Podcasts about luxton

In a world where streaming services are constantly evolving, one thing is clear: the way we consume TV is changing. This episode delves into the challenges of the streaming industry, where viewers are no longer satisfied with a one-size-fits-all approach. With the rise of niche markets and personalized content, smaller streaming channels are struggling to compete with the big players. Ross discusses the current state of the streaming industry with Sean Luxton, general manager of MyOutdoorTV. They touch on the importance of adapting to changing viewer behavior, where consumers are now assembling their own streaming stacks and seeking more control over their content. This shift has led to a new dynamic, where viewers are willing to pay for premium, ad-free services, but also expect a more curated experience. Sean shares his insights on how MyOutdoorTV is navigating this landscape by offering lean-back live TV channels, which provide a more traditional viewing experience. He also emphasizes the importance of innovation and learning in the industry, highlighting the value of attending events like the Stream TV Show, where smaller operators can learn from each other's experiences. If you're interested in learning more about the future of streaming and how smaller channels are adapting to the changing market, tune in to this episode to hear Sean's expert insights and gain a deeper understanding of the industry's evolution.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National is finally closing the loophole that allows unelected members of the public to get voting rights on council committees. Local Government Minister Simon Watts has moved to stop it, but let's be honest, it's the bare minimum. We talk to ACT MP Cameron Luxton, who drafted the original bill months ago, about why National took so long to protect our democracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get ready for a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to host a community dairy breakfast as we tour a family farm in the hilly Driftless region. Stephanie Hoff visits Windi Ridge Farm as part of her Leaders of the Land tour with Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation. The 35th annual Sauk County Breakfast on the Farm is bringing together more than 75 local businesses to spotlight the Luxton family's dedication to the community, the animals, and the land. This interview also explores how these "leaders of the land" use contour strips and expert-approved nutrient management plans to preserve soil health for generations to come.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Did you know keeping your lawn mower blades sharp is a critical key to a great lawn? Many people don't! Ben Jarboe finds out about some of the other ingredients that make up a lush, green lawn from Doug Soldat, UW-Madison Extension Turf Specialist. After a few showers this morning, dry moderate weather moves into WI. Stu Muck says rain shouldn't redevelop until later this week. Traditionally lard was thought of as a key ingredient to flaky pie crusts. Today - thanks to social media - lard is being used as a moisturizer for skin! Kiley Allan finds out about it from Julie Schroeder, Owner of Open Road Ranch. Schroeder says lard is highly effective for skincare because its pH and lipid profile closely mimic human skin, allowing it to absorb easily. Naturally rich in vitamins and antioxidants, lard serves as an antibacterial and anti-inflammatory treatment for conditions like eczema, rosacea, and minor wounds. An agriculture instructor from Viroqua has been named the 2026 Miss Wisconsin USA! Olivia Lulich, originally from Lyndon Station, was selected from the field on Saturday evening in Des Moines. Lulich says her platform of helping people understand where their food comes from will be part of her Miss Wisconsin USA conversations. It's officially June Dairy month in Wisconsin, and farms are ready for visitors. Stephanie Hoff introduces us to the hosts for the Sauk Co Breakfast on the Farm, the Luxton family from Hillpoint. Tom and Kay Luxton at Windi Ridge Farm say the breakfast has prompted them on some projects they wanted to get done like installing a new driveway and painting the parlor. They remind visitors that it's about more than just the breakfast.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour’s agriculture spokeswoman comments on the fuel and fertiliser crisis and says the government could be doing better. And is she about to come out with some ag policy at long last?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We ask Labour’s ag spokesperson why she was missing in action at last week’s Federated Farmers’ High Country Field Day. And will she finally come out with some ag policy in the election year? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chloë Luxton loved to collect flowers as a child, she'd press them then turn them into perfumes and sell them. But she had no idea then this was the first signs of the business she'd one day grow.Later when she was looking for products for her husband's new pub The Beckford Arms Chloë created Bramley – bath and body products are made up of essential oils and natural ingredients which capture the essence of nature surrounding them. Not only are they still used by the now Beckford Group, they have their own range for The Pig Hotels, are sold in Fortnum & Mason, John Lewis, Highgrove along with hunderes of pther hotels pubs and restaurants – and they've just opened their own shop in Bath.Chloë didn't have a plan when she left school but by following her love for nature, creating products and selling it's taken her to a life she loves built around her family. She believes it's all about focusing on what brings us joy and she give some wonderful advice to help you do the same.I also interviewed Chloë's lovely husband Charlie - you can listen to his story here: And if you'd like to download my FREE, yes FREE novella, Could We Just Do That Again? you can do that here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Luxton shares his Loan Officer expertise with Scott's coaching clients

The Select Committee report on the Government's proposed Greyhound Racing ban has come back, with the committee saying they want the bill passed. But, ACT has some concerns surrounding the impact to the livelihood of a 'lawfully acting industry'. ACT MP Cameron Luxton sat on the Select Committee, and joined Heather du Plessis-Allan to discuss the party's proposed changes. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Date: Sunday 8 March 2026 // Speaker: Tim Luxton

Labour’s agriculture spokeswoman is almost voiceless, quite literally, when it comes to talking about her party’s Ag Policy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Now that it’s election year, will we finally get some ag policy out of Labour’s ag spokesperson?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour’s Agriculture Spokesperson comments on the RMA, an FTA with India, carbon farming, the associated wildfires, and the latest poll.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour's Agriculture Spokesperson defends her party's lack of any real meaningful policy, especially around Ag emissions. We ask if Net Zero by 2050 is a now lost cause? And has Chippy dodged a political bullet with the release of his CGT policy? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We catch up with Labour’s agriculture spokeswoman. She shares her memories of the Gisborne Show, comments on Labour’s lack of agriculture policy, and discusses the government’s new methane reduction target.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on Taxpayer Talk, Peter Williams is joined by ACT MP Cameron Luxton for a wide-ranging discussion on the Government's new Gene Technology Bill and what it means for innovation and regulation in New Zealand.Cameron shares his perspective on the Bill's Māori advisory committee and how ACT approached its position.Peter and Cameron also discuss the Bill he has drafted to improve transparency and accountability in local government by banning unelected voting members on council committees.Support the show

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Labour's Ag spokesperson puts the boot into the most highly rated MP in the House and we ask, yet again, for some Ag policy from Labour.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Yet again, we ask Labour’s agriculture spokeswoman for some long-awaited ag policy and just who in the Party is going to be formulating that policy?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to How to Start Up, the podcast that goes beyond the headlines to uncover how startups really begin, straight from the founders who lived it. I'm Juliet Fallowfield, founder of FF&M, where we empower you to take charge of your PR and launch your podcast with confidence.In today's episode, we're joined by Chloë Luxton, founder of Bramley. With sustainability as a top priority, this company is providing customers with botanical magic through natural fragrances, bulk refill pouches, and recycled packaging.Keep listening to hear how Chloë got started and why slow growth was her friend. Also, her perspective on B Corp and the pros and the cons of getting certified as well as the pros and cons of being a founder and how to manage that isolation that can often feel relentless.Chloë's Advice: If it's a good product, free samples will really generate sales and boost reputationKeep up with developments in recycling (for example, compostable refill pouches)If sustainability is something you believe in, then it will make your choices more straightforwardSometimes it's complicated, but all you can do is make the greener choiceB-Corp will give your business recognitionIt's a good idea to make packaging which can serve a second purpose laterPackaging apart, it's what's on the inside - the product itself - that really mattersTake advantage of networking opportunities; put yourself out thereTo avoid isolation as a single founder, talk issues over with others whenever possibleFF&M enables you to own your own PR & produces podcasts.Recorded, edited & published by Juliet Fallowfield, 2024 MD & Founder of PR & Communications consultancy for startups Fallow, Field & Mason.  Email us at hello@fallowfieldmason.com or DM us on instagram @fallowfieldmason. FF&M recommends: LastPass the password-keeping site that syncs between devices.Google Workspace is brilliant for small businessesBuzzsprout podcast 'how to' & hosting directoryCanva has proved invaluable for creating all the social media assets and audio bites.MUSIC CREDIT Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod.  Link &  LicenceText us your questions for future founders. Plus we'd love to get your feedback, text in via Fan MailSupport the showText us your questions for future founders. Plus we'd love to get your feedback, text in via Fan MailSupport the show

Snuł się po polach, ubrany jedynie w brudny jutowy worek. Podczas sporadycznych wizyt na poczcie, wyzywał i przeklinał dawnych przyjaciół. W środku nocy kosił trawę, jakby w tym dziwacznym rytuale szukał ukojenia lub próby przywrócenia kontroli nad rzeczywistością. W ciągu dnia zamykał się w swoim pokoju, a gdy ktoś przechodził obok farmy, widział sylwetkę i spojrzenie Alana, ukryte za firanką...

Labour's agriculture spokeswoman offers some informed commentary on funding early childhood education, but will she ever come out with any meaningful agriculture policy? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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From poolside in Palm Springs during Modernism Week 2025, today's guests are authors Chris Rawlins on Fire Island's Horace Gifford, Donald Luxton on Vancouver's Arthur Erickson, and recorded at the PRP4 DOCOMOMO conference in Boston, David Fixler. 

Labour’s agriculture spokeswoman on Paris, methane, carbon farming, and Fieldays.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour’s agriculture spokeswoman comments on Ikea, carbon farming, the Kirwee Field Days and the prospects of governing with the Greens and Te Pāti Māori.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Since moving to Somerset 10 years ago, I have been heading to the Beckford Inn's in search of satiating that sense of true countryside; Heartening red wine, tasty food, cosy fires and those interiors that makes you feel like you're back where you belong. Witnessing more pubs open by The Beckford Group over the years, it's clear that they have a knack for knowing when it's right, and an eye for how to do it well. And then of course, there's Bramley, the bath and body brand, and perfect sister brand, with 23 products on offer as well as a treatment cabin ay their Longleat site, The Bath Bath Arms!Having spent a lot of my annual income in one or another of their pubs, I was excited to meet the brains. We talk about values, when to thinkwhen thinking's too much, we talk about community, connection and also the role a pub has in our villages. So today, I welcome co-founder Dan Brod and founder of Bramley, Chloe Luxton. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Could Labour’s agriculture spokeswoman be the next Minister of Agriculture if Chris Hipkins sleepwalks to victory in 2026? Why is she speaking out about the Gene Tech Bill? And why has she moved to Gisborne?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ceri speaks with Claire Luxton, a British artist who is revolutionising the art world through her multidisciplinary approach. From self portraiture to large public installations, Claire shares her thoughts on pricing artwork, building authentic brand collaborations and maintaining creative integrity while achieving commercial success. KEY TAKEAWAYS Claire has developed a distinctive artistic process that merges performance and photography, choosing to capture everything in camera using a Hasselblad medium format camera rather than relying on AI, reflecting her commitment to authenticity in an increasingly digital world. Through her journey with brand collaborations, Claire has learned to evaluate opportunities by asking "Would future Claire say yes?" a self filtering approach that helps maintain her artistic integrity while building commercial success. Claire approaches every project with extensive research and preparation, believing that understanding context deeply enables her to create more meaningful and impactful work. Claire’s public art installation approach begins with historical research, allowing her to uncover and tell forgotten stories of each location, from decommissioned lighthouses to power stations, creating work that resonates with both place and community. Her experience with MTR Agency has changed how she views artist collector relationships, moving away from the traditional gallery model of separation to embrace direct connections with collectors, leading to more meaningful artistic dialogue. Claire's social media strategy evolved from posting frequently to carefully curating content that authentically represents her artistic vision, prioritising meaningful engagement over algorithmic success. After leaving exclusive gallery representation, Claire found her voice by exploring different creative avenues before ultimately returning to fine art with a clearer vision and stronger boundaries. She structures her editions thoughtfully, offering one off pieces for largest works and editions of three for smaller sizes, a strategy that reflects the value of her work and her desire to maintain its specialness. BEST MOMENTS "At the time, that was incredibly exciting and I was very green and fresh and I didn't really have any experience, any experience that I had was self generated, as both of my parents were secondary school teachers, so I had zero connections in the art world." "I want to make the art as true conversation and then there to be the by product of money from that." "Would future Claire say yes? So this future me that I picture, would I say yes to this in two years time, in five years time? Would I be happy that I did this?" "So many collectors are invested in not only the piece, but in yourself and having conversations with collectors about why they were interested in the piece in the first place is so incredibly valuable." "If something has a lot of conversations, to say there are a lot of comments and a lot of people having conversations, I feel like that's helpful and informative because it means that it's struck a chord." "Only you can do what you do. I know that there's lots of other people who can do similar things, but only you can do you." "Art is about problem solving so when you're given certain parameters, you then can fit your practice within those parameters and it kind of pushes you in different directions." "I want to make the art as true conversation and then there to be the by product of money from that. It's a difficult space to navigate, but I think at the core it's about finding those key values within your practice that really resonate with your voice and kind of sticking to your guns." EPISODE RESOURCES Guest Links: www.claireluxtonart.com @claireluxtonart PODCAST HOST BIO With over 30 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ **** Build Relationships The Easy WayOur self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/**** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative.

Labour’s agriculture spokeswoman on what she’s up to for the rest of the year, and the latest polls.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Prepare to challenge your understanding of Canadian law with our guest, Michael Mulligan, as we unravel three pivotal legal cases making headlines in British Columbia. First, we dissect a bold ruling where a BC judge declared the 25-year parole ineligibility for first-degree murder unconstitutional. This decision could transform the legal landscape, questioning whether longstanding standards align with modern constitutional rights. We explore the historical precedents, including the Supreme Court of Canada's 1990 Luxton decision, and consider the implications of evolving legal interpretations on future cases.Switching gears, we uncover the curious dismissal of a case due to a no-show Crown prosecutor, illustrating the intricate dance of jurisdiction between the BC Supreme Court and BC Provincial Court. With procedural nuances in the spotlight, we discuss historical instances like a Crown Counsel strike, shedding light on the complexities of prosecution duties. Lastly, we navigate through the latest developments in a class action lawsuit against HSBC, where allegations of mutual fund misrepresentation have sparked claims of unjust enrichment. Learn the crucial differences between actively and passively managed funds and why these distinctions matter to investors seeking value for their money. This episode promises a deep dive into the dynamic interplay of law and current events, offering insights that are both enlightening and thought-provoking.Follow this link for a transcript of the show and links to the cases discussed.

In Episode 234 of Anecdotally Speaking, Paul Luxton, Head of Asia for Syngenta, shares insights on leadership, cultural adaptability, and the power of storytelling. Paul … The post 234 – Paul Luxton: Storytelling and Authenticity in Leadership appeared first on Anecdote.

Labour’s agriculture spokeswoman nominates her highlights, lowlights and her ag person of the year.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour's Ag spokesperson has been on the road visiting high-profile Kiwi farmers at the coal face.  And we agree to disagree over Te Pāti Māori and the Hīkoi.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour's Ag Spokesperson reflects on a bad day for her local electorate with the announcement of the mothballing of the Alliance Group's Smithfield plant in Timaru, with the loss of over 600 jobs. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour's Agriculture Spokesperson defends the travel habits of politicians, particularly Damien O'Connor's, plus we ask her why she's not knuckling down and coming up with some meaningful agricultural policy? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We last chatted to Labour's Ag Spokesperson on July 15. But haven't heard boo from her since! Does Labour actually have any agriculture policies? Or are they asleep at the wheel? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour Ag Spokesperson denies it was a "sleepover and love-in" with Federated Farmers, rather it was a useful exercise in bridge building with the rural sector.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour's agriculture spokeswoman reveals she has been dubbed “The Princess of the Provinces” by Federated Farmers and has decided to own the title. She talks about her conversations with farmers at Fieldays and her constructive discussions with Minister of Agriculture Todd McClay.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour's Ag Spokesperson talks live animal export, wallabies and a sleepover with Fed Farmers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We ask Labour's Agriculture Spokeswoman if, on reflection, and after the election tidal wave kicked Labour to touch, the Ardern/Hipkins Government was far too tough on farmers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Highlights from Toby Gribben's Friday afternoon show on Shout Radio. Featuring chat with top showbiz guests. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Though born and raised in Ontario, Steve Luxton now calls Nova Scotia home. Blame it on meeting a girl and falling in love! We're happy to have his expertise in the music community, in particular his students at Nova Scotia Community College, who cherish his talent and guidance. We chat about his time spent at esteemed Humber College to running his own studio in Cape Breton. Steve has loads of stories, insights and pro tips to share in this episode!  Us on the web: www.mikeandkristen.ca Instagram: www.instagram.com/mike_and_kristen/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikeandkristencreative Shoot us a message! Say hello, tell us who you think we should have on the podcast, and your deepest and darkest secrets: mikeandkristencreative@gmail.com  Review our book "You and Me" on Amazon (it helps a lot!!): https://amzn.to/3qqNCMo Intro song: "The Walk" Outro song: "The Jam" both by Mike's band The Town Heroes - www.thetownheroes.com Mike's site: www.michaelsryan.com Kristen's site: www.kristenherringtonart.com M & K Fundraiser: https://mikeandkristen.ca/fundraiser Steve's website: https://www.steveluxton.ca/ Steve's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/steve_luxton/

We asked Labour's agriculture spokeswoman if she has sufficient credentials to do the job, considering her background is in early childhood education. Plus, we find an interesting family connection to political Labour Party royalty.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Labour's new spokeswoman for agriculture says her rural background means she's the right woman for the job. She's looking forward to getting out and about around New Zealand to listen to the rural sector.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Brianna Clement is on the #ReadingWithYourKids #Podcast to celebrate her #PictureBook A Dream Can Be Achieved, Luxton, A Swimming Champion. Brianna tells us that this book reminds us that swimming can be a fun, safe and aspirational activity for babies and kids. Luxton began as an infant, learning to swim safely with Mom, Dad and friends at his swim school. His dream is to one day become such a great swimmer, he will compete in the Olympics. It's never too early to set goals and reach for your dreams! Click here to visit Brianna's website - https://www.adreamcanbeachieved.com/product-page/a-dream-can-be-achieved-children-s-hardcover-book  Click here to visit ur websiste - www.readingwithyourkids.com 

Mark Pincus was at the forefront of mobile technology when it was just being born. He is a recovering venture capitalist who co-founded his first company with Sunil Paul in 1995. FreeLoader was at the forefront of giving people the news through push technology, just as the IETF was in the process of ratifying HTTP2. He sold that for $38 million only to watch it get destroyed. But he did invest in a startup that one of the interns founded when he gave Sean Parker $100,000 to help found Napster.  Pincus then started Support.com, which went public in 2000. Then Tribe.net, which Cisco acquired. As a former user, it was fun while it lasted. Along the way, Pincus teamed up with Reid Hoffman, former PayPal executive and founder of LinkedIn and bought the Six Degrees patent that basically covered all social networking. Along the way, he invested in Friendster, Buddy Media, Brightmail, JD.com, Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter.  Investing in all those social media properties gave him a pretty good insight into what trends were on the way. Web 2.0 was on the rise and social networks were spreading fast. As they spread, each attempted to become a platform by opening APIs for third-party developers. This led to an opening to create a new company that could build software that sat on top of these social media companies. Meanwhile, the gaming industry was in a transition from desktop and console games to hyper-casual games that are played on mobile devices. So Pincus recruited conspirators to start yet another company and with Michael Luxton, Andrew Trader, Eric Schiermeyer, Steve Schoettler, and Justin Waldron, Zinga was born in 2007. Actually Zinga is the dog. The company Zynga was born in 2007. Facebook was only three years old at the time, but was already at 14 million users to start 2007. That's when they opened up APIs for integration with third party products through FBML, or Facebook Markup Language. They would have 100 million within a year. Given his track record selling companies and picking winners, Zynga easily raised $29 million to start what amounts to a social game studio. They make games that people access through social networks. Luxton, Schiermeyer, and Waldron created the first game, Zynga Poker in 2007. It was a simple enough Texas hold 'em poker game but rose to include tens of millions of players at its height, raking in millions in revenue.  They'd proven the thesis. Social networks, especially Facebook, were growing.. The iPhone came out in 2007. That only hardened their resolve. They sold poker chips in 2008. Then came FarmVille. FarmVille was launched in 2009 and an instant hit. The game went viral and had a million daily users in a week. It was originally written in flash and later ported to iPhones and other mobile platforms. It's now been installed over 700 million times and ran until 2020, when Flash support was dropped by Facebook. FarmVille was free-to-play and simple. It had elements of a 4x game like Civilization, but was co-op, meaning players didn't exterminate one another but instead earned points and thus rankings. In fact, players could help speed up tasks for one another. Players began with a farm - an empty plot of land. They earned experience points by doing routine tasks. Things like growing crops, upgrading items, plowing more and more land. Players took their crops to the market and sold them for coins. Coins could also be bought. If a player didn't harvest their crops when they were mature, the crops would die. Thus, they had players coming back again and again. Push notifications helped remind people about the state of their farm. Or the news in FreeLoader-speak.   Some players became what we called dolphins, or players that spent about what they would on a usual game. Maybe $10 to $30. Others spent thousands, which we referred to as whales. They became the top game on Facebook and the top earner. They launched sequels as well, with FarmVille 2 and FarmVille 3.  They bought Challenge Games in 2010, which was founded by Andrew Busy to develop casual games a well. They bought 14 more companies. They grew to 750 employees. They opened offices in Bangalore, India and Ireland. They experimented with other platforms, like Microsoft's MSN gaming environment and Google TV. They released CastleVille. And they went public towards the end of 2011. It was a whirlwind ride, and just really getting started. They released cute FarmVille toys.  They also released Project Z, Mafia Wars, Hanging with Friends, Adventure World, and Hidden Chronicles. And along the way they became a considerable advertising customer for Facebook, with ads showing up for Mafia Wars and Project Z constantly. Not only that, but their ads flooded other mobile ad networks, as The Sims Social and other games caught on and stole eyeballs. And players were rewarded for spamming the walls of other players, which helped to increase the viral nature of the early Facebook games. Pincus and the team built a successful, vibrant company. They brought in Jeff Karp and launched Pioneer Trail. Then another smash hit, Words with Friends. They bought Newtoy for $53.3 million to get it, after Paul and David Bettner who wrote a game called Chess with Friends a few years earlier. But revenues dropped as the Facebook ride they'd been on began to transition from people gaming in a web browser to mobile devices. All this growth and the company was ready for the next phase. In 2013, Zynga hired Donald Mattrick to be the CEO and Pincus moved to the role of Chief Product Officer. The brought in Alex Garden, the General Manager for Xbox Music , Video, and Reading, who had founded the Homeward creator Relic Entertainment back in the 1990s. The new management didn't fix the decline. The old games continued to lose market share and Pincus came back to run the company as CEO and cut the staff by 18 percent. In 2015 they brought in Frank Gibeau to the board and by 2016 moved him to  CEO of the company. One challenge with the move to mobile was who got the processing payments. Microtransactions had gone through Facebook for years. They moved to Stripe in 2020. They acquired Gram Games, to get Merge Dragons! They bought Small Giant Games to get Empires & Puzzles. They bought Peak Games to get Toon Blast and Toy Blast. They picked up Rollic to get a boatload of actions and puzzle games. They bought Golf Rival by acquiring StarLark. And as of the time of this writing they have nearly 200 million players actively logging into their games. There are a few things to take from the story of Zynga. One is that a free game doesn't put $2.8 billion in revenues on the board, which is what they made in 2021. Advertising amounts for just north of a half billion, but the rest comes from in app purchases. The next is that the transition from owner-operators is hard. Pincus and the founding team had a great vision. They executed and were rewarded by taking the company to a gangbuster IPO. The market changed and it took a couple of pivots to get there. That led to a couple of management shakeups and a transition to more of a portfolio mindset with the fleet of games they own. Another lesson is that larger development organizations don't necessarily get more done. That's why Zynga has had to acquire companies to get hits since around the time that they bought Words with Friends.  Finally, when a company goes public the team gets distracted. Not only is going through an IPO expensive and the ensuing financial reporting requirements a hassle to deal with, but it's distracting. Employees look at stock prices during the day. Higher ranking employees have to hire a team of accountants to shuffle their money around in order to take advantage of tax loopholes. Growth leads to political infighting and power grabbing. There are also regulatory requirements with how we manage our code and technology that slow down innovation. But it all makes us better run and a safer partner eventually. All companies go through this. Those who navigate towards a steady state fastest have the best chance of surviving one more lesson: when the first movers prove a monetization thesis the ocean will get red fast. Zynga became the top mobile development company again after weathering the storm and making a few solid acquisitions. But as Bill Gates pointed out in the 1980s, gaming is a fickle business. So Zynga agreed to be acquired for $12.7 billion in 2022 by Take-Two Interactive, who now owns the Civilization, Grand Theft Auto, Borderlands, WWE, Red Dead, Max Payne, NBA 2K, PGA 2K, Bioshock, Duke Nukem, Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear, Battleship, Centipede, and the list goes on and on. They've been running a portfolio for a long time. Pincus took away nearly $200 million in the deal and about $350 million in Take-Two equity. Ads and loot boxes can be big business. Meanwhile, Pincus and Hoffman from LinkedIn work well together, apparently. They built Reinvent Capital, an investment firm that shows that venture capital has quite a high recidivism rate. They had a number of successful investments and SPACs.  Zynga was much more. They exploited Facebook to shoot up to hundreds of millions in revenue. That was revenue Facebook then decided they should have a piece of in 2011, which cut those Zynga revenues in half over time. This is an important lesson any time a huge percentage of revenue is dependent on another party who can change the game (no pun intended) at any time. Diversify. 

Julie has a wild time joining the Sovereign of the Seas in 1990 as a dancer. She goes on to work as Cruise Staff, Hostess, and Asst. Shore Ex, she talks about the pre-internet bonds formed with fellow shipmates, crosses paths with a stowaway, leaves some pax in Haiti, the ship-shape police, a Bachelorette party, the American Gladiator and the speedway museum, and bringing out the Majesty.