Podcast appearances and mentions of joe schmo

Put on your flippers and snorkel, cause this week we dive into a new Joe Schmo's Backyard Nonsense Park.... Marineland of the Pacific! And don't forget to B.Y.O. Sad Animal Stories.

Ben Frisone (AKA Joe Schmo) comes on over to talk about his experience on one of Jeff & Emily's favorite show of the year…TBS's Joe Schmo Show. They get into what they cut out of the show, how he rewarded himself, why he didn't think the show was ever gonna air, how Jeff wants to get Ben famous and oh so much more. They also get a surprise visit from Ben's Nonno who gives hit hot takes on watching his beloved grandson on the show, wine-making and turkey hunting.    Watch the full interview Come On Over's Youtube Channel! Have Questions? Send yours to askjeff@comeonover.com! Subscribe to The Jewel Bag's Youtube Channel! Subscribe to Jeff's Youtube Channel!

On this episode, Frank & Skylar talk about sports for way too long, and then cheating in a relationship, and girls who don't handle their arm hair. Enjoy!

Ben and co-host Chris Schryer welcome Obie Simmonds and Ania Donich of the Canadian Brewing Awards to talk about the beer awards landscape, being a "a non-beer guy" in the beer industry, trying to make craaft beer relevant to Joe Schmo, and leveraging influencers; plus Obie kind of sort gives us a sneak peek at "The Best Beer Project" and his plans ofr taking on Untappd. 

Joe Schmo on the Internet says something, someone sends you an email, like there's something that happens where you just feel this like twinge inside of you. It just pulls on your emotional strings. For whatever reason, it makes you angry, it annoys you, it frustrates you.Why? Why do have the reactions we do to the things happening around us? That's what we're diving into today.

In this FUN and engaging episode of the Millionaire Car Salesman podcast, Sean V. Bradley and LA Williams are joined by Karen 'Karina' Bradley, the CEO of Dealer Synergy and a former recording artist, to discuss the intersection of music and the automotive industry! The episode kicks off with a vibrant introduction highlighting the release and success of Dealer Synergy's "Buy A Car" music video. Throughout the episode, Karen shares her rich history in the music industry, reflecting on her collaborations with artists like Meek Mill and Papoose and how these experiences have shaped her journey in the automotive industry! "It's not just about selling cars; it's about creating a brand that people love and remember." - Karen 'Karina' Bradley   The conversation transitions into discussing creative marketing strategies that dealerships can adopt. Using examples from her music career and Dealer Synergy's marketing initiatives, Karen emphasizes the importance of top-of-the-mind awareness (TOMA) and innovative social media content. The hosts brainstorm ideas such as car comparison parodies, celebrity impersonation videos, dealership reality show spoofs, and TikTok challenges. They stress that engaging and humorous content can significantly boost brand visibility, enhance customer relationships, and ultimately drive sales. Whether you're a new car salesman or a seasoned professional looking to refresh your marketing tactics, this episode is packed with practical advice and creative inspiration! Watch the Official ‘Buy A Car' Music Video: https://youtu.be/YGKzwy9x-b8   Key Takeaways Innovative Marketing: Creative and humorous content, such as parodies and spoof videos, can significantly enhance customer engagement and boost dealership visibility. Top-of-the-Mind Awareness (TOMA): Consistently creating and posting engaging content can ensure that your dealership remains at the forefront of potential customers' minds when they are ready to make a purchase. Utilizing Social Media: Platforms like TikTok are essential for reaching younger audiences and expanding your dealership's reach through challenges and user-generated content. Collaborative Efforts: Engaging employees and customers in creative projects enhances workplace culture and promotes a sense of community around your brand. Leverage Backgrounds: Drawing on diverse experiences, such as a background in the music industry, can offer unique insights and approaches to dealership marketing strategies.   About Karen ‘Karina' Bradley Karen 'Karina' Bradley, also known as KB, is the CEO of Dealer Synergy, a company she has helped grow into a dominant force in the automotive industry. Karen was a recording artist before transitioning into her current role. During her music career, she collaborated with high-profile artists such as Meek Mill, Papoose, and DJ Diamond Kuts. Known for her exceptional skills in video search engine optimization and social media marketing, she brings a creative edge to Dealer Synergy's operations and is instrumental in blending innovative marketing strategies with traditional sales tactics. Resources: Podium: Discover how Podium's innovative AI technology can unlock unparalleled efficiency and drive your dealership's sales to new heights. Visit www.podium.com/mcs to learn more! Dealer Synergy & Bradley On Demand: The automotive industry's #1 training, tracking, testing, and certification platform and consulting & accountability firm. The Millionaire Car Salesman Facebook Group: Join the #1 Mastermind Group in the Automotive Industry! With over 28,000 members, gain access to successful automotive mentors & managers, the best industry practices, & collaborate with automotive professionals from around the WORLD! Join The Millionaire Car Salesman Facebook Group today! Win the Game of Googleopoly: Unlocking the secret strategy of search engines.     The Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast is Proudly Sponsored By: Podium: Elevating Dealership Excellence with Intelligent Customer Engagement Solutions. Unlock unparalleled efficiency and drive sales with Podium's innovative AI technology, featured proudly on the Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast. Dealer Synergy: The #1 Automotive Sales Training, Consulting, and Accountability Firm in the industry! With over two decades of experience in building Internet Departments and BDCs, we have developed the most effective automotive Internet Sales, BDC, and CRM solutions. Our expertise in creating phone scripts, rebuttals, CRM action plans, strategies, and templates ensures that your dealership's tools and personnel reach their full potential. Bradley On Demand: The automotive sales industry's top Interactive Training, Tracking, Testing, and Certification Platform. Featuring LIVE Classes and over 9,000 training modules, our platform equips your dealership with everything needed to sell more cars, more often, and more profitably!   The Art of Infusing Sales with Entertainment: Lessons from the Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast In the realm of automotive sales, creating a lasting impression is key. In a recent episode of the Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast, the hosts delve into innovative strategies, fused with entertaining elements, that car dealerships can leverage to enhance their brand and connect more deeply with their audience. Key Takeaways Leveraging Entertainment for Sales: Infusing humor and creative elements in sales strategies can make your dealership stand out, fostering a unique connection with potential buyers. Harnessing Social Media Challenges: Utilizing platforms like TikTok and creating engaging challenges can significantly extend a dealership's reach and enhance its marketing efforts. Creating Authentic Content: Involving employees and utilizing authentic, humorous scenarios in videos can improve dealership culture and drive top-of-mind awareness among potential customers.   Leveraging Entertainment for Sales Embracing Parody and Spoofs In the competitive world of automotive sales, standing out is essential. During the podcast, Karen "Karina" Bradley provides a brilliant strategy: creating parody videos to highlight your dealership's uniqueness. This can be done through humorous comparisons between cars and unusual alternatives like llamas or skateboards. Bradley explains, “You might have that character at the dealership… you could name them whatever… and figure out so on the first day of car sales, you know, whatever, whatever, whatever.” Parody and humor are potent tools. They offer a refreshing break from the conventional and often tedious car sales pitch. By presenting cars in a comical light, dealerships can attract not only potential buyers but also a broader audience who initially might not be in the market but could be influenced by the humorous content later. Celebrity Car Salesperson Spoofs Another creative approach discussed amongst the team involved mimicking the selling styles of celebrities. Whether it's a Kevin Hart-style over-the-top pitch or a Taylor Swift-themed sales scenario, these spoofs can capture attention. LA Williams suggested, “You get somebody else that could do a Taylor Swift impression, right. And have them on there talking about, you know, whatever song that you that Taylor Swift might want to do.” Such strategies can humanize a dealership, making it relatable and memorable. These lighthearted impersonations can appeal to various demographics, especially younger audiences, and could lead to increased customer turnout.   Harnessing Social Media Challenges The Power of TikTok Challenges Social media is a powerful tool for engagement, and TikTok, in particular, stands out for its reach and influence, especially among younger demographics. Bradley highlights the value of TikTok challenges by suggesting dealerships launch humor-centric challenges related to car shopping experiences, real or exaggerated. “The whole name of the game is becoming the person or the business that people say yes to even before they know what the opportunity is,” Williams emphasizes. These challenges not only engage the dealership's existing customers but extend their reach to the customers' networks, effectively creating a web of organic promotion and multiplying the visibility of the dealership. The Ripple Effect of Social Media By tapping into the creativity of their clientele, dealerships can encourage the production of user-generated content, which in return promotes the dealership. Bradley explains, "So being able to tap into this platform [TikTok] is very important for growing your audience… This would be probably a good time to start thinking about some of these." The interactive nature of TikTok challenges fosters a community spirit where customers feel part of the dealership's success story, fostering loyalty and long-term engagement.   Creating Authentic Content Authenticity in Employee Engagement Involving dealership staff in creative projects can greatly enhance the company culture and internal morale. By creating fun and engaging content that showcases the behind-the-scenes aspects of dealership operations, employees feel valued and part of the larger vision. Bradley discusses creating roles for employees in parody videos, “You could actually make this a series… and have that person in it that I don't know if you guys have ever seen Allstate, the mayhem guy that's always causing mayhem.” Authentic content not only endears the dealership to its employees but also to consumers who appreciate the genuine effort. By showcasing real employees and real scenarios, dealerships can break down barriers with potential customers, moving away from the faceless corporation image to a more personal and relatable entity. Enhancing Top-of-Mind Awareness (TOMA) Creating parodies, spoofs, and humorous content is not just about immediate sales but about building top-of-mind awareness (TOMA). Bradley points out the long-term benefit of this approach: “It is important, though, to follow it up with the problem… Joe Schmo may do this and you can title him whatever, but you know, this here at ABC motors, this is how it's supposed to be done.” By consistently appearing in entertaining and positive contexts, a dealership can embed itself in the minds of potential customers. When these potential customers are ready to make a purchase, the dealership that has entertained them and stayed relevant will be the one they turn to. The richness of this podcast episode lies in its myriad of practical, creative, and actionable strategies for car dealerships. By blending entertainment with car sales, dealerships can transcend merely transactional relationships and foster lasting, impactful connections with their audiences. Whether through humorous parodies, engaging social media challenges, or authentic employee-driven content, the key is to stay memorable, relatable, and always top-of-mind.  

Is it a theme park, a sanctuary, or a human zoo? This one's a bit dicey, y'all. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/disney-dependent/support

Send us a Text Message.Ever hit rock bottom and wonder how to climb back up? Imagine losing every penny you had, including your retirement savings, and then finding the resilience to start anew. That's the journey we're kicking off this season on The Daily American. I'm back, your everyday Joe Schmo, sharing raw and unfiltered conversations with ordinary folks who embody the true spirit of resilience. Everyone has ups and downs, some of us more than others based off how we cope with certain events. From personal setbacks to unexpected triumphs, this episode sets the tone for a season dedicated to stories that mirror our own struggles and victories. Like many who have opened up on the Daily American, I must find a way to overcome some concurrent issues. After a hiatus marked by personal and financial turmoil, I'm returning with a renewed commitment but same addictions to bring you compelling stories that resonate with the average American. Forget the glitz and glamour of Hollywood; we're diving into the real-life experiences that shape our communities. This premiere episode highlights the importance of perseverance and finding hope in the most unlikely places. So buckle up and tell your grandma' to tune in—these are the unsung tales of everyday heroes, told one voice at a time.Support the Show.thank you for being a part of this journey info@dailyamericanpodcast.comwww.dailyamericanpodcast.com

And so today, given the passage, I cannot jump into every detail of the passage, but what I do want to do is take a broad sweep of the passage and bring out the primary thrust of what Jesus wants us to take away as we discuss the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and the end of times, his second coming. And just want to say this comes in between ... We have community groups that meet every week. They discuss the sermons. And we do know when the end of times get brought up as people gather over the word, there's often confusion, disagreement. And so I'm trying to bring us to a simple, clear understanding of this chapter after maybe some people are coming out of last week with a little bit of confusion. I say Pasture Jan's presentation on those verses, I was chewing on it all week, was masterful from my studied perspective as someone who somehow had the blessing to go to seminary and read books for three years. But yeah, we're trying to bring clarity on this topic and bring out the main thrust.Let me read God's word. Mark 13 verses 24 to 27 to start us off. Mark 13 verses 24 through 37. "But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will be falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. From the fig tree, learn its lesson. As soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near at the very gates. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven nor the son, but only the father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge each with his work and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore, stay awake. For you do not know when the master of the house will come. In the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows or in the morning. Lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you, I say to all. Stay awake. The grass withers and the flower fades but the word of the Lord remains forever."Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you today living in a world full of wars and rumors of wars. Full of much conflict and confusion. Today we come to you with thanksgiving, that you have given us your word, the rock, the one, the only true place that a person can firmly stand. We pray that as we open your word, that it would bring courage to our hearts and strength to our feeble bodies. That we would go from this place renewed and invigorated to serve you and to face whatever may come in our lives with hope that you are behind it and that you will be with us through it. Grant us your peace and steadfastness for the journey to come. We come to you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.It's been a really special year with my middle child. My daughter, Clara. She's been three years old. She'll be four in a couple of months. And what's been really fun to experience with Clara in the season of life at three and a half is her engagement with holidays. Moving from age two to three throughout the past year now and closer to four, she started to remember her celebration of holidays in the past and to start look forward to celebrating them again in the future. And so with Christmas last year, six months out, five, four, three, two, one months out from Christmas, she was talking about Christmas all the time. She was asking, "Is Christmas today?" Just waking up and asking that several months out, multiple days a week. Asking how soon it will come. And she was planning to receive presents of course. And thankfully she was planning to give presents, not just receive. And because we couldn't celebrate it at the time, she was wrapping presents and giving them to her stuffies well in advance of the day.And Clara's excitement for the day was contagious. But more than that, her excitement and expectations around that day gave her a superpower. It gave her a willingness to endure anything that came her way until Christmas Day came. What was most amazing prior to Christmas occurred on Christmas Eve. And if you remember that Christmas Eve, it was a Sunday this year and so we had one service here at Mosaic and after service we packed up my Honda Odyssey. And I don't call it a minivan. It's just that great. It's an Odyssey. A very special vehicle. Minivan, Odyssey life is not as bad as its rep gets sometimes. But we packed up our Odyssey. And the miracle of the day that Clara's expectation around Christmas brought her through was that she endured a seven and a half hour ride from Boston to my parents' place outside of Philadelphia without a stop. And she was perfectly peaceful, perfectly content because she knew what was about to come. She knew that Christmas was tomorrow. She knew that she was going to celebrate Jesus' birthday. She knew that she was going to receive presents as part of that celebration. She knew that she was going to give presents. She was going to spend the day with her loved ones. We don't get to see my parents, my siblings that much. She knew that there was going to be a feast.And so Clara was ready to endure anything. So seven and a half hours. Even if it was just the five-hour trip, which is the fastest time you can get between here and Philadelphia, if she stayed peaceful for that amount of time, that would've been the Christmas miracle and the expression of her superpower. And Clara's fascination with the end and the reward that came with it helped her through her present situations. It gave her resilience to face anything as her hopes and expectations where she knew what was about to come as we formed them, as she reflected on her experiences that we gave her at Christmas in the past.And so I've thought about this. What's refreshed my mind had me thinking about this in recent weeks really the past couple months is her birthday's in a couple of months. And so since Christmas there's been a lot of waking up, "Daddy, is my birthday today?" And just a repeat. So she's been blowing out fake cakes and giving presents to her stuffies in preparation as she waits that day. I discussed Clara's typical childish fascination with Christmas and her birthday as an illustration. I bring it up for a couple of reasons. First, I mentioned this fascination to point out her childlike faith. We are going to speak in a specific topic on Christ's return and the end of times. But before we do that, I want to remind us of a broader principle of the kingdom of God that Jesus mentioned earlier on in Mark. What Clara exhibits around the day of Christmas, the expectations and hopes around it that we formed and set for her, she exhibits childlike faith. It's a sure fact that it's going to be as good as she thinks it is. And we need to have such faith as we walk through life and the kingdom.Mark 10: 14 and 15 says, "Let the children come to me. Do not hinder them. For to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." So Clara expects us to deliver on Christmas and her birthday, and that gives her superpowers to endure what is to come. And we as Christians, the Lord tells us of a specific day like the end of times and Christ's return as the same day. And we need to let him form our expectations around that topic. And there are going to be details that are not going to be perfectly clear. There are going to be questions around that day. And we can get lost in the pursuit of those answers. We can rest upon what the Lord has made clear in setting the expectations for us around that day. We can have childlike faith that our heavenly father has told us what we need to know as the day of the Lord comes. So we need to have childlike faith as we open up this topic a little bit more.But further, I want to just say Clara's fascination with Christmas ... We're in a topic today that there's a lot of fascination as we discuss the end of times. And while Clara's experienced her fascination with Christmas and her hopes and expectations around it, it's something that gives her joy, it gives her stamina, it gives her hope to face the present as she waits that day. Unfortunately, this topic on the day of Christ's return, it's something that really breeds the opposite response in us. A lot of times we naturally as Christians, we're interested in this day. For surely we await the benefits that come with the moment of Christ's return. We can't wait to be free. See this creation, see our flesh free from the power and influence of Satan. Free from the power of influence of sin. We can't wait to see an end natural disasters and wars. But we tend to take up this topic as a church and it really breeds a lot of anxiety and paranoia. It's because we're trying to go beyond what the Lord has told us and as he set our expectations in scripture.And so without a doubt, there's a fascination within the church about the end of time and when it will come and the manner in which it will come. It rarely leads to any good. And if anyone has been in the church for a while, I just want to elaborate on this. A lot of people, if you're in a church for a month or a year, you know the tendency for Christians. At a Christian gathering, people might be talking about faith, repentance, belief, obedience to Jesus Christ, how to apply just God's word to day-to-day life. But the end of times gets brought up and one little detail, one little hint of it, and it can derail the whole discussion. Everybody knows if you've been in a church with small groups ... We have community group here at Mosaic where we discuss the sermons together, God's word together. Everyone knows that experience of like, oh no, someone ... Conversation's been going, been fruitful, vibrant. Someone just brought it up. They did it. Maybe at that point, a couple of people in that conversation who have very passionate views on the end of times and the timing of it, they dominate conversation and it really becomes this a draining discussion and that everybody leaves more confused and really just too drained to go honor Jesus for the rest of the evening or the next day.And all people in the church know this tendency. And we Christians, we know that debates and conversations, they lead to real division normally. The talk on these topics can lead brothers and sisters to separate from brothers and sisters instead of continuing to gather as the people of God. And most Christians, they do know someone who got obsessed with figuring out the details about Christ's return. Who started losing their grip with reality. Who lost focus on working out their salvation with fear and trembling one day at a time. And in the end, maybe they just stumbled for an extended season or in the end they lost their faith altogether as they got lost in these details.Furthermore, we know there are whole in the Christian world ... And maybe some of you don't know this stuff. But as pastors we do engage a lot of these instances in our ministry. We know that there are whole churches and conferences and gatherings of supposed believers who meet not to praise God, not to preach his gospel, but to promote specific teachings, primarily promote specific teachings on the end of times. That's what they're gathering around. I've heard of several people giving large chunks of money to ... Or essentially their whole retirement savings saved for decades to supposed prophets who claim to elucidate the details of the timing and manner of Christ's return. In our day anybody can start teaching and give their take on YouTube, on social media. There's a tendency in the church today, there's people who will listen to these teachers at the cost of heeding the words of their pastors, their brothers and sisters in Christ and who they're gathering with in day-to-day real life.I've spoken to a few Christians who you dig into the details of their lives and they profess faith in Christ, but they have not read the gospels or most of the New Testament aside from the book of Revelation because they're reading the apocalyptic literature and verses of the Old Testament prophets and Revelation primarily. And this stuff happens. In a city like Boston who could get lost in that stuff? No. These are common tendencies.And so at Mosaic, if you've only been with us for two weeks, we've talked about ... We'll now take up this topic two weeks in a row. And you might think we have an unhealthy fixation on this topic, but I assure you we're taking it up as it naturally has come up in our scripture as we are going verse by verse through Mark. But before I go through it, I want to say at our church a little commentary, we generally are not guilty of unhealthy fixation on the end of times across our membership. We're not marked by neglect of coverage on the topic. We're facing it today. It's easier to skip over these chapters. As a pastor, we're here to face it as it's been brought up in our history in the text. We're not marked necessarily by widespread anxiety and paranoia that comes with fixation. If anything, at Mosaic, we're guilty of a tendency to think that the end is near because something bad happened in our personal lives or in society as a whole. And it leads to a distractedness that tends to decrease our level of day-to-day faithfulness a little bit. So 2020 Ukraine-Russia, Israel-Palestine death and health scares, cultural and political tensions. These tend to lead us to say nonchalantly and perhaps ignorantly that things are getting worse. It's clear. The end is near. And may we say that just a little naively or truly ignorantly.We continue to just carry forth our day-to-day responsibilities with some faithfulness. But I think even beneath that a tendency in our body is more of a hopeless spirit of resignation. When we face calamity, hardship in our lives, trials personally or internationally and nationally, we can assume a hopeless spirit of resignation that, oh, there's so much brokenness around us. Who am I as an individual to bring Jesus' light and redemption through my day-to-day faithfulness? And we still do the thing, do what we think God is calling to us but not with belief that he can use us to redeem brokenness in the world around us, in the relationships, in society through our small efforts. And so today you'll see that Christ has a word for engaging such circumstances for us as the natural disasters, the trials of society. And so yeah, we're going to see what that word is.And there's no question that this fascination with the end of times, it doesn't stop at the church. The world has wrestled with it. Again, everything I've mentioned from 2020 to 2024 I think it's safe to say we all have seen a lot more headlines talking about is this the end of society as a whole? Are things getting worse? Is America facing its doomsday? Is the current banking system a potential collapse? What's that going to lead to? There's a lot of anxiety, there's a lot of worry. There's always an ancient calendar. In 2012, the Mayan calendar ended. I remember articles around that. You think of year 2000 going into the new millennium, there's a lot of, is the world going to end? It just gets brought up whether there is seeming reason to appeal to or not. So there is a widespread fascination with the end. And really it normally leads to anxiety, fear, and paranoia and faithlessness. Especially when we start mining the details of what the Bible has a say about it.So Jesus today as we open up chapter 13 again, he speaks to the disciples about the end. And I want to say very clearly he has one easy message in this chapter that we want to focus on primarily as we study it. Stay awake and be ready. The theme sentence of this chapter, Christian lives shall be marked by steadiness and readiness as they await Christ's return. Christian lives shall be marked by steadiness and readiness as they await Christ's return. This message, you can find it just by appealing to the specifics of a few verses. Verse 33 Jesus says, "Be on guard, keep awake." Or perhaps I can claim that this is the theme of the chapter as the chapter ends in verse 37 by saying, "And what I say to you, I say to all. Stay awake." All of this chapter, it's pointing to the call for Christians to exhibit a steadiness, a coolness, a calmness as they face challenges, trials, conflicts, natural disasters in this life and readiness as they ponder the end of times. And so he declares, "Don't waste your time reading into all the things that could deceive you or prevent you from faithfulness to him in the things of God in day-to-day life." So stay awake and be ready.Verse 31 says, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." The world is going to fall down around us. We shouldn't be shocked when it happens. It's been happening throughout history. The Roman Empire, it did fall. Imagine how people fell when that truly fell. It's going to happen around us. It's happened throughout history. It'll keep happening. Everything will pass away but what will remain are Jesus' words and his assurances. And I want to pause right here. Think about the things. If they passed away, what are those things whose passing would shake you? In me It's honestly like news of what's happening in my small suburban town outside of Philadelphia. When I see the culture shaking, the schools shifting in my heart, it really stirs me to the point of almost hopelessness or God, what's happening here? When we think about America, are there major societal shifts? Are we heading in a bad direction? When we face political tensions. We've gotten upcoming election this year. When we face potential shifts in our country, does it stir us? Do we begin to question God's faithfulness to us in such moments? Jesus says we need to trust him.I was at the Inter Miami verse New England Revolution soccer game last night to see Lionel Messi and a couple of his former Barcelona players. It was my first time at Gillette Stadium. And part of it is to show my son, wow, look at this man who has used what God has given him and mastered it. But part of it is to say to my son, "Look, this man, he is going to die one day. I hope he doesn't have a great spiritual moral failure before all of us. I hope he professes his imperfections and faith in Jesus at some point and I do pray for him." But Messi's going to pass away and Gillette Stadium is going to pass away or they're going to blow it up. And I want them to so that they get rid of the turf field and put in a grass field because professional sports should be played on grass.But these figures of society, these people, these institutions, they're all going to fall. And how will that move you? What will your response be? Jesus says the only thing we place our faith in is his word. Everything will pass, but we are to trust his assurances. And so verse 13 in our chapter, the one who endures to the end will be saved. We place our hope in Jesus and his works and his promises. That's where our hope lies. So Jesus is saying broadly in this chapter, be ready for the end to come right now. Be ready for the end every moment of every day. Don't misuse your time getting lost in the meaningless things of the world. Don't misuse your time obsessing over predictions, dates, the left behind stuff, the book series, the movie series. Jesus comes when you don't know. So be ready. At every moment of your life be steady and be ready.And so I'm going to draw this point out as I try to speed through the chapter today. Chapter 13. I'll revisit some of the verses from one through 23 and glean over them. But it's all to remind you this point. Christian lives shall be marked by steadiness and readiness as they await Christ's return. I'm not going to necessarily pull out specifics of where I get that theme. You're going to have to come with me as I just keep emphasizing it. And I think it's important. This is a topic that's been convoluted, confused throughout church history, even within our own body. And we have to just get what is primary. And this is where we build our foundation and thinking on the end of times going forward. So chapter 13, we have Jesus falling of the temple, Jerusalem, the sign of the fig tree, a call to be ready. Let's try to explain it. What's Jesus talking about here? How do I come to this emphasis on steadiness and readiness?So let's step into this situation with the disciples. The day is still Tuesday. On that Friday, Jesus is going to be crucified. Jesus and his disciples have been in the temple most of the day. It's probably late afternoon. Jesus decides it's time to go. It's very likely this is Jesus' last time in the temple. And while they're walking away from the temple, one of his disciples is overcome with awe. They were admiring the size, the glory, the structure of the temple. And it really was a sight to behold. It was gargantuan and grandiose, huge and intimidating in its size and in its extravagance and ancient wonder of the world. And King Herod put a ton of money into it for several decades. We're talking in the billions of our current dollars. And so this temple, it's huge. It's ornate. The temple grounds and courts, they covered about one-sixth of the city of Jerusalem at the time. The individual stones that were used to build the temple were gigantic.Josephus, one of the historians of the day wrote down the size of the stones that they were about 45 feet by 15 feet by 18 inches thick. One stone. You could go and look at a stone that size and just be in awe. So these stones are massive. Ornately decorated. The text begins with a disciple saying, "Teacher, look at the size of these stones. Look at the majesty of the temple of Jerusalem. The whole city. Isn't this amazing?" Jesus says, "You see this giant beautiful building. You see this city. You see these massive stones. Not one stone will be left standing upon one another. This whole city is going to be destroyed."And this would've been a shocking statement. Definitely awkward silence afterwards. And it's shocking, especially when you consider the sides of these stones, saying not one will be left standing on another. And then they walk. Jesus says this, and they walk through the city of Jerusalem, they walk to the Mount of Olives to an elevated area where they sat down and they have another great view of the city. And as they thought about Jesus' pronouncement of the destruction of the temple, its complete devastation, the devastation of the city, they begin to naturally ask some questions. One asked in verse four, "Tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?" And so there's a lot more behind this question than first appears. The disciples regard this temple as a fixed structure. They look at it, they think this thing could last forever.They couldn't imagine its destruction. And so immediately they're tying the destruction of this temple with the end of the world. For surely that's the only way and time that it could be destroyed. And so with the question in verse four, they're not just asking when is the temple going to be destroyed, but how do we know that the end is near? This is affirmed in Matthew chapter 24 verse three where they ask in a parallel passage, "Tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" So they're asking, when will the temple be destroyed? When will Jerusalem be destroyed? That's one question. When will we know it's time for your return? When will the end come? That's what the disciples are asking in Mark as greater clarified in Matthew. They're seeking answers.And Jesus in response, he gives them a long, seemingly complicated answer. And the first part of his answer is a warning to not be led astray. Verse five, Jesus says, "See that no one leads you astray." In the NIV translation, "Watch out that no one deceives you." The disciples are assuming all of this is going to happen very soon based on Jesus's words. So they're eager. They're eager for the end to come. And as a result they're going to be tempted into reading into every little sign. So Jesus is anticipating that and he's given them some instructions to not be led astray. So in verse six he says, "Many will come in my name saying I am he and they will lead many astray." So he's saying, "There is definitely going to be a time where a lot of people say that they're sent by me or come in my name or bring greater revelation, greater word of God beyond what I've said."He says, "Don't be surprised. Don't follow them. Don't put your trust in them." And in the first century, history is captured. There's a lot of ... And scripture captures some of it. There are a number of false messiahs who appeared and they had followings, but in time they proved to be false prophets and the false prophets that they were. And it still happens today. It's happened all throughout history and it still happens today. Joseph Smith, a relatively recent false teacher, he started Mormonism. He said that Jesus appeared to him in 1820 in his backyard and he told him that all existing churches had turned from the gospel. And after that an angel of God appeared to him and essentially gave him a new source of revelation, a new word for man, true followers of Christ, the Lord to follow. And Jesus, which conflicts with our Bible, the 66 books of the Bible, Jesus is telling us, don't follow this kind of guy.More recently, I grew up in 90s public school hearing about David Koresh and the Branch Davidians who in the 80s and 90s said that he was one who was going to establish the Davidic kingdom. And so these figures keep appearing throughout history and we can't be so eager for the end to come that we follow anyone who is essentially pronouncing Jesus' return or new age in Christ. Jesus warns us about these men. Don't follow them. And then he goes on to warn them about something else. Next, he talks about disasters and wars. He says in verse seven, "And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place but the end is not yet." So he's saying, don't be deceived by natural disasters and wars. Don't be so eager for the end to come that you read into all these things.When you hear of hurricanes, tsunamis, wars, rumors of wars, don't claim this is the end. Don't just bluntly ignorantly claim things are getting worse. Verse eight says, "For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places. There will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains." So we shouldn't be shocked by such events. We shouldn't be distracted by these events and drop faithfulness in day-to-day life. So many people read into these events and conclude that the end is near but these things have been happening since the beginning. These are but the beginning of the birth pains. We think we're so unique as a generation, but like a lot of these things ... Not like. A lot of these things have been happening throughout history. Nothing new under the sun is happening in 2024. Even with Russia and Ukraine, Israel-Palestine, as I've mentioned earlier, nothing new is happening in 2020. Is what we've experienced recently more dramatic and traumatic than what has been dishonoring to God throughout history, through previous societal collapses, wars and earthly disasters.Just pausing about World War I, World War II is what we're facing right now really worse than that? The societal and cultural drama, severe natural phenomena, they've always been occurring. And it is. We should be heartbroken when we see it, but we shouldn't jump to conclusions that this means that the end is near and imminent. We lament the occurrence of these events. We long for Jesus to come back to put an end to them. But we don't get obsessed with finding specific meaning in them as they relate to the end of times. Third thing that Jesus warns us about is in verses nine through 13. I don't think I put them up on the slides, I'm going to skim through them. He says, "Don't be deceived by the persecution that you faced. The people of God are going to suffer. Just because you're persecuted doesn't mean that the end is near." Jesus tells them plainly that they're going to be flogged and judged by governors and authorities. They'll be hated as the gospel goes forth. The gospel divides. It has two effects. It draws people in as you stand on it, preach it and stand on it and it draws people away. It's a stench that they reject. They don't want to hear it. They harden their hearts against God.It divides even families. In verses 12 to 13, he elaborates that man will kill his own brother over Christianity, a father a child. Children will kill their parents. Christians will be killed by their own family members, but they are not specific signs that the end is near. These things have been happening, they'll continue to happen. So this fascination with the end should not cause us to look upon these three categories of just travesty as false teachers, natural events, wars and killing within families.They should not cause us to say immediately the world is coming to end. And Jesus is telling when these things happen, when people believe them, when people start taking others and saying, this is the end, a lot of people are led astray. We should not be led astray. And so we engage it. We engage it with a steadiness. We're not shocked by their occurrence. Verse 10, he's saying, "We live in the period of last days." But before the Lord returns, what we focus on is one thing. Verse 10. And the gospel must be first proclaimed to all nations. So this is going to take some time. It's taken 2000 or so years so far and we're not done yet. If you really want the world to come to an end, don't focus on reading into all of the events. Instead, focus yourself on applying the gospel to your own heart in a deeper way each day. Then when you do that, think about and pray about how the Lord could use you to transform your neighbor's heart. Then think about how he can use you to transform every country, every culture, every community, tribe, person, and do this work with much patience, humility, sobriety and self-control as things of the world are rising and falling around you.Jesus is saying, be steady, be ready. Be ready for a long race. Don't follow the likes of Joseph Smith, Joe Schmo who says he comes in the name of the Lord in desperation. Don't read into all the current events. Don't expend all your energy on that. There's an opportunity cost to spending time on this stuff at the cost of faithfulness to Jesus and loving God and loving your neighbor day-to-day. Focus on right now. That's what Christians are called to do. How can I be salt and light where the Lord has placed me right now with every relationship I have with every office he's called me to as a single, as a married, as a parent, as a worker, as a neighbor. How do I run faithfully and steady? Stay awake. This is what Christians are called to.And so I emphasize that. We're called to be steady. Called to be ready. The second part of Jesus' answer goes to verses 14 to 23. This section is the direct answer to the disciples question about the destruction of the temple. So Jesus before prophesying about anything that will happen in the future in this section, he's making a statement about the destruction of the temple. Remember the disciples asked him, when will the destruction of Jerusalem occur? And so he's given an answer. Jesus begins verse 14 with a cryptic statement. It's using terminology from the book of Daniel. He says, "But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be ..." Another translation says when you see the desolating, sacrilege, when something holy or sacred is profaned. When you see that you know the end is near. And so he's talking about the end of Jerusalem here first and foremost.Pastor Jan on in his second half of his sermon, he talked about there is a two-fold nature to prophecy that we see in scripture where first and foremost, a prophetic statement typically has that prophetic statement in the day. And that's what I'm saying. These verses 14 to 23 are talking specifically about the near the fall of Jerusalem in the near term, short term. Pastor Jan did open up the topic a little further to say there's abomination of desolation statement. Is this a statement for the future? And he talked primarily about what continues as a spirit. We are not saying history captures. There's a couple of points in time where we saw Gentiles in 168 B.C. Antiochus Epiphanes, a Roman general captured Jerusalem. He went to the temple and he profaned it by offering sacrifices to Roman false gods in the temple. And so a lot of people that is an abomination of desolation.Furthermore, history talks about after the Romans in this siege of 70 A.D. that I'm going to talk about in detail in a little bit. After they conquered Jerusalem and the temple, they did offer sacrifices to their gods in what remained of the temple space. But one of the things that Pastor Jan on really tried to focus us on is that the greatest travesty, the greatest abomination of desolation that ever occurred in history was done by those who were supposed to be the chosen people of God. The Jewish authorities, the Sanhedrin, the high priest rejected Jesus Christ, the anointed one, the son of God who showed who he was through his miracles, through his word, through his faithfulness and sacrifice and obedience. They rejected him. And for 40 years, what did they do? They rejected him so much to the point, the very presence of God, the word incarnate, they rejected him to the point that they conspired with their enemies, the Romans to send him to the cross. And so this destruction of Jerusalem that happened in 70 A.D. four decades after Christ, for four decades, they stood with hardness of heart against their standing on Jesus Christ. They desolated the perfect spotless land of God and the rejection of him.And what perhaps the continuation of that is anyone who claims that he was wrong. He was not who he said he was. In the local church, in authorities, religious authorities, those who reject Christ are in a way profaning what is holy in rejecting Jesus. And so this abomination of desolation ... Pasture Jan on goes in more detail. But specifically these verses, let me take us back, they're talking about the destruction of Jerusalem.When the holy temple is desecrated Luke chapter 20 verses 20 to 21 also adds to this phrase, when you see the city surrounded by armies flee. So when you see the temple being desecrated and you see the city of Jerusalem surrounded by armies, run as fast as you can run. This is verses 14 23. Don't pack up your belongings. There isn't any time. When you see these things run. Hopefully you're not pregnant. Hopefully it's not winter because that'll make the flee harder. Jesus is speaking very directly here about the destruction of the temple and he's warning his disciples about ... He's given warnings about how it'll happen. Mark verse 19 talks about it's a calamity tribulation that the world has never seen before. So 40 years after this discussion between Jesus and the disciples on the Mount of Olives again in year 70, the Romans completely demolished Jerusalem. The temple and Jerusalem. Josephus, the Jewish historian, recorded details of this event.He tells us that in response to a Jewish uprising in year 66, the Roman army laid siege to the city of Jerusalem. Romans built a high wall around the city. Almost every tree within miles of the city was cut down to build the wall, transforming the landscape of Jerusalem into a desert. And the Romans dug a deep trench all around the city. No one could get in, no one could get out, no food or water could be brought in. Any Jews who tried to flee Jerusalem were captured and crucified and placed on top of the wall for everyone to see. After four years of this, tens of thousands of Jews, sometimes 500 plus a day, who tried to escape were crucified on the wall. Just absolutely horrific. And the people who were left inside that were dying of starvation. Eventually the Roman army did breach the walls of Jerusalem and they slaughtered the surviving Jews and burned the entire city, including the temple.Josephus estimated that during the Roman siege of Jerusalem, over 1.1 million people were killed, mainly Jews, and that another 97,000 were captured and enslaved. And the temple, there's a lot of theories about why was every stone broken down. There's a theory that there was just such animosity through this long conflict that the Romans just with vehemence just wanted to sack the Jews. Sack the city. So in their anger, they destroyed every last stone. There's also theories that the gold all over the temple and perhaps in the homes there's gold in the walls, that they were seeking the treasure. There's a theory that they did burn the temple as part of the process and some of the gold melted into the cracks between the rocks. So perhaps that drove them to destroy each stone. But we do find history shows us that Christ's prophecy in verse one, verse two, "Do you see these great stone buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down." That happened. So think about the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Greece. The Romans didn't destroy it. We can still see it today. But the Romans actually, they initially wanted to preserve the temple, but they found they're just losing too many soldiers. So that's when they set fire to it. But not one stone was left upon another just as Jesus said. Even the foundation was taken up.So this verse 13, chapter 13, the first section is about warning to not be deceived, be steady as you face deception. This section, it talks about the destruction of the temple before anything else. The third section of Jesus' answer starts in verse 24, and this is our primary text for the day, and I'm going to try my best to speed through. He's transitioning from what is going to happen in the temple to discussion on the end of time and the coming of the son of man. So Jesus is answering the disciples questions about the timing of Jesus' return. When are you going to return? When's the last day coming? This is where Jesus answers that."But in those days," verse 24 to 27, "after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and then the moon will not give its light and the stars will be falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken and they'll see the sun of men coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven." So all of this ... This is crucial to understand the passage. All of these verses here in the third section of the chapter state that God's power will be seen in an unmistakable way at the end of times. It will be very distinct from what we see upon war and travesty in our current times.An earthquake, a tsunami, a hurricane. Don't think those are things that will usher in the end. Those are small compared to what's going to happen in the end. He says you're going to see stars fall from the sky, the sun go dark. Jesus, the son of man will come in the clouds with power and glory. Angels probably visibly will be gathering the Lord's people. When you see God's power coming like it never did before in an unmistakable manner, that is the sign that the end is here. The end is imminent. That's what we watch for the end. And in the middle of this display of power, he's going to, as the skies break down, natural disasters that we've never seen before, the sun of man, in a split second, he'll appear. He'll come in the clouds and everyone is going to see him and they're going to know it's him. There's not going to be a question, who is this guy? Is this him? Should I follow him? Maybe I can keep eating right now. No. It's like we're going to know it's him.Christ is going to return and the fullness of his glory and he will complete the work that he began. He'll send his angels to gather all of his people, all the elect. Those who have received him by grace through faith. We as Christians can look forward ... As we understand this, as he returns and he is going to gather in his elect, we can look forward to this day if it happens in our lifetime. Like my daughter Clara looks forward to Christmas and her birthday, we can look forward to it. It'll be a good day for us. If we're dead, when that day happens, our sleeping bodies will rise and be united with our resurrected souls for ever. This is the great hope of the people of God, the elect. For those who are in Jesus Christ. This is the end of the present time, the current order of creation before Jesus makes all things new unblemished by sin and the enemy.So in the first section, don't be deceived. In the second section, temple will be destroyed very soon. The third section, Christ will return in glory in the midst of an unmistakable display of God's power. And now the last section, this section is a little different than the first three. The first three are primarily predictions. Jesus is telling the disciples when these things will occur in response to his questions. This is more prescriptive. Jesus is telling them what to do.The first part of this section, it's verses 28 to 31. It said ... This is very important to understand this passage. It said specifically with regard to the destruction of the temple, not the end of times. So he tells them, learn the lesson from the fig tree, verse 28. "From the fig tree, learn its lesson. As soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves you know that summer is near. So also when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near at the very gates." When you see these things happening, army surrounding Jerusalem, the temple desecrated, you know that destruction of the temple and Jerusalem is right around the corner. It will happen. As sure as you know, summer will happen when the fig tree puts out its leaves. So in an agricultural society, they would've understood when the fig tree is putting out its leaves, summer is coming. When these things happen, be assured the temple Jerusalem is going to be destroyed. That's verse 28 to 31. Be ready. And Jesus assures them that this destruction of Jerusalem will happen before this generation passes away. In verse 31, he says, "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place."So those who are alive right now, right then at the moment that Jesus is teaching, some of them will still be alive. That generation will be alive to witness the destruction of Jerusalem. He's given them the prescriptive order to be steady, be ready, flee when that time comes. They'll experience it or witness it. They need to be ready for it. And so this is crucial to the understanding of the text. And then in verse 32, he transitions to talk about the end of time again. His return. He says, "But concerning that day or that hour ..." Verse 32 literally begins, "But concerning that day or that hour ..." Another period of time, another moment in time. We're now speaking about the end of time Jesus second coming. He assures them, no one knows when that day or hour will come. Verse 32. "But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven nor the son, but only the father." No one knows when the end will come. Nobody knows when the day or hour will come. Nobody will be able to predict it or narrow it down to a time or a day. Nobody knows.Jesus even says that only the father knows when Christ will return. Not even the angels. Not even himself. And I don't know how that can be. This is a big question of the Trinity and just the recesses of how the Father, the son, the spirit relate. And we can't really answer that question right now. We take Jesus' word for it as the word of God, but we take now practical application. If Jesus doesn't know, then why are we in the church, in the world spending so much time trying to figure the timing and specific manner of this day out? If Jesus doesn't know, we're not going to figure it out. If we don't know the time, but Jesus gives orders ... We don't know the time, but Jesus, he gives us orders of prescription, a command for followers to await the last day, the day of his return by being steady and being ready. And that's what verses 33 to 37, that's how he closed the chapter."Be on guard. Keep awake for you. Do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey when he leaves his home and puts his servants in charge each with his work and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake For you do not know when the master of the house will come. In the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows or in the morning. Lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you, I say to all, stay awake." So when you see that unmistakable display of God's power, you will know that the end is upon us. Jesus is saying, be ready for it. Don't be found sleeping. We need to expect and anticipate that moment without getting fixated upon the details of when it will be. The timing of it. When the end comes, when he does return, what does he want to see? He wants to see us awake and faithful. He needs to find us focused living by faith following him. Be ready for Christ's return by running the race steadily and faithfully. We don't chase the buzz about the end of time. We don't speculate about dates and predictions. We don't over-read into current events. Instead be ready. That's Christ's orders. That's his prescription. And what do we do day-to-day? We do what God is called us to do. We're about that task.He may return in a day or 10,000 years. Whenever he does, we need to be found ready. And so we live by faith, have our eyes fixed on Jesus, the only savior, our only king, the true prophet. We don't get drawn into the temptations of the world thinking, I can do this stuff and before I die or Christ comes, I can repent. We don't function like that. It could be today. We need to be ready. Furthermore, a lot of Christians are so obsessed with the end of times because they think that it'll wake people up to start living for Christ. That's why people have the signs out on the streets. They're trying to essentially scare people. Hey, the end is about to come. Repent. It's not all out of bad motives. They think if we know it's near, then it'll make us start living in the right way.But I asked if you knew that the end was in a year, would that change the way you live the next year? If you're a Christian in Christ today, it really shouldn't. You should be living this day, this moment, this year as if Christ is going to return in the very next moment. We're always being ready. We're always awake. We're not going to get focused on not getting caught sleeping, not scrolling around through TikTok shorts, YouTube media shorts, living just slovenly, slothful lives. We focus on the work that he's called us to. We say, "Lord, what would you have me do today?" And we seek faithfulness to and the power and blessing of his spirit as we try to do it for his glory. The return of Christ, it means both judgment and salvation. For those who are spiritually sleeping, those who are not following Christ, it will be a time of judgment and his wrath will crush you worse than the destruction of Jerusalem. And it's a destruction that you will not be able to flee. It will be worse than anything you could imagine.The good news is that what's amazing is that all you need to do to avoid such wrath is trust that Christ went to the cross to pay the penalty for your sin, your rebellion against him. The crucifixion scene of Mark in chapter 15 states that Christ faced darkness, an unnatural supernatural darkness in the middle of the day for three hours on the cross. Three hours of supernatural darkness as he drank the cup of God's wrath for all of the elect. After he drank that cup, drank the full wrath, the full punishment deserved, he shouted in victory and breathed his last.If you believe that he did that for you, you can be a saved and avoid the wrath of God at the last day. For those whose eyes and hearts are already fixed on Christ, who trust in him for the forgiveness of their sins, who follow him as Lord and Savior, this day will be a day of joyful salvation. It'll be like a great holiday, a holy day, the holiest of holy days that we look forward to where we will be gathered into the fullness of his glorified presence. Perhaps I dare say we should look forward to it like a small child looks forward to Christmas or a birthday for it will be, in a sense, a new birthday where we're gifted with our resurrected eternal bodies free from the influence of Satan and power of sin. If we pause like Clara to revel and meditate on the and gifts to come that's ahead on that day that are mentioned in Scripture, we would be willing to endure any hardship to get to that day. And so I ask, what kind of day is it going to be for you? Are you ready? Are you awake? Is your life marked by steadiness or steadfastness of faith that when Jesus does appear in an unmistakable fashion that you know have assurance that you'll be gathered by the angels or do you face death, darkness, wrath?Our world, even the church, it's guilty of speculating over the end of times, but Jesus says don't get caught up in it. Jesus says, "Watch, be steady, be ready. And in the meantime, may God, may he be glorified in all that you do." And I haven't talked too much about what that means practically speaking. What does it mean that God may be glorified as we're steady and ready one day at a time trusting him, awaiting his return with patience and self-control? I'm going to close by reading 12: 9 through 21 as this makes our daily tasks clear. This is what Christians do as we await Jesus's return.Romans 12: 9 through 21. "Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful and zeal but fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own say. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink for by doing, you'll heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we just come to you with humility to say that in our impatience, in our faithlessness, in our fear of man, fear of physical pain, fear of death, Lord, we confuse and conflate your promises about your presence with us through trials, through tribulations. We confuse and conflate just the joy, the reward that's ahead of us with Christ's return. Lord, we just pray forgive us and Jesus and help us to leave here steadfast in faith, knowing that you will be with us, whatever is to come in this life individually in our lives or as greater society rises and falls. Lord, give us faith that when we step out to honor you, that you can use us to bring redemption. Bring your grace, bring your mercy to the brokenness around us. Let us never grow weary of doing good for your glory. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Alison and Amanda talk about reality show recaps, the basics of binge watching, and fun facts about face yoga. Sis & Tell, an award-winning weekly comedic podcast, is hosted by southern Jewish sisters the Emmy-nominated Alison Goldstein Lebovitz from PBS' The A List and comedian Amanda Goldstein Marks.

Elzie chats with Amanda Hofman, CEO and Co-Founder of Go To Market, a woman-owned business looking to revolutionize the way the world handles swag. Amanda takes us on a journey through her challenging entrepreneurial experiences, from running an events company in New York City to delving into the kid's toy industry. Amanda emphasizes the value of learning from past mistakes, seeking honest feedback, and the value of networking in an entrepreneur's journey and gives us a sneak peek into the company's future, including exciting growth plans and staying competitive. Episode Highlights:08:19 - I think that's something that people miss, like people really do want to help each other. And so, if you're clear about asking for help, I think you'll find that a lot of people will outstretch, you know, put their hand out to you. Especially if you do it in a respectful way and you're not asking for too much time, but just to say, Hey, I'm really interested in getting into this industry, or I'm having trouble breaking into this industry, or I have questions about the kind of job you do. First of all, people love talking about themselves, and people like being helpful. So, if you're bold enough to ask, you might, you know, what's the harm in asking? As long as you can get the courage to do it.09:39 - I think that the main thing that I can tell people is to be open to and seek out negative feedback. So, like, you hear all the time from people like, "Oh, ignore the haters." You know, don't read the negative comments, and yeah, you don't want to hear what every Joe Schmo has to say about your business, but your friends are going to be an echo chamber for you, and people who love you are going to be an echo chamber for you. So, I looked out, and I was like, What am I doing wrong? What could I be doing better? And I would really reward people who would be honest with me.20:12 - My dream is that companies all across the country will, like, let's completely do away with boring, unsustainable merchandise. It's a real lose-lose for companies. They're spending all of this money to print their logo on something that people don't want, then they gift it, and then people have garbage from this company. And it's really like an expensive, junk-filled, time-consuming, negative process.Connect with Elzie LinkedInSupport the journeyLaunch OR re-launch your podcastContact Amanda HofmanLinkedIn

Lead generation is the name of the game. Who better to talk to then the expert himself? We are gonna be diving into lead generation and what you should be doing.ResourceJay's WebsiteReal Estate Marketing DudeThe Listing Advocate (Earn more listings!)REMD on YouTubeREMD on InstagramLadies and gentlemen, welcome to the episode of the Real Estate Marketing Dude podcast. Folks, we're going to chat about today. We're going to wrap up the year strong and talking about, guess what? More marketing, but more importantly, how you convert that marketing. So many people, especially in our space, throw a lot of money at stuff that make the ego feel good but don't necessarily get the results at the end of the day.00:03:05:02 - 00:03:20:19UnknownAnd yet, as you guys, you know what I'm talking about. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Biggest complaint I see is, social media doesn't work or these ads don't work or this hasn't worked Well, most times it's human error. It's not that it doesn't works. They work for somebody, but they're not working for you. So that's not a bad thing.00:03:20:19 - 00:03:38:05UnknownJust means you need to learn how to do it right, Need to know how to do it more. Quit being so damn creepy online and all that fun stuff. So that's we're going to be chatting about today is lead generation. So we brought on the expert himself. They call him Lead Gen J, and he's going to talk to us about best practices, specifically to your space.00:03:38:05 - 00:03:56:20UnknownSo go how to take notes, pay attention and we'll get right into it. J What's up, man? How are you doing? In wants to run a little bit about who you are, what you do doing well. Appreciate you having me. Jay Feldman, also known as Lead Gen Jay on YouTube. So actually run a very successful PR agency full time.00:03:56:20 - 00:04:19:03UnknownWe have 72 employees across two different offices, so I know all about what you're talking about with the fluff that that feels good but doesn't necessarily generate it leads the personal branding, the social media stuff that everybody thinks they need to do in order to get clients. But my superpower as a as a founder and as a CMO is really generating leads for my agency.00:04:19:05 - 00:04:41:06UnknownAnd now I teach lead generation to thousands and thousands of people in my private courses, communities and my YouTube channel. So hopefully we can give back to some of the realtors, lenders that are watching the show and maybe teach them a different approach for generating leads that they may not have heard of before. I'm very familiar with with the work I've worked with a lot of realtors before.00:04:41:08 - 00:04:59:23UnknownAnd yeah, you know, social media is not the magic bullet. This might be for them. So I'm looking forward to getting them back this way. Well, let's get into it. Like, let's just start from the basics. Let's make this very elementary and I will get into the nitty gritty towards the end here. But at least in real estate space, what's the biggest issue?00:05:00:00 - 00:05:23:20UnknownI have my own opinion, but I'd like to hear yours. Where do people go wrong first? Because that's usually where it starts. It's like at the beginning that they screw up and once you screw that up, you can really build it back up. Is that the target biggest? Is it the offer? What is it? Yeah, I think the biggest struggle that realtors deal with is kind of the same struggle that insurance salespeople deal with is that there's not a lot of differentiation in what they're offering.00:05:23:22 - 00:05:42:24UnknownSo people tend to go with the ones that they know, like antitrust first. So that's one big challenge that they have to get through. And that's where the personal branding and the social media really comes into play and the networking. So I do think is hugely important for realtors to do those things. I'm not discounting any of those things.00:05:43:01 - 00:06:03:15UnknownSo I think that's the biggest struggle. But the second struggle is awareness reaching out to people who might be selling homes, letting them know that you exist. And if they're not selling a home right now, it might be in the future and they might not have a realtor that they know like and trust. So that's really where lead generation and outbound lead generation, which is what I do, comes into play.00:06:03:15 - 00:06:21:24UnknownThe awareness aspect. I go back to the differentiation and you're right, and we say this on we might say this every week, if not every other week, but I always ask people, I see a lot of branding and yeah, you know, figure out some would be like, Hey, Mike, who am I? You know, I've got to figure out how they market themselves, not what the what's easy.00:06:21:24 - 00:06:37:00UnknownIt's the how that people got to figure out what's actually going to get impacted where people can remember. And no one can ever answer that question because I'll be like, ask, what is the one thing you do differently and what the the wrong answer is. I want to look out for the best interest of my clients. What you should look out for the best interests of your client.00:06:37:00 - 00:06:51:12UnknownIf you're a good person, that's not a value proposition. And why do people struggle with that so much? Because, like, if you're a writer, you're just a commodity, especially in the real estate space. This is the same in the law space. You guys. I'm doing a ton of content in the law space right now, so exact same thing.00:06:51:12 - 00:07:12:04UnknownThe attorneys don't know the difference between themselves and somebody else. So what? How do you help people do that? Because I agree with you. I think if you're not different, you've got to stick out. Everyone's the same. Everyone in their mother's a realtor. You trip over one, go to the mall. So how does someone get past that? Because I think that's the key personally.00:07:12:06 - 00:07:39:22UnknownMe too. And that's a really hard challenge to do because something that one person can use to stick out really can't be replicated over and over again. So people struggle to figure out what it is that's going to separate them from somebody else. I mean, you look at some of these giant shows, you know, selling Sunset, like what separates them, yet they get the social media presence If you list with them they've they it's automatic clout and their chances of signed at home are higher because they come with all of that that clout in social media pool.00:07:39:24 - 00:08:03:15UnknownAnd I think that's why a lot of realtors do gravitate toward the know like and trust method because they don't there's nothing different about them. What's different about them is that the person that's hiring them knows likes and trust them. So you asked me some ways that realtors can stand out. I think social media is a good way to do that, especially if the homes that they're selling are people that care about that.00:08:03:17 - 00:08:22:23UnknownFor example, we'll do a we'll do some videos, some collaborations on the sale of the home, maybe feature you on the social media platform. But you probably know that that question a lot better than I do. You know, what are some of the different things that realtors can do to stand out and differentiate their offer? What are some of the things that you teach in order to differentiate?00:08:22:23 - 00:08:42:04UnknownBecause it's like you said, I take care of my client is not a good differentiated differentiation point that gets overlooked. Just like everything else that everybody says. I like differentiating through brand. Unless you have a unique selling proposition and 90% don't, if you have a unique selling proposition, it's going to be different levels of service that you can stand out with.00:08:42:04 - 00:08:59:22UnknownSo we used to have a program called The Owner Advocate where we gave people up to five options to sell their house. We gave them a cash offer, a fixed and list program, a bridge loan option sell instead, which is basically just a leaseback and then the traditional listing. So what made us different and that was our service and our process.00:08:59:24 - 00:09:19:17UnknownSo there's other offices that do that. What makes someone different in real estate in general could be a flat fee office, a flat fee service as opposed to a five or 6% commission. It could be the fixed interest list program, for example. That's a very sexy offer, but most people don't do that. The only other way to differentiate is through brand.00:09:19:19 - 00:09:34:18UnknownSo if you can differentiate through brand, it'd be like, let's just say I love when people give back. I used to do a lot of those. I had one guy in particular comes on top of my mind that used to sponsor and rescue a dog with every house he sold. So he never sold houses? Yeah, he never sold houses.00:09:34:18 - 00:10:04:07UnknownHe saved dogs. The house was just the result of him saving a dog's life. And that's easy to market because people care more about animals than they care about fucking human beings nowadays, right? So it's like. But that's that makes them different, right? So some other things that I can think of that law firms did this actually you mentioned in law firms, if you operate with that law firm, they get special membership access to some of the things in that city that the law firm does parties that are private club.00:10:04:09 - 00:10:23:10UnknownSo that's and that's cool and yeah maybe the realtors can do real estate agents can do and really it comes down to creativity. I don't have a straight answer. We have a law firm right now and it's great. That's what makes them different are divorce family law. And their tagline is, Have you ever argued with a woman? And they're an all women run law firm.00:10:23:12 - 00:11:04:02UnknownIt's fantastic. They all do divorce. That's good marketing. Great marketing, like, you know. So, yeah, you either do it through the USP that you offer. So you're doing things different than 99% as either cheaper or more creatively, or it's your personality, your personal brand, 100% agree with you. And if you have a unique USP, then the cold outreach and the awareness part gets much easier because people will remember you and they'll be much more likely to convert on that outreach as opposed to just a Joe Schmo realtor reaching out to somebody via a cold email or a DM saying, Hey, I'm a local realtor.00:11:04:02 - 00:11:22:05UnknownYou know, if you're selling your house or you know anybody, let me know. Your chances are going to be slim to none. And getting a response to that. So yes, brand works and then your unique USP. Absolutely. How about the awareness side of it? You guys actually go out and like, find these people right? Or walk me through.00:11:22:07 - 00:11:37:02UnknownSo if you have your if you have what you got to do, this is like step one. Would you agree? Like got to figure out what you do differently, what your USP, what do you what's your offer essentially. And then I want you to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Perfect. Everybody should think about that. You can try and win on price.00:11:37:02 - 00:11:53:13UnknownYou can try and win on luxury and brand, but figure out what you're going to win on and then compete there. Now, let's just say I have that figured out. What am I going to do next? So now I need to let people know what you do and how you do it. And that's the awareness portion. So this is where a lot of people struggle.00:11:53:17 - 00:12:16:19UnknownI mean, it's kind of the both of them are very hard, you know, What do you do? What separates you? And then how do you actually get people into your pipeline? So there's a lot of different ways to do lead generation, to do outreach. A lot of people gravitate to social media because it's free. Creating content and getting people in organically is obviously a great way to establish rapport and get free leads, but that's hard to do.00:12:16:19 - 00:12:35:12UnknownA lot of people struggle with generating a following on social media, and it's a little bit unpredictable. There's hand-to-hand combat where you're going through your Instagram, DMS and messaging people over and over again. But what I do is I scale that up, so I figure out ways to do that at scale. So you're not sitting there DMing people over and over again.00:12:35:14 - 00:13:04:00UnknownWe set up systems so that you can reach out to people hundreds or thousands per day that either are a good candidate right now or possibly will be in the future. And how are you? Is that through socials, out through all of social media? We reach out to people, through social media and email. So some of the best social media platforms that we use that allow you to send good automated messages to targeted users that are going to be interested is Twitter and LinkedIn.00:13:04:02 - 00:13:27:06UnknownAnd there's a few tools that you can use within those platform, such as Drippy for Twitter or Meet Alfred for LinkedIn, where you can find people, you know, in specific communities, people who have homeowner in their bio or have already been tagged homeowner by some other platform. So social media, you can automate those messaging, you can get 100 messages out per day spreading that awareness.00:13:27:06 - 00:13:44:08UnknownObviously, this works much better if you've got an established brand and you've got a unique USP. Again, if you're Joe Schmo and you've got a bad profile picture and you're reaching out with a generic offer, it does not work. It's almost a set up. That's why you got to have that upfront because that's just what you do with it.00:13:44:10 - 00:14:03:11UnknownI've never had anyone ever in the last nine years since I had a show mentioned Twitter before. I'm sure you get that a lot right. So let's get a lot of people are doing let's let's get into well, now X so let's get into that like talk to me about that because I always see I always seen on Twitter like the number one response you see is, it's the worst ad platform out.00:14:03:11 - 00:14:26:16UnknownEverybody. I've never converted leads off of there and that's typically b c but you're you're it's kind of like you're messaging people through Twitter. You're not going after like, tell me I'm curious. So you mentioned Twitter's the worst ad platform. I'll say right now, that's where our our best our allies are. So where we're spending money on Twitter ads right now, I think since all of the big brands pulled their ad budgets from Twitter, it's just become dirt cheap to get.00:14:26:16 - 00:14:46:10UnknownThat is interesting. So like with what's go and if you guys haven't been following the news like get out of the whole year and first it's been pretty obvious that the major brands if it is new to you like the major brands for whatever political reasons are fighting about today or pulling out because they're fighting and they're being you know, they're just being big babies about shit, bottom line.00:14:46:12 - 00:15:04:20UnknownSo they're pretty much they're pulling they're pulling their money out. And then you're saying because that space is open, because there's only so much real estate in ad space, you guys, there's a scroll, okay? And what you're really buying is you're buying no differently. Like, people don't know this, but if like, if I'm buying a billboard on a highway, there's only one billboard.00:15:04:20 - 00:15:19:17UnknownThat's why it's so damn expensive, right? Then they can't. Then they created the video billboard so they could put 40 images on there and interchange them. So it became a lot more affordable. But in social, like if there's a lot of people trying to reach the same people, then it's harder and it's more expensive. Get your message seen.00:15:19:19 - 00:15:41:05UnknownAnd a lot of those big dollar peoples what he's saying right? The big dollar companies have pulled back apples the Disney's Yeah and there's a lot of free space there that you'll get more exposure for that is so interesting I've never even thought about that. Yeah in fact in the last week Neil Patel released a video. He says his agency right now is focused entirely on Twitter ads.00:15:41:07 - 00:16:00:20UnknownWe're getting clicks on Twitter for like $0.12 for PR agency ads. So if you're not advertising on Twitter and you're listening to this and you're running an agency and you're running social ads, get out there and spend some money, I guarantee you make an ROI even if you don't know what you're doing. It's just so cheap to to get views and clicks on Twitter right now.00:16:00:22 - 00:16:16:11UnknownBut that is separate from what I was talking about with with doing the outreach. We're about to go in a big rabbit hole right there. I might talk to you about that. Yeah, a little little sidetracked, but definitely a good one. I think that's for anyone to have you back to talk to it. Yeah, that's. That's dope. I'm going to check it out.00:16:16:13 - 00:16:37:22UnknownAll right, Carefully check it out. So Twitter, Twitter, messaging, essentially with tools like Drip, you're able to filter hundreds of thousands of Twitter users out through multiple different filter categories. Like what words they have in their bio, who they're following their location, and then you're able to send them Twitter messages. You need to be verified on Twitter for this, which now is like 12 bucks a month.00:16:37:24 - 00:17:01:19UnknownAnd you can send them hundreds of Twitter messages per day, get straight into their Twitter inbox in initiating that conversation. Hey, Mike, do you happen to own a home in Tampa? No. Cool. It conversation's over. The one out of five that you message that say, yeah, you know, I do. Now you have a conversation. Now you have a lead in your pipeline that's either going to be selling or buying now or might be in the future.00:17:01:21 - 00:17:23:07UnknownSo different ways to connect with people at scale. And Twitter is a good and under-utilized way to do it for people who are listening to this. And I'm like, This sounds like, you know, LinkedIn. I get a ton of spam messages on LinkedIn every day. A lot of actually my next question. Yeah, a lot of people are doing this on LinkedIn, not so much on Twitter when you get I was going to say is on Twitter, it's a little bit more it's probably wide open.00:17:23:07 - 00:17:42:20UnknownThe mailbox is on Twitter and I'm thinking about probably wide open because like people don't typically, I'm guessing, engage on Twitter through like messenger, like they do on Facebook or Instagram or LinkedIn. When you're spammed like every other hour feels like right, wide open and under-utilized. Not a lot of people are doing this right now, so which means an open opportunity.00:17:42:22 - 00:17:59:08UnknownSo like, does this look at the theory here though? Like what we're talking about is we're trying to go where no one else is, you guys. And that's like the fundamental rule of any marketing, like we're talking about sticking out. We can only stick out. Just like in your brand and your USP, you could stick out to where you show up to someone else.00:17:59:08 - 00:18:21:08UnknownIf you go where nobody else's advertising gets much cheaper. If you try and advertise on Google ads for people buying or selling at home and your location, you're going to be competing against everybody else who has a typically a much larger budget than you probably do as an individual realtor or lender. So going where the unknown is going, where people aren't spending a lot of effort is going to save you a lot of money.00:18:21:10 - 00:18:37:01UnknownNow, just a side note, I want your personal opinion on this. Do you think Twitter can on a social aspect, because it feels like a more of a news site, do you think it can compete like on a social aspect, like with Facebook and IG? And to that extent, in my opinion, I don't know if it ever has.00:18:37:01 - 00:19:00:12UnknownI've never been a big Twitter consumer. I've never been in a Twitter scroller. And it seems like the people who are, you know, political journalists, reporters, yeah, it feels more newsy. It feels more newsy and it feels like a social platform for news people and for politics, not for the general consumer. But I do know a lot of entrepreneurs who are pretty big on Twitter and swear by it.00:19:00:12 - 00:19:30:00UnknownAnd I don't know if you're familiar with Alex Ramsey. Yes. He's got a massive Twitter following. Black are called email wizard, massive Twitter following does something similar to what I do. So the opportunity is there. Obviously, people are spending time there, but I'll be honest, it's not my platform. Interesting. Okay. So talk to me about these messages sort of reaching people and with the services that like, is it a bot, Is it and how many people can you reach out and then do you have numbers?00:19:30:02 - 00:20:00:03UnknownYeah, Twitter, you can head about 2 to 300 per day based on how established your Twitter account is and how many people are in your pool. Yes, it is a bot. Obviously, you write the messages that are going to be sent and a lot of these tools now do incorporate as well. So for each of these messages you can run a chat bot prompt based on what's going on in their bio and generate, generate, generate a personalized word or phrase that will make it a little bit more personal to them.00:20:00:05 - 00:20:15:04UnknownAnd what are people often like to think of a real estate? They're just you're starting a conversation. Hey, do you own a house? Like, what's the it's really I mean, you're throwing astonished at the wall, so I'm going to stick like I'm a big fan of cold calling. You know, I hate it. It works. It works. It works.00:20:15:04 - 00:20:34:22UnknownAll right. You know, And if you try enough, here's a someone. I bought this new platform I'm running my ads with. It's called EBU. Guy named Vince Reid has it and he has he he said something in his training that really stuck. And I think this will help you guys. He goes, If you want to sell more shit, you need to make more offers.00:20:34:24 - 00:20:55:22UnknownYeah, I'm going to. I'm like, Dude, I know sometimes one will stick. If something's working a little bit, do more. You're typically going to get more even with the it, right? Yeah. Even with the worst offer, someone will bite. And then ideally over time, you optimize your offer, you optimize your targeting, you go from a 1% reply to a 3% reply and you fine tune.00:20:55:24 - 00:21:24:15UnknownBut you mentioned what do you say in that message for this for the real what's for example, assuming that you're targeting a reasonable audience, meaning you have the location down there? Homeowner You've been able to do that with the filtering technology. I would leave the open ended. Hey, nice to meet you. I'm whatever we've got at this in common, I do wanna do on a homeowner in Tampa Bay leave it open ended yes or no or if they say yes and they've got an opening to go have a conversation with the lead.00:21:24:15 - 00:21:42:18UnknownWho's talking to you? And you can build that relationship for now or for later. There's also some other strategies giving them lead magnets. For example, if you're a lender and you can give them some kind of like lending calculator or something that they might opt in for and find useful. That's something that I use a lot in my business.00:21:42:18 - 00:22:00:15UnknownI can't think of any good lead magnets for realtors off the top of my head right now, but I'm sure they exist. Could probably be like a new construction homes list is usually what people do off market lists. Off the market? Yes. People will say, well, it's not on the MLS because you couldn't find anything on Zillow nowadays.00:22:00:15 - 00:22:15:07UnknownSo you got to have something that's not like online. But usually that's what I see, something along those two lines. I would click on that too. Someone sent me an off market list for Saint Pete, even though I'm not now buying or selling a home right now. I mean, I just want to see what it is, right? Yeah, absolutely.00:22:15:09 - 00:22:35:13UnknownVerdad. You know, I think the biggest problem too, and this is for me too. I hate selling dude like and I think most people, I feel like they feel that as well. Like I don't want to be on a soapbox like cold calling or reaching people or messaging people. However, I could pick up the conversation once they do right, and if someone raises their hand, I'm more of like a permission based person.00:22:35:13 - 00:22:52:08UnknownI've always been like, I can't infiltrate. I was terrible. Cold calling was terrible at like just selling than general, more salesperson and a lot of people in real estate struggle with that. But this is like a way that you could automate that and, and, and get rid of that terrible part of the coldness sounds like it's exactly what that is.00:22:52:08 - 00:23:10:01UnknownWe had a cold calling team and God bless their hearts, they're spending all day, hundreds of calls and a couple of them are interested in everybody else's pissed off. They have to deal with all of the pissed off ones and they're spending time on the ones that are pissed off. This is the way to not do that. Automating the outreach really is like what you said.00:23:10:01 - 00:23:28:13UnknownIt's waiting for somebody to raise their hand and say, I'm interested. The ones that don't raise their hand, you don't even know it exist. They typically don't even make it through the pipeline to you. So it's a really good strategy for people like you've mentioned who don't love selling and doing all of that outreach manually, 99% of them.00:23:28:15 - 00:23:46:11UnknownHow do you target people, though, on this platform? Got so Twitter, you're a little bit more limited. So you we've got words that are in there, but we've got who they're following, who's following them, and we've got interested. There's a subscriber vibe too, So there's a couple of different ways that you can target on Twitter. LinkedIn is much more open.00:23:46:12 - 00:24:04:24UnknownYou know exactly where they're living. You can target very specifically, you know, companies, job titles. So if you're looking for high net worth people in your city, LinkedIn is going to be an easy way to find those people. If you're doing cold email and you're using a B2B database, such as a Palo Alto, you can do the same thing as LinkedIn.00:24:04:24 - 00:24:25:13UnknownYou can hyper target by people in a specific location. They've got buying intent data. So people who are looking for homes and then there's scraping tools like IG leads, dot IO, where you can literally scrape homeowners in your location. So a lot of good resources out there to find the right people and it's never going to be 100% accurate.00:24:25:15 - 00:24:46:07UnknownYeah, but the goal is to get accurate enough to get people to start raising their hand up. I like it. What else you got? I get it. It's taken out. So that's a good a good sign. Something you haven't done here before. So the other thing is how do you get as many messages out as possible without burning out your list?00:24:46:09 - 00:25:14:01UnknownSo we mentioned Twitter as a as a resource. LinkedIn is another good one for automating LinkedIn as a tool that we like to use to automate. LinkedIn is called Meet Alfred. You're able to essentially get out hundreds of messages per day to people who are in your groups and your events. So as opposed to traditional methods, just connecting with 30 people per day, which is their limit, hoping that they accept it, sending them a message, these tools will actually go right into their inbox.00:25:14:03 - 00:25:33:11UnknownAnd LinkedIn is really cool because you've got all this targeting mechanisms and you've got a much more built out profile. So people can see your profile, picture your banner, your banner, exactly what you do, where do you live, and if they see someone connecting with them from their city on LinkedIn, good chance that they're going to connect and have a conversation with you.00:25:33:13 - 00:26:04:16UnknownUsually on like the personal stuff, like you're at the same college, you're the same exact industry, you're in the same fraternity, even like you could. You could probably target people that way if you want to go really deep. Obviously that would work at university. Yes, university like so yeah, might be way too small. Interesting. Cool. Now, when somebody reaches back though, don't say aren't they sort of like, hey, I'm this is like old and then you pick up the conversation like, do you?00:26:04:16 - 00:26:26:03UnknownI could see why you have the lead magnet because a lot of people like what I do next. hi. You want a house? Okay, so now what? Great. Right? If I'm lead magnet definitely makes a little bit easier. It makes it more enticing, but now it becomes a sales job, not a prospecting job. Yeah, it's building a relationship with that person, putting them in your pipeline for now or later.00:26:26:05 - 00:26:44:10UnknownBut once they've raised their hand and said, Yeah, I am exactly who you hoped I was, I have at home, this is where I live. I'm buying or selling. Now you can start to build that relationship enough to waste your time doing the outreach. Now you're closing. Yeah, maybe retargeting you could be following in other places. I like it.00:26:44:12 - 00:27:04:03UnknownWhat kind of costs is something like this running like because I'm thinking I used to have a team of cold callers. I know how much they costs. Like, what is this? Let's just say I'm like, All right, I'm sold. I want to do something like this. How much data do I need? And my dealing with like 10,000 records of people I got to find my.00:27:04:09 - 00:27:24:20UnknownAnd then how much, you know, like, how much does cost? Like, is there what's the budget like on this? Let's go over some of the pricing and expectations for each of these platforms. So they're each a little bit different breaking them down into Twitter, LinkedIn and email are kind of the main three that we like to do. Our average Twitter, we've got 15 bucks a month ish for Twitter verified.00:27:24:22 - 00:27:48:03UnknownWe've got the software cost, which is about $59 per month, and that's it for Twitter. Everything else is done within that tool. So if you're comparing that to anything else for generating leads, it's pretty absurdly affordable. Yeah. With LinkedIn, you've got Sales Navigator 99 a month and then you've got the tool, which is 89 a month. So less than 200 bucks a month.00:27:48:03 - 00:28:06:18UnknownAnd now you're doing hundreds of contacts automatically per day on LinkedIn. So if you're doing all the above, you're less than 400 bucks all in right now and then say you want it to do cold email outreach as well. This one is a little bit more complicated than, you know, setting up a tool and how can it to your account.00:28:06:20 - 00:28:27:19UnknownThat's what I teach pretty in-depth on on the ginger YouTube channel. But what you'd be looking at if you want to do the email stuff is you need data. So you can either purchase it from a B2B lead database such as Apollo Audio or Zoom info that can be expensive. You can scrape it using a tool like IG leads you.00:28:27:21 - 00:28:47:03UnknownYou can scrape it from LinkedIn using a tool like scrap. But you've got to got to get that list of emails who you want to contact. Then you need to set up cold email sending accounts, which can be a little bit technical for a lot of people. You don't want to send emails from your main email address. There's a risk that the people who are receiving them will market as spam.00:28:47:09 - 00:29:02:23UnknownAnd now, before you know it, all your general emails, the people who you know and do business with are going to spam. You do not want to do that. So always send from a secondary domain and a warmed sender account. We send those emails through a tool called instantly dating. I was going to I was going to ask you what you use for cold emails.00:29:02:23 - 00:29:20:13UnknownI just had someone asked me a question the other day. No, no, it this is really good for like this. Like this sounds like it'd be really good for distrust. You guys, like, you could buy data all day from, like, people that are high in debt. Like, this is what we used to do. Like and if you have that, you could buy the emails.00:29:20:13 - 00:29:40:18UnknownYou could, you could literally locate the people who have to sell their house in the next ten months just because there's no other financial option. But in addition, I think this is awesome for recruiting to be to be agent, agent, broker to agent. There's probably a big, big, big thing there. Probably we use this for a lot of things outside of lead generation as well.00:29:40:18 - 00:29:59:14UnknownOnce you understand the principles of cold outbound, you can start to pivot this, to use it for lots of different use cases. Recruiting is one that we use it for. Influencer partnerships is another one that we use it for. Business partnerships is another one that we use it for. So lenders looking for realtors, we are looking for lenders.00:29:59:16 - 00:30:32:06UnknownAll of those are relationships that can be built using these same principles and tactics. I see why you're creating leads, man. Smart, very smart. You remove cold call and you remove the friction and now you have a warm bond permission base. Follow up. Smart. Yeah. We had a cold calling team for a while. We had four people in house picking up the phone and compared to what we were able to do through automated cold outreach, it wasn't even close to what the cold callers.00:30:32:06 - 00:30:50:19UnknownYou guys too, is a revolving door. Like it's hard to retain a cold core. You might retain them for 90 days to maybe maybe six months, but then even then they're going to get burnt out. And then even when they don't, they start getting very expensive because the ones who are good know they're good and then they start asking for more money and then it starts not making sense anymore as a business owner too.00:30:50:19 - 00:31:11:02UnknownSo and rightfully so, they should get more money for that kind of phone. But very smart dude. I get it. It's very smart. I would talk to you when we think that's up for about a couple of things. Any other thing you want to add here? We talked about amounts of data. I think that was another question. How much did you have actually need A do you have an unlimited supply of data?00:31:11:02 - 00:31:36:20UnknownAnd if you live in a small town and you only serve the regions nearby to you and you can only find hundreds of people to do outreach to, this doesn't work for everybody, especially if you're restricted to localized small regions. But if you serve South Florida, you're never going to run out of data. There are tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of people that you'll be able to find and reach out to at scale.00:31:36:20 - 00:31:57:18UnknownAnd that does not increase the cost. And there's always new people buying and selling houses. So as fast as you can reach out to them that is replenishing with data. So I would not let that be a concern. If you're operate in a populated area now, if you're a little bit more restricted and in a small town, this might not be a great outreach strategy for you.00:31:57:20 - 00:32:13:18UnknownThat makes sense. Yeah. I mean, there's only so much data to go around, but yeah, I see it as a it's definitely a once you have that niche and if you got data, I mean that's where it starts out. The key here is that the ability to get the data, get the records and you need emails. And what about cell phones?00:32:13:20 - 00:32:31:12UnknownJust emails. We've tried everything with the cell phones, voicemail drops, which is basically leaving them a ringing list voicemail. So they just get the voicemail on their phone and likely will call you back If you have somebody picking up the phone. Answering those actually works quite well as SMS messaging called does not work very well. People hate getting cold.00:32:31:14 - 00:32:50:21UnknownSMS messages. I hate them. I hate them too. Yeah. So no. And how is it that stop? If too many people reply stop now, your carriers will cut you off and you can't do it anymore. So SMS block messaging is essentially dead and then there's cold calling. I'm still waiting for an I cold calling machine to be good enough.00:32:50:23 - 00:33:14:02UnknownI keep getting propositioned by these companies to try their their new dialing bot their new to cold calling I they still suck. So yeah, you can use the numbers if you have a live cold calling team but we just mentioned how how difficult those challenges are plus this gets around all the TCP compliant shit like right. Is that a compliance issue for text messaging?00:33:14:06 - 00:33:32:01UnknownThere's a lot for real estate, you know, like there is a lot like just a do not call list and all of that stuff. And there's a lot of risk out there for people to pay. And I'm pretty sure that's who goes around that. Yeah, I don't think there's any there is regulation for called email. It's called the canned Spam Act.00:33:32:01 - 00:33:49:22UnknownSo there's certain things that you need to have in your code emails. You need to have an address and you have a way to unsubscribe quickly. It can't be a dopey bait and switch email. Yeah. So as long as you follow a few simple rules, you're safe, you're within legal bounds. And I do not think there's any legal limits about social media messaging.00:33:49:24 - 00:34:09:21UnknownThere might be limits and restrictions based on the individual social media account. So, for example, on Twitter, if Twitter catches you doing it, you might get a Twitter account suspended. But there's nothing legal that you'd be implicated in that I know of. And to this day, I've operated hundreds of these accounts and I still haven't had any issues.00:34:09:23 - 00:34:31:24UnknownVery cool, very cool way to how long you've been doing this. And what did you crack it? I've been in marketing for close to ten years and I've been doing a lot of automated messaging those entire ten years. And now I live and breathe this stuff. So always testing new tools. It's a blast for me, especially with a lot of cool stuff coming around the pipeline.00:34:32:01 - 00:34:49:24UnknownVery cool, man. Very cool. Why don't you tell listeners you're in the ship? Anything else you got? Any final tips you want to add once you tell them where they can learn more about you? I don't think we covered a lot of that. I hope it was helpful for you. Your hope was helpful for everybody. If you do want to learn more about me, the best place to learn more about this content is my YouTube channel.00:34:49:24 - 00:35:07:07UnknownGo to YouTube, type in lead Gen J. I've got deep dives into everything that I talked about here on that channel. Get a free course that you can enroll in, go through, learn how to generate leads that way. And if you want to send me a message, go to CMO J. Feldman on Instagram. Send it over there. But this is a blast.00:35:07:07 - 00:35:26:15UnknownThey hope I provide a value for some people. Yes, sir. And thank you guys for listening to other episode of the Real Estate Marketing Dude podcast. Folks, you guys know where to find us to visit our show, leave us messages and visit our new software referral suite. That's WW dot referral suite wect dot com. That'll teach you how to We'll teach you anything.00:35:26:15 - 00:35:44:18UnknownI'll do it for you, but it'll market your database, stay in front of them so you remain top of mind. Build a personal brand that people stop forgetting about and start sending you more clients. Appreciate guys less. Another episode we'll see all next week, but thank you for watching another episode of the Real Estate Marketing Do Podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is.00:35:44:24 - 00:36:04:20UnknownVisit our website at WW Dot Real Estate Marketing do dot com. We make branding and video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training and then schedule time to speak with the dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching. Another episode of the podcast will see you next time.

"It's ongoing. You're constantly working, and you're constantly building, and striving for excellence, when it comes to whatever you have a passion for. And I have a passion for my YouTube channel. I have a passion for singing. I have a passion for helping people, know what I mean? I really do. That is a passion of mine. And this is what I do. I could be walking down the street, and a regular Joe Schmo, Mary Lou will come up me, not knowing me from a can of paint! And they will pour their heart and soul out to me. And that has happened on numerous occasions. Know what I mean? Especially with people that I do know as well. A lot of people have come to me, and continue to come to me, in confidence, because they can appreciate my advice, or my counsel, or my positive energy, my encouragement, my being able to uplift. That… I don't know. This is what I've been told from people, as well. I encourage. I uplift. I motivate. This is what I do. And some people say, 'Well that's your ministry!' Okay. Okay. If that… I do believe that as well. I do have a gift." — Welcome to the Wise Not Withered Podcast! We are in Season 4, Episode 8. This month's guest is Ms. Moe. She is a YouTube creator and personality; you can find her under @LetsTalkWithMoe on YouTube and Instagram, and more recently on YouTube she has leaned more toward reaction videos so it's called Ms. Moe Reacts. I found her on Instagram, and I liked her personality, she seemed very positive and entertaining! She talks about lots of different things: a little bit about her upbringing, the work she does outside of her YouTube channel, her children who are also content creators and business owners, and many things she has learned over her lifetime. — Cool! All right, so let's just jump right in. What is your age? My age is 57! 57, cool. And where did you grow up? And what other places have you called home throughout your life? I grew up here in Springfield, Massachusetts. That's where I'm born and raised. And I called New Haven, Connecticut home for a short time. I had my first son, my first child, when I was there. And so that was back in '82. I had lived there… I would say… A good year. And a few months. And when my son was a few months old, I moved back here. Okay. What brought you to Connecticut? (Laughs) At the time… My husband. Okay. And then you moved back… What brought you back? Um… For better opportunities. Things weren't going too well there. Of course, we were still together—we hadn't gotten married yet. But yeah, better opportunity, hopefully. Just for a better life, a better start. I just had my son, so we were still trying to figure things out. And what do you do for a living? So… For an actual living! (Laughs) For an actual living, I work for a community health center here in Springfield, Massachusetts. It's called the Caring Health Center, and I have been working there… Upcoming on October 6th, it will be 17 years! I've been there since '06, so you do the math! I have worn many hats there, but I work for them. It's a non-profit, federally funded, FQHC. And you know, I've just worn many hats there. Federally qualified health center. I am a medical professional. Okay. What are some of those hats? Okay. So here's the rundown! Yes! The rundown is… When I first started there, I was front patient registration. When all the patients came in, I registered them, checked them in. After doing that for two years, I was approached and offered the position of assistant manager. And so I went to our second site—now we have three sites, but then it was only two sites. I went to the second site; I was the assistant manager. And then after that, hit a little bump in the road… After that, I took a break, you know, from managing. And then after the break, I went back to patient registration, and then I went back to being the assistant manager. And after that, I went to front operations manager. And then… After that! (Laughs) I hit a couple of bumps in the road with my health, for the past I would say two, two and a half years… I had to take some time off—I had to be on medical leave, the year before last and last year. And so… When I came back to work, I was working with the call center. And then shortly after that, I went to pre-registration. So this was the year before last, when I came back to work. I started off in the pre-registration, did that… And then last year, went on medical leave again. Then came back, started in the call center, and after that, went right back into pre-registration. New patient appointments. That's what I presently do. All around the mulberry bush, right? (Laughs) Yeah, yeah, that's indeed many hats! (Laughs) Yeah, how did you get started in that? Oh. So… Long to the short, I was working for a stop and shop distribution warehouse, many years ago. Then all of a sudden they closed, they went out of business… Laid everybody off. And I'm talking about people who were working there for years. Laid everybody off, gave everybody a severance. I was so conditioned, gotta work, gotta get a job! Years before, I kept saying I want to go back to school. I want to go back to school to get my GED, because I never graduated. So I got laid off from there, and it was really a tug of war going on, as far as… Okay, it's the perfect opportunity to do it. I can go back to school, get my GED. I have no problem collecting unemployment, cause that was there for everybody who got laid off. Fine. So after making the decision to go back to school, get my GED, I did that. After taking the test, time was dwindling down, funds was dwindling down, the time I was on the unemployment. It was due to end. And I ran into an employee—no longer works there—but I ran into an employee who was working there at the time, and I told her that I was looking for work. I ran into her and her husband at the time. And her husband, I went to cosmetology school with! Oh wow! Yeah, go figure. So long to the short, she said, “You know what, we're looking for people. Go and apply, put me down as a reference.” And okay! So it was history from there on. Like I said I started with Caring Health Center in 2006. Mhm. You mentioned cosmetology school? Yeah! So… I went to cosmetology school, I graduated, no problem… What all is that? I'm thinking hair and makeup… Is it more than that? I'm not really sure. Well, I can tell you when I went—which was many moons ago now! It was hair, it was facials. It was… What do they call it, aesthetician? It was hair, facials, it was nails… But at that time, it was… You could do either hair, beauty stuff, or just nails. So, in the cosmetology part of it, they taught us how to do manicures, and pedicures—certain things you do and do not do with pedicures and manicures. Facials, and hair… We dibbled and dabbled with makeup, but nothing professional. So that's what we did in cosmetology school. I went, I graduated, had a lot of fun doing it. I worked part time, at the same time. When I graduated cosmetology school, I worked a little bit in a salon. Maybe two years. I worked in two different salons. It was… Nice, good, and fun. The only thing about, you know, doing hair and in that field, is it's hard to build up your clientele. At least it was for me. I don't think, looking back on everything now, I could have done a lot of things differently. But I didn't know then. You know what I mean? Yeah. You have to put forth an effort to build up your clientele any way you can. And I didn't have that know-how then. Yeah. That sounds more like… I don't know, business, advertising? That would be separate from your actual skill set that you're using in the job, right. Well yeah, because you know, that is your job. That is your business. You're in charge of how much you're building it up, or how much you're not. And how much money you're dishing out to rent that space, and to buy products, and all of that… It takes a lot when you're first starting out. Yeah, I did wonder. Your hair is beautiful! (Laughs) Aw, thank you. Thank you so much. I can't take credit this time. Oh, no? No, between my daughter and my stylist… I'm very well taken care of! Okay! Awesome. Yeah so you mentioned you have a daughter, you have a son. Two kids—are there more? No, I have three children. I have two sons, and a daughter. My daughter is the youngest. And I have two sons… My oldest son is 41, my middle—my youngest son is 34, and my daughter is 28. Okay. Can you talk more about raising them, and what you've learned through your children? I know that's probably… You could write a whole book about that, right? (Laughs) That's a big thing! Well… I would… First of all, I would say they are the best things that have ever happened to me. My first son, I had him when I was 16. My children are 6 and 7 years apart. And let's be clear, I didn't raise them by myself and on my own. I did have a husband. So we raised them together. Some times were better than other times, as far as raising the children. We weren't rich. We were poor. Two-income home. But they had everything they needed, you know what I mean? It's not easy, it's better with two people than one. You know what I mean? It's not easy, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I wouldn't change anything. Because if I changed anything about how they came about, how they were raised, I would not be where I am at this moment. But… How do I put this? I didn't have any… You know, issues, as far as raising my kids—how they turned out. It wasn't an easy journey. I was a young mother. And learning as I went along, you know… And just trying to take one day at a time, always trying to make sure they had, you know what I mean? Always put myself on the back burner. Nevermind me, I'll be okay. I will figure it out. I am grown. But as far as you kids? No. Whatever you guys needed, I would spend my last dime, making sure you guys, you know, had, all the time. I would definitely make sure that their hair was done. (Laughs) Yeah! Right, yeah! My boys always had the nice cut! I always made sure my daughter's hair was always done. With my daughter, that was a struggle, because of the type of hair that she had. But I always made sure that they looked good, that they were clean! Their hair was done, their clothes were clean. They may not have had the name brands that everybody is so hung up on, and all of that… But they always had what they needed! We had good times—we have good times. Everybody's an adults. Everybody comes to and fro… Yeah. I love my kids! I love my kids. Yeah, so you said they're 6 and 7 years apart. What are some things you learned as you became a new mom in those different phases of your life? Oh, wow… What a question! To make sure… I can be hard and stern, but I'm always fair. I'm always fair. And I always try to make sure that, you know, there were no favorites. I always tried to make sure that all of my kids felt loved, and knew that they were loved, and tried to spend as much time with them as I possibly could, in the formative years… You know, going to games, going to school functions, going to parent-teacher conferences, going to open houses, all of that. That's very important. I always tried to do that. When you have kids, you never ever want to look around and wonder, “What happened?” When, or if your kids start acting a certain way, and start talking to you in a certain way, then you wonder, “Where is this coming from?” Or “Who do you think you're talking to?” Then, they'll tell you! You know what I mean? It could come out good, or it could come out bad. But it's very important that you try to do that. I don't know, I mean… Those are some of the things I learned along the way. I always wanted to make sure my kids were happy! You know, happy and… I didn't want them to have to want for anything. Even though we were poor—we didn't have money like that. We were surviving, you know what I mean? We took one day at a time, one week at a time, one check at a time. That's one thing, I always wanted my kids to be happy. I didn't want them to, you know, like they say, be in grown folks' business, about the bills, about the money. I never wanted them to worry about that. So… I hope I answered your question! Yeah! And I guess yeah, speaking of kids, and relationships with kids, what was or is your relationship with your own mom like? Oh okay. So… My relationship with my mom is much better now than it was before. Yeah, take us through the evolution! Oh, God… As much as you're comfortable! (Laughs) So… You know, me and my siblings, we all grew up in church. My mom has been the secretary of our church for over fifty years now. Oh wow, okay. We all grew up in church. I am the baby of six siblings. So we all grew up in church and whatnot… I left home at a real early age, hence me having my first child at 16. So when all of that was going on… It was an ordeal, to say the least. Things weren't… The best, you know. Over the years, things… Got… They were not so good. Let's just keep it at that. Things were not so good over the years. But things got better with time, you know? Fast forward to now, my relationship with my mom is 100% better than what it used to be. Now don't misunderstand me. I am not saying my relationship with my mom, when we did have rocky times… It was never, you know, like the type of cussing and screaming and arguing, slamming doors… Being disrespectful and rude. It was never, ever that. I just want to be clear about that. I never, ever disrespected my mom in that type of way, in that manner. Now, we are excellent, we're much closer. We're in a much better place now. Nice! Did that happen over time? Or do you remember a turning point? It happened over time. I can't give a specific time frame of when it happened. It's just one of those things that happens organically. You don't really, like, oh okay, yes, I remember it was right then! No. It just happens! You go through life, you know what I mean? You're living. So… It just happened. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Let's see, switching gears a little bit! What are some of your hobbies or leisure activities? Ooh! (Laughs) So let's see. Okay! So, I love to sing. I can sing! Not to toot my own horn or anything… Please, toot your own horn! I can sing, I love to sing. I've been singing ever since I was a little girl. I grew up in church singing. I got my singing ability from my dad, and my mom—collectively. I love to sing! In my spare time, I have done weddings, I have done funerals. Occasions like that. And of course, I have my own YouTube channel. That was the next question! (Laughs) But yeah, please continue. I have my own YouTube channel. It started off as being “Let's Talk With Moe”. That was the beginning of it. That used to be the title of it. But now, it's Ms. Moe Reacts. (LINK) And I'm on YouTube. And so I've been doing YouTube for some years now! That's like, my main hobby that I do. My main thing that I do in my spare time. As soon as I'm done Monday-Friday working my 8:30-3:30 job, I try to dive into that. On the weekends and anytime I can through the week. That is my outlet, know what I mean? That is my go-to. So I sing, I have my own YouTube channel. I used to do hair in my spare time, but I don't really do that anymore, you know? I can do hair, I just don't. There comes a time… I still love it, but not like that. Of course, I love to shop!! Who doesn't like to shop!? And you know, I try to spend time with my kids. As much as I can! They're all grown. The oldest lives in Atlanta—he's married. Couple of grandkids… My youngest son and my daughter live with me. My youngest son has a son, and my daughter doesn't have any children. That's really about it. I just really, really love doing my YouTube channel! I really love it. — Full transcript can be found on wisenotwithered.com!

Audio Transcript:This media has been made available by Mosaic BostonChurch. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston ordonate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Tyler. I'm the youth and hospitality director here at Mosaic Boston, and whenever I get the opportunity to preach, I always say it is my honor and my privilege to be able to deliver God's word to all of us today. We will be continuing our sermon series through the book of Mark. We'll be in Mark 3:20-35, and the sermon series title is Kingdom Come. And we're going to be looking at what does life in the kingdom of God look like? What does that look like here? But before we get into the text in today's sermon, I have something to say. "I will never forgive you." Harsh words to hear on a Sunday morning. First service was even more appalled. No, I hope you know that I'm not saying that seriously. You have not offended me. You have not done anything to cause me to hold forgiveness from you. But I want to know what would it take for us to say that to someone? What would someone have to do to us to say to them, "I will never forgive you." Maybe it's something as simple as, "If you lie to me, you break my trust, there's no way I could ever trust you again. I will never forgive you." Maybe say, "Oh, I'm a little bit more holy than that. They would have to cheat on me in a relationship. That I couldn't forgive." And then maybe someone says, "I'm a little bit more holy than that they would have to murder someone I love in order for me not to forgive them." Maybe it's things going on in the world and you say, "I could never forgive that." Maybe you're here and you're saying this is church on a Sunday. This is a trap. I know the right Sunday school answer is, "I'll forgive everyone of everything." I would ask you, does your heart really truly reflect that? If we're honest with ourselves, is there anything that we say and believe someone can do to us and we will never forgive them? Now, what if I told you that there is something that God Himself says he will never forgive? Now, this is the harsh reality of the text that we will be in is what we call the unforgivable sin that Jesus says is an eternal sin that will never be forgiven. We're going to get to that. But before we do, I want to point out something that's really important about it. It's a sin against God, not a sin against man. So what does that mean? It means that we are not able to have a sin that we withhold forgiveness from others, right? That's not our job. God is the one who forgives and declares that this one sin is unforgivable. So with that sombering mood to set the tone for our service today, will you pray with me over the reading and preaching of God's word. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you that you are a God who forgives. You are a God of mercy and grace, but you do not take sin lightly. Lord, help us to not take our sins against you lightly. Convict us where we need to be convicted. Help us to turn and run to you in repentance, knowing that you do desire to forgive and you are willing, ready, and able to forgive. Help us to trust you more. Lord, use this time. Encourage your church, speak through me. Speak through your word and your scriptures to encourage and strengthen your church and convict us where we need to be convicted. In Jesus' name, amen. So it is going to be a hard text today and there's a lot going on in it, but I do want to say I believe it is an encouragement to us. I have been greatly encouraged in my studies of this text this week, and I hope it's an encouragement to you. And so to be able to frame up our time, we're going to be spending in three sections. I hesitate to call them points. They are pretty distinct thoughts, but at the end we'll wrap it all together. We'll see how it's all connected. But our three ideas for the sermon are one, liar or lunatic, liar, or Lord, we'll get to that. Number two, the unforgivable sin. And number three, right relationship with Jesus Christ. So that's how we'll be framing our time today. And this is what we see in our text in Mark 3:20-35. If you have your Bibles, you could open it, you could find it on your phone or you could follow along on the screens behind me. God's word says, "Then He, Jesus, went home and the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat. And when His family heard it, they went out to seize Him. For they were saying, 'He is out of His mind.' And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying He's possessed by Beelzebul and by the prince of demons, he cast out demons and he called them to him and said to them in parables, 'how can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, the house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man, then indeed he may plunder his house. Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven. The children of man and whatever blasphemes they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin,' for they had said he has an unclean spirit." "And His mother and His brothers came and standing outside, they sent to Him and called Him and a crowd was sitting around Him and they said to Him, 'your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you.' And He answered them, 'who are my mother and my brothers?' And looking about at those who sat around Him, He said, 'here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother'." This is the reading of God's holy, inherent, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Point number one, the fun one, lunatic, liar or Lord? This is a phrase that was coined by C.S. Lewis in terms of these are the options that he presented that we can believe about Jesus and who He is. You can either believe that He is a lunatic, a man out of His mind claiming to be God. Think about it. Where in society today do we see people who claim to be God? Most of the times it's in some sort of institution because society has said, "You're not in your right mind." Second is liar, that Jesus claimed to be God. And so He willfully led people onto believe that even though He knew he wasn't and He was lying to lead people to follow Him. Or thirdly, that He is Lord, that He is who He says He is. And this idea was brought up by C.S. Lewis to combat the idea of Jesus as a good moral teacher and philosopher. This is something that I think is still prevalent in our society today. We're okay with saying that Jesus brought good ideas that help society, that Jesus is a good man with moral teachings, and so it was good for society that He came. But C.S. Lewis argues we cannot hold that position because good people do not claim to be God. If He willingly knew that He was God, then He was who He says He was. And if He willingly knew He wasn't and lied about it, then He's a liar and He is not a good person. So these are the only three options that C.S. Lewis presents. And many scholars believe that this text in Mark is where C.S. Lewis gets this idea from because we see all of these options here and we're going to go through them. The first option is lunatic. And this is the very first two verses, verse 20 and 21. "Then He, Jesus, went home and the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat. And when His family heard it, they went out to seize Him, for they were saying, 'He is out of His mind'." His family, His mother and His siblings said about Him, "You're out of your mind. You're crazy." This is what we mean when we say lunatic. And for the context of where this chapter falls, in the previous sections, Jesus has been healing people and been casting out demons. And while He's doing that, more and more people are coming to Him, bringing their sick, bringing those that are demon oppressed for Jesus to heal them. And so such a great crowd comes around Jesus that He goes down by the sea, He goes, "I can't stay in the city anymore. It's too much chaos. We're going down by the sea." And then the crowd got greater and greater and greater to the point that Jesus was like, "I need to retreat up in the mountains. I'm taking my disciples. We're going up to the mountains to be with the Lord and then we'll come back eventually." So Jesus is up in the mountains and then verse 20, "Then He went home." So He's coming down from His retreat in the mountains to home, but where is home? Home is in Capernaum. It is most likely Peter's house, not His own home. Why is this what we believe? Is because Peter's house is the only house mentioned in the book of Mark and His family had to go out to find Him. So it's not His parents' house, 'cause they wouldn't have to go anywhere to find Jesus. So it's not His parents' house. It's most likely Peter's house. So He comes down from this retreat and everyone's like, "He's back. Let's go find Him." So the crowd gathers again and they're swarming Him with so many people that need healing and casting out of demons that they don't have time to even eat. They can't gather anything, they're just working the miracles of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. And His family sees it and they're like, what kind of person draws such a crowd? What kind of person spends so much time with the sick and demon oppressed? He must be out of His mind. He must be crazy. So that's the first option that we see people believing about who Jesus is. And the second is that He's a liar. And this is the next verse, verse 22. "And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, 'He is possessed by Beelzebub and by the prince of demons, he casts out demons'." And so the scribes come down to see what's going on with this great gathering and they find Jesus casting out demons and they're saying, no, no, He's saying He's doing it by the power of God. He has claimed to be God the Messiah, but no, He's a liar. He's doing it by the power of Satan instead. That's a bold, bold claim. Now the purpose of the book of Mark is to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is the one true messiah, that He is God come to earth and Mark has written this book to convince the Jewish readers of his day that Jesus is the Messiah and its purpose is the same for us today. Yes, I agree with C.S. Lewis in a lot of ways that these are the only three options. We cannot say Jesus is a good person, but the Gospel's point is there's only one option. You could say that He looks like a lunatic. You can accuse Him of being a liar, but those do not hold any weight. He is clearly who He says He is. He is Lord. And Jesus proves that point in the following verses. This is Mark 3:23-26. "Jesus then calls the scribes to Him and said to them in parables, 'how can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, the kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand but is coming to an end'." Jesus defeats the arguments of lunatic or liar by these few sentences and appeals to the scribe's natural understanding of the world. Logically, He says, can Satan cast out Satan? How is that even possible? Think about it this way, if that doesn't make sense to you, how can a kingdom divided against itself stand? Think about a kingdom that's at constant civil war with one another. How is that kingdom going to stand until one of the side cedes to the other and there is unity between the two. It can't. Constant battle will eventually destroy them. So a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. And if you're saying Jesus is casting out demons by the power of demons that makes no sense. It would be a kingdom divided. But maybe the kingdom analogy doesn't work as well. So what about a household? It says a house divided against itself cannot stand? Unfortunately, this is one that many of us are much more familiar with in our day and age is the broken household. How can a broken household stand? How can a household where mother and father are constantly pitted against one another, arguing without any unity, without any forgiveness, how can that household stand? And most of the times it does not.And Jesus is appealing to their logic. He's appealing to their reason, He's appealing to their natural sense of saying, what you are accusing me of makes no sense. And by doing this, He defeats both arguments of lunatic and liar. The argument that He's making is against Him being a liar. He is saying, "I'm not lying. What you're saying, it doesn't make any sense." And He proves not to be a lunatic because He's in His right mind and He's able to out reason the scribes. Well, the question is who are the scribes? Scribes aren't just your average, everyday Joe Schmo on the block who likes to pick fights and argue? No, the scribes were religious lawyers. So they were the ones who were charged with interpreting the laws of scripture and giving it to the synagogues, that's the temple to the Jewish people, for what to follow. It was their job essentially to be the most logical and reasonable. And Jesus outlogiced and reasoned them. And He is saying, I cannot be a lunatic. I'm in my right mind. I'm more reasonable than the most reasonable people in our society. And I'm not a liar. I just proved that in the argument. So what else is there? Is Jesus who He says He is? Is He Lord? Is He God? And this is verse 27. Verse 27 is actually a statement, a claim of divinity by Jesus. Jesus says, "But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed, he may plunder his house." The strong man here is not Jesus. The strong man here is Satan. The argument is if you're casting out demons by the power of Satan, that's what they're accusing Him of, He's saying, how can I do that unless I first bind the strong man, bind Satan, then I can cast out the demons, then I could go in and plunder his house. So what Jesus is saying is He's not the strong man, but in order to be able to bind a strong man, what do you need to be? You need to be stronger. Jesus is saying, I am the stronger man. I am the strongest man. And that is where the statement takes place in terms of Jesus claiming His divine authority that he is God, because in the spiritual realm, everyone at this time understood that the most powerful spiritual being was Satan, apart from one, that there was only one who was greater in power and might than Satan, and that was God Himself. So by Jesus saying, I am stronger than Satan, He is saying to the people and they well understood it, I am God. Jesus doesn't just defeat plausible arguments about who He might be. He declares boldly that He is God. And as we are going to transition into this topic of the unforgivable sin, the first thing that we need to talk about before we get anywhere near there is who do you say Jesus is? Who is Jesus to you? I want to put forward this to you and argue and plead with you to hear that Jesus is who He says He is. He is Lord, whatever cultural or societal or prejudices or ideas about Jesus that you might have, I urge you to consider is He who He says He is? And I promise you that He is God, He is Lord, and He is savior. And that is the setup for this section on the unforgivable sin. And this is verses 28 through 30 where Jesus says, "'Truly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven. The children of man and whatever blasphemes they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin,' for they had said He has an unclean spirit." So before we get to the awkwardness of the unforgivable sin, we have to understand that this is ultimately about forgiveness as a whole and it's forgiveness by God. This is what I mentioned in the beginning, and John Piper wrote an article on his website about these verses and he says this, "First, the forgiveness in view is God's forgiveness. The sweetest news for a sinner is that God has forgiven him, that God no longer holds his sins against him. But the worst news in the world is that God will never forgive you. God is the one to reckon with. What men think about our sin is relatively unimportant. What God thinks is infinitely important." So we're talking about forgiveness from God and what does Jesus say? The first part that he says, "All sins will be forgiven the children of man and whatever blasphemes they utter." I want to pause there because oftentimes this gets lost by the following section of the unforgivable sin, we can't even hear these words of Jesus. Do you feel the weight of these words, all sins will be forgiven the children of man? I kind of say, do you feel the weight of that facetiously because it's light, it's freeing, it's something that sets us free, that we know with certainty God is able and willing to forgive us of anything we do. Do we run to Him in forgiveness? And not only is He willing, He is able, He's able, He's powerful enough to do it. This is my favorite part of that strong man section that I skimmed over a little bit. But He says He's going to go in and plunder the goods once He binds the strong man. So Jesus is strong enough to bind the strong man and plunder his goods. What is pluming goods? It's taking the goods from, say, someone's house and then bringing them into your own and saying, These are now mine, making them your own. Well, what are the goods of the kingdom of Satan and what are the goods of the kingdom of God? What are the most valuable possessions of them? It's people, it's you, it's me. It's souls. It's eternal beings that Jesus doesn't just sit back and say, "I could forgive you if you want," but he says, I am actively going in and I am plundering. I am setting free those who are in captivity to the kingdom of Satan, those who are in captivity to sin and to death and to Satan. Jesus comes in and plunders us. He sets us free from that and brings us into His kingdom and says, "You are mine now." That is the freedom of this verse and it's really important that we get it before we get to the blaspheme of the Holy Spirit because we like to hold onto the like, what about the but? But the main thing here is that there is ultimate complete forgiveness from God for all sins. Psalm 130:10-13 says this, "He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love towards those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to His children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him." God's love is so great. It is higher than the heavens. It is so great that He's willing and able and powerful enough to forgive us of all of our sins if we just turn to Him and repent. And the incredible thing about this is even if you called Jesus a lunatic or a liar or anything else, any other words under the sun, Jesus is willing to forgive you of that. Many of us at one point in time, maybe were angry with God, maybe said some things we didn't necessarily mean or maybe we did mean and don't want to admit that we meant it. But if we have called Jesus a lunatic or a liar, God is willing to forgive. If we have hated Jesus and even hated some of His teachings and said, "I don't like what the Bible says about X, Y, or Z," God is willing to forgive. Even if we say, "I hate God's people, I hate Christians, I hate the church," even if we have ever said any of those things, God is still willing and ready and able to forgive. So if you're here today and you're not a Christian, I want to encourage you, God is looking to forgive you. He is willing and ready to forgive. Nothing that you have done is so grievous that He will not forgive. And if you're here today and you're a Christian, what this means is that we can joyfully repent when we have the conviction of sin because we know that He wants to forgive us. So then you're all wondering, we're all wondering what about the exception to the rule? What about this blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? Where does this come in? I have always said that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is equating the works of the Holy Spirit to the work of Satan or to the demonic, and that is true in a lot of senses. I think it's a clear example of how we see this sin take place and it's the example we see here in our text, but I think it's a little bit more nuanced and the heart of the sin is a little bit more nuanced. And John Piper, in his article on these verses, again, the same article says this, "What then is it? The unforgivable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is an act of resistance which belittles the Holy Spirit so grievously that He withdraws forever His convicting power so that we are never able to repent and be forgiven." I'm going to say that again. "Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is an act of resistance, which belittles the Holy Spirit so grievously that He withdraws forever with His convicting power so that we are never able to repent and be forgiven." This is important because what it means is there is no sin so grievous that God holds a grudge and won't forgive. I think the initial thought-provoking question of what would someone have to do for us to say to them, "I will never forgive you?" Our mind immediately goes to how bad of a sin is that thing going to be? And the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is not unforgivable because it's so bad that God is incapable of forgiving. No, and it's not that. It just is this one thing God said, "I guess I can't forgive it, so I'm stuck in this and I can't forgive." No, it's a belittling of the Holy Spirit so grievously that the Holy Spirit who convicts us of sin, we push away, we say we want nothing to do with you. We remove the ability of God's convicting power from our lives so that way we are never caused to repent and therefore cannot be forgiven. This is where the word that the scribes use to describe the spirit that they believe God is or that Jesus is working through is so important. It's the word Beelzebul. Beelzebul. It's a actual nickname for Satan. Not a good nickname. But the title for Satan that they're kind of doing a play on is Beelzebub. The name Beelzebub means Prince of Demons or Ruler of Demons. And so that was kind of the formal name that Satan was called by. But man, the Jewish people and the scribes, they had a great sense of humor. We think that we're the greatest memers of all time, memers, look at me, I don't use memes ever, but we think that we have the best memes of all time, but it's just that we have the internet to spread it more. But the Jewish people are like, yeah, Beelzebub, we'll call them Beelzebul. Well, what does that mean? Beelzebul, by changing one letter, they changed the name from Ruler of Demons to Lord of the Flies or Lord of Dung. In a lot of ways this was a relatively good thing. Satan is not Lord of anything good, all that he rules leads to death, destruction, despair, you could say dung. The issue is the scribe said the clear working of the Holy Spirit is as dung to us. Those are harsh words to say about the Holy Spirit. It's a harsh thing to say about the Spirit of God. And Jesus's warning against the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. He uses the words very specifically saying, Holy Spirit. This is something that I learned. I don't know when, but I didn't know growing up, and I don't know if you guys know this, but the Holy Spirit is not His formal name. It's not like Holy, His first name, Spirit, His last name. It's a descriptive word many times throughout scripture, Jesus just calls Him Spirit or the Spirit of God. Holy is not a requirement to be attached, but it's an identifier. And Jesus uses this very intentionally here to counteract the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which is saying the spirit you are working with is dung to us. And He says, no, no, I'm going to tell you who the spirit is. It's the Holy Spirit, it's the anointed one, it's the cleanse, holy, clean spirit of God. That is the power by which Jesus is working His miracles here. So the question then becomes, okay, that's a whole lot of theological talk. What does it mean for us today? First, very simply, honor the Holy Spirit. Bestow honor upon whom honor is due. And this is one of the beautiful things that I love about the Trinity, is that each person of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit bestows honor on the others. The Father bestows honor upon the Son and upon the Spirit, the Son bestows honor upon the Spirit and upon the Father, and the Spirit bestows honor upon the Son and on the Father. And I think oftentimes we neglect to honor the spirit because of two temptations. One is that we are very academic, intellectually based people. And so spiritual things tend to be harder to understand. They don't come as naturally to understand. And so we kind of shy away from it a little bit. Or the other temptation is to over exalt the giftings of the spirit, right? We say the Spirit enables people to do good things, to prophesy, to teach, to do all these wonderful good things. So we want the gifts more than we want the Spirit. And so, one thing that we are called to do in terms of avoiding and getting as far away from the sin of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is to just honor the Spirit, recognize His working in our lives, recognize the conviction of sin when we feel it, recognize the gift of comfort and peace in hard times as a gift of the Holy Spirit, that God is with us, He is not leaving us. That when we are able to do work for the glory of God, that it is a blessing of the Holy Spirit and praise God for His spirit and ask for more. Say, Lord, I need more help. Lord, give me more of your spirit. Help me to live for you. And the second thing, and I think the most directly relatable to this text that we are called to do in terms of avoiding the sin of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, is if you feel conviction of sin, don't take it for granted. Don't take it for granted. If you feel conviction of sin, don't say, "Yeah, but it's not that bad of a sin. I know I got to work on it, but I'll deal with it later." Don't say, "No, I don't believe that's a sin. God, I think I'm okay. I'm going to hold onto this for now." When you feel conviction of sin, repent quickly. And while you are able and ready to forgive or ready to be forgiven and to repent, remembering again that God is willing, all sins, He says, will be forgiven the children of man and whatever blasphemes they utter. So God wants to forgive when you feel that conviction go and repent. And I think one of the lies of Satan is that when we feel conviction, we associate it with guilt and with shame. What I want to tell you today is recognize that the conviction is a gift from God of the Holy Spirit. It's a good thing. It is something to rejoice over when we feel conviction and not be ashamed about because we could say, hey, the Holy Spirit's still with me. God is with me. He's talking to me. He's correcting me, He's guiding me. It's a blessing. It is a good thing to feel conviction of the Holy Spirit. And the other side of this is the more that we reject that conviction, the easier it becomes to continually reject that conviction of sin. In a separate account of Jesus warning His disciples about this sin a second time, in Luke chapter 12, it immediately follows the passage on the warning of the leaven of the Pharisees. Well, what is that? Jesus is warning His disciples about what He calls the leaven of the Pharisees, which is a little bit of yeast, a little bit of leaven that gets into a loaf of dough will eventually take over the whole thing and the whole thing will be infected with this leaven. And so beware of the little things, beware of the little sins that continually perpetuate within you and ultimately lead to something that is much greater than what it set out and started out as. And I believe that this connection is very intentional with the blaspheme of the Holy Spirit because the more we continually reject the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the more we're going to do it, the more we're going to say, "No, that's okay. I'm good. No, I don't need to repent. I'm fine. I'm good." Until we get to the point where we're like the scribes who stand above the law, they say, we're the ones given the right to interpret the law. We're the ones given authority to say the do's and don'ts of the scriptures. I don't need to repent 'cause I know what I'm talking about. I know what I'm doing. Beware in the leaven of the Pharisees, beware the rejection of the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is not a one-time event. It's not something that you say once and it's like, "Oh, sorry, you're done. No hope." It actually comes out of the state of our hearts. It reveals the state of our hearts. And in Matthew chapter 12, it's the same story of Jesus warning, the scribes and the Pharisees about the sin of the blaspheme of the Holy Spirit. But He doesn't stop there. He continues. Matthew continues the account of what Jesus says to them. And in Matthew 12:33, it says, "Either make the tree good and it's fruit good or make the tree bad and it's fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers. How can you speak good when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." I'm going to stop there for now. But for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Jesus knew the heart of the scribes and of the Pharisees. This wasn't just something that they were wrong about. This wasn't just them not believing in Jesus. Within their hearts, they had built up this resentment towards the working of God. Why? Because they had a nice job. They had a good living. They were high in society and anything that challenged that, they wanted nothing to do with. And so they put themselves over God and over His scriptures rather than submitting to it and trusting the conviction of the Holy Spirit to the point that they have belittled the spirit so much that they couldn't hear that conviction any longer. What I want to say to you is I do believe that this text is an encouragement. I know you might be like, "How? Why?" It's an encouragement because again, we cannot forget God's willingness and readiness to forgive us when we repent. And also it's an encouragement because if you have ever worried, maybe you're worried now, have I done that? Have I committed the sin? Oh, maybe I'm headed down that way. That's a good sign because it means that God is convicting you, right? It means that the Holy Spirit is still with you, is still active, is still moving in your life. Many people when they talk about this sin, they'll say, if you ever fear that you have committed it's proof that you haven't. And I agree because that is the conviction of the Holy Spirit within you saying that you're not in a right place with God. And then whatever you need to do to get in a right place with God, do and repent of whatever sins the Holy Spirit is convicting you of. So Jesus proves that He is Lord, which proves that the working He is doing is by the power of the Holy Spirit and He exalts and lifts up the Holy Spirit, calls us to repentance. So now what brings us into right relationship with Jesus Christ. This is the last section of our text which connects back to the very beginning of this text. In verse 31 it says, "And His mother and His brothers came and standing outside, they sent to Him and called Him and a crowd was sitting around Him and they said to Him, 'your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you.' And He answered them, 'who are my mother and my brothers?' And looking about at those who sat around Him, He said, 'here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother'." Remember back in verse 20, it said that Jesus's family was going out to seize Him. In other words, seize is take by force. So they go and they finally get there. They get to where He is, and the crowd's still there and they're looking around at the crowd and they're like, maybe it's not the best idea to take Him by force. We might cause an uprising. Let's just tell people, "Hey, we're here to see Jesus. Can you tell Him His mother and His brothers are here?" So the crowd is like, "Jesus, your family's here. Go see them." If you want to start a fight with your family, go home and say these words, "Who are my mother or my brothers or my fathers?" Oh man, I said first my mom would never hit me, but she would want to slap me if I said that to her. But she wouldn't. She wouldn't. But she would want to because that is offensive. That is harsh words, Jesus. What are you getting at? What are you saying here? And Jesus is defeating another argument about Him, not just who He is, but how do we have relationship with Him? You see, Jesus's family thought, we're His family. We have the right to tell Him when He's going too far. We have the right to tell Him that He is wrong and tell Him what to do because we have that familial relationship. I want to tell you friends, no external relationship will make you right with God. I work with the teens, the middle school and high schoolers, so I often tell them, but any kids, teens that are here, you're not saved just because your parents bring you to church. The question is, who do you say Jesus is? Do you repent of your sins? Do you have right relationship with God? Maybe you're here because you're an adult, but family or friends invited you and God is good to them, so I just want to know a little bit more about this God. We're glad you're here, but God being a friend of a friend is not going to save you. Are you right with God? Do you repent of sins and trust in Him and recognize Him as Lord of all? And I also want to point out that Jesus has already, and I just wanted to loop it in here, defeated the other second presumption of the scribes and the Pharisees on how they thought they could have right relationship with God. Scribes said, we are the religious lawyers of the day. You get all the benefits of being a lawyer. We think of lawyers, what do we think of? Liars, cheaters, swindlers. My wife's a lawyer. She's none of those things. Praise God. But we think negatively of lawyers, but we recognize they make a lot of money. They do good work. They're very smart people. So take all the benefits of a lawyer and all the benefits of being a religious leader like, oh, great, they're the moral virtuous lawyers. We are so upstanding in our society. Jesus didn't care. Jesus understood their hearts were not right with God. They had the most schooling. They had the highest education of the people of their days. Friends, I tell you, God doesn't care about how many letters come after or before your name. They don't care about what degree titles you have. Those are good. I'm not saying don't study, don't get education. But when you stand before God, He's not going to say, "Wow, PhD. Nice, nice. Okay, I guess you could come in." No. What makes us right with God is right relationship with Jesus Christ alone. Nothing societal, nothing external, nothing but faith and trust in Jesus Christ and obedience to Him will make us right with God. This is why Jesus says, "Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother." Do we do the will of God? Do we understand the will of God? This is where it connects back to blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is the one who guides us in the will of God. So if you reject the Holy Spirit, you will never be able to do the will of God. So I challenge you today, Christians, anyone who is here, Christian or not, ask God for His Holy Spirit to guide you, to lead you in His will. Study scriptures that reveal God's will to all of humanity for us, and listen and obey them. I pray that we can be humble and quick in our repentance of our sin and bold in our obedience and faithfulness to Him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, you are good and You are stronger than sin, you are stronger than Satan, you are stronger than the penalty of death. Lord, we thank you and we praise you. Remind us of your greatness, of your ability to forgive and your willingness to forgive when we are in sin. Help us to run to you quickly, to confess our sins to you and to repent quickly. As soon as we are convicted, help us repent, because we know how good you are, because we know how willing and ready you are to forgive. Lord, help us to then change our lives. Help us to live in accordance to your word, to faithfully follow Jesus, to recognize Him as our one true Lord over our lives and overall, and submit faithfully to you and to Him. So Lord, we thank you and we praise you. Encourage us with this text in Jesus name. Amen.

Less than 7 miles down the road from Disney's original Magic Kingdom, another Walt had been running a successful theme park for decades by the time Disneyland broke ground. Today, Knott's Berry Farm is a quintessential American amusement park. But its origins were much more humble and quaint. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/disney-dependent/support

Sejam bem-vindos ao primeiro episódio do Escuta Essa, podcast semanal em que Denis e Danilo trocam histórias de cair o queixo e de explodir os miolos. Todas as quartas-feiras, no seu agregador de podcats favorito, é a vez de um contar um causo para o outro - podem ser anedotas, experiências, livros, filmes, programas de televisão ou o que mais estiver habitando momentaneamente suas cabeças. Não deixe de mandar os episódios para aquela pessoa com quem você também gosta de compartilhar histórias! Nos siga nas redes sociais em @escutaessapod e participe dessa conversa. ... NESTE EPISÓDIO - "The Joe Schmo Show" foi um reality show dos Estados Unidos lançado em 2003 criado por Paul Wernick e Rhett Reese. O participante colocado no papel de "Joe Schmo" ("Zé Ninguém", em tradução livre) na primeira temporada foi Matt Kennedy Gould. O nome do reality show que ele imaginava participar era "Lap of Luxury". - A temporada pode ser vista na íntegra diretamente no YouTube. - Na segunda temporada foram dois participantes, Tim Walsh e Ingrid Wiese, que acreditavam estar participando de um reality show chamado "Last Chance for Love", um programa para encontrar um parceiro romântico. - "Space Cadets" foi um reality show britânico lançado em 2005 em 10 episódios. Os 9 participantes tinham entre 19 e 28 anos. - Os melhores momentos de "Space Cadets" estão disponíveis no YouTube. ... AD&D STUDIO A AD&D produz podcasts e vídeos que divertem e respeitam sua inteligência! Acompanhe todos os episódios em aded.studio para não perder nenhuma novidade.

Today's guest is Paul do Campo    Paul is a Investor with an active income as a copywriter, creating marketing systems and sequences for investors.   Show summary: In this episode, Paul do Campo discusses the significance of building relationships in the real estate industry. He emphasizes the need for personalized communication and shares his journey from wholesaling to becoming an investor and copywriter. Paul explains the psychology behind building relationships with investors and recommends using channels like email marketing to establish a personality-driven marketing approach. He also discusses the importance of authenticity in writing, citing examples from Stan Lee's success in Marvel Comics.  -------------------------------------------------------------- [00:00:00] Intro [00:00:58] Paulo's Journey from Pipeline Construction to Copywriter [00:09:41] Marketing to Investors through Personality-Driven Marketing [00:10:57] The importance of seller lead acquisition [00:11:59] The role of automation in real estate marketing [00:16:27] The messaging mistake of sounding too robotic [00:20:20] The Journey of Stan Lee [00:21:21] Applying Authenticity in Business [00:22:15] Closing -------------------------------------------------------------- Connect with Paul:  Web: www.reiOmnidrip.com   Connect with Sam: I love helping others place money outside of traditional investments that both diversify a strategy and provide solid predictable returns.     Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HowtoscaleCRE/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samwilsonhowtoscalecre/ Email me → sam@brickeninvestmentgroup.com   SUBSCRIBE and LEAVE A RATING. Listen to How To Scale Commercial Real Estate Investing with Sam Wilson Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-scale-commercial-real-estate/id1539979234 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4m0NWYzSvznEIjRBFtCgEL?si=e10d8e039b99475f -------------------------------------------------------------- Want to read the full show notes of the episode? Check it out below: 00:00:00:01 - 00:00:24:05 Paul do Campo When you have a repeat transaction type business, I mean, you're going to sell. You're not going to sell one deal to investors. You might sell a second or a third deal. Hopefully that same investor, if he has a good experience with you. Yep. Now, that type of business requires relationship, acquirer requires procedure, rather than just like trying to trying to win the quick trying to, you know, butcher the kill and the one time thing and forget it and lay them to the curb.   00:00:24:06 - 00:00:34:20 Paul do Campo Right. So you so yeah, again, automation kind of slightly removes that, that relationship into when you're especially connecting with investors.   00:00:35:01 - 00:00:55:24 Sam Wilson Welcome to the How to Scale Commercial Real Estate Show whether you are an active or passive investor, we'll teach you how to scale your real estate investing business into something big. Part of Campeau is an investor with an an active income. As a copywriter, he creates marketing systems and sequences for investors. Paul, welcome to the show.   00:00:56:14 - 00:00:58:06 Paul do Campo Awesome man. Appreciate you having me on it.   00:00:58:10 - 00:01:05:10 Sam Wilson Absolutely. Paul, there are three questions I ask every guest who comes on the show in 90 seconds or less. Can you tell me, where did you start? Where are you now and how did you get there?   00:01:06:16 - 00:01:46:13 Paul do Campo All right. That's a long story, but how and where? When did I start? So back in 2015 started like everybody else was rich, had a poor dad, dove into the rabbit hole in bigger pockets dot com, all that sort of wholesaling. I was doing direct mail, lots of direct mail the time not this is my first entrepreneur venture going from going from working as a pipeline construction welder foreman in the utility business, natural gas utility and then moving into a whole different world of sales, marketing, business processes and systems.   00:01:46:22 - 00:02:15:09 Paul do Campo So when you jump into that, I mean, it's not it's never a clean, smooth transition. Transition. It's never, oh, I got to figure it out at least for at least for me. Anything new like that has never been a smooth, clean transition like that. And so I learned a lot back then. I, now I slowly, I mean, long story short, slowly started transitioning into flipping land, which did well for me, flipping land to notes, flipping mobile homes into notes as well.   00:02:16:09 - 00:02:43:08 Paul do Campo While I was doing that, I kind of accidentally fell upon another rabbit hole, which was corporate investor care. It became was my first client. I was in a lot of the concierge clients type of type of working on the phone with their clients, building out their pages for them, and then kind of slowly transitioned from that to being a full time copywriter, active, full time copywriter for clients in the space.   00:02:43:08 - 00:03:30:08 Paul do Campo And I say space, I mean, software vendors, services coaches, that type of thing. And then creating now today I, you know, I'm still investor and passive investor more so than having a volume business like I used to. I kind of escape that my from that being my active income to my activism as copywriting into passive income meaning I'm just looking I'm always looking for cash flow deals and those investing with local flippers around here or buying a deal, they find a and today I have my own offer that I sell to investors, which is basically taking all my knowledge of copy and and I merged together creating a, a complete follow up automated system in   00:03:30:08 - 00:03:46:23 Paul do Campo their CRM, everything from all the tactics and techniques of copy that I've done over the years and, and all the sequences into an actual system for follow up rather than just like a couple handful of drip, drip sequences that don't really mean much.   00:03:46:23 - 00:04:16:08 Sam Wilson So right now I'm inter, I'm interested. I mean, how did how did you figure out that? Because we I didn't quite hear the spot where you went from working. We say with pipeline construction. Yeah, work in pipeline construction to a copywriter. Those seem to be two totally different skill sets. Figure out that, hey, I'm actually a really good copywriter and maybe I can let welding go, right?   00:04:16:08 - 00:04:45:03 Paul do Campo Absolutely. You know, I actually enjoyed well, I actually enjoyed that job. It was. But there was limitations to it. I really hated just working for the man. Like I just just every day having to do, you know, knowing that, know, I really don't have that much freedom. And knowing that I have to if I want to go out on vacation, I got to grovel to somebody to ask for education.   00:04:45:03 - 00:05:08:07 Paul do Campo Right. And then now it was union based, so meaning it's seniority. And I was at the bottom of the totem pole. I was the youngest welder there. And so everybody else, you know, they take all the great time, you know, all this all the great vacation slots, all, you know. So I just I just hated that. And then I also hated I, I used to live in Southern California and a lot of people going to just think this is bizarre.   00:05:08:07 - 00:05:31:20 Paul do Campo But I hated living there. I personal reasons that just we didn't enjoy the weather, the people, the traffic, the congestion we enjoy that. So I was stuck there. I worked utilities. And so there's no way for me to get out unless I get a job somewhere else. And so one year I just decide I need to get out.   00:05:31:20 - 00:05:50:19 Paul do Campo And I was doing some copywriting and had it in my mind every day. I actually kept a card in my pocket that I was going to quit. I didn't know how in know how I was going to do it had I was actually had my own publishing business too. I had a course I was selling, had an email list and but I didn't know how I was gonna do it.   00:05:50:19 - 00:06:11:13 Paul do Campo I had some notes from land and mobile homes as well. And then a client, a couple of clients came by that that offered me a heck of a lot of money. And I took it and I took it. And it was more than more than what I got paid at that company that as a as a welder and.   00:06:11:13 - 00:06:13:02 Paul do Campo Yeah. And I never turned back.   00:06:13:02 - 00:06:34:00 Sam Wilson So so you made it out of Southern California and said, hey, look, I'm now a now a copywriter. What talk to me about the psychology of building, because you're more than just a copywriter. Like it's one thing. And I've employed various copywriters over the years where it's like, you know, I'd record the big idea or talk about it.   00:06:34:00 - 00:06:53:04 Sam Wilson It's like, Hey, this is what I'm talking about. This is the knowledge inside of my head. Now I need this synthesized into something meaningful. That's one copywriting skill set. And I was always impressed when a copywriter can take my ideas that I couldn't really synthesize in anything meaningful and turn it into a beautiful paragraph. Because, yeah, it's exactly what I wanted to say.   00:06:53:12 - 00:07:16:12 Sam Wilson Well done. That's one skill set. But it's another thing entirely to understand the the the psychology and a lot of people on this or that listen to this show are probably struggling, I would imagine. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm just projecting my own struggles, but the investor psychology kind of process, as they come in, they get an idea of, okay, who is that?   00:07:16:14 - 00:07:30:14 Sam Wilson What is it that you do? What's your business like? And then then moving them from that curious onlooker to now I want to invest with you in getting them through those drip sequences. That's a different skill set entirely. How have you built that out?   00:07:31:01 - 00:07:45:19 Paul do Campo Right. So as your your example is more so the target is is an investor is your your trying to get fund, fund or sell deals to them, right? Yeah.   00:07:45:19 - 00:07:54:21 Sam Wilson So well, in this case, it would be it would be an investor looking, looking to get that investor, you know, to be comfortable with us as sponsors and then come alongside invest.   00:07:55:05 - 00:08:25:06 Paul do Campo Yeah. Yeah. So with that, I'm going to say that I think the strongest element for that particular segment, I think it's going to be a relationship rather than, you know, you know, because there's nothing really I mean, it depends on what segment you're going after that's important, right? There's there's market awareness is market sophistication. So if you're if you can spread out your blanket, you're going to get all kinds of people to come on board and give it brand new people that just read Rich Dad, Poor Dad.   00:08:25:06 - 00:08:54:08 Paul do Campo And they're so excited about by buying a deal, but they probably won't. Right? So and then there's the season investors and that's the affluent class or you know, that's so there's a great book and I brought this up in another podcast I was in Dan Kennedy's Marketing to the affluent and and that that is a very interesting group that I'm trying to understand as well better because that's who I market to on the drip is my is my offer, my company.   00:08:54:14 - 00:09:15:06 Paul do Campo We actually when I say create sequences, I'm talking about off market investors who are who have lots of leads to buy to be deals from. Right. So in this case, I would have probably have a long sequence for an investor and said what I what I would do instead is have a channel that I'm consistently marketing to them with.   00:09:15:12 - 00:09:51:23 Paul do Campo I saw somebody has, has took me up on this challenge or not took on this challenge but kind of debated or argued with this idea that, you know, an investor is just looking for a deal. That's true. But it's also not true because you're you're marketing to the fool. And in fluent are more likely to to buy from somebody like rather than price shopping or looking for a deal and and the really good in the case study example of this is Brandon Turner speaking of bigger pockets Brandon Turner's open door capital.   00:09:52:04 - 00:10:16:02 Paul do Campo Right doing the same thing. They're going after investors. And so if you watch their advertising, it's just him. It's his personality. So it's personality driven marketing. So I so I what I'm saying here is, is think about how you can grow the relationship that really puts your personality, that is driven by your personality, and you can do it via email.   00:10:16:02 - 00:10:42:13 Paul do Campo You can do a verse versus social media versus ads like Open Door or in some type of influencer type person like Brandon Turner. My, my, my cup of tea is as email. I love doing email marketing. That's how I that is the channel I've used since 2016 to to build a personality driven marketing channel. So yeah, that's, that's my, my tip for marketing to investors.   00:10:43:05 - 00:11:17:07 Sam Wilson Man. That's cool. I like that. I like that a lot. What did you do? Because I'm looking through here at your your website here, which for those of you who are listening is REIT Omni Trip.com. So REIT omni drip dot com. And it looks like to me one of the one of the things that you've really helped real estate investors work through is I think you said it, but it is with the seller side and that's very important obviously on the commercial real estate side of things as well because we have them as two things.   00:11:17:07 - 00:11:32:15 Sam Wilson We need, we need we need money, we need deals without either one of those. Then we really don't have a commercial real estate business. So it sounds like you work more on the seller lead acquisition and or and getting deals closed side of things is that is that about a fair synopsis.   00:11:33:12 - 00:11:58:19 Paul do Campo Yeah. And that that site you're looking at that offer. Yeah. Just because it was just more of a need for that, it was just a lot of is more likely for when you're creating an offer. You know you got to look at what's what's more likely what's what do you fill in the gap with. So yeah like I mentioned earlier I don't answer for or investors LLC having a very complex type of automation in place.   00:11:59:18 - 00:12:20:20 Paul do Campo I'm a fan of automation, but there's a time and place you don't really need it, like having a rat's nest of all these little things. And so with a like we, we put in place for these flippers and wholesalers, we have 20 sequences in place has because there's there's it's the long sales process all kinds different avenues to go with.   00:12:21:08 - 00:12:44:13 Paul do Campo And these people are dealing with at least 100 leads per month. So you can't follow up with that when somebody has a smaller business and only dealing with with 30 leads per month, it's something that you don't really need a whole lot of automation with or it just gets becomes a rat's nest and then you kind of remove the whole relationship because in commercial business you have the advantage over the guy who's just looking for deals.   00:12:46:01 - 00:13:15:13 Paul do Campo When you're selling to investors. I mean, you have repeat transactions. When you have a repeat transaction type business, I mean, you're going to sell you're not going to sell one deal to investor. You might sell a second to a third deal. Hopefully that same investor, if he has a good experience with you. Now that type of business requires relationship, acquire requires procedure rather than just like trying to try to win the click, trying to, you know, butcher the kill and the one time thing and forget it and lamb to the curb, right.   00:13:15:13 - 00:13:26:10 Paul do Campo So yeah. So yeah. Again, automation kind of slightly removes that, that relationship into when you're especially connecting with investors. So yeah.   00:13:27:14 - 00:13:47:12 Sam Wilson No I hear you man. That, that, that's spot on. And that's one of the things I think in our drip campaigns when an investor signs up for the an investor Club, one of the things that they get early on is opportunities and I think they get them throughout the campaign. But it's instead of, hey, read one more email sequence, it is schedule a call with us.   00:13:47:13 - 00:13:54:18 Sam Wilson Get on the phone with us. Let's get to know each other. Let's talk. It's not just have one way one way communications. I think that.   00:13:54:18 - 00:14:11:20 Paul do Campo So I'm not saying at all to remove any drip or automation. I mean, at the bare minimum, I would have a welcome series that welcome serious goals intentions with us here. What are you trying to achieve? What's the first quote sale you have to make? You know, in your case, it's getting on a phone, getting a phone call.   00:14:12:18 - 00:14:32:06 Paul do Campo It could be it could be driving value by getting in with maybe educating. It can be whatever it is. So a bare minimum. I do have a welcome series. Everybody I think should have some sort of welcome series, but I think it might stop there depending on your business, right? If you have a whole lot of things itself, you're an e-commerce business.   00:14:33:00 - 00:14:46:14 Paul do Campo Yeah, you're going to probably have a little more with complicated segmentation on who's buying what, who's looking what and all that kind of stuff. Because you're dealing with lots of volume of leads coming in. Yeah. So it's all it's all business related, all, you know, case by case.   00:14:46:14 - 00:14:59:18 Sam Wilson So got it. I love it. What's the, what's the, what's the limits to what it is that you're doing and the number of industries that you feel like you can effectively serve?   00:14:59:18 - 00:15:22:21 Paul do Campo That's a good question. I don't know yet. So I know with with Army drip itself. I mean, you know, I've covered people with land and that that buy and sell land and they sell land to the consumer world. They don't really sell land to investors typically. And I've dealt with them. I've bought the build sequences for them. I get my limit.   00:15:22:21 - 00:15:46:02 Paul do Campo You know, I, I don't to, to be transparent. I'm like, I'm there writing for every single client. I built this so it's scalable for me and affordable for everybody. So I built I built it to where I have a library of different messages that fit different people, different scenarios. And then I have a software that pulls that all together so that it creates a sequence for them or the sequences.   00:15:46:02 - 00:16:03:14 Paul do Campo So yeah, if somebody comes in, I don't have any of that stuff, I'd have to either. I have to make a decision and say, Well, am I going to charge them a lot of money to create it? Can I resell it? Can I package it up and resell it if it's a one time thing or I'm never going be able to do anything about it, charge a lot more for it.   00:16:03:14 - 00:16:19:02 Paul do Campo So it's all running by case by case scenario. But if it's a single family resident flipper, wholesaler Def, I mean, that's an easy that's easy not out of the park type of thing. If it's somebody who's doing commercial, that's a little I got to see what I can do with that.   00:16:19:07 - 00:16:25:20 Sam Wilson Right. What do you feel like? The number one messaging mistake maybe people make is.   00:16:27:16 - 00:16:35:14 Paul do Campo Oh, that hey, what? What? Give me some what medium or what what kind of channel are we talking about here?   00:16:37:07 - 00:16:41:05 Sam Wilson Let's say it could be. It could be from the.   00:16:41:17 - 00:17:05:01 Paul do Campo Day I got one. Then that's a similar SMS email. Let's just start with that. I think that that the number one I think is sounding too robotic and h.r. Type. I give this tip a lot and i think people sound like they're they're a lawyer or they're from the department. Right? And so it's just dry, boring. They'll be it.   00:17:05:05 - 00:17:23:23 Paul do Campo So my, my tip to that is, is be a little talk like you're from you know, you're Joe Schmo from down the street talk like a normal person would I mean, you want to write I should say write like a normal person would. You know, you're not right. You're not there's nothing legal that you're writing about. You know, there's you're not a lawyer.   00:17:24:02 - 00:17:59:10 Paul do Campo You're not signing a contract. Right. That you're I should say you're not creating a contract for a you know, so just, you know, you're right, like any other person would. Then we get to evolved into into trying to sound professional that that actually just hurts just hurts you because there's a copywriting principle that that you you don't want here here's a really good analogy is if I if I saw a guy roll up in a in a Ferrari in front of my house wearing a slick suit, and he's coming to knock on my door.   00:17:59:24 - 00:18:24:20 Paul do Campo I have barriers immediately out like you're doing all right, says salesman. You know, he screams Salesman, as you approaches Utah. I have barriers. They come right up because he's put himself in a level that where he's looking down on me now. And so and that's the consumers going to have that. Everybody's going to have that barrier, rather, a guy who rolls up in a beat up pickup truck.   00:18:24:20 - 00:18:42:19 Paul do Campo I'm not I'm not saying this is what you do for your sales process. I'm just putting analogy. Your grows up in a pickup truck, comes knocking on door, kind of like almost like the Columbo type of figure. I don't think they Columbo you're just kind of, you know, just this weirdo, like not weirdo but but kind of aloof.   00:18:42:23 - 00:19:06:17 Paul do Campo And so when somebody rolls up like that, you're and he's now on a lower like level where you're looking down on him instead and, and so you put step of the person the same level as you two. Now it's more comfortable, it's more you're the bears are less. But that's an old negotiation strategy of this guy named Jim Camp.   00:19:06:24 - 00:19:27:17 Paul do Campo So I think I think Chris Voss learned from him. He's Jim Camp is long gone. But his book Start With No it's a great book on negotiation has those principles principles there where you don't you don't have to sound perfect at all. I mean, the soundtrack sound perfectly good works against you, so.   00:19:28:03 - 00:19:34:10 Sam Wilson Yeah. No, that's it. I like it. And what you what I hear you say in there is just be authentic, be yourself like.   00:19:34:10 - 00:19:54:21 Paul do Campo Yeah, and that's that's always yeah. And that's a buzz word lies be authentic. And I think a lot of people have trouble being authentic, which I mean, they try to be somebody else or trying to be authentic, which is like, you know, so and that's a hard thing to do. I get it. So one, one tip tip that I, I do, I write a daily email with my list.   00:19:54:21 - 00:20:29:02 Paul do Campo So, so trying to be authentic is a very Yeah. You know, so I don't try to think about I got to be authentic to be authentic and said there's a really good documentary on on Disney on Disney Channel on Stan Lee. I think if you just type in Stan Lee, you'll find it. So Stan Lee helped you didn't create ma why you're kind of created because he but he worked there at Marvel he was there editor and at the time in the fifties he was at comics where everybody was doing the same thing.   00:20:29:02 - 00:20:50:18 Paul do Campo It was all hate for the trans. For the trans just right when everybody was writing and it sells. Stan Lee changed gears and he started writing what he liked to what he wanted to write about, the sort that interests him. That's where Spider-Man is like what I create teenage superhero and which is art was unheard of at the time, teenage superhero with problems.   00:20:50:18 - 00:21:15:07 Paul do Campo And so he did that. And like Marvel took off after that, they were called Marvel. Marvel at the time. They changed the name after but took off it actually tapped into a new market. And that's been so to get back to authenticity, that's being authentic. So the day I just start, I just kind of write what goes against what everybody says I do, but I just write what what I have interest in at the time.   00:21:15:21 - 00:21:21:03 Paul do Campo And and you're going to hit this, you know, that is kind of being in a way, being authentic. So.   00:21:21:09 - 00:21:50:16 Sam Wilson No, it absolutely is. It absolutely is. Yeah, I like I like that a lot. Yeah. That's a that's a great a great clue. There are hint there, but we can certainly apply in our own businesses. Paul, this has been a lot of fun learning from you today. I love what you've done in the journey you've taken from working on the pipelines to making a business out of copyrighting and sequence building and really, you know, dial in in the back end of a lot of a lot of things that we as real estate investors certainly need and use.   00:21:50:16 - 00:22:14:08 Sam Wilson Thanks for taking the time to break down some of the more mechanics of how you do that, what you look for. You've given us some great book recommendations here start with no marketing to the the fluent the the the documentary called Stanley those are like fun fun things to to dig into there and certainly appreciate your time and expertize here today if our listeners want to get in touch with you or learn more about you, what is the best way to do that?   00:22:15:12 - 00:22:27:07 Paul do Campo Yeah just head over my website WWL dot RC omni com was mentioned earlier You can find me there just send me an email from there and I'll be glad to help and answer your questions.   00:22:27:14 - 00:22:36:15 Sam Wilson Awesome Paul, thank you again for your time. RFI Omni drip dot com. We'll make sure we include that in the show notes. Appreciate it and have a great rest you Debbie.   00:22:37:02 - 00:22:38:00 Paul do Campo Awesome man. Thank you.   00:22:38:07 - 00:22:59:18 Sam Wilson Hey, thanks for listening to the How to Scale Commercial Real Estate podcast. If you can do me a favor and subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or whatever platform it is you use to listen. If you can do that for us, that would be a fantastic help to the show. It helps us both attract new listeners as well as rank higher on those directories.   00:22:59:18 - 00:23:02:24 Sam Wilson So appreciate you listening. Thanks so much and hope to catch you on the next episode.  

It is time to catch up with 2019 NSCA Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year, Ashley Jackson, on her recent career move from the University of Michigan to Texas A&M, as the Assistant Director of Olympic Strength and Conditioning. Jackson talks with NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about leadership pathways for coaches and how to gain professional opportunities, from mentorship to earning promotions and taking the next step in your career. This episode explains the importance of the assistant strength and conditioning coach role, not only as a career stepping-stone, but also as an opportunity to practice being both an effective leader and follower. Tune-in and learn more about how you can gain valuable leadership experience, regardless of your current career stage, through involvement with the NSCA. Use this link to look up NSCA Contributor Opportunities and get involved! You can connect with Ashley on Twitter @txstronger| Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“For leadership styles and skills, I'd say make sure and surround yourself with good leaders.” 6:23 “But it was just taking that 30 seconds of being brave and introducing myself to Joe Schmo at University X, and not caring who they were, where they coached. Was it football? Was Olympic sports? Was it a junior college? Was it-- did they work in the private sector? I was able to take knowledge and guidance from any coach that would let me chew their ear.” 12:17 “I wouldn't want to be around anyone that's not an open book and doesn't want to share. So I would say definitely keep that in mind of who you're giving your time and energy to if they're not willing to share everything with you.” 15:38 “There are opportunities around us where we can continue to positively influence what our salaries could and should look like. And like I talked about, having representatives at the highest level of administration within our athletic departments will help show those that have say and those that can change salaries and salary grades, how important and integral we are to the athletic department.” 27:35

JSBNP is back by special request from mother-to-the-pod Sue! Come learn about the disgusting and extravagant Playboy Mansion with us, we promise it will be upsetting. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/disney-dependent/support

On this episode of Made in Hollywood Mark and William discuss and breakdown a top 20 Hollywood movie star list! You may also hear irrelevant things in this episode about Adam Sandler, Tom Hanks, Kevin Hart, Melissa McCarthy, Dwayne Johnson, Morgan Freeman, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney, Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, Kevin Hart, Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, Paul Rudd, Harrison Ford, Robert Downey Jr., Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, Chris Hemsworth, Timothee Chalamet, Michael B. Jordan, Zendaya, Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Jurassic World, Guardians of the Galaxy, Parks and Recreation, Super Mario Bros., Everwood, Florence Pugh, Marvel, AMC Theaters, Grease, John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Randall Kleiser, Frankie Avalon, Into the Woods, John Farrar, Blue Lagoon, White Fang, Jury Duty, Joe Schmo, The Bachelor, Sonic, and James Marsden.

(SPOILERS) I begin by talking about my surprise to how Ingrid feels about the show 20 years later, Vegas this weekend, and tomorrow's Daily Roundup.  Then Ingrid joins me (7:31) to discuss how she got cast, her first thoughts appearing on the show, when she started to notice something was off, how she feels about the show today, and much, much more.Ads:Coming Out For Love - Click “Bundles,” Promo Code: RealitySteve for 15% off any bundleMusic written by Jimmer Podrasky (B'Jingo Songs/Machia Music/Bug Music BMI)

(SPOILERS) Today's Daily Roundup covers question marks surrounding BIP airing dates in Sept., a difficult subject that yesterday's interview with Jeremy & Nick brings up, Joe Schmo 2 update, Survivor editing, and Amy Robach & TJ Holmes' replacements are named.Ads:Green Chef - Promo Code: RealitySteve60 to get 60% off plus free shippingTrivia Star – The #1 Trivia game in the App Store.  Download Trivia Star for free todayComing Out For Love - Click “Bundles,” Promo Code: RealitySteve for 15% off any bundleMusic written by Jimmer Podrasky (B'Jingo Songs/Machia Music/Bug Music BMI)

 Audio RecordingSermon manuscript:Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on the disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.” These words were spoken on the evening of Easter day. In the morning the women had found the tomb empty. The angels told them that Jesus was not there because he had risen from the dead. Our reading tells us what happened the evening of Easter day. The disciples were gathered together in an upper room with the doors locked. Jesus appeared before them and spoke with them as you have heard. The words that Jesus speaks are extremely important for us Christians. There are two things that are shown to us by his words. First, his words show us the meaning of what Jesus has accomplished during Holy Week. Second, his words show us what the Christian Church is for, and what it is to be engaged in. These are very important and practical things that every Christian should have a firm grasp of: What is the meaning of what Jesus accomplished during Holy Week, and what is the Christian Church supposed to be doing? The meaning of what Jesus accomplished is shown by Jesus's words: “Peace to you.” Maybe a more modern way of saying what Jesus said is, “Everything's going to be alright.” When there is chaos, when there is danger, when there is pain and uncertainty, it is a very good thing to hear: “Everything's going to be alright.” It matters who says this, though. If somebody doesn't understand what is going on, then them saying this isn't very reassuring. But if Dad says, “Everything's going to be alright,” or the policeman says, “everything's going to be alright,” or the doctor says, “everything's going to be alright”—someone with knowledge and authority—all of a sudden the troubles and fears look more manageable. Everything's going to be alright. In the case of Easter evening, the one who is speaking is Jesus. He is true God, begotten of the Father from eternity. As he says in the last chapter of Matthew: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him.” So if he says, “Peace to you,” or “Everything's going to be alright,” you would do well to believe that. God is speaking. So what is troubling you today? Has money been tight? Have relationships been strained? Are you depressed? Are you dying? Everything's going to be alright. Maybe it's not much comfort to hear just a pastor say that. What does a pastor know? I've known some pretty foolish pastors. But you should not take these words as though any mere human being is saying them, but that Jesus, the Son of God, is saying them—and all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. And it's clear that if I or any other Christian should say to you, “Peace to you,” or “Everything is going to be alright,” this is not just the Christian who is saying this. Jesus is saying this because he sent out his disciples to say this. Listen again to what Jesus said: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on the disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.” Jesus says, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” That means that a pastor's or a Christian's forgiveness is not just Joe Schmo's forgiveness. They are doing what they've been told. They are but the instrument through whom Jesus speaks. A pastor's forgiveness or a Christian's forgiveness is not just their forgiveness. It's God's forgiveness. Perhaps you noticed, though, that Jesus does not just speak about forgiving sins, he also speaks about not forgiving sins. He says: “If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.” Who, then, should be told that they are forgiven, and who should be told that they are not forgiven? Those who must be told that they are forgiven are those who repent of their sins, who want to change their ways and do better. On the other hand, those who are unrepentant, who do not want to change, must be told that they are not forgiven until they do repent. This requires a good, sturdy backbone. I've never come across anyone who has gotten upset by being told that his or her sins are forgiven. I've experienced several people who have gotten very upset at being told they must repent and change their ways. This is not surprising, because we are all like that. Not a single one of us likes to be told that we are wrong, that we must change our ways. If the goal of being a Christian was merely to have everyone like you and always to say nice things about you, then there'd be no sense in ever telling anyone to repent. But I think I can show you the necessity of speaking both words that Jesus gives us to speak by using an analogy. Suppose that someone had a very bad fall and ended up with a very badly broken leg. The break is so bad that the bone is sticking out of the skin—really nasty. Where do you go when something like that happens? You go to the hospital. But let's say at this hospital they had all made it a rule that they should never, ever cause anybody any pain. You shouldn't even hurt anyone's feelings. So this guy comes into the hospital and the doctors and nurses take a look at him and they all say there's nothing wrong! The patient says, “Look! My bone is sticking out of my leg.” These doctors and nurses say, “No, that's just how some bones are. You have perfect health! Go, be happy and healthy!” A person could die from medical treatment like that. The wound could become infected and so on. Those doctors and nurses are horrible at what they are supposed to be doing. They don't know what they are doing. They're completely confused about the mission that has been given to them. But let's make the analogy a little less dramatic. There's a break again, but not as bad. The bone isn't sticking out, but the broken bones aren't lined up anymore, and they need to be set. Have you ever had to get a bone set? If the bones don't match up they can never heal, or at least they can never heal very well. But to set the bone can be very difficult and painful. Tremendous force needs to be applied to the limb to bring the bone back into alignment. I've heard stories about people howling in pain as the doctors and nurses tug and pry at them to straighten out that which is crooked. The Christian Church is meant to be a hospital for souls. Our goal is spiritual health, that is, a good relationship with God. The tools we have been given for this are plainly laid out for us in our Gospel reading. The newly resurrected Jesus tells his disciples that they have the Holy Spirit. Whosoever's sins they forgive, they are forgiven; whosoever's sins they retain, they are retained. It is by the preaching of God's Law, of what is right and wrong, that sinners come to an awareness of their condition. Sometimes this takes some harsh speaking and unpleasant discipline. Maybe an unrepentant member of the congregation will no longer be able to take communion. Maybe a member could be removed from membership or excommunicated. Actions like these are not done very often or very energetically these days because most people don't believe that spiritual health or spiritual illness is real, or maybe such things are not seen as unimportant. Plus it takes a lot of faith in Jesus's words. Jesus tells us how we should be Christians and act as the Christian Church, but our own ways seem like they would work better for making the church grow. Telling someone that his or her sins are withheld does not seem like it will grow a congregation. But I'm afraid that we Christians have become like those silly doctors and nurses that I talked about. We are not clear about our mission, about what we should be doing. Our mission is to help people get to heaven. What good is a Christian congregation that doesn't believe that sins are serious, that sinners, without repentance, will go to hell? What help can a congregation like that provide? We must be a congregation that actually helps sinners instead of a congregation that tells lies to sinners. And here's the amazing thing: the truth is actually on the side of us sinners. It is not our sins that bar us from heaven. Jesus has died and completely atoned for all sin. It is unrepentance and unbelief that bar us from heaven and leave us in our sins. The only way unrepentance and unbelief can be overcome is by the Holy Spirit working through the Word of God with its retaining and forgiving of our sins. No project, no activity, no popularity, so special music—nothing that a congregation might try to do can substitute what Jesus gave us Christians to do on Easter evening. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on the disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.” If we have the courage to follow Jesus's words—if we forgive the sins of repentant sinners and withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as they do not repent—if we have the courage to do this as a congregation then good must come to us. It has to come to us because we will be following Jesus's words. We will be a true spiritual hospital, helping sinners to leave their sins behind and to find peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Stand to receive a blessing: There is a peace that the world cannot give. This peace is yours in our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything is going to be alright.

Struggling to stay motivated on his fat-burning journey, an exhausted Joe Schmo discovers the ironic solution to his dilemma: low-intensity List cardio, a 10,000 step-a-day challenge that offers improved cardiovascular health, increased endurance, less joint impact, and improved fat loss. I learned about Low-Intensity Steady State Cardio (LISS) from research on walking for fat loss. It is a low-impact form of cardio with benefits such as improved cardiovascular health, increased endurance, low impact on joints, and fat loss. It involves walking 10,000 steps a day or more, which is approximately 5 miles. It is a simpler and more functional form of exercise than High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). "Walk more than you normally do and you burn fat - it's literally that simple!" In this episode, you will learn the following: 1. What is the secret to burning fat without high-intensity interval training? 2. What are the four major benefits of low intensity steady state cardio? 3. Could walking be the 'magic fat loss pill' that everyone is looking for? Resources: Sign up for my email list: https://motivategrindsucceed.eo.page/92777 Support the show via donations, merch, or join The MGS Members Club: https://www.mgsclub.club/ Other Past Episodes You'll Enjoy The Power of Perspective: How James Heppner Uses Tension to Create Transformation:https://www.motivategrindsucceed.com/the-power-of-perspective-how-james-heppner-uses-tension-to-create-transformation/ How to Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking with Brendan from MasterTalk: https://www.motivategrindsucceed.com/how-to-overcome-your-fear-of-public-speaking-with-brendan-from-master-talk/ Connect with me: Instagram: @motivategrindsucceed YT: @motivategrindsucceed Twitter: @themgspodcast Web: www.motivategrindsucceed.com Loved this episode? Share it with someone who could benefit!

Matty Stratton, Director of Developer Relations at Aiven, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud for a friendly debate on whether or not company employees can still be considered community members. Corey says no, but opens up his position to the slings and arrows of Matty in an entertaining change of pace. Matty explains why he feels company employees can still be considered community members, and also explores how that should be done in a way that is transparent and helpful to everyone in the community. Matty and Corey also explore the benefits and drawbacks of talented community members becoming employees.About MattyMatty Stratton is the Director of Developer Relations at Aiven, a well-known member of the DevOps community, founder and co-host of the popular Arrested DevOps podcast, and a global organizer of the DevOpsDays set of conferences.Matty has over 20 years of experience in IT operations and is a sought-after speaker internationally, presenting at Agile, DevOps, and cloud engineering focused events worldwide. Demonstrating his keen insight into the changing landscape of technology, he recently changed his license plate from DEVOPS to KUBECTL.He lives in Chicago and has three awesome kids, whom he loves just a little bit more than he loves Diet Coke. Links Referenced: Aiven: https://aiven.io/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattstratton Mastodon: hackyderm.io/@mattstratton LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattstratton/ TranscriptAnnouncer: Hello, and welcome to Screaming in the Cloud with your host, Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, Corey Quinn. This weekly show features conversations with people doing interesting work in the world of cloud, thoughtful commentary on the state of the technical world, and ridiculous titles for which Corey refuses to apologize. This is Screaming in the Cloud.Corey: This episode is brought to us in part by our friends at Min.ioWith more than 1.1 billion docker pulls - Most of which were not due to an unfortunate loop mistake, like the kind I like to make - and more than 37 thousand github stars, (which are admittedly harder to get wrong), MinIO has become the industry standard alternative to S3. It runs everywhere  - public clouds, private clouds, Kubernetes distributions, baremetal, raspberry's pi, colocations - even in AWS Local Zones. The reason people like it comes down to its simplicity, scalability, enterprise features and best in class throughput. Software-defined and capable of running on almost any hardware you can imagine and some you probably can't, MinIO can handle everything you can throw at it - and AWS has imagined a lot of things - from datalakes to databases.Don't take their word for it though - check it out at www.min.io and see for yourself. That's www.min.io Corey: Welcome to Screaming in the Cloud. I'm Corey Quinn. I am joined today by returning guest, my friend and yours, Matty Stratton, Director of Developer Relations at Aiven. Matty, it's been a hot second. How are you?Matty: It has been a while, but been pretty good. We have to come back to something that just occurred to me when we think about the different things we've talked about. There was a point of contention about prior art of the Corey Quinn face and photos. I don't know if you saw that discourse; we may have to have a conversation. There may be some absent—Corey: I did not see—Matty: Okay.Corey: —discourse, but I also would accept freely that I am not the first person to ever come up with the idea of opening my mouth and looking ridiculous for a photograph either.Matty: That's fair, but the thing that I think was funny—and if you don't mind, I'll just go ahead and throw this out here—is that I didn't put this two and two together. So, I posted a picture on Twitter a week or so ago that was primarily to show off the fact—it was a picture of me in 1993, and the point was that my jeans were French-rolled and were pegged. But in the photo, I am doing kind of the Corey Quinn face and so people said, “Oh, is this prior art?” And I said—you know what? I actually just remembered and I've never thought about this before, but one of my friends in high school, for his senior year ID he took a picture—his picture looks like, you know, that kind of, you know, three-quarters turn with the mouth opening going, “Ah,” you know?And he loved that picture—number one, he loved that picture so much that this guy carried his senior year high school ID in his wallet until we were like 25 because it was his favorite picture of himself. But every photo—and I saw this from looking through my yearbook of my friend Jay when we are seniors, he's doing the Corey Quinn face. And he is anecdotally part of the DevOps community, now a little bit too, and I haven't pointed this out to him. But people were saying that, you know, mine was prior art on yours, I said, “Actually, I was emulating yet someone else.”Corey: I will tell you the actual story of how it started. It was at re:Invent, I want to say 2018 or so, and what happened was is someone, they were a big fan of the newsletter—sort of the start of re:Invent—they said, “Hey, can I get a selfie with you?” And I figured, sure, why not. And the problem I had is I've always looked bad in photographs. And okay, great, so if I'm going to have a photo taken of me, that's going to be ridiculous, why not as a lark, go ahead and do this for fun during the course of re:Invent this year?So, whenever I did that I just slapped—if someone asked for a selfie—I'd slap the big happy open mouth smile on my face. And people thought, “Oh, my God, this is amazing.” And I don't know that it was necessarily worth that level of enthusiasm, but okay. I'll take it. I'm not here to tell people they're wrong when they enjoy a joke that I'm putting out there.And it just sort of stuck. And I think the peak of it that I don't think I'm ever going to be able to beat is I actually managed to pull that expression on my driver's license.Matty: Wow.Corey: Yeah.Matty: That's—Corey: They don't have a sense of humor that they are aware of at the DMV.Matty: No, they really don't. And having been to the San Francisco DMV and knowing how long it takes to get in there, like, that was a bit of a risk on your part because if they decided to change their mind, you wouldn't be able to come back for another four months [laugh].Corey: It amused me to do it, so why not? What else was I going to do? I brought my iPad with me, it has cellular on it, so I just can work remotely from there. It was either that or working in my home office again, and frankly, at the height of the pandemic, I could use the break.Matty: Yes [laugh]. That's saying something when the break you can use is going to the DMV.Corey: Right.Matty: That's a little bit where we were, where we at. I think just real quick thinking about that because there's a lot to be said with that kind of idea of making a—whether it's silly or not, but having a common, especially if you do a lot of photos, do a lot of things, you don't have to think about, like, how do I look? I mean, you have to think about—you know, you can just say I just know what I do. Because if you think about it, it's about cultivating your smile, cultivating your look for your photos, and just sort of having a way so you don't—you just know what to do every time. I guess that's a, you know, maybe a model tip or something. I don't know. But you might be onto something.Corey: I joke that my entire family motto is never be the most uncomfortable person in the room. And there's something to be said for it where if you're going to present a certain way, make it your own. Find a way to at least stand out. If nothing else, it's a bit different. Most people don't do that.Remember, we've all got made fun of, generally women—for some reason—back about 15 years ago or so for duck face, where in all the pictures you're making duck face. And well, there are reasons why that is a flattering way to present your face. But if there's one thing we love as a society, it's telling women they're doing something wrong.Matty: Yeah.Corey: So yeah, there's a whole bunch of ways you're supposed to take selfies or whatnot. Honestly, I'm in no way shape or form pretty enough or young enough to care about any of them. At this point, it's what I do when someone busts out a camera and that's the end of it. Now, am I the only person to do this? Absolutely not. Do I take ownership of it? No. Someone else wants to do it, they need give no credit. The idea probably didn't come from me.Matty: And to be fair, if I'm little bit taking the mickey there or whatever about prior art, it was more than I thought it was funny because I had not even—it was this thing where it was like, this is a good friend of mine, probably some of that I've been friends with longer than anyone in my whole life, and it was a core part [laugh] of his personality when we were 18 and 19, and it just d—I just never direct—like, made that connection. And then it happened to me and went “Oh, my God. Jason and Corey did the same thing.” [laugh]. It was—Corey: No, it feels like parallel evolution.Matty: Yeah, yeah. It was more of me never having connected those dots. And again, you're making that face for your DMV photo amused you, me talking about this for the last three minutes on a podcast amused me. So.Corey: And let's also be realistic here. How many ways are there to hold your face during a selfie that is distinguishable and worthy of comment? Usually, it's like okay, well, he has this weird sardonic half-smile with an eyebrow ar—no. His mouth was wide open. We're gonna go with that.Matty: You know, there's a little—I want to kind of—because I think there's actually quite a bit to the lesson from any of this because I think about—follow me here; maybe I'll get to the right place—like me and karaoke. No one would ever accuse me of being a talented singer, right? I'm not going to sing well in a way where people are going to be moved by my talent. So instead, I have to go a different direction. I have to go funny.But what it boils down to is I can only do—I do karaoke well when it's a song where I can feel like I'm doing an impression of the singer. So, for example, the B-52s. I do a very good impression of Fred Schneider. So, I can sing a B-52 song all day long. I actually could do better with Pearl Jam than I should be able to with my terrible voice because I'm doing an Eddie Vedder impression.So, what I'm getting at is you're sort of taking this thing where you're saying, okay, to your point, you said, “Hey,”—and your words, not mine—[where 00:07:09] somebody say, “The picture is not going to be of me looking like blue steel runway model, so I might as well look goofy.” You know? And take it that way and be funny with it. And also, every time, it's the same way, so I think it's a matter of kind of owning the conversation, you know, and saying, how do you accentuate the thing that you can do. I don't know. There's something about DevOps, somehow in there.Corey: So, I am in that uncomfortable place right now between having finalized a blog post slash podcast that's going out in two days from this recording. So, it will go out before you and I have this discussion publicly, but it's also too late for me to change any of it,m so I figured I will open myself up to the slings and arrows of you, more or less. And you haven't read this thing yet, which is even better, so you're now going to be angry about an imperfect representation of what I said in writing. But the short version is this: if you work for a company as their employee, then you are no longer a part of that company's community, as it were. And yes, that's nuanced and it's an overbroad statement and there are a bunch of ways that you could poke holes in it, but I'm curious to get your take on the overall positioning of it.Matty: So, at face value, I would vehemently disagree with that statement. And by that is, that I have spent years of my life tilting at the opposite windmill, which is just because you work at this company, doesn't mean you do not participate in the community and should not consider yourself a part of the community, first and foremost. That will, again, like everything else, it depends. It depends on a lot of things and I hope we can kind of explore that a little bit because just as much as I would take umbrage if you will, or whatnot, with the statement that if you work at the company, you stop being part of the community, I would also have an issue with, you're just automatically part of the community, right? Because these things take effort.And I feel like I've been as a devreloper, or whatever, Corey—how do you say it?Corey: Yep. No, you're right on. Devreloper.Matty: As a—or I would say, as a DevRel, although people on Twitter are angry about using the word DevRel to discuss—like saying, “I'm a DevRel.” “DevRel is a department.” It's a DevOps engineer thing again, except actually—it's, like, actually wrong. But anyway, you kind of run into this, like for example—I'm going to not name names here—but, like, to say, you know, Twitter for Pets, the—what do you—by the way, Corey, what are you going to do now for your made-up company when what Twitter is not fun for this anymore? You can't have Twitter for Pets anymore.Corey: I know I'm going to have to come up with a new joke. I don't quite know what to do with myself.Matty: This is really hard. While we will pretend Twitter for Pets is still around a little bit, even though its API is getting shut down.Corey: Exactly.Matty: So okay, so we're over here at Twitter for Pets, Inc. And we've got our—Corey: Twitter for Bees, because you know it'll at least have an APIary.Matty: Yeah. Ha. We have our team of devrelopers and community managers and stuff and community engineers that work at Twitter for Pets, and we have all of our software engineers and different people. And a lot of times the assumption—and now we're going to have Twitter for Pets community something, right? We have our community, we have our area, our place that we interact, whether it's in person, it's virtual, whether it's an event, whether it's our Discord or Discourse or Slack or whatever [doodlee 00:10:33] thing we're doing these days, and a lot of times, all those engineers and people whose title does not have the word ‘community' on it are like, “Oh, good. Well, we have people that do that.”So, number one, no because now we have people whose priority is it; like, we have more intentionality. So, if I work on the community team, if I'm a dev advocate or something like that, my priority is communicating and advocating to and for that community. But it's like a little bit of the, you know, the office space, I take the requirements from the [unintelligible 00:11:07] to people, you I give them to the engineers. I've got people—so like, you shouldn't have to have a go-between, right? And there's actually quite a bit of place.So, I think, this sort of assumption that you're not part of it and you have no responsibility towards that community, first of all, you're missing a lot as a person because that's just how you end up with people building a thing they don't understand.Corey: Oh, I think you have tremendous responsibility to the community, but whether you're a part of it and having responsibility to it or not aligned in my mind.Matty: So… maybe let's take a second and what do you mean by being a part of it?Corey: Right. Where very often I'll see a certain, I don't know, very large cloud provider will have an open-source project. Great, so you go and look at the open-source project and the only people with commit access are people who work at that company. That is an easy-to-make-fun-of example of this. Another is when the people who are in a community and talking about how they perceive things and putting out content about how they've interacted with various aspects of it start to work there, you see areas where it starts to call its authenticity into question.AWS is another great example of this. As someone in the community, I can talk about how I would build something on top of AWS, but then move this thing on to Fastly instead of CloudFront because CloudFront is terrible. If you work there, you're not going to be able to say the same thing. So, even if you're not being effusive with praise, there are certain guardrails and constraints that keep you from saying what you might otherwise, just based upon the sheer self-interest that comes from the company whose product or service you're talking about is also signing your paycheck and choosing to continue to do so.Matty: And I think even less about it because that's where your paycheck is coming. It's also just a—there's a gravitational pull towards those solutions because that's just what you're spending your day with, right? You know—Corey: Yeah. And you also don't want to start and admit even to yourself, in some cases, that okay, this aspect of what our company does is terrible, so companies—people shouldn't use it. You want to sort of ignore that, on some level, psychologically because that dissonance becomes harmful.Matty: Yeah. And I think there's—so again, this is where things get nuanced and get to levels. Because if you have the right amount of psychological safety in your organization, the organization understands what it's about to that. Because even people whose job is to be a community person should be able to say, “Hey, this is my actual opinion on this. And it might be contrary to the go-to-market where that comes in.”But it's hard, especially when it gets filtered through multiple layers and now you've got a CEO who doesn't understand that nuance who goes, “Wait, why was Corey on some podcast saying that the Twitter for Pets API is not everything it could possibly be?” So, I do think—I will say this—I do think that organizations and leadership are understanding this more than they might have in the past, so we are maybe putting on ourselves this belief that we can't be as fully honest, but even if it's not about hiding the warts, even if it's just a matter of also, you're just like, hey, chances are—plus also to be quite frank, if I work at the company, I probably have access to way more shit than I would have to pay for or do whatever and I know the right way. But here's the trick, and I won't even say it's a dogfooding thing, but if you are not learning and thinking about things the way that your users do—and I will even say that that's where—it is the users, which are the community, that community or the people that use your product or are connected to it, they don't use it; they may be anecdotal—or not anecdotally, maybe tangentially connected. I will give an example. And there was a place I was working where it was very clear, like, we had a way to you know, do open-source contributions back of a type of a provider plug-in, whatever you want to call it and I worked at the company and I could barely figure out how to follow the instructions.Because it made a lot of sense to someone who built that software all day long and knew the build patterns, knew all that stuff. So, if you were an engineer at this company, “Well, yeah, of course. You just do this.” And anybody who puts the—connects the dots, this has gotten better—and this was understood relatively quickly as, “Oh, this is the problem. Let's fix it.” So, the thing is, the reason why I bring this up is because it's not something anybody does intentionally because you don't know what you don't know. And—Corey: Oh, I'm not accusing anyone of being a nefarious actor in any of this. I also wonder if part of this is comes from your background as being heavily involved in the Chef community as a Chef employee and as part of the community around that, which is inherently focused on an open-source product that a company has been built around, whereas my primary interaction with community these days is the AWS community, where it doesn't matter whether you're large or small, you are not getting much, if anything, for free from AWS; you're all their customers and you don't really have input into how something gets built, beyond begging nicely.Matty: That's definitely true. And I think we saw that and there was things, when we look at, like, how community, kind of, evolved or just sort of happened at Chef and why we can't recreate it the same way is there was a certain inflection point of the industry and the burgeoning DevOps movement, and there wasn't—you know, so a lot of that was there. But one of the big problems, too, is, as Corey said, everybody—I shouldn't say every, but I've from the A—all the way up to AWS to your smaller startups will have this problem of where you end up hiring in—whether you want to or not—all of your champions and advocates and your really strong community members, and then that ends up happening. So, number one, that's going to happen. So frankly, if you don't push towards this idea, you're actually going to have people not want to come work because you should be able to be still the member that you were before.And the other thing is that at certain size, like, at the size of a hyperscaler, or, you know, a Microsoft—well, anybody—well Microsofts not a hyperscaler, but you know what I'm saying. Like, very, very large organization, your community folks are not necessarily the ones doing that hiring away. And as much as they might—you know, and again, I may be the running the community champion program at Microsoft and see that you want—you know, but that Joe Schmo is getting hired over into engineering. Like, I'm not going to hire Joe because it hurts me, but I can't say you can't, you know? It's so this is a problem at the large size.And at the smaller size, when you're growing that community, it happens, too, because it's really exciting. When there's a place that you're part of that community, especially when there's a strong feel, like going to work for the mothership, so to speak is, like, awesome. So again, to give an example, I was a member of the Chef community, I was a user, a community person well, before, you know, I went and, you know, had a paycheck coming out of that Seattle office. And it was, like, the coolest thing in the world to get a job offer from Ch—like, I was like, “Oh, my God. I get to actually go work there now.” Right?And when I was at Pulumi, there quite a few people I could think of who I knew through the community who then get jobs at Pulumi and we're so excited, and I imagine still excited, you know? I mean, that was awesome to do. So, it's hard because when you get really excited about a technology, then being able to say, “Wait, I can work on this all the time?” That sounds awesome, right? So like, you're going to have that happen.So, I think what you have to do is rather than prevent it from happening because number one, like, you don't want to actually prevent that from happening because those people will actually be really great additions to your organization in lots of ways. Also, you're not going to stop it from happening, right? I mean, it's also just a silly way to do it. All you're going to do is piss people off, and say, like, “Hey, you're not allowed to work here because we need you in the community.” Then they're going to be like, “Great. Well, guess what I'm not a part of anymore now, jerk?” Right? You know [laugh] I mean so—Corey: Exactly.Matty: Your [unintelligible 00:18:50] stops me. So, that doesn't work. But I think to your point, you talked about, like, okay, if you have a, ostensibly this a community project, but all the maintainers are from one—are from your company, you know? Or so I'm going to point to an example of, we had—you know, this was at Pulumi, we had a Champions program called Puluminaries, and then there's something similar to like Vox Populi, but it was kind of the community that was not run by Pulumi Inc. In that case.Now, we helped fund it and helped get it started, but there was there were rules about the, you know, the membership of the leadership, steering committee or board or whatever it was called, there was a hard limit on the number of people that could be Pulumi employees who were on that board. And it actually, as I recall when I was leaving—I imagine this is not—[unintelligible 00:19:41] does sometimes have to adjust a couple of things because maybe those board members become employees and now you have to say, you can't do that anymore or we have to take someone down. But the goal was to actually, you know, basically have—you know, Pulumi Corp wanted to have a voice on that board because if for no other reason, they were funding it, but it was just one voice. It wasn't even a majority voice. And that's a hard sell in a lot of places too because you lose control over that.There's things I know with, uh—when I think about, like, running meetup communities, like, we might be—well I mean, this is not a big secret, I mean because it's been announced, but we're—you know, Aiven is helping bootstrap a bunch of data infrastructure meetups around the world. But they're not Aiven meetups. Now, we're starting them because they have to start, but pretty much our approach is, as soon as this is running and there's people, whether they work here, work with us or not, they can take it, right? Like, if that's go—you know? And being able to do that can be really hard because you have to relinquish the control of your community.And I think you don't have to relinquish a hundred percent of that control because you're helping facilitate it because if it doesn't already have its own thing—to make sure that things like code of conduct and funding of it, and there's things that come along with the okay, we as an organization, as a company that has dollars and euros is going to do stuff for this, but it's not ours. And that's the thing to remember is that your community does not belong to you, the company. You are there to facilitate it, you are there to empower it, you're there to force-multiply it, to help protect it. And yeah, you will probably slurp a whole bunch of value out of it, so this is not magnanimous, but if you want it to actually be a place it's going to work, it kind of has to be what it wants to be. But by the same token, you can't just sort of sit there and be like, “I'm going to wait for this community grow up around me without anything”—you know.So, that's why you do have to start one if there is quote-unquote—maybe if there's no shape to one. But yeah, I think that's… it is different when it's something that feels a little—I don't even want to say that it's about being open-source. It's a little bit about it less of it being a SaaS or a service, or if it's something that you—I don't know.Corey: This episode is sponsored in part by Honeycomb. I'm not going to dance around the problem. Your. Engineers. Are. Burned. Out. They're tired from pagers waking them up at 2 am for something that could have waited until after their morning coffee. Ring Ring, Who's There? It's Nagios, the original call of duty! They're fed up with relying on two or three different “monitoring tools” that still require them to manually trudge through logs to decipher what might be wrong. Simply put, there's a better way. Observability tools like Honeycomb (and very little else becau se they do admittedly set the bar) show you the patterns and outliers of how users experience your code in complex and unpredictable environments so you can spend less time firefighting and more time innovating. It's great for your business, great for your engineers, and, most importantly, great for your customers. Try FREE today at honeycomb.io/screaminginthecloud. That's honeycomb.io/screaminginthecloud.Corey: Yeah, I think you're onto something here. I think another aspect where I found it be annoying is when companies view their community as, let's hire them all. And I don't think it ever starts that way. I think that it starts as, well these are people who are super-passionate about this, and they have great ideas and they were great to work with. Could we hire them?And the answer is, “Oh, wait. You can give me money for this thing I've been doing basically for free? Yeah, sure, why not?” And that's great in the individual cases. The problem is, at some point, you start to see scenarios where it feels like, if not everyone, then a significant vocal majority of the community starts to work there.Matty: I think less often than you might think is it done strategically or on purpose. There have been exceptions to that. There's one really clear one where it feels like a certain company a few years ago, hired up all the usual suspects of the DevOps community. All of a sudden, you're like, oh, a dozen people all went to go work at this place all at once. And the fun thing is, I remember feeling a little bit—got my nose a little out of joint because I was not the hiring mana—like, I knew the people.I was like, “Well, why didn't you ask me?” And they said, “Actually, you are more important to us not working here.” Now, that might have just been a way to sell my dude-in-tech ego or not, but whether or not that was actually true for me or not, that is a thing where you say you know, your folks—but I do think that particular example of, like, okay, I'm this, that company, and I'm going to go hire up all the usual suspects, I think that's less. I think a lot of times when you see communities hire up those people, it's not done on purpose and in fact, it's probably not something they actually wanted to do in mass that way. But it happens because people who are passionate about your product, it's like I said before, it actually seems pretty cool to go work on it as your main thing.But I can think of places I've been where we had, you know—again, same thing, we had a Pulumi—we had someone who was probably our strongest, loudest, most vocal community member, and you know, I really wanted to get this person to come join us and that was sort of one of the conversations. Nobody ever said, “We won't offer this person a job if they're great.” Like, that's the thing. I think that's actually kind of would be shitty to be like, “You're a very qualified individual, but you're more important to me out in the community so I'm not going to make your job offer.” But it was like, Ooh, that's the, you know—it'd be super cool to have this person but also, not that that should be part of our calculus of decision, but then you just say, what do you do to mitigate that?Because what I'm concerned about is people hearing this the wrong way and saying, “There's this very qualified individual who wants to come work on my team at my company, but they're also really important to our community and it will hurt our community if they come work here, so sorry, person, we're not going to give you an opportunity to have an awesome job.” Like, that's also thinking about the people involved, too. But I know having talked to folks that lots of these different large organizations that have this problem, generally, those community folks, especially at those places, they don't want this [laugh] happening. They get frustrated by it. So, I mean, I'll tell you, it's you know, the—AWS is one of them, right?They're very excited about a lot of the programs and cool people coming from community builders and stuff and Heroes, you know. On one hand, it's incredibly awesome to have a Hero come work at AWS, but it hurts, right, because now they're not external anymore.Corey: And you stop being a Hero in that case, as well.Matty: Yeah. You do, yeah.Corey: Of course, they also lose the status if they go to one of their major competitors. So like, let me get this straight. You can't be a Hero if you work for AWS or one of its competitors. And okay, how are there any Heroes left at all at some point? And the answer is, they bound it via size and a relatively small list of companies. But okay.Matty: So, thinking back to your point about saying, okay, so if you work at the company, you lose some authenticity, some impartiality, some, you know… I think, rather than just saying, “Well, you're not part”—because that also, honestly, my concern is that your blog post is now going to be ammunition for all the people who don't want to act as members of the community for the company they work for now. They're going to say, well, Corey told me I don't have to. So, like I said, I've been spending the last few years tilting at the opposite windmill, which is getting people that are not on the community team to take part in community summits and discourse and things like that, like, you know, for that's—so I think the thing is, rather than saying, “Well, you can't,” or, “You aren't,” it's like, “Well, what do you do to mitigate those things?”Corey: Yeah, it's a weird thing because taking AWS as the example that I've been beating up on a lot, the vast majority of their employees don't know the community exists in any meaningful sense. Which, no fault to them. The company has so many different things, no one keeps up with at all. But it's kind of nuts to realize that there are huge communities of people out there using a thing you have built and you do not know that those users exist and talk to each other in a particular watering hole. And you of course, as a result, have no presence there. I think that's the wrong direction, too. But—Matty: Mm-hm.Corey: Observing the community and being part of the community, I think there's a difference. Are you a biologist or are you a gorilla?Matty: Okay, but [sigh] I guess that's sort of the difference, too which—and it's hard, it's very hard to not just observe. Because I think that actually even taking the mentality of, “I am here to be Jane Goodall, Dr. Jane Goodall, and observe you while I live amongst you, but I'm not going to actually”—although maybe I'm probably doing disservice—I'm remembering my Goodall is… she was actually more involved. May be a bad example.Corey: Yeah. So, that analogy does fall apart a little bit.Matty: It does fall apart a little bit—Corey: Yeah.Matty: But it's you kind of am I sitting there taking field notes or am I actually engaging with you? Because there is a difference. Even if your main reason for being there is just purely to—I mean, this is not the Prime Directive. It's not Star Trek, right? You're not going to like, hold—you don't need to hold—I mean, do you have to hold yourself aloof and say, “I don't participate in this conversation; I'm just here to take notes?”I think that's very non-genuine at that point. That's over-rotating the other way. But I think it's a matter of in those spaces—I think there's two things. I think you have to have a way to be identified as you are an employee because that's just disclosure.Corey: Oh, I'm not suggesting by any stretch of the imagination, people work somewhere but not admit that they work somewhere when talking about the company. That's called fraud.Matty: Right. No, no, and I don't think it's even—but I'm saying beyond just, if it's not, if you're a cop, you have to tell me, right?Corey: [laugh].Matty: It's like, it's not—if asked, I will tell you I work at AWS. It's like in that place, it should say, “I am an AWS em—” like, I should be badged that way, just so it's clear. I think that's actually helpful in two ways. It's also helpful because it says like, okay, maybe you have a connection you can get for me somehow. Like, you might actually have some different insight or a way to chase something that, you know, it's not necessarily just about disclosure; it's also helpful to know.But I think within those spaces, that disclosure—or not disclosure, but being an employee does not offer you any more authority. And part of that is just having to be very clear about how you're constructing that community, right? And that's sort of the way that I think about it is, like, when we did the Pulumi Community Summit about a year ago, right? It was an online, you know, thing we did, and the timing was such that we didn't have a whole lot of Pulumi engineers were able to join, but when we—and it's hard to say we're going to sit in an open space together and everybody is the same here because people also—here's the difference. You say you want this authority? People will want that authority from the people that work at the company and they will always go to them and say, like, “Well, you should have this answer. Can you tell me about this? Can you do this?”So, it's actually hard on both cases to have that two-way conversation unless you set the rules of that space such as, “Okay, I work at Aiven, but when I'm in this space, short of code of conduct or whatever, if I have to be doing that thing, I have no more authority on this than anyone else.” I'm in this space as the same way everyone else's. You can't let that be assumed.Corey: Oh, and big companies do. It's always someone else's… there's someone else's department. Like, at some level, it feels like when you work in one of those enormous orgs, it's your remit is six inches wide.Matty: Well, right. Right. So, I think it's like your authority exists only so far as it's helpful to somebody. If I'm in a space as an Aivener, I'm there just as Matty the person. But I will say I work at Aiven, so if you're like, “God, I wish that I knew who was the person to ask about this replication issue,” and then I can be like, “Aha, I actually have backchannel. Let me help you with that.” But if I can say, “You know what? This is what I think about Kafka and I think why this is whatever,” like, you can—my opinion carries just as much weight as anybody else's, so to speak. Or—Corey: Yeah. You know, it's also weird. Again, community is such a broad and diverse term, I find myself in scenarios where I will observe and talk to people inside AWS about things, but I never want to come across as gloating somehow, that oh, I know, internal people that talk to you about this and you don't. Like, that's never how I want to come across. And I also, I never see the full picture; it's impossible for me to, so I never make commitments on behalf of other people. That's a good way to get in trouble.Matty: It is. And I think in the case of, like, someone like you who's, you know, got the connections you have or whatever, it's less likely for that to be something that you would advertise for a couple of reasons. Like, nobody should be advertising to gloat, but also, part of my remit as a member of a community team is to actually help people. Like, you're doing it because you want to or because it serves you in a different way. Like, that is literally my job.So like, it shouldn't be, like—like, because same thing, if you offer up your connections, now you are taking on some work to do that. Someone who works at the company, like, yes, you should be taking on that work because this is what we do. We're already getting paid for it, you know, so to speak, so I think that's the—Corey: Yeah.Matty: —maybe a nuance, but—Corey: Every once in a while, I'll check my Twitter spam graveyard, [unintelligible 00:32:01] people asking me technical questions months ago about various things regarding AWS and whatnot. And that's all well and good; the problem I have with it is that I'm not a support vector. I don't represent for the company or work for them. Now, if I worked there, I'd feel obligated to make sure this gets handed to the right person. And that's important.The other part of it, though, is okay, now that that's been done and handed off, like do I shepherd it through the process? Eh. I don't want people to get used to asking people in DMs because again, I consider myself to be a nice guy, but if I'm some nefarious jerk, then I could lead them down a very dark path where I suddenly have access to their accounts. And oh, yeah, go ahead and sign up for this thing and I'll take over their computer or convince them to pay me in iTunes gift cards or something like that. No, no, no. Have those conversations in public or through official channels, just because I don't, I don't think you want to wind up in that scenario.Matty: So, my concern as well, with sort of taking the tack of you are just an observer of the community, not a part of it is, that actually can reinforce some pretty bad behavior from an organization towards how they treat the community. One of the things that bothers me—if we're going to go on a different rant about devrelopers like myself—is I like to say that, you know, we pride ourselves as DevRels as being very empathetic and all this stuff, but very happy to shit all over people that work in sales or marketing, based on their job title, right? And I'm like, “Wow, that's great,” right? We're painting with this broad brush. Whereas in reality, we're not separate from.And so, the thing is, when you treat your community as something separate from you, you are treating it as something separate from you. And then it becomes a lot easier also, to not treat them like people and treat them as just a bunch of numbers and treat them as something to have value extracted from rather than it—this is actually a bunch of humans, right? And if I'm part of that, then I'm in the same Dunbar number a little bit, right? I'm in the same monkey sphere as those people because me, I'm—whoever; I'm the CTO or whatever, but I'm part of this community, just like Joe Smith over there in Paducah, you know, who's just building things for the first time. We're all humans together, and it helps to not treat it as the sort of amorphous blob of value to be extracted.So, I think that's… I think all of the examples you've been giving and those are all valid concerns and things to watch out for, the broad brush if you're not part of the community if you work there, my concern is that that leads towards exacerbating already existing bad behavior. You don't have to convince most of the people that the community is separate from them. That's what I'm sort of getting at. I feel like in this work, we've been spending so much time to try to get people to realize they should be acting like part of their larger community—and also, Corey, I know you well enough to know that, you know, sensationalism to make a point [laugh] works to get somebody to join—Corey: I have my moments.Matty: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, there's I think… I'll put it this way. I'm very interested to see the reaction, the response that comes out in, well now, for us a couple of days, for you the listener, a while ago [laugh] when that hits because I think it is a, I don't want to say it's controversial, but I think it's something that has a lot of, um… put it this way, anything that's simple and black and white is not good for discussion.Corey: It's nuanced. And I know that whenever I wrote in 1200 words is not going to be as nuanced of the conversation we just had, either, so I'm sure people will have opinions on it. That'd be fun. It'd be a good excuse for me to listen.Matty: Exactly [laugh]. And then we'll have to remember to go back and find—I'll have to do a little Twitter search for the dates.Corey: We'll have to do another discussion on this, if anything interesting comes out of it.Matty: Actually, that would be funny. That would be—we could do a little recap.Corey: It would. I want to thank you so much for being so generous with your time. Where can people find you if they want to learn more?Matty: Well, [sigh] for the moment, [sigh] who knows what will be the case when this comes out, but you can still find me on Twitter at @mattstratton. I'm also at hackie-derm dot io—sorry, hackyderm.io. I keep wanting to say hackie-derm, but hackyderm actually works better anyway and it's funnier. But [hackyderm.io/@mattstratton](https://hackyderm.io/@mattstratton) is my Mastodon. LinkedIn; I'm. Around there. I need to play more at that. You will—also again, I don't know when this is coming out, so you won't tell you—you don't find me out traveling as much as you might have before, but DevOpsDays Chicago is coming up August 9th and 10th in Chicago, so at the time of listening to this, I'm sure our program will have been posted. But please come and join us. It will be our ninth time of hosting a DevOpsDay Chicago. And I have decided I'm sticking around for ten, so next year will be my last DevOpsDay that I'm running. So, this is the penultimate. And we always know that the penultimate is the best.Corey: Absolutely. Thanks again for your time. It's appreciated. Matty Stratton, Director of Developer Relations at Aiven. I'm Cloud Economist Corey Quinn, and this is Screaming in the Cloud. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, whereas if you've hated this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, along with an angry comment talking about how I completely missed the whole point of this community and failing to disclose that you are in fact one of the producers of the show.Corey: If your AWS bill keeps rising and your blood pressure is doing the same, then you need The Duckbill Group. We help companies fix their AWS bill by making it smaller and less horrifying. The Duckbill Group works for you, not AWS. We tailor recommendations to your business and we get to the point. Visit duckbillgroup.com to get started.

Episode 135. Welcome to another international edition of Joe Schmo's Backyard-Nonsense Park. You won't believe what Producer Ash has in store for you this time. Follow Disney Dependent on Instagram! Executive Producer: Producer Ash Producer/editor/mixer: Deanna Chapman Intro music written by Ryan Knowles Logo design by Ryan Hatch --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/disney-dependent/support

Episode 133. It's time for an international edition of Joe Schmo's Backyard-Nonsense Park. Follow Disney Dependent on Instagram! Executive Producer: Producer Ash Producer/editor/mixer: Deanna Chapman Intro music written by Ryan Knowles Logo design by Ryan Hatch --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/disney-dependent/support

Kicking off the week with a little extra spice and a special guest, Joe Schmo who once upon a time was a kink coach and here to elaborate, educated and more from a man's perspective. Not sure what your kinks are, but want to know? Take the test in our bio to explore more into it. Education and communication with your partner is KEY! But of course with a few laughs in between, we're here for it.

The ever-popular Joe Schmo's Backyard-Nonsense Park series continues with a special Florida Edition - in honor of the crew's upcoming voyage to America's shlong! On this episode, they cover two very different small-scale private theme parks in the same general area of Florida. Is your favorite obscure Florida park on the list? Find out... --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/disney-dependent/support

Episode 124. If you're looking for some Christmas-themed theme park fun, you've come to the right place. Listen and learn all about Santa's Land & Castle Noel. Follow Disney Dependent on Instagram! Executive Producer: Producer Ash Producer/editor/mixer: Deanna Chapman Intro music written by Ryan Knowles Logo design by Ryan Hatch --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/disney-dependent/support

Episode 123! James, Sarah, and Producer Ash dive into an all-new segment and take a little trip to the Enchanted Forest. Follow Disney Dependent on Instagram! Executive Producer: Producer Ash Producer/editor/mixer: Deanna Chapman Intro music written by Ryan Knowles Logo design by Ryan Hatch --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/disney-dependent/support

Let's chat about something that has been irritating me lately

The IEA has a number for the required solar to halt climate change and it's being built right now! Heat waves make people angry, Californians respond to text alert to save power and blackouts were averted. Tesla's production cost per vehicle is 42% of what it was just five years ago and it's not due to falling battery prices. Some grids in the US have so much excess power, prices are often going negative. They pay you to use power. This is going to become common as we move forward with decarbonization. The specs for the Chevy Equinox have been announced and it's clearly going to make the Chevy Bolt EUV obselete instantly.  James's son's geology professor says there's not enough lithium for 100% electric car sales. He's wrong. Thanks for listening to our show! Consider rating The Clean Energy Show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you listen to our show. Follow us on TikTok! Check out our YouTube Channel! Follow us on Twitter! Your hosts: James Whittingham https://twitter.com/jewhittingham Brian Stockton: https://twitter.com/brianstockton Email us at cleanenergyshow@gmail.com Leave us an online voicemail at http://speakpipe.com/cleanenergyshow Tell your friends about us on social media!   Transcript of this Episode Brian: Hello, and welcome to episode 131 of the Clean Energy Show. I'm Brian Stockton. BBC News Anchor: We're interrupting our schedules for the following announcement. Buckingham palace has announced the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Brian: What is this, the London Bridge protocol? James: Yes. We've been waiting decades for this, and it's finally happened. Brian: No. Podcasts do not have to follow the London Bridge protocol. Come on. They don't it's fine. But I will say the Queen is dead. Long lived the king. James:I'm James Whittingham. This week, my son's geology prof says there's not enough lithium to go 100% electric anytime soon. I promptly advised my son to quit university and educate himself on Facebook. This week. California didn't have enough power. While other grids in the US. Have so much excess power, prices are often going negative. If I can get the grid to pay me to use my fancy coffee machine, I'll be rich. Tesla's production cost per vehicle is 42% of what it was just five years ago. And it's not due to falling battery prices. It's actually Elon Musk not having to buy horses anymore due to the woke mob. Okay, I don't understand that, Joe. Really? No, I don't. He got a massage and promised a woman a horse. I got it. The California power grid avoided severe blackouts after sending a text alert to citizens. The text said, you up, followed by turn off your lights. All that and more on this edition of the Clean Energy Show. And Brian, this week we also have something from Bloomberg opinion that says the energy transition and its supply chain are at what we need to beat climate change. Already. It's already being constructed. It's quite remarkable. Even apparently, lithium. Yes, high temperatures are making people angrier online. And how are you this week? I'm good. So here's my two updates. I got the latest full self driving update on my Tesla, which is it a big one. Yeah, it's a big 110.69.2. This is the first update I've had since actually getting the full self. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, it's the only one I've had since getting the full self driving software. Only had it a day, only used it once, and it still did that. Same thing where a lot of our streets don't have a line painted down the middle, and it's two lanes, and it started to drift to one side, so I canceled it and just kept driving. Well, Joy? Yeah. And he says they're going to be out by the end of the year. Come on. Yeah, well, a lot of the testing miles have been done in California, so it sounds like the software works way better in California. And we are, sadly, many miles from California, so it's going to be a bit of a struggle here for a while, I think. Do they paint the streets of California? Is that the issue? We don't paint them here. Yeah. Well, I'm assuming all the roads are better in California, but the grass is always greener, as they say, although not during a drought. But anyway, my other updates so I think I said last week, I've applied for the Greener Homes grant, which is Canada's subsidy for retrofitting your home to put in clean energy stuff, insulation. And I'm still hoping to do a heat pump, an air source heat pump for my house, get rid of my furnace. So the process is moving. I've been approved. I'm in the program. They can't do the blower test. So what they do is a blower test on your house to test the tightness of the house, and then you do the upgrades, and they do another one. But because our ceiling, the drywalls opened up in the ceiling in the kitchen, because we were trying to fix those leaks, they can't do the blower test right away. But anyway, I just wanted to mention that I am hoping to go through this process. This is what it's available in Canada, and as we've covered on the show before, the new Inflation Reduction Act in the US. If you're in the US. There's lots of kind of similar subsidies for home improvements and upgrades and energy efficient appliances and vehicles and everything. And of course, different states and different provinces all have incentives, too. And like, our natural gas utility has a little bit of incentive to go to higher efficiency furnaces, gas furnaces and stuff. So anybody listening, always check your local area, your local state, your local province to see what the possible subsidies are. Okay, well, the Chevy Equinox, they finally announced the specs on it. Yeah. So this is the next big electric vehicle from General Motors, which is an SUV that's going to be at a reasonable price. They said this is a small SUV under $30,000 US. Is that cheaper than the Bolt? It's not cheaper than the Bolt now because they lower the Bolt in the US. But the equivalent Canadian pricing would put it lower, I think, than the Canadian pricing, current Canadian pricing of the bolt and worldwide as well. Yeah, and if that's the price for the Equinox, one would think they would eventually drop the bolt below that because that's a smaller car. The Equinox is actually making it hard for me to buy a Bolt because of two reasons. One, it'll render the Bolt obsolete. Even if it's really close in price, it's a bigger vehicle, seems like a better vehicle. It's not as well fitted. Maybe they have some bare bones stuff with the base model. You get a power driver's seat on the base model of the boat and a few other nice things. In Canada, you get ten years of connectivity, or eight years of connectivity. A long time of connectivity. Maybe it's five, but it's a few years. That cover most of your ownership, usually. So I'm just worried about it. Plus, they got the LTM battery pack with that. So that should be approved to charge faster, three times as fast. Peak charging doesn't mean that it's going to charge three times as fast, but the peak charging is three times as fast. So that's what the big drawback of the Bolt is. Well, it's size and it's charging speed on the highway. Well, and I think we're still in a situation where if you decide you want one, you're going to have to head down to GM as soon as you can and kind of put down a deposit because the supplies are going to be limited, especially where we live. So I think that's going to be the situation for the next couple of years, no matter which electric vehicle you decide to buy. And it's going to be at least two years before I get a base model of the Equinox. But let's say I have a four year loan or four year lease of a Bolt. Maybe leasing is the way to go because the Bolt could be under severe price pressure. Right. If the price does go down and I bought the vehicle, then I've got like a dud on it when I'm trying to sell it in three or four years to get an equal option, but at least would give you a sort of a guaranteed buyout price or something. Yeah, but at least they're not too sexy with their offers on the leasing right now. So I really don't know what to do. So I got a message from my son at his geology class. It's not basic geology, it's engineering related. Geology is something that requisite that he's taking. And he says the prof was going on about not having enough lithium. Like this was the day that California solidified their 100% electric vehicles by 2035. Well, he says there's no way, no way in hell, because there's not enough lithium. He's a geologist. He knows there's not enough lithium. That's not true, though. No. From what I understand, and I'm not a lithium expert, but apparently you are, it's not so much that there's plenty of lithium. It's the processing of the lithium that's the difficult part to make it usable for batteries. Yeah. So I looked it up, and I found some sources in the journal Nature, and lithium itself is not scarce, as you said. But a June report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimated that the current reserves of the metal are around 20 million tons. And that's not enough to carry the conversion EVs through to mid century. So the actual amount there, it's the refinery of it, the mining of it. He said it takes ten years to mind to get well. Do your math. It's more than ten years away, and we're going to have a story later about the solar supply chain going gangbusters enough to actually beat climate change. And where there's a will, there's a way. And this is what's happening. Solar is ahead of everybody else. But batteries are coming now and there's money to be made. So presumably if there's money to be made, it seems possible that there will possibly be some lithium bottlenecks where we won't have all that we need. There was an announcement from Tesla recently that they are trying to get a lithium mine or processing plant going in Texas. So the fact that Tesla is getting into it indicates that, you know, maybe they are worried there's not quite enough lithium, but it's all part of the ramp, so I'm not worried. But, hey, I'm not a geology professor, and we're also going to talk about Tesla having an advantage because five, seven years ago, musk was talking about lithium and he was on top of this, wasn't he? No, I mean, this is the advantage of Tesla, is they've been working on all of these things for at least a dozen years now. They've got a nice head start in figuring this stuff out. We were just before we went to record, there was a threat in California of power blackouts, wasn't there? Yes. So they've got a crazy heat wave going on there and they were predicted just at the time that we were recording. They had managed to stave off blackouts for the previous couple of days, but it was all coming to a head just as we were recording our show last week. And they saved the grid. And how did they do it, James? They sent out a text message alert. Yeah. And Brian? It worked. It totally works. It's a crazy thing. It worked. People said, okay, I will turn off my draw up for a couple of hours, or whatever they do in California. And it worked. Yeah. No, I thought that was quite remarkable. There was some graphs posted online of, like, exactly when the text went out and how power dipped. Obviously not everybody's going to listen to that, but that is one of the advantages of everybody having a cell phone here in our province. We had a bunch of emergency alerts for safety reasons a couple of weeks ago, and they were quite alarming to get. Definitely necessary for everybody's safety. Certainly I want to be informed and stuff like that. So if you and I were living in California, we would absolutely have gone and turned off some lights, turned off some power hungry things, and clearly enough people think like us and did that as well. So I've got a pool pump running, right? Yeah, it's about 1000 watts. Wow. Yeah, it's not fun. Swimming pools are not the most environmental thing there, but heating, although you do run yours with thermal solar panels. I heated with solar, yeah, but there's chemicals and water. I should probably do an assessment of that and compare it to having a hot tub, because maybe a hot tub is more my thing. I like the freedom from gravity, Brian. That's what I've been really enjoying the last couple of years is the freedom from gravity. The fatter you are, the lighter you are in water. So I figure I wave it as much as I would on the moon. And can you put a bunch of salt in the water and be even more buoyant? You could, but I wouldn't be able to touch the ground and I don't think I would be walking around floating like a bob, bobbing up and down like a buoy. That's a horrible sight, especially in my speedo. I just bought a bunch of chemicals even after I closed the pool, because I had to. I have to keep it treated until it freezes. And then in the spring, I have to treat it again and kill all the LG. You have to do that with a hot tub, but it's less. But then you heat it. And I can't heat it with heat, with solar panels, but I can't heat it with my thermal heating. Anyway, the pool is closed in winter is here. And that emergency alert that we had, a Saskatchewan resolved itself. The person was caught and died in custody, for what it's worth, but I won't dwell on that. The fact is, Brian, 500,000 homes in California and businesses have been warned that they might lose service. And within five minutes it was all but over. That's all tough. It's five minutes. Maybe people are more conscious of energy demands these days. We never used to think about it before, but maybe now it's not such a crazy thing to send in a text. Yeah, I mean, I think maybe they'd run into problems if they were sending out one of these alerts every couple of days. Eventually people would get tired of it. But if they can limit themselves to once or twice a year, then they can keep people's attention and they'll do it. Maybe we'll have smarter homes. Like my pool pump runs on a smart timer, a smart switch. Maybe if I connected that to the power utility and allowed it to turn off, things like that, I don't know what else it would be. My air conditioner thermostat goes up a degree. Yeah, something like that. Well, actually, Apple has announced a new feature coming, I think with the next update of their iOS, their mobile software is apple is actually going to have a thing where your phone will only charge when there's the maximum amount of green electricity on the grid. They're going to figure out that's cool. Why don't we have a story about that? What's wrong with you? You're the apple guy here. This is it right now. Sorry about it. Tell me everything. Presumably it will figure this out for each jurisdiction because the grid is different every place. But yeah, it'll figure out when there's the most green power on the grid, and it will only charge your phone during that time. See, phones take a lot of power now. They take 20, 40, 50 watts, some tablets take 100 watts. Yeah, that's getting a little bit more serious, especially since we don't have 100 watt light bulbs anymore. We have Led light bulbs. No. And when you think about pretty much every single human being in North America has a smartphone. That's a few hundred million smartphones just in North America. So, yeah, that's a lot of juice when you add them all together. But I've said this before on the show, that I wanted to know when is the greenest time to charge my car? Because we live on a power grid that has 45% coal, something like that. And I want to know, is there more hydro in the mix at three in the morning than, say, if I plugged it in and charged it at seven in the night or something, or even during the day, the business day, and I couldn't get a response from the utility source power. I want to know that. I don't know if they know that. I hope they know that. But yeah, that's a very interesting question. So we'll have to see if Apple figures out our jurisdiction. Yeah, I'd be curious. Maybe they'd listen to Apple and not you. Well, maybe Apple figures it out and then I'll learn from that. And you will know when to charge our cars, because all electric cars have preset timers on them that you can do. A lot of them you can do from an app. And I don't have an app for mine because I bought the base model, but I do set a timer on it every time. Millions of Californians, though, received these alerts that the grid was apparel. Millions of them. Right, interesting. I just wonder, though, if we can integrate our homes into the power grid better, because we're getting smart meters on our house. So that tells the utility what's going on faster in real time. And maybe they can say, well, Joe Schmo at 205th Avenue uses a lot of electricity between five and seven, and he's crashing the grid. Maybe he could find something to cut down on, and maybe they wouldn't send an alert to somebody who has a trickle of electricity because they're gone during that time. Well, that makes me want to skip ahead to one of the stories we were going to have this week again from Bloomberg. And this is about negative power prices. And I've heard about this in the UK and in other jurisdictions, but I didn't realize it was happening quite so much in the US. And so this definitely relates to what we're talking about now. I think basically what you're just asking about here is basically the grid just isn't smart enough yet. It will eventually get there, and it's also not interconnected enough. So in the US, there is seven different utility grids and they're not all connected. It's basically seven regions of seven grids in certain places at certain times. There's excess wind and excess solar. So much so that they have too much power at certain times of the day. This results in negative pricing and encouraging people to just use extra power. And if the grid was further developed, was smarter, there's more home batteries connected to the grid, there's more EVs connected to the grid, and all of those can go either into the grid or out of the grid. That's going to eliminate these problems. So once you start hitting negative prices, boom, that's when your car charges. That's when your home battery charges. And it's coming, it's just going to take a long time. I thought we'd talk a little bit about Tesla this week because there's a lot going on and it's kind of interesting. One thing that I'll start with is a bit of information I learned on Twitter, and that is, you know how supercharger pricing is creeping up, right? It's getting more and more expensive all the time that Tesla sets the price for the superchargers. Yeah, it was super cheap. When I got my car two and a half years ago, it was almost nothing, just a few bucks a charge. And now it's more like 15, $20 a charge, which is annoying, but it's still way better than gas. And it is what it is. Well, now they're saying that it's now the equivalent of a 30 to 40 miles per gallon gas car, which isn't even that great because the Prius is 50 miles per gallon. So it's saying it's like that. Yeah, that's supercharging. By the way, November, you don't always supercharge. You mostly charge at home if you can. Yeah. So that's the caveat there. Yeah. So, yeah, it sucks to pay that much when you're on the road, but still way cheaper than gas. Yeah. And electricity is usually a lot cheaper at home. Plus, if you're like us, you have the option of making it even cheaper by if you can invest in some solar panels and you have a good enough situation with your local utility. Yeah. Martin Avisa, the vice president of investor relations at Tesla, said Monday during the presentation at the Goldman Sachs tech conference in San Francisco, tesla currently has all the supply it needs. This is courtesy of Business Insider. This is an interesting statement. This is a shift from Tesla is always supply constraints with their batteries. Now they have all they need. What happened? Well, it's just all that groundwork that they laid is starting to pay off, which is they basically just saw this coming before everybody else. And it's an obvious thing to you and me, it's like, okay, well, the world needs to get off oil. So what do you do? You do the math and it's like, well, guess what? We need an insane number of batteries. And Tesla figured this out ten or possibly as much as 20 years ago. And so they've been working on this problem for ten or 20 years, and they're just far ahead of the game because that's always been their ethos. It's like, well, no one else is doing it, so we have to do it ourselves. Since they were the first ones up to bat, as it were. So they've just got a big head start, and the other players are figuring it out too. And as we always say, there are announcements every week of new battery factories and such. So as a Tesla investor, it's great news that they are not constrained by battery supply. They're buying them from everybody that will sell them CATL and panasonic. And as well as starting to ramp up their own batteries, we're hitting the S curve of EV adoption, and it is constrained by supply. Yeah. If I want to order the bolt, I have to wait months and stuff like that. It's not just a chip shortage, right? Yeah. And I think there is still a bit of a chip shortage. So they didn't say, like the last I heard was that the chip shortage was the limiting factor for Tesla. They had enough batteries, but they were still a bit iffy on the number of chips. But this more recent statement suggests, okay, well, maybe they've got enough chips now. Well, the statement says, for the first time I can remember, we can access all the supply we need for both businesses. This is something startling as well. The price of manufacturing is only 42% of what it was five short years ago. And it's not due to battery prices falling as expected. It's due to factory design and large castings, like making one large piece of the car instead of a whole bunch of little ones. Efficiencies. Like that. Yeah. All the stuff they set up ten or 20 years ago is starting to pay off. That also makes me think they're making a killing on the markup. So the cars that they make in California at Fremont are a lot more expensive than China. Obviously, Santa Monroe thought they'd be 20% less than China, but they say also in Germany, they're cheaper to make in Germany as well. Yeah, just because it's the new factory with the new design. Their original factory in Fremont was something that they bought from somebody else and kind of had to repurpose it, and that kind of gave them the knowledge to, okay, if we're going to build this stuff from scratch, what's the better design, the more efficient design? And that's what they've got in Texas and Berlin and wherever else they might be building in the future. Yeah. So we have Tesla factories in China, in California, in Austin, Texas, and in Berlin, Germany, and who knows where else down the line. But those are the main ones that are coming online and starting to hit their stride in production, right? Yeah. And really, I think that would be the case if any Automaker was kind of starting up. Now, the problem that the legacy Automakers have is they've been in business for 100 years and they've been doing things a particular way. The businesses have grown in a particular way, and they don't have the luxury of just blowing everything up and starting over again and building new factories. They've kind of got a jerry rigged as they go along. So that turned out to be Tesla's big advantage, was the ability to start from scratch like that. Of course, it meant they nearly went bankrupt several times, but once they passed, once they got over the hump, it's all gravy from this point. Well, I thought it was interesting to know that 10% of the batteries are going into storage, because we had an email about that last week. I think there's an insatiable demand for storage as well. Obviously, it's just a matter of price. When the price hits a certain point, it's going to go crazy because the grid is greening and we need that storage. For yes, and from what I understand, they would maybe do more than 10% of the batteries to storage, but the profits are just way better in the cars. So 10% is all they can manage right now, but eventually more batteries, more grid stores, etc. For so you're basically just selling the batteries with a little bit of equipment, whereas the car is the batteries with a lot of equipment. And so the mark up comes from the bigger spend. So, yeah, it's quite remarkable. And it makes me think that the other manufacturers might be further behind than I thought, which is good if you're a Tesla investor like yourself, because the demand for electric car, man, I tell you, I see so many Teslas, I keep thinking it's you. And it's never you. It's never you. No. I was driving with my partner the other day and I said, look, I have an announcement to make. I'm now going to stop pointing out every Tesla that I see because it's just become too annoying. I used to do that. Hey, there's a Tesla. Hey, there's a Tesla. No more. So, yeah, if you're new to the podcast, full disclosure, I am a Tesla investor. Yeah. Wow. That's actually a big announcement, Brian, because I haven't stopped doing that, and my daughter hasn't stopped doing that. And sometimes she'll text me Tesla. That's what she'll say in the text. It's the punch buggy of our time, really. Exactly. So the supercharger, version four is apparently being set up in Arizona with a mega pack. That's the grid size, truck, container size, storage of batteries, and solar, which is something that Elon has been promising for years, that all superchargers would have a solar installation either adjacent to them or right on top or around them. No, that makes sense. We always see those renderings of the car park of the future where there are solar panels. You park underneath to protect your car from rain, but you also get some free solar charging. So eventually I think most car charging spots will include some solar. It's probably never enough to actually fully supply the cars, but that's fine. So we don't know the speed, the maximum charge rate of these new chargers. In fact, has there even been an announcement on it? I mean, what do we know? No, we don't know too much other than these are going to be prepared for cars other than Tesla's. More so than the other ones. There was going to be maybe a second cable, but now it's sounding more like it would be an adapter. There will be an adapter included with each one. So we think every Tesla charger can be adapted to charge non Teslas, but these ones are going to be designed that way. I wonder how they'll do that with the adapters so people don't steal them because they're worth hundreds of dollars. Yeah, hooked on with a wire or something. I don't know. Maybe lots of video cameras, too. We don't know the charge speed, but what's the maximum charge fees of the version three? It's currently 250, but we believe that even on the version three chargers, they can probably up it to 300, 350, but they haven't done it yet. So most of the third party chargers that are out now, let's call them non Tesla chargers, do 350 like the Electrify America or they are capable of they don't do 350, but they're capable of it. That 1350 is not too difficult to get to that's based on the voltage, I think. So supercharger V four is out and I guess they'll start testing them and maybe announcing what exactly they do. Everybody sort of expects that they'll bump it up a little bit, maybe perhaps for the cyber truck. What do you think? Yeah, like up to just 350 kw or something. Yeah. My car is limited to 170. Have not found that to be a real problem on the highway trips. So I think 250 is fine, 350 is fine, whatever they can do. So they're cranking out tesla's cranking out 6500 power walls. This is the battery packs for home storage a week and 9000 battery packs a week in Nevada. The battery packs are 9000 in Nevada for vehicles per week and 6500 power walls. That's pretty good. People are going to start buying these suckers and battery prices have to go down at some point if we don't run out of lithium. Geology professor they're testing new side repeater cameras with a wider field of view. What do you think of that? What's the deal with that? Is it anything to do with self driving improvements? Or is it just a feature for coolness, for having a better surround view of. The car? I would think it's probably both. I mean, there's always going to be upgrades, there's always going to be new camera modules available, so why not move to the new ones? This is the Clean Energy Show with Brian Stafford and James Whittingham. Every now and again, Brian a Twitter thread. Blows my mind, blows my little head. And this is one of those Twitter threads. It was from David Fickling, a Bloomberg New Energy opinion writer for Bloomberg. He says that solar is on an unstoppable path to solve climate change. And this is something that he didn't know. He's not telling us that. He said he looked into it, he talked to all the analysis and found out that solar is going gangbusters. And not only that, but it's enough to solve climate change on paper and then some by 2050. This is where we have to get to by 2050. He says there's more than enough being built now, basically, to be easily on that path. He says the energy supply to solve the climate is already under construction right now, and it's enough even if the current factories only run at 70%. So it's not like everybody's going to 100% and steam is coming out of the buildings and people are running around. It's like casual 70% is nothing. Anybody who runs less than 70% is not profitable. So he says, I was absolutely astonished to discover this. The solar supply chain we need to reach net zero is already under construction. Current planned and under construction capacity for solar poly silicon industry would be sufficient to support a solar sector producing nearly one terawatt of PV panels every year. That's 1 TB every year. So new solar only generates about 20% of the time. Okay, this is for reference. Nuclear does about 90%, 50% for coal and gas and offshore wind, which surprised me. I thought offshore wind was a bit better than 50%, and it's 35% for hydro. And onshore wind, 35% for hydro. I always grew up with the belief that hydro was a constant. They always say hydro is like a base power, but we're finding out with climate change and droughts that it's not and also seasonal. So it's not. So if hydro is only producing 35% of the time, of course pumped hydro works as battery storage because you just pump it back upstream. You lose 20% of your energy doing that, but batteries lose something in the hand off, too. So, yeah, it makes sense. Pumped hydro is hydro that doesn't depend on nature. This is one terawatt. It's equivalent to 5.8% of annual global electricity consumption. That's right now, right now, every year we are going to make 5.8%, almost 6% of global energy production in solar alone, starting very soon. Not in the 20, fourties very soon. That's amazing. To give it in a bit more context, he said the IEA last year worked out what you need to do to get to net zero this is the International Energy Agency. We worked out last year what you need to get to net zero by 2050, which is our target for climate change, to keep it at 1.5 degrees of warming and start to bring global warming to a halt. Instead you would need an average of 63 year installed between 2000 and 32,050. And he says one of solar alone is getting output now very soon. Under the construction is there to have one terawatt every year. So current polysilicone capacity construction is about $20 billion more than the current production at factories and constantly underestimating growth. Five years ago, the IEA estimated what the solar capacity production would be right now and they are 40% low. And it's the big underestimate of everything we do talk about on this show. So regulatory roadblocks, though this is caveat, are likely to be bigger bottleneck than the supply chain because wind has a lot of regulatory roadblocks and bottlenecks, I guess things like that. Mining too, like we were talking about lithium. Part of it is the permitting process for processing lithium and most panel construction production rather is in China. So political issues could arise. But the gold rush on poly silicon will likely cause prices to crash even further. So this is very positive for the world and it's hard for us to say that the technology and prices are going to solve climate change because the people who are at the forefront of that are hopeful. But it's just hard to say that. But it seems like there is a lot of positive news and this is basically the thesis of our podcast that prices of the technology we talked about is going to change the world and perhaps save it. Yeah, clean energy will win because it's better and cheaper. High temperatures are making people angrier online. So this is another article from Bloomberg. Somebody did a study about when temperatures rise above 30 degrees Celsius or 86 Fahrenheit, hate speech increases on social media when the temperatures go above 30 Celsius. You're kidding. This is maybe not too surprising. I mean, people get hot and they get angry. Actually makes me think of you remember do the Right Thing, the great Spike Lee film from 25 years ago or so. That film takes place on the hottest day of the summer in Brooklyn, right? Yeah. Tempers start to flare because it's so damn hot. And so I don't know, it's maybe just common sense, but somebody did a study and this is a thing that you can measure. You go on social media and you can evaluate the posts and absolutely more hate speech and bad behavior when the temperatures rise. And with climate change, the temperatures are going to be rising more often. You know, whenever there's the first hot day of a season or a hot day after a cold snap, I find that people have road rage around here a lot. Yeah, the speeding and I think the police should model on forecast and other traffic enforcement. Brian, it's time for what do you think? What do you think? This is where I asked Brian what he thinks about topics that I am unsure of. BMW confirms it will adopt Tesla's four six, eight cell format pledging billions of dollars for six global factories. What do you think? Yeah, it sounds like a smart idea. I wasn't sure everybody was going to adopt up the Tesla 46 80 sell. I mean, it'll still be one of many, I guess, but it's a very new form factor. So interesting that other people are adopting it. Electrify America is rebranding it's 350 kilowatt and 150 kilowatt fast chargers and the one will be hyper fast and the other will be ultra fast. Do you know which one is which? I don't know. I think those names are useless because who knows what's faster, hyper or ultra. Tesla solar now has to come with powerwall. So if you buy solar from Tesla, you have to get a powerwall with it, which aren't cheap, by the way. There are thousands and thousands of dollars. I don't know why. What do you think about that? What's the point of that? Well, I mentioned it has to do with their limited ability to they've had some difficulty expanding their solar, so I don't know, they've crunched the numbers and they can only serve a limited number of people anyway, so they might as well do it the way they want to. Elon Musk still says that 6 billion Tesla FSD full self driving beta miles driven by consumers like yourself are necessary for global regulatory approval. Do you know where they're at now? What does that mean? Yeah, it just means there's a lot of miles before it's going to work or what? Yes, I'm surprised that there's any kind of a number attached to it. I mean, the main thing is the software has got to work, so who knows how many billions of miles they're going to need. And they can't process all the data from all those miles, so yeah, I'm not sure what that means. All right, let's briefly dip into the mail bag, Brian. And also the lighting round is coming up later in the show where we'll skip through the rest of the week's headlines. Dear Clean Energy Show, I am an autistic boy named Name withheld to talk about ammonia and hydrogen vehicles in your podcast. Here are some videos about it. And he gave us about 90 links to YouTube videos. And I'm not even exaggerating, there is dozens and dozens of links that he gave, which is great. And he says, credit me under the alias Clasol Blano for giving you the suggestion and the research, please. Fame isn't for me. Have a nice day, gentlemen. That's one of the problems when people write into the podcast, Brian, is fame, instant fame that you have to deal with. And fame is not something for everyone. We understand that it's very fleeting. Very fleeting, yeah. But I definitely want to know more about ammonia and hydrogen. Those are both interesting possible things that can be done green in the future. Absolutely. And we will use some of your research and look at it. And we are hoping to know more and talk more and have some interviews coming up as well, perhaps. So we like to hear from you. Contact us cleanenergyshow@gmail.com. We're on Twitter and TikTok. Hello. We're everywhere. Brian, don't forget our YouTube channel and our Speak Pipe Cleanenergy Show is our handle on Speedpipe.com Cleanenergy Show. And now, of course, it's time for the lightning round. It's time for the lightning round. A fast paced look at the week in clean energy news. And Brian, this week, this year, rather, germany moved to a goal of 100% renewables by 2035. They doubled the goal for onshore wind, tripled solar goals, quadrupled offshore wind guards, all in the space of a few weeks. Thank you, Russia. Thank you, Putin. Yeah, that's working out great. Under the climate change file, unprecedented floods killed 1400, injured 13,000, and damaged 1.17 million homes and destroyed another half million more and washed away livestock and crops in Pakistan, something we haven't mentioned on the show and is under reported in the news. Perhaps we did mention it briefly a couple of weeks ago. I know, but it's true. This is a massive story and all of our thoughts to people in Pakistan dealing with that horrible tragedy. And it's time for clean energy. Class Fact. Brian, a single Tesla megapack. That is the semi truck size utility megapack and hold enough energy to charge how many Tesla vehicles? 40. That's not bad. I mean, the battery packs and cars are pretty big, so, yeah, that's good to know. From Electric Autonomy, Canada. Toronto Fire Services, Canada's largest municipal fire department, is buying his first electric pumper truck. Unfortunately, it'll cost twice as much as a standard one, $2 million. What do you think of that? Wow. I mean, more upfront, but probably cheaper in the long run. That's usually how these things work. They told electric Autonomy, Canada. North American firefighters prefer something bigger and more traditional looking in the fire truck department. So we decided that we were going to build a truck that looked and felt like a North American fire truck, which sounds like it's overbuilt and it's just going to run an electric instead of diesel. Well, time for another clean energy show. Fast fact. In 2020, 70% to 80% of lithiumion battery costs were raw materials this year, but in 2010, it was only 20% to 30%. So, yes, the rest of the battery has come down the raw materials, not as much. But that just goes to show you that making a lot of batteries reduces the prices. Interesting. From Bloomberg, the United States is estimated to host about a third of global crypto asset operations. And get this, it currently consumes about zero 9% to 1.7% of total US electricity usage. Yeah, turn off your crypto in California when the power might go out. Guys, that's the first thing you should start in a clean energy future. Not a big deal, but right now, we don't need that. Panasonic scoped two potential sites in the United States, kansas and Oklahoma for a $4 billion investment in a new lithium ion battery assembly plant likely to support Tesla EV assembly in Texas. They initially selected Kansas, but after the big biden bill, the IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act passed. They said, what the heck, why not both they doubled it. They doubled just like that. There you go. Sign of the time. It's not the future, it's now. No more coal ruling. The EPA recently announced the living of millions of dollars in fines against companies for selling equipment designed to circumvent pollution controls illegal under the Clean Air Act. And I say, God bless you. About time. We don't want any more damn coal. Related that is our time for this week. We like to hear from you. Contact us. As I said, our email is Cleanenergy show@gmail.com. Get out your typewriter now and send us a message. We're on Twitter. TikTok clean Energy Pod. Don't forget to check out our YouTube channel because we are there in visual form and you can leave us a voicemail@speakbite.com cleanenergyshow. And we will mention your birthday on your birthday. And if you're new to the show, remember to subscribe to our podcast us, because every week you get more of this great content. And God save the king. See you next week.  

Today we are talking about more marketing. And specifically we're going to talk about how to personalize your marketing and lead generation because no one hires a robot and no one hires you unless they like you. So how the hell do you get more liked, more approachable, more personable, and more importantly, more authentic online?Kevin Snow is the founder of Time On Target and has been called a sales expert and a technology geek (among other things) by different people over the years; but one thing is for sure...he knows how to help companies take their automation game to the next levelThree Things You'll Learn in This EpisodeHow to make your brand more personable.The Do's and Don'ts of email marketing.What type of brand attracts clients?ResourcesCheck Out His WebsiteReal Estate Marketing DudeThe Listing Advocate (Earn more listings!)REMD on YouTubeREMD on InstagramTranscript:So how do you attract new business? You constantly don't have to chase it. Hi, I'm Mike Cuevas a real estate marketing. This podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust, and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It's your job to remind them. Let's get started. What's up, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to their soul to the real estate marketing podcast. So what we're doing today, guess what we're talking about more marketing. And specifically, this show, we're going to talk about how to personalize your marketing and lead generation no one uses a robot in that one hires a robot and no one hires you unless they like you. So how the hell do you get more liked and more approachable, more personable, and more importantly, more authentic online? Well, so I get emails all the time from people all over the country. And the thing that got my attention here was that this dude's a vet. And for me, that's my soft spot, he got my attention by telling his story, not telling me what he was trying to sell to get on this show. And when we do book people on the show, it's always because there's a story behind them. And just for those of you they're trying to get on here, so that you now know, if you don't have a story, we're not calling you back, if you have a story in there somewhere to share. And it has to do with your personal brand. That's we're all into. So without further ado, I want to go ahead and introduce our guests, Mr. Kevin snow. What's up, Kevin?Hey, Mike, thanks so much for having me on the show. I'm really excited to be here today.Why don't you tell everyone a little bit about who the hell you are, where you're from? And what the hell do you do?So my name is Kevin snow. I am, as Mike said, I am a veteran, I'm actually still serving in the Minnesota National Guard. I live. Obviously, in Minnesota, I grew up in the upper Midwest, I've been here my entire life. And back in 2010, I launched a company called time on target. That was a sales and marketing training company. So I got hired to get on stage and to teach people how to network and how to sell. And then I deployed I went over to Iraq and Kuwait for a year and came back and had absolutely zero clients and zero speaking gigs lined up and nothing in my pipeline, and had that old crap moment of what am I doing with my life. And we did this huge pivot. So the company stopped being a speaking and training firm, that's now a business development tool for me. And now we're all focused on helping clients actually figure out how to sell their stuff, and how to make sure that it's in sync with how their buyers make buying decisions, and then integrating the technology into that. So how do you use email marketing? So you don't sound like a really horrible marketer? Oh, and how do you use your CRM, so it actually helps you manage your sales process and your pipeline so you can close stuff faster?One of the things that I can't stand on the automated a lot of different serums called like action plans or whatever, and they're so boilerplate, you know, it's a robot that happens to it. And like, for you guys that are on my list, like if I send you an email, it's still very on brand. It's still dude, I barely ever spell all the words correctly, because I don't check. And that's just part of my brand, but because I know who my who I am. I just be me. And it works on a demo calls with someone yesterday, or actually someone who signed up with us, and she's like, Hey, she's like, You'resuch a fucking dude. I'm like, some clips. While I'm doing my deep dive with her. She's like, You're such a fucking dude. I'm like, a man. It's just who I am and how I roll. I mean, I can fake it today.I'm just authentic. That's That's what people want in today's day and age. And we had someone on the show recently, Kevin, they said, SEO gal, she's like, Yeah, 70% of people will look you up. That's when they visit your website. They actually call you. So once you start getting on interest. And once you guys do associate this with dating, no one goes on a blind date. That's why online dating sites exist. And when you if you're like on a dating site or something you're gonna probably look at see who you're gonna go date before you actually do it. Right? Well, it's the same thing. People aren't gonna go hire someone that makes one of the largest financial investments of their life with Joe Schmo. They're going to do it with someone they know like and trust and relation and relating to people is the number one thing I believe in real estate, because people don't hire you unless you they like you.Yeah, that About Us page or the About Me page on your website. That's the second most viewed page on websites worldwide. I was working with a client once back when we did some web development. And they're like, Yeah, we don't want to About Us page. I'm like, Are you out of your ever loving mind. I'm like, That is a second page that people visit all the time. You have to have a really good one because they don't buy because you have cool products and cool they buy because they think you're cool. And they like you. And if you aren't showing off your personality on that about me page, you know, they're just gonna be like, Oh, this is just another boring realtor. This is just another boring coach, whatever you do, and they're gonna go on to the next one, butKevin says Some people might not like the real me, I'm not gonna do that. How do you answer that?So yeah, and I'll be like, yeah, that Hi, that was me. So when I did the big pivot with my company back in 2012, after after I got back from the deployment, I didn't want to be the face, I want to not be the product, I wanted to have time on target being the brand. So I did all the stuff to focus on that. And it took me a few years, but then I realized, like, Fuck, no matter what I do, I'm the CEO, I have to be the face of that company. I have to be the one out in front of people building my brand and my image so that people actually engage with me, you know, they don't go looking for a company, they look go looking for a partner. They're looking for someone that can actually work with them and help them that they're going to enjoy spending time and doing stuff with.So for those who are on your bike right now that are posting memes with your brokerages branding on there, all you're really doing is building their brand not doing anything for your own. And your face is your brand and real estate Your face is your brand like That's why video so that's why it works for everybody is that the only time it doesn't work is if people don't like you, but you're just becoming more marketable as you create more and more content. And yeah, I don't believe that professional exists anymore. I believe it's all personable. I think professional is the second question people ask and I don't even think it's like is he professional? Their moral asking not so much as the professional as is? Does he know what the fuck he's doing? Exactly right. And do people care today like I sold sandal I sold real estate and sandals, dude. I had the guy on our show that fucking sold a he's in the elevator and he painted his toenails, purple. And he gets a $4.8 million listing in San Francisco, right? Yeah,I meet with clients from around the world. Via zoom. This is what I wear. I wear a t shirt, I wear a bald cap. And I'm comfortable with that. Because I'm sitting in my house and I'm working. When I go on stage now I still now wear a t shirt in a ball cap because now that's become my brand. That's when I'm doing lives. I'm doing streaming on YouTube or podcast, it's always in this. So now when I show up, because I do like wearing button down shirts. I do like getting dressed up on occasion. So now when I wear it out into business events, it doesn't match anymore. And it literally draws more attention to me but not the right time. Because I was like why are you in a shirt and tie? Like, because I wanted to be there. It's okay. But it has an imposter. Exactly. He's not doesn't have a cap on he's got a nice button up shirt on, you know, like, what he's got dress shoes on what the hell is going on with this? Sowhy do you think so many people that struggle with bringing their persona into their messaging and whatnot. And it's like in real estate like, I mean, we're right up there with like attorneys, like you're talking about just stuffy businesses, when it comes to marketing people like there's nothing more uncomfortable than reading an attorney's like marketing piece. I mean, but like, no one's broken through that clutter. Real estate agents and mortgage people aren't too far away from that. But the ones that are like super duper, like personable and like, dude, they're crushing it every single time, why they're so scared to embrace their real brand.Because there's this misperception that's developed over the as email became a key part of how we did marketing, how we did sales, there became this perception that it had to be professional, it had to have this specific way of communicating. So everyone now tries to write like they're a, you know, they're the CEO, you know, if you know, and that's not the way it should be, you know, our number one email for our my success champion brand that I have with what used to be a client now my business partner, our number one email that has for opens and click throughs. It starts off with it has a subject line of oh my god, I'm so sorry. I'm an ass. Love it. And it's the second email in a welcoming string for a Facebook group. So someone joins the group, they answer the questions, give us their email, and we send them an email that says, Hey, welcome to the group. Here's all the rules, blah, blah, blah. And then the second one is, oh, my God, I'm sorry, I'm an ass and it follows up with, you know, I was so excited that you joined the group I was all by wanting to hear about you and tell you all the cool stuff about the group and I'm completely forgot to introduce myself. So here's three cool things about me you might not know. And like, yeah, and then people will reply, well, like once a week, we will get a reply from someone that says, Oh, my God, Danny, I'm, I don't think you're an ass. No, I wasn't offended at all. I'm like, did you not see the big block at the bottom of the email that says if you don't want to receive any more of these emails, please click here to unsubscribe but like they treat it like it was a real email like Danny was typing it out on it.If people are responding to your auto responder, then your email system is right there. Yeah. And you're on point. If they're not responding, you should probably do a little bit more work in there. Let's get into email. Here's a big issue that real estate agents have like they're always selling their share. And it's like, you don't need to sell you need to serve, you need to remind people what you sell. So, a lot of times, if you see this all the time you got like these companies, and they'll just tell these real estate, you got to just send these emails, these, these real estate market reports. And like the subject line says, monthly market update, you're an expert at this. Is thatgood? No, there's a small No, I'm just gonna flat out say, No, you're all wrong. There is there's a small percentage of a realtors list that's actively looking to do something with their house. And they're the ones who are trying to figure out what's going on with the market and where they're at. And if there's now's the right time, if you know, should I wait, what's going on, and then you're gonna have a section of people that are like, well, you know, we're probably gonna do something in a couple years. So they're kind of watching. And then you have a bunch of people in your list, who literally just bought or sold the house, and don't want to do it again. Because as much as cool as it is moving into a new house, that moving into a new house still entails the whole moving, packing, unpacking, setting up going through closing, going through inspections, and the whole rigmarole. And once you're done with it, you don't want to do it again for a while. So, you know, you have to understand who's in your list, you know, the people who are giving you triggers that yeah, I'm looking at doing something, those are the people that should get your market reports, the people who just bought or sold a house, and they're not going to do anything, you know, right away, you need to be sending them stuff that's a value, that's gonna help them with their current property.Yeah, the and a lot of times everyone tries to you have a warm and a cold list, you guys, this is like a big problem I have with everybody. And your warm list just needs to say don't forget to exist, because that's how you nurture and referrals. And when you nurture with video, you just stay on top of mind, and it's all attraction, your lead list needs to be sold, you can sell people who asked to be sold. And that a lead list is someone who came in off of like a list of homes or they came in off of something, but don't ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever send a sales message to your warm database. That's like sending a sales message to your brother or sister or your wife.Yep. You know, if something big happens in the market, you know, there's some huge change with interest rates, or some whole new program gets put out or so there's something big going on, then push it out to everyone. Hey, I want to make sure you understand this was happening. Here's what this means for you. Here's why. Even if you weren't looking at selling or buying a house, here's why you might want to nowwe had a lot of our clients, we Yeah, you're exactly right. Like one of our guys. Everyone did the same scripts a lot of our clients were doing as a market and a crash script. And one of our guys got 120,000 views on reels, just from that one piece of content because it was relevant. So yes, anytime it's relevant information as your house, did your house lose 10% in value, I'm gonna open that one up, because it's relevant to today's day and age. But yeah, just in general, just barfing out like market updates and interest rates, I mean, you have a better chance of turning people off than you do nurturing and deepening the relationship. So ifa real estate brokerage or a real estate agent has a really good automation tool for their email, it needs to be linked up to their website. And it needs to be tracking what their contacts are doing. So most automation tools will give you a script that you can put on the header of all your website pages, that will tell the system that hey, one of your contacts just visited this page, one of your contacts just did this and it'll track their behavior on your site. So then you can tell that, hey, this contact just went and was started looking at our MLS listings on our page, we should probably reach out and do stuff with them so you can see what they're doing. And that's how you can really determine if that people who've you've worked with in the past or you met through a networking event, are ready to actually talk about doing something in real estate that allows now you can reach out with that, hey, love to set up a time and talk to you. So you're looking at the house on Fifth Avenue, you know, I'd love to set up a showing for you. There's all kinds of really cool behavioral stuff you can do. If you have it set up. If you're just blasting out emails to your list. It's like, you know, throwing throwing stuff at the wall and hoping something's gonna stick. It's like, Alright, here's my message, please, someone answer me. That's literally what your marketing person is doing for you.So like, so to put some perspective, you guys are glad you guys are on my list. I'll email these podcasts episodes every Saturday. And that's like my nurturing. I'm just adding value. And anytime I create content, I'll send that out but it's value added it's tip added. And then once in a while I'll try to sell you guys on something but I'll run like a promo. But if I don't keep up the nurture the promos less received. You have to do a little bit of the jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, you go for the kills and whatnot once in a while, but you don't need to do it every single time. And you shouldn't because it's not valuable for other people at all. I did talk about work like having an effect About work with your wife every day, what would happen? She would stop talking to me. Well, what do you think happens? You just talk about work with your database every day, they tune you out to and that's when they cheat on you with another real estate agent. So don't overthink this shit. Like, it's common sense. But it's just relationship nurturing, when you're Yeah,exactly. The other thing you really want to be watching with your list to make sure you are hitting the right cadence with them, is paying attention to their engagement rates, you know, who has engaged within the last 30 days who's engaged within 60, who hasn't engaged for 90 days, and after the 90 day period, then you really want to put them in some sort of reengagement campaign to try and get them to start clicking and doing stuff again, or just get them out of your list and stop sending them as often content as often. Because it's actually going to hurt your deliverability if you're sending a ton of stuff, and no one ever opens it. All they eat. Thankyou. Thank you. Can you say that one more time and give them a reason why because here's here's an issue, like people realtor's. There's different databases that they'll have, right and even lenders, and the warmth is like you're the people you invite to your wedding or funeral. That's what I'm talking about a nurturing and what Kevin's talking a lot about our leads and marketing, advertising and prospecting. And if you have people will come to us because we have an email software, people come to us and they want to upload, we have to put a governor on there that they can't upload more than 500 contacts. And the reason for that just meant to be nurturing. Because they'll upload 5000 contacts, a bunch of people they've never, they have no idea who they are, and then they spam them. And then it kills the deliverability for everybody else. So it's not about quantity, you guys, it's about quality.Exactly. So there's Mike, you're exactly right. There's two different types of email, there's cold email, where you're trying to prospect you've never met them, they have no clue who you are, and you're trying to get them into your world and click through and to opt in. So you can get into the permissive world of email, which is where you want to be, it's a way more profitable place to be for email marketing and sales. But, you know, I work with clients that have lists of 20,000 emails, you know, my biggest client has a few 100,000 emails in his in his list, we don't sell into to the entire list, we never do the bulk mailer, because all the email providers talk. So Gmail, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, still out there, they're still talking to people. You know, Mike, all the different Microsoft, MSN, they all interact with each other. And they tell each other Hey, so this email, you know, we're seeing a ton of them, and only 5% of the people are opening them. This must be junk emails, not relevant content, no one wants to see it's another not even going to put it in the inbox. Or they're going to see, you know, the other thing that is horrible for your deliverability is if you go online, you see one of those gurus on Facebook, saying, hey, use our email, swipe file and up your opt ins by 100%. Or whatever their line is. They track content, they're gonna say, Alright, so we're seeing this exact same content coming from multiple people, it's probably spam. So you need to that you need to be really careful about how you're sending to your list and making sure we always send to our most active people first. So they get the email right away. So that then that tells the email providers that oh, you know, they sent out five, 5000 of these and 3500 people opened it, we're going to make sure all the future ones get delivered. Because this is actually really good content, people want to see it. What isa good open rate for people to be looking at on a cold email list?So open rates are really kind of fucked right now. colorful language, sorry.So no, you're on this show. It's all good. This has got a rated rating right next to it. So.So a few months ago, Apple made a change to their privacy policy and how they interact with emails on all of their devices. So now, the way it used to work was they wouldn't download your content and load the pixel that's in emails and tracks opens until you actually open the email. Now, they preload everything. So it's theoretically possible that if I segmented out my list and sent a block of email to only Apple users, I would get 100% open rate. And maybe a fraction of them even saw it. So it's really that is really killed the open rate before it wasn't even really as accurate because every client counts opens differently. So like on Outlook, you can have that preview pane, you know, I scroll through my email list and it automatically opens. Is that an open or is it not? Is it not an open so open rates are really a vanity rate, vanity metric, and now they're pretty much worthless and we've stopped, even really paying attention to them for most of my clients. We now Really focus on the click through rate. So it's really important when you're sending out emails, you're sending them stuff that they actually want to see. So they'll click through and look at it.What? What do you like to see on CTRs? Ah, thatis really industry dependent. So like it the click through rate for it is like 29%. So, it really depends on what you do. And it's really what the goal is, you know, you set the set the standard for what your email list is currently performing at. And then think about Alright, so how do I raise it a percentage point? How do I get that up at 5%? And how do you continue to improve it? So you know, doing the split testing, the AV testing is really key, you know, testing what it what the words are on the button, what the call to action is, you know, which ones get people most engaged, and then making those little incremental changes along the way as how you how you really get your open rates to be in that, you know, you know, industry leading where you have the bulk of people are actually doing it, as opposed to just looking at it reading and saying, Oh, that was cool. And then moving on with their day.A lot along for a cold email list for people that are prospecting and generating leads, how long should that emails be is a question we get a lot, is there a length of time and then we'll talk about subject lines and the importance of those next,so the length of the email, short, three to four paragraphs, if I'm going to do a cold email, and I haven't done cold email for a while for anyone. But when I do cold email campaigns, you know, we're really looking at like three to four paragraphs, you know, really short one or two sentence paragraphs, if I have to scroll down the page, I'm going to stop reading, if it's not someone I know. So it needs to be something people can digest really quickly. As far as how many emails I will usually do, right around five is kind of my my key area that I'll do I have done up to seven. But five is kind of the number I'll do, I'll usually start off with a couple of days right in a row. And then I'll start slowing down over, you know, extended every couple of days and every three days and you know, on a weekly basis,and then by an opt in someone who asked for your email and opted into whatever you're giving them away.Once they've opted in, I'm going to usually have some sort of specific campaign geared towards what they opted in for. So if someone opts into my my stuff about sales process and content, then I'm going to have a five to six email campaign that follows up with them with just further content. And that's going to come and I'm gonna let them know right away, hey, I'm gonna send you over the next five days, I'm going to send you five more emails with this type of stuff. Yeah, and the first three or four, usually, the first three have no call to action, other than getting them to click through to read other content on my site, or showing them hey, if you like this, you might like this stuff as well here, go download this thing. Email four, and five is where I'll start actually asking them to, hey, you know, if this makes sense, let's set up a time to meet and we'll start trying to get them into my calendar and try to get them to engage more on a one to one basis.So one of the books that I loved reading, was by Marcus shared and it's called you ask you answer. And it's about the biggest thing I learned I read a couple years ago, but was on how he was selling saltwater pools or fiberglass pools or whatever it is, but it was cool is that they would set and they did a study on this, they would send the lead content prior to the actual demo. And it increased sales. It increased their like sales percentages by by a boatload like, and they were just pre selling the person so like, most times, like when agents just immediately if someone asked for a list of homes, they immediately think they have to go into sales mode. What are you looking for? What can I help you with when you're looking to buy, as opposed to saying, Hey, here's some things that you want to know, before you buy this house like so if you're looking in ABC neighborhood, one of the things you're going to be concerned with is it's really bad for termites. Here's a couple of tips that you may want to know about that. Yeah, the next place might the next thing like give them warnings that nobody knows about because that's valuable. And they're like, oh shit, but you got to date before you get married. And that's how emails, how he's explaining it to he gave you guys a very clear format and then the context of those emails. What's the subject lines? Talk to me a little bit about that. People always I love subjects I think it's 90% of the email. But what is your opinion on subject lines? How do you come up with good ones,they are super important while the open rate is a vanity metric. It's you still gotta have a open your email. So there has to be something that gets their attention that open that subject line is that first thing they're gonna see. So like the subject line we use for Donnie for that email. Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I'm gonna ask you know that People are going to open it just because they want to see what the hell's in the email. Yeah, you know, and whether they know, Don, you're not doing what, what, why? What did you do, and they want to know, there's got to be a story. So it's got to be something that's relevant to them. And, you know, like, you're there. One that you said, Has your home value dropped 10% Something that's really relevant to them, they're like, Well, who got I, you know, I don't know what my home value is, has it dropped with the, with the changes over the last month, and it's it don't use words like free, it's got to provide the value, you know, it's has to tell them exactly what why they need to open this email,you like emojis and subject lines.I am not an emotionally person, but they are shown to actually work, you know, people, they, for some reason, email subject lines with emojis do have a higher open rate, I don't know if it's because a shift in the demographic who's getting the business emails and, and that type of stuff. You know, I don't know if emojis are word for and my mom and dad who are in there, you know, almost ad. But for my, my niece, who is now a teenager, she would totally open an email with a subject line that had emojis, so I get it. Again, it goes back to knowing who your client is and who your list is, you know,if which goes back into dial in your own authentic way of communicating before you create any of this stuff. Yep. So you just do it over it.Yeah, you know, if you're, if you're emailing to 50 6070 year old, you're going to communicate in a completely different way. And it can differ a different tone, then if you're interacting with a 20 or 30 year old, you know, because the both generations communicate differently, they use different words, there's different expectations about how you should interact. And you have to understand what those norms are. And that's part of writing your content, is having the right tone of voice so that it matches your personality. But then it's still it works with the people that's reading it. You know, if I go up on a stage to speak to a bunch of business owners and I start rapping, when the while that would be humorous and really humiliating. For me, it's probably not going to be as effective. As if I'm talking to the key things that they want to know and interacting with them on their level. Yep.Well, I get man, Kevin, any closing thoughts? Do you want to add any final tips and then we tell people where they can find you?Yeah, the biggest tip is be yourself and your writing your email stuff, don't try and sound like you're this really high powered your ad agency copywriter. You know, it needs to sound like how you will sound when you're actually talking to them in person. And be yourself because you're going to attract people that want to do work with people like you. You know, if you're putting on a completely different air, when at business and you're completely someone else at home and alone, you know, it doesn't work.It's like when the real estate agents have like the glamour shot from the 1980s. And they still have that on their business card. The client shows up to the restaurant, they can't figure out who the hell's there because it's not the same person anymore. Like who the fuck is that? Yeah, it's not the person I called.I had a LinkedIn meeting the other couple of weeks ago was someone that I looked at their LinkedIn profile. I'm like, sweet, they jumped on the on the call, and they were actually 20 years older. Now. I'm like, why are you catfishing on LinkedIn?Like what the hell so and you have a gift I understand for people once you tell them what they can get from you.I do I have a gift for all your listeners. If they text the words, sell smarter to 612-429-4298 I will send them a list of questions they can use to help map out their clients buying process, and a guide to what content is most effective for each step and their sales cyclesuite. Once you go into also where your website is they will look you up conductor you on social and all that.Yeah, my website is www dot time, dash hyphen dash target.com. So time on target.com, with hyphens between all of the words.Love it. Thank you, man. Appreciate your insight. And thank you guys for listening to another episode of real estate marketing dude podcast, because we talked a lot about authentic and being authentic and dialing in your brand. And a lot of you guys are stuck getting on video because you don't know what that is yet. And it's impossible to do it consistently over time without first dialing in whatever you're going to be talking about. But people don't listen to what you talk about. They remember how you talk about it. So that's the importance of dialing in your video strategy. And if you need a real estate marketing dude to go ahead and do that for you. Visit our website at real estate marketing do.com We script at a distribute and put you on the map for all of your video content so that people stop forgetting about you but more importantly start relating with you so you can start attracting clients versus chasing them. That is real estate marketing do.com real estate marketing do.com And we'll see you guys next week peace. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing do.com We make branding and video content creation so Simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule time to speak with a dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We'll see you next time.Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Allen: All right, passive traders, we have a treat in store for you today. Many of you know about the option continuum, which is basically, you know, our levels of breakdown of where you are as an options trader, you start with level one, you don't know anything. And then you get to level 10, maybe if you want to, which is option professional. And basically a professional means that you are so good at trading options, that you are now trading and managing other people's money and you're getting paid for it. Many of you have reached out to us in the past and said, Hey, I want more information on that. And we haven't really put it out there because I am not doing it myself. Right now, as a professional, I don't I'm not measuring anybody else's money. And so, you know, I'm not the best person to talk to about that. But we keep getting people and be like, hey, you know, I want to learn, I want to learn. So one of our members, Paul Ashcraft, has volunteered to join us today. And I want to thank you, Paul, for coming and helping out. A few a couple of months ago, I think in one of our groups, I think it was a passive group, where I had put in there like, Hey, I'm thinking about starting a hedge fund. So I'm thinking about going professional, right? And he reached out and said, hey, you know, I'm already doing it if you want to, if you want to talk and I can answer your question. So we had an amazing conversation, I learned a lot. And I was like, You know what, this would be really helpful for everybody else. So I asked Paul, hey, could you do it again? And we can record it this time? It was like, Yeah, sure, no foul. And so he's here, Paul, thank you. Thank you for being on thank you for taking the time to do this. Paul: Thank you very much. Pleasure. Allen: And you're Paul is a member of our of a lot of our programs. So passive trading formula, the blank check, and now the credit spread mastery as well. So you know, it's good to see that, hey, if you're a money manager, then you're continuously getting learning and learning new things to help out your students, or your clients, I guess. So. Well, tell me, why did you get into management? What was it that drawed you through that? Paul: Well, I sort of got tricked into it. I had a, I'm a CPA by trade, and I had a client who was becoming an NFL player agent. And he trusted me and wanted me to help him manage his people's NFL players money. So I started the licensing process at that time. And so that sort of tricked me into it. So that sort of fell apart. And then he wasn't getting more leads for what he was doing. So I basically continued since then, so Allen: Okay, so were you already trading on your own? Or before that? Or did you learn as you want to? Paul: Yeah, I've been trading, you know, for quite a while. Off and on. So yeah, I've had some experience of trading. Allen: Okay. So you are comfortable, you could do it? Paul: I knew I needed to learn, I do need to learn some more. But yeah, I feel like I could I knew enough about the world to do that. Allen: Okay. And so you are known as what is a RIA, a registered independent advisor? Paul: Right. That's correct. Allen: So that's one of the ways of managing money. What exactly is an RIA? Paul: It's basically a firm that is licensed by the FINRA basically, and you are licensed to where you can manage other people's money. Allen: And all RIAs, are fiduciaries, right? Paul: That's correct. Yeah.  Allen: Right. Because a lot of people don't know the difference between a fiduciary and a non fiduciary. And so a fiduciary, if you don't know you are legally bound to do what's in the best interest of the client. A lot of these other companies that people think about when they're talking about money management, or Wealth Advisors, retirement advisors, all these words that they use, they have no license, or maybe they do have a license, but they're not a fiduciary. So they're not required to do what's best for the client. And so they can sell you a product that they get the highest commission on, even if it's not really a good thing, a good fit for you. So that's why..  Paul: Yeah one of the ways I deal with that fiduciary criteria is basically whatever I do for other people, I do for myself. Allen: Okay. Okay, interesting. So, what does it take to open an RIA? Paul: Well, if you want to legal structure and need, like, I have an LLC got a creative for that. And I have had to pass a serious 65 test, which you'd like an SEC test, and get to come up some kind of agreement you have with your clients that's approved by FINRA to sign them on as clients. Those are the basics you have to do. Allen: Okay, and like how long did it take you to go through all that? Remember? Paul: I'm gonna say, basically of six to nine months. Allen: Okay, and how long have you been? How long have you been an RIA? Paul: Since 2014, so roughly eight years. Allen: Awesome. Yep. Cool. And for those of you, you know, I'm going to repeat it later on, but Paul's business website is Businessadvisors.Pro. So if you ever or if you need a good adviser, you know, please reach out to Paul. And I'll repeat at the end, and we'll put it in the show notes. I just wanted to get that out there. Paul: And that's mainly my CPA website, just so you know. Allen: Very cool. BusinessAdvisors.Pro, there you go.  Paul: And then sort has been done about creating my Wealth Advisors website, because you're so under scrutiny when you were you advertise things, so I just sort of steered away from that a little bit. Allen: Interesting. Okay. So I guess there's certain things you can say and certain things you cannot say. Paul: Basically, anything you put out there to the public, you have to like, monitor it for five years, and they can question you about it anytime. So I just figured one way to get around that is just not to do it. Allen: Okay. So then that leads me to my next question, like, how do you find clients if you're not advertising? Paul: Well, you know, I have CPA clients, probably like half the clients, I have my Wealth Advisors from CPA side. Other thing is like, from friends, and referrals from other people who use me. Allen: Okay. So it takes time to build all that up?  Paul: Yes, yes. And I'm currently working on more. More advertising. Allen: Okay. All right. So the advertising is possible. It's not it's not like it's restricted. But you have to be careful of what you do and how you do it. Paul: Yes, yes, yeah. Allen: Now, what are your clients looking for? Because, you know, if somebody comes to you and says, Hey, you know, I'm looking to make more money, obviously, but they have so many, so many choices. They can do it themselves, it could go to like, like Fidelity and have them do it. They could go to they're really rich, they can have their own private like, you know, Bank of America, has their own private wealth, people. So when they come to you, what do they tell you? Like? What are they looking for in terms of an advisor? Paul: Well, I mean, I had someone recently come to me, and, you know, we're signing them up, or things that I'd say we, if we look, if we're here a year later, what do you want to what your criteria are saying, I did a good job. And he wanted a 10% return, which has been difficult in this market. But that's, that's one thing. Another thing? I you know, most advisors out there, these basically are, they're buying hold people, I mean, and they bid six things in a bucket, and don't look at it too often. So I, I basically say that I'm actively working in their account, and I'm not sure I'm going to just put it there and not be looking at it. Allen: So obviously, you probably tell them about your options experience and the different types of strategies you use. Paul: Yeah, a lot of times just the casual person warnings on the manager money that, that if I tried to tell them all that it would go way over their head. Because, you know, it took me like two years talking about options to actually start doing it myself, you know, so I'm trying to be a little bit of conscientious about what they can and cannot handle information wise. I'll be glad to talk about it, they want to, but I'm not gonna write too much about it. Allen: And I bet that would that would set you apart, right? You know, it's like, hey, you know, we can do plain vanilla stuff. Or we can do if you're a little bit more aggressive than we can do this, and this and this. And then if it goes over there, that's fine. But as long as they're like, whoa, this guy knows. Paul: Yeah, definitely. That's certainly part because like, my CPA, well, I deal with investment advisors. And like, no one, no one that I know of is actually managing costs. I mean, like, you know, every week or things like that, Allen: yeah, yeah, they just don't I mean, part of it is they have, depending on where they are some of these guys that I know, they have broker dealers, and the broker basically tells them what they can do and what they can't do. And trading is like, No, you're not doing it. They just they can't, they're not allowed. And so, you know, we get we get clients that are financial advisors, they come in, they're like, oh, yeah, I'm a financial advisor, like, oh, they shouldn't, you know, all this stuff. And they're like, oh, I don't do any of this for my son. I don't know, they don't even teach us this stuff. In financial advisors. Cool. So it's like, once I call again, I'm like, Oh, my God. Paul: Yeah, most of them are just like, call themselves people. And it is this, they don't necessarily know that much about investing. It's more about they have relationships with people, and they train their people to be accustomed to five to 7% returns. So so don't want you to do that as that's, you know, not a hallmark. Allen: Yeah, yeah. Like, you know, when I go to if I go to a dinner party, or whatever, and, you know, always comes up. So what do you do? It's like, well, I teach people how to do this. And the first they're like, really, is that, you know, what do you what do you mean? And then we tell them a little bit about it, and they go, Yeah, you know, we try to aim, you know, for 5% a month, and they're like, what a month. Really? Oh, wow, I gotta learn about that. And then, you know, you explain a little bit and then they're, like, bored and then they go talk to somebody else. Because, you know, it's cool. They want, they want it. They just want to do the work. So that's cool. Now as an advisor, how do you How do you charge? Like, what do you charge? How do you do it? Paul: So I have what's called a serious 65 license. So I'm able to charge a percentage of what assets are under management. Okay, so the basic generic, charged with as generally 1% of assets under management. Okay, that if I'm doing more as a some different strategies, things like that, I'm probably going to up the field more because it's, it is active trading. Allen: It takes more time. Yeah, yeah. Because I remember way back when I had a guy at America ice, and he was my advisor. And yeah, he would charge a minimum of 1% on assets every year. Every time you put money, you gave him money, they would take 5% off the top. And then every every mutual fund and every index fund or whatever that they put you in. And most of them were, you know, Ameriprise products. Each of those things would have a separate fee every year. So I mean, I got dealing left and right. I didn't know what I was doing. At the time, I was thinking I am going to you know, I'm smart. I got an advisor. But yeah, he was the one getting rich. And so.. Paul: They made that money, whether they go down or go up it. Allen: Yeah, I mean, they take the money right up front, 5% off the top. As soon as you make a deposit, it's like, man, you haven't done anything. Even if I turn around and ask for the money back, I just love fibers. Do you have like a lot of Is There a lot of overhead for being a advisor? You need a large staff? Paul: Right now, it's just me. And so I'm already have all my setup for my CPA business. So there's not really that much more to do.  Allen: And you can run it from the same location. Yes, yes. Okay. So then who does the like the backend stuff, you know, statements, and compliance audits, all that stuff. Paul: So we use Interactive Brokers as the broker dealer. So they basically, so all my clients have their own account set up with them, and it sort of goes underneath my master account. So so they take care about the then get a statement from there anytime they want to find out what their balances. And if they need to take up money, they can contact them and get the money taken out. So they saw him. So we're doing a lot of the back office stuff. Allen: Awesome. So you really don't have to do anything. And they they opened the account themselves, the client opens the account themselves, they deposit the money themselves, they can take it out whenever they want, they can go and log in, see all the trades, see whatever is there. So you really don't have a lot of customer service issues. And so you don't have to send send out statements, because Interactive Brokers will do that. Right. Paul: And one of my strategies is if someone is, I call it high maintenance, then I probably can't handle that, you know, they probably need to find someone else because, you know, I got enough things to do is it is. Allen: Awesome, cool. And then. So you don't handle any of the money either. Because they just go straight to interactive. So you're like a hands off, okay, I'll do the trades, but I'm not touching your money. So you don't have to worry about me taking your money and running away and flying to Bermuda or something.  Paul: Yeah, just like the Bernie Madoff deal where he was. He they call it having custody of the funds, and he had custody. And so they, they talked about that when you're going through your testing and things like that, about having custody and not having custody and things like that. So yeah, it's a big red flag. Allen: Yeah. Because I mean, like, I've been looking into starting my own hedge fund, you know, using the the passive trading strategies and such. And I looked at RIA first and then I looked at, you know, hedge fund as another way, and I think from what I've been able to find so far is that if you start a hedge fund, and you don't charge any management fees, you don't need the license, you can set it up in a way where you know, you get you only take a percentage of the profit. So if there's a gain, you can get a percent, but you don't get that yearly management fee. If you want the yearly management fee, then you do have to separate a separate Ria, to do the management of the fund. Okay, I didn't know that. Yeah, so I thought that was pretty cool. So we've been looking at that as well, different things. So now, what percentage of your management is active? versus, you know, index funds, mutual funds, etc? Paul: I'd say about half. Allen: Okay, and all of the clients are okay with that, or do you do client by client? Paul: I pretty much put everybody under the same model. Yeah. So Allen: And so with interactive, how does that work, you have to go into each account to put a trade on or you just put one trade on and it just trickles.. Paul: There's a master account and I can set up different  classification. So I could I could buy 1000 shares of IBM and have it spread it putting all the accounts did that.  So they have to watch out for is some of the accounts can trade certain things, some can't, like RIAs cannot do you know, futures and naked options and things like that as far as, at least on the credit side. Allen: Okay. All right. So can does that get confusing? If you want if you want like, Okay, I want like a say IBM, I want my IBM stock to be 5% of all of my everybody's portfolio. Paul: Yeah, that would be a different the different equation. So basically, like I did a trade today where I figured, you know, want to take a $10,000 risk. So divided by what that option was going for. And I bought that many contracts to take on that kind of risk. So not necessarily rebalancing everyone is usually trade by trade. So putting on a certain set of circumstances, set a step stop loss and things like that. Allen: Okay, cool. So you can do it as easy or as simple as you want. Or you can make it as complicated as you want. Yeah, up to you. Yeah. Nice. So what types of what types of trades do you do? Paul: Well, some of what you teach. So I do some swing trading. And of course, you know, credit spreads and things like that. And some, you know, some some of the dividend paying stocks and covered calls and things like that. Allen: And do you do any any oil futures options? Paul: Well, I'm not. I'm just at the point to get licensed for that. Allen: It's a separate license? Paul: That's as a separate license. Yes. So you have to you have to get licensed through the, Chicago Board of Trade, the NFA and National Futures Association. Allen: Okay. Okay. And then will you be able to do it the same as everything else through Interactive Brokers? Paul: Yes, I think so. Sometimes you don't know to actually do it. So I think it's pretty similar. Allen: Sweet. Okay. Now, as a as an RIA, do you also advise your clients on other alternative investments, you know, real estate, crypto anything else? Or is it just stocks, bonds, options? Paul: I'm always getting to ask questions, you know, because I'm in, you know, really, I'm gonna CPA world or the IRA world, I'm getting asked questions. So I will advise on that if I think I have a good opinion. You know, I'm not roll up on that rolled up on crypto Allen: Right, right. Are you still bound by the same fiduciary type rules on that or?  Paul: You could come under some scrutiny. You know, you'd like an offsetting handed comment, and then someone does something crazy. And so you got to be a little careful. Allen: Yeah. All right. And okay, so him now with the interactive account, or the broker dealer, is the software any different? Like, versus if you open a regular account by yourself? Is there anything you have to learn a new platform? Or is it basically the same thing?  Paul: It's pretty much the same platform, you just have to understand how to do the trading, like I was telling you about, like, allocating between all the accounts, but the platform itself is basically the same. Okay. Cool. Yeah. Allen: What do you see as the future of money management, because like, you know, they got these robo advisors now, and they got like Robin Hood, trying to get everybody to trade on their own. And so what do you see down the pike? You know, do you see like, your clients are like, yeah, rather just have you do it? Or are robots or whatever? Paul: Yeah, I can see, you know, some of the robot picking up. But on average, most people out there don't know, hardly anything about the investing world. My average client, so I think it's going to be still a good field you know, way up currently doing it. Allen: Okay, and who is like your average client? Paul: They're probably like 50 years old, that did 60. And probably, you know, got assets anywhere from, you know, 50 to 50,000 to over a million dollars, you know? Allen: And do you have any limits on who can invest with you? And how much? Paul: No, I mean, like, I'm not, I'm just gonna take on any account right now. It would need to be over a certain dollar amount for me to I just always have to keep that in mind about, you know, do I want to take on a five or $10,000 account? Because it's gonna be extra work. Taking that versus the capital issue at-- You don't have to be you don't have to comply with the day trading rules. You know, because because if you if you accidentally in and out three, three trades in a week, then your account gets shut down. You know, so you have to deal with that. So yeah, so I'm trying to gradually move up from like a minimum of 25,000 to 50,000, 200,000. Allen: Okay. And then you also have a certain criteria like a certain person that you want right? Certain somebody they can handle the options and that Intertek can handle that because I mean, it does swing a little bit. So if they have a 5,000 to $10,000 account, they freak out if they lose $1,000, obviously, that's not the right person for you anyway. Paul: Right. But on that same note, I had a client the other day that, you know, they have, you know, an excess a half million dollars with me. And they want to know how they could put in more money since this market was down so they could capture, capture that now mark? I love that kind of client. expecting them to call you and tell you, why is my account down? Actually, that question is dead. They're saying, How can we put more money in?  Allen: Yeah, that's a smart, that's a Smart Client. So that's, that's got to be your email, you know, going out, like, Hey, he's trying to give me more now. double down on your investments. Okay. Now, How has being a money manager improved your own trading? Or hasn't? Paul: Well, I mean, it's made me to seek out new avenues of investing. You know, because I'm looking out for my clients. By the same token, when I do that, I find things that I can use to, you know, like, I don't know, if I would have found the old future options without that, you know, seeking out new new investment strategies, you know, so I could do a better job for my clients. Allen: Okay. Now, we've had a lot of volatility lately. And you've, you've alluded to it already. When stocks down about 20% or so right now, how do you deal with the investor concerns or expectations? Paul: I'm continually learning that. The more, the more proactive you can be with that, I find that it's better. Like, if you have a bad day or a bad trade that, you know, that affects it so much, and then maybe call and talk to them about it versus waiting for them to call you later, and they get their quarterly statements. And they call you know? Allen: Right. So do you find that a large portion of your job is just talking to people and just calming them down? Or explaining certain things to them? Or educating them? Paul: In the beginning? Yes. If someone's with you for a while, and they haven't gotten, understood your ways, and why you do what you do. And it would be generally in the first year of a client relationship, you indeed do that more, but there is sort of they get to know you, you you get to know them and sort of like a training curve there. Allen: And now, most of your clients, are they either they know you or they were referred to you. Right. So there's always there's already that trust built in from the beginning. Most of them yes, yeah. So if you, you know, advertising, somebody comes in cold, they're like, oh, yeah, I like what you're doing here. You know, here's $100,000, there's gonna be a lot more back. Paul: Yeah. Allen: Okay. So how are you handling? How are you handling the volatility? Like when somebody calls up and says, Oh, my count is down. How do you? What do you do there? Paul: Well, number one, what I did when I saw when I saw the market starting to tank, I basically, was going more into cash. So like, I the client won't know why we aren't investing. I said, Well, I'm waiting for the market to give me indication has, it's found the bottom or, you know, it is headed back up. So I don't want to, I'm not a bottom picker. But I don't want to like, write it further down. You know. So that's one way of dealing with it. And they seem to appreciate that quite a bit and understand that. So I don't think that's something you get out of a typical advisor. Allen: So yeah, but what if somebody calls you and says, Oh, my God, you know, I'm down 10%? What am I going to do? I can't handle this. How do you handle that? Have you ever had that happen? Paul: Yeah. I tried to change up their strategies a little bit to get them a little more solid, or maybe not trade as much in their account. Just being a little more cautious. Allen: Okay, so Okay, so you can actually choose, like, let's say, we talked about that IBM thing. So if you're like, Hey, I'm buying IBM, you could choose and say, okay, don't put it in this account in this account, just because in all these other ones,. Yeah. All right. So you can actually tailor it because like, if somebody goes, Yeah, I just want to be long stocks, or I just want tech stocks. And I just want you know, credit spreads. So they you can, you can do that. Yeah, okay. Yep. So, do you have any shortcuts that you can share? You know, for somebody that's thinking, hey, you know, this sounds like cool, I'm gonna I'm gonna get into this. RIA business, anything that you probably didn't know, ahead of time that you would have liked to have known? Paul: This is sort of like a unknown territory. Because, I mean, when I was doing it, I couldn't get anybody to actually figure it out what like a serious 65 license would do. And I was sort of going into blindly a little bit. So I mean, I think the number one thing is maybe you know, then contact me. Shortcuts is, you know, I don't know like I had to find a place to take the take the course for that. And then I hired a guy to tutor me some. And, you know, there's, there's these firms out there wanting you to sign up with them for them to do oh, you know, like your paperwork and so forth. And I just sort of like fumbled my way through it and plagiarized another agreement online affected us. And so another thing is to know if you're in this world, you will get audited. Personally. Well, the your investment firm, right, yeah. Yeah. Like I'm in the CPA world, and I probably will never get out a different CPA world. But the investment side, I will get audited probably time and time again. So far, it's only been once one step Florida, but yeah, Allen: okay. Yeah. I mean, that's a good thing. I guess, you know, that, that the advisors and like you said, you know, the Bernie Madoff, he keeps him at bay as much as he can a little bit. So some of that, I guess, from a consumer standpoint, and that's a good thing to hear. Paul: Yeah, but a lot of a lot of us, they don't necessarily understand the world as much as you do. And it's more like them checking a box somewhere in a city. They ask this question, or I did that, but they don't really find that don't really necessarily know exactly what they're doing, you know, Allen: Yeah. So but do you mean tax audited or audited by like the audit by Paul: the state by the financial regulatory people for the state you're in Allen: The state regulatory? Okay, so every state has their own regulatory stuff that you have so far. Paul: Yeah. So just just sort of background here. Usually, as you're managing under $100 million, you're managed by the state. But then once you hit $100 million in the SEC is basically is going to your watchdog, it's gonna look over your shoulder. Allen: Okay. All right. Cool. And you're in Florida, right? Correct. But you can take clients from anywhere? Paul: I can. But different states have different rules, most of them allow you to take five to 15 clients, and not really be registered with them. But then once you hit over that threshold, they want you to fully registered with them. But there are a few states that require you if you get one client, they want you to be registered. And Louisiana was one of those states. Allen: So I guess, depending on how much capital the guy is gonna give you whether it's worth it to register there.. Paul: Exactly, exactly, yeah. Okay. All right. Allen: So would you knowing what you know, now, are you happy that you went this route? Paul: Ask me again, in a few years. Allen: Well, you've been doing already for like, eight years. So kind of got some kind of track record here. Paul: Yeah, it's been, you know, it's been definitely a learning curve, you know, from the regulatory side. And then from the investment side, too, so? Yes, I'm glad I did it. But it' had its rough moments. Allen: Well, give me an example. Paul: Well if you if you lose on a trade, you know, it can affect your account and other people's account. So that's probably the biggest things that has happened to me, you know? And then you got to figure out how am I gonna tell this person this?  Allen: Yeah. So how did you how did you deal with that? Paul: I prayed a lot. Basically, if I knew the fact that someone so much, I would, I call them and talk to him about it. But in a certain situation, like, because it was spread over so many accounts, it didn't really affect anyone that much. It wasn't that big of a deal. Like, you know, if I'm managing $5 million of money, and I lose 20,000, you know, the most Someone's probably gonna lose is maybe 2 or 3000. So the overall number is a big number. But you know, we spread between all the counts, it's not that big of a number. Allen: Interesting. Okay. Yeah, I mean, that's that thing, right? There is like, the biggest thing that's kept me out of it for all these years, you know, people have been asking me from the beginning, okay, can you take my money? I'm like, nope, nope, because I don't know how I'm gonna handle the stress. I don't know if, um, we will sleep, I can lose my own money, you know, market down 20% Okay, whatever, it'll go back up, I got time, you know, but somebody else if I lose your money, and I don't know, I don't know how I'm gonna handle it. And so that's the one thing that that's really caused me to be hesitant up till now. And I agree what you said about not having that much information out there. You know, I mean, there are companies out there that will like if you want to be in RIA you type in how to be an RIA and there's a company that hey, you if you give us like 30 grand, you know, we'll do all the paperwork and we'll file everything for you. So you Okay, but what do I actually get? You know, they're like well you do the paperwork. Well what about after that? How do I get clients how do I do this how to do that they will help you at all and these two guys they had approached, they had talked that a because I'm you know Option Genius is in what's called the financial publishing space that world, so we have our own little conventions and all the Guru's come and hang out and talk marketing and stuff. And so there was there was these two guys who were speakers, and they were telling all of the financial publishers that hey, you guys need to get into the into the management business, because you guys already have all these clients? They already trust you? You know, and they probably have a lot of money because people coming to me, you know, they say, Hey, I want to learn how to trade options. Okay, cool, you know, and how large is your account? They're like, Oh, 50,000. Okay, cool. And they trading options with 50,000. But they also have like, maybe a million dollar IRA, that they're not touching, or their wife has $500,000 that is with some other financial advisor that she doesn't want her husband to touch with options. So it's like, yeah, everybody that comes in has a lot more money. So if you started an IRA or an advisor, then you know, they'll give you that money as well. And you can make all this money. And I was like, Okay, that's interesting. But, you know, what are the legalities and all that and they wanted, I don't know, obtain $1,000 plus a percentage of the company to actually teach me all this stuff. And I'm finding a there's a lot of secrecy, as you can say, you know, and Wall Street, I think puts it like that on purpose. Because they don't want everybody to know what they're doing and what they that they don't know what they're doing. Pretty much. So cool. Paul: I don't know, that's intentional, but it just got I think there's so few people who are looking to do it. And like, it's not a widespread throughout the population thing. So you don't find as much about it, you know. Allen: Maybe okay, yeah, I'll take that. Yeah. Because like, you know, even like, what is the difference between an RIA and a hedge fund? You know, I've been beating my head, like, which one? Which way? Do we go? Which way? Do we go? If we go this way? Or this? Or what are the pros? What are the cons, and there's like, no one person that can that can tell me, if you want to go to a hedge fund, they got a little hedge fund world, and, you know, you got to you got to pay the dues to get in. If you want the RA world, then it's more common, but it's, it's for the guys, you know, for people who are like, Yeah, you know, I just want to put everybody's money in an index fund, you know, so it's like, what you're doing is totally different, like, I have not met any advisors that are actually, you know, trading that actively for people. So I mean, compared to the other guy, Joe Schmo that charges 1% a year, or 2% a year, just to put their money in an index fund compared to what you're doing, you know, your value is just so much more. But it does seem like it's very similar to a hedge fund where, you know, a hedge fund is a little bit different, where all the money is pooled into one spot. And then, you know, the, the trader controls it, you're doing kind of similar, where you can look at it and be like, Okay, I got, you know, $10 million under management, how am I going to split that up into different trades? And it just happens to be in different people's accounts? So have you ever thought about increasing your rates because like a hedge fund, they can charge a percentage of the gains? An RIA can't? Can they do that? Paul: They can do that on their certains particulars criteria? I think like you have to have an investor who's has at least $2 million in investable assets. They have at least $1 million invested with you. And then you can have certain arrangements where you say, Well, if I make whatever percentage I'll make about what the s&p does, you'll split it with me, or something like that, you know? Okay, so again, it's very, it's has a lot of criteria to it can't be done, though. Okay. Yeah. Because I wouldn't say the hedge fund world is based on what you're telling me is, cuz you're basically commingling all the funds. Right? So you got to do like a statement for each person or something. Yeah. And so I think the advantage is, you can just commingle it all and then do whatever you need to do. And then at the end of the day, you somehow allocated? Allen: Right, so the thing with the hedge fund is that all the investors have to be accredited. Okay, so accredited, as you know, probably, you know, you basically you have a million dollar net worth not putting your house, or you're making upwards of 300,000 a year. So, you know, basically, so at least Paul: They have to tell you, they're accredited. Right? Allen: I think we would actually want them to be proof, you know, give me proof otherwise, we're not letting you in. Paul: That was actually in so my testing I just did is like, yeah, you want this criteria? But are you actually gonna go go check it? No. So Allen: Interesting. Okay. Because I mean, you know, the government says that the hedge funds, you know, if you're an accredited investor, you should be smarter than the average bear. And so, if you lose money, it's not that big a deal. Like you are smart enough to get into it. You know, somebody with $5,000 or $10,000. That's my life savings. No, sorry, you can't invest in this. Even though the hedge fund might be like doing 1,000,000% a year, you can't invest because you're not accredited. Ras can take basically everybody, so that was one of the things okay, somebody comes in with 50,000 as an RIA, you might just take it because it's not that much paperwork. It's not extra for you. But for a hedge fund. Yeah, no, I can't do it. Because I gotta, I gotta pay the auditing company. I gotta pay the statement company. I got to pay the customer. You know, whoever's doing customer service and answering the phone and doing all that, and salespeople and all that. So 50,000 is not going to cut it, you know, the limit is a lot higher. For sure. Okay. Yeah. So yeah, that, in that sense, totally different world. But very similar from what I'm seeing is that, you know, you're doing probably what we're gonna be doing, you know, similar. Paul: So you probably can't take qualified money like IRAs and things like that. Allen: I think they can. Yeah, yeah, I think they can, as long as a person is accredited. And so there's different regulations, 5063 C, or six, C, five, or six D, they'll those tell you, you know, if you can take accredited and non accredited, and then can you advertise or not, I'm still learning all this, it's all different, because like, if you start a Real Estate Fund, different from if you're doing a hedge fund, versus a private equity fund, so some of the rules apply to everything. Some of the rules are just separate. So I'm still learning all that. But I know that the Interactive Brokers, people, they've done webinars in the past with attorneys. So if anybody wants to start a hedge fund, you can still use the Interactive Brokers platform. And they have they actually have a separate portal, I think, for hedge funds. Yeah, I've seen that. You've seen that too? Where you can actually see what other people are doing. And what are the trades that they're making? Paul: I didn't know about that. I just knew that they had some kind of hedge fund portion of what they're doing. I didn't know exactly what it meant. Allen: Yeah. So So what they said was that, you know, the attorney was like, you know, it'll take several, you know, maybe $30,000, to set up your hedge fund, you can probably do it with a smaller amount, if you want to start an incubator fund, which is like, you know, if you have your own money, and you put in and say $300,000, and you trade it as if it's a fund, and you don't maybe that that paperwork might be like 7000, and you set that up, you treat it as a fun, you build up your track record, and be like, Oh, hey, look, you know, I was trading for six months, I got this, that or not, and then you can start advertising it, and you convert it to a full fund. And then you can say, well, look at my track record, this is what I did. And then people can come in for the full fund. So that was one of the things that they were they were talking about. But so yeah, we were we were looking at an interactive, but the one thing that interacted with their software is a little bit more clunky or less user friendly than some of the most user friendly software. Yeah, it was my personal accounts. Now. So when, do you still trade on on your own on the side? Or is all of your money in the big? Paul: I have some money still in the in the huge fund? And then, you know, I have some I have an account on the side, right? Allen: So that separate account, did that change it all after you got licensed? Because they always, you know, when you open an account, they always ask you, are you licensed? And then they're I don't know why they do that. Is there to change anything on? You're not gonna recall? Paul: Yeah. So, there's, there's occasions where you can link up an account with the master fund, and you can D link the account. So I think at one time I had, it's actually my 401k account for my accounting firm attached to the IRA account, but then I detached it. One of the main reasons was for futures. Okay, because I knew I wasn't qualified to do futures for the whole fun. But I could on a mountain account. Allen: Ah, okay. So you have to keep it separate to do the futures options. Yeah. Until you get licensed by them. And is that like a lengthy process as well? The futures options? License? Yeah. Paul: I took a series three exam back a month or so ago. So I'd studied for two or three months, and again, got a tutor. Yeah. Okay. Allen: All right. How many clients do you have right now? Paul: I'd say about 20-25. Allen: Okay. All right. Cool. And so, from a financial standpoint, has it been worth it? Paul: Yeah, it's been really good. I might, my intention when I know that, you know, once I got into it, my intention was over the years, you know, retirement age, is at my incomes shift for my CPA business or to my investment business. So I could do that, say two hours a day and retirement versus, you know, doing tax seasons and all that. CPA visits. Allen: Okay. Is that still the plan? Yes. Still plan. Awesome. Cool. So yeah, I mean, handling managing millions of dollars of assets in two hours a day. That sounds pretty good to me. Paul: That might be a pipe dream. But that's what I had in mind.  Allen: I think you could do it your own way. You're on your way. Cool. Awesome. So is there anything that I haven't asked you that you think like, oh, yeah, people need to know this. Paul: I could probably sit here and think about a few things. Not on every call. No, no, no, no. I mean, one thing you have to like for instance, a you have to have a like an email account that you Gotta add to retain all your emails for at least like five years. That's one thing to keep in mind. And like I have to send a like a balance sheet and income statement to the state of Florida every year and get someone to notarize it. You have to upload information to the FINRA site at least once a year. And that's where you pay your like on license Louisiana along Florida and things like that. So I pay my fees for those licensing booth vendors website. Allen: And that you had told me that the fee that you charge for management that comes out Interactive Brokers basically pays you every quarter, your fixed asset if I had to build it, right, yeah. Paul: Okay. So, so they do it automatically. But when I got audited, the state wanted me to actually create invoices. So the answer your question is, I'm not sure what the real requirement is. So far, I guess I met that criteria then. So I'm not actually grading him. What's the reporter right now? Okay. Allen: Yeah, I mean, because like, I mentioned, those two consultants that I had talked to, they had told me that I would have to bill everybody invoice, everybody, every quarter. And those people would have to pay me directly. So it wouldn't be taken out of their account, it would be sent directly to me that they would have to write a check every quarter. And I'm like, that's a pain in the butt. You know, that's pretty cumbersome. Yeah, if a customer has to pay, you know, a big check every quarter for management fees. And then especially if you have a down year, he's like, What am I paying for it? I don't pay for this anymore. And you don't get paid. So I was like, Okay, that's a big red flag. But I'm glad that that's not true. Cool. Okay. Paul: One thing I have figured out there is, like, there's an account I was going to take from someone from one advisors to me, and they had all their fees, like totally hidden with all these mutual funds and things like that. And so like, you know, that account, I was gonna charge 3.3%. But we weren't able to ever get to the bottom of what the other advisor was charging. So, even though they have a lot of disclosures and things like that, I think we could have pressed the issue if we really wanted to. But, um, but you know, I ended up losing that account. Allen: So did that customer realize that, that he's being charged all these things? Paul: No, no, no clue. No, I mean, whenever I sort of parted ways, and I said, you guys at least need to figure out what they're charging you. You'd be surprised at the amount of inept that's out there and people who are actually hiring advisors, like, yeah, most people do not keep like their annual statements. They couldn't tell me how much they made last year. You know, because really, when I'm taking on an account, I want to know, what their track record has been sort of what I would need to beat to make them happy. You know, a lot of them are not that attuned to that. Allen: That's crazy. Yeah. I mean, people, they work their entire lives to save up money and invest it so they can retire. But then they don't pay any attention to the money. Oh, boy.. Paul: I think it's because they don't know that much about it. So they wouldn't know what to do if it was not what they wanted, you know? Allen: Yeah. I mean, you gotta you gotta take a little bit of time to at least read the statements and figure out where's the money going? And it could be better disclosed, you know, the statements could be easier to read that that's definitely sure. That's, yeah. But it is what it is for now. Paul: Like, I have this account right now, I'm probably going pick up another six to nine or 1000. And I asked them to get their annual statements ready. Because I wanted to see what they have been. have been doing, you know, so, you know, so they didn't know if there'll be they'll find those. So let me guess. It's like, it's weird. Allen: Okay, they just like asked her her advisor. Paul: Oh, that might be red flag fight flight to them. And they are looking so yeah. Wow. Okay. All right. seem bizarre. Allen: So if somebody was thinking about starting their own advisory firm, what would you say? They would need in terms of like, what are the minimums, okay, you should have been in the market for, you know, five years, you know, or you got to know XYZ, is there anything that you would say that, you know, if you don't, if you can't even do this, and this is not for you? Paul: Well, they're planning on doing what I'm doing, they probably need at least three to five years, you know, their own market experience. But, you know, that being said, like, I just met with someone the other day, and I could put all my funds through their strategies, and just sit and coast. You know, really, they charge an extra 1% or whatever, so I'll back off of my fee a little bit. You know, so you can you can play the game different ways. Wow. So you could do like I can see a new person and starting that and just have these other you know, because they have what's called sub managers or something like that. I don't know the exact term. Basically, you're hiring other money managers to manage the money you have for your clients. Right, like sub advisors, maybe is what it's called. Okay. So I'm not saying it will totally preclude them that they didn't have three to five years. But, you know, hopefully they're drawing on someone's experience to help hold their handle that Allen: Right. And do you know how much it costs to get it up and running? Paul: I would say three to five grand. Wow, that's not much. I mean, the hardware, these firms are brought in to charge you five times that? Allen: Yeah. Okay. So well, the sub accounts. Yeah, actually, I do remember those consultants talking to me about that. Paul: They they call it sub advisors? Allen: Yeah, I think that's what it is. And it's like, yeah, you know, if you don't want to do it yourself, you can put your money, you can put your your clients money into different buckets, and then they just do it for you, and they charge and then you split the fees or whatever, or something like that. So, and then each broker, each broker dealer has different ones. So like Fidelity or Schwab will have different sub accounts versus what you could put your stuff in. But interesting, I just Just curious the ones that you had talked to what what strategies were they were using, Paul: They're using free cash flow to is their criteria for who they're investing in. So they have like international, they call a cash cow c-o-w. So they've international domestic, and things like that. So they have a different definition of free cash flow. So they're they're fearing that's the best value, their way of determining value out there, like sort of like a value fund, but their own definition of what value is. Allen: Okay, so they're investing in stocks. Paul: Yes, international and domestic.   Allen: And they handle the ins and outs. And so you could put a portion of your client's money in there, you put it all in there. So it's like, it's like an ETF. So basically, you can say I want 20% of my money to go on this domestic one 20% International. And I might, I'm in talks with them. So I might end up doing some more money that way. But so they're coming up with different sample portfolios that I can use their funds for. Allen: Okay, interesting. And so that must be a much larger company. Paul: Yeah, I'm not sure how big they are. But they're, you know, big enough to where they had like a representative here in central Florida and some of their back office helping them out. Awesome. I'm not sure their size yet. Allen: Yeah. So I mean, this rabbit hole is pretty big. You can dive in there and spend a lot of time figuring all this stuff out. Paul: Yeah, yeah. So I can see a way I could sit and close more. But you're only doing it two hours a day anyway. Allen: Cool. All right. Paul: Well, maybe we're gonna get into my retirement years, a certain amount of years. I'll just put it there and just coast. The zero hours a day. Yep. Allen: Yeah, my, my neighbor in the office next door, he's a financial adviser. He's been doing it for, I think, 25 years now. So he's built up, you know, a sizable clientele. And so now he's at the point where he wants to retire. But he doesn't know what to do with the firm. He's like, you know, he makes probably a good 500,000 a year income from it. And he's like, I want one of my kids to take over. But the kids are not really willing, and not interested. He's like, I don't know what to do. So he's still there.  So there's been periods of times or, you know, like, I sit on the CPA world deal with other investment advisors, where it's been a quite a lucrative market to get bought your practice bought out by bigger, let's say Merrill Lynch or something like that, you know, they pay some pretty big bucks to buy those books of business. Yeah, yeah. Because I mean, one of the things that the consultants told me is that once you get you get a client, that turnover, meaning the fact that they're going to leave you is not very high, they're gonna stay with you for years and years. So you can count on that money coming in, you know, that fee money coming in for a long period of time, unless you unless you totally screw it up, and then they're gonna leave. Paul: If you play the play smart. You know, if you're dealing with someone 50 years old, right now, you know, another 10 or 20 years, you're gonna pick up their kids and things like that when they need investment advice and stuff. It's, it'd be a self perpetuating thing. Allen: Yeah, yeah. And I do like the fact that there's always going to be somebody there willing to buy you, your company. You know, because a lot of times in smaller companies if you're the only person or if you got one or two employees, nobody really wants to buy the company even if it's successful. Nobody wants to buy it because they would without you there they're basically buying a job for themselves, right? It's not running on its own you're the one doing all the work in this case. Yeah, you're the one doing all the work but they don't need you. They can just, you know, have their own advisors take over. So you still get a pretty decent multiple when you sell so that's really cool too. Right? Paul: Also, I met a.. in my travels on this world. I've met the company and actually finance you if you want to buy on someone else's practice in the financial visor word world. Allen: Hmm.. So have you looked into that? Paul: I had a conversation or two with them, but I haven't really pursued it further. Yeah. Because I didn't know if I wanted to buy a larger practice. Right? Yeah. Because generally, that is a seven year payout to do that. So, you know, seven years, you'd be free and clear. Allen: That'll be interesting. Yeah. So a lot of ways to skin this cat. So you would I mean, I'm assuming that if anybody asked you, Hey, should I do this? Probably the answer is yes. Paul: Yeah, I mean, just mean, talk to people who have done it, and sort of figure out if it's a good fit for you, you know? Yeah. It's definitely can be pretty lucrative. Allen: Right? And I like the fact that it's like, for you at least it's more localized, you know, so you're not competing with somebody in California or Canada, or whatever. It's like, yeah, you guys get your clients over there. I'll have my clients over here. You know, they love me, they trust me. We hang out maybe. And sometimes. So it's not like a competitive situation. So, right. Awesome. Are you in any? Are there any, like, associations or memberships for advisors?  Paul: No, I'm not. Allen: No, but obviously, they probably have them? Paul: Yeah, I'm just not familiar. Very familiar with that. I have another advisor to hang out with suddenly sort of share some ideas. That's, that's all I have right now. Allen: And they're also private. Like on their own? Paul: Now, one of the reasons I didn't cover this in the beginning, like when I started looking into this whole thing, I didn't want to get clients and then share my fees with other people. That's why I didn't latch on to a bigger firm and start building my clients from there. So that's why I started my own Ra. So they will be my clients. And I get all the fees for them. And no one else had had rights to him. So that's, that's one of the reasons I did the way I did it. Allen: Okay. Okay. So what would be the benefits of going with a larger firm just to name recognition? Paul: Well, they have, one of the biggest things is called compliance. So like, right now, I'm my own compliance officer for my firm, okay, and larger firm like that they have whole departments that take care of compliance, for you to make sure you don't get in trouble, the regulators and so forth. So, like this other advisor, I had, he joined another firm, just so you could have that compliance piece to it. But in his firm, he can't trade options. Right? Allen: Because they're very limited. Yeah, exactly.  Paul: It's taught me to join his is up, like can't trade options. Allen: Because compliance says no. Paul: It was on the client's officer. Allen: Right. So that's why when you said you were thinking about advertising, it's the risk is on you because you're the compliance officer. So you got to know exactly what can be done and what can't be done. Right. Right. Interesting, cool. Is there anything else because  I'm out of questions. Paul: One of the things, one of the things I tell you, I looked into going with other companies, other inactive brokers when I started, okay, and like Charles Schwab wanted you to have $7 million you're managing before you could go with them. Allen: Whoa, okay. And they're the biggest right right now, I think. Paul: I think so. Yeah. Yeah. So that's one reasons with Interactive Brokers, because they didn't have the minimums like that. I didn't really check too much rather than other people. Allen: So and how's your customer service at Interactive Brokers, because they for personal accounts, they don't have a good reputation. Paul: Yeah, they have a separate line, you can call as a professional advisor. So it's, I get pretty quick attention. Usually, you know, it's not it's not perfect, but you know, it's decent. Yeah, but you're happy. Yeah, I'm not saying that. I'm sure other companies have better customer service but you know, for right now, they, you know, I might need to call him a few times, but I get what I needed if I need need to.. Allen: And how are their margins and Commissions? Paul: Commission's are pretty low. I don't have the exact numbers I just know less than like $1 per 100 shares. Allen: And who comes out of the customers account? Obviously. Paul: Each person like when you do a trade display something all the counselee they pick up their own fees. Allen: Cool. All right. Well, thank you Paul. You know, Paul's website is again BusinessAdvisors.Pro. Paul said that he could reach out you know, you guys can reach out to him if you have any questions. And Paul is also in our other memberships are other programs as well past trading formula blank check and credit spread. So if you guys are members of those, you can reach out to him there. You'll find him in the group. And he's been very gracious with his time. So I do want to thank you and And he's very active in the group and you know you've been helping a lot of newer people as well they're so appreciate you there. Interesting place, interesting world and as I dive in I'm probably going to reach out to you more. Paul: Sounds great, I appreciate it.  Allen: Thank you thank you so much and we'll talk to you soon JOIN OUR FREE PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP: https://optiongenius.com/alliance  Like our show? Please leave us a review here - even one sentence helps. Thank you!

In this week's episode, we discuss Elon Musk backing out of his deal to purchase Twitter, An Ohio bill that would make impregnating women consensually a crime that could be brought to civil court, medical malpractice, and the history of the medical-industrial complex and a skull found this week that some believe may have actually belonged to Bigfoot. Subscribe and leave a 5-star review! ----more---- Our website https://redpillrevolution.co   Protect your family and support the Red Pill Revolution Podcast with Affordable Life Insurance. This is attached to my license and not a third-party ad!   Go to https://agents.ethoslife.com/invite/3504a now!   Currently available in AZ, MI, MO, LA, NC, OH, IN, TN, WV Email redpillrevolt@protonmail.com if you would like to sign up in a different state   Leave a donation, sign up for our weekly podcast companion newsletter, and follow along with all things Red Pill Revolution by going to our new website: https://redpillrevolution.co    ----more---- Full Transcription   Welcome to the revolution. Hello and welcome to red. Pill revolution. My name is Austin Adams. Thank you so much for listening today. Very excited to jump into it. We have some pretty, pretty crazy stuff. We're gonna discuss everything from Elon Musk polling out of the Twitter deal. I believe that could have potentially been his plan the entire time. So we'll discuss that. We will also discuss in Ohio bill, which would, uh, allow pregnant people to Sue over pregnant people, pregnant women, I guess it should say  it would allow pregnant women to Sue over unintended pregnancies. Um, we're also going to discuss some speaking of weird medical events and situations, um, a recent. Article that came out, uh, from the Chicago Tribune discussing, um, basically medical malpractice and sexual assault on patients, which is horrifying reading through this. So we will discuss that. And then last but not least, we will discuss a recent, uh, uncovered skeleton, which somebody believes to have discovered a potential skeleton of what they believe to be Bigfoot. You heard that, right?  so there's a video there's evidence. They have the skull, they claim to have, uh, smuggled it here over TSA and, uh, pretty, pretty wild stuff. So we are going to discuss all of that and more today, but first I need you to go ahead and hit that subscribe button real quick. Just tap. It feels good for. It helps me puts us higher in the rankings, allows more people to see us and, and hear about the show. Um, so hit that five star review, go ahead and hit that subscribe button real quick. And it would mean the world to me, it takes two seconds of your day and it would mean the world, like I said, so without further ado, let's jump into it. This is episode number 30, four of the red pill revolution podcast. Welcome to red pill revolution. My name is Austin Adams, red pill revolution started out with me realizing everything that I knew, everything that I believed, everything I interpreted about my life is through the lens of the information I was spoon fed as a. Religion politics, history, conspiracies, Hollywood, medicine, money, food, all of it, everything we know was tactfully written to influence your decisions and your view on reality by those in power now. I'm on a mission, a mission to retrain and reeducate myself to find the true reality of what is behind that curtain. And I'm taking your ass with me. Welcome to the revolution. All right. So episode number 34 of the red pill revolution podcast. And we're gonna jump right into our first topic today, which is Elon Musk files to back out of the Twitter deal. Crazy. I, I, I did not see this coming honest. I thought it was gonna go through. We saw all of the things that were going wild and crazy at Twitter, all of their, all hands on deck meetings. Um, all of the footage that was leaked from project Veritas, discussing all of the, you know, people jumping the metaphorical, uh, ship with Twitter, um, talking about, you know, layoffs and stuff. And now Twitter stock has Essent. Plummeted. I mean, they lost like four, uh, $4 worth of their stock, which is like billions and billions of dollars of evaluation for their company. Um, so wild. Now I have a theory about this. I mean, I think Elon Musk is smart enough to have potentially pulled this off and, uh, maybe did this entire thing on purpose to basically show the public how many bots are actually on, uh, your social media handles or on your social media networks that you're on. And I think it could have all. A a big brain plan that he had put together, but let's read this article real quick and then we will discuss it. All right. It goes on to say that Elon Musk is terminating his 44 billion deal to buy Twitter, but the company vowed Friday to still complete the deal, setting the stage for a legal battle that could lead to more turmoil and uncertainty for the social media network. This is coming off of the Chicago post. And this says after growing months of grow or after months of growing doubt that he intended to close the deal. Musk lawyer sent a letter to Twitter, arguing that he has a right to drop out of the agreement because Twitter hasn't given him enough information about the company's business. Musk file. Musk's filing was blunt about his intentions. He is terminating their merger agreement, the letter attached in the securities and exchange commissions filing Friday said, now it goes on to say that, but Twitter's board hit back at the billionaire saying that it would pursue legal action to enforce the deal. Legal experts have said it would be difficult for Musk to just walk away from the agreement. The agreement also has a $1 billion breakup. I like how they say that legal experts, like who's legal experts, who are these people? Like, yeah. They passed the bar once seven years ago, and now you paid them 500 hours to say something that aligned with your article. like legal experts. Like please define that. And maybe even tell us who they are. You know, that seems to be important. Like who are these legal experts that you, uh, are, are using to describe how, what, what could actually go down here. But it is interesting to note that there is a $1 billion breakup. Hmm. Haven't really seen that in contracts before, but I, I would ventured a bet that it, it will be pretty detrimental to Twitter's stock. I mean, it already has been immediately, immediately. It was detrimental to Twitter's stock, but it goes honestly, that Twitter has plunged into chaos since Musk announced his intentions to take over the firm in April employees, fearing layoffs in a significant change of operat. Under, uh, and under the billionaire have been looking for new jobs. As Musk has regularly aired his criticisms of the business in tweets of his own, and the billionaires moved to exit the deal leaves, Twitter's reputation and jeopardy with its future ownership in flux. And again, this is coming right after they had a basically as. CEO change, um, that P P golly, I don't know whatever the guy's name is. Um, but the, the, basically the guy who said that he vowed to have more censorship, you know, um, coming off of you going on to the platform, which was obviously a very concerning thing for a large portion of the country. Uh, and then immediately, immediately almost after that CEO change, um, which makes you think even more, maybe they had a little bit more information about it than, than we thought. Uh, but. Um, it goes on to say that it's discombobulated their whole operation, um, said Carl Tobias law professor at the university of Richmond, it's going to be tough for Twitter to weather this now. I think it's interesting. I think it's a really interesting, uh, uh, uh, thought experiment here to assume that Elon Musk could potentially be the smartest man in the world alive. I think it's pretty safe to, uh, to say that he's at least in the top 10 of intellect in the world. Now he's also potentially in the top 10 in the world for trolling , he's, he's probably on a lot of lists here. Um, but he's, you know, trolling and intellect are definitely the top tens that you can say that Elon is a part of. So. Here's my theory. I think that Elon Musk could have done this all intentionally. I think Elon Musk would have been willing to take a billion dollar hit to basically expose the entire social media world and show that it's basically at least 50% of the people that you're interacting with, or you think you're interacting with could potentially be bot. And now bots don't just mean like AI algorithms bots mean huge swarms, like big picture, big, huge call centers from like the nineties of like a bunch of people picking up the phone and dialing, you know, 500 times every two minutes. Now, picture them on social media networks with 30 phones in front of them, all running different accounts, all liking, following tweeting, the same things, all, you know, going after a single individual, all of these same people. Reporting the same account at the same time on the same tweet for the same reason. That's what the bot farming deal is. It's not, you know, computer AI algorithms all of the time. Now there is definitely a differentiation there between the bots that are out there that like you can pay for certain companies that will like follow and unfollow different accounts and, you know, send out messages on your behalf and you can do that. BS. But I, I believe the things that he's talking about specifically, the, the concern with the bots is that they're fake accounts. They're not real people, but they're also not the robots sitting on, in, on Twitter. , they're real people sitting there with 30 phones in front of them with specific political and, and, uh, financial intentions. Right. Because if you know how to, you know, if, if, if you think of it this way, and I think I've talked about this before that, you know, the, um, Youngy in theory of the collective unconscious, right? The collective unconscious is the internet. And if it's nothing else, it is social media. Right. And, and, and you can see the, where the collective swarm of consciousness goes on any given day. If you go to the trending page on Twitter, What, what is the, what is the major, you know, the humanities brain thinking of and discussing at the same exact time, right? What is everybody's mind on at each individual moment? Right. And you can see that swarm go from one topic to another day by day from, you know, the Johnny Depp trial to, you know, the shootings, to the political scandals, to this, to that, to hearings, to, you know, you can see the swarm and where it goes and where consciousness as humanity goes to specifically based on social. Right. You can go to the training page. You can see exactly what is on the collective unconscious at any given.  all right. So now there's one theory that he was basically buying Twitter so that he could eventually use the data of human consciousness and that collective unconscious to eventually integrate it with his, uh, Neurolink technology. Um, Or his AI technology. That's one theory. And that's definitely a real theory, right? I, I, I think if you're going to purchase, you know, the, the, the largest amount of human thoughts ever, and be able to utilize that data, however you want.  there's definitely, you know, probably a, a conflict of interest if somebody owns an AI company. I think that's fair to say. Now a different theory is that he did all of this specifically just to expose the social media companies for what they were. And to show that to, to be able to extract out. Social media companies from having to show the numbers, right? He says, how many bots do you have? It was like maybe a week after he asked for this report on how many bots they had. And now he's all of a sudden he's pulling out. Now. He says, it's because you guys didn't gimme enough data. Right. And that's fair. But what data is he talking about? He's talking about the data of the bots. He's wanting to know what, what, what percentage of your actual numbers are physical people and what are political, uh, calls, you know, um, bot farms in Russia in China, in Delaware. Um, I, I think that's a fair thing for him to want to know. So he extracted that information from them in a way that no other person on this world or planet could have done, right. He put them into a position. He backed them into a corner where he said, I'm going to buy your company. They said, no, you're not. He said, oh yes, I am. Because if you don't let me do this, it's against the best interest of your shareholders. And legally you have to do what's in the best interest of your shareholders. And prior to him knowing he was gonna close this deal, he knew the steps that he had to take. And one of those steps was figuring out the actual physical numbers of the amount of, of, uh, traffic. Through his social media network that he was looking to purchase that were real people and what was fake. And that's where it got interesting. And within a week of him receiving that report, that's when he pulled out. Okay. Now, if he did this all in a collective, uh, you know, a, a purposeful idea to go after these social media companies and to, uh, basically expose them for what they are 50% potentially of the people that you interact with on social media could not be. Real people, their intentions could be fake. Their political leadings could be fake. Their extremist violent, uh, speech could be fake, their incitement of political, uh, um, you know, uh, protests could be fake. Uh, you know, basically half the internet could be Ray apps sitting there telling people they're going into the capital  on January 6th. Um, so. I don't know. I guess time will tell, we'll see if this actually goes through, you know, you, it's funny right now, if you look up Elon Musk, Twitter backs out, look it up anywhere. Google news, wherever the hell you get, what you look at, go look it up. Find some articles through a search engine. And the only thing you're gonna see on articles is not about him pulling out and why. It's just about the fact that there's legal ramifications to him doing. Which is interesting too, because Google doesn't want you to know the reason, right? The, the, the, the curated search engines don't want you to know why he actually could be potentially pulling out of this deal. They want you to know that there is legal and financial ramifications for him doing so, which is interesting. Right. So I just, I thought that was, you know, I, I tried to find the easy article initially, right? When this happened about, you know, why he was pulling out what the deal was with it, you know, just read something about it. And the only articles that I could find, at least in the first few pages all had to do with the fact that there was a potential buyout cost, um, that, you know, they were gonna Sue him that, you know, all of this craziness, but you don't actually get down to the bottom of the article where it actually, you know, eventually I found one like this one here, where it talks about why. But even this one goes on to talk about, you know, legal experts.  some guy who passed the bar when he was 23 and is now 55 and works for our news company, says  that he's agrees with our statement. Oh, surprise. Surprise. All right. So I guess we'll see what happens. I am hopeful that this was all intentional  because the, the, the, the unbelievable amount of billionaire trolling that, that could be done that has not been done, uh, you know, this would live up to my expectations, you know, and that's an interesting thing. I, I think I heard, um, I heard it recently on a, uh, the different podcast where they were saying, uh, it, it's quite interesting to me that all of these billionaires actually play by the rules that they actually play the game. Right. Why, why isn't there more Elon Musks out there smoking weed on podcasts and, you know, given the middle finger to all the major corporations that are out there and, and building flame throwers, cuz it's cool. Like , you know, being the, um, the billionaire, the 13 year old, you. Fired to be a billionaire, wanted you to be not some, you know, uh, lame ass old dude who just does exactly what you know, his political alignments want him to do. I dunno. But anyways, I hope this was all intentional. I hope it was a long term troll by Elon Musk, cuz that would literally be the greatest thing ever. And, and I wonder what the legal, if any ramifications would be, if he said this to begin with, I was gonna buy you if you had legitimate numbers, but I knew you wouldn't  so. Anyways, let's move on the next portion. Uh, the next topic that we're gonna discuss is a Ohio bill that would allow pregnant women to Sue men over unintended pregnancies. So what this is saying is that if you have a one night stand and you get the woman pregnant, she can Sue you for the baby. Now I would like to note that this is a frivolous bill that will never pass. And it's one of those that basically some random lawmaker you've never heard of this one comes from, uh, testifies, Senator Tina Mahar. Who's a Democrat, uh, testifies in a Senate committee in October 20, 21st. Um, at least that's. Yeah. So I'll read this article to you and then we'll discuss it, cuz this is crazy. It says with Ohio's new six week abortion ban in place, a democratic state lawmaker says it's time for the Ohio legislator to give consideration to her bill that holds men who cause an unintended pregnancy responsible, whether the sex that led to the pregnancy was consensual or not. Hmm. Okay. Tina Maher. Sad. Her bill would allow anyone who becomes pregnant to file a civil lawsuit against the person who impregnated to them. Even if it happened as a result of consensual sex. Excuse me. Ma'am have you ever heard of child support?  it's literally what the, the whole point of that is. Yes. If you impregnate somebody, they literally have to pay you, right. Or if you get impregnated by. Most likely a man, cuz that's who impregnates people. Maybe not according to this article with pregnant people in the, the title, but you gotta pay money for the rest of the li the last 18 years. You have to pay child support for that baby. All right now, What we're finding as a theme with a lot of these democratic senators and, and, and even, you know, conservative, uh, Republican senators and things is, is they're doing these like click baby bills bills in, in laws that they're trying to pass, that they know will never have a chance ever. Of getting past there's sensational bills that have no merit to them. They're ridiculous. But they're statement bills. They're trying to get famous on social media over saying, they're gonna allow you to go to civil court over somebody impregnating you like there. I wonder I, I should be finding a list of these because there's been a lot of these bills lately in the last two to three years that normally would have, you know, taken away the legitimacy of this lawmaker. And now they're like, yeah. You know, go after the man who you consensually had sex with because the outcome of which was exactly what sex is intended for, which is reproduction.  I, I think maybe if you were, if you missed sex ed class in sixth grade, you could have an argument here, but unless you have no idea how you actually wound up pregnant,  like, if you were in, in a, you know, um, What's that show? Uh, I forget it it's like where she comes out of a, a, um, from a cult and she was in a host and she was like five years old. It's a comedy. There might be new girls, a new. Might be a new girl. I don't know. Um, but anyways, she, uh, you know, it's like somebody came out from a cult from underneath the earth for 35 years and all of a sudden they're just baffled by the way that recreation happens. Uh, because they thought a, a, a golden Swan dropped an egg and on your porch, uh, because they're cult leader told them. So, and now they're pregnant and they're mad about it cuz they had no idea. This is actually how you got pregnant. . And now they go to court to Sue them. Like that's the only, it it's crazy. Anyways, let's read this article a little bit longer. It says, regardless of the circumstance, I felt it was important to have that vague language, uh, due to the fact that abortion is now banned here in the state of Ohio, the vague lay language being, it would allow anyone who becomes pregnant to file a civil lawsuit against the person who impregnated them. Even if it happened as a result of consensual sex, the bill has little to no chance of receiving a committee hearing or passing the Republican held Ohio Senate. Matt Harrah's bill would allow the court, um, would allow the court. Well, they wrote this terribly. Would allow the court could order a person who it determines, causes a pregnancy. I like how they don't say man, , it's a man. If they can impregnate somebody, uh, at the point of fetal activity can be detected. Maha said that the existence of the new law makes it more important that people who become pregnant. Women have the option to file a civil lawsuit against the person who impregnated them, the man who impregnated them, regardless of how it happened. How do you think it happened?  um, she said that she was disturbed by a recent news story in which a 10 year old pregnant girl was denied an abortion in Ohio and was forced to drive to Indianapolis to get one. She said many women don't even know they are pregnant at that. The urgency comes because at six weeks, not everyone knows that. Especially if you are 10 years old and pregnant at 10 years old, you don't know too much about your reproductive rights. Fair. Maybe that's a situation where, you know, maybe they wouldn't know how sex occurred.  and maybe they should be able, but still child support. What are you gonna do in a civil lawsuit besides, you know, I just doesn't make any sense. A group of democratic lawmakers have introduced a package of legislation that they say, well, help parents afford the cost of raising infants and children in the state. Oh, well that seems like a better idea. Why don't we help people raise children instead of funding them to not have. The bill addresses several issues such as eliminating the sales tax families pay for diapers and creating a one time $600 infant formula tax credit to help families afford these. The bill has yet to have a hearing in a Senate committee, but Republican lawmakers have said they intend to pass a complete ban on abortion when they come back into session in November. So the likelihood of this passing is very, very slim. It's another one of those sensationalized bills that are only there for click bait. Literally we have click bait politics. Now we're moving from the fact that we have, you know, actual news articles to clickbait articles. We going now from where we have legit. Politics and policies being passed to click bait policies, trying to be passed just for cloud. This is getting ridiculous. All right. But that does lead us to our next article here, here, and this article has a little bit of a relation to the ridiculousness of this article. Um, but in a very. Sick and twisted way. So, um, the medical industrial complex. Now this is from, uh, Chicago Tribune that says she didn't want a pelvic exam, but got one anyways, while under anesthesia in many states, consent is not required. Now my wife brought this up to me. She said, this is disgusting. This is ridiculous. It, it, it basically is a, a legal option of medical rape like that doctors apparently do all the time. Like it's, it's sickening. It's, it's disgusting. It's sickening. And it's no surprise to me with the way that, you know, we see, uh, birth. In hospitals being done and things being forced on women and, um, that, that they didn't consent to just because it's, it's they're in that situation. So it says that Janine, a nurse in Arizona checked into the hospital for stomach surgery in 2017, before the procedure, she told her physician that she did not want many, many medical students to be directly involved after the operation. Janine said, as the anesthesia wore off, a resident came by to inform. That she had gotten her period. The resident had noticed while conducting a pelvic exam, she then responded by saying, what pelvic exam distress. She tried to piece together what had happened while she was unconscious. Why had her sexual organs been in inspected during an abdominal operation by a medical student later? She said her physician explained that the operating team had seen. That that the operating team had seen. She was due for a pap smear, Janine burst into tears and said, I started having panic attacks, trying to figure out what had happened. She recalled an interview. I have a history of sexual abuse and it brought up bad memories. She felt especially unnerved as a medical professional patients put such trust in the medical profession, especially on sensitive topics, such as going under anesthesia. So basically what happened is this lady went in for a surgery, a random abdominal surgery. She specifically said she didn't want any medical students, a part of this surgery and the surgery had specifically nothing to do with her reproductive system. And they brought these students in to do perform a pelvic exam for experience, not for any medical necessity for experience without the patient's consent. It says that pelvic exams, nece necessitate physical inspection of the most sense of the areas of a woman's body, the exams are typically conducted while the patient is awake and consenting at a gynecologist visit to screen for certain cancers, infections, and other reproductive health issues. But across many states and many medical institutions, physicians are not required to obtain explicit consent for the procedure. Sometimes the exams are conducted by doctors or doctors in training while women are under anesthesia for gynecology or gynecological in other operations, often the exams are deemed medically necessary, but in some cases they're done solely for the educational benefit of medical trainees. At some hospitals, physicians discuss the procedure with patients beforehand or detail at specifics, but at others, the women are left completely unaware that their bodies were going to be violated by a medical doctor. For educational purposes without consent. That's horrifying. That's literally rape that's. That's what that is. There's no other way to describe that. That is what these doctors are doing to these, to these women. It's it's horrifying. So it says there's no numbers to indicate how many pelvic exams have been performed nationwide without consent. But regional surveys suggests that the practice is not uncommon. A 2005 survey at the university of Oklahoma found that a majority of medical students had performed pelvic exams on unconscious patients. And in nearly three out of four instances, they thought informed consent had not been obtained majority. So more than 50% of medical student. Had performed these type of pelvic exams, three fourths of them. They believed there was no consent done. So more than 50% of doctors have been bummed involved. And 75% of those that were involved in these at least at least 50%, um, 75% were done without consent. The doctor believed that's horrifying. That's terrible. And that should be, and is illegal. Without the white coat syndrome that they get to wear around as if they get to touch people's body without their consent horrifying. It, it, it speaks to me like it speaks to the, to the actual medical, industrial complex, the, the way that doctors view you, if you go into a doctor and I've experienced this several times with my wife, with our pregnancies and, and having our children and, and, you know, we had two of our children at home as home birth. My wife did, and she's a boss. Um, she had two of our children at home.  and, but we went in a couple times just to make sure that things were okay. We had some concerns, there were some things going on. We went into the hospital to get some type of work done. There was like terrible migraines. And when we went in, we had, it was like days and days and days that she had been experiencing this. We had given her tons of water. She had taken a bunch of Tylenol. We went in there and basically just told him, you know, we want to get an MRI. We wanna make sure that there's no real serious issues. And, um, they offered us an IV of fluids and Tylenol. You know, we said, she's very hydrated. We made sure that she drank water the entire time. She drank a ton of water and she's been taking Tylenol. So we said we don't, you know, we're really not interested in that because we know they're gonna bill us, you know, $850 for water in Tylenol. And we had already taken care of those things. We knew that wasn't the issue. But the second that we said no to those, the second that we showed that, you know, she voiced her opinion and you know, my, when they came in and said, we're gonna be doing IVs in Tylenol, IVs for fluids in Tylenol, through the IV. And I said, I looked to my wife and I said, is that what you want? They didn't ask her her opinion on it. They didn't ask her if that was okay. They didn't ask her if she wanted to pay that money for the cost of water and Tylenol. They were just gonna do it. They assumed the sale, right? When you learn sales, the big part of learning sales is, is, is learning how to speak to people in a way that they go along with what you say. And one way of doing that is assuming that they will go along with what you say. What I'm gonna do now is just take your credit card information for this. Okay, great. You don't say, would you like me now to take your credit card information? No, we don't do that because that gives them the opportunity to leave the conversation or to say no. So what doctors are literally trained to do is to come in and go, this is what we're going to do. Got it not, is this what you want me to. They just assume that you're an idiot. You have no experience that you're dumb. You have no awareness of your body or what your body might need, or what type of scans you might need. They just assume that you're dumb and they do what they wanna do, regardless of your opinion. And if you say, no, you're automatically the enemy and that's what we're seeing this, you know, rear it's ugly head with here is they're assuming that body they're like cattle to, to them. You're like cattle to them. And they assume that that body is theirs to use in whichever, which way that they want, including.  touching you in places that they shouldn't be while you're unconscious, without consent at all. And that's what they believe is their right. They think they have the right to do that. And they don't. Although according to this article, it's legal in several states for them to do so many states, obviously because more than half of doctors have said that they've done it. And three fourths of the time that they've done it, they said they did not believe that there was consent. Which is just horrifying and terrifying all at the same time, because if you're a woman now and you go to get a surgery done, how are you gonna feel about that? How's that gonna make you feel to know that your doctor literally has unlimited rights to your body while you're sitting there unconscious? Even if it has to do with your private area. Like just, it's so baffling to me that, that our medical industrial system believes that, you know, and I guess they have to look at you that way. There's so many patients maybe that definitely don't have to look at you in a way that your body and, you know, your vagina is their right to, to violate, but. They look at you as if they're the expert, you're dumb, you're there because your cattle, they have to go buy a book that says, if there's this, then do this right. And they wanna check as many boxes as possible. Oh. And by the way, the medical system is designed to profit in the United States. It's the same reason that we're far, far, far down the list. Tens of dozens of, if not hundreds of companies or countries down the list, when it comes to medical positive medical outcomes or mortality rates. Compared to profitability. We're like number 112 on the list for positive outcomes for medical procedures. And we're number one on the list for profitability. And this goes back to the 1940s, right? You want to go back to the medical, industrial complex. And when this all happened was a shift after world war II. And what actually happened was they pushed out all, uh, osteo, um, yeah, osteopathic and homeopathic medicine for alopathic medicine. They basically shut down every school. Right. Theys. It was like the, um, who was it? The, uh, it's like one of the major families, um, not the Rothchilds, but, um, Uh, who was it? One of the major, large, huge multi trillionaire families with ridiculous amounts of money basically started an organization that was meant to systematize the medical learning process, because a lot of it in, in, and to be fair, a lot of medical procedures and a lot of, you know, uh, medicine prior to the 1940s and thirties was like snake oil salesman, selling, telling you that they could cure your, uh, blindness with, uh, A certain herb from their garden and they mashed it up and put it into an oil. Right. And so they could do that. There was no federal regulations for how they actually had to, um, you know, uh, there was no certifications. There was no testings. It was, there was like the wild, wild west.  so what, you know, rightfully they came in and did is kind of systematized it and said there, okay, there should be some, you know, gate keeping to this. Not everybody should be able to be a doctor. You should have to go through some type of schooling to do so, but what ended up happening is they basically lobbied enough to push out all osteopathic and homeopathic medicine for alopathic medicine. And if you understand the difference between osteopathic homeopathic and alopathic medicine is alopathic medicine treats. Disease like a war that they have to win outside sources to do. So, right. There has to be some type of pharmaceutical medication that intervenes in your body because your body is not able to do these things on its own. So they have to put something into your body that will then assist because without it, a lot of things will go. And what homeopathic and osteo or homeopathic and osteopathic medicine tends to believe like a do as opposed to an MD, which is a doctor of osteopathic medicine tends to believe is that your body can do a lot of things on its own. Your body has a lot of ways to fight illnesses, um, without the need for tons of medical, inter. Right. It doesn't treat it like a war that they have to win as the doctor, they treat it as, you know, uh, um, a, some type of way that they can support your body in fighting it through natural means as much as possible. And if you need to do so, then you go address these things with a surgery or something, but you definitely try some other things first. Right. So very fair. Uh, you know, osteopathic medicine is, is the most common type of medicine when you go over to the UK. Um, and in many parts of the country and many parts of the world, osteopathic medicine is the standard same thing with homeopathic medicine. And it was the standard way prior to allopathic medicine coming in and implementing these things through lobbying. So. They came in, they implemented these things. They lobbied enough. They basically shut down all osteopathic and homeopathic schools of medicine, and basically eliminated doctors from this certain, uh, association of doctors that meant that you had merit in the medical world and they did it through this association of, of physicians. And it allowed them to basically push out everything else, but alopathic medicine. Then they started to come out with these pharmaceutical companies, you know, and then that eventually led to, you know, uh, Pfizer getting the major contract for penicillin shots through world war II, because there was a ton of soldiers who were dying from things like gang green and random shit, cuz they were shoving dozens and dozens of. Of men into a boat together that the, they didn't have the proper shoes to be on even, or any type of medical care there with them. So they were basically just shoving, uh, penicillin shots into them. And so Pfizer got the number one contract with that, you know, and this is kind of a, a side tangent on what we just talked about, but it eventually led to Pfizer becoming what it is today and vaccine schedules becoming what they are in the education system, because eventually the war ended. In Pfizer, getting the number one penicillin contract, along with several other pharmacy companies, then, uh, basically still needed to push the pharmaceutical medications that they had been manufacturing through world war II, and that eventually led to them lobbying enough to allow for a vaccine schedule in schools, in the education system. That's what started that there was no vaccine schedule prior to world war II. And the only reason that it became a thing was because these companies like Pfizer. This is factual and historical.  no emotion added to this. Uh, these companies like Pfizer, who got these large pharmaceutical contracts through world war II lobbying, and eventually implementing these things so they could continue their manufacturing of these pharmaceutical medications and vaccines and did so through the education system. By making them mandatory four year 5, 6, 7, 10, 15, and 18 year olds to now have at this point 78 vaccines before the age of 18. As a part of the vaccine schedule. So that's your history lesson on osteopathic versus alopathic and homeopathic medicine. Was it all started following world war II and you'll see world war two as being like a really, really consistent theme in these large scale, um, shifts in, in the way that, of our entertainment in the way of our pharmaceutical medications in the way of, uh, You know, our financial systems, uh, you know, so many things came out of world war II. And I think that that same type of deal, these like huge, unbelievable shifts of wealth and shifts of, uh, societal beliefs and constructs. Came out of world war II. And I think we just saw that too, with the pandemic, when a hundred percent there was so much wealth exchange, there was so many large scale things and you see it with things like the world economic forum meetings, where they're getting together now and saying, how do we implement these things for the future? Right. They even at the world economic forum meeting, they, I, I watched the entirety of, of, uh, the most important conversations. But they had people like bill gates, they had all of these world leaders there. And one of the thing that they discussed there was utilizing your Google search results. When you, the first thing, when you happens, when you get sick is you go to Google and type in your symptoms. Now what they wanted to do was utilize all of the data from Google and aggregate it per county, per states, per city, per country.  um, and then use that to identify outbreaks. Now, the way that they do that is by classifying all of the data that's coming in, when you search anything and then putting it together, attaching it to your identity. And now through your search results, they would know exactly when Joe Schmo down the road from you gets the sniffles and they documented who it was and how, how he did it. And now that individual, like in the case of China, with vaccine passports, for everything, not just COVID. Would now be not allowed to travel because he Googled that he had the sniffles three or five days prior. So they're gonna start to use your search results, that collective unconscious data they're going to attach it to you as a specific individual. And then they're not going to give you certain rights as a human. If you. Sneezed and you Googled it.  just wild, wild. So that's one major shift that we're gonna start to see is the way that they're utilizing your personal data to implement these types of totalitarian belief systems in governmental structures, like a social credit system, like a vaccine passport and things like that. Um, so I believe we're seeing that same type of shift again, and it's only time will tell what to, to what extent we're seeing that shift in, in, in monetary, you know, uh, transitions and, and where, you know, we're seeing it right now with gas prices just skyrocketing, right? Skyrocketing. Because at the same time of the pandemic, they're trying to use the, the waters being muddied, your attention, being shifted to other things. The food shortages, the, the, you know, the gas prices skyrocketing, the, this, the, the, the vaccines, uh, you know, mandate mandates the, you know, um, large amounts of money. That's being pushed over to different countries for proxy wars. Like we're seeing all of these major shifts coming out of the pandemic, just like we saw coming out of world war II, but time will tell to the extent in which it's happening. All right now, Before we get to the next topic. Cause the next topic's the most interesting topic, which is about Bigfoot skull being found, allegedly  in the Pacific Northwest. All right. Um, so we will get to that just in a moment, we're going to watch a quick video on the individual who actually found this. Now it's interesting, you know, I, I would, you know, we'll get to in the moment, but the first thing I need you to do, if you didn't do it already is go ahead and hit that subscribe button, hit the five star review. Leave a nice little review. If you're, uh, listening to this through the podcast, go and check it out on YouTube on rumble. Um, if you're listening to this on TikTok, go subscribe. Uh, because I do this on TikTok live every week as well. So, you know, if you're not watching it on TikTok, go subscribe to my TikTok. If you're on TikTok now, watching this go subscribe to the podcast on apple podcast, Spotify, wherever the hell you get your podcast, red pill revolution. Um, but next and lastly, I do not have any advertisements on this podcast. I do not work any third parties to do so. Um, I have very little, if any monetization that comes out of this, the only thing that I ask of you is that if you have a family, if you have people who count on you in your life, there's one thing for sure. That's going to happen to you. You, at some point are gonna die. I'm sorry. If I was the first person to tell. But you're gonna die.  at some point or another, it's going to happen to you? Um, I've had, you know, being young and super healthy. I have no medical conditions. I've had some recent scares with this, you know, I've, I've had some things that came up that, that, you know, concerned me a little bit, eventually found out there was nothing to be scared about. Um, but I'm 28. I have several children. I have a wife, I have people that count on me. And if that would've happened to me, if I would've died yesterday, not only would it been terrible emotionally on my family, on my children, on, on my friends. But it also, would've been horrible, you know, for anybody who's in that position financially, when you are the primary income earn. So if you are in that situation, you need to have life insurance because you are gonna. Head over to red pill, revolution.co. Right now I got offered $2 million of life insurance for like $55 a month. It's like $57 60 bucks almost for $2 million. So for a million dollars, just imagine how cheap that would've been too. Red pill, revolution.coo.com is for losers. And you can get a free quote right there. You don't have to talk to anybody. Normally you're gonna get you go to any other company, any other website, and you try to get life insurance quotes. You're gonna get a shit ton of phone calls and a bunch of people trying to bother you and pitch you on stuff. I'm not trying to do that. Just go to the website, search it for yourself. If you don't know what type of life insurance to get, I recommend getting a 15 year term policy at 15 times. Your annual. Easy simple. If you need to discuss it further, you can email me Austin, red pill, revolution dot COO, but head over there right now, get yourself a life insurance quote. This is directly under me, my license. It is not through a third party company. You will see my name on it. This is not an ad for any other company. It is. I have a life insurance license, and if you need life insurance, you should sign up for. Uh, through me to do so, and I would love to help you out. So that's all I got there. All right. Now, back to motherfucking Bigfoot being found. so Bigfoot. Now, now this is coming from coyote Peterson. Now, one thing I would like to know is that these individuals were allegedly looking for Bigfoot, which makes this a little sketchy to me. If I stumbled across in the woods while. Going backpacking or on a boy scout strip or whatever the hell people are doing. It might be a little less sketchy to me that they found it , but apparently they were looking for this and they found a skull. He said that he, or I'll I'll read it from the beginning. It says leaking picks here before they are taken down. And before government officials try to seize our footage. This says, I found a large primate skull in British Columbia. Filmed it cut. The footage, released it on brave at brave wilderness, which is the account that you can go see the full video of what I'm about to show you guys here, uh, is at brave wilderness on Instagram. Um, you can also, it says this weekend have, uh, I have kept this secret for several weeks. Yes, I have the skull. I smuggled it through customs and TSA and is currently in a secure location, awaiting primatologist review. Damn absolutely unreal. We, he said, we thought it was a bear skull. When we first found it, I can, 100% guarantee that it is not, the skull was found partially buried underground in deep back forest ravine, after a massive storm in the, in the pack Northwest where clearly a bunch of trees in earth were disturbed. I'm sure these picks will all be taken down is probably the video by government and the state park officials. But the skull is. I don't know if it's what you all think it might be, but I cannot explain finding a primate skull in the Pacific Northwest without wondering what do you believe? Now, when he pulls up the skull, this is a huge primate skull. So if you are a, you know, Bigfoot believer, this is like the holy grail of evidence. Like everybody looks back to like the, uh, what is it? The video of the guy, like obviously in a suit, walking across the forest with some guy just so happens to be filming from a, a, a field  right where this big foot walks across just casually and then like, stop. In looks , it's like the most ridiculous thing ever. Um, but this is pretty interesting, right. Even if it's not the Bigfoot, you know, I, I, I think you kind of have to understand that, you know, it's just a big ass primate, right? That's all the idea of Bigfoot is that's all the idea of like, Yeti are, that's all the ideas of, um, you know, whatever you wanna describe this thing as it's just a big ass primate. Right. And if they find a big ass primate, Whatever you want to call it, right. It could be a formally, um, extinct type of primate, you know, or maybe there's several left. And what will be interesting to see is dating on this, even if they just decided it's a big ass primate that we didn't know about this discovery. You could still say it's Bigfoot and you could still say potentially, maybe there's still some around. Um, but that would be interesting. So let's go ahead and watch this video. It's two and a half minutes long of this guy actually discovering the skull. You'll be able to hear it. Um, and you'll be able to see it if you're on YouTube and rumble. All right. So here we go with the video. We'll watch this and then we will discuss it even further. I haven't watched this yet, so I'm interested to see it just as much as you are. And here we. All right. So there's two guys walking, three guys walking through a forest prior to this, there was a bunch of drone footage and stuff that they were like kind of zooming over this area. So it seems like they were using the drone to kind of go over areas that were disturbed. Um, now they're kind of just walking up on the area that the drone had just saw the footage of what they believed could have been a skull. All right. So that's the context of this. Um, prior to this, they go into a little bit about why they're out there and what they're doing. So go over to that, you know, at brave wilderness on Instagram, you'll be able to find the full clip. All right. But let's continue with Adam. We got a minute and a half left. Cause I'm off that, like I'm. He says that could be. Ass squash scholar. The first guy says it could be a movie prop, and then he immediately goes to Bigfoot or Sasquatch or Yeti or whatever descriptive term you want to use to describe a huge ass primate that a lot of people have talked about for a long time, which like of all the mythical magical creatures that could or do or possibly have existed. A Yeti seems to be the most plausible, a Sasquatch, a big foot, whatever the hell you wanna call it, you know, there were big ass dinosaurs. Several, you know, however damn long ago, hundreds of thousands of years ago, there was big ass dinosaurs that walked this earth. Why wouldn't there be at some point in the medium area of T Rexes and humanity and civilization, as we know it today, potentially be maybe a big ass primate that's been around for a while. so let's see what else they have to say. So say somebody shot it in the head. If somebody shot Bigfoot in the head and left it. Die. And didn't go tell somebody about this. So they came and picked it up. That's the, that's a shitty mu move for humanity. If some man was out there and shot this Sasquatch and just left the body there, that's a, that's a, that's a let down. That's an L for, for the human race, because we should have known about this  or this is not that, and this's just a big ass gorilla, but from the sounds of it, these guys know what they're talking about far more than I. Um, and they seem to be pretty impressed by this, but again, these guys were looking for Sasquatch  to begin with. So that's where my questioning comes into play. Um, but again, I think of all of the mythical magical creatures that could have existed ever. This one seems to be the most plausible to me. Um, and we have 40 seconds left here. So we'll watch the rest of this. To you over it. It's not like somebody's gonna come up here and find it. I pick a pin. Okay. We're good. Go. Anything to do with this, whatever that is. It's not supposed to be. I left my backpack. I'm reach you guys on the trail. Uh, so foster in the backpack. All right. So that's it. That's all we'll watch. Now, if you go over to brave wilderness at brave wilderness on Instagram, um, you'll see, they have like 306,000 followers. This isn't like some, you know, random account that's posting this. That seems to be fairly confident. They found Bigfoot  or in their, their words. Uh, a SAS. Um, but you know, it, it's a fairly big account and, and, you know, they have a decent following for this and I haven't, you know, looked a ton through their account, but it doesn't appear to. Completely satirical. And these guys seem to be pretty impressed by what they just found. So time will tell, I, I will be interesting. This says at the end of the video, they're basically the entirety of this video shows them like finding it, uh, how they found it, why they were out there, what they were doing and then finding it. And then as this guy shoves it into his backpack. Um, they, that he goes on to say that they smuggled it. So he says, um, he's kept it for, uh, a secret for several weeks. Yes. I have this skull. I smuggled it through customs and TSA, which probably wasn't a smart move to say, to begin with . Uh, but I smuggled it through customs and TSA and it's currently in a secure location. The waiting primatologist review. Absolutely unreal. We thought it was a bear skull. When we found it, I can 100% guarantee it's. The skull was found partially buried underground in deep backward forest ravine after a massive storm. All right. So this guy smuggled, this. The big foot skull. And then one of the guys says, what happens when they find dinosaur bones? It's like, oh, well they get to keep it.  it's like this guy just, there's probably a hundred different random, uh, rich dudes with actual big foot skulls on their wall above their mantle. Um,  that? They're like, uh, yeah. Yeah, we know this  but I don't know. Is Bigfoot real? I think the words in the terminology that's used to describe Bigfoot. Yeah. It's probably not this like weird looking. Strolling through the forest and, you know, um, that's the Sasquatch that people have described, but there's probably a big ass PRI it out there that we don't know about. That's taller than us humans that walks in some funky looking way that could rip us apart in two seconds. Why wouldn't there be like the fact that people are more in disbelief, that there is the potential of a tall ass primate, more so than. Humongous, uh, five or 200, however damn big a T-Rex is like massive chicken. That was once around eating everything and everybody in its way, like nobody questions, a dinosaur the same way that they question Bigfoot. But Bigfoot is far more believable  than a dinosaur is to me. Now I'm not saying dinosaurs aren't real  but I am saying that the likelihood that Bigfoot or whatever, somebody describes as a tall ass primate. Could probably be very real, right. We find. I don't know, it's like 1200 new species of bugs a day. I don't know what the actual number is. I just made that up completely off the top of my head, but we find a shit ton of bugs. Every day. We find new fish every day. Now we've probably searched the forest far more than we've searched the ocean, but the fact remains the same. It's like however many new species a day in the rain forest is, is found. So many different species every single day, but the fact that we have, you know, we just cannot comprehend the idea that there's a tall monkey somewhere that's still around. That's bigger than us.  I don't know. It seems, it seems crazy to me that it's even, uh, you know, this big of the conspiracy world is involved in a tall primate. Like, it seems like it should be more so a zoologist interest rather than a conspiracy theories interest in, in this tall primate. Um, but. We'll have to see, go to the brave wilderness and follow them and follow along on this. Cuz we'll have to see if they're full of shit. This is probably the biggest news. I'm not like big into the Sasquatch world of things  but, but I would assume as far as Sasquatch, uh, evidence and, uh, you know, movement towards, uh, the realization that Bigfoot is a thing has been in the last decade. This is probably among the. Findings that could lead to this, you know, potentially being widely accepted. All right. So on that note, all of you primates out there. I appreciate you. Thank you so much for listening today. Um, I hope you enjoyed the episode. We had some quick rapid fire responses to some articles, but the bigger news is Elon Musk could have potentially set up Twitter in the one of the largest social media companies in the world, trolled them all along, and it will cost him just a. Billion dollars to do so  we also discussed the fact that there was a man, um, who believes he found a large primate skull or potentially what could be term Sasquatch. Hmm. Interesting. So time will tell, head over to at brave wilderness, give them a follow follow along and see if that's all true. All right. So again, thank you guys so much for listening. Go ahead and hit that subscribe button, leave a review, press the five stars button. If you're on TikTok, go subscribe to the podcast right now, red pill revolution, and, uh, we will continue our S. There you can actually re-listen to the whole podcast, if you haven't listened to the entire thing at this point, or wanna go back and listen. Um, and if you're on the podcast, go subscribe to TikTok so that you can actually listen to the episodes live. Cuz we have fun after the episode, every single week I sit around and do, uh, kind of read through some of the comments last week was pretty brutal.  we'll see if this week's is better. Maybe not. Um, I had some bald dude calling me out about my. But, you know, he didn't seem to be able to grow his own. I don't know. But anyways, I appreciate you guys so much head over to red pill, revolution.co and get a life insurance quote. Um, again, that's the only way that you can support me. Literally, the only way you can also go to the bottom and, and donate. But the best way you can support me is just by protecting yourself, protecting your family and protecting your assets from the fact that you're gonna die. And you don't want to, you know, leave your entire family pissed off at you for doing so and leaving them in a terrible financial situation. I D. Just a guy, but go to red pill, revolution.co, get a quote there right now and sign up. It's super easy. It's a 95% approval rating. Uh, it's like anything under a hundred thousand dollars gets approved within like an hour. It's pretty awesome. So head over there, red pill, revolution.co, and get yourself a life insurance policy, cuz your ass is gonna die and you don't want your family to despise you for the financial situation that you left them in. And that's all. So again, thank you guys so much. I hope you have a wonderful day and welcome to the revolution.

This week I'm thrilled to have Dr. Veronica Ruelas and Denise Gaffney as my guests to chat Forgiveness. Veronica and Denise are the co-founders of Forgivity, an app designed to foster a habit of forgiveness. To be fair, when I first heard about turning forgiveness into a habit, I was a bit hesitant. Forgiveness as a habit was nowhere near anything I would have considered. Throw on top of it a neuroscientific and psychological angle, and all of a sudden I'm becoming a big fan. I love the concept, especially in the context of the workplace. We touch on it in the podcast, but ultimately it should lead to a broader conversation of those “soft” words and terms (think vulnerability, psychological safety) that are vital to a functioning and more productive workplace culture. Ironically, these words we attribute as “soft” are embraced by the strongest and bravest leaders we know. They work. Beyond the workplace, there is an accountability aspect to forgiveness that I never gave much thought. It's a personal power to be able to forgive, and is one more notch on the belt of what we ultimately have control over. In fact, it's the lack of forgiveness that often prevents us from getting to where we need to go. Lots more to come on forgiveness – and one topic I encourage you to explore for yourself and your teams. Listen to the interview – they are fantastic – and learn how forgiveness just may be the buzzword that makes a significant difference for you this year. The Forgivity app is now available for download on iOS. For more information on the app, please visit www.forgivity.com. For more on Veronica and Denise, please hit up their channels: https://www.instagram.com/forgivity/ https://www.facebook.com/Forgivity https://www.tiktok.com/@forgivity Your Title Goes Here Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings. Click Here for an Unedited Transcript of the Podcast I'm Jim Frawley and this is bellwether. Welcome to bellwether. Thank you for being here this week. We have guests, multiple guests for the first time we're doing, you know, we've got a trio going here and it's gonna be very, very good. The topic is forgiveness, and I know it's, you know, it's forgiveness. We, we can all talk about forgive for some reason. It's one of the hottest words in corporate right now. I've gotten multiple phone calls about it right now. Everybody wants to know about how do you bring forgiveness into the workplace and what does that actually mean? Uh, which took me a little by surprise and, and very fortunately, almost, you know, as the world and universe can kind of work at the same time, I was introduced to these two wonderful individuals who have a solution for forgiveness in the workplace, and they have the app. Everything is an app, and this is, uh, this is going to be a very, very cool app. So I wanna talk to you about forgiveness. I'm gonna talk about the forgive app and let me introduce our wonderful guest this week. I'm gonna start with, we have Denise and Vero Vero. Please introduce yourself.Hi, I'm I'm Dr. Veronica OS and I'm the co-founder and co CEO of forg.And I'm Denise Kaney, I'm the other co-founder and co CEO of forg. Um, I have 20 years on wall street. I'm a certified, uh, energy leadership coach, and now I'm an entrepreneur,Which is a wonderful journey to be on. And when I think about wall street, I don't typically think of forgiveness unless you think about it in, you know, kind of government handouts, but we'll, we'll talk about, um, at, in a difficult corporate environment. Talk to me, we'll get it right out of the way. Yeah. Talk to me about the forgiving app, what it does and why you created it.So, um, it's, it's an, we use, uh, clinical neuroscience methods to, um, make forgiveness a more intuitive behavior because it's, it's not something we're, we're all taught that forgiveness is important and it's universal, but, uh, the, how is really missing from the equation. And so, um, yeah, so we, we infuse, uh, humor. It's a multisensory program. There's audio learning, there's engaging digestible, uh, nuggets throughout and, and, uh, yeah, and it's a, it's a beautiful, uh, fresh clean platform.Yeah. And you got a lot of us on there. We, uh, Vero mentioned the audio. We had a great time bringing a different type of learning to the app. So you'll hear our voices. We, we recorded these little snippets called pod drops, and we'll introduce each of the steps of the program with, uh, a little warm invite from the two of us. And then you'll hear us throughout the program, uh, either with a bit of information or a quote or, um, some personal experience because like, who wouldn't wanna hear us, Jim? Right.Everybody wants to hear you cause why you're here. It's why I have everyone on the, the show. My goodness,Hear this. They're gonna be like, let me at the app. and you've, you'll be in that too. You're everywhere. Um, so forgiveness and science would never have paired the two together. Mm-hmm um, you hear that you're supposed to forgive people. It's very much, um, you know, when we teach people how to forgive, uh, how does that even work? Right. When I think of forgiveness, I think of it externally, right? You had some wrong come to you and how do you let them, that person know that it's okay. And, and talking to you, it's not necessarily letting them know that what they did was okay. It's about letting them know that you won't let it bother you. Is that how do you define forgiveness and, and how do we really start that?So we, uh, um, we were a lot, all of us were taught the importance of forgiveness and, um, and it was either through culture, through our family, through our religious practice that we were born into. And so, uh, we are actually empowering the user to have forgiveness come from within them. Um, people can still use the ways that they learned, uh, how to forgive, but we F that a lot of, a lot of times we say we forgive, and then yet a little time further down the road, we think of the person that has quote, wronged us. Um, and we still have a physical reaction to it. So when you say the science, there's, there's a deep biological, chemical reaction that is happening when we live in this kind of quote unforgiveness. And so, uh, our heart rate can increase. We, um, uh, lose sleep. Uh, there's a lot of different ways that it is affecting us. And so when we teach forgiveness, it's really about how do we get to that fully, that full process of letting go and releasing it and knowing that it is that have the power within us to do that.So it's, it's not just, when you think about forgiveness, it's not just a mental health thing, there's physical attributes to it as well. And, and we talk about how the physical and the mental always, they go hand in hand, right? You know, what you eat can affect the way you think in all of those types of things, forgiveness is actually has a, a physical response. Is that what you're saying?A hundred percent? What if, what if we broke it down to, um, what if we took the word forgiveness out and spoke about stress, everybody's familiar with the effects that stress has on the body? Right. Well, the link between forgiveness and stress is unforgiveness and resentment and anger and irritation and grudge holding. So all of those things, right, that all of us do, um, contribute to the increased stress in our bodies. So does that feel like more of a linear type of, of thing to understand? Sure.And, and the resentment of, as we sit there, you know, we, when you think about coaching and what, and what everybody teaches people to do is focus on what you can't control, right? You can't control when somebody treats you like garbage, you can't control when something wrong happens to you, you can't, but you can't control how you react much easier said than done. Mm-hmm . So when we think about, it's almost meditative, the way you're doing it, it's, it's a stress relief of, you know, parasympathetic, nervous system, all of those types of things. And how do you turn off? But this is something that's got to become habitual, I would imagine, right? Because this will constantly come back. Resentment will constantly come back. When other stressors come in, you can always fall back on the resentment that you had and, and you're ultimately blaming other people. How does, you know, how do habits cut into this? How does accountability, uh, set into this? Because ultimately this is your responsibility for forgiveness, not necessarily, regardless of what somebody else does to you. Talk to me a little bit about that,Jim. I mean, um, you're hired, do you want a board position? I mean, you nailed, let's do it. Yes. Seriously.You, I mean, you're good. It's Jim's sandwich.It's it's um, that's exactly right. When we see it's a neuroscience program, we're talking about, uh, the neuroplasticity, uh, we re we talk about retraining brain. So that's how we start to create habitual, uh, patterns. So that behaviors start to, um, uh, express themselves in sustainable ways. Right. So, um, we've used the analogy, right? It can't like, uh, wake up one day and just run the marathon. Right? So we, it takes, it takes practice. It takes muscle memory. And so as we start to educate ourselves, I mean, these are things that we also needed to learn too. We've gone through 50 years of research. I mean, there has been so much in terms of cultural, culturally, how we forgive changes, um, our religious organizations. Uh, so it's all there, but it's so interesting. There's all these little or caveats that like, you can forgive if it's this, or you forgive on this day, or you forgive if you go to this person.And so, um, we respect and honor all of that. Uh, but there, but there's still that kind of like, like you said, every day we can wake up and there's new resentments. If any of us are in, um, partnership, we know that mm-hmm . And so every day a were given ample opportunity to be able to use this. And so we really believe that it's just, as we just don't know, we don't know how damaging living in unforgiveness is. We don't know the magic and miracles of forgiveness can bring in our lives. Once we excavate, uh, that resentment from us and, uh, start to really cut those chains that bind us what the possibilities are. And once we start to learn that through the program, because it is gently and lovingly reminding throughout, um, we start to lay down those new neural tracks so that when something happens, instead of safety of resentment, we have the confidence and the faith to now turn and go into a different direction of forgiveness.And if, if I could, um, piggyback on that, Jim, you mentioned coaching and, um, we can't control the outside forces. We can only control how we react, right. Um, it's the other person. We, if this, we teach forgiveness is innate. It's the power we have within ourselves. The minute we start putting condition on what forgiveness looks like, we give the power away. We wanna keep that here. So no matter what happens from the smallest transgression to something horribly traumatic, that we know that, that we have a choice and it's only about us. Otherwise we keep ourselves tied energetically to the very thing that's causing the resentment, the pain, the trauma, who would wanna do that. If you, if you break it down into a real simplistic terms, it's like, do you choose to be hurt? Or do you choose to be empoweredNow? Well, so some people are gluts for punishment.Yep.So let's talk about those people who are looking to be wrong, right. Who are looking for those types of things who are looking for, you know, uh, is that just some kind of mental health issue? Is that something where, you know, they have to, when we think about forgiveness, how does it, because I'm, I'm eventually gonna tie this back to corporate, right. And that's where I really wanna go with this because yes. You've said three things between the two of you. One is it's never about the other person. So it's individual accountability. What's personal capability in bringing that in mm-hmm . And where does that tie into things? Like you said, Vero, you said the word safety, so psychological safety and the lack of forgiveness. I think a lot of what you're talking about is not just forgiveness, but it's more important is the lack of forgiveness that exists in the workplace. How do you, how do you measure other people on that? How do you teach that in a corporate environment? Talk to me a little bit about, you know, individual personal capability, teaching that within the context of psychological safety and, and the corporate environment.So, um, so in terms of, in terms of the individual, um, I'm, I'm sorry, I'm just trying, I'm trying, cuz I'm I'm on the, it wasA loaded question with like 17 built into it.IOgrapher can I, can you read that back to me please? CanWe get a read back? yeah, let me break, let me ask it this way. Cuz I, I did ask seven questions in one we'll start with psychological safety.Okay. Yeah. So psychological,How do you create an environment where forgiveness is accepted or that, that doesn't reward? Lack of forgiveness.Okay. There was a, there was something about victim that was coming up when you were speaking in the, in the first time. Um, so how do we create a safe environment? And um, but I, I also want to, uh, validate and affirm that, uh, there's some really heavy things that need to be forgiven. And uh, and so when we're talking about forgiveness, it's not like we're putting ourselves up on a hierarchy. Oh, I have the power to forgive I'm bestowing forgiveness onto this. It's not about that. Um, and we want to, and along the way, we really, when we wrote the program, kept in mind the people that, uh, really have some big trauma that need to be forgiven. So, um, holding onto a resentment feels like a boundary, a safe boundary that I'm, I'm keeping up between me and my transgressor and that, um, that feels very real.Um, and so what we're, what we're saying is by forgiving them, we're not, um, putting our selves in harm's way. We're not putting ourselves in, in an, in an unsafe environment. It's just that we're releasing these binds that they have to us. Right. So we can forgive and never be in relationship with the other person. Again, we can forgive and never have to, um, let them into our lives. And so that's a really important distinction to make because we, a lot of us have been taught, forgive and forget. Yeah. Or, um, forgiveness doesn't mean that I condone what you did to me or that, um, you and I are ever gonna be friends again. Right. So that's really important in terms of safety. Um, so I wanted to just, uh, put that in there. And then in terms of, uh, co company and culture, we Denise and I talk a lot about this because we offer forg, um, to, uh, businesses now for bulk subscription because, uh, there is, um, widespread, toxic company culture going on.And so how can we start to again, create that, um, retraining the brain to under standing that like one, something people are gonna fail us every single day that is we're human, right. So, I mean, it's just gonna happen. Um, I'm gonna fail my husband. He's gonna fail me. Even those that we love our children, our children are gonna fail us. So in inside the, um, work environment, um, when that happens already having those tools and be being able to look at the person who has done something as an entire human being, right. Humanizing that person so that we're not just, um, hyper focusing on what they did. Um, but we're able to see, yes, they did that. And there are all these other things, right. They're a good parent, they're they have goodness in them. So it's, it's allowing, it's allowing ourselves to, um, have the capacity to be able to, uh, not be, um, not see, uh, not see someone as their act alone. So that already starts to invite in, um, a more way of how we, uh, are in our, in our careers.Um, Denise,Do you wanna add to that?I, I would love to. Yeah. Um, we are working with a lot of corporations at the moment. And so this pitch is right on the tip of our tongues and I want to, um, bring it back to the safety of the corporate environment. Boundaries are hugely important. We teach, um, having good boundaries in the app because otherwise you leave the door open for, uh, transgressions to just keep coming in. Right. Um, and when we forgiveness fluency and we, and we get that muscle, that forgiveness muscle tight leadership is more effect teams work more coherently employees have better time management skills because they're not sitting at their desk ruminating about the guy that stole their idea or, you know, screwed them out of a deal or whatever. Um, attendance is better. Productivity is better all because of forgiveness, because if I am a able to be, um, an empowered person with great boundaries and the ability to not let resentment live inside of me, I have all of this bandwidth for so many other things, creativity, um, you know, productivity, uh, just the things that a leader or a corporation will on an employee. They don't,It's amazing how much resentment just takes away from productivity and how much timeEvery, I mean, well, it starts with, you're laying in bed at night. And you're thinking about Joe Schmo, who, who got, who got your deal, who got your client or who, whatever who's, you know, and then, so it starts with lack of sleep, everybody, what lack of sleep does right then it's inflammation then it's you, can't, you're tired. So you can't concentrate. So now your time management's screwed up and your resiliency layer is thin. So you're irritable, you're nasty. You're not a good team player. You suck as a leader. If we could just draw the lines from, from all those things, it seems very like simple right now.And that be,Go ahead, Viro.I was gonna say, and that behavior's contagious, right? Yes. So then all of a sudden now, um, now my, uh, colleague and my team members are gonna pick up on this anger bug that I have. And then now it's just like, you know, and then that's starts to have that you, um, effect. And so now if we came in to work in from the forgiving lens, from the compassionate lens, um, from having a tremendous amount of self-awareness and presence, let's let that be the contagion contagious effect. Right?So in terms of that, and I, I have to ask this question because when I talk about psychological safety and I pitch it to clients, mm-hmm , they roll their eyes. Cause they don't know what it is. And they think it sounds like a very weak word mm-hmm . And when I think back to becoming a coach and leaving corporate, also wall street words, like love never came out, right. It just don't do it. Psychological safety sounds like something, you know, soft for millennials, forgiveness, compassion. This is a place of work. We don't all need to be friends depending on which generation you're from and everything else. We know that the science is there, that there's validity to it. And once I explain to people what psychological safety is, they say, oh yeah, of course. It's just, you know, that's just a weak title. Um, of course we want that. We want everybody to talk and, and feel comfortable and everything. That's what we want. How do we get people past the fact that it's a weak word? When in actuality, we know that the bravest leaders are the ones who are able to do it. And, and it's a very strong word. How do we convince people to sign on at the beginning to at least first filter is there's validity to this and it's not just kind of weakness. How would you answer that?Um, well I would say just asking the people, do you wanna live be life or do you wanna be angry all the time? Do you wanna feel sick and have lack of connection and control or do you want to have power and freedom? Um, because forgiveness may sound like a weak word, but it's actually the bravest step we can take in our own freedom, our own power, um, independence. Right. Um, I hear what you're saying, but 10 years ago people thought meditation was weak.Exactly. Right, right. And now you've got like whim off the Iceman breathing for, you know, whatever. Yeah. So,You know what you wanna be brave. You wanna be cutting edge, jump on the forgiveness wagon because that's the brave way to go. Not sitting in the old story, in the feeling of, of unhealth and unforgiveness. That's actually not brave. That's the weak. That is the weaker choice.And I'm sure we could tie it down like psychological, safety's tied to bottom line revenue forgiveness. I imagine very similarly. How much of this going back to what you said before, not leaving the door open for other additional transgressions. Right. And I think to Adam grants, uh, hello, kittycat Adam grants give her taker, um, you know, there are givers at work and there are takers at work and you'll burn out. Yeah. How can you head it off at the pass? Can you stop transgressions before they come? And how much of forgiveness is done in advance where you're communicating expectations of what's acceptable and not?Um, I don't know if, I don't know if you can, you can stop transgressions at the door cause people are gonna be people, right. It's almost like saying like I wanna lift li life without being triggered. Triggers are gonna happen. Right. Um, these, these, um, so I see a transgression, almost like a trigger. It's an, it's almost an opportunity for us to kind of, um, to go ahead and, uh, transcend what's happening. And so, um, but, uh, when we have really clean and clear boundaries, that definitely makes it more difficult for other, other people. Like we're already setting a precedence, this is my space. This is how I communicate. Um, and, uh, I'm loving with boundaries. Mm-hmm . And so, uh, boundaries don't mean that I, I have to be a jerk to anybody. Um, but it just means that I'm clean and clear. And so, uh, that start, that sends, definitely sends out a clear signal. And if we look at, from a place of energetics, um, you know, there's that saying, like, if you choose the right environment, it'll do the rest of the work for you. And so, um, so it's really, really important. Um, the energy that, that we have within us, that we're exuding out. That doesn't mean that bad things aren't still gonna happen. You know, mean bad things happen to good people all the time.And, and I think it goes back to building the muscle too. Like, um, the, if, if we are in a practice of something, it becomes intuitive. Um, and so with the, with forg, that's actually what we're teaching people. We're, we're reinforcing the practice. We're retraining rain, we're creating new neuro pathways. It then becomes an intuitive reflex so that the transgresion as zero said is always going to happen. But our response and our response time will change with time as that muscle gets really strong.Now, one of the words that keeps popping into my head is we talk is cons sequence, right? I know people who are not getting crossed at the workplace because people fear consequence. Right. I would never cross this individual because you know, it's gonna burn me in the end. And there are other people where you feel like fine. You can forgive me all you want, I'm still gonna, you know, do that transgression and you have that power and whatever. Where does concert sequence fit in or is that too externally focused? You know, what, where does consequence fall into boundaries and, and what does that look like?Well, there, there, there should always still be, uh, justice, right? We're not saying forgiveness doesn't mean like, you know, you have car blanche to do here's the other cheek. Okay. Here's the, you know, okay, let me do it myself. I mean, it is, it's about, um, yeah, I mean, if, if someone, if someone wrongs us, we should speak up, we should, uh, defend ourselves. Uh, that has, that is completely separate from forgiveness. And, and again, that's, that's so interesting. And I'm so happy you brought up this point, Jim, because that's what people think mm-hmm, , I've, I, that's what I thought. That's why it's seen as such a soft, uh, topic when it's like, when, because it's like, yeah, no, I'm not gonna leave myself open to, um, to people wronging me no way. And, um, and so that, that's why having the resentment gives that illusion sense of safety. Um, but no, stand your ground, speak your voice. Um, we're just saying don't hold onto it.Right? Let itGo internally. Let it go. That'sThere's something too. That's coming up for me. And like I say, this, uh, a lot, this ain't your mom's forgiveness, Jim, this is the modern approach to what forgiveness means. This is non dogmatic. This is, um, nontraditional. This is, I choose to recognize that X, Y, and Z happened. This is how I feel about it. This is what I lost. This is what I learned. This is how a human, the other person. And then this is how I move on from the event. And that's where all the power happens.So we're separating it and it is a unique, right. We're separating it from standing up for yourself. We're self-respect and all of those types of things. And this is really, you know, a mental exercise are there. I I've been thinking about this since we first talked and I don't know how to frame it. So gonna ask it who's better at forgiving men or women.Right. That's a great question. So we, um, there, there's been a lot of studies on this and, um, and they've even split up cultures to which cultures have more masculine traits and which cultures have more feminine traits. So women are better at forgiving. Men are better at forgetting. And so when we say, um, so when we say in terms of forgiveness, women are better at forgiving because we, uh, tend to, or, um, forgive more from the heart. It's, it's more of an emotional decision. Um, and when we do it, we're doing it because it it's for kind of, for the betterment of the tribe. So there's a collective that's part, that's called a collectivistic culture. And so that tends to have more feminine traits. Um, I'm doing it for us and men will forgive, um, um, and forget more easily, which is, again, we don't teach forgive and forget.Right. But, um, but is good, right? I mean, it's like the definition of hap yeah. The Def definition of happiness is good health and a bad memory. Right. So we're all about that too. Um, we're not negating that. Um, but men will forgive more decisionally from their head, which is, um, more for self, which is, uh, part of what's called the indivi individualistic it culture. So the United States is an individualistic culture. Um, and then we look at, you know, some, uh, uh, like, uh, some countries in south America are more, um, are more collectivistic. So it's, it's not so much in terms of like, who's better at it. It's just different ways of going at it. And, um, yeah, I mean, I, I, I bet women wish that they could forget more easily too. Um, but they, they, they seem to have they process it differently. That's all.Um, if I might drop in a personal little story, um, Vero and I were talking about this and I, I was saying, how 20 years on a trading floor, I witnessed some really gross behavior, not just, you know, the, the stuff that you read about, you know, in, uh, the articles, but physical anger come out on the floor. I mean, pun hitting with a hard, you know, those big, old, black hard phones. I saw people beating each other and it's primarily men. So I could say like, you know, everybody around me was, was basically male except for a few. And then they were just stop. And then it would be over because they needed the next deal. They were like, I'm beating somebody one minute and shaking hands the next minute, or having a, or having a beer after work because they need that guy for, for money in their pocket. So that was like a real, that, that was so obvious to me about how, I don't know if it's forgiveness, but it, it was definitely moving on from the, from the, from the event.Right. I, I feel like, you know, boys, growing up, you get into a fist fight and then it's over. Mm. Whereas I think of, you know, the story of just girls growing up, never speak to each other again, because they wore the same outfit or something ridiculous. Um, but, but you're right. You know, when I think of me, there are people wrong, me and they're effectively dead to of me. Like, I just don't think about them anymore and they're not, you know, I would never, but I'm sure if I saw them, it would bring everything back where I'm like, I don't like you. Um, but my wife on the other hand is fantastic about just addressing something and just clearing, clearing the air and, and getting rid of it. Um, is there a place for the forgive and forget, or is that just kind of irrelevant for this part of the, you know, do we need to teach more people how to address the, you know, yes. Logically I know I'm never gonna do anything with these people, and that's how I forget, like logically you're dead to me and that's fine. Emotionally. I haven't, is there a logic versus emotion component to this that that needs to be talked about?Yeah, well, we have to really be careful because I think that, uh, so there's something called bypassing, right. So if I just is like, okay, you're dead to me. I haven't processed what's happened. I haven't really like honored. There was, there was something that was done and it hurt that I felt. And, um, I need to honor that. And what, and what is my lesson in that? Right. So, um, so we can just forget through a, by just bypassing, I'm just gonna skip over that part. And so, um, so there's that, um, and, um, yeah, I mean, I just, so I, I just wanted to drop that in there because it's really important. I don't know if either is like more healthy than the other, the way the women do it, or the way that men are do it. Um, forgive and forget is amazing. If we can truly do it, mm-hmm right. That's really like, I'm gonna forgive really forgive because I went through the entire process. I did digested everything. I alchemized it. And I transmuted it out into space. It's done. And I'm able to forget every time I see you, my heart's not gonna start racing. Right. That kind of having that kind of charge, um, really shows us that we haven't really, we haven't completed the process yet.Right. We haven't addressedThat. You, you mentioned that with your own experience, Jim, right? Like if you see the person, all of a sudden you get jacked up again, it's because you parked all that somewhere down deep so that you could be a productive member of society, but the truth is it's still there. It's like, you know, hanging out, down there, taking up space festering. I like to use the example. I may have said this to you in the past of, you know, when you're, um, RS probably says like hearing this, but when you're recycling the peanut butter jar, it's the most annoying, difficult thing to get into the recycle bin because there's that stuff at the bottom of the peanut butter jar that you gotta clean out somehow, that's what real forgiveness is. It's getting to the bottom of the thing. That's bugging the crap out of you and, and real leasing it. And like Vero said, alchemizing it. And transmuting it. And then you're, then you're good. Then you can toss that thing in the, in the thing, in the,I mean, you could just throw it away anyway. But it's not the right thing. I hear what you're saying.You're right. But you're firedFinal question off the board very quickly. That was a very quick, is there a limit, is there a limit to forgiveness? Is it possible to, to do things or, or, or, you know, where does, where does forgiveness actually end or the, the ability to forgive end?We, we really believe that everything is forgivable. And again, we wanna honor that there are huge things that people, uh, will feel called to forgive huge traumas that have happened, but we've got endless stories of, um, people who've ordinary people who are forgiven extraordinary things and the magic that has come into their lives, uh, the miracles that have come into their lives, the, the places they've gone to that they've elevated to, uh, is, is, I mean, it's remarkable. Mm-hmm . And so, yeah, everything, everything is forgivable. And I, and, you know, we, we ask that question in our podcast, like, what's that thing that's unforgivable, mm-hmm, , you know, everyone, and everyone's got an answer and it's, it's usually similar and of course has to do around children. And, and so, um, so, you know, again, honoring, honoring how painful and devastating that is, um, and just knowing that there are people out there that are able to forgive that. And, um, and, and yeah, I mean, that's, that is, uh, and it's just anyway, so I, yeah, so that, that's our belief, but I'll let Denise drop in on that too.Yeah. I would say that, um, prior to doing this deep, deep work unforgiveness, I would've said that certain things were unforgivable. Um, what I've learned in these beautiful that we are going to include, um, in forgi 2.0, they're called, uh, catching miracles. Um, there are so many stories of people that went through horrific trauma and they made a choice to work through it. Of course, a lot of work through it. We're huge proponents in therapy. And we understand mental health is, uh, it has to be addressed tremendous traumatic situations. Um, they did the work and they decided to do other things. Um, they have, that's why I say, it's not your mom's for forgiveness. They forgave, they forgave even a way that, um, honored their loss and allowed them to move forward in a different capacity without being tied to that awful, awful thing that happened. And I, we look at them and say, if they can do it, anybody can do it. The human, the human heart and mind has the CAPA, this type of healing. And if one of us can do it, all of us can do it.Excellent. That's a perfect way to, to wrap it. I love the idea. I love the topic of forgiveness. Um, the final things we always end on the book recommendation and how people can find you. So why don't you tell me about how people can find you first, uh, more information be on bellweather hub.com, but how can people find you help support you? What's next?I'm just gonna give VES, uh, cell phone number out so they can just start calling her.Um, no, it's, we're really easy to find. So, um, if you wanna email us, um, I'm Denise D N is egi.com and VES at the same handle, Vero forgi com. You could also hop on our website, which, um, I will just drop in a little note. We are a little bit under construction, but live, so get your info on there. Um, we'd also, we're also on IG, um, forgi we're on Facebook for all you Facebook fans. Um, we're on TikTok, check on, check out our talks. You'reEverywhere. My goodness,My God. We're everywhere. And, uh, Vero you wanna share what our gift is?Uh, yeah, so our gift is, uh, anyone that is listening. Oh, we'd like to give the app away for free to them to download. So all they have to do is go on the website, um, put in their email address, uh, or actually, you know, they can just email us, right, Denise, and then we'll send a free link out. Yeah. Either wayYou'll quicker. If you email one of us, ifYou email us directly. Yeah. That's true. And, um, yeah, we'll send you the free link. Uh it's uh, O only for I iOS iPhone users. Now we're working on getting it available for Android. Um, yeah. And so favorite book recommendations. I love anything by David Seras, just because laughter is the best hum best medicine, and that's why we use it. Uh, we use humor in the program. Um, and, um, and from, from a more personal, uh, uh, I used to read the Alchemist, every new year's, uh, I reread that book and, um, I just, I just love the, uh, story of the journey and, um, really listening to how the universe is speaking to us and how we can really stay connected to flow. And so, um, yeah, that's one of my all time favorites.That's actually one of my all time favorites too. Um, I am, I brought a current read with me because I also thought this was tied into your audience gym. It's called emotional currency. Um, and the, uh, the tag is a woman's guide to building a ha a healthy relationship with money and it's, um, money as energy. And that the re better the relationship is with one type of energy. The better the relationship is with every type of energy. So I'm in the process of reading that I'll send my book review in to bellwether when I'm done.Yes. I want to know. Um,Also I just started re-reading untethered soul.Yep.Um, which, and I bought the journal to go along with it because though we're teaching forgiveness, there's always work to be done and there's always, you know, good stuff when you go deeper. So that'sMy all part of the journey. That's good.What's your favorite book? Jim?My favorite book is the Kani crystal, but I love your out chemist. Um, but I prefer sidhartha if you've read SidharthOh, I love Herman. He, yeah, amazing. SoThat's, that's myAmazing, that's a,Goodhart's my journey. Sidhartha Walden Kani, Christo. Probably my top three. SoThose are, oh, I love thatAlso.Yeah. Well, thank you. Well, thank you both for doing in this forgi forgi app. Look at them everywhere. I'll have their info contact info email address. You can get the app for free. If you have iOS better get on Android soon. Cause I'm an Android user. Um, but that's gonna be out soon. Use it. Come on, apple. My goodness. 20, 22, we need,We can open it up on an iPad. If you have an iPad appFor why would I have it had ?I mean,My wife has one, so we'll do it on that. Um, but forg is, is it, it is. I do honestly sincerely believe, you know, psychological safety is, is the buzzword of the day it's taking over organizations. Forgiveness is gonna be a significant part of that and right behind it. So this is, this is huge from personal accountability to changing a corporate culture. Forgiveness is a, a fundamental aspect to that. So Denise Vero, thank you so much for beingOn theShow. Thanks Jim.I appreciate it. And I look forward to seeing everybody out there soon.Thanks.Thank you so much for listening. Now, do something for yourself. Bellweather is much more than just a podcast. Join us@bellweatherhub.com, where you can read riveting articles, view upcoming events and connect with other interesting people. I look forward to seeing you out there soon.

IoT and the COVID-19 moment Tech journalist and IoT trend-setter Stacey Higgenbothom on IoT's COVID relevance Stacey Higginbotham is a freelance writer who has spent the last 15 years covering technology and finance for publications such as Fortune, Gigaom, The Deal, The Bond Buyer and BusinessWeek. Stacey covers the Internet of things, semiconductors, and artificial intelligence. Check out Stacey on IoT Stacey on IoT | Internet of Things news and analysis     Episode transcript: The transcription of this episode is auto generated by a third-party source. While Microshare takes every precaution to insure that the content is accurate, errors can occur. Microshare, Inc.  is not responsible for any errors or omissions, or for the results obtained from the use of this information. Michael Moran [00:00:00] This is manifest density. Hello, everyone, and welcome to this edition of Manifest Density, your host Michael Moran here, and we are going to explore the intersection of COVID 19, global business society and technology today. Manifest density is brought to you by the global smart building and ESG data company Microshare. Unleash the data. Today, we're going to talk technology. In fact, we're going to talk about the Internet of Things, and I'm very, very pleased to have today. Stacy Higginbotham, who is the curator and writer of Stacy on IoT really, really well circulated newsletter. So it's a real pleasure to welcome you to manifest density.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:00:43] Thank you for having me. I'm really excited.  Michael Moran [00:00:46] Stacy, we follow you here. Microshare fairly religiously. I get your newsletter, forwarded it to me all the time. And so it's it's overdue that I reached out. Had you on the program,  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:00:58] you could sign up for it directly.  Michael Moran [00:01:01] Yeah, I know I do. Actually, I get it. But you know what that's like? I get about 350 emails a day. It's overwhelming. How does one become a journalist who covers the Internet of Things? What was your journey?  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:01:13] Oh, it was meant to say time consuming because I've been a tech journalist for probably about 20 years, a little over that now. And I started out covering semiconductors because I was was actually a reporter for a local Austin paper, and semiconductors was a big business. So I did that and then I went into networking and then I went into wireless and cloud computing and databases. And around 2012, all of those things started to come together in what we were calling the Internet of Things. And we were really excited about it. And I had. Basically, all the technical elements, so it was kind of fun for me because all of a sudden I went from this person who babbled on about spectrum policy and like new wireless standards at parties to somebody who could talk about really cool gadgets. And so like, my stock went up tremendously, and that is basically how I started covering the Internet of Things. So for the sake  Michael Moran [00:02:12] of those who listen to this podcast and don't always dove into the technology, give us a quick definition from you from apart from on high, I should say, of what the Internet of Things is and how it's kind of evolved over the last 12 years or so.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:02:31] Yes. And before before I got into it, it was called M to M. So I'm not going to say that it was like the Internet of Things has always been here in some ways, or as as long as there's been wireless connectivity and computing. So basically, my definition of the IoT is when cheap computing, ubiquitous wireless and cheap sensors all came together in a way around it. It started out around smartphones was the renaissance of this. But all of that comes together and it makes the invisible visible. And I am so excited about this opportunity because we can do so much with the information if we can just figure out how to grab it cheaply, how to behave ethically with it, and how to deliver insights that can really help us. I look at it is helping us fix the climate. I think it's really important to helping people live better, maybe more fulfilling lives. I don't want to go that far and really just help us be the best versions of ourselves. So that sounds really super optimistic, but it's also very concrete.  Michael Moran [00:03:45] Yeah, I mean, so I mean, I try really hard, except for the sponsorship slots to keep microshare out of this podcast. If you listen, you know that. But this is so directly relevant to what we do because in effect, what we've tried to do is take the complexity out of iOttie and make. My CEO Ron ROCs likes to say our customers don't even know how to spell iOttie. So ultimately, the idea is that you have a an outcome rather than a technology product. Do you have data that's telling you whether the air quality is sufficient or data that's telling you how many people are in a room or whether the water temperature is is being calibrated properly so that you don't get Legionnaires disease or, you know, those types of data feeds that never existed before, you know, and in the world that we operate in. You know, I like to say, you know, we take these what we're once inert brick and mortar assets and we create vital signs we create. We show you that actually, this is a living breathing entity. This this building, it's got air, it's got a circulatory system, it's got a plumbing system, so it's got a digestive system. So ultimately, we can kind of track the condition and the operations and the wellness of the environment. And that's huge and think. And it also has that, as you referred to this incredible sustainability application in terms of knowing how you're treating the people in your space or knowing how much energy you're using and whether it's used efficiently, things like that. I mean, is this something that was it? It is. Those are the kind of things that were imagined in the beginning or has this kind of evolved with things like the pandemic and recessions and.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:05:31] Things have definitely evolved with the pandemic. I think in the beginning, I mean, if we look all the way back, I actually just had someone on my podcast who created the term IoT all the way back in 1985. So his name was Peter Lewis, and he was the one of the founders of Cellular one. And basically, he he back in 1985, was like, Hey, we've got this thing called the ARPANET. I've got mobile phone connectivity now. It's like, Let's let's sign up traffic lights and air conditioning and building and power grids, all to the cellular network so they can give their status. This is his vision 37 years ago. And I think we've always needed something like this, but it has been so hard again because sensors were expensive, wireless connectivity was expensive. The computing for the analytics was expensive, so I think we've always needed more information because that's what we do as people, right? We just didn't have a way to get it economically and feasibly. So you could only monitor super important things.  Michael Moran [00:06:43] OK, Stacey, we're going to take a break, perhaps a superfluous break since I've already talked about that sponsor. But to hear from our sponsor? OK, I am back with Stacey Higginbotham, who covers the Internet of Things from I o to T. Stacey, we're talking about how it's evolved over the years and the ubiquity of it potentially to create data in all sorts of places and spaces. But of course, that also means it's a big ubiquity, makes it an enormous target for cybercrime and hacking and all sorts of mischief. The IoT, it strikes me, had a pretty bad reputation in its early years because people were just hooking it up to their corporate networks. There's this famous story about the the fish feeder in a tank in some kind of an aquarium.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:07:34] I call this the fish. The fish tank that was heard around the world.  Michael Moran [00:07:39] Oh yeah. Tell us that story. It's funny.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:07:42] So this is this is probably I want to say it was from a Verizon security report, either in 2008, I think it was 2013, and a casino in Vegas had a fish tank monitor and that was on there. We'll just call it an OT network because it was just a sensor. Don't work, but it somehow connected to their I.T. network. So hackers were able to get in through the fish tank and then get into the rest of the casino network. A similar example that people always talk about is target. Their big data breach, and I don't. It was a while ago, probably same timeframe. Those hackers came in through the H-back system and then ended up in their point of sale system. So yes, we used to stick all kinds of things. We're like, Oh, I just put it on the internet, or let's just buy a network DVR and things. I mean, it sounds so ridiculous. But even as far back as 2013, when we were writing about this, we had to tell people to stop using hard coded passwords in their, you know, routing equipment, which now I would look at somebody like why? That's the craziest thing ever. So we've gotten a lot more sophisticated on the security side. I think what we're realizing, though, is as we try to lock this down, that we don't have the right security models in place. So we're starting to see them evolve like zero trust security and and that'll be really important going forward. But also equally important is getting rid of all that other stuff. We can't actually leave that on the network. It's yeah.  Michael Moran [00:09:17] So I had just moved this weekend to a new place and had to set up my Wi-Fi. And lo and behold, the password was password and the username was user. And the only thing they could have done to make that less secure was perhaps translate that into Russian. Make it easier. I mean, it's astounding. But so we've taken this approach to IoT security, which is very common now, which is you don't expect anybody to use their internal network. Of course, you don't want to your treasury anywhere near an IoT device. What you do is you create a LoRaWAN or Zigbee or some kind of internal, you know, low way, low bandwidth, low net cost, low end with network that essentially is completely disconnected from any kind of IP or anything that's that sensitive and run everything. There is kind of a closed loop. And, you know, I always think of that as early days of the internet. I was at MSNBC.com, which was the kind of pioneer at NBC News on the internet, and I was wondering why I couldn't get Andrea Mitchell and all these high profile correspondents to, you know, pay attention to what we were doing because we were breaking news on their beats. And it turned out that NBC News didn't allow them to go on the internet. It was astounding. They had the old, you know, dumb terminal approach to things because they were afraid that CBS would hack in and find out what's on nightly news.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:10:54] Oh my gosh, I can't imagine being a reporter and not having access to the internet.  Michael Moran [00:10:58] Well, I'm an old man now, but there was a time when the internet didn't exist, and I was, you know, one of the evangelists at NBC to try to get them to open the channel for their journalists. So they obviously did, and now they're very good at it. But it reminds me that approach. It's almost like we're going back to the future, right? We're creating now many networks to kind of quarantine the corporate network away and make the the IoT devices more secure. Is that a long term solution?  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:11:31] I have no idea, but I will say this, we have historically just very broadly speaking, try to make the world flat in, you know, if you think about technology in the internet at large, you think about like Facebook before it was super evil. They were to say, Hey, everybody can be who they are on the internet. No layers, very flat. We all talk to one another. That doesn't go well. I think we all want this, this utopia where everything's connected and it's easy. But I think adding that friction is probably important because humans are not all awesome people that you want to sit next to for a long period of time. Right? Or trust with your secrets and data. So I think this is a start. I actually did a story about it that just ran today on the web site was in last week's newsletter about the end of general purpose wireless networks, which talks actually to the specific thing, which is, we're going to have many, many, many networks and we're going to have to have ways to bring data from one to the other in ways that feel secure. And that is like way above my pay grade figuring all that out.  Michael Moran [00:12:45] Yeah, and that's about mine as well, though, that's precisely where the name of the company I work for came from Microshare, there's actually this incredibly complex back end that shares data in a very specific, carefully curated way with different types of stakeholders, with each of whom are assigned different permissions and ownership levels. And, you know, microshare had that has lived with the curse of being out in front of the market and in some cases, because who's going to buy that right? Right now, it's there's a data market data market out there, but it tends to be all about, you know, advertising and people selling your data without your really knowing it.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:13:32] That's one of my greatest disappointments is that that we've we had a chance that we still do. If you look at technology, you know, think about the launch of broadband back in, I don't know, 2000, when we start having dial up, right? It enabled all these companies and the underlying technology was not the key. It was what you did with it. And then we built the business models around that tied to advertising. And when I look at that and I see that coming to IoT, it's frustrating because the data is both more personal. So it feels much more insulting to get an ad for the fact that you were, you know, I don't know, Stacey, you only walked 2000 feet yesterday. You need to eat a salad, you know, just something that feels a little too intrusive and possibly judge. And then this idea that we could do so much more with it if we could figure out a different business model and we enabled trust. And this is trust from security, but trust also from the data that people have. So I feel like if we actually want the IoT to be what it can be, we need to dump the ad business model. And it's really hard to get away from that kind of highly lucrative flow of cash, but we got to figure it out.  Michael Moran [00:14:53] Yeah, and, you know, regulators are not going to do it because they were they would have. All right. Well, let's hold on, pause there and take a break to hear from our sponsor. OK, I'm back having a fascinating conversation with Stacey Higginbotham, the journalist who covers the Internet of Things. Her newsletter is really a must read for iOttie, and I hope you guys will go and sign up. Stacey, I wanted to talk about a little bit about the kind of confluence of COVID, which from our perspective, it made. It made the kind of nice to have internal environmental sensors a must have in some cases. So where we find that we're talking to a whole new group of people, not just facilities managers, not just it, but people like H.R. and people like CFOs who were wondering how much of their real estate portfolio was actually being used and which ones to get rid of which which buildings are sick buildings. You know, they're they're looking for data. They're looking for ways to make these big strategic decisions. How, you know, we also same time you've got this much larger trend that hopefully will outlast the pandemic on sustainability and environmental social governance practices, where IoT is once again quite relevant. You can create data streams that help you prove out your sustainability initiatives or help you report on how you're performing or what are you seeing out there. That's innovative. That's interesting.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:16:31] Oh, so many things. So you're right. COVID COVID definitely accelerated people's IoT deployments for a couple reasons. One. Everybody was going remote ray. So now you had to have the tools for them to be able to access whatever their job used to be, and that was a forcing function on that front and on the health care front. What I think is also relevant, and I don't know if it's because companies started seeing the data from like people counting or whatever they were doing with, we'll call it digital transformation. But basically, I'm just thinking, hey, slap at a bunch of sensors around in building up some applications that can use that sensor data to help make decisions, right? So once they did that for COVID, they saw potentially other things they could do with it. The other thing that I think is kind of tied to this and I don't know which is the cause of which is the effect is basically what I'm saying here is we had a really brutal series of suburbs in California with wildfires, which drove a lot of people to think about things like indoor air quality and made climate change in your face, in your face, I guess. And when that happened, we saw people recognizing the fact that their buildings could be more efficient and tied with that Kobe data that they were already getting or data tied to like people in the space, that sort of thing. We got a big push for sustainability in buildings. And I think. There's a stat and I can't remember where it's from, but it's basically like 40 percent of our carbon emissions come from buildings. I see that stat on every other press release right now because it is a very top of mind for both people buying stuff and for people trying to sell stuff. And I'm super excited about this because one, I think it is going to be great for energy efficiency, but to it gets us beyond asset tracking as a viable use case for the IoT. So I am all for anything that moves us beyond those first few things that people were really excited about  Michael Moran [00:18:44] so that the early so yeah, that's unpretty is that stat, I'm pretty sure.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:18:50] OK, there you go.  Michael Moran [00:18:51] Thank you. Principles of responsible investing. It's the United Nations principles, and that's where I think that comes from. And it's it's a kind of mash up of commercial real estate at 29 percent. You can tell I've quoted this before, and the rest of it is construction and development. So, but yeah, when you put it together, it's 40 percent of global emissions. That's gargantuan, right? Yeah, that's not picking on the couch. But ultimately, what about you know, what we're finding is that the kind of sustainability iOttie one to one point, oh, really wasn't about sensors. It was the technology was really web crawling spiders that looked at your utility bills and kind of uploaded that information to make it convenient. It really didn't change anything. There's no way you're going. You could you could do that and still burn inefficiently, you know, from now until the next century. But that was kind of the 1.0, the 2.0 to me, which is really not there yet. We are doing it. But I think once again, this is microshare out ahead of the market is in the social component of ESG, the social meaning, you know, how people are treated, whether buildings are responsive, whether they're safe, whether you know the quality of the air and the quality the water in the building is is being properly maintained, although those calibration kind of things that were taken for granted before the pandemic are now susceptible to IoT. And that could be a really powerful accelerant of, you know, not necessarily climate. Not everything in ESG is climate, remember, but of, you know, making a humane, safe, you know, performing workplace.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:20:42] Sure. Now I'm curious what you mean when you say a safe, humane performance workplace, because that implies that prior to this they weren't.  Michael Moran [00:20:51] Well, I don't think anybody who has ever worked in an office building and felt like they needed a Snickers bar and a cup of coffee at 4:30 realized that they were being poisoned by carbon.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:21:05] Got it. OK, so  Michael Moran [00:21:07] so this part of the you know, the reality that the pandemic has made people realize indoor spaces are not simply big, open empty places, there's things around you, there's the humidity, there's the temperature, there is carbon buildup, there are particulates in the air. Right, right. The extent to which you can know, for instance, for sure how many times a conference room was used today and whether it was cleaned. Right. Those are all things that are susceptible to data. And so ultimately, how many people are in the cafeteria right now? Do you really want to go in and waste a half an hour standing in line for coffee? Or you want to wait 20 minutes? Look at your phone app and say, Oh, there's no one there. I'm going now. And these are the kind of elements that I think I think the pandemic has kind of raised awareness of the value of these kind of things.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:22:03] I think the economics associated with this information have changed both the importance and the economics. So and I say that because of COVID, because you suddenly have possibly fewer workers, but you also recognize that keeping your workers means keeping them safe or keeping them at their desks means keeping them uninfected. So you have to track high quality indoor air, right? You have to make sure that's a thing in prior to that. There were companies doing this sort of thing, but they were they were. A lot of them were in Europe. Some of them were in China because air pollution is a bigger deal over there. But basically, they were sorry. But with COVID, it suddenly became important to companies to have that. Tracking and facilities management internal to their operations in some of this gets to the bottom line with technology, as we have a lot of things available to us, we can track all kinds of crazy stuff, but a lot of times we don't care about it until we have to. And that usually is based on some sort of economic incentive and for good or ill. I think that's what happened with COVID.  Michael Moran [00:23:24] So we're seeing now. I want to stay with air quality because it's an interesting use case, which we've seen several instances where a company recognizes the value of knowing about the quality of the air. And that's partly because productivity falls when the air quality is bad. But it's also because people now, as you said, retention and recruitment. People want to know these things because they don't want to spend most of their week sitting in a poisonous room, right? So but what do you do? This has been the great conundrum with air quality. All right. Let's say you have an air quality monitoring system installed in your building, and there's persistent bad air in one area and you've tried all the easy things opening windows, you know, tweaking the facts. Nothing's working. That's the I think that's the great conundrum. It's the warnings there. The economic incentive then becomes take the damn things out. We don't know, and we don't want to know.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:24:28] Well, so in I think I think that's kind of the challenge with iOttie without a use, without a clearly defined use case is that you'll start seeing things that you don't necessarily understand or you don't want to have to understand because fixing them is going to be expensive or a problem. And we actually see this with things like air quality monitoring outside of the outside, not just inside. So it's very well known that schools generate a lot of air pollution because parents come by and pick up their children and leave their engines idling. And to solve that problem, you would have to either. I mean, they tell people to turn off their engines, but you might also have to make Bible school leagues. And so in your example of having bad indoor air quality in a specific area, the onus then becomes from detecting the problem to figuring out why it's happening and then fixing it in. That's not a technology issue, right? That's a business or operational or societal issue. And I think a lot of times when we talk about technology, we forget. Even technologists who are building it, they forget that they're just a tool and we have to have all these other things around it to actually do what the tool is supposed to do.  Michael Moran [00:25:53] What do you think the role of regulators are in all of this? I have seen there have been a smattering of reports about New York City. I think in the UK, in the school systems there now, at least checking air quality doesn't mean they're monitoring it. But I think they do a test now and then what do you think we're going to see a world where regulators get involved in this?  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:26:18] I hope we do. And I say this because right now we have so many environmental or OSHA type regulations that we can't actually. Right now, they're they're checked by an inspector coming. If you look at like the EPA, they actually notify their factories before they show up in the factories. They're like, Oh, the EPA is coming to check our emissions tomorrow. Let's fix that. Oh, I think the same way we've managed things like cold chain, especially around food production or drug production, we could do that for environmental something in the air quality sensing. We just have to have the rules and then the stuff in place. And so I think I honestly do think it. I don't know why. Well, I do know why. So we should have sensors in place on, you know, any sort of manufacturing plant that the EPA is monitoring, right? And they should have a line into that sensor data so they can track it on an ongoing basis. Why don't we have responsive fines when things get out of whack? It's not impossible. Businesses are already doing it themselves. So I think the regulatory side, we have the laws, but we might be better off just moving to enforcement of the existing laws. And then, yes, I do think we need more laws around the types of things. We're going to hold people accountable for the types of outcomes that get generated. And it's really complicated.  Michael Moran [00:27:56] Yeah. So, Stacey, I wanted to ask one last question. What is the coolest? iOttie use case you've seen in the last year, what really kind of made you go wow  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:28:11] in the last year on the enterprise or consumer side,  Michael Moran [00:28:16] I just pick one. It doesn't matter, but enterprise will be fine. But consumers crucial to.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:28:25] Sorry. This is a hard one, because pandemic timing messes everything. I think the coolest thing I have seen and I think this was in 2020, but I'm not sure. Our. Density is a company that makes people motion tracking sensors for piercing density is a company that makes motion tracking. No density is a company that's made people counting sensors, and they do it using some proprietary algorithms and some infrared and thing I think is so cool about it is it's very accurate and it's also privacy first. And I've seen a lot of very cool things coming on the kind of RF sensing front that I think have a lot more potential than video cameras for basic tracking in ways that do not infringe on people's privacy. And I'm super excited about that.  Michael Moran [00:29:27] Yeah, we we went down that road as well with with Bluetooth based contact tracing wearables, and it was precisely because it didn't collect PII, which is personally identifiable information that it was successful. And you know, the other thing because the alternative with the smartphone tracking and we didn't like that for all sorts of reasons. We have clients on the world where smartphones are not necessarily ubiquitous. Plus, you're a manufacturer, you can't have a smartphone on the floor because it's firstly, it's dangerous because it's distracting and they the batteries run out. And so it defeats the whole contact tracing concept. So, yeah, we did. We did a bunch of stuff that was and I learned a new word sue. Anonymized. So as opposed to being anonymous, which means that you could never be uncovered, so to speak. The idea of contact tracing is if somebody reports a symptom, they can do a reverse database query and then unmask the various wearables to know who has been exposed to this person over the last week and tell them to get tested. So there had to be somebody who had the ability to find out, OK, what badge was John wearing? Because John needs to get tested before it comes back to the office. So it's, you know, we've had zero shutdowns in any of the places we deployed it. And but that was a major issue for us. The PII was, you know, you you download something onto your smartphone and your boss is not just tracking you work is tracking you everywhere. Right? So that's not cool. And no one wanted it. No one would download it.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:31:12] Yeah.  Michael Moran [00:31:13] There were all sorts of challenges that that led to the success of our product, which was universal contact tracing, especially in manufacturing environments where you just you can't send people home and still make revenue. So that was a really important kind of mid-pandemic success for us and got a lot of attention. And still, interestingly, because of the persistence of COVID where it's being renewed, what we thought was like a one year battlefield innovation turns out now people were in their third year of the contracts thanks to Delta and on the Crown, which, you know, we frankly would rather see this going away. It's not a huge chunk of our revenue, but  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:31:59] are they pulling in other data or using it for it? Because I think there's once you see broadly like where people cluster, I think there's some interesting opportunities around scheduling lunches or, you know,  Michael Moran [00:32:10] we are actually there's new applications often, you know, these are the brainchild of the client. So in the nursing home industry in the UK, we've done a several year study with contact tracing wearables in 16 nursing homes and that's been now expanded to 64. They call them care homes in the UK. And so, yes, this was very valuable to know when someone had symptoms who had they've been in touch with. But then the the nursing home administrators realized, OK, it's also prevented several people from wandering off campus, which, you know, the whole U.S. version of the silver alert someone with dementia. So they get an alert when somebody breaks the defense. And then the other part of it was they also noticed that in some nursing homes, the contact tracing wearables that were assigned to the staff were sitting in a break room and a suspicious circle. Turns out they were playing poker most of the day. And so this got the the kind of unpleasant nickname of slacker tracker. Now that's that's just kind of funny in the in the general world. But in a nursing home, part of the the therapeutic care of an elderly person is human contact. So the nursing home owners were realizing they're not even going and making rounds and saying hello to these people, and that means they're being basically storehouse. So that's become, you know, a really significant development project for us, and I think it's going to be, you know, part of the future. And again, it doesn't collect anybody's PII. But the it is possible to know how badge number eight three three three four is being worn by Joe Schmo, right? And that's part of the the value of it. So there comes a point where privacy, if you're going to get value and efficiency, there has to be transparency in that interaction. Sorry. There has to be transparency in that interaction, but ultimately there is a trade off with any technology.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:34:34] It's true, although I don't expect that level of privacy at work, so I'm OK with slacker trackers.  Michael Moran [00:34:43] Well, we used to have slackers trackers in the 20th century. They were called your boss and they just kind of would show up over your shoulder every once in a while and say. Why are you reading about the New York Yankees right now? That's the kind of stuff that happened all the time. So now we're just getting efficient next year.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:35:01] You're outing yourself here. I like it. All right,  Michael Moran [00:35:06] Stacy. It's been an enormous pleasure talking to you have gone way over. But because this is my podcast, it can be as long as I want. So ha.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:35:14] And because I'm on the podcast, on my podcast runs an hour, I mean, what did you think was going to happen? There you  Michael Moran [00:35:19] go. All right. So I wanted to give you an opportunity to tell the audience where they can follow your work and how they could sign up for our newsletter.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:35:29] Sure. Thank you. Y'all can find me at Stacy on IoT SI.com, or you can find and download the Internet of Things podcast wherever you get your podcasts.  Michael Moran [00:35:42] That's great. And of course, you know you can learn more about how microshare has helped get the world's safety back to work with ever smart suite of products. Sorry. With our ever smart suite of products, ever smart solutions, boost efficiency, enable cost savings and bring safety and reassurance to people inside your building portfolio. I would like to also remind you you could sign up for the podcast on our website. WW W Microshare Daddario and you can also find it on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, iHeartRadio. Every place where you can find audio, you can probably find this once again. Stacy, thank you for joining us. It's been a real pleasure.  Stacey Higgenbothom [00:36:21] Thanks for having me.  Michael Moran [00:36:22] And that'll do it for this week on behalf of all our global employees. This is Michael Moran at Microshare saying So long be well and thank you for listening. 

While Nik hides from a Maharaja Carl interviews songwriter, composer, performer, podcaster, blogger (say that three times fast) Michael Stenger, a third culture kid expressing this creativity all over the place.

You can't look like every other Joe Schmo doing the same exact same thing and expect to stand out. Be you! Be innovative! Stretch yourself to doing what everyone else might not be willing to do.

Joe Schmo Interviews is a subsection of Derailed Conversations w/ Nik & Carl. It is where the common man is questioned about his own life. He doesn't have a million bucks, he's not a celebrity but he has thoughts, interests and feelings that may resonate with you. Certainly it is interesting to hear success stories of the high achiever but we can all identify with the guy next door and I find it refreshing to hear his thoughts. Enjoy.

This episode of The Crexi Podcast discusses the journey of launching a commercial investment firm with Aaron Zucker, Founder of Zucker Investment Group.The Crexi Podcast explores various aspects of commercial real estate in conversation with top industry professionals. In each episode, we feature different guests, tapping into their wealth of expertise and exploring the latest trends in the world of commercial real estate.  In this episode, Crexi's Yannis Papadakis chats with Aaron to discuss the benefits and challenges of launching and running your own business, why curiosity is essential as a commercial investor, and what the future looks like for the world of retail.  Their wide-ranging conversation covers:Factors to consider when deciding to jump from a secure paycheck to becoming a commercial real estate entrepreneur.How to develop a commercial property investment ethos and build a good compass for navigating investment decisions.Broader economic trends impacting the CRE landscape, and how retail is poised for a renaissance.The importance of curiosity and continual self-education when working in investment/advisory industries.And much more!If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our newsletter to receive the very next one delivered straight to your inbox. For show notes, past guests, and more CRE content, please check out Crexi Insights.Ready to find your next CRE property? Visit Crexi and immediately browse hundreds of thousands of available commercial properties.Follow Crexi:https://www.crexi.com/​ https://www.crexi.com/instagram​ https://www.crexi.com/facebook​ https://www.crexi.com/twitter​ https://www.crexi.com/linkedin​ https://www.youtube.com/crexiAbout Aaron Zucker:Aaron Zucker is the Founder and Principal at Zucker Investment Group (or ZIG for short), a commercial real estate company specializing in acquiring value-add retail properties. Aaron founded ZIG in 2018 to parlay his passion for property investments into a world-class commercial real estate firm dedicated to creating value for communities and partners alike. Aaron is also a franchise owner of American Family Care (AFC), a business obsessed with the idea of helping as many people achieve and maintain health as possible, as quickly as possible, in the safest way possible. They opened their first clinic in Fall 2020 in Fuquay Varina, NC, and plan to open more clinics in the upcoming year. In his spare time, Aaron is also the host of the Limitless Podcast, speaking with commercial real estate's most successful players to learn how moved from being a Joe Schmo to CEO. Aaron earned both his Bachelor's in Communications and his Masters from the University of Alabama.

Talkin baseball and football with the host from Joe Schmo and the Boys.  Twitter: https://twitter.com/_JoeSchmo1 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1512184996 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4qf9aqV56TXOKjZS0yhucY Anchor: https://anchor.fm/joe916 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thedraketake/support

We break down the newest proposal from Major League Baseball

This episode was a get to know you and a feel for where we stand on certain sports related topics.

Having the subject to wholesaling real estate investing option is going to set you up for doing more deals. Make sure to follow me on Instagram: jasonlucchesipage Most offers presented to homeowners never discuss subject to wholesaling real estate terms. A lot of investors miss out on completing deals because they don't understand subject to wholesaling real estate options. When you can offer a homeowner an option that doesn't have to do with saying, "I can give you $65,000 for your house," when you and me both know the house is worth $130,000. A lot of homeowners will say no to your offer unless you can offer subject to wholesaling real estate terms in which they provide seller financing. Our video today offers you a subject to wholesaling real estate explanation. We're going to cover everything with you step-by-step so you can add the subject to wholesaling real estate tool for when you're presenting options to your seller. You'll see an immediate increase in closed transactions on a monthly basis just by using subject to wholesaling real estate terms. This will also create monthly passive cash-flow for you. It's time to expand yourself into an investor that receives monthly cash-flow by offering subject to wholesaling real estate term deals. Expand your business beyond offering a wholesale option that every other Joe Schmo is out there offering. When you can truly have a business that helps people and gives the best option available you'll have a thriving business. The subject to wholesaling real estate option can help bridge that gap beyond wholesaling. Our business is still primarily wholesaling real estate but being able to offer options most of your competition doesn't even know about will help set you apart by quite a bit. Get on the subject to wholesaling real estate train today and let us know your thoughts after watching this episode of The No Flipping Excuses Show.

29: Meet Joe Cronin - former Marine & former MMA now social media voice and father. We talk motivation, mental illness, and everything in between. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/theparttimefriends/support

Welcome to Season 2 Episode 2 of the Creative Business Success Podcast! In this episode, I talked with the amazing Britt and Kelsey from https://launchyourdaydream.com/?utm_source=thecelab.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Podcast (Launch Your Daydream), where they provide branding and web design for photographers. These ladies are pros at helping creative entrepreneurs master their branding and stand out in a crowded market. After they spoke at the Accelerate Your Creative Biz Summit, I knew this dynamic duo would be perfect for the podcast too. I can't wait to dive into branding with them, so let's get started! Here's a cheat sheet of some of the episode highlights: Britt + Kelsey's intro, 0:57 Branding foundations, 6:14 The Brand Pizza, 6:59 Establishing your niche, 9:28 Fears and the importance of niching down, 12:09 https://www.dubsado.com/?c=celab (-Take some things off your business plate!-), 14:00 How to niche down as an artist or maker, 14:38 Finding your differentiator, 19:30 Helping customers remember you, 22:44 A branding exercise for you! 26:20 Where to find Britt + Kelsey online, 26:32 Let's dive deeper into a few of these key takeaways... 1 | Branding is more than just a logoBritt and Kelsey talked about their Brand PIzza framework and it's a great reminder that there's SO much more to branding for creative entrepreneurs (and really anyone!) than just having a good logo. Building a solid brand foundation is crucial to your branding success. Without a good foundation, your creative business 'house' is going to crumble eventually. Don't rely on your logo or any single piece of your branding to carry you! Make sure to establish your brand foundation to make the most of your creative business. Have you established your brand foundation? If not, it's not too late! Use the strategies and exercises Britt and Kelsey shared in this episode to create your own creative business brand foundation. 2 | Having a niche you love is important!Do you take every client that comes your way or sell to every Joe Schmo that shows up to your booth at a craft fair? While that's fine at the beginning of a creative business, you don't want to do that forever. Finding a specific audience that you LOVE to serve can make or break your business! When someone looks for a specific solution to their problem, whether it's finding a photographer for a special occasion or looking for the perfect art for their home, they want to find someone who's GREAT at that specific thing. Specializing in a particular area can actually help you get MORE clients, not less! When you're the go-to person in your creative business niche, it's easier for folks to refer you to new customers. Have you figured out who your favorite customers are? If not, keep experimenting until you find them! Once you know who you want to work with or make your creative product for, focus on them. 3 | Find your differentiator as a creative entrepreneurEveryone has something that makes them different, even if you don't think that's the case. (I promise, it's true!) Britt and Kelsey shared some fantastic ways to find your own differentiator to help set your creative business apart from the crowd. If you're not sure what makes your creative business unique, it's time to dive in and figure it out! If you haven't found your differentiator, grab a friend and find THEIR differentiators while they find yours. It's a great way to get an outside perspective on you and your creative business! 4 | Create a stellar client experienceWe've all had bad customer experiences, right? That's why having a fantastic client experience is so important as a creative entrepreneur! I loved Britt's story about her customer experience with an Etsy candle shop. If you take a moment to make customers feel special and noticed, it can go a long way towards your creative business success! What do you do right now and what could you do in the future to make your...