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Investor Fuel Real Estate Investing Mastermind - Audio Version
In this episode, Brian Mulvaney, owner of the Patch Boys in North and South Carolina, shares insights on scaling a drywall business, building strategic partnerships, and expanding into new home services. Discover how he maintains high margins, leverages technology, and plans for long-term growth. Professional Real Estate Investors - How we can help you: Investor Fuel Mastermind: Learn more about the Investor Fuel Mastermind, including 100% deal financing, massive discounts from vendors and sponsors you're already using, our world class community of over 150 members, and SO much more here: http://www.investorfuel.com/apply Investor Machine Marketing Partnership: Are you looking for consistent, high quality lead generation? Investor Machine is America's #1 lead generation service professional investors. Investor Machine provides true 'white glove' support to help you build the perfect marketing plan, then we'll execute it for you…talking and working together on an ongoing basis to help you hit YOUR goals! Learn more here: http://www.investormachine.com Coaching with Mike Hambright: Interested in 1 on 1 coaching with Mike Hambright? Mike coaches entrepreneurs looking to level up, build coaching or service based businesses (Mike runs multiple 7 and 8 figure a year businesses), building a coaching program and more. Learn more here: https://investorfuel.com/coachingwithmike Attend a Vacation/Mastermind Retreat with Mike Hambright: Interested in joining a "mini-mastermind" with Mike and his private clients on an upcoming "Retreat", either at locations like Cabo San Lucas, Napa, Park City ski trip, Yellowstone, or even at Mike's East Texas "Big H Ranch"? Learn more here: http://www.investorfuel.com/retreat Property Insurance: Join the largest and most investor friendly property insurance provider in 2 minutes. Free to join, and insure all your flips and rentals within minutes! There is NO easier insurance provider on the planet (turn insurance on or off in 1 minute without talking to anyone!), and there's no 15-30% agent mark up through this platform! Register here: https://myinvestorinsurance.com/ New Real Estate Investors - How we can work together: Investor Fuel Club (Coaching and Deal Partner Community): Looking to kickstart your real estate investing career? Join our one of a kind Coaching Community, Investor Fuel Club, where you'll get trained by some of the best real estate investors in America, and partner with them on deals! You don't need $ for deals…we'll partner with you and hold your hand along the way! Learn More here: http://www.investorfuel.com/club —--------------------
In this episode, we dive into the challenge of getting truly accurate e-commerce financials. Parag Mamnani, CEO and founder of WebGility, shares how combining automation with expert human accountants helps brands uncover hidden fees, track unit economics, and build accurate books. He reveals why pure AI automation falls short in accounting, how SKU-level financial data unlocks hidden profits, and how real-time books drive better operational decisions for multi-channel sellers.Topics discussed in this episode: Why standard monthly reconciliations often miss vital details.What multi-channel sales complexity does to accounting accuracy.Why relying only on top-line platform revenue deceives brands.How SKU-level cost data unlocks real margin growth.Why pure AI automation fails at complex accounting tasks.How human-in-the-loop approaches ensure full financial accuracy.What real-time cash flow analysis changes for brand scaling.How proper fee categorization protects product profit margins.What diagnostic financial reviews reveal about hidden costs.Links & ResourcesWebsite: https://www.webgility.com/Shopify App Store: https://apps.shopify.com/partners/webgility-incLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paragmamnani/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/webgilityinc/Get access to more free resources by visiting the show notes at https://tinyurl.com/v8b3bs2bI'd love your feedback. Tap the the link to send me a text. ______________________________________________________LOVE THE SHOW? HERE ARE THE NEXT STEPS!Follow the podcast to get every bonus episode. Tap follow now and don't miss out! Rate & Review: Help others discover the show by rating the show on Apple Podcasts at https://tinyurl.com/ecb-apple-podcasts Join our Free Newsletter: https://newsletter.ecommercecoffeebreak.com/ Support The Show On Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/EcommerceCoffeeBreak Partner with us: https://ecommercecoffeebreak.com/partner-with-us/
Allen covers Dominion’s $800M tariff hit, Eversource’s 84% profit drop, Nordex’s record quarter, and a looming floating wind vessel shortage. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Good Monday, everyone. Let us start this week with a number. Eight hundred million dollars. That is what tariffs on steel and aluminum added to Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. Dominion President Bob Blue shared the damage on a second-quarter earnings call. Two hundred and thirty million dollars … just in the latest quarter alone. That is on top of the five hundred and eighty million from the quarter before. The project is eighty-one percent complete. Thirty-one turbines are already spinning … producing more than four hundred and fifty megawatts. But the finish line just moved. Completion is now expected by the end of twenty twenty-seven. Weather delays. Vessel maintenance. And some particularly complicated turbines to install. Blue says the project will still save customers money. And Dominion expects to pocket more than five hundred million dollars in savings from grid upgrade cost shifts. The total price tag … eleven-point-six billion dollars. Now … if Dominion is feeling the squeeze in Virginia … Eversource up in New England is feeling something worse. The utility’s second-quarter profit dropped eighty-four percent. Net income fell to just fifty-three-point-seven million dollars. Why? A one-hundred-and-sixty-four-million-dollar charge tied to the offshore wind projects they already sold. South Fork Wind. Revolution Wind. Eversource got out of offshore wind back in twenty twenty-four … but the bills keep coming. Higher-than-expected payments to Global Infrastructure Partners are dragging down the bottom line. So one company builds through the pain. Another walks away … and still pays for it. But here is some good news. Over in Hamburg, Germany … Nordex just posted a quarter that would make any CEO smile. Sales up sixteen percent. EBITDA … more than doubled … to two hundred and twenty-four million euros. Margins hit ten-point-three percent. Net income … one hundred and eleven million euros. Up from thirty-one million a year ago. And orders? Up thirty-two percent. Three-point-one gigawatts of new turbine orders in just one quarter. Their total order book now stands at eighteen-point-four billion euros. Nordex CEO José Luis Blanco confirmed the full-year guidance. The onshore wind giant is not just surviving. It is thriving. Now … let us go to sea. Classification society ABS says floating offshore wind is about to create a brand-new problem. Not enough ships. A new report says demand for large anchor-handling vessels and multipurpose support vessels will surge as floating wind projects go from small demonstrations to full commercial scale. Here is the number that tells the story. A single one-gigawatt floating wind farm needs about one hundred and ninety-eight anchors … and nearly two hundred kilometers of mooring lines. That is far more than a single deepwater oil and gas platform. ABS says shortages in certain vessel classes could hit as early as twenty twenty-nine. Global floating wind capacity is expected to grow from about two hundred and seventy megawatts today … to fourteen gigawatts by twenty forty. The race for ships … has begun. And speaking of ships … Japan just finished building one. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines held a naming ceremony in Nagasaki for the Wind Whale. Japan’s first coastal deck carrier built specifically for offshore wind. One hundred and forty-nine meters long. A flush deck designed so that monopiles, towers, blades and nacelles can roll right on from the stern. It even has dynamic positioning … so it can transfer cargo directly to installation vessels at sea. Built in China by Taizhou Sanfu Ship Engineering … the Wind Whale will carry foundations from a factory in Okayama to construction sites around Japan. A country that once built ships for oil … now builds them for wind. And finally … back home in Iowa. The state Supreme Court ruled that the CEO of Global Fiberglass Solutions can be held personally liable for dumping thirteen hundred used wind turbine blades across the state. CEO Donald Lilly and another executive argued they were never in Iowa. The court disagreed. Lilly signed the contracts. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird put it plainly. They were hired to recycle used wind turbine blades. Instead … they dumped them. Four hundred blades piled up along Interstate 35 near Ellsworth alone. The lesson? You can build an industry on clean energy. But you still have to clean up after yourself. So what does all of this mean … if you work in wind? It means the money is real now. Projects are not getting canceled. They are getting more expensive. And that changes the math for every engineer, every project manager, every supply chain director reading a bid today. Tariffs come and go. But an eleven-billion-dollar project does not stop on a dime. It means the vessels you need may not be there when you need them. If you are planning a floating wind project for the early twenty thirties … your vessel strategy should already be on paper. It means manufacturers who kept their discipline … who held their margins and grew their order books … are the ones writing the next chapter. And it means accountability is coming to every corner of this business. You cannot just build turbines. You have to manage the turbines. This industry asked the world to trust it with the future of energy. That trust comes with responsibility. And that is the state of the wind industry for August 3rd, 2026.
How should a small electrical contractor charge for service work: flat-rate pricing or time and material?In this episode, Paul Abernathy breaks down the differences between these two common pricing methods and explains how each can affect profitability, customer relationships, cash flow, and business growth.Flat-rate pricing gives the customer an agreed price before the work begins and rewards the contractor for experience and efficiency. However, it also places more risk on the contractor if the job takes longer than expected or the original scope is poorly defined.Time-and-material pricing allows the contractor to charge for the actual labor and materials required to complete the work.This can be especially valuable when troubleshooting electrical problems or working with unknown existing conditions. However, customers may become uncomfortable when they do not know the final cost, and highly experienced electricians may earn less simply because they complete the work faster.This episode explains where each pricing method works best and why many small electrical contractors may benefit from using a combination of both.Topics covered include:The fundamental difference between flat-rate and time-and-material pricing.Which party accepts the risk under each pricing method.Why time and material works well for troubleshooting and unknown conditions.How flat-rate pricing rewards training, experience, and efficiency.The dangers of underestimating flat-rate work.Why an hourly billing rate must cover more than an electrician's wages.Material markup versus gross-profit margin.Diagnostic fees and service-call charges.Time and material with a not-to-exceed authorization.Fixed pricing for predictable electrical work.Written scopes, exclusions, and change orders.The importance of tracking labor, materials, callbacks, and warranty costs.Why job costing is essential under either pricing method.How to explain pricing professionally to customers.When a contractor should consider declining a job.Paul also explains why copying another contractor's hourly rate or flat-rate price book can be dangerous. Every electrical contracting business has different labor costs, overhead, insurance expenses, productivity levels, service areas, risks, and financial goals.The customer is not merely paying for the time an electrician spends performing a task. The customer is paying for training, licensing, experience, tools, insurance, availability, testing, warranty responsibility, and a safe professional result.Whether you are preparing to start an electrical contracting business or trying to improve the profitability of an existing company, this episode will help you make better pricing decisions and understand the true value of the professional electrical services you provide.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/master-the-nec-podcast--1083733/support.Struggling with the National Electrical Code? Discover the real difference at Electrical Code Academy, Inc.—where you'll learn from the nation's most down-to-earth NEC expert who genuinely cares about your success. No fluff. No gimmicks. Just the best NEC training you'll actually remember.Visit https://FastTraxSystem.com to learn more.
Originally broadcast live.E-commerce fulfillment is hyper-competitive. Brands are demanding faster SLA turnarounds, custom unboxing experiences, and complete real-time visibility—all while warehouse operational costs rise and margins get squeezed tighter every year.Whether you're a 3PL looking to break into e-commerce fulfillment or an established operator aiming to scale without operational chaos, we're putting this livestream on to serve as your actionable playbook.Join Kevin as he sits down with three industry powerhouses to break down the full lifecycle of a profitable e-commerce 3PL.What We'll Cover:1. How to position your 3PL to attract high-value DTC brands without entering a price war.2. Vetting your Ideal Client Profile (ICP) and setting rock-solid SLAs before signing the contract.3. Transitioning from B2B/bulk moves to unit-level pick-and-pack workflows.4. Designing lean floor processes that handle 5x seasonal volume spikes without throwing extra labor at broken processes.5. Spotting silent margin leakage: uncaptured custom labor, manual billing errors, and unmonitored SLA penalties.6. Leveraging data and SKU-level profitability models to ensure every account remains profitable.Learn more about Pallite here.Learn more about Big Joe's AP44 here. Follow us on LinkedIn and YouTube.Support the show
Welcome to this week’s edition of RealAg on the Weekend with your host Shaun Haney! Today on the show, Haney is joined by brothers Brady and Bailey Berntson based out of Medicine Lake, Montana to talk no-till, seeder setup and crop conditions, as well as Greg Stamp of Stamp Seeds for a discussion about KWS... Read More
Cattle prices are strong but rising input costs and inflation are squeezing producer margins, while a federal judge has certified a class-action alleging major packers manipulated markets (2015–2020) by slowing slaughter and coordinating purchases to depress prices.
Shopify Masters | The ecommerce business and marketing podcast for ambitious entrepreneurs
When Lauren Levy struggled through a freezing diaper change with 30 snaps to close, she spotted a gap no one had filled in a century of baby clothing. She and co-founder Lawrence Scheer spent two years perfecting a patented magnetic closure before selling a single item. Today, Magnetic Me has 50 employees and has been profitable since 2012. For more on Magnetic Me and show notes click here Subscribe and watch Shopify Masters on YouTube!Sign up for your FREE Shopify Trial here.
As Western Canadian producers navigate tight fall planting windows and unpredictable weather patterns, hybrid fall rye continues to stand out for its high yield potential, natural weed suppression, and expanding market opportunities across the Prairies. Against the backdrop of demo plots at Enchant, Alberta, Shaun Haney caught up with Greg Stamp, seed business manager at... Read More
Hilton makes a rare move by cutting fees for its hotel owners as the market cycle finally turns, JetBlue posted a $247 million loss and its stock jumped 13% anyway, and Chinese outbound travel demand is surging with nowhere near enough flights to meet it. On today's Skift Daily Briefing, Sarah Dandashy breaks down why Hilton's fee cuts signal a long-overdue shift in the brand-owner relationship, why investors are betting on JetBlue's turnaround plan despite six straight years of losses, and why the next wave of high-spending international travelers is coming from China as soon as the infrastructure can catch up. Articles Referenced: Honorable Mention: @AskAConcierge on IGHilton Cuts Fees to Rebuild Hotel Owners' Margins as Costs Stay StickyJetBlue Is Still Losing Money but Investors Are Buying the TurnaroundChina's Outbound Travel Recovery Has a New Problem: Not Enough Planes Connect with Skift LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skift/ WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAL375LikgIXmNPYQ0L/ Facebook: https://facebook.com/skiftnews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skiftnews/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@skiftnews Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/skiftnews.bsky.social X: https://twitter.com/skift Subscribe to @SkiftNews and never miss an update from the travel industry.
Bryan Gildenberg has his sights set on margins when it comes to Chipotle's (CMG) earnings after competitors in the fast casual space showed signs of compression. In Starbucks (SBUX), he argues competition will be the key pressure point for the coffee giant, as it will need to justify rising prices to core consumers. Tom White offers an example options trade for Starbucks. ======== Schwab Network ========Empowering every investor and trader, every market day.Options involve risks and are not suitable for all investors. Before trading, read the Options Disclosure Document. http://bit.ly/2v9tH6DSubscribe to the Market Minute newsletter - https://schwabnetwork.com/subscribeDownload the iOS app - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/schwab-network/id1460719185Download the Amazon Fire Tv App - https://www.amazon.com/TD-Ameritrade-Network/dp/B07KRD76C7Watch on Sling - https://watch.sling.com/1/asset/191928615bd8d47686f94682aefaa007/watchWatch on Vizio - https://www.vizio.com/en/watchfreeplus-exploreWatch on DistroTV - https://www.distro.tv/live/schwab-network/Follow us on X – https://twitter.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/schwab-network/About Schwab Network - https://schwabnetwork.com/about
Send us Fan MailA thin margin and an empty pipeline both feel like effort problems, so owners respond with more hours. It rarely works. In this episode, Stuart and Mena reframe both as outputs of how a business is designed its pricing, positioning, and channels- not how hard anyone is trying. Working harder on a broken design just scales the problem and burns the founder out.Mena starts with margin, and the distinction most owners never consciously made: are you a price maker or a price taker? In a price-taker industry like mortgage broking, the market sets the ceiling and effort can't move it. She lays out the three layers that shape margin: industry, business model, execution—so you can locate your own constraint.Stuart then reframes reach as an asset you engineer, not marketing you bolt on, introducing the "trust path": why low-risk, frequent purchases convert fast while high-risk, infrequent ones need a long runway of proof. Mena names the two ways reach breaks: expensive reach that drains cash, and fragile reach where one channel carries too much, plus a simple stress test to expose it.The takeaway: redesign the system rather than push through it. If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating on your favourite podcast platform. It helps us reach more incredible listeners like you. Thank you for being a part of the journey! Click here to subscribe to our weekly email. SPECIAL OFFER: Buy a one of Stuart's books for ONLY $20 including delivery. Use the discount code blog here. Work with Mena & Stuart's team: At ProSolution Private Clients we encourage clients to adopt a holistic and evidence-based approach when making financial decisions. Visit our website. Follow us: Stuart: Twitter/X and LinkedIn. Mena: LinkedInIMPORTANT: This podcast provides general information about finance, taxes, and credit. This means that the content does not consider your specific objectives, financial situation, or needs. It is crucial for you to assess whether the information is suitable for your circumstances before taking any actions based on it. If you find yourself uncertain about the relevance or your specific needs, it is advisable to seek advice from a licensed and trustworthy professional.
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Matt Murphy is a Partner at Menlo Ventures, who just raised $3 billion in fresh capital, its largest pool ever. Matt's portfolio includes Anthropic, Lovable, Legora, OpenRouter, Chai Discovery, Axiom, OpenEvidence and more. AGENDA: 00:00 Why Menlo Broke All Its Investing Rules to Back Anthropic 09:00 Why Ownership Matters Less in an Outlier-Driven Venture Market 13:00 Do We Have an SPV Problem in Venture Today? 20:00 Do Margins Still Matter in AI? 23:00 Why Open Source Won't Derail Anthropic's Growth 26:00 Does Every Model Provider Need to Build Its Own Chips? 29:00 Why Anthropic Is Not a Threat to Legora 32:00 Why Series A Is the Hardest Place to Invest Today 36:00 Why Signalling Is B.S. and Every Fund Is Going Full Stack 42:00 Why Building a Company in Europe Is Hard Mode 47:00 Why Triple-Triple-Double-Double Is No Longer Venture-Scale Growth
Welcome to this episode of The New Warehouse Podcast! In this episode, Kevin chats with Leo Rodriguez, Vice President of River Plate Inc. River Plate is a Southern California 3PL with 34 years of industry experience. They specialize in e-commerce fulfillment, retail distribution, hazmat beauty products, and parcel management. Together, they explore the complexities of multi-channel fulfillment, how growing brands can protect their margins, navigate retailer compliance, and transition smoothly from D2C to retail.Learn more about Pallite here.Learn more about Big Joe's AP44 here. Follow us on LinkedIn and YouTube.Support the show
In our final episode before taking a break until the autumn, we're chatting about working in the margins during a busy summer. What would the next six weeks look like if you did this intentionally rather than squeezing things in on the fly? Drawing on our own experience, we discuss visualising what you want the season to look like, adopting the right mindset, and mapping out the next six weeks. We also explore whether things really do go quiet online at this time of year and chat about the impact you can have by staying visible, even when you're time poor. Links and Further ReadingHow We Savour (and Survive) the Summer Can You Ever Take a Break When You're Self-Employed?Friends with Business BoundariesThe Lazy GeniusWhat will working in the margins look like for you this summer? Join us on Substack to share your thoughts. We'd love to hear from you!Connect With UsFriends With Business Benefits on Substackcharlieswift.comlove-audrey.comFind Us On Instagram@loveaudrey83@_charlieswiftSubscribe to Our Mailing ListsFranky's Mailing ListCharlie's Mailing List Get full access to Friends with Business Benefits at friendswithbusinessbenefits.substack.com/subscribe
Episode 4190 │ July 26, 2026 Helene warped the floor. Margins below slim. Prices unchanged since before COVID. Don Cox is still roasting. That's holding the line. WHAT THIS EPISODE COVERS Scott Kesterson and Don Cox — founder of Bald Guy Brew Coffee in Boone, North Carolina, missionary, and hand-roaster — return for a wide-ranging conversation nearly two years after Hurricane Helene, with 65 days remaining until the second anniversary of the storm that hit at 8am Eastern on September 27, 2024. Don reports that Boone is still rebuilding — roads, bridges, contaminated rivers — while the national attention has long moved on, the community divisions that dissolved in the storm's immediate aftermath came back within a season, and Bald Guy Brew is navigating the hardest supply chain environment in 21 years of roasting: coffee stranded in shipping delays, 30-day lines of credit burning before the product arrives, and profit margins below slim on prices Don has not raised since before COVID. The conversation moves from Depression-era blackout meals as a mirror of the enduring spirit Americans have abandoned, to Don's value grid for vetting coffee brokers — shade-grown sourcing, fair farmer pay, community infrastructure investment across education, healthcare, and food security — to the kingdom dynamics underneath every transaction at the roastery, where the real currency is not the coffee but the relationship, the sacrificial giving that hurts when you give it, and the ancient mountain people of western North Carolina who walked down to King's Mountain, fought, and came back — the same line Don Cox is holding one roast at a time. The episode closes with Don's prayer and Scott's encouragement to put the roastery's value principles front and center on the new Bald Guy Brew website, because people who hear Don articulate why he sources the way he does are experiencing something that no amount of marketing copy can produce. KEY QUESTIONS ADDRESSED What does western North Carolina look like nearly two years after Helene — and why does Don Cox say the hardest part is not the warped floor, the drought, or the contaminated river, but watching the unity that dissolved every division in the storm's immediate aftermath come back within a single season? What is Don Cox's value grid for vetting coffee brokers — and why does shade-grown sourcing, fair farmer pay, and community infrastructure investment across education, healthcare, and food security produce a cup of Bald Guy Brew coffee that carries something no commodity buyer can replicate or commodify? What is the difference between easy giving and sacrificial giving — and why does Don Cox argue that the only giving worth anything is the kind that hurts when you do it, the same principle that drove mountain men to walk to King's Mountain and drove Quakers to sell themselves into Caribbean slavery to end the slave trade? ABOUT BARDSFM BardsFM is a daily independent podcast covering faith, liberty, history, and information warfare. Hosted by Scott Kesterson — combat veteran, documentary filmmaker, and rancher. Over 4,100 episodes and 50 million lifetime downloads. New episodes every weekday. bards.fm This episode was researched and produced under the Spatial Terra Intelligence Methodology (STIM v5) — the analytical framework built by Scott Kesterson — with AI-assisted research synthesis at a 70/30 human/AI authorship ratio, fully disclosed. All analysis, conclusions, and editorial judgments are those of Scott Kesterson. BardsFM's archive includes hundreds of episodes on prayer, scripture, and walking the Way of Christ — available free in the full episode catalog. AFFILIATE LINKS Bards Nation Health Store: www.bardsnationhealth.com MYPillow promo code: BARDS >> Go to https://www.mypillow.com/bards and use the promo code BARDS or... Call 1-800-975-2939. EMPShield protect your vehicles and home. Promo code BARDS: Click here Treadlite Broadforks...best garden tool EVER. Promo code BARDS26: TreadliteBroadforks.com EnviroKlenz Air Purification, promo code BARDS to save 10%: www.enviroklenz.com Morning Intro Music Provided by Brian Kahanek: www.briankahanek.com Founders Bible 20% discount code: BARDS >>> TheFoundersBible.com Windblown Media 20% Discount with promo code BARDS: windblownmedia.com White Oak Pastures Grassfed Meats, Get $20 off any order $150 or more. Promo Code BARDS: www.whiteoakpastures.com/BARDS Mission Darkness Faraday Bags and RF Shielding. Promo code BARDS: Click here DONATIONS: If you wish to support this podcast directly you can donate here... DONATE: Click here MAILING ADDRESS: Xpedition Cafe, LLC Attn. Scott Kesterson 591 E Central Ave, #740 Sutherlin, OR 97479
What if a restaurant could identify a margin problem while the ingredients were still being unloaded, rather than discovering it several weeks later? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I speak with David Cantu, CEO of Craftable, about AI restaurant back-office technology, margin intelligence, inventory management, purchasing, invoice automation, and the continuing importance of human hospitality. David has spent decades working in restaurants and technology. He describes an industry dealing with staffing difficulties, rising leases, food inflation, lower traffic, and relentless margin pressure. David cites a National Restaurant Association study indicating that 40% of restaurateurs were not profitable during the previous year. Craftable connects purchasing, recipe management, inventory, accounting, sales data, and analytics. The company says its platform is used by over 10,000 restaurants, hotels, and venues. David argues that useful hospitality AI should automate the work that keeps managers, chefs, and operators away from guests. This includes producing sales forecasts, suggesting orders, planning preparation, identifying invoice anomalies, and comparing projected labor with actual requirements. The conversation becomes particularly practical when David describes a restaurant receiving a ribeye that has increased in price by 20%. If the dish is a popular, high-margin menu item, that vendor increase can quickly reduce its profitability. Craftable's Invoice AI can detect the change when the invoice is received. The operator can then consider running a higher-priced chef's special, promoting another steak, reviewing the menu price, or adjusting future orders. Waiting until month-end reconciliation would explain the lost margin but leave no opportunity to recover it during service. We also discuss the difference between AI intelligence and operator knowledge. AI can examine large volumes of information, but an experienced restaurateur understands the atmosphere, the team, the guests, and what is happening at that particular moment. David believes AI recommendations need to show their work. Managers should be able to inspect how a sales forecast, suggested order, staffing plan, or trend was calculated. Transparency helps people assess the recommendation without forcing them to search through another large analytics report. Craftable is also testing how to measure whether a recommended action produced a result. If a manager coaches a server with unusually high complimentary items or promotes a menu category with falling attachment rates, the platform can examine whether that action affected sales or margins. David is skeptical of hospitality AI added as a promotional layer without being built into the daily workflow. At industry conferences, he has seen vendors attach language models to existing products while offering little operational value. His hope for restaurant AI is highly human. He wants technology reducing administrative pressure while employees welcome guests, serve meals, develop their teams, and create the warm experiences that define hospitality. Which restaurant decision could protect profitability if the operator received the right information before the next service began? Listen to the episode and share your thoughts with me.
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Could trouble for AI stocks lead to a recession or worse? 2) How the wealth effect might slow consumer spending if AI causes a stock market pullback 3) One scenario that might lead to a collapse 4) Google stock falls on spending concerns 5) Could the switch flip very quickly on big tech capex 6) Subprime data center crisis 7) How much does the data center buildout resemble the financial crisis? 8) What type of revenue is needed to prevent a collapse 9) SpaceX stock tanks 10) Will SpaceX acquire Tesla? 11) Will SpaceX acquire OpenAI? --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here's 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Justin Morganstein discusses the Phillies being outclassed by the Dodgers around the margins once again. Plus, thoughts on Trea Turner's wild week and an interesting trade deadline nugget.
Tesla's second-quarter 2026 financial results, which revealed a significant earnings miss despite achieving record-breaking revenue and vehicle deliveries. Analysts highlight that profit margins and free cash flow were severely pressured by a massive surge in capital expenditures and rising operating costs. Much of this spending is being directed toward AI infrastructure, humanoid robotics, and autonomous driving initiatives like the Cybercab. While the company is aggressively transitioning from a traditional automaker into an AI and robotics powerhouse, investors expressed concern over the immediate financial strain and vague timelines for these emerging technologies. Consequently, the report led to a decline in stock value as the market weighed the company's future potential against its current fiscal challenges.
This episode connects with Issue IV of The Margins, God in the Gutters, available now.Dorothy Day was a journalist, anarchist, Catholic convert, founder of the Catholic Worker—and perhaps the only saint to ever land on an FBI watchlist.In this episode, we look at Dorothy through the lens of mysticism: a transformative awareness of God's presence that increases our love of God and neighbor. For Dorothy, that awareness became prayer, hospitality, protest, breadlines, and a life spent finding Christ among the poor.
This seesion will give a brief overview the current state of surgical needs and care on the Navajo reservation. It will also discuss spiritual needs and opportunities.
Hour 4: Murph and Markus discuss the Giants' lack of winning on the margins and 'What did Waterboy learn today?'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Most consultancy owners can tell you their revenue. Very few can tell you their net profit. That gap is where the money quietly leaks out.In this Australia-only episode, Val sits down with Josh Stone, who grew a civil and structural consultancy from £3m to £30m over a decade, sold out, and now coaches 70+ engineering, surveying, architecture and town planning founders on how to build businesses that actually pay them back.We get into the commercial side we rarely cover on the show:Why 30% net profit should be your benchmark, and what to do if you are sat at 12%How to escape the generalist "red ocean" and charge what you are actually worthWhy winning the work is only half the job, and how to stop client relationships living and dying with the founderThe four-stage path from technician to conductor to lifestyle or investorA grounded take on AI in engineering, and why the founders experimenting now will outbid the ones who waitIf you are stuck being the bottleneck in your own business, this is the practical, no-nonsense conversation to fix it.Guest: Josh StoneMore from Project Chatter: www.projectchatter.comFree access, no paywalls. Keep liking, keep sharing, keep paying it forward.
TradeThrive - Sales, Marketing & Automations For Contractors
Jonathan just launched a permanent lighting business. He has one client, a deposit in the bank, and 90 days to hit three installs a week.In this Business Breakthrough episode, Tanner Mullen coaches Jonathan through the launch of Epic Light, a permanent LED lighting company with 50 to 70 percent margins in a category almost nobody has figured out how to market.The problem: permanent lights are 90 percent want and 10 percent need. Nobody is searching "permanent light installer near me." And every prospect is thinking the same thing you are about to hear Jonathan struggle to answer on camera: why would I pay you $5,000 when I can just buy the lights and put them up myself?Tanner breaks down why the winner in this category will not be the best installer. It will be the best marketer.What you'll learn:- Why whoever spends the most money to get the customer gets the customer- How to anchor every campaign to an event instead of selling the product- The cabinet refinishing trick that turns a want into a need- Why you should stop planning for the busy season you do not have yet- How to stack value on a luxury item so the price stops mattering- Why you need a proprietary offer and how to build one- The objection that will kill your business if you cannot answer it in one sentence- Why Google is a trap for new categories and Facebook is the opportunityThis one applies whether you sell lights, paint, epoxy, cabinets, or anything else people want but do not need.Chapters:00:00 - Cold open01:25 - Meet Jonathan Mann and Epic Light02:07 - How the partnership started and why the margins got them excited03:00 - The 90 day goal: three installs a week, $7,500 to $15,000 in revenue04:13 - Meta ads or guerrilla marketing? Where do you start?05:13 - The neighborhood domino effect and why you cannot control timing07:11 - Whoever spends the most money to get the customer gets the customer08:33 - How do you position a service nobody is searching for?09:15 - Everything is an angle: anchoring to the 4th of July and Christmas10:19 - The cabinet refinishing lesson: turning a want into a need10:58 - Systems, fulfillment, and surviving the holiday rush11:24 - Do not plan for the problem you do not have yet13:17 -Virtual quoting and vetting leads before you drive out14:00 - Vet by income and zip code, then close in person15:07 - What else can you offer to secure the business?16:00 - Value stacking: roof checks, house washing, tutorials, decorators17:11 - Warranty and how the install actually works18:28 - Building a year round value proposition19:13 - You are a marketing company that markets lights20:49 - "Why would I pay you when I can just do it myself?"22:16 - Building a proprietary offer your competitors cannot copy23:29 - Speed to lead and anchoring the sale to an event24:00 - The $30,000 painting job that took 18 months and a Halloween party to close25:32 - Why Google search terms are murky for a brand new category27:19 - The education gap and why you need a brochure27:58 - Final advice: document everything and go winCoaching Session Signup: https://calendly.com/dripjobs/breakthroughPurchase the 31 Days of Value and build an EMPIRE: https://www.amazon.com/31-Days-Value-home-service-businesses/dp/B0FQSH32X7Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2v0D0SNSBofqJJE6zApEE1DripJobs Demo: https://calendly.com/dripjobsteam/dripjobsdemoGusto: https://gusto.com/i/tanner269OpenPhone: https://openph.one/referral/8Kc17aqFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/173750747824373/?ref=shareFollow me on Instagram: http://Instagram.com/officialtannermullen#roofing #roofingbusiness #contractormarketing #localseo #roofingcontractor #homeservices #businessgrowth
Vertical SaaS providers are integrating payments to expand revenue and reduce churn by delivering software and money movement in a single workflow. Companies such as Toast, Lightspeed Commerce, Mindbody, and ServiceTitan use embedded processing to deepen adoption and streamline onboarding. Platforms choose among referral, facilitator, or hybrid models, partnering with processors such as Stripe, Adyen, Worldpay, Fiserv, Global Payments, and PayPal Braintree, and using tools like Stripe Connect and Adyen for Platforms. Greater control can improve margins but requires capabilities in KYC, PCI DSS, fraud, and chargeback management in coordination with sponsor banks. Integrated payments improve merchant onboarding, payouts, and reconciliation, and enable features like instant payouts and installments through partners. Founders should roll out payments in phases, track attach rates and risk costs, and revisit build versus partner decisions as volume grows.Learn more on this news by visiting us at: https://greyjournal.net/news/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this week's show we take a hypothetical look at Cable and Satellite TV's future. We also read your emails and take a look at the week's news! News: Netflix Is Exploring Live TV and Bundles as It Struggles to Keep Viewers Hooked Scripps, DirecTV End Blackout, Ink New Retrans Deal RGB LED TVs Set For Market Growth In Coming Years What If Cable & Satellite Providers Exit Traditional Linear TV Business On this week's show we take a hypothetical look at Cable and Satellite TV's future. We have said that we see TV being delivered via the Internet vs the traditional means of OTA, Cable, or Satellite. What would this world look like and who are the winners and losers? Scenario Setup Major providers — Comcast/Xfinity, Charter/Spectrum, DirecTV, Dish Network, Altice, and smaller cable operators — face accelerating cord-cutting. Traditional pay-TV subscribers have already dropped to ~34% of U.S. households. Revenue from linear TV (cable channels + satellite) is shrinking fast due to high programming costs, declining ad revenue, and competition from streamers. In this scenario, the industry collectively decides to abandon legacy linear TV (bundled channel packages) and pivots hard to two main businesses: High-speed broadband/data which is their most profitable product. IPTV / Streaming aggregation with their own apps or virtual third party MVPD services like YouTube TV-style offerings. They sunset traditional cable TV boxes, satellite dishes, and legacy contracts over 2–3 years. What Happens Next For the Providers it's mostly upside. Broadband becomes ~70–80% of revenue. Margins on data are much higher than on video because there are no expensive content carriage fees. Companies like Comcast and Charter already make most of their profit from data. Huge reduction in programming fees paid to Disney, NBCU, Warner, etc. No more maintaining old coaxial/satellite infrastructure for TV. All of which greatly cuts costs. New Growth Areas: Sell/partner on IPTV services (e.g., Xfinity Stream becomes the main offering, or they white-label streaming bundles). Mobile + home internet bundles (5G fixed wireless + fiber expansion). Advertising on their own streaming platforms. The biggest hurdles are massive customer service transition, potential loss of some rural satellite customers, and potential regulatory scrutiny over broadband monopolies. For Consumers the benefits include: Lower base bills, faster innovation in home internet which results in more fiber, better speeds, and lower latency, and IPTV options could be cheaper/better than old cable (cloud DVR, multi-device streaming). Of course there is a downside. Sports fans and older viewers lose easy "flip channels" experience. Live sports become fragmented across streamers which could end up costing more if you want everything. There will be Market & Industry Ripple Effects Streaming Wars Accelerate: YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, Sling, Fubo, and new entrants gain millions of former cable customers. Netflix, Amazon, etc., may expand live offerings. Content Owners Adapt: Networks like ESPN, CNN, TBS shift to direct-to-consumer or wholesale deals with IPTV platforms. Some channels may disappear or go streaming-only. Competition & Consolidation: Telecoms (AT&T, Verizon) and tech giants (Google Fiber, Amazon, Starlink) push harder into broadband. We could see more mergers. Advertising: Shift from traditional cable ads to targeted streaming ads and broadband data insights. The reality is that it's already happening gradually. Cable companies have been de-emphasizing video for years, pushing broadband bundles, and launching their own streaming apps. Satellite providers are in steeper decline. The full pivot described here would simply formalize and accelerate a trend that's well underway.
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Kimi K3's benchmark breaking results 2) How Kimi K3 fits alongside MuseSpark 1.1 and Grok 4.5 3) What are OpenAI and Anthropic's advantages today? 4) Is the price of frontier intelligence about to drop? 5) It's all about the product now 6) Satya Nadella's Reverse Information Paradox 7) What is happening at Google? 8) Is Google too focused on 'Flash' models 9) Apple's lawsuit vs. OpenAI 10) OpenAI's boneheaded espionage 11) Why does OpenAI struggle to maintain good relationships with partners? --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here's 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Running your restoration company on gut feeling and bank balances is a quiet way to stay stuck. Real growth comes from installing hard numbers and accountability into every job.In this episode, host Clinton James sits down with Larry Braun, VP and Co-owner of Pine Ridge Restoration in Cleveland, Ohio, and a featured speaker at the Restore Scale Dominate Summit in San Diego. Larry spent 30 years running an industrial steel plant before joining the restoration business just two and a half years ago. He brought a manufacturing mindset with him — and it worked. Pine Ridge had been stuck at $3M since 2005. Larry helped push them past a $6.3M forecast, chasing an $8M stretch goal.You'll walk away with:How Pine Ridge ties technician bonuses directly to job-level profit marginA field accountability system that catches costly mistakes before they become callbacksHow to get clean financial visibility between your emergency response and reconstruction teamsWhy niche-focused BDRs are outperforming generalists in insurance and senior living verticalsWhy ranking on Google isn't enough anymore, and what AEO means for your next leadWant to see Larry break down these exact systems live? He's leading a hands-on session called “Behind the Dashboard” at the Restore Scale Dominate live event in San Diego, August 27–28. Early bird pricing expires tomorrow, July 18th, and saves you $150. Apply now at https://restorescaledominate.comSubscribe to Restoration Pros Unplugged and visit restorationprosunplugged.com.Running a restoration company and want to get more jobs from your online marketing? Book a free discovery call with Water Restoration Marketing at https://waterrestorationmarketing.com/discovery-call/
In today's BizNews Daybreak we dive into Amazon's quiet maneuver past Starlink into South Africa's satellite internet market via Herotel. We also examine the Public Investment Corporation's escalating governance crisis over the Lanseria Airport transaction, alongside policing gaps fueling local pharmaceutical drug crimes. Internationally, we cover SpaceX's scrubbed Starship launch, Netflix's disappointing sales guidance, a White House teleprompter insider-trading scandal, and the sustainability of skyrocketing margins in the AI semiconductor trade.
This episode brings together two experts to discuss recent second-round presidential elections in Peru and Colombia: Jo-Marie Burt, a senior fellow at WOLA and professor at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government, and a leading expert on Peru; and Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, WOLA's Director for the Andes, who maintains close contact with Colombian civil society. Both elections produced razor-thin margins, and both delivered victories to right-wing, populist candidates promising crackdowns on crime and a hard line against their political adversaries. In Peru, Keiko Fujimori won the presidency on her fourth attempt, while in Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella narrowly defeated left-leaning Iván Cepeda. Burt describes Fujimori's ascent as the culmination of years spent consolidating control over Peru's key institutions, like Congress, the constitutional tribunal, and the attorney general's office. She characterizes Fujimori as "singularly motivated, singularly ambitious, and singularly ruthless," shaped by her upbringing under her father Alberto Fujimori's authoritarian government. Burt warns that Fujimori is driven by a desire for revenge against those who helped prosecute and imprison her father, including journalists like Gustavo Gorriti, human rights lawyers, prosecutors, and judges. She details a legislative landscape already tilted toward impunity—amnesty laws shielding police and military, and restrictions crippling NGOs' ability to represent victims. Burt argues Peru has drifted toward a hybrid or even authoritarian regime. Sánchez-Garzoli paints a tense picture in Colombia, where outgoing President Gustavo Petro has refused to recognize the election results, alleging fraud and foreign interference despite institutional findings to the contrary. She notes intervention by the Trump administration and U.S. lawmakers. With the transition suspended and Petro calling supporters into the streets, while armed groups reposition, Sánchez-Garzoli warns of a real risk of political violence. She outlines de la Espriella's "iron fist" agenda: mega-prisons modeled on El Salvador's Nayib Bukele, reviving the controversial ESMAD riot police, and a "special urban defense bloc" that she fears could blur the line between state security and paramilitary activity, echoing Colombia's dark history. "Colombia can't return to the belief that problems can be solved through bullets," she says, paraphrasing Colombian human rights defender Leyner Palacios. The conversation explores the deeper social fractures driving these results: in Peru, divisions of race, class, and region between Lima and the neglected Andean provinces, alongside a "frozen" collective memory of the 1980s-90s internal armed conflict manipulated to smear the left as communist. In Colombia, urban-rural divides also shape perceptions of security and the peace process. Both guests anticipate closer alignment with Washington, though they distinguish ideological affinity from generous funding. Sánchez-Garzoli expects a "total reset" in U.S.-Colombia relations, possible joint operations, and migration cooperation including reports of a plan to facilitate deportations of Colombian asylum seekers. Burt notes U.S. concern over China's growing influence in Peru. Despite the grim outlook, both find grains of hope: in Peru, a tentative opposition alliance and a still-vibrant regional civil society; in Colombia, strong institutions, a diverse Congress, and a resilient press and civil society. The episode closes with a reflection that both presidents-elect, lacking strong bases, face the "Milei challenge" of governing without a coalition.
HortWeek editor Matt Appleby, A-Level student William Appleby and technical editor Sally Drury report on the essential horticulture stories of the week.Topics this week:Peat-free hits the national pressAre garden centres pricing themselves into slower plant sales?Matt's week on the road with word from Fruit Focus, Ball Colegrave's Summer Showcase, Floral Fantasia at Hyde Hall and the Green Italy launch.How drought and hosepipe bans are hitting horticultureDoes the absence of horticulture in schools' career advice signify a broken system? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Why are so many Amazon operators still stuck in the low-margin trap? Neil Twa dives into why one high-ticket SKU with a $12 net profit per unit minimum can outshine ten low-margin products that bleed your business dry. The instinct to shy away from luxury sourcing due to perceived high capital, niche markets, or complexity is common, but Neil breaks down real-world patterns from operators in the Voltage community. One case study features a home goods brand that turned its fortunes around by embracing premium products. Neil shares three actionable moves for sellers at every level, from $5,000 to $500,000 a month, starting with auditing your catalog for premium potential. If you're feeling the pinch of low margins, this episode is your wake-up call. Ready to implement with us? Join the Voltage Business Builders cohort at voltagedm.com?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=show_notes&utm_campaign=ep323 See your Amazon numbers in one place and protect your margins with Caiman Data at voltagedm.com: https://voltagedm.com?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=show_notes&utm_campaign=ep323&learn_mcp=1
Interview recorded - 14th of July, 2026On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming back Eric Basmajian. Eric Basmajian is the founder of EPB Research, an independent economic research firm whose work is read by over 250,000 people and used by pension funds, hedge funds, and manufacturers globally.During our conversation we spoke about his overview of the economy, government debt increasing, why markets are skyrocketing while the average consumer struggles, employment and more. 0:00 - Introduction1:33 - Overview of the economy6:26 - Government debt increase8:46 - Consumer credit9:49 - Concentration of profits11:36- Withdrawal of globalisation 15:09 - Margins drop then job cuts23:09 - Employment data26:21 - Market impact30:40 - People gotten wrong?35:30 - One message to takeaway?Eric Basmajian is an economic cycle analyst providing research on long-term and short-term trends in growth and inflation. With a degree in economics and experience at a quantitative hedge fund, Eric has developed a unique secular and cyclical framework to forecast major economic inflection points and the resulting impact on asset prices.Eric holds a bachelor's degree in economics from New York University. Eric started on the buy-side of the financial sector, as an analyst with Panorama Partners, a quantitative hedge fund specializing in algorithmically scanning for mispriced equity derivatives.Eric Basmajian - Website - https://epbresearch.com/Twitter - https://twitter.com/EPBResearchYouTube - @EPBResearch LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-basmajian-32614116a/WTFinance -Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wtfinancee/Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfniTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas
Building In Time Margins - Why Smart Sales Professionals Never Cut It Too Close by PromoCorner
Buy a Zine: http://www.stanthonystongue.com/marginsJoin the Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/anthonystongue What does Matthew 25 reveal about mercy, judgment, and the way we see people on the margins?In this episode, we talk about the saints we have sanitized, the difficult human beings they chose to love, and the Christ who identifies himself with the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned, the wounded, and the forgotten. Because mercy is not optional decoration for the Christian life—and grace should change which people we are capable of seeing.This episode also explores the themes behind Issue IV of The Margins: God in the Gutters, featuring Dorothy Day, Francis of Assisi, Josephine Bakhita, Damien of Molokai, Benedict Joseph Labre, John of God, and more.
This week, Jason is joined by UnitedHealthcare California CEO Steve Cain for a conversation about the $5.5 trillion healthcare industry, why healthcare costs have climbed to nearly $17,000 per person, the misconceptions surrounding health insurance, the future of AI in healthcare, and what it takes to lead at the highest level of corporate America. Steve breaks down where your health insurance premium actually goes, the role employers play in choosing benefit packages, and why rising hospital, provider, and pharmaceutical costs have created major challenges across the healthcare system. He also explains why greater transparency and better alignment across the industry could help lower costs and improve the member experience. Jason and Steve also dive into leadership, making decisions under pressure, and Steve's journey from sales to the CEO level. Plus, Steve reveals UnitedHealthcare's plans to invest more than $1.5 billion into AI and how technology could reshape the future of healthcare. From breaking down where your health insurance premium actually goes to revealing UnitedHealthcare's $1.5 billion AI investment, Steve reveals what it really takes to navigate one of America's most complex industries, lead under pressure, and rethink the future of healthcare. Steve reveals all this and so much more in another episode you can't afford to miss! Subscribe to the Trading Secrets podcast! Host: Jason Tartick Audio: John Gurney Video: Marc Colcer Guest: Steve Cain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
For more than two centuries, a hidden society existed in one of the most unforgiving landscapes in the American South. In this episode of Southern Mysteries, explore the remarkable history of the Great Dismal Swamp maroons, one of the longest-lasting acts of resistance to slavery in American history. Through historical records, firsthand accounts and modern archaeology, this forgotten chapter of Southern history reveals how an entire community survived in plain sight and why so few people have heard their story. Join the Community on Patreon: Want more Southern Mysteries? You can hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive podcast, Audacious: Tales of American Crime and more when you become a patron of the show. You can immediately access exclusive content now at patreon.com/southernmysteries
This is a short piece taken from our podcast "Walking the Margins: Mental Health & Housing Precarity Along Admiral" which you can listen to on demand at KOSU.org, the NPR app, NPR.org, or wherever you get your podcasts.A motel room. The interstate. Winter wind. Days of walking with no plan but to witness life on the street. Nick Alexandrov set out to report on mental health along an extended-stay motel corridor in Tulsa. What he found was a quieter, more elusive, more human story.Unfolding on sidewalks, overpasses, church steps, and in fleeting conversations with people living outside. This quarterly feature asks: How does this environment produce its own kind of mental strain? How do people cope with that stress? And what if, rather than the other way around, housing insecurity itself helps drive mental distress and addiction?This special episode of Focus: Black Oklahoma is part of a larger quarterly effort from Oklahoma media addressing mental health. Find the rest of the quarterly and more stories and coverage from Tulsa Flyer, The Oklahoma Eagle, KOSU, La Semana, and The Frontier at https://tulsaflyer.org/snapshot/mental-health/.Focus: Black Oklahoma is produced in partnership with KOSU, Tulsa Flyer, & Tri-City Collective.Our theme music is by Moffett Music.The production team for this special quarterly edition of Focus: Black Oklahoma are Quraysh Ali Lansana, Bracken Klar, & Jesse Ulrich.You can visit us online at or FocusBlackOklahoma.com, & on YouTube @TriCityCollectiveOK.You can follow us on Instagram @FocusBlackOK & on Facebook at Facebook.com/FocusBlackOK.You can hear Focus: Black Oklahoma on demand at KOSU.org, the NPR app, NPR.org, or wherever you get your podcasts.https://linktr.ee/focusblackok
Send us Fan MailWelcome to Safe Dividend Investing's Podcast # 283 on July 11th of 2026.Many years ago, I was responsible for building a national commercial risk database of over 2,000,000 businesses to warn banks, insurance companies and trade suppliers of serious financial problems that their commercial customers were encountering. Every business that offers the incentive of credit terms to their customers to make a sale is gambling their repayment terms will be met. If not, it can lead to not only destroying their profits but can lead to business failure.In this podcast, I share a few insights about the birth and death of businesses that I learned from building this commercial risk database. It can help you to achieve the decades of financial independence from your stock portfolio that I have achieved.One of the most critical things I have learned in choosing stocks and monitoring the stocks in my portfolios is to pay close attention to a company's operating margin. Today I explain this in detail with particular attention to recently listed penny stocks and how to separate fact from fiction in a stock promoters rhetoric. If you do some very basic research you too can build a strong, safe portfolio.Ian Duncan MacDonald Author and Commercial Risk Consultant,President of Informus Inc 2 Vista Humber Drive Toronto, Ontario Canada, M9P 3R7 Toronto Telephone - 416-245-4994 imacd@informus.ca
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) OpenAI debuts its new superapp 2) What happens when all AI products converge 3) Are consultants the key to winning in AI? 4) Are all AI products commoditizing? 5) Meta's new Muse Spark 1.1 model is very cheap 6) Zuck confirms Meta is thinking about a cloud business 7) Is it bad economics to rent your compute to competitors? 8) Instagram's loose Ai reuse settings 9) Oh man, Meta is relevant in the AI discussion again 10) Professor accuses students of cheating with ChatGPT 11) Was professor wrong? Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here's 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
For years, we've been searching for a better way to help Apparel Ffounders bridge the gap between learning industry concepts and actually applying them inside their businesses. That's exactly why we're launching Boardroom Notes, a brand-new weekly Substack newsletter designed to help founders take the lessons from the Business of Apparel podcast and turn them into practical action. In addition to Boardroom Notes, you can also subscribe to In the Margins with Rachel Erickson, a behind-the-scenes newsletter documenting the journey of writing and releasing my first book, The Business of Apparel. Whether you're trying to improve your margins, make smarter business decisions, or get an inside look at the ideas shaping my upcoming book, you'll want to join us over on Substack at https://businessofapparel.substack.com
Artist/ Historian Kamau Ware recently visited the capital region to do research for Battle in the Margins, a special project of the Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation in collaboration with his organization Black Gotham Experience, a project which commemorates the African Diaspora's impact on the American Revolution. Kamau visited the NYState Museum's new exhibition Revolutionary New York thanks to Senior Curator Aaron Noble. After this visit, Kamau speaks with Sina Basila Hickey for Hudson Mohawk Magazine.
The dominant structural shift examined is the erosion of channel-driven value creation in AI offerings, marked by the rapid commoditization of resold AI technologies and a pivot toward consumption-based pricing models. Microsoft Copilot is cited as the most commonly resold AI product by MSPs, with market data showing that 84% of productized AI services among “AI forward” firms rely on this single vendor. The resulting model accelerates value capture at the vendor level, narrowing room for differentiated service or margin at the partner level. This consolidation pressures MSPs to shift from traditional product resale to enablement and operational integration or risk disintermediation. The primary development highlighted is the widespread lack of substantive AI go-to-market offerings among MSPs. According to analyzed web positioning data, 61% of MSPs do not mention AI offerings on their sites, and among those that do, the majority use vague or unscoped “AI solutions” language without concrete services behind them. Only a small subset offers named, productized AI services. Of these, the overwhelming reliance on Microsoft Copilot underscores a lack of channel-developed solutions and points to a market structure where vendors, rather than partners, capture much of the economic value. Supporting developments reinforce both the risk and inertia present within the channel. Ryan Morris outlines that true differentiation will require MSPs to develop packaged offerings around governance, financial controls, and vertical-specific business outcomes, yet early market activity shows little movement in these directions. The discussion emphasizes the potential for cost overrun through uncontrolled AI consumption, echoing past cycles from telecommunications to cloud. Efforts by large vendors to staff direct AI engineering resources are framed as a threat only to the top enterprise tier, with the bulk of SMB delivery left to service providers—albeit within a model now driven heavily by consumption volume and efficiency calculations. Operational implications for MSPs and IT leaders include increased pricing pressure and possible margin erosion as customers optimize consumption and as vendors streamline direct monetization of AI. There is a growing need for internal and customer-facing governance structures to manage data use, financial exposure, and compliance. Channel partners that limit themselves to product resale risk commoditization, while those able to package and deliver business-integrated AI services may find more durable value. The episode underscores the urgency for MSPs to clarify and productize their AI engagement—not simply as a differentiator, but as a defensive strategy against margin compression and vendor dependency.
M&A activity in the oil and gas minerals/royalty space had quieted during a prolonged wave of major E&P consolidation. As that activity winds down, rising realizations for both oil and gas have spurred a major consolidation among royalty trusts as well as a recent successful initial public offering.
John Petrides and Christine Short preview bank earnings season, highlighting trading, investment banking, and wealth management as potential tailwinds. They also discuss pressure from credit provisions and net interest margins, with JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS), Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), and Wells Fargo (WFC) in focus.======== Schwab Network ========Empowering every investor and trader, every market day. Subscribe to the Market Minute newsletter - https://schwabnetwork.com/subscribeDownload the iOS app - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/schwab-network/id1460719185Download the Amazon Fire Tv App - https://www.amazon.com/TD-Ameritrade-Network/dp/B07KRD76C7Watch on Sling - https://watch.sling.com/1/asset/191928615bd8d47686f94682aefaa007/watchWatch on Vizio - https://www.vizio.com/en/watchfreeplus-exploreWatch on DistroTV - https://www.distro.tv/live/schwab-network/Follow us on X – https://twitter.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/schwab-network/ About Schwab Network - https://schwabnetwork.com/about
Send us Fan MailIn this episode of the MAG Growth Podcast, Noah Wickham talks with Felix Hoffman from Seven Learnings about how Amazon sellers can think about pricing, discounts, and ad spend in a smarter way. The conversation covers common pricing mistakes, profit leaks, and why better product-level data matters as ecommerce and AI shopping keep changing.Get better sales and grow your brand with My Amazon Guy: https://bit.ly/4jMZtxu#AmazonSellers #AmazonPricing #EcommerceTips #AmazonPPC #amazonprofits Want free resources? Dowload our Free Amazon guides here:Amazon Receiving Delay Guide: https://hubs.ly/Q04cdD4c0Amazon Catalog Spring Cleaning: https://hubs.ly/Q046BVfp0Amazon Proft Margin Defense 2026: https://hubs.ly/Q042trRH0Amazon SEO Toolkit 2026: https://bit.ly/4oC2ClTAmazon Seller Strategy Report 2026: https://bit.ly/3YN1RME2026 Ecommerce Website & SEO Readiness Checklist: https://hubs.ly/Q04btghf0Amazon 2026 PPC guide: https://bit.ly/4lF0OYXTimestamps0:00 - The "Discount Addiction": Why brands over-rely on markdowns 1:30 - Felix Hoffman's background at Zalando and the birth of 7Learnings 3:10 - What "Set it and Forget it" pricing actually costs your business 4:10 - Rule-Based vs. Predictive Pricing: Ending the race to the bottom 5:24 - Understanding Price Elasticity on a product level 6:35 - Is Dynamic Pricing a trust-killer for luxury brands? 7:56 - Why Pricing and Ad Spend must be optimized together 10:45 - Using Google Maps logic for retail growth 12:40 - Case Study: Decreasing discounts to increase sales volume 16:14 - Agentic Shopping: How AI assistants will change pricing forever 19:17 - Long-term forecasting: Managing stock and liquidation cycles 23:25 - Why Pricing is the #1 AI investment for Amazon sellers 25:03 - Advice for technical founders: Marketing vs. Product-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Follow us:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28605816/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevenpopemag/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/myamazonguys/Twitter: https://twitter.com/myamazonguySubscribe to the My Amazon Guy podcast: https://podcast.myamazonguy.comApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-amazon-guy/id1501974229Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4A5ASHGGfr6s4wWNQIqyVwSupport the show
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Zuck says AI agent progress isn't going to plan 2) Meta explores selling excess compute 3) Why can't anyone build an AI agent? 4) Are Anthropic and OpenAI becoming the point of failure in the AI trade 5) Is Google hedging? 6) What is Satya Nadella up to? 7) Should Microsoft bring back bad Sydney 8) Palantir CEO Alex Karp challenges the frontier labs 9) Everyone vs. OpenAI and Anthropic? 10) Should OpenAI give the U.S. government 5% of its equity? 11) Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce wedding trutherism --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here's 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Amit and Austin start with a recap of Portugal's crazy matchup with Croatia which featured stoppage time drama for both sides. The guys then go over Spain and Switzerland's impressive wins over Austria and Algeria respectively.