own vocabulary, like you build up your own vocabulary, which maybe it's not even English, it's not Italian, it's not Syrian, it's not Romanian, but somehow you understand each other, and that's fun. But I have to say that sometimes it can be a barrier, because, like maybe not all the, not all our members felt confident to facilitate in English. So, yeah, so you really need to encourage them that you will find a way to build up your vocab, vocabulary. And also, I think that during the sessions, there is this, at least for me, like, kind of worried that I may not understand well what people are saying, and maybe I my facilitation could be, you know, so and so. And so, you really need to trust yourself, I think, a little bit more, but also, and that's why I really like facilitation, you can always rely on your co facilitator, so if you or make a joke about it, so if you are two, if it's two, you know facilitators not speaking English as a native language, I think it's a lot easier to to manage that.   A.P If I could share, I remember my first online meeting with the monthly meeting with the European Middle East, and I was so scared about the language, because I never studied English, so I learned by myself. So I was so scared or what, what I could say with these facilitators, so professional facilitator. And there was, I met Andrew Spiteri, you know, in a breakout room, and he was so polite, so friendly, that I was very relaxed. And after that meeting, I said myself, everything will be okay. Don't, don't, don't be scared. Don't worry about the English. And you can also use para verbal and don't speak.   H.J Yeah,that's always a fall back, isn't it? Wow, yes, I've delivered training in a different language. Anyway, moving on. So yeah, looking ahead, what's happening in the near future in IAF Italy and yeah, how would you like to see things develop over the next few years?   S.P Okay, so looking ahead, so our focus, I think, remain on strengthening the culture of participation and participation in general. For sure, public participation is, you know, something that is important for us. And also, yeah, having this thing that I mentioned before that having the professional facilitator formally recognised. So something, yeah, it's like to we would like, yeah, this profession to be seen and understood and recognised at a, you know, an institutional level. This is the general, you know, the frame. So in the near future, of course, there is the next general conference. I know it's we are a year ahead, but it takes a lot of work. And of course, the conference is organised by Gerardo, but it's in collaboration with the Chapter. So we are working on improving the model, the new method that we experimented last year. And so we want to see where it goes if we keep working on that. So with this preparation path, and try to trying to scout a little bit new facilitators and see if they want to put themselves to the test, you know. So that it can be the annual conference, can be a place where people, even less experienced facilitators, can can try it, can grow, can know facilitation better and know themselves better as facilitators. This is Yeah, in the near future. In the long term, I think we would like to, the Chapter to transform into a proper, real, like community, where facilitators can share, can support each other, can network and also create work opportunities together. We what we would like is that people feel free to ask each other for help, for support, if they are short of ideas or about a session or a method or something like that. Then we want people to rely on each other, and we want to facilitate this trust building process, I don't know. And also, we would like the chapter to be a point of reference at the national level for organisations who are seeking facilitator facilitation services or just want to learn something more about it. So we would like to be Yeah, like a subject, someone people facilitators and organisation can rely on and can go and ask for help or information.     H.J Great. Anything else from you Andrea? Any other thoughts on the future?   A.P Of course, you know, I'm not now the chapter leader, but I absolutely have some ideas. And Sara had said something very important for me, so support the facilitator and to give them visibility. Organise moment to present facilitator to clients, to to factories, to person that don't know facilitator, and have to know and have to use facilitator because it's better. And when you try facilitator, you ask to yourself, why I didn't do it before. So I want to that IAF Italy support also the professional part of the individual facilitator and for me, it's very important, because in Italy, we need to grow with numbers. And I mean, also in Europe, but in our case, we have to make grow the knowledge of facilitators.   S.P I would just like to add that, I mean, my personal dream is also, of course, since I work in public administration, to bring facilitation in public administration, you know. So this is something that I try to do, you know, very, very small things in my everyday life, at work, but this is, it's more a personal dream this, but I would like to mention that as well, because I think we really need that. We do have, I think that facilitation is kind of entering institutions at a small, at the municipal level, so, you know, town hall level. But in the bigger institution which I belong to, I don't see that much, and I think we really, really, really need that. And also I think that for the for the chapter, something that we should try to, should invest on is young facilitators, of course, and this is also a campaign that IAF global is carrying on. We know that some of our members did join initiatives that have been carried on at the global level. And we are very happy about that. And I also, I would like to maybe this is also a personal, a personal dream. But I really like the share and learn idea, you know, the series that we have at the global level. And I would like that to have that maybe at a chapter level, maybe Italian, maybe even in a more structured way, maybe easier. So something that not felt like kind of overwhelming by people, but that can be, you know, a way to to exchange between peers,   N.W Great, well, lots of big plans and you've got a big work agenda ahead of you, but it sounds like some, some great ambitions there, and really interesting different things that you're getting involved in. So just before we wrap up then, where should we go if we want to find out more about you and the IAF Italy Chapter?   S.P We have a website, and then we also you can reach us, reach us at our email. So the website is, of course, www.Iaf-italy.org , and the email Italy@IAF-word.org so you can always write to us, we always answer and see, check our emails. And you can also write to me. My email is s.tremmiproietti@gmail.com and yeah, this is, this is our contact.   H.J Thank you so much. So I think it just leaves us to say thank you for joining us today, Sara and Andrea. It has been really fascinating talking to you and hearing all about IAF Italy, past, present and future. And hopefully we'll get a chance to speak to you again soon.   S.P Thank you. Thank you Helene and Nikki for the invitation. It was my first experience, and I'm really happy about it.   A.P Thank you so much for the invitation.   H.J  So listeners, we've reached the end of another episode of Facilitation Stories, the community podcast for IAF, England and Wales.   N.W If you'd like to find out more about the IAF and how to get involved, all of the links are on our website, facilitationstories.com   H.J And to make sure you never miss an episode, why not subscribe to the show on whatever podcast app you use   N.W We're always on the lookout for new episode ideas. So is there a fabulous facilitator you think we should talk to?   H.J Or something interesting emerging in the world of facilitation you think listeners need to hear about.   N.W Send us an email at podcast@IAF-EnglandWales.org   H.J We hope you'll join us again soon for more Facilitation Stories.   N.W Until then, thank you for listening.  

Overview J is back, and this time he's talking about his latest book series which deals with using A.I. for your writing. Our conversation entails the happenings from 20 books to 50k Vegas. J has a lot of thoughts about the future of publishing and the use of A.I. Book YouTube https://youtu.be/ICNtVSdkJVw Transcript Stephen: Cool. Great. Alright. I'm just gonna start us off. New episode, Discovered Wordsmith. I've got Jay Thorne which he has been on here. It's been about a hundred and twenty episodes ago Wow. Since he was on. Yeah. It's been a while. He just made the mistake of saying, whatever you wanna ask, go ahead. That love child that you fostered in Hindus are Hindi Himalayas. Tell us about that, Jay. This is breaking news. J: I can only talk about things that have really happened, Steven. So I Stephen: You're a writer. What the heck? Oh, come on. So alright. Hopefully, everybody knows Jay because I'm not gonna go into his background. He's been on here before. I'll put links in that. I really wanna get on these new books he's been writing. Let's just hit that right from the start. You are writing Or have written a series of books about AI, writers using AI, and more about that. So There's probably gonna be a million questions on that. I've got several written down I definitely wanna cover. So First of all, let's just start. Tell us about not only what the books are about, but why you wanted to write these books, Especially right now because, that could get death threats from some people writing a book like this. J: Yeah. I say this Sort of tongue in cheek, but it's certainly true. I don't get nearly the amount of hate because I'm a middle aged white guy, and I have that privilege, and it's terrible, but it's the truth. And I see other folks, Women and other people who get hate for it, and it's just it's so unfair. But that's, that's how the Internet is in general. But Stephen: Joanna seems to get a lot of people. And it's really, folks, she's been doing this forever. She's one of the most best voices for all of us. So yeah. Yeah. J: I think it's I think it's lessened more recently, but certainly early on, she took a lot of heat especially in her comments on her website. But, Stephen: because I think most are starting to realize. Hey. It's everywhere. Everybody's using it. Maybe it's not so bad. But, anyway, we're already off topic. So tell us about your bugs and why you're writing these. Okay. J: So I'm trying to think about how far back I have to go to put to give you context for this. I would say probably two or three years ago maybe, Pseudowrite was just being rolled out in a beta form. And Joanna was telling me she's you got you have to check this out. That's this new AI writing tool. And every couple months or every so often, she would say, hey. Listen. You gotta try this out. And every time I did, I just wasn't impressed. I was like, I don't know. It's not very good. It's weird. It, it doesn't do what I want it to do. And what comes out of it, I have to spend so much time cleaning it up. It's just not worth it. And so For years, I was very resistant, and I was like, I don't like it. It's not very good. And I said I enjoy the process of creating the words. So whether I think it's ethical or moral or makes any sense is kinda beside the point. I don't wanna farm out the most fun part of the experience. It'd be like being a musician, and you love playing live shows. And someone's hey. There's this Technology where you don't have to go on stage. You would be like I don't want that. Thanks. Other people can do that. It's fine. I'm just saying that's not, that's not what I want. And I'm saying this because I'm very transparent about it, and she and I'm proud of the fact that I changed my mind because she teases me all the time. And she was like, You hated this, and we almost had a falling out over it. And I'm like, I did.

"Just like you use your dollars with an online payment service, you can still be defrauded USDC. It wasn't the dollars that defrauded you. It was the other side of it." Jeremy Allaire"I actually believe the web of value exchange. Whatever you want to call it, the internet of value is going to be extraordinarily more valuable and extraordinarily more impactful than the web of information." Jeremy AllaireEpisode Summary:In this episode of The Raz Report, Jason Raznick speaks with Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle.Hosts:Jason RaznickTwitter: https://twitter.com/jasonraznickSign Up to Benzinga Pro today to receive most exclusive interviews, news and stock picks fast!https://pro.benzinga.com/Click here for more episodes of The RazReport.Disclaimer: All of the information, material, and/or content contained in this program is for informational purposes only. Investing in stocks, options, and futures is risky and not suitable for all investors. Please consult your own independent financial adviser before making any investment decisions.Transcript:BZ: We're very excited to have on this edition of the RazReport, Jeremy Allaire founder and CEO of CircleYou're going to hear about building companies, building enterprises and Circle USDC, which is taking the world by storm in a good way. Jeremy, welcome to the show.J: Thank you, Jason. Psyched to be here.BZ: Circle your latest company, I think you've raised over 700 million over $700 million for it. Is that correct?J: that's exactly right.BZ:When you founded this company in 2013 is it where you thought it would be?J: when we founded the company back in 2013, there were a whole set of ideas that we had about digital currency.We were very excited about this idea that you could build what we like to think of back then as an HTTP of money, meaning like a protocol for money on the internet. And by money we meant traditional money.The liabilities of a central bank, what we think of as everyday money. But convey onto that money, the power of cryptocurrency.So Bitcoin obviously itself brought into the world, this idea of a protocol that could work on a decentralized infrastructure to enable people to directly exchange value in digital cash like way.We wanted to build on that same fundamental technology foundation, but enable people to exchange, stable value assets, like dollars or Euros. And we believe that a kind of protocol layer for money would eventually become possible on top of these blockchain infrastructures. And that was a core mission and goal from the outset.We experimented with realizing that idea through building on a lot of, kind of digital currency banking infrastructure, we built a consumer facing application that kind of brought that to life. We actually built it on top of Bitcoin, which was the first-generation blockchain that was available back in 2013 and 2014 and 2015. And in during that time period, and then eventually in 2016, when ethereum, which is the second generation blockchain technology really emerged, it introduced more of the building blocks that we had been looking for back in 2013, when we founded the company.ETH allowed us in 2017 to begin work on and then also release what's now known as USDC, which is in fact the protocol for dollars on the internet and eventually other Fiat currencies too. But founding vision was there, the path to it obviously takes many, shifts.The metaphor I like to use is you can see the mountaintop. You can literally, standing far back, you can see that mountain top and how beautiful that looks, but you actually don't know how you're going to get to the top of the mountain. And you may actually go up one path and realize, oh, I'm staring over a cliff. I need to go back down and go up another.BZ: Ethereum is what allowed you to go create USDC?J: So back in 2012 and 2013 there, there were a lot of technologists or not a lot, actually back then, there was a lot now, but there were technologists getting involved in this space. And a lot of us got really excited about ideas issuing other assets on top of the blockchain or smart contracts and programmable money and what it would mean if you could have if you could say issue a dollar token and have a smart contract that could enable the programmability of that was like a mind-blowing concept.Early in my career, I worked on programming languages, app development, infrastructure, developer platforms, content infrastructure, lots of things like that. And so had a background in thinking about, developer platforms and the idea of a developer, an open infrastructure that was like a developer platform for money on the internet was super exciting. And so there were a lot of ideas on how to do it in 2013. It just technically wasn't possible.The history of Ethereum is really relevant here because Vitalik, who also was really excited about a lot of these ideas of how you can extend this kind of blockchain infrastructure to do other things. A lot of people thought that might happen that Bitcoin itself as an open source project would evolve to do those things. But there was an ideological battle between those in the core development community who really wanted to keep Bitcoin simple and focused on being a kind of digital gold store of value.Then there's a whole other group of technologists that wanted to advance this into being something that's more like an operating system that you could build a lot of things on top of including things like protocols for stable coins,DEFI, NFTs, DAOs all these things that have emerged. So it was really that kind of forking off and development of a new infrastructure layer that then made it possible to pursue and execute something like USDC.BZ: Jeremy, where did you grow up?J:I grew up in a small town in Southeastern Minnesota, a town called Wynnona Minnesota. I went to college in the St. Paul McAllister college and studied political science philosophy and a concentration in economics.I got introduced to the internet in my dorm room, literally in, in 1990 had a high-speed internet connection, which in 1990, there was not a lot you could do on the internet, but I was down the rabbit hole became completely obsessed, made all of my educational work about it and started using it in my studies around what was happening in the former Soviet Union and what was happening in the sort of changing revolutions around the world and got me excited about the idea of an open network, open permissionless networks, decentralization, disintermediation, a lot of these themes that still show up today in the internet space got me into it. And then graduated college there and started working on my first company.BZ: Did you ever go to Mall of America when you were growing up?J:So mall of America merged when I was a little bit older, I think when I was in college.BZ: But as a kid, did you have side hustles where you like selling the newspaper? Like Mark Cuban was doing the garbage bags? Were you doing that?J: I was a paper boy, that was my first job if you want to call it. But I actually had, I got really lucky in a sense when I was a teenager. I convinced my parents to take, like some, a small amount of money. I had been passed down to me from my grandparents and was in like mutual funds, which was a big deal in the eighties. You had mutual funds. I convinced them to let me invest it into baseball cards.So in the kind of mid to late eighties, I ran Southern Cordillera sports cards. So I ran a trading operation and I would deal and I would go and basically do baseball cards. So that was my side hustle that helped me pay for my spending money in college.BZ:Did you have tables ? So you'd buy cards, flip them and did you make some decent money doing it?J:Absolutely. Yeah, so I took long positions. Okay. On on term sort of players. Mark McGuire, Jose Conseco, that's just some of the big onesBZ:What was one of your best trades?J: Brett saberHagan was, 19, he had just an incredible record and I like accumulated a huge bunch of those. And then that was a short-term trade. I keep thinking in a bunch and then flip them at a huge increase in value as everyone wanted the Brett Saberhagen for a piece that I think that was one of the best one of the best trades I did.I would do arbitrage.That's where I go to these shows. find someone who really, wanted X and I would just run around and find it, buy it for Y and then turn it around. So there's that. And then, I had I still have a fairly sizable collection.BZ: How did you get involved in internet in college?J: I had a T1 which was basically like a hard wire, it was effectively ethernet, but hardwired into a campus that were, and, campuses where some of the only places that had access to the internet for research purposes. And a T1 was, even now was whatever, I, that was back then 1.5 megabits per second, which was really good.BZ: You're in college and you're exploring this whole open network of sorts were your parents supportive of that?J: No, not at all. They were like, I don't know what this is. I don't understand this.I graduated college in 1993 the tail end of the first Gulf war recession.. I studied, what I would thought would be interesting to help understand the world and whatnot. And so I was like temping and but, and, on the side I was just going deeper and deeper into the internet space.And and I remember coming home, I quit my temp job and said, fuck this, I'm going to be an internet consultant. I called myself, which was basically like helping educate people about how businesses, how to use the internet and actually, working on the very, very first websites, this was before, even like Mosaic was out, was hacking around.Basically how helping organizations figure out how to build stuff from the web. And I went home and my father was just so distraught and just so afraid that, he didn't understand any of it. And he was like, this isn't a job, so concerned. I was following my bliss and it was good timing in 1993 to be really going down that rabbit hole and learning all the technology and figuring out what it was to. Build stuff back then. That led to the Genesis of some of the first products that I helped build and create.BZ: You called yourself an internet consultant?J: So there all these people learning HTML, and then in 1995, more people.I really wanted to be able to do interactive apps where you could connect a database, you could have interactivity. And my idea was that anyone should be able to build a global online service because back then, like the idea of an online service was you had to have AOL, or you have to have, CompuServe or whatnot.But I was convinced that an open network that anyone could publish to or any device could connect to, it would be a lot better. And so working with my brother, who's a much more of a computer scientist than I am, became the product manager designer for cold fusion and hidden the kind of chief architect. And we ended up working through a lot of ideas and building essentially the first easy to use web programming language and what is now known as an app server, an application server, one of the very first commercial app server, which basically was a piece of software you can put on a machine connected database, do transactions, dynamically generate webpages. And, that paradigm now, is everything from SAS and content management and everything else on, on the internet. So built that and, got super passionate about enabling developers to dream what they wanted to build on the internet, everything from content to community, to e-commerce, to all kinds of things and built, developer platform business.I find it, you can find it out there.There's still millions of sites with that are still run by that it's now owned by Adobe. That product line is owned by Adobe, which bought Macromedia, which is I merged my first company or we merged layer into Macromedia as public company.BZ: And when you started Cold Fusion, you and your brother, what'd you call the coming like the layer corporation?J:.We had a whole family of products. We had the most popular HTML web development tool in the world Homesite.Literally millions of developers use Homesite. So most websites in the 1990s were built using that. And it was one of the reasons why Macromedia wanted to acquire us because they had Dreamweaver and Dreamweaver was really popular with professional designers.But like the average Joe or Jane would get Homesite it was free. And it was like super powerful HTML editor. And so we had millions of people using that.So no, like no one used front page, because it was so awful because it forced you into like these templates you couldn't get control. So Homesite was like gave you access to the HTML and made it really easy to edit the HTML. And we gave it away for free. It was like a feed, it was a freemium product. We wanted to get it out there. And then we got other people into our more advanced products.BZ: So you were doing freemium before, that was even a word. Okay. Did you raise money for Cold Fusion?J:I think it was three rounds of venture capital and then like a mezzanine financing. And then we IPOed in January of 1999.We were a public company on NASDAQ for 2 years. And in January of 2001, we merged with Macromedia, which was about three times larger than us. And merged the two public companies. And I became the chief technology officer of Macromedia.BZ: IPO process versus the M&A process? Which did you like better?J:I like building. And operating. I I like that a lot. it's interesting, there are times and places where M&A makes sense both as a buyer and as a seller, obviously the vast majority of outcomes and business are some form of merger transaction typically or in bankruptcy. So the number of companies that remain independent is smaller.But I think both had a lot of advantages back at that period of time merging at the time was a really good thing for our company and actually gave us a much stronger platform that was, as you recall, when 9/11 happened and the entirety of the certainty of the market, and really the demand for internet software and stuff collapsed alongside the collapse of the.com.BZ: So Brightcove, how did you get to start that?J: So in 2002, when I was chief technology officer Macromedia, we put the ability to render video and PR and have video as like a programmable object in something called flash player and flash player at the time was the most ubiquitous piece of software in the history of the internet.98% of computers in the world had it. We could actually upgrade the internet to a completely new virtual machine that essentially like a new client in like less than 12 months. So we put video in and it was right before broadband came out and like for consumers.And it was really clear to me looking at broadband wifi devices that can be connected to those.And then having a ubiquitous playback mechanism for video. I got really excited, started incubating ideas inside of Macromedia for basically self publishing, self video publishing type of applications actually built something internally that the company did not want to bring to market. I was really frustrated.My vision was video's going to become as ubiquitous as text on the web. Everyone's going to become a video publisher. Every business is going to be able to distribute television quality video to devices everywhere. And so this was in like 2002, 2003. And so I got frustrated and left, went to a VC as a technologist and resident general catalyst and incubated brightCove.And then founded it in 2004, really with this idea that again, video was going to become as ubiquitous as texts on the web and that you needed a new generation of publishing platforms for it. That could integrate everything that was needed for either a brand like a corporation. Or an organization or a media company itself to basically do direct distribution of television instead of relying on cable and satellite and all the old ways and transform other media companies who work in television and video into being into television and video. So it was a video platform company, a SAS company, as we now call these and founded it in 2004.it had a really nice growth run. And I took it public in early 2012. And then stepped into a chairman role after about a year. Cause I had gone down the crypto rabbit hole in 2013 just became obsessed with.What was going on in crypto and made a decision to basically, start Circle.BZ: Mark Cuban emailed me a question, Mark Cuban's known you from his tech days. His question is "what did you learn from your layer or your database days that you are applying today?"J: it's actually really relevant. As I talk about the inspiration for circle and what, I've been inspired by, , in this space. in, in many ways, right?What got me super excited about the internet in the first place was this kind of obsession with the idea of the internet itself, being an open network that was permissionless that anyone could bring a computer to and connect, and that anyone who did that could take open protocols like the SMTP protocol or the HTTP protocol or the VOIP protocol, or these sort of protocols, which are really just public IP, intellectual property, that's open source it's in the public domain.People can write software to it and that you could connect anyone anywhere through these protocols and do really amazing things in terms of information, exchange, knowledge, exchange communications so powerful. That's what drew me into the internet in the first place and kind of an obsession with open networks, decentralized and distributed model.What that could unleash and really a belief that architecture could maximize access and could maximize the ability for people to to reach the most people in the world and entrepreneurship and ideas. So that's what kind of, that was what informed. The work around cold fusion back then. And so if I fast forward to crypto, that was fundamentally the insight for me in 2012 and early 2013 was this is just like a replay.This is just another open protocol on the public permissionless internet that solved a set of problems that hadn't been solved before, which was a way to ensure that data could not be counterfeited. And that transactions could happen in with certainty in an irreversible way without requiring centralization. And these are big ideas and it was like a fundamental new infrastructure layer. The internet was being born. And so when I looked at it and said, okay, This is going to do for the exchange of value. And I don't just mean moving value from point a to point b, I'm talking about the richness of what we do in exchanging value.As people, as entities, as corporations it's going to do for the exchange of value, what the web and those earlier protocols did for information and communications.And to me in 2013, like that was so profound because I actually believe the web of value exchange.If you want to, whatever you want to call it, the internet of value is going to be extraordinarily more valuable and extraordinarily more impactful than the web of information. And so it very much informed how I think about this and the work that we're doing here.BZ: When you started Circle, did you start with anyone else?J: I co-founded, the company was Sean Neville. Sean is absolutely brilliant. He he co-led the company with me almost like co-CEOs for a long time. And then several years ago, he just stepped into a director role. He's on the board of directors and he runs a crypto incubator, a crypto kind of studio incubator.But he and I had worked together back Allaire, my first company we worked together a bunch at Macromedia. We worked together and bright Cove. He's just one of the most brilliant minds technological minds, strategic minds, creative minds.BZ: Was Circle easier to raise money for than your previous ventures because of your huge track record of success?J: When we started the company, I went to people who invested with me and who had made money with me in the past and said, this is what I'm working on. And they're like, Bitcoin I don't get this. You're crazy. This seems crazy. But. We believe in you, so go for it. I mean that kinda kind of thing. So it definitely helped.2013 and then 2014, 2015, during that time, there were not a lot of quote unquote adults in the room, in the space. If people think it's a wild west, now it was an extraordinary wild west back then. And we had, seasoned entrepreneurs, technologists.We had a really strong proactive approach with regulators with kind of major fiduciaries and really worked really hard to try and build something that was compliant and that, differentiated us as well and allowed us to raise quite a bit of capital. I think, a couple hundred million dollars within our first few years of getting started.BZ: And were you personally buying Bitcoin back in those early days?J: Yeah, absolutely. And buying ethereum and when it was less than a dollar. Like Solana and it was less than a dollar.BZ: Do you still own some of that?J: I am a owner of crypto assets. I don't talk about my particular trading and liquidity strategies, I'm quite structurally long on crypto.BZ: How would you define a stable coin to a fifth grader ?J: On the internet today, I can download a piece of software like WhatsApp or or log into a service like Gmail. We're open up Google Chrome, and I can connect to anyone else. Directly, I can have a direct communication with them. It doesn't cost me anything. It doesn't matter where they are in the world.As long as they have a smartphone, they can get that piece of software. We can do that. Or if there's someone who has an idea and wants to connect their computer, the internet and put some content on it, as long as I have a web browser, I can connect to that. And that's generally the case other than, some authoritarian regimes that have great firewalls.But even there, like it's generally the case, you can connect to anyone. I can freely communicate with anyone in China right now. And that model is so straightforward. It's the air we breathe. We don't even think about it. the fact that this kind of open connect and open permissionless, global decentralized network of communications and information exists. So why can't we do that with money?Why can't we have a way. Someone can just download a piece of software from an app store. And and then someone else could download a different piece of software made by a different creator or a different piece of hardware, or log into a service and exchange value with each other instantly globally frictionlessly at no cost. it's really that simple is how do we make it possible for storing, moving dollars or digital dollars to work in exactly the same way we have with information and data. And that's what we set out to solve is that problem and doing it on the DNA of the internet, doing it around this idea of an open protocol that anyone could connect to. So that's really the fundamentals of what USDC allows for. And, but I think. Yeah the idea goes far broader because you now have essentially an open API for dollars on the internet and it's programmable dollars on the internet. And so you can do a lot with that. And the use cases are really exploding,BZ:How big is USDC these days?J:So USDC has grown really fast at the start of the pandemic, there were about 400 million USDC in circulation that was just like, let's call it six months. Or, there's a year after or so after we had launched.Then it grew to 4 billion in circulation by the start of 2021. And it grew from 4 billion to 42 billion in circulation. At the end of 2021 and it's already grown to to over 52 billion in circulation, just in the past couple months here.And so USDC is about that big and I supported, trillions of dollars of transactions. Just on the public internet using blockchains. And it's still early days. It's super early days. Our view is that eventually there could be more than a trillion USDC in circulation and could be used for every imaginable use case for money and use cases that we haven't even thought of because programmable money is not existed until now.BZ: How can USDC offer such nice interest rates when banks are giving 0.5%?J: Look so if you think about. And you have a kind of base layer, which is the sort of digital cash equivalent of USDC. And it's a regulated, digital cash instrument that exists. And it's very easy to exchange, right? With point to point as your friends or others, that you've talked to really straightforward to send it, receive it, use it.And it's become very popular as a digital currency to use in trading, investing, international payments, other things. And so as its utility has grown and as more and more people and firms want to use. +As a form of working capital as a new kind of electronic stored value working capital mechanism, there's higher and higher demand for people who want to borrow it. And so one of the really powerful things about blockchains is not only do they allow these fast transactions to happen, but you can actually build essentially, borrowing and lending models on top of it.And so there's grown over the past in particular, the past several years, the last two to three years, large, both centralized, what are often called CEFI lending markets and what are called DEFI lending markets, where the market of borrowers and lenders is convened by a piece of software on the internet. So you're not dealing with a company you're just dealing with a protocol, but nonetheless you have essentially interest rate markets of borrowers and lenders.The demand to borrow USDC is high. And the interest rate that borrowers are willing to pay is high. And that is the source of those yields. Basically you have borrowers and to put it fairly simply the other side of that borrowing and I'll use circle yield as an example, because it's the one I understand probably the most you lend us USDC and we lend it wholesale to institutional borrowers. So these are in fact, hedge funds, family offices, systemic trading firms, electronic markets, firms, or other major firms in the ecosystem that want to operate using USDC. And these are firms that are borrowing at a high interest rate, but who are generating returns in north of that.An 8% interest rate to borrow at an 8% interest rate or borrowed 10% interest rate. That's not unheard of in a lot of things. Our credit cards are 20% interest rates or 17% interest rates. venture debt, which is what startups borrow typically have interest rates of, 10, 12, 13, 14% on them. interest rates in securities lending markets, which is the interest rates that say an institutional fund would pay to borrow against their stock can be fairly high now, corporate debt that's underwritten where a corporation's borrowing against their balance sheet and their P&L and it's underwritten by an investment bank and has a coupon and rating. So that tends to be a lower interest rate debt product.But generally when you look at interest rates that people borrow, right? They vary from, most single digits to high double digits or higher. And so what you have in USDC is you have a borrowing lending markets that exist at the retail and institutional level, and those are floating right now. So in DEFI right now, you can borrow you can borrow you USDC I think for 3%. the interest rate markets adapt to kind of market conditions and demand.BZ: How secure is my money in USDC ?J:The thing to remember is USDC itself is is regulated examine it's the USDC itself is A full reserve dollar digital currency.Now, if you're lending your USDC to someone else you're determining what is the credit risk that I'm taking with, who I'm lending to. It has nothing to do with USDC. It has to do with what are they doing with it? So there are some major differences, right? Are you a secured creditor or are you an unsecured creditor? is this unsecured credit that's then being used to do highly speculative trading or is, this secured credit with known institutional counterparties? So you're dealing with a huge variance.I like to use the example of a bank, right? If you walk into a branch of Chase and you say here's $10,000, you're depositing, and you're not depositing $10,000, you're lending chase $10,000.And you have a balance that says $10,000. But actually what you have is you have a claim against their loan book. They're taking that $10,000 and they're lending it out eight times over. And you're basically saying, Hey, I think that they're going to be good for that, that the small business loans, the credit card loans, the home mortgages, the corporate debt, all the stuff that they're doing to take my money and lend it out on a fractional reserve basis eight times. But fundamentally, you've got an IOU and now, you might look at a dollar that you've deposited and chase really different than s let's say you went to a bank in Zimbabwe and they said, you can deposit your dollars. And you say I don't know, what are you going to do with my dollars? And so it all comes down to, w what in fact are you w what, in fact are you seeing on the other side of that?So we've tried to design something with circle yield, which is very institutionally friendly. It's regulated, it's supervised it's over collateralized and it only, faces the best quality institutional wholesale borrowers on the other side. And so we've just tried to build some. I think the kinds of features that make it attractive, it doesn't produce the highest yields. It doesn't produce the same yields you might see through some of these retail platforms, but there's a reason for that.BZ: Is there a chance of defaulting?J: this has become a major issue from an investor protection regime, right? So very clearly, like I think the SEC, his view is that these are lending products. They're not banks. And in fact, for the average person they're basically making an investment and a lot of these are offered as an, they're unregistered investment contracts in a sense. What is an S1? And that's one is a public disclosure document that a retail investor can read and understand. And you can decide, you can read through the S one and say what are the risks? What is this? What am I actually getting into here? And so that's fair disclosure. So that's people and, the review of a major regulator the SEC.And so that's one, one standard to look at, there are others that, don't have any of that. And so you don't actually know what the underlying risk is other than the reps that are made through marketing, or maybe some high level stuff. And so I think you have to, you have to look at this through, through that lens. now DEFI is a different story. if you get USDC. DEFI protocols have some advantages to them. But they also have a whole lot of risks to them as well.There've been DEFI protocols that were hacked. And this is like software and all of a sudden the money is managed by software and the software gets hacked and they, that's gone, but you have some, defined protocols that are more pressure tested. There's probably going to be more and more disclosure audit type requirements on defy protocols over time, as well as the market participants want to have better hygiene around them. I think, buyer beware on all this stuff.BZ: USDC has a brand. So do you talk to these exchanges to make sure that they're trying to make sure that borrowers are good ?J: Because USDC is a free floating digital currency it can be utilized in so many different applications in so many different businesses and so on. And you've got, electronic markets firms that might be.Doing a trade with someone with USDC for $300 million in one transaction, you've got other, NFT markets that are utilizing USDC for payments on pieces of digital content and the, and those are, multiple layers removed. it is important though, that we need to always ensure that people understand USDC as a dollar digital currency itself is safe, stable, transparent regulated, compliant, all these things.Just like you use your dollars with an online payment service, you can still be defrauded. It wasn't the dollars that defrauded you. It was the other side of it.BZ: Do you have a minute to talk CND ?J:We initially negotiated a merger with Concord acquisition and business combination agreement in July of last year.And getting through the SEC qualifications taken a bit longer than we had expected. We had thought it would be, consistent with other spots4-5 months it's just taken longer and which is fine, and we're getting through it. We're making progress through every round of comments. But as we walked into the new year the business outlook has changed pretty significantly. The company grew USDC really rapidly. We're in a rising interest rate environment.Our transaction and treasury services businesses are taking hold nicely. And so we looked at the actual deal was set to expire in April. And so we we re-negotiated the deal.We extended the timeline so that it had enough time to get through the dispatch and the, in the sec process.We also eliminated the pipe from the first year. we also issued revised financial outlook for 2022 and 2023, which are considerably stronger from from a both a top line and a bottom line perspective from where we were, nine months earlier or whatever that exact timeline is.And so the increase in the value of the company is really reflective of the tremendous position that we've put ourselves in with the business and obviously the new outlook.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-raz-report/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Intro Welcome to Season 7 Having a baby girl in May :)  Pocus Hocus giveaway coming soon on IG Episode 150 coming soon Background Jessica Drew created by Archie Goodwin and Marie Severin in Marvel Spotlight #32 (Feb. 1977) In her first appearance, she was a spider who evolved into a human That was later retconned - her origin is when she was young, she became sick, and her father injected her with an experimental dose of irradiated spider's blood, and put her in a chamber to incubate, but while she was in there her mother died and her father left - she spent decades in the chamber, but came out only aged to 17 #BecauseComics THAT origin was then altered - her mother was hit with a beam of radiation with the DNA of several varieties of spiders, and her parents were actually working with/for HYDRA as scientists She leaves Wundagore and is captured by HYDRA, who train her as a spy to assassinate Nick Fury - she accidentally kills her handler, at which point she discovers the truth and defects, becoming a SHIELD agent (also revealing that the “evolved spider” was part of HYDRA's brainwashing) Works as a private investigator while simultaneously being Spider-Woman Joins the New Avengers and helps the heroes recapture all the villains that escaped the Raft - later revealed that this was actually Skrull Queen Veranke in disguise, which led to the Secret Invasion Abigail Brand invites her to join SWORD and kill hostile aliens on Earth Played a major part in Spider-Verse After that, she quit the Avengers and began focusing on small-time help, using Ben Urich and Roger Gocking, the reformed Porcupine, as aides Recently gave birth, using artificial insemination from an anonymous donor - her son Gerry inherited her powers Issues (11:32) From Ruby - reluctance in trusting others Constantly having to reassure people she's not Vernake (17:05) Earlier in career, dealing with distance & uncertainty around people because of her lack of familiarity with them (22:40) Break (28:50) Plugs for BetterHelp, Nerd Crusade, and Howard Mackie Treatment (30:20) In-universe - Focus on genetics, including passing it along to Gerry Out of universe - Focus on trauma - similar to Dr. Scarlet (guest on our Black Widow episode) (34:04) Skit (feat. Jessica from Girls Talk Comics) (41:35) Doc: Hello Jessica, I'm Dr. Issues. Jessica: *sarcastically joking/tongue in cheek* What's up, Doc? D: Hardy har har, never heard that one before. J: Sorry, had to get that out. D: Understood. Bad jokes are hard to let go. So, what can I help you untangle in your psyche? J:Touche. I *yawn* sorry, Gerry-my son-kept me up last night, and I'm trying my hardest to get my 3 functioning neurons to cooperate. Do you have any kids? D: Sure do. I remember those nights. Never enough coffee. J: If I could walk around with a permanent IV drip of espresso, it wouldn't be enough some days. Why do we do this to ourselves? D: It's biologically driven, because kids are cute meat blobs that would die without us. J: Yeah, they are adorable little parasites, aren't they? Sucking the life and the soul out of you all the time, and yet one smile or laugh and they give it all back. D: *laughs* Before this gets too dark, we really should talk about how caring for a child is affecting you. J: Me personally or the superheroing? D: Well…whichever one makes you the most distressed? I can guess though, because most people feel like they only should focus on the personal side and tend to throw any other part of their life to the wayside…not that I agree with that, but that's the tendency I've observed. J: I dunno… I guess the super stuff stresses me out more, at least as it relates to him. Because it seems like it's less natural to me than being a mom, even though I never fully envisioned myself as either… if that makes any kinda sense, I realize this is the caffeinated ramblings of an exhausted parent, but I'm really trying my best not to fall over here. D: Mommy brain (and daddy brain, for that matter) are a real thing. You're making sense.  J: OK good. It's just… I wasn't really *raised*, per se, I was incubated. Relating to people never came easy for me. Certainly didn't have any great parental figures to speak of, unless you count Bova, and I don't know any normal people who were raised by a humanoid cow. So when I decided to have Gerry, it was like finishing a puzzle where I didn't realize I was missing any pieces. Every day with him has been a joy. D: Then let's say you're doing the best job you can with him. What's the problem with being a superhero? *pause* That's a moronic thing to ask, huh? J: Not the dumbest question I've heard today. My… partner had a complete misunderstanding about feeding Gerry today, and I had to explain that infants are not supposed to eat Lindor truffles. Anyway, to your point… it's more about the fact that I've had these powers and skillset for a long time, and I still don't entirely feel comfortable with them. Having a kid on top of it… it feels like an uncomfortable suit that I can't take off. And if you crack a joke about my costume, I'll zap you so hard you'll wake up next week. D: I have no intentions of agitating you. The random mix of events that led you to your current life are not something to mock. Let me say from the start that there's no such thing as getting it all exactly right. Do you have any resentment about your status? I've met plenty of people that wish for things to be different. J: Oh I got past the resentment part ages ago. Yeah, it ate me up for a long time, and yes I took it out on some people that probably didn't deserve it. But then I wouldn't be where I am, and I probably wouldn't have Gerry. So in that respect it works out. The thing that gets me is more about… feeling this, pull, obligation, whatever you wanna call it, towards the hero thing. It's like, I'm doing the mom thing, but then I need to get out because if I don't leave the house someone is going to get hurt, likely Roger, so I get some fresh air. While I'm taking my break, someone inevitably needs help, because everyone in New York City is incapable of going more than a week without being attacked by some souped-up genetic mistake, so then I have to swoop in and save their sorry ass, because otherwise word will get out that Spider-Woman just happened to be there and didn't lift a damn finger, and that gives Jameson more fuel for his anti-spider editorials, which is gonna send Parker into a tizzy, and I don't need that agita, so it's easier just to save them and move on. D: That…sounds like there maaaaaay be a little bit of left over resentment there…just sayin. Not blaming you, but wow is that an emotional bag to carry. J: Chalk it up to exhaustion. When you get this tired, anything's liable to come outta my mouth. But I guess I wasn't as adjusted about this as I thought. Hmph. D: That's OK, at least you're aware of it now. I'm a pretty good sounding board. Feel free to blast away…um, not literally. A bit of disclosure here, but I have a similar style to how I deal with exhaustion. No filter. But, that makes me worry, when do you recharge, and how? Can't when you're crimefighting, can't be when you're taking care of Gerry, so… J: Carol has been clutch when I need a breather, and especially if we're out and something goes down, she's waaaaay better equipped to handle stuff than I am. So I sit back and let her wail away on the dude, and then we go on our merry way.  D: Nice delegation. I like it. I need to do more of that myself. Thanks for the reminder. So, what's your ideal balance? Brainstorm it. No idea is too crazy. J: Hoo boy, that's asking a lot for the already exhausted hamster upstairs, but I'll kick him in the ass and see what I can come up with. Umm… *phone vibrates* Dammit, hold on a sec, it's Roger. I told him only to message me if it's an emergency, and… *pause* Alright, I gotta go. D: Everything OK? J: If by “OK” you mean “my kid sparked an electrical fire that burnt a hole through the kitchen wall and spread to my neighbor's place”, then yeah, it's peachy keen. Sorry Doc, we'll pick this up again next time. And maybe then I'll bring a few extra neurons to make it an even half dozen, and we can have a real conversation. Ending Recommended reading: Spider-Woman vol 6 by Dennis Hallum & Javier Rodriguez Next episodes: Terra, Ben Grimm, Alex Summers Plugs for social References: “Helpless” from Hamilton - Doc (8:12) Dr. Janina Scarlet/Black Widow episode - Anthony (34:15) Apple Podcasts: here Google Play: here Stitcher: here TuneIn: here iHeartRadio: here Spotify: here Twitter Facebook Patreon TeePublic Discord

Episode Notes Trevor - Welcome back to Have You Heard. The podcast where we discuss underappreciated music from different genres, artists and eras. I'm your host, Trevor. In this episode, we're gonna be talking to Northwestern artist Jay Towns. Hope you enjoy. Jay - Cool. What's up, man?  T - What's going on? Thanks so much for hopping on.  J - Dude, thanks for having me, for real.  T - Yeah, I remember …  I'm a transfer, I'm new to Northwestern. So, I remember the first, like videos, when I was just applying and everything, you were the first one to pop up.  J - Appreciate it.  T - So it's cool to finally get to talk to you and stuff.   J - Yeah, you too. T - Going back to that sort of social media stuff … It seems like you have a lot going on, just all the time, so I wonder how you balance that with school and everything.  J - Well, the great thing about what I'm studying: theater, music tech and entrepreneurship – lots of the things that I am learning in classes I directly apply to stuff I do outside of class. Obviously, there's still school work that's kind of annoying to have to get done. But I'd say like 80% of the things that I'm learning in class, I apply to some project that I'm doing currently. To me, it doesn't feel so much as school, art, work. It kind of all blends together. Because I'd love to do my art for my job, which is what I'm studying. You know what I mean? It's not too bad, actually – the balance. Obviously, you know, with my own projects, like the YouTube channel and music and things that I'm not actively endorsed to do at school, that is what I use my extra time on. Actually, I feel like this is a perfect time to do this podcast episode, because I'm right now, in the midst of planning for a music video I'm shooting tomorrow – maybe we could talk about that later. But   the balance … I'm very used to it. But I think I think it's pretty, my schedule’s always kind of, like something’s moving. But that's the way I like it. And I think that Northwestern, for better or for worse, has kind of conditioned me with the “and” is in our DNA mindset, which can be toxic at times. But for me, most of the time, it's more of like an encouragement. I feel empowered to do not only whatever I want, but, whenever I want to do it. Oftentimes that coincides with other projects. And that's just kind of the lifestyle that I want to have. Starting it early, I guess. T - Yeah that’s so dope. I guess we could just jump into the music right now if you want. So do you direct your own music videos, and how much creative control do you have in that sort of process? J - So I do direct my own videos, but I've also … I have one video up on my channel right now, that was directed by a friend of mine. But even in that case, which was a great video, that was the “Green” music video that was directed by my friend Hannah because I had made that song to be featured in her film. So that was really cool. And she actually was editing the music video while she was editing the film. And so there are actually clips of the film, like intertwined with the music video pretty seamlessly. So that was dope. And in that case, she directed it because she definitely had the vision for the project. And it was also to serve for promo for the film. But other music videos I've directed, and I'm directing this next one that I'm doing. But even when I'm not, even when in the case of “Green,” I didn't ever feel like I didn't have creative control or creative input to say the least. I think, though, that the director usually is the person who is seeing how it's going to come together in the end product. And so, more frequently than not, the director is also going to edit a music video. And so in the case of  “Green,” I wasn't editing it because I didn't have the footage, so I felt like Hannah would have been more appropriate to bring that vision together – which she's very good at. For songs like “19,” which is another music video that's up on my channel, I had the whole idea in my mind. I just needed somebody to help me shoot it. And so in that case, I directed it because I also ended up editing that. So that's kind of how it goes with directing and creative liberties. T - Yeah and I wonder, how was it when you first started making music and putting stuff out? J - Dude, I was just thinking about this the other day. It is such a combination of kind of … you have to be kind of either like I don't know if it's like in love with your work or just kind of naive. And I mean the passion obviously has to be there. The passion, I think is the number one thing but like, because I look back – I was literally thinking about this yesterday – I am so proud of the music that I'm making currently. And like just the production value of it, I feel like I spend a lot of time on it and I feel like it just sounds professional. And it's strange to think about the music that I made, just like a year ago, that I'm still proud of writing-wise and inspiration-wise, because I'm like, “This definitely came from the heart.” This was something I wanted to get out as, like artistic expression, right? But I'm like, I would never listen to this just because I was so new at producing. Most of the tracks that I've released before like, just aren't at the caliber that my stuff is at now and that when I compare what I make to what I listened to, just isn't the same. And so I was thinking about that the other day, I was like, man, my friends really like … reposted that on their stories. And I'm like, I don't know, we were all just on the train of like, “Yo, this is artistic expression. And so that's what matters,” or if they were all secretly like, “Whoa, this is actually trash, but we support Jay.” And the funny thing is, I'll never have to know because that gave me the confidence to keep going. And now I feel like I am at the place where I really am putting up dukes with anybody who could be on the radio, you know what I mean? But it definitely took that confidence and that support group at the beginning to keep going, because I swear I almost could guarantee if people were like, “Stop making music,” when I had started, I probably would have stopped because it was a new thing for me. And I think that new artistic expression requires support to get going. T - And how were you learning in the beginning? Was it just through YouTube videos, just, you know, throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks? Or…  J - It was a combination of both, you know, I've been a musician, I would say for  the majority of my life, always musically in tune. But when it came to producing, that was a completely different thing. And something I was really excited about doing and never really had time to get into until quarantine hit and there was literally nothing else to do. It was a lot of YouTube. I always suggest when people ask, “How did you learn how to do that?” Just go on YouTube. I learned all the music theory I ever needed to learn on YouTube and more. That translated to me doing, like, AP music theory in high school and being very comfortable with music theory in college. Everything you ever would need to know is on YouTube. You don't need to take classes or anything.  And that was the same thing for producing. So I came into 2020 — I know, musically what I want in my head. But it was so frustrating getting to a computer. Having to figure out routing audio and quantizing MIDI tracks – just things that you don't think about when you're in artist mode. And that's kind of when I started going into producer stuff. And now I understand what it takes to get the idea from the head to the computer and out in the exported track. Which is a completely different skill. And so, yeah, that was really frustrating to work with at the beginning. But it was just, yeah, it was lots of trial and error. Lots of hours just sitting at my computer, hunched over my computer — just my computer crashing, like my laptop not, CPU not being able to work. My next investment probably has to be in another computer just because files are getting too big, et cetera. But anyway, I digress. Yeah, I learned almost everything I know how to do from YouTube. T - It seems like you're sort of able to translate what's in your head onto the DAW, how often are you making music? Is it as frustrating as it was before?  J - To answer the first half of the question. I'm making music consistently, but not frequently. So basically, I consistently, on a consistent basis, I will pour a whole day into a track, but I don't work a little bit every day. My schedule is not really conducive to like, I'm going to work for an hour on this song today. It's more so like I get in the grind. It's usually a Saturday or Sunday. And I sit down with tea at 10am and I'm there until like five. And then I have a song. I definitely have gotten a lot more efficient with my time. And I tend to work in blocks and chunks. And I feel like lots of artists tend to work this way. Producers, I feel like have more of the approach of like, I can whittle this down, day by day. But I feel like I'm more of an artist who learned how to produce out of necessity rather than like a producer who just loves to sit and work at my computer. I'm really hoping to get better at producing to the point where I can feel comfortable producing for other people. Like I'm also thinking about that as a possible route to go with my life. Don't really even know how that's gonna go. But so like, I make music consistently. Consistently, I'll do it about once a week for like hours at a time. And yeah, it's gotten a lot faster. It's just getting comfortable with the DAW. I use Studio One, which I think is amazing. I got it because it also allows me to compose music on there. If you have heard of Sibelius or like Finale, basically, there's like music transcription that is a part of it, which is for me as a composer, musical theater writer type stuff, that's also very useful. So kind of like two birds with one stone. And yeah, I mean, I got it Christmas of 2019, didn't use it until 2020 when everything stopped, and I've been using it ever since. And I love it. And the more you use it, I mean, every song that I've made so far, I have learned something that I wish I had put in every other song before.  T - And I love what you said about consistency, but not frequency. I think, you know, artists – when they're not making music or when they don't feel like making music what do they do to get in that zone? What’s that for you? J - Man, I mean, it's — this is so cheesy — but it's just like living life. It's because, and this is the same thing with acting too, which is something I'm also very passionate about. But when it comes to art, I feel like you need to have your experiences to then pour into your art. If I don't feel like making music, unless I'm commissioned to, like if I'm making it for something. But if it's just me, and I want to sit down and make a song and it's not coming, like, I don't think anything good comes from forcing that. I go out and I just live my life. I hang out with my roommates. I eat sushi. I occasionally freestyle to beats I find on YouTube in my car. I just live and then something happens that inspires me or makes me think of something or I hear a melody. A song I'm working on right now was inspired by — my next door neighbors play violin. And I just was walking out one day going to class and I just overheard this violin classical piece. And something about the melody just was really catchy. Quick on Voice Notes I just was like: Music notes I'll save that for later. That was something that I was able to build off of. You just never know where the next thing is gonna come from. And so I try not to force it. I think I'm naturally inclined to make something when I feel something so I don't really feel the need to, like, force that. It definitely comes when it needs to. I wouldn't call myself like a professional music artist like it's not my only thing. I don't feel that pressure to have to make something to make money. You know what I mean? I think for artists out there doing it, it's a different conversation. For me like, it's a very fun, very invested-in hobby, but still a hobby, so I don't I don't feel the pressure, you know. T - That's great. Honestly, I have a ton more questions, but I just want to make sure we get in your music video that you said you're filming tomorrow.  J - Oh, yes. Yeah, I appreciate you making time for that. I just feel like it would be a great opportunity to talk about while we're here. I am shooting a music video for a song called “Moves” that I made. It was one of those that was, I felt like a really good catchy idea that I ended up finishing it in like two weeks, and was like, “Okay, I'll totally make a music video for this one day.”And then I was selected to compete in Battle of the Bands for Mayfest to compete for a spot a set for Dillo. And they required a 20 minute set. So I was like, “Hmm, got this new song. Got this music video idea. Let's incorporate that.” So now, my plan is to incorporate this music video, another music video that I've been sitting on, and a Tiny Desk-esque kind of set for some stripped versions of some other songs that I've made to compile into one big Mayfest set.  So I'm very excited about the opportunity to put so much of the new stuff I've been sitting on out at the same time and debuting it for Battle of the Bands. I just think it would be a really great idea. So, I mean, I got this together super quick. I put out the first interest call — I think on Wednesday. Since then so many people have just reached out, volunteered to just be like, “Yeah, I'd love to be in it” or “Yeah, I'd love to help out with it.” And so it's always for me, when I see other people investing in my vision — half the people didn't even know what the song was called, or what the music video is going to be about. But they were like, “Jay Towns is making a music video, I'm down.”  That inspires me to make it something that is worth somebody else's time. It's so exciting to me. I can't believe something that I like walked outside, heard this melody, put it into a MIDI track, made a little beat, put some words on it. And now I'm about to meet a bunch of people I’d never met before tomorrow, and make this awesome thing that we can all share. We'll also be serving a purpose for like my set, like, that's dope.I love that process, I fall in love with that process. So that's what the music video is about for “Moves,” and I'm super excited for you to see it for other people to see it. And especially for people to feel like they're a part of it, the people who are going to show up work on it and be acting in it. So I'm very excited about that. T - Hope you enjoyed that episode. Thanks so much for listening. This is Trevor Duggins for NBN Audio. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

生活中我们热爱的东西太多了，有人热爱美食，有人热爱健身，还有人热爱学英语，每次一说“热爱啥啥啥”就开始“I love to....”，还有没有更地道的表达方式呢？我们听一下Joy and Chris的对话吧！C: Hi guys. I'm Chris. J: And I'm Joy. Today we'll be talking about the idiom: eat, sleep and breathe something. It's used when someone is incredibly enthusiastic about something and they focus all of their energy on that one thing. You can use it like this: I eat, sleep and breathe it. / She eats, sleeps and breathes it. / They ate, slept and breathed it. C: Yup, so if you eat, sleep and breathe something, that means you don't do anything else but this one thing. It shows that you are really obsessed with it. So some guys are super into watching soccer games, especially the World Cup. It doesn't matter what time zone it's held in. Whenever the World Cup starts, they will stay up all night to watch the games. And if they are not watching a game, they are reading some comments and news about it. So we can say that they really eat, sleep and breathe soccer games since the World Cup started. J: They really go crazy for those soccer games. Well, this idiom also has a slightly different version: live and breathe something. You can say: My mom has lived and breathed baking. Here's an example of the idiom for today: C: Hey Allison. Is this your daughter? J: Yeah, I'm dropping her off at her dance class. She's been eating, sleeping and breathing ballet recently. C: Well, do you eat, sleep and breathe English everyday? If you do, your English will certainly get better very quickly. J: And don't forget to follow our channel and share it with people you know! Talk to you next time! Bye!are super into: 特别喜欢做某事drop her off: 送她（指送某人去某地）

很多景点已经在5月1日陆续开放了，这个五一节很多人都憋了好久，北京疫情也降级了，终于可以出去玩一玩，据说降级当天机票预定暴涨了15倍，你有没有心仪的旅行目的地呢？我们来听听Joy and Chris的对话来学习一下怎么用英语聊五一吧！J: Hi guys. I'm Joy.C: And I'm Chris.J: Today is the May Day holiday. Did you know that Chris?C: Oh yeah. What is this holiday all about?J: Well, I think it's celebrated as an international holiday because many countries in the world have the same holiday. You know, to celebrate for the labor people have done.C: Yeah, there's a Labor Day in America too. But it's on the first Monday in September, not on May 1. I think one of the reasons to choose this day is to add a holiday in the long gap between Independence Day and Thanksgiving.J: Right. Independence Day is on July 4 and Thanksgiving is in November. So people can have another holiday to take a break in September, right?C: Yup. On Labor Day, people in America do a lot of Barbequeing, spend time with their family, take short trips and maybe go for a picnic in the park. There might also be fairs going on in town that a lot of people like to go to.J: Sounds pretty cool.C: So what do Chinese people do on this holiday?J: Well, since this is not a traditional Chinese holiday. There's nothing special that we need to do. Most people just go traveling during this time. This year, the May Day holiday is extended to 5 days including a weekend. So it's a pretty long holiday if you want to take a trip somewhere.C: The epidemic is getting better here and a lot of parks are open now right?J: Yeah, like the Forbidden City and some other popular spots. You need to book the tickets ahead of time though because it'll run out probably really soon. Too many people have been stuck at home for so long, they are all looking for a place to go.C: Oh there'll be flocks of people everywhere for sure.J: Yeah, but the attractions will control the flow of people. There's a max of how many people can go in on one day. So it shouldn't be too bad. Although I'm still gonna stay at home just to avoid crowds. I've never been big on that.C: The weather has been getting warmer though. It is a really good time to get outside and do some outdoor activities.J: Yeah it is. So guys, hope you are having a great May Day Holiday! And if you like to listen to our channel, remember to share it with your friends and family! Bye!fairs: 市集，展览会（类似国内的庙会）the Forbidden City: 故宫be big on: 喜欢，热爱

平时和你身边的外国人聊天的时候，必不可少的聊天话题一定是去餐厅，聊美食，你可能会被问到：你最喜欢去哪家餐厅吃饭？你准备好了怎么回答吗？J: Hi guys. I'm Joy.C: And I'm Chris. So Joy, I think more restaurants have opened up recently. The lock down doesn't seem as strict as before.J: Yeah, they still need to check your temperature though and you have to leave your phone number at least. Just in case if there was a problem, they would be able to get in touch with you.C: Right. Well, which restaurant do you like to go to the most Joy?J: Umm...Normally, if I go out to eat, I like to have the food that I can't make at home. So I feel like it's worth going to the restaurant for, you know. There is a Chinese Barbeque restaurant which is a chain in Beijing. I really like their lamb kebabs. It's the best I've had in restaurants so far.C: Mmm. Sounds really good. I like lamb meat. But I know a lot of people actually don't enjoy it because the flavor sometimes can be really gamey.J: Yeah I know. Well, I think if you cook it correctly it won't taste gamey. Or maybe it depends on the quality of the meat. One time, my family and I went to Inner Mongolia. We had the whole roasted lamb. It was so delicious and was not gamey at all.C: Oh yeah it's really fresh that way.J: Exactly. So which restaurant is your favorite?C: Wow, it's really hard to say for me. I mean, can I say all of them are my favorite? I guess if I had to choose, I would say a Beijing Duck restaurant near by where I live. The duck skin is my absolute favorite part. At this restaurant, they make it so crispy and at the same time it just melts in your mouth.J: Wow, sounds like you really know about your Beijing duck.C: Oh most definitely. Also, because my mom is Italian. So I've always had theses cravings for pasta since I grew up eating my mom's cooking and she always made those amazing pasta noodles. Every now and then, I will go out to an Italian restaurant for some pasta to get my cravings satisfied.J: OK, now my mouth is watering.C: I think we are making everyone hungry.J: Well it is about lunch time. So guys, if you like to listen to our channel, remember to share it with your friends and family! Bye!gamey: 膻味crispy: 脆的cravings: 想吃某种事物的渴望

有时候我们可以做一件事而达到两个目的，这样能够节省很多时间和精力，我们中文的成语中就有“一箭双雕”，形容一箭射中两只雕，英语中有一个习语有一模一样的意思，我们听听Joy and Chris说的是哪个习语吧！C: Hi guys. I'm Chris. J: And I'm Joy. Today we are gonna show you the idiom: kill two birds with one stone. It means to solve two problems with one action or solution. It's usually used to express that someone can manage two things at the same time. You can use it like this:I'll kill two birds with one stone. / We can kill two birds with one stone. / He was killing two birds with one stone. C: So killing two birds with one stone is obviously very difficult. But if you can do it, then it would save you a lot of time and energy. Joy, isn't there a Chinese word for this English idiom? J: Yeah that's right. In Chinese, it's 一箭双雕. C: Yup, maybe for the summer vacation you want to find a part time job. This way you can gain some work experience and also make some pocket money. You can say you are killing two birds with one stone. OK, we are gonna show you an example in a conversation: J: We are running out of time for our project. The deadline is next week. We gotta find a way to get it done. C: I'll go to Shanghai to meet up with our client and drop off the plan for Linda's team on the same trip. So we can kill two birds with one stone. That'll save us some time. J: By following our channel, you can practice your listening and learn more idioms for your speaking. You can kill two birds with one stone! C: Totally. And remember to share our channel with people you know! Talk to you next time! Bye!run out of time: 没时间了

你有没有感觉市场上的很多新生产品有时候其实都差不多呢？或者某些你很爱吃的甜点你朋友觉得其实味道都差不多？这个习语其实和土豆有点关系，我们来看看为什么吧！C: Hi guys. I'm Chris. J: And I'm Joy. Our idiom for today is: potato potato and tomato tomato. It means that some things may seem different but they are actually the same thing. You can use it to express when you think the differences about something don't matter. C: This is a pretty interesting idiom. So potato(potayto) and tomato(tomayto) is how Americans pronounce it. While potato(potahto) and tomato(tomahto) is usually how British people would say it. The two kinds of pronunciations sound different but it's still the same word with the same meaning. So you can use this to talk about two newly released phones. Your friend may think that these two phones are different. But you think they might look different but the functions are the same. So you can say: potayto potahto or tomayto tomahto. OK, now we are gonna use it in a conversation: J: Did you have lunch yet Johnny? C: Not yet. I'm still debating whether to go to the Chinese hotpot or the Japanese hotpot. J: Eh, potato potato. To me they are both hotpot. C: To be honest, I think the new cars nowadays are all tomato tomato. They are like the same egg just with different shells. Don't you think? J: Yeah, but the prices can be pretty different sometimes. Anyway, if you like listening to us, remember to share it with people you know! Talk to you next time! Bye!

清明节是我们中国的传统节日，是每年春暖花开最适合踏青的时节，你可能会有机会和你的外国朋友聊到一些关于清明节的习俗和传统，这也是一个闲聊中可以用的好话题，那么我们怎么用英语聊这个传统节日呢？J: Hi guys. I'm Joy.C: And I'm Chris.J: So Chris, most people in China are having a 3 day holiday right now. Do you know about the festival?C: Oh yeah that's right. Isn't it the Tomb Sweeping Festival?J: Yep, it is.C: So what is this festival about?J: Well, it's essentially a festival to commemorate the dead, especially our passed family members. Since this is once a year, every time you go there, the tomb will be covered with dust and stuff. People have to sweep the dust off of the tombs. So we also call it sweeping the tomb when we go and visit the dead.C: Sounds interesting. So is there any rituals or customs that you have to do when you visit the tombs?J: I think most people will burn some paper money for their passed family members. Because people here believe that the dead will receive the money you burn on the other side and they'll be able to use it over there, like buying houses, cars, clothes, things like that.C: Oh. That's very interesting. I heard that some people bring food to the tomb as well right?J: Yeah, some people bring some bread, fruits and some snacks. I think my family would bring some of the favorite food and drinks of the passed family members.C: So do you leave the food there?J: Well, some do and some don't. I heard that many believe that the dead will come back as animals like cats and birds and eat the food that we leave them. And some people will ask the children to eat all of the food when they are there.C: Wait, you mean they will eat the food they bring for the dead? Why?J: Yeah, I don't know the specific reason for it. But it's supposed to bring good luck for the people in the family. So I guess by eating the food, the passed family members can protect them.C: Oh wow. That's a lot of things you need to do.J: Yup. So do people in America do anything when they are visiting the tombs?C: Well, the tradition is to visit the family member the first year after they have passed on the day of the funeral. After that it is more of an individual thing. So if you want to visit your ancestors on your own you can but most families do not have a tradition to do it as a group. Most people just bring some flowers if they want instead of food. But it's not mandatory. Often times the one who was closest to the family member will make sure it is cleaned and has new flowers regularly. The culture is different so how people view it is different as well. This can also be different depending on what part of the country you live in too.J: Oh it makes sense. You know, the Tomb Sweeping Festival is also a good chance for us to get outside and enjoy the warm weather. Because the festival is in Spring, it's always the perfect time to go hiking and do some outdoor activities. I think it's a great way to celebrate life!C: That's pretty cool. I hope everyone has a good time during this holiday.J: I hope so too. So If you like our channel, don't forget to share it with your friends and family! Bye guys!

因为疫情，大家都在家憋了好久，很多人已经蠢蠢欲动，开始向附近的公园出发踏青了，也有好多人开始计划疫情后的旅行目的地，我们今天听Joy and Chris聊聊旅行吧！J: Hello everyone. I'm Joy.C: And I'm Chris.J: You know, Chris, I heard that a lot of people are planning their next trip already for after the epidemic. I think there's gonna be a lot of tourists everywhere when this is over.C: Yeah it's just like students studying for the whole semester waiting for summer break. And when it happens they all go traveling at the same time.J: Totally, that was everyone's favorite time of the year. So where do you wanna visit next after the epidemic is over?C: I don't really know yet but I have been thinking a lot about Guangzhou. I went there last year and had a lot of fun. I'd totally visit again.J: Guangzhou is pretty nice. What did you do there?C: Well, I went to all sorts of places. The weather was perfect when I was there and I really enjoyed getting to know the local culture. I got to see many historical buildings and I even went to watch a traditional Cantonese play in a park.J: Wow, really? Sounds pretty cool. Did you go to the Guangzhou tower?C: Yeah I did. I went to the top of the tower but it was not a very clear day so it was a little hard to see the city but it's still really cool. The new part of town is well designed, I think because When I was walking around downtown, it almost made me feel like I was in New York or something.J: Yeah, I agree. But I think the traditional part of town is more attractive to me. I liked seeing the super old buildings along the the streets and people are actually still living in them.C: Those old buildings are very interesting. I think I took a lot of pictures of them. The style was really cool too. You can actually walk underneath the buildings. There are stores on the bottom of the building and the families live on the top floors.J: Yup they have a lot of those. Did you try any of the local food there? Guangdong is pretty famous for its cuisine.C: Absolutely, I enjoyed eating Dim sum every day and I got to experience a southern food market where I bought a Guangdong styled duck. It was one of the best ducks I've ever had. I loved it.J: Mmm, Guangdong ducks are really scrumptious. C: Yeah. And the locals like to eat at restaurants very late in the night and walk around in the night markets. They have amazing deserts like ginger milk pudding which is my favorite now! Overall it was a great experience and I would really like the chance to explore the city more.J: Sounds amazing. Guangzhou can be pretty hot in the summer.C: Yeah, I heard. And there is the monsoon season too. I saw some videos before that my friend sent me of the streets being flooded. It's no joke.J: Yup, definitely avoid those days. Anyways, do you guys have anything in mind for your next trip? If you like our channel, don't forget to share it with your friends and family! Bye guys!

生日是对于每个人来说都是一年里非常重要的一天，大家都有自己喜欢的方式庆祝生日，不过蛋糕一般是必不可少的，鉴于今天是Chris的生日，我们来听听在国外人们都是怎么过生日的呢？J: Hello everyone I'm Joy.C: And I'm Chris.J: For those of you who don't know, it's actually Chris's birthday today. So happy birthday!C: Thanks.J: Well instead of an idiom today, let's talk a little bit about birthdays. So what do people in the west typically do on their birthdays?C: Well, in the west, usually your mom or one of your family members will bake your favorite type of birthday cake and they put your name on it.J: Wow, so what's your favorite birthday cake?C: I like to have a banana cake with cream cheese frosting for my birthday. J: Sounds really good. In China, most people don't have ovens in their homes. So everyone just goes to the bakery and orders the cake there, but the options are always limited of course.C: Well, in the west we have bakeries too. But because birthdays are such a special time. Many families still hold the tradition of just doing it themselves, if they know how to bake a cake of course.J: Yeah, I know a lot people here in China always choose chocolate cakes because people don't really know much about other kinds of cakes. When I was living in America, I learned that there are so many different kinds of cakes and many of them are so delicious. It totally blew my mind.C: Yeah and in my family, cakes are not the only thing you get on your birthday. You also get to choose your favorite food as your birthday dinner. It can be anything you want.J: Really, anything you want?C: Yeah, anything you want. Whatever your favorite food is. For me, because my birthday is during a cold month, I usually choose a warm dish. It's called corned beef and cabbage. It's actually very similar to a type of Chinese beef.J: Oh yeah, just like 酱牛肉.C: Yep, it's a traditional Irish dish that people usually have on Saint Patrick's Day which was yesterday.J: Wow, all this talk about cakes and food is making me hungry. I hope you have a great birthday today.C: Thanks. I will!J: Alright, and if you want to wish Chris a happy birthday just leave a comment below! Bye guys!

在part 1和part 2里我们介绍了不同的表达方式，用于和客户谈话的开场白。我们说过与人交谈的过程中，可以多问问题，那么今天的音频中包括了哪些问题可以用来破冰呢？去听听Joy and Chris的讲解吧！J: Hi guys. I'm Joy. C: And I'm Chris. Today we are gonna talk about the expression: Is this your first time in...? Is this your first time coming to...? It's another good conversation starter in business and in life. You are asking the other person if they have been to a location before. J: Yeah, just like in part 1 and part 2 that we covered before, this can be used for business meetings as well. In many cases, the client is from another city or another country. If you live in Beijing and your client is from Australia, this is a perfect opportunity to ask them: Is this your first time in Beijing? Or maybe you are meeting in a coffee shop or a restaurant. You can also ask: Is this your first time coming to this coffee shop? / Is this your first time coming to this restaurant? Here's an example: C: Hey Miranda. How have you been? J: Hi Pete. I've been great. Thanks for asking. How about yourself? C: I've been doing pretty well. Is this your first time in the convention center? J: Yeah I've passed by it many times but I've never actually been in here before. C: Is this your first time coming to our channel? Don't forget to share it with your friends and family! J: And if you are looking for private English classes, feel free to contact us! Talk to you next time! Bye!

特殊时期我们要开窗通风，清洁一下室内空气，可以说：Please open a window and clear the air in here. 那么除了净化空气，“clear the air”还有其他的意思吗？Joy and Chris是怎么用的呢？来听一听吧！J: Hi guys I'm Joy. C: And I'm Chris. Today we are gonna talk about the idiom: clear the air. It's used to clear up any misunderstandings. You can use it like this: I need toclear the air. / Heis going toclear the air. / Let's clear the air. J: Yep, that's right. Maybe your coworker doesn't understand what you mean. You might want to talk with him to clear the air. Or two friends are having an argument and they should talk about their problem so they can clear the air. Or having a meeting about a recent project in your company can clear the air so everyone knows what to do. Here's an example: C: Hey Linda. Is Kim's team working with Marketing on our project? J: Yeah about that. I'm gonna be holding a meeting tomorrow afternoon to clear the air about everyone's role in this project.C: Do you need to clear the air with someone you know? Leave a comment below and let us know. Don't worry they can't see it! J: And if you are looking for private English classes, feel free to contact us! Talk to you next time! Bye!Remember: The best way to practice is to try to use these idioms in your own life every day. With each idiom that you get on our channel, you should try to use it in a real life conversation and not just memorize the meaning. Only with the experience of using it, your brain is more likely to remember it. Above all, keep in mind that Rome wasn't built in a day.要记得：最好的练习方法是每天在你的生活中使用这些习语，在我们的公众号听到的每一个习语，你都应该试着在对话中运用，而不是仅仅记住它的意思，唯独有了使用它的经验，你的大脑才更有可能记住它。最重要的是，要记住罗马不是一天建成的。

很多人学会一句以后，就不停的用这一句，但是我们想像一下，如果说中文的时候有人这样说，你会不会觉得这人很奇怪？学会多种表达方式，灵活运用，才能更有效地交流。那么，“超好用”在英语中还可以怎么表达呢？去听一下Joy and Chris的解释吧！J: Hi guys I'm Joy. C: And I'm Chris. Today we are gonna show you the idiom: work like a charm. It's usually used like: It works like a charm. / It is working like a charm. / They worked like a charm. J: It means that something works very well or has the desired effect. Maybe you bought a new washing machine for your home. You can say it works like a charm to express how good it is. Or your new computer is faster and better. So you wanna tell your friends that it works like a charm. Here's an example:C: Hey Melissa. I heard you're taking a new English course. How's it going so far? J: Yeah, I've learned so much faster with this new course. It really works like a charm.C: Alright guys. Is this idiom working like a charm for you? J: And if you are looking for private English classes, feel free to contact us! Talk to you next time! Bye!

J:  I have a friend of mine, whose name is Ben, and he's going to talk about some of the anxiety situations he's gotten himself into, and what he did to get himself out of them. Hi Ben. B: How are you doing, John? J: Just fine, thanks. What I'd like to do, if you don't mind, is to go through seven of the eight kinds of anxiety and just ask you if you've experienced them, and maybe a little bit about what you've done about them. I'm going to skip the first one, which is simple anxieties, such as claustrophobia or agoraphobia, because they are very common. The first one I want to talk about is social phobia. That includes things like giving speeches or going to parties. Things like that. Do you think you have any social phobias? B: I wouldn't say I have a social phobia. I'm a bit of a performer, and kind of an extrovert, but I also really don't like being around people all the time. I kind of describe myself as an extroverted introvert. J; That's fine, Ben. But that's pretty clearly not anxiety. Let's move on to the third one, which is separation anxiety. Do you experience any separation from anybody as being particularly frightening. B: Not particularly, no. J: Ok fine. The fourth one is generalized anxiety. What about that? B: Yeah. I'm pretty much always anxious about something, or just have a sense of anxiety, whether its towards any specific thing or not. J: When you feel kind of anxious about something, What do you do about it? What helps you? B: It's always something different. Thats something I’ve learned, that you can't always use one coping strategy for every situation, you have to try different things for different situations and figure it out, and even if its a similar situation to one you've had before, sometimes the same solution won't work. J: Boy, are you absolutely right about that. You've got to have a number of arrows in your quiver in order to hit the target, that's for sure. Now I do want to mention this: some research that my colleagues and I did with large numbers of young adults, the results were that males, about seventy-five percent of males do much better with physical techniques of relaxing such as tightening all your muscles and letting them go, or deep breathing, and the women, about seventy-five percent of them, worked much better with mental things. That includes imagining yourself by a nice, quiet lake, or that you're listening to a chorus of monks singing. So are you more like the males here or the twenty five percent category? B: I think I'm more towards the twenty five percent. Of course there's deep breathing that works occasionally, but mental stimulation tends to help me more, so I think more the twenty five percent. J: Can you tell us what kind of imagery that you tend to seek when you're feeling anxious? B; Yeah, I think of people who I love, or good times I've had. Sometimes I'll sing a little song in my head that I enjoy, or just try to make up a story to distract myself. J: I seem to remember that one of your favorite songs is “oh la de da” is that correct? B: (laughing) Absolutely! J: That's an inside joke. Ok. Number five on our list: agoraphobia. Kind of not liking to be away from home very much. B: Yeah, kind of. Not super, but a little bit yeah. J: What typifies the situation where you don't like being away from home. Is it a long trip to a strange place? Or what would categorize this? B: Something I can't get out of. So if I can't escape to calm down, or if I'm kind of stuck in a place that causes me some anxiety, if I'm not in a place I feel safe. J: That brings up an interesting point, Ben. I have the same thing. Especially if I go to somebody's house for dinner and I find myself to be surprised to find myself quite bored by  the conversation, I don't experience it as boring and that I've just got to get through it. I experience it as being trapped, being claustrophobic, and of course that makes it a lot worse for me. So very often you get to a place where you just as soon would not go out with friends or whatever. I remember back in 1984 I almost got housebound. Just didn't want to go any place. Have you had anything like that? B: Yes, I think when I was younger, like middle school age, I was going through a lot and just couldn't make it outside or go anywhere J: Ok. Have you ever experienced a panic attack. One of those very sharp and very strong anxieties, even to the point where you feel like maybe you are going to die or something terrible is going to happen to you. B: Absolutely. Unfortunately I've experienced that many, many times. J: I'm sorry to hear that. Can you tell me the circumstances that typically brings it out? B: Usually it's a result of many things piling up over time and then I just can't handle it anymore and I snap. J: Yeah somebody I was talking to, a woman recently who had been through a very long, difficult period of time, and she said when she thought it was going to be over, all of a sudden she experienced a panic attack. She said to me “ I always thought that people who said they were having a panic attack were just trying to get out of something, they were malingering or whatever” she said “ but I've had two of them now and they're just awful. They seem to come on you all of a sudden” and Ben you've probably heard me talk about the analogy to a stampede. If you don't pay attention to the early warning signs of a panic attack, and we do get them, we just don't pay attention to them. Sometimes we just don't want to think about it. Then the next thing you know the cows are up and they are running and it's too late, you've got a stampede on your hands, so you need to try to be more responsive and ore aware of the fact that you're on the verge of a panic attack and cut it off at the pass. Does that make sense to you? B: Yeah absolutely, that’s something that's allowed me to have far fewer panic attacks. J: That's terrific. I'm so glad to hear that. Number seven is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I happen to have known you for a long time, and I know that at least at one time, when you were only four years old, you were collecting rocks on the beach, and your mother said “that's enough rocks” and you said “ no I have to collect them all'' and she said you just can't, we don't have any room for all the rocks on the beach, and you started to cry and I remember I thought “wow it looks like he's got OCD.” At such an early age I'd never seen it before. Did that turn out to be true? B: Absolutely. And my OCD has kind of evolved over the ages from needing to collect things to search for symmetry, and a need for tradition and keeping certain activities, and doing them the same way whenever I do them. J: Well those are some excellent examples of what happens when somebody has OCD. As you know, it's obsessions which are thoughts, and compulsions which are behaviors, but they are both pretty much the same thing. I make the analogy to superstitions. Superstitions tend to come about because somebody says, you know the old story “Don't step on a crack, you'll break your mother's back” and so you avoid stepping on a crack and when you get home you find out that indeed, your mother's back  is not broken, and we laugh about that but that's kind of the syndrome to the extreme of OCD, is that you learn that if you double check the oven to make sure you turned it off, or that the iron is turned off, or that the water is not running, then you feel better; relieved because of this. And it may be that you are trying to punish yourself for these thoughts. I don't know.  But at any rate you feel a lot better when you go and check so what you learn from that is id better always go back and check. Does that sound right? B: Yeah that's a description of OCD I hear often. But sometimes it's like that for me, but it's also less superstition in other cases, many other cases. It's just I feel a kind of existential dread or extreme discomfort until I perform an action or do a certain thing a certain way. J: So it sounds to me like theres the threat of a panic attack, and it is relieved by doing something obsessive or compulsive. Does that make sense to you? B: Yes it could be described that way. But there's always a wide variety of things that could determine whether or not I feel a certain way about something. J: there's one more, which I presume you do not have, because you haven't been in the military, at least not yet. And that's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Do you think you have any signs of that? B: No, I don't think so J: Well Ben, this has been very helpful. This was exactly what I was looking for when I invited you to be on the podcast. And I think you've given us some really good examples of what these various kinds mean. I hope we'll get a chance to talk again sometime.   B: Hopefully so! I'd be happy to come back.

On this episode of From Idea to Done, Josh and Erick discuss Network Center and playing nice with your competitors. They talk about recently having made connections with the folks over at Network Center and share why it's beneficial to interact with the competition.J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm ErickE: Today’s idea is playing nice with your competitors. Josh last month you spoke at the NVision conference can you give a brief overview of what you spoke about. J: Seven steps to startup success. We wanted to give an idea of how you can win by thinking like a startup.E: What was interesting about this to me, was this was for network center’s conference. Can we talk a little about what network center does. J: Basically anything that has to do with computers or technology for your business they can help with. Everything from helpdesk and support to infrastructure design and implementation. E: This was interesting to me because they are competitors of ours. When we got there, we were chatting with my exact role at their company talking about a project we both bid. We ended up winning the contract, and everyone was actually really happy about it. It was kind of a very good weird conversation. This kind of takes us back to one of our core values and that is community. J: Yes I think we have a similar culture to Network Center’s that we don’t see each other as competition but that we are trying to do what is best for the customer. E: In all my sales various sales roles I have always considered no one as competition. It is up to me to find the right customer, and win their project. Then we have to crush it, so they don’t even listen to bids from other people for future projects. It’s as easy to say as that. Very tough to execute. J: It is, but it is also easier as we continue to define our niche as consulting and development for startups. Whether that is a true startup or just an existing business with a new idea they want to tackle. E: If I see one of our “competitors” I just did air quotes just as a heads up to people listening. If someone in our field wins a bid. Not finding the right person to be on that bid list, not not doing great enough work to even consider us is all on our team. A part of my role marketing too. If people don’t know about us, I need to do a better job of telling the story of our great work to everyone. J: Yeah it is all about brand awareness and understanding of what we do as a company. It is really easy to say here is the list of a hundred things that we can help you with, but at the end of the day it is confusing how a small team can fulfill against that. Doing things that others don’t such as this podcast or a random video series helps to differentiate us as a team and culture as much as anything.E: I actually connected with their marketing person at the event. I said, we both have to market something as terribly unsexy as app and website development. I have a meeting with her next week, and we are going to chat strategies together. I am really excited about that. It all kind of goes back to our core value of community. I just wanted to thank network center for being like minded and open to collaboration. J: Absolutely, they have been great to get to know this last quarter and I imagine doing a lot more together as 2020 rolls on. E: Thank you for listening to this episode. If you know a startup that could use our random advice and thoughts have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.

In this episode of From Idea to Done, we talk about the Dr. Mario World app, compare it to its predecessor, and admit to losing rounds to a spouse.J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm ErickE: Today's Idea, is Dr. Mario still amazing?J: I’m not sure, my wife always beats me at the nintendo version and she doesn’t even think about how the placements work. So I’m not sure if it is still amazing… You tell me.E: YES! As app developer nerds it is our job to review new apps. Our boys at nintendo released the Dr. Mario World app that I downloaded this week I am actually really excited about it!J: Really?E: YES! To get into the history of Dr. Mario we have to hop into a delorean go back to good old 1990. I was 7, I recently moved to a new town. I was a new kid on the block listening to New Kids On The Block. On weekends if I was good, my parents would take us to a video rental store because that was a thing. That would be the first time I played Dr. Mario.J: Oh I remember playing it back then, somehow i was better as a 9 year old than I am as a fully functioning adult. What were your thoughts on Dr. Mario then?E: I absolutely hated it. Nintendo fooled me into spending my $3 on a game that had Mario on the cover, but was definitely Tetris. Don’t put Mario’s face on something, if I am not going to be able to fight bowser in. ESPECIALLY when the last thing you put Mario’s face on was possibly my favorite game ever Super Mario 3. Marketers are the worst.J: Yes they are mr marketer. What are your thoughts now?E: A few years later with the introduction of gameboy color to the marketplace, and a version of tetris on that particular system. I have learned to enjoy puzzle games after many hours of roadtrips in our sweet Ford Aerostar van. I now give Dr. Mario World an enthusiastic Thumbs up. Josh do you have this app?J: Well I made you read a book and you had me download this app. Honestly two things jumped out at me, the pills are going the wrong direction and you only need 3 in a row to clear the virus. So obviously no regard for historical accuracy here.E: Back in my day we hads to make 4 colors match before the group would disappear, and gravity worked like it was supposed to. J: Yeah none of this disregard for physics…. Seriously.E: Your overall review?J: For the one level I played, it’s better than getting beat by my wife at the original Nintendo version.E: Well there you have it. If you like wasting time on your phone before bed, or if losing to your spouse in puzzle games is infuriating, I would recommend downloading Dr. Mario World. Thank you Nintendo.J: Thank you for listening to this episode, if you know a startup that could use our random advice and thoughts have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.

World renown life coach, Sharon Pearson comes together with an established clinical supervisor, family therapist and professor Jennifer Slack to talk about how she approaches therapy, her philosophies and discuss their ethics within their different disciplines. Get your FREE getting started as a successful life coach gift pack here: https://tci.rocks/gift-pack-2020 Resources: · Ultimate You Book - https://tci.rocks/order-ultimate-you · Ultimate You Quest Telecast - www.ultimateyouquest.com · Upcoming Events at The Coaching Institute - www.thecoachinginstitute.com.au/trainings · Sharon’s Website - www.sharonpearson.com · Disruptive Leadership- https://www.disruptiveleading.com/ · Phone The Coaching Institute - 1800 094 927 · The Coaching Institute Fan Page – https://www.facebook.com/BecomeALifeCoach · Feedback/Reviews/Suggestions, topics to be discussed - perspectives@sharonpearson.com · Perspectives YouTube Channel – https://www.tci.rocks/youtube Transcript: Introduction Hi I'm Sharon Pierson and welcome to this episode of perspectives. This episode really means so much to me. Recently I was in Fairfield Connecticut in the United States and I'll stay with my dear friend Jennifer. She's an amazing human being. We met about 18 years ago now and she is the reason I became a life coach. We were sitting outside at my beautiful home having a glass of wine and just talking about where we heading what are we going to do. She just said you should be a coach. I didn't even know what it was. I didn't know it existed and we walked through it and that time she was just starting to train to be a family therapist we're just starting to think about it. I thought I can't be a coach I can't help anyone but I can't help myself. So that journey for me was really about me helping me and it all got started with Jen and I remember finding her out one day sound terrified. I don't think I can do it. I'm just so scared and she gave me the classic words that I've used to this day I still say this to so many people and it's always attributed to Jen. Of course, you feel afraid anyone would in your situation you're about to go to another level. How else could you feel. And I remember just feeling. It was amazing feeling of being validated and being allowed to feel what I feel which is something I was so unfamiliar with. So she gave me very many gifts in the early days of our friendships and continues to she's beautiful you got to meet her. Her sound for herself very shortly. She's warm and kind hearted and values driven. She lives a life that is aligned around what matters to her the most which is her family and make a difference through her therapy work. She has crafted a life for herself that is so suited to who she is it's one of the things one of the many things I admire about her so much and the Fact that we've maintained such a beautiful and close relationship across the malls for all these years means so much to both of us. So I know I got to stay in her beautiful home for a couple of days in Connecticut. We went hiking together and then one morning I said we should do a podcast. And we started chatting and it went for over two hours. And so what we've done is we split it into two parts and you're going to want more and more of this woman when you hear her in the first part. We talk about her approach to therapy and she's a trained therapist. How does she approach therapy what's her philosophy behind therapy. What is she thinking about attending to what is what is she weaving into her therapy and how does she bring that to life. That's going to be the first part of the podcast and the second part which will be playing down the track again with us just sitting on her couch in her beautiful home. We digress and we just by now it just naturally moved into chatting about family because one of the things I've admired about her all these years I was we became friends when her youngest son was just born and was hadn't wasn't walking just a baby. And I've watched her as she's been a mother raising her three beautiful children their amazing human beings and all of them have gone on to start crafting lives that are based on their values what they care about what they stand for. And at young ages they know that. Now one of the things General will be the first to tell you she's not a perfect mother and then not a perfect family. They have ups and downs. They're flawed. She is. She insists that that message comes across and I of course admire that about her as well. The humility she has. But there is still an underpinning there of love being expressed in a really functional and loving way. And you're going to see that come across in part two of this podcast with Jen. Now I'm going to read here because I want to get a title right. And titles are my strengths. So she is a clinical supervisor and member of the American Association of marriage and family therapy and also an adjunct professor at Fairfield University. And she works as a family therapist and therapist. And I know some of the work she does at university. She works as a supervisor so new therapists who are training. She sits and what it she could be standing. She's with them helping them craft their own narrative style as therapists. And I say to her nearly every time we talk about this topic anyone who gets trying to get emotional anyone who's fortunate to be trained by this woman is going to be just the most phenomenal therapist. And I hope you love her and I know you'll love her as much as I do. So here's Jen Sharon Pearson: Hey. This is Sharon Pearson. I'm in Fairfield Connecticut and I'm here with my dear friend Jen psych who is a therapist and a phenomenal human being. And I'm so thrilled to be out to share with you today. Her message in her words. Welcome Jen. How are you. Jennifer Slack: Thank you Sharon. It's wonderful to be here with you my dear friend. S:So we've known each other for J: since 2001 S: 18 years J: Yeah. S: And we met before we were both moving into what became our passions. J: Yes. S: And our songs. Yeah. We were trying to figure out our passions our songs. There were conversations we had. Yeah overshadowing the backyard. J: Exactly. And I I think we helped each other kind of identify and crystallize how to manifest those passions. S: I'll always remember that moment. Can I share that moment. I was some for some reason I said I was going to be a coach. We'd come to that together over a glass of Chardonnay in my backyard was my turn to host. And then I was on the phone with you saying I was really scared and you said of course you are anyone in your situation would feel that way. You're going to a different level. You're about to have new experiences you've never had before. How else could you feel it was the most beautiful validation. And from there I was able to leap into it completely blind Jan. I we say it's a leap of faith. It was. I didn't have faith. It was a leap without anything but those comforting words. So I'll always remember that moment. Do you remember it or do you do you do. J: No I do. Yeah. S: It was very significant to me to feel that validated instead of my fears being dismissed. I was used to hearing you'll be okay or it'll work out. But you just accepted it embraced and held beautifully. My uncertainty about it was very valid and that's what enabled me to launch into something that I felt incredibly ill equipped to do. J: Well you might not have had faith but you had courage. Yeah. And you were willing to explore the unknown territories and just dive in and figure it out. S: And I did. J: Yes you did. Yes. S: And then so and then some and you began studying when you were in Melbourne. J: I did. Yeah. So I began a graduate program there. Yeah. Ecology. Yeah. And then we moved back to the States in 2003 and I picked up and began my marriage. Marriage and Family Therapy master's degree. S: Wow. J: With three kids of my own I went slowly at a pace that worked for me. S: And all your kids were under at that stage under about 12 with a rhythm. J: Yeah. Two years apart each. Yes. So it was a lot. S: It was a lot. S: And then tell us a little bit more about what you've done since then to get us up to now and then we'll go into your philosophy of. J: So I studied at Fairfield University. And I interned at a neighbourhood clinic where I stayed on for a total of 12 years and became a supervisor and then eventually the clinical director and then I left. Just coming up on a year ago to invest fully in a private practice and now I teach a class at Fairfield University and do supervision S: of psychology or family therapy family. J: It's family therapy. It is so fearful and I would you to study in family therapy. Yes. That's fantastic. Yeah. S: And what were the cut up. Because I'm interested what were the kind of who was the influences in that program. J: Who were they drawing on the structural and strategic models. Primarily with a little limited exposure to post-modern approaches as well. Yeah but really largely based in the modernist perspectives S: so pre 70s pre 60s. J: Yes when it was a little bit more objective. S: Exactly. J: A little as a black boxy. S: Yes yes. So who were the main influences for you philosophically. Who do you feel you draw on or empathize with or connect with in terms of approaches to therapy and family therapy. J: I have to say that underpinnings of structural therapy Manute chins the graphics spatial physical metaphors of that model in particular are like a scaffolding for me. Very very helpful. But my way of being with people is much more grounded in post-modern approaches which for me are all about exploring with people not having answers outside of the exploration necessarily but then continuing on. Now what we're learning in terms of neuroscience and brain chemistry and just the organic aspects that are playing a role also that it may be have to do more with like an individual's organic system as much as a family system interest. I think there are so many different kind of layers to explore in terms of doing therapy. How much do you draw on systems theory for family therapy even if you're working with one individual. Yeah I think heavily even if I define it in the way I just did. Yeah. So even if I'm working with an individual on individual behaviors and patterns of interacting with people and we're not really talking about their families so much I'm thinking about context and I'm thinking about that maybe their individual systems like their organic body system his you often share with me how when you're with a client where were you feeling that. S: The question I'm indicating with my hands reality people can say to me you. Where are you feeling that whereas that sitting with you. That's a big part of how you work. So it's to you is that a way of helping the client bridge the cognition to the feeling so that that's one of the ways I use it it gets I think I feel physically is a way of changing it too I feel I have an emotion. S: Do you ever use it that way or is. J: Yes. Yeah definitely. And the other way. Yeah. Because sometimes people come in with a lot of awareness about what their body is feeling but they aren't connecting it to a cognition or vice versa. And I think ultimately it's all good. Now one it's all unified. I'd like to separate it and yeah our Western culture but it's all one thing and I just I think having multiple modalities to better understand a person's experience is going to be better than this. S: Yeah. When you began what was your feeling or your thought around working with people did you have a philosophy or a bent or an expectation back then and I'd be interested to know how it's grown over the years. J: I think it's grown in a lot of ways and changed as I learned more about just a lot of the like the neuroscience pieces of this and my ideas about diagnosing have shifted a lot over the years and continue to shift back again, in family therapy the idea of diagnosing a person is largely frowned upon. And I think for really good reasons because it's subjective diagnoses are very subjective and there's been a lot of harm done around diagnosing and yet still sometimes people have very specific acute difficulties that can be helped with treatment approaches that go hand in hand with certain diagnoses. So I. So that's been one area of shift. And but then there are areas that are completely the same and haven't shifted at all S: since the day I met you J: which is probably three glasses of chardonnay just being with people in a way that is normalizing. That's built in love and compassion and a commitment to be to hold what they say with an open spirit and non judging and respect and integrity so to me that's kind of ethics the ethics of this work. And it's S:I really want to unpack that because that's one of my that's as you know one of the things that I delight the most from speaking with you. It's how you do that. And it's all how it's who you are when you're doing that. When your clients patients what do you call them either clients. J: Clients. S: when your clients come to you and you all just create a scenario for you and change it however you want. A client comes to you the walls are out the boundaries are way too rigid. No one's getting in their home protection defensiveness and the need to repel what's just. Could you paint a picture of perhaps hypothetically how you would go about helping them see that there can be self trust or. What. What are you thinking about. I won’t put words in your mouth. What do I be thinking about self dress. What would you be thinking about. J: I think I'm thinking about other trust. I'm thinking about how can I create a safe place for this person to begin to trust that my agenda is nothing more than what I am hoping will be helpful and healing to her. Or him. So that it's truly joined and connected. I really ultimately think it's all about connection and when someone comes in so well defended they've been hurt in connection and I'm hoping to be one small repair for them S: that it can be safe. That their will be their emotions will be safe, that they're bits that they've been rejecting we'll be safe with you. J: Exactly. And sometimes it takes time for some people one or two conversations does the trick. And for other people it takes I think the passage of time and repeat experience to me. I agree. Heal and enters yes. S: To rehearse. OK so what happened last weeks consistent this week. I can count on that and I can build on that. This is how I can respond in this moment it's a bit safe for me to respond that way and they can rehearse it with you in a safe environment and a team too. In practice in the real world and experience it J: and people can tolerate an expression of my emotions that can tolerate hearing what my thoughts are they can tolerate aspects of myself that I'm not sure are tolerable. S: Yes that was a big part of my healing as you know for me was embracing all of me and not feeling the need to suppress it hide it deny it. Get angry with it judge it. that's. Would you say that's a big piece of what you do. J: Completely. Yeah. One hundred percent. And I think when things are so scary that we can't even identify themselves let alone risk saying it out loud with another person. They just sit and grow and fester and become very toxic S: and real. They seem very real. J: Yes. Yeah they do. They its real and the problem which doesn't even very often is not a problem but it becomes a problem. So my hope is to make these things talk about a ball and with compassion people understanding where they're coming from and that it's OK and that there are more options kind of about expanding options for what you do with these feelings. Beginning with non-judging accept and accepting said things S: it’s a big part of it J: huge S: I didn't even know that was the thing. As you know I could accept my feelings. Yes. What are you talking about. What is this strange magical mystical words you're using. Except yes. And now I can't coach without. Yeah just holding. I always teach coaches we're holding our clients with our hearts as we are using cognition. But if that piece isn't there this won't have an effect. What's your way of interpreting that. Because I know a big part of what you do you're thinking about how to different approaches and different choices. That's an inevitability but a big pot huge part. Most of what you do is holding the client can you talk to that in your own way. J: Yeah it is. It is a holding space and all of you know I'm unconscious as we're having this conversation about you know the many people who have preceded me in terms of these terms and concepts that they are not original ones. They're just very dear to me. S: Yes. J: And yeah it is it's a holding it's a body and a mind experience and it's relational and it's all three of those happening at the same time. And so I think it starts with me being aware with my own feel of my own feelings my own body my own head and really making it all about the client and putting in check anything that's coming up for me if I'm having moments of you know OK. I don't know where I'm gonna go from here. It's a signal to just slow it down and check in with the client. And together we find our way. No two therapy sessions are the same. I mean that's why models are great and they can help us from getting lost. But there is so much creativity that happens in any session. S: I've never. I can't ever served on the same session twice in thousands of sessions. J: It's not possible. It wouldn't make sense right. If it if it is happening twice then say OK I was let's paint by number. S: It is I think is where I began when I was doing student student trials with supervision. I would have begun with I've got my twelve questions thank goodness. J: Yeah I mean you need a script. S: I needed it. I needed the script I need to better turn the page noisily right. So the client knew I was turning the page and I would need to read the second page because it gave me but the client knew I was a rookie with the L plates on. Yeah so I felt very safe in that environment because I don't know read the question. Yeah. They would be with me as a comrade encourage a colleague encouraging but there does come a moment where we have to learn to fly that leap which to me is the favourite thing ever. That leap. When I'm with the client I know I've got all these models and all these ways I could draw and inspiration these beautiful people who could steer and all of them have just created such beauty and approaches and philosophies and it all fades away. It just disappears from the periphery of my mind and all I see is the client and that's all there is there's me there's not even me there's the client and they're just feeling like I'm throwing a cloak of protection over this client the models and everything else float away they don't matter anymore or they're so assimilated that I don't there's nothing conscious there's nothing I can't notice them J: yeah they're there they're there. J: But they're so integrated. And I think what you are talking about having this script and how the people you're working with are so gracious and to me that comes from transparency and a spirit of collaboration and so everyone has their own style but that is that is definitely my posture. And so I you know I have yet to meet a person and you know. S: Yeah. Yeah. J: With more people I can count. And there is a there is a we achieve a mutual respect that is based on honesty and I have to be able to be honest about my approach. S: Transparency is a huge part of how you operate. Can you unpack that a little bit for me. It sounds so obvious. J: Transparency is such a buzzword. S: Yes. Can you unpack it and tune into a process for us. J: The process for me is it's about honesty. It's about probably a need that I have for me to be sort of we. You know we have to wear clothes that we feel comfortable and authentic and for me transparency is a way of being with people that allows me to be most comfortable so that I don't have any sense of I might have boundaries but I'm not having secrets I'm not holding something over the client that the client isn't aware of that is not a good recipe for me. So I have to work to find ways to be appropriately disclosing and authentic about what I'm thinking. What I'm concerned about where I'm coming from and that feels very genuine and connected. S: Do you do it in real time is that thought feeling cognition comes to. Or do you sometimes hold it thinking it it'll be little appropriate once this is more appropriate when this is wrapped up. Do you have a sense of time and space around that or is it in the moment. J: Both both. It often comes in the moment but then it often has to wait and sometimes I'm not aware. Or I don't have a frame that I'm comfortable with like I know there might be a conversation that needs to happen but I don't have the words to say it. I've learned I am not opening my mouth to go there until I know why I'm doing it. What I'm going for and how I'm gonna say it S: another big piece of this. Maybe this is the time to drop it in. Is do no harm. And what your. I don't have the right language. One of your goals is for the wholeness of the client and the well-being of the client. And I'm wondering how transparency. I imagine transparency for you is vital for that outcome to allow the client to see your reflections back openly without censorship. Didn't end up there. I get that but you do give the truth how is that linked. That's my question. How is that linked to helping the clients wholeness. I know it is but I'd love you to unpack that. J: I think that's trust. I think it's authenticity and I think it's connection. We wire ourselves in relationship. I mean you know mirror neurons. We are not actually separate entities. We are all commingled whether we're aware of it or not. And it's very powerful. It's sitting here with you just a few feet away when we pick up on each other's energies and if you don't know the truth about my context about why I'm saying and being the way I am being you're in the dark. Yeah. Yeah. And that to me is a breach. S: Tell us more about that J: to some extent or it's potentially a breach of of trust and connection and how and if I you know I think ultimately it is about raising awareness non-judgemental awareness that we are hoping for people so that they can survey, they can step back from their worried thoughts and feelings stuck behaviours and assess is this working for me or not. It's pretty simple. S: So we simple just do that. J: So we have to be able to step back ourselves and assess S: So are you seeing yourself in third position sometimes when you're in the session. J: Yeah I try to really that's so what. You know one of the many gifts that I've come across include mindfulness and John Cabal in particular has been hugely influential to me taking a witnessing position just helps me when I'm feeling stuck to get unstuck. There was a whole pathway I wanted to go come back to that if I remember it but something's just come up to me then a lot of times when people are starting out in this they bring their own stuff and into it. What would you suggest is a part because you don't you're very clean. I call it very clean work that you do. That's always my goal too. Does that make sense of the word clean. It's not enmeshed with my stuff. My as much as it can be my ego my issues my fears my life whatever's going on for me is separate to this precious moment with the client. I call that very clean work. It's messy work when the person is feeling what the client's feeling and is getting hooked into the drama of what the client is sharing. And the question I get all the time from people starting out is how do you do that sharon and how do you separate. Why why I care so much so why don't you feel what I feel like somehow it's not caring if I don't feel the client feels Yeah. Can you talk to that bit. J: It's a really it's a great I mean it's so central to the work that we do. And the truth of the matter is we do pick up yes what our clients are feeling and I do have my own stuff that I become aware, I think the trick is it's actually being aware that I have my own stuff happening right now and then that's the piece that I want to I. A disaster would be not being aware and then continuing the conversation you know that's reactivity that's enmeshment. And so I want to be catching myself. And for me that's very it's very helpful to start with the body. And I think that's why I kind of work to work with that with clients because I find it so helpful. And then taking a step back from it you know talk and sort of being my own supervisor here you know it's all in service to the client which is kind of paradoxical because we're talking about it's all connection but this is Tibet if it's not going to benefit the client I'm not going to go there with whatever that the conversation might be or whatever my response might be. S: I know there have been times I've been with a client. This is being I've done this for quite a while I separate emotional activity for feeling state that I exposed to the client and really conscious of the difference so emotional is someone tells me something that hooks me somehow personally and I associate into it. I can't think of an example but I'm just right now clenching my fists something happens I feel my emotional reactivity vs. a client shares something with me and it's so painful to them me showing empathy so I'll have tears appear in my eyes they're never full because they're not here to comfort me but I'll well up and we'll have such a feeling face of empathy and maternal I'm with you. With your hurt right now and I want to separate that for anyone listening from emotional reactivity of me not controlling managing being aware and just blurting out Oh my God that's terrible. There is a complete distinct difference and that's really important. As one of the things I learned from you very early on in our relationship you would mirror back if I shared something with you that was painful and it hurt me in my past or whatever it was you mirrored to me in a very maternal way held me with your face your you softened your features I mean just to get really clinical about it you soften your features and you said all share and you did tone was so gentle and that peace was magically healing to me magically healing. I know you can. You know the process you did and enabled me to feel what I felt and know would be safely received. I have taken that into my work and it is beautiful to reflect back. That's got to really hurt. that's really that's yeah it is. J: There has to be you give me too much credit. But as I've said many times but I need to I need to put that on record. Way too much credit. S: I love it. J: People do need to feel felt that connection. Is that safe. That's trust you. That's the proof that they're okay. That's the proof that they're going to be OK. Yeah and that's the holding space. Right it is and it's often non-verbal. Yeah so I agree it is as one wise supervisor told me it's OK to cry just don't cry harder than your client. S: Oh I love that and I love that that I love that. J: It's wonderful. S: My benchmark is the tears can appear but they can't fall because they can't hit the client. No word about reassuring him exactly J: and clients are deeply moved when it is a genuine and very often the most distressing. Content or experience will will happen or be disclosed in a session and I won't have tears and that's fine too. You just. S: Yeah it's not a requirement. J: No we're not saying that No. Here now is the time to be considered such a no no. S: Yes. That's why I'm bringing it up. Yeah. As of the expert status of the third. Exactly. J: Those old modernist day. Yeah. Yeah. But I do. I think one of the I'm not sure if we've talked about kind of just normalizing that such a bit. I mean that's there's nothing bigger in my eyes. My concept of things than normalizing and truly I do believe that all behaviour makes sense in its context does all behaviour. It does no matter how deviant it might be. It makes sense. S: Yes. J: And so if we just have to peel back and begin with the premise of this makes sense that you're doing this or that you're feeling that or that you're thinking that or that this has happened and you know hurt people hurt people. Yeah it's how it goes. S: it’s what they know and they don't. J: And we repeat patterns until we repair them. And so the white hair has to be in a normalize. People have to feel that they are normal in their context. S: I think it's one of the first steps for repair that I can see. One of the things I learned from Bradshaw is shame loves shadows. And that was a light bulb to hear it put so perfectly and succinctly because when the clients with me and I went speak to your experience. But when the clients with me if they can out the stuff that they thought was too ugly for the light and it's normalized by me so I acknowledge it. I normalize it. I validate that that is their experience. J: Use the words say it out loud. Yeah. Yeah. Repeat back S: exactly out that no matter how ugly they think it is. I'm so comfortable with it. It enables them to stop treating it like the secret in the in the in the in the bunker in the cellar. J: Right. S: So if it's got light now I can do something about it. Yeah. So it becomes the beginning of the change process to me. What's your secret. Did You have that experience. J: I mean definitely. To me I think that's largely what therapy is. It's yes it's helping identify what's going on. It's it's not always deep shame related but it's being able to find words is being able to construct the words around feelings and behaviors. And we I mean what we're doing even in this conversation it's it's it's social construction. I mean we identify our thoughts in the process of being together in conversation. We're creating something in the act of talking with another person. And what we can't talk about. It's very hard to access it to make changes around and then we worry if we have new examples and we'll say why S: if we can talk about it with the therapist or with the coach or her everywhere Who's our partner in this journey we then can't take it publicly. So I always think that the client with me is being out to rehearse how how it could be great out there. So if I can give them a great experience and by great I mean normalized accepted embraced and still feel compassion still feel accepted still feel that they're that way together that gives them rehearsal. Oh so it can be like that out there J: totally. S: So you get to spirit and take her cause. Yes. J: Yep. Everything exactly how you do anything is how you do everything. And exactly. It's so relevant. S: Yeah. And so I rehearsed with the client. I'm always feeling I am in the session replacing every other person who they feared would respond badly or would cause them to want to protect themselves or would give them reason to pause in terms of being their fully authentic self. So I feel the responsibility any joy around it. I represent everyone they haven't met yet or everyone who has ever shut them down. And I get the opportunity to help them do it over by being accepting embracing loving compassionate into them in the face of their shame fully embracing and with no hesitation there's just no hesitation in me whatsoever because I'm just thinking they get to know rewrite some of that and they can experience it differently. Do you have a relationship to that. Do you have a way of interpreting that that's your way. J: I think I would describe that in similar terms but yeah it's just it is absolutely an opportunity to repair. And sometimes it's not necessarily about repair but it's about just people coming in and they're just stop what they're trying Isn't working. So there isn't really necessarily big time repair work. I there. Let's just think out of the box. So what might work more effectively for you than what you've been trying. And that's very generative and exciting in a very different kind of way. But I think the process of conversation and connection and trust and normalization is central to that. It's just as central to that work as it is to you know traumatic repair work. S: So it constantly comes back to the launching pad J: for me it it does me as well. That is the launching pad. Yeah. That's the only reason I'm bothering to wrong. I mean that's not that and I and I. Yeah I wonder that that is the biggest ethical commitment that I can think of. You always describe it to me you're very consistent describes an ethical commitment. I know you as that's just who you are is not an ethical decision you're making you simply you're being I don't know that you would know how not to do that or be that that's an inevitability with you Jen. I don't think it's an ethical decision inverted commas you're making. I think it's just who you are. That's there consistently and I can't even imagine how it wouldn't be. J: Well I I appreciate your words kind of but I think also in thinking on a metal level thinking about the work I'm doing and thinking about difficult client situations where I'm maybe feeling less effective or stuck myself to some extent. OK where are we going to go from here. How can I best help this person. And certainly in training of students who are becoming therapists or working with other therapists in a supervision capacity I find that a very helpful home base to come back to and to say out loud with people because I like the rule of thumb that if the client were overhearing this conversation with the client be OK with it. And if not why are we saying it. S:I love it. J: Change the way you're saying we have to hold our people in our hearts with kindness and respect and dignity and S: with them in when they're not. J: Exactly. And our hearts and in our heads. And it is it. Yeah I think it's the humanity is in the feels. It feels to me like an ethical violation when that's not happening. S: Yeah.

In this episode of From Idea to Done, we chat about Jolly Roger Telephone Company and how they mess with scam callers using their own robots. Check out their website at: https://jollyrogertelephone.com/ J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm ErickE: Today's Idea is: JollyRogerTelephone.com. This is kind of an interesting concept. Nerds developed a robot to fight robo calls. Josh from a technical standpoint, can you tell us a little more of what this is?J: I like that, nerds to fight robo calls - What they do is use a 3rd party service called TrueCNAM to assign a reputation score to the number. Once the score hits a high enough level it triggers the call to be routed into their system. From there the pirates, as they call them, use some sort of a natural language processing to pick up when the telemarketer is talking. Really interesting how they handle it.E: I think this is pretty great. It would save me a lot of time. Mostly because I usually talk to robot callers, and am just weird on the phone with them.J: Yeah i think it is great, they’ve really dialed into how to mess with the telemarketer. Listen to this: [https://jollyrogertelephone.com/our-robots/ Bloody Billy 3:00 the telemarketer is actually responding to the robot]E: I freaking love this. My thought is if you are bold enough to talk to anyone and everyone wasting their time. I/this app can waste your time right back.J: Yeah I immediately thought of you when you when I saw this on Shark Tank.E: Yes one time they called saying I qualified for some credit something or other. I just started talking to them in binary answering them in zeros and ones anytime they had a question. I figured it would be hypocritical of them to robodial me, and not accept my robot answers. They stayed on the phone with me longer than you would think. Eventually they got tired when my answer to everyone of their questions was zero one one zero zero one one one one one zero. What I liked about the app, is the ability for them to stay on the line with the telemarketer for so long.J: Yeah it’s a difficult problem to solve. E: We have all had, or at least heard one of our stupid friends in the early 2000s with the Hello….hello, I can’t hear you. It’s actually Scott’s voicemail I got you. I hate freaking Scott. There is a little more tech in this than tricking me for 10 seconds.J: As a computer you can pick up is there is sound on the call, but how do you pick up what the person is saying. As a computer if i hear a sound, how do i know the intentionality of what they are saying. For example if someone said “How are you today” I could pick up on keywords or possible phrases, but it gets complicated quickly. You’d have to take the audio in real time and then process the audio into something that can be analyzed and responded to. So i’d guess they have a bucket of phrases that they respond to the caller with, and then inject a longer phrase/sentence so they aren’t just saying “uh huh…. Ok” for the entire call. E: Yeah this product would save me the time of coming up with new material to mess with the robot calls, and actually having to talk to them. My one complaint is with a name like Jolly Roger Telephone. None of the pre-recorded things talk like a pirate. J: But they do have a number of personal robots and even some holiday themed ones as well.E: Big question could our nerds develop Real Pirate Talking Robot Fighter App?J: We absolutely could. The toughest thing is to set the trap right for the telemarketer to keep talking, engage with the right wording so it seems natural.E: YARGH! We now have a project that I am ready to really get behind. If you want to hear some fantastic sample calls from jolly roger telephone. Go to their website. It’s pretty entertaining. Thank you for listening to this

In this episode of From Idea to Done, we talk about the acronym "NBAT" and what it means for your business. We take a look at each portion of the acronym coined by Jason Swenk and how it can help you with prospective clients.J/E: I'm Josh and I'm ErickE: Today's Idea is: Another random sales acronym NBAT. Everyone handles sales differently. This is actually an idea I learned from you can you talk about what exactly NBAT isJ: Well, actually I stole this from Jason Swenk. It stands for Need, Budget, Authority, and Timing. It really is the 4 things that you need to be paying attention to when in a sales conversation. Let's break those 4 things down a bit. Need - Do you have a service or product that the person you are talking to would purchase? E: Budget - If they need what you offer can that person actually pay for your service? Or does their need fit financially with what your team brings to the table?J: Authority - Are you talking to the person who signs the checks, or does this person need to talk to the person that signs the checks. If you are not talking to the decision maker, don’t rely on them to translate what you do to them, try and get a meeting with the decision maker.E: Timing Last, what is the actual timeline? You may have something in the budget for this month, this year, in your 5 year plan. Finding when things are going to happen also can help determine if your team is the right fit.J: It also helps with follow up, what is better “hey just checking in”, or “hey you had said that this was important to get it done in August, guess what, it's now August”E: It’s interesting as a salesperson to be so targeted in looking for that. I have coffee meetings all the time, like literally all the time. The main goal of the meeting is to find out the NBAT, or see if the NBAT is out of their power or unknown. If they are missing any piece, a sale is improbable to close. J: Not only you can’t close, but you now have a clear reason for the meeting or discussion. I think a lot of sales people go have a coffee or lunch with someone and say, man that is a great lead when they didn’t get enough information to even consider them that.E: I think it’s important though to discover if the person you are meeting with has any of the NBAT because at the same time you never know when things could change. J: Well it helps understand if it is a lead, a prospect, or just a coffee conversation.E: It’s the job of sales people to be in people’s heads before the go to blasted google. This is why finding out a potential customer’s NBAT, and checking in is so important.J: Yeah its really the difference between two people catching up and an actual sales lead. Getting brand awareness is another subject for another day Erick.E: And there you go, the idea of NBAT is done. The weird Michael Scott way I remember NBat is pairing it with the Batman theme Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na NBat. I hope that helps everyone remember it forever.J: Thanks for listening, if you know a startup that could use our advice have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.

In this episode of The Podlets Podcast, we are diving into contracts and some of the building blocks of the Cloud-Native application. The focus is on the importance of contracts and how API's help us and fit into the cloud native space. We start off by considering the role of the API at the center of a project and some definitions of what we consider to be an API in this sense. This question of API-first development sheds some light onto Kubernetes and what necessitated its birth. We also get into picking appropriate architecture according to the work at hand, Kubernetes' declarative nature and how micro-services aid the problems often experienced in more monolithic work. The conversation also covers some of these particular issues, while considering possible benefits of the monolith development structure. We talk about company structures, Conway's Law and best practices for avoiding the pitfalls of these, so for all this and a whole lot more on the subject of API's and contracts, listen in with us, today! Note: our show changed name to The Podlets. Follow us: https://twitter.com/thepodlets Website: https://thepodlets.io Feeback and episode suggestions: info@thepodlets.io https://github.com/vmware-tanzu/thepodlets/issues Hosts: Carlisia Campos Josh Rosso Duffie Cooley Patrick Barker Key Points From This Episode: • Reasons that it is critical to start with APIs at the center. • Building out the user interface and how the steps in the process fit together. • Picking the way to approach your design based on the specifics of that job. • A discussion of what we consider to qualify as an API in the cloud-native space. • The benefit of public APIs and more transparent understanding. • Comparing the declarative nature of Kubernetes with more imperative models. • Creating and accepting pods, querying APIs and the cycle of Kubernetes. • The huge impact of the declarative model and correlation to other steps forward. • The power of the list and watch pattern in Kubernetes. • Discipline and making sure things are not misplaced with monoliths.• How micro-services goes a long way to eradicate some of the confusion that arises in monoliths. • Counteracting issues that arise out of a company's own architecture. • The care that is needed as soon as there is any networking between services. • Considering the handling of an API's lifecycle through its changes. • Independently deploying outside of the monolith model and the dangers to a system.• Making a service a consumer of a centralized API and flipping the model. Quotes: “Whether that contract is represented by an API or whether that contract is represented by a data model, it’s critical that you have some way of actually defining exactly what that is.” — @mauilion [0:05:27] “When you just look at the data model and the concepts, you focus on those first, you have a tendency to decompose the problem.” — @pbarkerco [0:05:48] “It takes a lot of discipline to really build an API first and to focus on those pieces first. It’s so tempting to go right to the UI. Because you get these immediate results.” — @pbarkerco [0:06:57] “What I’m saying is, you shouldn’t do one just because you don’t know how to do the others, you should really look into what will serve you better.” — @carlisia [0:07:19] Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: The Podlets on Twitter — https://twitter.com/thepodlets Nicera — https://www.nicera.co.jp/ Swagger — https://swagger.io/tools/swagger-ui/ Jeff Bezos — https://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/ AWS — https://aws.amazon.com/ Kubernetes — https://kubernetes.io/ Go Language — https://golang.org/ Hacker Noon — https://hackernoon.com/ Kafka — https://kafka.apache.org/ etcd — https://etcd.io/ Conway’s Law — https://medium.com/better-practices/how-to-dissolve-communication-barriers-in-your-api-development-organization-3347179b4ecc Java — https://www.java.com/ Transcript: EPISODE 03 [INTRODUCTION] [0:00:08.7] ANNOUNCER: Welcome to The Podlets Podcast, a weekly show that explores Cloud Native one buzzword at a time. Each week, experts in the field will discuss and contrast distributed systems concepts, practices, tradeoffs and lessons learned to help you on your cloud native journey. This space moves fast and we shouldn’t reinvent the wheel. If you’re an engineer, operator or technically minded decision maker, this podcast is for you. [EPISODE] [0:00:41.2] D: Good afternoon everybody, my name is Duffy and I’m back with you this week. We also have Josh and Carlisia and a new member of our cast, Patrick Barker. [0:00:49.4] PB: Hey, I’m Patrick, I’m an upstream contributor to Kubernetes. I do a lot of stuff around auditing. [0:00:54.7] CC: Glad to be here. What are we going to talk about today? [0:00:57.5] D: This week, we’re going to talk about some of the building blocks of a cloud native application. This week we’re going to kind of focus on contracts and how API’s kind of help us and why they’re important to cloud native ecosystem. Usually, with these episodes, we start talking about the problem first and then we kind of dig into why this particular solution, something like a contract or an API is important. And so, to kind of kick that of, let’s talk about maybe this idea of API-first development and why that’s important. I know that Josh and Patrick both and Carlisia have all done some very interesting work in this space as far as developing your applications with that kind of a model in mind. Let’s open the floor. [0:01:34.1] PB: It’s critical to build API-centric. When you don’t build API-centric, most commonly, you’ll see a cross ecosystem building UI centric, it’s very tempting to do this sort of thing because UI’s are visually enticing and they’re kind of eye candy. But when you don’t go to API-centric and you go that direction, you kind of miss the majority of use cases down the line which are often around an SCK, just ended up being more often than not the flows that are the most useful to people but they’re kind of hard to see it to be getting. I think going and saying we’re building a product API-first is really saying, we understand that this is going to happen in the future and we’re making this a principle early, we’re going to enforce these patterns early, so that we develop a complete product that could be used in many fashions. [0:02:19.6] J: I’ve seen some of that in the past as well working for a company called Nicera, which is a network virtualization company. We really focused on providing an API that would be between you and your network infrastructure and I remember that being really critical that we define effectively what would be the entire public API for that product out in front and then later on, we figured out what obviously to learn this semantics of that sort, to be able to build a mental model around what that API might be, that’s where the UI piece comes in. That was an interesting experiment and like, we ended up actually kind of creating what was the kind of creating what was kind of the – an early version of the Swagger UI in which you basically had a UI that would allow you to explore and introspect and play with, all of those different API objects but it wasn’t a UI in the sense that you know, it had like a constrained user story that was trying to be defined, that was my first experience where I was working with a product that had an API-first model. [0:03:17.0] CC: I had to warm up my brain, I think about why do we build API’s to begin with before I could think why API-first is of a benefit and where the benefits are. And I actually looked up something today and it’s this Jeff Bezos mandate, I had seen this before, right? I mean, why do we view the API’s? API what you’re talking about is data transfer, right? Taking data from over here and sending it over there or you’re making that available so somebody can fetch it. It’s communication. Why do we build API? To make it easier to do that so you can automate, you can expose it, you can gate it with some security, right? Authentication, all of those things and with every increasing amount of data, this becomes more and more relevant and I think when Patrick was saying, when you do it API first, you’re absolutely focusing on making it all of those characteristics a priority, making that work well. If you want to make it pretty, okay, you can take that data in. Transforming some other way to make your presentation pretty, to display on the mobile device or whatever. [0:04:26.4] PB: Yeah, I think another thing with inserting the API design upfront in the software development lifecycle, at least in my experience has been – it allows you to sort of gather feedback from who your consumers will be early on before you worry about the intricacies of all the implementation details, right? I guess with Nicera’s instant stuff, I wonder when you all made that contract, were you pushing out a Swagger UI or just general API documentation before you had actually implemented the underlying pieces or did that all happen together? [0:04:58.1] D: With an API-first, we didn’t build out the UI until after the fact so even to the point where we would define a new object in that API, like a distributed logical router for example. We would actually define that API first and we would have test plants for it and all of that stuff and t hen we would surface it in the UI part of it and that’s a great point. I will say that it is probably to your benefit in the long run to define what all of the things that you’re going to be concerned with are out front. And if you can do that tin a contractual basis, whether that contract is represented by an API or whether that contract is represented by a data model, it’s critical that you have some way of actually defining exactly what that is so that you can also support things like versioning and being able to actually modify that contract as you move forward. [0:05:45.0] PB: I think another important piece here, too, is when you just look at the data model and the concepts, you focus on those first, you have a tendency to more decompose the problem, right? You start to look at things and you break it down better into individual pieces that combine better and you end up with more use cases and you end up with a more useable API. [0:06:03.2] D: That’s a good point. Yeah, I think one of the key parts of this contract is kind of like what you’re trying to solve and it’s always important, you know? I think that, when I talk about API-first development, it is totally kind of in line with that, you have to kind of think about what all the use cases are and if you’re trying to develop a contract that might satisfy multiple use cases, then you get this great benefit of thinking of it as you can kind of collapse a lot of the functionality down into a more composable API, rather than having to solve each individual use cases and kind of a myopic way. [0:06:34.5] CC: Yeah, it’s the concept of reusability, having the ability of making things composable, reusable. [0:06:40.7] D: I think we probably all seen UI’s that gets stuck in exactly that pattern, to Patrick’s point. They try to solve the user story for the UI and then on the backend, you’re like, why do we have two different data models for the same object, it doesn’t make sense. We have definitely seen that before. [0:06:57.2] PB: Yeah, I’ve seen that more times than not, it takes a lot of discipline to really build a UI or an API, you know, first to focus on those pieces first – it’s so tempting to go right to the UI because you get these immediate results and everyone’s like – you really need to bring that back, it takes discipline to focus on the concepts first but it’s just so important to do. [0:07:19.5] CC: I guess it really depends on what you are doing too. I can see all kinds of benefits for any kind of approach. But I guess, one thing to highlight is that different ways of doing it, you can do a UI-first, presentation first, you can do an API-first and you can do a model-first so those are three different ways to approach the design and then you have to think well, what I’m saying is, you shouldn’t do one just because you don’t know how to do the others, you should really look into what will serve you better. [0:07:49.4] J: Yeah, with a lot of this talk about API’s and contracts, obviously in software, there’s many levels of contracts we potentially work on, right? There’s the higher level, potential UI stuff and sometimes there’s a lower level pieces with code. Perhaps if you all think it’s a good idea, we could start with talking about what we consider to be an API in the cloud native space and what we’re referring to. A lot of the API’s we’ve described so far, if I heard everyone correctly, they sounded like they were more so API, as describing perhaps a web service of sorts, is that fair? [0:08:18.8] PB: That’s an interesting point to bring up. I’m definitely describing the consumption model of a particular service. I’m referring to that contract as an infrastructure guy, I want to be able to consume an API that will allow me to model or create infrastructure. I’m thinking of it from that perspective. If AWS didn’t have an API, I probably wouldn’t have adopted it, like the UI is not enough to do this job, either, like I need something that I could tie to better abstractions, things like terraform and stuff like that. I’m definitely kind of picturing it from that perspective. But I will add one other interesting point to this which is that in some cases, to Josh’s point, these things are broken up into public and private API’s, that might be kind of interesting to dig into. Why you would model it that way. There are certainly different interactions between composed services that you’re going to have to solve for. It’s an interesting point. [0:09:10.9] CC: Let’s hold that thought for a second. We are acknowledging that there are public and private API’s and we could talk about why their services work there. Other flavors of API’s also, you can have for example, a web service type of API and you can have a command line API, right? You can see a line on top of a web service API which is the crazy like, come to mind, Kubernetes but they have different shapes and different flavors even though they are accessing pretty much the same functionality. You know, of course, they have different purposes and you have to see a light and another one, yet, is the library so in this case, you see the calls to library which calls the web service API but like Duffy is saying, it’s critical sometimes to be able to have this different entry points because each one has its different advantages like a lot of times, it’s way faster to do things on the command line than it is to be a UI interface on the web that would access that web API which basically, you do want to have. Either your Y interface or CLA interface for that. [0:10:21.5] PB: What’s interesting about Kubernetes too and what I think they kind of introduced and someone could correct me if I’m wrong but is this kid of concept of a core generative type and in Kubernetes, it ends up being this [inaudible]. From the [inaudible], you’re generating out the web API and the CLI and the SCK and they all just come from this one place, it’s all code gen out of that. Kubernetes is really the first place I’ve seen do that but it’s really impressive model because you end up with this nice congruence across all your interfaces. It just makes the product really rockable, you can understand the concepts better because everywhere you go, you end up with the same things and you’re interacting with them in the same way. [0:11:00.3] D: Which is kind of the defining of type interface that Kubernetes relates to, right? [0:11:04.6] PB: Obviously, Kubernetes is incredibly declarative and we could talk a bit about declarative versus imperative, almost entirely declarative. You end up with kind of a nice, neat clear model which goes out to YAML and you end up a pretty clean interface. [0:11:19.7] D: If we’re going to talk about just the API as it could be consumed by other things. I think we’re kind of talking a little bit about the forward facing API, this is one of those things that I think Kubernetes does differently than pretty much any other model that I’ve seen. In Kubernetes, there are no hidden API’s, there’s not private API. Everything is exposed all the time which is fascinating. Because it means that the contract has to be solid for every consumer, not just the ones that are public but also anything that’s built on the back end of Kubernetes, the Kublet, controller manager, all of these pieces are going to be accessing the very same API that the user does. I’ve never seen another application built this way. In most applications, what I see is actually that they might define an API between particular services that you might have a contract between those particular services. Because this is literally — to Carlisia’s point, in most of the models that I’ve seen API’s are contract written, this is about how do I get data or consume data or interact with data, between two services and so there might be a contract between that service and all of its consumers, rather than between the course or within all of the consumers. [0:12:21.7] D: Like you said, Kubernetes is the first thing I’ve seen that does that. I’m pulling an API right now, there’s a strong push of internal API’s for it. But we’re building on top a Kubernetes product and it’s so interesting how they’ve been able to do that, where literally every API is public and it works well, there really aren't issues with it and I think it actually creates a better understanding of the underlying system and more people can probably contribute because of that. [0:12:45.8] J: On that front, I hope this is a good segue but I think it would be really interesting to talk about that point you made Patrick, around declarative versus imperative and how the API we’re discussing right now with Kubernetes in particular, it’s almost entirely declarative. Could you maybe expand on that a bit and compare the two? [0:13:00.8] PB: It’s interesting thing that Kubernetes has really brought to the forefront – I don’t know if there’d be another notable declarative API be terraform. This notion of you just declare state within a file and in some capacity, you just apply that up to a server and then that state is acted on by a controller and it brings us straight to fruition. I mean, that’s almost indicative of Kubernetes at this point I think. It’s so ingrained into the product and it’s one of the first things to kind of do that and that it’s almost what you think of when you think of Kubernetes. And with the advent of CRD’s and what not, that’s now, they want to be extended out to really in the use case you would have, that would fit this declarative pattern of just declaring to say which it turns out there’s a ton of use cases and that’s incredibly useful. Now, they’re kind of looking at, in core Kubernetes, could we add imperative functionality on top of the declarative resources, which is interesting too. They’re looking at that for V2 now because there are limitations, there are some things that just do fit in to declarative pattern perfectly that would fit just the standard rest. You end up some weird edges there. As they’re going towards V2, they’re starting to look at could we mix imperative and declarative, which is and even maybe more interesting idea if you could do that right. [0:14:09.3] CC: In the Kubernetes world, what would that look like? [0:14:11.3] PB: Say you have an object that just represents something like on FOO, you have a YAML file and you're declaring FOO to be some sort of thing, you could apply that file and then now that state exist within the system and things noticed that that state of change that they’re acting on that state, there are times when you might want that FOO to have another action. Besides just applying states, you may want it to have some sort of capability on top of the point, let’s say, they’re quite a few use cases that come in where that turns into a thing. It’s something to explore, it’s a bit of a Pandora’s box if you will because where does that end. Kubernetes is kind of nice that it does enforce constraints at this core level and it produces these really kind of deep patterns within the system that people will find kind of easy to understand at least at a high level. Granted, you go deep into it, it gets highly complex but enforcing like name spaces as this concept of just a flat name space with declarative resources within it and then declarative resources themselves just being confined to the standard rest verbs, is a model that people I think understand well. I think this is part of the success for Kubernetes is just that people could get their hands around that model. It’s also just incredibly useful. [0:15:23.7] D: Another way to think about this is like, you probably seen articles out there that kind of describe the RESTful model and talking about whether REST can be transactional. Let’s talk a little bit about what that means. I know the implementation of an API pattern or an interface pattern might be. That the client sends information to the server and that the server locks that client connection until it’s able to return the result, whatever that result is. Think of this, in some ways, this is very much like a database, right? As a client of a database, I want to insert a row into a database, the database will lock that row, it will lock my connection, it will insert that row and it will return success and in this way, it’s synchronous, right? It’s not trying to just accept the change, it just wants to make sure that it returns to a persisted that change to the database before, letting go of the connection. This pattern is probably one of the most common patterns in interfaces in the world like it is way super common. But it’s very different than the restful pattern or some of the implementations of a restful pattern. In which what we say, especially in this declarative model, right? In a declarative model, the contract is basically, I’m going to describe a thing and you're going to tell me when you understand the thing I want to describe. It’s asynchronous. For example, if I were interacting with Kubernetes and I said, cube kettle create pod, I would provide the information necessary to define that pod declaratively and I would get back from the API server 200 okay, pod has been accepted. It doesn’t mean to it's been created. It means it’s been accepted as an object and persisted to disk. Now, to understand from a declarative perspective, where I am in the life cycle of managing that pod object, I have to query that API again. Hey, this pod that I ask you to make, are you done making it and how does this work and where are you in that cycle of creating that thing? This is where I like within Kubernetes, we have the idea of a speck which defines all of the bits that are declaratively described and we have the idea of a status which describes what we’ve been up to around that declarative object and whether we’ve actually successfully created it or not. I would argue that from a cloud native perspective that declarative model is critical to our success. Because it allows us to scale and it allows us to provide an asynchronous API around those objects that we’re trying to interact with and it really changes the game as far as like, how we go about implementing those inputs. [0:17:47.2] CC: This is so interesting, it was definitely a mind bender for me when I started developing against Kubernetes. Because what do you mean you’ve returned the 200 okay, and the thing is not created yet. When does it get created? It’s not hard to understand but I was so not used to that model. I think it gives us a lot of control. So it is very interesting that way and I think you might be right, Duffy, that it might be critical to the success of native apps because it is always like the way I am thinking about it right now just having heard you is almost like with all the models, let’s say you are working with a database in that transactional system. The data has be inserted and that system decides to retry or not once the transaction is complete as we get a result back. With a Kubernetes model or cloud native model, I don’t know what, which is both a proper things to say, the control is with us. We send the request, Kubernetes is going to do its thing, which allows us to move on too, which is great, right? Then I can check for the result, when I want to check and then I can decide what to do with the results when I want to do anything with it if it all, I think it gives us a lot more control as developers. [0:19:04.2] D: Agreed. And I think another thing that has stuck in my head around this model whether it would be declared over imperative is that I think that Go Lang itself has actually really enabled us to adopt that asynchronous model around things that threads are first class, right? You can build a channel to handle each individual request, that you are not in this world where all transactions have to stop until this one is complete and then we’ll take the next one out of queue and do that one. We're no longer in that kind of a queue model, we can actually handle these things in parallel quite a bit more. It makes you think differently when you are developing software. [0:19:35.9] J: It’s scary too that you can check this stuff into a repo. The advent of Git Ops is almost parallel to the advent of Kubernetes and Terra Form and that you can now have this state that is source controlled and then you just apply it to the system and it understands what to do with it and how to put all of the pieces together that you gave it, which is a super powerful model. [0:19:54.7] D: There is a point to that whole asynchronous model. It is like the idea of the API that has a declarative or an imperative model and this is an idea and distributed system that is [inaudible]. It is like edge triggering or level triggering but definitely recommend looking up this idea. There is a great article on it on Hack Noon and what they highlight is that the pure abstract perspective there is probably no difference between edge and level triggering. But when you get down to the details especially with distributed systems or cloud native architectures, you have to take into account the fact that there is a whole bunch of disruption between your services pretty much all the time and this is the challenge of distributed systems in general, when you are defining a bunch of unique individual systems that need to interact and they are going to rely on an unreliable network and they are going to rely on unreliable DNS. And they’re going to rely on all kinds of things that are going to jump in the way of between these communication models. And the question becomes how do you build a system that can be resilient to those interruptions. The asynchronous model absolutely puts you in that place, where if you are in that situation wherein you say, “Create me a pod.” And that pod object is persisted and now you can have something else to do the work that will reconcile that declared state with the actual state until it works. It will just keep trying and trying and trying until it works. In other models, you basically say, “Okay, well what work do I have to do right now and I have to focus on doing this work until it stops.” What happens if the process itself dies? What happens if any of the interruptions that we talk about happen? Another good example of this is the Kafka model versus something like a watch on etcd, right? In Kafka, you have these events that you are watching for. And if you weren’t paying attention when that event went by, you didn’t get that event. It is not still there. It is gone now whereas like with etcd and models like that, what you are saying is I need to reconcile my expectancy of the world with what the desired thing is. And so I am no longer looking for events. I am looking for a list of work that I have to reconcile to, which is a very different model for these sorts of things. [0:21:47.9] J: In Kubernetes, it becomes the informer pattern. If you all don’t know, which is basically at the core of the informer is just this concepts of list and watch where you are just watching for changes but every so often you list as well in case you missed something. I would argue that that pattern is so much more powerful than the Kafka model you’re just going to skin as well because like you mentioned, if you missed an event in Kafka somehow, someway is very difficult to reconcile that state. Like you mentioned, your entire system can go down in a level set system. You bring it back up and because it is level set, everything just figures itself out, which is a lot nicer than your entire system going down in an edge-based system and trying to figure out how to put everything back together yourself, which is not a fun time, if you have ever done it. [0:22:33.2] D: These are some patterns in the contracts that we see in the cloud native ecosystem and so it is really interesting to talk about them. Did you have another point Josh around API’s and stuff? [0:22:40.8] J: No, not in particular. [0:22:42.2] D: So I guess we give into like what some of the forms of these API’s to talk about. We could talk about RESTful API’s versus to TIPC-based API’s or maybe even just interfaces back and forth between modular code and how that helped you architect things. One of the things I’ve had conversations with people around is we spend a lot of our time conditioning our audience when in cloud native architecture to the idea that monliths are bad, bad, bad and they should never do them. And that is not necessarily true, right? And I think it is definitely worth talking through like why we have these different opinions and what they mean. When I have that conversation with customers, frequently a monolith makes sense because as long as you’re able to build modularity into it and you are being really clear about the interfaces back and forth between those functions with the idea that if you have to actually scale traffic to or from this monolith. If the function that you are writing needs to be effectively externalized in such a way that can handle an amount of work that will surpass what the entire monolith can handle. As long as you are really clear about the contract that you are defining between those functions then later on, when it comes to a time to externalize those functions and embrace kind of a more microservices based model mainly due to traffic reload or any of the other concerns that kind of drive you toward a cloud native architecture, I think you are in a better spot and this is definitely one of the points of the contract piece that I wanted to raise up. [0:24:05.0] CC: I wonder though how hard it is for people to keep that in mind and follow that intention. If you have to break things into micro services because you have bottlenecks in your monolith and maybe have to redo the whole thing, once you have the micro services, you have gone through the exercise of deciding, you know this goes here, these goes there and once you have the separate modules it is clear where they should go. But when you have a monolith it is so easy to put things in a place where they shouldn’t be. It takes so much discipline and if you are working on a team that is greater than two, I don’t know. [0:24:44.3] PB: There are certain languages that lend themselves to these things like when you are writing Java services or there are things where it is easy to — when writing even quickly, rapidly prototyping an application that has multiple functions to be careful about those interfaces that you are writing, like Go because it is a strongly type language kind of forces you into this, right? There are some other languages that are out that make it difficult to be sloppy about those interfaces. And I think that is inherently a good thing. But to your point like you are looking at some of the larger monoliths that are out there. It is very easy to fall into these patterns where instead of an asynchronous API or an asynchronous interface, you have just a native interface and you are a asynchronous interface in which you expect that I would be able to call this functional and put something in there. I will get the result back and that is a pattern for monoliths. Like that is how we do it in monoliths. [0:25:31.8] CC: Because you say in there also made me think of the Conway’s Law because when we separate these into micro services and I am not saying micro services is right for everything for every team and every company. But I am just saying if you are going through that exercise of separating things because you have bottlenecks then maybe in the future you have to put them elsewhere. Externalize them like you said. If you think if the Conway’s Law if you have a big team, everybody working on that same monolith that is when things are in depth in the place that they shouldn’t be. The point of micro services is not just to technically separate things but to allow people to work separately and that inter-team communication is going to be reflected in the software that they are creating but because they are forced to communicate and hopefully they do it well that those micro services should be well-designed but if you have a monolith and everyone working on the same project, it gets more confusing. [0:26:31.4] D: Conway’s Law as an overview is basically that an organization will build software and laid out similar to the way the thought musician itself is architected. So if everybody in the entire company is working on one thing and they are really focused on doing that one thing, you’d better build a monolith. If you have these groups that are disparate and are really focused on some subset of work and need to communicate with each other to do that thing then you are going to build something more similar or maybe more capable as a micro service. That is a great point. So actually one of the things about [inaudible] that I found so fascinating with it, it would be a 100 people and we were everywhere. So communication became a problem that absolutely had to be solved or we wouldn’t be able to move forward as a team. [0:27:09.5] J: An observation that I had in my past life helping folks, breaking apart Java monoliths like you said Duffy, assume they had really good interfaces and contracts right? And that made it a lot easier to find the breaking points for their API’s to pull those API’s out into a different type of API. They went from this programmatic API, that was in the JBM where things were just intercommunicating to an API that was based on a web service. And an interesting observation I oftentimes found was that people didn’t realize that in removing complexity from within the app to the network space that oftentimes caused a lot of issues and I am not trying to down API’s because obviously we are trying to talk about the benefits of them but it is an interesting balancing act. Oftentimes when you are working with how to decouple a monolith, I feel like you actually can go too far with it. It can cause some serious issues. [0:27:57.4] D: I completely agree with that. That is where I wanted to go with the idea of why we say that building a monolith is bad and like with the challenges of breaking those monoliths apart later. But you are absolutely right. When you are going to introduce the wild chaos that is a network between your services, are you going to externalize functions and which means that you have to care a lot more about where you store a state because that state is no longer shared across all of the things. It means that you have to be really super careful about how you are modeling that. If you get to the point where this software that you built that is a monolith that is wildly successful and all of its consumers are networked based, you are going to have to come around on that point of contracts. Another thing that we haven’t really talked on so much is like we all agree that maybe like an API for say the consumer model is important. We have talked a little bit about whether private API’s or public API’s make sense. We described one of the whacky things that Kubernetes does, which is that there are no private API’s. It is all totally exposed all the time. I am sure that all of us have seen way more examples of things that do have a private API mainly because perhaps the services are trained. Service A always fact to service B. Service B has an API that it may be a private API. You are never going to expose to your external customers only to service A or to consumers of that internal API. One of the other things that we should talk about is when you are starting to think about these contracts. One of the biggest and most important bits is how you handle the lifecycle of those API’s, as they change right? Like I say add new features or functionality or as I deprecate old features and functionality, what are my concerns as it relates to this contract. [0:29:33.5] CC: Tell me and take my money. [0:29:37.6] D: I wish there was like a perfect answer. But I am pretty convinced that there are no perfect answers. [0:29:42.0] J: I spent a lot of time in the space recently and I have researched it for like a month or so and honestly, there are no perfect answers to try to version an API. Every single on of them has horrible potential consequences to it. The approach Kubernetes took is API evolution, where basically all versions of the API have to be backwards compatible and they basically all translate to what is an internal type in Kubernetes and everything has to be translatable back to that. This is nice for reasons. It is also very difficult to deal with at times because if you add things to an API, you can’t really every remove them without a massive amount of deprecation effort basically moderating the usage of that API specifically and then somehow deprecating it. It is incredibly challenging. [0:30:31.4] PB: I think it is 1-16 in which they finally turn off a lot of the deprecated API’s that Kubernetes had. So a lot of this stuff that has been moved for some number of versions off to different spaces for example deployments used to be extensions and now they are in apps. They have a lot of these things. Some of the older API’s are going to be turned off by default in 1-16 and I am really interested to see how this plays out you know from kind of a chaos level perspective. But yeah you’re right, it is tough. Having that backwards compatibility definitely means that the contract is still viable for your customers regardless of how old their client side looks like but this is kind of a fingernail problem, right? You are going to be in a situation where you are going to be holding those translations to that stored object for how many generations before you are able to finally get rid of some of those old API’s that you’ve have obviously moved on from. [0:31:19.6] CC: Deprecating an end point is not reviewed at all and ideally like better with, you would be able to monitor the usage of the end point and see as you intend deprecating is the usage is going lower and if there is anything you can do to accelerate that, which actually made me think of a question I have for you guys because I don’t know the answer to this. Do we have access to the end points usage, the consumption rate of Kubernetes end points by any of the cloud service providers? It would be nice if we did. [0:31:54.9] D: Yeah, there would be no way for us to get that information right? The thing about Kubernetes is something that you are going to run on your own infrastructure and there is no phone home thing like that. [0:32:03.9] CC: Yeah but the cost providers could do that and provide us a nice service to the community. [0:32:09.5] D: They could that is a very good point. [0:32:11.3] PB: [inaudible] JKE, it could expose some of the statistics around those API end points. [0:32:16.2] J: I think the model right now is they just ping the community and say they are deprecating it and if a bunch of people scream, they don’t. I mean that is the only way to really know right now. [0:32:27.7] CC: The squeaky wheels get the grease kind of thing. [0:32:29.4] J: Yeah. [0:32:30.0] D: I mean that is how it turns out. [0:32:31.4] J: In regarding versioning, taking out of Kubernetes for a second, I also think this is one of the challenges with micro service architectures, right? Because now you have the ability to independently deploy a service outside of the whole monolith and if you happen to break something that cracks contractually you said you would and people just didn’t pay attention or you accidentally broke it not knowing, it can cause a lot of rift in a system. So versioning becomes a new concern because you are no longer deploying a massive system. You are deploying bits of it and perhaps versioning them and releasing them at different times. So again, it is that added complexity. [0:33:03.1] CC: And then you have this set of versions talk to this set of versions. Now you have a matrix and it is very complicated. [0:33:08.7] PB: Yeah and you do somewhat have a choice. You can’t have each service independently versioned or you could go with global versioning, where everything within V1 could talk to everything else than V1. But it's an interesting point around breakage because tools like GRPC kind of enforce you to where you cannot break the API, through just how the framework itself is built and that’s why you see GRPC in a lot of places where you see micro services just because it helps get the system stable. [0:33:33.1] D: Yeah and I will call back to that one point again, which I think is actually one of Josh’s points. If you are going to build multiple services and you are building an API between them then that means the communication path might be service A to service B and service B to service A. You are going to build this crazy mesh in which you have to define an API in each of these points to allow for that consumption or that interaction data. And one of the big takeaways for me in studying the cloud native ecosystem is that if you could define that API and that declarative state as a central model to all of your services then you can flip this model on its head instead of actually trying to define an API between in front of a service. You can make that service a consumer of a centralized API and now you have one contract to right and one contract to standby and all of those things that are going to do work are going to pull down from that central API. And do the work and put back into that central API the results, meaning that you are flipping this model on its head. You are no longer locking until service B can return the result to you. You are saying, “Service B here is a declarative state that I want you to accomplish and when you are done accomplishing it, let me know and I will come back for the results,” right? And you could let me know in an event stream. You can let me know by updating a status object that I am monitoring. There’s lots of different ways for you to let me know that service B is done doing the work but it really makes you think about the architecture of these distributed systems. It is really one of the big highlights for me personally when I look at the way that Kubernetes was architected. Because there are no private API’s. Everything talks to the API server. Everything that is doing work regardless of what data it’s manipulating but it is changing or modifying. It has to adhere to that central contract. [0:35:18.5] J: And that is an interesting point you brought up is that Kubernetes in a way is almost a monolith, in that everything passes through the API server, all the data leaves in this central place but you still have those distributed nature too, with the controllers. It is almost a mix of the patterns in some ways. [0:35:35.8] D: Yeah, I mean thanks for the discussion everybody that was a tremendous talk on contracts and API’s. I hope everybody got some real value out of it. And this is Duffy signing off. I will see you next week. [0:35:44.8] CC: This is great, thank you. [0:35:46.5] J: Cheers, thanks. [0:35:47.8] CC: Bye. [END OF INTERVIEW] [0:35:49.2] ANNOUNCER: Thank you for listening to The Podlets Cloud Native Podcast. Find us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ThePodlets and on the https://thepodlets.io website where you will find transcripts and show notes. We’ll be back next week. Stay tuned by subscribing. [END]See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Idea to Done, we discuss jumping the hurdle of starting marketing for your business. This is the third episode in our marketing series.J: Welcome to another episode of Idea to Done J/E: I'm Josh and I'm ErickE: We have been discussing marketing ideas in the last few episodes. Today’s topic is going to be starting. It’s important to start in the mediums you like, and build. I do a lot of our business content on Facebook. I am more comfortable on Facebook. You on the other hand are more professional than I will ever know. It makes sense you are more active on LinkedIn. J: Plus it's how you use the platform. I don’t want to promote our business directly on FB, i want to use the platform to show other aspects of life and then use LI to drop some knowledge. - For example, there is a great brand here in town Hatch Realty. Erick uses his personal facebook to build people up, not to buy the house and I think that is really a great model. It helps keep him visible in the market, but not as the pushy buy my stuff way.E: To expand on that, I have actually been to marketing seminars hosted by Erik. He says that he doesn’t ever say he sells homes on Facebook. He shows his team, he promotes good things going on in the community, and just has fun. On facebook I just want to entertain. In my head marketing should be entertaining. I think it is easiest to start on the platform you genuinely enjoy the most.J: It is easiest to start on the platform you enjoy the most, make sure that your audience is there and make sure that we’re fitting the content to the audience. Remember, I don’t want to watch an hour unedited video on facebook. Give me 30 seconds of the steak and sizzle. Squatty Potty and Dollar Shave Club.E: Again, on of the most important aspects of marketing is starting. Actually create some content. We’re actually about 8 episodes into our show now before we have even figured out what to do with it. J: As of today we don’t have our promotional plan, but we wanted to find out, do we like sitting here on a Friday afternoon script writing and talking to a microphone. I mean look at Gary Vee’s first video for Wine Library. So get out there and start something.E: That video is nothing compared to anything he currently puts out. His whole brand completely evolved. He saw the opportunity on the platform of YouTube, so he started.J: Yeah, how long did we talk about the idea of a podcast and what could it be before we started. I mean we wasted a few months kicking the tires, granted what we came up with was way better than what we started with, but would we have gotten there quicker if we just jumped in? Or did planning the way we did work out best?E: I think it’s a combination of both. We needed to jump. We also needed a plan, and that is actually what we’re going to talk about in our next episode. Is having a marketing plan.J: So its, set a budget, find the platform and try some stuff, just start!, and then plan…. Well that's the order we did them in, no matter what order you actually do them in, they need to fit for you, and you need to address all 4, otherwise that's what leads to a mistake.E: Mistakes aren’t learning. Thanks for listening, if you know a startup that could use actionable advice have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.

To celebrate the 100th episode of the DoorGrowShow, I’m doing something a bit different. Instead of me interviewing someone, I’m the one being asked the questions.  Today, I am featuring my appearance as a guest on the Cashflow Diary (CFD) podcast hosted by J. Massey. We discuss my journey into property management and how to optimize a business through organic growth to achieve success. You’ll Learn... [05:00] Today’s entrepreneurs are like yesterday’s superheroes. They save lives. [06:01] Who is Jason Hull? Someone who has never managed a property, but helps others grow and scale their property management business. [06:48] Being an entrepreneur is in his DNA: Grew up with an entrepreneurial mother, who taught him to make more money and beat the competition. [08:16] Failed Marriage and “Disney” Dad: Jason needed a job that offered freedom and autonomy to spend time with his kids and create clients. [10:13] Website Design, Marketing,and Branding: How to win when competing with Goliaths and make it to the top of Google. [11:53] Financial Decisions: Entrepreneurs like to make money, not lose it. [15:25] Conventional to Comfortable Confidence: Do what works for you, not others, to lower pressure noise.  [20:15] Curiosity: See what others don’t and causes businesses to lose leads and deals. [21:55] Still struggling with imposter syndrome? Hire a business coach who believes in you to rebuild confidence and effective communication to make a difference. [28:55] Why choose property management and deal with tenants, toilets, and termites? [32:53] Why choose Jason and DoorGrow? He helps create positive awareness and address negative perception surrounding property management. [40:00] Cold vs. Warm Leads: Prospecting pipeline plugs leaks to grow business and get people to know, like, and trust you. [44:56] How do good property owners find good property managers? Avoid sandtraps of solopreneurs with few doors; add doors to build a property portfolio. [49:10] Short-term Rental Success: Get a property manager to solve revenue issues. [52:32] Precipice of Decision: Believe in yourself, make it happen, and decide to be different by listening to your truest voice.  Tweetables Today’s entrepreneurs and yesterday’s superheroes save lives and make the world a better place. Entrepreneurism: Insatiable desire to learn and explore opportunities. Entrepreneurs: Allow yourself to do what you need to do to lower the pressure noise. Entrepreneurs create positive, uncomfortable change wherever they go. Resources CFD 542 – Jason Hull On How Property Management Can Change The World Jason Hull on Facebook Steve Jobs 6 Non-QWERTY Keyboard Layouts Alex Charfen (Business Coach) Momentum Podcast DoorGrowClub Facebook Group DoorGrowLive DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrow Website Score Quiz Transcript Jason: This is a special episode because this is our 100th episode. What I wanted to do was share something different. I've been on a lot of other people's podcasts recently and this was one that I really enjoyed, this was with J. Massey of the Cash Flow Diary podcast. He was a really great interviewer, I really enjoyed being on the show. He asked a lot of questions and it really dug into me. I'm not used to somebody really digging into hearing about me as much. I'm usually the one digging in and hearing about other people. I thought my listeners would enjoy this podcast so I asked J. Massey if we could have permission to put this on our podcast and he was glad to let us do so. You get to hear this interview of me being on this episode of the Cash Flow Diary with J. Massey. Enjoy the show. Welcome, DoorGrow hackers to the DoorGrow Show. If you are a property management entrepreneur that wants to add doors, make a difference, increase revenue, help others, impact lives, and you are interested in growing your business and life, and you are open to doing things a bit differently, then you are a DoorGrow hacker. DoorGrow hackers love the opportunities, daily variety, unique challenges, and freedom that property management brings. Many in real estate think you’re crazy for doing it, you think they’re crazy for not, because you realize that property management is the ultimate high-trust gateway to real estate deals, relationships, and residual income. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management businesses and their owners. We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. I’m your host, property management growth expert, Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow. Now, let’s get into the show. J: All right, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to another episode of the Cash Flow Diary podcast. I'm your host, J. Massey. I'm glad that you are here today because we are going to talk about something that I know, and my guest knows, is one of the most, if not the most, critical piece for your success, not only in business but specifically, the real estate world. I know that many of us were out there. We're trying to grow our cash flow. We're trying to make things happen. Build a bigger, better business, and you're doing it and you're succeeding, and that's great. Also at the same time, many of you are like, “Man, if I could just figure out how to take what I'm doing in business and do it in real estate too, that would be great.” Some of you are like, “Man, I just want to grow that real estate portfolio and make it a little bit bigger and better, but I'm still having some challenges in these specific areas because I can't find any good help. I can't make anybody do what I think is common sense. There's just not enough common best practices out there. How on earth, J, can I find that particular property manager?” Or maybe you are that property manager and you're going, “You know what? How on earth can I find that owner that actually knows what's up and won't drive me nuts?” I believe we have solutions for you today. I have with me today none other than CEO, Jason Hull of DoorGrow, doorgrow.com. Some of you may actually know him from his podcast, the DoorGrow Show. What's going to be interesting today is that Jason wasn't always a property manager. We're going to get to find out the story, the journey, and most importantly, learn the lessons around entrepreneurship along the way that have allowed us the world to be able to know and love Jason the way that he is. Here's what we're going to do, ladies and gentlemen. We're going to pay attention, we're going to make sure that, yes, I know you're walking the dog and doing the dishes, but you're going to hit that mark, you're going to bookmark those spots so that you can come back and listen to the gems that he's going to drop. Most importantly right now though, let's just welcome Jason Hull. Jason, how are you doing? Jason: Wow, that's a great intro. I really appreciate that. J: Thank you. I'm glad that you were here. I'm also excited because we're going to be talking about something that I'm passionate about. Real estate's really important, but more importantly, it's the people and the teams that you hire that tend to make things go well, and sometimes, not go so well. I'm looking forward to that, but before I get down there, I have to ask you the same question I didn't ask everybody else the first time that they're here, are you ready? Jason: Do it. J: All right. I tend to look at today's entrepreneurs a lot like yesterday's superheroes—Batman, Robin, Hulk, Wonder Woman, you get the idea—because I think entrepreneurs and superheroes have a ton of things in common. For example, as an entrepreneur, occasionally, I can envision myself using our products and services, flying around town, and saving customers one sale at a time. Also, like a superhero, an entrepreneur has a beginning. If you think about Spider-Man, for example, there was a time where he's just a kid going to school, doing his own thing, taking some photos, and then one day gets bit by a spider, discovers he's got a superhuman ability, and now he has to choose, “Will I use my newfound talents for good or for evil?” My question to you is as follows. Before DoorGrow, before your podcast, before your degree in marketing, your website design, before being a property manager, before everything we know you for today, what we want to know is who is Jason Hull? Jason: That's a deep question. Let's sum up a whole person really quickly here. J: No pressure. Jason: Yeah, no pressure. First thing, let me just correct something real quick, I had never managed property in my life, yet I somehow am attracting property management entrepreneurs from all over the US and beyond, asking for help in growing and scaling their businesses. I'm more of a nerd that used to be secretly in the background, helping them and had to push myself out into the limelight to make a difference in an industry that I could see there was an obvious change needed to be made. But my background growing up, I grew up with an entrepreneur mother. She is this amazing, loving, charismatic woman that is a real estate agent. She's just had hustle in her since she was a little kid. She's told me stories of she saw the other boys mowing lawns and she was doing babysitting when she was young, she was like, “They're making way more money than me.” She went around and she figured, “I could undercut them by a dollar, go door-to-door, and steal their business, and start offering to mow lawn.” She started mowing lawns to make more money. She just had that bite in her to accomplish and do things. I didn't see myself as an entrepreneur, I didn't really know what an entrepreneur was, yet, I think it was just in my DNA. I was the guy in college that decided, “Hey, I want a band so I'm going to start one. I'm going to write all the music.” I was a guy going door-to-door, pre-selling CDs at girls’ dorms with a guitar in hand and a clipboard for an album that didn't exist so that I could pay for the recording time so I could fund an album, but I wasn't an entrepreneur. J: Yeah. No, that’s not entrepreneurial at all. Jason: I was thinking I needed to go get a job. I was like, “I'm going to finish college and I got to then find a job.” What thrust me into entrepreneurism is I had gotten married really young and the marriage fell apart. I had two kids and I needed to be able to have time that I could spend with them. I didn't want to just be Disney-dad. I had to create a situation in which I had freedom and autonomy. The other factor that played into it is my employer at the time got hit by the whole financial mess back in 2006–2007, I guess, and could no longer pay me. I was just doing nerdy stuff for them at the time. Then I realized, they were now a client. I started reaching out and creating clients. One of the earliest people I had helped was my brother who was just getting started in the property management business. He had just bought a property management franchise, he was fresh out of college with his business partner, they had no doors under management, and they had this terrible website they got from corporate. He was like, “Can you just help me figure this out because you're smart? What do I need to do?” I'm like, “Add some phases to it. That'll increase conversion rates. Let's do this and that.” He's like, “Can you just do it for me? Can you please just build me a site?” I'm like, “Sure, but you're going to pay for it.” He's like, “Okay, no problem.” I built him a website and then suddenly, all of his fellow franchisees—this franchise had maybe 200–300 franchisees in it—and I started attracting these people that had thousands of doors. They wanted what he had. They're like, “Hey, what he has is better. I want that.” Really quickly, here's me, a freelancer, web designer, starting to do websites for people with thousands of doors. Some of these are probably million-dollar-plus businesses. They had really great backlinks, so I was at the top of Google pretty quickly and started getting clients around the US within a short time. I was competing against Goliaths, just me. There we go, now then I'm an entrepreneur. I think I just have an insatiable desire to learn, I just always have, and entrepreneurship allows me to really explore and it's really exciting. J: Got it. Now I see how I got confused about the difference between understanding what it is you do versus being a property manager. It's more you help property managers, is what it sounds like, become better versions of themselves with their marketing and advertising. Am I close? Jason: Yeah. Over the years, I've shifted more into coaching and consulting, but we still do websites, we clean up branding. What I tell property management entrepreneurs in short when they come and ask me what I do, I’d say, “I'm not going to teach you how to do property management. I'm hoping you already know that and you're good at it. I’m going to teach you how to win, that's it.” Basically, what we do in short is we rehab property management companies so that they cash flow effectively, so that they have revenue, they have growth. We optimize their business more for organic. We're cleaning up their branding. Probably 60% or 70% of my clients that come to me, I change their business name, which is ridiculous if you consider how painful, challenging, or scary it is for somebody to do that, but I'm really good at helping them see the principles that impact their decisions about what's going to make money or cost them money. Then it becomes just a financial decision. One thing I know about entrepreneurs is that they usually like to make money. J: Yes, definitely, but what I like about what you've shared with us here is to some degree, you're in what I would call the reluctant entrepreneur category because you weren't even considering like, “I'm not one of those. That's not what I do,” and then over time, you start displaying these traits. Now I'm curious, did your mom ever suggest that, “Hey, son, you might be…” and you have this conversation with her like, “No, no, no, I just need to go get a job?” was that ever a thing? Jason: I don't know if I was reluctant. It just wasn't something that anyone had ever explained to me. I don't even know if I really was clear on what technically an entrepreneur was. I think I'd always had an entrepreneurial spirit. I had a paper out as a kid, my mom would have us fold flyers to canvass neighborhoods for real estate as little kids. She would pay us a penny per fold, if we folded a piece of paper twice, we get two cents. I would fold hundreds and then she would have us go around either on roller skates, scooters, or whatever, go around neighborhoods and just canvas and put those out. She'd keep an eye on us, walk around a bit with us, and we would just canvas neighborhoods. I think I was just raised with it and no one had ever put a label on it. J: Oh, man, this is great. I'm sure some people right now are listening like, “A penny a fold? That's nothing.” I'm sure that happens in somebody's head, but the principle was clearly laid down for you in such a way that you're like, “I'll do it. Okay, let's go,” and you didn't care, and spending time with mom is always awesome. But at the same time, this desire gets left behind and you just keep finding ways to create opportunity. That's what I hear when you talk is you just find ways to create opportunity relative to something that you're currently enjoying. I am curious though did you ever actually get the concert CD album sold? How'd that work out? Jason: I did. We did create the album, we created the CD, I wrote all the music for it, I sang every song on it, and yeah, we got it recorded. It's a pretty decent little album for being self-produced. I was very into the Beatles at the time. J: Okay, yes. There's something else that you're also mentioning, the thing that thrust you, I would say is the correct word, into considering something in entrepreneurship in a more realistic fashion was the combination of kids and your employer not being able to employ you, but most importantly, I hear of a deep-seated value. You’re just like, “You know what? Working for someone else can be fine, but I have two kids now and I value spending more time with them, so I'm going to become or do whatever it takes to make sure that I can do that.” I'm curious to know where that comes from. Jason: I think at the core of people that are really entrepreneurial, they know deep down that they're unemployable. Let's be honest. I worked at HP, I worked at Verizon, I was in call centers, I did a lot of nerdy jobs, I was a nerd, and tech support, stuff like that. In every situation I was in, I think something about me is I create positive uncomfortable change everywhere I go. It's just how I'm wired. I cannot be somewhere and leave things as the status quo. I don't do anything normally. If you could see the keyboard sitting on my desk right now, it's not even in QWERTY order, I pop all the keys off and rearrange them when I get a new computer and keyboard. J: I want a picture now that you said that, but okay. Jason: Yes, somebody can just Google if they want to see a different keyboard layout. J: Dvorak? Jason: Dvorak, yeah. J: Yeah, that's the only other thing. I was like, “What else could it be?” The only other thing I was thinking was Dvorak. But okay, that makes sense. Jason: Yeah, because I'm the guy that my brain just says, “Why is everybody doing it this way? Is this the best way? If it's not, I don't care.” Conventional standards mean very little to me. There's a lot of quirky things about me, and I think entrepreneurs are quirky. You look at Steve Jobs or you look at different entrepreneurs, they have weird habits. Like Steve Jobs, I wear the same clothes every day. I have black t-shirts, I have black pants, I have a whole closet full of black pants and black t-shirts. I just want it simple. I don't want to have to make decisions about that. I wear black hoodies, and I put on a conference, I've been around lots of people in business suits, that's what I wear because I don't care. I just want to be comfortable and that's what I wear. I think ultimately, as entrepreneurs, we need to allow ourselves to do what we need to do to lower the pressure noise instead of trying to play everybody else's game. For example, with the keyboard, I realized my wrists were hurting. I was typing a lot. I was getting my degree online at the time, I was also working, and I was typing a lot. I was like, “This seems stupid, this is really dumb. Why are my wrists hurting?” I did what I like to do, which is nerd out, and do some research in Google and I realized, “Oh, Dvorak has 50% less movement, it would cut my movement in half.” The home row on the left hand is all the most commonly-used vowels and the home row on the right hand is all the most commonly used consonants, so there's more back and forth between the two hands. QWERTY’s history was that it was designed and developed to slow down typist. The keys used to be in alphabetical order and they wanted to screw them up because they were typing too fast and the typewriters couldn't handle the speed. I'm like, “Okay, why am I doing this?” It took me, maybe about a month to get used to typing in a different format. My wrist issues went away and I was a lot more comfortable. J: I like you a lot, I like this. It’s like, “Hey, this doesn't work for me. We're going to figure out what does.” I now have this question. What was that transition moment? There's usually a moment at which, like I said earlier, the superhero recognizes. “I have something special here, and now I get to choose what I'm going to do with it.” You clearly had that moment, but that moment is often, we'll call it rocky, not as smooth, or there's usually some strong emotions around it in some way, shape, or form, or some pivotal conversation. What was it like when you realize, “My employer can't pay me. I guess they'll become a client,” and then you go, “Huh, maybe what I need to do is develop a surface around this whole thing and do my own thing?” What was that like? Jason: I think really for me, it's been a longer journey than just right in the beginning. A lot of people see me is a really confident guy, but I really have a strong introverted side. I wasn't that confident guy. In school, I did a lot of performing, I did music, stuff like that, but I still had a strong introverted side. I think that confidence level, part of it happened early on working with entrepreneurs and just recognizing that they couldn't see things I could see. I was like, “You can't see that this is a problem, that you’re branded as a real estate company and it's causing you to lose probably 50% of the deals and leads you should be because you're a property management business, but on the tenants as real estate. There were just things they didn't see that seems so obvious to me. The other thing is I'm really curious. With each client I would work with, just to do a website, I would probably spend on average about six hours doing a planning and discovery process over, maybe a period of a week or two with them. Multiple sessions, getting clear on their target audience, their avatar, what needs to be included in the website, what their avatar’s pain is, what they want. It became really clear to me that most of the websites were focused on tenants, yet they're not hunting for tenants, they don't have problems getting tenants, they want more owners to manage properties for. It just seemed obvious to me that everything was off on the websites that existed at the time. I think I just grew in confidence that I could help people, but I still stayed heavily in the background. I was also in a rough marriage, my second marriage. I was in a marriage in which I didn't really have belief. I didn't have somebody that believed in me and that didn't help the confidence thing going. Eventually, I signed up with a business coach. I went through several different coaches. Some I was a bad fit for, honestly, I just wasn't ready for them. Some, they were a bad fit. Some maybe were really great marketers and terrible coaches. I eventually got a really great business coach that I've been working with for a couple of years now. I remember going down to meet with him in Austin. He has a fantastic podcast, by the way, called The Momentum Podcast. His name is Alex Charfen; a really brilliant guy. I went down and met with him and some other entrepreneurs down in Austin. My business was struggling, we're maybe about $300,000 in revenue annually at the time. I felt like an ant in the room. I was around entrepreneurs that had multi-million dollar companies, I felt completely unworthy, my confidence just wasn't really strong, and yet when he would open up for dialogue, I would end up captivating everyone else in the room, and that was weird for me that I was able to communicate in a way that all of them wanted to know more and they were really fascinated about what I was talking about. I had learned a lot, I just didn't have the confidence yet to put it out there. I hadn't said, “Hey, I'm going to change this entire industry. I'm the one to do it.” I was like, “Somebody else should do it. Somebody that's been a property manager. Maybe somebody that runs a big, huge property management franchise should be the one.” My business coach was like, “Who else could do it? You're the one that you care about it, you're the one who can see what needs to change, and they’re everybody else’s competition. Why would they help everybody?” I'm like, ‘That's a good point,” but I had wicked impostor syndrome. I think that's a challenge for entrepreneurs that we have to kill is that impostor syndrome in which we don't feel like we're enough, or we're good enough, or that we qualify, or we’re worthy. We sometimes think we need to find that external validation to say that we're okay. I think that came just in working with clients. I grew in confidence in situations in which I was able to finally place myself around other entrepreneurs because one of the most damaging things we do as entrepreneurs is that we spend too much time around non-preneurs. J: Yeah, I believe you. Jason: It's painful and it's difficult because we see opportunity everywhere. We see how we can change and impact the world. We want to make a difference, we want to contribute, and the rest of the world looks at us like we're crazy, we're making them uncomfortable. “Why can't you leave good enough alone?” They hear the struggles we go through as an entrepreneur and they say, “Why don't you just get a job?” They look at us like we're crazy and then we look at them like, “Why don't I just slit my wrists now? How can you just sit there and tolerate, complaining about your boss and your job, and living for the weekend? Don't you want something bigger?” We don't understand them, but I think if we’re around non-preneurs too much, it wears us down. It breaks us a little bit. It's really hard and I hadn't really yet been around entrepreneurs. I think as entrepreneurs are starting out in our early development when we're in the early stages of being an entrepreneur, one of the biggest things that hold us back is being lonely. That's it. We're just not around other people like us to say, “You're normal. You, as an entrepreneur, are awesome, amazing, and you can change the world. You don't have to live by everybody else's rules.” J: Agreed. There's something that you said that I often have thought about myself. I know that there are people who are listening have had that same thought at least once. You mentioned that yes, we desire to make a difference, we want to see change, and we're not happy with the, ‘That's just not the way you do it, it should be this way.” That's just how we roll, and yet we're the ones who can see the problem. Like your business coach is saying, why aren't we the ones who can resolve it? But more importantly or said a different way, does that come across to you when you can see an issue? Does it come across to you—I know it does for me—as a responsibility like, “Okay, it’s me, obviously. I'm the one who sees it, this is my thing. So, let me go solve this problem”? That's how it feels to me when I notice opportunity or something that's just not right that could be better. Jason: Yeah. I think there are two sides to this. I think one, opportunity. On the negative side, I think opportunity also can kill us as entrepreneurs because we do see it everywhere. It can be incredibly distracting. There's that opportunist in all of us, and if we focus on too many opportunities, we don't really get to make any headway in anyone. That's a temptation and a challenge entrepreneurs deal with early on is struggle to focus and to niche down. On the positive side, we see that the world can be better. We can see it. We are the change-makers. We are the people throughout history, throughout time eternal probably, that were the ones that would move society forward. We would make everyone uncomfortable, we would change something, and we would move people towards a higher and better ideal. J: Now, let me ask you this question. You could have chosen any industry to serve. Why property managers? I've spent so much time as the one owning the property. This may sound funny to you, but I never considered that property managers had a problem finding owners. That never occurred to me because it just never occurred to me that they had that as a business problem. Obviously, it's there because you're saying it, but as an entrepreneur, you could choose to serve anybody. You could have taken this skill to any industry, so to speak, because believe me, they're not the only one with a problem. Why property management? Jason: That's a really good point. I don't think there was a time in my life as a child that I woke up and said, “I want to help property management business owners when I grow up. I want to get into this industry that's focused on toilets, tenants, and termites, that sounds exciting to me.” J: It's right after firemen, I understand. Jason: Yeah, I'll either be a superhero or I will be a property management coach. J: Yeah, absolutely, totally right. Jason: No, that's a great question. I think I resisted it, to be honest, in the beginning. It came to me like I just started attracting them, I tried to just help every type of business though, still, I didn't niche out. It took me a while. I started my corporation, my company back in 2008, but DoorGrow as a brand was maybe only four or five years ago. It took me a little while to, I guess, choose into that niche fully. I think it was imposter syndrome like, “I've never done this so I feel like I'm not the person to do it.” For a lot of people, it's not the sexiest industry. Here's how you fall in love with property management.If you're an entrepreneur that's a little bit nerdy, property management is like the systemizable, more tech-savvy version of the real estate industry. It's residual income instead of the hunt and the chase for the next deal as a realtor. It's a business that can be optimized over time. It's a business that can follow the theory of constraints and you can make processes around. All of that appealed to me. What I really fell in love with was not property management. It's the people that are property managers. Do you want to talk about resilient, innovative entrepreneurs? Property management entrepreneurs. You cannot imagine the level of challenges, difficulty, and negotiating. I don't think there's any industry like it because in terms of customer interaction, it's rated third behind retail and hospitality; it's heavily a people business. In retail and hospitality, you're not negotiating really difficult situations not unlike a lawyer between two opposed parties as the middle person, but in property management that's what you end up doing. These are really some of the sharpest people. They're just amazing entrepreneurs to be around and honestly, I just chose into doing it because I wanted to be around people that are like me. Entrepreneurs. I love my clients. I love being able to spend time with them. I do not feel weird and I really enjoy that. I have a nerdy background and a lot of the clients that are attracted to me, they like figuring out processes, systems, technology, and that sort of thing. There's just a strong resonance in the type of entrepreneur that is in that industry. J: For the person that's listening right now that happens to be a property manager or maybe it's an owner who's currently doing his own property management in some way, shape, or form, what would you say are the top three things you tend to assist a new client with from day one? How do they know, how can they recognize, “Oh, I need Jason”? What is it that you end up doing over there at DoorGrow for them typically in that first appointment or the first solutions you guys come to the table with? Jason: Let's go back to the question you asked me earlier about the surprising problem that exists in property management. J: Yeah, that is still a thing in my head like, “Wow, I didn't know they had problems finding me? I didn't know that.” Jason: Yeah, every business exists to solve a problem. If a business is not solving a problem, they're stealing money. The problem that exists in the property management industry that I could see, property management has two major challenges. The biggest challenge first is awareness, there are a lot of people that have property. In the US, in single-family residential rental properties, only about 30% are professionally managed, 70% are self managing. The first biggest hurdle is awareness, there's just a lot of people that are not aware of what a property management company would do for them. The average Joe on the street if you said, “Hey, I'm a property manager,” they would say, “Great, I guess you manage a property.” They don't really know what that means. There's a strong lack of awareness to the point where property management really is relatively, in the US, in its infancy. Let's contrast that with Australia. In Australia, 80% of single-family residential rentals are professionally managed. There are reasons for that. There's steeper legislation there, it's more consumer-focused and a lot of that, but the word on the street is that it grew 25% in a decade, it grew massively. But in the US, property management still is this ugly cousin of real estate, it has this negative perception, especially among real estate. The other challenge is property management is the number one source of property management-related issues like fair housing challenges, mismanagement of trust funds, or leases, all this stuff, property management is the number one source of complaints at most any board of real estate. Not real estate, property management is. So, everything property management. This is why it's perpetuated heavily among the real estate industry. Realtors say, “Oh, property management. That's gross. Don't touch that. How could you do that?” The second hurdle that takes the next big portion of potential market share away is perception. Property management has a very negative perception among investors, among people that are aware of it. There's a negative perception that takes away the next big chunk of potential market share. After perception takes a hit, those that are aware and they think they have a decent enough perception to think, “At least, I have to have one or I need one,” or maybe they are okay—there are some good ones—then word-of-mouth captures what's leftover. Word-of-mouth captures the best clients that property management might get. After word-of-mouth, the scraps that fall off my client’s table, that fall off the word-of-mouth table, the coldest, crappiest, worst leads that are the most price-sensitive, that view all property managers as the same and is a commodity, that are the worst owners and properties to build a portfolio on, in which you're going to have probably an operational cost in your property management company of 10 times higher than that of having healthy good doors and owners, those are the people searching on Google. That's what's leftover. Most property management business owners are trying to build their business on the back of Google. I'm wearing a t-shirt right now, you can't see, but it says, “SEO won't save you.” It has a hand reaching up out of the water, trying to grab a life preserver, a black t-shirt with white lettering. This is a message I put out to the industry that they don't need to be playing the SEO lottery because, really, search volume in the property management industry has actually been on a steady decline. According to Google Trends in the US, it's been a steady decline since July of 2011. It's been going down, yet every marketer targeting the industry, every service provider, every web design company, they're shoving and pushing the concept that SEO is going to save them. They just need the top spot on Google. They're playing into this myth, so all these property managers are spending marketing dollars, their hard-earned money, they’re trying to run Google Ads, everything to be at the top of Google, and they're not getting an ROI. They're not getting a return on that investment. It's an incredibly expensive game that has many potential points of failure. You have to be a property management business, usually, at about 200 to 400 doors, with a business development manager. You have to be making sure that all of your phone calls are answered and you're following up on every lead within the first 10 minutes to really play that marketing game. I found most property management business owners were not at that level. I wanted to create them, get them to that level. Originally, I was the guy doing that stuff, I was a marketing company, I was a guy helping with those type of things, and I realized really quickly that it wasn't working. They weren't even answering their phones. Why would I send them a lead that's only good for maybe about 10 minutes—that's how long an internet lead’s probably good for, maybe 15—and then 80% drop off in conversion rates if they're not going to answer their phones? I just pivoted this company and I was thinking, “What would I do if I were going to start a property management business? What are all the most common problems that I can see even in the largest companies? Where are the biggest leaks in their sales pipeline?” Just like the theory of constraints, I just went from the beginning of the sales pipeline, which is that awareness. It's branding. Branding was costing some of them half the amount of deals and leads they could or should be getting. Some companies do real estate and property management. By eliminating real estate from the branding, I helped double their real estate commissions, ironically, because property management is a great front-end product. Real estate is a better back-end product. People don't wake up in the morning and say, “I want to find a realtor today. That sounds exciting to me.” No. They want property, they want to find buyers, they try to for sale by owner, but eventually, they list with an agent. The property management, if you have a constant influx of owners, investors that may get into additional properties, constant influx of renters and tenants, you have buyers and sellers. You have bodies constantly flowing into the business and this is the dream of a real estate company. We just started addressing these big leaks from branding, reputation, which is word-of-mouth, their website wasn't built around conversions and targeting the audience, their sales process, pricing strategy played into this heavily, they were not priced effectively, they were taking too many deals at too low of a price point. Psychologically, for example, there are three types of buyers. Most of them just had one fee, serving one type of buyer, and there was no price anchoring. I just started to see all these different leaks that we could shore up through the pipeline so that we could optimize their business for organic growth. Then the big secret is at the front end of this. Once we get all of these leaks dialed in, their sales process, they have follow-up, all these things are in place, what spigot should we turn on through this pipeline? They could go back and do cold-lead marketing, but cold leads are terrible. Conversion rates are low even if they're a bad A. I don't know what the rating is on your podcast so I'll be careful. If they're a bad A in sales, they’ll only get maybe about 30% conversion rate or close rate, but most people, say 1 out of 10 cold leads, they'll convert. The hidden killer with cold leads in any industry or business—the secret the marketers don't want to tell you—is they can't give you contracts. Marketers cannot give you contracts. You can't hand dollars to a marketer and they will hand you written signed contracts or clients. What they can hand you at best, usually, the furthest they can push it along is usually a really cold lead. That's it. That's typically what they can give you is they give you a cold lead and this cold lead then has to be nurtured. You have to warm it up. You have to get them to know you, trust you, and like you.  Cold leads convert really poorly, usually, you'll get maybe 1 out of 10. The hidden killer though with cold leads is time. This is the hidden killer with cold leads that small business owners don't realize. Time on a cold lead is at least twice as much time as a warm lead or maybe three times as much. I found clients when I would ask them, “How much time do you spend warming these people up, calling them, meeting them at the property?” They say in total, in my sale-cycle time, three to six hours to close the deal. “How long does it take you a warm lead?” I was getting answers like 15 minutes, maybe an hour, it was like half, at least, half the amount of time. These small business owners, if you give them 10 leads in a week and it's going to take them 2 to 3 hours to do all the follow-up necessary and they're going to get maybe 1 or 2 deals out of it, that's a full-time job. They don't have the time, as small business owners, to do that if they're also the main person doing the selling. They just didn't have the bandwidth to do it. It wasn't even possible for me to give cold leads to clients and have them win that game. They didn't have the time. They really work part-time crappy salespeople that had maybe about 10 hours a week to focus on that piece. I had to create a system that will allow them more warm leads. Instead of the front-end of this pipeline, what I teach clients to do is to go to prospecting. There's 70% self-managing. There's so much blue ocean in property management and yet everyone's fighting over the coldest, crappiest, worst leads that fall off the word-of-mouth table, that are searching on Google in the bloody red water. It's created this false sense of scarcity that's so strong in the industry that everybody feels like the industry is scarce, yet there’s 70% self-managing and none of them are really happy doing it. J: I have been doing real estate for over a decade and I have never even considered this concept from the property manager’s perspective in this way. I've always considered them partners. I've never wanted the lowest guy, they’re such a critical piece. Some of the things that you said, I was like, “Why would somebody bargain-basement shop for a property manager? That's just silly, you don't understand, you can't do that. That's not going to work long term,” but I've never thought about the fact that they would have trouble finding the quality owners. Just hearing you describe their world, it's like, “Oh, wow, yeah. I can see why that would be a challenge.” I'm curious, though, when a property manager is out there and trying to make it work—I'm just going to throw it out there—how can the good owners let the good property managers know that, “Hey, yeah, I would love to have you”? Jason: I think the biggest challenge I usually hear is that there aren't any good property managers. How do you find one that's good? Those owners feel completely unsafe. The industry has a really bad reputation as a whole. One of the concepts I teach—all these principles apply to really any industry, in any industry—branding has an impact, reputation has impact, pricing strategy has an impact. There's nothing I'm doing for this industry that is only related to this industry. I think the challenge the industry has, though, is it just has a lot less awareness, but I think that also means there's a lot more opportunity. There's a huge opportunity in property management. If we were to grow even remotely close to how Australia's grown in a decade, that would mean the industry in the US would double. I think property management could be as big as the real estate industry here in the US. There's much potential. I don't think it's been tapped. I think property management in the US has artificially been kept small and it is really a business category that's in its infancy. If you look at business categories that are relatively new in the US, you've got marijuana, vaping, and stuff like this, maybe Bitcoin or cryptocurrency, there's these fledgling industries. Property management's been around a long time, but it's still in its infancy. There's a huge potential there to grow. There are a lot of bad owners. That's true, too. The accidental investors didn't really want to have a rental property, but they needed it, and they just want to get rid of it after a year. If a property manager builds their portfolio on those type of doors, which some do, they have to replace every single client every single year. J: Yeah, that's an untenable situation that would go with that. Jason: Yeah. You'll find property managers fall into this first sand trap of 50 units or so. One question you can ask them is, “How many doors do you have under management?” If they're in the 50 or 60 door category, then I call that the first sand trap. That's one of my key avatars that I want to help is to get them out of that first sand trap. I call that the solopreneur sand trap where they're doing everything in the business, they've taken on too many clients at too low of a price point. And this applies to any industry. As a small business owner, you take on too many clients at too low of a price point, you back yourself into a financial corner, and you take on the worst clients because you're needy, and your operational costs with bad clients are 10 times higher than that of having good clients, easily. One bad property or a bad owner that tries to micromanage you is easily 10 times the operational cost, time and attention, and stress as one good door or one good owner, easily. If you build a portfolio of that, you're stuck. You're backed into a financial corner, you can't afford to hire anybody, and you're losing as many doors as you’re getting on in a year. You're stuck. Sometimes, I have to tell them to do really painful stuff like fire customers in order to create space. J: Yeah, that makes 100% sense. For those that have listened to this far and want to find out more about what you've got going on, what's going to be the best way for them to track you down? Jason: I love connecting with other entrepreneurs and a really easy way for them to connect with me, I'm on every social channel—probably—that exists, because I'm nerdy, as @KingJasonHull. They can connect with me as @KingJasonHull on any social channel, especially Facebook. Then if they're in real estate and they're really considering getting into property management, they've managed rental properties, they feel like they know how to do it, but they want to grow that side of the business and maybe feed their real estate side, or they’re a property management entrepreneur that's been struggling at doors and they want to make a difference and grow, then they can just reach out to us at doorgrow.com. J: Okay, I've got a question I just got to ask now. I wasn't going to do this, but I got to ask. My entire world when it comes to real estate, is all around the whole world of short-term rentals. It's what we do, it's what we teach, it's how our students have achieved success. One of the interesting things is that when we're interfacing with individuals, we often get the question, “Why don't I just get a property manager?” I'm like, “You don't understand. What we are talking about is completely different than what a property manager would typically do.” I'm just curious if the whole idea of short-term rentals or things of that nature, because being able to add that, if property managers took that on, they'd be able to solve some of their revenue issues for sure. Is that something you're seeing happening and in any way with your clients? Jason: Yeah, I think there is a trend of short-term rentals coming into the space. If long-term rental property management is in its infancy, I think that's even younger. There are property managers, especially in more resort-like areas where vacation rentals are more popular, I think all of them have some, they get into that, especially the larger management companies, just by nature of having a larger business and lots of different investors, they're going to have some short-term rentals. Short-term rentals make a lot of sense for them. It's a lot of turnovers, it's a lot more work, but it also can be a lot more payout for them. There is a trend shifting towards that. J: Yeah. I just asked because, in order to do it effectively, there's just specialization that's required. That's why we just stepped up and started doing it because we can’t find the property manager that could do a good a job as we have learned to do and now teach others to do. It’s just like, “You know what? We'll just do it ourselves.” That's what's happening, but at the same time, in the back of my head, I'm like, “Man, they're missing an opportunity. If they would just understand some of these things that we're doing, I think it would work well.” I was just curious, it's been in the back of my head, I'm like, “I wonder, considering you're helping them put their services together.” Jason: Yeah, J, be careful because that is the story that almost all of my clients tell me. You may end up in this industry. That's what they all tell me. They all come to me and they’re like, “I started this business X number of years ago and it was because we were investors and we couldn't find a property manager that was good enough to do things the way that we needed it done, so we started one. They're all bad and we're good,” I hear that almost every day. J: Oh, man, I love it. Okay, as we wind down, I've got a final question for you because I'm really curious to hear your answer. Here's what I know. I know that individuals started the call on one spot, and now, as we’re ending, they're in a different spot. They're at what I like to call the precipice of decision. It's where they go, “You know what? That's it. I can do this. I can make this happen.” Maybe they are a property manager and, “Yeah, I should call Jason. That's exactly what I need to do. I need to track him down, figure this out.” They're drawing that proverbial line in the sand, they're saying that's it, and now they're going to be different. Now, Jason, you know like I know that when we make those types of decisions, we often have a companion, and it's a companion that comes in the form of a voice that says things like, “You? Now, you know good and well last time you tried anything, it didn't really work out. What on earth are you thinking about? Oh, my gosh, no one's going to buy anything from you. You're not going to be able to get any clients, whatsoever, so why don't you just go back to your job?” For some people, they're related to that voice. My question to you is as follows. Let's pretend that this time it's going to be different. This time they're going to do exactly what you suggest and they're going to do so in the next 24 to 48 hours. What would you suggest that they do? Jason: If somebody has a voice, especially if it's an external voice, saying, “You don't have what it takes. You can't do this. You need to play it safe,” they need to find another voice. The truest voice that we all have is the voice deep down. That's never the voice that we have deep down. When somebody says, “Oh, deep down I knew it would be like this,” or, “Deep down I knew I should have done this,” or, “Deep down, I just knew it was the right move.” The voice deep down—you can call that the voice of God, you can call that your intuition, you can call it your gut—is the truest voice and that's the only voice we really should be listening to. Let me close an open loop I left open earlier. I mentioned how I was down in Austin, I'd met with my business coach for the first time down there, I was around all the other entrepreneurs, I felt like an ant in the room, but I was sharing ideas, they were resonating with it. My business coach asked me to describe what I did and he said, “Oh, that'll never work.” Then, I explained to how much money I was making and what I was doing, so he understood it, he looked at me and he said, “Jason, you have a $20 million company and you don't even know it.” Do you want to know what I started doing? I started crying. I had had little validation, I had much resistance from spouse, I just had no support around me in terms of being connected to entrepreneurs, I started crying in front of a room of other entrepreneurs. I needed that in that moment, badly. Fast forward. In a year, I had 300% growth. We were a million-dollar company in about a year. I was crying and it was like a cathartic thing that somebody could see what I felt deep down and they believed in me. I don't know if there's anything more powerful than that to be seen for who you really are and I think that is the love or energy that we all need as entrepreneurs in order to grow. We need that belief. J: 100%. I definitely appreciate the journey that you have been on. I thank you for taking the time to distill your knowledge down in such a way that you could then share it, become the person that's capable of sharing it, and influencing an industry that's very close to my own heart. At the end of the day, it's where it's been at for us for quite some time, it's where we're going to stay, but the more that you enable property managers to do what they do and find the customers that they need, the better I think it all gets for everyone. Just let me be the first to say thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge, wisdom, and insight here with us today at the Cash Flow Diary. Jason: J, it's been an absolute pleasure. In line with what you just said, I really do believe deep down that good property management can change the world. The impact that they can have in that industry is massive. They're affecting homes, families, on the tenant and the owner’s side. They're affecting people's cash flow. They're affecting their finances. They're affecting real estate investors that got into the real estate investing with the myth that it could be turnkey. The impact is massive and I think that's what gets me excited about the industry. We're contribution-focused banks as entrepreneurs, we want to have an impact. I appreciate you allowing me to share that message and to be here on your show. J: All right, ladies and gentlemen, you know what time it is? It's time for you to move at the speed of instruction. What does that mean? That means get over to doorgrow.com. That means go listen to his podcast. That also means connect with him. He said he wants to talk to you, it's very simple, ladies and gentlemen. One of the things that I hope you learn from today's episode is when you see a need, it's probably your responsibility to go fill it and just figure it out along the way. You don't need to understand everything at the beginning, but over time, you can get there. But most importantly as you heard and I heard, you want to follow that path, follow that voice that is telling you there's greatness inside. Ladies and gentlemen, it's been fun talking to you today. I look forward to talking to you soon. Until next time. Jason: You just listened to the DoorGrow Show. We are building a community of the savviest property management entrepreneurs on the planet, in the DoorGrow Club. Join your fellow DoorGrow hackers at doorgrowclub.com. Listen, everyone is doing the same stuff. SEO, PPC, pay-per-lead, content, social, direct mail, and they still struggle to grow. At DoorGrow, we solve your biggest challenge getting deals and growing your business. Find out more at doorgrow.com. Find any show notes or links from today’s episode on our blog at doorgrow.com. To get notified of future events and news, subscribe to our newsletter at doorgrow.com/subscribe. Until next time, take what you learn and start DoorGrow hacking your business and your life.

Vidas: So, Jeremy, I'm so delighted that we're finally meeting face to face and being able to talk with you and it's really a pleasure to get to know you better after all those long months that you've been on the team that transcribes fingering and pedaling for us. I'm so grateful to you and welcome to the show! Jeremy: Thank you for having me! V: Let's start our conversation, Jeremy about your background - how did you get into organ world and most specifically, how did you first fell in love with the organ? Do you remember the story? J: Yeah! Well, my dad is a Lutheran minister. The church that he was working at was looking at trying to get me to start taking organ lessons. So they paid for the original organ lessons. That was when I was 14 or 15 - it's a long time ago. Wasn't really into it at the time but when my father moved to another church, it had a really great organ there. And I remember actually what made me fall in love with it. At one postlude, the organist was playing Guilmant's March on a Theme of Handel "Lift Up Your Heads" and when that fugue started, people started coming back into the church and that slowly built over time. And I just fell in love with the piece, I fell in love with the organ. I took lessons when I was in college. I have my doctorate in Music, in Piano Performance and so my first job after I received my doctorate was in a small town called Blue Mountain. There was a church looking for an organist and it was a great extra money so I started playing the organ more extensively and started studying even more at that point. And that's really when it took off. That was about 15 years ago now. Check out Jeremy Owen's profile on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeremy.owens.50767 Email: jeremy dot owens at priorcliff dot edu

Semester Sneak Peek is a new series that provides a preview of courses available at Tulsa Community College (TCC) this coming fall semester.  As a series about upcoming classes, these episodes will feature interviews with many of the instructors tasked with teaching them.  Today's episode features Jeff Smith, Recording Studio Instructor at TCC.   Edited by Sam Levrault Music by The Odyssey, "75 to Ramona" Transcript by Bethany Solomon   TCC CONNECTION PODCAST | SEMESTER SNEEK PEAK | FT. JEFF SMITH Bethany: Welcome to semester sneak peak, our special summer series that provides a preview of courses available this coming fall semester. I am your host Bethany Solomon, associate editor of the north east campus here at the TCC connection. Today we have a very special guest, Jeff Smith, he is a TCC adjunct professor, TCC signature symphony violist, and president of song smith records. Jeff Smith: Hi! Good afternoon, how are ya? B: Good, how are you? J: I’m doing great. B: Can you start off by telling us a little about yourself? J: Sure. I was born and raised in Tulsa, OK. I started playing violin at 10 years old because my brother and sister played the violin. The summer of my 6th grade year my teacher came to me and said “you know you’re kinda beefy, husky boy, you need to play the viola. I said, viola? It rhymes with granola, I don’t want to play the viola, I said what am I getting myself into here? She said ‘Oh, no you’re not going to quit the violin, you’re going to learn how to double. Double. It rhymes with trouble, she said ‘oh no, you’ll be fine.’ So, I got to take two instruments to school, the violin and the viola. Uh, learned how to play the both of them, not long after that the beetles were popular, and I got a guitar. I started going on in. B: Very cool, very cool, so how did you find your way into the education as far as like, your music. Did you study in undergrad, music specifically, or did you have a broad range of interests beyond music? J: Oh, gosh. You look back on pivotal points in your life. One pivotal point in my life was, I guess I was in Jr high, early high school, and I had an electric guitar. Dad had come home with a Wollensak, as a German tape recorded. And it had an auxiliary input on it and I learned at a young age I could take the guitar output and plug it into the auxiliary input, crank it all the way up, play the guitar, turn its sound all the way up and it would sound something like: [makes loud buzzing noises mimicking guitar sound] Coolest sound I had every heard…. for about 13 seconds. I blew out the 8’ inch paper cone speakers and a couple of power tubes. Its kind of left a mark on me, like this is a cool sound, I gotta get into this. I was going to be an aeronautical engineer, all through high school, my dad was a fighter pilot in world war II, he had 96 missions over France. My grandfather had his PHD in mechanical engineering and actually wrote the maintenance Manuel for the B25 Mitchel bomber. So, I was going to be an aeronautical engineer, until, calculus first hour happened. Kay, I had a morning paper out, and an evening paper out. Okay! Take your XY X’s, translate it, rotate it, draw a hyperbola, spin the hyperbola, cut a hole in the hyperbola, and now find the volume and generate it. At that point I figured, you know, I’d rather play the wrong note, I couldn’t see myself designing something that will have someone else get killed because I misplaced a decimal point. But, all throughout high school I played in the youth symphony. My senior year, I audition Id and got first chair of the viola of the youth symphony. And I auditioned for the Tulsa Philharmonic. I guess they were desperate, and I turned pro when I was 17. Uh, went to the University of Kansas, was a Viola Major. A double major in Viola performance and music education. And at KU they had a computer music lab, and they had, we’re talking early-mid 1970’s. And they had an ARP 26 hardener. This is a synthesizer, analog synthesizer. You have never seen so many buttons, knobs, dials, flashing lights, flash chords, slider, path chords I was like ‘gollee’ what does this thing do, what does this thing do? I actually had a blast in that course, it got me down here. From there I came down to TU, finished up a bachelor’s in music ed, finished up a master’s in music ed, taught in Wichita, Kansas for three years, went back to school, picked up a master in viola performance. I have always believed that if are going to be a teacher, you must be able to do it. There is the old joke that can do, those that can’t teach, those that can’t teach become administrators. Um, nah, I kind of believe that if you’re going to teach, you ought to be able to produce. You ought to be able to do it. Does that make sense? B: It certainly does! So, moving into, as far like, the technical aspect of music, recording studio techniques, you have a lot of orchestra experience. How does that translate into the studio? J: Sure. Well I was a band and orchestra director for 27 years and the times that I wasn’t playing classical music with the orchestra, I was playing fiddle, guitar, keyboards, (unintelligible), for rock and roll bands. And that was an awful lot of fun, setting that stuff up, it gets really tiring after 15 years of lugging all that’s stuff around the back of a pick-up truck. It dawned on me, you know, that I can make music instead of lugging around all this PA gear and power amplifiers and all this other junk. Why don’t I just build a house, have recording studio, and have them come to me to make music, and I don’t have to lug all this stuff around. So I started SongSmith records in the mid-eighties back when we had, they were called ADAT machines. They recorded on a VHS cassette, and they would theoretically, and I say theoretically, synchronize together by two ADAT machines – and you could have, wow, 16 channels of digital audio. You could have a grand total of 34 minutes of digital audio. B: Wow. J: Of course, you could format the tape first before you had to record on to it, and that is about as much fun as having paint dry. But it was there, and we had 16 channels of digital audio. I’ve still got those ADAT machines and once in a while we’ll get an artist in the back of the studio that recorded with me 20 year ago say ‘Jeff! Do you still have to ADAT tapes?’ I say yeah. ‘Could we dump them into pro tools and clean them up a bit and rerelease? And I say sure. B: Fun stuff. Definitely. That’s really cool. So, what do you think, as far your students, and what you teach here, what has been the most challenging for your students? In terms of getting comfortable with technology or for musicians in general. J: Wow. That is kind of a tough questions. Each student is different, each student has their own strengths and weaknesses. On day one, I had to fill out a little, I call it a student data sheet. Tell me a little about yourself so I know who I am dealing with. A lot of times I will get students in the class who have already had pro tools experience they might run sound at their church. And I’ve got kids, ‘well I have sang in choir, but I want to learn how to record myself.’ And they don’t know anything about the technology. So, the challenge, for me as an instructor, is to teach on two or three different levels. So, I try to teach to the very, very raw beginner, to the kid who has had some experience, to those kids who could probably teach me a thing or two. I guess that’s the fun part about the teaching. In the class, I have to make sure that each kid knows we will only be playing with three things in audio. Frequency, amplitude, and time.   And all the buttons, and knobs, and dials, [mimics with higher pitch] Buttons, and knobs, and dials, oh my! All have to do with either frequency, amplitude, or time. If you understand that basic concept than you go through ‘okay well what does this button do, how does it change the sound? B: So, a lot of it is experimenting, as you’re in the course. J: Yeah. And that’s how they learn. We tell them, for example, once we define frequency, amplitude or time are, we go into signal flow. We go, okay, what happens, how does the ear work. How does the microphone work? We trace the audio from vibrations of your voice, or your guitar or whatever, through your microphone, line, inputs…..into. What happens next? [jeff starts laughing….] It all goes in from the patch bay, and the patch bay goes into the microphones, and the micros to the IO’S, IO into the computer and we explain all that stuff in signal flow, signal flow, signal flow. All an audio engineer does, all day long is. I don’t hear the guitar in my left ear, why not? Or, I plugged this in, and I don’t hear anything. B: Right. J: Or I turn this knob, and nothing happened. Back up and figure out why. B: And that is what you give your student leeway to do. Figure out why they made a mistake, to figure out why and backtrack. J: If you tell them what they did wrong, they’ll never figure it out themselves. If they go throughout, and your cohort here, can attest to this. I will rarely just tell a kid an answer, I say, do you have an iPhone on ya? There’s this thing called google, look it up! I’ll wait. And then for example, when they learn the measurements, and what decibels are to measure frequency. I’ll ask them questions like ‘what’s the unit of measurement for frequency?’ and they’ll say, uhm, decibels? No that is the measure for amplitude. Man, it hertz if you don’t know this. Hertz being cycles per second. B: Right. J: Hertz being, you know, cycles per second. Hertz is the measurement. So, it hertz if you don’t know this! [both laugh…] B: That’s a good one actually! J: The stupider or funnier something is, they’ll remember it. B: It sticks better! Definitly it helps it stick. So as far as walking away from the class, how important is it for students after, in the aftermath, are these techniques that can easily be forgotten if they are not applied immediately. J: Oh gosh, I hope not. B: If you have students that come for, let’s say, do you teach a second course as well? J: Yes. There’s a Recording Studios Technique II (RST II) class, theoretically there are two sections of RST I, which will have 16 kids total, 32. Out of those 32 kids, if RST II is offered, we only take 8. So it’s like ¼ of those two classes, if they wanted, we are limited to 8. We did a really cool thing this last semester. The students had to produce a video and they had to literally, we shot it on a gopro camera, and it was actually pretty terrible, but they learned the process. They had to get a video program onto their computer, there are several free ones, and just experiment there, here’s the scene we shot. And the whole theme of the video was, and this is terrible, once again, I love my wife, but she has a problem with collecting small electrical appliances. If there is small electrical appliance made, she has it. She’s got four or five crockpots, I don’t know how many mixers she’s got, toasters, curling irons, you name it, those little vacuum thingies, if it is a small electrical appliance she has it. So the format of the class was, we’re going to make a video and you all have seen these videos of the poor animals you know, for the charities, and there’s this poor dog with one eye and its snowing outside and he’s missing a paw or something and there is a choke collar behind this poor animal. And well the idea was, we’re going to have small appliances, and they need a home. And they produce something absolutely hilarious. “Do you know a small appliance that needs a home that’s been abused? We’re sorry. SARI, the small appliance rights institute, so we made a video, and we got t-shirts with irons. One of the appliances was an iron that burned a hole in the t-shirt, so the kids were like no, no bad iron! Flatten it with the newspaper, and later on we use that same shirt with sorry with this big old iron burn on it, we’ll give you this shirt if we give us $19 a month. That is only 63 cents a day.”   So I hope the kids learned a lot from that. Uh, they learned how to put it together, how to edit, how to synchronize the audio. One student actually wrote this really cool darkish sounding sad piano music that everyone wanted to use because it was so cool. B: So you have different types of projects and assignments in the class, of various ways. J: Oh yeah. B: So for exams, what should students expect for an exam, in a studio techniques class? How will their knowledge be tested? [Jeff laughs…] J: Exams! I figured kids are not in JR high school or elementary school anymore, I do not use true or false, multiple choice. Most of the tests and quizzes are done with fill in the blank and short answer. You know, hopefully using correct English and spelling things correctly. It’s not like ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” we’ll give you four choices, and you pick through the answers up here. I want you to go a little bit beyond that. B: Right. J: We also give the kids all kinds of interesting ways to help memorize things like that. For example, can you name the planets in order from the sun out? B: Probably not in order. J: Okay. I can. B: You can? J: My wife took an astronomy class once, kay, and if you take the first letter of each planets. If take the first letter of each planet, ‘M’ for Mercury, ‘V’ for Venus, ‘E’ for Earth, ‘M’ Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, back then Pluto. So, she came up with a very simple sentence. My very enormous man Jeff Smith understands nothing. B: She came up with that? J: She came up with that! Totally originally, and OH! Okay. So, you take all that information, you condense all that down. It is like taking all 5 great lakes. Heroin, Ontario, Michigan, siria, and superior. Spell the word HOMES, take that data and condense it. It is like putting it in a ZIP files for your brain where they can memorize some of these techniques, and hopefully it will not only help them in audio engineering but in life. B: Right. J: You know, if you’re on stage running sound for a band somewhere or in a church situation and all of a sudden thing die. You don’t want to turn to the guy next to you. Good gosh what do we do? As an audio engineer, you got to figure it out, quickly. B: Right. It is about application, not just knowing the what, or how, it is about knowing the why, the why you are doing what you’re doing. That is what differentiates it from a lot of other subjects. J: That’s the thing, if you know anything about Bloom’s Taxonomy of Education. Harking back to many, many years ago. If you have just a knowledge level question: ‘Who invented the telephone?’ You know? That’s knowledge level. If you have a question like, we’re gonna form a band, you’re gonna come up with a song, you’re gonna cover a song or something and you are are gonna form a single here in the class. We’re gonna pick members for the band, and you’re gonna go from there. That takes a lot more brains to be able to do that. B: It takes creativity! J: Absolutely. You gotta coordinate your schedule together, you gotta pick a song, come up with an original cover song, do the rehearsals, figure out how you’re gonna mic the drums. I’ll show you how to mic them, but you do it! And why you might do it this way. B: Right. It takes a lot of brain power to figure out what you’re going to do, how you’re going to do it, and why you’re going to do it. J: The more you use it the stronger it gets. B: Yeah. That’s really good. That’s actually a really good way of doing it. So, for current line up of courses, beyond Studio Techniques I and then II. J: Two happens in the spring. I teach private lessons on violin and viola through TCC. That’s only a handful of students, like two or three. B: Oh okay! J: I also teach private guitar out of my house, but that’s a different story. B: Do you have anything like a semester split? What do you teach during what semester? J: Oh okay. In the first semester, the fall semester, we only offer Studio Techniques I, and hopefully there will be two sections. Then from that, we’ll offer in the spring, studio techniques I and II. B: Oh cool! So, advice for students as well, for anyone who does not have experience. What should they expect going to class and what should they expect coming out of the class? J: Bring a pencil and a notepad! You’d be amazed on day one that sometimes there is not a whole lot of different between first graders and college kids. You write something on the board, and some kid in the back will say, is this going to be on the test? [Bethany laughs…] J: Ummm, YEAH! The idea is if it is on the board, I feel it is important enough that you need to know it. Because if you are successful in music, you know, you could make a lot of money. Pay all that taxes and social security and support me when I’m old…..er. B: Very good point! So, if you want to be successful, for musicians specifically, how important is it to learn studio techniques for your own music? J: Oh gosh! In the music business especially, what has been relatively successful for me, I call it a multiple income source. My main income for many, many years was teaching in public schools. On the side, I was playing classical music in two different Orchestras. The (unintelligible} Symphony and the Signature Symphony and occasionally the Tulsa Harmonic. The Tulsa Opera and the Tulsa Ballet. On the weekends, we were not doing classical, we were rocking and rolling in establishments. We call them gun and knife clubs. [Both laugh…] Bring your own, within a hundred miles of Tulsa. You know, within 200 miles. So you had money coming in from the rock n’ roll side, money coming in from teaching lessons on the weekends, money coming in from your teaching job, money coming in from your symphony gigs, then if you write music, you can create it that way, and get royalties from that. That way if any one leg of that collapses you have something else to depend on. It the music business, to really make it big, you have to be extremely good at ONE thing. And then you can afford everyone else to pay them to record your CD for you, to book you here and there, but the more you know about every aspect of music. How do you finger a saxophone, where’s the best way to mic a saxophone, or a flue, or a guitar, or a cello, or a base? Where does their sound come out from? Where does it sound the best? What kind of mic do you use? All of that stuff, the more you know, the more you’re worth. You apply everything in music. There was a time when my teaching career, where the school I was teaching, I had been there for five years, and they were going to close the school due to a reorganization plan. My last year teaching there they’d lost all the electives. The only elective you could take at this school was band, orchestra, or gym. No home ED, no foreign languages, nothing. That was it. They closed the school next year to reorganize. Orchestras fold, right or left sometimes. Schools change. And in the music business especially, you’ve got to have a backup plan. You get smart, by a house, accelerate the principle on that, so you pay it off early. We paid our first house off in 8 and a half years by accelerating the principle. If you anything about financing, that is a different topic. But that’s how you get successful. B: Very cool. So I hear it is important to be multifaceted but to also master one area. J: Well. If you wanna be really successful in music, you got to be able to sing like Garth Brooks, or Whitney Houston. Or, you have to be able to play that violin like Itzhak Perlman. That’s all he does. For me, I can’t do that. I am too much Attention Deficit Disorder. I get attracted by all the flashing lights. Wow, cool, we are recording this in garage band right? Neat stuff! And I’m watching all these little lights flashing over here and she turns around smiling listening to us on her headphones running through the, and I am wandering GEE! What is that knob do, OH, that is the interface there she’s running through. So for me, you know, I’ve done the six hours of practice everyday when I was at the Cleveland institute of music getting my viola masters. Six hours a day of the viola? Gee I hate the viola sometimes! You know? It’s like too much. Put it down, play the guitar sometimes, go play the fiddle in a country band somewhere and make it fun. B: But you put a lot of time into it. J: Oh yeah! B: That’s awesome! Just to go over an overview on your courses one more time. Studio Techniques I, Studio Techniques II, Viola… J: And violin.. B: Oh, you teach violin as well. J: Yeah. B: So those are private lessons. J: For both majors and non-majors. B: Do you have a special email address that your students can reach you at? And potential students as well. J: I have the TCC email, but I have had more luck with my own personal email. Would it be okay to do that one? B: YEAH J: My personal email is songsmithrecords@cox.net. Now  if you go on the web and go to songsmithrecords.com, understand that I have been busy and haven’t updated the website for 15 or 17 years. It’s on my list of things to do I’m working on it but I’ve been busy. B: Alright, great, so where are your classes based at? What campus? J: We are based at the southeast campus. B: Sounds great, this has been Bethany Solomon and Jeff Smith at the TCC Connection. Thank you for listening and we hope to continue this series for the summer. J: Thank you Bethany, I appreciate your time. B: We appreciate you as well!      

PJ Bruno sits down with Enterprise AE Patrick Forquer and VP of Growth Spencer Burke to discuss online grocery shopping, Reddit raising a huge Series D round with a near $3 billion valuation, and Warby Parker's new augmented reality shopping tool.          TRANSCRIPT: [0:00:18] P.J: Hi everyone and welcome to Braze for Impact. Your weekly tech industry discuss digest. So this is a place where we get together each week and just talk about what's happening in tech. This week I'm lucky to have with me my pal Patrick Forquer who is on the sales organization here at Braze. Next week we'll hear from someone from a different department, probably Customer Success, something like that and then the following week maybe someone from product and then so on and so forth. So we can get multiple different angles at what's happening in the tech industry. Like I said today, I'm lucky to have Patrick Forquer and also Spencer Burke. I'll have them introduce themselves.   [0:00:51] Patrick: Hey, I'm Patrick [inaudible]. I'm a strategic account exec here at Braze.   [0:00:55] Spencer: Thanks PJ. I'm Spencer Burke, the VP of growth.   [0:00:58] P.J: How are you guys doing? How's the week trucking on?   [0:01:01] Patrick: It's going okay. No, it's going great. It's great to be here with you P.J. Looking great in your Heather Gray shirt and as always.   [0:01:09] P.J: It's a good color. Spence, how are we doing?   [0:01:11] Spencer: Going well. Got a ski trip planned for this weekend driving up to Vermont, so can't complain.   [0:01:16] P.J: Always at the skiing Spencer Burke.   [0:01:19] Spencer: It's a winter. I got to get it in.   [0:01:20] P.J: Got to get it in guys. You know what, without further ado, why don't we jump on to what's happening this week? This first article, 'Why people still don't buy groceries online'. This is a very interesting thing to me. Actually, let me set up the story because I think they did a really good way of setting this up in the article. Nearly 30 years ago when just 15% of Americans had a computer and even fewer had Internet access, Thomas Parkinson set up a rack of modems on a crate and barrel wine rack and started accepting orders for the Internet's first grocery delivery company, Peapod, which he founded with his brother Andrew. Back then, ordering groceries online was complicated. Most customers had dial-up still and Peapod's web graphics were so rudimentary that customers couldn't even see image of what images of what they were buying. Delivery was complicated too. So the Parkinson's drove to grocery stores in the Chicago area. They actually did this and bought what customers had ordered and then delivered the goods from the backseat of their beat up Honda Civic. When people wanted to stock up on certain goods, strawberry yogurt or bottles of diet coke, the Parkinson's would deplete whole sections of grocery stores. This is, this is wild. I mean it's interesting because we were all constantly talking about convenience and delivery of all sorts of things. Why not groceries? What's the deal?   [0:02:41] Patrick: Yeah. So when I was reading this article, the first thing that came to mind was if, if we rewind 10 years from today and we took a poll of everyone at braise about, which would be more successful grocery delivery or an app on your phone where you tap on one button and a stranger in a Honda Civic pulls up and drives you somewhere. I think we all would have bet on the grocery delivery piece of that. Right?   [0:03:07] Spencer: Every time.   [0:03:08] Patrick: So it is crazy to me and the numbers are super low. I mean 3% of people getting grocery delivery. Spencer, what was your initial take?   [0:03:18] Spencer: I'm curious, have you guys used the grocery delivery service?   [0:03:22] Patrick: So I have, I had a really bad experience actually, so I haven't done it since. And I think that's part of the challenge in this article where-   [0:03:31] Spencer: Can you get into that bad experience or is that...   [0:03:35] Patrick: So we tried to use the grocery ordering off of Amazon Alexa and my wife ordered paper towels and-   [0:03:46] Spencer: Just paper towels?   [0:03:47] Patrick: Yes. And a couple of other things, but I kid you not, they delivered us what must have been the majority of the warehouses paper towels to the point where-   [0:03:58] P.J: Jesus!   [0:03:59] Patrick: ...for two and a half years, we were using paper towels off of that one order. So obviously that's an outlier. But yeah.   [0:04:08] P.J: It seems like it's also, apparently America is really not adopting it as much as other countries like it seems like in Europe. Also in Asia it's like up to 20% or something like that of consumers are using online and it's only 3% here in America. Does that speak to anything that we're doing or what do you guys think?   [0:04:27] Spencer: Well, I mean I think part of it is most people... Most people have cars. Most people live in an area where they have some kind of large grocery store chain and so if you're driving to work, stopping at the grocery store on the way home, it's not changing the convenience kind of function for everyone in the same way that like Lyft or Postmates or Seamless might for your average consumer. Personally, I've tried it here in New York. I recently moved to somewhere that just doesn't have as many large stores as close to me. I just thought, sure, why not? Let's try Amazon Prime. Amazon just bought whole foods recently and let's see how it goes. I think there's a lot of challenges with it. You don't see exactly what you're getting. If something's out of stock, you're relying on them making replacement or not providing it at all. So, if you're planning on using one of these services to plan a dinner you might not actually be able to cook what you intended to or you might not be able to put that meal together because the delivery service wasn't 100% versus if you're in the store, you can kind of course correct as you go.   [0:05:32] P.J: Right. I feel like a lot of us order all sorts of things through the Internet. I'm sure that list goes on, but as far as grocery shopping something that...it's ordering Seamless as one thing, right? It's prepared and sent right over to you as opposed to groceries. People probably a little concerned like you want to feel your fruit, you want to see your meat, you got all these things. I feel like there's a little fear around that probably. For me anyways.   [0:05:59] Patrick: Well definitely. And then you know, they talk about the challenges that these companies have. It's a lot more complex and it would look to me that on the surface with things like some items you have to keep warm. Some items you have to keep cool, you have to do it all really quickly. And so the people put, you know, preparing the packaging, have to know where everything is and then there's delivery and it's mostly in urban areas. So then there's parking challenges and all these things that I didn't necessarily.   [0:06:25] P.J: There's tons of complications that go along with it. Apparently surveys have shown that shoppers are still concerned that they're being charged higher prices when it comes to online delivery and also complain about delivery drivers being late. Those are the two biggest complaints apparently.   [0:06:39] Patrick: Yeah. And the last thing I noticed was in the second article that we were looking at on grocery delivery, there's the casual drop of Google in partnership with Bain, with Bain commissioned a research study, which as we know working in tech means that Google paid Bain to run this survey for them likely with a hypothesis that grocery delivery was about to explode.   [0:07:03] P.J: I feel like they had an a hypothesis in mind. Yes. Something tells me, yeah.   [0:07:07] Spencer: So I don't know if this was entirely altruistic on behalf of a like, yeah, let's do it. Let's go for it. We'd like you guys.   [0:07:13] Patrick: And you know, I noticed Walmart recently pulled their products from Google Express, which is Google's grocery delivery service. So I think there's increasing competition around this for an incredibly small market at the moment. And I guess we'll see where it goes.   [0:07:31] Spencer: Yeah. Before we move on. I, despite our skepticism, I think there clearly is something here and you know, whether it's Instacart or Postmates or Amazon or anything Walmart or Jet tries to do, there's clearly value to having a hall. You're grocery shopping, just show up at your door essentially. And I think like a lot of things on the Internet, whether it was a couple of years ago when everyone's like no one's going to put their credit card into their phone to buy something online. It's like there's all these articles about how many people abandon their carts because it's on mobile and they need to go back to their desktop. No one talks about that anymore. You just do it. I think we're not that far from whole foods being a warehouse of food for Amazon delivery rather than a grocery store. Right.   [0:08:18] Patrick: Delivered by robots.   [0:08:20] Spencer: Yeah, exactly.   [0:08:21] P.J: And that's what the future looks like. Groceries delivered by robots.   [0:08:24] Spencer: You heard it here first.   [0:08:25] P.J: Yeah, we'll leave it to you guys. Next article of the day. Reddit is raising a huge round near $3 billion valuation. So Reddit is raising one. Sorry, $150 million to $300 million to keep the front page of the Internet running. Multiple sources tell TechCrunch. The forthcoming series D round is said to be led by Chinese tech giant, Tencent at a $2.7 billion pre-money valuation. And now depending on how much follow on cash Reddit drums up from Silicon Valley investors and beyond, it's post money valuation could reach an epic $3 billion. Yikes. And now my first concern that comes up immediately for this, and I feel like maybe you guys felt the same way. Censorship, right? I mean, maybe it doesn't matter, but Reddit remains a relatively safe space for trailers and conspiracy theorists alike. The currently banned apps and websites in China though, like massive lists just to shortlist as Google, Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, Snap, Insta, Youtube, flickr, Tinder, and Reddit of course. And that doesn't even include news publications, cloud storage products and email. So I don't know, there's something feels weird about this, right? Also like Tencent is also one of the most important architects of the great firewall of China. This is serious. There's a lot going on. There's a lot of meat here.   [0:09:53] Spencer: It's like this is a different than I expected.   [0:09:54] P.J: Oh really? It just seems like there's strange things at play.   [0:10:00] Patrick: Spencer, I know you had some hot takes on this.   [0:10:02] Spencer: No, go ahead.   [0:10:03] Patrick: Well, yeah, I think it's interesting that Reddit has had a lot of challenges over the past couple of years. And PJ, you alluded to some of that where they've had some really bad homophobic, misogynistic, racist, threads that have propagated conspiracy theories and hate speech and they've dealt with it in different ways. Some of the ways that they've dealt with it has been good. Some of it's been not so good. I know their CEO was editing comments and specific threads to make them look a certain way. And then he got caught doing that and had to apologize. If they had been a bigger company, can you imagine if Facebook did something like that? He'd be hauled in front of Congress immediately. So, and I was thinking about the valuation piece of this too, where if you took all the bad stuff out, and you're looking at their monetization model, it's through ads, right? Like most companies. They're like most social companies but they've really only recently started monetizing through ads and their real strength has been a very supportive and loyal community of Reddit users. I don't use Reddit, but I know people who do and the people that use Reddit, love Reddit. They love it. They're like in the community, they're posting and commenting and all that stuff. And the challenge as we know scaling a business model where ads are the primary revenue driver is that you can lose some of that early days, communal feel when you start layering in promoted posts and different types of advertisements and it kind of loses its initial bespoke early day feeling those.   [0:11:54] Spencer: Yeah. I think the flip side of the darker elements of Reddit is that Reddit, can be a place for really specific groups of people and that can be people in a city, someone with a certain medical condition, people who play a sport. Like recently I've been looking and there's a subreddit for woodworking and it's like, oh, this is maybe a hobby that I'd be interested in. And there's just a ton of resources and people who are helpful. So for everyone who's out there trying to make a joke, well, if there's a lot more of these people, but for everyone out there who's, who's kind of trolling and you're trying to be a little bit silly, there's a lot of people who are just passionate about something and go to Reddit to share it. And I think it's kind of inspiring actually, that those communities exist on the Internet in a place that it's not just a website for those people. It's a website that can serve any community and it happens to be Reddit for a lot of people.   [0:12:50] Patrick: Right? Do you think that this changes anything for Reddit potentially down the road?   [0:12:58] Spencer: Well, they stay in business for a little bit longer. I don't think so. I think you're probably reading too much into the the Chinese[crosstalk]   [0:13:07] Patrick: have you been spending some time on Reddit recently PJ?   [0:13:09] P.J: Actually, I've only been on Reddit maybe once in my whole life. I'm not a big ... My roommate is like obsessed. Anytime we're doing anything like watching a movie, he just is looking at his phone the whole time and he's in Reddit constantly living in the comments. Right?   [0:13:23] Patrick: Nba Reddit as a really good, yeah. Community. Right. Community.   [0:13:27] Spencer: I feel singled out now because I actually do spend a decent amount of time on Reddit   [0:13:32] Patrick: That's all we need to hear from somebody.   [0:13:32] Spencer: Don't use Facebook, don't use Twitter. Casually though love reading Reddit. The comments can be hilarious. But like I said, just moved recently. So looking for cool areas, restaurants, bars in my neighborhood and there's a subreddit for it. So just reading through it on a couple of times a week can pick out spots, find somewhere to go check out, and it's actually really interesting to see and it's like having a good neighbor or a friend recommend some places to you. You just there and it's a different feel than just going on Yelp and looking at aggregate and total summation.   [0:14:08] Patrick: Are you getting into woodworking? Is that what this is?   [0:14:11] P.J: Yeah. What do you, tell me more about that.   [0:14:13] Spencer: I won't go down the rabbit hole of the hobbies that Reddit has inspired or there's some really, I'll just ... There's some really specifics. I'll read it. That's all. That's all I'll say.   [0:14:23] Patrick: I mean, but what you're describing though, Spencer, is the kind of dual nature of all of these social media sites. On one hand, they can connect people who feel lonely or who are passionate about a certain topic that maybe others around them aren't passionate about and find that community that they'd been looking for. On the other hand, there's Jonses with hate speech and things like that and who knows, maybe Reddit Will start handling this really well and it'd be a success story, so I'll be interested to what they do with all this capital and it's a huge inflection point for their business and kind of their all or nothing shot I feel like so.   [0:15:00] Spencer: Just as an example, they're on the weeds podcast of ox podcasts. They're talking about a study of where they paid people to give up Facebook who are on the platform. They weren't planning to give it up. And those people who are basically just happier, they socialize more, they watch a little more TV, which is maybe the one question one thing.   [0:15:19] Patrick: And they have some money now, which is nice.   [0:15:22] Spencer: But they were less politically divisive. They were a little less informed on some things, but just like genuinely happier. I think one of the interesting things that happens in Reddit versus Facebook, that the communities are moderated by people from the community. So there are subreddits to help people quit smoking, to quit drinking. And when those people will talk about their success, there's so much positive in encouragement and positive feedback and the negative elements of that. Unlike Facebook where anyone from high school that you don't really know anymore can come in and comment and make you feel pretty bad about something or give you that kind of fomo feeling. There's a community of people supporting you trying to do whatever it is. Whether it's something you know, trying to get rid of some addiction or learn some new hobby, which I think so that moderating the fact is it makes it a little bit different than other types of social networks.   [0:16:14] P.J: A little more like true democracy going on over there.   [0:16:18] Spencer: Or a benevolent dictatorship. In the case of moderation.   [0:16:22] Patrick: If Reddit is the front page of the Internet, does that make Facebook like the national enquirer? Who's to say, hi,   [0:16:33] P.J: Let's move on. We got a little of time left. Last article of the day. Warby Parker's new shopping tool lets you try on and buy glasses virtually using your iPhone's camera. So now this article is Warby Parker announced new shopping tool and it's more convenient for iPhone owners, Virtual Try-on. The tool, which lives inside the glasses by mail companies app is available on February 4th. So this Monday it just launched. The caveat is you'll need an iPhone X, iPhone XR or iPhone XS to take advantage. So not just for iPhone users. If you have an old school iPhone, you're not going to be able to use this thing either. Spencer, you wear glasses sometimes, right?   [0:17:13] Spencer: Yep. You got me.   [0:17:15] P.J: You guys can't see. But sometimes he wears glasses. Do you have feelings on this? Do you get ex ... Does this get you excited?   [0:17:22] Spencer: [inaudible]radio? Yeah. Not really. I'm pretty straight forward. When I went to go buy my most recent pair of glasses, went to a store in New York, asked the guy for some help. He picked out two pairs, tried them on, chose one, locked out. And I might be an anomaly there, but I think from-   [0:17:41] P.J: Boom! I love that.   [0:17:42] Spencer: But I think this is really interesting to me because it sort of solves two problems. One is it's helping people try glasses. It's lowering friction to make a purchase. The second is it's giving people a better sense of what they're going to look like without going in the store. So it's going to reduce the likelihood that they need to go in and make a return or [inaudible] me back in, which of course has a cost to Warby. So hopefully for for them the business outcome is it's increasing revenue, making the purchase easier and they're reducing their operating costs by reducing the number of returns.   [0:18:16] Patrick: Yeah. To me, reading the article and there was a lot of buzz about this. This story appeared multiple of the new sources that I read on a regular basis and while it's cool and definitely the benefits that Spencer's talking about are real. I also didn't understand necessarily the getting as much buzz as it did because to me it just feels like they took Snapchat filters and turn them into [crosstalk] Whoa, we can do now what Snapchat could do two years ago and it's just Warby Parker glasses instead of like Elton John glasses. I mean it's cool, but I want the Elton John one.   [0:18:55] Spencer: Yeah.   [0:18:56] Patrick: So it's just definitely cool and I think there's obviously a business case to be made from a technology perspective. It wasn't super exciting. I think there's other use cases for AR for things like the way that Wayfair and other furniture stores are doing it where you can see, you can overlay a couch in a living room type of thing that would be more valuable than, productize smart Snapchat filter.   [0:19:21] Spencer: So you don't wear glasses do you?   [0:19:22] Patrick: I do not.   [0:19:29] P.J: 20-20 vision. I honestly just don't trust that augmented reality fit. I don't think it'll necessarily match real life. And I guess it's for two reasons. One, I just don't trust that just looking at yourself with this augmented pair of glasses on will necessarily look the way to look in real life. Also, we're not even considering the feel. the feel of a pair of glasses has to feel right. You know, so until they have augmented feeling technology out, I'm not buying.   [0:19:57] Patrick: Well, the other thing I was thinking about too, along those lines, PJ is 97% of Americans won't freaking order groceries, but there's going to be some huge wave of people putting something on their face every day that they saw on an app.   [0:20:11] P.J: That's what I'm talking about.   [0:20:13] Patrick: Hot tech Spencer. I don't know.   [0:20:14] P.J: There it is. It's called augmented reality. It's inherently different. It's like if you think about catching a charter as art in Pokemon go is so different from trying to catch on in real life. Have you ever tried, it's entirely different. Wait, one more question for you guys. What I want to hear, what's an augmented reality app that you're just hankering for that you just really want? And I'll give you a second to think. Well, I'll tell you mine and you know, growing up I was very into a Tamagotchi if you guys remember those little pet on your key chain, but just like a cool little Tamagotchi that only I can see my pet. No one can see them. I look around where is he? Okay. There he is on the ground. You've got to feed them. You got to take care of them. And then you know when it comes to having to really take care of him, like you just close the app, close the phone. I don't need to worry about buying pet food or any of that stuff. Something that makes me feel like I have a little buddy.   [0:21:08] Patrick: So an AR Tamagotchi   [0:21:09] P.J: An AR Tamagotchi you heard it here first.   [0:21:12] Patrick: Wow. Here's all my money. [inaudible]   [0:21:17] Spencer: You don't use Reddit. You don't order groceries online, you don't think that trying glasses on with your phone is a good idea. But they are Tamagotchi.   [0:21:26] P.J: I am on Facebook so you can find just about out of time here. You guys, thanks so much for being on here with me. This is PJ Bruno.   [0:21:35] Patrick: Patrick [inaudible]   [0:21:36] Spencer: And Spencer Burke.   [0:21:37] P.J: signing off. You guys take care. [0:21:39]

节目名称：Music Bang Bang 节目主题：英雄联盟节目监制：朱子业编辑：朱子业，李嘉怡播音：朱子业，李嘉怡制作：朱子业整合上传：陈子扬审核:侯泓锾开头曲 Legends Never Die.欢迎来到英雄联盟，敌军还有三十秒到达战场J：Hello everybody, welcome back to our channel. This is music bang bang from VOE foreign languages radio station. Long time no see. Or should I say, long time no hear. I'm your old friend Jotta.L: Hey this is Lacy.J: So as you know, I'm late to catch on hot events.L: Yeah. That means 后知后觉。J: Do you know the voiceover at the beginning of our programme?L: That's from League of Legends英雄联盟. And the song we play right now is called Legends Never Die.插曲1 Legends Never Die.L: It's the theme song of the League of Legends 2017 World Championship.J: Seems like you made an adequate preparation for today's programme.L: Of course! Except the songs, I consult some information about IG.J: I believe although many people post like, IG is awesome, they even do not know the member of that team.L: Ig's full name is Invictus Gaming. Invictus 的意思是不可战胜的，这个词来源于阿根廷，这个战队的名字也预示着创始人王思聪对这个战队的美好展望了！It's one of the mumber of LPL alliance.J: LPL, League of Legends Pro League, 意思是英雄联盟职业联赛。插曲 2 Welcome to Planet Urf.PART 2： L: By the way, Jotta, do you know IG's mumbers and their duties?J: Yeah! Now please let me introduce them. 他们队就是“莽，就完事了”。The Shy is a very skilled top. Ning is a jungle. Rookie is a very careful mid, it can called APC as well. APC, ability power carry, 也就是技能输出核心。Now you know APC, can you infer the meaning of ADC? L: I know it, ADC, attack damage carry. 也就是下路，或者射手的意思, and Jackeylove is a very awesome ADC, and very handsome.J: You are right.有了ADC不可缺少的是辅助，那么你知道辅助用英语怎么说吗？L: Emmm... I guess it is called SUP, support, right? And I know IG's support is Baolan.J: Aha. We introduced too much about IG, It's time to go back to Legends! The song we played right now is called Welcome to Planet Urf. 是无限火力的新主题曲。L: Urf? What's that means?J: 这是一个被lol删除的英雄，叫海牛阿福，英文就是Urf。L: Oh, I see. I feel so excited when I listened to that song, I even want to begin to play that game now! 插曲3 RiseJ: Aha, why not? Lacy, have you ever heared about RNG? That team is also outstanding, but this time they took the opponent lightly causing them lost this game.L: Nodesty helps one to make progress while conceit makes one lag behind.谦虚使人进步，骄傲使人退步。J: You are right! As League of Legends is a very popular game. There are a varity of songs about it.L: This song is called Rise.L: I know there are many characters in League of Legends.J: Yep. The first I would talk about is The Unforgiven Yasuo.疾风剑豪亚索。L: Why?插曲 4 RiseJ: Because in the face of all people's misunderstanding, he will do whatever it takes to clear his charges, let justice to regain his glory. L: 但我看过网上写关于亚索是....什么自闭来着？J: 多行不e必自闭（音同：多行不义必自毙）L: So what's the relationship between e and autism？J: E is a keyboard shortcut of his skill. That skill's cooldown is very short, about 0.1-0.5 seconds. 他的e技能是向前突进，而且技能冷却时间很短，所以秀不秀就看这个技能用的怎么样啦。L: Oh, that sounds attracting me so much！J: The next character is one of my love. Her name is Sona. 琴瑟仙女娑娜。Look at this picture, don't you think she is as pretty as a fairy？L: Yeah. And she has a nice figure.【只有你能听到我的话，召唤师，今天我们演奏哪首曲子？】J: Let's enjoy POP/STARS from K/DA.L: K/DA是由游戏中人物阿卡丽、伊芙琳、阿狸和卡莎组成的虚拟女团。J: So after hearing today's programme, do you know some of League of Legends？L: Anyhow I learned so much about that.结束语 J: OK guys, time flies. See you next time.L: 欢迎大家订阅我们的荔枝FM22808, VOE等着你的加入。 J&L: Bye! 结束曲 POP/STARS

节目组: Music Bang Bang 音乐大爆炸 节目名称:female rapper、开头曲 The Next Episode instrumentalJ:Hey bro.Welcome back to our channel.I'm Jotta.L:Yo.Whassup man?我是厉害的狗子 AKA Liz.J:This is music bangbang from VOE foreign languages radio station.Hey, Liz.Have you heard a song called Bodak Yellow whose rapper is Cardi B.L: Yep.I admire her courage and personality charm.J:Hey, Cardi B is coming...are you ready? 插曲1 Bodak yellow J:Liz.The first time I listened to this song,it makes me think of another female rapper.L:根据嗓音和写词手法的话，我猜，你想说的是Nicki Minaj吧？J:Yes.I have heard almost every song of hers.L:So you are a big fans.J:You got me.L:What's the name of this song?J:Chun-li. 插曲 2 Chun-li J:Wow,actually,I wanna have a try.L:Okay~ just listen！The song called U.N.I.T.Y.And the rapper is Queen Latifah.J:I think,the beats of this one is kind of chill.L:Yes,and I like its construction.The hook is comfortable yet powerful.J:I have to say the punchline is also very powerful.L:Yes.And her storytelling is so cool. 插曲3 U.n.i.t.y J:咱今天说这么多说唱歌曲，让我想到之前的中国有嘻哈了。一开始里面说的好多词我都不懂什么意思呢。L:You mean "punchline" "flow" or something?J:Yeah.How about introducing some jargon about rap music?Jargon 就是行话，专业术语的意思。L:Great!"Punchline"在有道里我查到的意思是：结尾警语；妙语如珠，在rap里指歌词中押韵完美、节奏等很有感觉的部分，放在古诗里就是那种人人皆知流传千古的名句。J:"flow"呢，包括语速，节奏，押韵，停顿，音调等，比较全面。You can understand as one's style.L:再来呢就是"hook"。J:这不就是钩子么？L:Yeah.As the literal translation of it ."hook"是指副歌，它通常是是一首歌最抓人的部分，很容易跟唱。J:诶我听吴亦凡经常说"verse".这是什么意思?L:是段落的意思。Generally Speaking ,Verse include 8 to 16 Bars.Some verse and hook make up a whole song.J:What about "bar"?You just mentioned that.L:You can translate as 小节.If there is a break then it's a bar. 插曲 4 Beg for it L:Now that we mentioned many female rappers.Jotta,你还知道哪个女说唱歌手吗？J:Do you know Iggy?L:Emm...I haven't heard this name.J:It's Iggy Azalea.You may listened Problem and Fancy.All above are her songs.L:Sorry I didn't notice her.But these songs are acoustic enjoyment.J:Now let's enjoy Beg for it.L:Time flies,that's all for today's program.See you next time ~ 结束曲 Beg for it节目监制：朱子业编辑：窦雪菲 周宇琦播音：窦雪菲 周宇琦制作：朱子业整合上传：侯泓锾

If there's one thing I've learned from listening to over a year of #WeGotGoals, it's that building a business or achieving a major goal is rarely as easy as these rockstar goal-getters make it seem. But for Katlin Smith, keeping things simple is the secret ingredient to her success with Simple Mills, an all-natural baking mix and foods company that uses recognizable, natural ingredients in place of things like high-fructose corn syrup and artificial ingredients. Smith started Simple Mills in 2012, right after she began cleaning up her diet and cutting out processed food and sugar. Almost instantly, a lightbulb went off in her head. "Growing up, I learned okay, food affects your weight, it affects your digestive system. But never did I think that food could affect your immune system or the other things we're learning about now, like anxiety, depression, or cancer. And it was just stunning to me that food can affect those things." Armed with these realizations, Smith realized she had to do something to change how people eat — and thus, Simple Mills was born. And even though the premise of Simple Mills was — and continues to be — clean, nutritious foods for a better life, Smith has never shied away from a great mission that expands beyond the grocery store aisle. In fact, once she realized how much her health was affected by a clean, unprocessed diet, Smith went home and did something I truly identify with: she made a list. But not just any list. "I brainstormed 10 different ways that I could impact the way that people are eating and what they're eating and how many kinds of whole foods they're eating," Smith shared. "It ranged everything from going and getting my master's in public health to starting a natural food company that would help change what people are eating." (Spoiler alert: that last one is the idea that won out) Recently, Smith was able to participate in a life-changing trip made available through her inclusion on the 2017 Forbes' 30 Under 30 list. With about 85 other attendees, Smith traveled all over Israel, including at the Syrian and Jordan border, learning about all the complexities behind the conflict in the Middle East. Seems heavy for something that looks like a press tour on the surface, right? Yes — but according to Smith, the trip helped open her eyes to the larger complexities facing the world, in addition to sparking ideas for how she and Simple Mills can have an impact in spaces larger than grocery stores. "There were two key realizations for me on that trip," Smith reflected. "The first was that what we have today we can take for granted really easily, and things can change. The other thing that I really thought coming out of that trip was just how not simple conflict is." Even more surprising about the trip? It was entirely paid for by Schusterman, the company who invited Smith and the other attendees. So what was the catch? No catch, revealed Smith — just a firm reminder that with great power comes great responsibility, and all the standout attendees on the trip had the means to truly change the world. Fresh off the trip when we talked, Smith takes that responsibility incredibly seriously and intends to start by using Simple Mills as a platform to change the food industry. From there, the sky's the limit. "I do plan on doing more things with my life than just Simple Mills. There are a lot of problems in the world, and a lot of problems to solve and I think that if you have like the energy and the resources to impact the world, you absolutely should." We can't wait to see what Smith does next. Listen to Katlin talk to me about her goals on this week’s episode of #WeGotGoals by downloading his episode wherever you get your podcasts. If you like the show as much as we do, be sure to subscribe and leave it a rating and a review. And! Don't take out your earbuds before you listen to the end of this podcast — we've got a real-life goal from a goal-getter like you that you've got to tune in for. ------- JAC: Welcome to #WeGotGoals, a podcast by aSweatLife.com on which we talked to high achievers about their goals. I'm Jeana Anderson Cohen; with me, I have Kristin Geil and Maggie Umberger. MU: Good morning, Jeana. KG: Hey Jeana. JAC: Good morning MU: Kristen, this week you got to speak to Katlin Smith, who is the founder and CEO of Simple Mills. KG: That's right. Maggie. I got to chat with Katlin Smith who has been a friend of aSweatLife for awhile and it's been so exciting watching her company grow from when she first founded it back in 2013 while she was still working as a full time consultant at Deloitte. It was really interesting and inspiring to hear her talk about how she would wake up at 4 in the morning, bake for a few hours and then go right to her full time job and yeah, I think we got a lot of great information out of her from this interview. JAC: And we've talked to Katlin a few times just through the years and seeing the company grow, but this is really the first time we've heard her talk about how she's really introspective. Can you speak to that? KG: Yeah, so Katlin is a self described introvert, which I always think is really fascinating for people who are entrepreneurs and CEOs who—she also mentioned she's in meetings, you know, 70 to 80 percent of her day, so I was really interested to hear how she balances that side of her personality with being such a forward facing public persona. So we got to talking about what helps her recharge from being in front of people all the time, always talking, always in conversations and I think the tips that she offered for how to recharge as a business leader who's an introvert will be really helpful for our listeners. MU: Speaking of being a business leader, she was one of Forbes’ 2017, 30 under 30 business leaders. So she just came back from an incredible trip to Israel and you got to speak to her just off of coming home from that trip. KG: Yeah. So Katlin was one of Forbes 30 under 30 last year and one of the perks that she was offered is that another company sponsors a full-blown trip to Israel for anyone who's graduated, so to speak, from the 30 under 30 class. And this company covers everything from airfare to hotels to experiences. And Katlin was talking about how amazing it was and how they kept blowing her mind with all the different experiences that she and I think it was roughly 80 other people got to have. But when she and her other travelers, we're asking the trip leaders, you know, what's the catch? Why did you bring us all here? The trip leaders, were simply saying that they wanted these business leaders of the present and of the future to realize how much power they truly have when it comes to changing the world. KG: And you know, she quoted the old Spiderman line with great power comes great responsibility. And I thought that was really interesting because Katlin started Simple Mills, she said, to change the way people eat, which is not a small feat in and of itself. But now after this trip, it really seems like she's thinking much more globally about how she and her company can impact the world in ways beyond just how we eat and where we grocery shop. JAC: And it's important to note that what simple mills makes is baked goods and sort of the Betty Crocker-esque products that are gluten-free and made out of whole foods and whole ingredients. And as someone who eats gluten free, it was incredibly impactful for me because I am an added Cheezit in years and Simple Mills has a product, a cracker, that's just like a Cheezit. So can you talk a little bit about why she started down this journey to make this gluten-free whole food option? KG: Yep. You'll hear the full story in the interview, but she was suffering from things like joint pain and seasonal allergies and she was trying to think of different ways that she could remedy herself and different ways that she could eat and live her life so that she could feel the best possible. So that's really how Simple Mills started. But she, this wasn't her only idea. She, at one point she said she brainstorm 10 different ways that she could change the way the world eats and Simple Mills was the one that stuck. So it's a really interesting story and I think people are going to love this interview. MU: We cannot wait to hear it. Here is Kristen with Katlin. JAC: Hey, stick around. At the end of this episode, you'll hear from some real life goal-getters who will tell you the goals that they've achieved and the goals they're going after. KG: Welcome to #WeGotGoals. My name is Kristen Geil and I am here with Katlin Smith, the CEO and founder of Simple Mills. Katlin, how are you? KS: Doing great. Thank you for having me. KG: No problem. We are super excited to have you here on the podcast. We've had you on a panel to speak before, we;ve featured you on the blog several times, but this will be the first time that we really get to sit down and hear your story in an audio sense. So we're really excited. First of all, let's start off with the big goal that we ask everybody about on this podcast. What is a big goal that you have worked toward in the past? Why was it important to you and what did you do to get there? KS: Yeah, so that's that. That will probably be a pretty long answer. I think starting Simple Mills was a huge thing for me. So I started this company about five years ago. So around that time I cleaned up my diet. I took out a lot of the processed food, a lot of the sugar, and when I did my joint pain went away, my seasonal allergies went away. I had loads more energy and it really shocked me because I, growing up I, I think I learned about, OK, food affects your weight. It affects your digestive system, but never did I think that food could affect your immune system or that, the other things we're learning about now, like anxiety, depression, cancer, all of these things that we're seeing skyrocketing rates of. And it was just stunning to me that food can affect those things. And so once I learned that I felt a, I felt like I had to do something, like there was just no option about it. It's funny because sometimes people ask me like, oh, how did you decide? Like how did you know if you were going to start it or not? And in my mind there was no option. It was just like I have to do something about this. And so I actually went home one day and I brainstormed 10 different ways that I could impact the way that people are eating and what they're eating and how many kind of whole foods they're eating. KS: And it ranged everything from going and getting my master's in public health to starting a natural food company that would help change what people are eating. So it was the natural food company route that I went. And so the whole idea for simple mills is starting this food company that makes all of these kind of traditional things that you love eating, that are convenient to eat, that are tasty to eat. And instead of making them out of tons of carbs and sugar and processed ingredients and things you can't pronounce, making them out of things that you actually want to be eating more of like almonds or coconut flour or sunflower seeds, but putting it in that same like recognizable shape, texture, flavor, and my thought with that and, and I think what I've seen over the past five years is that by doing that, you're able to slowly change what people are eating so that it's not just, okay, you have to go and follow this, like this polarized diet of gluten free or Paleo, which our products are, but instead it's, here's a product that here's a way to like, eat, eat really great food without necessarily sacrificing the convenience or the flavor or what have you. KS: So yeah, I mean the big goal, it's changing what people eat and changing the expectation of what people eat. The second thing that I'll say about that is that when you change what's out there, and I, I really didn't, I kind of underestimated this in the beginning, but when you change what's out there, you change the average of what's out there. So when you look at the shelf now in Whole Foods or in Jewel or Target or Kroger, which are all places where we're sold. We've raised the average of what's sitting on the shelf and so what that means is that other players who are sitting on the shelf also have to change their game and so if consumers come to expect, OK, maybe this shouldn't have so much sugar or maybe this shouldn't have as many processed ingredients then other players will change what they're doing as well. And so I like to say that a rising tide raises all boats and so part of our mission is not just changing what our consumers eat, but changing what our competitors’ consumers eat as well. KG: Thinking back to when you first had the idea for Simple Mills in 2013, now we're super used to seeing things in the grocery store aisles like ice cream alternatives or dairy free milk or gluten free everything, but that wasn't the case when you first had the idea for Simple Mills. Was that an advantage or a disadvantage being kind of a outlier in the food industry when you started? KS: I think that we came in at just the right time. I think that if we had come in three years earlier, it might've been too early because what really happened and the reason why we, why we see that today is there's this general awakening that's happening, that's happened with me personally and it has happened with a lot of our consumers, which is that people are realizing that the food that they eat affects how they feel and what they're able to do on a daily basis, and this has been in large part enabled by influencers, by people talking online about their diets. This has been kind of something that's come about at the same time that kind of this entire influencer community and people researching, well, what if I, what if I tried this, what happens? And and researching it for themselves versus relying solely on the advice of a healthcare practitioner. And so I think that without that trend, next to kind of putting our products on the shelf, I'm not sure that it would have taken quite as quickly, but now that people are making that association, it's been. It's been a lot easier. KG: Let's go back a little bit. You said that when you brainstormed these 10 ideas that you could change the way people eat, one of them was creating a natural foods company. Were you into baking and cooking growing up, or was this just more of a whim that you decided to act on? KS: Yeah, no, I was not into, I was not into baking growing up, which I feel like is a very unpopular answer to that question. But it, it really goes back to the determination and the belief that this needed to happen. I was and will do whatever it takes to, to make this idea possible and I think that that's one of the things that, you know, you talk about goals, or starting businesses. I think that there's just a lot of determination and discipline required to make any one of these ideas of success and so it takes doing the things that you did you don't necessarily want to be doing. So like for example, I, I'm an introvert. You wouldn't guess it, but I'm an introvert and I, I hate cold calling. It is like the worst, worst, worst thing to do in my mind. KG: I got chills just hearing you say that I'm the same way. It sounds like the worst punishment somebody could give me. KS: Yeah, exactly. And so like for the first year I actually had to assign an entire day per week to cold calling and I think that, not to say that baking was like cold calling, but it wasn't a passion of mine but I probably went through 90 different recipes just to get the first iterations that tasted really awesome on the market. You do what it takes to make it work. KG: When you had the idea for Simple Mills, you were working in consulting and that had been your background for awhile. How did that help drive you and creating simple mills? What traits could you develop? What skills have you learned that helped you when you decided to get this business off the ground from a side hustle to a full time job? KS: Yeah, so I don't think I would be here today or at least be where we are today without my background in consulting. It was just such a fantastic place to start my career. So I started as a management consultant at Deloitte and was there for for three years. I think one, it taught me a lot about hard work, analytics, what it like, just general professionalism, like basic skills that it takes to be a successful CEO, honestly. There’s—I will say that there's other things that I've had to learn on the other side in order to scale past the first point in the business, but I think consulting really got me through the first stages where it helped me attract investors because I had my stuff together. I could develop a model, I could figure out what my cost of goods was. I could figure out a supply chain. So it gave me a lot of the business, the business fundamentals, KG: And at some point you decided to go back to business school to learn the things beyond the fundamentals. What was it like running a company and going to business school at the same time? KS: Yeah. So I, about a year into the business I—well I guess we were just starting in our first stores. Yeah. So when we were starting in our first stores, I started at Chicago Booth to get my MBA and it was—I started out as a full time student and the business just kept getting busier and busier and busier. I think what became really important was having a clear prioritization of what mattered. So I think that a lot of people go to business school and say like, I'm going to start a business while I'm in business school and they try to do the business 100 percent, and they tried to do school 100 percent, and the social component 100 percent. For me it was the business gets number one period, and then anything else on the side that's, that's good too. KG: It’s a bonus. KS: It’s a bonus and so I went from taking three classes to two classes to one class and then that last class I think I attended about half of the actual classes themselves. Yeah, and it's not to say the program’s not amazing because I learned so much in that short time I was there, but I, I really had to focus on the business, and so when it came to, I need to make a customer phone call versus go to class, it was customer phone call every time KG: Last year. You got a really exciting honor in 2017 when you were named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list, what was it like getting that phone call? KS: It was really incredible. I just couldn't believe it. A lot of things. A lot of things that in building the business are very humbling because it at the end of the day, like I think that if I had looked at somebody on the Forbes 30 under 30 list five to 10 years ago, I would've thought, oh my gosh, and put that person up on a pedestal. But I think through this process you, you learn that the CEOs, the entrepreneurs, the people on that list were all just real people. KG: How did things change for you and Simple Mills after that award? KS: It made it a little bit easier to get press, but I don't think that there’s—this goes back to this other theory that I don't think there's any one thing that makes breaks a business. It's really easy to look at things and say, oh my gosh, this is going to be the thing that makes it. Or this is going to be the thing that that breaks it for us. And that actually creates a lot of stress as well but I think that businesses are made by a million tiny good decisions and just netting out on the positive end of that. So you'll still make bad decisions, you'll still have bad things that happen or things that you at least perceived to be bad things, but there's a bunch of tiny little things have to go right. KG: You were telling us before we actually started recording that you just got back from a really exciting trip to Israel. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? KS: Yeah, yeah. So I was out there with 85 Forbes 30 under 30 I guess, winners from the past couple of years. We were there with an organization called Schusterman and we were traveling around all over, all over Israel. We went to the Syrian border, the Jordan border. We spent a lot of time in Jerusalem and we had a, we actually had a guide the entire, the entire trip who was telling us all about the complexity of the region and, and just, it's really stunning because I think that it's really easy to look on the conflict in the Middle East and, and kind of simplify it from over here and also to say like, oh, that's just, you know, they have conflict, we don't have conflict. We're kind of in a way, we kind of look at it as we're above that. We're like, oh no, we know better than to have that level of conflict in our country. KS: But I think what, what really there were two key realizations for me on that trip. The first of which is there was that what we have today we can take for granted really easily and things can change The other thing that I really, that I really thought coming out of that trip was just how not simple conflict is. And for example, in the Middle East, like how much the conflict is connected to personal identity and, and even like the soil itself and the land itself. And it's just very easy to say like, oh yeah, all it takes us like a peace treaty and somebody can just come in and work that out. KS: But even as we're establishing the embassy in Jerusalem and it's causing this uprising, it you can see just how not simple it is, is it's not as simple as drawing lines and boundaries. But just really such a phenomenal trip I was sharing that they Schusterman actually pays for the entire trip, which is just stunning. The entire trip we were sitting there asking, so what is the catch? What is the catch? Why? Why do you bring us out here? And they said really for two reasons, one, for you to understand the complexity and for that complexity to color the decisions that you make, the degree to which you impact the world and, and, and the second is you guys are all poised to make a really positive impact on the world. And with great power comes great responsibility and, and that’s—so go out and do amazing things. KG: No pressure. KS: Yeah, no pressure. KG: Well, with Simple Mills though you had already had a big vision in mind to change the way people eat. Was it interesting to think about how you can change people's lives outside of your products? KS: Yeah, I think for, I think for me, my lifelong mission has always been to to leave the world in a better place than I found it with everything that I do. I think for right now I see so much potential for Simple Mills to impact the food space, which I consider extremely important. It impacts everything that—how we feel, our personal relationships. For example, if you're more anxious, like how, how that's going to impact your personal relationships, your personal happiness. I think that there's so much there and there's also so much left for us to bite off and chew. So first of all going to focus on that. That's my disclaimer, but I, I do plan on doing more things with my life than, than just Simple Mills as well. There are a lot of, a lot of problems in the world and a lot of problems to solve and I think that if you have like the energy and the, I guess like the resources to impact the world, you absolutely should and really take advantage of all of the people who have invested in you that this brings up another point which is there's this experiment out there where they put two people in a room to play Monopoly and they give one person more money and another person less money and we'll just use money as a, as an analogy for now, but more resources and they have them play the game. KS: And inevitably the person who had more money coming into the game wins the game. And they always ask the person who won, OK, so why did you win? And they always point back to, oh, I made this particularly great decision here. Or I got really lucky with that roll of the dice. But they never point back to the fact that they started the game with more resources. And so the interesting lesson there is that we kind of overlook the role that, that resources play in how people arrive at their, at their destinations, and so particularly if you're sitting in a place where you've had a lot of people who have invested in your education, who have invested in, in your learning, you have that much more responsibility to use those resources and, and to kind of bring other people up and along and, and invest in other people. KG: Who invested in you early on? Not moneywise necessarily, but time and energy and support? KS: Oh my gosh, there's been so many people that it's like you can look back to so many people who have, who have changed the way that you operate. I mean, and even started certainly with, with your parents putting in just like so much time and effort. I do remember this point in time when I was in high school and my mom looked at me and she said, You're gonna do, you're gonna do great things. And I think that was actually a self fulfilling prophecy. I don't think necessarily that I was going to do great things. But because she believed in me and believed that I was going to, that I felt like I had to. So I think that's one. I mean I also, I think more recently another, another one has been one of my mentors. So I met my professional coach, I guess I was about a year into the business and we instantly clicked and I realized that she just had such a phenomenal understanding of people and how people operate. KS: And I said, I have to work with you. I, I, I don't understand these things very well. Let's, let's work more on this. And so since then she's actually been my coach and now is a coach for our entire 35 person team. But I think I think working with her, and we can talk more about this, but I think working with her has really helped develop me into a leader who can lead a team of 35 versus lead a team of four to five. But again, there's just been so many people throughout my history that I can look back on. KG: I'm really curious about this professional coach, especially since you have a background in management consulting. Were you just super aware that this existed and this was something you could benefit from or how did you find out about her even? KS: Yeah. I had no idea that that really existed and actually at the time she wasn't even a leadership coach. She was an operations consultant. Today she has a, a very large leadership consulting practice that works for a number of entrepreneurs here in Chicago and other cities. But I think there is—I had a business school professor who said that being an entrepreneur is one of the most downwardly mobile professionals that are out there. KG: That's encouraging. KS: Very encouraging. So I mean I think going in knowing that is actually really helpful because it helps you realize that you shouldn't take being the CEO of a company for granted, that just because you started the company doesn't mean that you stay in that role, and that many, many entrepreneurs don't make it because you have to grow super quickly. So where if you were in a large corporation going from managing, you know, two people to 10 people to 20 people to, you know, maybe 100 people might take a number of a number of years and career moves. Like that might be a 10 year shift. You're making those shifts super quickly as an entrepreneur and so you need something to help accelerate that learning or you just might not make it, and so when I met her I realized that she had the capacity to accelerate my learning and so that's why I started working with her. KG: You're getting a crash course. Sounds like. KS: Yeah, there's something to be said for. I still believe that most things that you learn, you learn off of your mistakes, but there's something to be said for learning off the first time you make the mistake versus the fifth time. KG: Well we spend a lot of time on this podcast talking about your successes and goals you've achieved, but what was the time when you failed? KS: I think for me, the greatest failures in this business have been failures as a leader. They've been places where I've come home at the end of the day and thought, you shouldn't have said that or you shouldn't have said that that way. And knowing too that you impacted somebody else's day. Those are the toughest places because you can't really take it back. You can only move forward. There’s been times where you know, you call somebody out in a meeting and and you know that that wasn't the best way to handle it, for example, and the only thing that you can do is learn from it and say there's a reason why this happened and I'm not gonna do that again, or I won't do it this way again, and then you move forward. KG: You've also mentioned being an introvert just even on this podcast, yet you traveled with a bunch of strangers to Israel and you're the CEO of a 35 person company. What do you do to sort of give yourself that time to recharge when you're spending all of your day in meetings, talking to people like me talking to the press, all of that. KS: Yeah. I think the. I think the recharging is super important and actually a number of my entrepreneur friends are also introverts. It's quite funny that we were like this class of, I’m sure there are extroverts out there too, but we’re this class of people who do spend their entire days talking yet their preference is not to. I think first of all, making sure that you allocate sufficient time for thinking and so I have a couple things that I do to make sure that I fit that in. The first is I love flying and I love sitting on a plane because no one, no one talks to me while I'm sitting on a plane. There's nothing to interrupt me. There's no phone calls, there’s text messages. I can sit there and I can stare out the window and think about what problems we need to solve or how to solve those problems. KS: Another is taking decently frequent but short vacation. I like to think that vacation if done right, is actually something that helps your job versus versus hinders it. And so I'll take for example, a long weekend to somewhere in Arizona where I'll go hiking. I'll spend time reading, reading books that helped develop me professionally and personally and develop the way that I, the way that I see the world. And and so then as a result of that, you can kind of create faster learning cycles so that you can learn from the things that you're doing a lot faster. So I might take a particular concept. So for example, one concept that has required a lot of continuous work on my part is this idea that perfectionism is not on the excellence scale. So … KG: I need hear more about this. What does that mean? KS: It's that, it's basically that if you create a spectrum of from not excellent to excellent, perfectionism doesn't exist on there. And I think growing up in consulting or even a lot of corporations believe this, there's like this belief of no defects. So if you make a mistake, it's not OK. And so then you live your life trying not to make mistakes versus trying things out. And what happens when you try things out is, is you do make mistakes and, and it's OK sometimes or a lot of times you learn from those mistakes. And or you figured you figured out something that you wouldn't otherwise instead of spending your time optimizing something that doesn't need to be optimized. And, but this is like, this is like a lifelong skill, this isn't a OK, just get the concept and all of a sudden it's in place, it's that you have to try it, work on it, go back, relearn it, and then continue to iterate on the concept for, to, to really get it. And so then I'll read books on this topic and then go into real life, try to apply it, and then next time I go on vacation, read more books on it and recognize where I, where I haven't quite lived up to it and figure out ways to do it better moving forward. KG: That idea of embracing mistakes as learning opportunities, is that something that trickles down to your team at Simple Mills? KS: Yeah. We've actually, we've actually done entire trainings on perfectionism, but part of, I mean, part of it there is we are a very, we’re a very high achieving group and so we actually did, we did studies on, on our levels of perfectionism and our levels of perfectionism are actually higher than the doctors going through Harvard Medical School. KG: Wow. KS: So that's a problem. KG: Oh my gosh. KS: Again, not on the excellence scale. KG: Wow, that is crazy. KS: Yeah, and so we've had to. We've put a number of things in place to say, OK, it's OK to skin your knees. It's OK to make mistakes. It's OK to come out and say something, even if it's even if it's in the end, not right. And so really embracing, embracing failure and saying that's OK, or embracing it when somebody goes out on a limb and and not quickly shooting down the idea or saying no and making it a little bit more comfortable to be wrong. KG: All right, let's end with the other question that we ask everybody else who comes on this podcast. What is a big goal you have for the future? Why is it important to you and how do you think you'll get there? KS: So I, I, I am so incredibly passionate about, about changing the way that people eat. It's, it is a huge mission for, for me and and Simple Mills. I think that there's still so much that needs to be done here. We've, we've made such great progress in the past five years, so we're in, we’re in about 13,000 stores. We are the largest natural baking mix brand, the second largest natural cracker brand, which is, which is really neat to see, but I feel like we're just at the tip of the iceberg. There's so much more that we can be doing in terms of brand awareness and getting our products out there, but even more than that, I think there is so much more that we can be doing to to really change the way that people are eating and helping more people eat simple ingredient real food and so while I won't completely share exactly how we're going to get there, I think my mission is really democratizing real food and there's a lot more up our sleeve. KG: What do you mean by real food? KS: Making it something that that's accessible to a lot more people. KG: In terms of accessible at grocery stores, price points, just it being there in general, all of the above? KS: All of the above. Making it easy, making it so that having real food in your pantry is a, is a common occurrence. KG: Well, we can't wait to see how you get there. I know we'll be keeping our eyes on you for the next few years to come and beyond. So Katlin, thank you so much for being on #WeGotGoals today. KS: Thank you for having me. CK: Hey, goal getters. Cindy Kuzma, co-host and producer here just popping in to let you know that we are about to play another one of your goals. That's right. A goal that was set and crushed by one of you, our listeners. This one was recorded during one of our live sessions at the Hotel Moxy and we also recorded a few more at the Michelob Ultra Fitness Festival at the end of SweatWorkingWeek earlier this month. Start thinking about whether you have a goal you'd like to share with us too. Soon, we’re going to have a way for you to send in your goals and you could appear right here on this very podcast. In the meantime, thank you so much for listening and here's our next real life goal-getter. CK: Tell me your name again. J: My name’s Jose. CK: Jose, it's good to meet you, Jose. Jose from Chicago? J: Yeah. Jose from Chicago. CK Okay. Tell us, Jose, either about a big goal that you reached and how you got there or about a big goal you have for the future, one or the other. J: Um, so I guess the biggest goal that I have reached already was I joined the military when I was 18 airborne infantry and I made it back in one piece. So that was a good goal to have. CK: Yeah. Yeah. So where did you, where did you go? J: Um, I was stationed in Anchorage, Alaska and I deployed to Iraq for 15 months and I was in Afghanistan for a year. CK: Oh my gosh. Wow. So how did you do that? You know, I mean, obviously some of it is just being in the right place at the right time, but um, you know, what do you think were some of the things that lead to you having a successful military career? J: Oh, definitely. Um, the team that I was on in the people that I worked with. Working in a team and being able to get each other's backs like that definitely protecting each other when you're not looking, um, helps for survival and also just all the training that we did, like constantly training all the time, all the time for every possible scenario that you could possibly imagine. CK: Wow. And does that training and that experience, I mean as, how long have you been back now? J: Um, I got out in 2010 like late 2010. Yeah. And I've had actually, now that I think about it, every job I've had outside of the military has been like in the service industry, like restaurant or a bartender or a or something like that. So like working in some sort of team capacity I guess. CK: Yeah, and you have to think on your feet and be prepared for anything and react to what's going on around you. So I'm sure that training serves you really well. J: Yeah. CK: Well thank you for your service, first of all, and congratulations on being here and, and on your new job here at the Hote Moxie, right? J: For sure. Yeah. Yeah. CK: Well thank you so much for sharing your goal with us. Really appreciate it. CK: This podcast is produced by me, Cindy Kuzma, and it's another thing that's better with friends, so please share it with yours. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and while you're there, if you could leave us a rating or a review, we would really appreciate it. Special thanks to J. Mano for our theme music; to our guest this week, Katlin Smith; and to Tech Nexus for the recording studio.

节目组: Music Bang Bang 音乐大爆炸 节目名称:年度混音J: Hey guys, welcome back to our channel. This is music bang bang from VOE foreign languages radio station .I'm Jotta.L: I'm Liz. Hey, Jotta. How is it going?J: I feel a little bit tired. But my life is colorful.L: So, what are you doing these days?J:我刚忙完配音大赛的事。L:那你最近听什么歌放松心情呢？J: Some year remix songs.L: Let's enjoy.开头曲Shape of you插曲2017mashupL: It's really different from often. Why?J: Yeah.L: I think, I have heard some parts of it, but, it's just…like a man that looks like my friend, but he isn't.J: 因为它是年度混音啊。L: Oh. I got it. So, do you have another one?J: Of course! The next song is a year mix of 2016.插曲 2Best Pop Songs of 2015 MashupJ: Cool. Actually, I have another way to relax.L:嗯哼？J: Play LOL!L: Interesting.J: And I'll play that game a moment later.L: 在节目的结尾再给大家带来一首2017年的年度混音，希望大家喜欢。J:Time flies,that's all for today's program.See you next time ~ 插曲3United State of Pop 2014 (Do What You Wanna Do)节目监制：韩平治编辑：朱子业 马懿慈播音：朱子业 马懿慈制作：朱子业

节目组: Music Bang Bang 音乐大爆炸 节目名称:female rapperThe Next Episode instrumentalJ:Hey bro.Welcome back to our channel.I'm Jotta.L:Yo.Whassup man?我是厉害的狗子 AKA Liz.J:This is music bangbang from VOE foreign languages radio station.Hey, Liz.Have you heard a song called Bodak Yellow whose rapper is Cardi B.L: Yep.I admire her courage and personality charm.J:Hey, Cardi B is coming...are you ready?插曲1 Bodak yellow J:Liz.The first time I listened to this song,it makes me think of another female rapper.L:根据嗓音和写词手法的话，我猜，你想说的是Nicki Minaj吧？J:Yes.I have heard almost every song of hers.L:So you are a big fans.J:You got me.L:What's the name of this song?J:Chun-li.插曲 2 Chun-liL:Wow.Their music is so fashionable.But ,do you know the classical rap？It is different from them.J:Wow,actually,I wanna have a try.L:Okay~ just listen！The song called U.N.I.T.Y.And the rapper is Queen Latifah.J:I think,the beats of this one is kind of chill.L:Yes,and I like its construction.The hook is comfortable yet powerful.J:I have to say the punchline is also very powerful.L:Yes.And her storytelling is so cool.插曲3 U.n.i.t.yJ:咱今天说这么多说唱歌曲，让我想到之前的中国有嘻哈了。一开始里面说的好多词我都不懂什么意思呢。L:You mean "punchline" "flow" or something?J:Yeah.How about introducing some jargon about rap music?Jargon 就是行话，专业术语的意思。L:Great!"Punchline"在有道里我查到的意思是：结尾警语；妙语如珠，在rap里指歌词中押韵完美、节奏等很有感觉的部分，放在古诗里就是那种人人皆知流传千古的名句。J:"flow"呢，包括语速，节奏，押韵，停顿，音调等，比较全面。You can understand as one's style.L:再来呢就是"hook"。J:这不就是钩子么？L:Yeah.As the literal translation of it ."hook"是指副歌，它通常是是一首歌最抓人的部分，很容易跟唱。J:诶我听吴亦凡经常说"verse".这是什么意思?L:是段落的意思。Generally Speaking ,Verse include 8 to 16 Bars.Some verse and hook make up a whole song.J:What about "bar"?You just mentioned that.L:You can translate as 小节.If there is a break then it's a bar.插曲 4 Beg for itL:Now that we mentioned many female rappers.Jotta,你还知道哪个女说唱歌手吗？J:Do you know Iggy?L:Emm...I haven't heard this name.J:It's Iggy Azalea.You may listened Problem and Fancy.All above are her songs.L:Sorry I didn't notice her.But these songs are acoustic enjoyment.J:Now let's enjoy Beg for it.L:Time flies,that's all for today's program.See you next time ~ 节目监制：韩平治编辑：朱子业&马懿慈播音：朱子业 &马懿慈制作：朱子业

节目组: Music Bang Bang 音乐大爆炸 节目名称:电子音乐开头曲 China-AJ:Hello,everbody.Welcome to Music Bang Bang from VOE foreign languages radio station.I'Jotta. A:Hi,my dear audience.This is Armstrong温彦博！L:Hey, I'm Liz,懿慈。A:今天我们又迎来了两名新成员，先来让她们自我介绍一下吧！R:My name is 邱月.You can call me Ruby.Z:Hello,everybody.I'm Atlanta.I love cats and other cuties.It is so nice to meet you all.A:Welcome you two to join us!L:诶，Jotta，从一开始我就想问你了，现在放的歌是什么啊？J:Ah,It's called China-A.Z:Oh,what a pretty and heated song.L:It sounds like an instrumental music.This one must be one of the hottest these years.J:I love this song so much.Every time I heard this song,I just wanna stop and dance with the rhythm.R:Yeah,I think so.Actually, it's electronic music.Besides this feeling,I can also feel a sense of belonging, it contains Chinese classical sense.J:The composer's name is 徐梦圆,he is a really talented 24-year-old boy from Chengdu.R:He is famous as a EDM music producer.Besides this position,he is a Disc jockey and singer.A:Maybe most of our audiences have heard a song called 采茶纪 .He is just the composer of it.A:Oh,Jotta.I know you like playing LOL.Don't you？J:Yes.Ah,you just remind me that Xu was invited to The Opening ceremony of League of Legends Pro League.L:哇，你是说他在英雄联盟职业联赛的开幕式上演奏电音作背景音乐？能不能放一下听听？J:Sure! 插曲1 LPL remix , A:Oh,I have a question.Why he wanna be a DJ?J:According his own response to the reporter, he thinks that original musician are easy to be remembered.And DJ always are original musician.R:那他是怎么看待中国电音市场的呢？J：It's gradually expand.And more and more people are starting to pay attention to electronic music.插曲 2 sorry R:Do you know tropical house style?好像是电音底下的一个小分支。L:Of course!You know that my male god Justin Bieber released “what do you mean”and“sorry” which are tropical house.And it put the craze of this style on the top!J:Yeah.Lazy,happy,and just like...you are on holiday. They often make people relaxed.Z:说了这么多，有人能给我科普一下电音不？R: Haven't you ever heard about it? Or you didn't listen to a song about the electronic dance music?Z: Emm… Just like you said. I didn't learn about it.R: Now, let me introduce something about it to you.I often listen to songs related to electronic. It got popularity in 1950's.Z:Wow,so long it has been popular. What musical instruments is it usually played with?R: Well, it's played by most of electronic instruments, such as electronic guitar and so on. And the songs will be manufactured with technique tools. Z: That's so cool. Once I hear the electronic dance music, I will be spontaneous waving with it.R: That's the magic power it has. Most of electronic are rhythmed , attracting people to listen.J: Now let's listen the song named Lost & Found. After learning about electronic music, you may fall in love with it. 插曲 3 Lost & Found A:今晚的电音之旅就要告一段落了。听了今天的节目有没有激起对电音的热爱呢？Time flies,that's all for today's program.See you next time ~ J:欢迎大家订阅我们的微信公众号时代之声radio，网易云音乐music bang bang电台以及荔枝fm，更多精彩内容等着你的发现。 结束曲 Lost & Found

Sarah: Hi everybody this is Sarah Potter from she can trade. And this is SCT podcast. We are at episode 34. Today's discussion is going to be focused around earnings and specifically how do you adjust and trade sorry how do you adjust and focus on your trades through that earning season. Obviously we'll talk a little bit about actually placing trades for earnings as a result of those. But also what do you do with all your other trades what to expect in the market when we have to go through an earnings season. So I have T.J. here. T.J: Hello! Sarah: And we're going to discuss this together. I think it'll be interesting also to hear our various perspectives on these kinds of things. So let's start off with a little kind of a definition of a basically an idea of what is earnings and how do you basically think the market moves through earnings season versus when we're not in earnings. T.J: All right. So earnings we're talking about corporate earnings so every quarter financials companies release their financials and there's a lot of anticipation and a lot of excitement around the numbers or are sales up or sales down. Our earnings up earnings down how’s the company doing and obviously how does that link the stock price. Well, if you're a fundamental investor obviously the more the company's earnings and the better their financial ratios the higher the stock price. So people look for those numbers they look. They read through them they look for a lot of details to see whether the stock price is accurate. If it's a fair representation of where the stock should be trading and if not obviously do they think the stock price should be higher or lower? And the reason we need to watch for earnings is because it's a high volatility event. It's a pretty binary event. So the day before the earnings are announced or the day of there's excitement earnings are announced and as soon as the numbers come out you generally see a decent a big move in the in the stock's price either up or down. So what we need to do is options traders are we need to look for two things coming into earnings. One is we need to look for increased volatility. So we will see on our options chain that the week of earnings and especially coming into the day of earnings the implied volatility of that stock will increase. The other thing we need to watch out for is obviously if we're holding options positions through earnings so if we have put or a call or a spread or any trade that expires after the earnings date that that earnings date can significantly influence the price of the stock. And we just need to be aware of of those potential kind of potential influences when we go through earnings. So Sarah are there any websites or how do you find out, what do you look for where do you look to see when companies are going to have earnings. Sarah: Yes, so I'm going to SCT up my trades differently through the earnings season than I will other times. And I do think that it's very important to always be paying attention to looking for when those earnings announcements are going to be because it's really going to change the flavor of how that stock is moving. So you guys know when we're trading in the trading room you'll often see us looking at the history of price how it's moving in relation to the broad market and those are really ways that we can identify opportunities to trade. But when we have earnings and earnings season that that announcement is going to change things. It's gonna do it also leading up to it. So you'll notice that I will still trade stocks a couple weeks before their earnings but we're gonna have to deal with higher implied volatility and if I'm buying a collar put I'm gonna have to deal with paying more than what I usually would in anticipation of that. And now a lot of times I can trade really well earnings actually before their earnings announcements so there's some good trades there when we look at how that stock has been behaving moving up to his announcement. We might have an expiry after the earnings but we can definitely take an opportunity to take advantage of a move prior to earnings. So generally stocks especially the more and more there in the media will have a nice move prior to its earnings announcement so we could definitely capitalize on that. So I mean it's tough to find them though right it's not about just okay well it's the next quarter. So all the stocks are gonna be moving because they have earnings announcements, there's going to be times when those stocks actually don't move they're gonna have less of a reaction than what market makers had anticipated would be in that option. And so that's also something to be paying attention to but when we're first looking for trades you can look at something like Yahoo Finance or a market watch or I think actually even some trading brokerage platforms have earnings announcements in them if I am correct on that. Did that do they have earnings announcements right in the platform? T.J: A lot of platforms do. Definitely they do have the earnings dates. Obviously the other one too is nasdaq.com. They list the earnings dates you do have to generally current earnings date. If I'm going to be trading the earnings and I really need to make sure that it is that exact date whether it's before the market or after the close. I generally check two different sources because you'll find out as well if you look comb through earnings dates that different websites list may have a day earlier a couple days later. It may not always be that accurate. So I do like to double check there the one thing I do like about earnings I guess we can real really get into some strategies is what happens at earnings? There's two things there's the actual result of what happens and there's a move based on the result of what happens but there's also a move based on the expectations and that's how most stocks move. So if Nike moves up say they've got 75 cents per share of earnings and Nike so if the expectation was only 50 then that look great stocks gonna move up. If expectations were say 85 or 90 cents then the stock could move down as well so we can't look at just the absolute number. It has to be we have to look at expectations we have to look at was it sales was it revenue how do those compare? And I think that's really what makes kind of earnings such an exciting time because there's so many variables involved. So with so many variables, so many inputs, so many unknowns what are some strategies that we can look at to give us kind of a shot at the best outcome because obviously saying hey I think let me guess I think the stocks gonna go up after earnings that's really a 50-50 trade at best guessing in the direction and we'll probably most likely guess in the wrong direction. So what can we do obviously out of the money credit spreads those are that's a great way to trade earnings you can limit your downside on that by keeping this spread nice and tight so maybe you don't want to do a five or ten dollar spread maybe you want to do a dollar or 250 wide spread. Keep your risk reasonable look for something out of the money as standard and a hat 1.5 standard deviation away staying wait far away from where the expected move is on that earnings announcement. Same thing with iron condors those work really well as well you can also just I mean you can also sell straddles. You can sell a strangle they work out really well again you're playing to the fact that the market thinks there's gonna be a bigger move and then really what's priced in and that's usually what happens. The trouble is they're unlimited loss. So we do have to be careful with that and if we are trading strategies where there is no stop-loss on them or where there is no limitation on what you can lose, we do need to be very careful because nine times out of 10 you're fine but those one or two trades where the earnings is two or three times the expected move. You might see yourself in a loss situation but I do think that there is a lot of opportunity out there to trade earnings. We just have to come at it with kind of a from a standpoint of this is these are some fun extra trades that we're doing. This isn't bread and butter meat and potatoes this isn't how I generate my reliable weekly income. Sarah: Yeah, I wanted to mention that so when you're trading earnings I think the biggest tip is that you don't want to expect that all of your earnings trades are going to work and I think you need to kind of account for that. So when you're SCTting up trade strategies through earnings let's say you're placing one earnings trade a week through the earnings season that if you look at the collective of all of those at the end you can't have a goal of making eighty percent of those work. Because they won't because those trades at the end of the day are really more 50-50 trades. So as long as you're realistic about that and if you test the strategy over different quarters through the year and let's say you're coming out ahead sixty-five percent of your trades are right through earnings then that is a time that that you want to be adding all more contracts but you certainly want to test that through more than one quarter. So trading earnings is fun because yes it's pretty hyped up everyone talks about it. There's all this great opportunity, absolutely but remember many people don't talk they're losing trades. They only talk about their winning trades and it's with earnings you're gonna have winners and losers to betting regardless of what strategy you pick. But you can still make it work as long as you're very aware of what your percentage is as you move through each earning season. And so perhaps a goal closer to about 65% so you're getting more winners than losers so that overall you're still coming out with profit is important you don't want to just put trades on. And just pay commissions or come out at zero no your opportunity cost is important as well you've spent time looking for those trades and that's really relevant as well. T.J: Yeah, exactly and I think that is I think that's the key to trading is everybody tries to do the same thing. And I think if you have to find something that works for how you feel comfortable trading and if earnings is a strategy that you can make money at that's fantastic I mean that that's great that's what you need to be focusing on. For somebody else doing the exact same trades they might not look at it the same way or be able to enter or exit at the same time and they may not, they may do the same trades but not but end up losing money on that series of trades. So it's really something that's very personalized and if you can make it work fantastic you just need to realize that with earnings there is a ton of anticipated and unanticipated things that are happening. And it makes it really exciting and there's that potential to make to make some really quick money. As you make that money you place the trade five minutes before earnings are released at five minutes after four and it's usually either max loss or max profit. There's usually not a lot of difference in between and if that's how you like to trade. Then yeah, what earnings is something that you can dip your toe into. Sarah: Yeah, I think that's a good point let's end on that so we're moving into earnings season now so there's lots of opportunity and I think TJ's got some good examples here on how to kind of keep that risk a little tighter and I do like the idea of still trading but trading out of the money. And keeping that spread a little tighter so that if you some of those trades work great, if they don't that's fine. You're not blowing up any accounts. So look forward to you guys remember we do have our live trading room which is the opportunity for you to see both of us trade live all the time showing our real accounts real, trades, real money. Look forward to seeing you there and happy trading everybody.  

节目组: The World Says 世界说 节目名称: The differences between some words开头曲 ID J:Hello everybody, welcome to the world says from the VOE foreign language station, this is Jotta.V:And I'm Vincent.F:Hi dear audience, I'm your old friend, Francis.J: So today, we gonna talk about some words in English. 插曲1 ID F: OK. First, Could you please tell me the differences between 'say', 'speak', 'talk' and 'tell'?J: As we all know,动词 say 的意思是“说话”，而动词 tell 的意思是“告诉某人信息”。V: For example: Tell me about your holiday.J:And we can also say:“talk about your holiday”或“speak about your holiday”。F:所以在使用动词 tell 的时候，它后面紧跟的应该是“被告知信息的那一方”。V: Right. Such as: “I told you he would let you down.”And: “She told her mother she passed all her exams.”J: 大家需要记住的是：you say something TO someone, but you tell someone something。V:不过在日常生活中，说“She told her mother she passed all her exams”要比“She said to her mother she passed all her exams”更自然。J:So here, Francis ,I have a question for you.我说两句话，你听听哪句话对。F: Okay, I'm listening.J: One is” She said hello to her mother.”The other one is that.“She told her mother hello.”F: Um…I choose first one.J: Exactly. 因为与人打招呼是我们用行动“表达、表述”的事情，所以不能用“tell ”而应该是“say hello”。F: I get it. 那say和tell还有其他的用法吗？J: Yeah. Here is a sentence:“The teacher told me to write an essay on birds.”V:在这里tell就表示命令和吩咐。J: The next. “I can tell if she's pleased.” “How do you tell if a cake is ready?”V: In here the word “tell” means discern or comprehend.J: 动词 say 也同样有一些不显为人知的意思，比如，say 可以表达“认为或相信”。Could you give us some examples, Vincent?V: Sure. “I say we should move to the countryside this year.”“They say it's best to get eight hours sleep.”F:So what is the difference between talk and speak?J:我先给你两句话，你体会一下。We need to sit down and talk about this. The second one is ‘We need to sit down and speak about this'. F: 我觉得speak 用在上面的这个语境中比 talk about 显得更严肃些。V:You are right, Francis. In this sentence: I need to speak to Michael about his timekeeping.这里用“speak to”暗示说话人对Michael的不守时行为不满意，并会对这个行为做出批评。J:Since you know a lot about these words .你知道talk 也可以做名词来使用么?V: Of course. say 也可以作为名词呢。F: Oh please do give me some examples, Vincent.V: OK.OK. “I gave a talk about the US economy. ”“I want to have my say on this.”意思是：我想在这件事上发表自己的意见。J:我来补充一个。“The boss always has the final say.” Final say means final decision.F: 我还有个问题。Career、occupation、vocation 和 job 这四个词都和“工作”有关，那么咱们应该怎么准确、恰当地使用它们呢？V: 首先我来给你说一段一位名叫 Smith 的房地产经纪人介绍自己的工作时的话。I'm an estate agent. It's a good job. But it's not my vocation. I really want to be a personal trainer. I love working out and teaching people. I know, I badly need to change careers. Francis,你听到了哪几个单词？F: Smith 先说他是一个 estate agent 房地产经纪人，接着说“It's a good job. 这个工作挺好的”。J: 这里用了单词 job – job 是最常见的，使用最广泛的表示“工作，职业”的单词。F: 他又说“but it's not my vocation”，这句话实际表达的意思是“我不觉得这是真正适合我的职业”。J: 我们常用 vocation 来突出强调一个真正能给我们带来使命感的、又很适合我们的职业。F: And he said, he loves working out and teaching people. He knows, he badly need to change careers.V:“Estate agent 房地产经纪人”and “personal trainer 私人教练”are not just different jobs，they are different careers，所以 Smith 最后说“I badly need to change careers.”F:Now I have learnt job、vocation and career. So how about “occupation”?J: 通常 occupation 是表示“工作，职业”的一个正式用语。比如，在填写各类正式表格时，“职业”一栏相对应的英文名称就是“occupation”。在正式的上下文中我们也多用 occupation 这个词。V:名词 occupation 的动词形式是 occupy，意思是“使某人忙于做某事”，occupation 所指的“工作，职业”比单词“ job”所覆盖的面更广。举个例子来说，假如你的职业 occupation 是教师，就算你换了一个 job 工作 – 比如，到一个新学校去教书，可最终你的职业 occupation 没有变，还是教师。J:This is a good example, but ,Vincent, do you know “job” has other meanings? For example, It's your job to tell him. I can't do it for you.F:I know it means responsibility.V: 我知道“a job”的意思是“一个活儿，一件工作”。举个例子：I did a job for a newly married couple last month - they asked me to paint their bathroom red.意思是：上个月我接了一对新人的活儿，他们让我帮忙把卫生间刷成红色的。 结束语 J: So that's all for today's show.V:Hope you guys can enjoy our program .See you next time.F:感谢制作苏鑫。V:如果你喜欢我们的节目，请关注我们的微信公众号VOE Radio和VOE外语广播电台的新浪微博，那里有我们往期的作品All: Bye. 结束曲 ID 节目监制：周宸聿编辑：杨晏直 朱子业 夏茂航播音：杨晏直 朱子业 夏茂航制作：苏鑫

节目组: The World Says 世界说 节目名称: Circadian Rhythms开头曲 Gemini 引语 V: Hello everyone, welcome to the world says from the VOE foreign languages station. I'm VincentJ:Hello everybody, I'm Jotta. And I feel terrible!F:Hi my dear audience, I'm Friances.J:I feel terrible!F:You really look terrible, Jotta，if you don't mind me saying so!J:It's because I had to get up really early this morning.V:Oh dear! What time did you have to get up?J:Eight o'clock.F:Oh, Jotta! That isn't early!V:Yeah! It's not early at all. I get up at six every day. It's so peaceful early in the morning.J:Hmm. Well, some people are morning people and others… aren't!V:Well,yes. Today we're talking about the biological reason for this – it's all about circadian rhythms. 早起的生理原因，和昼夜节律有关。 插曲1 Gemini J:Right!They are produced by a so-called body clock in our brains that regulates our body functions:our body temperature, sleepiness and alertness, hunger, and hormone levels.Plants, animals, and many microbes have circadian rhythms. 昼夜节律由大脑中所谓的生物钟产生，控制着我们的躯体功能，如我们身体温度、睡眠、警觉、饥饿和荷尔蒙水平。植物、动物和许多微生物都有昼夜节律。F:You know a lot about circadian rhythms.昼夜节律方面你懂很多嘛~JottaJ:Ha Ha, yeah. Now let's talk about circadian rhythms and our internal clock.V:I want to say why do our bodies need an internal clock to tell us where we are in the day? Isn't it obvious?J:No, it isn't – take jet lag, for example.We rely on the predictable cycle of light or dark in a 24-hour period to synchronise – or adjust – our body clocks to the environment – and if we mess about with the light and dark cycle by flying into a new time zone, it makes us feel really bad!如果你飞越一个新的时区，白天黑夜的循环就会紊乱，这会让我们感觉非常糟糕！V:Good point – jet lag is the disruption of our circadian rhythms caused by high-speed travel across different time zones,which can cause tiredness and sleep problems. But Jotta, if we rely on day turning to night to adjust our body clocks, what happens to blind people? Because I assume their body clocks can't do this.J:Blind people who have some light perception are able to synchronise their circadian rhythms to the light-dark cycle, and about those who have no light perception at all, a professor have explained that totally blind people – they've lost that connection between the light-dark circle and the clock, so there isn't anything wrong with the clockbut the clock ticks and oscillates at its own endogenous period. V:Oh I get this. So if you're totally blind – or able to see but living in a dark cave – you have a ticking clock but with no connection to the outside world.The clock oscillates at its own endogenous, or internal, period.J:Do you think my endogenous clock ticks faster than yours, Vincent?V:It isn't a competition, Jotta .And actually, mine probably ticks faster than yours since I'm a morning person. Anyway, the normal range in humans is between 23.8 to 24.8 hours.And this is also true for totally blind people.J:But their clocks are free-running – they don't get cues from the outside environment telling them when to wake up, when to eat, when to feel sleepy.So that means they might feel sleepy at the wrong time of day – for example, when they're at work.Or alert in the middle of the night when they should be asleep.F:I think it's worth talking about people who do shift work– which means work that takes place outside the traditional 9 to 5 day.也就是工作时间并非传统的朝九晚五的人。J:Yeah ,shift workers may suffer similar problems to blind people because they are trying to sleep against the clock. They might sleep in the day and work at night for example – which goes against the light-dark pattern.V:There are indeed some long-term health problems associated with shift work – certain cancers, heart disease, and obesity. 插曲 2 Despacito F:所以人们应该怎么做使昼夜节律适应夜班的节奏？V:We do think that exercise and food, caffeine, may be able to modulate in some way,so has some influence on circadian timing, but not as strongly as the light-dark cycle.So the strongest influence over our circadian rhythm is the light-dark cycle. We can't alter night and day, after all!J:And other cues such as food and exercise will modulate – or adjust – the body clock. So eating three well-balanced meals at regular times each day can help your body clock adapt to an unusual schedule.V:Such as taking naps – or short sleeps – just before you start a night shift can help you feel more alert. And keeping to the same sleep schedule every day will also help.And don't forget caffeine – my old friend! A cup of coffee works wonders for me in the morning. J:Yeah! 早上一杯咖啡让我感觉非常好! V: So, that's the end of today's show, thank you for your listening.如果你喜欢我们的节目，欢迎关注voe外语广播电台的新浪微博和voe外语广播电台的微信公众号voe radio. F:感谢制作苏鑫。J:See you next time~ 结束曲 Despacito 节目监制：周宸聿编辑：杨晏直 夏茂航 朱子业播音：杨晏直 夏茂航 朱子业制作：苏鑫

节目组: The World Says 世界说 节目名称: Earworm开头曲 Don't wanna know J: Hello everybody, welcome to the world says from the VOE foreign languages station. I'm Jotta.V: Hello everyone, I'm Vincent.J:Hey, Vincent!What tune are you humming, there?V:Was I humming? Oh, I woke up with it in my head. It's that song – you know [hums a song]J:No idea, what you're talking about, Vincent, but it's very annoying, so could you just stop it please.V:That's my problem. I can stop humming it out loud, but it keeps on repeating in my head [more humming]. Did you know there's a name for that, Jotta? When a song keeps repeating in your head?J:There's a name? I don't know what it is – but I'm sure you're going to tell me.V:You're right! It's an earworm.中文是耳虫，也就是音乐幻听。 插曲1 Don't wanna know J:Sounds nasty – is there a cure for that?V:Cure?! Why do you say so! I enjoy the feeling when there's music in my mind, which makes me inspired, and have energy to do things. And let's move on. In this programme ,we're talking about music – and how it influences us.J:A professor told us how music affects what we choose to eat and drink.V:He said,imagine you're going to the bar and thinking about a glass of wine. There's French music playing behind the counter – more than likely you'll go for a glass of French wine. J:German music behind the counter – your likelihood of choosing German wine goes way, way up.If they're playing classical music you might be tempted to spend that little bit more.V:What's the likelihood of you spending more, Jotta?J:Quite likely, actually Vincent – and likelihood means the chance of something happening. I love a good glass of wine.V:Me too. But why do we spend more when there's classical music playing?J:Good question. It makes us feel a bit classy.因为古典音乐会让我们有一种优越感，给我们一种潇洒精致的感觉。V:I’m guessing hip-hop doesn’t have the same effect. Am I right?J:You’re always right, Vincent. So, the professor is saying that bars and restaurants use music to manipulate their customers.V:And that means to control or influence them. J:Argh! Earworms! They're messing with our minds!V:I know, I know, and it doesn't stop there. Restaurants also use the tempo – or speed – of the music to change people's behaviour.A fast tempo gets customers in and out quickly at busy times.On the other hand, if there aren't many customers, the restaurant might want to keep people in the place for longer.J:So they put on music with a slow tempo to create a more relaxed atmosphere.V:And atmosphere, in this context, means the mood or tone in a place or situation. 插曲 2 Why would I ever J: Now music is also used to create atmosphere in films.And Debbie Wiseman had talked about music in the movies.V:She said,a director might come to me and say “look, can you help bring the romance to this scene with the music”, and so I might write something beautifully romantic and lyrical working with what I've got and suddenly the scene will feel much more romantic, much more tender, much more sexy, whatever it needs to feel, and the music has the power to do that, to achieve that effect.J:Sexy, tender, lyrical, romantic – that's all emotional stuff!And lyrical actually means expressing strong emotions. So what's your favourite romantic moment in a film, Vincent?V:Oh, there are so many.My mom is a sucker for romance.Once the violins start playing, she starts blubbing – and yes, Jotta – that means she has a good cry!J:So sweet! Now, if you're a sucker for something, for example romance, it means you can't resist it. I'm more of a sucker for horror myself…V:And music is crucial – or extremely important – in creating atmosphere in horror films.J:That's very true. Music is often used to create tension and suspense – or feelings of anxiety and excitement.V:你能想象没有小提琴伴奏，希区柯克的《惊魂记》是什么样子么？J:Oh, let’s not have a shower scene here in the studio, Vincent. You’ll give me nightmares! V:OK,OK.You know that I've been learning dancing for a while, which is popping, whenever I hear a piece of dance music no matter where I am, I will subconsciously make some pop and wave to it, as I can see, this is the magic of music!J:Yeah, you're right~. V:Well, that brings us to the end of today’s show. J:It's time to say goodbye again.V:We hope you enjoyed humming along to today’s programme. J:Please join us again soon.V:感谢制作王紫丞。J:See you next time. 结束曲 Flashlight 节目监制：周宸聿编辑：杨晏直 朱子业播音：杨晏直 朱子业制作：苏鑫

Our next interview from the CPT&CE is with creator/artist/fabricator Jordan Patton! Jordan, along with his friend Aaron Ferguson, is the creator of the long anticipated DeadNecks series — what can only be compared to a live-action cartoon series. Instead of attempting to livestream this year's , decided to hit up a few tables and bother people for interviews! Pay close attention, kids. He's really terrible at this, but had some great interviews! Listen to the audio above and read the transcript lovingly produced by ! R: We're here at the Classic Plastics Toy and Comic Expo with Jordan Patton. Jordan is the creator of DeadNecks and we interviewed him last year. We had the table and we did the live YouTube that wasn't so live and...I'll tell you man, your video, as far as that goes on our YouTube channel, has done the best! So that's very awesome. So how have you been man? J: I've been pretty good, just staying busy. Working on some new stuff towards our first episode, but uh...Yeah other than that I just kind of hide out in my basement for five days a week and work on stuff for our episode. (laugh) R: That's awesome. I've seen the set design and you've come up, it looks like, with a couple of new characters which we'll get to here in a minute. But first I want to know – how is the show going? I mean have you been picked up or anything yet? Or are you still just working through everything and working the lines, the less fun stuff, like getting networking and all that? J: Well right now we're kind of in a build out process for the first episode, so I've got to create all the special effects and everything. We've got the story written, I need to storyboard it. But right now I'm working on making all the props, the makeups, the masks, animatronics, things like that, for our first episode so I'm giving myself about a six to eight month build-out period. Then we're going to start filming. R: Awesome. So with something that's episodic like this, how durable – I mean, you do the work. You and Aaron, right? - and you have a small crew basically, don't you? J: Very small crew. There's about three or four of us that are willing to work on it and put our own time in, and our own money, to try and get it going further. But we're all pretty dedicated to it and once we get all the effects done and everything, start filming, it should only take us about two or three months to actually film our episode. After the episode is done we're kind of hoping that we can pitch it around and see what people feel about it and maybe we can get an even bigger crew to help with future episodes? R: Awesome. So the line I was going on there, to continue that, is with it being an episodic thing do you really have to build the props and the masks to be super durable so you don't have to do  as much doctoring throughout the episodes? J: Yeah so we actually encountered that with some of the things that we had for our trailer. So the guns were actually made out of just insulation foam, I carved those out,  but during one of our scenes we actually snapped it in half and I actually had to go in and repair it and everything. So in the future we need to make things a little more durable. I'm actually going to be making a mold of that so I can make it latex and foam like a lot of these that way it can bend, flex around and not break or anything. So yeah, with that it needs to be very durable. I mean we're going to have a lot of practical effects like throw-up gags, things like that. A lot of blood splatter. It's essentially going to be like a GWAR show. (laugh) R: (laugh) Right. So do you have, with 3D printing really finding a whole lot of traction in the last couple of years, do you guys do any 3D printing on top of that to help augment? Or do you have access to one, or is it something you'd like to work with in the future? J: Right now everything is kind of done by hand. The shop that I work at, it's a place called Tech Shop; we actually have several 3D printers there. But I haven't utilized them for any of this process yet. I have been looking into resin 3D printing so if I wanted to produce smaller characters and things like that, merch to sell, I would definitely be doing that with the resin SLA printers because you don't get any of the striations in any of your prints so it comes out fairly clean. So I've been looking into doing that so I can get some more products out there for like cool merchandise. R: Awesome. How has the con treated you this year so far? J: It's been pretty cool. I mean I've seen a lot of familiar faces from last year so it's always good to recognize people and have them recognize you and just kind of chit-chat back and forth about what everyone's been into and everything. So yeah, it's been great so far. R: So you also said you're working at a shop? What was the shop's name again? J: A place called “Tech Shop”. It's kind of like, essentially like the YMCA except for without workout equipment. We've got like wood shop, welders, water jet cutters, laser cutters, 3D printers, things like that. R: Oh my God that sounds so freaking awesome. J: Yeah I used to live there like 24-7. Just would never leave the place other than to go sleep at home. (laugh) R: I understand man. I can't even imagine the amount of creative juices flowing in a place like that. J: Yeah there was like 500 or so members there, and everyone does something different so you never know what kind of stuff you're going to see coming out of there. You got all kinds of artists, furniture makers, welders, machinists, it's crazy! People are making their own robots in there. R: That's awesome! So, I mean, doing something like that also affords you great networking opportunities I imagine? J: Without a doubt. Working there has really brought a lot of opportunities to me just with the flow of people that come in there and the people that know about the place. I mean it's helped me grow in my own skill sets as well. Like I didn't know how to weld before going in there and working there. But now I've got welding experience, I've got a lot of various experiences from all the different machinery that's in there and it's really helped me to be able to create a lot of stuff for the show. R: That's awesome. So do we have any new characters that you're bringing to DeadNecks here today? J: Right now we've got one new character. Just finished him up about a day or two ago. His name is “Boo Hoo”; he's like a little patchwork ghost character. He's not actually going to be in the first episode but he's probably going to be making an appearance in the second episode for sure. [caption id="attachment_2095" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Boo Hoo, picture courtesy of Laura Gant[/caption] R: Gotcha, awesome. So what are some of the other characters, if we want to just kinda roll through the table here and even though I don't have – I'll take a picture to post along with it and we'll let them know. So let's start off from the left to the right...which will be the right to left since we're behind the table (laugh) J: (laugh) Right on. Well over here we've got “Soft Serve Merve”, so it's kind of like a larger sculpt I did for that. He's actually going to be used in the first episode. So I mean if you think back to the Ren and Stimpy cartoons whenever it would be hyper-close-ups and you would see all the disgusting details, that's essentially what these larger masks here are for, are for scenes like that in the first episode. So yeah, I tried to sculpt that as detailed as possible just so it would read disgusting whenever you go for that hyper-zoom in the actual skit itself. Below him is the “Birthday Boy”, it's actually one of Merve's victims. So Merve kidnaps children and turns them into strange food related creatures. (laugh) [caption id="attachment_2097" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Birthday Boy, photo courtesy of Laura Gant[/caption] Above him we got “Ma Slackjaw” with her beer can curlers in her hair. She enjoys sleeping, eating, and smoking a lot out of the hole in her neck. (laugh) And then down there we got “Boo Hoo”, the new character. He's actually secretly one of Merve’s victims as well. He kind of lurks about Merve’s whereabouts and kinda haunts the place. R: Oh man, spoilers! (laugh) J: Yeah, a look into the future! Then above that we've got “Pete”, he's more or less the main character of the show. I mean he's just like a little dopey character here. The rest of his family thinks he's completely stupid and useless just because he can't really talk and is always wearing this pumpkin on his head to disguise his horrific face that's underneath of it. Pete's actually really smart and he has a lot of personality but his family doesn't see it because they're all pretty stupid themselves. (laugh) And then beside that we've got “Ted Slackjaw”, Pete's uncle. So the two different versions here: That's the original Ted as well as the hyper-extended face Ted. So the hyper-extended face will also be used in our first episode as well as one of those close-up shots. R: Awesome man! So how many different iterations do you build, different masks, or - J: For one character? Yeah, for one character it sometimes depends on what you can actually do with your face. Because, like, for some of them I do makeups to where you can move your face, but you can only get so much expression out of it. So if I want like a hyper expression like what you see in a lot of cartoons you really just have to sculpt an entire new piece just to really give it that exaggerated look. With DeadNecks we really want it to look and feel like a cartoon. To do the impossible, essentially, with facial structure, bone structure, all that. So to do that you kind of have to break down and do several sculpts for one character just to get that one effect. But I think it'll really be worth it in the end to actually see a living cartoon, essentially. R: When you're doing something like that, do you think about any way to have some sort of modular ability to do something like that? You know where you could maybe detach a jaw only and be able to do something like that? J: Yeah. Well with that you start getting more into the animatronic side of things which is really interesting and you can actually do a lot with those because with those you actually have a skin that goes over top of an under skull. So it kind of mimics the anatomy of an actual person so you can actually get a lot of movement with that. But with that you just got to think about how it's going to work. You've got to kinda deconstruct how something's going to move and kinda reverse engineer it so you can figure out how you need to build it. So I mean that's very interesting and it takes a little bit more time but it's got a really cool effect in the end just because you've got literally an under skull, some skin, movable eyes, things like that. So you can really play around with a lot of things that you can't actually do with a human face. R: Gotcha, awesome. Alright well Jordan, where can people find you if they want to find you guys. Do we have any idea where we'd be looking at watching the first episode? J: So you can find us on , Instagram “DeadNecks”. I would say we're probably looking at getting our first episode out a little over a year from now. Like I said we're in the build out process right now and it should only take us about two or three months after that to get it filmed and then put it into post and get it all edited together. So I would say about a year, year and half from now you should be looking at an episode. We're going to drop spoilers along the way just to keep people entertained and interested along the way. But you should be able to see it, I'd say in a year and a half from now. R: Awesome man, I'll hold you to that. (both laugh) J: Right on. R: Thanks a lot Jordan! J: Yeah, thank you!

Our first interview is with James Patrick, writer of Harley Quinn, Green Arrow, Star Trek, Batman, Death Comes to Dillinger, and much, much more! Instead of attempting to livestream this year's , decided to hit up a few tables and bother people for interviews! Pay close attention, kids. He's really terrible at this, but had some great interviews! Listen to the audio above and read the transcript lovingly produced by ! Rem: We're here at the Classic Plastics Toy and Comic Expo with - James: James Patrick! R: James Patrick, creator of Hero Hourly and Impostor and and all of that sort of thing. Writer extraordinaire! How have you been? J: I've been doing great. This show has been wonderful. R: Has it? So you said that you've been received really well. It looks like you have a primo spot here. So, uh... J: This spot was actually the result of a mistake. So we'll call it a wonderful mistake. R: Oh really? That's awesome. Good. Glad to hear it. So, what have you been doing since the last time we talked and what have you got going in the works? J: Um, right now I have a bunch of pitches in at different companies. Companies people recognize. I can't get into what I'm talking about what I'm working on yet. R: Sure. J: But those things are developing. And then I have different creator owned books. For instance I have a book that we're about to pitch – it's related to giant monsters, it's a Kaiju book. I'm not going to get into the hook or the specifics but it's a giant monster book with a twist. Actually...ah, we'll leave it at that. It's a giant monster book with a twist. R: Haha, aw man. You're going to leave me hanging with that? That kind of sucks because I'm kind of excited about the Kaiju stuff. The Godzilla stuff, there was this, uh, I guess not a leak so much but they were talking about how in the credits, they released the credits - J: For Kong? R: For Kong, yeah. And they had some of the other TOHO monsters? J: Right, like Mothra. Monster X. And I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard they're – I don't know if they're in the credits or I don't know what's going on. But I've heard something, and I'm looking forward to Kong. I haven't seen Logan yet so I've got to cross Logan off the list, then I'll cross Kong off the list. R: Gotcha. I haven't seen Logan yet either, I don't know if I'll be able to see it in the theatres, but are you excited to see it as well? J: I'm VERY excited to see it. I'm probably going to go tonight or tomorrow, depending. I don't know. I'm just really looking forward to it, it hear it's really good. R: Awesome. So is there anything else you'd like to NOT pitch to me that you're not NOT doing? J: (Laughs) No…Um, no I can't get into specifics. If the wrong person...I'll get in trouble. Um, let's just say I've got a bunch of stuff out there I'm working on and I'm talking to different people about doing different things right now. So that's pretty much all I can say. Um, that's it for now. I'm working on a Kaiju book and I'm working on a book with the Devil and a couple other things. And that's all, for now. That's good enough. R: With the devil? (laugh) J: Yeah. A devil Kaiju or something, I don’t know. R: laugh Nice. So that being said since you have to keep everything hush-hush, you'll keep me in the loop when you get something that you can actually talk about, won't you? J: Absolutely. When something develops and I can announce it, and I will. And I'll tell you. I'll phone you up and I will say “Remington, I...you are the first.” R: I won't be the first, don't lie to me man. J: Okay, I've been lying. So you're right. R: Thanks a lot man, I appreciate it. If anyone wants to find you, where can they find you at? J: Do you mean like at home? Like my address? Or do you mean at the show? R: Yeah, I mean if you just want to give out your home address, your date of birth, your social security number or something like that? J: Yeah, sure, whatever. No. Yeah if they want to come down to the Classic Plastics Show I'm here. I don't know. Is this airing, is this live? R: No, it's not live. J: Okay, well like I told the other people at the other podcast. Everything is 90% off if you come down today. So come on down. Everything is 90% as long as you get here today. Also I'd like to say a big, big thanks out to Schmo from SchmoMo News because if people don't thank her, well, she gets upset. R: Yeah I was very upset I couldn't make it here yesterday to see her in her Supergirl outfit. [caption id="attachment_2053" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Picture courtesy of The Schmo; Schmo Mo News[/caption] J: She looked amazing. There were a lot of cosplayers here who looked amazing, and she was one of them. And I encourage everyone to check out . R: Alright, thanks James! J: No problem! [amazon template=iframe image2&asin=B00I2ZQFP4,B00N13T8SS,B01LZV3KTO,B01CKK1Q3M,B01859XF04,B01AMUT3N2]

节目组: The World Says 世界说 节目名称: World interesting highlights 世界搞笑新闻I: Hello everyone welcome to the world says from the VOE foreign language station.This is Iris.F：And I am handsome Francies.I: This week we will talk about some world interesting highlights.F: Sounds interesting .What's the detail?I: Now I'll give you 4 interesting world news, and you will point out which one is the false～F: Ok.～I itch to tryI: Selection A. Russia news . One day evening, a man was having a drink with his friend in a restaurant . Suddenly, 35 unknown masked men rushed in and fight against each other. Everyone run away except for the drinking man .He stay there still drinking like watching a theatre.J: Selection B. Britain news. Recently, a British company published a new invention, that is a air sac in the tie .men can drink the alcohol through the straw connected with the air sac when they are working. This accessory is inconspicuous. Your boss and colleagues can hardly discover you are drinking with it.F: Selection C. Hong Kong news. One day afternoon, in Mong Kok a tea cafeteria , two drunkards had drunk too much and they had a very pleasant talk. With the more they talk , the more they like brothers and both of their family name is Chen ,and they live in the same district! Afterwards, when two men were highly excited,they asked for the restaurant owner to witness them go for brothers. The restaurant owner at last can't stand them , so he call the police. After the police's research 原来他们真是亲兄弟I: Selection D. German news . A 24 years old college student come from Munster cause drink driving bicycle was published 500 euro fine by the police and was sentenced not to ride a bike on the road for 25years.F: en... I 'll choose D.I: wing wing wing wing ,you are wrong. The correct answer is C.F: My goddess! Foreign countries are so strict to the drink driving.J: Yes. In America, the police will install a ignition lock on the car of who has drink driving record. Everytime when you want to drive the car, you have to blow to the lock to detection alcohol wheather is excess. If it was found that you have drink the wine before driving , the car can't be open.I: And in Thailand , if you drink driving, you will be in jail at most for 10 years and the fine will be published at most to 20 thousand yuan. The drink driving people also should do volunteer 's work like cleaning the toilet, doing some society work and so on.F: 酒驾真是个很严重的事情. F: Jane, are you a sophomore？J: Yeah, what's the matter?F: Have you ever think of how to spend the time in your future schoolies week ? Would you do something crazy?J: No, I will do as the same cause I'll take postgraduate entrance exams.F: 你真是个学霸...My friend study in Australia told me that (响指)I: Now schoolies week it's a big problem and you know why? Because more and more people attending this. Every year we have students from the world, coming to this one spot on the Gold Coast. The authorities have finally cottoned on to this and they've invented a new concept of the "Party Pass", where by you have to prove that you actually are a student that has graduated. Is this going to curb the problem? I don't think so, because most of the people are doing nudie runs, and the plunge into the sea, which is something I have no idea what is all about. J: Well, we have discussed so much, but it is not over, following we are going to bring you some small, funny, Stories that happened recently.F: Okay, let's check out what else. Wowhoho，there is a man who sneak into the kindergarten six times just for stealing kids' biscuits and was convicted for one year after being arrested. 吃货的人生不需要解释I: Nowadays, bike-riding is becoming more and more popular, but, can you imagine someone ride from Beijing down to Africa? According to the report, a young man in 佛山 ride to Africa without a stop just because he wants to give vent to his anger due to the argument with his girlfriend.F: One hundred dollar can do lots of things such as buying some clothes, having a good dinner, and you probably don't know that it can also wake up a vegetative patient. After being unconscious for two hundreds day or so, Lee, a young man who was passed out as a result of stayed up a whole week, was able to move his arms when his mother putting out one hundred dollar from her purse. I: Other news, the Chinese star Zhao Wei is being accused recently, and the reason of it is that the accuser can't bear Zhao Wei staring at him in television, and he wants the compensation for moral damage, which is incredible and makes the judge confused so muchF: A woman hasn't been passed the Driving license test for fourteen years，and when facing with the emergency situations, she just throw away the steering wheel and use her hands cover her face ! Finally, the driving school refund all the money and invite her to have a dinner.l: Also about the car, one criminal in HuBei use the ID card to take a vehicle to run away but it happened that the ID card's owner is a criminal too, so he was put into jail, with a ten-galen confused face.F: Oh, what a shame. Next one, one woman frightened a thief away in the midnight. Do you guys know what she did?J: It is hard to say. Just tell us Francis.F: Okay, actually, she did nothing, but she is watching a TV program and burst out into laughter, which freaked the poor thief out and nearly fall off when escaping.I: I can't imagine how terrified her voice sounded. Do you believe our pursuit of love won't fade away as years pass by?J: Why did you said that, let me see your news.I: No hurry, I will tell you, a old man have to move away many times beacause he was disturbed by a woman aged 70's endless confessions about her love to him. And every time he moved away, the woman always can find him few days later. And she even broke a window to draw the attentions.F: 天呐，听得我又相信爱情了.J：That's crazy, So here is a tip，handsome guys need to be careful when walking on the street and don't forget to draw the curtains when staying at home. Speaking of the love, next news will definitely pulls you into realistic,,A man left his younger brother and drive away without noticed it until he has driven 20 miles away.F: what？ You know, I happened to have a twin brother, if he do this to me, I will remember him in the rest of my life.I: Sorry to interrupt，but is time for us to say goodbye.F: Yeah, see you next time.感谢制作苏鑫，感谢制作王紫丞. Bye～节目监制：周宸聿 编辑：张燚铭 苗世钰 夏茂航播音：张燚铭 苗世钰 夏茂航制作：苏鑫

Brad Post, Create the Movement: Welcome to the next edition of our podcast. My name is Brad Post. I’m sitting here with Josh Rich. Josh Rich, Create the Movement: Hello, hello everyone. B: Josh, how are you, sir? J: Doing well Brad. How are you? B: Good, good. So, today we are going to be talking about… J: AdWords. B: AdWords. J: Google AdWords. B: Google AdWords, okay. J: Google AdWords are those, like, I guess now it’s four, used to be three. But nowadays it’s the top four results anytime you do a Google search that people are paying for. They’re typically yellow, I think, kind of a yellow-highlighted box around them B: Says ‘Ad’? J: Yeah, says ‘Ad’. There used to be three and some on the side. And now they got rid of the sidebar. Now it’s only four. That happened, like what, two, three months ago? B: Three months ago. Yeah. J: So, that’s kind of fun. But, it’s a really great way if you have a new site that doesn’t have a whole lot of like SEO behind you. B: Okay. J: It’s a great way to get traffic especially if it’s not a super-competitive keyword. I will say AdWords is definitely not for everyone - depending on the market that you’re in. You know we have an insurance company, as a client right now, we don’t do AdWords for them because they’re competing with like Allstate and Geico. So, it’s like $50 a click, something like that? Something ridiculous. B: Yeah, they have crazy budgets. J: And so, if you’re competing on that level and just a local company it’s not for you. Because you’re not going to be able to compete. You’re going to be able to afford like two clicks a month. It’s just not worth it. Not worth it. B: Right. J: But, if you do have, if the clicks are affordable, if the keywords aren’t super competitive, then it really is a good way to get an influx. Especially, like I said, if you are launching a new campaign, or a new product, or new service or something like that, and you want to get some traffic to your site. That’s something that we recommend a lot if people are like adding a new service, is to do, kind of like, an AdWords blitz. Just because, you know, if you wrote content that’s pretty fresh, you know, Google may have indexed that, but they don’t trust it too much yet. But if you get a lot of traffic to it, and people are actually spending good time on-site, that will kind of increase your SEO efforts. And that way you can, kind of, start out with AdWords pretty heavy, and then as time goes on kind of ween off that. And then kind of increase your SEO efforts. It’s an easy way to get started. B: You mentioned a new site in the very beginning, kind of rewinding a little bit. J: Yeah. B: So, basically somebody that’s starting out with a brand-new URL? J: Yeah. No domain authority, no domain juice, anything like that. B: Google doesn’t see it as J: Trustworthy. B: Right, because it’s a brand-new site. J: Exactly. So, they don’t really know what to think of it yet. But it’s a good way to establish yourself as credible, and get some authority with Google. B: Okay. J: All right. So, AdWords is pretty tricky if you’ve never done it before. It can be somewhat overwhelming. So, we just kind of want to give everyone kind of a really broad overview of like how to get started in it. And some step-by-step stuff that you can take just to get your feet wet. And that way, you can kind of know a little bit about AdWords, and what to do. So, the first thing you want to do is set very specific goals. You don’t want to say, “I just want to drive more traffic.” Or, “I want to sell more widgets.” You want to say, “Hey, I want more people to go to this landing page. I want more people to fill out this contact form. I want more people to do this, or that.” Because that’s really going to dictate how you do everything else, and how you arrange your keywords and everything like that. So, make sure that you set a very specific goal and it can be more than one. As we’ll get into it, you know, you can ...

Quick Links:  Jim Stovall The Ultimate Legacy The Ultimate Gift One Season of Hope Brad Post, Create the Movement Dominick Montgomery, Create the Movement Jim Stovall, guest   Brad Post, host, Create the Movement: Welcome to Create the Movement podcast. This is Brad Post. I’m sitting with Dominick Montgomery, our Chief Marketing Officer here. And I also have the honor of introducing our special guest today. He’s a mentor of mine, author of 30 books, seven, working on your seventh movie. Right, Jim? Jim Stovall, here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Jim, how are you doing today? Jim Stovall: Great. And it’s wonderful to talk to you. B: Great. Well, I know you and I meet monthly. And, I’m just excited to be a part. You usually give me a book to read, and I read it. J: Yeah. B: You’re still reading a book a day? Or, listening to a book a day? J: Yeah, I read a book everyday. And, I am, it’s embarrassing to tell your audience, as a blind person myself, when I could read with my eyes, I don’t know that I ever read a whole book cover to cover. I thought I was going to be a professional football player. And I was on my way to doing that when I was diagnosed with losing my sight. But now, as blind person, with the new audio technology and being able to speed up the digital audiobooks, I read a book everyday. And it’s been really transformational for me. B: One thing, Jim, that’s always impressed me, just your daily routine. I know people ask you that a lot. Could you kind of run through your daily routine? J: Well, I get up ridiculously early. I get up everyday at four. D: Wow. J: And it’s not like I. We just lost Dominick over here. He didn’t, he thought the only four was the one in the afternoon. B: Right! J: There’s this other one. But, no, I get up early. And it’s not like I suffer or set the alarm. That’s when I wake up. And then, I read generally read a book between then and the time I go to work. And then, my wife and I spend an hour together. Quiet time and just kind of going over the day, and talking about different things. And that’s kind of how I get started in the morning. And then, here in my office, people always wonder, “What do I do?” I run a television network, but I do five things: I do movies, television, books, speeches, and my columns. And I always envision it like a four-sided pyramid with the point on the top, and the point is whatever I’m doing at any given moment. But it needs to support, and be supported, by the other four. So, if I’m making a movie, it’s going to be based on a book I wrote. I’m going to be promoting it on TV. I’m going to write a column about it. And you’re going to hear it in my speeches. And, so, everything supports, and is supported, by everything else I do. D: So, you are a marketing company? J: Yeah, I mean my products do market, you know, the old misnomer that ‘it sells itself.’ You know? I believe that if you set it up right, it does. Because that’s the difference between sales and marketing. Sales is I call you. Marketing is you call me. And I always like it when my phone rings, and that’s a totally different relationship. D: Right. B: And that’s, I really like that. So, it’s just five things that you focus on? J: Yeah. B: You just wake up at four-am to do it? Right? J: Yeah. And, you know, I do my financial transactions at four. I am the only financial investment broker in the world, that he’s in the office at four. B: Right. J: So, we do the Asia thing, and everything else. Yeah, it’s just where I am. And in a way I feel like I’m cheating the world. You know? I get several hours to do what I do that other people don’t. B: Right. D: Sure. B: A couple of other things I wanted to, just kind of mention, Jim. One thing I like about you, too, and this is how you and I originally met, was just your authenticity. In everyone one of your books, I think, you give out your email. Your phone number, and say, “Call me.” J: Yeah, I have 10 million books in print, and my ph...

Brad Post, Create the Movement: Hello. This is Brad Post, and I am with my co-host, Josh Rich. Josh Rich, Create the Movement: Good morning everyone. B: We are continuing our Tuesday Marketing Tips. Right? J: Yes, sir. B: So, how are you doing, Josh? J: Doing well, Brad. How are you? B: I’m doing well. J: Excellent. So, today, we’re going to be talking about, really, two main topics. Using link-building software. And, then, we’re going to talk about, kind of, what to do if you’re going to hire a company to build links for you. It’s a little different. So, the first one is kind of the DIY version. It’s just buying some software, and paying for links yourself. Versus, just paying someone else to do it. B: Okay. J: So, there’s a couple of things, if you’re going to do it yourself, there’s some really good tools you can use. For one, whenever you start, you need to have some sort of a link management system. B: Okay. J: Because if you’re going to be emailing bloggers and signing up for directory listings you need to make sure that you stay organized. Otherwise, you’re just going to be all over the place, and you’re not going to figure out what you have already done, and you’ll end up doing double work. B: Just like an Excel spreadsheet? J: Yeah. That’s kind of like the basic version. You use an excel spreadsheet. Or, you can just actually sign up for some paid-link building software. That’s a little bit better because it will give some analytics on it. So, the first one you can use is, is what we use, is Raven Tools. B: Okay. J: That will tell you, kind of like, what status you’re at. And it will give you some analytics, like I said, on the link, to let you know what the domain authority is. To just let you know if it’s worth pursuing, or not. B: Okay, perfect. J: Another site you can use, it won’t necessarily manage link, but if you’re just curious if it’s a good link worth pursuing or not, is SpyFu. And it will just give you some readouts on how much traffic they get, what the domain authority is, and how much people trust that link. B: Okay. J: And then there’s another software you can use to kind of just check for new prospects. To just kind of give you some ideas. And it’s called Ontolo. O-N-T-O-L-O. Not sure if I’m saying that right, or not. Like I said, that will just kind of give you some ideas where to look for links. And, then, once you kind of figured out what you want to do. You can use a software called Word Tracker. And that B: Word Tracker? J: Yeah, Word Tracker. And that will just kind of give you ideas on how to proposition the websites. On how to go about, like just, sending the initial email to try to get your link on their site. How to just make the “ask” basically. B: Okay. J: So, those are all, you know, really good softwares you can use. And, so, another way to do this too, is just flat-out buying links. And, today, that’s probably something you’re just going to have to do if you’re going to do backlinking. Unfortunately, just people know about SEO now, so they’re going to charge you for it. So, there’s a couple of things you should be aware of. A couple of ways you should go about that. First, of all, one good idea to do, is to look up to see if your competitors are using paid links. And again, you can use SpyFu for that. And if you’re paid links, then you can probably get away with not doing it too. Especially, if you’re already ranking higher than them. But, you know, if you have competitors that are just 10 links ahead of you, and they’ve got tons of paid links, that’s probably why they’re ahead of you. B: And you use SpyFu, and also, Open Site Explorer? J: Yep. Yeah. You can use both of those to figure out kind of what your competition is doing. And that’s really a good place to start. So, that way you can at least know if you’re keeping up with the “Jonses.” B: Okay. The paid links, for example, we work with a lot of attorneys. And so, the FindLaw directory is a pai...

Brad Post, Create the Movement: Welcome to Create the Movement podcast. My name Brad Post. I’m just sitting here with Josh Rich. Josh Rich, Create the Movement: Hello everyone Hello Brad. B: How are you doing? J: Doing great Brad. How are you? B: Good. We are doing a new podcast today. And what does this podcast discuss? J: We’re going to be talk content. B: Okay. J: The right way to approach content – in terms of your viewpoint on it. And just really how you should assess what you’re doing, and kind of the overall goal of what content does. B: Okay. Great. So, kind of, the right way to do content? J: Yeah, the right way to do content. So, whenever we’re talking on content. We need to focus on three things. B: Three?   J: Three things. And that’s attraction, interaction, and reaction. B: Did you say traction or attraction? J: Attraction, interaction, and reaction. B: A-I-R. Just no acronyms. J: There’s no acronyms. Alliterations, but no acronyms. Maybe one day, we’ll get it down. So, basically, those three things, are three steps in a sales funnel. B: Okay. J: And a sales funnel is just kind of like a general illustration that kind of helps you visuals kind of how your potential customers become actual customers. B: Okay. J: And so, you can look at different sales funnels, you know, and you could probably find as many as 10-12. B: You could probably Google ‘sales funnels.’ J: Yeah, I’m sure you could find all sorts of ones. And I mean there’s going to be different ones for different industries and different purposes. So, for this, for the sake of content, we’re going to focus on three steps. B: Okay. J: So, at the top of the funnel, where it’s the widest, that’s where the attraction is. B: Okay. J: So, that’s when you’re literally just trying to get people to know about your company. To attract them to your website, to let them know you exist, and that you provide X service. Or, X goods. B: Okay. J: So, whenever you’re writing content for attraction purposes, it’s a lot different than anything else. Because, it’s a lot more broad, you’re not like selling them anything. B: More information based? J: More information based. Yeah. So, you kind of just want to stick to your general industry. You definitely do not want to write about directs products that you offer, or direct services that you offer. B: Okay. J: It’s too soon for that. You just want to get in their heads a little bit. You want to create what we call “top of mind”-awareness. B: Okay. J: So, Brad, if I we’re to say, “Hey, let’s go get pizza for lunch.” What would you say? Where would you want to go? B: I’d probably say Mazzio’s J: Exactly. For whatever reason. Whether that just be proximity to the closest one. Or, just, that’s your favorite pizza. Mazzio’s has established “top of mind”-awareness in your mind. B: Here in Tulsa. J: In your mind, your knee-jerk reaction essentially. B: Right. J: So, that’s what the attraction purpose is. You want to establish that knee-jerk reaction that whenever they think, “Hey, I need hire someone for this good or this service.” They think you. B: Okay. J: And so, again, you’re not selling them anything here. You’re not closing the deal. It’s important to understand that the way the sales funnel work is that don’t try to close the deal at every step. You try to push them to the next step. B: Okay. J: You try to push them to that next phase of content. That next step in the funnel. B: Okay. J: So, to give an example, let’s say if you’re like a tree-trimming service. I’ve got a tree-trimmer coming out to my house this afternoon, so that’s why I’m thinking about that. B: Okay. J: So, if you’re a tree-trimming service and you want to write or create some content about, for the attraction purposes. Yeah, anything from gardening. To just information different types of trees. Not necessarily about trimming them, but if you have this type of yard an oak tree is great for this. B: Okay....

Brad Post, Create the Movement: Welcome to Create the Movement podcast. My name is Brad Post.  And I’m sitting here with Josh Rich. Josh Rich, Create the Movement: Hello Brad, how are you? B: I’m doing well. How are you doing, sir? J: Doing great, Brad. B: Well, we are talking marketing tips today. We’ve gone through some social media things. We’ve gone through quite a few other, you know, paid advertising, analytics. We’re going to be talking about content today? J: Yeah. Content as a whole. Then, kind of, taking a closer look at blogging today, as well. B: Okay. J: So, just to get into it. Content, when we say content it’s a very broad term. It can be anything. It’s not just written content. It could be videos. It could be quizzes. It could be infographics. It could be anything. B: Okay. J: Just anything that people see, and ingest, as information. B: Could be audio podcast? J: Could be audio. Yeah. It could be anything. B: Right. J: And so, whenever you’re creating content for your online presence, whether that be website, social media, whatever, there’s two, kind of, things you want to consider. Two goals you want to keep in mind. Generally speaking, content could, and should, fall into these two categories. B: Okay. J: So, the first is to drive traffic to your website. B: Right. J: The second one is going to be to sell. B: Okay. J: Okay, to kind of break those down a little bit more. So, the traffic one, that’s commonly referred to as clickbait. Just things that people click on, go to the website, see it. So, it’s not necessarily something like a hard sell that you’re doing. It’s just for people to, like, get to know the brand and what not. It’s also, kind of, to rank well, as well, for SEO purposes. To get people to drive traffic to the website. That’ll in turn, kind of, increase your SEO. And so, that’s kind of where you can put some of your key words, as well. And the second one, like I said, is just to sell. So, that’s where you’re going to be really conversion focused. And making sure that once they’re there, they know what you’re selling, or what you’re doing, so that way they have a clear path to the buying process. B: Okay. J: So, make sure, like, generally speaking, it should fall into one of those two categories. If it’s outside one of those, you might need to take a look at it, and reconsider the strategies there. B: You called it clickbait? J: Clickbait, yeah. So, just a little topic, like “5 Things You’re Doing Wrong in Your Marriage.” Or, whatever? B: Post that through social media? J: Yeah, exactly. People are like, “Oh, my gosh! What am I doing wrong in my marriage? I need to figure this out.” B: Okay. J: And so, it’s somewhat of, like, reactionary. Somewhat, kind of, fear mongering. But it works really well. Sadly. B: Okay.   J: And, so, one of the first things you’re going to need to decide whenever you’re creating content is, first of all, your topic. B: Okay. J: It seems pretty basic, but there’s some strategy behind topic. The biggest thing you want to consider is, “What do your customers need?” You know? You need to figure out what their needs are. You don’t want to just, like, make things they already know, or they don’t care about. So, make sure it’s geared toward your customer. One easy way to do this, if you have a big sales team, of have any sort of information from sales, is to ask them. B: “What kind of questions are you getting?” J: Exactly. Frequently asked questions that your sales team get is always the best way to get good content. B: Okay. J: Because that’s what people care about. Because they’re asking it. The other way is you can check forums on the industry. You can check social media and just see what people are asking. See what people are confused about. If you can find something that your customers are frequently confused about, that’s a great way to fill that hole and fill that information you recognize as the source of good info...

Brad Post, Create the Movement: Welcome to Create the Movement podcast. My name is Brad Post, and I'm sitting here with Josh Rich. Josh, how are you? Josh Rich, Create the Movement: Doing great. Brad, how are you? B: Doing well. J: Excellent. B: In this podcast, a few podcasts ago we were talking about social media, just overall. J: Kind of paid advertising. B: Paid advertising. What today do you specifically? J: We’re going to touch on Facebooks ads. B: Okay. J: And the reason why we’re going to do that, I kind of feel that if someone is just starting out doing a paid social media campaign, Facebook’s really the way to go. B: Okay. J: There’s a couple of reasons for that. First of all, in 2014, Pew Research Firm did a research study abou who all, how many people are on different social media platforms. B: Pew, like smells “pew”? J: P-E-W. B: Okay. J: They’re a big name.  Basically, of adults that are on the internet actively, in some form, 71% on Facebook. B: Wow. J:  28% are on LinkedIn. Another 28 are on Pinterest. 26 are on Instagram. And 23 are on Twitter. B: Wow. LinkedIn’s taking over Twitter. J: Yeah. But, Facebook is like kicking butt. 71%. I mean, not even close to anything else. B: Okay. J: Definitely your biggest audience, for sure. And another couple of reasons: first of all, they make it really easy to advertise. I think they give you the most tools. It can be the most-targeted, because people put so much of their interests on there. LinkedIn is pretty targeted too, I guess, that’s a different market entirely. You don’t really sell things on LinkedIn, typically. B: Right. J: Also, you can have the most formats. You can display on the side. You can do a newsfeed. You can change it up pretty easily. One thing also, I looked at was click-through rates. Surprisingly, I really couldn’t find any good data on that. B: Okay. J: I don’t know if maybe it’s because paid ads are kind of a new thing in social media. In some cases, Facebook was better. In some cases, Twitter was better. It kind of depended on where I was looking. But, overall, I think that averaged-out, they’re probably the same click-through rates. But, I still think, given all the other reasons, I think Facebook is the way to go. B: Okay. J: So, whenever you’re starting a Facebook campaign, there are two things you need to narrow down first. The first one is your budget. The second one is your audience. So, the way that the budget works, I think I kind of touched on this last time, but to review, they have this term called Cost Per Optimized Impression. It’s basically a fancy way of saying cost per impression. B: Okay. J:  So, opposed to a pay-per-click, which is like you pay every time you click on it. B: Right. J: So, the marketing term here is: CPM. Which stands for cost per thousand.  Not cost per million. Basically, that means per every thousand impressions, and impression every time someone looks at it, it’s going to cost you this much. B: Okay. J: So, a two-dollar CPM means, that for every thousand people that look at it, it’s going to cost you two-dollars. B: Facebook will spend your money, too. J: Right! They will. So, Facebook calls it Cost per Optimized Impression, which basically just means that they have this special formula that optimizes the impressions to make it more favorable for you. B: Okay. J: But anyways, that’s how the budgeting works. So first, obviously, “How much do you want to spend?” And I’ve said this before, but, you need to plan for three months. If you can’t afford to do something for three months, then you shouldn’t do it. Now, within that three months, you should also be changing things. Don’t just ‘set it and forget it’ for three months, then see what happens. Do some split testing. Try some different colors. Try some different words. See what happens. You also want to think about scheduling for budgeting. So, if you sell hats and gloves, and a cold front’s coming in, you’re proba...

Brad Post, Create the Movement: Welcome to Create the Movement podcast. My name is Brad Post, and I’m here with Josh Rich. Josh Rich, Create the Movement: Hello everyone. B: Josh, how are you doing? J: Doing great Brad. How are you? B: Good. Good. Today, we are going to be talking about… J: We’re going to be talking about paid social media ads. B: Okay. J: So, it’s kind of, I don’t know, the wave of the future? Or, whatever you want to call it. But it’s kind of a necessary evil, is probably the better word to describe it. More and more, what we’re seeing is that just organic Facebook posts and Twitter posts just aren’t getting the same reach that paid posts are. And so, if you’ve been on social media, you’ve seen ads that say “Sponsored Post” on Facebook. I think Twitter has something else. Or LinkedIn has like “Promoted Post”. They’ve all got their little terms. But, it’s just basically when someone’s paying for it. B: Social media platforms are making it a little bit more difficult for business, especially Facebook. J: Exactly. Facebook, especially, is making it really hard to get the reach out there like you would with an organic post. B: Right. J: So, we’re kind of seeing, more and more, that you kind of have to pay if you want to get some good results. So, we’re just going to talk about, kind of, some best practices of doing paid advertising. Because, you know, whenever you’re doing this you’re not just investing your time; you’re investing money, too. So, you want to make sure you do it the right way. So, the first thing you want to do whenever you set up a paid advertising account, or a campaign, is you want to make sure you have a specific goal in mind. And, obviously, you want to make sure that coincides with your overall social media goal.   And so, there’s four things you want to consider when you set up this goal. You want to figure out what you want to say. Who you want to say it to. What the call to action is. And then, you want to figure out a way to measure it as well. And so, kind of going on number three, on the call to action, you want to make sure that’s very specific. You don’t want to just say, “Oh, we want to get, like, get branding.” You know? It’s like, that’s really hard to measure. Now, so, some ideas on that, is like, do you want people to attend an event? Sign up for an email? Buy something? Or just visit your website? B: Okay. J: So, you want to make sure that you have that in mind. So, that way, you know if it’s effective or not. B: And that helps with what link you put in there? Or image? J: Yeah, exactly. I mean, just overall, helps on crafting. And, sort of, after the fact, you want to make sure you can tell if you’ve hit your goal or not. B: Okay. J: And so, the next thing you want to do is you want to make sure you pick the appropriate network. And that kind of just goes with industry. You know? If you’ve got like a very business to business industry that you’re trying to sell to, then you’re probably going to want to stick with LinkedIn. Whereas, if you have more of, like, kind of, a local shop that’s, kind of, more fun, more consumer based, then, you know, you can get away with doing virtually else you would. Whether it be Facebook, or Twitter, or even Snapchat – if you want too. So, make sure that you’re on the appropriate spot. Otherwise, you’re just going to be wasted. So, whenever you start setting up your campaign, you want to match your platform to your message. So, one thing to consider, a little tip is like, on LinkedIn, the overall layout is pretty bland. There’s a lot of white space, and maybe some blue. So, like a colorful ad is going to do really well there. It’s going to be very eye-catching if you have, like, a lot of reds and orange. B: Okay. J: And so, you just want to consider, like, what the background is going to be. And, like, what is going to be set up next against. So, that way you know if it’s just going to blend in, or if it’s going to sta...

Brad Post, Create the Movement Josh Rich, Create the Movement   Josh Rich, Create the Movement: Good morning everyone! Thank you for joining us for another edition of Create the Movement Marketing Tip podcast. I’m Josh Rich. I’m here with Brad Post. Brad Post, Create the Movement: What’s going on Josh? How are you, sir? J: Doing great Brad. How are you? B: Good, good. J: Well, Brad, today we’re going to be talking about Google Analytics, and kind of the benefits of that especially for small businesses. So, I’m going to let you talk about, kind of, getting it set up. And I think the biggest benefit, we’ll say, is it’s free. B: Absolutely, yeah. So, every single one of our websites that we build we include the Analytics, Google Analytics. Just because, Google Analytics, like you said, is free. You can set it up. It’s very easy. You get a UA code. You put that UA code on their website. We use WordPress, and usually it’s a pretty easy, standard way to put in that UA code. And then, it basically starts tracking, you know, their visits, and you’ll probably go into that a little bit more. It tracks, you know, pretty heavily tracks everything that’s coming to their website, how it’s coming, that type of stuff. And just encourage, just to be able to track that because J: Right. Because it’s free. It’s pretty easy. Just grab that UA code, put it on the home page, and then let it do its magic. Pretty much. B: Yeah. Right. J: Yeah. And you can track basically anything you want to using Google Analytics which is great. One really important thing that everyone should be doing on Google Analytics is using Goals. B: Okay. J: There are kind of four main areas that you can use Goals to do B: And you set that all up within Google Analytics? J: Yeah. Once you put that UA code in there, you kind of get your account set up. All you have to do, is on the left tab there, you just go to Conversions, and that first one is Goals, hit that drop down area, and then go to Overview. And you can just set up your goals right there. B: So, our listeners aren’t necessarily looking at Google Analytics right now. But, so if they’re in there, on the left-hand side they have different areas that you can look at. J: Right. That’s how it is as of today. Two months from now, who knows what it’s going to look like. B: Yes. J: But, today that’s how it’s going to go. And so, like I said, there’s four main areas that you can set up goals within Google Analytics. The first one is destination. That’s basically going to track every time that someone goes to your Contact Us page. You’ll set that up there, and it will give you the number of how many people actually go to that page. It will also show you the funnel of where they came from. So, if they went to the Home page, and the About Us page, and then went to the Contact page, it will kind of give you that mapping. You can kind of know how they’re travelling. So, the good thing about that is that you can see, if you really want to drive traffic to that Contact Us page, or to, like, the Buying page, or whatever the goal of your website is, then you can kind of see if you have 10 people that go to your Contact page, and the About Us page, and then to the Contact page. And five people out of that 10 get hung up at the About Us page, you know there’s something wrong with that’s kind of preventing them. Some sort of a roadblock there. So, you can go through and kind of figure that out. B: Need more of a call to action there. J: Yes, exactly. Make that destination that you want more clear on kind of that roadblock. So, you can remove that. B: Okay. J: The second type is a duration. Which is pretty easy. You just figure out, if it takes 2 minutes for them to read all of that information on the given page that you want to, set that duration goal, so that you know whenever people are hitting that mark, and where they’re missing it. B: Okay. J: The third one is going to be pages per visit. So, this is...

Brad Post, Create the Movement: Welcome to Create the Movement podcast. We are doing Marketing Tips Tuesday. My name is Brad Post, and I’m with Josh Rich. Josh Rich, Create the Movement: Good morning Brad. How are you? B: I’m doing well. How are you doing sir? J: Doing great. Doing great. B: So, this is, kind of, maybe a Part 2 of what we discussed last week? Is that right? J: Yeah. Last week we talked about backlinks. Kind of gave the history of a backlink. Why it’s important. And described an ideal backlink. So, this week we’re going to talk more about backlinks, and, kind of, how to get them where they are. And kind of the dos and don’ts of how to get them… B: Okay. I like it. J: So, first we’re going to differentiate between what we’re going to classify as a “real” link, and kind of a “fake” link. B: Okay. J: So, a real link is going to be someone that puts your link on your website because they want it there. So, that’s someone that finds an article you wrote, or finds your website, and says, “Hey, this is a great resource for this. Everyone else should go look at this.” B: Okay. J: That’s a real link. A fake link – and that’s probably too harsh of a word – but, a fake link is a link that you put on someone else’s website because you want it there, and they really couldn’t care less if it’s there or not. So, a lot of that’s going to be directories, or listings, or even paid links. B: Okay. J: Which we’re not going to touch on a lot this week. But you can pay for links if you feel so inclined. So, the best way, that’s kind of the two different types of links. The way to get them is to go for the low hanging fruit. B: Okay. J: And so, if you have, like, a personal blog, obviously put whatever you’re trying to get on there, on your personal blog. That’s free. It’s easy. And it’s somewhat effective. The next one is, obviously, social media. And we talked a little bit about this last week. How social media is somewhat of a, or starting to be a contested idea. Because traditionally it’s been thought of as a nofollow link. But now, people are starting to think that it might start becoming a follow link by search engines. Now, Google, being one, does not give any indication that they are starting to do that. Except for the fact that tweets are now showing up B: In search engines. J: in Google searches. And so, I kind of think that since there’s so much data in social media posts, and social media sites, that I think that search engines have to eventually start considering those, somewhat. It’s not going to be weighted as much as like, you know, a regular, website. But I think that in some capacity they will start being weighted in some form. B: Okay. J: We’ll kind of have to see how that goes. Some more on that, Matt Cutts, of Google, he was the, what was his title at Google? The former liaison of SEO basically? B: Right. He’s no longer with them. J: No longer with them anymore. But anyways, so, he was quoted about social media saying that if social media sites want to be followed links, then they need to go through the trouble of figuring out which posts are relevant. And then tag those as follow links, and don’t classify them as nofollows. B: Ah. Okay. J: So, he was saying that the responsibility needs to be on the social media site. Not on Google and search engines. B: Okay. J: So, that’s a little sidebar on social media backlinks there.   Some other low hanging fruit would be listings, and people you know, if you have family and friends that have blogs, websites, you can obviously ask them to put your link on there. If you have employees or even if you’re on, associated with like professional groups, you know, whatever your industry may be. B: Chamber of Commerce. J: Yeah, local Chamber of Commerce. Better Business Bureau. B: Young Professionals. J: Yeah, anything like that is great because a lot of those are going to be dot-org’s. And so that’s going to be a stronger link. B: Right. ...

节目组：Music Bang Bang 音乐大爆炸节目名称：Bryan Adams 布莱恩·亚当斯A:Welcome to Music Bang Bang .Glad to meet you again ,I'm your friend ArielJ: Hello everyone,I'm Jack.欢迎收听本期的music bang bang .It's time for us to share you a brilliantly singer.I believe you will be addicted to his voice.Ah,Ariel I remember you enjoy listenning the male singer's songs,right?A;Yeah ,I really love the voice which is raucity and magnetic,because once I heard its voice,it makes me feel he must be a man with abundant experience.J:Wo`I believe you will like the singer who we introduce today.Because not only he has charming voice,but also has a meaningful life.不仅如此，他还置身于慈善事业，2010年获得在纽芬兰颁发的朱诺杯人道主义奖，Can you guess who he is? Ariel.A: Certainly,I know him.He is Bryan Adams!J:Right! Let's listen his wonderful songsA: Wo~It's brilliant!我记得就是因为这首歌发布后取得了巨大的反响，于是他成为了一名国际巨星。J：Yes,because of his rock style and full of emotions way to annotate ,a number of fans fall in love with him.A:Bryan Adams,he is a famous singer born in Canada Kingston,his parents are the diplomatist in the UK. So it is a good chance to travel around the world.He has been to England ,Israel,France and Portugal.This life should be interesting and meaningful.However,He drop out of the school for his music dream.虽然年纪不大，但亚当斯已把自己所有的精力放在了音乐上，辍学后，他加入了乐队，开始在酒吧里演出。1977年，他所在的乐队Sweeney Todd发行了一张名为"If Wishes Were Horses"的专辑，并由他担任主唱。但是他的生活依然是艰苦的，他不得不经常靠打零工维持生活。可正是在温哥华的一家唱片店打工时，他遇到了Jim Vallance，并与其开始了歌曲创作。回过头来看，这次偶然相遇成就了乐坛上的一对黄金搭档，为我们奉献了"Summer Of 69" "Heaven"等多首金曲.J:He was considered to be a singer with aristocratic and free.You can find different qualities in his songs.Which because he also goods at photography and guitar.It's obviously to see his talent.虽然他16岁就辍学追寻音乐梦想，也并没有上过音乐学院，但出于其非同寻常的天赋，他成为了上世纪90年代世界范围内最具有影响力的摇滚巨星之一，加拿大以他为荣，地球以他为荣，作为一个天王级的乐坛常青树，他的音乐值得每个人用心体会。小马王主题曲《Here I am》A:Jack,Have you ever seen the animation film? The theme music is B.A's works.It's really a good song!J:Yeah,this a unforgetful story.它讲的是一匹充满野性的不驯的小马,在它的印第安人朋友克里克的帮助和自己顽强的努力下，在那遥远的美丽的西部成为一名伟大的英雄的故事。A：It's necessary to say B.A's song really match to the film.他那沙哑又充满野性的声音真的太适合这部电影了，仿佛斯比尔特就在我面前奔跑一样！J：It's same to me .Time really flies.Program is drawing to a close，让我们在最后来聆听B.A的歌曲《Here I am》Goodbye!A:See you next week ,bye!节目监制：于慧佳播音：张婧文 刘冠辰编辑：张婧文 刘冠辰制作：王紫丞