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Bonus song: who you say I am (anthem lights) Who am I that the highest KingWould welcome me?I was lost but He brought me inOh His love for meOh His love for meWho the Son sets freeOh is free indeedI'm a child of GodYes I amFree at last, He has ransomed meHis grace runs deepWhile I was a slave to sinJesus died for meYes He died for meWho the Son sets freeOh is free indeedI'm a child of GodYes I amIn my Father's houseThere's a place for meI'm a child of GodYes I amI am chosenNot forsakenI am who You say I amYou are for meNot against meI am who You say I amI am chosenNot forsakenI am who You say I amYou are for meNot against meI am who You say I amI am who You say I amWho the Son sets freeOh is free indeedI'm a child of GodYes I amIn my Father's houseThere's a place for meI'm a child of GodYes I amIn my Father's houseThere's a place for meI'm a child of GodYes I amI am chosenNot forsakenI am who You say I amYou are for meNot against meI am who You say I amI am chosenNot forsakenI am who You say I amYou are for meNot against meI am who You say I amI am chosenNot forsakenI am who You say I amYou are for meNot against meI am who You say I amOh, I am who You say I amYes, I am who You say I amWho the Son sets freeOh is free indeedI'm a child of GodYes I amIn my Father's houseThere's a place for meI'm a child of GodYes I amSource: LyricFindSongwriters: Ben Fielding / Reuben Morgan

It's been a trying week not just because this is month 1,999 of the COVID-19 pandemic and life as we know it has been turned upside-down. Nope, this has been a trying week because even in a pandemic cops won't stop killing black people. On May 25, George Floyd was arrested for writing a bad check at a store in Minneapolis. One of the arresting officers was caught on video kneeling on Floyd's neck until he stopped responding. Floyd died. There have been protests. People are hurting. Me? I'm still processing.

Bonus song: Didn’t I walk on the water (Mark Lowry) [Verse 1]As I kneel in the darkness, in the middle of the nightI'm praying for assurance, everything's gonna be alrightLord I see another battle, out in front of meI'm afraid I won't be able, and I'll go down in defeat [Chorus]And He said I walked on the waterI calmed the raging sea I spoke to the wind, it hushed and I gave you peaceDidn't I run to your rescueDidn't I hear you when you calledI walked right beside you, just so you wouldn't fallDidn't I leave all of heavenJust to die for your sinsI searched until I found you, and I'd do it all again [Verse 2]And He said, Do you remember, where I brought you fromJust take a look behind you, and see how far you've comeEvery time you've asked me, didn't I deliver youSo why would you be thinking, that I would not see you through [Chorus] Didn't I walk on the waterDidn't I calm the raging seaI spoke to the wind, it hushed and I gave you peaceDidn't I run to you rescueDidn't I hear you when you calledI walked right beside you, just so you wouldn't fallDidn't I leave all of heavenJust to die for your sinsI searched until I found you, and I'd do it all again. [Verse 3]Now she's talking to her father, in a house that was a homeSays my bills are coming due, Lord, six days just ain't that long She hears a voice so still and low it says, I've moved like that beforeI'll do this little thing for you, and I'll give you so much more [Chorus] Didn't I walk on the water Didn't I calm the raging seaI spoke to the wind, it hushed and I gave you peaceDidn't I run to your rescueDidn't I hear you when you calledI walked right beside you, just so you wouldn't fallDidn't I leave all of heaven Just to die for your sinsI searched until I found you, and I'd do it all again Didn't I Walk on the Water · Mark LowryFrom the album: What's Not to Love?℗ 2017 Daywind Records

Worship Wednesdays is a short mid-week devotion focused on worship. Each week we will meditate on a worship song which will prayerfully motivate us to stay in the presence of God as we move about our daily lives.In today's episode of the Worship Wednesday segment our devotion will focus on letting g of our past mistakes and choosing to live in the freedom that Christ offers. Take some time out, listen to our focus worship song for this week and allow it to minister to your heart.____________Link to song: https://youtu.be/4li_rqHeInQ____________You can subscribe to the podcast here:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/…/modern-day-chris…/id1493915119…Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PteoJjgHlhEaCvuxDflAQ…// FOLLOW Website - www.moderndaychristianchick.comInstagram - @moderndaychristianchickFacebook - Modern Day Christian Chick Apple Music Worship Wednesday playlist:https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/worship-wednesday/pl.u-GgA52Lah1ay5L___________________LyricsThe Curse Is BrokenThe enemy is trying to make me believeThat my past is who I amThat the.mistakes I made from yesterdayIs all that I would ever beThey told me I would be nothingNobody in my family ever wasThey said... you're just like your mommaJust like your daddyNever amounted to anythingBut that's not meThat's not who I amGod gave me a promiseOn that... standThe curse is brokenMy past can't hold meI'm more than a conquerorThat's what he told meThe curse is brokenMy body is healedThe devil's a liarIts in his willThe enemy is trying to make me believeThat my past is who I amThat the.mistakes I made from yesterdayIs all that I would ever beBut that's not meThat's not who I amGod gave me a promiseOn that... standThe curse is brokenMy past can't hold meI'm more than a conquerorThat's what he told meThe curse is brokenMy body is healedThe devil's a liarIts in his will...The mistakes.is not who I amThe lies they told.is not who I amMy past.is not who I amThe curse.is broken in my lifeThe abortion. is not who I amThe misfortune.is not who I amThe disease.is not who I amThe curse is broken in my lifeI'm healed... that's who I amI'm free... that's who I amI'm a conqueror... that's who I amThe curse.is broken in my lifeI'm blessedI'm deliveredI'm redeemedThe curse is broken in my life

Worship Wednesdays is a short mid-week devotion focused on worship. Each week we will meditate on a worship song which will prayerfully motivate us to stay in the presence of God as we move about our daily lives.In today's episode of the Worship Wednesday segment our devotion will focus on worshipping God in the presence of our enemies and during our difficult seasons.Take some time out, listen to our focus worship song for this week and allow it to minister to your heart.Link to the song: https://youtu.be/G2XtRuPfaAURaise a HallelujahI raise a hallelujah, in the presence of my enemiesI raise a hallelujah, louder than the unbeliefI raise a hallelujah, my weapon is a melodyI raise a hallelujah, heaven comes to fight for meI'm gonna sing, in the middle of the stormLouder and louder, you're gonna hear my praises roarUp from the ashes, hope will ariseDeath is defeated, the King is alive!I raise a hallelujah, with everything inside of meI raise a hallelujah, I will watch the darkness fleeI raise a hallelujah, in the middle of the mysteryI raise a hallelujah, fear you lost your hold on me!I'm gonna sing, in the middle of the stormLouder and louder, you're gonna hear my praises roarUp from the ashes, hope will ariseDeath is defeated, the King is alive!Sing a little louder (In the presence of my enemies)Sing a little louder (Louder than the unbelief)Sing a little louder (My weapon is a melody)Sing a little louder (Heaven comes to fight for me)Sing a little louder (In the presence of my enemies)Sing a little louder (Louder than the unbelief)Sing a little louder (My weapon is a melody)Sing a little louder (Heaven comes to fight for me)Sing a little louder!I'm gonna sing, in the middle of the stormLouder and louder, you're gonna hear my praises roarUp from the ashes, hope will ariseDeath is defeated, the King is alive________You can subscribe to the podcast here:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/…/modern-day-chris…/id1493915119…Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PteoJjgHlhEaCvuxDflAQ…________// FOLLOW Website - www.moderndaychristianchick.comInstagram - @moderndaychristianchickFacebook - Modern Day Christian Chick Apple Music Worship Wednesday playlist:https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/worship-wednesday/pl.u-GgA52Lah1ay5L

Someone: How would you describe yourself? Me: I'm a mom, wife, daughter, pet owner, employee, member, and volunteer. Someone: Yeah, but who are you as a person? Me: ***crickets*** In reality, neither of us is quite in this place at the moment, but it was just a short time ago when we had to strain our brains to remember what we used to do for fun, recreation, & relaxation. We had that awkward moment silently wondering... Where did I go? In the hustle and bustle of life, we all, at times, forget who we are down deep as an individual. I imagine some heads are nodding in agreement right now. Let’s keep that flow going. Click play and join us in this conversation.

How does changing the traditional pronouns impact the way you think of God?//The Lord is my Shepard, I have all I needShe makes me lie down in green meadowsBeside the still waters, She will leadShe restores my soul, She rights my wrongsShe leads me in a path of good thingsAnd fills my heart with songsEven though I walk, through a dark and dreary landThere is nothing that can shake meShe has said She won't forsake meI'm in her handShe sets a table before me, in the presence of my foesShe anoints my head with oilAnd my cup overflowsSurely, surely goodness and kindness will follow meAll the days of my lifeAnd I will live in her houseForever, forever and everGlory be to our Mother, and DaughterAnd to the Holy of HoliesAs it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall beWorld, without end//This episode was recorded by The Riverside Choir on Sunday, October 17, 2017. It was produced by Rev. Jim Keat. Background tracks include Relenquish by Podington Bear. This version of Psalm 23 was composed by Bobby McFerrin.Visit www.trcnyc.org/BeStillAndGo to listen to more episodes from all five seasons of Be Still and Go.Visit www.trcnyc.org/Donate to support this podcast and other digital resources from The Riverside Church that integrate spirituality and social justice.

Summary: Latest news headlines and commentaryYoutube link: https://youtu.be/-pC0IK4Yp3E?sub_confirmation=1Website link: SimplePassiveCashflow.com/investorletterStart learning about real estate investing - SimplePassiveCashflow.com/startSubscribe to the Top-50 Investing Free Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/simple-passive-cashflow/id1118795347_________________________Top SimplePassiveCashflow Posts:This website has been going through daily improvements everyday since 2016. I admit things are a bit all over the place as I learn about these investments and wealth tactics.Events – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/eventsPast Projects - crowdfundaloha.com/past-projects/Simple Passive Cashflow’s Investor Friend Finder!!! –SimplePassiveCashflow.com/friendsMenu of Investing Options – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/menuLaneHack – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/lanehackPassive Investor Accelerator eCourse - SimplePassiveCashflow.com/ecoursePassive Investor Accelerator eCourse & Mastermind - SimplePassiveCashflow.com/journeyCoaching – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/coachingJoin our Private Investor Club – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/clubJoin our Team – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/jointeamOur Mission – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/missionPartner Opportunity – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/partnerProducts I support – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/productsAbout Lane Kawaoka – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/about-meQuarterly Investor Updates – http://simplepassivecashflow.com/investorletterSPC YouTube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3cIIsGKx3osVU5rt2P0HfQReal Estate Book Recommendations – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/booksBackwards Engineering Happiness – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/happyRental Property Analyser – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/analyserVisit Lane in Hawaii – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/retreatStart Here – http://simplepassivecashflow.com/startUltimate Simple Passive Cashflow Guide to…1031 Exchanges – Simplepassivecashflow.com/1031guideNewbies – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/noobInfinite Banking – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/bankingYour Opportunity fund – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/ofundTaxes – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/taxTradelines – Simplepassivecashflow.com/tradelinesTurnkey Rental Guide: simplepassivecashflow.com/turnkeySyndication Guide – simplepassivecashflow.com/syndicationCrowdfunding – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/crowdfundingNetworking – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/peoplePrivate Money Lending – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/lendInvesting in Coffee/Cocoa – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/coffeeInvesting in Non-Preforming Notes – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/ahpRent don’t buy – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/homeInvestor Fallacy: Return of Equity – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/roeHow to Calculate Investment Returns – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/returnsWhy you should break up with your Financial Planner – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/fpQuitting your job – SimplePassiveCashflow.com/quitUnknown Speaker 0:00Are you busy professional overwhelmed and misled by the stock market dogma saving and work into your 70 I like to help you out and get to know you a little bit better with a quick 15 minute strategy call. Hurry as I'm only opening my schedule for a limited time as I take it easy the rest of the holiday season and get going for a busy New Year. But good call by going to simple passiveUnknown Speaker 0:20cash flow calm slash talk.Unknown Speaker 0:22Hey guys, I'm traveling at the moment going down to the collective genius mastermind at San Diego then off the Huntsman Dallas. I'm really enjoying the real life of a professional investor without that day job. This week, you're going to be listening to my monthly market update webinar, which you can join us live by joining our email list or check out the YouTube video online. And while you're there, subscribe to our YouTube channel which we're giving away free course subscription for YouTube subscribers. Also, if you want to check out the video form of this webinar, go to simple passive cash flow comm slash investing letter aloha Maybe we'll try to rent them out. And then he became one real investor maybe you guys haven't subscribed to the podcast simple passive cash flow comm check it out. And also check out the YouTube channel. I've been getting a lot better adding more videos there to you guys want a free version of my ebook, text ebook 25873176099 and join our Facebook community if you have not already. So our first article here is Apple committing 2.5 billion toward California housing crisis. So they're saying that they will commit $2.5 billion towards efforts of solving the obvious affordable housing issue in Northern California. I used to work for a city and these are Always there's always a negotiation to give permits. That's the leverage a municipality has over big companies like this. And you know, these big companies, they would like to build infrastructure like sidewalks, curbs, and not have to do ridiculous the tension tanks under new construction and different stormwater. Anyway. The municipality has leverage over them. So this is a way that that the business of how it can kind of negotiate things for the community. And it seems like it's a Oh, it's a wonderful thing that Apple has done, but no, they probably it's a deal deal between them and the municipality just like how Google did this. And Microsoft had first hand view on what Microsoft did in their city. And this is this kind of shows failures for markets and public policy to meet the housing needs. I wouldn't want I live in Northern California, unless I had a huge tech salary. Yep, that's a, it's in the chat window cronyism. That's what you're talking about. Next article here 3019 rent growth chart here from mid November. This one they released pretty often multifamily rent growth is back and in the black, increasing $1 to an average of 1400 bucks about per month. The takeaway is that the rent growth are still happening. Class B and C investors are circling secondary, tertiary markets. And this is no secret to a lot of us simple passive capital investors targeting non primary markets for the cash flow and not having to compete with dumb money, to say the least. So there and I'm co here. It's fueled by Strong employment and a growing group of renters by choice, investor exuberance for multifamily properties is spilling over into older properties as well as secondary and tertiary markets buyer older properties and renovating them, meanwhile, can offer better returns. I think we all know this. But you know, not everybody in the world thinks like this. there on the bottom, we had a chart that I took from the last apartment.Unknown Speaker 4:30You know, those are the typical class BNC rents that you're going to see in a lot of the secondary and tertiary markets, anywhere from 550 a month, up to $800 a month. Definitely a culture shock to a lot of us that live in poverty markets where you're used to seeing houses cost 300 $400,000 or more, and paying $2,000 a month rent for a little studio. For those of you who want to kind of come back to this presentation you guys can do this later, but this is the third quarter 2019, United States multifamily capital markets, they do a good job of just running down the high level of what's kind of happening across the nation. And it's interesting to track this, each quarter that each quarter no surprise yields are compressed nine basis points, which isn't very much year over year. And that's consistent with what I'm feeling, but it's nothing like I think a lot of people are like, Oh, no, the sky is falling, and will never be able to get yield. There's yield there. The gap is closing very slow, slowly, but it's still there. But you're not buying the average. You know, they come up with this number where they average probably million deals out there. You're trying to find that one needle in the haystack and, you know, if you're patient, you'll find it rent growth. You know, just like the last publication I just mentioned, they're saying that the rent growth increased 3.2% nationally. Which is up 60 basis points over last year article about those impacting those doing Airbnb and short term rentals. Jersey City joins the push the block Airbnb, where what they're doing is they're going to borrow renters from listing the apartments on the site as well as owners who don't live on site. And this is another reason why I don't like short term rentals at all. I prefer blue collar workforce housing, long term rentals, just boring stuff. article titles multifamily rents rise as a vacancy, Titans, effective rents for institutional properties and what they mean by institutional properties are like these are the big ones typically the a class because it's easier for them to get data on this. They're saying rents grew 3.3% which is, you know, mimics kind of what we very close to what the last news source mentioned. Up 1.6% over the previous quarter. So that's almost half of the annual growth in the last quarter, which makes sense because right growth is pretty cyclical. When you get into these cold or slow months, you don't have as much demand on people moving. So that makes total sense from a logical standpoint. vacancy rates declined by 20 basis points to 5.8%, even as the apartment stock continues to expand, so they're building new units by 2% a year. More than 4400 buildings providing almost 800,000 units are currently under construction. But remember, this is Big Data comprised of the whole United States, which is insightful yet not really useful, because when you're an investor, you're trying to key in not only in a certain market but a sub market. You know, is it going To be West Irving as opposed to just the Irving Texas for example or the DFW market. I took a couple pictures here of you know, everybody loves these like the top 10 happiest city, which they said it was Miami, Florida, Oakland Austin send it to San Jose, Philadelphia, la Boston, Honolulu, Portland, San Diego. And America's top 10 dynamic cities which is San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Aurora, Grand Prairie, Oklahoma, Fort Worth, San Jose, Atlanta, Georgia, Miami, Florida, where they get this data. I don't have a clue. Me I don't really need much into it. But people like these type of news articles and so that's why I put it in here.Unknown Speaker 8:51Other than the 27 weeks of curated content for the passive investor, the new mastermind will offer bi weekly power calls with the following format. first week of every month we will dial in on being a direct investor for simple passive cash flow 1.0 I call it which is getting your first rental negotiating sourcing operation etc. second week of every month we will discuss holistic wealth building topics or what I call simple passive cash flow two point O plus, which is holistic Wealth Management syndications private placements, tax legal lifestyle design etc. Get a sense of this forum by checking out the guide to taxes video at simple passive cash flow calm backslash tax, I'll be honest, some things I can't see the general public because it's too personal. And it's not to say bad things about others. Unless you're in the mastermind. One rule we have is what happens in the mastermind stays in the mastermind. To get in go to simple passive cash flow.com backslash journey.Unknown Speaker 9:51Don't be left out and join the day. If you'veUnknown Speaker 9:54been waiting on the sidelines. This is your moment and not to be taken by an institutionalized educationUnknown Speaker 9:59program.Unknown Speaker 10:01update on the whole China trade deal as of November 11 2019. Now the home loan started higher. But we were kind of save middle of the month when the reports came out suggesting that a delay of a phase one trade deal was about to be signed. So it was a disruption to relay to the trade citing was the reason for the rates to improve off the worst levels mid week. There was worried that both the United States and China would roll back terrorists as a deal with push through. And this push stocks to all time highs as the expensive the bonds and the home loan rates low and on the same level. They were back on July 31. When the Fed cut their rates for the first time in 10 years. co working spaces a little bit if you haven't been watching the news and heard about headlines About the company we work. But essentially, if you read between the lines and here's my summary of the whole thing, we work along with many other tech companies, their venture capital, and they have a lot of money backing them, which can power a lot of marketing and make a company look good. But like in any business, if you don't have organic marketing, to create new customers for you, your business will likely fail. It just matter depends on how much artificial capital you can burn up to keep this thing going. And just like any business, you have to kind of feed the beast until you kind of take off and go on your own. But we work they kind of got to a point where they realize that they weren't making money doing this and then they had a another infusion of cash. Here of sort of the percentage of CO working spaces on a graph. I'm still less than 4% even in Manhattan, and where the mark the vacancy rates are. For those real estate usage, the trend line is showing the higher amount of vacancy. The lower amount of percent coworking. So New York, Manhattan, Brooklyn, they have a low vacancy rate, which means a high demand. And that's why they have more percent of CO working space. But most of these, these cities follow the trend line. I'm not really too many outliers here. More than half of the world's richest investors see a big market dip drop in 2020. So the UPS survey and this is from the good old CNBC news station, whether that's good or bad or not. So they're saying they surveyed 3400 high net worth investors How they got those people? And what the heck kind of high net worth investors are going to sit on the phone for four minutes and answer surveys My other question, but they said 55% of respondents expected a significant drop in the market at some point in 2020. And they also said that the super rich have increased their cash holdings to 25% of their average assets. Put this in here mainly to kind of show people a little measuring stick, like you have high net worth investors or people here, maybe. And they're still not sitting on any more than a quarter of their net worth in cash. And here's my message if you're not rich, if your net worth is under $1 million, $1 million is really not that money. And oftentimes, I see those under $1 million net worth sitting on a large huge majority like almost 75% money in cash or stuck in lazy debt equity in their home or other rental properties paid off. I mean, you would think it'd be the opposite right high net worth investors should have more cash on hand because they have you know, they don't need to get yield, they don't need cash flow to eat, eat from that was my takeaway that 25% level for cash flow sitting on the sidelines from some random survey of of high net worth people. Me I'm kind of more like, I don't know like 10% or something like I invest aggressively maybe part of that is because I feel like I have good deal flow. But I invest in majority cash flowing investments that are cash flowing today.Unknown Speaker 14:50So this next chart here is taken from Arbor who is a direct Fannie Mae Freddie Mac lender. Orange graph is showing the court debt which is going up. And the household debt which peaked in 2008 2009, obviously, is on the decline, which is, in my opinion a good thing. This is similar to the levels of two top 2000 were corporate debt was at 46% ish. And household debt was a little over 70% hill-wood to develop a 1 million square foot Amazon fulfillment center in North Mississippi, put this in here as just a you know a lot of people they look at all these headlines of this building going into Seattle or this building going in San Francisco, frankly don't really care about any of this stuff I look at more of these type of articles here is like a class and choke campus going in. Next, the US Highway 78. More importantly next BNSF and Norfolk Southern Railroad lines. This is a similar play to people going into Memphis for the old FedEx and UPS, transit hubs. You know, these days you're looking for yield you can't really go to secondary markets your Kansas City's your Memphis says because they've been picked over since 2012 2016. You've really got to kind of go into these more tertiary markets that nobody ever really is talking about. Not saying that this is a good market to invest in, but maybe look into some of these market like in northern Mississippi. Again, it is in DeSoto County CBR he industry preps for the new Eb five regulations. So those of you who aren't aware of Eb five, this is the old way to if you're International, you want to become a US citizen. Well, you can pay to play because we'll take your money and we'll give you citizenship so we can get money. You have to invest in an asset that My understanding is that it helps the United States economic or its benefits America, I see it as sort of like a donation in a way to get citizenship. But they used to be, they're going to increase the target that you you're supposed to put up from $500,000 to $900,000. And it's supposed to pace inflation. And the standard minimum investment will rise by the same percentage going from 1 million to $1.8 million. So I've heard of a lot of people coming into the country this way. Again, a lot of the international money people coming in, they're not the 1% of their country. They're like the point 01 percent. So just plunking down a million dollars on something like that is think about it if you're going to the airport, and you want the Fast Pass, but the Fast Pass is way better. But it was 10 times the price and money was no object to you, you do it. These charts are talking about millennial renters. They ask these millennials, why do you expect to always rent? And some of the excuses? I mean, some of the the reasons where I can't afford to buy a house was 69%. The next one is I like the flexibility that renting provides. Third with 37% is I prefer to avoid maintenance and edit costs. And then last summer was buying a phone is financially risky. And then they asked millennials who plan to buy your house. Why are you waiting? What's your excuse? And 70% said I can't afford to buy right now. 33% said I'm not ready to settle down yet. 24% said I'm waiting to get married probably to share the costs and the Then there's another chart that they put in here and they split up the different demographics. Not going to go into that you guys can check that out later by going to simple passive cash flow, comm slash investor letter. And you guys can download these slides there.Unknown Speaker 19:17Those are the news articles I dug up this month. Here are the new simple passive cash flow articles and podcasts that I created this month. The first one was a lot of my investors, they they might be totally on board with financial freedom and investing in alternative assets but they may have a reluctant spouse in an In fact, this is in most cases call this reluctant spouse syndrome. So I pinged and surveyed a few people in my tribe and put down some useful tips on how to get your spouse on board. possibly create some kind of Midway there, too. You guys can check out that article at simple passive cash flow comm slash spouse. I'm starting to build a legal guide just like the tax guide, tax guide you can find a simple passive cash flow calm slash tax. But this legal guide that I've been creating a simple passive cash flow comm slash legal. I'm not a tax attorney I'm not a CPA, I'm not a lawyer. But here are some notes that I've been keeping for myself that you guys can also review I have my last rental property on the market and I am showcasing what's happening with that one at simple passive cash flow calm slash A l four l for because it's in Alabama and it was my fourth rental in Alabama. I interviewed at least it's on you guys can check out that interview there. Also I interviewed a doctor who is doing short term rentals. And if you're a doctor, I would go to that simple passive cash flow. COMM slash doctor and there's all other tidbits and thoughts for doctors and you know if you're a new Doctor, what are some tips to for financial freedom there and and other mindsets even if you're probably a higher paid profession I would recommend checking that out. For those of you who are still buying turnkeys we did a webinar last week where we talked about the mortgage lending requirements in 2020. And moving forward with Graham can check that out simple passive cash flow comm slash turnkey. The E course went live on Black Friday for those of you who took advantage of the that special launch pricing. It's that simple passive cash flow calm slash e course. And if you guys buy that we can credit back to the price you paid if you choose to go into the mastermind, at any point, we currently have 55 members in there. We do bi weekly zoom calls, we do networking similar to how we kick this meeting off here. Great way to get around. accredited investors quick going to The local Ria or the free Facebook group. So the forums, you're just going to find a bunch of book people there. And I launched the new investor portal for those of you who are in deals with me to access it, you have to create a login, then you can access to all the monthly updates there just in case you miss an email. Once we all get a lot of emails these days, and if you guys want to sign up, go to the website, and you create a join the deal club, you guys get access to the first three modules of the E course those of you who are not verified with me and haven't set up a call with me yet. After you do that, you can get access to the past do webinars to review and further your learning. They're just going to go over some updates that I've been doing personally. Man November was a quick month so I think put this down really quickly. I've had a little bit of downtime to plan for 2020 I'm starting to make key hires to help the group and simple passive cash flow, notably a membership director for the mastermind group. So what we're doing now is we're going through all the members and kind of building a little matrix and who's doing what, who we can connect with who, and then we're going to kind of forced the matchmaking to happen. contribution. I felt like the whole addressing this reluctant spouse syndrome was a big issue I needed to sort of help people with. The graphic I have on screen is what we're all trying to avoid. This guy was wearing like one of those Apple watches and it just happened to be the day that he got fired. So about 10 o'clock, he got the news that he got laid off his beats per minute, went up spiked up 220 from a resting heart rate of 85. It kinda went down. He had a meeting with HR Little around two o'clock and it spiked toUnknown Speaker 24:04110. And then he left work at 530 went right back up as probably he went home because he didn't want to tell a spouse, that his supposedly job that was keeping their family alive was no more. And then he went to bed at 110 beats per minute. So you don't want that to happen. And that's why you invest in alternative assets and you do something that everybody else doesn't do. Not because it's going to create the future one, but it's going to avoid situations like this. And maybe that's the pain that willingness pain will speak to you more than the financial rewards. Some cool things that I get to talk about here, my significant slide, I counted up the real estate control $216 million. Guess that's almost a quarter billion 3000 units or so 24 million diverted from Wall Street from Other passive investors in the squee. So we are currently up to 226 live investors today.Unknown Speaker 25:10Thank you, for especially you guys have been waiting for quite a few deals. This next side is uncertainty because you're always trying to find ways to make things a little bit a surprise in life as I'm planning 2020 for myself, I made it a goal not to go to real estate events where I know everybody and it's like cheers and everybody knows my name. And I don't have to get out my comfort zone. Because everybody already knows me. I'm going to go to start to go to more private entrepreneur type of events where nobody knows me and different coaching groups just do something a little bit different way I'm going to get certainty in my life. I'm starting to look at like doing asset management, taking that over from a third party and some of our deals and doing this in house. I don't know why I didn't do this in the past. Maybe because I didn't like doing it as a job as a project manager, but I'm sick and tired of seeing these accountants or computer programmers or non professionals be project managers when this is exactly what I did at my job for 10 years. And maybe even though I didn't like it, or I didn't think I was that good, I can do a lot better than all these amateurs. What I did for relationships and connections and love, I took my wife out, and we use the hundred dollar gift card that somebody gave us. It took some time for that. So I'm always trying to identify what is the resistance in my business in my life, and try and eliminate those. And we had a webinar in our mastermind going over INTERNATIONAL TRUST. And if you think LLCs and two layers LLC are cool, this is going to blow your mind. It's all about getting over charging order protection. This fraudulent conveyance much better Domestic trust. Again I have a lot of those notes and simple passive cash flow calm slash legal. You guys want to check it out and and part of this is like there's no worse feeling than being in a lawsuit and even if it's a stupid one, that somebody else can control your assets and do like a charging order, which is basically freeze your stuff and stop your ability to find future deals, or even getting a home loan for yourself or you maybe even getting a credit card. Creating complex events, legal entities is a way of getting some leverage in those situations. And for me, it's money well spent. Other other frivolous things. I think my coffee sucks. I'm going to stop using that key cup after my lot of 144 remaining k cup pods are gone. Probably gonna get one of those $50 special machines and Thanksgiving is always tough for me because I don't like to hear about people's jobs because is most times is people complaining all the time. My attitude is if you don't like your job then do something about it. Thanksgiving is over, thankfully. And Christmas is here and I bought myself some air pots. These are finally the good ones actually stay in New Year. And gunk doesn't get stuck inside of them. Some lessons learned I'm reading. Well, I just finished this last night The Richest Man in Babylon. A lot of people have recommended this book to me in the past for the first couple of chapters, there was a big takeaway. It was like this really rich guy, he's he's teaching this this younger guy who's not rich at all like a man How do I get rich and then the old guy tells them put aside 10% of your money and go and buy assets or go into deals that make you money. One of the first deals he goes into he goes to like the blacksmith who's going to buy like spices from wherever. And then the old man is like, all right, well, that's cool. Like Yeah, that can possibly make you money for why the hell are you investing with the blacksmith that doesn't know anything about spices? And then you know, that's the lesson learned the guy didn't make any money. But eventually he moves and he goes into a better deal. And now he starts to see the this proven concept. And at that point, after I read like the first 10 minutes of this book, it's written in Old English, sort of like the Bible, and it totally puts me to sleep, which is why I didn't get anything out of the book, and I eventually gave up on it. But now I can say I read it now when people talk about it, because they get the gist of it. Well, thanks for joining. And we'll see you guys next month on another monthly update right?Unknown Speaker 30:01This website offers very general information concerning real estate for investment purposes every investor situation is unique. Always seek the services of licensed third party appraisers and inspectors to verify the valuing condition of any property you intend to purchase. Use the services of professional title and escrow companies and licensed tax investment and or legal advisor before relying on any information contained herein information is not guaranteed as an every investment there is risk. The content found here is just my opinion and things change and I reserve the right to change my mind. Above all else, do your own analysis and think for yourself because in the end, you're the only person who is going to look out for your best interests. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Happy belated Thanksgiving! What are you thankful for? Me? I'm thankful for an episode uploaded at a normal time, and for 50 episodes! Join us for the huge celebration of kind of acknowledging it and then moving on with our lives!

1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Paul’s prayer Colossians 1:9 (NLT) So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. 11 We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, 12 always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. 13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. Anytime you see the expression of being thankful it is not there as a filler word, it is there for a very specific purpose. Giving thanks is in the central part of any prayer because Thanksgiving opens you to something greater. You remember that the first mention of Thanksgiving was connected to something called a peace offering. The peace offering was a free will offering unlike any other offering for Israel back in that day of law, requirements and mandates. You will remember that we said, Thanksgiving comes from peace and peace leads to thanksgiving. Giving thanks opens your heart and mind to God and to his supply quicker than anything else. The text says the word thanking God who has enabled us to partake of an inheritance in the light. Stop and think about that: we actually have access to something that God has provided to us. Giving thanks is like a key or combination to open the door. RESCUED Have you ever faced a danger, such as a near miss while driving, or some other situation that could've ended badly? What's the first thing you said? You said thank you! We are all escapees! We are like escaped slaves! We been delivered! We got out! We made it over!Think for a moment what your life would be today without Jesus Christ, without the family he gave you, without the church and Teachers he gave you. Jesus literally purchased our freedom and forgive us our sins. Where would we be without Jesus and his church? The great Mahalia Jackson performed a songHow I Got Over How I got overHow did I make it over?You know my soul look back and wonderHow did I make it over? Tell me how we got over, LordHad a mighty hard time coming on overYou know my soul look back and wonderHow did we make it over? Tell me how we got over, LordI've been falling and rising all these yearsBut you know my soul look back and wonderHow did I make it over? But, soon as I can see JesusThe man that died for meMan that bled and sufferedAnd he hung on Calvary And I want to thank him for how he brought meAnd I want to thank God for how he taught meOh, thank my God how he kept meI'm gonna thank him cause he never left me TRANSFERRED Have you ever had experience of experiencing a transfer to something better or an upgrade?One of the best things when you travel away from home is to be booked into one hotel room and get upgraded to a better room. When I travel to Raleigh North Carolina last month to be a part of the 20th ministry anniversary of Pastor Williams I checked into a new Hampton hotel. I came early so I room wasn't ready for me, but because I was a Hilton rewards member, the lady gave me a king suite. I walked in there put my bag down a big smile came on my face! I received a transfer! I didn't deserve it, I could've done without it, but I received it anyway! There is no better transfer than your heart and mind to be moved out of the realm of worry, fear, anxiety, and all the limitations connected with this world the kingdom. To be transferred into the kingdom of the son of God's love is an incredible reality! New king James version says, 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, Not only have you been transferred into a kingdom, you've been transferred into the Kingdom of God in Jesus Christ, who is the Son of his love! There are four keys to this transfer It is a transference from darkness to light. Without God men grope and stumble as if walking in the dark. They know not what to do; they know not where they are going. God has given us a light by which to live and by which to die. It is a transference from slavery to freedom. In Jesus Christ there is liberation. It is a transference from condemnation to forgiveness. He knows now that he is no longer a condemned criminal at God's judgment seat, but a lost son for whom the way home is always open. It is a transference from the power of Satan to the power of God. Through Jesus Christ man is liberated from the grip of Satan and is able to become a citizen of the Kingdom of God. Transferred into the Kingdom of the Son of his love. Redeemed by the blood and forgiven of all sins Psalm 89:15 Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! They walk, O Lord, in the light of Your countenance. 16 In Your name they rejoice all day long, And in Your righteousness they are exalted.

Usually, paying attention to your body, mind, and health is the last thing you do when it comes to your business. It’s time to focus on yourself first! Today, I am talking to Tony LeBlanc, second-generation property manager and author of The Doorpreneur: Property Management Beyond the Rent Roll. Tony shares the keys to debunking the rent roll paradox when chasing doors to grow.  You’ll Learn... [03:00] Software Engineer Stint: Tech geek at heart that brings love of technology into property management space. [04:30] What is rent roll paradox? Property management companies that constantly rely on getting new doors to grow their business.  [05:42] Chasing doors creates havoc and stress due to inefficiencies. [08:45] Expanding Territories/Locations: The bigger and more geographically dispersed a business gets, the more opportunities arise that aren’t taken advantage of.  [10:56] Would you want two doors making the same amount, or one door making same amount as two? One door, if the goal is revenue/profit, it's not just about adding doors.  [12:30] Premature Expansion: Go-to once a company reaches a certain size; anything premature is generally not a good thing. [14:13] Entrepreneur’s Journey: Everyone hits stagnation or desire for more. They get distracted by opportunity.  [15:11] Opportunities vs. Expansion: Think it through, be disciplined, and follow good habits before making the jump and knowing where you’re going. [17:40] Cycle of Suck: Bad owners, properties, reputation, and false scarcity. [18:15] Property management is changing. It’s future is a foundation full of opportunities. [21:50] Dinosaur Dictators vs. Millennials Seeking Meaning and Purpose: Good property management can change the world.  [22:45] Tony’s Aha Moment: We matter and play an important role in thousands of people’s day-to-day life. [28:30] Target on Back: How to deal with being overwhelmed as a property manager. [32:14] When we create and have constraints, when we're limited in our time and attention, we innovate. Tweetables Growth doesn't happen by accident. Personal growth is gateway to business growth. Chasing Doors: Is all you care about being introduced to new people, close deals, and get more doors? Property management’s growth is defined by doors that it turns down, not doors it gets. Focus is power. Cut something out in your life to achieve something. Resources The Doorpreneur by Tony LeBlanc Ground Floor Property Management National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM) Cycle of Suck DoorGrowClub Facebook Group DoorGrowLive DoorGrow on YouTube Transcript Jason: Welcome, DoorGrow hackers to the DoorGrow Show. If you are a property management entrepreneur that wants to add doors, make a difference, increase revenue, help others, impact lives, and you are interested in growing your business and life, and you are open to doing things a bit differently, then you are a DoorGrow hacker. DoorGrow hackers are those that love the opportunities, daily variety, unique challenges, and freedom that property management brings. Many in real estate think you’re crazy for doing it, you think they’re crazy for not, because you realize that property management is the ultimate high-trust gateway to real estate deals, relationships, and residual income. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management businesses and their owners. We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. I’m your host, property management growth expert, Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow. Now, let’s get into the show. My guest today is Tony LeBlanc from Canada. Welcome Tony, how are you doing? Tony: Hey man, I'm doing great, Jason. Thanks for having me. Jason: I'm really excited to have you on the show. You've been on before a long time ago and I was telling you in the green room before the show, but I think we resonate with a lot of similar values. I think we're both growth-minded people. I read your Doorpreneur book, which everybody should take a look at. And I think we have a similar mindset that growth doesn't happen by accident and personal growth is the gateway to business growth. I think we probably would both agree. Tony: Absolutely. Jason: I posted about this just the other day. I think it's the last thing that everybody wants to pay attention to in their business, is themselves. They’ll focus on everything external. “I need more leads. I need this. I need this.” Ironically, if I could change the person or get them clear on themselves, then all of those things end up changing by default, everything. Website marketing, everything into changing by default if you focus on yourself first. Tony give people a little bit of background. Maybe those that had heard you before, bring them up-to-date. Tell us a little bit about who Tony is. Tony: Sure, thanks Jason. I said my name's Tony LeBlanc from eastern Canada. Born and raised out here. I am a second generation property manager. It wasn't my first career of choice. I actually got into it as my second career. My first career was a 15-year stint as a software engineer with IBM which provided me an amazing experience visiting the world and working with a lot of great people in that domain. I'm a tech geek at heart. I love technology and I don't think that'll ever go away. It’s been interesting to bring that into the property management world, because as everybody knows, technology in the property management space is still not, in my opinion, where it should be. I still think we’re 5-10 years behind some of the stuff that we should have out there available to us. I still find it very difficult to run my business with the standard property management software that they have out there. After I left IBM, I started my management company which had been running out for about 10 years, called Ground Floor Property Management. We have been very well-received in our community. We now have three locations and I am now an author. I've basically taken everything that I've learnt from IBM, from life, and from the last 10 years of growing my property management company as well as the spin offs that we've created over the years, and that's where I am today, introducing the doorpreneur way. Jason: Perfect. The title of the show is the Keys to Debunking the Rent Roll Paradox. What is the rent roll paradox? Tony: The rent roll paradox is the fact that most, if not all property management companies out there, are constantly relying on getting new doors to grow their business. I believe there's a different way. I believe there is a much better way than doing that. And I say that from experience. For the first five years of running Ground Floor, my property management company, I was nothing but a door chaser. I just wanted to grow, grow, grow, grow. That's all I cared about. I just wanted to be introduced to new people, close deals, and get more doors. We got to the point to where we reached almost 2000 doors in five years. That’s across three locations. It was fast, it was intense, and it was incredibly painful. Incredibly painful. Now that I've gotten into the second five-year phase of the management journey, I've learned a lot looking back, and I realized that as I was going through that growth phase, I'm just adding more doors, and more doors, and more doors. I was causing a lot of havoc and stress on myself and my staff, but I was leaving an incredible amount of money on the table because of inefficiencies. If anybody's growing a property management company, when you're getting doors pouring in—we do multi-rise mostly, not just single family—it's a lot of work. We've onboarded 50, 60, 124 unit buildings, and it consumes you for a period of time. If you don't give the proper amount of space in between those growth, it becomes rough, but you don't want to take your foot off the gas if you're like me. Jason: Yeah, so let's touch on this real quick. I tell people this all the time. If somebody calls me and they say, “I am thinking of starting a property management business,” I say, “Do you want me to talk you into it or out of it?” because I get to see inside hundreds of companies. They usually laugh, but they usually stay into it. The thing is, this property management is easily death by a thousand cuts. Tony: Absolutely. Jason: If you have one little problem with one door and then you have a thousand doors, you have thousands of those problems over and over again. That's why it's so critical to shore up some of these leaks early on, because if you're having problems now and you feel like it's stressful now, just adding more doors is throwing gasoline on whatever fire you have. If that fire is a bad fire, then it's just going to explode. It’s going to be worse. Customer service goes down. You have more complaints and it compounds. Usually, they have to make significant changes just to go from 50-60 units under management to break past that first sand trap—I call 50-60 door the solopreneur sand trap—to break 100 doors. Just to do that, they have to change everything. Ironically, I’ll real estate companies that are doing property management on the side, break past that barrier artificially without making the necessary changes. They don't get technology in place, they don’t get systems in place, and it will pass it. One of my case studies was a client that had 600 units under management, single family, and was making $0 in this business. I said, “How are you doing that?” he’s like, “I've $3 million a month in real estate every month or whatever. I'm doing real estate.” Property management can be death by a thousand cuts. You have this pain, but you have growth and I'm sure a lot of people are like, “I would love that problem. I would love the problem to deal with, to figure out how to get 2000 doors and quit crying,” so tell us a little bit about your experience after that. Tony: One of the big things was expanding into different territories. Our headquarters, which is my main office, we’re doing extremely well. We then split off to another city within an hour-and-a-half away, and that ended up going well. The third location came in and that started off really well, but then about a year later, we started looking at all three locations individually, and we started seeing a lot of gaps, and a lot of issues that we're struggling with. We made a conscious effort to obviously fix a lot of those things and it made us really pull the curtain back and look at the overall business as it sat. The bigger we got and the more geographically dispersed that we became, we started seeing a lot of opportunities that we were just not taking advantage of. When I started the management company 10 years ago, I had maintenance as part of the division. That's the way my mother did it and that's the way I wanted to do it. I always wanted to have my own maintenance guys on my payroll so that I can control that and we still do that to this day. What really became evident as we're studying and looking at our rent rolls across all three locations, was the amount of money that was being spent outside in terms of different trades, different services that were required on all these properties. To be quite honest with you, I was getting tired of chasing doors. It wasn't as enticing anymore. Don't get me wrong, we still grow, we still love getting new doors, but something had changed in me. Then we were really started looking at what can we do beyond just getting more doors and that's really when the whole doorpreneur philosophy was born. Our first pivot into a new business that serviced our portfolios was landscaping [...] and that's where everything grew from there. Jason: Here's an obvious question. Would you rather have two doors that are making the same amount or one door that's making the same amount as two? Tony: Definitely one. Absolutely. Jason: Absolutely. If the goal is revenue, the goal is profit, and it's not just about adding doors. Everyone focuses on that one multiplier, it is doors. Everyone's trying to get a deal and it's like one deal per door. What if you can get multiple doors per deal? What if you can get multiple years per door? What about duration? There's all these other factors they’re not paying attention to. There are some property managers out there that are replacing every door every year. They're usually about 50-60 units, they're getting on an accidental investor that leaves every year, they have to replace every damn door every year, and they're like, “We’re adding doors, why aren’t we growing?” It seems so obvious. Tony: The major shift for us has been quality over quantity. I say no to more doors today than I ever have in my 10-year career running this company. It's really all about where can we take this? Where can we take that door and what can it do in the long term? Jason: Yeah. I think a property management company’s growth will always be defined by the doors that they're willing to turn down, not the doors they're able to get on for sure. I think another thing going back to your rent roll paradox, you talked about expanding into locations. I think that's a go-to once a company hits a certain size, they're like, “We did it here, let's go here.” They just had me speak on this at the Ironman conference on a panel and I call that, premature expansion. Anything premature is generally not a good thing. A lot of people think, “Well, we did this here, we're hitting a cap in our door account, so instead of expanding our revenue opportunities with those doors, or here, or figuring out other ways to hit different parts of the market here, let's just go find a new market. We’ll do it all over again,” they don't realize it's worse than being twice as hard in starting a new location. Tony: 100%. The stories that I can tell you about the two locations that we can open. It all comes back to a fundamental need of chasing doors. It’s like that's all you're able to see. We got this tunnel vision. It's like, “Okay, I've grown here and I think I'm as big as I can get. Where else can I go and chase more doors?” It's fulfilling for the first little while. It's fun, it’s exciting, but there's an emptiness to it in the end. I think I'm a little bit different than maybe probably a lot of traditional type property managers. I knew when I started Ground Floor that it was going to be something much bigger than just a property management company. I had that vision 10-15 years ago and just running after doors, it lasted for 3-4 years and then I was like, “Okay, what's next? Is this it? What else can I do in here?” That's when a lot of other things started coming along. Jason: I think that's common for every entrepreneur in the entrepreneurial journey. If they really are an entrepreneurial-minded person, they're going to hit this stagnation or this desire for more. The desire to do more. Sometimes that goes south and they do it in negative or dysfunctional ways. I started out just doing websites. Then I go like, “Hey, I could make residual income if I'm doing the hosting for these websites. I could do this. They also need the service.” I think as entrepreneurs, we also get distracted by opportunity. We see it everywhere and it keeps us sometimes from even achieving the goal we're working on right now. How do you find that balance between seeing all the opportunity and expanding into new areas, but making sure that you're actually getting stuff done? Tony: I'll be honest with you. The first couple of years, I was so focused. I had my head down so bad in terms of just getting the doors and growing my local office, that it was so busy and it was all so fast that I didn't have time to look at anything else. It's when I get a little bit of breathing room that I started looking at the different locations. I don't necessarily regret it, but I probably would have thought about it a little bit longer before I need the jump. If I look at myself now, it really comes down to being disciplined and a lot of good habits. Like I said, I say no to more business today than I ever have. I am 100% focused. Property management is my life. If it's not in property management or in my sphere, I'm not interested. I don't have time for it, I don't make time for it, and I'm very blunt with that. I have an extremely tough schedule that I follow. I do a lot of stuff for myself personally, and then that translates over to the business side. I know where I'm going. It's kind of fun to where you'll have other guys or people that'll come in and say, “I got these cool opportunities, I got this, I got this,” I'm like, “Cool, good for you. I hope it works.” Me? I'm not interested. I got my path and I know what I'm doing. Jason: Yeah. I did hit up for opportunities all the time. Different property management there's like, “Hey, we could do this cool thing together.” I’m like, “No, we can't.” Focus is power like with anything. You could be a flood light or you could be a laser and actually cut something out in your life and achieve something. All right. Can we touch on your book a little bit? I read through it. I think there's some interesting ideas in there. I don't know where we should start, but you've got this book, you call it The Doorpreneur: Property Management Beyond the Rent Roll. It's a quick read. I think it's a good read. You share a little bit of your journey and some of the things you've gone through. I think we've done some similar things. I'm going to quote a part of it. It says, “We are the problem and we are the solution.” You were talking about how property management had a bad rep because we're allowing it to. I think that's the case. Everyone who’s heard of me, if they listen to my show at all, talk about the cycle of suck. If you haven't, just google “Property Management Cycle of Suck” and you'll find an old video I did on it. I think that the industry as a whole is that's where they are. It's caught in the cycle of suck. It has a bad reputation because everyone's taking on bad owners, and they're taking on bad properties, and they're not being picky, and they feel all the scarcity. Everybody's trying to do the same stuff that's not working which creates false scarcity in the industry and there's no scarcity in property management. You said that you believe the industry's time has come. What do you see for this industry? You say it's on the brink of change. I feel that, too. I feel like there's a shift going on right now. I'm hoping that DoorGrow is helping to push that forward. What do you see for the future of property management? Tony: Just over the last few years, I would say probably in the last 4-5 years, I will say that you’ve had a part in this in terms of, you're starting to see a lot more people get together and talk about property management, and not just NARPM. I know that’s a big organization in the States, but in order for an industry to really take over, I believe it's got to go beyond just the regulation of the groups that are that are like that. It's exciting to see a lot of that happening, whether if it's groups online or different organizations, all sorts of cool stuff. But I'm also seeing that the opportunities that are becoming present in all these different places are becoming much more attractive to different people. It's like you're seeing the density being built in a lot of different cities—the rise of renting out in this whole generation of millennials—in terms of it being a renter's nation. That is providing a good foundation for a lot of required property managers to come out here and start managing these properties. The tools are getting better. They're not amazing yet, and I'm speaking in terms of technology. Those things are getting better over time. But more and more, I'm seeing the property management is getting away from the old school that started in the business 30, 40, 50 years ago, and you're seeing a new breed of property management come into the picture, which is they’re a lot more professional, they're running real businesses, it's not just a side gig from a realtor, or it's not just this big owner that owns a big portfolio and he decided to manage a few places on the side so he can make a few bucks and pay for him running his own stuff. They're seeing legitimate people, business people coming into the space and making a run at it, and that's what we need. We need professionals coming in and we need professionally-run businesses. More than ever today, I'm seeing and talking to a lot of people that are running greater businesses and it's exciting, because I think the opportunity is huge. But it's also at the same time somewhat limited because I know I've done this long enough. I've been around it my entire life. This business is tough. It is not for everybody. We're going to have the turnover that's going to come through and hopefully the good will stick and make the business better for everybody. Better first impression of the business, better for us working in the industry, being able to grow together, and making it all better together. Jason: Yeah. I think that the way to change the industry is obviously to have healthy businesses. Healthy business owners in this industry, leading the way, and they have to be profitable. I think also there's a huge opportunity right now in that, millennials are the workforce largely. I think a lot of people, they’ve gotten a bad rep. A lot of people think they're lazy, they’re unmotivated, and I find that to be patently false. I think millennials are our new generation of workers that don't want to do menial work. They don't want to do something without meaning. I think this is a huge opportunity for business owners that are not acting like dinosaurs saying, “I'm paying you to do something so just freaking do it.” Those are the dinosaur dictators that think, “Well, I give them money. Why don't they just do everything amazingly?” Millennials want purpose and I think there's an opportunity now for business owners that believe they have a purpose, that there's a greater vision for what they do. You touched on that in your book. I talked quite a bit about that as well. People have heard me say, “I believe good property management can change the world. It can have a significant impact. We’re affecting families. We’re affecting lives.” I could have that impact through my clients, which is what gets me excited about showing up helping property management business owners lead the way and do good work. They can't do that if they're struggling. Tony: Yeah. The biggest aha moment I've had in my career with Ground Floor, my management company, was four years ago. We had an offsite meeting with all my staff. We’re about 50 people with all 3-4 different companies. I was looking at the rent roll, I showed it to everybody on the big screen, and I'm like, “We've got 2000 apartments,” roughly it was right around there, that we're almost full all the time, “and if I take an average, we’ll probably have around 3000-3500 people that live in properties that we take care of. Guys, we matter. You cannot not look at that and how important of a role we play in day-to-day life for close to 4000 people.” I'm like, “That's pretty special.” Like I explained in the book, we’re a part of all sorts of experiences for these people. We've seen deaths, we've seen births, we've seen marriages, we've seen plenty of divorces, we've seen it all. It happens underneath our roofs. Again, I grew up in the business, I've seen it all from a personal standpoint, and now I've seen it all from running a business. There are no ifs or ands about it. It's a special business. Jason: All of those different situations require some activity or involvement with the property manager. I mean, even if it's just maintaining the property and doing some maintenance, it's affecting these families lives, and it's affecting these sometimes challenging moments that they're going through. Those interactions can be positive, helpful interactions, or it can deepen their words, they can cause more pain, and the ripple effect property managers have is huge. Property management is death by a thousand cuts. It also can be a ripple effect of a thousand possible positive interactions on a regular basis. I know property management can be tough. I hear about it all the time. I know how difficult it can be to run a business. I know that. Every entrepreneur knows that. It doesn't get easier the bigger you get, often. It can sometimes get more challenging. But it makes it worth it when you have somebody that comes to you and says, “Hey, you made my life better,” or, “You had an impact,” and those little moments we don't always hear about them, but when they do come through, they do. That’s why we do what we do. Tony: Yeah. I think a lot of property managers will be able to agree with me, that there's an old saying that the phone never rings with good news in our business. If someone’s calling, it's usually something bad on the other line. It’s either a complaint, or an issue, or something. It’s almost like you have to come into the office each day knowing that you may not get a million praises from the outside, and that's why the office environment is sacred for you and your staff, for the people running the business. I just hired a new girl a few weeks ago and I'm very honest and transparent during our interview. I was like, “You're new to this industry and you are going to struggle. It’s going to be really tough. It’s going to test you emotionally. It’s going to test your ability to deal with a million things going on at the same time, it's going to test you in every way possible.” I asked her the other day, she’s going on her third week and she's like, “I knew it was going to be tough, but I didn't think there would be so much that I had to learn,” but the office environment is such a way that we're very much a team, we help each other out, we have each other's backs. If there's a difficult situation, other people step in. You really have to have that environment because it can really help the overall business. If not, it can get in get a little lonely. Jason: Yeah. The turnover in property management businesses regarding staff can be pretty high. I think one way to mitigate that is what you're talking about, it's creating a really positive culture, a safe place within the business, a place in which your team members are allowed to make mistakes, they're allowed to screw up, and they're allowed to figure things out. Otherwise, they start hiding stuff. Tony: And start costing you money. Bad mistake. Jason: I think it's important to realize, a lot of times in any business, the people that are really attacking or really causing you grief, are hurt people. They're hurting on the inside. It's not even really usually about you. We were talking about before the show how I've been really attacked lately in some forums and some groups. I have several people messaging me privately and lots of people that message me like, “Hey Jason, you don’t deserve this, you’ve done a lot for us,” and it's ironic because in property management, we deal with this. Everybody gets these negative reviews. They feel unjust and unfair, they didn’t give the deposit back which rightly so probably, you're being attacked, and these people have nothing better to do than just try to destroy your business. That's just part of being in business, I think. In general, you're always going to have haters. The bigger you get, the bigger the target is on your back. You just have more people that you're dealing with. I definitely got a target. You dealing with 4000 maybe potential constituents connected to your business that you're impacting, all the owners, all the renters, everything, you have a big target, Tony, on your back. Tony: Yeah. It's overwhelming in the best of days. That’s probably one of the, I would say, either the first or the second biggest problem overall arching in this industry is how do you deal with the overwhelm of dealing with so many different things. If we were to count all the different balls that we’re juggling in the area at any given time as an owner even as a property manager, it's a lot. That's why I've gone to the depths that I did with the book in terms of putting the importance on lifestyle, in terms of installing good habits, in terms of being healthy, working out, just simple things because if you're going to go in this industry and you're going to make a run at it, you got to be firing on all cylinders. A big part of that is your body, your relationships at home, your relationships with your kids. You got to go into the office with a clear mindset. If not, it's going to be rough. I've walked in the holes in my office on many days after either having an argument with one of my kids or having an argument with my queen and that's like, “I can't do anything in here. I have zero patience and I just want everybody to stay away from me.” That's not a way to run a business. Jason: That's how I would feel if I'm hungry. That's how I would feel if I didn't get enough sleep the night before. We tend to start externalizing these challenges. That's why even people coming to my program they're like, “Well, I wanted to grow my business, why are you having me focus on some of the silly stuff like drinking water?” I get picked on about some of those things but I know the impact that it's had on my own life to get the basics in place and have that foundation so that you can tackle the world. We have one vehicle in which we approach everything in life and that's our body. Tony: Yeah, absolutely. Jason: Our current ability distinct cognitively, to function, to be able to deal with stress, be able to see objectively, to be able to handle all the stuff that gets thrown out as a business, to be able to see alternatives and ideas, all of it has to do with our brain and being able to function on all four cylinders or however many you might have. Tony: Absolutely. I'm a true believer. I've always been an athletic guy. 2019, I've taken it up a notch and done some other things. Jason: I've noticed. Tony: Yeah. It's funny because 8½ months getting ready for an Ironman, I made more money in that eight months than I probably did in the last two years by just condensing the amount of time that I had and the focus that was required to do it, and to pull it off. I still look back at it and like, “How did I do that?” and I'm still digesting it all because it’s still fairly new, but it's taught me so many lessons that I'm going to be able to take forth with the new stuff that I'm doing. The very first video that I made to get ready for my Ironman training and it was January or February, it's like I'm doing this because I need to become somebody different in order to launch this book, to write this book, to finish this book, and to grow beyond the book. It was amazing. It was a journey like I can't explain Jason: I’ll point out one thing that's very obvious to me because I've seen it in you, I've seen it in a hundreds of entrepreneurs. When we create constraints, when we have constraints, when we're limited in our time or limited in our attention, we innovate. That's when our brain starts to really fire and we get really, really creative. It's the same thing with our team members. If you give them unlimited time to do something and unlimited resources and money to do something, they're going to do it in the most costly, time-sucky way possible. But when you create constraints and having a goal of doing something big like an Ironman, where you're going to put your body to some massive stress, you have to be prepared for that, and you know what it's actually going to take, then it gets really difficult and it creates constraint. I'll point out to everybody. I've seen this in lots and lots of businesses and I've seen in my own life when we have constraints. You don’t notice, you come up with ideas when money get scarce. When you have a team member leave, all of a sudden, you're changing things that they've been doing a status quo forever. A lot of these challenges that we perceive as challenges really are opportunities for us to innovate and to grow and to change. I'm not sure if Tony will make it back here, but I'm sure Tony would love for you guys to reach out. Tony, I'm going to plug you. He's got his book, Doorpreneur, and I recommend you check that out. You can go to doorpreneur.com You can preorder it now. Make sure you get his book. Check it out. I think there's some really great value. It's a quick read, it’s only 125 pages, and I think you'll really enjoy it. He's got some previews of the first four chapters on his site doorpreneur.com and it looks like you'll be able to get it on Amazon and in some other places. We'll go ahead and wrap this up. So if you are property management entrepreneur, and you are wanting to add doors, and you are wanting to get your business in alignment, and you are wanting to create that space for yourself, you feel like you're the hamster on the treadmill, then reach out. You can check us out at doorgrow.com.

Aaaaaannnd here we are again, gathered snuggly 'round the sparkle of the campfire. Hope all is well, brethren, despite the absolute bonk ass poppycock that fills our weird world. Me? I'm managing, surviving, pushing through, but very pleased to bring to you another serving of suburban lore, in the form of a Valley Tales episode! On today's show, there's no actual theme for the stories, but there is a woven theme of auto travel throughout. When the original audio for this episode was recorded, Micah was going through some personal strife and just let loose a session of drunk venting. He touches on Star Wars fandom, music from the 1970s, social media interactions, romantic relationships, stuff of that ilk. There's also some anecdotes about the behavior of ride-share passengers. Fun stuff! People can be really cool sometimes, ya know??!! Or perhaps that is just sarcasm. But...just be cool, my dogs! Just. Be. Cool. And stay casual. *If you're ever in Ojai, CA, and are in need of some fresh medicinal greenery, visit Ojai Greens!  *Looking to buy a home in Las Vegas? Let Ashlie Cardillo of LV Sweet Homes get you those keys! *Near the Oxnard/Port Hueneme area? Stop by Emerald Perspective to pick up that stinky dank! *In San Diego and want a tattoo? Visit Pop's Tattoo! TWITTER: https://twitter.com/valleytalespod INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/valleytalespod/ FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/valleytales/

Terry Smith: Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it by John Maxwell. I'm Terry Smith, and I'm a Tri-Cities Influencer. Paul Casey: Then when you're faced with a situation you're tempted to cower you're going to summon the courageous version of yourself, and then you'll say, "What would the courageous version of me do in this situation?" Put that on your whiteboard. Intro: Raising the water level of leadership in the tri-cities of Eastern Washington. It's a Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast where Paul Casey interviews local leaders like CEOs, entrepreneurs, and nonprofit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams so we can all benefit from their experiences. Here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Paul Drake. He is the station and operations manager at Townsquare Media. And I usually ask for something quirky or funny. Paul, I'm just going to let you tell this story because it's so funny. Paul Drake: First, thanks for having me today. This is great. I'm honored to be here. I was a little hesitant on whether I should share this story or not, but I had just turned 40 years old. This was about 14 years ago, giving away my age. And I was going through a difficult time in my life emotionally with family and work everything, just wasn't doing so well. And a longtime friend of mine, lifelong friend, invited me down to LA to visit. And we were walking around Hollywood Boulevard and went into this curiosity trinket shop. And he told me he says, "You're taking yourself way to seriously, way to seriously. You need to lighten up." He bought me a fart machine. And at first I was real hesitant, right, but all I can say is it's brought me more joy and laughter when friends and family come over to the house now it's a running joke. And I get my sister every time. It's brought a lot of joy. Paul Casey: That's one of the best ones we've ever had on this show. Well before we check in with Paul let's also check in with our Tri-City Influencer sponsors. Neal Taylor: Hi, my name is Neal Taylor. I am the managing attorney for Gravis Law Commercial Transactions team. I have Josh Bam with me. Josh Bam: Hi, I'm Josh Bam. I'm one of the attorneys with the commercial transactions team, which has been growing very rapidly because a lot of the clients really appreciate the really reliable services we provide at extreme value. For example we provide really business savvy legal services by paying special attention to our client's current situation and long and short term goals and the best legal plan to get them to where they want to be. Neal Taylor: We provide an initial consultation for $100. And then we produce a business and legal plan with your goals on top and legal costs through a thin schmear of your benefits. And if we can't deliver on the thin schmear rule then we will not launch your business but you will learn a lot through the consultation. Let's get started on protecting and accelerating your business today. Give us a call at 509-380-9102 or visit us online at www.gravislaw.com. Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-cities. Well welcome, Paul. I was privileged to meet you as the trailing spouse of your wife, Heidi, who was in my leadership tri-cities class, class 11 back in '05, '06, and she said, "My husband works for this radio station here in town." I'm like, "Really, I've always wanted to be on the radio." And you opened the door for me to be on radio for the first time. I've been doing it for 12 years now recording Growing Forward and Out in Front, little educational minutes, and I really appreciate that. Paul Drake: Yeah, you bet. We see each other about once a month for the last year. Paul Casey: Once a month, yes, recording four spots. Paul Drake: Yeah, that's great. Paul Casey: And remind our listeners what is Townsquare's radio stations? Paul Drake: That would be 102.7 KORD, The Key 98.3 The Key, 97 Rock, Newstalk, and the all new 97.5 Paul Casey: Awesome, awesome. Well, Paul, what did you aspire to be when you grew up? How did that morph throughout the years until you got to where you are today? Paul Drake: Honestly out of high school I had no idea what I wanted to do, no idea, no clue. I got this opportunity through a friend to move to Hawaii and work for Thrifty Rent a Car just for the heck of it. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I didn't know what school or whatever. So I moved to Hawaii and I ended up driving a van taking people back and forth to the hotels and the airport. Also ended up working for a court reporting firm and filed depositions for a while. Did some IT work. Somehow I landed that job at a real estate company for a while. And after a few years of not knowing what I wanted to do I decided to move back to the mainland, go to school, and my plan was to go to the UW, but I heard this radio ad for a new trade school that was for radio and TV, and I thought that sounds interesting. I'm just going to go check it out. Paul Drake: So I went and I checked it out. I got really intrigued with it and excited about it, but I didn't know anything about the industry so I did some research. I read this book, The Birth of Top 40 Radio by Rick Sklar, and he was one of the creators of top 40 radio. Anyway, I wrote him a letter. I said, "Hey Mr. Sklar, what do I need to do? I'm thinking about going to get my communications degree. I'm thinking about this trade school." I didn't expect him to respond. He responded, sent me a letter back and said, "Hey Paul, that's great. The degree is great, but it's the practical experience to get you started that's most important." So I dove into this trade school, and the rest is really history. 30 years later I'm still in the business. Paul Casey: Wow, so you wrote a letter. Paul Drake: Yeah. Paul Casey: There's something to be said for initiative. That's pretty cool. Who've been your mentors and advisors in that leadership journey? How did you find them? What did they produce in you? Paul Drake: The first one I can think of is his name's Rob Conrad, and he's still in the radio business today. He's been all over the country. He's in Birmingham, Alabama now, probably in his late 60s still on the air. He's the one that hired me for my first internship at Magic 108 in Seattle. He was one of those guys that was really honest. He actually hired me he said ... Later on I found out he hired me because my tie, my belt buckle, and my shirt were all aligned, and my fingernails were trimmed. Paul Casey: Wow. Good first impression. Paul Drake: That's why he hired me. Right, first impression. Rob taught me to be honest, to be on time. My schedule when I started there was at 4:00 a.m. in the morning. That's an early start. And if I was even just a bit late he was on me. But he taught me to pass things on, to be a sponge, and to be a responsible member of the team. Paul Casey: Do you still pass on some of those traits to the people now that you supervise? Paul Drake: I do, I do. I think that's one thing that I need to be better at really is I think leaders make people in management positions get so busy that ... One thing that Rob did for me he took the time out to train me and spend time. That's one thing I could be better at. What I've learned from him is being on time and staying late if I have to is important. Paul Casey: For leaders, leadership development and people development is such an essential part of the job, and you can look back on your calendar this last week if you're a leader and say, "Okay, so what percentage of my week did I spend on leadership development," and that is usually telling. It's like, "Wow, not enough, not enough. I want to spend more time in people development." I know there's a lot of side conversations. People development happens in so many different ways, but most leaders say not enough. What's the best team that you've ever been on? What made that special? What did it teach you about leading a team? Paul Drake: This is one, that's kind of a difficult question to pick out the best team. I want to say the best team is the now team, the team that we're on. They've all been good, and they've all had their strengths over the years, but what I've been ... I've been at 2621 West State Street in Pasco since 1991. Paul Casey: That's amazing longevity. Paul Drake: With the exception of a couple of ... I guess there was a year there that I left, but I came back. But I was always with one of those stations. The team, radio today is so different than it was before, and we have so many responsibilities, so much more to do. It's not just on air, it's online. It's at events. It's on social media. So the team that we have together now if we didn't work the way we work being open and honest with each other, we're all creative thinkers, we're all very passionate about what we do. We have our opinions. If you know radio people they have their opinions. But we communicate really well, and that's what I think is great about our team. When someone needs help it doesn't matter who you are if it's me or whoever no job is too small, no job is too great for somebody to jump in. We're all cross trained and all these platforms that we use today, social media, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, all this stuff that we've had to learn and how to communicate in a different way. And we've come together there. So it's just a great group of people right now. Paul Casey: So you mentioned cross training. Why is that so important? Paul Drake: Well when one person goes down who's going to step up. And radio is I call it a drag race with no finish line. Paul Casey: The show much go on, right? Paul Drake: We're never done. So if somebody falls, somebody's out, somebody's on vacation the next person has to step in and do it, and that's why it's really important that we cross train. Me I'm not on the air like I used to be. I'm more behind the scenes, which I prefer. That's my strength. I fill. They call. I fill in. So when people are out sick or on vacation I'll jump in depending on the format. So we have various people that are cross trained on different formats to do that. Paul Casey: Being two deep in every position is so important in any business. And yeah one time you even recorded me because the guy that was recording me was on vacation and you just, "Here, I can do that." I can hit some buttons. I can record that. I was like, "Wow, there's a lot of buttons on that board." Paul, may I ask you this, so leading creatives is difficult. What have you learned over the years in leading creative people who are opinionated, lots of ideas all over the place? How do you sort of herd cats? Paul Drake: I think being patient and open. I think listening is important. And when it's a good idea really celebrating the idea and taking it. And then when it's an idea that maybe isn't quite going to fit being able to say no in a way that isn't discounting the idea because we want all the ideas and we meet every ... Every Monday we have a content meeting with all the talent, and everybody gets together and we brainstorm ideas for the week, the hot topics, or for the month rather. Some days get pretty- Paul Casey: That must be a fun meeting. Paul Drake: It's a fun meeting. It really is. When anybody new comes on the staff they're always surprised like wow. There's a lot of those meetings that I'm really proud of, and there's a few that maybe got a little out of hand. Paul Casey: Well, Paul, if you had three adjectives to describe leadership, it's hard to narrow it down to three, but in a nutshell what would you say those are and why? Paul Drake: I think trusting is a good one. If people can't trust you why would they follow you if they can't trust you. I think honesty, being honest. Talented people want to work for people that are honest. Creative people feelings can get hurt, but honesty you got to be honest and say really that break or that bit you did this morning it was okay, but maybe if you did it this way might be better. You got to be able to be honest when things aren't going well too. And then when they're going great. Humility, I think that I often use myself as an example when we talk about work-related shortcomings because I have my shortcomings. And I think that leaders sometimes are afraid to make themselves vulnerable. And I'll be the first one to say when I make a mistake that I have no problem admitting that, "Hey, I was wrong. I made a mistake." So I think that's important. Paul Casey: Yeah, so Tri-City Influencers Paul mentioned being trusting and trustworthy in that leadership chair. Give them that honesty, that honest feedback. I really like how Marshall Goldsmith talks about feeding forward, not just feedback because we don't want to dwell too much on the mistakes of the past. We need to address them, but we need to give that concrete, those suggestions to make it better in the future. And then humility, being willing to be vulnerable, just declaring your own shortcomings instead of trying to cover them up. People really respect that, and they move toward those who are humble and trustworthy and honest. Leaders also have to see around corners, so in that leadership chair what do you do to look ahead and envision the future? And then when you have that vision, what do you do with that vision? Paul Drake: I really am fortunate to work for a very forward thinking company. Townsquare Media is probably the most aggressive media company in the industry right now. Forward thinking, always something new. We like to put it as we're ahead of everybody else when it comes to the digital side and combining the digital side with the radio side and merging the two and delivering the product and the content. So I'm really fortunate there. Looking ahead I think the biggest thing is we come together, we put together a blueprint for the day, for the week, for the month, for the year. And then we follow that. And I think if you have a plan you're always prepared going forward, so you can be prepared for the things that might come up that you weren't expecting. It's one of the rules of a radio personality before they go onto the shift. They've got to be prepared. And if they're prepared it frees them up to embrace anything new that's coming and maybe another direction to go. We teach that. We talked about that. Paul Drake: I think for a leader the more prepared you are and not ... You can make all the plans in the world, but don't be afraid to, "Oh, I got to change this now." So I think that's kind of how I prepare myself for the things coming down in the future. Paul Casey: Yeah, the old Mike Tyson, plans are great until you get punched in the mouth. Then you're going to have to make some adjustments. I've heard it said, it sounds like you guys practice this, but have a DWMY plan, DWMY is D-W-M-Y, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly. And I know when I'm in the studio I could see just in the news talk studio the plan by the minute. What ads are running, what song is playing. It's just really amazing. And most of us in our jobs can't script out like a radio does, but we can be more prepared as a leader. Paul Casey: Before we talk about Paul's leadership rhythm and his ideal day let's give a shout out to our sponsors. Jason Houge American Family Insurance. Jason, what is the biggest pushback you get about life insurance? Jason Houge: Hey Paul, yeah. One of the biggest pushbacks I get on life insurance is from folks that are saying, they usually ask me, "Why do I even need this? I don't have kids. I don't have any dependents of a spouse. Why do I need this?" Ultimately whenever you pass on there's going to be somebody there to pick up the pieces. There's going to be somebody to deal with your affairs. And I would say it's your responsibility to make sure that there is funds, that there's money there so that person can take the time needed to go through it properly and not make it their responsibility. Paul Casey: Awesome, Jason, so tell us how can our listeners get in touch with you? Jason Houge: You can swing by our office on Road 68 in Pasco or give us a call at 509-547-0540. Paul Casey: Well Paul, let's talk about your leadership rhythm. What does your ideal day look like? Not that you hit it every day, but if you could craft this ideal day to be successful what would it look like? Paul Drake: I typically start my day my wife and I we're early risers. I start my day with coffee and meditation. I like to spend a good 15 minutes in the morning. There's some certain things that I read to prepare myself mentally for the day. I overlook the day ahead. I think about what's coming up and what I got to get done in the next 24 hours not just professionally but personally. I try and start the day with a good attitude so before I go out the door I'm in a state of mind that's in a winning state of mind. That's not to say that on the way to work somebody won't cut me off, and I lose it all. But that's kind of how I like to start my day, and then this sets me up for a right frame of thinking getting into the office. Paul Casey: What's like then morning is it, do you have some priorities that you try to tackle in the morning or is it a meeting-driven kind of morning? How does it work? Paul Drake: Yeah, I'll make the rounds. I'll go through the studio, say good morning to everybody, and then sit down. My day I get, being the operations manager I'm really around the clock. I'm really never off. In the office I try and make myself available for any concerns early in the morning and have some daily tasks that I do that are really reconciling things, but to set out the day I think walking around and saying good morning and greeting everybody it's- Paul Casey: It's huge. Paul Drake: ... makes me feel connected because there's some days when I'm feeling closed off. So if I force myself to go around and say good morning to people even when I don't feel like it ... Paul Casey: Yeah, they say the research says that if you just do that, and if a boss comes in and says a pleasant hello to everybody in the morning it sets the whole group up for positive morale for the rest of the day. That little thing of just going around and saying hi. I'm sure other conversations get triggered like, "Oh, there he is. There's the boss. I've got this thing I was meaning to tell you, and I didn't want to walk over to your office," but those things can also be addressed right there in the moment ... Paul Drake: Right, that's true. Paul Casey: ... just by being available. Do you take lunch typically? Paul Drake: I do. I try and take a lunch at noon every day, and it's kind of been my routine for years. And I'll use lunchtime sometimes to restart my day if things aren't going well. I think that's a great remedy for if you've had a bad morning. One of the things I like is ... Because not every day is perfect, right? Paul Casey: Right. Paul Drake: We're restraint of tongue, pen, e-mail, or text. Sometimes I will write something or I'll send something or I'll say something that is just either out of line or wrong. That happens on occasion, and I think that the remedy to that is I apologize or forgive or ask for forgiveness or I go back and I set it right. I don't like to wait on things. And there's other days that are just emotional. It could be a hangover by lunch time emotionally. So when I go home I know that I can start my day over at any time, and that's a remedy that I've tried to practice, take a moment, shut my door, take a deep breath, and start my day over right now. Paul Casey: Well, that's one of the best tips that have been on this program is use lunchtime as a restart of your day. You don't have to say, "Well, this day is toast," and then it continues this downward spiral. But it's like nope, at any time you can say, "From here on out this is going to be a better day." And I love how you use that. There's just so many people that I know that each lunch at their desk, and they just continue checking e-mail, and they don't really get that break, that mental emotional break. So the cumulative stress of the day overtakes them. So I really love that that's a habit. You hit another little nugget in there by saying, what did you say the restraint of ... Paul Drake: Restraint of tongue, pen, text, and e-mail. Paul Casey: Wow. Paul Drake: There has been times, Paul, where I've written an e-mail, all of us have maybe. I'll speak for myself where I've sent an e-mail out of frustration or anger or whatever, and after I sent it I think, "You know, I wish I could take that back." So I have those things I try and remember. I can write the e-mail but sleep on it first. Sleep on it. Give it some time. If I still feel the same way in the morning send it. If not, trash it. At the very least it's a practice of getting it out, and then I can clear that off my mind. Paul Casey: Yeah, yeah, some people journal. There's no harm as long as you don't hit the send button. There's no harm in writing that, opening an e-mail, don't even put the person's name in the to button just in case, and then deleting it because you got it out, but you realized no it would not be prudent for me to send this. And you also mentioned then apologizing or setting it right when you realize, "Well, that came out wrong." Do a correction so that it doesn't bleed damage. Paul Drake: I think it's really important to do it as soon as possible too. Paul Casey: Oh absolutely. Paul Drake: Yeah. Paul Casey: Absolutely because people will stew on that. And a leader has such power in their words, so the people look up to their immediate boss or manager as that person who gives them the most validation. So when we use too harsh of words it can hurt them pretty deeply. Well, you're constantly energizing others when you're in leadership. What do you do on a regular basis to recharge your batteries? You mentioned meditation in the morning, and you mentioned putting on that good attitude almost like you're putting on a jacket, that winning mindset. Anything else that you would add to that? Paul Drake: Exercise. I think for me that's my biggest release from the stress sometimes is ... Some people say I overdo it, but I'm in the gym doing some sort of exercise four days a week, and then I go to hot yoga once a week with my wife trying to stay stretched. So that's what I do to kind of unwind. I love to hike. We do Badger quite a bit. But exercise is my thing right now. Paul Casey: That's a good way to relieve that stress. My mind goes blank when I exercise, which is what it's supposed to do so that I can just focus on either a Podcast I can learn from or just nothing. Paul Drake: Right. Paul Casey: That's my nothing box is when I'm exercising. As leaders we know we much change in order to grow. How do you personally handle change? And then how to you lead change in your organization? Paul Drake: Change is when my happiness really is in direct proportion to my resistance to the change. I've worked the same building like I mentioned earlier for a long time and same radio stations but different ownerships, nine different ownerships. Paul Casey: Nine different ownerships, okay. Paul Drake: And sometimes I wonder how have I survived that I'm still here, and I think the only answer I can give is I've had an ability to adapt to the changes. Paul Casey: It's your superpower. Paul Drake: Yeah. Somehow some way. There's some other folks that have been there a long time too, and I see that in them. When a new group comes in they have new strategy, new marketing plans, new healthcare, new providers. Everything's new. A new manager, somebody you have to get to know again. And everybody's different, so I think being open and not resisting that change. You can question it, and you can go back and say, "Hey, maybe we try it this way." But maybe after the third or second no you might want to just say, "Okay. If this is the way we're going to do it let's do it." And then don't bring it up again. Paul Casey: Aye, aye captain. Paul Drake: Yeah, right. I think hopefully I answered your question there, but I think it's the ability to adapt to change and not fight it. Paul Casey: Because you've seen many people not able to adapt, and they didn't make it probably through those different changes. Paul Drake: They go, right. Paul Casey: Well leadership isn't all roses as you alluded to there. How do you handle disappointment when you're in leadership, and how do you bounce back from that? Paul Drake: It can be lonely sometimes in that office as a leader. From disappointment, how do you bounce back from that. That's a really good question. I think taking a look at my own shortcomings is one. And if the team hasn't hit a goal or maybe ... We're in the ratings business. We had a bad rating on one of our stations a few years ago, and it was tough to take, right? It's like, "It's our baby. What are we going to do?" So we go back and we regroup. I think that ... Paul Casey: When you're regrouping, so you're regrouping as a team. You see everybody's pooched lips. How do you pick them up? Paul Drake: I think you hear them out and listen, regroup, go back to the plan. It's always good to take that inventory to see where we went wrong. There was one more mentor, this kind of falls into that, a guy by the name of Bill Bradley was one of my supervisors years ago, and he was always calm even when it was stormy, right, when things were going wrong. He was always cool, just seemed to have it all together. And I remember asking him in his office, and I just said, "Bill, how do you do this?" You're working through this just so calm. And he made himself vulnerable to me, and he said, "Paul, you know what, some days I sit in here and think what do I do now. I don't know. When are they going to find out I don't know what I'm doing?" Paul Casey: Wow. Feel like a poser there for a minute. Paul Drake: It was just like immediately I felt like I totally connected because it was a difficult time and a lot of changes going on, and here this guy opened himself up and said, "I don't have it all together but here's what we're going to do." I don't want to say he was shooting from the hip because he was a real planner, but ... Hopefully that answers your question. Paul Casey: Yeah. Keep calm and go back to the plan. Paul Drake: Right. Paul Casey: Keep calm and be vulnerable, a whole bunch of ones on that one. At the end of your time in your current position what legacy do you want to leave behind? What do you want to see accomplished when you turn around and hit that retirement button? Paul Drake: Well, I hope that people will ... Legacy professionally would be that I was honest and that I cared about people. Nobody's perfect. I don't think that I've made so many mistakes in my career, but I hope that that would be my lasting impression. When I do retire I do hope I retire at 2621 West State Street in Pasco. I've got ... Well, I don't want to say how many years I've got. I don't have much time left. But I hope that ... I've been there ... The average, radio is really transient. People move on and they move around. But most of the people that I work with now have been there over five years. But I think that the one legacy for me and accomplishment for me to achieve would be to retire there and leave that legacy to the next person coming along. Paul Casey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). That would be amazing to be that long in one industry in one building with one company amidst all the changes, all the different management systems. Paul Drake: A day at a time. Paul Casey: Yes. Well, finally, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Paul Drake: I think my biggest piece of advice would be be open, be on time, be honest. Don't feel like you've got to take it all on yourself. Know when to say, "Okay, I got to go be with my family." I think the biggest piece of advice I could give anybody is if you're not happy at home you're not going to be happy in the office. And that bleeds through. It really does. It's amazing my coworkers they know when something's going on. If there's something that's going on outside the office I bring it in and vice versa. I know when my coworkers. I can sense it. So spend time with your family. That self worth comes from within not your position. If you've got that right, which I still don't have right. Paul Casey: It's a life-long quest. Paul Drake: Right. I think that would be my biggest piece of advice. Paul Casey: Yeah, really spend time nurturing those key relationships at home because it does. It bleeds over into work. And work people don't deserve to have all that dumped on them, but we are whole people so we're not going to hit all home runs on that. But that's a great lesson on work life balance. Well, Paul, how can our listeners best connect with you? Is there a way they can get in touch with you? Paul Drake: Sure, sure. I'm on LinkedIn under Paul Drake. And you can reach me e-mail too, pauldrake@townsquaremedia.com. Or you can reach me at Townsquare at the office 509-547-9791. Paul Casey: Fantastic. Thanks again for all you do to make the tri-cities a great place and keep leading well. Paul Drake: Thank you, Paul. Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our Podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. Josh Toner based in Pacific Insurance. Applications for productivity. Josh the app man, what do you got for us today? Josh Toner: Hey Paul, thanks for having me here today. Today I'm here top talk about Habitify. This is a habit tracking app. This app is on IOS and Apple devices, so it's not on any of your Android devices, but there is a ton of apps like this so if this one doesn't work for you please go look around. But this is a habit tracking app used to monitor the habits you're either building or breaking. When working on habits consistency is the name of the game, and repetitive action seals in a new habit that you're working on. So being able to monitor those tendencies is a really cool thing to have in your pocket, and be able to pull out your phone and take items off that you've finished or be able to go in and see your tendencies throughout the week. As an example I start off the workweek really strong and then tend to get tired and less consistent towards the end of the week. Josh Toner: This app is good for things like 30-day challenges, working on exercising, stop eating at 7:00 p.m., daily walks at 10:00 a.m. if you're trying to get a break during the workweek, smoking habits, brush your teeth three times daily. If you want to use it for work you can cold call 10 people a day if you're trying to get two referrals throughout the week. But really you're not working on anything, you're not monitoring and tracking. So this is a good app if you're trying to get out there and maybe start a new morning routine, a nightly routine, or just have clearer, more focused goals, stay on track, monitor your goals and your tendencies, keep notes on your progress, and then show progress in tables or charts. There's good monthly progress, things like that you can check out. Josh Toner: Other apps to check out are Momentum, which creates a chain-like experience so as you take things off it creates a chain, and if you miss those habits it breaks your chain. There's apps like Habitica, which makes the habit tracking into a game where you have a character who gains points and armor, things like that. New ones come out daily, so check out new ones if none of those work for you. Paul Casey: Habits are the key to your daily success. Thanks, Josh. How can people get in touch with you to talk more about apps? Josh Toner: If you want to get a hold of me you can reach me at jrtoner@basinpacific.com, and that's B-A-S-I-N P-A-C-I-F-I-C dot com. Paul Casey: And don't forget to consider patronizing our sponsors of Tri-City Influencer, Gravis Law, and Jason Houge American Family Insurance. Paul Casey: Finally one more tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence, Maya Angelou quote, "Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently." Keep growing forward. Speaker 10: If you enjoyed this Podcast or it piqued your interest in learning more about leadership and self leadership you can continue to glean from Paul and his Growing Forward Services. Check out Paul's blog and the products, tips, and tools on his website at www.paulcasey.org and opt into his target practice inspirational e-newsletter. You'll get his 33 top tips for becoming a time management rockstar when you subscribe. And consider buying one of his three books, the most recent one being Leading the Team You've Always Wanted. Speaker 11: This Podcast has been produced by Bonsai Audio at Fuse Coworking Space.

I'm calling out from ScatlandI'm calling out from Scatman's worldIf you wanna break free you better listen to meYou got to learn how to see in your fantasyI'm calling out from ScatlandI'm calling out from Scatman's worldIf you wanna break free you better listen to meYou got to learn how to see in your fantasyEverybody's talkin' something very shockin' just toKeep on blockin' what they're feelin' inside But listen to me brother, you just keep on walkin' 'causeYou and me and sister ain't got nothin' to hideScatman, fat man, black and white and brown manTell me 'bout the colour of your soulIf part of your solution isn't ending the pollutionThen I don't want to hear your stories toldI want to welcome you to Scatman's worldI'm calling out from ScatlandI'm calling out from Scatman's worldIf you wanna break free you better listen to meYou got to learn how to see in your fantasyEveryone's born to compete as he choosesBut how can someone win if winning means that someone losesI sit and see and wonder what it's like to be in touchNo wonder all my brothers and my sisters need a crutchI want to be a human being not a human doingI couldn't keep that pace up if I triedThe source of my intention really isn't crime preventionMy intention is prevention of the lie, yeahWelcome to the Scatman's worldI'm calling out from ScatlandI'm calling out from Scatman's worldIf you wanna break free you better listen to meYou got to learn how to see in your fantasyI'm calling out from ScatlandI'm calling out from Scatman's worldIf you wanna break free you better listen to meYou got to learn how to see in your fantasyListen to meI'm calling out from ScatlandI'm calling out from Scatman's worldIf you wanna break free you better listen to meYou got to learn how to see in your fantasy

Me: Put your phone down! My Kid: You put YOUR phone down. [5 pts away from my high score] Me: I'm working on an email!! As parents are we the ones who are wrong for saying one thing then doing another? No. NO! It's the KIDS that are wrong! It's our job to make these kids better than we are. I know it's a low bar, but it's a necessity. Hypocritical parenting is the cornerstone for all parenting. oh, you think that sounds like a hyperbole? You're wrong. I don't even know what hyperbole means. Mike an Pete get all up in it. Support us

You're young, you like to drink. You and your friends like to get high. What better place to enjoy the good times than the basement dungeon of the scrub your parents used to abuse socially and sexually? So what are you doing after school? Me? I'm gonna go hang out with MA. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/watching-this/message

When you wake up and your feet hit the floor? What are you think'? Coffee, clothes and out the door? ME? I'm thinking' today is a camp day! A lil' incognito for the day. Camo... Mocha's new favorite color. What's ours? Moments with Mocha! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/momentswithmocha/message

Hey guys! This song is a cover of One Call Away by Charlie Puth, but my sister Keilah decided to change the lyrics to worship God. I decided to play the ukulele because I think it's a fun instrument. This Song is God singing to us, THANK YOU GOD! Hope you guys enjoyed it and leave comments below to tell us what songs you would like us to change the lyrics to. Thank you so much for listening and stay tuned! May Jesus Bless you all :) Love - Shiloh Lyrics: (chorus) I'm only one call awayI came down to save the daySuperman got nothing on meI'm only one call away   verse 1:Call me, say it, if you need a friendI just wanna give you loveCome on, come on, come onReaching out to you, so take a chance pre-chorus: No matter where you goJust know you're not alone (chorus) verse 2: Come along with me and don't be scaredI just wanna set you freeCome on, come on, come onYou are always on my mindFor now, we can stay here for a while, ay'Cause I wanna see you smile (pre-chorus) (chorus) bridge: And when you're weak I'll be strongI'm gonna keep holding onNow don't you worry, I'll be strongAnd when you feel like hope is lostJust run into my arms (chorus)  

I'm gon ride, I'm gon ride, I'm gon rideI'm gon ride on you baby, on you lady all night, all nightI'ma take care of your body, I'll be gentle, don't you screamIt's getting hotter, make it softer, feel your chest on top of meI'm gon ride, I'm gon ride, I'm gon rideI'm gon ride on you baby, on you lady all night, all nightI'm gon make you feel that loving, getting weak all in your kneesKiss your body from the tip top all the way down to your feet.[0 mins]: Winter SUCKS and anybody who says different is a liar! Stop with the super erotic worm moons already. Kurt finally watched all of the Rocky and Creed movies and re-ranked them to Randy's displeasure. [35 mins]: Our favorite kiwi, Ryder Hoy (HOYYYYYYY), orders the tuna, no crust.Instagram: @plpodcast

Braeden got his time last week. This week, it's Cassi's youth that we're excavating, as we deep dive into the Sword in the Stone, that 1963 "classic" that I bet you don't really remember all that much about. At least Cassi stayed awake through this one . . . ? Talking points include: Black tea in the evening, Cassi doesn't like pho, wizard battles, you're gonna die from measles. tryanewpodcast@gmail.com. YALL-TRY-NEW (925-587-9638). Me? I'm here for the games.

Get your nourishment in ME — I'm the Bread of LIFE

GRAVEDIGGING by Sarah Goldman   When I woke up, I noticed first that Clarissa was there, because she was always the first thing I noticed. I noticed three things immediately after that: it was dark, I could feel dirt under my fingers, and my mouth tasted disgusting, like charcoal and rubbing alcohol and cotton. "What the fuck?" is what I tried to say, except I don't think the words came out quite right. I started coughing and I couldn't stop. "Just give it a second," Clarissa said, rubbing my back. I got a good look at her once the coughing subsided and my eyes stopped watering, and she looked like she'd been run over by a truck a few times: dark circles, greasy hair, unwashed skin. Clarissa always tried to look as put together as people expected her to be. I'd seen her look this messed up once or twice before, and it never meant anything good.     [Full story after the cut.]   Hello! Welcome to GlitterShip Episode 63! This is your host, Keffy, and I’m super excited to share this story with you. Today we have a reprint of “Gravedigging" by Sarah Goldman. This story is part of the (late) Spring 2018 issue of GlitterShip is available for purchase at glittership.com/buy and on Kindle, Nook, and Kobo. If you’re a Patreon supporter, you should have access to this issue waiting for you when you log in. We also have GlitterShip Year Two available in both ebook and paperback formats to add to your queer science fiction collection. GlitterShip is also a part of the Audible Trial Program. This means that just by listening to GlitterShip, you are eligible for a free 30 day membership on Audible, and a free audiobook to keep. If you’re looking for an excellent queer book to listen to, check out Autonomous by Annalee Newitz. This book has a ton of cool concepts and really intriguing characters. If you're a fan of patent-fighting drug pirates or AI characters working out their identities, this is the book for you. To download Autonomous for free today, go to www.audibletrial.com/glittership — or choose another book if you’re in the mood for something else.     Sarah Goldman grew up near Kansas City and studied sociology at Bryn Mawr College. She is a First Reader at Strange Horizons, and her short fiction has appeared in Cicada and Escape Pod. You can find her online at sarahmgoldman.com, or on Twitter @sarahwhowrites. "Gravedigging" is narrated by A.J. Fitzwater. A.J. Fitzwater is a dragon wearing a human meat suit from Christchurch, New Zealand. A graduate of Clarion 2014, she’s had stories published in Shimmer Magazine, Andromeda Spaceways Magazine, and in Paper Road Press’s At The Edge anthology. She also has stories coming soon at Kaleidotrope and PodCastle. As a narrator, her voice has been heard across the Escape Artists Network, on Redstone SF, and Interzone. She tweets under her penname as @AJFitzwater.       GRAVEDIGGING by Sarah Goldman   When I woke up, I noticed first that Clarissa was there, because she was always the first thing I noticed. I noticed three things immediately after that: it was dark, I could feel dirt under my fingers, and my mouth tasted disgusting, like charcoal and rubbing alcohol and cotton. "What the fuck?" is what I tried to say, except I don't think the words came out quite right. I started coughing and I couldn't stop. "Just give it a second," Clarissa said, rubbing my back. I got a good look at her once the coughing subsided and my eyes stopped watering, and she looked like she'd been run over by a truck a few times: dark circles, greasy hair, unwashed skin. Clarissa always tried to look as put together as people expected her to be. I'd seen her look this messed up once or twice before, and it never meant anything good. "Are you okay?" I asked. I had a little more luck with pronunciation this time. "You look kind of like death warmed over. No offense." Clarissa started to laugh, loud and wild enough that it was more scary than comforting. When she stopped, I only had time to open my mouth to ask a question before her eyes rolled back into her head and she slumped over next to me in the dirt. We were lying on dirt. It was dark. I looked up, and up, and up, and when I saw the edges of the hole we were in, I understood what Clarissa had done. I clambered up the sides of the grave to get a good look at the headstone. I knew what it would say, but I had to see it. It told me that May Tenenbaum had died at nineteen years old. If I'd lived another three weeks, I would have been twenty. I sat back down next to Clarissa, passed out in my grave in the wedge of space she'd carved out next to my coffin. A crowbar lay beside us, where she'd used it to pry off the lid, next to the pile of small stones she'd brought for the spell. I looked down at my fingernails, which were neat and manicured like they'd never been while I was alive, and I wondered if I should try to wake Clarissa up. I'd seen her do this before, after she overexerted herself on a spell, and she'd always been all right afterwards. Her pulse, when I checked, was steady, so I stole her phone out of her pocket instead. The last day I remembered had been the fifth of June. My tombstone told me I'd died on the sixth. Today was the seventeenth. I must have been buried for at least a week or so, then. I know my father would've wanted me buried quickly, a Jewish funeral. A good thing, too. No embalming fluid for Clarissa to deal with. Performing necromancy on humans was a felony, and it was horrendously, skin-crawlingly terrifying besides. The idea had made me queasy when it happened in books or movies, when TV pundits went on rants. But from this side of things, it wasn't so bad. My hands were distressingly pale when I looked at them, and my head was in bad shape, but when I checked my face in Clarissa's phone camera, I honestly looked okay. Like I'd been at a fancy party, had too much champagne, fell down in the dirt outside. Messed up, but not a zombie. I didn't feel dead at all. What I should feel was furious. I should be demanding that Clarissa take it back. But I wasn't betrayed that someone I loved would do such an awful thing, like the girl in that modern day Frankenstein blockbuster we'd seen last month. I wasn't thinking about the greater good. I was selfishly and vainly glad, because the girl I would do anything for had done this for me. I'd seen the faces Clarissa made during that stupid movie, and yet: here we both were. Her passed out in a grave she must have spent all night digging up, and me alive when I should be dead. I ran my fingers through her hair, and after fourteen minutes by the clock on her phone, Clarissa woke up. She stared at me, and then she sat up too fast and almost fell right back down afterwards. I grabbed her shoulders to steady her. "It worked," she said, watching me with wide eyes. "It did," I said. "You still look terrible." "Shut up," she said automatically, with no heat behind it. She put her hands against the sides of my face. I wondered, distantly, if my cheeks felt cold, or if my blood had already started to warm them up again. Very suddenly, Clarissa yanked me into a hug, almost overbalancing the both of us. I hugged her back, and politely ignored the fact that she was crying into the shoulder of my nice dress. "I'm okay," I said, because Clarissa probably needed to hear it. "If anyone isn't okay, I think it's probably you. Were you supposed to pass out?" Clarissa snorted, and then shrugged without removing her face from the crook of my neck. "Occupational hazard," she said, muffled into my shoulder. After a moment, she raised her face, eyes puffy and red. "It happens sometimes, with larger—with anything more substantial." She'd probably been about to say ‘animals.’ I guess she didn't think I'd find the comparison flattering. I felt a little sick. Clarissa wiped her face on her sleeve and shook out her hair, visibly trying to pull herself together. "We need to get out of here. The sun is supposed to rise in—" she fumbled for her phone before I handed it back to her, "—about ten minutes." I immediately felt better. Following Clarissa's plans was something I was used to. Together, we gathered up her things and climbed out of my grave, using her shovel to push the soil back as best we could, and we walked out of the cemetery together, the sun rising at our backs.   Clarissa had always known how to make loud and spectacular mistakes. Even as a kid, she made spellwork look easy. When we were ten, I watched her bring back our class's pet guinea pig. We all huddled around Clarissa, crouched in the dirt. She held a chunk of gravel in her hands and closed her eyes for a moment, and we were all sure that she was faking, that nothing would happen. Then the guinea pig got up, and we had to race to catch it. Afterwards, the other kids ran to show our teacher. I stayed behind with Clarissa. She was on her back, staring up at the sky, tossing the piece of playground gravel that tethered the guinea pig's life up and down in her hand. "That was amazing," I told her. She shrugged, and coughed. "I missed him. What else was I supposed to do?" Then she looked at me and grinned, smile so bright I could feel it in my own stomach. "It was cool, wasn't it?" Clarissa wore that little piece of playground gravel she'd used for the spell on a chain around her wrist, humming with warmth for as long as that guinea pig was still alive. She kept adding to the chain, too, doing stupid things like bringing back songbirds in the park, using chunks of gemstones she kept in her pockets to store their life. They all went out, eventually—necromancy wasn't a ticket to eternal life—but she did it often enough that there was always something warm on her bracelet, always a little piece of life hanging around her wrist. When we were nineteen, nine years after she brought that guinea pig back to life and two weeks before I woke up with her in my grave, Clarissa asked me to go with her to a protest. Necromancy unsettled people, but it wasn't really as uncommon as everyone thought it was. Clarissa had explained it to me once. It was just healing, in the end, and there were plenty of people who could do that. Except putting enough force behind the spell to draw someone back from death required more ability than almost anyone had. Back when she was ten, people laughed, and told her that soon, she would know better than to do frivolous things like resurrect dead class pets. Telling Clarissa she couldn’t do something was never a good idea; I could have told them that. When we got older, no one thought it was cute anymore. She scared people. Historically, necromancers didn't turn out well, if you looked at Rasputin or van Hohenheim or Countess Bathory. Healers were dicey enough, if you asked the kind of people who campaigned against them working in hospitals or making vaccines. The day I died, I was with Clarissa at a protest against a local bill that would prevent the teaching of magic in schools. I wasn't really into politics, honestly, but Clarissa was spitting mad. "What do they think is going to happen?" she'd said, pacing back in forth in my apartment kitchen. "Magic is so dangerous, right? Well, if they don't teach kids anything then of course they're going to screw up, of course there's going to be accidents—you know my cousin, the one who can light fires? Can you imagine if he had no formal training?" I sat at the kitchen table and nodded. "There's a protest on 39th and Blackwood tomorrow night. Think of it as an early birthday present for me?" She didn't have to ask me if I would go with her, and I didn't have to tell her that I was coming. It was understood. That was who I was: I did what Clarissa asked. My dad didn't want me to go, but I was nineteen, so I didn't have to sneak out my window, the way I always used to whenever Clarissa had a bad idea. "Be careful, May," was all my father said as I left, right after I gave him instructions on reheating his dinner. And once we got there, I was careful, up until some asshole from the other side of the picket pushed Clarissa, and she pushed him back, teeth bared. Then, suddenly I wasn't anymore. Clarissa was dangerous when she got mad, and she shrugged me off when I tried to drag her back. She started yelling at the man who'd pushed her, and there were people all around us, and Clarissa wasn't listening to anything that I was saying in her ear. "I know you," the man said to Clarissa. That wasn't very surprising; most people around here knew about Clarissa. He pushed her a second time, harder, and she would have fallen if I wasn't in her way. "Clarissa, leave it." I steadied the both of us and rubbed at the bruises forming on my arm where she'd run into me. She ignored me. "You got something to say?" she asked the man. He didn't. What he did have was a mean right hook but terrible aim, and what I had was no self-preservation: I shoved my way in front of Clarissa, and I went down hard. He was a bit like Clarissa, I think—he didn't know when to stop. The last thing I remember was his boot in my face, and a sudden, terrible fear that he was going to break my nose. Touching it now, I didn't think he did. I could feel the place in the back of my skull, under my hair, where he'd got me instead.   We got some odd looks at the diner Clarissa took us to. That made sense—we both had dirt in our hair and smudged on our faces, and beyond that we didn't look much like we belonged together. I was wearing what I thought of as my synagogue dress, complete with pearls around my neck, but also a beanie I'd pulled from Clarissa's bag. Clarissa was dressed like she expected to be going grave-digging, in baggy jeans and boots, her hair pulled back into a bun. She still looked like she might pass out at any moment. It was obvious she'd been crying. It was six in the morning at a twenty-four hour diner, though, so mostly everyone just ignored us. Clarissa ordered coffee and eggs. I ordered tea, matzah ball soup, and a slice of banana cream pie. Even exhausted, Clarissa raised an eyebrow at me. I ignored her. We had more important things to worry about. "Clarissa, what the hell are we going to do? I can't exactly go home." If my dad had any sense, which I happened to know that he did, he would call the cops in two seconds. Clarissa's family would certainly do the same. We didn't have anywhere to go. An awful feeling crept into my stomach. There was no way this was going to work. When my food came, the soup gave me pause: matzah ball soup was my dad's favorite. But I couldn't go home. I would never make it for him again. When I looked up, Clarissa was watching me. "It's better when you make it, right?" she asked. I laughed and went back to eating. Clarissa picked at her eggs, and I ended up finishing half of them for her. "Do we have somewhere to sleep, at least?" I asked. Clarissa looked like she was about to fall over again. "I'm fine," she said, swaying a bit, which was so very her that I couldn't help but smile. "Of course you are. I could use a nap, though." She sighed. "Alright. There's a motel nearby. We can rest there and then we can do whatever you want." "Me?" I'm not exactly the planning type. "What, there's nothing you want to do? No last requests?" I stared at my hands, clutched tight around my tea. I didn't want to get caught, or for Clarissa to go to jail, or to never see my father again. I wanted things to go back to the way they had always been. I wanted to be alive again, and what Clarissa had done was close to that. But not quite. "I just want to spend time with you," was what I settled on. She put her hands over mine, and tilted her head until I had to look her in the eyes. "Okay," she said, reassuring, like she'd heard all the things I hadn't said. "It's gonna be fine, May." Her voice was certain and steady like the stones wrapped around her wrist, and just then, I believed her.   Clarissa took the first shower, and was out like a light the minute her head hit the pillow. I grinned, and wasn't even bothered when I discovered that she'd used up all the hot water. At least that was normal. After I dried my hair, I lay back on the other bed, not particularly tired. I couldn't help but think that if I fell asleep, the spell would snap, like a wire drawn too taut, and I'd never wake up again. That wasn't how this worked: anything Clarissa brought back would live out its natural lifespan. That guinea pig had lived to a very respectable age. I still couldn't bring myself to close my eyes. So I sat cross-legged on the scratchy motel comforter and turned on the news, volume off and closed captioning on. Clarissa slept like a log once she was out, but if she woke up she'd probably refuse to sleep again. I knew what I was going to see on the TV screen, but I still couldn't help but wince, seeing my grainy prom photo on display. Somebody had noticed that the dirt on my grave wasn't quite how they'd left it, or that Clarissa had broken the lock on the gate, or maybe they'd just checked the damn CCTV, and so of course it was all over the news. Necromancy scandals were rare, because most necromancers didn't have enough power to do what Clarissa had done, and all the ones that did had enough sense not to. I flipped through the channels for a while. There was coverage about the protest where I'd died, suddenly relevant again two weeks later. The police were looking for us, of course. There wasn't any doubt in anybody's mind what had happened—Clarissa was locally well known. We were on the national news, too. I watched Megyn Kelly's mouth move silently as the subtitles talked about how this was just another example of the need for greater laws monitoring necromancers—scratch that, all magic. I turned the TV off before she could start talking about Jesus and I put my head in my hands. After a while, Clarissa sat down beside me on the bed and put her hand on my back. She was very warm. Her hand was shaking a little, and I wondered if she was crying. I wanted to turn and hug her, bury my face in her neck, tell her what a goddamn idiot she was being. Still, I couldn't help but treasure the thought that she was doing all these stupid, ridiculous things for me, just like I'd always wanted her to. "May?" she asked, hesitantly, when I didn't move. "Is everything okay?" I looked up at her and smiled as brightly as I could. "Of course," I said, as if the answer was obvious. She wasn't crying like I'd thought. Her hands just weren’t very steady. "Let's go. We really shouldn't stay here, Clarissa." Clarissa stood. I helped her pack up our stuff. Her stuff, mostly. Everything fit into a single backpack, which I shouldered, glaring at Clarissa when she tried to take it. I followed her out the door.   We checked out of the motel, but we didn't make it to the train station, although it was only a few blocks away. There were two problems: people kept looking at us, speculatively, as if they were sure they'd seen our faces somewhere, and after about five minutes of walking Clarissa nearly collapsed, because between one step and the next it seemed that her legs couldn't hold her. I grabbed her just before she went down, so we both stumbled but didn't quite fall. "Clarissa?" I tried to get my arm under hers so that I could hold her up. "I'm fine," she said, and it was less endearing this time around. "No, you're not." I dragged her into the nearest store, an ice cream shop. I dumped Clarissa in a booth in the corner, grabbed her wallet out of her pocket, and went to buy something, both because it would look suspicious not to, and also because we could probably use it. When the girl at the counter handed me my cup of ice cream, she also handed me a wad of napkins. "For your friend," she said, sympathetic. I looked back at Clarissa, confused. She had her fingers pressed above her mouth, and her nose was bleeding. I winced. "There's a free clinic a couple blocks over," the girl at the counter offered. "I think they have a few healers around at this time of day." I thanked her, and took the ice cream and napkins back to the table. I handed Clarissa the napkins and sat down across from her as she pressed them to her face where her fingers had been. "Thanks," she said, a little bit muffled. "Are you going to tell me what's going on now?" She closed her eyes and tipped her head back against the vinyl seat, napkins still pressed to her nose. "It's just a reaction to the spell," she said. "I'll be okay in a little while." "A reaction is you sick with a cold for a week," I said, a little harsher than I intended. Clarissa opened her eyes. "This is different. I'm not stupid. It's never been this bad before." "Well, why do you think that is, May?" Clarissa snapped. "I've never done something like this before. I knew this might happen, so don't worry about it, okay? I have it under control." A thin stream of blood was leaking out from under the napkins. I grabbed another one off the table and leaned in to wipe it off for her. "Clearly," I said, and she glared at me. "You're going back to bed," I decided, and Clarissa sat forward so fast she probably made her nosebleed worse. "Absolutely not," she said. "You were right. We have to leave." I looked at her, sitting across the table and trembling. I didn't think she noticed she was doing it. I wanted to reach out to her and hold her. "We can stay for another night," I said. "There's something I need to get before we go, anyway. I can sneak into my apartment and grab it tonight, and you can rest, and we can leave in the morning. Okay?" She nodded, and didn't even ask what it was I needed so badly. It felt like there was a stone sinking in my gut. Clarissa was always asking questions, demanding answers. I wasn't used to being the one who had to protect her and I wasn't sure I liked it. I took her arm and led her out of the shop, so we could find another place to stay for the night, and Clarissa let herself be led.   I left Clarissa at the new motel and I walked home. The apartment wasn't far, but it was hot, and I was still wearing Clarissa's beanie and my velvet dress. When I got there, I went up the fire escape and climbed in my window, like I'd done so many times when I was younger. I hadn't seen my dad's car in the lot, and it was the middle of the day, so I had to hope that he wasn't home. My bedroom hadn't been touched. I grabbed some clothes and some money, shoving them into my backpack, and I didn't let myself spend too much time looking around. I'd left the book that I'd come for on the bookcase in the living room, although I had no way of knowing if it was still there. It was supposed to be my birthday present for Clarissa. She was always complaining about the lack of materials on necromancy, because almost all of them were rare or illegal or both, so I'd stalked eBay for a few months to get an old book for her. I didn't understand half of the information in it, but surely there was something in there that could help her. I had to at least look. When I walked into the living room, I heard a crash from the kitchen before I'd taken two steps. For a moment I thought my heart had stopped again, but it kept beating, much faster and louder than I liked. I pressed back against the wall the living room shared with the kitchen and prayed that whoever was home didn't walk in here. God, I shouldn't have come. Of all the stupid things I'd ever done for Clarissa, the one she didn't even ask for was what was finally going to screw us over. There was another clang from the kitchen. This one was the telltale sound of my father knocking over a pan while he was cooking. By reflex, I almost offered to help him, but I clamped my hand over my mouth and kept quiet. I shouldn't have bothered. I knew exactly what was going to happen next: my dad would curse, and throw the pan in the sink, and go to find a hand towel from the linen closet. Which was in the living room, of course, where I stood. I tried to step back into my bedroom before my father walked in, but there wasn't any time. I dropped my hand and bit my lip and desperately tried to think of what in the world I was going to tell him. The moment my father caught sight of me, I knew. The change in his face was immediate. I wanted to speak first, head off whatever he was going to say, but the words stuck in my throat like dirt. I choked and I said nothing. It felt like I'd been here before, and it took me a moment to realize why. My frozen feet and the sick feeling in my stomach and the words trapped in my throat, the thought that if I moved or spoke or did anything that he would hate me—I had done this before. I'd been thirteen when I'd come out. But back then, I'd known, deep down, that he wouldn't care. This time I knew that he would. "So it's true," he said. He folded and unfolded his arms, uncomfortable as I'd ever seen him. I wondered if he would stop me if I tried to leave. I couldn't make my legs move. "Dad." He took off his glasses and rubbed at his nose, and I closed my eyes against the tears fighting to escape. I didn't think I'd ever see him do that again. When I was thirteen, my father had opened his arms wide and hugged me, letting me hide my face in his chest. Now we stood apart, the few feet between us impassable. There was nothing stopping me from stepping forward and closing the gap. But I couldn't do it. If I did, he might step back. "I knew that girl was trouble," he said, looking not quite at me but at the space above my left shoulder. It was a trick he'd taught me for public speaking, a long time ago. I looked him in the eyes. "She's not," I said, and at least this conversation was familiar. We'd spoken this way about Clarissa hundreds of times. It’s awful, to have to admit that your parents were right. It didn't matter that Clarissa was trouble. It didn't matter that she'd made a mistake, was always making mistakes. She was still my friend. "I miss you," he said, and on the last word his voice broke. I wondered what it was like to have something you loved in front of you, wanting it with all your heart, and still knowing that you couldn't keep it. Then again, maybe I didn't have to wonder. "I'm right here, Dad," I said. "I'm the same as I was two weeks ago." He shook his head. "You're not. If you are, I'm going to have to bury you twice." I couldn't help it. I was stung. Who was I, if I wasn't me? I turned my face away, looking at the book sitting where I had left it on the mantle, and I said, "I miss you too." Dad looked at the book when I picked it up. "For Clarissa," he said, barely a question. I nodded. "Please don't call anyone," I said. "Clarissa was just—she's my friend. They'll never let her go." His jaw worked. "And you?" I did my best to smile. "I'll be fine. She'll take care of me." In the end, he nodded, and the last thing my father said to me was, "Goodbye." And I suppose that's more than most people get. I left the way I'd come, book clutched close to my chest.   I went back to the motel and settled on the rickety chair in the corner. Clarissa was still asleep, and I looked down at her present, sitting in my lap. The book was old and faded, pages falling out of its leather cover. I flipped through it. I'd spent a lot of time imagining the face Clarissa would make when I gave it to her. I tried to imagine Clarissa's expression if I told her that I'd gone home just to get a book on the off-chance that it might be able to help her, and I had to stop myself from laughing. I wished I hadn't seen my father. I'd known that I couldn't go back, but seeing him threw everything into sharp relief: my father would never hug me again, never smile at me, never tell me that everything would be all right. Clarissa had brought me back, and I meant what I'd said to him. I was still me. But except for her, my life was gone. Once, I would have thought that Clarissa would be enough. But now, I couldn't stop thinking of my father's face, of all the things he'd never say again. I looked down the book, opened it to the first page, and started to read.   Clarissa was still asleep when I finished. I curled up next to her on the blanket and closed my eyes and listened to her breathe. Her breathing wasn't very steady. She was shaking a little, even in her sleep, and her skin was so pale you'd think that she was the dead one. I was so stupid, thinking for even a minute that this could work, and so was Clarissa. I lay there for hours, fighting off sleep and watching her shake, until her eyes fluttered open and she looked straight at me. "Hey," she said, a little muzzily. I couldn't decide if I wanted to kiss her or hit her, so I asked her how she was feeling instead. "Fine," Clarissa said, struggling to sit up. I sat up too and put my face in my hands. "Did you find what you wanted?" she asked, sliding an arm around my shoulders, like I was the one who needed comforting. But she was warm, and I couldn't bring myself to shake her off. "Not really," I said, thinking of what I'd found in that book of hers. "Clarissa, what exactly are you hoping to get out of this, really?" We hadn't spoken about it, exactly, but it hung suspended between us: my existence was an abomination and a disgrace, and Clarissa was the same for making it happen. There was no place for us anywhere anymore. And there was another thing we hadn't talked about. I took a deep breath, and forced the words out: "Clarissa, this is killing you." She didn't seem surprised, which was the worst part of it, really. She'd known all along what she was doing to herself, and she did it anyway. It was just the stupid sort of thing Clarissa would do, knowing the consequences and not caring. Clarissa never knew when to stop. I loved her so much. She didn't say anything. I tipped my head back to stare at the ceiling. "I can't believe you," I said thickly. "I don't want you to die for me." "Well, I didn't want you to die," Clarissa said. "And you did anyway, and it was because of me. You can't expect me to just let that happen, not when I could—what's the point of all this, of all this shit I can do, if I couldn't help you? What was I supposed to do?" Her eyes were bloodshot and watery and she was trembling still, her hair falling in her face, and she was so, so beautiful. "Clarissa," I said. "Look. I just don't see how you think this is going to end." She looked at me, brow furrowed. "We'll figure something out," she said. "We'll catch a train tomorrow, and we'll keep running, and they'll have to stop looking eventually, and as long as we stay together, we'll be fine." She believed it, too. She wouldn't have said it if she didn't. We wouldn't be fine. Even if we never got caught, Clarissa's hands wouldn't stop shaking, her nose wouldn't stop bleeding, her teeth wouldn't stop chattering. I was killing her every minute I was alive. And no matter what, neither of us could ever go home. Clarissa hated being told she couldn't do something--the fact that I was here at all was proof of that. Sometimes, she just needed someone to stop her, if she wouldn't stop herself. I took her face in both my hands and I kissed her. It was funny. Since I'd met her, I could never remember a time when I didn't love Clarissa. I don't know why it never occurred to me, before all this, that she might be as hopeless for me as I was for her. She kissed me back. Of course she did. She kissed me back, because she'd broken every law of magic, was working herself literally to death, just to keep me with her. I sat beside her on the crappy motel bed, her hands in my hair, and felt her breath against my cheek. I closed my eyes against it and willed myself not to cry. She settled back on the bed, and I curled up beside her, so we were lying face to face. Clarissa breathed in deep, tucked her nose against the crook of my neck. "I thought I lost you," she said quietly. "I couldn't do nothing, May, you know I couldn't." I pushed her hair out of her face and kissed her forehead and held her hand, the one that had her bracelet, and I didn't say anything at all. Maybe it had all been worth it, for the chance to have this with Clarissa. Even for just a moment. She fell asleep with my hand running through hair, and I stole her bracelet. Some of the stones on it were cool, inert, and some were faintly warm, and the uneven chunk of amethyst that I knew had to be me was hot to the touch. The stone was rough; I could see the places on her wrist where it had cut into her skin. I untied the knot on the cord and pulled the amethyst off. I rummaged through the pile of our things in the corner until I found the crowbar from my grave. At the rickety table, I took out the book and opened it to the right section. I tucked the train ticket I'd bought for Clarissa between the pages and I left the other things I'd taken from my home for her: hair dye, a hat, baggy clothes, sunglasses, five hundred dollars from the emergency fund in my closet. Not much, but it might be enough to keep her free. And maybe Clarissa could have what I couldn't. I looked at the book again. I guess I should have known that reversing the spell would be so simple. All I had to do was break the stone, and the connection would sever. Clarissa would be fine. The crowbar was heavy in my hands. I turned it over a few times before I raised it over my head. I thought about my father, about all the years of kissing Clarissa I'd missed out on, about how angry and hurt she would be when she woke up. I thought of how Clarissa wanted so badly to protect everyone else, how desperately I wanted to be the one to save her, how she refused to let me, even when I'd died. Clarissa wanted me to live badly enough to destroy her entire life, and I was so used to wanting what Clarissa wanted. I'd tried to want what she wanted this time. I couldn't. I didn't want this. Mostly, though, I thought of the scratches the stone that tethered my soul had made on Clarissa's wrist, of her dying to keep me here. I looked at the amethyst and smiled, and I brought the crowbar down. END   “Gravedigging” was originally published in Cicada and is © Copyright Sarah Goldman 2017. This recording is a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license which means you can share it with anyone you’d like, but please don’t change or sell it. Our theme is “Aurora Borealis” by Bird Creek, available through the Google Audio Library. You can support GlitterShip by checking out our Patreon at patreon.com/keffy, subscribing to our feed, or by leaving reviews on iTunes. You can also pick up a free audio book by going to www.audibletrial.com/glittership or buy your own copy of the Spring 2018 issue at www.glittership.com/buy Thanks for listening, and we’ll be back soon with a GlitterShip original, “Sabuyashi Flies" by Sebastian Strange.

This episode covers 4 big mistakes I made during the start up of my coaching business. Maybe you can relate.Yes, I made all of these mistakes and more and I lived to tell the tale.But I've experienced multiple magical turning points in my business as well. Wonderful things I never could have imagined came my way because I did not let my mistakes stop me.And that's the key, right?My guess is that, as I talk about these pitfalls, you'll recognize yourself in some but also realize that you're much more savvy than I was at startup. Coaches seem to get smarter every year.Mistakes are still the best way to learn. It's a time honored tradition. And growing a coaching business, like any business, is a total experiment. It's a long term gamble.When I was able to see my business in that light it became easier to power through mistakes by making small adjustments instead of over reacting.If you can teach yourself to think like a scientist or an innovator and play the long game, you'll be golden. That gumption and grit will pay you back many fold.Okay ... enough preamble ... now to dish the dirt. Mistake #1 — Holding High ExpectationsThere are schools of thought about expectations.Me? I'm with Shakespeare who purportedly said: "Expectation is the root of all heartache."That's wisdom similar to the Buddhist belief that craving is what causes suffering. Sounds right to me.See, I expected:to replace my income before I quit my job.to immediately get dozens of referrals from friends and family.for everyone to get the value of coaching with a single free session.The weight of those expectations and others crushed me. Because when things didn't work exactly as I'd hoped, disappointment set in. I was certain that it meant I wasn't good enough.It didn't mean that. It never means that. It only meant that the experiment was still alive. And, I needed to chill out emotionally while still taking action on behalf of my business.Then, I realized pretty quickly that exchanging high expectations for low expectations was just another type of self sabotage. It's totally de-motivating.So it's best to check expectations entirely. The winning attitude turns out to be another buddhist principle. Live in the present moment. Let love drive you in your business and show up as a professional. More about that in a minute ...I know now that for my first 2 years of coaching, I had been holding my breath until I arrived at an imagined destination.Where did my high expectations come from? Well some was arrogance. Some was ignorance. And the rest was because ... Mistake #2 — I Drank the KoolAidAt the time, when I launched my coaching business there was a lot of hyperbolic messaging about coaches earning high 6 or 7 figures coming from rock star coaches.As if that was the norm.I'm glad to see that rhetoric has toned down. And several people who are earning high revenues these days are more transparent about the significant investment of time, sweat and seed money it takes to get there.I was just listening to Natalie Eckdahl of Biz Chix, one of my favorite podcasts. She generously admitted that her first whole year of business, she had zero profit.Four years later though, she is one of those phenoms. And I can tell she works very hard for it.I appreciate her transparency so I'm going to pass that forward now.My first year in my coaching business I grossed a whopping $10,000. Not enough to pay for my coach training, equipment and mentoring.My second year I grossed $35,000. My third year — which was the year I figured out the right way to niche, brand and connect to a unique target audience with a specific problem — that year I made $75,000. And from there I took off.I trul

Having a way to keep the vision of what you wish to create, up close and on your mind, is really important. And for a lot of people, their go-to tool is to create a vision board. Me? I'm not a vision board gal. That’s never been a tool that has fully resonated with me.   So, this past year I went looking for a way to keep my vision active in my mind. But not just the vision, I also wanted to stay present to what I needed to do to make that vision manifest; tasks and goals that would get me into action.  What I found was the chalkboard method, a simple goal tracking process. But instead of just mapping out goals derived from my mind, I’ve approached this from a more intuitive perspective. Intuitive goal setting and vision planning needed to merge… I mean I am me after all!    I really like this process, and so if you’re thinking about how you want to grow this coming year and starting to look at goals, you might want to get yourself a board and try this. If you’re someone who tends to get lost in process, always looking at what’s going on but not really moving into action, this is a great way to bring that balance in. And if you’re someone who gets stuck in their head and makes lists of to-dos’ because you think you need to do this or that and you’re not planning your deeper life out, doing a board that offers you time to process and plan for 3 months might change how you move through your days. It might begin to feel slower and more aligned… less reactive So in this episode, I’m talking about how I do this, what my process is. I share how to blend your deeper intentions and the steps you need to take to make those happen.

In pro wrestling it can iether work ir won't work out.Me I'm just trying to get through my shows without having to dredge up too much drama. I know that some of you are sick of hearing about it..so I promise I'll keep it brief.

How passion can REALLY turn into a profitable business! Cassandra shares how she took her passion for organizing and helping other moms who felt overwhelmed with the clutter like she once had and turned it into a great (and successful) business. She shares so much of herself including the one major lesson she learned which shifted how she ran her business. You won't want to miss this episode! Connect with Cassandra: http://clutterbug.me/ https://www.facebook.com/ClutterBug.Me __________________________________________________ I'm obsessed with storytelling and vulnerability because I believe that this is the truest way to find and stand in your power! Whether you are looking to discover the story of you or just more inspiration to stand in your power, let’s connect! Find me on FB: https://www.facebook.com/jessica.burrell.524 https://www.facebook.com/jessicaburrellhealth Join the TRIBE! https://www.facebook.com/groups/1883646048537008/ Never miss an update: www.jessicaburrell.com/TRIBE

It's a Thursday! How's it going for you today? Me--I'm doing great so far. I've got an 8am LIVE class with my DDM VIP students, then I'll be making our PIRF 156 Lesson Videos. After that, I'll make our new PIRF 157 assignment. Oh, I need to make our new DDM 467 lesson, too. Thursdays are one of my BUSIEST days! But--enough about work! Let's TRY some English! Today's expression is probably EASY for many of you--but it's good to review. Are you thinking of trying something new? Food? Study? Sport? A hobby? If there's something you want to try, LISTEN to this podcast! DO IT!! Coach Shane The E-cubed PODCAST is UP and READY for YOU!! #LearnEnglish #ESL #LMEtoday #LetsMasterEnglish   Today’s English expression and dialog: give it a shot My listening is helpless. Why?              I watch TV shows all the time and still can only understand 20-30%. Have you heard about DDM? No~ Give it a shot. It will absolutely help you!   Subscribe on iTunes and get this English podcast EVERY DAY! Support the Let’s Master English team! On PayPal: Send to Or you can go here: PLEASE support my sponsors: (Get a free AUDIO BOOK!) Study English, FREE ENGLISH LESSONS:   The E-cubed PODCAST is UP and READY for YOU!! #LearnEnglish #ESL #LMEtoday #LetsMasterEnglish

Deciding to workout according to what my body needs. Constantly listening and adapting to what i feel i need to work on.Barz:Took a weekend vacay but I'm back at itHad a decent session nothing acrobaticBut ecstatic my basic dunks becoming automatic as I'm overcoming my bad habitsMy vlog is way behindBut my ig documenting the grindI've been on the climb Podcasts getting alignedElevating my mind Dropping linesJust To get you inclined To spend your time wiseEvery second of this dunk lifeNever losing sight of the vision When it's your passion there's no room for decisions My list of achievements so far is a thin list Plenty more on my hit list And some abnormal like Stretching becoming a hobby And even tho I'm a novice i won't stop Till my body like a gymnast That's just one of my side goals That only benefits me as the time goesAs the tide grows you can't hide the lowsYou gotta be optimal Keep it 100 like its tropical Invest in your mind and body like the stock is lowThen I'm rising up like my eyes been closedI'm staying high like the top my homeBut working like the underdog lost his boneI'm too hungryI don't stop how you gonna out run meGet my dribble dunks to a level where if you jump it's gonna get uglyI'm raising up like I started a go fund meI'm funny but I'm not joking when I dunk I'm trying to become legendary when you discuss me I got a lot of work ahead of meNo detail overlooked so I can better see What's hindering or what can help propel my vertical to be elite And consistency is key As well as creativityAnd all in betweenTo achieve a masterpiece But anyway think I'm gonna hit the weights I'm thinking lifting tomorrow but no rims are safe But if I'm able to Not take the baitAnd concentrate on building strength I'd break through to new ranks And that'd be worth the wait

Happy Tuesday!! I hope you are all doing great^^ Today we will learn a GREAT phrase we use to describe regular guys and girls. Are you regular? Are you irregular?!! Me? I'm just a regular guy! Have a SUPER day and I'll talk to you tomorrow^^ Coach Shane   Today’s English expression and dialog: an average Joe / a plain Jane How did Ryan become so powerful? It’s a mystery. He’s always been just an average Joe~ I know. Does he have lots of money? No! He’s just as poor as you and me.   Subscribe on iTunes and get this English podcast EVERY DAY! PLEASE support my sponsors: (Get a free AUDIO BOOK!) Study English, FREE ENGLISH LESSONS, on our YouTube channels: Support the Let’s Master English team! On PayPal: Send to Or you can go here:

Look Eric worked long and hard editing this episode so it was listenable while I just like chilled and enjoyed my day off so maybe stop and thank him. Right now  tweet at him and say thanks to him. He works hard on this and deserves it. Me? I'm just waiting for my sushi like a sultan. Thanks. Oh also thanks to our guest Eric Domijancic for making this a wild ass ep you can find him on twitter @EricDomo. Now Playing: Senator Kid Rock the Pedophile USS Zuckerburg Vs Miantus Gatorville, USA Reverse Producers(How Eric, Tommy, and David took down Dreamworks) The Pussy of Dorian Grey Gainesville Grampa ---------------------­----------------------------------------­---------------------- Ideas used: Eric Jordan Elkin‏ @EricJordanElkin  A Boy Scout leader tries to convert his troop into a cult.   Dillon‏ @goozinski Thousands of years in the future after global warming has submerged Miami in water, people tell legends of the fabled lost city mr. jackpots ‏@anokbitch  Florida but gators are the dominant species and humans live in the swamp and the gators keep finding them in their back yard jro‏ @juliapherneliaa Old people move to Florida bc of mind control not to "retire"         ---------------------­----------------------------------------­---------------------- Eric Lee and Thomas Stapleton takes your suggestions and ideas and adapt them into good movie pitches for the Hollywood big wigs who are straight up desperate for material. ----------------------­----------------------------------------­---------------------- Our theme was written and recorded by Nate Thompson. For updates on his future projects please follow him on twitter @natepthomps Our logo was done by Kyle Smith. For more of his good stuff please go to https://www.ultrafeel.us/ ----------------------­----------------------------------------­---------------------- Please follow us on twitter too! Radaptation - @RadaptationPod Eric Lee - @Ericleeeeeee Thomas Stapleton - @Tstape03 ----------------------­----------------------------------------­---------------------- SUBSCRIBE to RADAPTATION on iTunes: https://itun.es/i67R6gr Google Play:  goo.gl/qywr8Bcontent_copy Tunein: http://tunein.com/radio/Radaptation-p981196/ Blubrry: https://www.blubrry.com/radaptation/ RSS: http://radaptation.libsyn.com/rss YouTube: Radaptation Podcast Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/radaptation ----------------------­----------------------------------------­---------------------- Follow RADAPTATION: Twitter: http://twitter.com/RadaptationPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/RadaptationPod ----------------------­----------------------------------------­----------------------   For Inquiries, please email: Radaptation@gmail.com ----------------------­----------------------------------------­---------------------- Literally EVERYONE we talked about in this episode: Writing, screenwriting, boy scouts, kid rock, kevin spacey, puberty, Gary Busey, Alex Jones, R Kelly, Jennifer Garner, 13 going on 30, Kirk Douglas, Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Hunter S Thompson, Motley Crue, Tommy Lee, Tommy Lee Jones, Nikki Styx, Lebron James, Pamela Anderson, Dan Marino, Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Kevin Hart, Vern Troyer, and Warwick Davis, Blue Ivy, North West, Kanye West, Saint West, Jenner, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Florida, The Pussy of Dorian Grey

Hello! In our 35th episode, we had a great time chatting with Nate Martin of Puzzle Break! We talk about his escape facility, Escape the Rubicon (his escape room on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship), and the escape room industry in general!For our parody, Codegreen (whom I call leader) was excited to write a Moana parody! So she sent us the lyrics and got Si Miu to sing it! Huzzah! You can find them and their reviews on Escapers 4G.And here are the lyrics for our parody song! ^_^I've been staring at the words on the paperLong as I can remember, never really knowing whyI wish , I could be a good escapistBut I know I'm not the greatest, no matter how hard I tryEvery step I make, every Braille I crackEvery code I break, every clue leads backHow am I so slow, why do I not knowHow to get the keySee the line of this code it's so hard and needs solvingOh I don't know, my brain has frozeAnd I think I will fail for this room is beyond meI'm not a pro, and I know my team's escape rate's kinda lowI know, we are working on these puzzlesthey are happy with these puzzlesEverything is well designedI know they are working on these puzzleswhat's my role with these puzzles?I dunno if we'll escape in timeI should solve not hide, I can see what's wrongI'm not satisfied to just play alongBut the voice inside says I take too longWhat is wrong with me?Shine the light on the wall I can see, it's tinyNo that's not right, use the black lightHere we go, there's a glow and it's pointing behind meAnd now we'll knowDo you hear that chime, are we out of time?See the line on the wall can you read it out to meJust let me know, try the comboBut the words, I can see, they are written in ChineseThe final code, we were too slow...

Oh my god, they've killed Colton! Those b@st@rds! Wait...WhatwhatWHAT? Relax, guy. I'm not being seriously. He's fine. He dies in every episode! Inside. Because editing so many podcasts makes him want to suck Chef's chocolate salty balls. Last week he went insane and said "screw you guys, I'm going home." Last I heard he went off to hunt for ManBearPig with Al Gore in a quiet pissant mountain town. Don't know where he is now, but he's probably fighting the frizzies, at eleven. They mostly come out at night. Mostly. Me? I'm super! Thanks for asking. But with Colton MIA I had to get someone to sub for him. So I some calls and got Rod Stewart to play a gig at New Year's in Las Vegas...but it turns out he doesn't read manga, so he wouldn't come on the podcast. So, I just got my brother Varun aka VlordGTZ to come on instead! And if you don't like it, well...you go to hell! You go to hell and you die! Or blame Canada. Their cartoons destroyed Colton's fragile little mind Plus, they bombed the Baldwins. Those uncle farting savages. Well, you gotta do what you gotta do. As long as what you're doing is cool and popular with everyone. This week we go over a couple of lists that highlight some anime adaptions and Shonen Jump heroines that are about as popular as Scott Malcomson. Plus we run down some other hella kewl news including Spice & Wolf author Isuna Hasekura coming to New York Comic Con, Active Gaming Media's Tezuka-inspired digital card game, and the upcoming Manga Translation Battle Contest! Sweeeet. Podcast Breakdown: 00:15 - Introducing Varun 3:07 - Manga We’ve Been Reading Recently 13:05 - New York Times Best Selling Manga List: Week of August 21st-28th 16:23 - Monthly Bookscan List: August 2016 18:27 - Akame ga Kill Ending Discussion 22:29 - Natsumo Ono Debuts New Work in December 23:26 - Silver Spoon Returns from Hiatus 26:04 - Spice & Wolf author Isuna Hasekura will have a panel at NYCC 27:54 - Viz to publish the OmegaRuby & AlphaSapphire arc of Pokemon Adventures 29:14 - Black Clover to get a Jump Festa anime special 31:10 - Yoshitoki Oima draws a special A Silent Voice chapter for anime filmgoers 32:32 - Active Gaming Media Launches Kickstarter for Osamu Tezuka-inspiried digital card game 36:06 - MyAnimeList Hosts the 5th Manga Translation Battle Contest 38:04 - Goo’s Biggest Manga-to-Anime Fails List 46:48 - Goo’s Worst Shonen Jump Heroines List 56:35 - Wrap-up Enjoy the show, and follow us on twitter at @sniperking323 and @lumranmayasha. If there’s something you want to ask that’s too big to tweet, drop us a line in the comments below, or e-mail us at mangamavericks@gmail.com! Thanks for listening!

I'm a falling lover,million thousand free like babyI know one try this quite like you ,you drive me crazyI'm a falling lover,million thousand free like babyI quite like this feeling yowling olding wilding consent meI'm seeing double baby,babyI'm feeling few double loveI'm seeing double baby,babyI'm feeling free I'm seeing double baby,baby I'm seeing double baby I'm seeing double baby I'm seeing double baby I'm a falling lover,million thousand free like babyI'm a falling lover,million thousand free like babyI'm a falling lover,million thousand free like babyBut I know one try this quite like you ,you drive me crazyI'm seeing double baby,babyI'm feeling few double loveI'm seeing double baby,babyI'm feeling free

Today’s expression and dialog: midnight snack   What are you doing?   Hiding the leftover steak.   Why? I want it for my midnight snack tonight. Don’t tell dad.  When you go to sleep do you wake up? Or are you a heavy sleeper. Me--I'm a heavy sleeper. NOTHING wakes me up. Storms, sirens, fights, screaming cats...nothing. But my dad--he's different.   A secret: my dad wakes up in the middle of the night because...he gets HUNGRY!!! He wakes up to eat!! Actually, a lot of people do this. Now my dad does not eat a meal...he only eats ice cream or cookies or cake! And we have a great expression for this STRANGE behavior--I'll teach you that in today's podcast!   Sleep well! Coach Shane   Please subscribe on iTunes and get this podcast EVERY DAY! Support Coach Shane by giving $1 a month! On PayPal: Send to Or you can go here: Our sponsors: Click on JOIN CLASSES and get ALL the information! (Get a free AUDIO BOOK!) Our YouTube channel:     Today's Daily Easy English Expression PODCAST is UP and READY for YOU!! #LearnEnglish #ESL #Twinglish

Sooner Than GoldBy Cory SkerryI tug on clean underwear in case I get arrested, paint my makeup perfectly because there's nothing sadder than a grown man in badly applied eyeliner, and climb out my apartment window, onto the fire escape.I can't be late to this assignment, and if I go through the lobby, there's a strong chance the night doorman will have a thing or two to say about the video footage of our card game last night. I forgot there was a camera pointed at the lobby desk.The asphalt below reeks of garbage and piss; about half of the latter is probably mine. Don't judge. If I'm drunk enough, there's not even any point in aiming for the toilet.My boots land softly as I hit the ground, but the ladder clangs as my weight slides off. I look back up at the enchantment, where it strings out from my leg to the trunk in my apartment.----more----[Music plays]Hello, Welcome to GlitterShip episode nine for June 4... ish... 2015. I'm your host, Keffy, and I'm super excited to be sharing this story with you.I don't know what the weather is like where you are, but in Seattle it's gone from kinda-warm-May to high summer death heat— which probably doesn't really count as that hot for pretty much anyone else but ugh. I mean, we're talking like 85 degress Fahrenheit. So I know that yes, that does mean I'm a wimp, but that's really hot for me. And I'm probably doomed as I move over to New York at the end of August. So hopefully I don't just end up melting into a horrible puddle.Anyway. Since our last episode a couple things have happened, at the beginning of the month, the Queers Destroy Science Fiction! special issue of Lightspeed Magazine is out. You can read the first two stories for free now, or buy the issue to read the whole thing right away. I think some of the content is going to remain ebook only but more of the stories will be made available for free as the month goes on.The 27th annual Lambda Literary Awards have also been announced. The winner for LGBT science fiction / fantasy / horror is Chaz Brenchley for his short fiction collection Bitter Waters. The other nominees included Daryl Gregory for Afterparty, Lee Thomas for Butcher's Road, A. M. Dellamonica for Child of a Hidden Sea, Max Gladstone for Full Fathom Five, Lea Daley for FutureDyke and Craig Laurance Gidney for Skin Deep Magic. Congrats to everyone for making it to the shortlist, or winning if you're Chaz. The full list of winners and nominees is available on lambdaliterary.org, and I'll include a link in the transcript so you can check out the other categories.Our story for this week is "Sooner than Gold" by Cory Skerry.Cory Skerry lives in a converted garage that belongs to a pair of valkyries. If he's not peddling (or meddling with) art supplies, he's writing, reading submissions, or off exploring with his sweet, goofy pit bulls. When his current meatshell begins to fall apart, he'd like science to put his brain into a giant killer octopus body, with which he'll be very responsible and not even slightly shipwrecky. He promises. For more stories, visit coryskerry.netSooner Than GoldBy Cory SkerryI tug on clean underwear in case I get arrested, paint my makeup perfectly because there's nothing sadder than a grown man in badly applied eyeliner, and climb out my apartment window, onto the fire escape.I can't be late to this assignment, and if I go through the lobby, there's a strong chance the night doorman will have a thing or two to say about the video footage of our card game last night. I forgot there was a camera pointed at the lobby desk.The asphalt below reeks of garbage and piss; about half of the latter is probably mine. Don't judge. If I'm drunk enough, there's not even any point in aiming for the toilet.My boots land softly as I hit the ground, but the ladder clangs as my weight slides off. I look back up at the enchantment, where it strings out from my leg to the trunk in my apartment.It's a violet chain so thin it looks like I could break it with my fingers, glossy and iridescent like niobium. It burns where it enters my skin, a pain so bright and cruel it took me a week to learn to sleep again.Sometimes I think about finding some woo-woo psychic to tell me what it is or try to remove it, but I'm afraid the person at the other end of the chain will find out.Desert heat radiates from the ground, warming the soles of my boots, and I worry about pit-stains and failing hair gel. I shouldn't have worn my jacket, but I cut a better figure with something to embellish my shoulders. And I need to look sharp. I can't use my charm at a drag queen convention if I look like a microwaved cat turd.I give in and hail a cab, where I endure five minutes of crackly radio commercials and a Celine Dion song. My reward is AC while I sip from my flask and neurotically check the book for new directives.The book is old, like grandpa-times-three old. The worn leather cover is flexible and shiny from years of use, but the gilt edges of the pages haven't rubbed away. Sometimes I flip through all the paragraphs of nonsense, written in languages I don't recognize, but I usually just open to the page with the ribbon bookmark, the one page that's in English.The book says the same thing it said when I woke up this afternoon:GlitzCon Ball. Saturday night, 8:00 p.m. Pluck the thorns of the black lily. Do not touch her with your bare flesh.This cryptic bullshit is sometimes worse, sometimes better, but it nearly always works out in the end. I tuck the book back in my pocket as the cab rolls up to the convention. The side mirror shows me still-flawless makeup before the cab pulls away.Inside the hotel, I follow signs to the ballroom entrance, where the bass from the party is rattling the doors. An employee holds up a warning hand. She has enough cakey makeup and sparkly rings to be a GlitzCon attendee, and she's old enough to be my mother.This isn't the only entrance for me, but I want to see if I look as good as I think I do, so I'll try it."Where's your con badge?" the Sparkly Cougar asks."I don't have one," I say."Then—"I step back, cock a hip, and hold out my hands in the universal gesture for "I'm unarmed." It works even when you're not talking to cops. "But that room is full of horny, middle-aged queens, and you know what they like even more than bitching about how painful their shoes are?"I use both thumbs to peel back the fitted black cloth of my coat, exposing my all-black rockstar outfit: lace shirt, pierced nipples, edges of a mystery tattoo creeping up above the low-slung waistline of my skinny jeans. I'm going for "slutty Japanese pop star" tonight."This."Sparkly Cougar reluctantly chuckles.I grin. "I know, right? Come on, honey, you know no one is going to complain."She rolls her eyes, but she laughs and opens the door for the best thief she'll ever meet.I stroll into pandemonium. The stench of perfume, sweat, fuzzy teeth, and wine is almost too heavy to breathe;  the requisite flock of disco balls spin stars across the crowd; and the electronic music booms and whirs beside the cacophony of hundreds of gaudy floral costumes. One queen is wearing a ball gown that looks like a giant upside-down rose; another has a bouffant wig with real miniature pansies planted in it. Daffodils, lupines, orchids... None of the elaborate, garish costumes is a black lily.I don't see any black anything—I stand out like a goth skidmark.I had this coat tailored just for me, a slim-waisted frock style with buttons made of real antique coins: pieces-of-eight from a treasure chest I never should have stolen and definitely never should have opened. Still, without the chest I wouldn't have had the cash to pay the seamstress, and now I have over thirty hidden pockets to stuff with jewelry. Even though I'm here for the thorns of the black lily, nothing says I can't nab some extra rock candy to pay bills like rent and booze.I wend my way through the garden of glitter, searching for others in male clothing. Dudes or not, their jewelry is more likely to be real.I pretend that I've tripped on a drag queen's train,  stumble into a fat fellow whose tie tack looks like it might be real diamonds, and walk off wishing I dared snatch the matching cuff links. But even though I did put on clean underwear, I don't want to risk getting caught.The author of the book is not pleased when I'm delayed by jail.I try not to think about that, instead searching for a black flower costume. There must be a thousand attendees in this cavernous geode of a ballroom, plus at least fifteen hotel staff, ten live parrots hanging in gilded cages by the garden-themed photo set in the back, and two service dogs for one old lady. After forty-five minutes of charming my way through the crowd, winking when someone slaps my ass and leaning over to kiss fingers while I tease off rings—that shit works, I'm telling you—I'm still the single smudge of goth couture in this florist shop LARP.It's been almost two years since I failed to steal what the book directed.I am not going to fail again.Even the AC can't stop me from sweating now, and I pat at my hairline with my handkerchief. My mascara is waterproof, but that only goes so far.The fucking book can't be specific, can it? No, it just gives me riddles. Maybe I'm looking for a small enamel lily pin on someone's lapel. Maybe the book means black as in African-American, wearing a lily costume of any possible goddamned color.Around the room again, and again. Checking lapels, checking skin colors against costumes, panicking every time I see people trickle out the doors. I head for the nearest door—it's actually the one I came in—and place my hand on the knob. Options blur through my mind: the elevator, the emergency stairs, a utility closet. I choose the last, and when I open the door, that's where it leads.I shut the door quickly behind me, because I don't want anyone following. Now if they try to open the same door, it will lead into the hall, where it actually goes. Relieved, I take a deep breath of the closet's comparatively fresh air. Just a faint odor of pine, bleach, and the musty suggestion of a mop put away while wet.Two doors' distance is all I get. Don't ask me how it works, or why I can do it, but if I lay my hand on a knob or a handle, I can choose if the door opens into the following room, or any of the rooms that annex that same room. Sometimes it's a dead end, like this closet, because there's no other door to open. I've chosen the wrong door and gotten arrested before—it's a bit like trying to solve a maze with a pen instead of a pencil. You just screw up sometimes.Like sometime, you might go into a room no other human could have found. Maybe you take a chest that wasn't meant for a human to have. You smugly carry it back to your apartment, but the moment you open the lid, a chain snakes into your leg. The pain is phenomenal. You dig through the chest, looking for something to cut yourself free, but there's nothing but gold coins and one crappy old book in a language you can't read.The intangible chain stretches all the way to the hardware store, where they think you're a psycho case when you start hacking at the linoleum floor by your feet with garden shears, and then an axe, and then a sledgehammer. The cops mace your crazy ass, but you barely even feel it because your leg is getting worse. You say you were angry and drunk, and you agree to pay the damages, and you go home in defeat.You can't even tell the truth to friends or your now-ex-boyfriend, because they can't see the enchantment.There is no sleep. Not for days. You consider amputation, start looking up methods on the Internet. Turns out there are fetishists for everything, and their utter batshitness might be your gain. But before you pack your leg in ice to induce a frostbite so severe the doctors will be forced to surgically remove your curse, you wonder about the book.You open it again, hoping there's something in there, something to explain, even if it's just a picture. It's gibberish until one page, the page that says:Nautical exhibit at museum at midnight. Brass spyglass from a 1728 wreck. Place it in chest.You know which museum has the nautical exhibit. What do you have to lose? It doesn't hurt any more to walk than it does to stay in place. And you miss stealing, since you've been hiding in your apartment biting a pillow and swallowing a plethora of Vicodin tablets that do absolutely nothing.The moment you place the spyglass in the chest, it slides through the wooden bottom, like it's sinking through water.The pain in your leg becomes bearable. It doesn't disappear—it never fucking disappears, never—but you can pass out now. You sleep, and you don't wake up from a dream about being savaged by a shark or stepping in a bear trap or being allergic to only one of your socks.So you steal what the book tells you, and you put it in the chest. Gold coins ooze up from the other side, breaching like whales, until there's a stack to replace your offering.The burning subsides for a time, but the book always makes more demands.Now that I have the privacy of the closet, I pull the book out and look again. It says what it said before, plus one more word.NOW.I jam it back into my pocket, take a deep breath, and step back into the bouquet of B.O. and carcinogenic perfumes. I arrange a smile on my face with all the care that a florist takes with a wreath for a state funeral.Maybe I'm not looking for a person. Maybe the "her" was a statue, or a painting. I close my eyes almost all the way, so I just see a blur of light and color through my lashes, and scan the room. When a dark patch appears, it's just one of the service dogs I spotted earlier, a saggy-bellied lab standing guard by her owner's feet. Before I can dismiss her entirely, however, I spot a glint of silver on her service coat.Hundred bucks says I know that dog's name.They're leaving right now. The door shuts behind them.I duck around huge hats and ponyfalls, poofy skirts and trailing scarves. When I exit the ballroom, they're nearly to the elevator.No, no, no. I break my practiced saunter and jog down the hall toward the woman and her dogs. I hate drawing attention, but I don't have a choice.I slow as I approach, creeping up behind Lily's wagging tail. The pin comes off of her embroidered "Service Animal" coat easily, though the sharp edges puncture the pads of my fingers.Lily's tail brushes across my cheek as I get to my feet.She spins and snarls. Her elderly owner hauls at the leash, her face calm as her four-legged companion tries to get close enough to chew my nuts. I don't have to pretend to be terrified.I clench the pin in my hand, trying to pretend it's not cold as a polar bear's butthole. It's not the first object I've been told to steal that has strange properties, but it's the first that numbs my fingers until I can't even tell if they're still gripping it."Holy shit, your dog is psycho!" I yell, backing away."You probably deserve it," the woman snaps. Her other dog growls low in its throat, but it doesn't struggle to reach me the way Lily does.I flee, my heart beating faster than the electronic music in the next room.Good. Now I'll go home and throw this pin in the chest and waste Glenlivet by drinking it fast until I pass out. I open the book—still the same message—and tuck the bloody pin under the cover. When I get frisked, they never seem to be able to find the book, so it'll be safest there.I no sooner finish tucking it into my breast pocket than someone with a beautiful Spanish accent says, "You're not supposed to pet service dogs."I glance over my shoulder, just to be sure it isn't security.It's a queen, maybe. I can't tell; she's lanky, with a Roman nose and overpainted lips. She could be female with strong features, or male with delicate ones. She has blood-red extensions, high-quality toyokalon bound into a messy ponytail to show off her impossibly thin hoop earrings and her black leather choker.She's the only other person wearing black, a simple velvet dress powdered with glitter. I didn't see her in the ball room, when I was looking for black costumes. I realize I'm staring, and shrug. "Service dogs don't bite. Pretty sure that lady bought the coat on E-bay so she could smuggle her fleabag into tea parties," I say. "It's like a fad with old bitches. Give it a few centuries; we'll be doing it, too."She narrows her eyes but doesn't speak, as if she can't decide if she's offended or not."Nice being lectured by you," I say, and head for the stairwell.I hate elevators, because I can't open the doors with my hands, so if I'm trapped in an elevator, there's nothing I can do. Luckily, I'm my own elevator. I haul back the stairwell's heavy fire door and it opens straight to the parking garage.My footsteps echo alone for long seconds before I hear the elevator door open behind me. Heels click on the pavement, and I glance back to find the goody-two-shoes with red plastic hair. "You're leaving already? Not enjoying the convention, then?" she asks. She trots closer, inviting herself to walk along with me."Drag isn't my scene. I'm way too pretty to pretend to be a woman," I reply. The chain is hurting more. I'm taking too long, and the book's author is angry. I look for doors to get outside faster, but most of them are on cars, which won't do the trick.For a moment, I imagine going back into the convention with her and having a drink. She has style, and it's been a long time since I hung out with anyone I wasn't stealing from. But the book doesn't leave room for socializing in the schedule."What's your name?" she asks, toying with the silver disk hanging from her choker."Could you piss off? I'm not interested in anything with tits, even if they're fake.""My name's Lily," she says.I'm too slow. I turn to look at her, my mouth opening to ask a stupid question, when she reaches down on the ground and grabs the violet chain.She pulls, hard, and I thump onto my back.Even though I think I'm still awake, everything is black and sparkly. It's like her dress, like the sky, and then I keep blinking until my vision focuses again on the ceiling, with its emergency sprinkler system nozzles and sleeping moths. My head hurts and my leg hurts and I think I forgot how to breathe.I don't understand how she can touch the chain when I can't, but I also don't understand how she was a dog. The collar is the same, though. I remember now.The pavement scrapes by beneath me as she hauls me by the chain, toward the elevator. Some people getting into their cars glance over, then studiously pretend not to notice so they don't have to get involved. To people who can't see the chain, this looks like a psychotic tantrum, like I'm scooting myself toward Lily."Stop," I plead. It's barely audible, just a croak."I'll stop when you give me back my pin, you insufferable bag of dicks. If you were scared of me biting you, just wait until you see what I can do with this tether.""I can't—" I start, but I lose my breath again when she whips the chain around a few times, like a jump rope. I curl forward, retching. She lets go, and I lie gasping like a landed fish as her fingers poke through my pockets. She flings jewelry on the ground as she finds it, and finally, gives up."What did you do with it?" she asks."I gave it to someone," I say. The pin is cold against my heart, reaching through the book and the coat.I know my mascara is smeared now, waterproof or not. I have to remind myself that as bad as this is, it will be worse if I don't put the desired item in the chest. I just need to get to a door."I need the silver thorns to do my job. That 'old bitch' is down one body guard until I can change back into a dog. I've killed for her before, and I'll do it again.""Please, it's too late.""You're a wretched liar." She swings the chain around, lifting me off the ground, and slams me into the back of a lime green Escalade. The crunch is either a rear window or all of my bones.This time the flashing lights are colors. Blue, red. There's glass in my hair and everything tastes like blood.There are cameras, I remember, in the parking garage.I force my eyes open, past the prodding cops, and see them escorting Lily away. She glares over her shoulder, yells about theft.I'm not sure if I'm coughing or laughing. They frisk me, looking for her pin, but it's in the book where they can't find it. They do find the other jewelry I stole—well, what Lily didn't already throw on the ground—and they handcuff me.Fine. If I have to pick from: getting murdered, not putting the pin in the chest, or getting arrested, this is my best option.They don't care enough about me to call an ambulance, and after a few minutes, I have to admit I probably don't need one. The injuries they can measure are just a mild concussion, a split lip, and some bruising.The book is still in my jacket, and they make me wear ghastly jail jammies, so I spend all night wondering what the page says now.The first time I failed the author, the book gave me a countdown for fixing my mistake, and when I gave up, because I didn't understand how bad it would get, the book told me to go into my kitchen, pull out everything with a skull-and-crossbones sticker on it, and pour myself a cocktail.I had no intentions of doing it, but that's when I found out the chain reached deeper inside than just my leg, than even my flesh and bone.My hands mixed every cleaning product I had into the glass I usually use for scotch. My mouth opened, and I poured it down my own throat. The slop burned as it passed through me, for days, from my lips to my asshole. It crept through my veins and flavored my breath, blurred and stung my vision.When I couldn't take any more and tried to slit my wrists, I did bleed, but it smelled like Pine Sol and trickled out like rust-colored syrup. It didn't change my condition. When I tried to leave my apartment, or use the phone, my hands refused.I was so alone that Death refused to visit, and even my own body was on someone else's side.I keep my lawyer's business card laminated in my wallet, and I call him with my usual lies. He gets me out late on Monday morning, and I'm in too much of a hurry to sit through his warnings and advice. In the cab on the way home, I open the book.Place thorns in chest. Fifty-four minutes until punishment.I pull out the pen I stole from the front desk at the police station. I don't know if this will work, but I'm desperate. Bracing the book against my knee, I write:black lily touched my skin, tried to kill me for the thorns. got away but can't steal for you if dead. what now?My words disappear, but I don't know if that means they've been read. I stare at the page until the cab pulls up outside my apartment building. I am too sore to go up the fire escape.The doorman I cheated holds up a hand, like I'm traffic he's directing, and says, "Hey, you owe me forty bucks, or—""I'll get it for you tonight, when your mom pays me," I say, eyes still on the blank page. I open the stairwell door and step straight into the fifth floor hallway, where he can't follow fast enough to kick my ass.As I walk toward my apartment, text appears on the page, showing up in strokes as someone writes each letter.Place thorns in chest. Thirty-three minutes until punishment. Stab her with iron knife.I stole an iron knife with a silk-wrapped handle months ago and put it in the chest. My teeth creak against each other. I don't know where to get another. Who would even want a knife that rusts?I shut the book and fumble with my keys. I don't know if I could even use the knife—I can't imagine stabbing Lily, stabbing anyone. I'm a thief, not a murderer.I can't wait to put the pin in the chest so I don't have to worry about it anymore. My leg feels like one solid cramp. I'm so distracted that I don't smell the perfume until I close the door behind me.I look up in time to see Lily grab the violet chain and flip me onto my back again. At least it's carpet, I think."You left your filthy face grease on my tail, so I had your scent," she says. She's dressed much as she was Saturday night, in a short black dress and pumps.I'm not playing this game again. "I'll give it to you," I say. I thrust out my palms, my favorite no-weapons signal.She crosses her arms."Let me get it." My sore muscles tear like wet paper as I struggle to my feet."You sure made a shitty deal," she sneers.I pause on my way to the chest. It looks like a normal steamer trunk, against the wall under an expensive-ass painting that I also stole, next to an even expensiver-ass plasma screen, which I actually bought because for once it was easier than stealing."Deal?""This isn't a deal?" she asks, quirking an eyebrow. She dangles the chain meaningfully."No. I just... I stole that chest," I say, pointing. I explain about the chain and the book.I open the chest, because I want to show her the gold—prove I'm not lying—and see the same iron knife I stole months ago, with the chartreuse silk tied around the handle. The author must be loaning it to me.Lily flops down on my couch, setting her shoes up on my glass coffee table."You foolish mortal. Do you know what you could have gotten, if you'd asked instead of stolen?""What?""A contract with a clause stipulating when your service ends. We make fair deals, you know. We always have.""What are you?" I whisper. I've watched TV; I've seen movies; sometimes if no one is looking I even read comics. I don't want to say any of the silly words out loud, like demon or faery.She snorts and shakes her head."Me? I'm someone who can actually kill you. I'll just wait for you to start chugging Drano-on-the-rocks again, and then offer a quick death in exchange for my pin...unless you want to take me back to the hotel and show me where you hid it. I smelled you in that utility closet—is that it?"Lily pours herself a couple fingers of scotch and sips it, watching me. I reach into the chest and slide the knife into my sleeve. It's cold under my fingers; I imagine sinking it into the soft hollow at the base of her long throat.I'm suddenly so nauseated I almost fill the chest with half-digested jail food."How do I get this chain off?" I whisper. "That's all I want.""Good luck, bitch. Pretty sure you have to kill the bastard writing in the book."I pull out the book, flip it open again, stare at the words.Four minutes until punishment. Place thorns in chest. Stab her with an iron knife.My only idea is desperate, and stupid, but what do I have to lose?I hold the book over the trunk and shake it. The pin falls out. The bottom of the trunk swallows every silver thorn before Lily has even gotten to her feet.Her face crumples with rage, and even if she can't turn into a dog now, her bared teeth could have fooled me."Help me kill him and I'll get your pin back," I say quickly, half of a second before she yanks the chain toward her. If I can't make my plan clear she might kill me, so I force myself to explain even though every word is a scream."I can... control doors," I gasp. "I can get there."She scowls. "That could take forever.""It won't."I'm more scared of this plan than I am of Lily. The last place I want to go is the place where the pain comes from.After an interminable moment, Lily drops the chain.I'm too shaky to stand again. I kneel at the coffee table and reach for my only glass, which has her lipstick prints on the rim and a finger of scotch left in the bottom.She slides it out of reach. "Start talking.""Okay." I gather my thoughts, trying to ignore the glass. "I can get there and steal the pin back. I just need you to protect me the way you protect the old lady."She shakes her head. "The book's author has a dog, I'm sure, and she'll still have her pin, because some slutty mortal crybaby didn't snatch it.""I am not slutty!""Could've fooled me, Captain Nippleparty," Lily says, pointing at my torn shirt. She stretches, rolls her head to pop her neck, and gets to her feet. "Okay. If you can get the pin back fast enough for me to use it, I'll keep the dog from eating your face. But you're on your own with the book's author."She grabs my hand, and I feel a thrill at the touch of her strong fingers, until she casually kicks the violet chain on her way toward the front door.I pull her back.With my other hand, I close the chest's lid and grip the cold brass handle. I feel through the possibilities: the tiny wooden room it usually opens to, or the bigger room beyond."Maybe you're not as stupid as you smell," she says.I open the lid/door, step in, and we both fall through, linked by our hands.We land on a desk carved of glittering white stone.I don't have time to look around: in a chair in front of the desk, so close I can smell his graveyard breath, there's an old man with butter-yellow eyes and Count Dracula hair. His waxy, colorless skin reminds me of a maggot.For just a moment, he looks like he got fisted with an ice cube—and then his eyes drop to see the violet chain coiled on the desk's smooth surface. He smiles and lays one palm over it.Pain. I'm on my belly instantly, swimming across the desk. My hands claw at the stone, at Lily, at the still-wet pages of the book he'd been writing in, as if somewhere I might find the switch to turn it off. My boots encounter momentary resistance, followed by the music of hundreds of coins clinking, rolling, and spinning on a marble floor.I crane my neck at Lily, just in time to see him strike her face with the side of his fist. The quill with which he'd been writing stabs into her cheek, dribbling black ink down her jaw.In one smooth motion, she slides off the desk and lands in a defensive crouch.As she backs away, the clicking of her heels multiplies. It's a dog trotting up behind her. Woolly and beige, like an old couch, it seems harmless until it bares its teeth. The rumble in its throat sounds like a power tool.This was stupid, so stupid. I should go back through the chest. My left elbow bumps against it, so I know it's still here on the desktop. Just shut the lid, then open it once, tumble through into my apartment. No doubt I'd be punished, but at least I'd be far away, where I belonged.The plume hanging out of Lily's cheek quivers as she stands between the book's author and his canine mercenary. Then the dog jumps on her, its paws on her chest, tearing into her arm when she swings at its face.It's hard to focus, but I force my right arm flat on the desk so I can reach into my sleeve.The book's author watches Lily go down to her knees, his face expressionless. I draw the iron knife, and before I can change my mind, before I can get sick again, I slam the blade into the side of his neck.The blood that dribbles out is iridescent like a parking lot puddle. He paws at the knife with both hands, but a moment later he goes limp and molds to the contours of his chair like wet laundry.The pain fades, but it doesn't go away. I don't have time to worry about that, or the fact that I just went from thief to murderer.It's my fault Lily's here.I dig through everything I knocked off of the desk, coins and the inkwell and a bunch of jewelry, but I don't see Lily's pin. I have to get it to her—a dog against a dog is a better chance than she has now.I can't find it. The dog snarls louder behind me and Lily curses. I glance back to see her holding it at arm's length by its collar, its teeth gnashing the flesh of her arm as if it means to chew it off.No time to keep digging. I scan the room. It seems carved from a single block of opalescent white stone, even the desk. Sourceless frost-tinted light shows me shelves and shelves of familiar items. I spot a broken pocketwatch that worked back when I stole it, a hat pin I remember sneaking off of a mannequin in a porn store window, and finally, the brass spyglass I stole from the nautical exhibit.That's the one I grab.Lily's blood is slick under my shoes as I dash over. I swing the spyglass at the dog. I don't want to hit it, but its mouth is foaming with Lily's blood, blood she never should have had to spill. When the brass strikes the top of the dog's skull, it yelps, falls to the side, and is too dizzy to get up. I know how it feels. If I tried to pull the knife out of a dead man I would have passed right the eff out—I'm barely hanging on as it is. I swallow the gush of about-to-puke saliva and breathe through my nose.Lily stands, her lacerated arm dripping more blood. "Where is my pin?" she asks."I don't know. Why am I still chained?""I don't know."We stare at each other, she without her pin, me still attached to the chest by the violet chain."Let's load the chest with all the coins and jewelry," I say. "When we get back, we'll sort through it all."I take off my coat and rip out the lining to bandage Lily's  arm. When it's wrapped tight, she helps me pile handfuls of treasure onto my coat, all of it stained with ink and blood. We lift it together and dump the contents into the chest, over and over until there's not a coin left. "I can take you back through," I say, "so you can go to a hospital.""You'd trust me in your apartment with all that cash?" she asks. She starts to grin, winces, and yanks the quill from her cheek. "How come you're not going back that way?""I have to own both chests until I get the chain off," I say. "I can't bring it through itself—I don't know what'll happen—so I have to go back the long way."Maybe I don't hide my dread well enough. Her eyes are sharp and dark as she looks at the chest, already empty, and then back at me."No, thanks," she says. "I think I want to see what's through door number two." I fight the urge to hug her—I'm covered in enough blood as it is.I grab one end of the chest, and she grabs the other, and we walk toward the door. I caress the cool handle, considering the possibilities. None of them will take us home, but you don't get through a maze without hitting a few dead-ends.I choose a hallway, and then another door, and another.END"Sooner than Gold" was originally published in Glitter and Mayhem, edited by John Klima, Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, published by Apex Publications.This recording is a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license which means you can share it with anyone you’d like, but please don’t change or sell it. Our theme is “Aurora Borealis” by Bird Creek, available through the Google Audio Library.Thanks for listening, and I’ll have another story for you on June 11th.[Music plays out]This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

IT IS NICK CODY's BIRTHDAY. SING FOR THAT CUNDOG!  I'm still a wizard house up!If you not drunk ladies & gentlemenGet ready to get drunked upLet's do it, Ha HaMargaritasYou know whatLil JonYeahAll of the alcoholicsWhere you atLets goHey(x8)Let's go!When i walk in the clubAll eyes on meI'm with the party rock crewAll drinks are freeWe like cirocWe love patronWe came to party rockEverybody its onLet's goShots shots shots shots shots shotsshots shots shots shots shotsshots shots shots shots shotseverybody (x2)Hey (x21)The ladies love usWhen we pour shotsThey need an excuseTo suck our cocksWe came to get crunkHow 'bout you?bottles uplet's go round twoShots shots shots shots shots shotsshots shots shots shots shotsshots shots shots shots shotseverybody (x2)If you ain't getting drunk get the fuck out the clubIf you ain't takin shots get the fuck out the clubIf you ain't come to party get the fuck out the clubNow where my alcoholics let me see ya hands upWhat you drinkin on?Jager bombsLemon dropsButtery NipplesJell-o ShotsKamikazeThree Wise MenFuck all that shitGet me some GinShotsPatron on the rocks and I'm ready for some shotsThe women come around everytime I'm pourin' shotsTheir panties hit the ground everytime I give em shotsSo cups in the air, everybody lets take shots.If you feelin drunk put ya hands in the air& If you tryin to fuck put ya hands in the airNow say I'm fucked up (I'm fucked up)I'm fucked up (I'm fuked up)I'm tryna fuck (I'm tryna fuk)I'm tryna fuck (I'm tryna fuk)Shotspatron on the rocks and i'm ready for some shotsThe women come around everytime I'm pourin' shotsTheir panties hit the ground everytime I give em shotsSo cups in the air, everybody lets take shots.La dad a daLa dad a dad a da (x8)Read more: LMFAO - SHOTS LYRICS  -------- FULL SICK FANTY GOOSE! ------ www.nickcody.com.au www.bartlol.com twitter/instagram @thenickcody @bartlol

I'm confused in my direction of upppp(Lil Jon)If you're not drunk ladies and gentlemanGet ready to get emotion and incoherentLets do ittHahaLMFAOYou know itLil JonYeaahAll of the alcoholicsWhere you atLets goHey hey hey hey uh huh hey hey hey heyLets go yeah!(LMFAO)When i walk in the clubAll eyes on meI'm with the party rock crewAll drinks are free (all drinks are free)We like CirocWe love PatronWe came to party rockEverybody its on!Shots shots  FANT FANT FANT shots shots shots ShotsShots shots shots shots shots ShotsShots shots shots shots shots shotsEverybodyShots shots shots shots shots ShotsShots shots shots GOOSEY HIP shots shots ShotsShots shots shots shots shots shotsEverybody TWITTER  @bartlol @thenickcody

Back by Popular demand!! Needs saying now more than it did a few months ago! Take care everyone and God Bless you all, God Bless America!!   #1 show of all time, Thanks for the listens, Thanks for the emails, God Bless You and God Bless and protect our Country, Kel   Tonights show was a brief lauch by me into where our country is at right now with the idiots in the White House and the clown clusters that protect them. We are in Peril folks, Learn now or pay later its up to you, Me?? I'm buying ammo by the truck load, Seriously!! :) Shoot, Shoot some more, Shoot whats left, Shoot dirt to clear your weapon, Its all good! This show is a radical depature from what my shows normally are, Stuff needed saying so I said it. Simple as that, Kel   Kelly Outdoors is a show about just that, The great outdoors and all that it has to offer, Hunting, Fishing, boating etc. That's what its about folks, Water fowling is my passion so there is lots of that, There have been some of the best folks in the industry on the show and I will continue to bring you the very best for your enjoyment, Listen live or Download them, Just enjoy. All of these shows are available on itunes.