Podcasts about Mercer

How did Hugh Mercer, a 20-year-old Scottish fugitive who survived the Battle of Culloden, become one of George Washington's generals and die at the Battle of Princeton? Discover the forgotten American Revolution story of Hugh Mercer and how his extraordinary second chance reveals something fundamental about America itself. In this episode of America's Founding Series on The P.A.S. Report Podcast, Professor Nick Giordano uncovers the remarkable story of General Hugh Mercer. From a hunted Jacobite rebel who escaped the British crackdown after Culloden to a frontier physician, French and Indian War veteran, respected Virginia leader, and Continental Army general, Mercer's life embodies a timeless American truth: your past does not have to determine your future.   What You'll Learn In This Episode:    The Fugitive Physician: How Hugh Mercer survived the Battle of Culloden in 1746, escaped the British crackdown on Jacobite rebels, and found a second chance in colonial Pennsylvania. The Crucible of Reinvention: How Mercer rebuilt his life as a physician, earned the respect of his community, served in the French and Indian War, and developed a close relationship with George Washington. The Ultimate Gamble of 1776: Why a 50-year-old doctor who had already survived one failed rebellion chose to risk his family, fortune, and life on the American Revolution. The Stand at William Clarke's Orchard: What happened at the Battle of Princeton when British troops surrounded Mercer, reportedly mistook him for Washington, and left him mortally wounded after he refused to surrender. The Lesson for Today: Why the American story is not about perfection, but redemption, and why America must preserve the belief that failure, background, and past mistakes do not have to dictate a person's future. Hugh Mercer never lived to see American independence. He never saw the Constitution, George Washington become president, or the republic his sacrifice helped create. Yet his life captures something essential about the American experiment: America does not require perfect people. It offers people the opportunity to rise, rebuild, and redeem themselves. But a second chance also carries responsibility, and every generation must decide what it will do with the opportunities America provides. Episode Chapters 00:00 Hugh Mercer: From Scottish Fugitive to American Revolutionary Hero 01:22 Hugh Mercer's Second Chance in America 02:16 French and Indian War: Hugh Mercer Meets George Washington 04:10 Hugh Mercer Joins the American Revolution 06:02 Battle of Princeton: Hugh Mercer's Final Stand 11:01 Hugh Mercer's Death and Sacrifice for American Independence 11:59 America, Redemption, and the Power of Second Chances ⭐ Help Keep Real American History Alive: If you value authentic history, subscribe to The P.A.S. Report Podcast, leave a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and share this episode with 3 to 4 friends and family members. Every share helps bypass big-tech algorithm filters and preserves our national heritage. #HughMercer #AmericanRevolution #BattleOfPrinceton #GeorgeWashington #America250

Melissa Swift shares strategies for navigating the chaos of the modern workplace more effectively. — YOU'LL LEARN — 1) The four trends making work feel more intense and chaotic 2) How to hone in on what makes you effective 3) Two critical questions to ask in the face of chaos Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep1176 for clickable versions of the links below. — ABOUT MELISSA — Melissa Swift is a leading voice on how organizations, teams, and individuals can succeed in an ever-more challenging world of work. As founder and CEO of Anthrome Insight, she is a practicing consultant and keynote speaker. She has held consulting leadership roles at Capgemini, Mercer, Korn Ferry, and Deloitte. She is also the author of Work Here Now: Think Like a Human and Build a Powerhouse Workplace (Wiley, 2023).Her quarterly columns in MIT Sloan Management Review often rank among their most-read articles. Swift speaks regularly at events, including the MIT CIO Symposium, and has been quoted on the subject in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, Newsweek, The Economist, The Washington Post, Axios, and more.Throughout her career, Swift has pioneered techniques to reshape organizations for digital and workforce transformation, leading breakthrough projects across industries ranging from manufacturing to professional services to biotech to consumer goods. She earned her B.A. from Harvard University and her MBA from Columbia Business School.• Book: Effective: How to Do Great Work in a Fast-Changing World• LinkedIn: Melissa Swift• Website: AnthromeInsight.com— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW — • Database: O*ONET• Study: “Work intensification: Towards mapping the study field and defining a research agenda” by Ana Heloísa da Costa Lemos, Waleska Yone Yamakawa Zavatti Campos, and Marcelo Quintão• Book: The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson• Past episode: 314: How to Feel Less Busy With Laura Vanderkam• Past episode: 366: Mastering Conversations through Compassionate Curiosity with Kwame Christian• Past episode: 417: Managing Infinite Expectations with Laura Vanderkam• Past episode: 798: How to Have Difficult Conversations about Race with Kwame Christian• Past episode: 981: Using AI to Enhance Your Reading, Notes, Memory, and Decisions with Kwame Christian• Past episode: 1150: How to Reclaim Your Schedule and Own Your Time with Laura Vanderkam— THANK YOU SPONSORS! — • Shopify. Sign up for your free trial at Shopify.com/awesomepod• Vinted. Download the Vinted app for free to start selling with no seller fees!• Fitnexa. Get $10 off the SomniPods3 with the link and code AWESOMESee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Gloria Mercer and Aidan West talk with Mike about A Safe Distance (2026), their scrappy, off-grid Canadian crime thriller that started as a pandemic-era proof-of-concept short and grew into a full-blown Bonnie-and-Clyde riff shot on borrowed forest properties outside Vancouver. Mercer directs and West writes, and the two — longtime collaborators since their Simon Fraser University film school days — dig into how a straightforward drama about a woman who says no to a camping-trip proposal picked up a bag of stolen money and a pair of outlaw lovers along the way, channeling Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy and the Wachowskis' Bound in equal measure. They talk shooting entirely outdoors with bear visits and mid-scene thunderstorms, assembling a cast led by Bethany Brown, Tandia Mercedes, Cody Kearsley, and Chris McNally, and getting the film made with Canada Council and Creative BC funding plus a lot of neighborly door-knocking. Recorded on the ground at the Fantasia International Film Festival, where A Safe Distance played its Canadian premiere after stops at SXSW, Frameline, and Phoenix Film Festival.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Hour 3 of Sportsline on August 24, 2026 Jacob Townsend talks about what is coming up in FBS this weekend in Week 0. Then, Jacob talks with Kevin Marshall, of FCS Nation, to preview the SoCon, Tennessee Tech, ETSU, Mercer, and more. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jacob Townsend talks with Kevin Marshall, of FCS Nation, to preview the SoCon, Tennessee Tech, ETSU, Mercer, and more. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Forward-facing sonar is right up there with politics and religion as a topic you're probably better off not bringing up… so naturally, we're talking about it.This week on the MERCER Podcast, three different pro anglers with three very different perspectives weigh in on one of the biggest questions in professional bass fishing:Did Bassmaster's split forward-facing sonar schedule actually work?Greg Hackney, Mike Iaconelli and Kyle Patrick give their opinions on how the season played out, what worked, what didn't, and whether splitting the schedule between events with and without forward-facing sonar accomplished what Bassmaster hoped it would.Did it create a more balanced playing field? Did it make the competition better? Did it prove anything at all? And most importantly—is this the format Bassmaster should stick with moving forward?Three pros. Three perspectives. One topic that bass fishing just can't stop arguing about.Forward-facing sonar: did the split season work?

Mercer's men's team has one more exhibition match in Macon before the season kicks off for real...Head Coach Brad Ruzzo joins from the road to look at the '26 season and what was learned in '25 in the SoCon...

Thursday Thoughts are a Power Hour from the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Training Ground before the media match We look at Leagues Cup from Matchday 2 and what the standings look like heading into matchday last of the group stageWomen's college soccer is underway officially and we catch up with West Georgia, Georgia Southern, and Georgia StateMercer Bears MSOC Head Coach Brad Ruzzo joins to preview the 2026 season in the SoCon as well...Plus, your AM news as well!

With just two Bassmaster Elite Series events remaining, Trey McKinney is once again right where he's been knocking on the door for the last two seasons — in the hunt for Bassmaster Angler of the Year. But this time, he's the one everyone is chasing.After finishing 2nd in AOY in each of his first two Elite Series seasons, Trey enters the final stretch leading the race and with a chance to finally finish the job.This week on the Mercer Podcast, Trey talks about the pressure of leading AOY, what he's learned from coming so close the last two years, and what it will take to close it out.However we don't avoid the tough stuff.Does Trey get help from locals to find fishing spots? How does he handle the rumors, criticism and scrutiny that come with being one of the most successful young anglers in the sport? And does any of that noise actually get to him?With two tournaments left and everything on the line, Trey McKinney answers the tough questions.

In this episode, Travis Mercer shares his journey from Wall Street to real estate success, including flipping houses, building rental portfolios, and launching passive profits. Discover his strategies for scaling, finding unique opportunities, and leveraging AI to streamline operations.   Professional Real Estate Investors - How we can help you: Investor Fuel Mastermind:  Learn more about the Investor Fuel Mastermind, including 100% deal financing, massive discounts from vendors and sponsors you're already using, our world class community of over 150 members, and SO much more here: http://www.investorfuel.com/apply   Investor Machine Marketing Partnership:  Are you looking for consistent, high quality lead generation? Investor Machine is America's #1 lead generation service professional investors. Investor Machine provides true 'white glove' support to help you build the perfect marketing plan, then we'll execute it for you…talking and working together on an ongoing basis to help you hit YOUR goals! Learn more here: http://www.investormachine.com   Coaching with Mike Hambright:  Interested in 1 on 1 coaching with Mike Hambright? Mike coaches entrepreneurs looking to level up, build coaching or service based businesses (Mike runs multiple 7 and 8 figure a year businesses), building a coaching program and more. Learn more here: https://investorfuel.com/coachingwithmike   Attend a Vacation/Mastermind Retreat with Mike Hambright: Interested in joining a "mini-mastermind" with Mike and his private clients on an upcoming "Retreat", either at locations like Cabo San Lucas, Napa, Park City ski trip, Yellowstone, or even at Mike's East Texas "Big H Ranch"? Learn more here: http://www.investorfuel.com/retreat   Property Insurance: Join the largest and most investor friendly property insurance provider in 2 minutes. Free to join, and insure all your flips and rentals within minutes! There is NO easier insurance provider on the planet (turn insurance on or off in 1 minute without talking to anyone!), and there's no 15-30% agent mark up through this platform!  Register here: https://myinvestorinsurance.com/   New Real Estate Investors - How we can work together: Investor Fuel Club (Coaching and Deal Partner Community): Looking to kickstart your real estate investing career? Join our one of a kind Coaching Community, Investor Fuel Club, where you'll get trained by some of the best real estate investors in America, and partner with them on deals! You don't need $ for deals…we'll partner with you and hold your hand along the way! Learn More here: http://www.investorfuel.com/club   —--------------------

Atlanta United is finally back at Mercedes-Benz Stadium this weekend, and Jason Longshore breaks down what Júnior Alonso and Luke Brennan said at training, where Paulo Díaz and new signing Mauricio Amaro fit into the picture, and what it means for Saturday's game against the New York Red Bulls. Then it's a trip across the Atlantic for the Jeff Bezos led consortium eyeing a stake in Liverpool, Rodri's looming move from Manchester City to Barcelona, Real Madrid's record breaking Yan Diomande signing, the Enzo Fernández rumors swirling around Manchester City, and a tale of two Premier League clubs in Tottenham's big spending and Newcastle's total roster overhaul. It all closes with the 3-4-3: Atlanta United 2's tough night in Chattanooga, Mercer soccer's deepest roster in years, the 30th anniversary Soccer in Sanford event at Georgia, Olivia Moultrie's ACL tear, Alexis Sánchez to CF Montréal, Mexico's win over the USA in the Concacaf U-20 final, and the WAFCON semifinal picture.

With just two Bassmaster Elite Series events remaining, Trey McKinney is once again right where he's been knocking on the door for the last two seasons — in the hunt for Bassmaster Angler of the Year. But this time, he's the one everyone is chasing.After finishing 2nd in AOY in each of his first two Elite Series seasons, Trey enters the final stretch leading the race and with a chance to finally finish the job.This week on the Mercer Podcast, Trey talks about the pressure of leading AOY, what he's learned from coming so close the last two years, and what it will take to close it out.However we don't avoid the tough stuff.Does Trey get help from locals to find fishing spots? How does he handle the rumors, criticism and scrutiny that come with being one of the most successful young anglers in the sport? And does any of that noise actually get to him?With two tournaments left and everything on the line, Trey McKinney answers the tough questions.

Literally, right before hopping on the bus heading to their season opener at Jackson State, Mercer WSOC HC Tony Economopolous breaks down the 2025 season in the SoCon and what the Bears are bringing into the 2026 season

It's a stacked Tuesday SDH AM that covers all levels of the gameAli Howorth joins to break down WAFCON just before the semifinals- with four new teams thereTony Economopolous visits just before Mercer's women's soccer team hops on a bus for their season openerApple TV's Kacey White breaks down Leagues Cup and what has gotten into Austin FCEl Farolito head coach Santiago Lopez discusses the challenges in balancing a family business and a successful amateur soccer team on a daily basisPlus, your AM news and preps for tonight

From unvetted science to coerced confessions, catastrophic failures in Australia's justice system have stolen decades from innocent people for crimes they didn't commit. In this episode Xanthe and Tim sit down with Walkley Award-winning investigative journalist Neil Mercer to discuss his new book, Falsely Convicted. Mercer details how the Australian criminal justice system has catastrophically failed innocent people through police misconduct, prosecutorial oversights and unvetted expert testimony.Their conversation highlights heartbreaking real-world cases, including a former teacher jailed on biologically impossible abuse claims and a man who served 20 years for murder based on the testimony of an unqualified pathologist. They also examine the tragic case of Gene Gibson - a cognitively impaired Indigenous man coerced into a confession without an interpreter - underscoring the immense barriers vulnerable suspects face. Neil Mercer gives a sobering insight into the devastating personal toll of wrongful convictions and the extraordinary effort required to overturn them. For more information on ‘Falsely Convicted’ visit allenandunwin.com Watch the full video episode on Youtube at Crime Central Australia HERE.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world's largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters. One wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order.Become a paid subscriber at https://auditoryanthology.substack.com/ to hear Maiden VoyageOur companion short story, “Potential,” pulls back the curtain on what Mercer's target is actually protecting. A young researcher named Wei joins a windowless, secretive facility to study a mysterious ancient artifact under the enigmatic Dr. Liang — and quickly discovers that some of what it does defies explanation entirely.If you have a story you'd like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.comBy becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free!Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconradNarrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/Other shows hosted by Darren:Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymagMicro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrorsRetro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradioChurch of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paola Lázaro — actor, playwright, and creator of unforgettable characters. Best known for portraying Juanita “Princess” Sanchez on AMC's The Walking Dead (2020–2022) and Angela Gomez in Netflix's Obliterated (2023). She holds a Master's degree in Playwriting from Columbia University, a foundation that deeply informs her approach to character creation and emotional storytelling. In this episode, Tony chatted with Paola Lázaro for a vibrant, honest, and deeply creative conversation about her journey from playwright to screen actor, the moment she was cast as Princess in 2020, and how she shaped one of the most distinctive characters in The Walking Dead universe. Paola opens up about the craft behind Princess — her humor, her trauma, her resilience — and how she infused the character with her own lived experiences and artistic instincts. She also dives into Princess's evolving relationship with Mercer, exploring the emotional layers, trust-building, and vulnerability that made the pairing a fan favorite. “Go premium with Sci‑Fi Talk Plus — your home for commercial‑free podcasts and videos. Get exclusive Summer Movie coverage, sit‑down interviews, film clips, and red carpet moments from around the world. Sign up now for just $1.99. Click the link to start today.”  

In this episode of Critical thinking, Eimear Walsh, European Head of Investments, is joined by Michel Meert, European Consulting Leader for Endowments, Foundations and Family Offices, and Michael Curtin, Senior Investment Consultant at Mercer, to explore why the investment committee is often the point where governance becomes real and where investment culture can be most visible.  The conversation unpacks the investment committee's role in turning purpose, strategy and risk appetite into decisions and what helps them work well, from clear delegation and strong chairing to good preparation and documentation. It also explores often common pitfalls – slow decisions, unclear accountability, groupthink – and discusses ways asset owners can aim to overcome these to strengthen committee effectiveness over time.  This content is for institutional investors and for information purposes only. It does not contain investment, financial, legal, tax or any other advice and should not be relied upon for this purpose. The materials are not tailored to your particular personal and/or financial situation. If you require advice based on your specific circumstances, you should contact a professional adviser. Opinions expressed are those of the speakers as of the date of the recording, are subject to change without notice and do not necessarily reflect Mercer's opinions. This does not constitute an offer or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell securities, commodities and/or any other financial instruments or products or constitute a solicitation on behalf of any of the investment managers, their affiliates. For the avoidance of doubt, this is not formal investment advice to allow any party to transact. Additional advice will be required in advance of entering into any contract.  Read our full important notices - click here 

During one of his best seasons ever 3 time Bassmaster winner Cory Johnston sits just two events and 1 angler away from capturing the coveted Bassmaster Angler of the Year title. But with all that success has come an unexpected conversation—some anglers close to home even think that he should be banned.This week Cory swings by for a face-to-face honest conversation about an incredible season, the pressure of the AOY race, and what it's really like competing at the highest level of professional bass fishing.Whether you're following the AOY race or just love hearing the stories behind professional fishing, this is a conversation you won't want to miss.

For nearly two decades, John Sabine was simply gone.His wife, Leigh, had spent years telling elaborate stories about their lives, convincing friends and family that John had left and started over somewhere else. She was a gifted storyteller whose lies became more outrageous with time, and few people questioned them. But when Leigh died of cancer in 2015, those stories began to unravel.After two friends made a horrifying discovery in the garden of the couple's former home in Beddau, Wales, investigators were confronted by a body wrapped in plastic. After 18 years the remains of John Sabine, had been found. As they worked to find out what happened, police revealed years of manipulation, compulsive deception, and the couple's infamous decision to abandon their five young children before John's disappearance. Today, we'll trace the lies that concealed a murder for nearly two decades, examine the evidence that finally exposed the truth behind one woman's carefully constructed fiction.Connect with us on Social Media!You can find us at:Instagram: @bookofthedeadpodX: @bkofthedeadpodFacebook: The Book of the Dead PodcastTikTok: BookofthedeadpodOr visit our website at www.botdpod.comAroesti, R. (2024, August 11). The Body Next Door review – a jaw-droppingly addictive true-crime tale. The Guardian. BBC News. (2015, November 24). Beddau murder probe launched after remains found near flats.Beddau. (n.d.). RHONDDA CYNON TAF. Beddau murder: “I was screaming it's a dead body.” (2016, January 6). [Video]. BBC News. Couple Found in Perth. (1970, May 9). Press, 1.Dewey, P. (2024, August 12). Sky's The Body Next Door: True story behind man murdered with a stone frog and buried in Welsh garden. Wales Online. Guarino, B. (2016, May 20). For 18 years, no one believed the woman who said she killed her husband with a stone frog. Then they found the body. The Washington Post. Late wife suspected of killing husband. (2015, December 12). The Herald, M11.Mercer, R. (2024, August 12). The Body Next Door: How a skeleton prank led to a murder investigation. Morris, S. (2017, November 28). Woman who killed her husband and hid his body was never caught. The Guardian. Neumann, S. (2025, March 1). She Hid Her Husband's Body for 18 Years — Then a Prank Went Wrong and Exposed the Chilling Truth. People.N.Z. Press Association. (1970, June 11). Deserted Children. Press, 7Prime video: The body next door. (n.d.). Sabine charge dropped. (1985, February 9). Press, 4.Sander, R. (2019, November 5). A History of Cabaret: From Bounty to Bust to Blossom. Backstage. If you enjoyed the episode, consider leaving a review or rating! It helps more than you know! If you have a case suggestion, or want attention brought to a loved one's case, email me at bookofthedeadpod@gmail.com with Case Suggestion in the subject line.Stay safe, stay curious, and stay vigilant.

During one of his best seasons ever 3 time Bassmaster winner Cory Johnston sits just two events and 1 angler away from capturing the coveted Bassmaster Angler of the Year title. But with all that success has come an unexpected conversation—some anglers close to home even think that he should be banned.This week Cory swings by for a face-to-face honest conversation about an incredible season, the pressure of the AOY race, and what it's really like competing at the highest level of professional bass fishing.Whether you're following the AOY race or just love hearing the stories behind professional fishing, this is a conversation you won't want to miss.

For six years, a Church of England priest has been trying to uncover the fate of more than 60 Iraqis taken prisoner by Coalition forces during the 2003 Iraq invasion. What makes this search for the truth so compelling is that before becoming a priest, Nicholas Mercer was a Lieutenant Colonel and one of the most senior lawyers in the British military. As part of his search, he wrote repeatedly to the Inspector General of the Australian Defence Forced because Australian troops were involved in detaining the Iraqis. Nicholas Mercer has finally received a response from the Inspector-General.The following statement can be attributed to a spokesperson for the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force:The Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force's role includes the examination of matters affecting military justice in the ADF.  The IGADF inquiry into Dr Mercer's concerns did not find any evidence that substantiates wrongdoing on the part of the ADF. GUEST:A former British Army Lieutenant-Colonel, the Rev Nicholas Mercer has been campaigning for the truth about war crimes in Iraq - he is also an Anglican priest

Let's Grow Pulling : 7/27/26Mercer Homecoming Truck and Tractor PullIf it is happening in pulling, we are talking about it. If we missed something let us know.608 604 5068 jason@beermoneypullingteam.comFOLLOW US ON Social Media.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BeerMoneyPullingTeamFACEBOOK:https://www.facebook.com/beermoneypullingteamINSTAGRAM:https://www.instagram.com/beermoneypullingteam

Mark Stevens is the author of The Flynn Martin thriller series including No Lie Lasts Forever (2025) and Two Truths and a Lie (2026) both from Thomas & Mercer, The Fireballer (Lake Union 2023) and the Allison Coil Mystery Series including Antler Dust, Buried by the Roan, Trapline, Lake of Fire and The Melancholy Howl. Buried by the Roan, Trapline, and Lake of Fire were all finalists for the Colorado Humanities Center for the Book Award. Stevens has published short stories in the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Mystery Tribune and Denver Noir (Akashic Books 2022). Denver Noir went on to win the Colorado Book Award for Best Anthology in 2023. Stevens was a co-editor for Four Corners Voices, and anthology of fiction, essays, and poetry which won the Colorado Book Award for best anthology in 2025. The Four Corners marks the quadripoint in the Southwestern United States where the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet. In 2016 and 2024, Stevens was named Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Writer of the Year. He hosts a regular podcast for that organization. It can be found at https://www.rmfw.org/podcast.php or on any of your favorite podcast platforms. Stevens has served as president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. He also publishes book reviews on his review website https://markhstevens.wordpress.com/. He lives in Mancos, Colorado in the shadow of Mesa Verde where for more than 700 years the ancient Pueblo people made their homes. See more about this author and his books at htpps://writermarkstevesn.com Host Sue Hinkin's website https://www.suehinkin.com Music by Peter Tavalin at https://www.petertavalin.com YouTube: https://youtu.be/UVkTjy5jHtk Spotify: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mark-stevens-two-truths-and-a-lie-ep-2/id687959058?i=1000779907646 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mark-stevens-two-truths-and-a-lie-ep-2/id687959058?i=1000779907646

From a New Mexico ranch in 1947 to a Navy fighter jet in 2004, we trace ten of history's most famous UFO encounters — the eyewitnesses who saw them, the governments who denied them, and the questions that still won't go away."EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/skiesarewatchingREAD or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/4hfn747dCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding00:06:39.225 = Show Open00:07:58.582 = The Roswell UFO Incident00:12:38.079 = The Westall UFO Encounter00:15:33.497 = The Pascagoula Abduction00:19:27.674 = The Allagash Abductions ***00:22:35.165 = The Tehran UFO Incident00:25:46.548 = The Cash-Landrum Incident00:29:03.352 = The Rendlesham Forest Incident00:32:19.175 = The Belgian UFO Wave00:36:28.126 = The Phoenix Lights ***00:40:52.495 = The Nimitz UFO Encounter00:44:15.325 = Show Close*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad breakLISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*SOURCES and RESOURCES:- Paranormality Magazine article; (link no longer valid)- Halt, Charles. "Halt Memo," January 1981, archived by the UK National Archives.- Penniston, Jim, and John Burroughs. "Encounter in Rendlesham Forest." Thomas & Mercer, 2014.- BBC News. "Rendlesham Forest: 'Britain's Roswell' UFO spotted off Suffolk coast," September 2011.- Pope, Nick. "You Can't Tell the People." Pan Books, 2001 – A book by a former MoD UFO investigator discussing the cover-ups and inside stories of the British government's responses to UFO sightings, including the Rendlesham Forest incident.- Bruni, Georgina. "You Can't Tell the People: The Definitive Account of the Rendlesham Forest UFO Mystery." Sidgwick & Jackson, 2000.- SOBEPS Reports on the Belgian UFO Wave- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdEALPvl_4Q- "Belgium in UFO Fever" - Brussels Times- "The Cash-Landrum UFO Incident," by John F. Schuessler, provides an extensive analysis of the event, including medical records and witness testimonies.- "UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry," a comprehensive study by Michael Swords and others, details the government's response to UFO sightings, including the Cash-Landrum case.- "Fire in the Sky: The Cash-Landrum UFO Incident," an article in the MUFON UFO Journal that revisits the incident, detailing the investigation and subsequent legal battle.- "Westall '66: A Suburban UFO Mystery," a documentary by Shane Ryan, explores the events through witness testimonies and expert interviews.- "The Westall UFO: A Suburban Mystery," a book by Keith Basterfield, provides a detailed account of the sighting, including the social and governmental context.- Articles and interviews archived by the Victorian UFO Action group, which has collected and analyzed first-hand accounts from witnesses and former students of Westall High School.- U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency Report: This declassified document provides a detailed account of the Tehran UFO Incident, including descriptions from the pilots and ground control.- "Iranian Jet Chased UFO, Got Light Show": This article in the New York Times archives covers the public's reaction and the international reporting following the incident.- Interview with Lt. Parviz Jafari: Several interviews with Jafari provide first-hand accounts of the encounter, including technical details of the aircraft's malfunctions.- CIA Document on the Tehran UFO Incident: A collection of declassified CIA documents that discuss the implications of the encounter and its analysis by various intelligence agencies.- The New York Times: Articles from December 2017 that first revealed the Nimitz encounter to the public.- Department of Defense Releases: Official statements and declassified videos of the encounters.- Interviews with Commander David Fravor: His firsthand accounts provide detailed observations of the encounter.- "Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation" on History Channel: This television series features interviews with the pilots and analysis of the encounters.- Raymond E. Fowler, the investigator and author of "The Allagash Abductions: Undeniable Evidence of Alien Intervention," which details the incident and the hypnosis sessions.- Interviews and Appearances: The men involved have given numerous interviews and appeared on various television programs to recount their experiences.- "Unsolved Mysteries" Television Series: Featured the Allagash abductions, providing a dramatized account and interviews with the witnesses.- Skeptical Analysis by Robert Sheaffer and others, who critique the method of hypnosis used and the financial aspects related to the publicity of the case.- "The Pascagoula UFO Incident" by Charles Hickson – Hickson wrote a detailed account of his experience.- "UFOs: Past, Present, and Future" by Robert Emenegger – Includes interviews and analysis of the Pascagoula incident.- Interviews and documentaries – Multiple television programs and documentaries have featured interviews with the witnesses and analyses by UFO researchers.- Articles in major newspapers – Numerous articles were written at the time in publications like the Washington Post and New York Times, providing contemporary accounts of the events and follow-ups.(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: May 06, 2024This episode of Weird Darkness moves chronologically through ten of history's most frequently cited UFO encounters, opening with a 1947 debris field on a New Mexico ranch and closing with a 2004 Navy radar encounter off the California coast.In July 1947, rancher William "Mac" Brazel discovers unusual metallic debris scattered across the Foster homestead north of Roswell, New Mexico, and reports it to Sheriff George Wilcox, who alerts the Roswell Army Air Field. Intelligence officer Major Jesse Marcel collects the material, and on July 8th the RAAF issues a press release announcing the recovery of a "flying disc." The story runs in newspapers nationwide before General Roger Ramey holds a press conference the next day identifying the debris as a weather balloon. The retraction does little to end the speculation; decades later, ufologists raise claims of recovered alien bodies and a government cover-up, and in 1994 the Air Force publishes "Case Closed: Final Report on the Roswell Crash," attributing the debris to the classified high-altitude balloon program Project Mogul.From there, the episode moves to April 6th, 1966, when more than two hundred students, teachers, and residents near Westall High School in the Melbourne suburb of Westall, Australia, watch a gray, saucer-shaped craft descend, hover for roughly twenty minutes, and shoot skyward at high speed after a second object appears to intercept it. Students who walk into the nearby field known as The Grange afterward find circular patches of flattened grass. Australian authorities attribute the sighting to a weather balloon, an explanation many witnesses reject, and researcher Shane Ryan later interviews dozens of them for the documentary "Westall '66: A Suburban UFO Mystery."Next comes the Pascagoula Abduction: shipyard coworkers Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker are fishing on the Pascagoula River in Mississippi on the night of October 11th, 1973, when a whirring oval craft with flashing lights hovers roughly forty feet above them and three robotic, wrinkled-skinned beings pull them aboard for what they describe as a twenty-minute physical examination. The men report the encounter to the local sheriff's office, which secretly records their conversation while leaving them alone in a room, capturing Hickson's visible distress rather than any hint of a hoax. Both men pass polygraph tests and undergo hypnosis, and UFO researchers J. Allen Hynek and James Harder investigate the case and find no evidence of fabrication.A similar pattern surfaces three years later in Maine, where twin brothers Jack and Jim Weiner and fellow art students Chuck Rak and Charlie Foltz are camping on Eagle Lake in the Allagash wilderness in August 1976 when a glowing orb appears to follow their canoe. After Charlie Foltz signals it with a flashlight, the light expands and engulfs the group, and the men find themselves back at a campsite fire that has burned down to embers with no memory of the intervening time. Years later, recurring nightmares send the four men to psychiatrist and UFO researcher Dr. Raymond Fowler, whose hypnotic regression sessions produce matching accounts of grey-alien medical examinations aboard a craft, a story that eventually reaches national audiences through "Unsolved Mysteries" and multiple books.Military personnel take center

Dr. Steven Mercer, an adjunct professor at the University of California-San Diego and an independent educational consultant, speaks from personal experience when he instructs solo entrepreneurs and consultants on how to build a service practice without sacrificing their values, time, or financial stability.  According to a 2025 Census Bureau report, there are 29.8 million solopreneurs in the United States who contribute an estimated $1.7 trillion to the US economy. On a bare-bones marketing budget, Dr. Mercer has managed to grow his business — Mercer Educational Consulting, which consults high school students and their parents on the best ways to get accepted into college — into a global enterprise. On this week's episode, Dr. Mercer offers lessons on how to transition gradually from employment to independent practice, attract clients through referrals and useful content, and decide when advertising makes sense.  Although there will not be a test, listeners will be schooled on the best ways to set fees, establish boundaries, and handle difficult clients. Monday Morning Radio, now in its 15th season, is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Dr. Stephen Mercer, Mercer Educational Consulting Posted: August 3, 2026 Monday Morning Run Time: 50 minutes Episode: 703 [Be sure to pick up your copy of All You Can Eat Business Wisdom: Second Helpings, the new Monday Morning Radio anthology featuring 21 world-class thinkers and leaders.]

Reclaiming Your Power: Surviving Workplace Chaos and Doing Great Work with Melissa Swift   Anika sat down with Melissa Swift, founder and CEO of Anthrome Insight, to tackle the reality of the modern workday: constant interruptions, hyper-emotional environments, and overwhelming chaos. Following the release of her new book, How to Do Great Work in a Fast Changing World, Melissa shares why systemic organizational changes are great, but individuals need actionable survival strategies now. Drawing on research from high-stakes professionals like firefighters and ER doctors, this conversation provides a practical framework for identifying your true strengths, dealing with chaotic colleagues, and recognizing when a job is fundamentally broken.   In This Episode   The COVID-era breaking point that inspired a shift from organizational strategy to individual empowerment Breaking down the "Effectiveness Architecture": Knowledge, Methods, People, and Technology The self-checkout paradox: why automating tech actually requires a massive increase in human "soft skills" The four trends making us less effective at work, with a deep dive into navigating chaos Natural chaos (the science of surprises) versus the frustration of people operating chaotically The Muppet Theory of Management: knowing when to deploy your "Order Muppets" vs. "Chaos Muppets" What corporate America can learn from firefighters about deep tech mastery and acute role clarity How organizations inadvertently gaslight employees by hiring them for jobs the company culture actively rejects Three concrete steps you can take this week to carve out space and reclaim your sanity   Timestamps   00:00 Introduction: Operating effectively in a fast-changing world 01:17 Why Melissa's audience demanded a book focused on individual survival strategies 02:52 The COVID breaking point and the metaphor of the empty Soviet streetcar 04:13 The Effectiveness Architecture: simplifying 30,000 skills into four core pillars 06:46 Why technology rollouts fail without the proper "people skills" training 09:38 Four trends destroying workplace effectiveness: intensification, emotion, transparency, and chaos 11:23 Natural chaos vs. human chaos (and the Muppet theory of team dynamics) 14:48 What white-collar workers can learn from the training habits of firefighters 19:51 The myth of the "skills gap" and the untapped power of self-directed learners 23:55 Identifying your superpower (Knowledge, Methods, People, or Tech) and overcoming stereotypes 29:45 Why role clarity is the first casualty of chaos and how to get it back 33:50 How to recognize if your job is fundamentally broken or set up to fail 39:08 Three actionable steps to reclaim your effectiveness and boundaries this week 43:35 Favorite quote: Oscar Wilde on the vital art of brevity   Key Insights & Takeaways   Insight 1: The Effectiveness Architecture Simplifies Work Instead of getting bogged down in corporate frameworks boasting 30,000 different micro-skills, individual effectiveness boils down to four clear pillars: Knowledge, Methods, People, and Technology. Identifying which pillar is your natural superpower (and which is your weakest link) allows you to partner with complementary colleagues and combat workplace stereotypes.   Insight 2: Automation Requires More "People Skills," Not Less When companies automate roles (like introducing self-checkout lanes), they often underestimate the human element. The remaining workers suddenly have to act as IT support, security, and customer de-escalation all at once. Rolling out advanced technology—including AI—without training people on the soft skills required to manage the human friction around it is a recipe for burnout.   Insight 3: Not All Chaos is Created Equal There is "natural chaos" (the inevitable surprises of a shifting economy or supply chain) and there is the unnatural chaos of colleagues operating erratically. You manage natural chaos through scenario planning, but you manage human chaos by building strict boundaries and strategically deploying the right personalities (your organized "Kermits" vs. your adaptable "Animals").   Insight 4: High-Stakes Professionals Prioritize Deep Mastery and Crisp Roles Unlike corporate workers who switch between dozens of apps a day without truly mastering any, professionals like firefighters are given the time and space to completely master a single new tool before their lives depend on it. Similarly, in an ER or on a fireground, role clarity is acute. In corporate settings, blurred roles masquerade as "collaboration," but they actually drain creativity and cause systemic failure.   Insight 5: Your Job Might Be Fundamentally Broken Sometimes your lack of effectiveness isn't your fault. If you are hired to be a "change agent" in a company that inherently rejects innovation, or if you are told to "lead through influence" without any actual resources or power, you are fighting gravity. Recognizing when a job is structurally broken is the first step in deciding whether to renegotiate your role or walk away.   Resources & Links Mentioned How to Do Great Work in a Fast Changing World by Melissa Swift Work Here Now by Melissa Swift   About Melissa Swift   Melissa Swift is the founder and CEO of Anthrome Insight, a leading organizational effectiveness consultancy. With an extensive background working with large global organizations like Mercer, Korn Ferry, Deloitte, and Capgemini, she is a recognized authority on the future of work and a regular columnist for the MIT Sloan Management Review. She is the author of Work Here Now and her latest release, How to Do Great Work in a Fast Changing World.   Connect with Melissa Swift   Website: Anthrome Insight LinkedIn: Melissa Swift Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Recreation group getting close to phase one of its Mercer Bike Loop Trail, Mandela Barnes drops out of Wisconsin governor's race, Saluting Heroes Balloon Rally planned at the Hodag Festival grounds

With Josh Tomolak, Vice President of Independent Advisor Services, Diamond Consultants Louis Diamond and Josh Tomolak unpack today's IBD vs. RIA landscape, explaining what has changed, where each model excels, and how to determine which path best supports the business you want to build. In Summary The independent wealth management landscape has changed dramatically, making the decision between an independent broker dealer (IBD) and an RIA more nuanced than ever before. Louis Diamond welcomes Diamond Consultants' Vice President of Independent Advisor Services, Josh Tomolak, for a practical discussion of how the independent space has evolved, what truly differentiates the IBD and RIA models today, and how advisors can evaluate which path best aligns with the business they want to build. The Storyline Not long ago, the decision to become independent was relatively straightforward. Advisors either remained with a traditional firm or pursued independence through one of a limited number of models. Today, the conversation is far more complex. Independent broker dealers have significantly expanded their capabilities, offering stronger technology, larger transition packages, greater flexibility, and even pathways to RIA ownership. At the same time, the RIA ecosystem has matured into a sophisticated marketplace supported by multiple custodians, outsourced service providers, institutional capital, and enterprise platforms that rival many of the industry's largest firms. As these developments have unfolded, the traditional distinctions between an IBD and an RIA have become less obvious. Advisors evaluating their options are no longer simply asking whether they should become independent—they're asking which model best supports the clients they serve, the business they envision, and the lifestyle they want to create. In this Industry Update, Louis and Josh unpack the realities behind the IBD vs. RIA decision. They discuss where the two models overlap, where meaningful differences still exist, and why factors like service, technology, economics, operational responsibility, enterprise value, and long-term optionality often matter more than labels alone. Whether you're considering changing independent firms, launching your own RIA, or simply want a better understanding of how the independent landscape has evolved, this conversation provides an objective framework for evaluating today's choices—and preparing for tomorrow's opportunities. Topics Covered Independent Broker Dealer (IBD) vs. RIA models The evolution of supportive independence Technology investments across the independent space Transition support and advisor mobility Capital solutions and recruiting economics Business formation and enterprise value Launching an independent RIA Multi-custodial platforms and open architecture Minority investments and succession planning Future trends shaping advisor independence > Download a transcript of this episode… Listen and Learn Highlights for Advisors Why are already-independent advisors reconsidering their current model? (5:27) Josh explains why service, technology, economics, and growing optionality are causing advisors to reevaluate their existing affiliations. How have independent broker dealers and RIAs become more alike? (19:28) Louis and Josh discuss the growing convergence between the two models and why the distinction is becoming less obvious than many advisors assume. What really separates an IBD from an RIA? (25:04) A practical discussion of autonomy, compliance, flexibility, custody, economics, and advisor experience. What misconceptions keep advisors from launching an RIA? (36:29) Josh outlines the “Four Pillars” of launching an RIA and explains where advisors tend to either overestimate or underestimate the operational realities. Which advisors thrive most in each model? (33:12) The conversation explores why there isn't a universally “better” model—only one that's better aligned with an advisor's goals. What trends are quietly reshaping independence? (42:13) Minority investments, enterprise value, business formation, and changing revenue models may have an even greater impact than advisors realize today. Key Takeaways Independence has evolved from a destination into an ongoing strategic decision. Independent broker dealers have significantly improved technology, transition support, economics, and flexibility. The RIA ecosystem has matured into a highly sophisticated marketplace with broad outsourcing and support options. Choosing between an IBD and an RIA should begin with long-term business objectives—not industry perceptions. Building a valuable business depends more on business structure and scalability than simply growing assets. Advisors considering independence should evaluate models with an open mind rather than relying on outdated assumptions. The next decade will likely bring continued convergence between independent business models. https://youtu.be/jHDVso2TsmQ Quotable Moments “The question is no longer, ‘Do I want to go independent?' The question is, ‘What kind of independence makes the most sense for my clients, business, and goals?'” “Business formation is far more important than assets under management.” “The way you build your business will ultimately determine how valuable that business becomes.” “Everything in an RIA is going to cost you either your time or your money.” FAQs Is there still a meaningful difference between an IBD and an RIA? Yes. While the two models increasingly overlap, they differ in areas such as flexibility, compliance structure, operational responsibility, economics, and control. Why are more independent advisors changing firms today? Improved technology, stronger transition support, evolving economics, and better service models are prompting many advisors to reassess whether their current platform still fits their business. Is launching an RIA easier than it used to be? Yes. Supportive independence, outsourced service providers, and improved custodial resources have significantly reduced many of the historical barriers. Does every entrepreneurial advisor belong in the RIA model? No. The best fit depends on an advisor's appetite for ownership, customization, operational responsibility, and long-term vision. What matters more: assets under management or how the business is built? Josh argues that scalable business formation often has a greater impact on enterprise value than AUM alone. What's the biggest mistake advisors make when evaluating independence? Starting with assumptions instead of objectives. The most effective due diligence begins by defining the business you're trying to build, then identifying the model best suited to support it. Yes. While the two models increasingly overlap, they differ in areas such as flexibility, compliance structure, operational responsibility, economics, and control. Improved technology, stronger transition support, evolving economics, and better service models are prompting many advisors to reassess whether their current platform still fits their business. Yes. Supportive independence, outsourced service providers, and improved custodial resources have significantly reduced many of the historical barriers. No. The best fit depends on an advisor's appetite for ownership, customization, operational responsibility, and long-term vision. Josh argues that scalable business formation often has a greater impact on enterprise value than AUM alone. Starting with assumptions instead of objectives. The most effective due diligence begins by defining the business you're trying to build, then identifying the model best suited to support it. Related Resources IBD vs. RIA Comparison Guide IBD vs. RIA Revisited: Two Independent Pathways for Advisors to Consider NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Diamond Consultants. Neither Diamond Consultants nor the guests on this podcast are compensated in any way for their participation. View the transcript of this episode… IBD vs. RIA: A Special Industry Update on Independence A conversation with Louis Diamond and Josh Tomolak, Vice President of Independent Advisor Services at Diamond Consultants.      Louis Diamond: Welcome to the latest episode of our podcast series for financial advisors. Today’s episode is IBD vs. RIA: A Special Industry Update on Independence. It’s a conversation with Josh Tomolak, our Vice President of Independent Advisor Services. I’m Louis Diamond, and this is the Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors. Mindy Diamond: At Diamond Consultants, we help elite advisors identify the right environment for their businesses to thrive, whether that’s at a wirehouse, boutique, or independent firm. With nearly three decades of experience, we’ve guided thousands of advisors and represented more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in assets transitioned. And each year, one in four advisors managing a billion dollars or more who change firms are our clients. Our process is education driven and based on building relationships, starting as your strategic partner well before you’re even thinking of a move. To schedule a confidential conversation, call us at (908) 879-1002. Wondering why advisors change firms and where they’re headed? Are transition deals going up or down? Those very questions and more inspired us to create our annual advisor transition report. It’s the award-winning data-driven resource designed for advisors that connects the dots between the motivations around movement and the firm’s appetite for top talent. Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to make smart decisions. Download your copy at diamond-consultants.com/transitionreport. Louis Diamond: For a long time, going independent would suggest the destination. Today, it’s often the beginning of a different conversation. As the independent space has matured, advisors have more choices than ever before. Broker-dealers have expanded their capabilities. The RIA ecosystem has become increasingly sophisticated. Capital is more readily available and support models now exist that would’ve been difficult to imagine a decade ago. The result is that many advisors who are already independent are taking a fresh look at whether their current affiliation still aligns with what they’re trying to build. My guest is Josh Tomolak, Vice President of Independent Advisor Services here at Diamond Consultants and our resident expert on independence. Josh spends his days helping advisors evaluate independence in all its forms from independent broker dealers, the fully independent RIAs and everything in between. And his knowledge is critical because the distinction between these models is often blurred. Many broker dealers now offer pathways to greater autonomy while supported independence has made RIA ownership more accessible than ever before. So the question is no longer simply, “Do I want to go independent?” The question is, “What kind of independence makes the most sense for client, business, and goals?” Josh shares what he’s seeing across the landscape, the misconceptions that continue to shape advisor thinking and the factors that matter most when evaluating the next chapter of an independent business. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s get to it. Josh, thanks for joining me today. Joshua Tomolak: Thanks for having me, Louis. It’s a real privilege to have come. This is a full circle moment for me going from being a student of your podcast, to working alongside you, to being a guest. So I appreciate you having me. Louis Diamond: Amazing. I’m excited for this one too, because you have a fresh and in the weeds perspective that a lot of our guests simply don’t have. So why don’t you start off, you spend your time helping advisors evaluate independence every day. So working with advisors who are already independent, for the most part. And to me, it feels like the independent space has really evolved dramatically over the last decade. I mean, this podcast is really the epicenter of that to prove that out, but give us a little background on your past roles in the space and then we can get into what you’re seeing right now. Joshua Tomolak: Yeah, I’d be happy to. So I took a very non-traditional path into wealth management. I spent a decade as a deep sea Navy diver, and upon completing my service there, I ended up working for TD Ameritrade. And in my role there, I spent about six years doing nothing but helping financial advisors explore the RIA space, whether that was to join or partner with an RIA, sell to an RIA, or in most cases, launch their own RIA. And one of the things that I ultimately came to terms with is it’s just not the right model for everybody. While I’m a huge advocate for it, we would often lose business to the major broker-dealers of the world. And at the time, I really didn’t understand why. In the last six years at Diamond Consultants has been a very interesting purview into what a lot of the broker-dealers have done and are doing to make themselves more RIA-ish and be very compelling to the right advisor. Louis Diamond: Perfect framing. Your background is incredibly germane to the folks you work with. So let’s start off with the softball here. What are you seeing right now? Joshua Tomolak: It’s not so different than the rest of the industry, the wirehouses, the regional firms, things of that nature, that if you took 10 firms, they’re all likely to go different directions, even if they were identical practices. That could be… A third would go from an independent broker-dealer to another independent broker-dealer. Certainly the supported RIA space is growing every day and has created a lot of very fun and unique solutions for advisors, very customized and curated. And then I think there’s still a lot of really great sophisticated teams and individual contributors that are making the decision to go hyper entrepreneurial and launch their own individual RIA. So the movement’s really all over the board from my perspective. Louis Diamond: It does feel like it’s no longer independence is an alternative option or it’s on the fringes. It’s very front and center whether for breakaways, which is a big topic on our podcast, but in general, the infrastructure has become much, much more sophisticated today than ever before. Advisors have way more tools in their toolbox to serve clients, whether in the private markets or through technology. And it’s no longer that if an advisor’s independent, they’re in the minor leagues where they don’t have the same ability to serve clients like they did if they’re at a big bank or a private bank or a wirehouse. Do you agree? Joshua Tomolak: I absolutely agree. And I’m reminded of a question I got one time from a great team that I worked with in New York. They asked me, “Are there really more options than ever before? Because all we see is one firm selling to another.” And I think that’s a really great point. There’s far less broker dealers on the street than there were even five years ago. But for every Commonwealth, for example, that sells to an LPL, up pops three or four really cool private equity-backed, sophisticated RIA platform firms that are built to service their own unique advisor base. Louis Diamond: I think that’s right. Sitting on the sidelines, sitting on top of everything going on in the industry, I feel like capital is always an interesting topic forever. If an advisor wanted to move within the independent world or break away from a big firm to go independent, the only way to get capital was to go to an independent broker dealer. So we still see that, but I feel like today between all these minority acquisition opportunities, we’re seeing firms acquire practices at time of transition, which is somewhat new. There’s debt solutions, recruiting deals are way up for firms that are paying forgivable loans. RIAs now would, in some cases, will pay a forgivable note. What are you seeing there as far as the availability of capital and just deals in general? Joshua Tomolak: It’s a great question and I didn’t want to take the low-hanging fruit, but capital’s been a huge innovation, I guess, in the last five years I’d say. Just to give you rough quotes, please don’t hold me to it, but traditional transition broker-dealer deals were five years ago, 40 to 60% of Trailing Twelve revenue today are somewhere between 90 and 120%, sometimes north of that for the right team. That’s really meaningful money for the team that is thinking about foregoing a wirehouse deal, for example. I’d also say a lot of these firms are getting hyper-creative in how they solve for capital. The minority investment piece that you mentioned is very interesting. We’re seeing a lot of privatized forgivable notes in the RIA space where third-party or private lenders are basically lending the money and the RIA is making the payments on that forgivable note as long as the advisor is affiliated with them. So there’s been a recognition among the RIA space to get away from the, “Oh, they just took a check” type of mantra, and to say, “Look, I understand there are capital needs. These people are taking a risk. We need to solve for that.” So we’ve seen a lot of that in the marketplace. Louis Diamond: Very interesting. I think another thing financially, and then we’ll keep the train moving, that I know I’ve seen, and maybe you can weigh in if you’ve seen the same, is the cost to an advisor or a business owner to join an independent BD or to join an RIA has come way down, probably in part because of Schwab going to zero on trading. That’s been a catalyst. But it feels like we used to say independent BDs were expensive relative to the RIA world. And in some cases, they certainly could be. And if you’re at scale, maybe you can pick up a point or two being in the RIA world versus a BD. But when you have some of these BDs that have a basis point admin fee or no admin fee at a certain size and the payouts I feel like are similar, maybe have gone up a little bit, but it’s more so like the administrator fees, the platform fees, the program fees. Anyone who’s not in that world, it’s like, “What are you talking about?” But basically the way that these broker-dealers make money, it seems like there’s been a pretty big differential in the exchange of value where advisors now get more services, better technology, get more money to join them and get it at a lower cost. Do you agree? Joshua Tomolak: I absolutely agree. I think that maybe that’s one of the larger changes that we’ve seen, and it’s probably one of the benefits from a lot of the industry consolidation on that independent broker-dealer side. The economies of scale of these folks have allowed them to increase their tech spend, increase their service capacities all while offering it to the advisors at a cheaper price. And when I was at TD Ameritrade, one of the biggest pitches was the idea of a 100% payout and you control the fixed expenses, your technology compliance, et cetera. But what’s changed is that broker-dealers are pretty darn comparable on the expenses. All of those admin fees and things you mentioned will still exist, but they’re on a much smaller scale. And I think the question a lot of advisors are asking is, “Am I getting congruent value from my broker-dealer for what I pay for?” And while that answer might’ve been no a couple years ago, today the answer is more often yes. Louis Diamond: Yeah, I would agree. A lot of times we work with advisors who are starting an RIA or affiliating with an RIA or going to a BD and they see how big the deals are in the independent BD world and the payouts are really high and the fees are relatively low. And honestly, it is a hard decision or calculus to make, like, “How does it make sense for me to turn down this extremely lucrative deal when my ongoing economics are going to be somewhat similar in the BD world versus in the RIA space?” I think it’s just an interesting dynamic and we’ll get more into that distinction. One of the stars of the show right here is we’ve seen a ton of advisor movement across the industry. Our annual advisor transition report said that in 2025, over 11,000 experienced advisors changed firms, which is a large number. A lot of those numbers are within the independent world. So advisors who are 1099 through a BD or through an RIA transitioning to another platform or organization or starting an RIA. So why do you think we’re seeing so many advisors reconsider their current firm or their platform or their broker-dealer today than in years past? Joshua Tomolak: It’s a jarring number. 11,000 is definitely a significant amount of advisor movements. To me, it comes down to a few things, but I will say that it’s almost always a conglomeration of pushes and pulls. Pushes being inherent frustrations with your status quo, pulls being the new sexy, shiny things that you see in the marketplace that could be really impactful for your business. To me, it typically comes down to one of three things, at least on the push front, that drives advisors to movement. Service being number one, technology being number two, and economics being number three. And if we were just going to unpack those, I think service being, “Can you call somebody that knows your business, that knows your name? Are you getting the correct answers? Are you being pushed through a phone tree? And even if you’re not doing it, is it taking up a meaningful amount of time of your staff’s free time?” On the technology front, there’s very significant tech spends happening in the industry right now. I think Raymond James and LPL reported, for example, they spent 500 million in 2025 on a tech spend. So advisors are going to the places that are making their life easier. People are looking for a mechanism to really scale their business without having to add staff and a lot of expenses to the bottom line. And technology is just the fastest, most efficient way to do that most times. And then economics, certainly a lot of advisors and teams have built phenomenal businesses and they’ve made a great living without really stressing out about the economics. And they eventually get to a point in their business where what they were giving up as a million dollar producer is far different than what they’re giving up as a $4 million producer. And back to the congruent value, it perhaps stops to make as much sense. Louis Diamond: Well said. I always say when the cost-to-value ratio is out of whack, that’s when advisors sit up and take notice. And not to name names of firms, but there definitely are firms that are more expensive. And even if you look at how much a wirehouse or a Ed Jones advisor paid their firm, it’s like, “What got me here is not necessarily what’s going to get me there.” And while the name on the business card, the resources were incredibly impactful, and I’m so grateful for what my firm, my broker-dealer did for me when I was just starting or when I was smaller. Now the business is bigger, I rely upon different resources or I don’t need the firm as much. So I’d rather plow the cost savings either into income for myself or invest it in areas that are most germane to my business. And it’s usually when that kind of light bulb moment goes off, that’s one of the major pushes that cause advisors to evaluate other options. So I agree with you, those are the major push factors, but then what are the pull factors? What are the major advancements or changes across the independent space that’s causing advisors to say, “Hey, okay, I might have some frustrations, but at the same time, I also need to find something that’s more than marginally better than the firm I’m at. Otherwise, why am I going to go through the hassle, take the risk, et cetera? So what are some of the pull factors that advisors are latching onto today? Joshua Tomolak: Sure. And I might say with one final push factor, there’s a straw that breaks the proverbial camel’s back when you’ve been told for however many years that this change or that change is coming down the pipeline and it never happens. And it translates well into the pull factors is do they do what they say they’re going to do? The talking points really for the pull factors are exactly the same. So the counterpoint to service is perhaps having a direct relationship with the chief compliance officer at a firm or having a dedicated service representative that knows their stuff inside and out and can get you the answer even if they don’t know it off the top of their head. Having the technology to rebalance a household in two clicks instead of two hours. In economics, I think it’s really a transparency of economics. We’ve both worked with some really significant firms that have looked at their P&Ls and said, “where the heck is the money going?” And we’ve looked at the same P&Ls and said, “I have no idea,” because it’s so convoluted. People are happy to pay for good service, good technology, good products, but they just want to know where the money’s coming from. So I think it’s a yin and yang. The same things that they’re the push are often the pull. Louis Diamond: Definitely. I’ll give you a couple other from my perspective. I’ll say first specific to the independent BD world, and then we’ll dive into the RIA, I think it’s a little bit different. But I think some other will say innovations or changes that are causing advisors to really perk up and listen and really make the case to themselves that life will be better at this new organization than the status quo or staying put. We’ve seen major advancements in transition support, whether it’s being able to do a transition without a shred of paper, being able to… I mean, we’ve seen some independent advisors move their entire book within two weeks, which never would’ve happened before. So the firms that I’d say are playing offense, the larger firms that are winning, they have insane headcount around transitions and are always investing in technology, whether now on the AI front or in general. And we’ve seen transitions, they’re never easy. So that’s not a comment to say it’s easy, but a lot of the friction, a lot of the manual work has been taken away, which is massive. You definitely mentioned the significant technology spend. I mean, just the innovations going on across the industry. There’s definitely some firms that are laggards on technology and others that are light years ahead, whether because their tech is more integrated or they’ve built out their platform to be more, we’ll say modular, to plug in different third-party softwares where an advisor can really customize and create their own tech stack. I think there’s been some changes on compliance. It used to be if you’re at an independent BD, you had to be the OSJ by yourself or you had to roll up under an OSJ. But now most BDs offer home office supervision, so a big friction or pain point is taken away. And then I’ll give you a bridge to talk about what we’re seeing on the RIA side. But we’ve also seen, I would say, a real blurring of the lines between what you would traditionally think of as an independent broker dealer versus what was an RIA. So whether it’s an internal pathway where it’s like, “Start off on our independent BD platform, get the big deal, get the support, but then you can ditch that and just use this as a custodian or you can sell the business to us when you want to retire and convert to W2.” So in that vein, transitioning internally to an RIA, give me the same points like, “What are the major advancements or changes you’re seeing on the RIA side today?” Joshua Tomolak: I love that you said that because it’s been one of the most interesting changes to watch. Independent broker dealers becoming more like RIAs, and to your point, being more flexible, having more optionality, a more curated experience in some cases. And in many cases becoming closer to independent broker dealers with some of these massive shops that we’ve seen be created over the last five years that now have hundreds, if not thousands of advisors. To your question on the internal RIA slide as we sometimes call it, this really didn’t exist many places a few years ago. And I think it’s been created as both originally a retention tool in many places for the advisors that were with a major independent broker dealer and they ultimately wanted to have their own ADV and their own RIA. And the firm didn’t want to lose all the assets to an independent custodian so they gave them the green light to… And it’s ultimately became a sales tool in many cases. Just to use a couple of examples across the industry, I mean, Raymond James has Raymond James Custody Services, which has attracted a lot of really sophisticated teams. I know Wells Fargo Finance done something similar and even the counterparts over at Cetera and Osaic are trying to do the same thing. So it’s a recognition in my view that we want to keep the best talent possible. And if these folks are ultimately going to go RIA anyway, it’s less about the money and more about the flexibility and control that it offers them. So what can we do to keep those folks on board? And rightfully so, a lot of senior management of these firms have said, “Let’s not lose these teams. It’s going to be a lower margin business for us, but at the rate that they’re growing, it’s going to pay off in the long run.” Louis Diamond: Well said. RIAs are now more mainstream. And some of these RIAs, they’re either resembling independent BDs or I would even go so far to say the valuations that are even publicly available on some RIAs is definitely having people take notice. I mean, Cerity Partners recently raised capital at an over $8 billion reported valuation. Crescent was well over a billion. Firms like Mariner, Creative Planning, Mercer, Wealth Enhancement Group, and there’s many that I’m missing, are all worth a couple billion dollars or more and growing. Do you think that’s had an impact on the legitimacy or the staying power of the RIA model? Joshua Tomolak: Oh, absolutely. There’s no doubt about it. I mean, those groups that you mentioned and many more are winning some of the biggest teams on the street. I mean, if you pull up a run-of-the-mill advisor hub article, for example, you’ll see as many of those RIAs win significant businesses as you will their broker-dealer counterparts, partially in my opinion, due to the massive valuations these firms are fetching. And it’s much more of a partnership in the sense that joining a Crescent or a Wealth Enhancement Group, as you mentioned, you’re a part of a boutique group of maybe a couple of hundred very sophisticated high-producing advisors all playing under the same banner, all rowing in the same direction, and that creates substantial growth. Louis Diamond: Exactly right. I think two other things to me that’s driving the legitimacy or the growth of the RIA segment, there’s so many different outsourcing solutions that have popped up, whether it’s more of a… We’ll say a bundled or a package outsourcing solution through firms like Dynasty and Sanctuary. LPL has done a ton with having a shared services outsourcing model. So you have those. But you also have, I mean, probably 10 different firms I could think of that can be an outsourced chief compliance officer. You have tons of marketing agencies that specialize in helping RIAs. You have all these FinTechs popping up to support the RIA space. Really, it’s like anything and everything can be outsourced now. And even the big Wall Street banks like UBS, Merrill, et cetera, they’re attempting to sell and distribute product into the RIA space. Venture funds, private equity funds, anyone you talk to is trying to get a piece of the RIA space, which means there’s more product and platform availability than ever before. And I think it’s massive because one, it’s a catalyst for teams who say, “I love everything about the RIA world. I just don’t want to do it on my own,” or, “I don’t know where to start.” But also it means that they can look their clients in the eye and say, “Hey, not only do I have the same stuff that I had for you at XYZ firm, I can actually do more for you.” And even if you look at what the custodians are doing on the lending side now, Schwab owning a bank is massive and being able to facilitate mortgages, securities-backed loans, things that didn’t really exist in the past. I think it’s a very exciting time for advisors either that are independent or are considering the independent space because you have all these choices and it’s really like, “Choose your own adventure. Give me your top five things you want.” I’m sure it exists and we can find it and make it happen. And I don’t think we’d have the same confidence in that statement 5, 7, 10 years ago. Joshua Tomolak: I couldn’t agree more. That’s such a huge development is the marketplace of third party vendors in any kind of capitalism environment. There’s problems that people encounter and there’s really smart people that are trying to make a lot of money that go to market to solve them. And we’ve seen a ton of that over the last few years. Louis Diamond: Exactly right. Yeah, it’s like also… If an advisor looks around and says, “Hey, this is what I want,” and it doesn’t exist, oftentimes that’s a light bulb moment to be like, “Okay, I’ll go build it. I’ll do it on my own.” Whether it was Stewart Partners when they launched a number of years ago or Hightower, Dynasty, et cetera. They were all started by people that said, “Hey, I see a big gap in the ecosystem. Let’s create a business and raise capital to go solve it and then deliver this service to other like-minded advisors or business owners.” Honestly, it’s a treat to be able to watch all this happen in real time. We probably should have laid the groundwork with this next question, but I think it’s an important one. What’s the difference between a independent broker-dealer and an RIA? Really basic foundational. It sounds like the lines are blurred. There’s probably a lot of similarities. Advisors are successful in both. It’s not like one’s better than the other. How would you explain the differences, if a client of ours asked, “What’s the difference between an independent broker-dealer and IBD versus an RIA”? Joshua Tomolak: Get into the core of it. Again, the lines are blurred, and I’ll stay very high level on the strategic differences, but I like to use this example. I drive a Toyota Tundra. Really like the truck, gets me from A to B. Now, if I were getting to a point where I wanted a new vehicle, if I were to go get another Toyota Tundra because I really like a lot of aspects of it, but I want the one with the bigger screen and the bigger tires and the power seats, and I have rolled down windows because I have a fear of drowning. But if I want a lot of the bells and whistles, but I want to keep the foundation, that’s what I align to a independent broker-dealer to independent broker-dealer. You like the foundation of everything all under one roof. You like a lot of the resources, but you have some meaningful frustrations and you want to see if another provider in the market can solve for those or you can upgrade. If I instead, Louis, decided that I wanted a sports car or a Jeep Wrangler or something, I would be looking at a different category altogether. That’s how I articulate the platform space. They provide the same services and support in many cases that an independent broker-dealer does, think of marketing and a tech stack and regulatory oversight and a fellowship in a community, but they’re built on an RIA TC registered chassis. They’re typically far more customized so you can shop the street to get a lot more of the things that you like, though you are walking away from maybe some of the things that you’ve liked in the independent broker-dealer model. So I guess that’s the highest level I might explain it, just a little bit more minutia in any broker-dealer is going to be a FINRA registered, FINRA member broker-dealer. So they’re subject to the FINRA rules, which basically means it’s the compliance interpretation of those rules that they have to follow. So LPL’s rules may be slightly different than Cetera’s than Ameriprise’s because it’s based on their interpretations of the rules. In the RIA space, everybody really operates on the fiduciary standard. So it’s just a different lens that from a compliance standpoint, business is looked at. And a lot of people would make the argument that it’s just easier to get things done when you’re looking at something from that lens. I might’ve gone too compliance nerd on you there, but I’d be curious what you think some of the major differences are. Louis Diamond: Yeah, I think that’s right. I mean, it sounds like if you’re in the RIA world in some capacity that you as the advisor or business owner are going to have a little bit more control and autonomy and flexibility. One, do you think that’s true? And what are the reasons why that is? Is it platform? Is it strictly just compliance is easier? What are the different ways that an RIA would have more or less flexibility than someone who’s with an independent BD? Joshua Tomolak: Yeah, I think it’s overwhelmingly true, but it certainly depends on your business. Within most RIA platforms, you’re going to be one of a couple dozen, maybe a couple hundred, where you’re going to have people within that firm that really know your business. So the experience in getting things done is much less about, “Can I do this,” or, “Can I not do this?” And it’s, “Louis, I understand you asked for this. We’re going to run into these issues, but let’s figure out how to get to yes.” So it’s far more curated by people that are not operating on black and white rules and can actually figure out how to get to yes for your business. The other thing I would say is that most significant RIA platforms have multiple custodial options. So many times you’ll see as few as two or as many as five. So if an advisor or a team is trying to bring on a new piece of business or do something creative, that might be something they can use a different custodial relationship to accomplish. It might be something that Goldman Sachs does really well but is in its infancy at Fidelity, or it might be international business that’s approved on Pershing’s platform but not Schwab’s platform. So the RIA partner that you’re with can really look at those custodians agnostically and say, “What’s the best home for this business? What’s the best way to get this done for Louis?” There’s a couple examples of where I see the flexibility in practice. Louis Diamond: Yeah, I think one more too would be the concept of being able to shop the street. I’ve heard it described as becoming a buy-side advocate for your clients versus being a professional seller. So meaning, if I’m affiliated with an RIA or I’m operating my own RIA, there’s no selling away like there is at a wirehouse or at certain BDs. So if I have a client who’s trying to get a $10 million loan for a new building that they’re breaking ground on, if I’m at UBS, Merrill, Morgan Stanley, captive to a BD, I can go to my firm and say, “Hey, this $10 million loan, here it is. What are the terms? What are the rates? Will you take on this business?” And the firm will say, “Yes. No. Yes, here are the terms. Here’s the caveats, et cetera.” But it’s a very closed market process and an advisor has to live and die by what their firm says. Versus in the RIA world, it’s, “Okay, I have relationships with nine different banks and I can go to these different banks and private credit funds and whoever and really create either an option process for my client or really just help them in a fully agnostic open way.” And we see the same thing when it comes to alternative investments. No one at a wirehouse, let’s say, is complaining that they don’t have enough alts that they can offer clients. Those firms have done an amazing job with really boiling the ocean and having tons and tons of options for private investments, hedge funds, et cetera. But if you’re in the RIA world, you can take it to the next level and say, “Hey, this $3 million startup company that my friend is starting, I’m going to help them raise capital,” or, “My client wants to get a syndicate of investors together to have a direct investment into a qualified opportunity zone fund that they’re starting. Let’s do it when we can advise on it.” So it really expands what an advisor is able to do on behalf of clients. Like to me, that’s the most interesting or exciting part of the RIA model. You can get some of that within the BD world, but to me, when an advisor’s business becomes more sophisticated as far as what their end client’s needs are, it tends to translate better to the RIA world than the BD world. Not to say there aren’t ultra-high net worth focused advisors at BDs, but because of that additional flexibility, autonomy, customization, et cetera, that speaks more RIA. So again, absolutely not down at all on the independent BDs because I think there’s a massive home for them. Josh, let me turn it back to you. I’m rambling now. Give me the pitch for an independent BD. What are the things that are misperceptions that people have? What are the advantages that an independent broker dealer like an LPL or a RayJ or a Cetera have over RIAs or over other models in general? Joshua Tomolak: Absolutely. And I’d say I’ve learned more over the last six years from some of your ramblings than most people learn in an MBA course, so keep doing what you’re doing. But it’s funny being in this position now, having spent so much time sort of selling against the IBD model within TD Ameritrade, but what I’ve learned is it’s a good home for everybody. And a lot of times the advisors that they’re entrepreneurial enough where they like having their name on the door, but they’re not so entrepreneurial where they want to build everything out themselves, that’s where the independent broker dealers absolutely kill it. Their economics have gotten to a point where they’re really competitive. They offer transition capital that isn’t even going to be comparable in the RIA space unless you’re selling a minority share of your business. And you mentioned LPL, or we could really list all of the major ones, there’s not a department that they don’t have. It could be as nuance as finding 403(b) payroll slots or it could be as mainstream as fixed income or setting up events. There are all kinds of really neat departments that these all under one roof independent broker dealers have invested in. And a lot of times they make an effort to make you very much aware of all of the support because most people don’t use it. So I would say for the advisors that are looking to get their improved Toyota Tundra, then you can get probably 70 or 80% of what you want within the independent broker-dealer world. And you can also keep 20 or 30% of the stuff, maybe more that you really liked at your previous firm. So I think that’s where it really shines. I sometimes call it an incremental change rather than a transformational change. But for many advisors, incremental is really good enough if you get to keep the familiarity of how you’ve been doing business for the last 20-some years, but you’re able to get net improvement on the things that were really bothering you. Louis Diamond: Well said. Something that I’ve seen that’s been… I guess this could be either pro or con depending upon the advisor, but with some broker dealers, letting an advisor co-brand with them or really having a real consumer-facing brand, whether it’s, “I’m a franchise owner with Ameriprise,” or, “I’m independent through Raymond James,” or, “Running my own practice through Wells Fargo FiNet,” or, “I’m independent with Northwestern Mutual.” There’s definitely some brand cache or brand familiarity with some of those firms that may or may not be the same if you’re in the RIA world. So I would agree there’s a lot to like about the independent BD world and there’s a fit for people that is absolutely better with independent BDs than on the RIA side. Even if some people would say RIA is better, we’re cleaner, I wouldn’t say that. To me, it’s all about what an advisor’s goals are and then matching that up with what these firms do. And there’s never a perfect option. I jokingly say, “If there was a perfect firm, we wouldn’t be in business.” Every firm has their advantages or disadvantages. And depending upon where an advisor’s coming from, their style of business, their pain points, that’ll match up really well with on firm or one type of firm or one model than the other. Let’s pivot a little bit to the RIA world. A lot of your comments have been more about advisors affiliating or joining RIAs, this whole supportive version of independence concept. But what about advisors who want to go and start their own RIA? Either they’re leaving a captive firm and taking the entrepreneurial route and starting their own firm, or they’re leaving an independent BD to go start their own RIA. What do you see as some of the biggest misconceptions that advisors have about that move? Joshua Tomolak: That’s probably my favorite topic because there are the most misconceptions I think in this space. Louis Diamond: I’d agree. Joshua Tomolak: And I would say there’s 9 out of 10 conversations that I have with advisors and teams, they start off with the launching an RIA in mind or at least RIA curious and they want to understand what’s out there. And probably less than half the time do these folks end up actually launching their own RIA, which is okay because the ones that do are massively successful and they know they’re dang sure that’s exactly what they want to do. I think it gets a little bit romanticized sometimes that they’ll say, “Oh, I’ll just give Schwab a call,” or, “I’ll just give the custodian a call,” as if they were shopping independent broker dealers. That’s fine. You can do that and they will help you, but there’s quite a bit more to think about. And it’s not, in my opinion, the same as evaluating independent broker dealers. If it’s all right, I was taught the four pillars of the RIA model. I can go through that with you really quickly. So the way to think about the RIA space is in four pieces. And shout out to a friend, Eli Suarez, that taught me this years ago. The first pillar… Thinking of four pillars on a bar stool, if you will. The first one being administration. And this is your compliance, this is setting up your ADV, your LLC, all of your business formation documents. The second piece being technology, what do you actually want to use? Because the benefits of the broker-dealer world and the supported independent world is they’ve already built it for you. They’ve already paid for it and scraped their knees building it. In this case, you have to. And for some people, that’s really exciting to source financial planning software and portfolio management software and your CRM and tax software, et cetera. For some people, it just sounds like a huge headache. The third pillar being custodians. I have them third because you want to make sure that the right custodian can integrate properly with the technology that you’ve sourced that you’re passionate about. And then ultimately transition. What does a transition really look like? What are my legal and regulatory requirements? How does this work? What are the timelines? Things of that nature. So I guess I would say in closing that if those four things are things that you really want to own, then you’re in a really good position to consider an RIA launch. What do you think, Louis? Louis Diamond: I think that’s a great framework to break it down. Not just be like, “Okay, I can tolerate that,” or, “My team can do it,” but I think you have to be pretty excited about rolling up your sleeves and customizing and doing it yourself because in our experience, there’s a nominal differential between the economics of running your own RIA versus affiliating with an RIA or going to an independent BD. All the extra work and responsibility, you’re not really going to make it up, at least on the front end, on a higher net payout. So it has to be more about what the model means to you and having a vision that you don’t think anyone else can accomplish other than yourself. And looking at that crazy ever-expanding Michael Kitces’ FinTech map and there’s 500 different logos on it and being like, “Yes, that’s what I want. I want to go through this. I want to pick the seven pieces of my tech stack that work for me,” rather than getting, “Here’s the tech stack, take a demo, you like it, you don’t like it, take it or leave it.” To me, the two biggest misconceptions people have about the RIA world is one, “I’m going to have to be a full-time chief compliance officer,” and just that compliance is this boogeyman, this terrible, scary thing. In some ways it is. But the reality is most, especially startup RIAs will fully outsource compliance to a firm or they’ll hire a compliance consultant or firms that are big enough even will hire a CCO or repurpose someone on their team to be CCO. But compliance is much more streamlined and simpler than BD compliance. And ultimately, it’s compliance that’s being built for your business rather than compliance that’s being built for a publicly traded multinational company that supports 20,000 financial advisors. So I think compliance is always a big misconception. It’s definitely what a lot of firms will pry upon when they’re saying like, “Oh, you’re going to own all the legal and regulatory requirements. You could, but it’s definitely not a requirement.” And then I think another one is folks sometimes underestimate and overestimate the operational burden and how much work it is to start an RIA. Sometimes people just… They’re perfect for the RIA world, that’s their goal, but they get stopped in their tracks. They don’t really know what to do. But what we’ve seen, we said it earlier with so many different outsourcing solutions and different service providers that have popped up, if you have the fire in your belly to go build something, it doesn’t mean you’re doing it by yourself. I mean, that’s what firms like ours do. The custodians are very helpful. On the flip side though, I have seen advisors chasing payouts say, “Hey, I’m just going to go start an RIA because I want to make another 1 to 3%,” or whatever it comes to and they drastically underestimate what it really takes to build a successful firm. Joshua Tomolak: Exactly right. I think that’s my favorite one, Louis, overestimating and estimating the operational burden there is you could have the same conversation with two teams and it can go the completely different direction. Louis Diamond: Josh, let’s wrap here. I got one more question for you that I think is an exciting one, but give me three key trends or storylines that most people don’t know about or aren’t talking about that you’re passionate about or that you’re sharing with advisors or counseling today. Joshua Tomolak: Sure. This is the free advice portion. And I’ll tell you what, Louis, if it’s all right with you, I’ll give you two and I would love to hear one from you as well. The first one I’ve seen in both the independent broker-dealer and RIA space is the minority investor concept. A lot of folks will talk about the idea of taking chips off a table and starting to partially monetize your business. I think that’s all important, but what I’ve found is that a lot of advisors really want their partner, whether it’s an RIA broker dealer to help them grow. And that could be with M&A opportunities, that could be with traditional recruitment of advisors, that could be building a business plan. But the minority investment part really helps accelerate that for a lot of businesses because all of a sudden, not only are you cashing out a small part of your business, but you’ve just created an ally with the parent entity, it is now much more likely to help you grow in that capacity because they’re insulated from it and they profit when you profit. So I think it’s easy to be shortsighted and say, “Well, my equity’s going to keep growing. Why would I sell you a piece of this?” But I counsel folks often to really think about what that long-term strategic partnership is and making somebody a real equity partner rather than just a vendor that provides you with technology and regulatory coverage. The other one I’d say is that… And this one’s really important to me, that business formation is far more important than your assets under management. Said a different way, the way you build your business is going to make your business far more valuable than the number of dollars underneath your name. And what I mean by that is, just to use an example, a sophisticated, well-built, centralized, scalable and repeatable business, whether it’s an RIA with a broker-dealer that is going to fetch a far higher M&A multiple than a OSJ that’s five times the size that just has a bunch of 1099 independent advisors underneath the umbrella. What we’ve seen in the M&A space is that if you’re going to shell out 50, 60, $80 million for somebody’s business, you want to know that you have this business for the long term. So I would certainly counsel people that have been around maybe far longer than me to take a look at how you’re building this and put together a business plan on what those next 10 years should look like and not necessarily fall into the trap where your only revenue source is the override that you receive from a firm and then you in turn pay to the advisors on your team. Louis Diamond: Well said. I really like that line. We’d probably do a whole episode on what are the tips and tricks for building a business with the end in mind? Like the Covey quote, “Begin with the end in mind.” Transitions are like… They’re a bear. I mean, there’s no way to sugarcoat it. Advisors, when they hear transition, if you ask them, “Don’t think about it, give me your reaction.” “Terrible, risky, a lot of work. I’ll never do it again. My friend did it and it was terrible. What if my clients don’t come?” It’s all these negative emotions. And in many cases, I don’t blame an advisor because it is a big act. But to me, if someone is weighing making a transition, whether a wholesale business model change going from being an employee to being independent, going from being an advisor at an independent BD to starting an RIA, or even going independent BD to independent BD, it’s an opportunity if you rise to the occasion to build with this next act with intentionality. So whether it’s restructuring compensation for your team, converting people from 1099 to W2, putting in place new workflows, changing how investments, instead of it being each individual advisor doing investments to more of a centralized model, cleaning up workflows, really investing in data, investing in AI. It’s something that I think, again, we can have a whole episode on it, but I think it’s a great one. Build the business the right way. And obviously, businesses that are larger, theoretically, sell for more, but we’ve certainly seen businesses that are half the size of a larger one sell for a similar amount or more because they did all the right things and the larger one did the things that really turn off a buyer or detract from a valuation. Let me give you one more and tell me if you agree, but I think we’re in this moment when Altruist, the upstart, a new kid on the block custodian, they launched a basically tokenization of cash in a way to automatically agentically source or sort cash to the highest yielding money market. And you’re like, “This is fricking wonky. Louis, why are you telling us this?” I think this is an important one just to keep a watchful eye on. I have no idea how this is going to shake out, but really the biggest way that independent BDs or even custodians like Schwab and Fidelity really make money, it’s not on their overrides from practices or the admin fee or the custody fee. It’s really on net interest margin. So how much the broker-dealer or the firm is making on client cash and brokerage accounts relative to what they’re paying out the client. It’s essentially like free margin to these firms. And this concept, I think, has massive potential for disruption for the business model. Again, I don’t know what it’s going to look like, whether it means platform fees that are instituted at all these firms, whether it means certain models would be more beneficial than others, whether it means nothing’s going to change, which is probably the right answer given this industry. But it’s something to keep a watchful eye on just if your firm institutes a new platform fee or there’s a fundamental way in which your firm can no longer make money. How are they going to make it up? Are they now going to be uncompetitive? They’re not going to have as much scale or profits to invest in the platform. Is it going to cause even more consolidation in the industry? So to me, that’s the one pretty under the radar, pretty wonky storyline that I don’t think enough people are talking about, but has the biggest possibility for disruption across their space than anything I’ve seen in a while. Joshua Tomolak: Sure. That’s the whole iceberg. Not a lot of people are talking about it. It’s not poking out of the ocean, but it’s going to be continuously brought up. I think it’s a question that a lot of advisors are going to have to ask these firms. And at the end of the day, the firms aren’t the bad guys. They have to make money too to provide a quality product. So where the money comes from matters. Louis Diamond: Exactly. Josh, this has been awesome. I learned a lot talking with you and just having your objective consulting hat on what I think are really the differences between IBD and RIA and some of the key trends and storylines to watch has been instrumental. I’ll also give a plug that on our website and we’ll link to it in the show notes, we have a really helpful one-page reference guide going through the differences between independent BDs or IBDs and RIAs. So feel free to click on it. We’ll make sure it gets in your inbox. Josh, thanks again for joining us today. Joshua Tomolak: Yeah, thanks for having me, Louis. It was a pleasure. Mindy Diamond: As a financial advisor, you hold yourself to the highest standards of integrity, honesty, and credibility. You are successful because you take your professional responsibilities seriously and are dedicated to your clients. But are you living your best business life? Are your goals aligned with your firms or could a better option exist? Should I stay or Should I Go? is a book written with you in mind. It’s a self-guided journey that walks you through the key steps that we take with our advisor clients. This strategic thought process and roadmap to professional self-discovery is designed to help you ask the right questions and think critically and objectively whether you’re considering change or not. Learn how to get your copy at diamond-consultants.com/thebook. IBD vs. RIA: A Special Industry Update on Independence A conversation with Louis Diamond and Josh Tomolak, Vice President of Independent Advisor Services at Diamond Consultants.      Louis Diamond: Welcome to the latest episode of our podcast series for financial advisors. Today’s episode is IBD vs. RIA: A Special Industry Update on Independence. It’s a conversation with Josh Tomolak, our Vice President of Independent Advisor Services. I’m Louis Diamond, and this is the Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors. Mindy Diamond: At Diamond Consultants, we help elite advisors identify the right environment for their businesses to thrive, whether that’s at a wirehouse, boutique, or independent firm. With nearly three decades of experience, we’ve guided thousands of advisors and represented more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in assets transitioned. And each year, one in four advisors managing a billion dollars or more who change firms are our clients. Our process is education driven and based on building relationships, starting as your strategic partner well before you’re even thinking of a move. To schedule a confidential conversation, call us at (908) 879-1002. Wondering why advisors change firms and where they’re headed? Are transition deals going up or down? Those very questions and more inspired us to create our annual advisor transition report. It’s the award-winning data-driven resource designed for advisors that connects the dots between the motivations around movement and the firm’s appetite for top talent. Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to make smart decisions. Download your copy at diamond-consultants.com/transitionreport. Louis Diamond: For a long time, going independent would suggest the destination. Today, it’s often the beginning of a different conversation. As the independent space has matured, advisors have more choices than ever before. Broker-dealers have expanded their capabilities. The RIA ecosystem has become increasingly sophisticated. Capital is more readily available and support models now exist that would’ve been difficult to imagine a decade ago. The result is that many advisors who are already independent are taking a fresh look at whether their current affiliation still aligns with what they’re trying to build. My guest is Josh Tomolak, Vice President of Independent Advisor Services here at Diamond Consultants and our resident expert on independence. Josh spends his days helping advisors evaluate independence in all its forms from independent broker dealers, the fully independent RIAs and everything in between. And his knowledge is critical because the distinction between these models is often blurred. Many broker dealers now offer pathways to greater autonomy while supported independence has made RIA ownership more accessible than ever before. So the question is no longer simply, “Do I want to go independent?” The question is, “What kind of independence makes the most sense for client, business, and go

This week, Jake's Take returns—and this one might be the most powerful yet.Bassmaster videographer Jake Latendresse has spent years behind the camera, capturing some of the greatest moments in professional bass fishing. But this episode isn't about the biggest catches or the biggest trophies. It's about the moments that meant the most.Jake counts down the five most emotional stories he has ever filmed during a Bassmaster event, sharing the behind-the-scenes details and personal memories that viewers never got to hear.From Lee Livesay's unforgettable triumph, to Jason Christie's raw emotion, Brandon Palaniuk's incredible perseverance, Brandon Cobb's shocking hook set, Takumi Ito's inspiring journey, and Drew Cook's unforgettable sight fishing moments —these are the stories that remind us that fishing is about so much more than just winning tournaments.If you've ever wondered what it's like to witness history through the lens of a camera, this episode gives you a front-row seat. Honest, emotional, funny, and full of incredible storytelling, Jake once again takes us behind the scenes of the biggest moments in Bassmaster history.If you love the people behind the sport as much as the competition itself, you won't want to miss this one.

This week, Jake's Take returns—and this one might be the most powerful yet.Bassmaster videographer Jake Latendresse has spent years behind the camera, capturing some of the greatest moments in professional bass fishing. But this episode isn't about the biggest catches or the biggest trophies. It's about the moments that meant the most.Jake counts down the five most emotional stories he has ever filmed during a Bassmaster event, sharing the behind-the-scenes details and personal memories that viewers never got to hear.From Lee Livesay's unforgettable triumph, to Jason Christie's raw emotion, Brandon Palaniuk's incredible perseverance, Brandon Cobb's shocking hook set, Takumi Ito's inspiring journey, and Drew Cook's unforgettable sight fishing moments —these are the stories that remind us that fishing is about so much more than just winning tournaments.If you've ever wondered what it's like to witness history through the lens of a camera, this episode gives you a front-row seat. Honest, emotional, funny, and full of incredible storytelling, Jake once again takes us behind the scenes of the biggest moments in Bassmaster history.If you love the people behind the sport as much as the competition itself, you won't want to miss this one.

In this episode Mercer's US Alternatives Investment Leader Matt Vokes is joined by Neil Blundell, CIO at CAIS Advisors, and Catherine Abely, Private Equity Research Specialist at Mercer, for a discussion on the structural characteristics that distinguish professional sports as an asset class — including franchise scarcity, contracted revenue streams, media rights deals, and the evolving liquidity landscape. Together, they also address what investors should consider before allocating, including long holding periods, limited leverage constraints, and the importance of alignment when entering an asset class still in the early stages of institutional participation.This content is for institutional investors and for information purposes only. It does not contain investment, financial, legal, tax or any other advice and should not be relied upon for this purpose. The materials are not tailored to your particular personal and/or financial situation. If you require advice based on your specific circumstances, you should contact a professional adviser. Opinions expressed are those of the speakers as of the date of the recording, are subject to change without notice and do not necessarily reflect Mercer's opinions. This does not constitute an offer or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell securities, commodities and/or any other financial instruments or products or constitute a solicitation on behalf of any of the investment managers, their affiliates. For the avoidance of doubt, this is not formal investment advice to allow any party to transact. Additional advice will be required in advance of entering into any contract. There are substantial risks associated with investments classified as alternative investments. Investors should have the ability, investing sophistication and experience to bear the risks associated with such investments.Read our full Important notices. Sources: 00:07:51:18 - 00:08:15:19: Total % of Sports programming of the top 100 shows in 2025. Sports Business Journal, “Sports make up 96 of top 100 telecasts in 2025, tying an all-time record,” 2025.00:08:56:22 - 00:09:19:01: ESPN, NBA agrees to terms on $76B media rights deals, Jul 10, 2024.  

https://youtu.be/KUPg9BuYSaM David B. Jones, CEO and Partner of Mercer Assessments, is helping organizations attract the right A-Players by making labor markets more efficient through defensible human capital insights. By combining psychometric science, workforce analytics, and AI-enabled technology, David helps employers identify, develop, and retain the right talent while empowering people to discover careers where they can thrive and make meaningful contributions.  In this conversation, David introduces The R.E.A.P.E.R. Framework—Review the Situation, Explore Alternatives, Agree a Course of Action, Execute the Plan, and Refine the Approach. He explains why organizations should begin every challenge with a thorough situation review, how collaborative decision-making creates alignment before execution, and why continuous refinement drives long-term organizational success. David also discusses how AI is reshaping talent management, why organizations need real-time workforce insights instead of static reports, and how Mercer Assessments leverages technology while preserving the integrity and defensibility of human capital assessments. — Attract the Right A-Players with David B. Jones  Good day. Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint Podcast. Today, my guest is David Jones, the CEO and partner of Mercer Assessments, focused on providing defensible human capital insights and foresight in the fields of talent acquisition, leadership development, and organizational productivity. David, welcome to the show.  Thank you, Steve. Great to be here.  Well, I’m excited to have you here, especially because you are the first guest—maybe not completely from the Middle East because we had a couple of guests from Israel—but definitely from Dubai, where you are. Maybe that is also impacting the answer that you’re going to give to my question. So here is my first question. What’s your personal ‘Why’, and how are you manifesting it in your business, Mercer Assessments?  Yeah. Well, I mean, I think obviously a lot of skills around resilience and being able to think about how you maintain your own personal well-being, but also the well-being of the workforce, is something which has come to the fore in the last couple of weeks, for sure, living in Dubai. But I think very much of my North Star—by educational background, I’m a labor market economist. Although I’ve worked in HR and talent management for pretty much all of my career, I think I’m always thinking about how to make markets more efficient.  I think the labor market, in some ways, and what it takes to become efficient, is very similar to a fish market, a stock market, or any other market that you can think of. What you need to be able to make the best decisions is really good data, really good up-to-date information, both on the supply side and on the demand side.Share on X I think a lot of what we do at Mercer Assessments, and a lot of what we do in talent management more generally, is really about trying to do that. Trying to help individuals understand what their strengths are.  Trying to match them to specific careers that will be more fulfilling for them in the long term and also help them be more productive for their employers. As well as helping employers understand what the important skills are for today and tomorrow, and how they can predict how people will perform in certain environments. So really trying to bring the supply side and demand side together. I think, notoriously, labor markets have very bad information.  Typically, most people get their career guidance from their parents or their grandparents, which can be great for aspiration but doesn’t always necessarily keep them up-to-date in terms of what’s happening in today’s workplace. So I think this is really my anchor, if you like, where a lot of what we do in our innovation, our technology, or our engagements with clients typically comes back to this point. Fundamentally, how do we make labor markets more efficient and more functional for all of the stakeholders?  Yeah, that’s fascinating. So would you say that if you are doing this well, then more people will feel fulfilled in the roles that they work in?  I mean, I think that’s definitely the aspiration, right? That’s definitely what you would hope to do. I think, as individuals, I’m sure we can all think of those really, really great days where you think that you nailed it at work, and you think that this is something where you can make a really specific contribution. It just feels good, and all those people around you have the benefit of that. It becomes something which is infectious for those around you.  I think it’s important for the economy on a macro level, right? I think if we are able to provide opportunities, provide career paths, and help people understand what their unique strengths are, then this is something which helps to promote productivity and positivity more generally, right? At the individual, team, family, and societal level, it affects all sorts of dimensions.  So maybe this is kind of a side question, but I’m really wondering, is this AI revolution, as we’re going through it, influencing your work, and is it changing the requirements of employers?  Yeah. I think we’re in a very interesting time. I mean, I’m not a futurologist. I’m not a prophet. I’m not somebody who makes these sorts of big predictions about the future. But I think the case for AI, to some extent, is still unproven in terms of what it’s actually delivered to date. I mean, I think there’s obviously a lot of investment. There’s a big impact on the environment. But I don’t think we’ve had something really groundbreaking discovered by AI at this point that’s new.  It seems to be quite backward-looking in many ways, based on ingesting data from all the novels that you have on your shelf and that I have on my shelf. Maybe they’re going to ingest this podcast in the future. I don’t know. It doesn’t seem that there’s been a unique breakthrough that humanity has not been able to, or would not be able to, achieve by itself. And yet, I think the promise and the anticipation of what AI can do is quite compelling, right?  I think the way that it is impacting the labor market especially… Ironically, it’s impacting probably software developers the most today. It’s interesting that a lot of people in white-collar fields, professionals maybe, are also feeling like it’s changing the way they’re working. So there’s a big debate, I think, about whether it’s going to be an augmentation or whether it’s going to be a replacement of some sorts of tasks. I think one thing you can say with certainty is that the concept of a job is definitely going to change. If you look at the roots of the word—the etymological roots of the word “job” in the English language—it literally means “a task” rather than a role as such. Yeah. So I think we’re going to get this greater atomization of people’s roles. What used to be bundled together as one job is now going to be much more atomized into specific skills, specific tasks.  The opportunity there is that we all get to do more of the things that we find more fulfilling and less of the repetitive, dangerous, or dull types of things that we have to do in our jobs sometimes.Share on X But I think it has some second-order impacts in terms of how people develop their careers and the competence and confidence that people, particularly when they’re junior in their jobs, need time to build—the ability to operate at a higher level. So I think we’re all going to have to be leaders in lots of ways, even leaders in our own work.  Yeah, I agree with you. That’s fascinating. So, David, let’s talk about the framework. What would be a framework? Think of something that allows you to be more effective in your job—something maybe that you personally discovered or that you and your colleagues developed. Something that helps you be more effective in creating those labor market matches, finding the right candidates, and assessing them. Something that you can describe in three, four, or five steps, or maybe three or four ways of looking at things. Anything that comes to mind?  So there are a few things. I did miss a few things because I think—I don’t know if you’ve heard the news. We’re recording this, and I think the British prime minister has just resigned today. This is, I think, our seventh prime minister in 10 years. I’m sure each one of those prime ministers had their own framework in terms of what they wanted from their political leadership and how they were going to operate in government.  So I think we’re definitely operating in a much more VUCA world, right? This mnemonic is about being volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. I think, to some extent, that means that having a framework has to be something that is constantly being amended, reviewed, and updated in many ways. A lot of what we do in assessment—we have very clear statistical frameworks where we look at particular behaviors or particular characteristics, and we try to make sure we measure them. But I thought maybe that was too detailed and too comprehensive.  So one of the things we do when engaging with our clients is that we have a sort of consulting approach. It’s like a cycle. We start by reviewing the situation, so it’s like a situation appraisal, if you like. We use this internally as well in Mercer Assessments. So we try to understand what’s happening, what’s going well, and what we’re concerned about—just trying to get any data or information that we can.  Then it's important, particularly with a team or with a client, to explore what the priorities are, what's important, and what is causing them the most thought or requiring the most energy to address.Share on X So reviewing, exploring, and then agreeing on a course of action. Making sure that there’s consensus or, if you’re in an organization, making sure you’ve got the budget and the endorsement from headquarters or senior management. Then I think you can go into a planning stage. Making sure you’ve got a focus on execution and that you know what has to happen and when.  Then I think you can go into the ability to have that as a cycle and review or evaluate the plan itself. Is it on track? Is it on time? Is it on budget? Is it achieving its objectives? You can continue on this sort of reflexive cycle. So if you were to do that, it becomes quite sinister. The mnemonic becomes R.E.A.P.E.R., like the Grim Reaper or like “reap what you sow,” because you review, explore, agree, plan, execute, and then review again.Share on X So it can become, hopefully, a virtuous cycle, but it can also become an ongoing process.  I love it. So Yeah. So if you refine, maybe the last one is refined, and then you avoid repeat— Yes. Yeah.  Yeah. Oh, great.  That’s good. Yeah, I like it. Yeah, love it. So basically, what you’re looking for is helping your customers with an initial problem and then helping them generally improve their organization by continuing to refine and add to it, making it better over time.  Yes, correct. Yeah.  So it turns into a recurring engagement.  Yes, that’s the hope. Well, yeah. I mean, hopefully, if you have that relationship with the client and also with your team, you have this ability to recognize what you’ve achieved together, but you can also plan what you want to do differently next time.  So you’re the CEO of Mercer Assessments, which is the Dubai operation. Is this just a geographic branch of the Mercer Group, or is it a separate business that operates in multiple geographies?  Yeah. So actually, it’s a new venture for Mercer globally. My background is that I was one of the founders of a company called The Talent Enterprise, which was acquired by Mercer just over two years ago. It had also made an acquisition of another company before that called Mettl. So we were more of a talent assessment type of company.  We would do talent acquisition, talent development, leadership development, things like high-potential identification, succession planning, and these types of applications. Employee engagement as well, things like employee well-being assessments and stuff like this. The psychometric assessment field. So if you or your listeners are good at Greek, you would know that “psychometric” means “measurement of the mind.”  Yeah, right. So this is really what we’re trying to do. We’re accredited by the British Psychological Society to say that the tools we have, use, or develop have validity, reliability, and are statistically stable within the sorts of bounds that you would expect when measuring human beings.  It can never be perfect, but it’s considered to be predictive. Mettl was more focused on skills assessment. That was one of their big areas of focus, along with educational assessment. So coming together as Mercer Assessments, we’re now part of this big global organization. Although we’re based in the Middle East, we’re now working in Asia, Europe, North America—we’re just starting to do more work in North America—and Australasia. So this is the sort of big, hairy, audacious plan that we have.  That must be pretty intense if you’re working around the clock, essentially working around the globe. Then Mercer is… It can be.  Yeah, it can be. Even working in the Middle East, you have different working weeks. Some of our clients work on Sundays. But we have a good team. We have a big team. We have great technology. So we have scalable ways of doing it.  So what drives growth in this business?  I think it is changing. If you were to ask me that question even two years ago, I would say it’s to do with the change, the transformation, or the aspiration of the client, of the organization. If they’ve got a new operation, or they’re expanding, or they need to develop new skills, or they need to make sure their productivity and positivity are enabling them to keep up with their competitors, then these things would often trigger the sorts of interventions that we help our clients with.  That’s still true to a large extent, but what's changing a lot is what you were talking about earlier—to do with AI and expectations from technology. So I think what we're doing a lot more of now is real-time decision support.Share on X It used to be that our deliverables would look like a PDF report. They would say, “Okay, this is Steve. We’ve assessed Steve. These are Steve’s strengths. These are his areas for development. This is the sort of team or the certain type of colleague that he would thrive working with.  These are the people or the situations that he might struggle with.” That type of static report. Then either we or the client—sometimes if you’re looking at large numbers of people—you’d have to do a lot of spreadsheet work or a lot of PowerPoint work and say, “Okay, now we need to match that with your strategic objectives.” So I think what’s happening now is we’re focusing a lot more on the data.  Our technology is providing much more of a dashboard report, so Steve can access his results straight away because that’s actually when Steve is most interested in them and they’re most relevant—not two weeks later when you schedule a coach or someone to give him feedback. You’re interested as soon as you finish the last question. You want to know, “Okay, what does this say about me?” We can add lots of AI layers to that to help you implement it or understand it. Then for the organization, we now provide much more of a dynamic dashboard-type report.  So if, I don’t know, the CFO leaves this afternoon and the CEO calls the CHRO and says, “Okay, who are the internal candidates for this role?” You can come up with an answer. It doesn’t have to be something where you say, “Let me check my filing cabinet,” or, “Let me put a PowerPoint together for you and get back to you later this week or next week.” You can actually do that type of matching within the platform that we have. We have our own platform called Lighthouse, and it really helps you match individuals or teams to certain tasks or to certain ventures or aspirations that the organization might have.Share on X  Yeah. So instead of providing individual reports for individuals, you now operate this platform for your clients, and then they can look up the people involved in changes. So how is it different to scale the business with this type of approach? What makes it more complex?  Yeah. So on the one hand, it can help us a lot as our own organization because we can be much more pervasive 24 hours a day across the different time zones that we operate in. If you’re our client, you don’t always have to rely on having a meeting or a call with us in person. You can go and find that answer yourself. It’s quite an intuitive process and platform. You can access it and get value from your own data. I think that’s the key thing that I’m trying to emphasize that’s changed.  Clients are now impatient with SaaS platforms in particular when they’re not able to access their own data directly. So there’s a little bit of disintermediation going on in the enterprise software business as a whole. That’s the key trend that I’m trying to highlight here. But it also helps us to be more scalable. Just to take a step back to the previous discussion about AI, I think when it comes to using AI in your business, the key strategic choice is what you’re not going to use AI for.  For us, we made the choice actually three or four years ago that we’re not going to use AI in the assessments themselves. Not today. Maybe in five years’ time or ten years’ time we might change our mind, and we’re constantly reviewing that. But we need these defensible assessments. We need to be able to say, “This is fair and objective, and we’re coming with an external point of view that is transparent and defensible in every sense of that word.”  Yeah. You don’t want to hallucinate assessments for clients or even run the risk of that happening, right?  Yeah, absolutely. And there are some companies that have done that, right? I mean, there are lots of cases you can find where companies have said, “Hey, we just need a five-minute video, and I can tell you everything you need to know about this person, and you can make decisions about their career and all sorts of stuff,” right? I’m not saying we won’t get there in the future, but I just don’t think that’s good enough at the moment.  And I think with a lot of things that you do with chatbots now, if you’re judicious about it, you might be able to say, “Well, actually, that’s interesting, but it’s not good enough,” right? It’s not a finished product. It’s not something that I can execute on. What we can do is add a lot of value around the assessment. So we can do things like AI-based development planning, right?  When someone wants to see their results—and people normally want to see their results almost immediately after they’ve finished their assessments—you can start to say, in the flow of work, in the client’s environment, whatever their learning partners or learning architecture may be, “Okay, here’s a development plan for you,” customized and curated within that environment for your strengths, how to emphasize them, and also for any development areas or new learnings that you want to address.  We can also do things like AI-based proctoring, right? We can give the client a risk report on an application and say, you know, how genuine is this? What other software does Steve have open on his laptop? Is there a shadow in the room? Where are his eyes going? Is he looking at someone else? Is he getting help from someone else? Is this really Steve? All these sorts of things, right? We can do that. We can also develop customized case studies for the organization around its specific tasks and challenges that the organization has.  So you can come up with very specific, job-related assessments. AI can add a lot of value to all of these things. It can provide greater scale and a greater ability to sustain our growth. But with the core of what we do today, we’re saying, “Look, you need to be able to trust us.” And we want to be able to show you the answer. If you have a question about any of our assessments, we can check. There’s an audit trail, and we can show you the answer. It’s not just, “The computer came up with this idea. We don’t know.” But that’s intellectual property, and you know that it works, and you’re sticking with it. You don’t allow AI to bastardize it, basically, yeah, which makes sort of sense. So, David, what is one thing that you’re actively trying to figure out in your business right now? That’s a great question. I mean, there’s lots of things. I think a lot of them come around, you know, what is this threshold between what we do as humans and what we use AI or other technology to help us do? And I think that threshold is constantly being reviewed. A lot of it is to do with how do you make growth sustainable. We have had massive growth in the last five or six years, and that’s a great thing.  But I think it means you have to make sure the foundations of your organization are strong so that you can move from one to another. I mentioned earlier that we’re just starting to focus on North America as one of our new markets, and I was very keen that we didn’t do that until this point or even next year because we’re not the organizational equivalent of The Beatles, right? Like, we can’t just expect to turn up in a big, sophisticated, very strong, highly cultured market and be able to expect that we’re going to do things like we’ve done them everywhere else, or that we don’t need to think about how we communicate with those prospects and those clients.  So that’s a really big step for us. And how we manage data, I think, is probably the key thing. Fundamentally, if I was to come back to answer your question, I think it’s how we manage data because I think clients are becoming much more sophisticated, much more impatient with people who curate their data. They say, “Look, you know, we know we’re generating lots of data inside the organization,” right? Which is typically what we do, right? It’s people data.  Normally in most work environments, you can tell when somebody opens their laptop, or you can tell when they walk in the office door, or you can tell sometimes even what they’re doing inside the working space, right? Their ID has got an RFID in it or something like that. So there’s lots of data that’s constantly being generated inside the organization, and clients want to get value from that data. And having a sort of third-party proxy come in and say, “Hey, we can do your payroll for you,” or “We can send a questionnaire to people once a year, and that can let you know whether they understand health and safety or they’re engaged in their workplace,” it’s not really satisfactory anymore, right?  The clients are saying, “Okay. I want to be able to get value from my data, and I want to be able to see that. I want the analytics. I want to ask questions that are not able to be prescribed at the beginning.” “And I want to be able to do these queries in real time.”  So essentially, would that require you to get integrated with your clients to some degree so that you can process the data in real time as it emerges? It’s really interesting because I think what I’m hearing from my clients is they’re actually frustrated with that. In the sort of classic SaaS world, which we’ve had in organizations now for 20, 30, maybe even 40 years, you integrate the big internal ERP systems or CRM systems, and you integrate them, and then you have to sort of work within their framework, right? And you might see a report that’s already pre-programmed, but you don’t necessarily see the data, right? If you wanted to say, “Okay, what’s the trend today over the 24-hour clock?” or “How is it changing in June compared to May?” or “How does it relate to the temperature?” or whatever, right?  You can come up with all these questions that you might not be able to predict and then plan and have a sort of pull-down standard report. So to do that, you need access to the data. And I think clients are saying, “This is our data.” This data belongs to us. We want to be able to see that directly, and we want to be able to use that as a decision-support tool, and not necessarily just have a report.”  Yeah. So they’d rather own the data and apply your tools to their data without you necessarily having access to the data or something like that?  Yeah. It’s also a source of differentiation for them, right? Because they know that if… I’m not going to mention these companies. I’m sure you and all your viewers know the big brands. It’s interesting what’s happening with their share prices recently, right? They’re all maybe suffering a little bit from a decline in their share prices, on average. It’s basically a standardized way of doing things, right?  There’s pretty much the same way that any corporation in any part of the world is going to do it because that’s the way you get efficiency through that software. But if an organization says, “Actually, we’ve got an insight into something that we think is unique and differentiated, and we want to make decisions in a slightly different way, or make them faster,” that’s a point of competitive advantage.  Does that mean they wouldn’t want you to apply their idea to other customers because it’s their unique property? They’d just want your tools to help them process their data. They don’t want to share it with you.  Yeah. There are clients like that. We do deal with very sensitive industries, and sometimes government departments, where we have to be able to certify that type of approach. I think that’s likely to become more common in the future as people become more sensitive and more aware of the value, the opportunity, and the threat of what can happen with their data.  Yeah. I mean, some people say that information is now ubiquitous. It’s the questions that are really important because that’s how you communicate with AI. Maybe the question itself can be proprietary know-how—knowing how to ask the right kind of question. They don’t want…  No. I mean… Yeah, I agree. Completely. Yeah. You’re absolutely right. Again, to go back to assessments, we’ve recently released a whole bunch of assessments that measure skills in AI as a domain. We’ve got all sorts of technical and non-technical AI assessments. Obviously, one of the skills that we look at is prompt engineering. If you’ve used some of the generative AI platforms, you’ll always get an answer.  They’re pre-programmed to give you an answer, and most of them are also pretty polite. They fluff up your ego a little bit and say, “Hey, great question.” “That was really interesting.” Then they’ll give you an answer. You need to be aware of that. You need to probe and make sure you’ve not just got an answer—you’ve got the answer. Or at least the best answer that makes sense for you. Then you’ve quality-checked it.  You’ve taken it from one platform, put it into another platform, and then into a third platform. Whatever you’ve done, you need to have that awareness and those specific skills to get the most value out of it. It’s very dangerous, and I think we can all see it. I’m sure your inbox is like my inbox. You get emails from people and think, “Okay, well, that’s not an email from a person.” It’s a bulleted email. It’s not personal. It’s not directed at you. Sometimes it’s hard to understand what it even means.  Yeah. You’re right. So David, who is the ideal customer for you that can most benefit from your solution?  That’s a good question. Personally and professionally, I like clients who challenge us. I like clients who ask questions that make us think in a different way, so we can hopefully give them value and really answer those questions. I think that’s important for us to develop. Clients who are looking for new insights or different foresights that help them in their business—those are the kinds of clients we’re looking for. Definitely the ones who are pushing the envelope and helping take us forward in terms of quality.  So if those types of people are listening to this show and would like to learn more about what you do and how you might be able to help them, where should they go? Where can they find out more?  Yeah, absolutely. You can find me on LinkedIn. I’m David B. Jones on LinkedIn. There are a lot of David Joneses. I think David Jones is the most common name for a British man—even more common than John Smith—so there are a lot of us around. But you’ll be able to find me as David B. Jones. You can also find Mercer Assessments. You can find out more about us through those channels. I’ll be happy to answer any questions or provide more information.  Is there a website people should check out? Do you have a separate website for Mercer Assessments?  We do. Mercer Assessments is part of the mercer.com website. That’s where you’ll find more information. There are also a number of books we’ve published on particular subjects to do with assessment, talent, and leadership development more generally. Those are all available on Amazon as well.  Okay. So if you’re out there and you’re looking to have a more sophisticated view of your people and their aspirations and how they fit the type of work that you want them to do, and you’d like to understand more deeply, then check out Mercer Assessments, David B. Jones. Actually, it’s easy to just put in “David Jones Mercer,” and David will pop up that way.  Check out the books that David and his colleagues have published. And if you enjoyed this conversation, then make sure you follow us on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts. And David, thanks for coming to the show and sharing your experience and insights. I mean, it seems to me that you have a much more nuanced approach than most talent assessment or performance assessment organizations, and you have a lot more tools at your disposal. It’s a combination of technology and professional expertise. So that’s fascinating. Thanks for coming on the show. And if you enjoyed this conversation, make sure you follow us because we come out every week with exciting entrepreneurs like David. I will. I will. Thank you, Steve. Important Links: Davidi's LinkedIn David's  website

As her first feature A Safe Distance rolls towards its Canadian premiere at Fantasia on Thursday, director Gloria Mercer is here to make sure Robert Altman's Thieves Like Us is held in the same regard as all his other ‘70s classics. Your genial host Norm Wilner can't really find a flaw in that argument.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Tim Mercer. Author of Bootstrap Millionaire and CFO of Cadence Ventures, Inc.:

Nothing exposes the flaws of a justice system more than the wrongful conviction of an innocent person for murder. Adelaide man Henry Keogh languished in prison for two decades after being wrongfully convicted of his fiancée’s drowning, while Andrew Mallard – a vulnerable, troubled outsider – had his life irrevocably shattered when he was wrongly convicted of the 1994 murder of Pamela Lawrence in Perth. Neil Mercer, one of Australia’s most respected print and TV journalists, has written a new book, 'Falsely Convicted: True Stories of Injustice in Australia', in which he exposes just how easily professional hubris, police tunnel vision and flawed forensic practices can put innocent people behind bars. Today's episode is hosted by Good Weekend senior writer Greg Callaghan.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

State Senator Mike Halpin says Illinois' new budget includes added support for school lunch programs and a three-month food assistance bridge for families losing federal benefits. Speaking on Wake Up Tri-Counties, Halpin also defended new taxes on digital advertising and social media platforms, saying the revenue could help fund services including mental health care. He said higher education funding remains a top priority, especially for rural students and schools like Western Illinois University. Halpin also discussed efforts to recover back wages, ease substitute teacher shortages, limit eminent domain for CO₂ pipelines, and protect vulnerable adults under guardianship. State Senator Mike Halpin praised three newly signed Illinois laws that strengthen support for military service members and veterans. The legislation aims to boost Illinois National Guard recruitment, help student service members return to college after military leave, and expand access to innovative mental health treatments for veterans. Halpin highlighted Senate Bill 3926, which moves the Breakthrough Therapies for Veteran Suicide Prevention Program Advisory Council to the Illinois Department of Public Health, where it will help expand access to emerging therapies, improve provider training, enhance patient safety, and promote public awareness. He also applauded Senate Bill 3737, requiring colleges and universities to promptly readmit students returning from military service, and Senate Bill 3818, which encourages Illinois National Guard recruitment through a peer referral incentive program. All three laws take effect January 1, 2027. His office can be reached at 309-558-3612. Mike Halpin serves as Illinois State Senator for the 36th District, representing most of Rock Island County and portions of Mercer, Henry, Knox, McDonough, and Warren Counties. An attorney and former State Representative, Halpin previously worked for Congressman Lane Evans, assisting constituents and helping veterans secure military honors. He later earned his law degree from the University of Illinois and became a partner at McCarthy, Callas, & Feeney, P.C., where he focuses on labor and municipal law. Halpin continues to advocate for veterans through his work with Bridging the Gap: Stand Down for Homeless Veterans, providing legal assistance to those in need. During his time in the Illinois House, he supported balanced budgets and sponsored legislation allowing schools to stock undesignated glucagon to help save children's lives.

Fishing has changed—and keeping a secret might be harder than ever. This week on the Mercer Podcast, Bassmaster Elite Series Pro and Forrest Wood Cup Champion Justin Atkins joins us for a VERY honest, wide-ranging conversation about what it's really like to chase a career in professional fishing.We dive into whether fishing secrets still exist in the age of social media and instant information sharing. Has it become impossible to keep a productive pattern, a winning bait, or a special spot under wraps?But that's just the beginning.Justin opens up about the financial risks of chasing a childhood dream, what it takes to survive on tour, his relentless desire to win, and the sacrifices that come with making professional fishing your career. Along the way, the conversation takes plenty of unexpected turns—including hilarious tour stories, embarrassing moments, life on the road, and the realities that fans rarely get to hear.It's funny, honest, and full of the kind of behind-the-scenes stories that only happen when two friends who love the sport sit down and have a real conversation.If you're passionate about bass fishing, tournament competition, or just love hearing the stories behind the anglers, this is an episode you won't want to miss.

"my friend and rival, Mr. Barker" [RETI]      We occasionally get suggestions for topics, and this is one of those cases. Kai Johansen wondered "who was Barker?" — as in "Barker, my hated rival on the Surrey shore," in "The Retired Colourman."   It led us to a  short article in The Baker Street Journal by William Schweickert (Vol. 43 No. 2) that takes us through Mercer, Shinwell Johnson, and Langdale Pike and then proposes that Barker held a particularly important role. What was it? It's just a Trifle.   If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   Our Merch Store is open: Trifles mugs, notepads, and oval stickers can be yours (or someone else's, if you'd like to make it a gift).  Start shopping today.    "Trifling Trifles" is back — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. This time, "Lomax" emerges from the sub-library. Make sure you're signed up so you don't miss this is exclusive benefit for our paying subscribers.  Check it out (Patreon | Substack).     Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to this episode here or wherever you get podcasts   Links All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com    Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band. Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0      

Fishing has changed—and keeping a secret might be harder than ever. This week on the Mercer Podcast, Bassmaster Elite Series Pro and Forrest Wood Cup Champion Justin Atkins joins us for a VERY honest, wide-ranging conversation about what it's really like to chase a career in professional fishing.We dive into whether fishing secrets still exist in the age of social media and instant information sharing. Has it become impossible to keep a productive pattern, a winning bait, or a special spot under wraps?But that's just the beginning.Justin opens up about the financial risks of chasing a childhood dream, what it takes to survive on tour, his relentless desire to win, and the sacrifices that come with making professional fishing your career. Along the way, the conversation takes plenty of unexpected turns—including hilarious tour stories, embarrassing moments, life on the road, and the realities that fans rarely get to hear.It's funny, honest, and full of the kind of behind-the-scenes stories that only happen when two friends who love the sport sit down and have a real conversation.If you're passionate about bass fishing, tournament competition, or just love hearing the stories behind the anglers, this is an episode you won't want to miss.

Matthew Toffolo interviews the creative team behind a short film exploring hydrofeminism, featuring Katrina as director, Sarah as choreographer and dancer, and Tomas as sound designer. The team discussed their collaborative process in creating a black-and-white experimental film with colored ocean sequences, shot at Botanical Beach and Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island. Sarah explained the concept of hydrofeminism as a framework examining how patriarchal structures affect both female bodies and land/oceans in similar ways, while Tomas described his organic sound design process using underwater recordings and Sarah's breathing filtered through distortion to create wave-like sounds. The film was shot entirely by the three collaborators with equal creative input, and they discussed their plans to continue working together on future projects after completing their current festival run. Katrina's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katrinapia_/ Sarah's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahrosemercer/—— Subscribe to the podcast: https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod https://www.instagram.com/wildsoundpod https://www.facebook.com/wildsoundpod —— Love for you to try the Indy Film Festival AP. • Daily new film festival of the best new films from around the world. New archived festival to watch anytime. • Library of over 500+ award-winning films to watch anytime. Go to https://www.wildsound.ca and sign up for the free 3-day trial. Check out the daily film festival (and previous ones from last month) at https://www.wildsound.ca/browse Always an amazing lineup of films. Inspiring for storytellers.

Welcome to Mysteries to Die For.I am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and producer. This is a podcast where we combine storytelling with original music to put you in the heart of a mystery. All stories are structured to challenge you to beat the detective to the solution. Jack and I perform these live, front to back, no breaks, no fakes, no retakes.In the world's most dangerous working environments it can seem like everything is out to kill you. The equipment you use. The materials you work with. The very air you breathe. Stored energy is a coiled viper waiting for the right moment to lash out. Owners, manufacturers, contractors, and beyond have developed safety protocols to combat STCKY, that is, Stuff That Can Kill You. Gravity, Motion, Mechanical, Electrical, Pressure, Sound, Radiation, Biological, Chemical, Temperature. This season is all about the means of murder as authors put our STCKY detective skills to the test. This is Season 9, Stuff That Can Kill You.This is Episode 14, where heat, pressure, chemical, and mechanical are our STCKY means of death. This is The Rendering of Truth by Chuck BrownmanDELIBERATIONAlone, neither Lena nor Mercer have what it takes to crack the case. But together, and with our help, we can figure out what happened to Eddie Weller and Dale Curtis. Here's the suspect list, in the order we met them:Junior Lattimore, rendering techJohn Reese, plant managerTanya Lowell, accounting clerk and office mateFrank Jackson, rendering foremanDale Curtis, plant foremanHere are the facts that Lena and Mercer have uncovered:• Eddie Weller, newly promoted to Operations Reviewer, went into the rendering pit. The pit was activated and Eddie died from a lethal combination of heat, oxygen deprivation, and mechanical grinding.Eddie was formerly an operating tech and, in his new role, signed off on the maintenance documentation. He knew the paperwork or safety protections he knew was needed to enter the confined space.No one offered an explanation of why Eddie would have entered the pit.Junior Lattimore did not look into the pit before he turned it on. He had no reason to think anyone was in it.A search of Eddie's desk found evidence of falsified invoices for filters. The invoices were signed by Reese. He added a note to check with DC, interpreted as Dale Curtis.Tanya prepares the invoices for Reese's signature. She said he directed her to process the invoices for his approval, saying they were a rush job from a new vendor.Reese said he signs the invoices Tanya prepares, implying he did not scrutinize or even read the documents.A torn piece of bank statement found in the trash in the office Eddie and Tanya shared had a sizable balance but no nameCurtis later heard Eddie in his office talking to someone about stealing, but couldn't see who as the door was closed.Mercer recognized Steam Line #4 was tampered with. The line then failed catastrophically killing Dale Curtis. He was found with a pipe wrench in the vicinity.A drawing of the plant found in Eddie's apartment also highlighted Steam Line #4 as out of compliance on maintenance inspection.Lena and Mercer speculate the person or persons behind the “accidents” had to have an understanding of the plant to orchestrate both deaths.Tanya had knowledge and access to the invoice, but does not have knowledge of the plant. Tanya and Eddie shared an office and were friends. Eddie spent time with her son.Junior had knowledge of the rendering area, but did not have access to accounting. Junior lost out on the promotion to Eddie and was bitter.Junior had no apparent problem with Dale Curtis.Jackson had knowledge of the rendering area. Recently separated, he and Tanya were dating. He often when to her office, and even helped straighten Tanya's desk for her. He was there in the office when Eddie died.Reese claims his knowledge of the plant isn't detailed. He signed off on plant expenditures.Whose greed was paid for with the lives of Eddie Weller and Dale Curtis?MEMBERSHIPS!Mysteries to Die For now has memberships! Three tiers – The Grave Digger's Union (free), The Cadaver Collective ($4 / month) and The Preservationist Society ($8 / month). We are starting memberships to help pay for our real live human authors, to keep the software working and the power flowing, and avoid the dreaded use of ads. If you want to show you love but aren't ready for a commitment, you can now tip us and leave a witting, punny note for us. Links are in the show notes and on our website M2D4podcast.com.ABOUT Chuck BrownmanA mostly-retired (and hopefully recovering) attorney, Chuck Brownman now enjoys writing noir fiction, concentrating on short fiction. His work has been published in several anthologies and on multiple websites, including those listed at the top of this episode. He has also served various times as a judge for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards. When not writing fiction, Chuck continues to advise some of the country's most entrepreneurial energy and natural resource companies. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Law, and has spoken at legal seminars for many years. He lives with his wife in Colorado, the peaceful vistas offering a counterbalance to his suspenseful and often bloody crime fiction. A full list of his published fiction can be found at his website, www.chuckbrownman.comWRAP UPThat wraps this episode of Mysteries to Die For. Support our show by subscribing, telling a mystery lover about us, or joining a membership. Check out our website m2d4podcast.com for links to this season's authors and membership options.Mysteries to Die For is hosted by TG Wolff and Jack Wolff. The Rendering of Truth was written by Chuck Brownman. Music and production are by Jack Wolff. Episode art is by TG Wolff. Join us next week for a Toe Tag, which is the first chapter from a fresh release in the mystery, crime, or thriller genre. Then come back in two weeks for our next original story where chemical is our STCKY means of murder. It's Gen X by Melinda Di Lorenzo

Is there room for Dawson Mercer after the Anthony Mantha signing?By Sam Woohttps://pucksandpitchforks.comhttps://www.LetsGoDevils.comRATE, REVIEW, AND SUBSCRIBE: Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lets-go-devils-podcast/id1371371669 #NJDevils #NHL #LetsGoDevils #LGD #Devils #NewJersey #NCAA #AHLBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/let-s-go-devils-podcast--2862943/support.

Brittany Mercer, director of off-premise sales for Cowboy Chicken, joins this episode of the Food On Demand Podcast to share strategies for operators to drive off-prem growth, ranging from the intricacies of managing a virtual restaurant brand to the opportunities for implementing AI. 

The legendary Rick Clunn has always seen fishing differently than everyone else, and this conversation is no exception.It starts with the shocking quote, “Urchin baits turn me on” to a fascinating discussion about why the latest bait craze has captured anglers' attention, Rick shares his unique perspective on what makes a lure truly special—and why history has a way of repeating itself.We dive into the current Urchin bait phenomenon, compare it to some of the biggest lure crazes of the past, and explore how innovation continues to shape the sport. Along the way, Rick reflects on life after professional tournament fishing, how he's adjusted to stepping away from competition, and what still fuels his passion for bass fishing every single day.As always, Clunn-clusion is a conversation that goes far beyond fishing techniques. It's about curiosity, perspective, and seeing the sport through the eyes of one of the greatest anglers of all time.

An episode where we look under the surface to see what the cities merchants were doing- and run into some surprising truths; this was London at the birth of modern capitalism, and this chapter takes you though the sophisticated financial operations taking place in the city, the newly emergent international trade in credit, why Antwerp was showing the way London had to follow, and introduce a family who would dominate trade in the city over a few generations; the Gresham dynasty.Welcome to the ground floor in the revolution that will change London forever… Cover includes altered picture of the Mercer's Maid, symbol of the Mercer Livery Company, Dryden Street, London

In this conversation from 2023, Matt speaks with Mark Mercer about academic freedom, the changing mission of universities themselves, and what role faculty, administrators, and students should play in shaping the future of the institution.  References: Mark's Interview in C2C Journal: https://c2cjournal.ca/2023/05/confronting-the-post-academic-university-in-conversation-with-mark-mercer/   Peter March at St. Mary's: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/students-protest-prof-who-posted-cartoons-1.623017  Kathleen Lowrey at University of Alberta: https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/u-of-a-professor-says-she-was-dismissed-over-views-that-biological-sex-trumps-transgender-identity-for-policy-decisions  Tomáš Hudlický at Brock University: https://niagaraindependent.ca/remembering-professor-tomas-hudlicky-and-how-poorly-brock-university-treated-him/  The Chicago Principles: https://provost.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/documents/reports/FOECommitteeReport.pdf   

For most anglers, confidence comes and goes. For Kyle Patrick, it took getting literally slapped out of a slump during Mercer in the Morning to turn everything around.This week on The Mercer Podcast, Dave sits down with the two-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier and Bassmaster Open winner for one of the most honest conversations you'll hear all season.Kyle opens up about the mental side of professional fishing, battling through tough stretches, rebuilding confidence, and why one unexpected moment became the reset he didn't know he needed.But that's just the beginning.The conversation dives into what it really takes to compete at the highest level of the sport, chasing a Bassmaster Classic title, handling the pressure of tournament fishing, the evolution of modern bass fishing, and the lessons that only come from living life on the road.It's funny, authentic, insightful, and packed with the kind of stories you only get when the cameras stop rolling… or when someone decides the best cure for a slump is an open-handed slap.Whether you're a tournament angler, a weekend fisherman, or simply love hearing what drives elite competitors, this is an episode you won't want to miss.

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Tim Mercer. Author of Bootstrap Millionaire and CFO of Cadence Ventures, Inc.:

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Tim Mercer. Author of Bootstrap Millionaire and CFO of Cadence Ventures, Inc.: