Podcasts about mary how

The important question every coach asks is, “How do I attract great clients?” We all want more amazing clients without having to invest in more marketing. Are you spending too much energy on building visibility and credibility? Learn to spend less time on daily content creation and more time on strategic relationship building and direct client generation! That's our focus in today's episode. Join us to learn more!Mary Cravets is an award-winning client generation expert and international speaker who helps coaches grow their businesses without working nights and weekends. She's heard all the confusing and conflicting advice, and she's not surprised that most coaches struggle to establish a sustainable business–but she's here to change that. Using Mary's methods, the majority of her clients quickly increase their income by 50% or more. Her clients range from the former CFO of Microsoft North America to coaches in their first few years of business. Show Highlights:A story from Mary: How 20 minutes of coaching can be transformativeWhat keeps coaches stuck? Confusion about visibility vs. lead generation (Credibility/visibility should be 10-20% of your time, and lead generation 80-90%.)“Lead generation is all about sparking, building, and nurturing genuine relationships.” –Mary CravetsIdentifying strategies vs. action steps (not dependent on competence!)What things lead to success for coaches? Referrals and speaking engagementsBreak down your discomfort; where is it coming from?“More clients, less marketing”: What does it mean?The skill set of client generation is not intuitive; it is challenging.Magnetic messaging is the key to client generation. Resources:Connect with Mary Cravets: Website, Free program: Uncomplicate Your Marketing, andFacebookConnect with Meg:ENROLLING NOW FOR THE FALL MENTOR PROGRAM beginning in August 2025. Click here for more information and sign up now! Explore the STaR Coach Community and see what's available there for you!Visit the STaR Coach Show YouTube Channel! Subscribe today! Join our live show taping on the 3rd Thursday of every month at 1 pm CT. Explore past episodes and other resources at www.STaRcoachshow.com.

Fr. Kris Stubna joins Patrick to discuss Confession Why is can’t we just go straight to God with confession? (5:33) what is the purpose of confession? (11:06) Carol - I was raised protestant and converted in 1991 in Newark New Jersey. I went through RCIA. Many people were reluctant or scared about confession. We were advised if we didn't want to do that, there was a universal confession where you go through the act of contrition. I never have gone to confession, however, I have been struggling and really want to go. I feel ashamed that I've never go. (16:51) Tim - If I go to confession and confess my sins, but intentionally don't confess a sin, are the others forgiven? (22:31) Beak 1 Sal - I'm 80 years old. Cradle Catholic. I've been thinking about sins that I don't know if I confessed them or not. Should I make an appointment with a priest? When I go to confession, there is usually a long line. (27:59) Email from Mary - How do you battle a sin when you have an affection for sin? What is an examination of conscience? (34:07) Kathleen - I would go to confession maybe 2-3 times a year. Son and husband left the church. I started going once a week. Transformation happened over the last year. I began recognizing the graces. Husband and others asked about the transformation. Peace and joy in my heart. I have had such graces from confession. Victor - What am I supposed to say when I go into the confessional? How do I start? First words...Father forgive me for I have sinned or something else. I'm a convert. (40:49) Break 2 Jane - I have been going to confession quite regularly. Our priest said this is an opportunity to have a relationship with Jesus. Confession isn't there to make you feel bad, but bind that sever. Made such an impression on me. More priests should tell parishioners that. (43:51) Theresa - I have a hard time forgiving myself. I have OCD. I caused a lot of pain through my ignorance have trouble getting over it. Is it okay to confess both sins and faults?

(3:30) Bible Study: Acts 2:14, 22-33 What does it mean that Peter is the Rock? Father explains. Matthew 28:8-15 Did anyone actually see Jesus rise from he dead? (19:18) Break 1 (23:07) Letters: Where are the burial cloths of Christ? Does the Christian faith really come from Judaism? What makes a valid baptism? Father answers these and other questions. Send him a letter at simon@relevantradio.com (36:06) Break 2 (36:48) Word of the Day Cardinal (40:53) Phones: Marie - What does a particular verse means? Blessed are the wound that is buried and the breast that did not nurse. Mary - How come they don't cover the statues anymore? I experienced it our church. Ruben - Were there confessions before Jesus was crucified? Sharon - There is always a cloth around Jesus, do you believe Jesus was ever naked? Tom - I’m doing a Bible study, talking about sacrifice. The type of sacrifices Jews made when they were doing Kemble worship with the sacrifices?

We are now accepting new clients! Enquire to see how we can help you today www.fitfemaleproject.comQuestions:1. Paula – Struggling to increase weights for full sets. Is it better to do more reps with the same weight or increase weight and do fewer reps?  2. Caroline – How to tackle sweet cravings?  3. Valeria – How should I take creatine for best results?  4. Orlaith     - Thoughts on electrolyte drinks for training?     - Any improvements or changes I should make to my training?  5. Ellen     - Best exercises for strengthening knees?     - How to stay focused and motivated after a long ‘blip' in progress?  6. Sarah – How to plan for alcohol when I have lots of events coming up?  7. Abi     - How to stay on track when tired?     - Tips for staying on track during my period?  8. Bethan – If I go over on one macro, which is best—protein, fats, or carbs?  9. Lorraine – Should I add another cardio session to help with weight loss?  10. Shireen – My weight fluctuated even though I was careful with food. Could ovulation be the reason?  11. Jackalyne – Is it okay to accept hunger as part of the process? How do I manage it long-term?  12. Francesca – How often should I be increasing weights in my workouts?  13. Aisling – Any tips for staying motivated when I feel a dip?  14. Steph – I hurt my shoulder. Should I rest or modify my workouts?  15. Annabel – What's the best way to ease back into training post-surgery?  16. Julia     - What heart rate zone should I aim for in home training?     - Do I need to weigh all individual ingredients when cooking?  17. Sam – I'm not aching as much after workouts. Does that mean I'm not working hard enough?  18. Anna – What's the best alternative when I can't find the right attachment for cable machines?  19. Mary – How to manage afternoon/evening sweet cravings?  20. Emily – Should I eat before or after a late gym session?  21. Lauren – Alternative exercises for step-ups if benches are too high?  22. Danielle – Feeling distant from the group due to a busy schedule. Any advice?  23. Emilie – Struggling to focus on nutrition and log food. How can I break it down and make it easier?  

Apply to join our next intake in February by visiting www.fitfemaleproject.com or follow us on Instagram @fitfemaleprojectQuestions in order:Mary – How do I maintain my weight without regaining? I want to stop dieting but don't know how.Debbie – My weight has stabilized. Should I keep tracking my food?Rachel N – What's the best cost-effective weight for hip thrusts and similar exercises? Would a kettlebell work?Kat C – Struggling to balance training with life demands. How can I stay consistent without feeling guilty?Lucy – Stuck at 70kg. Should I reduce calories or try a diet break/reverse dieting?Niamh – Can I focus only on tracking protein instead of everything else?Anna – I struggle to breathe when holding a weight to my chest. Can I hold it differently?Sam C – What should I prioritize when feeling unwell and unable to train?Maria – Will losing body fat reduce cellulite?Sarah – Are protein-dense ready meals from supermarkets okay for regular use?Annabel – Having vocal cord surgery, what gentle exercises can I do and what foods are soothing?

Join us this week on "Honest to God" as we follow Pierce's personal journey of conversion, including: -His initial misconceptions about Mary -How he came to understand and appreciate her role -The impact of Marian devotion on his spiritual life We discuss answers to common questions about Mary. If you're interested in learning more about Mary, or if you're considering converting to Catholicism, this video is for you. HTG hopes this story will inspire you and help you on your own faith journey. All this and more, on Honest to God.    Watch on Youtube: Click Here Check out our parent network: The Quest - Atlanta's Catholic Radio  Follow us on Instagram Listen on the Quest app: Android Apple   Check out Producer Julian's Social Media: X - Twitter Facebook Page Instagram

Patrick has a heated discussion with caller Frank that centers on the delicate and often contentious issues of racism and the "woke" agenda. Frank raises concerns about how people on the right, including Patrick (at least in Frank's opinion), “fail” to address the underlying racial issues. Patrick emphasizes his denouncement of all forms of racism, regardless of the source. Together, they discuss specific examples, including the recent situation in Springfield, Ohio, involving an influx of Haitian immigrants, and compare it to the relocation of Ukrainian refugees.    Frank - We lose credibility when we don't address the root cause of the DEI agenda.  (00:33) Mike (email) – Business owner in Springfield Ohio gets threatening letters from Trump supporters (19:59) Nicki - What is the Catholic Slap for confirmation? (24:34) AUDIO: Haitian asks his family member if they eat cats (26:56) Thomas - I have a good friend who no longer trusts Patrick because he supported that action of taking a door off as punishment to a child who is misbehaving (30:51) Mary – How can I help my nephew's girlfriend? She had no religion in her life, but she believes in God (42:03) Irene – We had to keep our daughters inside the house.  We got a security system, and lights, and detection, and it still didn't work.  What worked was nailing their windows shut. (47:32)

Patrick addresses common misconceptions about the Crusades. He explores the real reasons behind these historical events and debunks myths many people believe. Patrick also dives into the power of miracles, affirming that, yes, even today, some Christians have been gifted to perform miracles. For an enlightening deep dive into history and faith, you don't want to miss this episode!   Audio: CBS, 9 years ago, talked about lasers controlling the weather (03:54) Audio: CIA Director John Brennan comments on controlling the weather (07:26) Richard - Thank you for talking about NFP. Mary - How do you combat direction from the Church that is not good from some priests and other authorities? Has the Catechism changed? How do you maintain a friendship with someone when you can't even attend their wedding? (12:14) Tom - I think that going to an invalid wedding would be like going to see the gladiators. (23:54) Tyler - Should I talk with the priest about people speaking during communion? (28:58) Latisha - I have heard the death toll is much higher than what the media is reporting, and I think everyone should leave Florida because this coming hurricane is so dangerous. (32:29) Carol - I refuse to talk with AI because they use it for dishonest things. (37:14) Linda - My son has been away from the Catholic Church for a long time, and he claims the Catholics were the bad guys during the Crusades. (39:05) Jim - Could the disciples do healings like Jesus? (49:41)

Special guest host Fr. Matthew Spencer shares his recent dental experience and the unexpected ways pain can transform into a profound reflection on how we handle suffering in our own lives. Fr. Matthew shares insights on how distractions and focusing on good works can help us bear our personal crosses with more grace. He also explores the idea of finding God in everyday moments and the lessons that can emerge from seemingly mundane experiences. So, whether you have a fear of the dentist or you're looking for ways to alleviate life's pains, this episode offers both practical and spiritual wisdom that's sure to stay with you.   Gary - I thought that you had to be at Mass before the offertory on Sundays to receive communion. (00:53) Mary - How do I respond to a protestant who says there is proof in Luke 19 that Mary had other children? (07:40) Email – Can non-Catholics receive absolution at confession? (13:36) Fr. Matthew shares his recent adventure in a dentist chair and how what happed to him relates to the wisdom of the Church (18:28) Stan (email) – How can I live with hope in the present moment? (27:07) Nancy - I remember that the readings would make us ready for communion. (30:41) Ann - When you are in labor, you have to think about what is ahead and not on the suffering you are going through at the moment (34:09) Cindy - My great-grandma was involved in magic. What can I do to remove myself and my family from that? (36:56) Gloria - When you have a newborn, can you miss Mass and if so how many Sundays can you miss? (42:19) Emma - Why can babies be baptized but an older child needs to take classes before being baptized? (45:32)

Father Peter Armenio joins Patrick to discuss Dating for Catholics (13:39) What is dating like for Catholics in today's society? (21:42) Break 1 How a woman can see if the man really loves her. (29:22) Chuck - lifelong Catholic.  Dating 50 years ago was difficult for any man going through life.  God is the only one who can fill it...doesn't matter who you date.  God will provide a wife, and you need to have gratitude for that person. John - Taught Catholic Engage Encounter.  Love is not an emotion...it's a decision.  Great option for couples to go through. (37:02) George - Older and just came back to faith.  When do I start to discern relationships? (40:27) Break 2 Mary - How can children hear more about dating so we can start teaching it at an early age?  Any resources for Middle school/high school age? (47:19) Email from a listener asking about appropriate flirting for Catholics.

Father Tom Wilson joins Patrick to discuss Forgiveness (5:08) What is the link between forgiveness and justice Yollie - If you can't forgive you couldn't enter the kingdom of heaven.   Jesus talks about forgiving seven times seven times. (17:07) What does it mean to forgive someone? (20:29) Break 1 Mary - If a person has wronged you and forgiven them, just be careful that they don't repeat what they've done to you.  I set my boundaries. (28:29) Ben - Learning the story of St. Maria Goretti and her forgiveness has helped me in my journey of forgiveness. Are there degrees of forgiveness? (37:10) Letter from Mary - How can you forgive someone if they are not sorry? (41:36) Break 2 Anne - How can I forgive someone?    Ex daughter in law, took 80% custody.  She has gotten worse.  Turned kids against my father and stopped me from picking them up.   She's a narcissist.  I don't know how to forgive. (47:37) Lorna - How does one move on from forgiveness, when that person has passed, and wasn't able to tell them I forgive them.

Join us in this episode of the Class E Podcast as we dive into the extraordinary journey of Callie Goodwin, the mastermind behind a thriving greeting card company born out of the challenges of the pandemic. From a humble start during quarantine to becoming a household name on TikTok, Callie shares her inspirational story of turning isolation into innovation. With her background in education and social work, Callie's path to entrepreneurship was unexpected but undeniably rewarding. Tune in to discover how she navigated obstacles like funding shortages and leveraged the power of social media to skyrocket her business. From viral TikTok campaigns to unexpected partnerships, Callie's journey is a testament to the resilience and creativity of small business owners everywhere. Join us as we explore the highs, the lows, and the invaluable lessons learned along the way. This episode is a must-listen for anyone seeking inspiration, practical tips, and a glimpse into the limitless possibilities of entrepreneurship in the digital age. Guest: Callie Goodwin. Founder Sparks of Joy   Host: Mary Sturgill Producer: Isabella Martinez    Transcript: MARY: Hi there, everyone. Welcome to this episode of the Class E Podcast. I am your host, Mary Sturgil. This podcast is brought to you in partnership between the Hill Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Communication Studies Department here at Furman University. And today we have a very special guest…you may know her from Tik Tok and some Tik Tok ads. It's Callie Goodwin, who is the founder of the greeting card company, Sparks of Joy. Callie, welcome to our show. CALLIE: Hi! Thank you so much for having me.  MARY: Callie, I want to start with… Do you remember the first time that we met in person? Because we've known each other for a while though. CALLIE: It's been quite a while. I was helping film in Columbia. I don't know what year it was. But it's been quite a while. MARY: It's been at least seven years probably. Yeah. Yeah. I was still in news. I was still a news anchor. And Callie had this drone and I was you know me, I'm a gadget girl. And so I went up to her and I was like, oh, show me what you're doing. Like we were just talking off air that we were flying drones and we didn't really know any of the rules back then. So we just flew them all over the place. CALLIE: I look back now and I'm like, Ooh, yeah, we were definitely breaking some rules then. But honestly before… it was still the wild wild west of drones.  MARY: You were on the cutting edge then and now you're on the cutting edge again. That's your life.  CALLIE: I like to live on the edge. MARY: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So tell us a little bit about Sparks of Joy for people who might not have seen your TikTok ad because your TikTok ad… I say TikTok ad guys but it is all over TV right now. CALLIE: Yeah, so Sparks of Joy started as a pre stamped greeting card company in the middle of the pandemic. I bought a house the summer 2020, moved in, was exposed to COVID had to quarantine and during that two weeks was going stir crazy. Neighbor dropped off a handwritten card and some brownies. And that handwritten card like really kind of sparked this idea of like, I want to send out cards out with my new address like I finally have an address on my own. But I realized that I didn't know what boxes my cards were in. And I didn't have any stamps. And so I used that two week quarantine period to start a business. I design all my own cards. And then we pre stamp the cards so that our customers don't have to or don't have to try to track down stamps at the post office so it has grown I started my TikTok right as I started my business and now it's grown into this massive account and this like really cool opportunity to partner with TikTok on these things. And I never would have dreamed that this loneliness of my brand new house would have turned into this three years later. MARY: Right and so the…let's back up a little bit and talk about your education because everything that you've done in your education so far is geared toward education. For kids right? CALLIE: So I thought I wanted to be a preschool teacher growing up. I worked in preschool for seven years. So I got my Associates in early childhood. And then I transferred to Columbia College and got my Bachelor's in social work, essentially social work, and decided that's not what I wanted to do. I began working at Columbia College doing social media and got my master's in higher ed administration. And now here I am, I work for a social media app for high schoolers going into college. So still kind of like higher ed adjacent, but also run a greeting card company. MARY: Right. So you're doing social media and you're a master at social media by the way. You're doing social media for them and you're running this company that has just literally blown up. How did it come to be that Tik Tok contacted you and said we want you to be in this for us. CALLIE: So I retold the story recently or was talking with the people that this all started with. It started in the spring of 2022. So we actually got a very kind of vague sketch email from TikTok that was like, Hey, we're working on a new upcoming project. If you think you might be interested in being part of this vague project that we can't tell you information about, like fill out this Google form. And I clicked it and like it really was just a basic Google form asking about my business and I'm like, well, nothing I'm sharing here is like proprietary information that they can't like find on my website. So I filled it out. And three months later, they got the green light from legal to start this. It was called TikTok Impact and showing the impact of TikTok on small businesses. So they got the green light to start it and so it started as a website with about I think 10 to 20 of us, representing 10 states. And that rolled into the first campaign with TikTok, which was South Carolina based…a couple of billboards and newspaper ads and stuff that ran in October of 2022. And then thought that was it… thought the campaign was done. And then I was contacted in July of 2023 by a production company, they're like, Hey, we think you're a good fit for a project again, super vague. We can't tell you the client. Like are you interested? And I'm like, sure we've done this before and it's been great. So sure, let's try it again. Turns out the client was TikTok again. But it was a much bigger scale. So it involved filming this commercial, they came to my house. I think there was like 13 or 14 different production team members that came out and we filmed all day long. And then this is part of a national campaign so it's rolled out. I think the commercial is rolled out to South Carolina at this moment, but will continue to roll out nationwide. And then it also included billboards in places like… Vegas is covered. I think there's like 13 or 14 in Vegas. Times Square, the New York subway system… all around South Carolina and it's been really cool to watch that grow. MARY: Yeah I love on your Instagram when you put your…. you took a picture of yourself in front of your billboard in Times Square. CALLIE: Yeah, we went up for my birthday in December and I was like, told my parents we have to go to Times Square to see this. It's just surreal to see yourself in public on these advertisements. So I just flew to Washington DC. And I saw myself in the airport like on the screens and I was like, Oh wait, that's me like, and nobody else around me like notices in this moment that I'm standing here like in all of this ad and everyone else is just going about their busy day, but I'm like, right. Oh my gosh, I'm on this giant screen like that's crazy.  MARY: Yeah,I know that feeling. The first time I saw we had a billboard for one of my stations that I worked at when I was broadcasting. And the first time I saw one of our billboards I had to like stop. I've literally pulled up on the side of the highway. Like oh my god, that's huge. CALLIE: The first night that somebody texted me that the billboards were live in Columbia, because I didn't know that that was part of this campaign. So somebody's like, I just saw a billboard of you and I'm like, What are you talking about? They're like, Oh, yeah, it's over onForest drive and it actually was not on Forest drive. It was somewhere completely different. They got the location wrong. So I'm driving around Columbia, like just looking for myself. And yeah, it's probably crazy, but it's a lot of fun. MARY: I love that. But I do want to point out to our listeners that this is a prime example… I do a workshop sometimes for women entrepreneurs who… how to get your story told. Right? And so let me ask this question… was anything… did you have to pay for any of this?  CALLIE: Not a penny.  MARY: Exactly. So saying yes to things will get you free advertisement. Right? Now, of course, there are a lot of scams out there. So do be careful about that kind of stuff and kind of use the techniques that Callie used to say, Okay, this is just business stuff that I'm giving them, right?  CALLIE: Absolutely.  MARY: And then you can always do your background checks, make, make the phone calls, send the emails, you know, do whatever you need to do to check the background of things like this. But let's talk about how this has blown up your business. CALLIE: Yes, so, through the first campaign, we ended up getting verified on Tik Tok and being able to reach a large amount of people and through that campaign, rolled into the opportunity to… so that started with the vague sketchy email to begin with, which then turned into the first South Carolina campaign, which then rolled into the opportunity to speak at South by Southwest last March on a panel with TikTok which led to go into DC with TikTok, which led to like this campaign, and so saying yes, at all these points, continues to just open doors. But yes, I think I missed the rest of your question there. MARY: I think you got it. Saying yes to one thing opened all those other doors. South by Southwest is huge, you know, being able to go to DC all off this one, you know, thing that you said yes to was really the catalyst for all of that, right. So, let's talk about the art just a little bit because you were an art major, right. And how does that play into part of your personality, part of who you are and into the whole thing? CALLIE: Yeah, it's been cool to be able to take some of these designs that you don't see represented in greeting cards every day. And I know again, like I always tell people like you, if I can succeed on Tik Tok, you can succeed on TikTok. I am selling greeting cards in a digital world. Like people don't send mail, people love to receive mail, but don't take the time to send mail. And so the fact that we've sold over 50,000 cards in the last three years is proof that like people want that connection, they want human connection. And I think a big thing is like people like to purchase from me because I show myself on my account a lot. I also share not just business stuff, but I I share a little bit of the personal side. We talk about mental health. We talked about behind the scenes of packing orders and so people connect on a personal level there and feel like they're supporting a person in a business. And that's something they could get behind.  MARY: Yeah, I think you bring up another good point with that because part of marketing yourself on social media and you just gave us a tactic right there. Right. So it's not all about the business. It's not all about buy buy buy this right. It's about sharing and connecting on a personal level. CALLIE: Absolutely. So originally I had gone back and privated all at the beginning of my TikTok because they were so cringy I couldn't even like stand to see them on my account. They were… it was bad. I was just watching the waters…. and I had to go back and unhide them because the reality is like I didn't want to minimize, like how rough the start was, like sure we're at 113,000 followers now. But we weren't there at the beginning. And we started small. We started cringy it took a while to find our stride. And when I did, it really changed when I started getting on camera and being myself and realizing like, I am not going to be equal to the people that have millions of followers like I don't have the pretty perfect setup. This is me in my garage selling greeting cards and so once I found what was unique to me and just like the fact that like this is who I am and embracing that, like that's when we saw growth because I got comfortable with who I was instead of just trying to be everybody else.  MARY: Yeah. Wow. What you just said is so powerful. Right there. I think that being comfortable with who you are and finding the power within yourself can transcend any area of our life. But at the same time holds us back from all areas as well. Right? If we don't have those feelings. Even in my own daily life I catch myself ... .that self talk, you know that we have that Oh, I shouldn't do this because I don't have this or I don't do this right. And, boy, I need to take your advice today. And I know somebody listening does too. Wow.  CALLIE: I often have to remind myself that especially as my account grows larger, I find myself hesitating before I post up I'm like Ooh, is this worth the post? Like is this gonna fit things and I realize I'm like, that's not how we got here. And that's not how we're going to continue to grow if I'm if I stray away from where like what our tried and true like method is so yeah, everything doesn't have to be perfectly filmed. My hair always looks like a disaster. It's always a frizzy mess. Usually whatever t shirt I wear for the day, or I slept in and just showing whatever I'm working on really connects with people, MARY: Yeah whatever part of your life that it is for that moment. Yeah, yeah. You also brought up the fact that you started with… You know, I mean, everybody has to start somewhere. Right? And so with the followers on Tiktok, you started with small followers with a small number of followers and then that grew over time, the more that you became your authentic self and I think so many of us, me included, tend to not be as consistent as perhaps we should be to help really gain those followers and take advantage of what Tik Tok and other social media outlets have to offer for free advertising for us.  CALLIE: Absolutely. Yeah. It's really cool for me to connect with the people that used to join my live streams like I remember when I hit 1000 followers and I got to finally live stream for TikTok specifically and there was two people that would join my live streams all the time. I think we ever we maxed out at like five people viewing for the first couple months and now whenever I go live, there's sometimes there can be a couple 100 people in there, but sometimes I see those, those original two or three and it's always such a special moment when I see it pop up, and I'm like, Oh my gosh, you're you're still here. Like you're still like, I don't care about the rest of them like you followed me through either there at the beginning. Like it's really it's really important for me to connect with my followers in general in the comments, but then also to like, remember people and remember that, like I wouldn't be here today without the support of the people along the way. MARY: Yeah, that's an excellent point too. And that connection, you know, when those live streams, you're creating community. CALLIE: Yeah. 100% we have whole like, like conversations in the comments, or I think at one point, I was taking a new medication that had to be taken at night and I'm a nighttime like live streamer. Like that's usually when I'm going live and I had one follower who is now a really good friend of mine we've never met but she would remind me every night and she's like remember to take your meds and I was like thanks because I forgot and they're ADHD meds so like it's seem funnier that like usually it was the thing… the thing you need to take to remember to do the things consistently. And so she was my consistent reminder during live streams and he's like, Did you take your medicine and like, Oh, thank you so much. Let me take one right now. And so yeah, we got through that entire, like, season of that specific medication because she reminded me every night because I wouldn't remember. MARY: I love that. So what inspires you? CALLIE: That's a great question. I am fueled by trying new things, and seeing what can happen. So I also love a good challenge. So recently, back in August or July…I had an opportunity to work with a laser company called… and they sent me a laser and I was to make content with it. And so I wanted to do a 90 day payoff challenge. Because I thought, You know what, that'd be a cool like source of content…have all these projects. I need to pay this laser off anyway, like let's, let's do it in 90 days. And so I made a list of all these projects that I wanted to do and started working my way through it. And on day 15, our Stanley topper file went viral and we sold $30,000 worth in nine days on TikTok shop. And so those videos collectively have over 10 million views. My house is a train wreck for weeks as I had about 14,15 people rotating in and out to help me fulfill these orders. But I'm constantly like inspired by trying new things, seeing what will take off and then watching the power of social media work. We've had multiple cards go viral, we've had multiple products and so it's always fun to kind of chase that like new level of success but also like what is going to connect most with our followers. MARY: Right. Do you sell the cards as singles or in groups? How does that work? CALLIE: So we have cards that are available as singles. We have postcards. We have flat cards that go with an envelope and a stamp. And then we have like little baby like mini cards. And you can buy them individually but you can also bundle them to get them at a cheaper price.  MARY: Okay, excellent. So what has been the most rewarding about this process for you… this experience?  CALLIE: I think the experiences and being able to meet people and connect with people. I think social media allows you to really connect with people that are outside of your circle. And so I have been able to make some really incredible friends through Tiktok through social media in general. I actually went to VidCon out in California last year with four creator friends that I had, or three creator friends that I'd never met in person. We all rented Airbnb and went out together and had an absolute blast. But we've just built all these relationships, friendships, partnerships with different people. And that is… it's just so fulfilling. MARY: Yeah, that's really cool. And I think you know for all of its faults, social media does that really well.  CALLIE: Yes.  MARY: Is there any obstacles that you had to overcome that you other than, you know, the self talk which we've talked about, you know, that you've had to overcome in the process? CALLIE: I think our biggest challenge is always like money, and funding. I started this with 20 bucks in the bank account and have used the profits from whatever I sell to reinvest back into my business and so every time we go viral or we have these like big influx, it's like okay, now how do we, how do we upgrade our stuff? Instead of outsourcing, we now print all of our stuff in house. We've purchased the equipment, you know, we've purchased the lasers, we've purchased the shelving like never, never knew shelving was so expensive. But to house all of the cards that we offer, we have about 150 designs. And to also to hire an assistant that helps with fulfilling card orders. That was important but yeah, I think funding especially when not going like traditional, like loan routes, because that wasn't something I wanted to do. It's also sometimes hard to find small business loans when you're brand new, but not like when I still consider myself like a pretty like a baby business compared to like a retail location or something like that. Everything operates out of my dining room and so sometimes that funding is usually like one of the hardest parts.  MARY: Yeah, that's…it is hard, especially for a company that's starting up because for banks to lend you money of course they want to see three years of growth right? CALLIE: Yeah.  MARY: And you're like, Well, how do I get the growth but don't have the money? CALLIE: Exactly, exactly.  MARY: So you have to be creative in the ways that you find. So then when you have this big orders like that $30,000 order right… or 30,000 card order, then you just hire part time people to come in and help you get them out quickly. CALLIE: Yes, my dad was here everyday helping. My assistant was here and then I literally put the call out on Facebook. I was like who has extra time during the day… night. We would have people that would come in at 7:30 in the morning. A friend of mine… I gave her my house code and was like here's the key to the door. She would come in and start working. I would sleep in a little bit. But I would also work until 2,3,4 in the morning with the late night crew and so we made it through like you find your community, find your local people that will jump into help but yeah, August was chaotic. MARY: And that but you know what, that's a great problem to have. CALLIE: Yes, it is. Yeah. Yeah. MARY: So looking forward, what are some of the goals that you have for the card company? I mean, do you I mean, I guess you want to stay in your garage forever. CALLIE: Yeah, I don't know.  MARY: Although that might be kind of nice.  CALLIE: But yeah, it's well, it's nice, not having like an overhead of a shop or warehouse or anything. Our garage is converted so it's like a two car garage size but it's a nice like workspace. For me I think I've specifically this past year I've been operating essentially two businesses under one name. So we have the greeting card side and then we have the laser engrave side and low backs are how the laser engraving came in. It's because no one gets rich off of $2 greeting cards. Takes a lot of greeting cards to build up by capital. And so we introduced laser engraving personalized items to help get our cost per order up. But they still kind of feel like two separate verticals. So the goal this year is to invest in a UV printer, which will allow me to take the full color designs of my cards and print them onto cups, wood, stuff that I can use in my laser engraver and be able to finally merge those two businesses and have them like mesh a little bit more cohesively. So that's a large investment of a pretty expensive piece of equipment. And so yeah, I'm sure I'm excited to figure out how we obtain that but that is the ultimate goal for 2024. MARY: How do you proceed TikTok helping you in the coming year? CALLIE: Well, this specific campaign is not a short, the ads may stop running soon, like the print and digital ones. But this is… it's going to be a long term advertisement for them and for me, and so I know that's going to help with business. I already get orders all the time. That's like hey, we saw we saw your ad like we're now ordering. But TikTok the platform itself is… 98% of my customers find me through TikTok so that's where we put all of our time and effort. We have Instagram, Facebook, we don't put as much stock time investment into those platforms because when you find something that works like I'm investing my time there on TikTok so continuing to create content that engages people that I think going back and doing a lot more content about the how… how we get to places the start of a card, how we design it, how it's printed, cutted, showing the behind the scenes of that is something like my followers have asked to see more of this year. They also asked to see more of the laser and so we're gonna be featuring more of that This year as well.  MARY: Yeah, that's fun to see. That's fun to watch. CALLIE: I realized like as much as I see it working and it may like lose its sparkle a little bit when you're running it consistently. My followers don't get to see the chaos of watching it run and so I've got to remember that's not…most people don't have multiple lasers in their house. So I need to share that more with people. It's very common for me, but it's not common for 99% of the population. MARY: Right, right. You know, I want to circle back around to DC because we I know there were these huge hearings about TikTok and potentially regulation or, or even not allowing Tiktok to operate in the United States. And I know that if that were to happen, it would hurt small business owners and I think you would be one of those people. CALLIE: Yeah, yeah. I actually just got back from DC. I was up there talking about credit card swipe fees. Additionally talking about the impact of Tiktok on my business and kind of my stance on things is a lot of the questions right now are about internet security, data privacy, and we're having these conversations. Tik Tok gets called out a lot because the parent company has owners that are also Chinese based. And so that causes a lot of fear. But the reality is that data security and privacy is a much bigger topic that is not limited to TikTok. We have those issues with Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Twitter, whatever, all of them have the same issues. And so when I'm talking with our representatives, talking about let's have the broader conversation, let's not single out one because the reality is if we can pass legislation that protects users and people. It's just eliminating one, it's not going to fix the problem. We need to do more to protect everybody. And so I'm hoping that some of those conversations we'll realize that that's the bigger issue. But yeah, it's a risk, putting kind of like a lot of my all my eggs in that one basket but right now, like it is the most accessible platform for small businesses the way that the algorithm works, the way that the platform shows stuff that you're interested in. And so it's easier for small businesses to have a fighting chance of being seen versus Instagram and Facebook that really value the amount of followers you have over the interest of what you have. So it'll be interesting to see. But I continue to use our voice to talk to our representatives because I met with our representatives office this week, and Lindsey Graham and talked to their office and showed my stats and they're like we've never heard a small business story from Tik Tok. And I'm a constituent and so going and showing the staff with like, 98% of my customers find me here like here's… our audience is actually older, like it isn't young kids and so kind of changing the narrative by giving the other side of the truth there. MARY: And thank you for doing that. And I think all small businesses should thank you for doing that. Because, you know, the good thing about social media, no matter what platform it is, is it's free advertising for you. Every time you're on there, right? You are the face of your company. You are the brand so to speak, right? And that's some advertising that you don't have to pay for. Absolutely, it's free. And if you're not using social media, then you should start using social media. CALLIE: Yeah, we don't pay. I think I ran one ad last year. And it was a very targeted ad because it was for a very targeted product for our cutting boards, like it was a targeted age group for that specific product. But yeah, we've done so much. I mean, I think we did probably close to $50,000 in sales last year without a single like dollar of advertisement. MARY: That's great for the bottom line.  CALLIE: Yeah. MARY: Let's give some advice to people because we just talked a little bit about the age, you know, and that's a misnomer that ultimately kids on Tik Tok, right, because it's not. It's only old people on Facebook because it's not, right. And so let's talk about if you can give some advice to some of our listeners about maybe some tips and tricks of the trade so to speak of getting yourself noticed. CALLIE: Um, specific per platform or just in general? MARY: In general, or if you want to go specific, specific, that's fine. CALLIE: I think often that we target certain platforms for certain ages. And that's not necessarily true. Facebook's become older generation. Snapchat is just like the high schoolers TikTok is like Gen X, millennials, whatever. But that's not true. Some of my favorite Tik Tokers are actually like quite old. We have… like I follow a Grandma, that's one of my favorite people on the app. I think there is a spot for everybody on all platforms. All say that the demographics from my Tik Tok account and actually have this beside me. So I'm not just pulling out numbers. 71% of my followers are between 25 and 54 and 87% are women. 96 or 96% of them are in the US. So I do have international followers. I've shipped a lot of international orders from that percentage that is internationally, but I think that not specifically targeting a certain age… I think making your stuff broader is the best way to appeal to people on all platforms. My dad loves TikTok. Does he create content on there? Absolutely not. But he does scroll it nightly for hours because he sends me them all the time. So it's, it's really cool for him or for me to see certain brands like really embrace the fact that like all ages are on TikTok and be able to target across all generations with their content and like it's resulted in…he has purchased us specifically because he saw it on TikTok.  MARY: Yeah. I do that all the time. CALLIE: We joke about like Facebook ads are like super targeted because of your like interests or whatever. You think and it appears but there are still younger people on Facebook. They may not be posting but they see stuff. Same with Instagram, I think a lot of people watch but don't necessarily post and so just because you may not be seeing their content on there doesn't mean they're not there.  MARY: That's a great, great point. Because there are 1000s, millions of people probably on Tik Tok that just kind of scroll and watch and whatever, the videos and they're seeing those ads, right? I don't I mean, you know, as I said, I'm a gadget girl, which is how we met each other. And because I went up to Callie and I was like, hey, show me what you're doing here man. And I am forever ordering gadgets off TikTok shop.  CALLIE: The amount of stuff that I need to do an entire video of stuff that I've ordered because I saw it on TikTok and there is a hashtag TikTok made me buy it but I have peach mango toothpaste because I found it on TikTok. Like I hate the taste of normal mint toothpaste. And I got served an ad for flavored toothpaste and was like done… immediately purchased. And that was like such like such a good decision that like makes an impact on my daily life. But like a random thing. MARY: I will tell you I have not gotten anything that's cheap or bad or anything from any of my Tik Tok purchases.  CALLIE: Yeah, most of them are pretty solid. I will say as a TikTok shop seller, the regulations that they have…they're pretty strict. And so we're constantly fighting the product authorization stuff on like getting our stuff posted because sometimes it says like I think this is… like your price is too low, we think it's a scam and I was like it's a mini greeting card like I can't charge more than $1.50 for this like sometimes it'll flag us like we think this is a scam it's because you're offering it for $1. So…but yeah, I think the last probably eight months has been really heavy on TikTok shop as they released that and try to grow it. I think that now that Black Friday and Christmas and stuff are over I think it'll chill out a little bit. But it is interesting to watch how the different platforms are changing their algorithms and changing what they're promoting. I recently got a message from Tiktok saying that they're wanting you to post some vertical or some horizontal videos and longer videos and you've got YouTube over there promoting shorts and then you've got Instagram that wants to be everybody… do all the things. So it's important to pay attention to all of the platforms and see what they're favoring. And if you can ride the wave as soon as they announce something…I will say that's like one of the things we found the most successful is when a when a platform releases a new trend or not necessarily like a trendy type of thing, but like TikTok specifically said recently that they're favoring longer videos and they're favoring the, the horizontal so they're fighting YouTube essentially. I have friends that are posting that and going viral for those longer videos and it's counterintuitive what we think Tik Tok should be but if TikTok is saying, Hey, we're favoring this. It's pretty dumb to not ride that wave. Even if we don't agree with it because like, I don't have it like I don't TikTok to be YouTube… I want the short fun videos but like as a creator, as a marketer, you got to sometimes you got to suck it up. MARY: Right. Callie, thank you so much. This has been such an interesting conversation. CALLIE: Thank you so much for having me. It's always fun to talk about this kind of stuff. MARY: Yeah, absolutely. Before I let you go though, tell our listeners and we are on YouTube too. So tell our listeners and our viewers how they can get in touch with you and how they can order from you and that kind of thing. CALLIE: You can find my stuff at sparksofjoyco.com. Our handle is sparks of joy co on all platforms. And then we have our website. MARY: Perfect. Again, Callie thank you so much. We can sit here and learn from you so so much. So everybody, you know she gave us some really good nuggets and even some Easter eggs in there, to use a Taylor Swift term, that you can pull out when you listen to this podcast and kind of put to use in your own life and your own building of your business. So Callie, thank you so much again. CALLIE: Thank you.  MARY: Take care.        

-Do Catholics worship Mary + -How to relate to Christians

Dive into the latest episode of the Class E Podcast with Andrew Predmore, the executive director of Furman University's Shi Institute, as he shares insights into their innovative initiatives. From on-campus climate action planning to a closed-loop food system, the episode delves into sustainability challenges and solutions. Join the conversation as they discuss composting, student engagement, and outward-facing programs, including the Sustainability Leadership Initiative. Andrew sheds light on working with businesses for sustainability and fostering leadership in South Carolina. Discover how Furman is making strides in sustainability, from reducing carbon emissions to unique partnerships. Don't miss the innovative steps they're taking in waste reduction at athletic events, creating a blueprint for sustainable practices. Gain valuable perspectives on sustainability and be inspired by Furman's commitment to a greener future! Guest: Andrew Predmore, Director of the Shi Institute at Furman University Host: Mary Sturgill Producer: Isabella Martinez '24   Transcript:  Mary: Today, our guest is Andrew Predmore, who is the Executive Director of the Shi Institute for Sustainable Communities here at Furman University. Andrew, welcome to the show. Andrew: Oh, thank you. I'm excited to be here and excited to talk about innovation and entrepreneurship. Mary: Absolutely. Because you guys have some innovative programs, which we're going to talk about but you've only been here a year right?  Andrew: Not even a year. Getting close. So I started October 5th or 6th of last year so getting close to a year, yeah. Mary: How are you finding it?  Andrew: Oh, I love it. Mary: Not to put you on the spot.  Andrew: Well yeah I can't exactly answer like, oh, no good at all. But no, I truly am enjoying the position. And you know, I tell people that I really have one of the most fun jobs there is out there because we do a lot of good. And really, you know, my biggest challenge is trying to figure out what in the world to say no to because all the sustainability work that comes our way is good work. And work that's needed in the world. So lots of opportunity and lots of good things to do. Mary: So let's talk about that because you have some innovative programs that you guys are working on. Can you kind of… I don't want to say just list them all but kind of talk about them, list them and then I want to jump in…there's some that I want to dive into  Andrew: Well it would depend on how you define innovative right? But we have a lot of programming. I couldn't possibly list them all for you. Yeah, I would say like just in a broad sense, like the Shi Institute is working on and off campus on sustainability issues and we're looking to make a difference in both places. Andrew: And along the way, we engage students and faculty in that work. So you know, I'll mention just a couple of things going on on-campus and a couple of things off campus and then we can see where that takes us. But on campus our biggest push right now is climate action planning for the university. So Furman University has a carbon neutrality commitment for 2026. It's going to be really difficult to meet that commitment. And so we're really intentionally working on how we are going to pursue that commitment or we need to reset sort of when we're going to be carbon neutral and what is a pragmatic pathway to reduce carbon emissions because we're in here right now and the lights are on and we're using energy right now. And so that's, that's a real challenge for any university in any large organization. So you got to be innovative, you got to think outside the box. And we want to do it also in a way that supports the broader Greenville community. So that's a big thing that we do on campus and anything that we do on campus, we're always engaging students in that so we have a really vibrant student fellowship program. We also have a farm as you know, and that's an important thing on campus for students to get their hands dirty, and see what a closed loop food system looks like. So we'll probably get to that as an innovation but like, you know, we pick up the food waste that comes out of the back of the dining hall, we take it to a compost facility, we compost it, the compost comes back to the garden. The garden grows produce that is then sold to Bon Appetit. So we really have been working on that this summer, and over the next year to scale that up and see how much we can produce and have students learn along the way. So those are two things on campus. Mary: So quick question about that - Is the goal then to produce so much that then we can sell it to local farmers and stuff?  Andrew: No, I mean, not yet. I mean, the goal right now is to produce as much as we can that will then be served in the dining hall. So I'm gonna go to the dining hall in a few minutes when we're done with this, and you're gonna and I'm gonna see like all those heirloom tomatoes that we grow, I mean, hundreds of pounds and tomatoes this summer. We're getting close to $15,000 over the produce that's gone to Bon Appetit over the summer. So that really is healthy local food going to our students, our faculty, our staff right now, in the future, we might do CSA or do some other things where we sell that in other places, but for now, it's just going to the dining hall. Mary: What about the compost? What's the goal for that?  Andrew: The compost as you might imagine it… we've produced quite a bit of organic material, right and like so students out there and everybody listening, you know, be conscious of what you know, sometimes our stomachs are bigger than… what's the saying?  Mary: Our eyes are bigger than our stomachs. Andrew: Yeah, that's right. But then that translates into food waste. So be aware of that, but there's a lot of that and then there's a lot of leaf litter and organic material that comes on campus. So we blend that right? You have to get the carbon to nitrogen correct and compost that so we have quite a bit of it. We're going to start to sell that as a way to raise funds for the Shi Institute.  Mary: Yeah, that's kind of what I meant when I said for the farmers like local farmers, who are we selling that to? Andrew: Right now… we're not, we haven't even until now this podcast. I'm not even marketing that we're selling. And we've sold you know, several $1,000, but we're looking to scale that up because we have a lot of organic material and a lot of finished compost. The one little bottleneck we have though is filtering the compost. So we can't have plastic and forks and things that sometimes end up… so we have students out there sometimes filtering that so… Mary: I've seen some of the pictures that students have posted about people accidentally throwing away their forks and stuff in the DH.  Andrew: Yeah, the DH has a tough job right? Like anybody that's been there knows things are moving quick. And sometimes, you know, a fork or things just end up in the wrong place. But we'll solve that, we're going to filter it. Mary: So I want to turn now and talk about some of the outward facing programs.  So you have the sustainability leadership initiative.Tell us about that. Andrew: Yeah, so um, you know, think about it this way, like, like, for the world for society for South Carolina to become a more sustainable place. We've got to work for large organizations, right? And so and large organizations have to change just like Furman has to adapt…other organizations, businesses across the state need to adapt and so Furman and the Shi Institute partners with a nonprofit called sustain SC and each year we do a training that lasts five different sessions throughout the year across the state of South Carolina with around 25 business, nonprofit and public sector professionals that sign up to be in that and we're teaching them about the core aspects of sustainability. We take them out into the field and show them some of the challenges. And what we want to do is create a network of sustainability leaders across the state that are going to move us forward. So that's that program. This will be its third year. We have a really great class of people involved with that, real leaders across the state, and it's been fun putting together that program like we're taking them out to Waitis Island, which is a big conservation win. It's an under conservation easement. It's a barrier island off the coast near Myrtle Beach. So we will take them out there and show them like this is an amazing thing. This is amazing that it's protected in perpetuity, but they will also have to grapple with the fact that, like you all might have heard on the news this week that Myrtle Beach is one of the fastest growing cities in the US. Right? So there's all that urban development and around that area. And so those students that are in this program, those professionals, we're going to grapple with that like and hopefully that's going to help create better leadership and sustainability. Yeah, Mary: Yeah, because those people are the people who will then go back to their companies and it has to come from the top down, right? So that's a great way to network. I like that. That's very innovative thinking there and I like that because a lot of people in the industrial side of things don't think like that, right? Unnecessarily.  Andrew: Yeah, I mean I think that is changing. You're right and I think that the innovative thing about that is getting leaders embedded in organizations that then construct and flip systems to more sustainable ones.  Mary: Exactly. Getting them to flip the systems. That's exactly what I was talking about. You have one with manufacturers, a program with manufacturers, talk about that one  Andrew: Yeah, so this really was you know…I don't always love the word pilot but how about demonstration project? This summer where we worked with the South Carolina manufacturers extension program, and they know that there's like 7000 or so small to medium sized manufacturers across the state of South Carolina. And a lot of what they do is supply the really big manufacturing businesses in South Carolina. So think of the you know, the big name industries or companies that you all know like BMW or Michelin or Volvo or, or Milliken across the upstate, right? So they have many, many small suppliers. And then those small suppliers are under some pressure now to understand their carbon footprint. You know, because they supply these bigger businesses that have commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. So I'm like okay, knowing this I'm like, alright, there's a there's a niche here for the Shi Institute right to step in and roll our sleeves up and see if we can help some of these small to medium sized businesses understand their carbon footprint, and it helps their business because then they can say to their customer, their large customer, hey, we're working on it. It helps us because we got students who need to learn carbon accounting as a skill. So there's a really nice win-win. And so we did a couple of those this summer. They were fantastic. We work with a French company, which is located mostly in Anderson County, and they make advanced textiles. And then we work with a company that's really right down the road here called Mosaic Color and Additives. So we had two students do their greenhouse gas inventories, which is the first step like you cannot reduce your impact on climate without first understanding where your emissions come from, that are driving that impact. And so that's what the students do is, you know, we worked it was very much like a client consulting type experience for our students, which is super valuable for them. Mary: That's the Furman advantage right there. Andrew: It is. We handed the company like a report. Here are your emissions, here's where they come from. And they can start thinking about okay, what can we do to lower emissions? How can we market ourselves as a more sustainable company as a result of taking this first step? So that was a great project and we're looking forward to potentially scaling that up next summer and I think yeah.  Mary: I love the fact that you because when we think of people who need to really work on sustainability, we do think of the large companies right because they probably have the most greenhouse gas emissions, etc. But I love the reaching down to the smaller companies or supplying the bigger companies because that really, I think, will make their partnership stronger.  Andrew: It should and it should create an advantage for those first movers in a small to medium sized manufacturing...because they can say to their larger customers, hey, we're serious about it. We're taking this first step. So we, we, you know, sometimes people think sustainability, shouldn't or can't work with the business sector and I think instead we need to be innovative and think about how we can support the change that needs to happen. And so that's what we've tried to do.  Mary: Because we're part of that community. So why not? Right?  Andrew: We're wearing clothes and we consume things and so we're all a part of this economic system and, and the challenge of sustainability is how are we going to meet human needs within the boundaries of what our ecosystems can provide?  Mary: What kind of obstacles are you facing with some of these things that some of these initiatives that you're started? Andrew: My own ability to keep up with all this. Like I mentioned, sometimes there's more opportunity than then I can capitalize on it. I mean, we're also involved with some really substantial grant work, research work on climate and climate resilience in South Carolina. Luckily, I have staff they're helping with that. We're also involved with athletics and athletics at Furman and starting to think about, you know, how can we make those events… move them towards zero waste or zero landfill events and so we have to really, I don't know if you want to get into that.  Mary: I actually do.  Andrew: I have some, I think some really exciting things that we're just starting this year. So I'm not going to say we're going to finish the thing, but my biggest challenge is keeping up keeping all these things going. And luckily, I have a great group of people that I work with.  Mary: Because if you think about all of the ways from the concession stands, and even when people are tailgating and all that kind of stuff. That is a huge area that could be fixed. Right? So how are you… what kinds of things are you talking about?  Andrew: Yeah, I'm, like I said, we're gonna take incremental steps just because of our own bandwidth. But I think students, we have an eco-rep program, and those are students that work in the residence halls here at Furman to encourage sustainable behavior among their peers. They're going to help us with this athletic thing, because we need some, we need some person power behind this because there's some education but you know, you think about like, just think of yourself at a football game or a basketball game and what's served there, you know, and you start to go through sort of the inventory of what you could consume there, and then you start to understand the challenge, right? So you get a hot dog. What is the hot dog served to you in? Maybe some sort of cardboard type of thing? Well, could that become a compostable? I guess cardboard is compostable. Making sure that everything that the food is served is compostable. And then you got to figure out how to compost and collect it and you got to train people to not put what's compostable into the landfill bin. So one of the cool things we're doing and it is with that company Mosaic Color and Additives…they have a compostable fork, that they're working on and it's sourced from US materials, so it's not made in China. And we're gonna pilot using that in men's basketball games this winter, and we'll collect it and compost at Furman compost.  Mary: So that's the innovation right there. With the company.  Andrew: You know, so we'll start with basketball. Our students are also going to be doing… our Greenbelt students that live in the cabins along the lake are going to do some waste audits. So they're going to help us this year understand the waste stream that I didn't describe perfectly there for each of the athletic events. So that next year, we really understand well, like what needs to happen to move towards nothing is going to landfills, either recyclable or compostable. That'll be… that's the ultimate goal with us. So cool, really cool stuff happening there and just thankful to have athletics just super supportive and excited about it and to have Mosaic Color and Additives also, like here use our product.  Mary: Yeah, I heard their CEO talking about that fork.  Andrew: Yeah, and test it in our compost like they're very open, transparent about working together on that. And that is probably, you know, I'm not in innovation and entrepreneurship, but that's a hallmark of good thinking. Right? Mary: Right. That is innovative thinking.  Andrew: Think about systems, think about being open and transparent and creating partnerships.  Mary: Exactly.  One of the things that I find troubling is that we do have people in this country who don't believe that we need to do these things, right, that, that we don't necessarily need to be sustainable. How do you change the minds of people who aren't taking those actions that all of us can take? Or who don't have that same philosophy? Andrew: Well, I would say a couple of things to that. And you're right, you're right. That's a challenge. If you watch the Republican primary debate the other night, you saw someone say that climate change is a hoax. Well, you know, 99.99% of scientists do not agree with that. Right? It's established fact as much as science can be fact at this point that climate change is real and it's driven by humans. Okay. But to your question, which is like, how do we start to convince people? I think one thing to do is kind of what I mentioned earlier, which is…all people are embedded in an economic system that currently is not terribly sustainable, right? It's based on a take from the earth, make something wasted model, and we have to change that. That is a big systems change. So I don't think the way to do it is to place a lot of guilt on other people, because a lot of times we're embedded in a system where it can be very challenging to live sustainably. That's not to say you shouldn't do what you can do. I really think you shouldn't but don't put all the blame on individuals. Instead, you know, let's look at systems change. Let's look like I talked about let's look at training leaders to work in organizations that can flip larger systems so that it's easier for you and I to go to a football game which I think is a you know, I like sports, but I don't want to create a bunch of waste when I'm there. So create a system when I get there, so I'm not generating so much waste. Right. So there's systems work to do. The other thing I would say is, you know, you got to start talking to people about these issues in ways that matter to them. Yes, absolutely. So like, you know, we talked about climate change, you know, if you're a sports fan, I don't want to go to a football game at 12 o'clock in South Carolina, in September. And I think that is going to be a more and more difficult, unpleasant experience if you look at the climate models. So that's something that a lot of people care about. It's part of our culture in the South is to go to college football games. We need to do something. Youth sports are a big thing. Like is it safe to practice in some of the heat and humidity that we're going to encounter? So talk to people about things that matter to them as a starting point, instead of hitting them over the head with you got to change your… and guilt and all that and I think people will start to see that. So… Mary: That's audience, right? You got to know your audience, right? I tell my students that all the time. Whatever story you're telling. Start with the audience. You got to know how to tell it based on who your audience is. Right? Andrew: Yeah. I mean, I'm no communications scholar, but I've been in sustainability long enough to know that trick.  Mary: Yeah. So I was looking at some of your history Andrew and I'm going way back a little bit. In undergrad, you were a politics major.  Andrew: Yeah. Mary: Trying to pull that out of my memory correctly. How has that helped you in what you do now? I mean, obviously, your PhD and your masters and everything is on sustainability. But… Andrew: That's an interesting question that you know, I think probably some of the answer that I just gave, you know, politics is about speaking to audiences and convincing audiences so I don't know that without you asking me that question I've attributed the ability to answer that question to that experience, but maybe I think my undergrad at UVA was really more about like, critical thinking and, you know, a liberal arts education. I was a person that did not know what I wanted to do.I knew I was interested in political science and things like that, but I was also interested in the environment at that time, but I hadn't figured out environment… Sustainability wasn't really a thing. I hadn't figured out what my avenue would be there. And I think I know at Furman, we're better at that now, helping young people see the array of professions out there, but for me, it had to be like a winding path.  Mary: Yeah, I was the same way. Was there something that you came across or some event or something that kind of spurred you into saying, okay, this is the direction I want to go in, and I want to get my higher education, get my Master's in that and and go on to be where you are today?  Andrew: Oh, for sure. Yeah. I mean, it wasn't like I didn't read something, although there are certain things that I read that were impactful. I think if you haven't read Aldo Leopold, a Sand County Almanac, you should read that it's both beautiful and was really forward thinking and still applies today. But it didn't really come from reading or studying. It came from like when I was a kid growing up in Spartanburg, South Carolina. My dad would take my brother and I up into Pisgah National Forest, and we would go backpacking. He took us out west, we went out to Yosemite, we went to Yellowstone and Grand Teton. When I was 10 years old, I was backpacking in the Tetons. Mary: That's amazing. I love the Tetons.  Andrew: So you start with like that just and I found interviewing students over the years both at Indiana University where I was before and at Furman, you ask him like, where's your passion for sustainability come from? Usually there's some sort of connection with nature. And for me, that's what it was. And then ever since then, I've been trying to figure out how to make an impact. How do we create a safe space for humanity to thrive without messing up what we got.  Mary: So what has been the most rewarding thing in your career path that you've… because you were in sustainability at Indiana and now of course at Furman. Andrew: That's a good one. You know, I can talk about like, different sort of things that were accomplished either at Indiana University or even at Milliken. I was there for a year. They were one of the first 50 companies to have science based targets for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, prove targets… and that was really cool because not to say I did that but I was a part of that. That was awesome. We did some cool things at IU around waste and recycling like that system was really not functioning well. And we set that on a path to do much, much better. And that was a big, you know, that's a big campus. So we're proud of some of those accomplishments, but I mean, it may sound a little bit cheesy but truly like when a student that worked with me like as a kind of like here we have student fellows, at IU we had sustainability interns, when they come back and I can see on LinkedIn that they're working on these things or they asked for a recommendation and I'm blown away by like, what job they're about to get. Man that's awesome. And to know I have a little bit of piece of that, particularly ones that I worked really, really closely with, that's really super rewarding. So it's a mixed bag, you know, lots of things. Mary: I totally get that because I feel that way with my students. You know when I see them succeed. So I like to kind of leave our listeners with a blueprint that they can take into their lives no matter what the conversation is about. There's always some advice or just some nuggets of information that they can use. What would you give to our listeners as something that they could take and do right now today? If they so chose to help in sustainability. Andrew: Oh, gosh, I cannot give you just one. I think we kind of covered you know it a little bit but if you're passionate about… I have students, students more at IU and increasingly I think will happen at Furman will come ask me that kind of question like What should I do? I care… what should I do? And there's all those like, personal things that you can do, right? And for college students that can be hard because you're not in control of your living space necessarily. So like you and I, we might ought to look at the energy consumption in our household and there's the inflation Reduction Act, right? So there's a lot of incentives out there for solar or battery and I'm looking at that in my house right now. So those are things but college students, you don't really have a lot of control over where you live, so do what you can. But I think the other thing is think about this as a system. If you want to make a difference, some of the things that you need to do are learn to talk to people about these issues and be willing to do it. And we talked about some tips there like approach the audience with what they might care about. But also don't be afraid to be politically engaged. Because that's probably the highest level systems change that you, that students and any of us can get involved with. So if you have a voice on this, use it.  Mary: That's a good point. I didn't even think about that. Andrew: It's not all technical stuff. It's about driving social and collective collective action. Mary: I want to circle back around to Furman again. What are we doing well, and what do we need to do better? Andrew: What are you talking… on campus or… Mary: As you know, our goal and our sustainability plan is to reduce our carbon footprint. How are we doing basically?  Andrew: Well, so you know, I mentioned one thing that we do exceptionally well, which is that closed loop circular system with food and food waste, and that's fantastic. And we'll be looking to scale out those issues. So as I've talked about compost and athletics and catering and so those are things we do well and we're going to do even better. We have nice greenhouse gas reductions relative to our 2008, 2007, 2008 baseline. Our greenhouse gas emissions have dropped like 37, 38%... Mary: Which is great.  Andrew: … which is very good. We have geothermal on different parts of campus. We have a good size solar installation across Poinsett Highway, so Furman has done a lot of things and so the facilities folks, Jeff Redderson and his team deserve a ton of credit for that.  Mary: We have five buildings that are LEED certified… Am I right in that number?  Andrew: I don't know.  Mary: Okay, well I'll look it up and if you want to know, just email me.  Andrew: Well, I know we had the first LEED building in the state of South Carolina.  Mary: Yeah, Isabella did a story on it. Yeah our podcast producer did a story on it.  Andrew: But what can we do better? Right. I talked about the climate action planning like we need to get to a point where we're looking at our greenhouse gas emissions year over year. And we're transparent about that. And we have a strategy to reduce those emissions year over year. So that's where we're headed. It's as I mentioned to you, it's it's it's challenging. We're not going to make those changes without careful planning, which has already started. So if you think about every one of or maybe not every one, but most of our buildings, this one included, has a natural gas boiler that heats the building. Well, their emissions are associated with natural gas consumption, so we need to move away from that but you can't just snap your fingers because Furman has money in that infrastructure, or that wouldn't make financial sense. So instead, you got to look at well, what's the lifecycle of the natural gas boilers at each building and which ones are coming to the end of there? And then what are we going to do then? We're going to electrify that building, the heating, and what's that going to cost? And so that's the kind of really the hard work that's ahead. And I don't know, I'm just really excited that facilities and other parts of administration are up for that work and yeah, and we're gonna, we're gonna do it. Mary: Andrew, anything else you want to tell our listeners about what the Shi Institute's doing and has in the pipeline?  Andrew: Well, I would say like this, this podcast is about innovation. And I want to thank former President David Shi who just committed a million dollar gift to us and that kind of support you know, whether it's $5, or a million dollars helps us do the things that matter most. So looking at issues around biodiversity loss and climate change and climate resilience. Instead of having to chase grants or other ways to support our work, we're able to… with that kind of support, we're able to do the things that matter most and so that would be a thing that were like, first, thank you and for other folks out there that want to support a group doing great work in the upstate in South Carolina, come talk to us. Mary: Absolutely. Andrew, thank you so much.  Andrew: Thanks, Mary.   Mary: I appreciate it.   Mary: That does it for this episode of the Class E Podcast. Remember this podcast is brought to you through a partnership between the Hill Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and the Communication Studies Department here at Furman University. It is produced by student producer Isabella Martinez.  But until next time, I'm your host Mary Sturgill. Dream big everybody.  

Fr. Roger J. LandryColumbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, ManhattanMass for December 20December 20, 2023Is 7:10-14, Ps 24, Lk 1:26-38   To listen to an audio recording of today's homily, please click below:  https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.20.23_Homily_1.mp3   The following points were attempted in the homily: “Let the Lord enter! He is the King of Glory!,” we proclaimed […] The post Learning from Mary How to Respond to Christ’s Coming, December 20, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

In part one of this series, “The Light Has Come” Pastor Josiah speaks about Mary running into a natural barrier in the first Christmas - and at one time or another we have had the same response as Mary - “How can this be?” But God is the God of the Impossible, and if He did it then, He can do it again. Join us for Thrive Church In person (more info here) or Online Sundays 2:30PM (MT) on Youtube Want to partner with Thrive Church: https://www.thrivecalgary.ca/give-onlinehttps://www.thrivecalgary.ca

On the 2nd Sunday of Advent, Amos preaches on the questions asked by Mary: "How can this be?"

Only 2% of children who have a mother incarcerated will graduate from college, and this needs to change. In this episode of the Class E Podcast, we sat down with Jennifer Jones, the founder and executive director of the non-profit organization, Beauty Marks for Girls, which aims to disrupt this incarceration statistic with its devoted mentorship program. Jones shares her personal story and emphasizes the power of empathy and perseverance along with the importance of taking care of yourself.   Guest website: https://beautymarks4girls.com/ Host: Mary Sturgill Producer: Isabella Martinez '24   Transcript of the Show MARY: Hi, everyone, welcome to the Class E Podcast. I'm your host, Mary Sturgill. This is the podcast that's brought to you through a partnership between the Hill Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and the Communications Studies Department here at Furman University. This week I've been so excited all this week for this guest because you are going to be excited after you hear this conversation. You will want to.. don't walk, you will want to run to an event where she is listed as the speaker and after we have this conversation, you're gonna know exactly why I said that. Jennifer Jones, welcome to the show.  JENNIFER: Thank you Mary for having me. I'm excited.  MARY: Yeah. I'm excited for you to be here because Jennifer did a speech at one of the women's events that I went to. What was it last spring or something like that? Yeah. And I was just sitting in the audience and I was…I probably shouldn't admit this, but I was just crying. Because I was so touched and so inspired by her story. So I wanted to have her on to, you know, do the same for you guys. Right? So Jennifer, let's talk a little bit about your story. You've started a nonprofit, we're gonna get to that. But you had a lot, of course, leading up to that and were really motivated to start it in the first place. Can you tell us a little bit about your personal story?  JENNIFER: So Beauty Marks for Girls…It did derive from a lived experience. We mentor girls whose mothers are incarcerated in South Carolina. And so I wanted to make sure that no young lady has to experience the pain of living with an incarcerated mother by herself. I am the daughter of a formerly incarcerated mother, who really has turned my pain into my power.  MARY: Yeah. I love that.  JENNIFER: And I plan to do the same for the young ladies throughout our program. So parental incarceration, I like to say that it hurts, but still in those broken areas, you can find that is where your power lies. Normally I'm asked about Beauty Marks, where do we get that name from? And that's what it means… Every scar tells a story. And those stories not only deserve, Mary, to be told, but they deserve to be heard.  MARY: Oh absolutely. And telling and hearing are two different things.  JENNIFER: Absolutely.  MARY: So you overcame some of the hardships that you experienced and you graduated from Columbia with a Fine Arts degree.  JENNIFER: That's right. Columbia College.  MARY: Yeah, yeah. So tell us how you kind of have parlayed that into Beauty Marks for Girls.  JENNIFER: I think it's beautiful that it just, it matched perfectly for me because when I entered into college, arts was something that I wanted to focus on and what it did for me, the arts, was it allowed me to have this blank canvas, right? So Jennifer you can create whatever it is, no matter what you're going through, this is your canvas. So it was an outlet for me. I like to say that education saved my life, because it allowed me to use my pain as a way… as an outlet to grow not just personally but also from an impactful way throughout the state. So yeah.  MARY: I love the idea of the blank canvas really being a symbol for what these girls are working with in your organization because their lives are blank canvases right now and they may not realize it, right? But you guys help them with that.  JENNIFER: That's it. That's the beauty behind it is we're not telling them what to paint, but we're telling them here, here's the tools. No matter what you're going through, you can create something beautiful. It's the mastery for them using the paint brushes and the colors that they are given. And parental incarceration, like I said, is something we don't talk a lot about Mary. But what I have found is that when you create those spaces for these young ladies, they grow… they have the sense of belonging, their self esteem is built and they know that they are not defined or withdrawn from having a successful life. But we're here to help them along the course.  MARY: Yeah, and a lot of times they don't see that they can have a successful life. Because what they see is the trouble that their parents have gotten into or their mother has gotten into, and especially for girls, especially at some of these, you know middle school ages and even elementary school even earlier than that, they are super impressionable, obviously, and they need that special connection between their mom and if they're not allowed to have it, that's a big piece of their development that's missing.  JENNIFER: Absolutely. Perfect example - that first crush, right, in middle school. Or that first breakup, which I just experienced last week with a young lady and you know, typically we run and we tell our moms and our moms are there to embrace. What happens when that mom is not there? Girls tend to internalize, you know, what it is but I'm grateful that we have developed an ecosystem where they can pick up the phone and say, “hey, Miss Jen.” Well, they don't even have to say “hey, Miss Jen.” They may start off just crying.  MARY: Right, right. And you're gonna know by the tone of their voice exactly that something's up.  JENNIFER: That's it. And I say and I pause, “let me know when you're ready.” So they have that outlet. Yeah, that's important.  MARY: I love that. So you're not only providing the outlet and the network and the space. How exactly does the program work, like you guys meet weekly, or how does that work?  JENNIFER: Yes, so we are a year round mentorship program. So that is a part of our ecosystem. Every girl is partnered with a mentor and I like to say they're the trailblazers - our mentors are because they're creating this path that they may have never been exposed to if they didn't show up. So we meet with the girls on a monthly basis, but mentors do a “hey girl hey” check in and that's a call-in every month, twice a month, which is great. And that can be anything, Mary, from “hey, let's just go and grab some ice cream”, or I found this quote and I wanted to share it with you today. So that mentor really stands in the gap as the locomotive really to our organization.  MARY: You are so creative. I love the hey girl, hey, well, that's why you were a fine arts major. Hey, girl, hey, and all the other things that you're creating for these girls. It just spurns out of your creativity and your heart and your soul I think.  JENNIFER: It really does. And again, I look back to my connection with the arts. I have to be honest and share a little bit of my testimony…I knew when my mom was incarcerated, right, there were two options for me: it was either going to be quote on quote the streets or education. And I'm so grateful that I chose education. Now when I went to college… with the administrator like “hey, what are you gonna major in?” I was like “I have no idea” because I knew in college I was going to have a roof over my head, right? And I was gonna get meals a day. And it just goes to show that your pathway, you may not understand it in the very beginning, but keep walking. So not only that, I went to a women's college, one who would have ever known that I would be leading a women's, you know, organization. I started in prison, actually was called into the prison system and I taught two years there for rehabilitation for women - how to get to the root issue of what's going on. And then again, it just, it just transpired. So your pain is usually a dictation…it's giving a little bit of a leeway of what you're built to do in the future. So don't dismiss it.  MARY: Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's great advice. Don't dismiss it and that can be applied to entrepreneurs to innovative thinkers, to anybody, young girls, young boys, anybody. I do want to talk a little bit about your volunteering at the correctional facility. What kinds of things did you learn from that experience that kind of helped you now? JENNIFER: Wow, that's a powerful, powerful question. The last thing I wanted to do was to go back into a correctional facility. But someone very dear to my heart, one of my mentors, actually my pastor, Pastor Wendell Jones, he said, “you know that you're healed in an area when you can go back to that place and you're not broken in that area.” That's when you know that you've hit a healing place. So what was mine gonna be? I had to go back to the correctional facility and that session was only supposed to be maybe like, two weeks. It turned into two years. I fell in love with vulnerability and community and that I was having an impact that was greater than me. And so that was my way to healing…was to give back and to ask mothers. That was the common denominator for moms…serving anywhere from a year to life in prison and to hear their stories and for them to say “Miss Jen, if I could turn back the hands of time or Miss Jen, if you can show up for my daughter's graduation on my behalf..” It's bigger than me. And so I was able to encourage them and heal at the same time. How divine is that?  MARY: Yeah, absolutely. As a matter of fact, you saw me do it and the camera saw maybe too I don't know, but those of you who are listening, go to YouTube and watch that part. I caught my breath when you said that… that you are healed if you can go back to the place where you were broken… JENNIFER: Absolutely. Yeah. And you do not have that animosity or your strength and that's Beauty Marks. Every scar tells a story and we don't look at those scars as shame, but they're now badges of honor where I can tell my stories to the ladies and it was relatability, like wow, this young lady has taken time out of her day and she's going through something very similar as I am but we turn pain into power those young ladies. Funny, funny stories and… real quick Mary to a birthday event. And my very first mentee at the prison at Lee's Correctional was there at the birthday event. Very first mentee in 2016.  MARY: Full circle. JENNIFER: Full circle and she hugged me. And it was one of those full circle moments for her and she just poured her heart out like “thank you. You showed up when no one else understood. You didn't pass judgment on me.” Now she is a business owner doing well. I mean, it's amazing. It's amazing. MARY: Yeah. That gave me goosebumps when you said that because I love full circle moments like that. And we never know. I truly believe this. We never know what impact we have on somebody. A lot of times we go through life and never know but you had the look, I would say, of being able to experience that and know the impact that you had on her and you know you're on the right path. JENNIFER: And sometimes you don't recognize it…in that very moment, the seeds that, you know, that you're planting and that's how seeds work. You have to organically, right, you have to allow them to grow. And yeah, it was powerful. Yeah, that was a powerful moment.  MARY: I love that. I love that. I want to talk about failure just a little bit because these girls have experienced failure, right? and they may… and failure comes with a lot of negative connotations. Right? And I know that entrepreneurs and innovators think of failure as a positive thing most of the time as this is something we're going to overcome. We're going to learn from it. How do you incorporate that and teach the girls that? JENNIFER: Yeah, great question. We have a saying that obstacles… We look at obstacles as opportunities. You know, this is an opportunity for you to grow. This is the opportunity for you to learn something or maybe just pause for a moment and say maybe how do I need to pivot this? So we look at obstacles because failure is going to come and so that encouragement I think… also surrounding yourself with people who understand and have pivoted their way out of failure. That's important as well. MARY: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And the girls can learn from that. And speaking of that, how do you find the mentors to pair up with the girls? JENNIFER: Yes, yes, great question. We typically try very hard to match our girls with whatever pursuit like career suit. Like we had a young lady who wants to be a nurse. So we made sure that we found someone in the nursing field. That can be just from networking, events, presentations, just doing a call to action, and the community's response..I can't describe it. It has blown me completely away. People see the need… people connect somewhere in the search, you know, in the story no matter if you had a parent incarcerated or not. We all… we're not immune to pain. Somebody somewhere is going through something and so to see individuals you know, executive directors say, hey, I don't have that much time, but I want to give two or three hours to mentor throughout the month. So it's been amazing. MARY: Yeah, I love that. What has been kind of..I know the whole thing has been rewarding because when you hear Jennifer talk about this, it's just, but what has been the most rewarding thing for you in this journey? Because I know the journey hasn't been easy. JENNIFER: That's a great question. Come on Mary with all the great questions today. I love it. Wow. So I set… our huge initiative is to help send a minimum of 50 girls off to college within the next seven to ten years. As I spoke of earlier, my mom was incarcerated when I was in college, and so to drop a young lady off, and to help her get settled in… the first day of her day of college, I didn't have that, right? I was by myself. And I'm gracious you know, my brother, I had the bags on my back and it was pretty much good luck. Hope this works out.  MARY: That's kind of how I was.  JENNIFER: Hey, that's my story. But, to have a group and people… we actually paid for the U haul. We drove her down there. We hugged her, we said our goodbyes. That was a pivotal moment for me and I wept. I held it together, right, that day but I got in my car and I was like wow and it made the saying come to mind, the goal is not to live forever, Jen, but it is to create something that will live past you.” And I knew that that was my purpose. That was why, in a sense, I was placed here on this earth… to mentor and to make sure that girls never have to experience what I had to do alone. MARY: And this… the lives that you are touching that is your legacy. JENNIFER: That is my legacy. That is my legacy. MARY: Speaking of legacies, you have children. Two children. Am I right in that?  JENNIFER: I do.  MARY: Yeah. So let's talk about them and how them watching you is affecting them and kind of importing to them the things that you feel are important in life. JENNIFER: That's so good. That's so good. That's my heart. Right? So when I live on the outside, I live on the inside and Harmony Rose is a part of Beauty Marks for Girls. To be honest, she actually plans events better than me, but don't tell her I said that.  MARY: She's going to know if she listens to the podcast.  JENNIFER: But she is so excited.  MARY: And how old is she?  JENNIFER: So Harmony is eight.  MARY: Eight. That's what I thought. She's still pretty young.  JENNIFER: She's pretty young and she's excited. She has a heart for philanthropy. She picks out the girls'… because we provide care baskets every single month. So she goes to Walmart with me and she says, “Okay, remember mom, Jenesis didn't like that color last time or Eden, this is what she would love.” She does play dates because our girls are as young as eight years old in our program, who are missing a mom and she understands that and so she's a beacon of love, light… the girls in our program…they hug on her, she embraces them. It's a huge family. And so for her to see mom in action, that's a part of my legacy as well. MARY: Yeah. For sure. This has not been an easy road. It's not easy to start a nonprofit. And so what are some of the roadblocks that you encountered that you had to overcome? And…one, getting people to buy into your vision of what this is and how big it could be and how important it would be, but two, the funding, which nonprofits always have kind of an issue with sometimes. JENNIFER: Absolutely. So we launched Beauty Marks for Girls in 2019 as we know the pandemic hit the following year. So I'm like hmmm, I'm supposed to start a nonprofit with no profit, how exactly does that work? MARY: And everybody's on lockdown and can't see the girls. JENNIFER: Exactly, exactly. So the great thing about that…in 2018, I started with maybe around $17 so that's my story. It was and I bootstrapped right? So I stood in front of Walmart, I started this from the ground up. I'm appreciative from starting from the ground up because now I can share with others, share with other entrepreneurs what to do, what not to do. That was my path that I had to take. The great thing is by 2023, I would say that we were a six figure nonprofit organization.  MARY: Wow, that's huge. JENNIFER: Starting from $17 to that and it was just learning… MARY: That's four years… JENNIFER: That was four years of growth and it was the community and telling the stories. For instance, our gala that we had, we didn't bring any keynote speakers very to our gala. Our girls told their stories, and they did in such an organic way. And that was the goal. I wanted the community to hear what these young ladies… what it feels like to truly walk in their shoes, having a mom incarcerated for the next 10 years, and you're only 11. What does that feel like? And so like I said, I would, I would say the financial part of it is always going to be a challenge. The funny thing, the funny challenge I like to always bring up is that a lot of the milestones that we had planned for maybe five or so years to do, we were doing it two years or three years. And while some like what's the problem with that? That's super exciting. It presents this challenge because your team now says “well, what's next?” And as the leader, you have to be vulnerable and say, “I don't know. I don't know.” And so that presented a challenge for me constantly being innovative. And just to bring up GVL Starts…that was one of my… I like to say I had kind of like writer's block or creative block because I was pushing out all of these programs. They weren't effective. And I came to that roadblock like what do we do next? And so I linked up with Brian Davis at GVL Starts and that really, I would say helped me to get my mojo back. Right and everybody was like, okay, team was like “Jen's back.” We pushed out a mental health and wellness program out at that time that is exclusively for girls who have a mother incarcerated and it is right now voted the number one among our girls… the number one program Beauty Marks for Girls has offered. MARY: Yeah, that's good. Because that's a component, right, that we all need, especially in this day and age. I was gonna circle around to Greenville Starts, but you jumped right in there. And I went through Greenville Starts within the first cohort because I have a production company but see if you found what I found… that just the community, I mean, you know, put the speakers aside and educators beside who they bring in because they bring in somebody every day and every time you go… just the community of the entrepreneurs helps because everybody's in that innovative mindset and they're all thinking outside of the box and they're… not just for themselves but for you too. So I found those conversations almost to be as beneficial or maybe more beneficial sometimes than some of the educational components that were planned for us. Not that they weren't because they certainly were, but… JENNIFER: You stated it perfectly. That was the missing link when I was going kind of through that writer's block, that was the missing link. I was not surrounding myself with other innovators…. like minded innovators who were just as wide-eyed and willing to take the risks. But when we linked hands, as sweaty as they were because we were all nervous, I found that was the best thing for me. Yeah, it was that you can't do it without community. You can't. So that changed our life. Greenville Starts. MARY: How has that helped you even, I mean, I think you were in the last year's fall cohort, is that right?  JENNIFER: Yes. MARY: Yeah, so a year almost since then. What kind of changes in addition to the mental health component that you've incorporated for the girls…what other, what other ways did that help you open your eyes to some things that maybe you needed to do or overcome some things.  JENNIFER: It was beautiful. I don't know if you know or not, but we actually walked away with the title last year.  MARY: Yes. you did.  JENNIFER: So, we, Beauty Marks for Girls, we won top pitch, $5,000. And that was our seed fund to start the mental health and wellness program. So we took that seed and took that check in and our young…all they saw was zeros, right? So they didn't know how much it was.  But it was an opportunity for me to say “hey, you can do whatever you set your mind, and you work hard to do. And that was beautiful. So it… again, it helped us to launch our mental health and wellness program which we're going into our second year and now, not only that, but the network of connections that I have made from one, that actually lended a partnership with the Department of Corrections from the cohort. So that right there, that means that we can do more in the prison systems, more families are served. And again, the backing from Furman University and so many other organizations, just has been absolutely incredible. MARY: How many girls do you have right now? JENNIFER: So we have fourteen total across five different counties. And then we have three girls who are in college full time on full ride scholarships. MARY: Oh, that's amazing.  JENNIFER: That's our goal. Our second is to again… to help send a minimum of 50 girls off to college within the next seven to ten years. And we've already sent three on full ride scholarships. MARY: You're well on the way. Well on the way. I was going to ask you, what's next for Beauty Marks for Girls? What do you have cooking in the coffers that you're thinking about rolling out? That you can share with us.  JENNIFER: Okay, you know, I'm excited. I'm so excited. I will say what's in the work right now is that we are trying to turn our mental health program into an application. So it's a platform.  MARY: Oh yes. Fabulous.  JENNIFER: So this is an app exclusively, again, for girls whose moms are incarcerated… so it can be a young lady who is in Greenville or she can be in Southern California. It's not going to matter if she's going through the hurts and pains of parental incarceration, she can log in…it's a safe haven and they can see exactly what we're doing here. So we'll have workshops there, guided meditation. So, it's an application that girls all over the nation can join in on. MARY: So they have it in their pockets at all times.  JENNIFER: Absolutely. MARY: I love that. JENNIFER: So, some of the forums will be what to do the first 24 hours that your mom is incarcerated. So that app is out there where they can log in and meet the students who we have here in South Carolina and again, build that community. MARY: I love that.  JENNIFER: I'm so excited. You know I'm excited.  MARY: Yeah, I love that next step. So your vision is to go nationwide?  JENNIFER: It is. Absolutely. And globally, ultimately. MARY: I love it. Because we have so many moms that have been incarcerated. They're leaving their kids.  JENNIFER: Yes. Absolutely. MARY: And a lot of times…say that number again. JENNIFER: I would say 2.5 right now… 2.5 children have been affected by parental incarceration. Only 2% of children who have a mother incarcerated, based on statistics, will graduate from college. So I'm a part of that 2% and my goal is to disrupt that statistic…girl by girl day by day. MARY: Yeah, yeah. I love it. Disrupt that statistic. You have to probably have kind of a, well I know you have several like visions and things that motivate you or whatever, but do you have an entrepreneurial kind of philosophy that you would share with other entrepreneurs that maybe they're like, oh, that's okay, I get something now.  JENNIFER: Yeah. I would say take care of yourself. From a personal…as much as we want and need your product or innovation, we need you well, so that would be number one because that creativity will flow when you're self care. I would say that that definitely is number one and mental health. The second thing I would probably state to encourage other entrepreneurs is it's okay to pivot. It's okay. It's okay to pivot as I was vulnerable with my team, I didn't know what to do. Okay? At that point, you have to be vulnerable. As you know, that's my stance… vulnerability is the pathway to creativity and connection.  MARY: Absolutely. I completely agree.  JENNIFER: That's it. That's it and don't… definitely don't give up. Don't give up. There were so many days that I was like, this is not working. I don't have the money. Going from $17… You don't really know what you're doing at the beginning. But the resiliency that's going to be pushed out of you will live past you, but you do have to see it to the end. Discipline right? Discipline is freedom. You have to be disciplined as an entrepreneur. And I like to also say because I come from corporate America, the same type of motivation and hard work and discipline that you put within someone else's company, it needs to be to a second level for your own.  MARY: Oh, yes, absolutely. JENNIFER: It needs to be to a second level and continue to elevate and to amplify your voice and take up space. Yeah, don't be afraid to do that  MARY: I love that. I love that. If you could give one piece of advice to the girls, what piece of advice would you give them? Because everything is so individual… JENNIFER: It is. And our program is really tailored to what the young ladies need. If I could give some advice, I would say to learn the power of empathy and forgiveness. It came to a point that before I could go to the next level, I had to have that tough conversation with my mom, right? So I had to forgive and I had to empathize with her. Now my mom is celebrating over 10 years of sobriety and she's a part of Beauty Marks for Girls. We actually named our scholarship after my mom. So I would say lead with empathy and the power within that is to learn to forgive and live to the best of your ability and not hold grudges. Live out loud. Don't be afraid to soar. Yeah. MARY: Yeah, I think that's great advice for anybody, not just the girls, but everybody listening. Right? Everybody listening. MARY: What do you need? JENNIFER: So right now, my goal is to continue to build relationships. So… mentors…we are in need of mentors, mental health ambassadors. You don't have to have a clinical or a form of degree to help a young lady who just needs a shoulder to cry on. We need a lot of hands who need to show up at events, our mental health as I spoke to our app that we're getting ready, you know, just maybe some technical assistance and where to start. That's something that we are definitely looking into. Board of directors, we're always looking to engage with board of directors to help with the health and, you know, the future of Beauty Marks for Girls. So I would say that's number one. Always financial support is going to be something.. I say that a nonprofit is as strong as the community that holds it up. When you see nonprofits, not here, it's usually a funding, right? I've seen great founders walk away from organizations and great work, great causes, but the funding isn't there. So to continue to have this impact that we're having in the state of South Carolina we need that support, that financial support, and it doesn't have to be always a dollar amount to it Mary. If you have a restaurant and say, hey, I want to, you know, bring your girls in to have lunch for after school. That's giving back. Everyone can do something in the philanthropic world. So yeah, so yeah, I would say that. MARY: Jennifer, I love that. How can people get in touch with you to perhaps give in those ways or become a mentor? JENNIFER: I would love to speak more with you. You can reach us at Beauty Marks, the number four, girls.com. That's B, E, A, U, T, Y, M, A, R, K, S, the number four, girls.com. We're also on social media so you can find us on Instagram. Please follow, please like so we can spread the message of what we're doing to have a greater impact. Linked in as well as Facebook. So yeah.  MARY: And you know what? Even if you can't, you know, donate right now or even if you can't, you know,  don't have the time to be a mentor, whatever the case is, you can go on social media and comment and share and bolster because that engagement is so important to spread the word right? Because social media is a huge network and in order for that network to grow, we have to engage.  JENNIFER: Very true. One of our biggest, I would say stakeholders, right now they're in Brooklyn, New York.  MARY: Yeah.  JENNIFER: So like how they found us? I'm not sure, but it was because someone you know, saw the needs, saw the cause connected us. So like you stated it's just as vital, social media. MARY: All right, Jennifer, I'm gonna give you a last word. Anything else you want to make sure that our viewers know about you or Beauty Marks For Girls or entrepreneurship or innovation? JENNIFER: Yes. First of all, thank you Mary. I want to end by saying thank you so much. This is like family to me you all, Furman University, GVL Starts. Pau, Kelly, Brian Davis, everyone I just want to say thank you for that. We are stronger together.  MARY: Absolutely.  JENNIFER: And so I would say last words is don't be afraid to live out loud. Don't be afraid to live out loud. And that your the hardest parts of your testimony could be the roadmap and the blueprint to save another life. So yeah, don't forget that… the power within you.  MARY:  Yeah, yeah, that just made me go whew. I love it. See this is why you should go listen to her speak. Like I said…don't walk, run to sign up for whatever, wherever you're speaking.  JENNIFER: We go deep. We go deep. You will not walk out the same. You will not walk out the same.  MARY: That is so true.  JENNIFER: Yep.  MARY: Jennifer, thank you so much.  JENNIFER: Pleasure.  MARY: I can't wait until I see you again. That does it for this episode of the Class E Podcast. Remember, if you or someone you know has an idea for a nonprofit or a business venture, then Greenville Starts is here to help you do that. So just Google Greenville Starts Furman and it should be the very first thing that pops up on your Google search and get yourself into one of those cohorts that are coming up. But it makes a huge difference as Jennifer has shared with us, other guests have shared with us. So make sure you go do that. This is the podcast that is brought to you through the partnership between the Hill Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Communication Studies Department here at Furman University. It is a true example of the Furman Advantage because we are produced by student producer, Isabella Martinez. And so she creates these rundowns for us and she creates these questions and she researches the guests and then she edits these things together. So please give her some kudos if you see her interacting online because she does a heck of a job. The other thing I want to remind everybody is that you can now watch us on YouTube as well. So of course we're wherever you get your podcasts and we're on YouTube, but hit that subscribe button so that you are notified whenever we have a new episode out which is about every other week. All right. But that does it for this episode of the Class E Podcast. I am your host Mary Sturgilll. Until next time everybody, dream big.          

Our well-being is important to maintain in our lives, and different companies can help us with that. In this episode of the Class E Podcast, we talked with Chad Price, an international business consultant and entrepreneur with several successful wellness ventures. Price shares the knowledge he's acquired throughout his entrepreneurial journey from his exercise equipment company, Kettlebell Kings, to his most recent venture, Life Grows Green, a lifestyle brand focused on natural and hemp products. Price also discusses how entrepreneurs in any industry should always be equipped for battle because they never know what hurdles they may face.   Guest: Chad Price Webistes:  https://www.kettlebellkings.com https://lifegrowsgreen.com Host: Mary Sturgill Producer: Isabella Martinez '24 TRANSCRIPT MARY: Hi there, everyone. Welcome to this episode of the Class E Podcast. I am your host Mary Sturgill and this is the podcast that's brought to you through a partnership between the Hill Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship here at Furman University and the Communication Studies Department. Today we have a very special guest, Chad Price is with us. He is the founder of Kettlebell Kings and multiple ventures, which we're going to jump into and talk about. Chad, welcome to the show. CHAD: Hi, nice to meet you. Thank you for having me. MARY: Yeah, thank you. So I want to start by talking about… kind of going way back to your childhood, and I want to find out…where did your entrepreneurial spirit come from?   CHAD: You know, I think it's interesting. I had to really kind of dig on to that question when I was writing my book recently. And trying to figure out, you know, when was the first time that I really kind of thought about being an entrepreneur and I don't know if it was ever, you know, a one kind of light bulb moment in my head.I think it was just, I've been kind of light bulb moment in my head. I think it was just, I've been on so many teams growing up playing sports that I always knew I wanted to be or create, you know, some type of business operation that I respected like the teams I participated in. So, you know, some type of successful operation, a group of individuals that got together and you know, achieve something bigger than themselves. That's kind of always been my dream. When I graduated college, I, you know, I think it was just like anybody else. I went into the corporate America and tried to find different jobs and different experiences that I thought would maybe fulfill that need and in that process, it kinda led me to realizing that, you know, this wasn't the exact experience I was looking for and if I really wanted that type of experience I'd have to create it myself  MARY: Yeah, absolutely. So you mentioned you played football at Rice and you got a business degree while you were there. It was a few years after that though that you started Kettlebell Kings with I believe a couple of your teammates? CHAD: Yeah, so one of my teammates, one is a friend of a teammate. So kind of, you know, small circle. And when we started Kettlebell Kings, it was more for us. We knew we wanted to start a business in general. MARY: Yeah. CHAD: And we knew it's gonna be something e-commerce. We had kind of been doing our research and at the time I was working a corporate job. So, you know, in my free time, I was researching and trying to figure out if I was gonna start a company, what type of company would it be? And at the time there was really no cool brand around Kettlebells. And so, we wanted to kind of build like a network or community of people who use the kettlebell as a tool for health and wellness, but more of a fitness or enthusiast type of community, an overall health and wellness community just using that kind of as a centerpiece. MARY: Yeah, I love that idea. I'm gonna remind our listeners and viewers on YouTube that was back in 2012 right? So it was before Peloton and before the mirror and all of those things. CHAD: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, and it's interesting to see those things come along. Cause like, you know, you kinda feel like, oh, we missed that on these huge ideas, right? Cause we're sitting here selling kettlebells, but you know, I think that's kind of the benefit of starting your own business. You know, there's different kinds of levels to the journey. There's different scales to everything that you do.You know, I think the fitness community, building the online community and kind of aligning different kind of small and niche type of organizations is kind of an expertise of ours and expertise of mine now that I can carry with me and kind of apply that in any organization. MARY: Yeah, absolutely. And well, I think you guys, I mean, I don't know if anybody before you guys maybe unless it was like individual people or individual gyms that were creating this idea of community around the product, right? And before or some of the big ones that we can think of now. So I think that was brilliant that you did that at that time, right? You kind of rode the digital wave a little bit in that regard, I think. CHAD: Yeah, it makes me feel very old that I'm like original like social media, you know, like I had Facebook when it first came out, right?  MARY: Right. CHAD: I thought those were the good old days and I think you're correct in the sense that there weren't any real kind of online communities back then because social media wasn't such a big presence. And we really… in the kind of creation of our business, we really wanted to focus on bringing as many people together as we could through a digital platform and we never really wanted to have like a physical location. We wanted to invest everything in the company that we could to have like the most successful aggregation of content and basically like a superstore for the enthusiasts online and anyone can experience from anywhere in the world.  MARY: Now you also… for people who might not know, you also actually sold kettle bells and worked on the design of them and the manufacturing of them as well, didn't you? CHAD: Yeah, no, I mean that kind of stuff is awesome for me. You know I had many different jobs in college and after college so some of my previous experiences helped out there. Like for example, I was doing stadium seating when I was in construction and if you do stadium seating, you know, like the stanchions or the uprights that hold the seats together, they're made out of caste. And so I would get huge containers of those on the construction site. And you know, for me, it's like, oh, this is how, you know, metal is made. This is how bulk iron is shipped to America. So I kind of had a familiarity with the type of process that was needed. And once we started Kettlebell Kings, we really just found experts and organizations that, you know, we kind of took their advice and took the customer advice and tried to make the best product. So we would take samples from a manufacturer and then just really tweak and tweak those until we got those into the hands of the professionals and they told us it was perfect and then that's the one we'd go with. MARY: Yeah, nice. I love that process. You know, and it's trial and error, right? You just have to go with what's best right now until you find something better. CHAD: One hundred percent and you know, I tell people all the time we got kettlebells with literally, you know, we get them into the warehouse, we want to do quality control and so we literally throw them up in the air, bang on the ground like try to break them on purpose and during that process, some of them would crack open so you know we've got kettlebells literally like factory dust and dirt and cigarette butts inside before. So there's definitely a trial and error process that goes into making things right but you know I enjoy that process and I think that's what helps separate you from another company. So if everyone has to go through kind of those pitfalls and overcome those obstacles, you know, just puts you a little further away from the competition. MARY: Absolutely, absolutely. You know, COVID affected a lot of businesses that were… in a negative way when we all closed and all of that, but you guys actually thrived during that time. Talk a little bit about that and how that happened.  CHAD: Well, I mean, we always knew when we started the company that online fitness and digital fitness at home was gonna be the future of health and wellness. So you know in our eyes, COVID just kind of accelerated that process and took this into that, you know, that new reality forever. So even if you went back to the gym, I think you still remember those days and you still kind of have a plan or backup plan for your online fitness or your home based fitness, let's say initiatives. And so for us, we were already set up perfectly for that. And all that really did was, you know, kind of prove our point and, you know, it proved the kind of the model if you will for Kettlebell Kings as a whole because we weren't even able to fulfill all of the needs at the time, you know? We went from, you know, normal, doing well as a business, growing, doubling every year type of success as a company, but during that time period, you know, we had over 50,000, 60,000 people on our waitlist. Just they couldn't get product so you know it's kind of a crazy time. MARY: Yeah, that is a crazy time. You mentioned your model. Can you talk about that a little bit more? Kind of outline that for our listeners. Your model for Kettlebell Kings.  CHAD: Sure. I mean, I think it's multi faceted, right?  MARY: Right. CHAD: So when you talk about having a business model or, for Kettlebell Kings, specifically our business model, you're gonna have basically your products for your hardware, which is gonna be fitness equipment. The main thing for us is going to be kettlebells. So, you know, we section that up into the different types of kettlebells.There's different, you know, you have kettlebell, sport, you have hard style kettlebell lifters. You have people who want kind of a hybrid. You know, you have kilograms versus pounds, different things like that. So we decide on, you know, which lines of series of kettlebells we carry. And then more importantly, we really try to be a content company. So we try to see ourselves as a kind of like the ESPN of the kettlebell world where we're aggregating all of the content, all of the user generated content that exists out there and trying to create or produce better content from that and work with those people who are creating those pieces of content to, you know, promote them as a, you know, whether they're a trainer or it's a gym or, you know, a facility for kettlebell sport, different things like that. So it's about really kind of having a production, if you will, where we're literally having, you know, 365 days a year. This is what we're going to be producing. This is what we're going to be, you know, when we're going to be filming it, this is when it should be coming out on our social content channels and things like that. So a lot of it was really growing that production side. I think that was the harder part than the equipment. The equipment is just, you know, I think that's kind of the basics of just getting manufacturers from wherever you're getting that manufacturing. MARY: Yeah, but you bring up a good point about having multiple revenue streams. Coming in with that. And correct me if I'm wrong in this, in 2019, you guys actually acquired another company… Battle Ropes. Am I saying that right? Tell us about that.  CHAD: Correct. Yeah, so in 2019, you know, we really decided that kettlebells were really growing. As a fitness company, we had inquiries and we had, you know, the ability to sell other things besides kettlebells, But we didn't wanna have, let's say, dumbbells by Kettlebell Kings. And so we created a new brand called Living Fit. And that brand was basically going to encompass and it's still I say going to because I sold my shares in that when I sold my Kettlebell King shares, but my partner still runs that brand. That brand basically sells all types of fitness equipment and battle ropes was one of those things that we want to incorporate into that. So the purchasing of battle ropes, you know, a strategic decision for us to have those types of certifications and all of the training and workout videos that came with that company. That gave us a kind of a foundation to build other types of products from. So, you know, we'd use that as a structure to build the dumbbell, the barbell, the jump ropes, resistance bands, you know, diet programs. So at that point we really were into building digital programs and digital services that we could offer people and you know there was no actual physical product that we need to ship in that situation. MARY: Yeah, yeah. You mentioned the sale of Kettlebell Kings, a multimillion dollar sale.How did you come to the decision to say, okay, maybe it's time to do this kind of… be open to this?  CHAD: Well, we knew, you know, we…It's a heavy inventory based company. So when you're trying to grow, you know, you can only grow as much as your margins will allow you if you're not taking on a significant amount of financing and when you have 3 partners… We had 3 partners, 2 companies, a bunch of kind of different initiatives so it becomes a challenge just to allocate resources and agree on where you're gonna allocate those resources most effectively to grow the company because when you're growing so fast that, you know, it's not much room to pay yourself personally. Because the company just needs more and more finance for whatever it is, whether it's inventory, marketing, expanding into new countries, different things like that. MARY: Right. CHAD: So on that journey when we're looking for inventory financing or looking for a financial partner, a lot of people were approaching us about owning some type of piece of the company and a lot of those people wanted to own a majority share of the company. So once those conversations started about a majority share, you know, there wasn't a real option for us to stay around as a kind of a side or a minority owner in the company. And so we really just started kind of taking conversations of if you want to purchase the company as a whole and that led us to some of these larger aggregators had already been reaching out to us. You know, I think a lot of people see the brand and has a lot of potential because it has such a great online following and it demands such a big presence in that niche. So, you know, if you're searching kettlebells, you're going to find Kettlebell Kings. You know, we've becomes synonymous with the term kettlebells in a way where you know we have our competitors to have the hashtag “Kettlebell Kings”, on their social channels and things like that. So I think that's one of the benefits to just owning that brand and the expansion that it's capable of is, you know, it's outrageous. You're not even talking about… you're talking about…we've only really been in America. Kind of just dipped our toe into Europe and Australia a little bit.  MARY: Right, right. You mentioned the brand becoming synonymous with the piece of equipment, the kettlebell, and I think that you guys worked hard to make that happen because that's what comes to everybody's forefront of their mind when they think kettlebell. You're absolutely right about that. I know initially…and this is, you know, well documented… as a minority business owner, it's difficult to get funding sometimes.Did you face any of those hurdles based on the fact that well, you had 3 partners, but 2 of you are minorities, right? So, did you face any of those hurdles that people normally face?  CHAD: Yeah, definitely. And, you know, I, you know, I tell people all the time we would never get financing. So we tried to get financing from every, you know, bank that we ever worked with. We ended up leaving every big bank because they kind of, you know, what we felt were not taken as serious as entrepreneurs or as businessmen. We ended up working with smaller credit unions who you know told us that they would take us a little more serious but they never really had any type of financing that was substantial enough to really make a difference for us. So you know. $5,000 is not really gonna change your company when you need, you know, $30,000 worth of kettlebells.  MARY: Right.  CHAD: But in those situations, they also wanted, you know, personal guarantees and things like that. And when you're an entrepreneur, you don't have, you know, a salary, let's say, for example, to guarantee some of the things that they're gonna want to get these types of financing options. So for us, you know, we literally boot strapped it all the way into the point where we were using, you know, these kind of e-commerce type loans, whether that's, you know, PayPal capital or, you know, the different ones that you could just, you know, you basically can sign up online. They take a percentage of your revenue from your ecommerce store. So that's probably the biggest financing that we used. But up until the point in which we were looking for serious financing and eventually ended up selling, that's kind of what led us to that conversation.  MARY: Is this your second or third year staying on and then you're moving on? Kind of talk about that process a little bit.  CHAD: Yeah, so unfortunately I probably should have mentioned this to you earlier, but unfortunately with the company that acquired us, we were then acquired by another company and so we attempted to stay on and unfortunately that ended up leading us to no longer work with them and in the end actually ended up leading to litigation.  MARY: Okay.  CHAD: So we're in pending litigation with that second acquiring company right now because of the current contract.  MARY: Right, because that was part of that original agreement. I'm assuming that you guys stayed on for a period of time to help in the transition and, you know, bringing the company forward in the way that you guys had intended.  CHAD: Correct. Yeah, and it was the 3 year acquisition that had, you know, payouts associated with the 3 years and everything like that.  MARY: Right.  CHAD: And so, it'll get worked out through the course of some, you know, luckily we live in, in a world where there is a way to handle these situations and our lawyers have been involved the entire time. So from this, from the time we sold to the time they were reacquired, the lawyers were kind of never really finished with the first sale so it's something that the lawyers will work out and it's really just a matter of time before everything gets settled.  MARY: Right, right. I think that's important too for our listeners to understand that sometimes these sales don't always go as planned, right?  CHAD: For sure.  MARY: But there are avenues that you can take to protect yourself. And I think that's important for them to know. What did you learn in that process that you wish you had known before you started that process?  CHAD: Yeah, I mean, I was just gonna say that I think even in these situations you learn so much about what you can do, how you can help someone in the future, what, you know, what kind of safeguards you could have put in place. I think in these situations you really have to understand that you're working with a corporation, you know, when you come from being a small business owner, you take a lot of personal pride and, you know, you put a lot of personal integrity into your work, into the brand. And when you're working with corporations, especially international corporations, they don't necessarily look at business the same way or maybe have the same, let's say, personal attachments or personal integrity to what you're trying to do, as an individual brand. So, you know, if a company owns a 150 brands and you come in as one brand, you're just not going to get the same level of care that you know, white glove type of care that you would have given it possibly and I think taking that kind of stuff into consideration and contractually making sure that the things that were most important are contractual and not just kind of word of mouth or handshake agreement, is probably the best way to go in any of those types of situations.  MARY: Yeah, some good advice. I'm sure you have some of that advice in your book too, which we'll talk about a little bit later. Let's go on to your new venture. Life Grows Green. That's your new company that you started in… I believe 2019. Explain to us what Life Grows Green is.  CHAD: So one of the things, you know, through the journey of kind of owning a health and wellness company or fitness company, that I really noticed how you know we could help people, you know, it really inspired me to see how many people would pick up a kettlebell, and, you know, 6 months later they feel like, you know, they've found something great in their life and they really have built kind of a new personality even around. you know, around this new tool and it just really inspires them to just live a healthier life. I think helping people do stuff like that is, you know, part of a good business and part of building community. I didn't realize I had a passion for it when I started Kettlebell Kings, but now I know that, you know, that is the kind of stuff that I wanna work on. You know, I don't think I could ever really work for a company that takes advantage of people, for example. So, you know, my idea with Life Grows Green was to build a company of natural lifestyle products, you know, whether that's hemp based products, you know, plant derived type of supplements and things like that. Or just your, your natural lifestyle products that you use every day, you know, your glassware, your sheets, your bedding, you know, different things like that. Really just trying to build a community of people who see and want to replace any type of product they can in their life with some natural option or natural version.I think there's, you know, there's a lot of kind of missed out opportunities to have natural products in our lives and just because we don't know any better, we end up with, you know, a cheaper plastic or pharmaceutical version of something that could be natural. MARY: Right, I completely agree and I'm one of those people who loves to go natural. I'm in the process of getting rid of all the plastics in my house, at least trying to. Let's talk about… you mentioned some of the products. How can people find the products? How's business going so far? Because you've been what it's… four years now?  CHAD: When we first started, this was right before COVID. And so, you know, the idea of what we're gonna do shifted quite a bit over COVID. You know, at the time when I started Life Grows Green, I had the nail salon still…I was running a nail salon, Kettlebell Kings, and Living Fit. And then I had Life Grows Green as well. So the idea and the popularity around hemp and CBD was a lot higher. Once COVID happened, everything kinda went into, you know, let's say kind of a suspension, if you will, until we figured out how long we're gonna be in quarantine. We have a lot of in person projects and events that we were trying to participate in that obviously got canceled and didn't really get to happen.But not to mention just the space of advertising for hemp is one of the most difficult things that I've probably done in my career because of all the regulations around it. So, you know, Google, Facebook, Instagram, you're not really able to do that. You know, if you see advertisements there, it's usually some type of a gray hat/ black hat method that companies have to use to not get their account suspended or banned or different things like that. We've tried, you know, even to do things the correct way. Hire organizations to do things the correct way and still have gotten our accounts suspended and banned just for trying to do normal advertising like I would with any other company so through that lens…  MARY: That's really interesting. Yeah.  CHAD: Yeah, go ahead. I was gonna say through that lens, it's very difficult to advertise and to grow a brand like this.  MARY: Yeah.  CHAD: With that being said, you know, lately we've been shifting into more natural lifestyle products. So we have all of your hemp products, but you know, you'll see our Amazon store coming online here shortly. We'll be carrying more of your, like I said the universal lifestyle products versus the hemp based products. And I think advertising and trying to use those as kind of a starting point to get more people in online, it's gonna be a lot easier than trying to climb that uphill battle or fighting the quote on quote CBD and the hemp space.  MARY: That's interesting because I know Google Analytics and that online marketing really helped with Kettlebell Kings and you kind of.. search engine optimization and all of that and so it's throwing up roadblocks now though for this particular company, which I find interesting especially since…I mean how many states now have legalized medical marijuana or marijuana for use and correct me if I'm wrong but hemp is not marijuana.  CHAD: Exactly. And weed I don't sell. Everything that we sell is 100% federally legal to ship nationally and internationally. MARY: I wonder why that is. Why do you think that is? Because it's not, I mean the products don't contain THC.  CHAD: Yeah, I think it's the stigma, you know, I think it's the stigma of people thinking that is like kind of a gateway to THC, which is the gateway to, you know, cocaine and just you know it just scares people just you know you take one step in that direction and you know I think that it's coming down. I think the green wave is real and it's continuing to kind of wash across America and like you say legalization is still growing every single… every time we have an election, we, you know, we get more and more states that are going in what I would consider the right direction.  MARY: How are you overcoming that hurdle though?  CHAD: You know, I think everyone who is in kind of that industry has had to overcome hurdles like this. So, you know, I kind of complain about the social platforms, but it's not just them. It's the credit card processors. It's insurance. It's every single part of the business. You know, you can sell 99% of your products, be everything besides let's say hemp or CBD and if you add hemp or CBD, now you're a high risk company for some reason. And these are things that have been in legislation and you know kind of ingrained into corporate America that they need to just be outlawed. Like there's no reason for, you know, hemp has already been basically given the same kind of space as a rice or any other plant or grain that you would grow. So it should be treated as such by every organization. It shouldn't be treated as some kind of high risk event or high risk operation, but currently that's just how it is and there's not really anything you can do. So you just have to…you're paying a higher cost for every single thing that you do and you're getting restricted on advertising pretty much on every platform currently.  MARY: Right. So, you have some strategies, I'm sure, to overcome that. How are you.. what are some of the strategies that you're implementing?  CHAD: What you can do is literally try to create an online community using the products that you sell that don't have anything to do with hemp because you can technically have, let's say two separate stores, an Amazon store and an e-commerce store, and then by building that community of people who appreciate the 100% non-hemp, non-CBD products, you can kind of hopefully get those people through your social channels and things like that.  MARY: I think you're right. I think there's a path forward for these brands because so many of us are turning back to natural, you know, even down to, you know, doing our own gardens every year, right?  CHAD: Exactly.  MARY: So many of us are making that turn back to natural products. So I'm hoping that you are one of the companies that makes it through. I think you will be. You bring up a topic though that a lot of entrepreneurs face and that's just when you're facing so many roadblocks sometimes it kind of deflates your goals a little bit and deflates your passion a little bit. How do you overcome that?  CHAD: Well, I tell people all the time when I first, you know, sports helped me quite a bit when I first got to Rice. Well growing up where I grew up, you know, we were good in sports and I was really good in sports. So I won most games that I played. And, you know, won the state championship in high school. So it was very kind of fortunate to have kind of a winning career up until my college career and in college, I had to kind of do a little more setback. You know, we had a season where we were 3 and 8. And we only won 3 games, which to me… that was outrageous. Only lost two games in high school in 4 years so having those types of experiences just kind of had me on a different mindset, you know, I look at it as like you can have a losing season and you can still come back next season and be better. And even two losing seasons, three losing seasons, you know, I don't look at the losses as a hundred percent something that I need to dwell on, something that I need to make sure I'm learning from and getting stronger from. So it more just calibrates me for the next bat on. You know, I feel more confident going into the next battle because I've lost already and because I already know what that feels like. I know, you know, how I didn't make it last time or why I didn't succeed when I did this in the past. And so those types of experiences, they really give me more confidence if I spend them correctly.   MARY: Yeah, you mentioned battle. Your book is called Preparing for Battle. It was released this fall. Talk about what people are gonna find when they pick up that book from Amazon.   CHAD: Yeah, I mean, I think that's kind of what I talk about in the book as well. You know, I do see business as kind of a battlefield, a competitive playing field. I think everyone who wants to have a successful brand, who becomes an entrepreneur and there can only be so many. You know, one of the things I tell people is that, yeah, I think we all individually only can remember so many brands in our head. So I don't know how many brands, you know, you maybe have 10, I maybe have 10 or 8 or whatever that number is but there can only be so many brands that we actually associate with ourselves and we, you know, we're proud to kind of be a member of or a part of that community. So I want to be that for as many different brands that I work with and I talk about kind of building the mindset to create that in the book. So more than what type of specific industry you're in. I think it's about having the correct mindset to deal with the obstacles that are going to come up in business. You know, the information that in 2012 when we started Kettlebell Kings and how you do social media advertisements, you know the most lucrative ways to kind of build that community are not the 100% same as they are you know in 2023 and I think understanding that you need to go into it with the mindset of this is going to be a battle. I need to learn on the fly. I need to be a lifelong learner you know the person that kind of leads my team as an expert in my industry and expert in whatever field that I'm trying to get in. I think that's more important than, you know, trying to gorge yourself on information before you get there.  MARY: Yeah, yeah. I'm suggesting to our listeners that they go and get your book and read it, but what books along your path did you read that kind of influenced you?  CHAD: So I mean, there would be so many like…I was one of those kids where I literally used to read adult books, you know, like I read every religious book by the time I was like 10 years old. I used to read the encyclopedia. So yeah, I was one of those like, extremely, kind of, nerdy kids that just used to read all the time. At a certain point, you know, reading books to me is just part of the experience of learning. You know, I like to take, I like to take concepts more than kind of the individual words or things, you know, I don't like to idolize individuals, I don't like to idolize books. I really like to learn the concepts and cross reference those concepts. So, you know, if you really were talking about like what are some of my favorite books, it would be like, you know, The Laws of Power, or, The Art of War or something like that. It'd be something more conceptual to where I really just like, how do we apply these concepts universally to whatever we're trying to achieve, whatever goals we have? My experience through sports and seeing so many different personalities and individuals and ways to lead, you know, and lead men and teams and things like that. They really kind of build my philosophy on how I look at business. I don't think when I go into a business that I know everything I need to know. I think that I've been given this responsibility and it's time for me to grow into that person and it's time for me to lead to that person and it's time for me to lead everyone and kind of walk this journey with everyone. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs could learn from kind of that approach versus, you know, kind of thinking that you're already the expert at whatever you're trying to do before you get there.   MARY: Yeah, right. You also consult with businesses and now having this conversation with you, I can totally see why. And the benefits that other business owners would get in kind of hiring you to kind of lead them through some processes that they may have going on. Do you, and you kind of alluded to in that answer, do you have a philosophy of business? And of entrepreneurship?  CHAD: I mean, I think it shifts, you know, I think having the self awareness to assess where you are, you know, I think I tell people all the time, like a good example is I had to learn this for myself when I was having a nail salon and having a fitness company at the same time. The conversations and the motivational conversations that you'd have in the nail salon are not the same that you have in a kettlebell warehouse. Those are completely two different…So I have the same goal, but you do not have the same conversation. You can't have the same tone, the same attitude. You have to take these things into consideration. So I think having that self-awareness not only about who you are as an individual, but who your team is, these types of things. For me, it comes easy because I've been on so many teams. I didn't, you know, I don't, I didn't like everybody I played with. I was the kid that I knew the coach would get on some people and baby other people because that's what it took to motivate them. There was a, you know, there was a method to the madness sometimes and I'm one of those people that can see and I like that kind of psychological strategy to things and so I really try to come in and say, you know, where are you? Where do you think you are? Let's see, you know, how close to my objective, a perception of things is your perception of things and then if we can agree on common points then I think you can kinda coach any team to the direction you want them to go. And that's just a matter of kind of putting the plan in place and executing on it.   MARY: Yeah. Excellent. I love this. I know we can keep talking forever, but I probably need to wrap us up a little bit. I do want you before I let you go to give some advice to some of our entrepreneurs who are maybe starting out their journey. They think they have a product or they think they have an idea, but they're just not sure how to get it started.   CHAD: I mean, I think when you're, when you're just starting out, that's, you know, it's an opportunity and it's kind of one of the most difficult times you're a hundred percent right. You don't know which direction you're always going when you're first starting and there are unlimited directions. So you know that's one of the things that you know, even with Kettlebell Kings, it changed over time. When we started the company, we were going to carry every single brand of kettlebells that existed and because of the first year of trying to do that, it ended up being, hey, you know, now we're just gonna carry our brand and we're gonna manufacture a different series and so I think having the correct mindset going in that you're gonna do whatever it takes to work is more important than, you know, trying to make sure that you've gotten the exact product line up right or you've gotten the exact advertising, the exact logo even. You know, I think there's situations in which action trumps, you know, kind of just sitting there being stale. So, if you have a way to create cash flow, to create revenue, to reach customers, I would say that's where you should start. You know, you should start with whatever can kind of create that initial cash flow. Even if it's not high profit margins, you can, you know, you can work on the margins, especially if you're not doing high volume and you're still able to create cash flow and bring in new customers and generate leads, bring in some type of let's say proof of concept that will allow you to do a lot of different things because as you're doing that you can work with individuals you can, you know, you can mentor or you find yourself. I'm sorry, not mentor. You could find yourself a mentor to help you in these situations. But if you don't really have any real world item to analyze.It's kind of hard for anyone to help. You kind of talk about a figment of everyone's imagination.  MARY: Right, right. I love the way that you said that because so many people I think get almost paralyzed by trying to get everything right before they launch. Right? The right logo, the right, you know, branding materials, the right product. Rather than let's launch, let's bring in some money and let's be ready to educate ourselves on how things are going. And be open to change, which is all the things that you just said. CHAD: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, and that's why I say for me, it's almost natural because of sports and, you know, and sports the games on Friday. So it's like you can do whatever you want to do, but you have to go play on Friday.   MARY: Right.   CHAD: And I think in business you have to, you have to create that for yourself. So that doesn't exist. There's no real game. And if you're, you know, when you're first starting, you get to kind of stall and say, well, we'll just play next week. We'll just play next week. And it's like, no, you have to be the one to say the game is on Friday. So we're starting on Friday and that type of mindset I think is what is most important in entrepreneurs so that you're the person that pushes things forward if no one is there to build your dream for you. Like no one is there to build a brand. It's a multimillion-dollar or a billion-dollar global brand for you. It's like you're going to be the driving force or at least the starting point where the energy comes from.  MARY: Yeah. Oh my god, that's so good. I'm gonna tell everybody right now to go back and re-listen to what he just said because it's so good. The other thing I want to ask you is, okay, so you sold the Kettlebell Kings, you're starting this new company, and you've written the book, what's next for you?  CHAD: So I mean right now I'm working on, you know, quite a few different things. Obviously, Life Grows Green is one of my main focuses right now for sure. The book is just being released, that's what I'm really mainly kind of doing my promotional tour, if you will for the book. So I'll be doing podcasts like this, but I'm also doing in-person events. I'm working on some workshops. So I have workshops and presentations, kind of doing some career development even with some of the young entrepreneurs and things like that. So I'm really just trying to transition to the next chapter of my business life. I am looking for consulting opportunities or joint venture opportunities right now. So, you know, have a couple of potential opportunities that I may do. But I'm, you know, I'm also looking to kind of bring in larger ones. I think that there are some larger fitness brands possibly out there that could use my advice and that maybe you're not doing so well when I look at the landscape, but you know I think those are just kind of… that's just one angle that I'd like to kind of give my feedback on but there's so many different things that I want to do right now. I'm just kind of open to anything.  MARY: So, Chad, how do people get in touch with you if they would like to hire you as a consultant or ask you some questions?  CHAD: The best way to get in touch with me is probably through my website. My website chadprice.com. You know, you can also reach me on all social channels. I'm on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, so Chad Price on LinkedIn, and real Chad Price on the other social channels. And then you can check my book out on Amazon. So, you know, that's probably the number one way to support me and really understand a lot of my philosophies, and it talks about my story and then my story with Kettlebell Kings. So I think that's always a good starting point if you're interested in starting your own business for a business entrepreneur.  MARY: Yeah, absolutely. Because in that book, you have some great advice and you even have a section of the book that's kind of a workbook for entrepreneurs too.  CHAD: Yeah, I mean, like I said, you know, previously I think kind of getting your mindset correct is the best way to start or to look at entrepreneurship. Really self assessing where you are, what skills you may need, kind of building out a roadmap. And I think that's what the workbook section really tries to help you do. It helps you really give a good self-assessment of where you are and where you'd like to go. What tools and resources you're gonna need to put in place in order to get there. And that's why I try to help people.  MARY: All right, Chad Price, thank you so much for joining us today.  CHAD: Thank you for having me.  MARY: Yeah, great conversation. So everyone go follow Chad on his social media and buy that book. But for now that does it for this episode of the Class E Podcast. Remember this is the podcast that's brought to you through partnership between the Hill Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Communication Studies Department here at Furman University. Remember you can catch the podcast multiple ways now. We're on wherever you get your podcast, but we're also on YouTube. So go check out our YouTube channel and make sure that you hit that subscribe button so that you get notified every time we drop a new episode like this one right here. This podcast is produced by Communication Studies major, Isabella Martinez. We want to thank you for tuning in for us today. I'm your host, Mary Sturgill. Until next time everybody, dream big.    

Teresa - The attack of Israel on the day of our Lady of the Rosary. We need to pray the rosary more. Dolores - I don't agree with what happened to Israel but I think Palestine people are upset at being oppressed by Israel. Mary - How do I explain the role of Mary in the Catholic Church to my husband? Jackie - A friend told me that we have politicians who are supporting Palestine. Is that true? George - Why would you support sending American troops to Gaza? Yvonne - What do you think about fasting and praying for what is happening in Israel? Peggy - I heard that Clement the 1st believed in faith alone. When people say James was in charge during the counsel of Jerusalem in the Bible. How do I respond to this? Myra - Where in the bible can I find the story of Saint Michael? Elizabeth – The attack on Israel was done on the Feast of the Holy Rosary. Kristi - The reason for the UN is because of the answer to Hitler. We can't leave these countries on their own.

Join us as we explore resources for engaging with Muslims on matters of faith, discuss the importance of accepting and offering up suffering, celebrate the removal of pornographic books in Florida schools, and examine the significance of tradition in biblical teachings. We'll also touch upon medical marijuana, the total lack of any evidence for mass graves in Canadian residential schools, and share inspiring stories of faith and resilience.  Linda - Is smoking medical marijuana approved by the Church? Mary - How to overcome victim mentality and spiritual warfare? Daniel - What is the line for active participation and passive participation when praying with non-Catholics and non-Christians? Not a single body has been found at 'unmarked graves' at former indigenous residential schools in Canada Rod - Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden because of sin, so how did Satan get into the Garden? Jackie – Can you offer advice on how to explain the Trinity to a Muslim? Florida school board forced to remove dozens of books after parents read 'graphic' passages aloud Luke - Why does Paul always say to stick to tradition? Brian - Why can indulgences be applied to the dead but not the living?

Patrick continues his conversation with Lawrence from the end of the last hour. Patrick explains what an Apostolic Pardon is. Barbara - If the Good Thief did not have to go to confession, and Jesus gave him a free pass to Heaven, does it contradict the theology and all the hoops we have to go through as Catholics to go to Heaven? Victoria - Worried about sister who is married with two kids, but not married in the Catholic Church. I don't see her husband being helpful with the kids. He emotionally abuses her. Because my sister is Catholic, can she still divorce him? Is it advisable to divorce? Jacinto - Is God's real name Jehovah? Will – What is the age of reason for communion or confirmation? Mary - How one goes about changing the Roman Missal? What would it take to say “body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ” when distributing communion in order to increase the number of Catholics who believe in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Patrick answers an email question about baptism that sparks many other baptism questions from callers Email - What liquids can be used for baptism? Can a grandparent baptize their grandchildren without the parents' permission? Jack - Does consent factor into Baptism, as an adult or baby? Rosy -  Can I baptize a baby as a nurse if the infant is about to pass away? Would it be valid? How many Commandments are there? Lisa - My daughter wants baptism for her child but doesn't want to organize it. She asked me to do it, is that okay? Denise - What is the age of consent for a child who wants to be baptized despite their parents' wishes? Donna - Is the reason we don't baptize without parental consent because the child will not be brought up in the faith properly? Bruce - Where does The Prayer of Azariah in the Book of Daniel Chapter 3? Christina - Is it okay for my father to be cremated and to have his ashes spread. He is remarried and I am not sure if I will have access to his remains to bury them properly. Giovanni - What does “Not even the Son knows the hour but only the Father” mean? Mary – How can I honor my parents who are verbally abusive?

Special Good Friday Episode Patrick shares notes about the Holy Thursday washing of the feet Pam - My children were raised Catholic but none are going to church now. What should I do? Emma - Is it okay to do dishes and house work on Good Friday? Email - Why was sand in the Holy Water font? Maria Christina - I am very grateful for all you do and I just had a wonderful confession yesterday because of your show. Dustin - What does the Church teach about what baptism does for people? Mary - How does the non-Catholic confer the sacrament of marriage on her spouse if she is not Catholic? Helene - How does the devotion of the 9 first Fridays work with today being Good Friday? Francis - What does penance do and does it repair the damage of our sins? Darcy - My 18-year-old Godchild fell away from the Church. How can I help bring her back to the Church? What can I tell a friend who is not Catholic to help prepare her for death?

Patrick answers listener questions about the process of dying, going to purgatory and then to heaven, and can two fallen away Catholics still have their baby baptized? Sharon - Philip 2: 10. Why don't people bend their knee at the name of Jesus anymore? John - My family member is getting married outside the Catholic Church even though they were raised Catholic. Can I attend if they no longer practice the faith? Amelina – The Sex Ed in school is full of LGBT stuff and is going to be adopted here in my school Denise - I'm becoming Catholic and was told I could not go to confession or receive the Eucharist until I finished RCIA. Why is that? Carlos - If I travel to a diocese that allows eating meat on St Patrick's Day can I eat meat there? Steve - Hebrews 9: 27. 'Men die once and then the Judgment'. Can you visit other places after death? Susan - What is the process of going from death to purgatory to heaven? Pete - Can two fallen away Catholics get their baby baptized? Mary - Pass over and Jewish tradition: why did they need a lamb and why is Jesus the Lamb? Patrick recommends “The Lamb's Supper” by Scott Hahn Marcello - If you have had kids before marriage, can you get married? Mary - How do I interpret John 20:23 correctly?

The reason for this season is Christ and today is another opportunity given to you to accept Him and start living by the Words of the Lord.  Join Dwan as she reads a part of Luke 2, The Birth of Jesus, and why it's important for all of us. She also shares the importance of walking by faith, not by sight, and why now is the time to accept Christ. Listen up and learn more.   Episode 307 at a glance… About Luke The birth of Jesus God found favor with Mary How evil the world is today Having faith to believe in the Bible Walking by faith, not by sight Jesus as the reason for this season   Until the next episode!   Webinar Link:  Flip Your Way to a Fortune https://dwanbentttwyford.clickfunnels.com/optin1668434783347?fbclid=IwAR3boqmnh71ZJsZJfi9iPIvW_y1lxIrcZl8WY2lKkUJqmftoqn8ziEVRBYk   About the host: Dwan is America's most sought-after real estate investor coach. She has been featured on more than 50 media outlets in interviews and featured articles. For the past 4 years, Dwan's Podcast has grown in popularity and is now in the top 1000 business podcasts Connect and know more about Dwan here: Website: https://dwanderful.com Instagram: @dwanderful Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dwanderful/

Mother Miriam Live - October 11, 2022 The Feast of the Divine Maternity of Mary How to respond to family marriages that fall outside church teaching Should Catholic families consider relocating to be closer to a Latin Mass? The Catholic perspective on alcohol consumption Is cremation a sin? Is the Chaplet of Seven Sorrows a suitable replacement for saying the Rosary on certain days of the week?

Mary - How do you dispose of a blessed tractor? Also, If Angels don't have bodies why do Catholics have Statues of Angels with bodies? Jim Seals of '70s soft-rock group Seals and Crofts dies at 80 Stephanie - My daughter's friend sent me a text saying my daughter is Bisexual and doesn't want to tell me. She struggles with depression and suicidal thoughts.  How can I deal with this? Lisa - You mentioned that older people accepting same sex relationships are increasing. I think my daughter is in a same sex relationship and I don't bend to her. I want to encourage older folks to be strong in the face of this problem. Walmart shareholders reject abortion resolution Trina - My best friend struggled with same-sex attraction and I helped her overcome it. She is now happily married.

Fragment of the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs may have been found in amber Lisa - Why don't we, in the USA, normally name our children “Jesus”? Scott - How specific do you need to be in Confession since God already knows your heart? Denise - Catholic answers said that homosexual feelings are a temptation opposed to something they are born with. What do you think? Biometric Checks Used by Banks Can Be Bypassed by Deepfakes Josefina - I am Spanish and when we refer to Jesus Christ we say Christo not just Jesus. David - What is the best way to get to Lourdes? Chris - Regarding Netflix, is it okay to watch YouTube videos that are posted by people who did not create the content? Mark - I want to help my godson, who is 21, to learn more about the faith. Are there any videos or online courses I can show him? Robert - Why aren't scientifically proven miracles used when debating the truth of the Catholic Church? Mary - How do I baptize a person if I am in an emergency situation? John - I want to compare the Scott Peterson case with abortion being murder today.

It is Victoria Loorz's mission to help people not just care for the earth, but to fall in love with it.What would it look like to move beyond appreciating nature, even past protecting her, to loving her? And realizing, perhaps, that we are already a part of her?Join us on the Spiritual Wanderlust podcast to learn about:

Charlie Kirk warns "the transgender movement is an introductory phase to get you to strip yourself of your humanity to mesh with machines," adding "if you stop being a man, then maybe you can stop being a human being" Robert - Follow up regarding the Dogma of the Assumption from yesterday Peter - Didn't seem like you could answer the question about old age in the Old Testament. Mary - How does the story of the Presentation sync up with what St. Matthew said in his gospel? Richard - How do we prove that Mary did not have other children besides Jesus? Roddy - Thank you for your discussion about working in the nursing home yesterday. None of us know what awaits us in our later years. Jewish Writer Tells Whoopi Goldberg, Who Uses Stage Name, To Drop Last Name She ‘Co-Opted': ‘Don't Deserve It'

Talk about the name of the show The show is called: Relationship Flow Part 2 Questions for Adam and Mary: How did you guys meet and did you like each other right away? What drew you to the other person? How long have you been together now? Is this relationship your first serious relationship? If not, how does it differ from the others? When you met, what did you find you had in common? How important do you feel having things in common is for a successful relationship? How did you decide to expand your relationship into also working a business together? What was it like? Would you consider yourselves a power couple? Explain. What are some of the challenges of being together romantically and also working together? Do you spend every waking moment together or do you take breaks to make the heart grow fonder and keep things fresh? What are some of the benefits of working together and being romantic? Does the business ever “get in the way?” What roles do you each play in the business? Are one of you considered the president and the other the Vice or are uou equal partners in it? Is it important to have those defined roles since you are also in a romantic relationship? Sharon How are you two different? How do you keep the differences from negatively impacting your relationship? You're in your 20s. Do you ever experience older people who seem to not take your relationship seriously? Do you ever feel people misconstrue your romantic relationship and disregard it as simply a business relationship? What does that feel like and do you say anything about it? Sharon have a 5 Star Shout Out Thank you for Listening make sure you go like and subscribe to all podcast platforms. We are also on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter on @Ignoranthinkerspodcast click the link in bio --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/dennis-holmes/support

Pastor Ellen: At this time of year, I deeply appreciate the gift of the arts – the performing arts, the visual arts, drama, poetry, music, and song.  I find the arts become a pathway to deeper understanding of the meaning of Christ's presence in this world. The writer of Luke's gospel also seemed to appreciate the arts. Luke is an excellent storyteller and he used the gift of poetry and song to capture the meaning of Christ entering this world in the person of Jesus. Today, we hear Mary, her response to God's call, and her transformational song, one of the most beautiful songs in all of scripture. Today, God speaks to us through the gifts of poetry, song, and drama. So, we invite you to open your hearts and minds to receive that gift and be transformed. St. John of the Cross once wrote: If you want, the Virgin will come walking down the road pregnant with the holy, and say, “I need shelter for the night, please take me inside your heart, my time is so close.” Then, under the roof of your soul, you will witness the sublime intimacy, the divine, the Christ, taking birth forever, as she grasps your hand for help, for each of us is the midwife of God, each of us. Yes, there, under the dome of your being does creation come into existence eternally, through your womb, dear pilgrim – the sacred womb of your soul, as God grasps our arms for help: for each of us is his beloved servant, never far. If you want, the Virgin will come walking down the street pregnant with Light and sing….   Narrator:  In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, Commentator:  Nazareth? God sent an angel to the podunk, insignificant, nothing of a town called Nazareth? Narrator:  Yes, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, Angel: “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” Narrator:  But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Commentator:  What kind of greeting is that Mary? Had you ever been called favored before? Mary. They are all called Mary aren't they? Mary the sister of Lazarus, Mary from Magdala, that other Mary, and Mary the mother of Jesus. So common a name. Almost as though when the writers couldn't remember a woman's name, they just automatically called her Mary. Like Jane Doe – it's just this side of forgettable Mary. So common, but yet now angelically deemed “favored one”. What kind of perplexing greeting is this calling a common Mary “favored one.” Did you look behind you to see if someone else named Mary was standing behind you? Mary; common and favored. Narrator:  The angel said to her, Angel: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God." Commentator:  You found favor with God? Or was it more that, with God, you are the favored one though not so much favored elsewhere. What did you do to become so favored?  We aren't given a litany of all the things you did and personality traits you inhabited that made you favor-able. Perhaps it is the fact that you are chosen by God that makes you favored, not that your favorableness made you choose-able. Angel:  "And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and he will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Commentator:  Mary, you are a marginalized young Jewish girl living in the midst of an occupied land.  But, you now hear these words “throne …reign … kingdom.” This is nothing less than cultural, political, religious, and spiritual insurrection for the common to be favored and the favored to be common. Narrator:  Mary said to the angel, Mary: “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”   Narrator:  The angel said to her, Angel: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Commentator:  Elizabeth – barren yet pregnant. One of God's favorite ways to prove that God's thoughts are not our thoughts is to create out of nothing. God's ways are not our ways…God seems to be continually challenging and even violating our polite family values. Elizabeth – barren and pregnant. Mary – common and favored. This is the invasive fruitfulness of God. Willing life where there is no life. Making a way where there is no way. Messing with all of us in the way that only true love and mercy can do. Narrator:  Then Mary said, Mary: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Narrator:  Then the angel departed from her. Commentator:  Mary, did we correctly hear what you just said?  You said, “Yes,” to this proposition! You said, “Here I am.” …just like Isaiah after the coal touched his mouth. Here I am you say. Send me. Did it burn you too, like it burned Isaiah's own lips? Let it be with me according to your word you said. “Here I am, the Servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to your word”. So beautiful. We try and domesticate you Mary like a trinket of docile, submissive womanhood, but you are so much bolder than that, even almost defiant. Some, like Moses and Jonah and Elisha try to hide from their calling.  But, you said “Here I am.  Sign me up.”  Did you know what this word was going to mean for you? Narrator:  And Mary said, Mary: (Magnificat is sung as psalm chant by Mary) My soul proclaims the greatness |of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in | God my Savior, for you, Lord, have looked with favor on your | lowly servant. From this day all generations will | call me blessed; Commentator:  Is that what being blessed looks like? We go around and use that word so carelessly, quite differently. You know, like, “You're so blessed to have that new boat.” Or, “I am so blessed to have a good job.” We tend to connect that word to our material belongings. So, Mary, how exactly are you using that word? Did you feel blessed as your unwed belly grew under the gaze of disapproving others?  Did you feel blessed when you went into labor and gave birth amongst sheep and cows and straw? Mary, common and favored…Did you feel blessed when your heart dropped realizing you left your 12-year-old son in Jerusalem?  At his arrest did you feel blessed seeing rope dig into the wrists of both God made flesh and the flesh of your flesh? Did you feel blessed when they lifted him up on a cross?  No one else was his mother. Just you.  Blessed are you among women.  Common and favored.  And blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. God and Man. It is interesting; Martin Luther once proclaimed, “We hail Mary, Queen of Heaven because in her we come to know that ours is the God who comes nearest to us in our brokenness.” (Mary continues psalm chant) You, the Almighty, have done great | things for me, and holy | is your name. You have mercy on | those who fear you, from generation to | generation. You have shown strength | with your arm; and scattered the proud in | their conceit, casting down the mighty | from their thrones and lifting | up the lowly. You have filled the hungry | with good things, and sent the rich | away empty. You have come to the aid of your | servant Israel, to remember the prom- | ise of mercy, the promise made | to our forebears, to Abraham and his chil- | dren forever.     Commentator:  Wow!  There's nothing like a song to warm the heart.  But, this song is about upturning the whole social order!  Mary, you are singing about turning the world upside down and rearranging the whole social order!  That is rather scary….  Hmmm…..  So maybe that's what God is up to here. Transgressing the boundaries of human society. The podunk, insignificant town of Nazareth becomes a Jerusalem. The favored become common and the common become favored. The barren are pregnant. The hungry are filled. The rich become hungry. The proud are leveled and the downtrodden are lifted up, until it's all blurred past distinction.  You are a prophet, Mary, and you are prophetically singing in the new, inverted reality of God's kingdom on earth, and this is the fight song of God's new reality. And, it's your song, people, all of you gathered here. A song of this God who entered so fully into this muck of human existence, and upturned our expectations and religiosity and self loathing and self satisfaction so much that God ushers in a whole new reality. And this reality is that God became one of us so that we might become children of God. Gregory of Nyssa writes, “What was achieved in the body of Mary will happen in the soul of everyone who receives the Word.” It is all about saying yes to God's incarnate love as it breaks into the most unexpected places and in the most surprising ways in each of our lives, saying yes so God is again borne into this world. You, all of you, each and every one of you, are blessed and full of grace. So, may the God through whom nothing is impossible help each one of you to become Mary….carrying the gospel into this hurt-filled, broken and beautiful world. May it be with all of you according to God's Word.

Feast of The Immaculate Conception: Celebrating the Sinless Purity of Mary How great it is to celebrate this feast day during the season of Advent. As we decorate our homes and churches, we prepare a place for the Lord's Coming. In this feast day, God Himself is also preparing a place for Our Lord's Coming. As beautiful as we try to make our homes in laying out a manager, if we are honest, a stable is not very clean. The Lord comes to us and rests in a stable. To be able to do this, He rests someplace else first. St. Louis de Montfort correctly points out, that as filthy as a stable may be, our hearts tend to be worse. Think about that. The King is willing to come to us first, via a stable. But we need to ask ourselves, how well prepared are our hearts to also receive the King. Have I prepared and cleaned my heart? When we speak of the Holy Virgin, we speak of her as both a person and a place. She is the Mother of Jesus, and the dwelling place of Our Lord. She is a disciple, as well as His throne room. Note what that also means for us! We are not only His followers (His disciples), but He also (desires to) abide within us! We are temples of the Holy Spirit. So, the way we speak of / about Our Lady, also points to a way we need to think about ourselves! Imagine the goodness within Our Lady. Imagine her Sinless Purity! The Homily discusses the sinless heart of Our Lady. The only reason we have the Immaculate Conception is because Jesus is coming to save you and me! Wow! What a statement! The gift of the Immaculate Conception is not a private gift. Hear more on this within the audio. Listen to this Homily. Listen to the significance of this Feast Day and how it gives us a way to think about ourselves. Hear more within this Meditation media.

The ACLU botches Twitter tribute to RBG. Half Of Vaccinated Americans Might Not Spend The Holidays With Unvaccinated Family And Friends, Poll Finds. 1 in 7 people have dropped friends over whether they would or would not get the vaccine. Mary – How do I talk to my adult children about God? They seem to […] All show notes at The Patrick Madrid Show: September 23, 2021 – Hour 2 - This podcast produced by Relevant Radio

The ACLU botches Twitter tribute to RBG. Half of Vaccinated Americans Might Not Spend the Holidays With Unvaccinated Family And Friends, Poll Finds. 1 in 7 people have dropped friends over whether they would or would not get the vaccine. Mary – How do I talk to my adult children about God? They seem to […] All show notes at The Patrick Madrid Show: September 23, 2021 – Hour 2 - This podcast produced by Relevant Radio

Yep, it's Friday again, and you know what that means: It's Q+A time! This episode is on fire

Here’s the video on dealing with depression, which I mentioned during the stream: https://youtu.be/KspwQ2wyuUU Taking live questions from the YT live chat! Every Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific time. While I don't pretend to know all the answers, I hope to offer some thoughts that will help you in the direction of thinking biblically about things. The BibleThinker mugs can be found here. I don't make any profit from these - they are made by a third party and $5 per mug will go to support different ministries I choose.https://www.zockollpottery.com/product-page/new-bible-thinker-mug My website: https://BibleThinker.org 1. 0:31 {Were Jesus’ Disciples Married?} Were Christ’s disciples married / did they have families? I believe there is a reference to Peter’s in-law, but I find it to be an interesting question. What would it be like for them? How would that fit with what the Lord tells us about the role of a husband/father? The love for God trumps all, so did that override their responsibilities as a husband/father?2. 9:55 {Should We Give to Beggars?} I've had multiple encounters where people directly approach me and my wife on the street or at a gas station asking for money, food, or a ride. I know most people would say don't give anything because you're feeding their bad habit, and I know there is also the risk that if you do help/give, they may try to push for even more favors. But it's obvious that Jesus was compassionate toward beggars. What are some biblical principles for this in today's age?3. 15:37 {What is a Miracle?} What is a miracle? If it can be explained, is it still a miracle?4. 20:54 {Should we be Worried about Gov’t Control?} Should Christians be worried about government control? I have friends not getting the Covid vaccine because "it's a way to be controlled by the government.” I want to think biblically about this.5. 26:09 {About Walking by the Spirit} Does living in the Spirit mean fighting the flesh? How do you fight something that is already dead?6. 32:04 {About “Perfect Love Casting Out Fear”} What did John mean in 1 John by “perfect love casts out fear, and that whoever fears has not been made perfect…”?7. 34:43 {About Paul and a Time Gap in Scripture} Why didn’t Luke mention the time gap that took place during Acts 9: 20-26, that Paul mentioned in Galatians 1: 17-18?8. 40:20 {Prayer to Help with Deep Depression} Can you pray for me? I’ve battled depression my whole life, and the past 2 weeks I’ve gotten so low I need some prayer if you have the time.9. 43:13 {Why did Jesus need to be Led by the Spirit?} Why did Jesus (God) need to be filled, led, or anointed by the Spirit? Troubled by some saying that Jesus did everything as a man through the Spirit, so we should be able to do everything Jesus did.10. 48:10 {Forming a Healthy Work/Rest Balance} Since life is finite and Heaven is infinite, how do we justify spending any time not working to influence eternity? Where is the balance between relaxation & work? (Ephesians 5: 15-16 vs. 1 Thessalonians 4: 11)11. 53:10 {Refuting Catholic “Queenship” of Mary} How would you answer a Catholic who uses Revelation 12 to argue Mary's queenship?12. 59:06 {Can we be Confident in God’s Existence?} How can one ever be sure that the arguments for God’s existence are truly sound? Is it because all current objections fail? Maybe there is an Achilles heel that has not come up yet.13. 1:02:44 {What is Prevenient Grace?} I just heard about prevenient grace. I have looked it up and it just don't understand it. Can you explain it?14. 1:05:48 {Finding Hope in Difficult Situations} How do you interpret the hopelessness of Psalm 88? How can you comfort someone who feels what Psalm 88:18b (NIV) implies?15.

Here’s the video on dealing with depression, which I mentioned during the stream: https://youtu.be/KspwQ2wyuUU Taking live questions from the YT live chat! Every Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific time. While I don't pretend to know all the answers, I hope to offer some thoughts that will help you in the direction of thinking biblically about things. The BibleThinker mugs can be found here. I don't make any profit from these - they are made by a third party and $5 per mug will go to support different ministries I choose.https://www.zockollpottery.com/product-page/new-bible-thinker-mug My website: https://BibleThinker.org 1. 0:31 {Were Jesus’ Disciples Married?} Were Christ’s disciples married / did they have families? I believe there is a reference to Peter’s in-law, but I find it to be an interesting question. What would it be like for them? How would that fit with what the Lord tells us about the role of a husband/father? The love for God trumps all, so did that override their responsibilities as a husband/father?2. 9:55 {Should We Give to Beggars?} I've had multiple encounters where people directly approach me and my wife on the street or at a gas station asking for money, food, or a ride. I know most people would say don't give anything because you're feeding their bad habit, and I know there is also the risk that if you do help/give, they may try to push for even more favors. But it's obvious that Jesus was compassionate toward beggars. What are some biblical principles for this in today's age?3. 15:37 {What is a Miracle?} What is a miracle? If it can be explained, is it still a miracle?4. 20:54 {Should we be Worried about Gov’t Control?} Should Christians be worried about government control? I have friends not getting the Covid vaccine because "it's a way to be controlled by the government.” I want to think biblically about this.5. 26:09 {About Walking by the Spirit} Does living in the Spirit mean fighting the flesh? How do you fight something that is already dead?6. 32:04 {About “Perfect Love Casting Out Fear”} What did John mean in 1 John by “perfect love casts out fear, and that whoever fears has not been made perfect…”?7. 34:43 {About Paul and a Time Gap in Scripture} Why didn’t Luke mention the time gap that took place during Acts 9: 20-26, that Paul mentioned in Galatians 1: 17-18?8. 40:20 {Prayer to Help with Deep Depression} Can you pray for me? I’ve battled depression my whole life, and the past 2 weeks I’ve gotten so low I need some prayer if you have the time.9. 43:13 {Why did Jesus need to be Led by the Spirit?} Why did Jesus (God) need to be filled, led, or anointed by the Spirit? Troubled by some saying that Jesus did everything as a man through the Spirit, so we should be able to do everything Jesus did.10. 48:10 {Forming a Healthy Work/Rest Balance} Since life is finite and Heaven is infinite, how do we justify spending any time not working to influence eternity? Where is the balance between relaxation & work? (Ephesians 5: 15-16 vs. 1 Thessalonians 4: 11)11. 53:10 {Refuting Catholic “Queenship” of Mary} How would you answer a Catholic who uses Revelation 12 to argue Mary's queenship?12. 59:06 {Can we be Confident in God’s Existence?} How can one ever be sure that the arguments for God’s existence are truly sound? Is it because all current objections fail? Maybe there is an Achilles heel that has not come up yet.13. 1:02:44 {What is Prevenient Grace?} I just heard about prevenient grace. I have looked it up and it just don't understand it. Can you explain it?14. 1:05:48 {Finding Hope in Difficult Situations} How do you interpret the hopelessness of Psalm 88? How can you comfort someone who feels what Psalm 88:18b (NIV) implies?15.

It amazes me every week that Q+A Friday tends to revolve

Mary – How can someone receive the Holy Eucharist if they are severely allergic to sugar? Saul – Can bodily illness be related to demonic possession? Sugary drinks linked to increased risk of bowel cancer in younger women Patrick shares his love of the movie “Tombstone” and relates a story from his own life that […] All show notes at The Patrick Madrid Show: May 11, 2021 – Hour 1 - This podcast produced by Relevant Radio

We are on the edge of our seats with our latest episode. Guest Jenny Jansen, another one of “Mary’s Peeps”, explains a simple yet enlightening new concept called The Adult Chair to Lydia and Mary. You’ll definitely want to tune in and find out which chair you are sitting in! To learn more with Jenny Jansen please visit: https://www.trueconsciousliving.com https://www.facebook.com/trueconsciousliving https://www.instagram.com/trueconsciousliving We now have True and Unpolished Merch! We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

In today’s edition of ‘Mary’s Peeps’ we hear from Jim Dukes, a former defense contractor with the United Nations who shares his experience of healing through art after several Traumatic Brain Injuries left him lost and hopeless. A video of the episode is available on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4d8CeJDii1KjCaLIPxA8Yw **a gentle warning that there is one curse word in today’s episode.** To learn more or connect with Jim Dukes, please visit Charlotte Art League: https://www.charlotteartleague.org We now have True and Unpolished Merch! We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

In this short and sweet episode, Lydia shares that she has been ignoring an intuition and what she has decided to do about it. We now have True and Unpolished Merch! We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

Carrie Graves returns and guides Lydia as they work Mary's dream together. We are so proud of this episode. You will see the value in looking at your own dreams as well as having a framework to do it on your own. We now have True and Unpolished Merch! We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

In this edition of “Mary’s Peeps” we talk to the amazing, Susan Yelverton about the importance of practicing self-compassion. We now have True and Unpolished Merch! We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

Mary and Lydia talk pausing. How we need them and the power they hold when we take them. Check out Lydia's talk mentioned in this episode: When It's Time for a Peaceful Pause We now have True and Unpolished Merch! We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

Mary shares a personal story about intergenerational conflict as Lydia brings some healing Ninja magic while they explore the topic of forgiveness. We now have True and Unpolished Merch! We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

In this week's episode Mary and Lydia explore the gift of nightly dreams with wise dreamer and friend, Carrie Graves. Find out how Carrie has learned to cope with her sleepless nights by exploring her dreams. We now have True and Unpolished Merch! We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

Greetings and salutations, my friends! In this week's Q+A Friday, we covered a broad range of topics including PROPER CALORIE INTAKE for weight loss, the concept of OVER EXERCISING, and how your MINDSET

In this short but very sweet episode, Lydia and Mary finally settle the #1 fan debate with the Who Said It? game show. The Northeast Regional #1 Fan and Southeast Regional #1 Fan battle it out for the ultimate #1 fan title. Be sure to check out the video version of this episode to see our #1 fans in action. You can also watch the video of this episode on our YouTube channel! We now have True and Unpolished Merch! We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

Lydia helps Mary uncover the message in one of her dreams. We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

A friend of Mary’s joins the conversation to share how he is using his voice to make a difference. Make sure to listen to the end so you can laugh along with Lydia as she discovers Mary’s high school nickname. Find and support Kobe’s mission here: Save the World Movement www.teespring.com Cash app: @$smilepresident https://www.facebook.com/kobie.johnson.1/ We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

On this latest episode, Lydia and Mary recount a weekend full of surprises, insights and adjustments that bring us a little closer to living fully. You can also catch the video of this episode being recorded here: True and Unpolished YouTube channel. We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

Mary has done her research! In this episode she shares with Lydia the 5 elements Lydia will need to create a ritual to her milestone birthday. We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

A ritual is a way to honor, bless and make a thing sacred. Lydia’s turning 40 and she and Mary discuss how to mark the occasion with a ritual. We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

As a people, there are signs of our seeming division everywhere. In this episode, Lydia tells a story about some of those signs and she and Mary discuss how to participate with love in a divided time. Don’t worry there are still some laughs in this one. Listen for the flame metaphor….. We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

Sometimes life becomes stagnant, and finding magic is hard. Lydia and Mary revisit the concept of creating magic and enchantment by sharing personal stories of tiny dogs and Santa Clause. It's story time! We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

Do you feel like life is happening to you? If you are tired of feeling stuck listen in as Lydia and Mary talk about how setting intention can create powerful shifts in our lives. We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

Whether we are aware of it or not, we all make assumptions about others motives and those assumptions shape our interactions. We all want peaceful, harmonious relationships and in our latest episode, Lydia and Mary discuss how a simple act of assuming goodwill can diffuse conflicts before they even begin. We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

Fr. Roger J. Landry Visitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan Mass for December 21 Memorial of St. Peter Canisius December 21, 2019 Song 2:8-14, Ps 33, Lk 1:39-45   To listen to an audio recording of this homily, please click here:  https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.21.20_Homily_1.mp3   The following points were attempted in the homily:  There's a […] The post Learning from Mary How to Arise, as a Beloved, and Go to and With Christ, December 21, 2020 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

Disappointing people doesn’t make you a disappointment. Mary and Lydia discuss letting go of our attachment to how others see us. We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

Are you looking for magic in your life? Lydia and Mary are talking about the lessons we learn from the magic of Christmas and how to create magic in our lives all year long. We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

Discussed in this episode Questions from the Virtual Event Rachel: Where to sit? Reece: How do I encourage resilience? Mary: How to create a positive relationship with a autistic child who is non verbal Caitlin: How to engage in AAC (Augmentative Communication) for a child in early childhood who is non verbal ? Read more about this podcast in the show notes found via the link below https://suelarkey.com.au/how-can-i-help-2021/ Join the facebook group specifically for this podcast https://www.facebook.com/groups/suelarkeypodcastcommunity/ To learn more about teaching or understanding ASD please visit my website below. https://elearning.suelarkey.com.au

There are so many times that each of us fall asleep at the wheel of our life. Joy is found in the waking up! In this episode the gals share their personal moments of falling asleep and the ways it's possible to wake up. We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

The ladies talk Turkey, tofu and strategies for creating a happy holiday. We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Mary How share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE This podcast is a A Cusp Culture Production --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

Returning from hiatus due to illness, we ask the important questions in His Dark Materials; who is the Jigsaw Killer? Why does Lyra need Mary? How long does it take to become lord in another dimension? Join us for another tangent-filled ride through Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. Now with 10% extra subtlety, and all the knives you could ask for! Discuss: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiscussDaemoncast/ patreon: https://www.patreon.com/daemoncast insta: @daemoncast_hdm email: daemoncasthdm@gmail.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/daemoncast/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/daemoncast/support

Mindfulness expert, Mary How, joins the show to share a powerful tool that everyone can use to create more of the life they want. We are living in The Age of Authenticity, an age where existing structures will be radically changed through people in every profession and in every walk of life releasing the idea that they need to be perfect or appear to be so in order to contribute something of value. In this podcast, Lydia Singleton and Nicole Wilson share with you their true and unpolished voices. You'll laugh with them and relate to them. They are just like you, seeking both joy and the Truth with a capital "T" in life. Let's see what happens next...... Subscribe to True and Unpolished – the Podcast Email List HERE --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trueandunpolished/support

What does the Catholic Church really believe about the Mother of God? Questions Covered: 21:03 – When someone said to Jesus, “Blessed are the breasts that nourished you,” and Jesus responds, “No, blessed are those who do the will of God.” Is this evidence against Marian devotion?  28:56 – Are the Marian doctrines based on the Bible?   35:30 – What is the difference between venerating and worshipping Mary? How can I explain this to a Protestant?  47:50 – Why do Catholics use intercessory prayer to Mary?  Why do they offer votive offerings to her, like lighting candles or giving flowers? Does that fall into the category of making sacrifice to something other than God?  …

This season, let's help Santa with his mission by adding flaxseed to his milk and cookies!   In this week's special episode of the Less Stressed Life podcast, we had listeners share their favorite Christmas traditions with us.   Also, we learn more about interesting uses of flaxseed and its benefits from Mary Ekman of Manitoba Milling Company.   Some things I learned from Mary: How to spot high-quality flaxseed Flaxseed oxidation and freezing Benefits of flaxseed to hormonal issues Interesting ways you can use flaxseed and so much more!   Since this is a special Christmas episode you get a 25% on your next order of milled flaxseed at manitobaflax.com by using the code 25Manitoba

Wall-to-wall calls for Fr. Evan tonight: Is Christ present in the the communion of other Christian traditions? Why do the Orthodox pray to Mary? How do we handle Thanksgiving during the Nativity fast? Do the Orthodox believe in the assurance of salvation?

Heart to Heart with Mother Miriam *Adam and Eve couldn't have known the devastation their sin would cause *Can we only go to Christ through Mary? *How can we learn more about the Latin mass? *How do we know the saints are actually saints?

Mary and Martha are two prominent and very well known women in the Bible - so who do you identify with more? Are you a Martha or a Mary? How do we know which one we are, and is one better than the other? These are just a few of the questions we ask during this episode, so join us as we dive into these stories of Martha and Mary and discuss why we really need to have both the Martha's and the Mary's in every situation.

Would you like to have access to premium shows, live webinars, our closed Facebook group and cool swag? Join Coffin Nation and join the battle against the PC thought police. "We go there!" Registration ends next week. Learn more here: www.coffinnation.com  *******************************************************   Carrie Gress is onto something extremely important. We all talk about the anti-Christ, and toxic masculinity, but what about the anti-Mary and toxic femininity? Isn’t our culture marinating in both? Isn’t this a problem hiding in plain sight? Dr. Gress is a writer, teacher, and candle-maker (and wife and homeschooling mom) whose latest book, The Anti-Mary Exposed: Rescuing the Culture From  Toxic Femininity, goes upstream from conventional thinking about feminism and the sexual chaos around us.   After this interview, you will know:   The philosophical roots of second wave feminism Why so many feminists are lesbian or pro-LGBT Why you can’t have the spirit of anti-Christ without the spirit of anti-Mary How differently some women are treated by the media elites, like Sarah Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Dana Loesch How the twin aims of feminism (take down motherhood and virginity) ar resolved and healed in the person and mission of Our Lady (honored for 2000 years as Mother and Virgin) Why the answer to the toxicity is ever ancient, ever new: doing the will of God the Father in all things   Resources mentioned in this episode:   The Anti-Mary Exposed: Rescuing the Culture from Toxic Femininity by Carrie Gress The Marian Option: God's Solution to a Civilization in Crisis, by Carrie Gress Helena Daily a website of curated content from rising writer and old classics   Question of the week: Whom do you know personally who embodies the answer to toxic femininity?   Follow Patrick in Facebook Tweet Patrick 

Thanks for tuning in to Myers-Briggs Question Corner!Today’s question is from a woman I’ll call Mary:How can I best communicate with my INTJ boss?I’ll first talk about the natural communication style for INTJs, then INFPs, and will then discuss strategies for each to implement to better understand and work with each other. We'll also include some snippets of conversation of what a discussion between an INFP and INTJ might sound like.---Myers-Briggs Question Corner is the weekly MBTI career podcast brought to you by DC Metro Career Counselor Edythe Richards.Edythe is the creator of A Top Career - a web site which specializes in helping people back into work.Find out more at www.atopcareer.com

We will explore the cultural dynamics of honour and shame in Scripture, dynamics which we can often miss as Western readers. Why was Boaz’ acceptance of Ruth so significant? What did it cost Joseph to marry pregnant Mary? How does the cross of Jesus Christ deal with our shame? What are the pastoral implications of broadening our gospel language to include honour and shame? How can we share the gospel with our friends, who think more about shame than about guilt and as Western readers of Scripture, engage with these issues?

The mind is a powerful tool and holds the key to how we behave and respond to the world around us. While mindset is a huge buzzword these days, there is a good reason for it! When you understand what motivates and animates certain parts of your behavior and mindset, you can begin to make the adjustments you need to reach your zone of genius. On this episode, you'll hear from author, speaker, and developmental powerhouse Mary Shores! Mary has been recognized as a leader of innovative thought and has been described as a “revolutionary thinker”. She has spent over a decade teaching businesses and individuals how to inspire others, create new ways of thinking, identify their goals, and take action to create meaningful results. After coming from humble beginnings and experiencing devastating tragedy, Mary overcame adversity and became the youngest owner of a Collections Agency; one that prides itself on empowering consumers by alleviating their burden of debt. In our conversation, Mary shares some awesome tools and practices that Kaizenites like you can use to kick some harmful habits and embrace conscious communication with yourself and the world around you. Here are a few takeaways from today's podcast episode with Mary: How utilizing affirmations can help you adopt a healthy mindset. Understanding the impact of past trauma and finding a way to heal. Cleanse or Clog, a helpful filter for multiple aspects of your life. What it takes to start a self-care regimen. Don't miss this chance to discover pivotal lessons and insights from Mary's hard-fought perspective!  Outline of This Episode [1:20] I introduce my guest, Mary Shores.  [3:00] Mary joins the podcast. [5:30] Why affirmations are so powerful. [7:30] How trauma shapes us. [9:30] I run through a bit about Mary's background. [12:00] Mary talks about her passion for helping others pay their debts. [15:00] What you focus on grows! [17:20] The words you choose matter. [22:00] Cleanse or Clog? [26:30] What is the “Core Four?” [31:00] How does alignment impact your mindset? [37:00] Stepping out into a new direction can open up amazing opportunities. [39:30] Demystifying the concept of empowerment. [42:00] Mary opens up about recovering from the loss of her marriage. [47:00] How creating a self-care routine can help you stay on top of your game. [50:30] Key take away: Everything you say or do creates connection or disconnection. [52:00] Mary enters Cary's Corner. [55:20] Who should connect with Mary? [56:00] Mary's free gift to Kaizenites. Does this cleanse or clog my life? I don't know about you but I want NEED a silver bullet that will help me cut through my severe case of shiny object syndrome and tap into a healthy response. Luckily, Mary has devised a genius tool that you and I can use every day to get us back on track and move away from our self-defeating impulses. The truth is, our enemy is complexity. There are so many options we could choose and doors we could walk through that we easily get overwhelmed. To cut through all that complicity and move forward with conscious communication Mary teaches a tool called “Cleanse or Clog.” You can use this tool by considering a choice you have before you like, a cheeseburger. Will eating this cheeseburger cleanse or clog my body? Obviously, a cheeseburger will end up clogging your body so you reject the cheeseburger and opt for the salad. You can apply this same approach to more significant decisions like a business opportunity. Does that opportunity clog and bog you down with little payoff or does it sync up with your mission and values providing a more cleansing result? Learn more about his helpful tool and how you can use it to cut through all the junk and complexity in life by listening to this exciting episode with Mary! What are your “Core Four?” Where your focus goes, energy flows. - Tony Robbins While trying to navigate life as a single parent, running an organization, and everything in between, Mary struggled to figure out how to get her life progressing in the direction she needed it to go. Inspired by Tony Robbins' teaching on “What you focus on, grows” Mary developed what she calls her “Core Four.” These are four themes that she identified in business that she wanted to see upward movement and growth in. Bringing on new clients. Creating custom programs. Industry involvement. Using branding to the fullest potential. How can you use Mary's example to get movement in key areas of your life and operate out of conscious communication? What will your Core Four be? Hear more details about developing your Core Four from Mary by listening to this informative episode! Don't neglect self-care! Like any good athlete, runners know that if you want to go the distance in an endurance race like a marathon you've got to pay attention to your body and care for it. The same concept applies to you, Kaizenites! You have no hope of going the distance in life or business if you neglect self-care and treat your body like crap! Mindset and physical care are closely linked. In fact, when you care for your body it can help to rejuvenate and energize your mind! If you want to continue to operate in your zone of genius and fire on all cylinders, you've got to pay attention to your body and discover a self-care regimen that works for you. Everyone is different, maybe self-care for you looks like heading off to the mountains for a backpacking trip or a weekend getaway at the spa. Whatever it is, plan and schedule it BEFORE you burn out and reach the end of your rope. Educate yourself with additional insights on self-care and conscious communication from Mary on this powerful episode Additional Resources And Links Tony Robbins A Bronx Tale Chazz Palminteri Steve Jobs Bill Gates Elon Musk Brene Brown SPONSOR OF THIS EPISODE: www.TylersCoffees.com Use the promo code “Cary20” for 20% off Website built by digiwei.com Connect with MARY SHORES Check out Mary's book! Mary's website Take a look at the community Mary has built! Connect with Mary on Facebook Follow Mary on Twitter Mary's FREE gift to Kaizenites: The Daily Desires Diary Connect With Me www.CaryHokama.com On Facebook On Twitter: @CaryHokama On Instagram: @CaryDoes On LinkedIn

You may think you've heard it all when it comes to Mary. Think again. I'm betting that my buddy Curtis Mitch is going to lay some new thoughts on you about Our Lady as we continue to celebrate May, the month of Mary, on this episode of the Art of Catholic. Curtis, as many of you know, has been writing the commentary on the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible for about 20 years. I've never met anyone with his depth and breadth of scriptural knowledge. He's the perfect guy to turn to when it comes to going next level about Mary. The truth is, the Virgin Mary is a mystery we've yet to fully unpack. Her God-given power and vital role go so far beyond what we can imagine. But we're going to start to change that. In this special episode of the Art of Catholic, Curtis and I will dive into several different texts to discuss: Why "Queen of Heaven" is totally a scriptural title (and not a medieval invention) How the Annunciation in Luke 1 identifies the Queenship of Mary The multiple levels of meaning of the woman "clothed with the sun" in Revelation 12 Why the 10th son (not the 1st) of David came to the throne and how his mother is connected to Mary Why Bathsheba was given a throne and how it points to the royal role of Mary How the crucifixion of Christ actually points to Mary's Queenship Really understanding how the Queenship of Mary changes everything. Your mother is literally the Queen of Heaven and Earth! And it's right out of the Bible itself. God bless and enjoy this great episode! Matthew P.S. I'm heading back to Italy! Join me in March 2019 for an amazing pilgrimage to Rome, Assisi, Orvieto, LaVerna, and much, much more! Check it out here!           Grab your FREE copy of my quick guide to deeper prayer 8 Ways To Jumpstart Your Prayer Life!  It's an easy, step-by-step summary of the spiritual giants of the Church designed to help you rocket to God!     Other episodes you might enjoy: 06: Bible Basics With John Bergsma 043: (More) New Testament Basics with John Bergsma 054: Understanding Extreme Violence in the Bible with Curtis Mitch  

What does Jane Austen have to do with crossfit and paleo diets? Nothing until now. Eligible is a modern-day re-telling of the Jane Austen classic Pride and Prejudice. While this contemporary, tongue-in-cheek retelling of Pride and Prejudice does follow the Bennet family, there are some updated differences from the classic. So, did it WORK? How does the modern day Elizabeth Bennet compare to the original? What’s going on with weirdo Mary? How believable is Darcy? And does the love story pack enough punch? Your hosts are Monique Bowley and Jacqueline Lunn with Holly Wainwright Eligible, by Curtis Sittenfeld, is published by Penguin Random House And thanks to BWS for sponsoring the show: use the offer code here and get 50% off. Join the conversation on facebook Tell us what you thought via twitter @mamamiapodcasts Or email podcast@mamamia.com.au This show is part of the Mamamia Podcast Network

Willing servants of Christ embrace the results of God’s will. What can we learn from Jesus’ mother, Mary? How is her story relevant today? Pastor Sam Rainer teaches from Luke 1:26-38 to demonstrate how God works through willing servants for Christ’s greatness.

It’s the third week of Advent and we’re talking about Mary! What can we learn from Mary? How did Mary influence the thinking of Jesus? Brian and Fr. Shay talk about the power of Mary’s song and what it means for us today.

We read the story every year at Christmas time, but I wonder how it would have felt as a fourteen year-old girl to receive an impossible message from an angel in the middle of the night? One conversation between God and Mary initiated God’s plan for salvation of the world. One conversation changed everything. But, Why did God chose to speak to Mary? How did Mary know the message was from God?  What did God’s word mean for Mary’s life?  Listen to the God Conversations Christmas Message: Subscribe to God Conversations with Tania Harris and never miss an episode! And a brief outline to sum up: 1. Listen Mary heard from God because her heart was positioned to listen. Her life was aligned to God’s purposes and she was ready to follow him wherever he led. They key to hearing from God is to actively listen, not just with our ears, but with our hearts. 2. Test We are told to ‘test the spirits to see if they are from God’ (1 John 4:1). It’s an instruction we’re given for every message we receive and one that God himself facilitates. So in the same way God used Elizabeth to confirm his word to Mary, God will provide confirmation to us through the Body of Christ and in other creative ways (such as sending a card from the other side of the world!) 3. Act When we hear from God, his words initiate change and transformation. It is not enough just to give them intellectual assent - we must live according to them. His words are a seed that we receive, nurture and live by. And just as God’s words did for Mary, they will produce a supernatural blessing for those around us! We would love to hear your thoughts about Mary and God's Conversation below: God Conversations thanks you for your support in 2013, and wishes you a grace-filled Christmas and a kicking start to the New Year! The GC Team

Archetype of the Divine Woman * Why both man and woman must aspire to raise the feminine ray * Visualize the purpose of meditation * Learn about the embodiments of Mary on Atlantis and elsewhere * Discover the science of the immaculate concept practiced by Mary * How to use this science to hold the vision of highest potential for all Quote: "The fallen ones know that if they can destroy the mystique of motherhood in every one of you, they can destroy your potential to bring forth the Christ in your work, in your education, in whatever you are doing right now..." MORE from FAMILY DESIGNS PODCAST: BUY MP3 Audio CD "Family Designs for the Golden Age": Better understand yourself as a spiritual parent and create your family environment to unlock your children’s genius. Lectures by Elizabeth Clare Prophet include: "Karma, Reincarnation, and the Family, " "Your Marriage Made in Heaven, " "Your Marriage Made on Earth," "Charting the Cycles of Your Family," "The Key to Unlock the Genius of Your Child," "What It Means to Be a Parent," "New-Age Children—The Coming Avatars." Plus ascended master dictations through Elizabeth Clare Prophet: "The Matrix of the Holy Family" by Saint Germain, "The Child of the Heart" by Jesus the Christ, and "This Hallowed Circle" by Mother Mary. Item #M10004, 11 hours, $14.95. BUY Visit Pathway for Families...Spiritual and Educational Resources for Families Parenting, Spiritual Lessons, Youth, Relationships, Webinars, Fun and Games, Community (LINK) The Summit Lighthouse - About Us: LINK The Summit Lighthouse helps spiritual seekers with opportunities and support for a unique path which embraces all faiths and nationalities with the Teachings of the Ascended Masters. Building community for more than 50 years, like-minded friends share at various levels of affiliation. CONTACT US for information on Books, eBooks, CDs, MP3s, DVDs, and seminars, conferences, online courses. The Teachings of the Ascended Masters are available in 30 languages. Email: TSLinfo@TSL.org Phone: 1-800-245-5445 or 406-848-9500 Facebook: LINK YouTube: LINK Twitter: LINK Mail: The Summit Lighthouse, 63 Summit Way, Gardiner, MT USA 59030-9314