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We often hear investors tell the story about starting in single-family rentals and then quickly changing to multi-family properties to kick their growth into hyper-speed. But that transition is not always perfectly seamless. In this episode, Emil shares his struggle with one of his multi-family properties, and Michael helps him come up with a plan to solve his problem. --- Transcript Before we jump into the episode, here's a quick disclaimer about our content. The Remote Real Estate Investor podcast is for informational purposes only, and is not intended as investment advice. The views, opinions and strategies of both the hosts and the guests are their own and should not be considered as guidance from Roofstock. Make sure to always run your own numbers, make your own independent decisions and seek investment advice from licensed professionals.   Michael: What's going on everybody? Welcome to another episode of The Remote Real Estate Investor. I'm Michael album and today I'm joined by my co host,   Emil: Emil Shour.   Michael: And today, Emil and I gonna be talking about his real life debacle that he's in with his triplex and how he's going to be getting himself out of it. So let's get into it.   All right, well, a meal first and foremost, and to all of our listeners and watchers. Happy New Year. We're recording this a couple days after the first, you have a good celebration?   Emil: Happy New Years, my friend. Yes. I had some delicious I made some wagyu steak at home. We fired up the hot tub at our new house. So it was very mellow, but very relaxing and awesome new year. How about you, man?   Michael: Nice. It was great. I went with my wife to a friend's house out in Stinson Beach. California was just right on the water hanging out through the beach walking doing some paddle boarding so no complaints very relaxing.   Emil: Very good man.   Michael: So today earlier before this episode, you and I were chatting and you've got this triplex and it's given you some headache. And I know you've talked about the this particular triplex in the past but maybe never in this capacity. So if you could bring all of our listeners up to speed what's going on with this triplex?   Emil: Oh, man, so for anyone who's probably been listening to the show for a while they know the infamous triplex I'm sure you're tired of hearing about it. But this was a triplex I bought is my first foray into small multifamily. I bought this the end of 2020, November 2020. middle of last year, we had as planned some tenants move out, which was great. We wanted to do some work because it was pretty far under market rent. And so long story short, took us a couple months got the work done. And this one unit of mine has just been sitting vacant for a very long time.   I had a my previous pm who wasn't very good. They came to me and they said, all right. It's very diplomatic of you. We have it I have a new property manager as of late so we're seeing how they're doing. But this property manager, we finished everything, the leasing agent. I thought this this property could probably rent for or this unit would rent for somewhere in like the $600 neighborhood. He's like, No, the market has gone up a ton. It's really hot in St. Louis right now. I'm going to shoot for $850 and kind of raise a red flag, but I'm like, You know what, I think this will be a good test of this leasing agent. If they're confident it they can make it happen. I mean, who's gonna say no to 200-250 bucks more rent per month, right? Like, I was like,   Michael: Okay, and this was, this was the old pm?   Emil: This is the old property manager. Correct. Okay, so sir, a 50. Crickets, I think a month later. Yeah, go ahead.   Michael: Sorry. Emil, what was the rent when you bought it?   Emil: The rent on this unit was I think 485 or something.   Michael: Okay, so you did the Reno and then your projection of six to 650 was already a big jump, but they're saying, Okay, now maybe almost double.   Emil: Right. Right. They're saying, you know, okay, we've seen rents go up across the country. They, I think they just overshot it. But I was, again, testing, right property manager I've been working with for about six months, new leasing agent, let's see what they can do. Right, let's see if they can, I think these are all just things to test, right. I try to trust and enable my property manager as much as possible. So I just let them run with it sits there for about a month, nothing, not getting really any applications with decided lower to 800 nothing for another two, three weeks, we lower it to 725 as Keep going Keep going. We get down to I think 675 650. And it had been months and months. And it was just the same old story, you know, property. The leasing agent coming back to me every week, telling me oh, I'm confident we're gonna get it this week. And it's just crickets every week.   And so, at that point, you know, this property with with getting it rehabbed and being marketed, were at like, five, six months of no rents. And to me it was just a major, major red flag. Like we're in a hot market, it's true rent is going up, but they just can't execute. And so for me, it was a time to pull the trigger and find a new property manager. I like to move fast. I don't want to wait too long. I think I gave them enough chance and I just wasn't really happy with what they were doing. So I have since then moved to a new property manager, the beginning of December. We've been Marketing at 650. And we're getting kind of similar stuff.   What's interesting though, what the difference is here, this property manager, they no longer accepting voucher tenants, and they just have higher qualifications, which I'm okay with. I'm okay if we wait a little.   Michael: And what's a voucher tenant?   Emil: Voucher is Section Eight, someone who meets a certain income threshold where the city the local authority is helping them pay their rent.   Michael: Okay, so this Pm is not accepting those tenants.   Emil: Yeah, they've decided, I think this is recent, they decided they're no longer filling vacant units with voucher tenants. So okay, which is fine. I want them to manage, you know, I want them to do whatever they're comfortable with, they have 1200 plus units, they manage they know this game, so I'm letting them handle it.   So it's a new year, you know, December was slow the holidays, we didn't get much. And so now it's like, my leasing agent comes to me, he's like, I think we should be at 600. That seems where the market is, is telling us to be. And so, you know, this is just a rough spot for me where I'm like, What do I do here? I've tried multiple property managers. Is it my location? Is it the property like what's going on? And I, you know, I get different answers every week. But it's like, Man, I don't know. I'm curious if you've been in positions like this, what do you what have you done to get a tenant in place? Some additional background, I'd call this a classy property over 100 years old, you know, it's been, there's things have been fixed, but it hasn't gone like I didn't got rehab this place or anything special. So okay. That's the context.   Michael: All right. Well, I've got an answer for your question. But I'm gonna first answer it with a couple of more quality questions for you, my friend. So this Pm that you got rid of, because I think I know, I've been hearing a lot of stories like this from people both in the academy, and then just people, fellow investor, friends and colleagues that they're frustrated with their PM, and they don't know what to do, and they don't know how to approach a situation. So was this lack of getting a proper at least, like the final straw? The, the, the, the property manager had been kind of screwing up up to this point. And this was the straw that broke the camel's back, or, or was this kind of that first, second and third strike for you that said, Hey, I gotta I gotta make a move.   Emil: The rehab, I think was it went a lot longer than originally anticipated. I think that's every rehab, right? Like, every time you hear about that, it was just like, you know, I got pictures back. And the quality of my property managers telling me, oh, work was great, blah, blah, blah, I'm looking at the work. I'm like, yeah, it's okay. And it looks like we you know, we didn't pay. It wasn't the cheapest, but it wasn't the highest. I don't know, just, it was a couple things for me. But I would say the majority of it, it's the if you can't lease my place, like, how can I continue working with you? That was the majority of it, like, your leasing agent isn't doing their job? I can just keep a property with you. That's sitting two thirds vacant?   Michael: Yeah. Now it makes total sense. And so what was the physical process that you went through to get a new property manager? Was it a, let's have a discussion with the existing pm saying kind of an ultimatum, hey, if you can't do this, then this is the consequence? Or was it you know what I'm so fed up. And now I did this other stuff. So walk me through what you did.   Emil: I thought about saying, Guys, if you don't get this place rented by the end of whatever, like, I need to move on. My fear there is then I'm basically forcing their hand to find a terrible tenant, just to fill the place and keep my business. So I refused. I didn't want to set an ultimatum and then be in a worse situation a couple months down the road, I try to work with them. You know, I'm following up. I'm not like playing on the sidelines, like I'm getting regular updates. I'm trying to just hold them accountable as much as I can. And just seeing how they do things. And I I wasn't happy with it for months. And so for me, it was just time to move on. Try something new.   Michael: And so were you interviewing other PMS? Did you cut the cord before you found a new one? What was that process? Like?   Emil: You know, I talked to this was my second property manager in St. Louis. So I had been talking to some other property managers, there's people in the academy who you know, I chat with in Slack, and they tell me, Hey, you should check out so and so. It's funny, you talk to two different investors who've used the same property manager and you get a different story. And so I hadn't, I hadn't there was one backup I was thinking of, but I had mixed reviews about them. And then actually, you had a friend who was raving about a property manager they use in St. Louis. And I, you know, I was getting fed up like, Hey, man, just give them a call. So I called them we had a good conversation. They seem like they really knew their stuff and so, so further out has been great.   You know, the last property manager, I was using smaller team, which I was curious to see, like, you know, do I get a little bit more sway with them because they don't have 1000 plus units. But I think sometimes you find that their operations are lacking, or as this company 1200 Plus units, their operations are much tighter, I get answers faster. They have a person who like they have people who master a certain domain, not like you're wearing seven hats within the company, which is actually yeah, I think better personally.   Michael: Yeah. Makes total sense. Just, you know, why did you say you're so surprised? Like, can you have a friend like, what are you just like, pick? I don't have friends.   Emil: And what was funny, because you asked, and I'm like, Well, you know how this story ends? She told me about the property manager. You're asking me like, you don't know. But you know,   Michael: It's it's part of the ship, man, you know, it's for the pod. Alright, cool. That makes sense. And I think that's really good takeaway from from like a process standpoint, for anyone who is in a similar situation or feels like they might be in a similar situation with the property manager of being kind of fed up or having the the demerits accumulate. This is a pretty repeatable process that anyone can go through. And frankly, I think you should be interviewing property managers, as soon as you get an inkling of yours not working out, because you don't want to wait till after the fact you don't wanna be playing catch up, you want to be proactive and have a plan B, and possibly even C, for if and when that day ever does come that you're like, I'm done.   Emil: Yeah, I can tell you personally, every time I've started to have doubts about a person, a vendor, or whatever, and I try to work through it, it almost always doesn't work out. So I feel like once you have that gut feeling like things aren't working out. Like you said, you should be talking to other people as a backup, because I found it rarely works out.   Michael: Yeah. But so do you think then now having had that experience, you as soon as your next vendor, or relationship you get that gut feel? Are you going to cut the cord sooner? Or are you still going to try to kind of work through it to give people the benefit of the doubt?   Emil: I stupidly still give people benefit of the doubt and try to work through it. Because you know, I'm, I'm not like going to fire somebody at the first. A mess up is different to me than like, I don't feel like this is going to work out. Everyone messes up its account, a bit like, are they accountable? Do they have a plan for how to fix this? It's a matter of like, when people mess up and there's no accountability, and they're not. They don't have a game plan for how we're going to fix this or anything. Or they're just being vague. That's when I'm like, Okay, this is starting to give me red flags.   Michael: Yeah, makes total sense. And then just out of curiosity, when you ran this, the numbers on this property, how did it cash flow? I mean, what was your expected monthly cash flow?   Emil: I don't remember the number I can probably go dig it up. It was probably gonna, I think it was gonna be once we rehabbed it, you know, if I include all the rehab costs, as like, my cash in the property, we were probably going to cash on cash around 10%. I think it was   Michael: Okay. And so now the fact that this property or this unit, the middle or whatever, the the unit is vacant, are you negative cash flow every month? Are you still able to cover your costs?   Emil: Uh, that one we were okay with when it was offline, we have the bigger townhouse style of the triplex vacant. That's the moneymaker. Right? That one's like 1000 Plus that we're marketing it for right now. It was at like 850 or 900. Before. So with just the one bedroom that we were talking about just now, offline or vacant, we were okay. But now that two are are vacant. Yeah, we're, I'm coming out of pocket every month. Right now.   Michael: Okay. All right. And so is your property manager seeming confident that I can get the bigger unit rented out just as easily as the smaller one.   Emil: They I mean, when I'm looking around my like, on Zillow for in the area for a three bedroom apartment. There's nothing right now. So for me, it's a rough time because it's the new year. It's cold, usually in colder climates, tougher to get people moving, like people don't move as much during the winter. Plus, you also just had the holidays. So not a lot of people, not as many people are moving. But in looking at the landscape. Like within a half mile mile radius. There's literally no three bedrooms for rent. So anyone who needs some bigger space, we're looking pretty good. I just think it was a time of year. So I'm more optimistic about that one. I'm just this this one bed one bath is like, Man, when are we going to figure this one out?   Michael: Yeah. All right. Well, that's super good perspective and good background. So getting back to the crux of your question with you know, advice tips have ever been a situation before? Yes to all three. In April of 2020. So right when COVID was really hitting hard in the States, I was trying to rent out a freshly rehabbed four unit that I talked a lot about on prior episodes, which is like, Oh, my God, could you have picked a worse time to have four units have to come online. And like at a at a premium, they were really expensive units, because I put a ton of money into them, they're very high end, because when I started the rehab in 2019, that's the way things were going. And so things would have worked out quite well.   And so we just could not get these things rented for the life of us, my property manager, somebody your started high, and then brought them down low, which I was fine with, because they've been vacant for so long. So it's an extra three, four or five weeks to try to get them leased up. So it would came to a point where we were kind of at our bottom threshold of where we could be. And I said, Hey, let's start doing some some moving specials. 200 bucks off, 300 bucks off 400 bucks off per month to get someone to move in, just so it made that easier for them to get in the door.   Because I think that I think a lot of people forget myself included, is when you physically go move into a new property. There are a lot of expenses associated with doing that. So first and foremost, there's the physical cost of moving, if you're going to rent, some kind of assistance, whether that's movers or a truck, whatever, then there's a security deposit, which is usually at a minimum, one month's rent could be one and a half month's rent. And then you have first month's rent, and sometimes last month's rent. So depending on what the lease structure looks like, I mean, so for that $600 A month unit, you're looking at a minimum of 1200 bucks if they move themselves 600 bucks and in deposit 600 bucks for the first month's rent. And so if you could just make it a little bit easier on someone to move in, it can often go a long way towards actually getting the needle moving, so to speak.   And so we did this on, I think three of the four units. And we had people in there, I think within a month, which was pretty awesome. And so what I did is basically I just said, Okay, how much is this each unit? How much is it costing me on a daily basis in like last opportunity costs essentially. And so what I figured out is, look, if I can get someone here in here in two weeks versus a month, and I'm giving them 400 bucks off, I'm kind of picking numbers here at random. That's actually cheaper than if the thing sat vacant for an additional two weeks. And so I would encourage you to do the same thing and sit down and say, Okay, what can I stomach from a financial perspective? Forget the ego side. But put that aside, your ego is not your Amigo. And you know, what can you financially stomach and say, Okay, well, if I can get if I give that to a discount, and somebody just to get them in here is you know, that can often be a really good move.   Emil: Yeah. I have a question. Did you find that you guys weren't getting a lot of activity? And then you did that special? And you were? Because we're we're getting interest? We're just not getting qualified applicants. So did you guys have a like a traffic problem? Or was there a quality problem as well that your PM was like, No, we don't want these types of this tenant doesn't qualify before you?   Michael: I, I think it was both, I think but because they handle all the inbound leads. That's not something that I get too involved in. So I don't I don't really remember specifically. But I think it was both a traffic and a quality issue. But try it. I mean, worst case scenario, you still don't get any qualified tenants inside two weeks, and you take it down, and you go back to what you're doing originally. I don't think it it hurts to try.   Emil: Yeah, yeah, I should. I should just email my leasing agent. Honestly, I'm gonna do that right after this episode be like, Hey, let's do a $200 off special. And we should just time bound it right. Did you guys time bound to like move in before the end of January or? Yeah,   Michael: Exactly. Yep. To encourage encourage people to stuff like, Hey, here's a carrot to do something.   Emil: Right. Cool. I'm doing that right after we hit pause on this. Yeah, stop record. Right.   Michael: Yeah. Can you post it? I think little things to differentiate yourself too. Because I mean, there might be a bunch of other ones in the area for 600 bucks a month. Right? But if you can be different. And we all like to think that we're different because of whatever we did to the property physically, that we put in granite countertop, whatever, why couldn't someone see the value here, like, of course is a good deal. But we need to remove ourselves from the situation. And so yeah, often just giving a monetary instead of like money talks.   Emil: From these experiences, do you when you go into a vacancy, and when you're going to rent it out? Where do you like to be? Do you go market do you start a little high and come down if it doesn't work out? Where do you how do you start the game?   Michael: Yeah. So on these ones, we started definitely top of market because they were brand new. And so that didn't work out. So then we kept lowering and lowering and lowering. So I think that especially for for some of the markets that I'm in and in the price points for the rents that I'm in the difference between market and under market, like isn't a huge deal, right? You know, 50 bucks, maybe maybe 100 bucks versus what does that vacancy cost? In, in the amount of time it takes you to get that unit leased?   Emil: Right.   Michael: So it tends to be nominal. And so I'm happy being slightly under market, just to get bodies into the property qualified bodies into the property. But that's how I think about it. And then once someone's in there, I mean, it's much easier to keep someone and incrementally incrementally increase the rent, as opposed to trying to get someone in at a much higher rent. And so that's what we did on the on that four Plex is I knew that we were well under market. And so I got seven to 9% rent increases almost across the board on those units, because the rent went up, but it was still a great deal. So that's kind of how I think about it.   Emil: Yeah, I'm, I'm starting to feel the same way. Like if my property manager ever wants to go above, I'm going to say, no, I'd rather be at or slightly below and get someone who men turns are the worst vacancies are the, like, they crush you. So if you can be a little bit under I mean, I get it for commercial stuff. You know, every extra dollar you get of NOI it changes the value of the property, I get that. But in the single family and small multifamily space where things are run on comps, right? Like, I think getting rid of your vacant like having less vacancy, having someone just stay longer. I mean, I've seen it in my own portfolio, like the best performers are the ones where the tenants just don't move, and you slowly increase their rent, you know, maybe, maybe it's even small moves, nothing, maybe it's 2%, whatever it is, but like, making sure you don't have vacancies is like so key.   Michael: It's so so key. It's so key. And I mean to that point, too. And when it comes time for renewals, like you mentioned, think about even maybe not raising my rent, if someone's a really great tenant, what's it worth, it's you to keep them, right, 25 bucks a month, 30 bucks a month of what you might get in an increase. I think we need to sometimes get outside the spreadsheet, and just look holistically and say, okay, is this truly worth it?   Emil: No, Michael, my cash on cash will only be 8% instead of nine. And I'm not happy with that.   Michael: And my pro forma said nine.   Emil: That's right. And I want to tell people about my percentage on the spreadsheet. But let me tell you the percentages blow up real fast when you have a three to six month vacancy.   Michael: Yeah. So yeah, very, very fast.   Emli: So anyway, that's, that's what I've learned.   Michael: Awesome. We'll do this was like super insightful and great, I think, for a number of different reasons to talk about problems with PMS problems with leasing problems with rent setting. This is all really real world stuff. And it's not always butterflies and rosebuds, so I appreciate you being vulnerable and sharing with us.   Emil: Absolutely. I mean, I like when people talk about this stuff, like the actual stuff going on instead of   Michael: The real stuff.   Emil: Yeah, instead of just, you know, it's always this we talk about all the time, this is this is part of the business, like you have to be good at dealing with problems. It's not, you know, just mailbox money all the time. That's not how it works. So I think people have more realistic expectations. It's easier to when you have those challenges to just work through them so…   Michael: Well, already when that was our episode, a big thanks to a meal for sharing. This was great, man. really insightful, really humanizing, you know, this is good. This is good. This is therapeutic. This is cathartic. It's good to talk about the crap stuff.   Emil: That's right. You gotta you gotta.   Michael: As always, if you liked the episode, feel free to leave us a rating or review wherever it is that you listen to podcast. We look forward to seeing on the next one. Happy investing.   Emil: Happy investing everyone.  

Creating a goal is the easy part, but if you're not actually COMMITTED to it, it's just a fantasy. Learn what the difference is between someone who actually MAKES their goals happn vs. someone who would “like” for their goals to happen. There's a big difference.   Follow Ashley on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ashleybtraining/    Write a review of this episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/when-the-cleats-come-off/id1525612274  Similar Episodes of When the Cleats Come Off:   Having a goal is the key to everything – https://open.spotify.com/episode/3NVE5GCEYwvtYgJ06cbwLq?si=2d3e8061ed774682    Why your athlete needs a role model - https://open.spotify.com/episode/5l30TmE1CdMKr0NLOKXCHF?si=36095f6463594d6b  Monica Abbott - Consistency over intensity - https://open.spotify.com/episode/4DecwvOeEY1ZEJOzYeAefj?si=671e3109b5eb4b32

Your style is personal to you. It's how you dress, how you show up, how you decorate your home, what you surround yourself with, but really, it's the essence of YOU! More than just the clothes you wear, your style communicates louder than words and can have a much greater impact on your life than you ever thought possible. Style is like a language that speaks silently and resonates with those who are like minds. And it's a powerful secret weapon to be added to your toolbox. So many women tell me they don't have a style. Well, my friend, my hope is that after this episode you'll be inspired to rediscover yours. In this episode you'll discover: How your style can help you attract your ideal clients How your style is like a language What you should always be doing when it comes to your style Mistakes women make in their wardrobe The secret power of your personal style 1/ Elevate Your Self Image 2/ Makes you magnetic 3/ Boosts your confidence 4/ visually take off poinds 5/ Influence or persuede others 6/ Conversation Starter 7/ Get Noticed 8/ Instant Credibility 9/ Convey Authority 10/ Boost your Mood/Energy Are you ready to take your style to new heights? If you're tired of feeling confused and frustrated when it comes to getting dressed, then I invite you to join me for Dress with Confidence. In this course that begins 1/29/22 you'll discover how to get dressed effortlessly everyday while cultivating an image that is authentic to you. Style doesn't have to be hard – it just takes an expert who can show you the way. Sign up for Dress with Confidence and get ready for a new YOU in '22: https://stylefinder.clickfunnels.com/5-essential-elements-of- personal-style50507129 Book a Get Acquainted call with me: https://linktr.ee/stylebymarymichele Get my free video series: Top 3 Tips to Dress More Confidently https://sfschoolofstyle.com/dwc2022 Follow me on Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@stylebymarymichele? Join me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stylebymarymichele/ Join the StyleFinder School of Style waiting list: https://sfschoolofstyle.com/join49186980 Connect with me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/stylefindervipgroup Shop our boutique: https://shopstylefinder.com  

Kita Richards is a former AAU, USA and high school track and field coach. Teaching basic and advanced movements to young adults was always her passion along with helping people to meet and exceed their physical and mental capabilities. It was this passion that prompted Kita to become a personal and group fitness trainer, transforming her two car garage into her first training space. She has now expanded her brand and has launched two fitness clubs, one in Greenwood, South Carolina, and the other in Greenville, South Carolina.  During the interview, Kita will discuss what life was like growing up in Greenwood, South Carolina, and how the last words of her mother, who lived a very active life until she succumbed to colon cancer, gave her the drive and motivation to live life to the fullest.  She will also share her fitness journey which included losing close to 80 pounds of body fat with the help and guidance of her husband and changing her diet.  Kita believes that each of us is connected in divine space and that we should share our gifts with the world, something Kita is doing on a daily basis with everyone she comes in contact with.  This was a most inspiring interview.  Vince Ferguson: Thank you so much for coming on the show. Kita Richards: Thank you for having me. Vince Ferguson: Before we discuss your career as CEO of these two fitness clubs, tell my listeners and viewers where did you grow up and what was your childhood like? Kita Richards: I grew up right here in Greenwood, South Carolina in the south, which is so interesting now that I look back at it. I grew up running around in the dirt. Vince Ferguson: Running around in the dirt? Kita Richards: In the dirt. Vince Ferguson: Really? Really? So you must have been very active? Kita Richards: Yeah. It was because this is a small town, this is a small town. It's bigger now, but it was definitely a lot smaller when I was a lot younger. So it was small and it's basically a football city. So it's all about football here. Everything else is secondary. Vince Ferguson: Everything else is secondary to football. But family came first, but family came first. Right? Kita Richards: Especially back then. Everything else was secondary. Vince Ferguson: Wow. Nice. But were you always active, always healthy even to your adult life? Kita Richards: Well as a kid, the challenge as a kid was, especially growing up, because we were active as children. I was an active child. My inactivity didn't start until I got older. So I was, but my mom was active. So I have to tell you about her. She was very active. My mom played a lot of sports even as we grew up. So I grew up with a very active mom. She played softball for one, it was nothing for her to be on those teams. She was on teams, and she would travel. So I grew up watching her do that. Kita Richards: And of course she did what people in the south do, bowl. So she did a lot of bowling and different things like that. So that's how we grew up. I grew up with a mom that even as I had my kids, she rode bikes. She would ride bikes with them. And she was one of the first women around the area, because people still talk about it because like I said, I live in a small town, that rode a motorcycle. So she was extremely active too. Vince Ferguson: Is Myrtle Beach near you? Kita Richards: No it takes us about three hours to get to Myrtle Beach. Vince Ferguson: I hear so much about Myrtle Beach motorcycle. You know what I'm saying? But was there a aha moment for you when you decided, you know what, my health is going down the tubes and I need to get it together? Kita Richards: Well, I think the backstory is my mother was really active, but my mother died of pancreatic/colon cancer. And so with that being said, I knew she was active much more active than me. I was getting overweight. I took care of her. And then when she was passing away, she said to me something, some words that I never will forget. She said, "Do what you want to do, and have a good time on this side because when you're leaving, you never want to regret what you didn't have time to do and what you wanted." So that launched me into just taking a deeper look at who I had become. Vince Ferguson: So you feel that motivated you and drove you to be the person you are today? Kita Richards: I know it did. I know it did. It just became one of those things that watching, if you ever watch someone pass away and you never took care of anyone passing away of colon cancer and watching everything fail. Life begins to look a little different for you. Vince Ferguson: Hmm. And when you say it looks a little different, you start to see it out of a different prism, different window. Kita Richards: You start to cherish it and cherish the moments. You start to cherish life like never before. Even when my clients come in, I have this thing, because I cherish my moments with everybody now. I see life now as everybody being divinely connected to one another in that we are sharing space. And when we're sharing those spaces, we should be sharing, not only our passion, but our love for one another. And so that's what changed about me. I knew at that point that I needed to share whatever gifting, whatever divine gifting that I had with other people. I knew that then at that moment. I knew that that was going to bring me joy. And I know that sounds weird, but I knew I also needed to take care of me. And I knew that I could never go to the next level, or I never could get there without self-care. Vince Ferguson: Hmm. Makes sense. Very, very profound. Kita Richards: Because you could never pour from an empty cup, and back then I was an empty cup. I was an empty cup, and I could never give what I didn't have. When people say I gave 100% to a person, you should never give 100% to anybody. Always give people the surplus of what you have. Because if you give 100% of your energy, then you have nothing for yourself. And if you have nothing for yourself, you never can grow anything that's worth giving anyone else. Vince Ferguson: Hmm. Very profound. Very awesome. So this is interesting because you speak so much wisdom, and you look like a person of 22. Kita Richards: I thank you. I promise you need to add some to that though. Vince Ferguson: Well, we add a couple years, you know what I'm saying? But what motivated you to become a trainer? Kita Richards: So back to what my mom said, you're never going to... When I was in my twenties, I was taking it was step aerobics. It was step aerobics there. Vince Ferguson: Step aerobics. Kita Richards: I absolutely love step aerobics. But there was a problem. There was a problem. The problem was I had a degree in computer science. So I had a really nice job. Vince Ferguson: Yes, I bet. Kita Richards: Are you going to make this, or are you going to make this? Vince Ferguson: What happened? Kita Richards: There was a problem here. And so I got the opportunity to actually get licensed doing that, and I didn't even take it. Because by that time I had my first kid, I had the first child. And so I was like, no, no, no. I know better now. I know better now. But back then, and life is a growing process, but back then I was like, no, this is not a good financial decision to be making. Vince Ferguson: So you feel that knowing what you know now, you would've still taken the leap before? Kita Richards: If I had of known what I know now, yeah. I would've literally left what I was doing, and did this because I've learned that joys in life, that you should enjoy your life. And what I mean by that, I have this saying that I always say. People don't understand. And what you have to gravitate and learn that in your purpose, you will always have prosperity, and you will have mental prosperity, spiritual prosperity, and financial and emotional prosperity. And you need all of those. Back then, I was only looking for financial prosperity. Vince Ferguson: But now you don't only have one child, you have four? Kita Richards: Yes. Right. Vince Ferguson: And four adult children? Kita Richards: Four adult children. Vince Ferguson: And you don't look like an adult yourself. That's a beautiful thing. But again, you had the strength and fortitude to go out there and make this happen. But why the fitness space? What do you feel you can contribute to people in the fitness space? Kita Richards: Fitness is one of those great, wonderful things. And here's what, because it's more than the outward. Because before you ever make a decision, before you ever become physically fit, there is a mental that happens. You actually have, because it's so optional, that you have to gravitate there in your mind first. Vince Ferguson: So it's mind first, then body? Kita Richards: Always mind first. And the challenge, and then I love the challenge of it. I love the challenge of because even when I have my clients, and I'll talk to my clients. I always tell them you've made the first step to the best version of you. And here was the first step. You made up in your mind to make a change. So fitness, I think I chose it because not only was it challenging, it was mentally challenging too. Because if we back up, I didn't look like this. I can promise you. I lost 80 pounds like this. I hadn't been doing anything. And so I tell my clients, I know what they felt. I know exactly what they feel like. I remember not being able to touch my toes. Kita Richards: I remember what that felt like. And I remember even though I was taking care of kids, and I was getting bigger, I just remember what it felt like. I remember being exhausted. I remember, just to be honest with you, I remember just being tired. And then I remember suffering health, other health issues. Because as women, when you have more weight than you need to have on you, there's other things that come along with your health. There's hormonal imbalances that you end up with. For me, I had several different things happening. I actually ended up with a liver issue, and I found out later it was actually fatty liver. Vince Ferguson: Fatty liver? Kita Richards: It was fatty liver. And this was from my diet of, I love sugar. Now I'm not going to lie to you. I used to love some sugar. So I love eating sugar. And I wasn't a big fried food eater, and that's what most people are like, I don't eat much fried food. But I love some donuts and cakes and cookies and stuff like that. And I ate a lot of that back then. Vince Ferguson: So you were, you said, about 89 pounds heavier than you are now? Kita Richards: About 80. I was 80. Vince Ferguson: About 80. What did you do to take it off? What's that secret sauce? Kita Richards: Make up my mind first that it needed to come off. You know what? And the first thing I did is I decided I wasn't going to make an excuse. Vince Ferguson: No excuses? Kita Richards: Yeah. I was like, I'm not going to make an excuse. I'm not going to blame it on my age or anything. You know what I said to myself? I'm responsible. I just took full responsibility. I did. I said, I'm responsible. And my first trainer was my spouse. Vince Ferguson: Your husband? Kita Richards: My husband, who was army. So I learned to lift first, and I learned to lift, and he was patient with me to a certain extent because he drove it. He would just come in like, are you going to do it today or not? You can leave the gym if you want to, or you can stay in it. But it's going to be your choice. I'm not going to make you stay. And I remember just because at that point, now that two car garage that I started in, it was actually I made it into a home gym because I was serious about it. I was like, I'm going to be serious. So first I made up in my mind, second I said no more excuses. Kita Richards: Third, I changed that space into a home gym. And that was crazy because that meant no excuses. I went out there and he worked like 12 hours, and then it took him an hour to get to work and an hour to get home. So it was 13 hours. So I had to work out with him at night. At night. When people wanted to go to sleep, I had to be working out. No excuses. And I still had to get up to the next day. Because at that time I still had one in high school, one in middle school and then I had two grown. So because my fitness journey back to being fit, didn't start until I was 40, 41 1/2. Almost 42. Vince Ferguson: And were you still working at computer science? Kita Richards: I was actually not this is because I was at that point when I decided to be fit, I actually owned a photography, videography business. Vince Ferguson: Really? A photography, videography business? Kita Richards: I was doing some of that. And then all of a sudden I decided I wasn't going to do it in this. I was like, I ain't doing that no more. Vince Ferguson: Wow. So you start training ferociously, training with your spouse. Kita Richards: With my husband. With my husband at night. At night. Understand because he worked early in the morning, and it was at night. So what did I do? I didn't just train one time a day. I trained with him, and anything I couldn't do, anything I struggle with, during the day or in the morning I go practice it. Vince Ferguson: You go back practice it? Kita Richards: I would go practice it. Whatever I couldn't do. As long as I didn't need a spotter, I practiced it. Vince Ferguson: Now but what role besides the exercise, what role did nutrition play? Kita Richards: Oh, huge. Huge. That was another thing. The first thing I had to do was give up sugar. I had to give up the sugar because I was a sugar addict. I had made up in my mind, I'm going to give up sugar. And that was the hardest thing, because I didn't have, some people have a caffeine addiction. No, I had a sugar addiction. So sodas wasn't even a problem. It was sugar for me. So I gave up sugar first. I gave up sugar, and you're not going to believe this, I gave up cheese. Vince Ferguson: Cheese? Kita Richards: I love cheese. Cheese was my first two things that I said I was done with. Vince Ferguson: It had to be hard to do because you also have kids around the house. So how did you do that? Just cold turkey stopped or- Kita Richards: I stopped. And most people, most women asked me because I am the cook of the family. I am the cook of the family and I'll be launching some recipes soon. But I am a cook up the family. And so what I had to do was I cook their food, but I cooked my food. Because I said I wasn't going to make an excuse. I wasn't going to say I got to cook for them. No, I was standing in the kitchen anyway. And so I would cook their food the way they wanted it and would cook mine at the exact same moment. Vince Ferguson: And that was the temptation to eat some of theirs? Kita Richards: It was there, but here's what I would say to myself. I would say to myself, you know what? There's life and death in the power of the tongue, and there's going to be life or death in this food. So you better be choosing which one. And so that was my thing. And it got so bad, I was label things life or death so much. I'm choosing life. I'm choosing life. And that's the way I would eat. Because remember I was a sugar addict, and I still had to go to the grocery store. And when I go to the grocery store, what happens when you go get in the checkouts? Because you can avoid the cookie on the aisle of cookies, but the checkout has the candy, and all of the quick snacks. Vince Ferguson: For a reason. Yes. Kita Richards: So I would pull up my buggy inside of there and I would look, and my mind, I would label them in my head. I would be like, death. And that would be my two things, life or death. And I would leave there without the candy bars, which was so interesting because understand, I was the person that drove, that went through their buggy through the thing. And I would bring everybody back their favorite candy bar, including my own. .It was so bad that my husband, there's a particular store that has a particular type of candy that I like whenever he would go into that particular town, he would buy me four of those candy bars because I couldn't get them locally. So the moment I asked him to stop bringing me the candy bars, he knew something was real because I like don't bring me the candy bars. Don't bring me the candy bars. Kita Richards: But I was making choices. And what I was doing is I was making the choices at that moment. I wasn't trying to live outside of the window. I wasn't trying to say, tomorrow I'll do better. I was like, I'm going to do it the now. I'm going to experience the now moment. So that's what I was doing. Vince Ferguson: Do it now. Are you now a vegan? Kita Richards: I am. Vince Ferguson: Really? Plant based? Kita Richards: That was interesting. Vince Ferguson: Yes. How did that transition go? Kita Richards: That was about like the same. That was the same for me. The big problem wasn't for me the meat, it wasn't the meat. It really wasn't. Although I would tell people, they were like what would be the thing that would that draw you? Because I love what I would love. And I've always loved bison burgers. There's a particular place in Texas that I just absolutely love, and now I don't eat that. But that's not where it got me. That is probably the one thing, but the other was eggs. I absolutely love eggs. And I was eating a lot of eggs in one day. I said, oh, I told my husband, I'm going to become a vegan, and I'm not going to eat the eggs anymore. And he was like- Vince Ferguson: Did he ask for a divorce. Kita Richards: No. He was like, he's very supportive. He was like, so you're not going to eat the eggs? Do you not know within a couple days he cooks eggs? Because he's the breakfast person. So he cooked the eggs, and they look so light and fluffy. And I walked past the stove, and I looked at the eggs, and then I said, I want the eggs. And then I said, no, no, no. You chose, you made the choice to not eat the eggs. So just make the choice. And something in the back of my head said, but nobody's looking so nobody's going to know you ate the eggs. But then I said, I would know that I ate the eggs. And so I'm going to know that I ate the eggs, so I'm not going to eat. And it was enough of them. I could have just tasted them when I was like, I'm not going to eat these eggs. Kita Richards: And I didn't eat the eggs. And I sit at breakfast, and this was the thing, with my family because we are a family that eat together. We actually eat together. So it's not like I go take my plate and not see their food. And I saw them eat, and I did not touch them. And I felt victorious. Not that you have to give up eggs in your fitness journey or your whatever, but for me, I felt victorious. Everybody asked me do I feel like that I have such a restricted diet? No. I feel like I'm in charge of my life. Food can no longer control me. I'm in control of me. I take my power back. Food is not supposed to control me anyway. Vince Ferguson: But food seems to control most of us. And that's why you have the obesity, diabetes, all these chronic illnesses in the community because of how we eat. So your clients, who are your ideal clients? Kita Richards: Well my ideal clients are, most people think that most of my clients are vegan, and they're not. My ideal clients are people that just want more control. And I shouldn't say control, more clarity in their life. Because I told people my thing is always I want to help you find your strong point. I want to help you meet your goal. I always told people also this studio is when they come in, we greet each other. Just, I say, hey, how are you doing today? And they told me how they doing. They say, oh, I'm doing great. So my ideal, my avatar client is the people that just want the best out of their life. They want to find the joy in being them and whatever they do. Because really and truly, you are not your body. And I told people that you are not your body, but your body is a manifestation of what you've done. It's a journal. Vince Ferguson: It reveals. Kita Richards: Can be changed. Vince Ferguson: It can be changed. Interesting. Very, very, very good. So what programs do you offer at your, before you even tell me that, what are the names of your gyms? Kita Richards: So this one actually has hero on the wall, but this one is She Rocks Fit. Vince Ferguson: She Rocks Fit. Kita Richards: She Rocks Fit brand. And then the other one is hero. Vince Ferguson: Hero. Kita Richards: I'm going to tell you about the She Rocks Fit because it seems a little weird. If you look inside of She Rocks Fit, you see the name hero. Vince Ferguson: Yes. I like that very much. Very much. What programs do you offer at these two facilities? Kita Richards: Okay. So at the studio style one, it's group fitness. I do a lot of group fitness here. We do the weight lifting, the calisthenics, parts of yoga, functional training. I'm big on functional training because I think you just, you should be able to move your body. I do a lot of body weight. I do a lot of body weight, a lot of body weight. But we do some lifting here. At the other gym it is really and truly a full service gym. So it has all your machines, you have your ellipticals, you have your treadmills, you have the spin bikes, and then you have the studio side of it. And then that one, there is, I think there's about nine other trainers there. Vince Ferguson: Oh, wow. Really? Kita Richards: Yeah. There's nine, about nine. I think we're at nine other trainers there. And they train clients there as well. So they're training clients, and whether it's personal and there is actually, we have, there's a boxer there too. And he actually teaches boxing. So there's a variety of stuff going on at the other one. Vince Ferguson: So one is called She Rock Fit, which is where you are today. And the other one is called? Kita Richards: Hero. Vince Ferguson: Hero, just hero? And do you have group fitness programs? Kita Richards: I do. I do. I do my group fitness because that's what I trained. That's what I specialize in, in group fitness. My group fitness, like I said, will range from different things. So I have steps. We may do steps. Let me tell you what kind of trainer I am. If we had to classify, if we really had to put a label on my training style, I would say it's OCD. Vince Ferguson: OCD? Kita Richards: It's very OCD. So how my whole program works is you walk into my gym. There is not an ab day. There is not. There is not a we're going to do back day. You walk in, and you don't know what I'm going to do and here's why. Because people don't come because it's a certain day, and they don't like to work that particular. But I found out people don't like to work where they're weak. Most people don't like to work the weak side. So what I do is I vary the training where you don't know, it's a mystery. A mystery. And I'm going to be honest with you. You know what they do? They peek up under the door to see what is laying in the- Vince Ferguson: What's going on? Kita Richards: They're like, oh my God, what is she going to do? But you know, it works for them because they understand why I do it. I used to announce what I was going to do, but I did find that people would cheat and not come. The also the other part of the gym, a part of the studio side of it is accountability. So I was huge on accountability. I don't know if it's because my husband was military. I actually know where people are supposed to be, in which class they're supposed to be. If you miss a class and you have not contacted wonderful trainer and said, I won't be in, I have something going on, whatever, I text you. We have an app. I will message you in the app, and I will personally text you. You're lucky if you get away with 2 sessions back to back. I'm getting in contact with you. Vince Ferguson: Is that right? Interesting. So you have that personalized approach. That personalized approach, you hold people accountable, which is awesome. Now can someone join your class virtually? Kita Richards: Yes I do. I do virtual. So I have this app. Well we have this app and in the app everything comes through. But as soon as the virtual classes open up, it's usually a link that appears within your app within 30 minutes telling you the virtual schedule, but it reminds you that there's a virtual coming up. And here's the cool thing about it. If you are in for that day, you can join any class. So mine is set up like this. Basically, if you are in for the week, let's say you say, I want to do virtual or I think I want to join you and I'm going to pay for a week or I'm going to pay for a month. You're not only that one class, you can join in into any class that happens because you are getting links that's telling you. So if you are stuck in traffic, so you ain't making this one, you just click the next link that appears and you make the next one. Vince Ferguson: So you still make it. Awesome. Awesome. That's really good that you're doing that. That's actually amazing. Now that you told me who your ideal clients are, do you give them personalized nutrition guidance? Kita Richards: I do. I do. Vince Ferguson: You do? Kita Richards: So my meal plans being a vegan is interesting. So what I do is the way I build my meal plans are, I shouldn't say simple, but they are built on levels. So when I say levels are different styles. So the base of every one of my meal plans is always vegan. It's always vegan. So it starts out at vegan. And then you see this list of other things. You, I list the eggs that you can have in the amount. And then I list your meats here so you can add back this list. So that's how it lists outs. Not only is that is every, it all has the calorie counts beside it. So, and when I say that is, I actually put recipes in because I'm a cook. I like to cook. Kita Richards: I like to cook. And I don't like eating the same. So recipes come with all my meal plans. So basically if I'm telling you that I want you to eat this, I'm actually giving you the recipe to eat it. Vince Ferguson: To eat it. Kita Richards: So you can meal prep. You can be able to meal prep that. But then for those who say, well, I don't have time because you have all these options. There is also those quick items. You can go get your frozen vegetables and you just do some roasted vegetables. Or if you out, I even help you if you're eating out. We discuss how to eat out. What do I choose? What's a good choice. I found that if people understand their choices, they can make better choices. Vince Ferguson: Better choices. Kita Richards: My thing is, I like to be your guide, but I want you to walk away from me with knowledge to be empowered. So I do give you the meal plan, but there's so many instructions even in inside of the app. I think I would walk over and show you my board. My board tells you the different vegetables that can help you detox your liver, because I want you to learn it. I want you to walk away with knowledge because here's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking to myself, if you walk away with that knowledge, not only will it impact your life, it impacts now your family life. And now it impacts the next generation. Because I have a family, and I want you, not only my client to be healthy, I want them to be impactful within their environment. Kita Richards: Because like you said before, there's so many. There's diabetes, there's blood pressure problems. How do you come at that? We can come out at it one person at a time, but I get that. I can touch you. But even if I'm touching you, then what you do is you touch your family. And then your family will touch other people, and it grows from there. I think that's the only way that we're ever going to be healthy as a community. Vince Ferguson: Hmm. Awesome. Yes. Most definitely. Educate the community and share that knowledge, share that love. And now obviously I can talk forever with you because you have so much knowledge and wisdom to share, but I want a couple more things that I just one to ask you. Because you're so busy, you have two facilities there and you're working with people, how do you manage your family life and your business? Because you have a spouse. So that's and four kids. Kita Richards: And four kids. Vince Ferguson: How do you do it? Kita Richards: So I'm going to let you in on how I manage. First of all, how I manage my personal relationship. My personal relationship with my spouse. We actually have one day one, well, we have dinner. We decide, he actually asks me, when do I have time to have dinner? So we try to have dinner once a week together. Vince Ferguson: Once a week? Kita Richards: Yeah. Once a week dinner without the kids, we try to go out without the, we go out. This is ours. Dinner and maybe a movie or something. We have a date. We have to have that. On the date, I disconnect unless it's the kids trying to contact me or grave emergency, then my focus is not outside of that. It wasn't, and I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you. It wasn't like that before, because trying to be a business owner, sometimes you can get out of balance, and I've been out of balance. Kita Richards: So this helps balance the scale. It tells your spouse or it tells that significant other, that you are important. So this time it's dedicated to us. And so I try to make sure that I do that. For my kids, they're all grown. And it's amazing. We actually have what's called a group chat. And so everybody's in this group chat on their phones. It's message. We have it on Facebook, and then we have it on our phones. We have chat, we talk to each other. We have our own little group text every morning. And I don't know if somebody did it this morning, someone says good morning. And we are all over the place. So my daughter, like I said, is in Korea, and she's military. So she may be anywhere, but we have this chat and it says good morning. Kita Richards: And at least a couple times a week, because I write affirmations every morning. I send over affirmation to my family. And I send over my affirmation to my clients to just remind them to be the best version of them. But also to say, I love you. And everybody piggybacks inside of that for my family. So whatever is happening within the family, we actually can pick up the phone and just text and we are all in the same space at that time. Kita Richards: And so we do that, and about every week or so, we do FaceTime each other. And oh yeah I have grands by the way, I have grands. So we do FaceTime with everybody and that's how I manage having the kids. So we feel close even though we are in different cities. We feel close. We feel that close and we reach out to each other via that. So I have that with them. And then with each of them, I have my own little, like the girls in the family because I have three girls. We only have our own little group thing. Also we have that. And then we have the whole thing. And then they have the sibling chat where it's only the- Vince Ferguson: The kids. Kita Richards: So that's how we manage it. Vince Ferguson: That's how you manage. Kita Richards: So that's how I manage my personal. And so that makes sense to me with technology. It just makes sense to, but it makes them feel as though they are important as well. Vince Ferguson: Which they are. But what about self-care when it comes to you? Kita Richards: I'm big on self-care. I'm big on that one. Vince Ferguson: Make time for that? What do you do? Kita Richards: I make time for myself. So one of the things that I do, and all my clients know it here. One of the things I do is I rise. My clock goes off at 3:45 AM. Vince Ferguson: Really? What? Kita Richards: Yes. I know. It goes off at 3:45 AM. And one thing that happens at 3:45 is I wake up, and I always listen to some type of meditation. I always brighten up the day. That's how I wake up. That's my time. And when I'm sitting there or when I'm laying there, I don't focus on being awake because I have other alarms. My alarm rings again at 4:43. Now if I wake all the way up, that's fine. I wake up. But if I don't wake all the way up at that 4:43 AM, I go into my own meditation. That's my time. That's my time to pour into me. And then about 5:25, because at that time I get up, I do about 15 minutes of that. I get up and I'm getting dressed, I'm moving around. Kita Richards: And, but those are my moments. That's my morning moments. That's my time to be filled up because I want to feel joy, and peace and love so that when I get in the gym at 6:20, at about 6:15 because that's when our class start. I want to already be present, and that's what I do to get present. So that's my first thing. At night I disconnect. Everybody knows it. At a certain time at night, I literally pull the plug on everybody else. That is my time, and I take that time for myself. And it's usually a little later at night. I take the time for myself where I may read a book. I may be reading or listening to something. I may decide that I just want to watch something. I don't watch a lot of TV, but I may decide I want to watch something. Kita Richards: And I just spent that moment doing that. So that's how I run that. And then on Fridays, I never work a full day on Fridays. I told people that. I don't care. I've had people to tell me, can I get a session with you? Can you open up this? I'm like, no, no. On Fridays, I'm done. When I get done, I'm done, and I'm done until Monday. I'm done until Monday. I'll chat with them. I'll chat with people within texts and stuff like that. But I'm done. I'm done. Even if it's a business call, it's got to be an emergency. It's going to wait until Monday. So I do that. And then Wednesday, you catching me here on a Wednesday. Wednesday is very important too, because Wednesday is also my slow day because I'm back and forth to Greenville on most days. Kita Richards: But Wednesday is the day that I don't go to Greenville. I normally stop about 10:00, and I don't start back until about 4:20. And that time, if I want to have a hair appointment, my nails done, I want to have a massage, if I want to just lay in the floor and think about nothing. That's really, truly my time. And I spend it well. My husband will even tell you, everybody knows my schedule because they will tell you. And some people are so afraid of hurting other people's feelings, but I can be really, really blunt. My thing is hurting myself first is not what you want to do. So I tell people, create a space and an atmosphere that's conducive to your growth. Sometimes that requires me to set boundaries. This is my time. And then you have to say it is okay to have it because you are worthy of it. And that's the way I feel. I feel that I am worthy of time. The same value I give to everyone else, I give to myself. Vince Ferguson: Yourself. Beautiful. Very well put. I couldn't have said it better because that's not my reality. That's yours, but that is beautiful. Now how can my listeners and viewers find out more about you, Kita Richards. Kita Richards: I'm so easy to contact. You can always go to my website, which is www.sherocks.fit. and message me there. Or you can hit me up even on the other one, which is a www.bornherofitness. You can get that one, bornherofit.com. And if you message you'll get me again or you can just do what's easy. Hit me up on Facebook. It's Kita Richards. Instagram is Killa_Kita. They gave me that name. I didn't do it. My clients gave me that name. Vince Ferguson: Really? Killer. Kita Richards: You can do that as well. I'm so easy to contact that. It's really strange. And I try my best really to answer people's questions. I have a certain time of day that I just sit down, and I just start to text other people. So I'm very easy. I'm very easy to contact. And I always say too, if you ever, because I believe we're all interconnected. So I try to always give my best to those who are trying to contact me. Vince Ferguson: Very good. Very good. Kita Richards. So on behalf of Body Sculpt of New York, that's my nonprofit program and Six Weeks of Fitness. I truly want to thank you for coming on this show today. Kita Richards: Well thank you for having me. Thank you so much. And can I say one more thing to your listeners? Vince Ferguson: Please. Kita Richards: I just want to remind people that always strive to be the best version of you. That's going to mean you got to take time for yourself. You got to love yourself properly. You got to show every part of you, your bodies, you got to show your body up. Yeah, it's going to fade away. Here's the thing. Once you take care of your body, your mental, your spirit, and you feed it properly, then that produces not only fruit, but it also produces seed. And when that seed, and when you talk, and we become peaceful, when that seed in your voice begin to flow on other people's thoughts. And then they get to produce seed. So remember that you are impactful in your environment, and you're never out of the wrong season. You're always in the divine timing, and there are really no true mistakes. There are only purposes. So just remind yourself that you are being the best version of you. And today is a good day But guess what? Tomorrow, your tomorrow will be even better. And the day after would be better than that. So just keep going, being your very best self. Vince Ferguson: Wow. Awesome. Beautiful. Beautiful. To my listeners and viewers. I truly hope this program was informative, encouraging, and I know it was inspiring and that you will continue tuning in to my Six Weeks of Fitness podcast. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for the show, please leave them in the comment section below, and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. And remember you don't stop exercising because we grow old. We grow old because we stop exercising.

00:00.00 mikebledsoe All right welcome to Monday morning with Mike and max Today we're gonna be talking about education and you know what this is a bit of a taboo subject because when I get in the conversations with the average. Person and I make certain comments about the education system a lot of people get very protective of it and they they get a little little scared around it and they want to reject things and and 1 of the things that I have to remember in those conversations is that. I am standing from a perspective that's very different than the perspective that they're holding and when that's the case we really need to stare step people into the conversation versus just saying well that's stupid so max and I are going to take a ah. 00:47.90 Max Shank KA. 00:54.75 mikebledsoe Stab at the conversation of Education. Hopefully we can help ah expand people's ideas about this and maybe change perspectives and maybe you're listening and you share the same perspective and we're able to help you put it into words more clearly so that you can share with others. As well and this was this conversation was inspired by the show we did last week where max was talking about how he would do things different with Education. So We decided to go deeper with it. Good to have you max. 01:32.76 Max Shank It's great to be here Mike I think what I'd like to start off by saying is that there is a monumental difference between school and education education is the process of learning. Which is essentially like cheating. That's how humans have been able to become so dominant because we've been able to ah compound our acquired knowledge intergenerationally over long term I think schooling. Especially public schooling and even university has been a colossal failure in almost every way does more harm than good and I think the reason that people get so triggered and defensive when you make a comment like that is because they don't want to feel. Silly for having wasted their time having gone through that system themselves and especially if they have kids that they have put through that system. They don't want to feel like they have abused their children which they probably have so those are the 2 main reasons that people get charged up. When you make a comment like school is probably 5% efficient use of time. There are a few things that are useful about school but most of it is done in such a destructive manner for both the body and mind of a child. So those are the reasons that people get triggered schooling itself is a colossal failure education is the most powerful tool you have to increase your leverage which is going to allow you to have a greater impact in life with lower effort or less work There's a great. Mark Twain quote that says I never let schooling interfere with my education and I think that describes perfectly what we're talking about so there's a big big distinction big difference between school and education. So. Ultimately, it is your responsibility to educate yourself. It is your responsibility to educate your kids and then it is their responsibility to educate themselves beyond that and I think tying into our concept of freedom and personal responsibility. That's. 1 of the biggest errors is when you outsource your education you are priming yourself for propaganda and brainwashing and just essentially you end up in obedience school is what it becomes rather than an actual education that allows you to be more. 04:19.91 Max Shank Self-reliant and contribute in a constructive way. 04:24.29 mikebledsoe Yeah, when I think about I mean there's a few other distinctions to make here. So the distinction between education schooling you've made well another one that um stands out to me is Dr Andy Galpin he he always says that. Know the difference between education and training and the what he witnesses is the average student walking through the door at cal state is expecting training from a college university whose job is to educate. 05:00.43 Max Shank A. 05:01.88 mikebledsoe And and the point of education especially like a liberal Arts education is to is this is this is the way it was set up is that the wealthy would send their kids here so they could broaden their horizons. They could broaden their their scope of knowledge into many different areas. And then after they attended University They then entered the workplace and they were able able to enter the workplace being more cultured having more total information but not necessarily going to school unless you're going to become a doctor or lawyer or or something like that. Ah. 05:37.18 Max Shank No. 05:39.13 mikebledsoe A lot of so a lot of people have basically ah in in regard to college. They've confused education with training and it's not training and so some of these expectations around. Oh I'm going to go to college and then I'm going to get a job that's paying me close to 6 figures. 05:46.42 Max Shank H. 05:58.46 mikebledsoe You have 0 training All you have is education and so it's ah the the learning is going to happen when you start training or when you start actually doing so I like to have that as a distinction. As well. The just because so many people think they should should have that job and yeah, you're gonna have to get your training after college and which also brings me to ah a. A phrase. That's really stuck with me for a long time which is learning is behavior change and there is ah there are so many the education system the way that people have been educated have been really rewarded for memorizing and regurgitating. And they've mislabeled that as learning. So What I notice is a lot of people. They'll you'll start talking to them. They go I know I know I know we know this because max and I are both Educators. We tell somebody and they go I know I was like why aren't you doing it if you know it. And it's because they read it and they know it and so they almost get they the problem with education system is it rewards you with good grades a pat on the back like you did something good by memorizing it and then you go Oh I should get a reward for memorization. 07:27.81 Max Shank Right. 07:29.45 mikebledsoe And so people are very confused about why they're not getting a reward in the real world for just knowing shit and you be if you really live your life which I've really taken this on for myself that learning is behavior change if your behavior didn't Change. You don't get to say that you learned it. 07:47.70 Max Shank Um, yeah I Really like that a lot I think the collapse distinction between training ah and education was that what you said between education and training. 08:01.19 mikebledsoe Education and training. Yeah. 08:05.32 Max Shank That's huge. That's huge um because you can go to welding school and you will learn a craft and you are now trained as a welder but the concept of broadening your horizons or as Charlie Munger calls it. The mental lattice work which I really like so you can borrow. Different ideas from a variety of topics and subjects and sources is really beneficial to your overall knowledge. But I also like the concept there of if the behavior doesn't change. You didn't really learn and it. Kind of makes me think of bf skinner classical conditioning right? If you if the behavior changes then learning has taken place. But if the behavior doesn't change then it has not ah that's. 08:55.64 mikebledsoe Right? And and going to your point in the beginning is the school has become Ah, it's ah it's obedient school because what's the primary thing that people are learning. And they're learning to follow directions. They're learning to be at a specific. Yeah, be here at this Time. Don't do all these things do all these other things. Ah yeah, there are like you. So. Also said there's 5% of it is useful information. 09:14.86 Max Shank Repeat What I say when I say it to you. 09:33.78 mikebledsoe And I think that people tend to focus on the 5% because they want to protect I mean their identity right? because if you come out and say hey you you got screwed over by this education system which you believe so strongly in. 09:41.13 Max Shank Exactly. 09:52.00 mikebledsoe Because it's the only thing you know? Ah yeah, it could be. It's It's a blow to the identity Ego does not like to have that conversation and I'm curious max. What was what was your education. What was ah what was your education experience like. 10:02.62 Max Shank Yeah, and. 10:11.12 mikebledsoe Growing up. 10:11.25 Max Shank Oh hellacious of of or pertaining to hell. Ah it. It was awful. Um, you know when you're a child the last thing in the world you want to do is sit in a desk and listen to someone who you don't like. Try to teach you something you don't care about for long long periods of time so it was horrible I almost got held back for bad bad handwriting ah made me think I was stupid and I mean once again I don't remember. 95% of the stuff I learned because that's not how that's not how memory works you know, even if you read a book and enjoy the book. You're not going to remember most of it unless you start using it and applying it in your everyday life and it is a tough pill to swallow. To recognize that you may be wasted 12 years of your life having your creativity and critical thinking skills essentially beaten out of you on some level but conversely. If. You don't accept that then you won't change your behavior so you have to sort of accept that before you can move on in a new and more constructive way. That's like that sunk cost fallacy. Oh well I did this for so long. Let me just do it a little bit more. So. Elementary school. Ah really traumatizing high school all the way up I did go to college before dropping out and it was it was really smart I didn't even have much left. To finish my spanish and economics degree. But I'm really glad I dropped out because it just proved ah how true that sunk cost fallacy is and it was almost better in terms of my actual learning and belief in that reality like. Am I going to spend another semester and a half to finish this degree when I have no intention of using it and I realized no so I went full hog into the career that I did enjoy that I was enthusiastic about and the gym that I had opened up. 12:28.50 mikebledsoe Beautiful. Oh we boat dropped out of college to run a gym and. 12:30.89 Max Shank Yeah, yeah, yeah, well and I I you know I I bought my house Thanks to book sales but I also failed English in high school. 12:46.90 mikebledsoe You know? yeah I think that um. 12:48.60 Max Shank So clearly I don't know how to write. 12:52.71 Max Shank And the incentives the incentives are backwards right? So we've established that it's obedient school but there's no incentive for the teacher to do anything other than get you to behave yourself while in class and repeat back through rote Memory. Wrote memorization what she taught you. There's no advantage.. There's no incentive there for her to teach you. How to think critically because of the way that we measure is kind of like ah yeah, whatever, whatever way that you measure is. Going to affect the tactics that you employ. So if you're measuring Memorization. You're not really going to be incentivized to build critical thinking skills or expansive questioning. Um same as the incentive for college. You know there's no incentive for them to ensure that you get a good paying job and actually the only incentive there is to continue to increase the price of college because student loans for college are one of the only things you can. Get a person that young with that bad of credit to engage into a contract in I mean they're essentially like raping kids of their future by getting them to take out huge student loans that they can never default on due to bankruptcy So The incentive structures are. Um, completely backwards through the entire schooling process. 14:31.67 mikebledsoe Yeah, by the way if if it sounds like we're just doing a lot of bashing we we do have solutions for each one of these things that we're gonna discuss we want to. We want to get all the problems out there first and one of the things that struck me is you know. The the rope memorization regurgitation is a really strong focus on what to think and as you were saying you know critical thinking skills. That's more about how to think and how to work your way through problems and we have an entire society that. Is easy to control because they're just told what to think if you if you log into Google Apple Facebook watch television listen to radio. They're repeating to you what to think about, but they're. Not telling you how to think about it. It's usually ah telling you what to think and then why you should worry about it and why you should be afraid of it and so this is it's a very fear drivenve experience in our culture right now and recognize this with. 15:34.92 Max Shank 11 15:47.32 mikebledsoe My girlfriend especially she. She's got a master's in psychology and she's a certified you know, Psychotherapist and she did all the education racked up the student loan debt and she's very good at what she does like there. There's there's a lot of benefit out of it. But she's also since since her and I met and she's been swimming around the world of coaches who may not necessarily have finished their degrees which I know some coaches that were psychology majors but then just decide not to you know, go all the way or whatever it is and so. 16:14.74 Max Shank And. 16:25.44 mikebledsoe Um, now we get into this realm where people don't have you know certifications that fall under a board of ethics run by a bunch of academics and there was so much she I've heard this from her and many other people who have ah. Ah, ah, not certifications. But they have these credentials that could be taken away by a board. You know like a medical board or this or that and so what she shared with me is being in college. There was so much emphasis on. 16:52.30 Max Shank Right? well. 17:02.73 mikebledsoe You could lose your license for this. It's license not certification. You could lose your license for this lose your license for that like all the she said there was just so much fear and there was like if you don't follow these very specific rules then you're gonna lose your license and then you won't be able to work ever again and then she starts meeting everybody who. 17:04.23 Max Shank Small cut. 17:20.96 mikebledsoe Nobody has a license and they make good money and they get great results for their clients and she experienced ah ah quite a bit of frustration around that and ah, you know and there's so many things that she has because she went through. Like it was the perfect way for her to go she needed to go through that for many reasons part of it is you know, no one in her family had gone to college and her finishing at College made a big impact on the family you know and and there's there's all these. There's all these. 17:42.67 Max Shank No. 18:00.30 mikebledsoe Cultural narratives that really drive that but what I'd like for her to get to and I think she's getting there which is being really appreciative for the education she received but also recognizing it that its limitations and and going beyond. Ah. 18:09.42 Max Shank And. 18:17.97 mikebledsoe Where those limitations were at which which I've witnessed her due and I I hope that most people can do that? Um, yeah. 18:24.12 Max Shank That's a tricky thing is changing resentment into gratitude when you know, full well with the benefit of hindsight that there was a much better way. But if you're not feeling that way your whole life. You're probably not paying attention. Like if you can never think back and go like there was a better way I could have done that than I want whatever you're having this can you imagine. 18:46.70 mikebledsoe Yeah. Yeah, yeah, and one of the things that I also see missing in school that that really occurred to me after I got out of college was I remember taking a counting class in my first semester back to school after I was in the Navy and. I got a quarter away of the way through and the and the drop date was approaching and and I dropped the accounting clause because I was gonna get like a d in it or something and I had never gotten such a poor grade on anything and then um I go and i. 19:16.44 Max Shank Ah. 19:25.56 mikebledsoe Go on to physics you know a couple semesters later and do just fine which if you talk to most people accounting is way easier than physics for for most people. What I recognize when I look back? Ah what I really enjoyed about physics was the there was so much Context. This is why we're doing this. This is the practical application of this This is why we're learning this and when I sat down in the accounting class I was like all right. These are credits and these were debits. There was no and this this this teacher was so this accounting teacher was so. 19:55.71 Max Shank Context. 20:02.48 mikebledsoe Ah, popular for having it being a difficult class or you he was like pride prided himself on weeding people out of business school and I look back I was like it's just a bad teacher like come on you So proud of you Idiot like. 20:11.72 Max Shank What an asshole. 20:20.93 mikebledsoe A good teacher would be educating their students really well and giving them the tools to succeed but this is I think this is one of the dangers of you know I met a lot of ah I'm not saying that they're all like this but I met a lot of people who were. In the education department so they went to school specifically to become a teacher so we have to remember that the education system. It's not one of those things where we could just introduce new curriculum into the system and it would solve it because part of the problem is the teachers grew up in a. Memorize and regurgitate environment. They don't have the critical thinking skills in order to pass them down and I think that's at the core is really the problem. Um, you know there's a lot of problems but like. You can't expect the teacher that doesn't have critical thinking to be able to teach critical thinking. 21:20.83 Max Shank Right? And unfortunately because the system is so entrenched and there's 10 year and there's um teachers who do really well actually become ostracized by the rest of the teachers. And I think the core problem with schooling the absolute core problem is the lack of incentive because if we talk about what the purpose of education is which is what the purpose of schooling should be It should be that you are. Self-reliant able to contribute understand value and values and because there's no connection. There. There's no incentive for the teacher to be able to do that. There's no incentive for the college to. Do a good job. Once they've gotten your tuition money. That's the biggest problem is there's ah, no incentive or sometimes there's actually a backwards incentive so you need to allow competition to happen with education. And there was actually a really good um thing that John Stossel did about education with regard to letting the free market help elevate the best teachers to the chop and I guess there's this. I want to say he's like a south korean guy. Um, who is a multi multi-millionaire I think like tens of millions of dollars because his lectures are so well attended both in person and online and actual learning is happening and. So that's part of it. But also if there was some correlation to how well the students do afterward. Um, just like if you offer coaching I'm sure you've offered coaching with a guarantee before hey I guarantee and yeah I mean that like like ah right. 23:20.33 mikebledsoe Oh yeah, yeah, it's a conditional guarantee so you have to show us the work you did that we prescribed. Otherwise you're not getting your money back. 23:28.54 Max Shank Yeah, right? But imagine though like that is that's an insanely good deal like if you pay me five k for coaching I guarantee that if you do what we say that you will get 10 k back like whoa. Are you kidding me. You have all the incentive to do a great job. They're bought in so they have all the incentive to do a great job I mean talk about a win-win and so that's my core point is the incentives are backwards and people respond to incentives more than anything else and that's why I like the. The ancient ah Roman ah bridge builder having to stand underneath the bridge when the first guys drive over it and they're like ah carriages I think that's that's essentially. 24:16.42 mikebledsoe Seeing him. 24:22.94 Max Shank How everything should be done. Is there needs to be an incentive for the people who are doing the work and the reward needs to also go to those who are incentivized to do so that's the core problem across the board. 24:34.20 mikebledsoe Yeah, on your point 1 more out which is cost and the cost is soared and the quality has diminished over time I think it's at least in the the college university experience. The the government came in and basically subsidized through grants and they ah they stood behind loans. They guaranteed loans so that these banks would start lending money to people that have poor credit scores or have no credit. 25:10.34 Max Shank Their children their children. 25:10.60 mikebledsoe Or just too young to even know what they're getting themselves into yeah and so the education loans are predatory in nature for one they predatory loans I everyone I know that's got over $ $100000 in debt when I talk to them about. Experience of going into the financial aid office. It's always the same They're just always trying to max them out and the people in the financial aid office. They don't know any fucking better either. They're just doing what they're told they're not thinking they didn't they weren't taught to critically think they don't understand what's going on. They think they're doing a good thing. 25:41.83 Max Shank It was just following orders. 25:46.66 mikebledsoe Um, and and the the ah the cost as skyrocketed because these are guaranteed by the government. You can't be Bankrupt. You can't bankrupt your way out of these. So It has incentivized the schools to raise their rates because more people can get loans so simultaneously. Yeah, so the schools have raised their rates without actually making improvements to the education at all I Imagine it's just made the administrative. 26:12.73 Max Shank Guaranteed. 26:22.73 mikebledsoe Portion of the school much fluffier. Um, there's tenured professors that are in ah in a fluffy environment and in some way due to these things. So The football teams are probably getting you know, really great stadiums built who the fuck knows but um. Yeah, the the cost is to me is really disgusting in how much people are spending on education with what they get out of it and that is just long term debt. So it's. Pretty sickening. 27:00.87 Max Shank Predatory is the correct word I think use the word predatory I think that's exactly what it is I think the guy Mike Roe who hosted dirty jobs and now has a foundation called micro works. Really has done a good job in illuminating the destructive cultural expectation that says oh going to university means you're good and if you're a welder and electrician that makes you bad and I'm falling back to the same examples. But. You know plumber there's nothing wrong with being a tradesman shoot I knew a guy who became a truck driver when he was 18 by the time he was 27 he owned like 3 or 5 semi trucks and he was basically retired you know so this whole idea that you need to be part of the intelligentsia is. Such a fallacy and it's very destructive because of course children they just want to be loved they want they want to get positive attention. So um, kids will do whatever gets them positive attention I mean the more interviews you listen to the the great people. In their fields. It's usually that they got positive attention for whatever it is they were doing. 28:19.63 mikebledsoe Yeah, and another part of um, you know the the grants and the guaranting of the loans has basically made it possible for people who would not normally go to college to go to college and. With that has been the lowering of standards for accepting people to schools and so college education hasn't become special and it used to be special and now because everybody's going and the standards are lower. It's just kind of. It lowers the overall experience of what colleges it no longer stands out like the batch but the Bachelorsard's degree is what the high school diploma used to be.. It's It's not. It's not anything that's gonna make you stand apart and so we end up with just people that are in school into their mid 20 s or. Early 30 s just putting off actually getting their life started. 29:19.15 Max Shank And with the exception of a few careers. It's totally worthless. It's for most careers, you'd be better off working and earning money when you're like 1412 1416 you know you can you can become an apprentice. For something when you're in your teens and by the time you're 18 have lots of money saved up and have a valuable skill and if you have a good mentor a valuable skill that you know how to sell and there's no better security than that. Ah, valuable skill that you know how to sell. 29:59.30 mikebledsoe Yeah,, let's let's get into that So What are the now. What I want to do is I Want to talk about the important things that are that we should be learning So What should exist and. Education and then after we talk about the different things that are important. We can roll into how we would design an education system that included these things and excluded all the bullshit. So. What do you got Max. What are the important things for us to learn. 30:30.96 Max Shank First off I just want to reiterate why? what? What were you trying to learn. Why is it important we have self reliance and contribution. We have value and values and we have physical and mental health. I think that pretty much covers what you would hope to learn right? Is there anything else. You can think of I think that's basically it. 30:56.42 mikebledsoe Um I like that as ah as a context I started thinking about the things that like specifically when I think about what's commonly thought of being created in school is reading writing arithmetic. Ah. 31:10.90 Max Shank O. 31:14.38 mikebledsoe If you can if you can read and write you can you're going to be able to and if you can comprehend what you read at a high level you become more literate so that the more you can comprehend the better. You can comprehend the more literate you become which allows you to grasp information at much faster speed. But also be able to produce it and share it. So um, the reading and writing are super important there if you can I Really think I mean this this trumps math if you can read, you can learn anything. You can go anywhere if you can read really? well. Um, that's. 31:46.49 Max Shank Agreed agreed. 31:52.67 mikebledsoe To me is the primary thing I'm a little biased I'm sure because like I I have ah a super high reading comprehension but I look at my life and I see how beneficial that has been It's probably because I was homeschooled. And basically around seventh or eighth grade I was learning everything on my own so it was was kind of like forced into reading comprehension. Um. 32:15.72 Max Shank Whole words usually make or break your life your ability to communicate with other people and cooperate with other people is totally dependent on your ability to express and interpret both. Ah. 32:20.81 mikebledsoe You know. 32:35.49 Max Shank Actual language and body language. So it it is the ultimate skill and we are the ultimate social emotional creature. So there's no question that word is important I have it split up into word number and movement basically and. 32:49.63 mikebledsoe E. 32:54.10 Max Shank That will give you the mental and physical health that will also allow you to understand the concept of value and if you understand the concept of value. You know that value is relative to the individual like you know, bottled water at Coachella. Is very valuable but bottled water on you know, an iceberg is is next to a ah pure stream is not that valuable at all. In fact, it might even be detrimental. You'd pay nothing for it. So that's really the the crux of it. So. With number I have it split up into economics engineering and music is how I would teach numbers econ so you can learn about risk reward cost and benefit. There's some accounting in there of course and then engineering. Would be where like physics and geometry and structures would come into play. So I think that covers most of the practical uses for numbers and I'm sure that our listeners would have other ideas of how that work I think music is. Ah, really good thing to ah teach people because it's actually pretty easy and the amount of effort required versus the benefit you get both ah psychologically and physically is very high so that would be number and then for words. You would want logic and rhetoric history to know what worked and what should be done differently Ww and Dd and then ah learning about programming. Learning about how humans are programmed learning how to program yourself using language learning about the power of stories and storytelling and maybe most importantly, learning how to craft an offer and sell that offer. And I think that really covers a lot of the word skills that a person might need. And lastly we have under movement I have meditation under movement because it's sort of the um I think stillness is actually a pretty useful. Exercise and then we have wrestling striking gymnastics and Ballgames and I think that would cover like 95% 35:41.39 Max Shank Of what you need in order to be able to deliver value which allows you to be self-reliant and contribute and it would also enhance your mental and physical health and still leave lots of time left over for. Recreation and leisure and rest and play which I think are also non-negotiables. 36:06.61 mikebledsoe Yeah, one thing I would add to that be law I think there's yeah, no manmade laws. The um, those. 36:13.36 Max Shank Law like physical laws or so so crime crime and punishment. 36:25.30 mikebledsoe Yeah, really I mean people people be don't understand how law works They don't understand I mean going back to because that falls under the the word category for you because law is just an opinion. 36:38.94 Max Shank Yeah. 36:44.32 mikebledsoe By a certain group of people that they then Hire Policy. You know they create a policy Hire Policy enforcers to make sure that everybody complies. Um. And most people are very confused about the law so it leaves it leaves law in the hands of very few people people people get involved politically in ways that they don't understand. 37:11.36 Max Shank O. 37:18.77 mikebledsoe Don't understand the implications of what's going On. Ah and they don't know how to make a change. They don't know how to how to change the law or take advantage of the law or to interpret the law and I think this is something I started learning some of that when I was in high school. I was I was blessed enough to have been exposed to constitutional law and take that high school and I was homeschooled so I got to study a bunch of shit that other people never I talked to anyone who went to public school. No one talked about constitutional law. Even though that's the entire basis of our culture So culture is made up of language in the most concrete version of culture is the laws that are written down and people are going around enforcing those laws I mean it doesn't get more concrete than that outside of. 38:12.54 Max Shank Or else That's a strong incentive. 38:15.79 mikebledsoe Yeah, or else. So I think that I think that law is is really powerful to to learn and another thing is most of the things that people avoid in this world that keeps them from being wealthy I had this conversation with one of my friends this weekend. Is people are scared to learn anything administrative in nature people due to avoiding administrative load ah remain poor They they don't engage with what's happening financially with and with their taxes. They don't know how to. 38:49.31 Max Shank So. 38:52.36 mikebledsoe They're afraid of it and they just you know whatever the accountant says I don't really know how to how to engage in that administratively and a lot of people confuse law with Administrative. There's a lot of administrative stuff going on if you just do these things that you're not going to be subject to certain laws because you went through these. Certain administrative Processes. So this happens with real estate this happens with what what we're seeing in the the crypto markets right now there's a lot of there's a lot of really complex and sophisticated administrative things that are built in a society right now that. 39:11.40 Max Shank Ah. 39:28.85 mikebledsoe The only people who really get the benefit of it are the people who are willing to engage in that administrative load and are willing to learn the complexity of it and so I see the administration falls under government and governance and law. Whether it's coming from a government or the governance is coming from a smaller institution. These things are all important to know about if you want to participate in society and make a difference in it. 39:50.27 Max Shank The. 39:58.98 Max Shank It's like how you want to? It's like how to manage your life. Basically right? because you know don't hate the player hate the game better yet. Just ah, don't hate anything just ah play the cards you're dealt. But you're right I mean law is so deliberately complex to obscure the truth accounting rules are so deliberately complex to obscure the truth tax rules, etc. But you can complain about how it's unfair. Which it is or you can learn the language of those pursuits and I think the fact that we don't teach kids about accounting and taxes and law in high school is a frigging crime. 40:50.69 mikebledsoe Yeah, well be too many people learn it. They might get they they might start thinking for themselves. That's a problem so we won't go. 40:59.71 Max Shank Well, they might realize how bad everyone's being screwed I mean that's why we also that's why we also don't get ah a transparent pie chart with a list of how tax dollars are being spent because we would all go like are you fricking kidding me. Like you couldn't you couldn't imagine a more egregious misappropriation of funds. But once again that is taboo because people are under the fantasy. That it's being spent well if their tax dollars are going to a good cause and so in order to come to the realization that they're being catastrophically mismanaged wasted or maybe even ah used for ah sinister acts. 41:51.57 mikebledsoe Um, yeah. 41:53.53 Max Shank Right is horrifying. 42:00.63 mikebledsoe So horrifying. Alright, so we know we know what we want to learn so I don't have children yet. But I'm planning on it. Um I was homeschooled I feel very blessed for that I think. 1 of the things that people are mostly concerned about and it comes homeschooling is you know the social interaction piece and I said this last week is you know the 3 big things we want to learn that the reason we want to learn things is so we can benefit our health our wealth and our relationships. And ah, you know a lot of times people think about you know, homeschoolers being isolated and and I had plenty of opportunity I my parents hired tutors along with some other parents. So I would go to a latin teacher with 3 other guys once a week we would study latin. Um I had an algebra tutor I had a spanish tutor and I was getting little social engagement in these small groups throughout the week so I wasn't without a social structure. It was just different and I think I actually developed very well because of that because I actually spent more time. Amongst adults that I did with kids who are my own age who probably weren't as mature and had I been in that environment I would have behaved less maturely as well. So I had ah I was able to mature pretty quickly due to that. Um. And I know one thing that's really emerged. That's really exciting is this past couple of years. The kids weren't allowed to go to school and they all had to sit at home and and ah, they're basically being homeschooled. 43:46.12 Max Shank Right. 43:54.49 mikebledsoe By parents who may not even be interested in it or they're having to work a job and can't give them the attention and it just created this this whiplash in a way and you know they they started letting kids go back to school here in Texas and Florida you know the kids. Everything's pretty much back to normal when it comes to going to school sometimes I have mass sometimes they don't depends on the school here in in Texas and ah, but my friends in California who have children what they've done because California laws are so insane. Ah. Is ah a lot of these teachers have left these these really great teachers have left these amazing schools because they're tired of all the mandates as well and these parents have gotten together and they go oh there's 6 families. Getting together. We're all going to contribute $20000 to this teacher for the year the teacher gets paid more the kids get more attention that the ratio of parent a teacher is just right? The parents are in a constant conversation with the teachers. And there's not just one teacher to 1 group of kids. There's multiple teachers that have specialties and different things and so these kids are are and it's and it's very it's become very communal and what we're gonna what we're gonna be witnessing over the years is there's a ah decentralization of. Everything everything's being decentralized and so a lot of people are not going to like that because it's so different than the way it's been but education is becoming decentralized and it's gonna be very community oriented and when things decentralized things tend to become tribal and what I mean by that is. There are small cultures. There's these subcultures that start forming these bubbles I'm part of a subculture where I live we all have you know we we all share the same beliefs and all that kind of stuff and when you know we have kids and bring them up through that culture that's going to be that way. And we need to be good with other people having their own bubbles and their own beliefs and their own cultures. That's perfectly fine. That's what makes this world such a beautiful place. Um, but what I I see in the future is the reason this teacher can get paid much more. You know it could be making 6 figures and. Not working for the school. So the teacher makes more money it costs the parents less money to send their kids to school because're not paying for all this administrative bullshit and the administrative bullshit basically gets in the way of having a direct relationship with the teacher and it gets in the way of community because it's sets a centralized humane and control. 46:35.28 Max Shank Right. 46:42.61 Max Shank And no direct incentive either yet, you need to have um, correlated incentives. Otherwise you're always going to get a worse result. You're always going to get corruption. You're always going to get. Ah. 46:47.34 mikebledsoe And the incentives are yeah are broken. 47:02.44 Max Shank Like lobbying. For example, we're we're going to. We're going to convince the rule breakers to give us better rules I mean that's just that's just crazy. 47:05.19 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah. 47:13.45 mikebledsoe so so I started throwing out a solution. that's that's 1 big broad solution. We didn't talk about how kids should be school choice. 47:19.84 Max Shank School choice. Yeah school choice is the ultimate solution because if you want to send your kid to public school and you have what you consider a good public school and you're well-informed then hey you know more power to you but you have to have that choice. Which allows for competition so that the let's just say like the destructive schools don't have a monopoly on the hearts and minds of kids. It's ridiculous. 47:49.98 mikebledsoe Um, yeah, how would you handle the 8 hours of sitting in 1 spot as a child. 47:57.10 Max Shank You you don't I mean what could possibly be worse than sitting in a chair that is horizontal with a desk that is horizontal. It's catastrophically bad. You're looking straight down all the time. Or you're looking at the teacher talk. Ah I think for the body. It's awful. You know you could you could do you could do 100% of schooling outside if the weather was good. You could do most schooling outside depending on the weather just with like a. A notebook or a tablet of some kind I mean it doesn't have to be a fancy ipad or anything like that. You know we forget that you pay a premium for a luxury brand like that. But you could go to Walmart today and for like eighty bucks get a tablet that can connect to the internet. And write notes and has a little pen on there. So. 48:55.83 mikebledsoe For all my friends kids were the school gave them Macbooks once covid hit like all the kids got macbooks I know well you're welcome kid. 49:05.43 Max Shank Wow you and I paid for those. Ah, yeah, and obviously someone won big on securing that contract too. So that that's that sort of ah backwards incentive is par for the course and a lot of it has to do with transparency. 49:18.51 mikebledsoe Oh yeah, for sure. 49:29.19 Max Shank I think that's the main attraction of cryptocurrency. For example, especially like blockchain technology is that it's so transparent. Ah there isn't anyway, we don't want to get on that topic too much but when it's transparent and you know where everything's going. It's really difficult for there to be those. Dirty dealings behind the scenes and those backwards incentive structures. So I think that sitting in a desk, especially ah a single desk most of the day is. 1 of the worst things you could do to a kit to their posture to their eyesight to their skin to their body I mean it's horrible. You know if you don't see it as child if you don't see it as child abuse then you like don't understand physiology. 50:12.84 mikebledsoe Well, the other thing is is. 50:21.37 mikebledsoe Yeah, and the other thing that I've done a lot of work in the emotional realm and one of the things that I recognize is the emotional body and the physical body are so intertwined These are not different these are and. 50:21.90 Max Shank At all. 50:41.36 mikebledsoe And if you put kids in an environment where they cannot move and they're experiencing anything emotional that they're not allowed to express because you're not allowed to express yourself emotionally in class you gotta be quiet. You can't you know if you're crying. We're gonna. 50:53.91 Max Shank And right? yeah. 50:59.33 mikebledsoe You You know, get rid of you somehow or get you to settle down if you're if you want to be happy and Laughing. You can't do that either. So Not only is there this retardation of physical movement but ah of being in touch with the emotional body. So What I see. Problem with the desk is it's yeah, it's the the emotional body also gets stunted in this so you get the the physical body and the emotional body are suffering by being in this and while the physical body and the emotional body are being minimized. 51:17.99 Max Shank Eq goes down. 51:35.57 mikebledsoe We are then putting most of our attention on the memorization and regurgitation and so we end up in honoring and really I guess holding on a pedestal. The. The intellectual part of being human as being the most valuable so we've got 20 years of education telling us that what's in our mind is what's truly important and that our body and our emotional body are not as important you won't be valued in Society. If you have that So what we have is a bunch of people who have very poor development physically poor development Emotionally who have an overdeveloped psyche in a lot of ways that is that they identify as who they are and that that. Creates a very controllable population. It's a very,. It's very easy to create sheep in that in that case. 52:41.60 Max Shank All being taught by an obedience teacher who has no skin in the game for how well they do in life. 52:51.11 mikebledsoe Um, yeah. 52:52.80 Max Shank Even even with the best of intentions I've I've met teachers who are amazing I've also met teachers who couldn't be worse and even if you have really good intentions. It doesn't mean that the action is good I Think that's. 52:57.84 mikebledsoe I. 53:11.00 Max Shank Something that I've really come to think about a lot as I study history as I Observe what's going on in our culture Good intentions doesn't doesn't make the action good if your intentions are good. It doesn't mean what you're doing is good. So Even with the best of intentions you can like horribly abuse a lot of people. 53:29.65 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah. 53:35.33 mikebledsoe The the truth is in the results I talk to people about this which is somebody wants to start getting defensive of you know I speak frequently about the the medical system being fucked up and you know what people refer to as the health care system. Being fucked up and they're like well you know and they want to defend it I'm like all we have to do is look at the results I don't want to hear about why you think this is a good idea or not or people want to defend very specific actions when I go look I don't I'm not look. That action. You know was a good theory and it was put in place and all that but it didn't work out the way we wanted to work out. You know the american healthcare system is failing. How do we know? record breaking diabetes cancer mental health the heart disease people. That ah number one killer in the United States right now. Fentanyl overdose. So ah, prescription drugs. 54:37.86 Max Shank Number 1 even above and beyond like heart disease that would surprise me. 54:44.30 mikebledsoe I I Saw a new thing I think it became number one definitely beats Covid but um. 54:50.44 Max Shank Maybe number one? No well, there's ah, there's a lot of iffy numbers around testing and things like that and the amount of deaths and cases there but we don't want to get ourselves censored. 55:01.35 mikebledsoe Everything? Ah yeah, all arms. Ah yeah, if you're getting censored. 55:09.50 Max Shank That's always a good sign by the way if ah if someone's trying to censor certain topics. They're probably doing it with good intentions. 55:16.98 mikebledsoe Ah, yeah, so so we really got to look at the results and so anyone who still is hesitant to agree with us. Ah just look at the results you know or the results of the education system. What kind of what kind of people are going out into the world. Seems pretty chaotic to me at this point. Um, what I mean I too many too many kids to one teacher these classrooms with 30 kids 1 teacher. What? What's the number you'd like to see. 55:46.28 Max Shank I well here's the thing I think if the structure were different that would be fine that'd be fine if if kids worked with each other in groups and they were learning things that were useful. Things that were important and interesting to them. Um, then you wouldn't need to have that teacher giving one thirtieth of her attention to everyone all the time it could be done in more of like a ah circuit style. 56:20.70 mikebledsoe Um. 56:22.54 Max Shank So I think the number of students to the teacher is relevant but it can work a lot of different ways. Ah no question, no question if you have ah a 1 on 1 relationship you're you're gonna get more. 56:29.36 mikebledsoe You. 56:41.19 Max Shank Information transmitted there you're going to get more direct and immediate feedback which can be very beneficial. Um, ah so I think 1 to 30 is not necessarily a problem but it is a problem especially with the structure that we have it in. You know everybody in an individual desk. We got 95% fluff. The rest of it is not really um, taught in a way that is principles based It's more rote memorization based so um, yeah, part of the reason that's no good is. Because of the structure we have in place ah school school choice though is the solution and unfortunately the worse we like dumb down the. 57:20.81 mikebledsoe Got it? yeah. 57:38.17 Max Shank School system the more ah like pork belt barreling the more like fluff we throw in there due to lobbying and teachers unions and stuff like that and the less incentive at play you just create are ah wider wider and wider chasm between the haves and the have-nots because if then. You know going to public school is actually worse and worse and worse for a child that makes the gap between that and a private school or a free choice school bigger and bigger. 58:09.43 mikebledsoe yeah yeah I think about how I teach and we break you know Um I'm teaching adults so they learn the information on their own. They they try to apply it. Um, but then they also meet with a pod I put people in groups of a pod of 6 and that pod of 6 is led by 1 of my coaches and you know they're usually got more than no more than 25 or 30 people they're managing at a time but only 6 at a time. 58:32.57 Max Shank This. 58:48.20 mikebledsoe Is what they're managing and so I really like that that group of 6 I I grew up learning in in groups of 6 or or less I see a lot of value in that I do like what you were saying you know one teacher could be handling 30 kids if there was a certain rotation going on. But I think most teachers are managing like 150 kids and 30 at a time. So I think that and and the other thing we have to also think about is you know the age if you're if you're 3 4 5 6 7 eight years old you probably need that constant supervision. There needs to be a teacher all the time present or most of the time present you know I think it's really silly for thirteen fourteen Fifteen year olds to be under constant supervision of a teacher for 8 hours a day. It's I'm a big believer in. 59:31.71 Max Shank A. 59:45.69 Max Shank But. 59:46.61 mikebledsoe Like let's sit down for 60 to 90 minutes to focus on a topic as a group and then go go fuck off for an hour. You know, go go ah go to recess. Go move your body go play. Do something you enjoy. If you want to study more if you want to learn more about it and continue to have the conversation. Great. But I'd like to see an environment where like as kids get older that they get more autonomy over their time and how they spend it and. Giving them the space to research and learn about things that they're curious about instead of having this need to cram all this useless information in your head so that you know the teacher can meet their quota the way to pause it real quick. 01:00:31.50 Max Shank Um, yeah, sure. Yeah, so what we need is interest and incentive. Basically. 01:00:40.12 mikebledsoe Hear the door knocking go. 01:00:49.19 Max Shank Like if if you're interested in something and you're incentivized. You'll do it. That's that's what I've noticed with coaching adults as well is if you're interested and incentivized. There's no limit to the energy and enthusiasm that you'll have and if you. Reinforce that sense of ah contribution that good feeling you get when you share with others. It allows you to have this abundance of psychic energy which I think you and I agree you and I would agree is 1 of the main roadblocks. For adults in success in their business. It's not because they don't know how to do arithmetic. It's because there are personal blocks. Ah psychologically and emotionally right. 01:01:42.64 mikebledsoe Yeah, absolutely absolutely. Um, how how do you approach teaching children to we. We talked a lot about memorizing and regurgitating as as not learning, but just as it is what it is. 01:01:54.65 Max Shank Right. 01:02:00.54 Max Shank Right. 01:02:02.19 mikebledsoe How do we teach like what would be your idea of how to teach kids. How to think for themselves. 01:02:07.31 Max Shank So I have ah I have a very controversial method. What I do is I have a pocket full of marshmallows and then I carry a long stick and if they do something I like then they get a marshmallow and if they do something I don't like then I hit them with the stick and I'll. I'll trick them. Ah, into just blindly believing what I say and if they do blindly believe what I say then I hit him with the stick and if they ask for context then they get a marshmallow I'm a little bit old school. Ah no I mean I. 01:02:45.13 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah, yeah. 01:02:49.75 Max Shank I Think ah, encouraging curiosity and question asking is very valuable. Um I think relating everything back to how you're going to be able to liberate yourself and contribute. Is very important there needs to be context with the content. You can't have just content. You want to reinforce how learning to read will allow you to learn anything Else. You have to reinforce how ah economics and accounting are. Going to help you become wealthy so you don't have to worry about living paycheck to Paycheck. So I think having context with content and encouraging curiosity are probably the most important things when it comes to teaching kids. Um. The other thing is trying to have something physical in the world rather than just ah, verbal or visual something that they can hold in their hands I think is really valuable and making it a little bit more kinesthetic. 01:03:58.40 mikebledsoe Yeah, there's ah ah well the the interesting there is um I read I read this book last year called Metaphors that we live by and it Yeah, do you. 01:04:11.60 Max Shank I have that book. Yeah. 01:04:15.61 mikebledsoe And it does a really good job of mapping out how the the mind works in Metaphor. So ah, the when we when we talk about if we talk about inflation the way that it's structured in a sentence. Makes it out to where we're creating inflation as a person you know inflation is bad and it's gonna come get you and all these types of things just as an example and so we tend to take Concepts and we we say the mind is a. Is an engine or a machine.. It's like that's not actually True. You know we we could think about it as a process but most people don't That's too conceptual So Most Concepts are made that we make sense of those concepts by ah, assigning Them. Ah. 01:04:58.40 Max Shank Right. 01:05:13.25 mikebledsoe It's a metaphor to something we can physically see and touch and and feel and all that kind of stuff and so to your point if there is a lack of of 3 D experience if there's a lack of what's going on then. I Think these when you when you're learning Concepts and you don't have the metaphors locked in well enough you you are going to you. You run the risk of just living in the conceptual world which I call the fifth dimension and. 01:05:49.10 Max Shank Yes. 01:05:51.19 mikebledsoe World of concepts the fourth dimension being our 3 dimensions that we exist in in this particular moment and then add time and for the fourth dimension fit dimension being concepts and so what we end up with is a bunch of people who are lost in their heads. 01:06:10.34 Max Shank And. 01:06:10.71 mikebledsoe And just doing you know mental masturbation that never know how to to practically apply these things and I have suffered from that a bit myself. So I I get it. But that's something that I think you're spot on I think the solution to that is a lot of hands On. Learning like I learned geometry and trigonometry in my high school years but the real application which was way simpler than what I was learning in the books by the way was going on the job site with my dad and renovating houses and having to cut pieces of wood that were going to fit. 01:06:45.50 Max Shank Okay. 01:06:49.79 mikebledsoe This angle over here and this angle over there and we were doing the math it Trigg made so much sense to me being on the job site. You get me in a book and all of a sudden. It's stop it. It doesn't it doesn't mean as much but again because I have the I have the carpentry background. 01:07:05.69 Max Shank It's not rich. 01:07:09.11 mikebledsoe I do understand trick really well I was able to get into physics really well because I I so I can take the conception when I and I've had practice making it practical. 01:07:19.84 Max Shank Well and you know you bring up a really good point like pract I'm one of the most practical people I've ever met because I tend to think that if something is superfluous. You can do it for fun but otherwise it should be. Cut out like there's no reason for any of that unless you're specifically like trying to just have fun. So when I have the 3 categories of you know, word move and number there's a lot. You actually still have a lot of time left over so you could have part of schooling be woodworking and plumbing and learning a little bit about electric circuits and having these very practical schools like how about cooking and once again, we don't want to. Rely 100% on the state to teach your kid because they will ah do the worst job possible because there's no incentive for them to do a good job so having practical skills acquired that are not only. Ah. Applied in that moment but also applied for the rest of your life is hugely valuable. So I think um, that idea of no content without context would be. Like 1 of the most important things because you need someone to emotionally and intellectually buy in and apply that knowledge once they've realized that it's valuable. 01:08:59.99 mikebledsoe Yeah, that also solves the problem of the fluff. The the useless information that is made important when you have context I think about history and how much history is taught and it's like. 01:09:10.34 Max Shank A. So much fluff. 01:09:17.62 mikebledsoe This battle happened at this point and whatever and you know on the test you got to make sure that you got the right battle in the right year and all that kind of shit and it just makes no sense and um. 01:09:24.18 Max Shank Right? It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. It's rote memorization with no idea for like why are we learning this. It's so we don't repeat the mistakes of history and history is all about how human beings clump together and cooperate or. 01:09:35.26 mikebledsoe Right. 01:09:43.56 Max Shank Or don't cooperate how they resolve their differences How you know that that kind of thing I agree. 01:09:47.79 mikebledsoe Yeah, and so we could study the the purpose of studying history. The the grand context there which isn't taught school is yeah, don't repeat the mistakes and what's made us better. How do we do more of that and how does this. Why are we learning what we're learning today. How does that apply to today's environment and where we're going and what what are the pitfalls and and I I would you know when I have kids that conversation is gonna it's gonna be a conversation. You know what do you think about how that applies to what's going on in our world right now. 01:10:10.44 Max Shank Right. 01:10:23.52 Max Shank Hello text. 01:10:24.85 mikebledsoe This and that and and talk it through. 01:10:29.89 mikebledsoe Um, how would you incentivize creativity. What do you? What are you laughing about. 01:10:42.50 Max Shank I'm just thinking about ah the the teachers who hear this who are going to hate my fucking guts and yours too probably, but but they'll hate me more after I say this next thing is it doesn't seem hard. It actually doesn't seem difficult at all. Once you add context to every piece of content and once you cut away all the fluff. There's not that much. You need to know to understand value and values and when I say value and values I Basically just mean understanding that value is relative understanding that you have to deliver value. To be able to exist within this societal framework and values to me essentially means like volunteerism like non-coercion Morality like we talked about before like if you if you don't like someone that's fine but don't punch them in the face. 01:11:28.89 mikebledsoe Oh. 01:11:39.20 Max Shank Ah, however, if they attack you then ah go ahead and make sure you win that battle in some way, don't steal. Don't lie like it's very simple stuff. But. 01:11:46.10 mikebledsoe Yeah. 01:11:53.29 Max Shank It's not a lot of stuff. It's more important to reinforce those things with practical application and context. That's what I was laughing about. 01:11:58.12 mikebledsoe Yeah I on that I want to make sure that we have ah some type of solution for each thing we we named as a problem we we're talking about ah the the school system is stifling creativity. So. 01:12:06.54 Max Shank Yeah, can you repeat it I I was off in my own little world. There. Those are the. 01:12:17.28 mikebledsoe What? Ah how would you enhance? what would you do to help enhance creativity in children you were teaching. 01:12:22.66 Max Shank I Suppose asking leading questions to how you could apply something. You know that seems unrelated to something that we're learning right now would be a good way to do it. 01:12:38.70 mikebledsoe Yeah. 01:12:42.10 Max Shank Um, asking what other ways could you try to solve this problem. Um I think music and art would be Useful. Creativity is a tricky thing because. If we try to nail down a definition. What does creativity really mean um, like an unexpected solution like if you say in sport someone came up with a really creative play. It would be something that you haven't really seen before it would be. Something that maybe you've seen elsewhere applied in a new way right? So I I think encouraging knowing what that means and then encouraging that behavior and recognizing that's what innovation is would be useful. 01:13:24.90 mikebledsoe Yeah, one one of the ways I like her. 01:13:35.59 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah, I like the idea of well you know I train entrepreneurs I train people to be entrepreneurs basically and an entrepreneur is just a problem solver at the end of the day is. 01:13:44.50 Max Shank Right. Yeah. 01:13:53.49 mikebledsoe A problem in the world and you're gonna create a solution. So I really like the idea like creating an environment where creativity is enhanced by putting problems in front of them without the without saying solve it inside of this context but obviously. 01:14:10.74 Max Shank 2 01:14:13.24 mikebledsoe This problem solving this problem it. The problem itself creates its own boundaries and so if I'm solving a very specific problem then I have to take all this creative energy that might be going in random directions and then focus it down into this one solution and I think that. 01:14:25.85 Max Shank The. 01:14:32.62 mikebledsoe Being able to approach different types of problems and then apply all this other knowledge that that exists in other Contexts and then see the the principles overlap and the relationship of those principles into this New. Ah. New context if you can do that then you're you're gonna be really well Off. So It's I think putting a I think putting problems in front of kids and letting them work it out in their own way and just see what happens also allowing them to be. 01:14:57.69 Max Shank Ah. 01:15:08.12 Max Shank That's that's a great point. 01:15:10.69 mikebledsoe Kids just allowing kids to be curious and study what they want I mean ah the way I've thought about approaching is like you know what? I'm gonna make sure that my kids do math for like twenty thirty minutes a day I'm gonna make sure they read and write for twenty thirty minutes a day. It's like reading writing arithmetic. 01:15:12.84

Welcome back for Unaopogleitc Truths Episode 12 with Harsh Strongman aka LifeMathMoney & Arman Chowdhury aka ArmaniTalks. The LifeMathMoney brand creates blogs, ebooks, podcasts, and other content on topics such as self-discipline, money management weight lifting, and other topics. The ArmaniTalks brand creates content on developing your soft skills so you can carry yourself like a leader in everyday life. This duel podcast deals with topics on self-improvement, culture, finance & much more! 2 episodes every month.

Yesterday the Philadelpha 76ers met with Ben Simmons agent.  Simmons has yet to play in a game this season and there appears to be no resolution in sight.  Sivers President Daryl Morey said he isn't trading Simmons unless he receives fair market value in return.  In the meeting Simmons agent Rich Paul said that his client is dealing with mental health hurdles.  What the hell does that mean?  If Simmons has mental health issues why would any GM in the league trade for him?  Makes no sense to me!

Yesterday the Philadelphia 76ers met with Ben Simmons agent. Simmons has yet to play in a game this season and there appears to be no resolution in sight. Sixers President Daryl Morey said he isn't trading Simmons unless he receives fair market value in return. In the meeting Simmons agent Rich Paul said that his client is dealing with mental health hurdles. What the hell does that mean? If Simmons has mental health issues why would any GM in the league trade for him? Makes no sense to me! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Allen: All right, welcome, everybody. Today I have a very special friend with me, I want to let you know that she is a..I mean, she's been doing amazing, since she got started with trading with us. And the thing that stood out for me was that when she, she was going through our credit spread Mastery program, she did not attend any of the coaching calls, which most of the students think that's like the the highlight of it, because it's one on one coaching, but she did not attend any of them. And it was because that she works a full time job. And you know, at a very stressful I guess, manner of stressful, but it's a very important job for the government. And so she was working full time, she takes care of her family. So she does not like she had a lot of free time to do this stuff. And she's also in a different time zone in Hawaii. So take all those three things together. And it's like, wow, if she can do it, you know, I think everyone that has excuses, it just goes out the window. And I think it goes to show that when you want to do something when you really have a desire that you can figure it out, and then she's gonna tell you how well she did. But you know, I'm very proud of her. She did amazing. And so with that, you know, Lori, aloha. Lori: Thank you for inviting me here. Allen: No, it's wonderful. I'm glad to get you on here. You know, for whatever reason, trading is more male-dominated. And so whenever we see a female in it, it's like, wow, this is awesome. You know, and I think we need more females in the in the trading space. And we do, I do find it that females do trade better than men for whatever reason. You know, like, like, I remember when I was learning how to trade originally, and I got some back testing software. And then my wife would come and ask me, Hey, what are you doing? And I'm like, Oh, look, I'm doing this strategy now. And she, she'd be like, oh, you should do this. And this, and I'd look at her. I'm like, "you know, I just spent like the whole, you know, six weeks learning this thing, and you just come and you just go Blah Blah Blah and tell me what to do. No, it doesn't work that way". And she goes, 'Oh, yeah, let's try it". And I'm like, What do you mean? She goes, Well, you have a testing software, right? I'm like, yeah, she goes, all right. You test it your way, all test it my way. And because I had explained it to her, and I was like, you know, this is a like, I don't know what I think was a credit spread. I was like, you know, this is the trade and we want to just pick where the stock is not gonna go. You know, we don't have to pick where it's going. We have to pick where it's not going, and then make a decent profit. So I think that was the basic intro I gave her. And we tested it for like six months or so. And she beat the pants off of me. And she's like, Oh, this is easy. I don't understand why you hate it. Why can't you make more money doing it? Oh, my God, I was about to cry. But no, but still. So Lori, is your, are you married? I've never asked you before. Lori: Yes, I am. We kind of celebrated our 19th anniversary. Allen: Oh, awesome. Congratulations. Yeah, you don't look that old. Does your husband trade? Lori: Oh, he is actually a financial advisor. But oh, yeah. But his is mostly, you know, mutual funds. You know, trying to preserve capital for his clients and everything. And I wanted to do something that, you know, generated, you know, consistent cash flow, something that eventually would replace my, you know, salary that I get from my 9-5 job. Allen: Right. So what does he think about options in the way you're trading? Lori: He doesn't want to touch options. You know, didn't want to, you know, hey, don't go Forex, don't do options. Don't do crypto, you know, he's, he's pretty much the traditional, hey, let's do mutual funds. He doesn't even do individual stocks, either. It's more of a whole portfolio type of approach that he takes. Allen: Oh, wow. So yes, I can imagine the discussions you guys have had in the past. It's interesting, because when we do have a lot of clients, and they come in, and they're like, Yeah, you know, my wife really, really, she hates this stuff. Like, she won't let me do it. Or she, she doesn't she lets me do it. But you know, like, it wasn't an easy conversation. Oh, wow. Okay. So let's just start off, you know, how have you been trading? How's it going? How your results? Lori: Actually, it was because of your program. It's the first time I've been consistently making money. And I think a lot of it is because you provide the structure. And you know, when you were talking about, hey, there's not many women, and a lot of times they're better traders. I kind of equated my husband when he coaches basketball with the kids and stuff. He said, he always found that the girls did better than the boys because the girls would focus and master the fundamentals more than the boys would. The boys always want to do the trick shots and you know, be all fancy and I think that's what helps you teach the fundamentals of "hey, what to look for, step by step". And that's all I have to do is I just have to follow it. I don't have to try and come up with it. You know, fancy, you know things, it's just simple things to follow. And if I can follow it, I can make money. So.. Allen: That's awesome how long you been trading? Lori: I actually was 30 years ago, I got into mutual funds. So I think when IRAs first started, I was in the Air Force. And people who were higher ranking than me, were giving me advice and saying, hey, you need to start putting away money invest, do your maximum at that time thing was 1500 to 2000 A year into your IRA. And that's where I started, I was terrified to pick the worst mutual funds that didn't make (inaudible) money. And then I think probably maybe 10-15 years later, I just started saying, Hey, let's go do stocks, I didn't fare any better in stocks, I tried options. At one point, you know, I put aside a little bit of money, I lost it all. Because I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't have anybody to, you know, teach me how to do anything. I was just trying to, I was just kind of, you know, muddling my way through and not getting anywhere. So I found the value of finding somebody that can help me, you know, teach me the ropes. And I tried alert systems. And I don't know, I maybe I just kept picking the wrong alerts and I end losing money on the alerts. So.. Allen: But you kept trying. Lori: I kept trying, I see people making money. So if other people can do it, there's got to be a way for me to do it. And so, 30 years later on, I'm finally starting to make money. Allen: Wow. Better late than never I guess. Oh, yeah. You know, some people ask me, oh, can I start this? And can I, you know, can I start making money online or trading? And, you know, I got six months, I'm like, yeah, maybe we'll try to get you there. But yeah, usually it takes longer. But, but that's so but okay, so you're going from a place of where you've tried all these different things, and nothing really seems to be working. And then you go into what we do is like selling options. And that's a little bit more, I don't know, if it's more advanced, but people are more intimidated by that. So how did you make that leap? Lori: I knew you could make more money with Options just because you could leverage what, cuz I have a, you know, small account, you know, less than 10,000. And so I wanted something that was, I could generate money faster, and I knew options was the way to do it. But you know, you also hear on the everybody saying, hey, well, options is risky. And so it wasn't until I heard about yours, where you say, "well, you can do it safely". And so I just, I thought I'd give it a try. And listening to you know, starting off with the passive trading formula, kind of was the first introduction. And I said, yeah, it all makes sense. And so I, I just went all in with the credit spread Mastery program. Allen: Okay. And so what have your trading results been? Since you started that? Lori: Gosh, I didn't do the calculations, but I do have over, I think it's at least 80% win rate. The challenge came in when, you know, my first 20, something trades were all winners, and I had a loser, and I didn't follow your rules on cutting my losses. So that one, you know, kind of really messed up my overall profit. But it kind of highlighted. The other factor that I have to really take into account is the psychology of trading. And I just started reading a book on trading mindfully. And it highlighted all the things that I was doing, I would get overconfident and I wasn't, you know, things, hey, I don't really have to follow that rule or you know, kind of, and so then the losses came and then I get hesitant. Oh, my and that was a huge loss and you know, kind of weary about getting back in. So I kind of had to take a step back, and then I'm back in and I'm doing a lot better now. You know, I'm cutting my losses when I should be cutting my losses. So I think 2022 I think is going to be a really good year. Now that I'm starting to, you know, see what's I can do, where my weaknesses are and then building from there. Allen: Okay, good. So the name of that book is "trading mindfully"? Lori: I think it was "Trade Mindfully" Allen: "Trade Mindfully" Lori: Yeah. . Allen: Yeah, I'll take a look at that. Because, you know, like you were talking about basketball, you got the fundamentals. And you proved it because like you said, you did over 20 trades, or maybe you did the first 20 And then you had one loser. But I remember during our class, you had done well over 30 trades, and you only had like one loss. So I was like, Wow, you did better than I did in that in that three month timeframe. So I was like, okay, she's doing maybe I need to learn from her. So that was really cool, you know? And then since then, okay, so you're still winning. But the the issue was that you just didn't let you just didn't cover the loss fast enough. And so maybe that's why the.. Lori: Yeah, and I had a hard time, you know, after the class, we just started talking about scaling up, it's just really hard for me to pull that trigger of scaling up. So you know, I'm still doing the, you know, I'm just starting now okay, let's, let's go up to, you know, two contracts, or, you know, three, depending on how big the spread is. So I'm starting to feel a little bit more comfortable with the bigger trades. Allen: Cool, and what strategies do you use? Lori: So, right now, mostly, I'm focusing on the credit spread mastery, I'm starting since you know, I'm getting closer to retirement, I'm starting to look at maybe getting some dividend paying stocks into my portfolio. Allen: Okay Lori: And some other long term consistent things. But I, I would actually like to get some, you know, now that I'm starting to get that baseline, I'd like to start getting into something more like swing trading, where I have the ability to kind of take advantage of the movements that in the stock market to make even more money. Allen: Okay, cool. Yeah. You know, the, the idea there were like, so you're talking about, okay, so you're doing credit spreads, you're also going to be, you know, buying dividend stocks. So that's like the second strategy, and then swing trading would be a third strategy. So I would probably advise you maybe to focus on one at a time, you know, you got the credit spreads under your belt. But if we can get a little bit higher in contracts, you'll feel a little bit more comfortable. And then you already have the the passive trading formula program where we all we talk about, you know, the dividend stocks and the covered calls the naked puts, that'll give you a good foundation. And then from time to time, when you do see an opportunity. If one of your favorite stocks is really has dipped below, then definitely you can add the swing trading to that, but like, from what you're telling me, I don't want you to jump didn't get too much and get just overwhelmed and confused about oh, what decision you know how well I use this rule over here and all that kind of thing. So But definitely, you have the ability. And then if you have more time, I'm sure you'll be able to pick it up really quickly. So So in terms of you said you had a $10,000 account. So how well are you up this year, down this year? Do you have an idea? Lori: I'm up this year? Um, Allen: About what percentage? Lori: I am up about 10 15% I think this year, Allen: Okay. And that's even after giving most of it back, right? Because you said you had some a couple big losses that you didn't stop. Yeah. So okay. Because when you were when you were in the class, and you know, you were hitting it, so if you do 30 trades or whatever, and you only have one or two losses, then you must have had a really big loss. So, but yeah, so now you're working on the mental aspect. And that's, that's really crucial, especially for scaling, because I think when it comes to scaling, that's the biggest, because otherwise, it's just numbers, you know, so if I'm trading one, or if I'm trading zero, or 10, is just an extra zero, the trade that I'm looking for is the same, we do the same type of work for that the strategies the same, the return that we're looking for is going to be the same percentage wise. It's just the seeing those extra digits that kind of gets us like, Oh, my God, oh, my God, you know, you're you're a little bit more careful. You're watching it, you might be overtrading. So I like it going from how many trades do you do at one time? Lori: I don't have more than six going at one time. Okay. And I try to spread it out. You know, no, more than a couple every week. I'm getting stuff in there. Allen: Okay. Yeah. So, you know, have you gotten yet from one to or? Lori: Yes, I have. Okay. And that just happened over the last few months. Allen: Okay. And then so now we're looking at what two to three, three to two to four? Lori: Yeah, maybe two to three. Allen: Okay. Good. I mean, see that, like, you know, we tell everybody that once you learn this skill? I mean, you can use it for the next 2030 years. Yeah. Right. So it's, we're not really in a rush to learn it. We're in a, we want to get consistent, and we want to get to the point where we're comfortable. And then once we understand it, it I mean, the numbers they compound so fast, and you've seen it, you know, you've seen it in your own accounts that, yeah, you just do it with and you have a regular just consistency. If you start doing 40 - 50 more percent a year. I mean, those numbers get really big really fast so you don't really need to like Oh, my I got to get it right now. You know, there's no rush. And I know.. Lori: There's gonna be another stock that will meet the criteria that'll fit the pattern. Allen: Yep. Like when, you know, I see some of these ads, you know, from the other gurus. They're like, Oh, yeah, you gotta buy this one stock by this date and this thing is going to happen - are you gonna miss it? I was like, well, you know, I mean, I could just go into the market, and every other week, there's another trade and there's 1000s of them available. So we don't ever have to have that scarcity mindset where it's like, Okay, I'm going to miss it. No, we got time, you know, every month is a new cycle, every week is a new cycle. And there's 1000s of stocks that fit our criteria that we could be trading on. So it's not like there's anything that we're gonna be missing out on. So, you know, even like, if you go, hey, you know, the holiday breaks are coming up, I'm just gonna take my money off the table and not trade for a little bit. And not go risking, because I don't feel like it. You know? So when you're going through this, what are some of the lessons that you learned along the way? Was there anything that would that stuck out to you like, oh, man, I wish I had known this before? Lori: Being patient, what you mentioned before that fear of missing out, you know, I had to it was hard not to chase after trades like wow, this one is, this would be a perfect one. But it had already taken off them just telling myself, hey, there's another one, just be patient look for the right criteria and stuff that meets the criteria. That I think was the hardest part from the psychology of it. And then what you helped was with trade management, right? How much I should put in a trade, you know, trying to help build up confidence. That was really hard, you know, because I went 30 years without really not making money to do and stuff. So trying to get the confidence, hey, that I can actually do this was a hard one as well, to kind of overcome. Allen: You still having issues with that? Lori: Oh, not as much. Now, now that I've seen some success. Allen: Awesome because I know, I know, I dealt with it. And I know others, I've seen it with others to where, if it if they go a long time, without having too much success, you know, maybe they do a little bit in one year. And then they give it back and goes up and down. And then they finally find something that works really well. And they're doing it, they're doing it. And then there's this element of self sabotage, you know, where like, I remember doing this, like, I would have months where I would make make, make, make make, and then I just wouldn't pay attention. I'd be like, all the trades are fine, I'm not gonna worry about it. And I wouldn't even check in on them. And then the market would start getting, you know, crazy. And then boom, big loss. It's like, Oh, what happened? Oh, duh, I didn't pay attention, you know, that I kicked myself. And I'm like, Why do I do that? It's like, oh, it's confidence is all, you know, comes back to all confidence. Most of you know, trading is like 90% of trading is all mental. Yes. So that's a big realization that you have there. So what what were the big? What were the big realizations that you had? Like, what was the any aha moments? Lori: The biggest, aha was my my mindset that, you know, I'm my own worst enemy, when it comes to trading? second guessing myself, especially after, you know, not getting anywhere for so long. You know, I'm thinking, Yeah, can I really do this, you know, maybe it's, you know, times gone, you know, maybe this isn't for me, you know, kind of giving up. But now, I've having a strategy, a structure, that was big for me, right, saying, Hey, this is, you know, and your stuff is so simple, you know, just, hey, look for it going in one direction over a period of time, you know, check the volatility, and hey, pick this delta and, you know, go ahead and put the trade so that you can get your 10% you know, you're not trying to shoot to, you know, make 300% in one trade, it is just keeping consistent over a long period of time. And that's big. Right? I don't I don't need that. 200% and, you know, two days kind of thing. I can do this over the long haul. Allen: Yeah. I mean, that's part of it. Like sometimes people see it for the first time. And they're like, Wow, that's kind of too simple. But, I mean, you know, you look at it over and over again over the years. Yeah, but it's been working. And I think it's continues to do it. So do you have any the stuff that was holding you back originally? Do you think that that you've overcome those obstacles? Now? Lori: They're still, I don't think I'll ever, you know, totally get over the mindset issues. That's just, I think, just human nature that, hey, we're gonna do well, we start getting a little overconfident or if we make a mistake, you know, you're going to be hesitant to kind of jump back in, but at least I'm aware of it now. And I can address it. So.. Allen: That's awesome. So where do you where do you see the future now, like you said, you know, next year you're looking at, it's gonna be a really good year, and then talk about further down the line - what do you think you're gonna be doing? Lori: I think I will end up doing this full time. Allen: Really? Okay. Lori: We're trading you know, part time to get a full time. Allen: Right. Right. Right. Lori: In about 3 years, I'll be able to retire from my job. And then, you know, I can see it where I don't have to worry about, Okay I'm going to have to live on a lot less money. I'll have something here that I can just maintain or even get, have a better lifestyle than I've got now. Allen: Nice. I love. I love hearing that. And then the fact that, you know, most people, they're like, oh, yeah, you know, I'm going to retire and then I'm going to move to the islands or somewhere. You're, you're already there. You're you're one step ahead of everybody else. Cool. Cool. Is there any any words of wisdom you would give to people who are you know, they're still maybe a little hesitant? They're like, No, no, is this? Is this stuff real? Is sounds too good to be true? What would you tell those type of people? Lori: It is real. All you got to do is follow that path that you have laid out. You have made it so simple, and I am so grateful that I came across your program. Allen: Cool. Okay, and then, so I still want to go back to your husband, like, I want him, I want to get him on board. I don't know how we're going to do that. But I want to, because I always bash financial planners a lot. You know, I mean, they they do a great job. But there's some bad ones. And there's something there -most of them are pretty good. And they're they want to help people, but the whole, their whole business model, it doesn't really work for, you know, people who want to do it themselves. If you don't want to worry about your money, you don't want to think about it or learn about it, then yeah, you give it to a financial planner, and you'll take good care of it. But if you.. Lori: That's the people he works with, he doesn't. He says, you know, he's run into people that are do it yourselfers and stuff. And he says, I can't help you there. That's just not his expertise. And so, but you know, he goes, Hey, if you get really good, maybe you can start managing people's money for him or, you know Allen: Yeah. Yeah, we have a few students that have gone that route. So it's doable. But I do know that once those financial planners, when they start seeing it, and they start learning it for themselves, they go, they go nuts, they can't believe it, they're like, well, I'd really like Oh, my God, I didn't Why didn't I know about this earlier? Because they're not talking about it, you know, they're not taught about options and the way their commission structures work. And then they have their whatever the broker dealers or their their business setup, it's too hard to handle all the little options. So it's cool, cool, awesome. Okay, so I think we've already covered like, you know, what was the hardest part was the the mental aspect. Yeah, you're still working on the scaling? So in you're retiring in three years? I think you said, so you're gonna focus on trading a lot more. Do you feel that you have any special skills? Or that drew you to this? Or can anybody just anybody off the street do it? Lori: I think anybody, if you if you can follow simple directions, you can do it. Yeah, it just takes a little bit of practice. And it's great, you know, doing, you know, start off with paper trading. That way you can get to get your confidence that really helped me is the paper trading because you make all your mistakes there. And it'll help you when you actually pull the trigger with real money. Allen: So when do you think you'll feel that you're you're okay with adding some more money to the trading account? Have you thought about that? Lori:  Ah, actually, I have not thought about that. Allen: Okay. Lori: I probably should. Allen: I'm not, you know, that's up to you. I am not licensed to give you financial advise. Yeah, but like, you know, because when when you told me, because first, I had seen your, your trades, and then later on, you told me that hey, I, you know, I want to scale it. So I was like, Okay, sure. And you're like, Well, I'm stuck with this account. I thought you had already probably added more to it, because you had so much success earlier on. Lori: I think maybe when I get more comfortable with the scaling that I will probably start adding more. But it still scares me. Right? Seeing the extra zero trying to go, you know, even when you said two to four, and you know, just okay and then I start to hang a little faster, so.. Allen: Well, yeah, then then you don't do it. You know, it's like, if you can't sleep at night, then yeah, it's not worth it. It's not worth it. And how much time do you does it take on your trading, how much time you spend? Lori: Oh, it doesn't take very long at all, maybe 20 - 30 minutes at the most so in the morning before I go to work.. Allen: Okay. Lori: ..and take a look. Either put some trades in or check what you know, how my existing trades are going to see if I have to manage any of those. Allen: And that includes everything so managing researching. Lori: Uh huh because because you walked us through on how to create a watch list. So I have my watch list and I just go through that you can easily find a couple of trades every day. And so just takes a few minutes to evaluate which one probably would be the best one that's going to get you your profit faster. Allen: Okay, and you're saying you're doing about two a week or so average? Yeah. Okay, so yeah, so everyday, you don't even need to find trades. It's, yeah, it's just whenever you need. Awesome Lori: So a lot of times, I'm just there trying to, you know, checking on my existing trades to, to see how they're doing. So, you know, that could be as quick as five minutes. Allen: And you check in. So okay, so you're in Hawaii time, which is three or four hours behind me. So when you go to work, what time is it? Like the market is going to close in a couple hours already? Is that how it works? Lori: The market closes? I think before lunchtime here in Hawaii. Allen: Okay. So yeah, so just one time while you're going before you're going to work, that seems to be enough. Fun time. Okay. Cool. Yeah, yeah, we have some students a, you know, they, they get, they get, they wake up early, and then they'll check it before the market opens. And then they check it when the market opens. And then they check it, you know, during lunch, and then a couple of times during the day and like, yeah, you're going too crazy, you know, just you need to chill out, relax. Don't make it so stressful. Lori: That's what I like about this system, I don't have to be on the computer all day watching where everything is going. So I can just 20-30 minutes a day at the most and I'm good. Allen: What was it originally, that made you want to get into trading was there are a specific reason or a desire that you had or? Lori: A lot of it is I wanted to be able to generate a full time income part time. I really didn't want to have to Okay, I got to keep getting up, you know, certain hours, do eight, nine hours a day come home and you know, then you got to take care of all the stuff around the house. You know, it's it's tedious after a while, so I wanted a little bit of more freedom more control of my time. Allen: Okay, makes sense. Makes a lot of sense. Yep. Didn't get there. Maybe right? there didn't get there. But the future now he's bright, but you got there eventually. So now the future looks really bright. And now you'll have, you know, probably when you retire when you do retire, then you'll have plenty of extra money to go do whatever you want. Lori: Like if my kids are interested, you know, they're tired of their jobs. And that's something I can pass on to. to them. That may be something they might want to. Yeah, you know, pursue. Allen: Yeah, that would be I mean, could you imagine? It's like, yeah, you know, I learned a little late, but if you learn it now you can you can quit your job years ahead of time, right? That would be like the biggest best gift you could give. Like, forget College, I'm just gonna teach you this. Cool. Okay, any final words you want to share with our viewers? Lori: She said, if, if I can do it, you know, after 30 years of struggling, you know, anybody can do it. You know, if you have the desire, and you're willing to follow the instructions, the rules, you can do it. Allen: I'll say, most said, well, Laurie, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for your time. Appreciate your candor and being open about you know, the losses and sometimes people are a little bit you know, they try to they talk about the good stuff, but they don't really share all the all the hard stuff. But you're like, Yeah, you know, 30 years that sucked. And I know you know, you were a little shy, and I do appreciate you coming on you did you know, I'm sure this is going to help a lot of people, you know. Lori: I sure hope so.. Allen: They're gonna listen, they're gonna see it and they're gonna be like, "Wow, I want to be like Lori". All right, appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Lori: Thank you, Allen. LOVE ALLEN SAMA - OPTION GENIUS AND WANT TO LEARN MORE TRADING TIPS  AND TRICKS? HERE ARE SOME NEXT STEPS... SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST FREE 9 LESSON COURSE: https://optiongenius.com/  WATCH THIS FREE TRAINING: https://passivetrading.com  JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP: https://optiongenius.com/alliance  Like our show? Please leave us a review here - even one sentence helps. Thank you!  

I interviewed Laura Patrica Martin. Laura is an IBS-Anxiety and Trauma Specialist and the founder of the Healing to Happy Brand. She is known for her unique approach to gut health and mental wellness..⁣. After battling her way through trauma, loss, addictions she found herself with a surplus of health issues such as IBS, hypothyroidism, hormonal imbalances, and skin issues. Majority of what she found out there was what a lot of us find: restrictive diets, medications, and a lot of "we don't know what's wrong with you". This is when she dove into nutrition to begin healing from the inside out in 2016, but that didn't resolve the IBS issues, so she followed up her studies by specializing in gut health... which still didn't solve the whole problem, so she found her way into trauma support specialist. It was a journey of evolution and growth. Still, since the creation of Healing to Happy in 2017, Laura has gone to help hundreds of women around the globe heal their trauma, resolve their health issues, and RISE into the women they are meant to become. By understanding that her illnesses were just symptoms and taking the proper steps in the appropriate order at the right time, Laura's shift is a testament to her work and teachings that now serve women all around the globe!⁣⁣Her revolutionary teachings are taking the world by storm. With helping women reclaim their bodies and find their way back to safety, her revitalized approach to the nervous system world has left many intrigued and magnetized.⁣. She celebrates her clients who relieve their IBS and find safety to heal anxiety, and release trauma after years of struggling. Still, beyond that, she celebrates their lives, their newfound power, their embodiment and confidence, their womanhood. ⁣She will make you feel, help you evolve, and inspire you to soar. ⁣I encourage everyone to follow her and be transformed through her insights.Everyone has a story, and this is her story.Below are the sites that house her work.https://www.instagram.com/lauramartin_h2h/https://www.instagram.com/healingtohappy/https://www.facebook.com/healingtohappyVisit our Threads store:  https://threads-of-enlightenment.myshopify.com/We shop worldwide to find some of the highest-quality and some limited hard-to-find products online for you. We work closely MaryRuth's Makes the best supplements for your health by creating non-GMO, plant-based, vegan ingredients.Semrush SEO content marketing, competitor research, PPC & social media marketing from just one platform.Timeshare Specialists Our programs provide a fast, safe, guaranteed timeshare exitSol de Janeiro Body-loving products, addictive scents, and luxurious textures to touch all your senses.Our Aroma Our Aroma brings a whole new personalized approach to the health and beauty sector.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=2QSM5QR4P2JQQ)

Lindsay tells this story to set the tone for this episode.    A few weeks ago I as running my favorite stairs.  It was cold out and the fresh air felt so good and I had a full hour of alone time and my plan was to not think about a million things… just get outside and listen to loud music and sweat.    Well that all changed when at the top of the stairs there were two teenagers passionately kissing on the bench.  I did a few laps and they were still there, and did a few more and they were still there and I was like Jesus these kids should be in school… I'm sure their parents don't know they are ditching… and I mean how long can you kiss outside???    And then I was like… these judgey thoughts are more like jealously really than anything.  How nice it must be to be young and not have this crazy complicated  life with lots of kids and not a lot of daytime passionate kissing moments.     Here's the lesson I wish I would have learned sooner.   When you feel jealous, lean into it.  I think it's almost always either you should take a step back from someone or unfollow them if they don't make you feel great about yourself… OR… maybe it's a reflection of something you wish you had in your life.  And there is so much to learn from that.         Other key points in this podcast:    -HUGE part of this is realizing jealously is normal and we can make it a positive.  Be honest and vulnerable and lean into it- even talk about it.    -Who cares about the other person… what do these feelings mean to YOU?   -Maybe they mean associating with someone or consuming their content doesn't make you feel good and it's time to make a change. Or maybeee it's a reflection of something you wish you had in your life.  And there is so much to learn from that.  Let's go!    -I now see it as the best learning lesson- about who I am at this moment and what I need more of.    - Realize there's enough for everyone!! Abundance mindset vs. scarcity mindset.  Someone else's win doesn't take away from you having a win!! Makes it easier to celebrate them! Think about this with friends accomplishments.   Realize we are all different and some of us have accomplishments that aren't considered traditional or celebrated in the light of day or on stages.    The best part about some forms of jealousy is you can learn from people who have made it in your mind!!  If someone else has done it, so can you!!  If someone did it, it means it's possible.  And with social media and YouTube and everything else… you can watch what these people do and learn from them!  Create your own path but use what you learn from them to make it easier and save time getting there.    -Use jealously to get your act together.  It can be a reminder of a dream you had or a goal that you put on the back burner.     -Don't discredit others achievements. Very few people just get lucky.  It likely took hard work to get there.  Start with small doable steps to get what you want. Let go of what's not working.    -Sometimes we feel jealous but if we really think about it - it's not actually what we want.  Maybe its due to peer pressure or what society or family things we sh9uld do or be.  Maybe a big house and a fancy car don't equal a fulfilling and purposeful life for you.  What makes one person happy - and can seem like the ticket to happiness - might not actually be for you.    -Realize that another persons success doesn't make you a failure.  This is HUGE for me with business.  We all make different decisions and they all come at a price.  Also- we all have different timelines.  Babies, marriage, careers.  The race is long, you can start today.   -We get jealous because we compare ourselves on some level    -Jealously only exists by comparison on some level   -Someone can always beat you on some level.   -You can think you're gorgeous then see someone who is even prettier and also taller and tanner! Then you see yourself as insignificant.   -Like doing this podcast - I can feel like I'm doing something cool and having these great growth conversations in DMs and then I'll see a podcast who has like a bazillion times the audience and it's so easy to be like why am I even trying I'm like so insignificant here.  But it's that comparison thing that will kill dreams.    -It comes from moments when we feel inferior.   -Someone is always going to beat you in some category. Someone can teach people more or is taller or has more money or better vacations.    -Try to focus on becoming the person who can do lots of things well.  The things that are important to you.  The amount of positive energy you put out in the world, the things you can do and achieve.    CHEERS!!  To turning jealously into a way to find your most purposeful and fulfilling life. 

Makes you Think Conspiracy Theory Showdown Round 7   A search for the most popular fringe conspiracy theory with Fugazi news. 

Happy 2022! Let's hope this year makes up for the last two! It's always good to be hopeful. And on that note, I hope public education survives. Last year brought educators and their curriculum under the microscope in a way I don't remember ever seeing. Much of the hullabaloo seems to come from the usual media rabble-rousers and pot-stirrers. Today's episode delves into our side of this twisted narrative. Listen and see where you land. For years, some politicians have claimed to be "education candidates." Their platforms promise money and better school facilities. But these good intentions go to the bottom of the "to-do list" once the ballots are counted and their campaign coffers are filled. Today, these "education-loving" candidates are promising a different kind of help to schools and it's getting them elected. Now officials win by going after the evil wizards of indoctrination, TEACHERS, and their textbooks of evil spells! They rally their pitchfork and torch-carrying followers with cries of "No CRT!" and "Don't hurt my child's feelings!" Frenzied crowds storm school board rooms and drown out meetings with cries of "Foul!" and various other four-lettered words. If this were a movie, it might be akin to Frankenstein's Monster or The Purge. This whole thing plays like Twilight Zone's "Monsters on Maple Street". The main characters hear rumors of something evil that has come to live in their neighborhood. They spread the news, and like the telephone game, it gets bigger and more distorted as it gets passed along. Before you know it, everyone believes it's true. And when they finally beat down the door and blow up the house, they find they were wrong all along. However, the damage is done. The city is burning and innocent people have been disposed of. Today we talk about this scary movie, only the movie is really taking place in our schools. Some very vocal parents and politicians are claiming teachers are working to indoctrinate children, forcing them to bend to the will of CRT, and mind-meld with liberal ideologies. They want to ban certain curriculum and regulate what teachers can and cannot say. Makes about as much sense as if I were to go to the dentist and tell my hygenist which tools to use and how to properly hold the mirror. Jen, Sharyn, and I share our in-the-trenches view of what is really going on and I swear there are no monsters under your beds. Teachers want parent involvement. They want politicians who truly care. What we don't need are people who are largely uninformed and who get their misinformation from the Internet, Aunt Sally's Facebook page, and from those with hidden agendas. Put down the pitchforks and get involved with your school. Get to know the teachers, join the committees, volunteer, go to the school and spend some REAL time in the classroom. There's power in seeing things for yourself. When you do decide to take a real look, I'm pretty sure that you'll find the monster you think is hiding under your bed is really just a big clump of dust-bunnies you forgot to sweep up. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/transparencyinteaching/message

"There's this idea of inevitability in the train that comes right? Because it's on tracks. We know where it's coming from, and the destination is already set by the tracks. There's this Gospel language of God's power and God's deliverance as something that is inevitable. It's on a track it's moving forward. God is in the world doing the work. And what can you do when the train comes by? Well, you can get on or not. But you're not the conductor and you're not the train. You're a passenger in this life. How does it threaten us, God's presence? And the inevitability of God's work when it takes us out of the driver's seat? How are we threatened by God's presence when it decenters us? Makes us not the center of everything. How does it give us hope? How does it give us relief in peace, even as we're threatened and discomforted? How wonderful is it to know that the salvation of the world is not on your shoulders? It's something that's happening, and you're being invited to participate."

I interviewed Jeff Gamwell.  Jeff is an Entrepreneur, he was a noncommittal married Christian chasing the American dream until things begin to happen in his life and marriage.  After losing everything, and being audited by the IRS and owed thousands, Jeff renewed his relationship with his God and he talks about how that relationship guided him back from the brink of darkness.  His story is a compelling cliffhanger with great twists as his journey about finding his true identity and his purpose in life.   His purpose is to help people to discover their true purpose and identity in this life. I encourage the listeners to follow him and learn. Everyone has a story, and this is his story.Below are the sites that house his work.https://youtu.be/2GC8zDYajRc“The journey of the American dream gone wrong, righted by divine intervention!”Visit our Threads store:  https://threads-of-enlightenment.myshopify.com/We shop worldwide to find some of the highest-quality and some limited hard-to-find products online for you. We work closely with many suppliers to get the lowest prices. Enjoy our store!!!!!!. Goode Health personalized nutrition that's effective, convenient, and affordable — because everyone deserves gooFoxtrot Market Your one-stop-shop for local favorites and today's most exciting brands.Timeshare Specialists Our programs provide a fast, safe, guaranteed timeshare exitSemrush SEO content marketing, competitor research, PPC & social media marketing from just one platform.MaryRuth's Makes the best supplements for your health by creating non-GMO, plant-based, vegan ingredients.Sol de Janeiro Body-loving products, addictive scents, and luxurious textures to touch all your senses.Our Aroma Our Aroma brings a whole new personalized approach to the health and beauty sector.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=2QSM5QR4P2JQQ)

Jupiter entered Pisces on December 28th, 2021, for the second time. It was last there in May of 2021 for a brief stay.Jupiter's 12 month stay in this water sign is choppy in travel plans. It entered the sign of Pisces in May of 2021, was interrupted by Aquarius in July of 2021. It now has returned, again only to be interrupted AGAIN, this time by Aries! Makes its last entry into Pisces in October of 2022 and fulfills its 12-month obligation by 19th of December 2022. Jupiter travels in 12-year cycles and stays approximately one year in each zodiac sign. Aries seems to always be in a RUSH to break in line!  In 2022 we get a taste of both Pisces, and Aries in Jupiter!Give a listen to how its time in Pisces will feel. Thank you to my Patrons, and if you wish to become a supporter you can join on Patreon.com (link below). Check out my astrological website for private readings.http://www.kitchensari.comSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/ParkerMcP)

Welcome To these 12 step daily maintenance! Reading and pondering, The Programs words, ideas and concepts; Makes for a well mannered life.-Bill W. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/fernando-montes-de-oca/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/fernando-montes-de-oca/support

Hour 1 * Sam jumps in to a Monologue: What Would The World Be Like? * Many cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 are so mild, infected Americans are struggling to determine whether they have the virus or the common cold. * CDC Investigates 86 Cruise Ships With COVID-19 Outbreaks. * Pope Francis shared his advice for married couples: remember these three words in marriage, “Please, thanks and sorry. Seeking help to overcome obstacles, including through prayer – “Remember also that forgiveness heals every wound,” the pope shared. He also encouraged married couples to keep having children. Hour 2 * Report Puts Fauci's Retirement at $350K Per Year, Biggest in US Government Pension History. * Why omicron variant symptoms resemble the common cold. * CDC Changes Its Estimate Of Prevalence Of Omicron – Delta, not Omicron, was the dominant variant in the United States in the week ending Dec. 18. * We are Truth Tellers for a Reason! * CDC Finds Over 83% of Americans Had COVID Antibodies Before Delta Surge – Article Released 9/3/21 – Darragh Roche, NewsWeek. * The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) is breaking its own rule that states pilots should not fly after having taken medications that have been approved for less than a year, according to a group of attorneys, doctors, and other experts; including a pilot who says his career ended due to adverse reactions from a vaccine – TheEpochTimes.com * Fauci Admits To Nationwide Plot To Force Vaccinations. * Fauci just proposed a vaccine passport for domestic air travel – Makes us wonder what other areas of life he plans to implement vaccine passports for – Would you need to show your vaccine card to go to the doctor's office? To go to the store to buy clothes and exchange Christmas presents? * Anthony Fauci: “We want to make sure people keep their masks on. I think the idea of taking masks off, in my mind, is really not something we should even be considering.” --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/loving-liberty/support

Avi Kumar is Founder and CEO of Kuware, an almost 14-year-old business that bills itself “as a full-service agency, but a little bit more focused on strategy than actual implementation.” The shift away from “traditional marketing services and taking customers as they came” started 5 years ago. Today, the agency works with clients who want to put some strategy behind their efforts and are less concerned about the agency providing implementation. Avi says it was very difficult when the agency first made that transition to, while it was trying to grow the business, turn away customers that did not have a strategy focus. Current clients not only need be willing to work with Kuware's fractional CMO to develop a strategy . . . they also have to be ambitious about “big growth,” have funding or be ready to move to the next level, or to be invested in brick-and-mortar with a solid, fixed budget. When all the pieces are In place, the agency can say, “Get the whole package. We can really move you to the next level.”  If a prospective client is not yet serious about their business, they are not ready for Kuware. The planning process takes a few months. Although written for a longer period of time, the agency contract allows a client to fire the agency within the first month. This tasks the agency to provide enough proof within that first month to gain a client's trust that the value that will come. In this interview, Avi describes the challenge for a growing agency of deciding “who to turn away.” The agency does not “fire” its small, established clients . . . but once a new monthly billing threshold Is set (based on its 50% billing “midpoint”), it will not take on new customers that fall below that threshold. The agency keeps developing processes to meet client needs and raising that threshold as more clients come onboard. Avi addresses in detail the impacts of hiring in changing an agency, managing its expenses, and determining people's perceptions of an agency's capabilities. Avi started his career as an engineer, a microprocessor architect. On sabbatical from Intel, Avi decided to try ecommerce, did very well at it, and used it as an “on-ramp” to marketing. To ensure controllable costs and fast client service, the agency maintains a salaried development team in Avi's home-country, India. He pays everyone 20% over the market, so that in the 11 years the company has been in India, “nobody has quit.” The agency recently acquired a white-label PPC service which helps small agencies provide reasonably priced PPC for small niches in local markets. The PPC service is separate from Kuware's agency operations, but the agencies which use it are the same small agencies to which Kuware refers clients that don't fit its criteria. Avi can be found on LinkedIn, on his agency's website at: https://kuware.com/, or at: Avi@kuware.com. ROB: Welcome to the Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Kischuk, and I am joined today by Avi Kumar, Founder and CEO at Kuware based in Austin, Texas. Welcome to the podcast, Avi. AVI: Thank you, Rob. Thank you for inviting me to this. ROB: It's good to have you on. You're from one of those popular cities where everybody's moving to in Austin, Texas, but let's focus on Kuware for a moment here. Why don't you tell us about the firm and where you specialize?  AVI: Certainly. Kuware is now coming up on its 14th year as a business. We right now bill ourselves as a full-service agency, but a little bit more focused on strategy than actual implementation. We do do the implementation, but what we found is what was lacking for a lot of businesses is they needed to figure out what kind of marketing they should do because just saying, “Just do Facebook ads” or “Just do this or that.” So we added that layer five years back, and we service it through a fractional CMO or a part-time CMO who comes on board and helps guide the strategy, and then go to the implementation. That's what, in five years, we have evolved to. Before that, we were more traditional, just taking on business as it came in a sense. If somebody wants ads, okay, we'll do it. Need websites, being full-service, we'll do that. But now we only take clients who want the strategy as part of it and who want to spend time figuring things out before implementing it. So that's what we have evolved and started specializing that way. ROB: That can be a pretty difficult transition. Lots of people start an agency as the order-takers, the people who can say, “What's your budget? We'll do our darndest with it. What are you trying to do? You want clicks, here's your clicks.” How do you take someone who comes to you and they think they know what they want – there is this challenger sale moment where you're like, “Hey, wait a minute, let's take a step back. What do you really want?” Sometimes they're like, “No, I just want this ad. I just want to spend this budget. That's my job.” AVI: That's an excellent point. For us, I discovered this process along the way. We had some clients that had a few people in-house who were doing social media. We did their website and we managed the ecommerce and we were trying to do that. Then slowly, as I got to know the client for a while – and this client was with us for almost 10 years – after a few years, I said to them, “You know that person you keep hiring for social media and they keep quitting after six months? Why don't you give us that, too?” They said, “Okay, you got it. Makes sense.” Then I said, “Who's planning your marketing?” They hired somebody, a new person, young, assuming that they knew what they're doing, and in a year and a half they quit. So, I said, “What if we manage the whole thing for a fixed price for you? We'll do the strategy.” So that's how we started. This was a company, a brand of sunglasses, prescription glasses. They created the category. In this case, being a single owner business, but a pretty good-sized business, we fine-tuned this, and then we convinced them, “Hey, you should sell direct. Don't just sell through opticians only. Why don't you sell direct also?” They said, “No way. Our retailers would be mad.” So, we figured out a strategy, convinced them, and they almost doubled their sales without losing any retailers. Then I learned that this is what they needed – a little bit of the business side, but marketing-centric. If I go and build myself as a business consultant, it'll be hard to explain that. Most marketers do give some business advice for free and some marketing strategy for free. So, I said, “Well, this client was willing to pay, and he sold.” They sold the company to Hilco. Much larger, $300 million company. They kept us around for a year because they were actually amazed at what we could do with our team. And they had a 50-people marketing team. They let us run this, and then eventually they absorbed it in-house. That was the time I said, “Okay, we can do this for other clients and start selling it.” The hardest point was what you did identify: if somebody comes to us, “We've just got $2,000” – turning down that $2,000 was hard, because you're still building the agency. They're willing to give you $2,000 per month for a few months. We had to tell them, “Sorry, we don't do that anymore. You should really spend money to figure out what you need and then plan.” The other thing we started realizing is that this only works for companies who really think they want to double, triple, or who are brick-and-mortar who have fixed money already and they have a fixed budget. It doesn't work for somebody who's just trying and playing and not serious about the business. They need to be somebody who's also ambitious. Either they've got funding, or they have decided now to really move to the next stage. Only then can we tell them, “Get the whole package. We can really move you to the next level.” The other challenge is this stuff takes time, a few months. We sign them up for longer, but we have a deal that you can fire us within the first month. So, we've got to do enough in the first month to buy in their trust that, “These guys are not just planning. They're actually saying things which make sense.” It took us a while, but we do have a system now where we are able to show them within a month the value that will come. Even if actual sales might not happen, they will see enough plans to say, “This will work” and continue on a longer term contract. As a small agency, that's the thing you've got to decide at some point, who to turn away. We keep increasing the threshold – “This much, no, this much, no, this much, no,” and then we moved on from there. It was a transition, for sure. ROB: What size metric would you use to describe that you were at when you felt like you needed to start cutting off this low-end, very transactional customer? AVI: Basically, in size metrics, what we said is that when we switched to more than 50% who we were billing at least $5k a month, then we said we might lose some – we didn't fire any client if they were small ones. But we said, “We won't take anymore, because we have proven that more than 50% of our revenue comes from these bigger clients who are willing to” – so that was our criteria. Once we get more than 50% of clients paying $5,000 a month and they are going for strategy – and usually the average client ends up at 20 to 25. So, we said, “Don't take anymore. Just existing ones.” We do have some for now, 12 years, existing clients working. We're still doing their social media. But it's a lot fewer of them. ROB: That also makes sense, how you're able to then incubate this capability within the firm. It's hard to go from not having an offering to having an offering, but when 50% of your clients need the service, you're able to start building the processes, building the people. You're not trying to go from nothing to something. You're saying, “Here's the offering. Now we know how to maybe repeat it a little bit.” AVI: Absolutely. By the way, the building process part – even though we've been doing this overall 13 years and the last 5 years, this – it's an ongoing process. It's never set as a cookie-cutter, ever. Things change and the business changes. What we have said is just agree to the fact that the process itself will be changing, but we need a process. That's what we've been doing. ROB: Processes are all about enablement. They're not about restrictions, they're not about tying hands. They create freedom. It's hard to feel that, because I'm not a process kind myself, but it's necessary, or else you go crazy. AVI: Yeah, absolutely. ROB: Avi, what led you into this business in the first place? What led you to start an agency and originally start taking some ad budgets and then continue figuring out what the business needed to be? AVI: I worked for a major corporation. I was a microprocessor architect. I worked on Pentium 4. I worked on some low power processors for Intel and going into Apple. It was a very different area. So, when I wanted to do something, I realized it's impossible, almost, to start a hardware business. You want to do chip design? It's very expensive. And I did try that for about a year. I had some funding from the Chinese government, but it didn't go very far. Then I had to pivot and say, okay, I want to do my own thing. My sabbatical came up; I left Intel. I wanted to start something different. I had enough money from Intel, from stock options, so I said, let's play the stock market and do things on the side. That's when I started looking at ecommerce and started doing and selling things from my connections in China online. This was 14 years back or so. I was not expecting to do well. Everybody knows so much SEO, they're talking about techniques, and I'm a hardware guy. And marketing – I mean, yeah, I did have an MBS somewhere along the line, but they don't teach you marketing there. It was more management. So, I was thinking this would never work. But soon I found I became the number one seller of Windows XP online, and an Adobe reseller, by just doing a few things online. That's what got me thinking, okay, if I can do this in three to four months, then I think I can help others too and create a business out of it. It seems like it's not as – the system, everybody's not exploited it yet. I used to assume that marketing guys knew everything; “How will I learn this?” That's where we just kept on doing ecommerce. First a lot more ecommerce. We were doing Zen Cart, if you can remember that. Then moved on to Drupal Commerce and Magento. Did a lot more ecommerce initially. The thing was, ecommerce people have money. They're selling something, always. So that's what we did a lot more, and then we moved on to B2B. So it was more of a slow process, and I didn't trust myself in marketing for the first five years. I kept telling people, “I know slightly more than the customers but not much more.” That was a learning process also, just to try to figure that out. ROB: Right, but ecommerce is a pretty good on-ramp for a lot of mathematical minds. It adds up. You can put some money in, you can get some money out, get some feedback on whether or not you're doing a good job. This is one of these funny episodes we have from time to time where you're a computer engineer from UT Austin, got your MBA, I'm a computer engineer from Georgia Tech, I have my MBA, and we get to hang out and talk marketing. [laughs] We have these episodes every year or so. We have engineers who have made their way into the marketing world. AVI: The phrase I use is ecommerce is the closest you can get to engineering in marketing. If you're used to engineering, ecommerce is the closest thing you can touch which looks/feels a little bit like engineering. ROB: As you've had to grow the capabilities, grow the firm, sometimes you think about those key hires that have come at a moment where you needed a little something different in the business or it was really an inflection point. What are some of the people or roles that have made a difference in Kuware? AVI: Early days, the first hire which people talk about, it should be done earlier than later, before contracting. I'm talking about beyond contracting. Of course, contracting and outsourcing still works, and we all have done that and we still do some of it. But your first full-time hire I think should be done as soon as possible. It really changes the game because you have to think about two people. You have to make enough money for two people now. You start thinking more seriously than just playing it as a game at that point. You're responsible for people's salaries at that point. I think that was a key. And that person was great. She was not a great marketer, but she was a great person to work with. Then as I moved on, into the CMO world, I needed people with credentials beyond me so when I took them to clients, they'd say, “Oh yeah, they have experience. They can handle our CMO.” So those became our key employees later because their credentials they had from other places got us to easily sell that service – which we already knew how to do, but people still want to know who will be the CMO. Those became key people for us. I think the next key thing for me was stop outsourcing. We used to do development outsourcing to India. Being of Indian origin, I said, “I'm just going to go to India and set up shop,” because I learned my first outsourcing team were outsourcing to somebody else. Being an Indian, I thought, “They will not fool me because I'm Indian origin, right?” But that happened to me. So, then I said, “I want my actual salaried team in India.” If you have a system, if you are doing it for low cost, I would say start owning the piece of it somehow. To me, that building of the business that way gave us the stability that I never had to think – I mean, I can give a quote on any website without spending too much time now. I don't have to depend on a freelancer or somebody telling me how much it'll be so I can pad it and add my expense and do it because it's all in-house. I think that changed the game for us, and for our customers, because now when customers say something needs to be fixed, it'll be fixed overnight. And if it's a small thing, we don't even worry about billing it. It's not worth the time to bill it. And they're happy. Customers are happy that this happened so quickly. ROB: Right, it's a strategy to overserve. It makes a ton of sense. For people who find that idea, though, of salaried employees outside of their country intimidating, how did you get over that hill? I think about setting up a legal entity. What's the local compliance, what's all that look like? I would be scared a little bit. How do you think about it? AVI: It was a hassle, for sure, absolutely. I would rather do business, I used to say those days, in China than India. I spent a lot of time in China with Intel. In India, in many places, things are not as clear. So, it was just a question of, I'm going to risk getting two to three people, and how much is it? It's money which will go away. As long as I can afford that money, worst case, this will fail. That's how I started. I start all situations by saying, “Can I afford this failure, this much money, pragmatically?” And that's what I did with it. It worked. Great. We had to make some changes there. Another thing I did for outsourcing is I said I'm going to pay everybody over 20% the market. As a result, in our 11 years of company in India, nobody has quit. ROB: Wow. AVI: We have fired people because they didn't work out, but they don't quit because they're going to another job. And India is like Silicon Valley of 2000, where people quit every three months for more money. We have managed to do that by keeping the salary slightly higher and not getting too greedy on how we pay them and compensate them in India. ROB: Yeah, this past year we have a partner who's very much in that outsourcing space in India, and I feel like they had to do about 25% bumps across the board to stop the bleeding from people. They had really good retention and then they got hit by the COVID compensation wave over there. AVI: Yeah. I was concerned. My being of Indian origin didn't help that part, because that was definitely the same worry, a U.S. company dealing with these entities in India. ROB: One thing that you shared with us as we were booking is that you've recently undertaken an acquisition, which is a different sort of adventure in another entity. Talk about that process, how you figured out who you wanted to acquire, how you closed that transaction. AVI: Sure. For a year and a half, I was saying, “I need to grow faster; should I invest?” This opportunity – this is a white label PPC service. The reason I was very intrigued by this is we do PPC for our clients. Our clients' ad spends are in hundreds of thousands of dollars per month, so these are big, and they allow us to experiment. I thought, we do this and our clients let us do whatever; are we really good? There must be somebody who does only PPC. If anybody does only PPC and nothing else, they must be good because that's all they do. So, I used to keep hiring consultants from other companies to audit us. But anything they told us was not eye-opening. Some good ideas. When I ran into this opportunity, Rob Warner's company InvisiblePPC – he's out of the UK – I said, “Oh, you guys do just PPC ads, and you do it for agencies, and you are not working with a $100,000 budget. Most of your clients are spending $5,000-$10,000 a month, which means these small clients, if they don't see the results, are going to fire you. You've got to figure this out very quickly on $5,000, so you must be really good, right? I'm very intrigued just understanding how you do this.” I had a technical interest in seeing how he does it. As I talked to Rob more, I realized they really know. And by the way, the secret sauce, which I'm happy to give away, is simple: if you do the same kind of ads again and again, and once you spend hundreds of millions of dollars doing it for those sectors, you become really good. What the white label service does – it only works for smaller agencies who cannot do their ads, and we take only what we call smart niches. If it is a local business – plumber, HVAC – those we have figured out exactly, so we can tell you for $1,000, you'll get so many leads, guaranteed. Because we have been doing it for so long. It's unlike our main agency business. There, every client is special, is different. We have to figure out and tell them in advance the cost per acquisition, work together. Here, we are able to actually tell our clients that “This is what it'll be.” It's an amazing business that way. If it fits the right kind of client and right agency, it's like a no-brainer. You will not lose money. How often can a marketer go to a client and say, “Yes, I'll get you a lead for this much, guaranteed, don't worry, and first month you'll have it. You won't have to wait for two months for me to do planning”? That's what this white label business does. Once I saw inside, doing this again and again and spending that much money and becoming a Google Premier Partner and having access to all that is amazing. That's where I felt great – it's a technology kind of business, and I understand this stuff, and Rob had built a lot of tools which are proprietary tools that others don't have. I can tell who is advertising in the local market. I can use that. Even SEMrush don't do that. So we can really target that kind of thing. As a growth strategy, I think if it matches and you understand the business, then acquire. That's what I learned. If we were taking on something else which we didn't do at all, then we'd have to figure it out. At least the systems we follow there, but we know PPC. We have done it. We understand the business in general. And we can keep it separate in a sense and not mess with it. We are a big agency. Our clients are not the clients of agencies who come there, because it's a very different business. Also, as I was telling you, those $2,000 a month ones who we don't want to take on, now we can pass on to those agencies and say, “Hey, we don't deal with that. Here are some clients for you. You guys do their social, because unfortunately we don't take them on.” ROB: The predictability of it certainly makes sense. If you're a plumber, there's lots of places you can get leads, and you're going to pay for them. You're going to pay for Yelp, you're going to pay for Angie's List. If your PPC partner can't be in that ballpark or better – there's a price tag. They know what the expected price is, and you have to match it. But I guess those platforms also know what the going rate is for a PPC lead and they probably reprice a little bit according to the market rate as well. AVI: Exactly. It's just the volume and having done the same thing. HVAC in Boston to Austin will not be that different. It will be very similar pricing. We have data on both cities, so we can tell you exactly. I'm amazed at the fact that you can have this predictable marketing and still saying, “Let's figure it out together.” ROB: Some agencies are probably glad for the business, they're glad for the backend help. I can see some of them being a little bit apprehensive about working with a white label PPC partner that's also owned by somebody who could arguably steal the business if the client grows up. How do you calm those fears? AVI: In some ways, if they don't know the details, it's a legitimate fear. If I was an agency, I'd worry about that. Two things. There are different people running those two companies. I just own it, and I kept that team intact. My team is not talking to them. I mean, they're talking in the sense – our business, we transition to them the smaller ones. But otherwise, keep it separate. That's one. The other one is we have looked at the market. We don't take on local clients who need local SEO. These are exactly that. So those ones, that is never our market. Unless they are a nationwide company, they're not our client. It becomes a very different story. That's what we tell them. And here's the other part. I teach our company – we have started presenting to our company the details of how to build an agency. Exactly how to build an agency. That's available to our agency partners. We're teaching those as courses. “Go and build your agency like this if you want. This is what we did.” That's the added value we are giving to them. We'll tell you how we do it so you can compete with us and grow if you want to. That's open. Just to be fair, there's no doubt we will add more white label services. Right now it's pure PPC, but I do foresee – why not Facebook ads too? But we will keep that always focused on a special market, not for everybody because it just does not make sense. ROB: It helps to think about that all in abundance. There really is no shortage of business out there for most people in services firms; it's just about earning that business, being known, liked, and trusted, all of that sort of thing. If we rewind a little bit, Avi, and look at the big picture of Kuware, we look at the journey, what are some key things you've learned along the way that you might go back and tell yourself to do a little bit differently if you had to start fresh? AVI: One thing which it took me a long time to learn, because I came from salaried employee, very well compensated options and things – I was not used to this concept – even if the bank was willing to give me a loan, I would not take it. I said, “It needs to be bootstrapped or it needs to be VC funding.” So one of the things I would tell myself is, hey, if it is a business, you want to grow it? Get that capital. Not as equity capital if possible. That's the only way you'll grow, and it's okay. Be comfortable with it. The other part I've learned is that things will break. Get used to it. This took a while. Initially, “What are we going to do now?” When we acquired this business, things happened, and I realized that I'm so calm about it. It's okay. I would be surprised if things didn't break. That means something is hidden, something is not working right. That is the advice I would give everybody. Stay calm. You'll figure it out. Things will go wrong. It's a business. Things will not run smoothly, ever. In fact, if they're running too smoothly, then you're not aggressive enough. You're not growing. Things will have to break, and then they break, you'll figure it out. That's the advice I would give myself if I went back when I used to get very worried and unable to sleep. Now I can handle it. ROB: There are so many ways to respond to that breaking. There is sleeplessness, there is frustration. Some people take it out on people, and I think that's something people dread when they're going to work for a smaller, privately held business. Sometimes somebody needs to be fired, and the rest of the time you just go figure it out together. It's usually not the first one. It's usually not that somebody needs to be fired because it's usually my fault in the business anyhow. AVI: Correct. I tell people in my team, don't do the same mistake again and again. I learned this at Intel. You're allowed to every day do a mistake, but don't do the mistake you did yesterday. In a smaller business it's harder, but I said, “It's okay. It'll happen.” The other thing is a rule – we came up with this – a lot of times it's clients. At that time, I've got all the way down through the hierarchy that any of our associates can fire a client because it's not working. They don't have to go all the way to ask us because it's a big client. Some clients say “Eff this, eff that.” I don't have a problem if they talk to me in a friendly manner and they're friendly and they do that. But if they do that with meanness, then the f-word is a problem at that point. Then we don't take it. As simple as that. So, our employees feel very empowered, and as a result they go to bat for us. They will do extra work because they know they have the right to decide if somebody is not working right with them. Those are the kinds of things – that took a while. Earlier, it was always this worry about what'll happen. One client goes and what happens? But slowly – it's a journey, for sure. ROB: It sounds like you have your mind and your eyes already a little bit on what else might be viable as a white label service to add on. What comes to mind? Is it Instagram in a box? Is it SEO? What scales similarly?  AVI: The local SEO will scale. Facebook ads is very similar and will scale. TikTok ads will scale. They are very specialized services, and Facebook and all is harder, but it's getting very specialized. Anything which is specialized and localized will scale and can be added as a service, and it's harder for people to learn. Those will scale. But at the same time, I'm not of the mindset, like some other white label agencies, “We'll do everything for you.” If you're running a marketing agency, there's a part of it you've got to do. You cannot just be a manager outsourcing everything to somebody. You've got to find some areas where you're good, especially if you want to grow. You've got to start owning a few of those pieces. That's what I tell the agency owners. You don't do PPC right now, but if you find that's the area eventually you want, you've got to take it on. There are some things you've got to start keeping in-house. Otherwise you're becoming a manager and you will not learn the marketing aspects to grow to the next level. I'm not envisioning building a white label agency which does “Just give it to us, we'll take care of it for you. Just talk to the clients.” I want to keep it specific services which you handle here, and we will do it for you kind of thing. ROB: Got it. That's really interesting. It'll be interesting to hear as you evolve in that direction, as you consider more acquisitions. There's all sorts of mechanics to get into in acquisitions that we won't deal with in the moment, but are fascinating in and of themselves. Avi, when people want to find and connect with you and with Kuware, where should they go to find you? AVI: I am most active on LinkedIn. That's the best way to find me. Kuware also. I'm just Avi at Kuware. That will work. Also direct email will absolutely work. LinkedIn message will always work. Of course, LinkedIn has become a little bit – everybody's trying to prospect so much, and we offer a service too, so we are in the same game in some ways. But for sure, any message which has something substantial gets through fine. That's not a problem. LinkedIn will be the best way to find me. Avi at kuware.com would be the other great way to do it. I do hardly any Twitter at all. ROB: [laughs] Sometimes it's safer that way. Avi, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the podcast, to share with the audience. We will be glad to keep an eye on your journey, and certainly wish you the best. Maybe we'll all get out to Austin next year. We'll see. AVI: Yeah, that would be great, Rob. Thank you. It was very natural talking to you. That part was absolutely great. I'm looking forward to staying connected and chatting more. ROB: Sounds good. Thank you so much, Avi. Be well. AVI: All right. ROB: Thank you for listening. The Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast is presented by Converge. Converge helps digital marketing agencies and brands automate their reporting so they can be more profitable, accurate, and responsive. To learn more about how Converge can automate your marketing reporting, email info@convergehq.com, or visit us on the web at convergehq.com.

* Report Puts Fauci's Retirement at $350K Per Year, Biggest in US Government Pension History. * Why omicron variant symptoms resemble the common cold. * CDC Changes Its Estimate Of Prevalence Of Omicron - Delta, not Omicron, was the dominant variant in the United States in the week ending Dec. 18. * We are Truth Tellers for a Reason! * CDC Finds Over 83% of Americans Had COVID Antibodies Before Delta Surge - Article Released 9/3/21 - Darragh Roche, NewsWeek. * The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) is breaking its own rule that states pilots should not fly after having taken medications that have been approved for less than a year, according to a group of attorneys, doctors, and other experts; including a pilot who says his career ended due to adverse reactions from a vaccine - TheEpochTimes.com * Fauci Admits To Nationwide Plot To Force Vaccinations. * Fauci just proposed a vaccine passport for domestic air travel - Makes us wonder what other areas of life he plans to implement vaccine passports for - Would you need to show your vaccine card to go to the doctor's office? To go to the store to buy clothes and exchange Christmas presents? * Anthony Fauci: "We want to make sure people keep their masks on. I think the idea of taking masks off, in my mind, is really not something we should even be considering."

I interviewed Dr. Rosemarie.  Dr. Downer is a dedicated follower of Christ who aspires to have the closest relationship with Christ possible. Her service in the body of Christ primarily involves teaching and preaching. She also spent well over 30 years serving in youth ministries. Other focus areas in her ministry include women and single adults. As well, she often ministers on issues that address emotional healing and well-being. She counts every opportunity to minister an ultimate privilege from God the Father and does not take it lightly.She is the founder and former President of BRYDGES (Building Responsible Youth by Delivering Genuine Enrichment Services), over which she functioned as the President for 15 years − 2001 through 2016. She is a published author of The High Call of Forgiveness, It's A Mandate, The Self-Scarred Church, and several parenting handbooks. Additionally, she is the author of a comprehensive ministry development course – Find and Occupy Your Place and the Continuum of Care Youth Ministry Development Handbook.Dr. Downer served at The U.S. Department of Agriculture as a social science researcher for 20 years and as an adjunct professor at Bowie State University for 24 years. She is now retired from both positions and is currently a private consultant doing research and evaluation and doing what she dreamed of doing for years, and that is to write books to edify the body of Christ.The pivotal scripture verse for her ministry is 3John 2 – “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” Her most favorite Bible verse is Philippians 1:6: “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Her favorite Bible character is Moses because he had the relationship with Abba Father that she so very deeply desires. Moses was able to talk to God the Father face-to-face and without riddle because of the close relationship he had with Him. That is her desire!I encourage everyone to buy her books and follow her and learn.Everyone has a story, and this is her story.Below are the sites that house her work.https://www.facebook.com/booksbyrosemarie/following/https://twitter.com/BooksRosemariehttps://www.booksbyrosemarie.comVisit our Threads store:  https://threads-of-enlightenment.myshopify.com/We shop worldwide to find some of the highest-quality and some limited hard-to-find products online for you. We work closely with many suppliers to get the lowest prices. Enjoy our sto Goode Health personalized nutrition that's effective, convenient, and affordable — because everyone deserves gooFoxtrot Market Your one-stop-shop for local favorites and today's most exciting brands.MaryRuth's Makes the best supplements for your health by creating non-GMO, plant-based, vegan ingredients.Proozy Proozy helps you stay equipped for life by transforming the way people shop, Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=2QSM5QR4P2JQQ)

Why is MLB authentication the best in the baseball memorabilia industry?5 reasons I believe this to be true. #1. It is ran by one of the world's best leagues. Anything associated with the MLB brand you better believe they will do anything and everything to ensure it's authenticity and accuracy. #2. It is a witness authentication hologram, meaning a representative from MLB was present for the autograph signing and witnessed the player signing your item.  MLB is not an autograph authentication company like JSA where you can send them items to authenticate. They strictly witness the signings. #3. Their online database is easy to verify authenticity. Simply type in the code on your item and it will state the item and date it was signed.  While inaccuracies do occasionally occur, their database is very accurate. #4. Their authentication isn't available to everyone. Certain companies such as Fanatics have a license to use the authentication program. Makes it a bit more rare and sought after. #5. They also authenticate game used items they witness at the ballpark. If you ever want to get your game used MLB authenticated item signed, you can have an athlete inscribe Game Used on it. Whereas, if you had an item without the authentication getting an athlete to write Game Used on it can be challenging.www.powerssportsmemorabilia.comhttps://www.instagram.com/powersautographs/https://www.facebook.com/PowersCollectibles/https://twitter.com/@powerscohttp://www.youtube.com/c/PowersSportsMemorabiliahttps://powerssportsmemorabilia.com/blogs/newshttps://powerssportsmemorabilia.com/pages/upcoming-autograph-signingshttps://m.soundcloud.com/user-8093983http://powerssportsmemorabilia.buzzsprout.com/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC69xclE3IiuXAcerRZTbn9A?view_as=subscriber?sub_confirmation=1

Chris Cheung's new cookbook, Damn Good Chinese Food: Dumplings, Egg Rolls, Bao Buns, Sesame Noodles, Roast Duck, Fried Rice, and More, takes inspiration from the place Cheung grew up living, eating, and working in: New York City's Chinatown. Cheung, chef and owner of East Wind Snack Shop, explores the food of Chinatown, which is often overlooked or under appreciated in the renaissance of Chinese cooking, and takes readers through his favorite dishes. He joins us to discuss the new cookbook.   Wonton Noodle Soup MAKES 6 BOWLS | PREP TIME: 3½ HOURS | COOKING TIME: 10 MINUTES There are times when you have to accept hard truths that life throws right in your face. You can't make a good wonton soup without MSG. It is a necessary flavor that—when combined with plump fat dumplings, pork broth, some scallions, and white pepper—magically transports you to a magnificent noodle dream, where you're holding a weird big white spoon and slurping up silky clouds of goodness. Reconfigure your brain waves through each spoon of broth with a savoriness that coats your tongue and takes you to a happy place that only a few dishes in this world can do. That's a good wonton noodle soup. There is something comforting about a hot bowl of Cantonese wonton noodle soup that makes everyone warm and fuzzy. This truly great dish has transcended time. It has gone from a humble Chinese classic to an iconic Chinese American bowl of awesome. INGREDIENTSFor the Broth:2 pounds pork bones (or 2 pork bouillon)1 pound fish bones (or 1 shrimp bouillon)1 cup shrimp shells1 gallon water2 pieces star anise1 cup Shaoxing wine*¼ cup soy2 tablespoons Chinese sugar3 tablespoons MSG1 tablespoon white pepper For the Filling:¼ pound shrimp, peeled, deveined, andcoarsely chopped½ pound pork, coarsely ground2 tablespoons oyster sauce3 tablespoons soy sauce1 tablespoon MSG1 tablespoon kosher salt1 teaspoon pepper½ cup sliced scallion1 tablespoon peeled and minced ginger½ cup minced water chestnuts For the Wontons:1 cup water24 wonton wrappersFinishing Touches2 pounds thin wonton noodles*12 bok choy leaves6 scallions, sliced6 cilantro leaves, chopped* Can be purchased online or at most Chinese supermarkets.COOKING PROCEDUREFor the Broth:Combine all broth ingredients in a stockpot and simmer for 3 hours. Skim the fat off the top of the broth and then strain the broth.Making the Filling:Place the shrimp, pork, oyster sauce, soy sauce, MSG, salt, pepper, scallion, ginger, and water chestnuts in a large bowl and mix until incorporated. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.Assembling the Dumplings:Rub water around the perimeter of the wonton wrapper. Place ¾ tablespoon of the filling in the center of the wrapper, fold up, squeeze air out, and seal. Transfer your wontons to a parchment-paperlined sheet pan brushed with oil, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour.Cooking:Heat your blanching water to a boil. In separate pot, heat your broth in a pot to a simmer. Place 12 wontons in the blanching water for 3 to 4 minutes and transfer to bowls; repeat for 12 remaining wontons. If the noodles are fresh, cook for 2 to 3 minutes. For dry noodles, follow the instructions on the package. Transfer to bowls. Add bok choy to the blanching water for 1 minute and transfer to bowls. Ladle the broth into the bowls. Garnish with scallions and cilantro. Get warm and fuzzy with 5 friends. Reprinted from 'Damn Good Chinese Food: Dumplings, Egg Rolls, Bao Buns, Sesame Noodles, Roast Duck, Fried Rice, and More' by Chris Cheung. Photography by Alan Battman. Published by Skyhorse Publishing.  

I interviewed Dr. Lynda. She has devoted her professional life to keeping humanity in healthcare. Over the last seven years, she has been speaking to thought leaders worldwide every week who are making the world a better place in astonishing ways by tackling the most vexing problems. In 2014, she founded Ever Widening Circles (EWC), an optimistic global media company intent on changing the negative dialogue about our times with articles about insights and innovations going uncelebrated by the mass media. In 2020 she launched the Conspiracy of Goodness Podcast, where she speaks with thought leaders and innovators solving some of the world's biggest problems, who still think the future is bright. Her calling is to share how they make the world a better place in astonishing ways and synthesize their genius into narratives, ideas, and connections that can change our shared future.She is being interviewed by media worldwide about the opening of a new era of goodness and progress. Her bestselling book, positive news website, app, podcast, education website, TEDx Talk, public speaking & consulting website, and the recently launched Conspiracy of Goodness Network are all helping to do just that.Dr. Lynda has her fingers on the pulse of the good news we need to hear and has identified an enormous wave of goodness and progress well underway in the world that almost no one knows about. She is calling that global wave The Conspiracy of Goodness.I encourage everyone to follow her and learn. Everyone has a story, and this is her story.Below are the sites that house her work.https://www.dr-lynda.com/media Goode Health personalized nutrition that's effective, convenient, and affordable — because everyone deserves gooFoxtrot Market Your one-stop-shop for local favorites and today's most exciting brands.Timeshare Specialists Our programs provide a fast, safe, guaranteed timeshare exitMaryRuth's Makes the best supplements for your health by creating non-GMO, plant-based, vegan ingredients.Semrush SEO content marketing, competitor research, PPC & social media marketing from just one platform.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=2QSM5QR4P2JQQ)

Makes for a Maner of living that works in ruff goings. Bill W. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/fernando-montes-de-oca/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/fernando-montes-de-oca/support

Episode 155Christmas is this week, so I want to say a few words as a Christmas greeting to all of you Sixpack Warriors. I also want to talk to you about a personal struggle that will probably hit home for some of you. ResourcesIn an effort to provide you with the best, most helpful experience we can, any resource mentioned in The Cantankerous Catholic podcast will always be listed in this section. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases on links that are for purchases made from Amazon. This costs you nothing, but Amazon pays me a small commission on purchases made through those links. This helps to support this apostolate. https://wwb.gr8.com/ (Sixpack System Bulletin Inserts) Simon Rafe's https://www.churchmilitant.shop/?product=7 (Case Files) on DVD. Makes a great Christmas gift! The Wanderer Catholic Newspaper. Get one month for one dollar by texting the word “news” to 830-331-5729. https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=85YEDSUJHVN42&source=url (Help Keep the Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy Apostolate Alive) FOR CHECKS: make checks payable to Cassock Media, P.O. Box 41, Villa Ridge, Missouri 63089 https://app.getresponse.com/site2/joe_sixpack_answers/?u=BhGUM&webforms_id=YZQe (I Want To Learn More About The Catholic Church!) https://mariancatechist.com/product/basic-catholic-catechism-course/ (Marian Catechist Apostolate Basic Course) https://www.avoicelikebutter.com/ (Rick Stender)—Official Voice of The Cantankerous Catholic SubscribeMake sure you never miss an episode of The Cantankerous Catholic by subscribing through one of these links, or wherever else you get your podcasts. https://thecantankerouscatholic.captivate.fm/listen (Subscribe to The Cantankerous Catholic here) Catholic News Notes#5 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/manchin-says-he-cannot-vote-for-build-back-better-ive-done-everything-humanly-possible (Manchin says he 'cannot vote' for Build Back Better: 'I've done everything humanly possible') #4 https://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=53258 (New Vatican document tightens restrictions on traditional liturgy) #3 https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2021/12/19/trump-china-must-pay-for-covid-origins-they-have-to-pay-reparations/ (Trump: China Must Pay for COVID Origins — ‘They Have to Pay Reparations') #2 https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-religious-marriage-paradox-younger-marriage-less-divorce (The Religious Marriage Paradox: Younger Marriage, Less Divorce) #1 https://will-law.org/will-adf-sue-kettle-moraine-school-district-for-violating-parents-rights/ (WILL, ADF SUE KETTLE MORAINE SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR VIOLATING PARENTS' RIGHTS) Catholic BootcampThis week Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy's Catholic Bootcamp is titled Mysterium Fidei. Catholic QuotesThis week's quote is from St. John Paul II. Catholic StoriesThis episode features a story about a foolish anti-Catholic hood. Joe Sixpack's Stuffhttps://www.joesixpackanswers.com/ (JoeSixpackAnswers.com) https://cantankerouscatholic.com/product/secrets-of-the-catholic-faith/ (Secrets of the Catholic Faith) by Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy https://cantankerouscatholic.com/product/the-lay-evangelists-handbook-how-any-catholic-can-evangelize-anyone/ (The Lay Evangelist's Handbook) by Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy https://cantankerouscatholic.com/product/the-best-of-what-we-believe-why-we-believe-it-volume-one/ (The Best of What We Believe... Why We Believe It)https://cantankerouscatholic.com/product/the-best-of-what-we-believe-why-we-believe-it-volume-one/ (—Volume One) by Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy https://cantankerouscatholic.com/product/the-best-of-what-we-believe-why-we-believe-it-volume-two/ (The Best of What We Believe... Why We Believe It)https://cantankerouscatholic.com/product/the-best-of-what-we-believe-why-we-believe-it-volume-two/ (—Volume Two) by Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy... Support this podcast

Spider-Man! Spider-Man! Makes a movie like no one can! Can he act up a storm? He holds his own against ol’ Norm! Watch this! This is the Spider-Man….movie. That’s right! The Cinemistress swung (swang? swinged?) down to her local theatre … Continue reading →

EP283 - Year End Review  It's our final show of 2021! We recap the US Dept of Commerce November Advanced Retail Sales Data. We do a deep dive into the retail industries growth from 2019 through November 2021. In those 23 months, the retail industry grew 22%, historically fast growth. There were clear winners and losers. If you want to follow along on with all the data, here is a visual recap of retail growth 2020-2021. (PDF Download). We also highlight the six most important trends of 2021. Amazon fulfillment capacity growth (Amazon and Walmart become shipping companies) Social Media becomes the discovery channel for e-commerce (led by live-streaming) Ultrafast delivery services Amazon invents and starts to scale a grocery store (Amazon Fresh) with just walk out technology Retail Media Networks explode, led by Amazon's $30B in ad sales. Retailers now compete with social media networks for eyeballs Apparel has shifted from designer led to consumer led, as evidenced by the meteoric rise of Shein We're so very grateful to our audience, both for the time you have shared with us, and for generous opinions, feedback, and knowledge that many of you have shared. We wish you all the very best holidays and New Years, and look forward to seeing you in 2022! Episode 283 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Tuesday, December 21st, 2021 http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Co-Founder of ChannelAdvisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Transcript Jason: [0:23] Welcome to the Jason and Scot show this is episode 283 being recorded on Tuesday sept December twenty first twenty Twenty-One I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:39] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason Scott show listeners Jason how are the holidays treating you so far. Jason: [0:46] They are treating me really well it's been super interesting what's going on in our industry and getting ready to take the family to California to see my mom and brother. Scot: [0:59] Very fun California versus Chicago seems like a smart smart choice this time. Jason: [1:04] Yes early and my relationship with my wife we agreed that we would visit her Michigan in-laws and Thanksgiving and my California relatives in December seems weather prudent if nothing else. Scot: [1:16] Yeah smart I like your like you're negotiating strategies so we are recording this here live on December 21st so we are in the very last tail end of holiday 21 and Jason you had some some interesting data that you had parse through that I thought we could start with it's going to be largely kind of the November data but it's kind of the best data we have, until we get into January and see how the holiday played out and then we'll do a quick checkpoint on what you're hearing from clients and then I think both of us wanted to kind of share our big stories for retail and e-commerce for 2021 so why don't you kick us off with some data. Jason: [1:57] That sounds amazing so yeah so the data we are talking about is the US Department of Commerce data we get a an update every month so you know last week we got the, the update that includes November and in general November sales were up sixteen percent from November of twenty twenty so I always coach people that we should look at year-over-year not month over month so pretty healthy growth in 2021 from 2020 if you look at year-to-date so January through November we are up about 18% from 2020 and if you look at e-commerce we were up about 12 percent from November of 2020 so I you know I always put this data out on social media and I got a ton of, interesting responses this year on that data everyone's like hey Jason why are you comparing to November of 2020 like we're in the middle of the pandemic everything was all topsy-turvy like it's like comparing, pandemic 2021 numbers to pain demick 2020 numbers isn't very helpful to me because everything is so confusing. [3:13] And so I kind of took that to heart like you know it is the best kind of comparison we have about how we're doing but I said oh you know the more interesting comparison is maybe we take. One step back and we compare the. The the last two years of data to two years ago so we kind of compare how much growth we've had during the pandemic with what girls look like before the pandemic and I hadn't hadn't really done that in a while and what I found was interesting and in a few cases it surprise me. Scot: [3:46] I feel like we should create a new word for this I'll work on it in the vein of a ship again yeah that's just boring I don't know. Jason: [3:54] Yeah yeah de or. Yeah every CEO in America has learned to say you're over two years ago by the way and for it's super funny for non-gaap metrics in the and in the 10-qs they. Like it's they kept they completely cherry-pick like if the number is good they take versus last year and if it's bad they take versus two years ago. Scot: [4:18] Yeah yeah that's the nice thing you need everything every number needs to be up into the right. Jason: [4:23] My takeaway there is you CEOs are oily. Scot: [4:25] We know we're strategic. Jason: [4:29] Got it potato potahto. Scot: [4:31] Cool what did this year over your year over year over last year review. Jason: [4:37] Yeah so if we say hey from how much has retailgeek grown in 2020 and 2021 as a two-year stack it has grown 22 percent, so you know people talk about like all the struggles and challenges we had during the pandemic but if I see if I got in a time machine and no pandemic just told every retail CEO how would you feel about growing 22% over the next two years, the vast majority of CEOs would have jumped at that and then if you said and our life is going to be totally disrupted by this pandemic. [5:14] I think every retail CEO in America would have said I'd be thrilled to get through the next two years with 22 percent growth so that was interesting and then I said I wonder how that compares historically so I got in the hot tub time machine and I pulled all the data from 1990 through today and I restated every year as its growth versus the previous two years to kind of come up with this standard metric to compare against the 22 percent and 22% is unprecedentedly high it's by far the biggest two-year growth we've had since 1990 there's only a few years that that just tickled 15% so I can 2000 we hit 15 percent and in 1994 we hit 15% but like, most of the. The this last decade we were kind of tickling in the kind of six to eight percent growth so 22 percent growth. On average for the whole retail industry is a huge win and unprecedentedly more growth than we would traditionally get does that surprise you at all. Scot: [6:26] It doesn't sort of make sure I understand it's all retail so it's offline and online in Aggregate and then you can't just divide it by 2 right because there's compounding in there so it's not really two years of 11 it's probably like I don't know 12 in an 8 or something. Jason: [6:41] Yes so you are correct now and. That 20 yes and all of this data it does include compounding the the compounding is an interesting point which will come up in a another piece of data in in just a minute but yeah so this is all like literally looking at the. Aggregate sales for 2019 and the aggregate sales for 2021 and saying how much bigger was 2021 than 2019. Scot: [7:08] Yeah did you run a kegger so in MBA school they would say well you can actually unpack the compounding by look at the compounded annual growth rate. Jason: [7:17] Yes yes I am familiar with the math I did not. Scot: [7:21] Okay it was two years it's not going to be that substantial yeah repeat. Jason: [7:24] No that's the yeah it's right typically like with like a five-year Horizon it makes a lot more sense but yeah it would have been interesting but it just I had to your data so I was just trying to come up with an Apples to Apples. Scot: [7:36] Not feels feels like a wind. Jason: [7:38] Yeah so then I said alright well that's interesting on average retail is a huge win. [7:44] Very obviously there are winners and losers so I said alright well let's look at all the categories that the US Department of Commerce gives us. Based on that 2-year stack and there were you know and who was at the industry average who wildly outperformed the industry average and who underperformed the industry average and there are some things that made total sense to me and we're not surprising and then there were some pretty big surprises in there so, the the category that out of the US Department of Commerce data that grew the fastest was, non store sales which is kind of our e-commerce proxy right and it grew 39 percent so almost twice as fast its total retail that's pretty intuitive you know again you're hearing a lot of. E-commerce growth is slowing. Wagon November as more people went back to stores you know compared to this like you know pandemic impacted 20/20 but when you look at onto your stack, e-commerce is still the fastest growing part of retail at group 39% from 2019 and that certainly didn't surprise me the next two categories sporting goods and building materials, also really didn't surprise me because we kind of talked about them being, the big pandemic winners that like you know people then go to the gym so they bought stuff from Dick's Sporting Goods people didn't go on vacation so they built a new patio with materials from Home Depot and so kind of all the that Services Revenue. [9:14] Shifted into retail and that gave sporting goods and building materials a big a big kiss. Motor Vehicles which at one point people were saying like oh my God that's going to be a horrible category in the pandemic Motor Vehicles actually outperformed the industry average so they grew at 24 percent versus 22 percent for total retail. And then here's where we start getting surprises. Slightly below the industry average was furniture and Home Furnishing so that grew at 21 percent versus the industry average of 22 and if you just asked me to bet I would have said in the same way that building materials and Home Improvement stores. Got extra spending from the pandemic I would have expected furniture stores to get extra spending from the pandemic as well and so it surprised me that they were only at the industry average and the only my only hypothesis is. Did they have more disruptions from supply chain like why. Was it just harder for them to scale up to make more sofas to meet the increased demand and so they, they grew healthy but they didn't grow as healthy as they might have because they they couldn't double their us Workforce to build more couches. Scot: [10:23] The feels right the furniture industry has been here in North Carolina that's our primary one and they're just destroyed by the supply chain they can't there was a series of events that couldn't get phone because of the fire and awesome remember that that seems like a year ago but it actually wasn't go to the summer and then with this quote-unquote Supply pain they haven't been able to get the other inputs like anything fabric while that stuff made in China and shipped over here and sitting on a boat somewhere. Jason: [10:50] Yeah and I feel like it's a double whammy for them because it's harder than ever to make stuff but there's actually they could sell more than ever before if they could make it so it's like, it almost feels worse than knowing there's demand that you can't meet. Scot: [11:01] Yeah it's painful. Jason: [11:03] Yeah so then general merchandise grew at 16 percent versus of retail 22 percent and then the one that surprised me most that I talk about a lot is grocery grew at 16 percent versus the industry average of 22 percent and I would have said man a ton of spending shifted from restaurants to grocery stores they were another pandemic winner and so I'll be honest I don't have a perfect hypothesis for why. Again sixteen percent is Healthy Growth and by historical standards it's better than any two-year period since 1990 so I don't want to say oh you know they had a rough time they had a good time but surprising that they were below the industry average to me a little bit. You have any great Insight that I didn't think of on why that would be. Scot: [11:52] I don't maybe it's like a mix thing underneath the hood like the e-commerce grew so much doesn't it like well I'll be in this category are rules so if. Jason: [12:02] Imperfect yes so you are right like one of the wrinkles in all of this is. The way the US Department of Commerce treats e-commerce as another category which is unfortunate right because you know when someone shifts from buying a exercise bike in a Dick Sporting Good to buying a dick exercise bike from Dick's Sporting Goods.com. The sale leaves the sporting good category in enters the non-store category and so that's. That's not really Apples to Apples and then of course this is all done with surveys that are in perfectly filled out by human beings and so how different retailers respond to that survey is also inconsistent so you got it. This data is super helpful directionally but you definitely don't want to get too wrapped around the axle of the minutiae of the data because it's just an imperfect methodology. [12:52] And so then the the categories they did the worst, do make sense with one outlier for a couple hours for me so gasoline only grew at 14%, you know again make sense to me that they you know underperformed when people aren't commuting to work surprising 14% sales are still pretty good growth clothing is near the bottom at 12% growth so again clothing over the last two years did not shrink they still grew at 12% which might have been their average rate of growth I should do that waiters pulled just the category growth over the last 30 years. But compared all these other categories obviously closing was was poor and the Very lowest category is restaurants and bars which still grew six percent so that all makes sense but then there were two two categories in the cellar that I would have expected to do better health and personal care grew at 11% and Electronics and Appliances grew at seven percent so those are both pretty far under the industry average and you know those are two categories. They had some complication they had pros and cons you know within that category but by and large I guess I was surprised to see them so well. Scot: [14:06] Yet Health and Beauty one because Aaron was zooming like the makeup sales shot way up so it's got to be a you know it was e-commerce. Jason: [14:15] Lipstick sales actually went way down because of the Mask but mascara and skincare went way up it's so funny bye. Um so, then I just did one other sanity check so you know people like a couple people a couple of Industry analysts even like responded to my data and said yeah just don't believe the numbers and I'm like just some understanding you you're saying you don't believe the US Department of Commerce numbers not like I didn't make any of these numbers upright bike. [14:45] And and the US Department of Commerce data is imperfect I would argue it's. The best we have access to and it's it's a bunch of you know PhD in statistics that have you know the force of law to you know to enforce compliance with their survey so I it's better than any other survey out there for whatever that's worth but so I thought how can I do a chance sanity check on this data and I'm like oh all the public retailers are required to report their growth every quarter so we could try to create a year over two year growth for all of these public retailers and compare it to the industry data and some of these public retailers are in a particular category so you can you know pretty safely assume all their sales are in that category so you could kind of use that as a sanity check so I pulled I don't know I guess it's about 25 companies and I converted their quarterly growth into a two-year stack and here I will confess I took a shortcut and if there's any mathematicians that want to help me solve this problem I will toy do it these. Draws numbers are not compounded growth so the problem is we don't have annual growth rates from the Retailer's we have quarterly growth rate so basically you have to. Aggregate for quarters of growth and then. [16:11] Calculate it over two years and so I took a lazy shortcut and I just added their. 20 growth to their 2021 growth so we have basically seven quarters of growth for most of these retailers and it's it's what they call a two-year stack which means growth from 2019 plus 2020 and while the math is not right there by the way right because of. Like the compounding problem of your 2020 growth include your you know growth over 2019. This is how most retailers reported in their earnings so when they talk about to your growth for these non-gaap measures where they try to put themselves in the best light and they report their two year growth they're almost never talking about a compounded number like if you read the footnote. They're they're adding the growth from those two years so this is how they're doing the math in most cases for whatever that's worth but so that's way more precursor than we need the retailer that grew the public retailer the grew the most over the last two years total shocker to me I would not have expected in a million years is Burlington Coat Factory. That Drew 85% and to put that in perspective, they sell apparel which did not do very well in the pandemic and they turned off their website their e-commerce site the month before the pandemic. So they didn't sell any a long line. Scot: [17:34] They're not really opening a lot of stores either. Jason: [17:36] No I mean they may have opened a couple stores over the whole two years but like this is mostly comp sales growth so it actually kind of, factors out new store. Scot: [17:46] Okay so it's cops okay. Jason: [17:47] Yeah this is these numbers that ye are based on currency adjusted comp sales just in the u.s. wherever possible so so Burlington's a total outliner congratulations to them surprising to me Amazon is was the second fastest grower and all public retail at 61 percent over two years which. Doesn't surprise me that super impressive but you'd expect to see them near the top of this list then you see Dick's Sporting Goods at 57 percent and again, like from from the industry data Sporting Goods was the second fastest growing category behind e-commerce so Amazon as a proxy for e-commerce and dicks is approximately for sporting goods makes total sense but then things start getting interesting the next fastest grower was Ulta which is personal care at 36 percent so they grew much better than did the. The personal care category now they're less than half the personal care category the slightly bigger version of them would be Sephora but Sephora is actually owned. Buy a house of Brands and so it's harder to get their data. [19:01] Bed Bath & Beyond group 35% which is impressive Target group 34 percent, Home Depot which again was in one of these these outperforming categories grew 33% was group 28% by comparison Best Buy grew 29% in this it doesn't surprise me the best bike route 29 percent but this is. Makes that the fact that Electronics was one of the slowest growing categories at 7% make even less percent make even less sense I guess it's it's hard to imagine how. Electronics only grew seven percent over the last two years when you know everyone bought all this extra equipment for homeschooling and home entertainment and then with Best Buy growing 29 percent it's even harder to imagine. Scot: [19:53] Yeah maybe in a perfect world you could then split like something like that into store non-store store / e-commerce and maybe that would tell the story. Jason: [20:00] Yeah yeah again that's like one of the few the, my few answers to to a number of these anomalies and then I know this is like all these numbers in a podcast sock but like then you start getting into like Abercrombie & Fitch 28% Costco 26 percent, Cole's Nordstrom's Walmart grew at 21% which again for you know a huge company, the fortune one company to grow at the industry average is pretty good Nike grew at 20%. T.j. Maxx at 15% and the the bottom three. A surprise into not surprises so the second worse and third two words were Dollar Tree in Dollar General at 10% growth which is kind of surprising. You know consumers were kind of flush with cash with all the extra economic stimulus they weren't really slowing down their spending and so like you know maybe it wasn't a great season for the value shoppers but a lot of the news was about how these dollar stores were opening tons of stores and we're really thriving so interesting that they both only Drew. 10% and then the the worst performing public company on this was Macy's which grew six percent over the two years not totally surprising. Scot: [21:18] Isn't that the one that Prophet G said was going to crush. Jason: [21:24] Be there be there the future of retailers Macy's not Amazon yeah this chart unfortunately yeah contradicts that prediction so we'll have to wait and see are you Scott Galloway fans you just hang on hang on to your stick to your guns. Scot: [21:38] Good luck with that. Jason: [21:41] Yeah so that's my the rabbit hole that the stupid November numbers took me down so as you can imagine none of my clients got any deliverables in November. Scot: [21:52] When people tell you they don't believe the data what are they reacting to. Jason: [21:57] I think there's a couple categories there are people that are like hey it's the the month-over-month is interesting but like. Who cares right because these are all anomalous months and that's why I went for this two-year stack and and so. My point was I think like when people are saying hey I don't I don't believe the data I actually don't think they meant they don't believe that this is the data that the US Department of Commerce reported I think they're both saying in some cases, I don't think the US Department of Commerce can count very well and what they mostly hang their hat on is is the non store sales not being right and that's fair right like when someone at Best Buy fills out a survey the US Department of Commerce would like them to put their e-commerce sales in one box and their store sales in another box. [22:47] And do they do that I don't know right and does every retailer do that. Properly and consistently I can tell you that the person assigned to fill out the surveys is generally not the most senior accountant at the it's usually not the CFO. Um so so that is imperfect and then what I think they're saying more is. Maybe don't make all your future plans based on like this snapshot of the world because you know we are looking at a unique set of circumstances that resulted in this data right so if you mistakenly thought my takeaway was retail is better than ever and you know everybody should double down because you know retailers is the most thriving industry in the world 22 percent growth is amazing and it's going to continue forever. [23:36] Yeah no that's not what I'm saying I'm just saying that like it's interesting there were positive and negative impacts on all these businesses as a result of the pandemic but on the aggregate. The impact was disproportionately positive and I don't think that that is sustainable right like I you know I think we will hope to drop down to the regular the sort of pre-pandemic growth levels and potentially. We pulled some growth forward and we might even see some more lean years because we you know absorb so much growth this time. Scot: [24:10] This a long way of you saying you now agree with the the Goldman Sachs chart that showed five years of acceleration. Jason: [24:15] No no I think that still is pretty clear and they were primarily talking about e-commerce which definitely didn't happen. Scot: [24:23] Checking. Jason: [24:25] So that's my my deep dive into data and if there's there can't be anything more fun than listening to a podcast about a bunch of dudes being a bunch of numbers so I will I'll do two things I'll try to put some of this data in the show notes but what I'll do is I'll put a link in the show notes to download some charts with this data in it. Scot: [24:46] Very cool I actually like you spewing data so maybe I'm just an audience of one. Jason: [24:53] You may be in a liar. Scot: [24:56] So what are you seeing so that kind of gets us through November what are you seeing here in December I poked around on the usual spots for the Adobe and the sales force and a couple others and it's really weird they've been kind of quiet since since kind of the Cyber week what what are you hearing from your clients. Jason: [25:17] Yeah so I don't know like there's not good data that's already reporting December sales for holiday but so anecdotally talking to a bunch of clients and talking to some of these companies that do have internal data. December is looking like a good month right and so the. My kind of aggregate estimate is holiday for 2021 is going to end up being about. Nine percent bigger than holiday 2020 and again you say well as nine percent good or bad by historical standards it's pretty darn good most most years we get about a holiday grows less than the rest of the year because there's so much extra volume in it so most years we get about five percent growth in holiday in 2019 we got four percent growth 9% is a big number and last year was a pretty big growth year and so. Um you know also around nine percent so nine percent on top of 9% is a. Pretty big deal I have seen some estimates that think it'll grow even more than nine percent this year to put that in perspective the last time before last year there grew nine percent would have been like 1999 so so not only do we have great growth over two years we do have great holiday growth one huge caveat. [26:43] The trend up until about a week ago was, that more people were returning to the store store traffic was going up we were seeing kind of pre-pandemic shopping behaviors and e-commerce was still a big deal bigger than ever before but the rate of growth was swelling because, there was so much pent-up demand and go to stores lots of people were planning on getting together with their family like there was a funny Walmart stat about you know how much bigger the turkeys were that got sold this year than last year because people were, we're entertaining a lot more so, unfortunately in kind of real-time chats with most of my clients in the last week we have seen foot traffic to stores dramatically curtail and it feels like. We're very quickly getting a lot of negative Media news around and I say media but I guess it's based on the data about Omicron and the hypothesis is there either, Omicron has people scared and so they're not going to stores or a second hypothesis is everyone desperately wants to have their family gathering so they're being extra cautious leading up to Christmas but in either case, we're seeing this last-minute pivot to e-commerce and that has some impacts like the shipping companies that actually been doing. [28:04] Much better job this year than last year on keeping up with ship again in but if suddenly everyone you know runs towards e-commerce these last two weeks that could really put. [28:15] Shipping in Jeopardy in a in a really vulnerable time when they have a lot of Labor challenges so yeah I don't know it's kind of a Debbie Downer bit of news in this whole thing. Scot: [28:26] Yeah yeah I'm a crime that has a it's going to put next year kind of up into a question mark of what happens is and then. The thing that's really frustrating trying to operate a business during this time frame is the bookmarks of good and bad are so wide that. Dirty you have no idea but you drive a truck through and right there 180 degrees so you read one new source it's like oh it's super mild and it's almost going to act like its own vaccine then you see another source and it's like we're all gonna die. Somewhere hopefully we're somewhere in the middle there. Jason: [28:58] Amen Ya Know It's Tricky yeah and kind of evaluating all these data sources that's like the new the new societal challenge right. Scot: [29:09] It really is. Jason: [29:12] So I'm wondering so that's that's kind of my holiday snapshot some good news and some bad news in there I wanted to take a couple minutes on this podcast because I think this is going to be our last show of the year to kind of zoom out from the minutiae and just kind of think about the year in totality and kind of, don't know you know highlight what we think are the big things that happened in our industry this year that might impact us going forward how do you feel about that. Scot: [29:39] Let's do it you want to go first. Jason: [29:41] I mostly wanted you to go first because I thought I would surprise you and make you get bet answers while I thought about it. Scot: [29:48] Okay I'll go first so so I'm going to try to limit it to three because we. Yeah we could go on for for a long time here so I think the highlights of this year for me, it would be a Jason and Scot show if we didn't think a little bit about Amazon the. Build out of Amazon's shipping infrastructure and I feel like we say this every year but it's accelerating and there's some really good data we want to have a guest on that's publishing some data on this just Amazon has built more capacity in the last two years than they had in the last 10 so they've used the pandemic as a you know the response to it and they've gotten kind of cover I guess you could say is to really. 10x down on fulfillment infrastructure where where you get the most feeling of that is that the last mile which is this DS p– program that they've just really scaled up massively. This touches my my day job because it's Biffy we'd service a lot of these folks and they're just they're everywhere and, you know it used to be they would kind of work out a fulfillment systems then they built these fulfillment centers now they've got these see the last word of station what are they call them. [31:02] Delivery stations that have a whole new nomenclature where they now are have these forward-deployed areas where the dsps are almost housed and Aggregates you'll go to these places and it's pretty well that I've seen several of them now and they'll be like 20 dsps operating out of there these little micro businesses and you know just. [31:22] Prime Vans as far as I can see. Where is the stat that I think is kind of the most interesting is the Amazon did disclose that they plan to ship more than then FedEx this year and then I think they said in the next couple of years they'll exceed the USPS as far as package delivery it doesn't surprise me just given the scale that they are throwing at this thing. For example you can't buy a van today because the Amazon is just pretty ordered all the vans so it's pretty fascinating the scale they've done there. The thing that in our will do our annual predictions but I've been annually predicting that they would compete more directly with FedEx and UPS by offering just package delivery to anybody I just feels like we're a lot closer to that but I say that every year so we'll see, the other surprise for me is the explosion of this 15-minute grocery delivery world the most people have probably their first experience this or the first company heard was go puff and it wasn't really a 15-minute thing it was just kind of faster it was almost hours then you had instacart really scale up and then what's happened is the service level on these things it's got lower to the point where they're all trying to get you something in 15 minutes. It's a smaller number of skus than you would get with like Amazon's 300 million skus available so it's typically going to be. [32:43] You know you probably have a cool word for it but it's like snacks and oh my gosh I'm out of a soda I need or ice cream things that you kind of have an urgent hankering for and are willing to pay to scratch that itch a little bit more. On the shipping and handling fees and those kinds of things these are kinds of things when I talk to people they're like yeah that little the economics will never work in the be no one will ever use it and then everyone's always surprised because you can never underestimate the convenience or any consumer that when you give them the choice to do something with convenience they will, they will do it and they will order things you would never have thought about. I remember when Amazon rolled out Prime now they were shocked that the toilet paper and personal products were such a high considered item and it's just you know. People people don't plan ahead and they run out of stuff and they want it right then and there willing to pay extra for it so that one's pretty interesting and you track this probably even better I do Amazon's going after this one and then there's like, 10 startups in there that are have all raised, billions of dollars go puff just announcer one and a half billion dollar extension of their last round by layering on some debt so there's one called like gorillas or gorillas and. [33:55] Tons of these things out there but Amazon scaling it up too so it's gonna be interesting to see if any of these guys can make Headway against Amazon or Famas on will just crush them. [34:05] And then the last one is live-streaming this one sputtering in the US, every data point outside the US indicates it's a thing and I do think this one's going to translate from I've seen it I've seen data that shows that as a has expanded out of China and that's kind of where maybe a year ago we were talking about it largely on Alibaba platform. But now I think it's there's European startups I'm starting to see some categories in the US where this is interesting I followed the collectible category and there's a couple of the hot companies are they do these live streams where they will do. Unboxings so they will they will buy a pack of cards from like the 80s and then they will open them live and and see what's in there and and you know, it's kind of riveting if you're if you're into that and you're like I wonder you know there's a one in 100 chance that this has a Michael Jordan rookie card or something and they pull that the column poles that can be fascinating so there's a lot of. Kind of very specific category activity going there that I think I think a lot of us thought okay Amazon's and do this Amazon is tried and it's been pretty terrible but I think it's going to come from these really niche of Articles at first and they're going to figure it out and then you'll see it get more more momentum up into the broader retailers so those are those are my three. Jason: [35:27] Wow those are three good ones I feel like you stole my three I'm just kidding um no but I totally agree with all those I do think like we've actually seen Amazon launch some. Selling of shipping services and I've seen Stan said they're going to deliver 90% of their own packages this holiday so like I think that definitely is a thing even Walmart is now, selling shipping services to other people including Home Depot so that's totally interesting Trend hundred percent agree on the live streaming like I kind of call it the D bundling of shopping and you know we have all these e-commerce sites that are good at buying things but we're not very good at product Discovery and it seems like social and video or where a lot of the, the new product discoveries coming from and then that that ultra-fast delivery for filling orders to give you all the words you are asking about the that that's a huge thing and if you think about you know how much retailers are struggling with with grocery profitability like it's a double whammy that wow they're trying to figure out how to solve for profitability the consumers moving to this even you know inherently less profitable order so it's going to be that that's going to be an interesting disruption of the industry so if I were to add 3 to that. I do think just the whole pandemic. [36:41] Acceleration of great digital grocery like is when I talk about a lot and I still think that that is a huge thing like all those predictions about how much the pandemic was accelerating e-commerce for probably wrong but grocery delivery Ecommerce probably did get accelerated five years and to me maybe you know what will ultimately end up being one of the most important things that happened during the pandemic is Amazon invented a new grocery store right this Amazon Fresh concept and it's starting to scale there's more than 30 of them now they have just walk out technology in them which I would have bet against them having this quickly and there are there are lots of investigative journalists that have found. Some interesting real estate footprints that would imply that it's going to scale their that there's a business plan footing out here that had like 300 of these in the UK which is a small island um I think we could look back five years from now and see Amazon is a very meaningful brick-and-mortar grocer and and I think 20:21 is the year it it happened without us totally acknowledging it so I think Jay W groceries an interesting Evolution one that I end up talking about a lot with my clients also driven by Amazon is retail media networks right so you know Amazon, is that a run right now of about 30 billion dollars in ads it's probably the most profitable business Amazon has I think this this. [38:08] Battle for eyeballs between retailers and traditional digital platforms is super interesting and I think you know you set the layer who is. One of the the. The key guys at Amazon media like we had him on the show when he moved to Fresh Direct and he's now running Walmart Connect Four for Walmart so you're seeing the Retailer's hire these like credible media sales people and I think that's a. [38:37] A going forward a significant part of every retailers plan is how to be their own media Network how to get eyeballs and how to monetize those eyeballs and that's a new new skill for a retailer so I think that's a big deal and then the last one I'm gonna throw out, is one that I am surprised doesn't get talked about more but it's the apparel retailer she in and I think they are super interesting they've had phenomenal success they're probably globally the largest apparel reseller on the planet right now and their their annual revenues are more than than H&M and Zara combined so so remarkable. [39:18] Story of fast acceleration but the bigger story here is, to me Sheehan is very representative of the democratization of apparel that like for the longest time we expected Mickey Drexler or Versace or Yeezy to tell us like what was cool to wear and then we waited until we can buy those clothes and we bought them and I just I think that model is totally dead now I think the apparel that sells best the stuff that she and sells the stuff that target cells the stuff that Stitch fix cells is frankly based on customer data it's watching customers finding out what they like and then making it really fast and so Sheehan isn't isn't fashion driven by a stylist It's Fashion driven by Tick-Tock right and an Instagram and I think that's a, a lot of apparel companies haven't gotten the memo yet that the consumer is now squarely in charge of these fashion trends. Scot: [40:18] Yeah saw an article about these guys were this this one lady she did this Argyle Sweater outfit and. It was on Instagram it got some viral love they took that and it created a hole the outfit they had copied it or I guess fast fashion and I don't know how the how the IP Works in this world but they had replicated it and they I think they even used her picture which I think was with articles about that she didn't really you know, realize that that effectively shows open sourcing this thing to the world and then it became a top seller for them like in 60 days it was insane how fast that they identified the trend and get the. The product out there it was like you know NASCAR fashion or something. Jason: [41:03] Yeah it's crazy if you think about like the fashion traditionally worked like. Dudes would show up in Paris at the Fashion Show and show these cool Styles and then everyone would steal those Styles and send them an effector he's and two years later those fact those Fashions would be available at Neiman Marcus. Two years later and in so the genius of Gap was that they got those Fashions to the mall, 18 months later instead of two years later and the the disruption of H&M and Zara was that they got them to the mall six months later instead of 18 months later right. She and sees that woman in the crop-top Argyle Sweater and they have they have that fashion available in a week and here's what super interesting they don't make a million of them and hope they sell which is what all those other retailers had to do, they make 12 of them and if those 12 sell in 8 seconds versus 20 seconds then they make thousands of them. Right and so it's really data-driven real-time a/b testing on apparel trans at a speed that that these kind of traditional apparel Brands can't even imagine. Scot: [42:13] That's because they have the factory right there that they're able to do that or like to have some. Jason: [42:17] Yeah and they. In Shane's case they don't own the factories they have a net like that it's a gig worker economy for factories right like so in the same way that boober recruits a bunch of Uber drivers she and recruits a bunch of factories that they then go to and say hey we've got some some ideas for some new models and find one of those factories that accepts the order and makes the the stuff and so in sometimes there's our Factory driven ideas sometimes there she and driven ideas but but yeah that's that's the model and you know there is a Dark Side to this I got you know a lot of its there's a lot of questions about the labor standards and practices at a bunch of these factories and of course there's. You know a lot of the stuff that gets bought on Shion is super cheap and gets worn once and so it's a ecological disaster I would argue the industry it's disrupting is also. Kind of a you know it has a lot of dark sides and and is not very sustainable so I like I'm not sure she and improves on on any of those problems but from a pure consumer demand standpoint, I don't think we're ever going back to you know these like anointed tastemakers that like decide what we're all going to wear for the next year. Scot: [43:32] Yet clearly clearly that model is sailed having. Jason: [43:36] Indeed well listen Scott I know we both have to run but that is probably a great place to wrap up our final show of 20:21 I need to take some downtime not to see my family or anything like that but in early January we always like to record the forecasts show and hit traditionally you crush me and so I feel like I need to spend a lot more time thinking about my forecast before the forecast show comes up. Scot: [44:07] Yeah challenge accepted I will also be thinking about this in a background processes I'm enjoying the holiday I think this is a good time to thank our listeners you know we've you know we've seen our listenership grow pretty steadily over the years and we really appreciate everyone giving us time to your day to talk about the topics we talk about and we get a lot of great feedback and really engaged set of listeners and we really appreciate you listening and if you want to share your appreciation one of the ways you can do that is through a five star rating so fire up your favorite podcast listening technology and if you would leave us a five starters we that would be the perfect holiday gift for us. Jason: [44:47] Yeah that's exact five stars is exactly my size to Scott. Scot: [44:50] How about that. Jason: [44:53] Awesome well most of can't appreciate enough the listeners for spending this time with us every week this is a lot of fun for us to do and I learned so much from the the chats I have with folks after they listen to the podcast so I'm that is one of the things I'm super grateful for. Scot: [45:10] Everyone have a great holiday Jason you how enjoy your trip to California. Jason: [45:14] Thank you you have a wonderful holiday as well and until next time happy commercing!  

Voted on by our Patreon, we look at the what, how, and for-gods-sake-why of some of those most hated holiday songs! 02:40 Banned songs 08:09 Wonderful Christmastime 10:45 Chipmunks Song 16:36 Little Drummer Boy (Peace on Earth) Like what you hear?  Become a patron of the arts for as little as $2 a month!   Or buy the book or some merch.  Hang out with your fellow Brainiacs.  Reach out and touch Moxie on Facebook, Twitter,  or Instagram. Music: Kevin MacLeod, David Fesliyan.   Reach out and touch Moxie on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Links to all the research resources are on the website. In the early 80's, drought caused a famine that crippled the nation of Ethiopia.  It was a bad scene.  Half of the mortality rate is said to be attributable to “human rights violations.”  People around the world were moved, like Irish singer-songwriter Bob Geldof, who along with Midge Ure, wrote a fundraiser song.  Who could they get to sing it?  How about “everybody”?  The likes of Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Boy George, Bono, and Sting joined forces as Band Aid to record the fast-selling single in UK history, asking us the question “Do They Know It's Christmas?”  My name's… Some songs rub us the wrong way because they're sung by shrieking children on now-oudated equipment was was not kind to female and higher-pitched voices, songs like I'm Getting Nuthin for Christmas and All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth, standards which I think think would have died away if we weren't all made to sing them in elementary school.  Some are painfully goofy, like Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, but you almost have to give them a pass since it seems they accomplished what they set out to do.  Some songs make us their enemy by borrowing into our brains and setting up shop for hours or days on end, the dreaded holiday earworm, like Jingle Bell Rock and Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree.  The mere mention of the title is enough to activate them like a sleeper cell of obnoxious holiday cheer.   Banned You might be able to forbid people in your own home from playing songs that irritate you –and I stress “might”-- but if you can find yourself with a bit of authority and a big enough humbug up your butt, you can try to make it so nobody has to hear the song either.  For instance, the 1952 classic “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” sung by 13-year-old Jimmy Boyd from Mississippi.  Did you realize the song was about the little boy not realizing that his Dad was dressed as Santa?  It had to be pointed out to me, and embarrassingly recently.  People were *scandalized by the musical marriage of sex and Christmas, with one churchgoer stating “mockery of decent family life as well as Christ's birthday.”  Many pearls were clutched.  They'd probably clutch them pearls twice as hard if I'd been there to tell them Jesus wasn't born on 12/25, but that's another show.  Boston's Catholic Archdiocese denounced it and the young Boyd had to meet with church leaders to explain that Mommy and Santa were properly, sanctily married.  A West Virginia broadcasting company prohibited its radio stations from playing this “insult to Santa Claus.”  The same thing happened to one of my husband's favorite songs, Lou Monte's “Dominick the Donkey,” but the people of WV went to bat for the little donkey who could take the Italian hills that were too much for the reindeer.  The public protested the ban so forcefully that it was repealed after less than two weeks; and this was in 1960, when 20% of homes in the US still didn't have a telephone.   For every time the hubs plays Dominick the Donkey, I play the Pogue's Fairytale of New York at least twice.  A lot of folks don't like, and I respect our difference of opinions, and think it's the farthest thing from a cheery Xmas song, and I agree with y'all there.  The 1987 duet with singer Kirsty MacColl, quickly became a UK holiday classic, famous then infamous in turn.  It tells the story of a toxic couple who seem to love each deep down, but should probably not be allowed within 200m of each other.  There's talk of drug use and insults, including a certain homophobic slur to rhyme with the word “maggot.”  In December 2019, BBC radio DJ Alex Dyke said he was cutting the song from his program.  The BBC had previously censored the song in 2007 with an unconvincing word-swap, but this brought more backlash than the original version had.  The BBC reversed course for a few years, then put the censored version back up.  What do you think?  soc med   Some songs we consider absolute standards, impeccable and indispensable, made people in their day as prickly as holl and less than jolly.  The BBC worried that “I'll Be Home for Christmas” could damage British morale during World War II, so no air-play for you!  In an amazingly blunt statement that would definitely trend on Twitter today:  “We have recently adopted a policy of excluding sickly sentimentality which, particularly when sung by certain vocalists, can become nauseating and not at all in keeping with what we feel to be the need of the public in this country.”   One of the most frequently cover and burlesqued-to songs, Santa Baby, wouldn't have become the classic it did if it had been sung by anyone other than the utterly incomparable Eartha Kitt.  Who doesn't love a Christmas song dripping in sexuality, sung by a loudly self-confident mixed race woman?  In 1953, a lot of people.   Radio stations refused to play it and political officials gnashed their teeth after Kitt performed Santa Baby at a dinner for the king and queen of Greece that November.  That was an unusual sentence and I'm stalling for time to let you process it.  However, Billboard magazine reported “Neither the King nor his Queen were one whit disturbed by the chantress's performance, nor by the song.”  Kitt was quoted as saying it was ‘inconceivable that anyone would question the ingenious poetry of the song.'”  I don't know about poetry, but I do know I don't want to hear any version other than hers.   Chipmunks My hatred for this next song cannot be overstated.  I almost hired an editor just for this section. It's shrill, it's pointless, and it's been playing for 63 freaking years.  It's the goddamn Chipmunks' song aka Christmas Don't Be Late.  I'm mad already.  Named after the president, chief engineer, and founder of Liberty Records, the furry little characters are the members of a “band”, called Alvin And The Chipmunks, while a “man” named David Seville functions as their human manager, catapulting them to super stardom.  The Chipmunks, three singing cartoon rodents in Victorian nightdresses apparently, or maybe ill-fitted sweater dresses, were the brainchild of a songwriter named Ross Bagdasarian, though he was better known by the pseudonym of David Seville, the name that would be immortalized as The Chipmunk's fictitious manager.  Bagdasarian was the son of Armenian immigrants to California, who served in the Army Air Force in WWII, which is how he came to find himself stationed in Seville, Spain.  He did a bit of acting, landing minor roles in Rear Window and Stalag 17.  Songwriting played out considerably better.  In 1951, he used the melody of an Armenian folk song to write Rosemary Clooney's hit, Come On-a My House. [sfx clip]    Bagdasarian-cum-Seville began toying around with voice distortion effects, speeding up and slowing down his voice to achieve the cute high pitched sound of the little animal's voices.  Consumer tape decks at the time had changeable speeds, but usually only in simple binary multiples, doubling or halving the speed, creating sounds an octave apart. Changing speeds of voices in these limited multiples creates extremely high or low pitches that sound too extreme for most purposes.  Disney used half-speed recording for his Chip ‘n Dale cartoon characters, making the extremely fast dialogue difficult to understand. As a result, dialog recorded at that speed had to consist of very short phrases.  Seville's chief innovation was to use tape machines that could vary speeds in between these extremes, creating more understandable and thus emotionally accessible voices that worked well for both singing and spoken dialogue.   The Chipmunk Song made its debut on Christmas 1958 and immediately became a smash hit, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart.  It would be the “band's” first and only #1 song, as well as Seville's second and final, No. 1 single.  The first was the song Witch Doctor, wanna hear it here it goes [sfx clip]  I guess when you have a hammer…    A write-up in Life magazine in 1959, noted that Bagdasarian/Seville was the first case in the "annals of popular music that one man has served as writer, composer, publisher, conductor and multiple vocalist of a hit record, thereby directing all possible revenues from the song back into his pocket."  That'd be impressive enough even if you didn't know that Seville couldn't read or write music, nor play any instruments, but now you do know that, so you should be quite impressed.   The Chipmunk Song earned them three Grammy Awards at the very first Grammy's the following May.  I'm going to say that again, because I don't think you heard me.  The Chipmunks song won three Grammy's.  In fairness, one is for best children's song.  A few years later, The Chipmunks landed their own television show as cartoon characters, but it did not command the same success their music career.  After Bagdasarian passed away unexpectedly in 1972, his son and daughter-in-law took over the voices of The Chipmunks, but it would take nearly ten years for The Chipmunks made it back to TV, with their 1981 Christmas special, the ingeniously named “A Chipmunk Christmas.”     Like a holiday Jason Vorhees, "The Chipmunk Song" re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 in 2007 with the CGI Alvin and Chipmunks movie.  As of December 25, 2011, Nielsen SoundScan estimated total sales of the digital track at 867,000 downloads, making it third on the list of all-time best-selling Christmas/holiday digital singles.  #3 was Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 from Trans-Siberian Orchestra, who I've had the mixed blessing to see live – the performance was great but the stage light swept over the audience constantly; it was like having a camera flash go off in your face several times a minute.  #1 is, to the surprise of no one, Mariah Carey's 1994 "All I Want for Christmas Is You" and that's all the more attention she's getting from me.  If you ever want a real smdh moment, Google Mariah Carey's requirements to appear on camera for interviews.  The word “diva” doesn't begin to describe it.  Wonderful Now this one depends on the day.  Some days, it's so bad it's good and some days, and for some people all days, it's the regular kind of bad.  [sfx clip] Say what you will about it, you can't say Paul McCartney didn't put in the work.  Wonderful Christmastime features McCartney on guitar, bass, keyboards, drums and vocals, even the creepy-sounding ‘choir of children.'  Makes one wonder why he even kept a band around.  You see the other members of Wings in the video, but the song was all McCartney.   Like a number of holiday classics that you heard about in the episode #92, The Jews Who Wrote Christmas, Wonderful Christmastime was written on a ‘boiling hot day in July', and recorded during sessions for the McCartney II album.  It apparently took the former Beatle just ten minutes to pen the song which – some of us find that more readily-believable than others.  One of the most memorable elements of the song is the odd synthesiser sound that punctuates it throughout.  That is, if you care to know, a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, which was also used on the hit songs Bette Davis Eyes and What a Fool Believes.  Though I suppose it's still a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 even if you don't care to know.   It peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart and has since become of the most widely played Christmas songs on radio.   Bonus fact: The Beatles only really had one Christmas release – Christmas Time Is Here Again, which was distributed to their fan club in 1967.  I imagine that would fetch a pretty pence on the secondary market. [sfx typing] checking ebay…Oh, they're actually pretty cheap.     If you don't like the song, you're not alone.  McCartney himself isn't all that keen on it, but he has begun playing it on UK tours in recent years.  You gotta give the people what they want and clearly enough people want Wonderful Christmastime.  According to the Forbes website, McCartney earns over $400,000 royalties from the song every year, though other sources claim that figure is probably the cumulative total. Little Drummer Boy As time passes, tastes change, culture shifts, new things are created and old things fall away.  We rarely ride in one-horse open sleighs –I can't remember the last time I was even in a closed one-horse sleigh– and it seems really strange to us that people sat about telling ghost stories.  So maybe that's why I don't understand The Little Drummer Boy.  How is a drum solo an appropriate gift for a sleeping infant and the woman who just squoze him out in a cow-shed?  The ox and lamb kept time?  That's literally the drummer's only job.  Well, that and making the rest of the band's drinking problem look reasonable.  Hey, what's the difference between a drummer and a drum machine?  You only have to punch the info into the drum machine once.  [sfx rimshot] What do you call a drummer who broke up with his girlfriend?  Homeless.  [sfx rimshot]  Don't worry, drummers, this abuse isn't exclusive.  What do you call the pretty girl on a bassist's arm?  A tattoo.  That's my time, good night!   How old do you think this slow, plodding song is?  I couldn't have put a year to my guess, but for some reason it surprised me that it was written in 1941.  The composure was a teacher named Katherine Kennicott Davis.  Originally called "Carol of the Drum" –does what it says on the tin– was based on an unidentified Czech carol and intended for choirs.  One group of singers took a liking to it and propelled it to success in 1951 - The Trapp Family Singers.   As boring as it is, The Little Drummer Boy lets us draw a straight line between the Trapp Family and ‘the lad insane' David Bowie.  In 1977, Bowie was 'actively trying to normalize' his career.  Debilitating drug addiction and accusations of Nazi-sympathizing threatened to sink his earning potential, so it was a no-brainer for him to appear on Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas.  Crosby was a crooner and golden age Hollywood icon and seemed like a means to the end because, as Bowie said later, “my mom likes him.”  The promise by producers to promote the video for Bowie's single Heroes, fitting as poorly as it did in the middle of a holiday special, certainly didn't hurt either.  The special starred Crosby, his actual family, and stars of the day like the model Twiggy, who my mother has still not forgiven for coming along and making curvy, busty figures unpopular.     So Bing Crosby and David Bowie.  On paper, it made no sense.  But in reality…it made even less sense.  A negative amount of sense, if that's mathematically possible.  I mean, just look at this juxtaposition.  You can see the two together on the Vodacast app… Bowie arrived in a mink coat, an earring, and bright red lipstick….to appear alongside Bing Crosby.  Bowie agreed to producers' demands to tone his look down, but asked/begged the producers if there was anything else, anything at all, he could sing, letting them know in no uncertain terms that he hated the song.   "Ian Fraser, who co-wrote the 'Peace on Earth' portion, told The Washington Post in 2006. 'We didn't know quite what to do.' Instead of panicking, he and two other men working on the special — Buz Kohan and Larry Grossman — hunkered down at a piano in the studio basement and spent 75 minutes working up the tune.  Ever professionals, Bowie and Crosby perfected the new song in less than an hour."  It was that professionalism that actually brought the men together.  According to Crosby's daughter, Mary, who was 18 at the time and a big Bowie fan,  "Eventually, Dad realized David was this amazing musician, and David realized Dad was an amazing musician. You could see them both collectively relax and then magic was made."  Bonus fact: Mary went on to become an actress, starring in the hit TV show Dallas, but she isn't the only thespian the Crosby legacy produced.  Bing's granddaughter Denise will always have a place in my heart as Tasha Yar, first chief of security on the Enterprise D and if you don't know what I'm talking about, maybe *you're* not cool enough to sit with *us* at lunch.   The special was recorded in mid-September, but Crosby would not see it released.  He died of a massive heart attack after a day of golfing in mid-October, so the special was aired posthumously at the end of November in the U.S. and on Christmas Eve in England.  Bizarrely, The single proved to be one of Bowie's fastest-selling singles, selling over 250,000 copies within its first month and being certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry one month after its release.  And what does it say about me that I had to do a second take, beause I read it as British Pornographic Industry.  They certify very different records.  One thing that helped propel that success was the fledgeling Music Television network, which in its original primitive state actually played music videos.  When it launched in 1981, there weren't really enough videos to fill up an entire channel, so they played what they had, including the 'Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy' clip, a lot.  This prompted RCA to issue an official release in 1982 with the arbitrary single B-side of "Fantastic Voyage" from The Lodger album.  Bowie was annoyed with that move, contributing to his departure from the label soon after.  Still, it was a high-charting single for Bowie in the post-Scary Monsters era, at least until Let's Dance came out three months later.   And that's…So the question was “Do they know it's Christmas?”.  Since Ethiopia is ⅔ Christian, yes.  I'd go out on a limb and say even the ⅓ that's Muslim knows. But the important thing is that 100% of the royalties go to the cause, and that figure sits north of $250 million.  Among the luminary names involved was a pre-beard George Michaels.  This was in his Wham days when he also recorded the song you're hearing now.  Recognize it?  To anyone who just lost Whamageddon… [sfx laughter]  Worth it.  Just passing it on after Red from Overly Sarcastic took me out during a video last year.  For everyone else, as the nearest Gen-X'er.  Remember…Thanks..     And that's…So the question was “Do they know it's Christmas?”.  Since Ethiopia is ⅔ Christian, yes.  I'd go out on a limb and say even the ⅓ that's Muslim knows. But the important thing is that 100% of the royalties go to the cause, and that figure sits north of $250 million.  Among the luminary names involved was a pre-beard George Michaels.  This was in his Wham days when he also recorded the song you're hearing now.  Recognize it?  To anyone who just lost Whamageddon… [sfx laughter]  Worth it.  Just passing it on after Red from Overly Sarcastic took me out during a video last year.  For everyone else, as the nearest Gen-X'er.  Remember…Thanks..    Sources: https://www.cbc.ca/music/read/david-bowie-bing-crosby-and-the-story-of-the-strangest-christmas-duet-ever-1.5008343 https://theconversation.com/christmas-earworms-the-science-behind-our-love-hate-relationship-with-festive-songs-89268 https://www.slantmagazine.com/music/worst-christmas-songs-of-all-time/3/ https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/story-behind-the-christmas-song-paul-mccartneys-wonderful-christmastime/ https://www.songfacts.com/facts/paul-mccartney/wonderful-christmastime https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/637970/banned-christmas-songs-past https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chipmunk_Song_(Christmas_Don%27t_Be_Late) http://www.christmassongs.net/chipmunks-christmas-song https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Bagdasarian https://nowweknowem.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/david-sevilles-the-chipmunk-song-won-three-grammy-awards-today-in-1959-the-top-winner-at-the-inaugural-grammy-awards-now-we-know-em/ https://holidappy.com/holidays/History-of-Christmas-Carols-Little-Drummer-Boy https://www.newsweek.com/story-behind-bowie-bings-unlikely-holiday-duet-sends-welcome-message-divided-times-opinion-1478295

It's time for another personality test, this time one of the big players… the Myers Briggs! DISCLAIMER Colorful words may be used. don't be alarmed. NEWSLETTER https://view.flodesk.com/pages/61525a85337f1c2aacf52f6d Etsy Shop is open! https://www.etsy.com/shop/CGBPrints FIND ME ON ALL THE THINGS Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cindyguentertbaldo YouTube - https://youtube.com/c/CindyGuentertBaldo Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/llamaletters/ Discord - https://discord.gg/Rwpp7Ww Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/llamaletters/ Website - www.cindyguentertbaldo.com STUFF I MENTIONED Test Link - https://www.mbtionline.com/en-US/Products/For-you Myers Briggs Foundation - https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/ Inquiries - cindy@cindyguentertbaldo.com   TRANSCRIPTION Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the uncurated life podcast, where we are always talking about our lives and how we live them on the internet. And one thing that happens on the internet is people talking about their personality types from various personality tests. I believe this is the third episode that I have done in this series.   The previous ones I've done where any. And the, uh, DIC tests I believe. And so this will be number three and it is the, um, one of the behemoths of the personality test world. And that is the Myers-Briggs test. Now a quick disclaimer, I tend to be cynical about personality tests, but I am doing my best to be open-minded when I take.   So just know that right from the start. I also have not taken it yet. That will happen during the recording of this podcast. Now, before I get further into it, I just want to let you know that if you have not already checked it out, we are heading into the new year extravaganza over on my YouTube channel with all of the bullet journal setups and planners, lineups, and stacks and goals and all the things.   So just be sure to check it out. It's linked in the description below. Now let's, let's talk a little bit about this test is also known as the M B T I test the Myers-Briggs type indicator. It's a personality test that is based on the, um, Jungian psychological type theories, Carl Young, uh, it was developed by Isabel Myers-Briggs and her mom, Catherine Myers.   They wanted to, I guess, bring the youngian theories. Into, like a place where people could use them, like make them useful. So this is an excerpt from the Myers-Brigg dot org, like the official website, it's the, uh, their explanation about Carlos. Personality type theories. The essence of the theory is that much seemingly random variation in the behavior is actually quite orderly and consistent being due to basic differences in the ways individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment and quote.   They took this idea and his theories and everything, and turn them into an instrument that can be used. You can do your self-assessment online, which is what I'm going to do today. Or you can find people that are trained in it that they can assess you and help you figure out what your personality type is.   And there are 16 different personality types, um, based on four different. Aspects of, of personality and how you, you, you judge ship. So this is also from the Myers-Briggs website about the basics of the instrument, and they excerpt this from the MTBI manual, a guide to the development and use of the Myers-Briggs type indicator.   Favorite world. Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or on your own inner world? This is called extroversion E or introversion. I sets the first letter. This is me talking the first letter of the four letters in the personality type. Next is information. Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in, or do you prefer to interpret an ad?   Meaning this is called sensing S or intuition and decisions when making decisions do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or first look at the people in special circumstances. This is called thinking T or feeling F. And then structure in dealing with the outside world. Do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options?   This is called judging J or perceiving P your personality type. When you decide on your preferences in each category, you have your own personality type, which can be expressed as a code with four letters. And quote, and that actually lines up. A lot of people I think are inf PS or I N F J's I think in the planner world, at least I think that's what I've seen.   A whole bunch of studies have proven this is, this is important because when I said at the beginning, how cynical I am about personality tests, a lot of it feels like, like if I'm in a certain mood, I'm going to score a certain way. Right? Like, how is it actually. Well, according to the Myers-Briggs website, studies have proven this test to be both valid, meaning that it measures what it says it does, and reliable meaning that you get the same results if you're given the test more than once.   So I'm assuming that this is supposed to be one of the more like accurate personality tests, but I have no idea so far in looking at the other two tests I've done. I have had thoughts, both in terms of how it felt right. And how it didn't feel. Right. So we'll see how this one goes. If you are interested in taking the test, I'm going to link the one I am taking below.   It's the MTBI online.com test, which is the one linked from the official website. It's a $50 test. It's not cheap. I'm sure that there are. Less expensive versions, but I'm, I'm, I'm going with this one. I'm paying for it for the podcast. Thanks to my patrons who are sponsoring this episode. Uh, because I just, I feel like I want to take the one that is the most quote official.   I'm assuming. So. But you can, I'm sure Google and find other versions. So what I'm gonna do now is I'm gonna stop recording and I'm going to take the test when I'm done. I'll let you know how long it took me. And then we will talk about the results. All right. So it only took me about 15, 20 minutes to complete the assessment and I'm a speed reader and I got a phone call in the middle of it.   So. I finished. And it's taking me through a 30 minute module to learn about the personality types before it tells me what my personality type is. So I thought I would pop on and kind of bring you with me mainly because maybe this will help interpret it. So they're talking about personality type being made up of four elements, the way you direct and receive energy, the way you take in information, the way you decide and come to conclusions and the way you approach the outside world.   And they say that the, the two elements in the middle taking an information and the deciding and coming to conclusions are what make up the core of your personality, because that's what makes up all your mental activity. Right? So you, you collect information and then you have to decide what you're going to do with it.   Right. So as we move on, It's talking about basically like taking information, being the, what you are aware of, what you perceive, how you perceive it, what information you look for, what information you rely on, what information is important to you and what you tend to notice or not? No. And then coming to conclusion is how do you come to your decisions?   What process do you make? What do you rely on when you make a decision? How do you arrive at your opinions? What kind of decisions do you like to make? What consequences do you consider, how you do evaluate the opinions or decisions of others, and then the two other parts of this, the way you direct and receive energy has to do with how you get energized, how you focus your energy, what drains you and how you like to be in contact and talk to it with other people.   And how much of that. And then the other one is approaching the outside world, meaning like, how do you structure? How, how much structure do you want or need? What do you do with new information? How do you approach tasks and what information do you want before making decisions? Now they said that there's four pairs of opposites.   And we talked about this at the beginning, the outside, the energy being directed towards the outside world. Or the inner world taking an information that is real and tangible that you can perceive or seeing the big picture and patterns and interrelationships making decisions. It's either logic or personal and social values.   And then approaching the outside world is decisiveness with planning versus flexibility and spontaneity. So the terms that they're talking about, we talked about already the introversion extroversion, all of that. Now the preferences. They talk about the difference between using your preferred hand and your opposite hand.   When you use your preferred hand, it's easier. It takes less energy. It can be done faster. It feels natural, right? And your opposite hand, unless you're ambidextrous is harder, has more energy is more awkward, et cetera. So it says that you can do both, but one is easier and you prefer to do it more. Right?   So. Each of the opposites have their letters. We talked about that at the beginning, there are 16 different personality types based on the four. Like basically if you think about like a four by four square and each way is the four letters, the, um, that describe the energy, the information, the conclusions, and the outside world.   And then it said here, when you look at your type description, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Extroverted thinking is different from introverted thinking, a person who is sensing the judging preferences is someone who prefers sensing and perceiving. So the way that the elements of your personality type interact with.   Makes each of the 16 personalities different. So it's not just each letter. It's also how they interplay with each other. All right. This next section is about choosing preferences and I actually have to make some choices here, so I will stop the recording for a second, but I will reiterate what it says here on this page, which is a, this is not a test B, there are no right or wrong answers.   See, there is no way to pass her. And D everyone has a personality. So I will be back in a few once I'm done with this. All right. So I just went through and based on both what they said about each section of the personality type and they provided a shit ton of examples. I reported myself as an E N F J and the.   Answers from my questionnaire were E S F J. But the difference between the end and the S was, it said it was all the way from very likely to very, not likely, somewhat likely blah, blah, blah. And it was very soft, like very, might be likely an S. And so then, You can read this. And which do you think is more correct?   So the two types that they give the T the basic rundown is an E S F J, which is what the test gave me was warm-hearted talkative, active cooperative, and conscientious want harmony in their environment and work hard to establish it, notice what others need and try to provide it. Always trying to do something nice for someone, an E N F J was warm sociable.   and empathetic are highly attuned to the emotions needs and motivations of others seek and find the best in everyone. I want to help everyone fulfill his or her potential can act as catalysts and provide inspiring leadership and looking at those, I think E N F G. Is much more along the lines for me. I wish I was someone who would provide harmony, but I don't think I am someone who provides harmony.   So I'm going to hit continue, which means this is the one they're taking for me. And I'm amazed that cause basically the only letter that was different, everything else was like extremely likely. It was that other one that was soft. So now it says, go to your dashboard to find out select areas of interest so we can customize your experience.   Well-being personal development relationships. I'll go with personal development. One. Now that you have your result. There are a bunch of courses. There's a whole bunch of shit here. So I guess the 50 bucks does get you a lot. Um, so it's giving me a whole bunch of like mini courses that I can take because of my type.   So it says here that I am a competitor. Facilitator you are highly attuned. I mean, look at results here. Compassionate facilitator, warm, empathetic, and responsible. You tend to take notice of other people's feelings, needs and motivations. You see the potential in everyone and try to help others to grow and develop, to reach their goals.   You're loyal and sociable, and you tend to be responsive to praise or criticism from others. You're often a natural and inspirational leader. Cindy's characteristics, collaborative, expressive, friendly, and responsible work in home. Harmony is very important to you. Holy shit. Like I just finished recording a couple of other episodes.   This is going to come back to it. I did this one last because of the test, but yeah, harmony is very important to us. And then I'm seeking my guys. You'll often work hard to maintain cooperative collaborative relationships between your colleagues, friends, and family. You'll usually have a genuine interest in other people want to work towards a humanitarian vision.   Focused on helping others to achieve their goals or fulfill their potential and use your insights and curiosity to explore possibilities that support the ideas and people around you. You, my potential blind spots are that I might find it difficult to emotionally detach yourself from situations are focused on specific details.   Yes. Avoid problems or disagreements to prevent conflict. That's a big hell. Yes. And help others without giving them an opportunity to learn for their. Uh, huh. How others are likely to see you supportive nature, curiosity, empathy at your best. They see you as energetic and enthusiastic. You tend to move steadily into action.   Persuasively bringing other people along like this feels like me. This feels right. And I would suggest that I think this feels more right than the other two tests that I took. This feels very much like me, especially when it comes to the blind spots and, um, and some of the other aspects of who I am. So it says that that, uh, Some ENF Jays may have many definite sheds and should nots, which they express freely, sometimes annoying others.   Like that for me is an absolute yes. Right? And if they have not developed their feeling preference, their decisions may be inconsistent and poor, poorly formulated. And that used to be me. So that again makes, makes a lot of sense to me. It also says that. They are energized by people and are socially adept.   And all I will say with that, that's probably the one spot, but it's, I always knew this extrovert versus introvert part would be a little different because I do get energized by people until I'm not like I hit a wall and being socially adept really depends on the situation. I can be very withdrawn depending on kind of where I'm at, but I think that, that goes back to the J part, which is the.   The part of me that needs to be organized and be on a schedule and be in habits. Like I kind of flopped back and forth between like blah, blah feelings and all these things and things must be in their right place. And so I think this really expresses that well, so yeah, overall I think this is very interesting.   Um, I really want to dig into some of these. Classes and things that are on here since I've paid for them. I might do that. And if you want me to, I might report back on some of those. Let me know, just message me on Instagram or post to Instagram stories. Tag me at Lama letters. Let me know your personality type from the Myers-Briggs.   And also if you would like me to dig deeper into this and give a review on whether or not it's worth the 50 bucks. Um, but. This has been fun. I am curious to see what the next one will be. I have a list of other personality tests again, post on Instagram. Let me know if you have tests. You'd like me to check out during this cynic's guide, the personality test series.   I feel a little less cynical about this one, because this feels fairly active. Anyway, once again, thanks to my patrons for sponsoring this episode. They are rad. And if you want to be rod like them, go to www.patreon.com/cindyguentertbaldo to find out more. And until next time, my friends, I hope you have a lovely week.   Take care of yourselves until next time. Peace out.

Face it, Bitcoin is a bait and you fell for it. It's sad, but yes, you are an idiot. Own up to it. Sometimes its a freeing feeling to be self-aware of your own depleting brain cell count. Makes it easier when everything falls apart. Cause when that baby crashes, oooooooh booooy you are going to feel dumb af if you didn't sell by now. Yeah...I know I'm late with uploading this episode. smh. Classes be a struggle man. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/jabariwisdom/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/jabariwisdom/support

It's a hump day for humbugs … Here is another holiday episode to make you hurl..Welcome to part three of the stocking stuffer special … Dave drew 4 magical movies out of his stocking this year…I, Tonya.I, Tonya - in 1991, talented figure skater Tonya Harding became the first American woman to complete a triple axel during a competition. In 1994, her world comes crashing down when her ex-husband conspires to injure Nancy Kerrigan, a fellow Olympic hopeful, in a poorly conceived attack that forces the young woman to withdraw from the national championship. Harding's life and legacy instantly become tarnished as she's forever associated with one of the most infamous scandals in sports history.Makes you fall in love with America's sweetheart again - Tonya.Listen now at: https://www.bwpodcast.com/recent-episodesSubscribe for new content: https://bit.ly/SUBBWPODShop: https://bit.ly/BWPodMerchContact us: host@bwpodcast.comAdvertise on the show: https://www.sxmmedia.com/podcasts/shows/0b2dcf-bingewatchersHorror movies. Movie News. Movie Stories and More. Adventures in Binge-Watching From the Professional Binge-Watchers on this Late Night Comedy and Movie Podcast Hosted by JOHNNY SPOILER. Joined by his film-making buddies, NICKY LATES, and DANGEROUS DAVE. #BingeWorthy #PodcastShow #bingewatcherspodcast #johnnyspoiler #dangerousdave #nickylates #jordansavage #stockingstuffermovies #stockingstuffersformen #stockingstuffers

This THROWBACK episode features our good friend, Remso Martinez, discussing his phenomenal book, "How to Succeed in Politics [and Other Forms of Devil Worship]". This book will make a great gift to any politico in your life! ORIGINAL SHOW NOTES: Two men separated by time embark on parallel paths to succeed in the blood sport that is professional politics. In the aftermath of the 2016 election, a young political operative named Art Brown finds himself about to sit at the right hand of power in Washington D.C only to end up falling out of the insider-circles he spent years trying to find acceptance in. The other man would start his political path as one of the most progressive statesmen in the south, only to evolve into the villain of the civil rights movement- George C. Wallace. Filled with political intrigue and suspense that spans among generations, along with that classic gonzo humor Remso W. Martinez has become known for, “How to Succeed in Politics (and Other Forms of Devil Worship)” is a dark comedy that will force you to ask whether success at all costs is worth losing your humanity in the process. Today's episode features all that and more, as we are once again joined by Remso to discuss his newest book, "How to Succeed in Politics (and Other Forms of Devil Worship)"! Purchase an autographed "How to Succeed in Politics (and Other Forms of Devil Worship" using this exclusive link to Brian Nichols Show listeners (Makes a great stocking stuffer/gift!): https://rwmartinez.com/brian-nichols-listener-special/ Remso's Past Appearances on The Brian Nichols Show- 20: Stay Away From The Libertarians! with Remso Martinez: https://briannichols.fireside.fm/25 37: Censorship Online Can Happen to You with Remso Martinez: https://briannichols.fireside.fm/social-media-censorship-of-libertarians-and-conservatives BONUS- The Weekly Standard is Dead So Who is Next on The Remso Martinez Experience: https://briannichols.fireside.fm/the-weekly-standard-is-dead-so-who-is-next-on-the-remso-martinez-experience Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 154I've never seen the American people more angry than they are today. However, I've also never seen them any more hopeful than they are today. What does this mixture of anger and hope mean exactly? This week we're going to discuss exactly what that means for America and the Church in America. ResourcesIn an effort to provide you with the best, most helpful experience we can, any resource mentioned in The Cantankerous Catholic podcast will always be listed in this section. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases on links that are for purchases made from Amazon. This costs you nothing, but Amazon pays me a small commission on purchases made through those links. This helps to support this apostolate. https://wwb.gr8.com/ (Sixpack System Bulletin Inserts) https://conventionofstates.com/ (Convention of States) https://amzn.to/3oPkQoE (The Liberty Amendments) by Mark Levin Simon Rafe's https://www.churchmilitant.shop/?product=7 (Case Files) on DVD. Makes a great Christmas gift! The Wanderer Catholic Newspaper. Get one month for one dollar by texting the word “news” to 830-331-5729. https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=85YEDSUJHVN42&source=url (Help Keep the Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy Apostolate Alive) FOR CHECKS: make checks payable to Cassock Media, P.O. Box 41, Villa Ridge, Missouri 63089 https://app.getresponse.com/site2/joe_sixpack_answers/?u=BhGUM&webforms_id=YZQe (I Want To Learn More About The Catholic Church!) https://mariancatechist.com/product/basic-catholic-catechism-course/ (Marian Catechist Apostolate Basic Course) https://www.avoicelikebutter.com/ (Rick Stender)—Official Voice of The Cantankerous Catholic Subscribe Make sure you never miss an episode of The Cantankerous Catholic by subscribing through one of these links, or wherever else you get your podcasts.https://thecantankerouscatholic.captivate.fm/listen (Subscribe to The Cantankerous Catholic here) Catholic News Notes#5 https://www.foxnews.com/us/tornadoes-fema-life-saving-sustaining-mode (Tornado devastation: FEMA in 'life-saving, sustaining' mode combing for survivors) #4 https://www.ncregister.com/cna/kentucky-bishop-asks-for-prayers-financial-support-following-fatal-tornadoes (Kentucky Bishop Asks for Prayers, Financial Support Following Fatal Tornadoes) #3 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/colorado-governor-covid-19-emergency-over-fault-unvaccinated-sick (Dem governor declares COVID-19 emergency ‘over,' says it's ‘their own darn fault' if unvaccinated get sick) #2 https://www.foxnews.com/us/gavin-newsom-gun-ban-jon-turley-wont-work-media-hype (Don't buy media hype on Newsom's gun ban, it won't work: Constitutional scholar) #1 https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/fairness-justice/senate-republicans-seek-to-slow-bidens-speedy-judicial-confirmation-clip (Senate Republicans seek to slow Biden's speedy judicial confirmation clip) Catholic BootcampThis week Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy's Catholic Bootcamp is titled The Ways of Rome. Catholic QuotesThis week's quote is from St. Augustine. Catholic StoriesThis episode features a story about a foolish English nobleman. Joe Sixpack's Stuffhttps://www.joesixpackanswers.com/ (JoeSixpackAnswers.com) https://cantankerouscatholic.com/product/secrets-of-the-catholic-faith/ (Secrets of the Catholic Faith) by Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy https://cantankerouscatholic.com/product/the-lay-evangelists-handbook-how-any-catholic-can-evangelize-anyone/ (The Lay Evangelist's Handbook) by Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy https://cantankerouscatholic.com/product/the-best-of-what-we-believe-why-we-believe-it-volume-one/ (The Best of What We Believe... Why We Believe It—Volume One) by Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy https://cantankerouscatholic.com/product/the-best-of-what-we-believe-why-we-believe-it-volume-two/ (The Best of What We Believe... Why We Believe It—Volume Two) by Joe... Support this podcast

Xmas is like buses, wait for one for ages then find they are all cancelled by Boris while he has secret Christmas parties in Number 10. Makes a new definition of ‘Secret Santa', playing (Tory Truth) Twister and pass the…

Makes someone's day, by Simply doing your job with a smile. There is never a traffic jam when you go the extra mile.

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Jackie Hermes is the CEO of Accelity, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based agency that helps software-as-a-service (SaaS) startups get to revenue and grow faster, and a co-founder of Women's Entrepreneurship Week. Highlights: - How to choose your path. - Must have processes to build your business. - The genesis of creativity. - The two books that impacted her significantly. Make sure to check Jackie out on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejackiehermes/ Makes sure to check out her podcast: https://www.jackiehermes.com/podcast Until next time. Be in your blessings

On today's Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick answers questions from listeners about the state of the San Francisco Giants. Among the questions asked and answered are: Should the Giants be in on Carlos Correa? He is one of the only players that has all the traits that the Giants like since Bryce Harper (plate discipline, strikeout rate, defense, and power). He is willing to play 3rd base, and Evan Longoria's one year should not affect his free agent fit. Why not Correa? He's still young. He's an impact bat that we need to replace Buster Posey. He's a premium defender that has said he's open to playing 3rd in the right situation. And, he'd be a great mentor for the young phenom, Marco Luciano. Makes sense to me What is the likelihood they bring back Kris Bryant? o this was the off-season we've all been waiting for from a spending standpoint. Obviously there's a different direction. Where do you see Giants' payroll compared to the league during this new era. Do you ever see the Giants making a big 10-year, $300M+ deal, and if so which player would that be in the future? With so much payroll flexibility in the coming years and a rising farm system, when do you think we sign a cornerstone player in free agency? Which upcoming free agents stand out to you? Follow & Subscribe to the Locked On Giants Podcast on these platforms

One RTD driver recently described Union Station as a “hellhole,” and concerns with safety, drug use, littering, and public urination are mounting. The city's response? More policing. Today on the show, Producer Xandra McMahon chats with host Bree Davies and producer Paul Karolyi about other possible solutions to social issues that don't involve more versions of law enforcement. Plus, the crew tackles a horrific editorial the Denver Gazette ran this week that targeted our unhoused neighbors. Oh, and we're joined by a special guest whose voice you'll be hearing more often on the show! A note: On the show today, we read part of a response from Benjamin Dunning from Denver Homeless Out Loud, regarding the Denver Gazette's editorial. Here's the full version of the statement he sent to us:  “Peoples ignorance when it comes to homelessness is amazing as evidenced by the editorial 'Denver's drifters glamp on taxpayers' tab.' from the Denver Gazette. The article has no declared author. We take this as evidence of them being unable to accept responsibility or accountability. The shaming sentiment they put on our homeless communities with their coined word is disrespectful.  Their stupidity and lack of insight is evidenced by statements like “It's bad for the unfortunate soul who chooses that life as well as for the neighbor who has to put up with it.” No one, and I mean no one chooses to be homeless. To sit behind a locked door and call the police on folks stuck in homelessland, over and over and over only makes things worse. 70% of calls to the STAR program are for unwanted persons and not for emergencies. Apparently there is a person who alone has called emergency services 500 times. It is sicking the disrespect we show our homeless communities. And this anonymous author is no different. The SOS camps do a great job offering help with dignity and respect. So when folks are offered some help with dignity, are we to shame them as grifters? Makes you wonder what kind of grift this author is manufacturing. Here is a bit of what enduring homelessland actually looks like. Glamping my A**- Being chased from street to street by city officials week after week, month after month. No rest, never sleeping with both eyes closed. Asking for housing and being told there is none. Asking where you could go and being told an “overcrowded emergency shelter during a pandemic”. Not a safe place at all. How about housing? Efforts to address homelessness should emphasize housing. Housing ends homelessness. Shelters do not work, they never have. Is the anonymous author willing to accept housing vouchers at their properties? Trust me the anonymous author owns property. (remember the grift they were on we mentioned earlier) Many folks on the streets have housing vouchers that private landlords refuse to accept. Making a problem even worse. People who have housing being denied the right to access the housing they have been granted. Only then to be shamed by Karen's excessively calling the police on them. But then that is what stupid people do. Make their problems worse and then blame it on someone else.” And here's the Denver Gazette's “Denver Drifters Glamp on Taxpayer's Tab”   Find Peyton Garcia's best of local gift guides in today's newsletter: https://denver.citycast.fm/newsletter/    Tell us what you thought of the Denver Gazette piece on Twitter: @CityCastDenver Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week... Kim is off Saving Christmas with her nose so bright, So it;s just Arthur & Ken with fan favorite... Odin Abbott from Odim Makes. We talk everything going on in the world of nerds, geeks and gamers, along with big Marvel news, Spain making big moves, and we ask what are you willing to do to save the enviroment. We of course talk to Odin about what he has been up to since his last visit, what the future holds, and his venturing into Gaming Streams. I hope you enjoy

Jeanie Buss says she isn't in a rush to evaluate Frank Vogel given the number of the injuries the Lakers are dealing with. Makes sense. Plus, Anthony think Malik Monk should be starting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Creg was everyone's friend. He was funny, smart and very talented. He loved to perform on stage and absolutely loved to sing. On January 21, 2021, Creg would disappear from his Waterford, Michigan home, never to be seen or heard from again. He was just 33-years old. Where is Creg Lyles? Thank you for watching & supporting our mission. You can find the 'Where are they?' Podcast on all major podcast platforms. Every missing person cold case deserves our attention. THANK YOU to this week's sponsor: Hunt-A-Killer. A murder mystery subscription box lets YOU be the detective. Use our code WHEREARETHEY to receive a discount. (Makes a great gift too!) ------> https://www.jdoqocy.com/click-100296108-14016703 Follow us on: Facebook: www.facebook.com/wherearetheypodcast Instagram: @thewherearetheypodcast Email me: Canwefindthem@gmail.com Join our online detective group at Patreon: www.patreon.com/wherearetheypodcast Grab some Podcast Merch (proceeds benefit charities and GoFundMe's set up by families): https://the-where-are-they-podcast.creator-spring.com/

Thanks to Brandon for joining the show, and TJ for coming back on. Makes sure to follow both of them for upcoming shows and sketches.You can find TJ on Instagram @teejfrancis and Brandon @barbra_88. Brandon also hosts Pure Fruit Comedy with former guest, Adam Christopher. So click on the link for tickets and more info.As always, find Michael Good on Instagram @michael_good1125 and on Twitter @agoodmichaelThis podcast was produced by Paxton Fleming, you can find him on Instagram @yaboypax 

Podcast #471 Comparison is Killing Your Confidence and Happiness Comparison is a default thought pattern that is killing your confidence and happiness, however, you can learn how to neutralize its negative impact on your life. This podcast episode gives 21 comparison detox strategies, along with 12 happiness hygiene habits to help you be victorious in your mental management of comparison in your life. Comparison is rooted is fear, and you can uproot both from your life, starting with this coaching. Get the full show notes at www.trishblackwell.com/471 The sneaky way that fear shows up in comparison and what the fear underneath the comparison is doing to your confidence and your futureHappiness hygiene habits and how they help you detox toxic comparison from your default thinking patternsUnmanaged comparison versus managed comparison and what to do about it other than saying "I know I shouldn't be comparing myself, but …" Taking ownership of your relationship with comparison and your relationship with the level of happiness you have in your life.   REVIEW OF THE WEEK:   Just what I needed, 5 Stars, Christina Slater From the first episode I listened to I was completely drawn in. I felt like I was being heard and that this is where I was going to get that extra help, that boost that I needed. I'd highly recommend this podcast.   PATREON UPDATE Announcing new options for supporting this amazing show. Hop over to my Patreon page for all of the options, including a new $7 /month support option that delivers Weekly Journaling Prompts. Additionally, you can become part of my VIP Squad, which includes all of our normal patron goodies, AND a shout out on the air, as well as the right to personally request the topic for an upcoming podcast. This week we're shouting out to Ryan Painter for being our first to snag one of the VIP Squad spots! Thank you for your support, Ryan! Go to www.trishblackwell.com/patreon to get started   LET'S COACH ON COMPARSION   Can we get real? Comparison is fear-based. Fear that we aren't enough. Fear that we don't belong. Fear that we aren't doing enough. Fear that we don't measure up. And the last time I checked, fear is not of God. I love this because it frees me. I can give my brain permission to feel the fear and then let it pass through, because it doesn't belong in me or on me. It's human to have, and the enemy of my soul uses fear to try to persuade me out of the light and joy into sadness and depression - but God always wins; since I know that, that means I have the victory (and the permission) already to live by faith, not fear. So, pause this for a minute. Think about the comparison in your life. And then fill in this sentence: …When I feel "not enough" in this area _________ I am actually just afraid that _______________. For me, it's been: When I feel not popular enough, I am afraid awkward and that I don't belong.When I feel not fit enough , I am afraid that my body will keep me from being loved.When I feel not pretty enough, I am afraid that people won't like me or see me.When I feel not successful enough, I am afraid that I am wasting my potential. Notice how you will recognize the "feeling not enough" … and when we pull back from our feelings to our thoughts, it's our thoughts that are FEAR BASED THOUGHTS that are creating the NOT ENOUGH FEELING … and those thoughts and feelings are both driven from the ACTION of COMPARISON.   UNMANAGED COMPARISON JUST ISN'T HELPFUL Learn to let go of unhelpful thinking. Unmanaged Comparison > unaware, focused on others instead of yourself, default, comparing up / comparing down, fear-based motivationManaged Comparison > intentional, internally focused in a healthy way, data-driven or focused with purpose outside of oneself Comparing. Looking around. Makes your journey longer and you less effective. Stay in your own lane.

(Actor) Ethan Suplee joins Al, on this week's "Interviews for the Mind". SPONSOR: KICKSTRAP attachable shoe bag The only shoe bag that attaches to any backpack or golf bag. Makes traveling with shoes easy, hands free, and separates dirt and odor away from your personal belongings inside your bag. website: https://www.kickstrap.co youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy-OhEZ93v0 amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Kickstrap-Storage-Solution-Backpack-Sports/dp/B08C25TFZQ a lughole podcast.

Every month, Christy and Michelle spend time reading through hundreds of emails and listening to voicemails from podcast listeners. You Ask, We Answer Episodes are a listeners treat as they spend some time answering your questions. Question 1: My fiancé and I are having trouble figuring out how to find a good DJ. Music is one of our top priorities for our wedding. We have yet to hear a DJ that we've loved. In fact, most have made us cringe. How do we go about finding a DJ that we like? With other vendors, we're able to see a few full albums of photos, see their floral arrangements, have a tasting of food, but with a DJ you can't watch videos of full sets. We've been part of wedding parties where the couple is sooo excited for their DJ and when the wedding happens cringe songs like “sexy and I know it” are played, it's all the same music we heard at the last wedding we attended (we've had enough of “single ladies”), or the DJ/MC are obnoxious. We've had discussions about whether we even need a DJ because we know the music we want and we have not liked all the ones we've seen, but ultimately, we don't want either of us to be responsible for coordinating the music/dances, troubleshooting issues that may come up with a sound system, etc. on our wedding day. Any advice you can give us would be really appreciated! Answer 1: Music is such a personal thing. Sometimes, the music you consider cringe is exactly what will get your aunt up and dancing and creating magical moments. That said, finding the right music is definitely one of the hardest parts of the planning process. A club DJ is not the same as a wedding DJ. Remember, there are parts of a wedding that are standard for a wedding. It is very different. It might be important to open your mind a little bit to different kinds of music. Not everyone likes the same kind of music. Check out The Flash Dance DJs - they travel. Michelle has had so many positive experiences with them, and see entire rooms up on their feet dancing. They know what they're doing! If your idea is curating a playlist and having it play song by song, then don't hire a DJ, maybe hired a sound tech and an MC. There is an episode about how to DJ your own wedding (#46). Question 2: My daughter will be 15 when my fiancé and I walk down the aisle. She is currently expressing interest in wanting to be my Maid of Honor and not just a bridesmaid. It would mean the world to me to have her in that position but I am afraid she would be biting off more than she can chew. I have told her some of the tasks associated with being a MOH but I am sure I have not thought of some. What are the typical (and not typical) MOH duties for a wedding? I was already planning on paying for a chunk of the bachelorette party, but wasn't planning on paying for the bridal shower. I was thinking of maybe asking the other two women who I want to be bridesmaids to help my daughter in her tasks, but I'm not sure that would be fair to any of them. Thoughts? Answer 2: We love the idea and think you should make it work! People come and go in life, but your daughter will always be your daughter. As far as tasks and obligations go, the role is not written in stone. Things have morphed and changed so much. A lot of time the maid of honor is just a title or toast, and the whole wedding party takes on the jobs. It doesn't have to strictly be up the MOH to do all the typical tasks. You can figure out, with her, what she can do and what the bridesmaids can do. Maybe you could have two MOHs! Co-Maid of Honors. If you have an adult who was already planning on taking on financial tasks, and planning, have her be the MOH with your daughter. Maybe even Senior MOH and Junior MOH. Question 3: My partner and I are planning a wedding for October 2022. I originally wanted to elope to avoid a bigger wedding as I find large groups to be overwhelming. He is very extroverted, comes from a large family that is very close and also has several friends that he feels must be there. I have very few people that I wanted to invite, only immediate family and a few close friends. After much discussion we settled on a list of 100 people. As we get closer I am feeling intensely overwhelmed at the thought of saying vows in front of so many people—many of whom I am not close to. As a compromise, we are considering turning our welcome dinner on Friday into a wedding ceremony with family and wedding party only, about 50 guests, and then having our larger reception the next day with 110-120 people. Is this something you have seen done before? My main concern is that people only invited to the reception will feel slighted or be less likely to come as they are not invited to the ceremony. Do you think it would be appropriate to do it this way? I am trying my best to make this situation feel comfortable for myself so I can enjoy marrying my partner while still making sure he feels celebrated in a way that is meaningful to him. Hoping I don't upset too many people in the process! Answer 3: This is completely okay! In fact, many people chose to do this. Not just because of the social anxiety. Sometimes it's an even smaller group of people, as well. You are going to be giving people a party! There is no reason to torture yourself! Enjoy your day in a way that feels so good for you both. We have also worked with couples that have exchanged vows with only the officiant, the photographer, and themselves. And then they have the big party afterwards. Take a look at what part of the vows is making your nervous. Is it the saying your own written words aloud? Because you could still have a ceremony that is a quick, no personal speech part. There are things that happen at a wedding reception that make it more than just a party. Speeches, first dances, etc. Question 4: Is anyone having trouble with hair and makeup? I have seven girls I need to get ready the morning of. I was planning on having stylists come on- site so we don't have to worry about driving back and forth, but every stylist I've consulted doesn't get back with me. One of my bridesmaids is suggesting we all go to a salon the morning of. Is it better to leave the ceremony preparation area to drive a half hour there and a half hour back to a salon as opposed to having stylists come to us? I was just in a wedding where we had to go to a salon to get ready, and we nearly missed the ceremony start time. Makes me so nervous. Answer 4: You want the stylist to come to you. Especially with seven people. Although, if you are going to a salon, and you can all get done at the same time, that would be helpful! But that is rare. You have to put a huge chunk of time into hair and makeup on the wedding day. Typically, it takes at least 30 minutes for non-brides and that doesn't include the chatting, and setting up. Same with make-up. So each woman needs an hour. And the Bride needs 90 minutes to 2 hours. A half hour drive is not horrible, but it's not great. If your ceremony starts at like 4, it could work. But if its's starting at 1 or so, that is going to be so stressful. Either choice, create a schedule. In terms of them not calling you back, it is an absolutely crazy time for weddings. They are probably booked if you aren't hearing anything. Stylists are one of the professions that are very word of mouth heavy. You may have to widen your search. Start with someone that is amazing for yourself, you are the most important one. You get the pro, and if you have to put an ad on craigslist or ask a friend to do the bridesmaids' makeup and hair. Links We Referenced The Big Wedding Planning Master Class (https://www.thebigweddingplanningmasterclass.com) Use Discount Code: THANKS2021 for $150 off at Checkout. theflashdance.com (https://www.theflashdance.com) myneonstore.com (https://myneonstore.com) (35% off with code BIGWEDDING - expires 12/1/2021) zola.com/bigwedding (https://welcome.zola.com/allproducts_alldevices_50/?pkey=bigweddingpod&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio&utm_campaign=bigwedding&)(50% of Save the Dates - SAVE50) manlybands.com/bigwedding (https://manlybands.com/?utm_content=bigwedding&utm_source=veritone&utm_medium=podcast&utm_term=january&utm_campaign=podcast) (Use promo code BIGWEDDING for 25% off through cyber Monday!) We're able to produce this podcast because of YOUR support. If you want to become a Patron (https://www.patreon.com/thebigweddingplanningpodcast), and get exclusive access to our monthly newsletter, bonus episodes, and more, check out our Patreon Page (https://www.patreon.com/thebigweddingplanningpodcast)! A giant thank you to all of our Patrons, who help keep this podcast running! Plan your wedding using The Big Wedding Planning Master Class (https://www.thebigweddingplanningmasterclass.com/). A self-paced digital course created with love for you by Christy & Michelle. The Big Wedding Planning Podcast is... * Hosted and produced by Christy Matthews and Michelle Martinez. * Edited by Veronica Gruba. * Music by Steph Altman of Mophonics (https://www.mophonics.com/). * On Instagram @thebigweddingplanningpodcast and be sure to use #planthatwedding when posting, so you can get our attention! * Inviting you to become part of our Facebook Group! Join us and our amazing members. Just search for The Big Wedding Planning Podcast Community on Facebook. * Easy to get in touch with. Email us at thebigweddingplanningpodcast@gmail.com or Call and leave a message at 415-723-1625 and you might hear your voice on an episode * On Patreon. Become a member (https://www.patreon.com/thebigweddingplanningpodcast) and with as little as $5 per month, you get bonus episodes, special newsletters and Zoom Cocktail Hours with Christy & Michelle! Our Partners (https://www.thebigweddingplanningpodcast.com/partners) Special Deals for Listeners - TBWPP Enthusiastically Approved! Wedfuly (https://wedfuly.com/bigwedding/) SuitShop (https://suitshop.com/?utm_campaign=EngagedLeads&utm_content=BWPPPartnership&utm_medium=BWPP&utm_source=ReferralLink) The Flashdance (https://www.theflashdance.com/virtual-party-the-big-wedding-planning-podcast) Cactus Collective (https://www.cactus-collective.com/the-big-wedding-planning-podcast/) Unboring Wedding Academy (https://www.unboringweddingacademy.com/bigwedding/)

It's the Part 1 of the podcast about the 5th Dateline episode on the case featuring 4 murders, 2 Melanies, 2 demonic entities, 2 intrepid local reporters, 1 suspicious death, 1 attempted murder, 1 Mr. Keith Morrison, and 1 Hawaii skirt that is forever burned into Kimberly's brain. That's right. It's the Lori Vallow/Chad Daybell crime spree! We knew Season 30 of Dateline has already brought a slew of heart pounding cases, but who knew there was so much more to learn about this never ending tragedy. There is so much jaw dropping, brand new information that K & K are splitting it into 2 episodes to cover it all in detail. So be sure to clean out your closet portal and gather up your zombie hunting gear because it's all coming to a head. But first, don't forget to grab some Burger King sustenance and swing by CVS for some ointment to treat that pesky case of loin fire. You have a lot to do! Prepare the People (and yourself) for THE DOOMSDAY FILES Part 1! Official Description from NBCU: New details emerge in the case of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell, the Idaho couple charged in the murders of Lori's children JJ and Tylee; exclusive interviews, never-before-heard audio and new evidence shine a light on the couple's true motivations. Keith Morrison reports. Support ADWD and get some great deals from our amazing sponsors! Find out for yourself why GLAMNETIC lashes are Instagram's favorite beauty hack and a must have for any holiday gathering.  Go to glamnetic.com/DATEDATELINE and enter our promo code DATEDATELINE for 30% off your order. Start playing Best Fiends and send Kimberly your player codes so we can be fiend friends! Download Best Fiends FREE today on the App Store or Google Play, that's friends without the r, best fiends! Fill up the part of your closet that isn't holding a portal with Bombas! They have  socks, underwear, and t-shirts, and they donate one for every item you buy!  Go to bombas.com/datedateline to get 20% off your first purchase! Makes an amazing gift! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices