Podcasts about Midas

When Dionysus grants him a wish, King Midas knows exactly what he wants -- to have everything he touches turn to GOLD!Nehemiah Luckett is Midas and Eric Berryman is Dionysus."Give Me That Golden Touch" (and all of Live from Mount Olympus music and songs) was composed, arranged and produced by Magdalini Giannikou. Lyrics and vocal production by Malena Marcase. Music performed by Banda Magda. Songs mixed and mastered by Tom Beuchel. Music direction by Magdalini Giannikou and Nehemiah Luckett.

Ready to eliminate the hidden problems slowing down your agency growth? In this episode, we delve into the challenges of lead generation, contact rates, and the impact of recent phone system changes on insurance sales. We explore practical solutions like managing phone numbers, leveraging AI, and optimizing dialing strategies to boost sales efficiency.Learn why clear expectations, measurable standards, and consistent coaching are the keys to building a high-performance insurance agency without the chaos.Join the elite ranks of P&C agents. Sign up for Agent Elite today and get exclusive resources to grow your agency!

Richard Green is Director of Institutional and Ecosystem at Rootstock Labs, a core contributor to Rootstock, the Bitcoin sidechain that has been quietly running for eight years and now anchors a growing slice of institutional Bitcoin DeFi. Based in London, Green came to crypto through fifteen years in traditional finance — a decade at Bloomberg working with banks and high-frequency trading desks, followed by a stint at Circle building out the European stablecoin business — before going further down the Bitcoin rabbit hole when emerging-market clients made clear they wanted something more than a dollar wrapper. Why you should listen Green's central argument is that the digital gold narrative, while true, is incomplete and increasingly expensive to leave unchallenged. There is roughly $260 billion in Bitcoin sitting idle on corporate treasuries, ETF balance sheets and miner books, paying 10 to 50 basis points a year in custody fees and earning nothing. That, he says, is what pristine collateral looks like when it has nowhere productive to go. Rootstock's pitch is to change the denominator: keep the security model of Bitcoin, but give holders the ability to borrow against their stack, run it through tokenized real-world asset vaults, or deploy it into native yield strategies without selling a single satoshi. The first product out of the new institutional unit, launching in the next month, is a Bitcoin-collateralized loan aimed squarely at miners who are sitting on inventory but still need to pay the power bill. The proof points are no longer theoretical. Mercado Bitcoin recently deployed $20 million of tokenized private credit on Rootstock, with a $100 million target by April, giving Bitcoin holders Brazilian receivables and corporate debt exposure they would otherwise struggle to access. In Japan, where Green sees an unusually crypto-curious institutional base, Rootstock has partnered with Animoca Brands Japan to bring corporate treasury and BTCFi tooling to a market that historically follows rather than leads but is now reportedly seeing 80% of investors plan crypto allocations within the year. Midas, Hyperithm and other ecosystem builders are stacking institutional-grade vaults on top of the chain, with custody handled through the usual professional suspects — Fireblocks, Fordefi and Utila — and Green argues spreading risk across providers and protocols is the obvious lesson from a year of high-profile DeFi hacks. Where the conversation gets provocative is on what Bitcoin actually competes with. Green draws on Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan's framing of Bitcoin as an out-of-the-money call option on becoming a payment instrument, and argues that the real prize is the roughly half of global savings parked in fine art and real estate — illiquid stores of value that Bitcoin, once composable through chains like Rootstock, can simply do better. He is candid about the risks, too: concentration in a handful of ETFs and the dominance of Strategy as the largest non-Satoshi holder are not trivial, even if he thinks the diversification of providers is happening fast enough. His closing critique is one the institutional crowd will recognize — DeFi has an institutional-grade communications problem, and until protocols learn to handle incidents the way Circle handled its de-peg, the larger pools of capital will keep migrating to centralized custody. Stick around for his sketch of what a five-year transition to Bitcoin-backed mortgages and productive retail BTC actually requires. Supporting links Stabull Finance Rootstock Labs Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.  

I sat down with Patrick from Ampli live at ConsenSys in Miami for a wide-ranging conversation that ran nearly an hour, and for good reason. Patrick went from studying political science in Germany and France to becoming a crypto tokenomics advisor, and now co-founder of Ampli, a company building the security infrastructure for AI agents that manage money. We got into why blockchain was essentially built for AI before AI even existed, how Ampli's Agent Control Room lets fund managers discover, deploy, and control agents without ever handing over the keys, and why 90% of crypto exploits last year came down to human error rather than smart contract bugs. We also talked about the future of stablecoins as geopolitical tools, why DeFi is bottoming out like the post-dotcom era before a decade-long bull run, and what a world looks like where every phone has a personal banker inside it. This is one of those conversations packed with insight for founders, fund managers, and anyone paying attention to where finance is actually heading. Disclaimer:Nothing mentioned in this podcast is investment advice and please do your own research. It would mean a lot if you can leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share this podcast with a friend. Be a guest on the podcast or contact us - https://www.web3pod.xyz/ Connect: https://ampli.net/ Key points with time stamps: • [00:00] Patrick introduces himself, political science background in Germany and France, discovered Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2016, drawn in by smart contracts as a governance solution• [04:00] What Ampli is building, agentic capital management infrastructure that lets AI agents autonomously transact money and digital assets securely• [08:00] Why Ampli pivoted from consumer products to infrastructure, the agent capability grew faster than the security stack beneath it• [12:00] How Ampli's separation of powers works, agents only send suggestions, policies are written on-chain, and the agent never holds the keys• [16:00] The 90% statistic, security researchers found that over 90% of exploited crypto funds last year came from human error, social engineering, and front-end spoofing, not smart contract bugs• [20:00] Why blockchain was built for AI before AI arrived, it is cumbersome for humans but perfect for machines transacting value at scale• [25:00] What comes next in the agentic space, purpose-built agents, agent marketplaces, and agents subcontracting other agents• [30:00] The Visa study showing 90% of stablecoin transactions on Ethereum in 2024 were done by bots, proof the rails are ready for machine-to-machine finance• [35:00] DeFi trends, Patrick's thesis that DeFi is bottoming out like the post-dotcom era, with tokenization and institutional adoption set to drive a decade-long secular bull run• [40:00] Companies Patrick admires, Midas for disciplined tokenization and Fortify for MPC-based self-custody• [44:00] Ampli's Agent Control Room, their first product, letting fund managers discover, deploy, benchmark, and control agents• [48:00] Crypto's real product-market fits, stablecoins, yield, gambling, capital gains, and front-loading liquidity through ICOs and TGEs• [52:00] Stablecoins as geopolitical tools, how the US chose private stablecoins over CBDCs to spread dollarization globally, and what a future AI-native monetary primitive might look like• [56:00] Advice for founders, listen to potential clients obsessively, build toward customer needs, and always push toward profitability so investors chase you

Sadece daha fazla çalışarak finansal özgürlüğe ulaşabileceğimizi sanmak, günümüz ekonomik dünyasının en büyük yanılgılarından biridir. Midas Podcast'in bu bölümünde, parayı sadece çalışarak kazanmanın ötesine geçiyor; onu doğru yönetmenin ve yatırımla büyütmenin şifrelerini çözüyoruz. Amatörler ile profesyonelleri ayıran bu sırları öğrendikten sonra, finansal geleceğinize ve portföyünüze çok daha farklı bir gözle bakacaksınız. İyi dinlemeler. İyi dinlemeler. Midas uygulamasını indir: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://app.getmidas.com/gmih/mie6gpeu⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X (Twitter): ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/getmidas⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/get_midas/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@midasplus⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@midasinkulaklari⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

In this episode, we cut through the BS around lead generation and show you how elite agencies win regardless of lead quality by having the right systems, follow-up, and discipline. If you're tired of chasing bad leads or wasting money, this is the no-fluff strategy guide you've been waiting for.In this episode:Why lead quality is less important than process and environmentThe critical role of response time, persistence, and follow-up cyclesHow elite agencies standardize scripts and roles for consistency and resultsThe economics of lead conversion and creating predictable revenue streamsThe discipline and operational discipline that separates winners from quittersJoin the elite ranks of P&C agents. Sign up for Agent Elite today and get exclusive resources to grow your agency!

Bienvenidos a Salud Financiera. Un programa diario dónde puedes aprender y preguntar sobre finanzas personales y mercados financieros.En este episodio de las Finanzas de Tu Vecino un oyente nos cuenta su cartera Core-Satélite muy influenciada por una apuesta en oro y en tendencias con una alta rentabilidad reciente. Apoya al podcast siendo Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SaludFinanciera645No te pierdas nada de nuestra comunidad: https://linktr.ee/misaludfinancieraCurso de Análisis Práctico de Fondos de Inversión: https://tr.ee/EQwII4Curso de ETFs disponible en https://hotmart.com/es/marketplace/productos/de-cero-a-inversor-en-etfs/U91482169YCurso de Fondos disponible en https://hotmart.com/es/marketplace/productos/de-cero-a-inversor-en-fondos/O93564337IPuedes enviar tus preguntas al email preguntas.saludfinanciera@gmail.com o el teléfono 614239639.Colaboradores del PodcastIndexa Capital: https://bit.ly/indexacapitalsaludfinancieraTrade Republic: https://trade.re/saludfinanciera

In this episode, Raj, Ashwin, and Eddie sit down with Dr. Vincent Rajkumar — Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic and Chair of the ECOG Myeloma Committee — for a clinically focused conversation on newly diagnosed multiple myeloma. Topics span baseline workup, risk stratification, induction selection, transplant timing, MRD-directed decision-making, and maintenance strategy. The episode closes with a discussion of Open Medicine, a new medical education platform, and Dr. Rajkumar's ongoing advocacy on drug pricing reform.KEY TOPICS DISCUSSEDBaseline workup: 24-hour urine protein: It is important to obtain 24-hour urine protein with electrophoresis and immunofixation in all newly diagnosed patients — not for diagnosis, but to establish a baseline for long-term management and to distinguish M-protein from albuminuria. In patients where an FLC ratio ≥100 is the sole myeloma-defining criterion, a 24-hour urine Bence Jones protein ≥200 mg is part of the diagnostic threshold for treatment initiation. Myeloma cast nephropathy: when to biopsy: An involved FLC ≥50 mg/dL supports a presumptive diagnosis of cast nephropathy and treatment can begin without a kidney biopsy. Below this threshold — particularly if renal involvement is the sole myeloma-defining event — kidney biopsy is warranted to exclude light chain deposition disease, MPGN, or other unrelated disorders. It warrants aggressive early treatment (Dara-VCD or Dara-VD), starting even before bone marrow results are available when the diagnosis is clinically clear.Solitary plasmacytoma [with or without minimal bone marrow involvement]: Patients with ~10% clonal plasma cells technically meet criteria for myeloma, but management in this borderline zone warrants shared decision-making. Solitary plasmacytoma as sitting between smoldering myeloma and overt myeloma on the disease spectrum. Risk stratification: revised IMWG criteria: The new revision aimed to keep the high-risk designation to ≤15–20% of patients. Del 17p alone confers high-risk status. TP53 mutation without del 17p is exceedingly rare and FISH alone captures the vast majority of cases. All other cytogenetic abnormalities (t(4;14), t(14;16), t(14;20), 1q gain, 1p deletion, biallelic 1p) require at least one co-occurring abnormality to define high risk. Elevated β2-microglobulin with normal renal function is retained as a proxy for high tumor burden. Emergent indications for treatment initiation: The three situations warranting urgent treatment are acute cast nephropathy (days matter for renal recovery), cord compression (surgery vs. radiation vs. systemic therapy determined by acuity), and hypercalcemia. Induction regimen selection: For fit, transplant-eligible patients, the preferred induction is a quadruplet — Dara-VRd or Isa-VRd — with dose adjustment as needed. Triplets (Dara-Rd or Isa-Rd) are reserved for those unable to tolerate a quadruplet even with dose reduction. Carfilzomib-based induction is not favored: head-to-head data show no benefit of KRd over VRd in NDMM, and the cost differential is substantial. Lenalidomide dosing: Starting dose should be individualized: 15 mg for patients over 75, those with small body habitus (

In Mike Papantonio's A Death in Arcadia (Arcade Publishing, 2026) Nicholas “Deke”Deketomis Returns to Face His Darkest Case Yet—And His Own Haunted Past When fifteen-year-old Trayvon Clapper is murdered by a guard at Camp B in Florida, his fringe-living mother and boyfriend come to Bergman-Deketomis to file a lawsuit against the facility. Details of the case trigger in Deke memories of his own troubled childhood. As a boy, Deke had no stable parents around him, so he lived with several different families over the years as he grew up, avoiding the foster care system. However, his best friend, Bucky, was not so fortunate. He, too, was killed in a similar facility… and Deke has carried within him a powerful guilt that he has never talked about to anyone, including his wife and children. Cara Deketomis, Deke's daughter, is a young lawyer at the firm also working on the case. She comes to recognize the pain her father is feeling but she does not have the ability to break through to the truth. An opportunity in Cara's personal life also hammers a wedge between father and daughter, adding more stress to the situation. Meanwhile, investigation into the case uncovers a hidden threat that could endanger everyone at the law firm. A corrupt Congressman, Bob Minds, and his shady colleague, Skyler Bannock, are “fixers” for Phoenix Industries, the parent company of Camp B and other child “protective” services facilities that do anything but that. Minds and Bannock resort to nefarious crimes to make Phoenix's problems go away,i ncluding bribery, intimidation, and even murder. And then there's Skyler's brother, Midas, a killer straight out of a nightmare, who does the team's dirtiest work. Will the ugly forces behind the scenes wreak lethal havoc on Deke and his team? Will the echo of Deke's guilt get in the way of a successful legal action against Phoenix? In the tradition of The Middleman, Suspicious Activity, and Inhuman Trafficking, Papantonio takes Deke and his cohorts on a new and different kind of legal gamble, but full of the action and thrills for which he is known. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In Mike Papantonio's A Death in Arcadia (Arcade Publishing, 2026) Nicholas “Deke”Deketomis Returns to Face His Darkest Case Yet—And His Own Haunted Past When fifteen-year-old Trayvon Clapper is murdered by a guard at Camp B in Florida, his fringe-living mother and boyfriend come to Bergman-Deketomis to file a lawsuit against the facility. Details of the case trigger in Deke memories of his own troubled childhood. As a boy, Deke had no stable parents around him, so he lived with several different families over the years as he grew up, avoiding the foster care system. However, his best friend, Bucky, was not so fortunate. He, too, was killed in a similar facility… and Deke has carried within him a powerful guilt that he has never talked about to anyone, including his wife and children. Cara Deketomis, Deke's daughter, is a young lawyer at the firm also working on the case. She comes to recognize the pain her father is feeling but she does not have the ability to break through to the truth. An opportunity in Cara's personal life also hammers a wedge between father and daughter, adding more stress to the situation. Meanwhile, investigation into the case uncovers a hidden threat that could endanger everyone at the law firm. A corrupt Congressman, Bob Minds, and his shady colleague, Skyler Bannock, are “fixers” for Phoenix Industries, the parent company of Camp B and other child “protective” services facilities that do anything but that. Minds and Bannock resort to nefarious crimes to make Phoenix's problems go away,i ncluding bribery, intimidation, and even murder. And then there's Skyler's brother, Midas, a killer straight out of a nightmare, who does the team's dirtiest work. Will the ugly forces behind the scenes wreak lethal havoc on Deke and his team? Will the echo of Deke's guilt get in the way of a successful legal action against Phoenix? In the tradition of The Middleman, Suspicious Activity, and Inhuman Trafficking, Papantonio takes Deke and his cohorts on a new and different kind of legal gamble, but full of the action and thrills for which he is known. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

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Are high turnover and ineffective leadership draining your agency's culture and momentum? In this no-fluff episode, we break down how emotional burnout, unclear expectations, and toxic environments are killing your growth and reveal proven strategies to fix it fast. You'll discover how to build loyalty, create stability, and keep your team engaged with practical tactics like celebrating activity, defining clear career paths, and maintaining consistent leadership, so your agency can thrive without the chaos.Join the elite ranks of P&C agents. Sign up for Agent Elite today and get exclusive resources to grow your agency!

Merkez bankası piyasayı her düştüğünde kurtarmayı bırakırsa portföyünüzdeki varlıklara ne olacağını hiç düşündünüz mü? Midas Podcast'in bu bölümünde, Kevin Warsh ile başlayan yeni "gizemli" Fed döneminin şifrelerini çözüyor; bankalardan teknoloji hisselerine, küresel dolardan BIST 100'e kadar yatırımlarınızı bekleyen devasa değişimi masaya yatırıyoruz. İyi dinlemeler. Midas uygulamasını indir: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://app.getmidas.com/gmih/mie6gpeu⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X (Twitter): ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/getmidas⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/get_midas/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@midasplus⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@midasinkulaklari⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Midas'ın Kulakları: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.getmidas.com/midasin-kulaklari⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Not: Bu içerik, içeriğin yayınlandığı günkü veriler ve haberler baz alınarak hazırlanmıştır. Eğer varsa içerikte geçen hedef fiyat tahminleri, uzman ve analist yorumları bu içeriğin yayınlandığı tarihte geçerlidir. Bu tahmin ve yorumlar zaman içinde değişkenlik gösterebilmektedir. Bu podcast'te yer alan haberler ve haberlerin içerdiği şirketler hakkındaki bilgiler yatırım danışmanlığı kapsamında değildir. Bahsi geçen hisselerdeki; hisse adı, fiyatı ve grafikleri de dahil temsilidir, yatırım tavsiyesi değildir.

Welcome to the debut of The Production Geeks. In this inaugural episode, Mike Sorrentino and Dave Shaw (VP, Content and Creative Engineering) pull back the curtain on the technical evolution of Sorrentino Media. Transitioning from their long-running Media Offline series, Mike and Dave pivot toward the "work that goes into the work," focusing on high-level engineering and the "raw" reality of complex production.  Inside this episode, Mike and Dave dive deep into:The Philosophy of Certainty: Why their core product isn't live streaming, but the guaranteed reliability of a broadcast signal—from midtown studios to electric airplanes.  Studio 6: The Madison Ave Build: A technical post-mortem of their 37th & Madison facility, moving from a "gut reno" to a fully remote-controlled, versatile studio 2.0.  The "Nerd" Stack: An on-the-spot technical tour showcasing LiveU cellular bonding, Blackmagic Design routing, and the integration of vMix and Hollyland comms.  Engineering the Board: A breakdown of their Behringer X32 audio workflow and why specialized engineering beats "cookie-cutter" setups every time.  Whether you're a CTO looking for mission-critical reliability or a fellow production nerd obsessed with signal flow, Mike and Dave share the "10% of ideas" that actually make it to the air.  Recorded Live at Madison Ave Live Studios, NYC.CHAPTERS0:00 Intro – “It's Production Geeks time” & show concept0:08 What is Production Geeks? – Nerds vs. geeks, solving technical problems for clients3:25 Keeping It Raw – Embracing mistakes, “we don't sell video, we sell certainty,” Goose Island IPA segment6:08 Studio Origin Story – Moving to Studio Six, “bomb went off” space, rebuilding the room9:59 Live Studio Tour – LU-Smart / LiveU bonding, cameras, acoustics, control room & vMix14:54 Routing & Infrastructure – Blackmagic VideoHub 40x40, “anything to anywhere,” Apple TV/Oscars example19:49 Audio Deep Dive – Behringer X32 Compact, Midas preamps, buses, IFB, and why audio is always overlooked25:45 Cameras & Comms – Blackmagic studio cams, Video Assist, SDI vs HDMI, Hollyland comms, SpaceComms cloud IFB36:15 Building the Right Toolset – From Discord hacks to a versatile, client-ready backbone in Studio 2.037:30 Wrap-Up & Call to Action – Topics/guest invites, relationships with vendors, where to watch/listenBRAND STORYTELLING | FULL SERVICE VIDEO PRODUCTIONProfessional Branded Video Production Storytelling Experts#SorrentinoMedia | Full-Service Video Production Company including LiveStreaming services232 Madison AvenueSuite 1002New York, NY 10016mike@sorrentinomedia.com (212) 203-8419www.SorrentinoMedia.com https://www.sorrentinomedia.com/contact-sorrentino-media

Artan enflasyon beklentileri ve zorlu piyasa koşulları karşısında varlıklarımızı nasıl koruyacağımız her zamankinden daha kritik bir soru. Midas Podcast'in bu bölümünde adeta tavşan deliğinden içeri giriyor; blokzincirin nasıl çalıştığından madencilerin harcadığı enerjiye kadar Bitcoin'i tüm yönleriyle ele alıp portföylerimizdeki ideal yerini tartışıyoruz. İyi dinlemeler. Midas uygulamasını indir: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://app.getmidas.com/gmih/mie6gpeu⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X (Twitter): ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/getmidas⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/get_midas/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@midasplus⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@midasinkulaklari⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Başarılı olmak sadece öylece "gerçekleşiveren" bir durum değildir; piyasanın arka planındaki profesyonel dinamikleri okumayı gerektirir. Midas Podcast'in bu bölümünde, savaş çığlıklarına rağmen Bitcoin'i 82 bin doların üzerine taşıyan opsiyon masası stratejilerini, güçlü ETF girişlerini ve makroekonomik rüzgarları detaylıca inceliyoruz. Sadece fiyat hareketlerine değil, likiditenin yönüne odaklanarak kripto piyasasındaki yeni fırsatları ve potansiyel riskleri masaya yatırıyoruz.  İyi dinlemeler. Midas uygulamasını indir: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://app.getmidas.com/gmih/mie6gpeu⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X (Twitter): ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/getmidas⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/get_midas/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@midasplus⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@midasinkulaklari⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Midas'ın Kulakları: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.getmidas.com/midasin-kulaklari⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Not: Bu içerik, içeriğin yayınlandığı günkü veriler ve haberler baz alınarak hazırlanmıştır. Eğer varsa içerikte geçen hedef fiyat tahminleri, uzman ve analist yorumları bu içeriğin yayınlandığı tarihte geçerlidir. Bu tahmin ve yorumlar zaman içinde değişkenlik gösterebilmektedir. Bu podcast'te yer alan haberler ve haberlerin içerdiği şirketler hakkındaki bilgiler yatırım danışmanlığı kapsamında değildir. Bahsi geçen hisselerdeki; hisse adı, fiyatı ve grafikleri de dahil temsilidir, yatırım tavsiyesi değildir.

Rhiannon Ward, owner of Phipps Insurance Agency, is building more than just a business, she's creating impact by giving back to her community through the Allstate Foundation Helping Hands grant.In this episode, we break down why most teams don't fail because of people, they fail because of systems. From fixing messy onboarding to setting clear expectations and using data instead of emotion, Rhiannon shares what actually moves the needle in sales performance. If you've ever felt stuck blaming leads, team members, or results, this conversation will shift your perspective and show you what really needs to change.Join the elite ranks of P&C agents. Sign up for Agent Elite today and get exclusive resources to grow your agency!

Joel Sanchez is an American Volleyball coach. A New York product, he played competitively for club Mocha and was a standout at Lehman College. Once he entered coaching, he hit the ground running, with a "Midas touch" on every single program in which he was involved. From club to college to adult pros, wherever there is success, there he is, with a list entirely too long for the description. To date, he is the program director of Legacy Volleyball Club, where his work won him national director of the year in 2022. 04:19 - Legacy volleyball: the idea, the pioneering, the ascension, providing a place of safeness and escapism. 18:22 - NYC being the pandemic ground zero and how the club survived, catching up on 25 years of playing and coaching (for our "people"), being raised in a culture where taking care is first contact is never an issue. 28:28 - Remembering Guillermo Ramos, the hardest hitter we have ever seen, the invincibility of Bameso in 2004-2005, the "beauty" of Desmond "Shadow" Hamilton 38:31 - Why Omar Vargas was the most important coach in NYC from 1994-2004, the majority or NYC coaches in the 2000's were active players with little guidance trying to figure it out - and did they, ever, about Justin Stack, Dan Skillins, Krishna Daas, Danial Levant 52:26 -Personalizing your work: does it work more for you or against you? Plus, how do you set up an environment where people want to come to practice. 1:06:35 - The golden rule of coaching girls and women vs coaching boys and men, plus the moment we realized players changed and we stayed the same, about Jackie Meadow, why do we need a degree to coach? 1:22:22 - finding ways to coach and eat in the South Bronx, plus, more NYC talk, about Elvis Rodriguez, Mike Salak, Seidu Ajanako 1:30:01 - a coach's wild dream is for a player to say they are a better person because of them, and open letter to Joel Sanchez, thanks to the players who picked up the phone and said "yes."

It's the biggest body of water in the news, so what exactly is it and how did it become so critical? Broneil and Midas hop in the boat and cruise on down to the Strait of Hormuz to clue you guys into some interesting facts, both contemporary and historical that should shed some light on the current situation. Plus, you'll probably laugh and that's always a blessing in our World. #globalaffairs #foreignpolicy #iran #hormuz

Ric Payne has been thinking about how accountants build better practices for decades. If you have been in the industry for a while, you likely know about Ric Payne. He co-founded Results Accounting Systems in 1992, ran the Accountants Boot Camp across multiple continents, and worked with thousands of firms around the world. His conclusion? High-performing firms are selective about who they work with. The conversation also features Ian Brennan, director of Accounting Practice Academy (APA), a PGA workshop. Ian and Ric discuss how intentional client selection is foundational to everything else a firm tries to do; from pricing and marketing to advisory services and succession planning. This episode is for firm owners curious about how strategic client selection creates pricing power and referral momentum, practitioners ready to build a client base that supports an advisory practice, CPA firm leaders wondering how to increase net profit without simply chasing more revenue, and accountants who want to build a practice they are genuinely excited to show up for.Timestamps:0:00 - Introduction to The Accountant's Flight Plan podcast and guests3:11 - Overview of the episode: client selection and Ric's white paper6:42 - Why having no client criteria means having no strategy7:33 - Steve Jobs on what not to do: the decision framework that changed Ric's approach9:01 - The four growth profiles: fast-start satisfier, opportunistic harvester, & the patient builder15:15 - The founder's gap vs. the Midas gap: two very different CPA firm outcomes19:07 - Baker's Law: bad clients drive out good clients20:54 - Why partners with lower utilization often have the highest net profit per partner23:18 - Systems theory: your CPA firm is perfectly designed for the results it gets26:58 - John Wooden's definition of success and why it applies to accounting firm owners32:53 - Case study: UK accounting firm replaces ten 1,000-pound clients with one 10,000-pound client37:01 - Dealing with imposter syndrome when stepping into an advisory role41:11 - The 11 client selection criteria: the full walkthrough begins57:05 - Roger Martin's Playing to Win [https://www.amazon.com/dp/142218739X ]and how it applies to accounting practice management1:00:44 - Brannon on how the criteria tie back to personality, results, and client experience1:05:46 - APA lesson: You cannot market your accounting firm if you don't know who your clients are1:08:13 - How to find Ric Payne and access the client selection white paperDownload Now: https://poegroupadvisors.com/accounting-practice-academy/increase-letter/Price increases are nothing to fear. The real challenge is effectively informing clients of these changes. Our templates will help you demonstrate your value and help clients understand the increases necessary to keep your firm afloat.*Download now and receive:*- (1) Major Fee Increase Letter Template- (1) 20% Fee Increase Letter Template

Caught between conservative care and a large spine surgery, the MILD procedure offers potential as the in-between. On this episode of the BackTable MSK Podcast, Interventional Radiologist Dr. Dana Dunleavy welcomes pain specialist Dr. Denis Patterson to explore the evidence, technique, and evolving role of Minimally Invasive Lumbar Decompression (MILD) procedure for lumbar spinal stenosis with neurogenic claudication. --- Get the BackTable apphttps://www.backtable.com/app --- This podcast is supported by Strykerhttps://www.stryker.com/us/en/interventional-spine/products/mild-procedure.html --- Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction04:22 - What is the MILD procedure?09:55 - Comparing Discogenic Pain to Neurogenic Claudication 19:20 - MILD Procedure Technique 22:54 - Toolbox and Workflow36:59 - MILD Makes a Difference in the Pain Management Field41:53 - Objectifying Pain Measurements and Setting Patient Expectations46:26 - Driving Mutual Understanding in Surgical Cohorts 01:00:53 - Collaboration Over Competition01:05:32 - Final Takeaways --- More about this episode Dr. Patterson explains the pathophysiology and diagnostic process, highlighting key insights from patient history and MRI findings. The physicians review technique evolution from multiple paramedian incisions and epidurograms to streamlined single midline incision access, and cross lateral oblique (CLO) fluoroscopic safety landmarks. The discussion also references the MiDAS and Cleveland Clinic studies showing pain and functional improvement with a complication rate similar to epidural steroid injections, along with promising long-term outcomes and reduced need for surgical re-intervention. This episode also tackles practical considerations, including the impact of Category I CPT codes on reimbursement, challenges in radiology reporting, privileging politics, and pathways for physician training and proctoring. --- Resources Dr. Denis Pattersonhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/denis-patterson-50ba0485/ MiDAS I (Mild Decompression Alternative to Open Surgery): a preliminary report of a prospective, multi-center clinical studyhttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20648206/ The durability of Minimally Invasive Lumbar Decompression procedure in patients with symptomatic lumbar spinal stenosis: Long-term follow-uphttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33942964/ Pacific Spine and Pain Societyhttps://pacificspineandpainsociety.com/ --- BackTable Musculoskeletal (MSK) is the go-to podcast for musculoskeletal radiologists, interventional pain specialists, and orthopedic surgeons. Download the free BackTable app to get early access to new episodes, cases, and courses curated by physicians in your specialty. ► https://www.backtable.com/app

The Preacher watches the money pile up and asks the obvious question nobody wants to hear: what exactly did it get you? Riches hoarded bring anxiety, riches lost leave nothing to pass on, and the man who has everything still can't stop wanting more. Qoheleth traces the grotesque math of greed: the more you earn, the more mouths show up to eat it, and the only dividend is watching other people spend your wealth. Even the stillborn child, he says, has more rest than the rich man who never learns to enjoy what God actually gave him.  The Rev. George Murdaugh, pastor emeritus, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study Ecclesiastes 5:8–6:9.  What does a man gain from all his toil under the sun? Solomon asked that question three thousand years ago, and it still cuts. Ecclesiastes is the Bible's most unflinching book about work, wealth, wisdom, and the ache nothing in this life can fill. It is also one of the most pastoral, because the Preacher tells the truth about death, time, and meaning without leaving the reader in despair. Pastor Booe and guest pastors from across the Synod study it verse by verse, following Solomon's argument to where it finally lands: fear God and keep His commandments.  Thy Strong Word, hosted by Rev. Dr. Phil Booe, pastor of St. John Lutheran Church of Luverne, MN, reveals the light of our salvation in Christ through study of God's Word, breaking our darkness with His redeeming light. Each weekday, two pastors fix our eyes on Jesus by considering Holy Scripture, verse by verse, in order to be strengthened in the Word and be equipped to faithfully serve in our daily vocations. Submit comments or questions to: thystrongword@kfuo.org.

We had the pleasure of sitting down with Michelle O'Connor, a seasoned insurance professional with over 25 years of experience, to talk about the ins and outs of growing a successful business. From mastering follow-ups and building consistent sales processes to leveraging technology and AI to better serve clients, Michelle shares practical insights that any entrepreneur or agent can apply.In this episode, she opens up about managing teams, implementing structure without losing flexibility, and creating systems that make business easier and more efficient.Join the elite ranks of P&C agents. Sign up for Agent Elite today and get exclusive resources to grow your agency!

On today's LIVE chat, Charlie Sykes and Matt attempted to break down a chaotic news cycle with sharp analysis and dark humor. I think we mostly succeeded. Here's what they covered:— Trump's Blasphemy and Self-Idolatry: Trump's AI-generated image depicting himself as Jesus healing or resurrecting someone, combined with his vulgar Easter “bleat,” seen as blatant blasphemy and idolatry that has even some MAGA supporters uneasy.— Trump's Escalating War with the Catholic Church: Personal attacks on Pope Leo, threats of an “Avignon papacy,” criticism of the Pope as “weak on crime,” and the difficult position this creates for conservative Catholics and convert J.D. Vance.— Evangelical Silence vs. Moral Consistency: Why many evangelicals who once criticized bad character now defend or downplay Trump's sacrilegious behavior.— Viktor Orbán's Landslide Defeat in Hungary: A major blow to authoritarianism as Orbán — backed by Trump and Putin — suffers a crushing electoral loss. But will he actually leave office?— J.D. Vance's “Everything He Touches Turns to Sh*t” Record: Vance's failed efforts in Hungary and peace negotiations, reinforcing his reverse-Midas touch.— The Blockade of the Strait of Hormuz: Trump's confusing and potentially self-defeating plan to join or escalate the blockade. Is there a method to the madness?— Eric Swalwell's Spectacular Political Collapse: Multiple allegations of sexual assault leading to his withdrawal from the California gubernatorial race, and talk of expulsion from Congress.— Amanda Ungaro, Melania Trump, and the Epstein Files: The Brazilian model's threats to expose secrets tied to Melania and the Epstein world after being detained and deported via ICE at the request of her ex-partner (a Trump ally). Does this explain Melania's bizarre press conference???— Trump's “Freedom 250” Religious Revival: Plans for a large-scale “national jubilee of prayer” and revival on the National Mall, juxtaposed against his recent blasphemous posts.— And MUCH moreSubscribe to Matt Lewis on Substack: https://mattklewis.substack.com/Support Matt Lewis at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mattlewisFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/MattLewisDCTwitter: https://twitter.com/mattklewisInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattlewisreels/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVhSMpjOzydlnxm5TDcYn0A– Who is Matt Lewis? –Matt K. Lewis is a political commentator and the author of Filthy Rich Politicians.Buy Matt's books: FILTHY RICH POLITICIANS: https://www.amazon.com/Filthy-Rich-Politicians-Creatures-Ruling-Class/dp/1546004416TOO DUMB TO FAIL: https://www.amazon.com/Too-Dumb-Fail-Revolution-Conservative/dp/0316383937Copyright © 2026, BBL & BWL, LLC

On this all new but strangely familiar edition of PBD: Veep, Veep – the US Vice President has the opposite of the Midas touch  Protest endgame – how surging fuel prices started protests and ended businesses  And Cancel culture – can we still love the art but not the artist?

Laurie Moroco is a leadership coach and speaker who helps women build confidence, communicate powerfully, and make bold decisions, because extraordinary lives begin with the courage to take action.In this episode, we unpack the real skills behind successful communication, emotional intelligence, leadership, and execution. From miscommunication in everyday conversations to leading teams, handling conflict, and creating a strong culture, this discussion highlights what truly makes the difference.We also explore why overthinking holds people back, how leaders can model behavior instead of just talking about it, and why mastering people, not just strategy, is the key to long-term growth.If you're looking to communicate better, lead stronger, and take action with more clarity, this episode will shift how you approach both business and life.Join the elite ranks of P&C agents. Sign up for Agent Elite today and get exclusive resources to grow your agency!

Laurie Moroco is a leadership coach and speaker who helps women build confidence, communicate powerfully, and make bold decisions, because extraordinary lives begin with the courage to take action.In this episode, we unpack the real skills behind successful communication, emotional intelligence, leadership, and execution. From miscommunication in everyday conversations to leading teams, handling conflict, and creating a strong culture, this discussion highlights what truly makes the difference.We also explore why overthinking holds people back, how leaders can model behavior instead of just talking about it, and why mastering people, not just strategy, is the key to long-term growth.If you're looking to communicate better, lead stronger, and take action with more clarity, this episode will shift how you approach both business and life.Join the elite ranks of P&C agents. Sign up for Agent Elite today and get exclusive resources to grow your agency!

Bill Snow, mergers & acquisitions professional and author of Mergers & Acquisitions For Dummies, shares practical insights on business, marketing, and deal-making.In this episode, we break down what really matters, why execution beats overthinking, how marketing is simply creating opportunities to sell, what valuation actually means in real-world deals, and why building value attracts opportunities instead of chasing them. A no-fluff conversation on business, growth, and making smarter moves.Join the elite ranks of P&C agents. Sign up for Agent Elite today and get exclusive resources to grow your agency!

In this episode, the crew is broadcasting straight from the legendary Barry Manilow suite at the Westgate with the one and only Las Vegas legend and former gaming regulator, Don Johnson.Don pulls back the curtain on the current state of Las Vegas casinos, sharing his unfiltered thoughts on the shift to 6-to-5 blackjack payouts, hidden slot machine odds, continuous shufflers, and outrageous $120 event parking fees. He also completely dismantles a viral gambling influencer's recent casino surveillance "exposé," explaining why the stunt is not only absolute nonsense but also broadcasts an attempted felony fraud. The conversation then travels back to the golden era of Las Vegas nightclubs. Don reveals the hilarious and genius reason he started ordering 15-liter and 30-liter Midas bottles of champagne—just to stop clubs from scamming customers by recycling fake bottle service trains! The crew also dives deep into pop culture and current events, discussing Will Smith's intimate Vegas concert, the political messaging woven into the Super Bowl halftime show, Colin Kaepernick, and the tragic Charlie Kirk college campus shooting.

“Fiction has this unprecedented power in tech spaces. The more I started talking to engineers about their technical problems, the more I realized there’s so much more that humanities could offer.” –Nina Begus About Nina Begus Nina Begus is a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, leading a research group on artificial humanities, and the founder of InterpretAI. She is author of Artificial Humanities: A Fictional Perspective on Language in AI, which received an Artificiality Institute Award, and First Encounters with AI. Webiste: ninabegus.com LinkedIn Profile: Nina Begus  Book: Artificial Humanities What you will learn How ancient myths and archetypes influence our understanding and design of AI Why the humanities—literature, philosophy, and the arts—are crucial for developing more thoughtful and innovative AI systems The dangers of limiting AI concepts to human-centered metaphors and the need for new, more expansive imaginaries How metaphors shape our interactions with AI products and the user experiences companies choose to enable The challenges and possibilities of imagining forms of machine intelligence and language beyond human templates Why collaboration between technical experts and humanists opens new frontiers for creativity and responsible technology What makes writing and artistic creation uniquely human, and how AI amplifies—not replaces—these impulses Practical ways artists, engineers, and thinkers can work together to explore new relationships and futures with AI Episode Resources Transcript Ross Dawson: Nina, it is wonderful to have you on the show. Nina Begus: Thank you for having me. Ross Dawson: You’ve written this very interesting book, Artificial Humanities, and I think there’s a lot to dig into. But what does that mean? What do you mean by artificial humanities? Nina Begus: Well, this was really a new framework that I’ve developed while I was working on the relationship between AI and fiction, and I started working on this about 15 years ago when I realized that fiction has this unprecedented power in tech spaces. So this is how it all started, but then the more I started talking to engineers about their technical problems, the more I realized there’s so much more that humanities could offer in this collaborative, generative approach that I’ve developed. I would say that now, as the field stands, it’s really a way to explore and demonstrate how humanities—as broad as science and technology studies, literary studies, film, philosophy, rhetoric, history of technology—how all of these fields can help us address the most pressing issues in AI development and use. And it’s been important to me that this approach uses traditional humanistic methods, theory, conceptual work, history, ethical approaches, but also that it’s collaborative and exploratory and experimental in this way that you can look back into the past and at the present to make a more informed choice about the future. You can speculate about different possibilities with it. Ross Dawson: Well, art is an expression of the human psyche, or even more, it is the fullest expression of humanity, and that’s what art tries to do. Also, I’m a deep believer in archetypes, human archetypes, and things which are intrinsic to who we are, and that’s something which you can only really uncover through the arts. Now we have arguably seen all these archetypes play out in real time, these modern myths being created right now in the stories being told of how AI is being created. So I think it’s extraordinarily relevant to look back at how we have depicted machines through our history and our relationship to them. Nina Begus: Yes, this is the reason why I started exploring this topic, actually, because there were so many ancient myths, these archetypal narratives that I’ve seen at the same time, both in technological products that were coming to the market and in the way technologists were thinking about it, and also in fictional products and films and novels in the way we imagined AI. I framed my book around the Pygmalion myth, but there are many, many other myths—Prometheus, Narcissus, the Big Brother narrative, and so on—that are very much doing work in the AI space. The reason why I chose the Pygmalion myth is because it’s so bizarre in many ways: you have this myth where a man creates an artificial woman, and then in the process of creation, falls in love with her. So there’s the creation of the human-like, and there’s also this relationality with the human-like. You would think this would not be a common myth, but quite the opposite—I found it everywhere I looked. It wasn’t called the Pygmalion myth, but the motif was there. I found it on the Silk Road, in ancient folk tales, in Native American folk tales, North Africa, and so on. So I think this kind of story is actually telling us a lot about how humans are not rational, how we have some very deeply embedded behaviors in us, and one of them is that we anthropomorphize everything, including machines.So I think this was a really important takeaway that we got already from the early days of AI with the first chatbot, Eliza. We’ve learned that that will be a feature of us relating to machines. Ross Dawson: So Joseph Campbell called the hero’s journey the monomyth, as in, there is a single myth. And I guess what you are doing here is—well, if you agree with that, which I’d be interested in—is that there are facets. The classic hero’s journey is quite simple, but there are facets of that monomyth, or something intrinsic to who we are, that is around this creation. And in this case, as you say, this relation we have with what we have created. Would you relate that at all to Joseph Campbell’s work? Nina Begus: I haven’t thought about it in this way, because I thought about myth and myths more and less of a storytelling issue, which here is definitely happening—the hero goes on a task, returns back changed, and maybe changes something in the community. The myths that I was looking into and the metaphors that I was exploring, primarily this huge metaphor of AI as a human mind, as an artificial reason—I think it works differently. It’s less of a narrative; it’s more of an imaginary of how or towards what we are building. I think this is a big problem, actually, because the imaginary around AI is very poor. What you get is mostly imagining machine intelligence on human terms, and a lot of people are bothered by that in the AI discourse—right, when you say the machine thinks, or the machine learns, or it has a mind, and some people go as far as to say it has consciousness. I think this kind of debate is actually not that productive. I think it’s more important to see how all these different AI products that we’ve created—and mostly when we talk about AI, people think of language models now—are very much designed as a sort of character, almost as an artificial human that, in literature, authors have been creating for a long time. So I think in that case, we can get back to a hero’s journey. But I think what I was looking at was actually more on the surface level of what kind of shortcuts we are using with these metaphors that we’re employing when building and using AI. I think the book makes a really good case showing that, yes, this is actually a very cultural technology. It’s very much informed by our imaginaries. One surprising part of it was really how hard it was to break out of this human mold. It was pretty much impossible to find examples of machines that are not exclusively human-like. I think Stanislaw Lem is one of the rare writers who can consistently deliver this kind of imaginary. Even looking at more recent works, like popular films such as Hollywood’s Ex Machina or Her, you can see how the technologists themselves would say, “Oh, we were influenced by this film,” in a way that it affirmed their product development trajectory. You can see it now, at this moment, with OpenAI launching companionship. So in many ways, not a lot has changed. Ross Dawson: Yeah, there’s a lot to dig into there. I just want to go back—in a sense, Pygmalion is a metaphor, but it’s also a myth. It is a story: creates a woman, and then falls in love with her, and then whatever happens from there. There is this, something happens, and then something else happens. That’s what a story is. I think that can impact the implicit metaphor, but coming back to the metaphor—so George Lakoff wrote the beautiful book Metaphors We Live By. I think the way the brain works is in metaphors and analogies to a very large degree. Some of those are enabling metaphors, and some of those are not very useful metaphors. I think part of your point is that some of the metaphors that we have for thinking about AI and machines are not useful. There may be, or we could create, some metaphors that are more useful. So, what are some of the most disabling metaphors, and what are some of the ones which could be more constructive? Nina Begus: Yes, So I think this main metaphor that I’ve mentioned—of AI as a human mind—is very limiting. I think it really limits the machinic potential to actually do something good with it. The fact that we’re still using the criteria that were made for humans, like different criteria developed on human language—the Turing test was one of them, right, a while ago. Now we have stricter ones. I think this tells you a lot about how we actually evaluate AI and how even these benchmarks that are supposed to be quantitative are actually often qualitative, often stories, like mini-narratives. But yeah, when we look at different metaphors in this space, there are other ones that also emerge from fiction. I mentioned the Big Brother, the AI as an Oracle, and we need to be aware that these ideas inform the very interaction we have with AI. If we think of it as a mirror, we’re going to use it differently—it’s almost as a bouncing board. If we think of it as a teacher, or as a coach, or as an assistant, it would again create a different use. So I think there are a lot of these metaphors that the companies themselves are trying to decide which one they will go with, because it completely changes the user and the interaction. I think they’re also very cultural, even though you might say, “Oh, it’s a categorical mistake to treat a machine as a human.” I think you can see this kind of treatment across, at least in part, and it doesn’t mean that we consider it human. It just means that we’re engaging with it on our own terms, as if it was human. Now, what could be productive? I do think metaphors, even if they’re not accurate, can be productive. My goal, really, with the book was to break out of this projection of what the machine could be, to find in this exploratory way other directions, other landscapes where we couldn’t go because we’re being limited by our imaginary, by our ideas. So in this way, I think humanistic approaches can be very helpful to designers, to technology builders, to artists, to explore the novelty that so many of these sectors are after. Ross Dawson: Yeah, and I guess people latch on to what they know. I think that’s part of the thing where with AI, “Oh, it’s like a human. Let’s treat it like a human, and let’s make it like a human.” It is, amongst other things, a lack of imagination. That’s where the humanities, the arts, can offer us—those who have the imagination to be able to envisage different possibilities or relationships. But I guess part of it is also that humans relate, and so we have learned to relate to other humans and also to other animals and hopefully to nature as well. But these are all established patterns of relating. So do we need to discover in ourselves new ways of relating to new categories—things which are not humans, not animals, and not nature? Nina Begus: Exactly, this is the exact problem we’re dealing with, and because we’re dealing with a yet unexplored, yet undefined relation, and we’re using old, outdated terms for that relation. This is why we don’t really have a good way of describing it and establishing it. It will take a while for this to develop, which is fine, but we need to realize that there are some concepts that we’re using that we better leave behind and go ahead by building new ones. This is why I think it’s really important to work in a more interdisciplinary collaboration, so that you can see what you can actually build from the technical perspective, so that you can see what these machines are actually capable of. Because you usually don’t know when you create them right?Machine learning is sort of exploratory by design. Ross Dawson: So, just to call it out more explicitly, what are the metaphors you think are the most destructive or most inappropriate, and what are some of the ones which you think are the most promising? Nina Begus: Well, I’m just writing on the Midas myth, which is sort of the opposite of the Pygmalion myth. With Pygmalion, you lean into that human imitation, but with Midas, you lean into the liminality that Midas presents as this sort of hybrid creature. I think leaning into the boundaries that we draw for ourselves—and now AI is not cooperating with them—this is where the productive part will be in actually creating something that has philosophical dignity, but also a kind of productive trajectory for the machines to go. I feel like we’re still in this first phase of developing AI, because when you look at it historically, we haven’t really moved from the conceptual and philosophical premises that were established in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s for this technology. We have now gotten the technology that caught up to the ideas from the 60s, but we’re still stuck in the same conceptual space. Ross Dawson: Yeah, very much so. And, you know, of course, what is AGI, which everyone talks about, is basically—the only way in which people seem to be able to frame it is as relative to humans, which is the only reference point we have. I mean, there’s, of course, animal intelligence, but that’s because of that. It is, again, that lack of imagination—saying, “Well, intelligence, oh, intelligence is what humans do, so let’s do something which is the same as that,” whereas there’s so much white space in what intelligence could be. I think this almost comes back to definition. When people say intelligence, the word, when they use the word intelligence, they are referring to what humans do. It’s not a general term, and so it all becomes a language problem as well, because we are so rooted to relating our language to human capabilities, as opposed to a more general potential. Nina Begus: Yes, I think you’re really on to something here, because I can see it also—because I work with animal communication researchers, and we’re finding things there that we didn’t find because we limited ourselves to thinking language is just a human production, that it needs a human subject. Now, as soon as we got rid of this presumption, we’re finding new things, things that are basically parallel to what we do in our language. So language is in a space of tension because it’s being attacked both from the animal side and from the machinic side, which is why I really focused on language in this book. It’s not a coincidence that we centered artificial intelligence in language as the interface, because this is how we relate to the world—this is our interface to talk to each other, to understand each other. I think the fact that language is coming under such pressure as an interface brings with it a lot of other concepts that are being challenged. Are only humans creative? Is there a natural creativity, machinic creativity? Is there a different kind of intelligence that’s maybe solely biological, embodied? How do we think about cognition? How do we think about culture? In AI and in the natural world, there’s so much that comes with it: agency, autonomy, freedom, community, which I think we will be grappling with for the next few decades, at least. Ross Dawson: I think you alluded before to the potential for AI to have its own languages.  Nina Begus: I’ts happening already. The reason why I like Stanislaw Lem so much is because he can actually think about a machine—back in the 1970s, he’s doing that—about a machine that’s not human-like, that’s not limited to human language. It is trained on human language, but then it goes its own way, where the human linguistic ceiling just cannot go anymore. We’re already seeing that in the models, in Berkeley’s Biological Artificial Intelligence Lab, in the models that are not large language models, but generative adversarial networks that are based on speech. We see that as they are learning the words, they are encoding some information into silences that we don’t know what it is. I think what’s really exciting to me are two things about language in machines. The first one is, what is this non-human production of language? We did not think that non-humans can produce language, even though we had parrots who had to crawl their way to us to speak in “humanese,” to show that they have some kind of intelligence—even if it’s just parroting, even if it’s just what we call imitation, which some people consider not to be intelligence. We’ve had these examples before, but now it’s gotten nuclear—on this scale that LLMs are performing, it’s really challenged a lot of our solely human attributes: creativity, storytelling. A lot of journalists come to me because there’s this existential fear of machines taking over their work and so on. So we’ve been thinking about those things, and now it’s actually happening. Ross Dawson: One of the other key points here, I think, is that humanity is—the arts—there’s so much, as you mentioned, in terms of fiction, in terms of films, in terms of visual arts, and many other artistic domains. We have reference points that we use, and the amount which people refer to the movie Her in the last years is pretty extraordinary, partly because it’s obviously coming very much true. I think the Ex Machina story is very interesting as well, as are many others in the past. But there is also this act of imagination. There are people who have written these books, who have crafted these films, who have created these things, and they are the ones who have been not just manifesting our human psyche, but also pushing that out and coming up with ideas which others haven’t had, to give us something. So one thing we can certainly do is mine and dig into what has been created. But is there a way to interface through this to this act of imagining, which can give us new artifacts and ways of thinking and ways of relating? Nina Begus: Yes, I think imagination and humanities in general are going to become more and more important, because AI will do a lot of technical work, but imaginaries—this is what we really excel at. It’s actually interesting to see how you think fiction is this unbounded landscape where you can imagine anything, and yet it’s really hard to find examples of machines that are beyond the human. Even these writers, like the screenwriters for Her and Ex Machina, create these completely Pygmalion-esque films, where you have an artificial woman leading a relationship with a human man, and so on. For the whole film, you have her act as a human-like entity. But then at the end of each of those films—well, particularly in Her—Spike Jonze really tried to break out of this and show her AI side. Basically, there was no language to describe it, so he resorted to a metaphor—the metaphor of a book, where Samantha, the operations assistant, explains that her world is falling apart, like the way words are floating further and further apart in a book. That’s how she’s able to describe it; that’s the closest she gets. And then in Ex Machina, Alex Garland really wanted to portray the world from the social robot Ava’s perspective in a visual way. He wrote down a scene, but he said, “I failed to execute it visually. I just couldn’t do it well.” So instead, he gave us a different scene that’s shot from afar, where Ava embarks onto a helicopter and she has to undergo her Turing test—the helicopter pilot cannot recognize her as a robot; he needs to think she’s a human woman. There have been attempts, I think even in Garland’s next film Annihilation, they’re trying to set the grounds for something that’s entirely new and hard to imagine. I think a big takeaway for us is this is very hard to do. Ross Dawson: Yes, well, given that context, I do want to—as in the human plus AI framing—given all of this, what is it that we can do or should be doing in order to amplify our humanity, our capabilities, the positive aspects of what it is to be human? How can we relate to or use AI in order to amplify the best of us? Nina Begus: Yeah, I actually had, while I was writing the book Artificial Humanities, this other dream project to work with writers—professional writers, creatives, people who live in a world of words—to see what they make of AI. I waited a little bit for the public’s polarized reactions to calm down a bit and gathered 16 writers, some of whom already made a space for themselves in the field, like Sheila Heti and Ken Liu and Ted Chiang, and then some of the more junior writers who I knew were thinking about that—a Netflix screenwriter, and so on. I gathered them to see—I think the creative people are really the answer here—I gathered them to see how they approach this very human part of the new human and AI collaboration zone. What was common across a lot of essays that are coming out in October under the title “First Encounters with AI” is this argument that, well, AI doesn’t have subjectivity, it doesn’t have emotions, it doesn’t have a body, it doesn’t have experience, it doesn’t have meaning—all of these things that really make us human, all of these parts that actually make art compelling and literature compelling. So Ken Liu’s argument, for example, was, let’s leave machines what they’re good at—they’re good at imitating and copying—and we’re good at interpreting, we’re good at creating and imagining. I think this is really a way to go with this. This catastrophizing that’s very present in the public discourse, I think, is a bit misleading. I wish we had a more nuanced approach to what’s actually happening, particularly in the space of writing. Obviously, AI is a groundbreaking technology that affects pretty much every one of us and all the sectors, but when it comes to writing, we just don’t think it’s killable. We think that there’s this perennial impulse that humans have to play with language, and that is not going to go away with AI. We’re just going to amplify it through AI, through this new possibility that has now opened in many ways. I like to think about AI as—you know, we’ve figured out how to fly. As soon as we figured out the physics of flight, we had planes and helicopters and drones and kites, and these are the new possibilities for human activities. In the same way, we figured out the machine learning principles, and now we have large language models and diffusion models, and we have GANs and so on, and there will be more. These are the new spaces of possibility that have opened for our activities, for our spirit to work on, but they do not replace the human in a meaningful way. It’s more about extension than it is about automation. Ross Dawson: Yeah, that’s a wonderful way of framing it. So where can people go to find out more about your work? Nina Begus: I have a pretty populated website with my name, ninabegus.com, where I write about my books, I write about my public work. I have videos on there, podcasts, links, and so on. I also have a pretty lively lab with a lot of collaborators and students, where a lot of what I imagined when writing Artificial Humanities—where a lot of collaborative projects happen. We have artists, we have engineers, we have philosophers that work on the same question, but come at it from very different backgrounds and with very different skills. I think this is becoming more and more important in the world of AI. Ross Dawson: Yes, yes, bringing all of those disciplines and frames and thinking together. That’s wonderful. I love what you’re doing—very important. I hope the messages ripple through, and obviously wonderful to be able to share this with the Humans Plus AI audience. Thank you so much. Nina Begus: Thank you, Ross, and thank you all for listening. The post Nina Begus on artificial humanities, AI archetypes, limiting and productive metaphors, and human extension (AC Ep38) appeared first on Humans + AI.

We're honored to sit down with Kirk Chester, Principal Broker at Grit Insurance Group. He shares practical insights on building and scaling a business. Specializing in blue-collar industries across multiple states, Kirk focuses on tailored solutions that help businesses manage risk and grow sustainably.In this episode, the conversation explores the importance of execution over overthinking, the power of going niche to stand out, and how AI is changing the way businesses operate. It also touches on leadership, hiring, and building systems that support long-term growth.Join the elite ranks of P&C agents. Sign up for Agent Elite today and get exclusive resources to grow your agency!

Thomas Winmill, portfolio manager for the Midas Funds, says that while war typically is good for precious metals generally, the case for gold miners being able to deliver outsized returns is particularly strong now. Moreover, Winmill says the forces that contributed to gold being up more than 50 percent in the last 12 months — despite being down more than 10 percent in the last 30 days — are intact, and while war in Iran and geopolitics generally are creating a downturn, the longer-term forces will return once there is more clarity about economies around the globe. Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, looks to a relatively young, actively managed, concentrated, equity-income fund that uses an options/derivative strategy as his ETF of the Week, noting that it's an addition to a portfolio that adds stability, but that should be used in moderation. Plus, Tom McIntyre of McIntyre, Freedman & Flynn — who was the show's first-ever Market Call guest in 2012 — returns to Money Life, bringing his news-sensitive investment style with plenty of news to talk about. McIntyre was last on the show nearly a year ago, when he was positive on energy and oil stocks; he discusses where they fit in a portfolio now, amid the turmoil in the oil business due to the war in Iran.

Hosted by David and Nycci Nellis. On today's show: · We say “Carla Hall” and you say, “ OMG – that's celebrated chef, author, Top Chef All-Star, co-host of ABC's The Chew, and former Howard U accounting major!” Then we say, “Micheline Mendelsohn, ” her partner's name, and you say that she's deputy CEO at the Sunnyside Restaurant Group, where her brother, celebrity chef Spike Mendelsohn, and the rest of the family have the hospitality Midas touch. And then we say, “Bumblebirds on Capitol Hill” and you say, “Thank God we can get Carla's amazing fried chicken again!” Carla and Micheline join us today; · Erika Polmar, executive director of the Independent Restaurant Coalition, a national trade association lobbying solely on behalf of independent restaurants and bars – operators working for operators. She's here to offer the 411 on the coalition's purpose. But, considering the fragile state of the industry these days across America, Erika also has insights on what the IRC is doing to support restaurant operations today and successful operations tomorrow; · Emily Brown, owner, Eebee's Corner Bar, tells her incredible story of building her own business against all odds;· · The National Cherry Blossom Festival is one of the DMV's great celebrations of the advent of spring. It commemorates the 1912 gift of cherry trees from the people of Tokyo to Washington, DC. Lillian Iversen is the vice president of the festival, in with info about all things cherry blossom here in town; Owen Thompson provides the drinks. He is the beverage director for Unfold Hospitality, the company behind Casa Teresa and The Square.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Beau Vincent, an insurance agency owner, leadership coach, speaker, and host of ‘The Conviction of a Leader' podcast, joins the conversation to share the leadership mindset behind building a high-performing business. After growing Vincent Family Insurance from 300 to nearly 13,000 policies, Beau now helps business owners scale with a stronger culture, clearer leadership, and better systems.In this episode, the discussion explores what it really takes to build great teams, set higher standards, develop people, and create a culture where performance and accountability thrive. It's a practical conversation on leadership, growth, and building businesses that last.Join the elite ranks of P&C agents. Sign up for Agent Elite today and get exclusive resources to grow your agency!

Tiene un rostro sereno y hermoso que muestra un gesto apacible; cara afilada, que indica resolución; nariz aguileña, signo de intrepidez; mentón saliente, distintivo del carácter; cejas pobladas pero cortas, características de nerviosismo; y un labio inferior grueso y carnoso, mayor que el superior, señal inequívoca de codicia. ¿De quién se trata? Es el rostro del rey Midas, reconstruido a la perfección por dos expertos arqueólogos británicos, John Prag y Richard Neave. Tomando como base la calavera del rey, conservada intacta en su tumba, los dos hombres rehicieron su cara con plástico y arcilla. Ese grueso labio inferior —explicaron ellos— pone de manifiesto la característica más reveladora de Midas: la codicia. Según cuenta la leyenda, Midas, rey de Frigia, era hijo del rey Gordio y de la diosa Cibeles. Un día Midas le hizo un gran favor a Sileno, dios de los bosques. Entonces Sileno lo recompensó concediéndole un favor, cualquiera que el rey le pidiera. ¿Qué pidió Midas? Haciendo resaltar su carácter codicioso, pidió que se convirtiera en oro todo lo que él tocara. Pero ese poder resultó ser su Némesis, la diosa griega de la Venganza y de la Justicia distributiva, pues le costó caro. Por no pensar en las consecuencias de su petición, Midas comenzó a verse en graves problemas. Al tocar el pan, lo convirtió en oro, y luego hizo lo mismo con la sopa y la carne. Llegó al colmo de convertir en oro a su hijita que se acercó para abrazarlo. La leyenda cuenta que Midas, por fin, se curó de su codicia bañándose en el río Pactolo. De ahí que el filósofo griego Aristóles se valiera de la lección del mítico rey Midas para enseñar que el dinero es un medio que jamás debe convertirse en un fin en sí mismo. Muchas personas, como Midas, no quieren aceptar el verdadero valor de lo que llega a sus manos. Quieren convertirlo todo en oro. Por esa desaforada codicia sacrifican lo más valioso que tienen en la vida: familia, hogar, hijos, honor y conciencia. El profeta Isaías, que vivió en el siglo octavo antes de Cristo y por lo tanto era contemporáneo del rey Midas histórico en quien se basa la leyenda, le advirtió a su pueblo sobre las consecuencias de la codicia. «En aquel día —profetizó Isaías— el hombre echará sus ídolos a las ratas y a los murciélagos, esos ídolos de oro y de plata que él mismo se hizo para adorarlos».1 Si hacemos del oro el señor de nuestra vida, entonces en vez de poseer el dinero, el dinero nos poseerá a nosotros. Por eso dice el refrán: «El dinero sea tu criado, pero no tu amo.» Y por eso advirtió Jesucristo: «¡Tengan cuidado con toda clase de avaricia! La vida no se mide por cuánto tienen.»2 Hagamos más bien de Cristo el Señor de nuestra vida. Así tendremos al Hijo de Dios, la vida misma, que vale más que todo el oro del mundo. Carlos ReyUn Mensaje a la Concienciawww.conciencia.net 1 Is 2:20 (DHH) 2 Lc 12:15 (NTV)

Go Crentes! Go! No Podcrent de número 146, Jonatha Zimmer e Tamyres Palma recebem os amigos Felipe Stresser, Deivid Ramon e Gusta (Apenas Música) para falar de uma das bandas que é trilha sonora de nossas vidas: Switchfoot. Neste Podcrent, pense sobre a importância de Switchfoot pra toda uma geração, escolha bandas pelo nome delas, descubra a ligação entre Switchfoot e a VagaBanda e se permita sonhar com um show deles no Brasil . PARTICIPANTES:– Jonatha Zimmer– Tamyres Palma– Felipe Stresser– Deivid Ramon– Gusta COISAS ÚTEIS:– Duração: 01h53m06s– Feed do Crentassos: Feed, RSS, Android e iTunes: crentassos.com.br/blog/tag/podcast/feed. Para assinar no iTunes, clique na aba “Avançado”, e “Assinar Podcast”. Cole o endereço e confirme. Assim você recebe automaticamente os novos episódios. CITADOS NO PROGRAMA:– Site Switchfoot– Instagram Switchfoot– Spotify Switchfoot– YouTube Switchfoot– Podcast “Músicas Gringas Que Me Edificam | Podcrent 69”– Site Apenas Música– Instagram Apenas Música– Podcast “Música, Além do Mainstream | Podcrent 108 (com Apenas Música)”– Relient K– Foo Fighters– Nirvana– The Police– The Beatles– Resgate– Amberlin– Vídeo com “Meant To Live” como trilha sonora de Spider-Man 2– Vídeo “P.O.D. – Sleeping Awake” (Trilha de Matrix: Reloaded)– Filme “Um Amor Pra Recordar”– Casting Cronws– House of Heroes– Trilha Sonora do filme “Um Amor Pra Recordar”– Livro “Um Amor Pra Recordar” de Nicholas Sparks– Vídeo “Switchfoot: Live in Ventura”– Vídeo “Switchfoot: Live in Rock The Boat”– Vídeo “Falso clipe Getsemani” de Leonardo Gonçalves– Vídeo “Falso clipe De Onde Vem a Calma” de Los Hermanos– Vídeo “Only Hope” por Mandy Moore– Vídeo “Only Hope” por Jon Foreman– “Someday We’ll Know” por Mandy Moore e Jon Foreman– Vídeo “Only Hope” em português por Segunda Casa– Série “This Is Us”– Música “The Shadows Prove The Shunshine” de Switchfoot– Álbum “Nothing is Sound” de Switchfoot– Música “Faust, Midas, And Myself” de Switchfoot– Música “On Fire” de Switchfoot– Texto Jesus no Caminho de Emaús– Música “More Than Fine” de Switchfoot– Carreira Solo de Jon Foremann– Música “Twenty Four” de Switchfoot– Música “The Beaultiful Letdown” de Switchfoot– Música “The Beaultiful Letdwon” por Jonas Brothers– Vídeo “Jonas Brothers convidando Switchfoot pro palco”– Palavrantiga– Música “Bem Vindo” de Tanlan– Crombie– Documentário “Fading West” de Switchfoot– Vídeo “Always” de  Switchfoot– Música “I Won’t Let You Go” de Switchfoot feat Lauren Dagle– Álbum “This is Our Christmas Album” de Switchfoot– Álbum “Let it Snow, Baby… Let ir Reindeer” de Relient K– Twenty One Pilots– Álbum “É Só Isso Aqui” de Resgate– Sleeping At Less– Colony House– Vídeo “Taylor Swift convida Jon Foreman”– Vídeo “Switchfoot tocando Bon Jovi”– Vídeo “Switchfoot tocando Crazy in Love”– Vídeo “This is Home como trilha de As Crônicas de Nárnia: Príncipe Caspian”– Matéria “As Crônicas de Nárnia de Greta Gerwig começa filmagens; veja fotos”– Vídeo “Trailer do filme O Preço do Amanhã com música do Switchfoot”– Livro “Sangue de Anjos” de Reed Arvin– Vídeo “Trailer do filme Anjos Comuns”– Música “Demons” de Imagine Dragons– Música “Sooner or Later” de Switchfoot (Trilha do filme Elektra)– Podcast “notícias de meodeus”– Matéria “Tampa Cop Shuts Down Switchfoot Frontman’s Aftershow”– Vídeo “Olivia Rodrigo é cópia de Paramore?”– Vídeo “‘É meu legado’, diz compositor que acusa Adele de plagiar música gravada por Martinho da Vila”– Vídeo “comparación entre Taj Mahal || Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?”– Vídeo “Asoka dando aquela copiada no Gladir Cabral”– Podcast “Apenas Música”– Fiction Family TRILHA SONORA DO PROGRAMA:– Músicas do Switchfoot GRUPOS DE COMPARTILHAMENTO DA CRENTASSOS:– WhatsApp– Telegram JABÁS: REDES SOCIAIS: Críticas, comentários, sugestões para crentassos@gmail.com ou nos comentários desse post. OUÇA/BAIXE O PROGRAMA:The post Switchfoot: A Trilha Sonora da Dúvida e da Fé de uma Geração Evangélica | Podcrent 146 appeared first on Crentassos Produções Subversivas.

In this episode, we sit down with Dean Bowen from Patriotic Insurance Group. He shares how he transitioned from blue-collar work into insurance and built a modern prospecting system using cold email, automation, and data. In this episode, he discusses producer development, why selling to friends and family isn't a sustainable strategy, and how younger agents can build credibility and win commercial clients in today's insurance market.Join the elite ranks of P&C agents. Sign up for Agent Elite today and get exclusive resources to grow your agency!

Brendan Keegan, a 6-time CEO and bestselling author known for scaling companies through transformational growth, shares insights on leadership, career development, and building resilient teams in a changing workplace.The conversation explores how mindset, presence, and mentorship influence professional success, why embracing failure fuels innovation, and how simplifying complexity creates room for better thinking and progress. From early leadership experiences to guiding large-scale organizations, the discussion highlights practical perspectives on overcoming self-doubt, supporting emerging talent, and fostering environments where growth can thrive.Join the elite ranks of P&C agents. Sign up for Agent Elite today and get exclusive resources to grow your agency!

TRUMP IS RIGHT: STARMER THE LOSER — Appeasement, U-Turns & £40K for Illegal Migrants | LIVE #JonGaunt #JonGauntTV #Live #Trump #Starmer #UKPolitics #IllegalImmigration #BorderSecurity #DetainDeport #MigrationCrisis #UKGovernment #EdMiliband #ShabanaMahmood Donald Trump has called Keir Starmer a loser — and looking at today's events, it's hard to argue with him. Starmer and Shabana Mahmood now want to offer illegal migrants up to £40,000 to go home. Instead of throwing taxpayers' money at the problem, why not secure our borders and adopt the only policy that works: DETER, DETAIN AND DEPORT. With more than 15 policy U-turns, Starmer seems to have the Midas touch in reverse — everything he touches turns to shit. Trump's criticism comes after Starmer reportedly refused to allow UK bases to be used in action against Iran, a decision many believe he was pushed into by figures such as Ed Miliband. Starmer held a press conference today trying to reassure the country that everything is under control. Watching it, I came away thinking something very different: the asylum system is broken and the lunatics are running the asylum in Westminster. Tonight we break it all down. Is Trump right about Starmer? Join the debate live. #JonGaunt #JonGauntTV #Live #Trump #DonaldTrump #Starmer #KeirStarmer #UKPolitics #IllegalImmigration #BorderSecurity #DetainDeport #MigrationCrisis #UKGovernment #EdMiliband #ShabanaMahmood #PoliticalCommentary #BreakingPolitics #UKNews #ImmigrationDebate #BritishPolitics Jon Gaunt, JonGauntTV, live, Trump, Donald Trump, Starmer, Keir Starmer, UK politics, illegal immigration, border security, detain detain deport, migration crisis, UK government, Ed Miliband, Shabana Mahmood, political commentary, breaking politics, UK news, immigration debate, British politics. This is political blogging and hard-hitting social commentary from Triple Sony Gold Award-winning talk radio legend, Jon Gaunt — former host on BBC, Talk Radio, and Sky News. On Jon Gaunt TV, we cut through the noise and say what others won't. No political correctness. No censorship. Just real conversations that matter.

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Episode 276-NJ’s New Felony Dingus Law  Also Available OnSearchable Podcast Transcript Gun Lawyer — Episode Transcript Page – 1 – of 14 Gun Lawyer — Episode 276 Transcript SUMMARY KEYWORDS New Jersey felony law, accidental discharge, Second Amendment, gun rights, reckless conduct, felony dingus, legal consequences, gun ownership, national reciprocity, pro-gun advocacy, government involvement, legal defense, gun laws, gun ownership statistics, gun control. SPEAKERS Evan Nappen, Teddy Nappen Evan Nappen 00:17 I’m Evan Nappen. Teddy Nappen 00:19 And I’m Teddy Nappen. Evan Nappen 00:20 And welcome to Gun Lawyer. New Jersey now officially has the felony Dingus law. That’s right, folks. It has to do with the criminalization of accidents. That’s it. They’ve been criminalized in New Jersey. Now let me explain why it’s the Dingus law. The reason I call it the Dingus law is that a number of years ago I was in Missouri. It was at the James Farm, Jesse and Frank James Farm. It was a great museum there. It’s a pretty cool place to visit if you’re into western history. You know, Jesse James and such is way up there of one of the fun topics to learn about. As a matter of fact, their famous bank robbery is still the record haul for any bank robbery in the U.S., ever. It was done by James and his gang. In terms of the amount of money stolen, in terms of the value of that money today, versus then, it is the record amount ever stolen. Evan Nappen 01:41 But the thing that’s interesting to me about what happened when I was at that museum is I’m looking at all kinds of things about historical facts about Jesse James and his life and all. I’m reading some things, and it talked about “Dingus” at certain times. You know, talking about things that were going on between him and his men. And I’m like, Dingus, who’s Dingus? So, I asked one of the museum folks there, hey, who is this Dingus that they’re talking about? He goes, oh, that’s Jesse James. What do you mean Jesse James is Dingus? Who called him, you know, Dingus and lived, right? He’s like, no, no, no, no, no. His men did. His men did. What? Why? Well, you see, Jesse was apparently playing around with his gun, practicing spinning or screwing around with it, or who knows what, and he accidentally shot two of his fingers off. It was in front of his men. He shot his fingers off, two of them, and Jesse James would never use profanity. He may have been a stone cold killer, but he would not ever use profanity. So, when he shot his two fingers off, he said, Dingus! Now, I don’t know about you, but if I shot my fingers off, I’d say something a lot more than Dingus. But I guess his men fell off their horses Page – 2 – of 14 laughing, you know, and they nicknamed him Dingus. And I guess if you were one of his men, you could bust his balls and call him Dingus and get away with it. Evan Nappen 03:36 But we call accidental discharges in my office “Dingus” cases in honor of Jesse James, of course. So, any accidental discharge is a Dingus case. Now, I once had a guy that shot himself in the hand with a Glock. And so that, of course, was a Dingus case. This was a number of years ago, and they tried to take away his firearms and his ability to be licensed under that. It wasn’t criminalized, but they did try to disenfranchise him of his gun rights. We fought it hard, and we were able to win and save his gun rights and his gun. About a year later, he shot himself in the hand again with a Sig. So, do you know what he was? He was a Double Dingus. That’s right. Evan Nappen 04:40 Anyway, this new Dingus law, and look, accidents can happen. You can drive your car and have an accident. Accidents happen. But this Dingus law that New Jersey has passed is a felony Dingus law. It now turns accidents into a New Jersey felony. A felony level offense. It’s very important that you understand this, because now it is actually law in New Jersey, and you have to know your rights. You have to stand on your rights. Or you not only risk losing your Second Amendment rights, but you also risk becoming a felon, going to State Prison, and having your life essentially destroyed over this. Because becoming a convicted felon can dramatically affect your career, and your ability to earn a living. Your existence becomes one of a second class citizen, and not just in terms of gun rights. Evan Nappen 05:52 So, I want to do a deep dive here into the felony Dingus law that New Jersey has now made law. And I want to make it clear so that you, my dear listeners, know what to do to protect yourself and hear it straight from me as to what you must do and how you must act. Because it will be difficult for some of you to do what I’m saying. It strikes to a certain degree against what might be your first reaction, but you have to do this. Otherwise the consequences can be dire. So, this new law that New Jersey passed, and it is officially law. It takes accidents and makes them felonies, accidents with firearms, into felony level offenses. And we’re going to take a look at how exactly that gets done. How the Legislature, in passing this law, has done it in such a bizarre way, or sneaky way, devious way, that the impact and reality of it is how I’m going to explain it. Evan Nappen 07:13 So, the law reads, and you can read the bill that passed. It was A4976 and was approved by Murphy as one of his parting gifts on January 20 of this year. (https://pub.njleg.state.nj.us/Bills/2024/A5000/4976_R2.PDF) It says, (1.a.) For the purposes of this act, “Recklessly” shall have the same meaning as set forth in N.J.S. 2C:2-2. Now, 2-2 is where the culpability standards for New Jersey law are laid out. Culpability is the establishment of the level of what has to be demonstrated in order to prove whether you’re culpable for the commission of that offense. These fall under the general requirements of culpability, and normally, culpability has to be proven. It’s a level of proof. Often we think of culpability as needing to show purpose fully. You do something purposefully. We do something knowingly, knowingly. But recklessly and negligently can also be culpability levels in criminal law, and New Jersey is now making “Reckless” as part of this law. Page – 3 – of 14 Evan Nappen 08:56 But reckless isn’t necessarily how you might generically think of it. It’s defined in this culpability statute as follows. So, this is where “Reckless” gets defined that they’re incorporating into the new law. (N.J.S. 2C:2-2.(3)) “Recklessly. A person acts recklessly with respect to a material element of an offense when he consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the material element exists or will result from his conduct. The risk must be of such a nature and degree that, considering the nature and purpose of the actor’s conduct and the circumstances known to him, its disregard involves a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a reasonable person would observe in the actor’s situation. ‘Recklessness,’ or ‘with recklessness’, or equivalent terms have the same meaning.” Evan Nappen 10:05 Now, if you’re having trouble wrapping your head around what I just said, we’re going to get back to it. But I wanted to give you that, initially, as we go through the bill, and I’m going to show you how it translates into reality under the felony Dingus law. So, New Jersey now says “reckless” is defined as what I just told you, and then they define structure. “‘Structure’ means any building, room, ship, vessel, car, vehicle, or airplane, and also means any place adapted for overnight accommodation of persons or for carrying of business therein.” So, any business establishment, any means of transport, and any room, building or ship is a structure, okay? Now the law says a person commits, oh, a disorderly person’s offense. Oh, well, that’s not a felony, Evan. That’s a disorderly person. It’s New Jersey’s version of misdemeanor. Yeah, I know that, but let’s keep reading. Evan Nappen 11:21 Okay, folks. “A person commits a disorderly persons offense by recklessly discharging a firearm . . .” Well, you might think, why I’d never be reckless. I’d never be reckless. “. . . by recklessly discharging a firearm using live ammunition rounds . . .” So, I guess you can recklessly discharge a blank gun, but whatever. “. . . recklessly discharging a firearm using live ammunition rounds unlawfully or without a lawful purpose, except that a second conviction for such an offense constitutes a crime of the fourth degree, and a third or subsequent conviction for such an offense constitutes crime of the third degree.” So, what happens is this. It ups the degree if you have repeat offenses. Evan Nappen 12:12 So, you say, well, look, man, if I have one problem, at least it’s just a misdemeanor, and it’s not a felony. I don’t become a felony Dingus problem in my life. Well, yeah, because here’s the next part. It says, a person who commits a violation of what I just said, subsection b., technically of this section, shall be charged with a crime of one degree higher than what ordinarily would be charged for such offense, where the violation occurs within 100 yards of an occupied structure. Whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. So, in other words, if you have an accidental discharge, and that AD was done without lawful purpose, well, if it’s an accidental discharge, what was your lawful purpose for having an accident? Of course, there wasn’t one. It’s baked into the cake. There’s no accident done lost with a lawful purpose. Of course not. So, every accident now, unless you can show there was a lawful purpose to your accident, okay? Every accident done, every accidental discharge without a lawful purpose, within 100 yards of any building, room, ship, vessel, car, vehicle, airplane, place of overnight accommodation or where business is conducted, within 100 yards of any of those occupied places, that Page – 4 – of 14 makes it a felony level offense. A felony level offense. So, now you have your accidental discharge. It’s done without a lawful purpose. Now the law says you have to recklessly discharge a firearm without a lawful purpose. Remember, I told you what reckless was under the law. Evan Nappen 14:24 Now, think about this. Let’s go back to that reckless. A person acts reckless with respect to a material element of the offense when he consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a material element will result from his conduct. Oh, conscientious disregarding a risk that you could, what? Have an accidental discharge. Meaning a discharge without a lawful purpose. And the risk must be of such a nature and degree that considering the nature and purpose of the actor’s conduct and circumstances known to him. Oh, did you know you had a gun? Yeah. Did you know that when you pull the trigger of a gun, it goes bang? Yeah. Did you happen to have ammunition? Yeah. Did you check to make sure the gun was empty? Oh, well, what’s this disregard involves a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a reasonable person would observe in the actor’s situation. Aha. Gross deviation from standard of conduct that a reasonable person would observe. A reasonable person checks to make sure their gun is unloaded. Were you unreasonable in having that accidental discharge because you failed to ensure that your gun wasn’t loaded? Evan Nappen 16:18 Well, let me tell you who’s going to answer that question. Ultimately, my friends, 12 people who aren’t smart enough to avoid jury duty. That’s who’s going to answer it. Twelve persons who most likely don’t know a whole hell of a lot about guns. And even if they do, they’re not going to like the fact that you didn’t ensure that your gun was unloaded. So, this means that if you have an accidental discharge, a Dingus within 100 yards of any of those, “occupied structures”, which basically is virtually everywhere, you’re now looking at a felony charge, which will make you a convicted felon. It will cost you your gun rights throughout the entire United States, because you’d be a convicted felon. You will face criminal prosecution in New Jersey and loss of your guns and your gun license. Evan Nappen 17:32 So, what does this mean, folks? It means, if you ever have an accidental discharge, SHUT THE F UP!!! That’s right. You do not call the police if you had an accidental issue. You don’t incriminate yourself. You don’t talk about it to anyone. They have criminalized this. You have a Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. They did not put any immunity in this law for reporting an accidental discharge. You not only have no obligation to report it, you have a specific Constitutional right now against doing it. Saying you have a right not to do it, because you have a right against self-incrimination. And they’ve made it what is a virtual, almost per se, strict liability, virtually, virtually, offense. At least, how in reality, it’s going to play out. If you have an accidental discharge within 100 yards of that structure and you didn’t have a lawful purpose, did you? Was it reasonable that you deviated from the standard of not ensuring that your gun was unloaded? You can see this felony Dingus problem here, and it now applies throughout New Jersey. Page – 5 – of 14 Teddy Nappen 19:15 One concern, though, Dad, is that. Does the law address, you know, malfunction? Because we’ve had plenty of stories, you know, from the both of the SIG 320 and / or various other pistols that do have, like, mechanical failures. Is that addressed in the law? Evan Nappen 19:34 It’s not addressed in the law. And, you know, maybe if it was an actual SIG problem that can be proven, that it was mechanical, that that would be a defense at law here. You know that would be something where they’re not going to hold the recklessness standard to your conscious disregard of known risk. However, New Jersey has brought a suit against SIG itself for the problem with those guns. I wouldn’t put it past the Government trying to argue that you should have known the risk because you possess a SIG that’s known to have these problems, and we’re suing them over it. And how did you not know that your gun might have this problem? I mean, who knows how extreme they’ll go? I think it is conceivably a good defense, but they’re still going to fight that. I assure you. Evan Nappen 20:37 But short of an actual mechanical defect in a gun, short of that, this law is a huge threat. It is essentially the equivalent of making, if we made every fender bender with a driver, a felony in New Jersey. You would then have a situation where you wouldn’t want to report any car accident. Because upon reporting it, you would immediately have a right against self-incrimination, and you’d be putting yourself in jeopardy of a felony. Well, this is what New Jersey has done with the felony Dingus law to New Jerseyans, and you need to know that. You’re going to have to stand firm on your rights. If you have an AD, the first thing you do is call your lawyer who understands criminal law and understands the gun laws, so that you can be advised on this. It’s critical. The risk here is great, and it will jeopardize your freedom, your livelihood, and your gun rights. You can get at least a year and a half as a maximum, if they go to just the fourth degree level with this offense. So, you’re looking at felony Dingus here. Teddy Nappen 22:13 There’s a bit of irony. When you think about this law, I imagine just go from their perspective. Just the twisted mindset of the gun rights suppressor. In this idea, they’re trying to cut down on accidental discharges, but they’re going to go hidden because of that exact issue. It kind of goes. I remember being explained once in boxing. They did a rule change where they banned rapid punching. You know, we could do, like quick jabs, but in doing so, they required you to punch with an extended arm. They’re like, oh, we’re gonna cut down on the injuries. But it did the opposite. Because people were getting punched with an extended arm, it would cause more concussions. So, it’s just that level of almost self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s not doing anything. It causes the very harm that it meant to prevent. Evan Nappen 22:59 It will. It will. Because now when you have this instead. Let’s say, if you have an accidental discharge, instead of investigating, seeing if it hits somebody or something, or where, when or what it did, you’re going to jeopardize yourself criminally. Now you have to stand on your rights. You’re going to have to just take the Fifth immediately and stand on your rights. Call your attorney. It’s completely criminalized, criminalized. And because of that, your criminal due process rights kick in. And we might, you know, Page – 6 – of 14 normally if they were smart, they would have had an immunity for reporting it. But they don’t. They don’t. There’s no immunity here. If you report it, you’re putting yourself in jeopardy, and you’re giving up your Fifth and Sixth amendment rights by so doing. It is a stupid law. It is not just a Dingus felony, a Dingus law. It is a law passed by Dinguses and signed by Dinguses. It is literally the felony Dingus law, and so aptly named. Evan Nappen 24:10 Hey, on a different subject. Real quick, I just want to mention a landmark little factoid that I think you’ll find pretty cool. The U.S. has broken the firearm ownership number of 500 million. There are over 500 million privately owned firearms in the United States. Boy, that is fantastic. (https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/us-civilian-gun-ownership-500-million/) Teddy Nappen 24:49 We need to get those numbers up. Evan Nappen 24:52 Yeah, right. We need to get those numbers up. According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, civilian gun ownership in the U.S. has surpassed the 500 million mark, reaching an estimated 506 million firearms, and the more guns means the more impossibility of banning and seizing them. There is strength in numbers. This figure is based on Federal Manufacturing and import data compiled from 1990 through 2023 using ATF records. And the estimate accounts for firearms manufactured domestically and sold, as well as firearms imported for the commercial market. It also said that there’s continued growth with the ARs in America. Since 1990, 32 million AR-type rifles have entered circulation. 32 million ARs. Talk about being in common use. 32 million. Kind of says it all. Anyway, so we’re way up there. And it says, looking specifically, by the way, at 2023, they said a total of 13,574,653 firearms were made available to the U.S. market when imports were included. So, that was that one year, 2023, over 13 million. Handguns accounted for the majority, with 8,176,000 units, followed by 3,899,000 rifles and 1,498,000 shotguns. So, this is great news. We are definitely the land of firearms, and the Second Amendment is strong in numbers. We’ve broken the 500 million mark for U.S. gun ownership. Evan Nappen 27:23 One other quick note here that I find. A little tidbit here, and this is from militarynyi.com. Mossburg has received a new contract from the Pentagon for about $11.6 million. (https://militarnyi.com/en/news/usa-orders-mossberg-590a1-shotguns-with-custom-barrels-for-drone-interception/) It provides that they’re going to supply Mossberg 590A1 pump shotguns, which are great guns, by the way. I’m going to tell you about 590A1s in a minute. But what’s really cool about this one is that this particular shotgun is designed to combat drones. It’s made to shoot down drones. It has a 17-inch barrel with a specific configuration that’s designed for convenient placement in submarine racks. And it’s also made so that it can use special tungsten shot ammunition, tungsten shot ammo, to shoot down UAVs. And this is literally what the Government said. So, they’ve taken the 590A1s and the load, the shotgun load, is a two ounce number nine bird shot, a tungsten load. And it says it puts a large number of small tungsten pellets, creating a dense cloud ideal for hitting small targets. So, if you thought skeet shooting and trap Page – 7 – of 14 shooting was fun, how about tungsten drone shooting with Mossberg 590A1s. There you go, guys. Now we’re talking about a whole new sport. Teddy Nappen 29:28 Do you remember Amazon delivering those packages with drones? Yeah, well, trap shooting with prizes. Evan Nappen 29:37 Well, there you go. Trap shooting with prizes. But you know something about the 590A1, I gotta tell you. That’s really a great shotgun. And look, I have no financial interest in them. I just love that gun. That gun has a special thing about it when it comes to New Jersey. It is a pump shotgun, military spec shotgun. The 598 one is different from the 590 the a one has a thicker barrel, stronger receiver. It is a really tough shotgun, and it’s a pump shotgun. And because it’s a pump, it’s not semi auto. So, you can have a 590A1 in New Jersey. It can have a nine shot magazine in it. It can have a folding stock. It can have a pistol grip. It can have a bayonet lug, and they do have a bayonet lug. It can have all the whistles and bells on it and not be an assault firearm because it’s a pump shotgun. Only a semi-automatic shotgun falls under New Jersey’s assault firearm law. So, if you really want to have one of the best New Jersey legal combat shotgun with any of the fun features, then the 590A1 is unbeatable for New Jersey. And plus, when you rack that slide, any bad guy hearing that usually registers it in his pants, when you hear that racking going on. So, you should consider having one in your home defense. The 590A1, it’s a great gun. I don’t know if those tungsten loads will be available to the public or not, but this is fun stuff that I wanted to bring to your attention. Evan Nappen 31:32 Hey, let me tell you about our good friends at WeShoot. WeShoot is our gun range that Teddy and I shoot at, and we love it there. They are a fantastic range right in Lakewood, New Jersey, and they have some good specials going on. They have a Sig Sauer P365 Flux, which is the evolution of the micro-compact carry gun, now paired with the FLUX defense chassis for enhanced stability, capacity and speed in a PDW-style platform. They have a Smith & Wesson M&P 9 M2.0 Compact, which is their carry size powerhouse with a flat face trigger, aggressive grip texture, built to perform under pressure with everyday reliability. And they have a Mossberg Gold Reserve Super Sport, a competition-ready over / under, an over and under, 12 gauge with eye-catching scroll engraving, polished blue finish, and a premium walnut stock built for the clay sports game. So, these are just a few of the hot guns being highlighted by WeShoot. You should definitely check them out. Go to weshootusa.com. Evan Nappen 32:52 You can also check out Juliana. She’s fully locked in and in love with her MAC 5, showing off, the versatile fun a modern sporting rifle platform can be. So, go to WeShoot's website – weshootusa.com. You can check out Juliana there with the MAC 5. You can also see the other great photographs that WeShoot prides themselves on. When you go to the range there, you will be very impressed. They have fantastic training, and you can get your certificate there to get your carry. You can also get all kinds of training for both beginners and experienced shooters, as well. They have top people on their staff. It is a great resource that you should take advantage of. Go to weshootusa.com and learn the best kept secret in New Jersey the WeShoot range, a fantastic place. Page – 8 – of 14 Evan Nappen 33:57 Let me also tell you about our good friends at the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs. They are the stalwart defenders of our gun rights in New Jersey. New Jersey is one tough environment, as you know, and without a great group like the Association, we’d be even worse off. Can you imagine even worse? So we’re there. We’re there with the association. You need to be with us. I’m a member. You need to be a member. It is critical. They’re the ones in Trenton with a full-time paid lobbyist keeping track of the shenanigans going on there. And we’re able to make a difference. Believe it or not. We are. Plus we have the battles ongoing in the courts, and, man, I am excited for them. We have some appellate stuff going on now, an we’re going to be getting some great results. I feel it. I know it. We’ll be reporting about that and telling you all about it here on Gun Lawyer. Evan Nappen 35:00 It’s a slow climb, because the wheels turn slow. But folks, it is. It is something where I know we’re going to be successful, and the Association is there for you, fighting for your rights. Go to anjrpc.org and join today. Make sure you’re part of the solution. Join your official NRA state affiliate, the Association. You’ll get the email alerts to the legislative alerts and court results, and you’ll be on top of things. You’ll get a beautiful newsletter. The best in the state, so you’ll know what’s going on here in New Jersey, and you’ll have the resources of the Association behind you. So, go to anjrpc.org and join today. Evan Nappen 35:58 And while you’re at it, make sure you get a copy of my book, New Jersey Gun Law. It’s the Bible of New Jersey gun law. It’s over 500 pages in a question and answer format. It explains everything you need to know so you can avoid becoming a GOFU in New Jersey. And man, do you need that because New Jersey is crazy. And to not be destroyed by the state’s gun laws, and instead be able to exercise safely and legally your rights. You need my book, New Jersey Gun Law. Go to EvanNappen.com and get your copy today. When you do get your book, right down there on the front cover, make sure you scan the QR code, and you can immediately join for free, my private subscriber base. You’ll be able to access immediately the updates, which I’ll have a new update coming out very shortly here, updating the new laws, doing a comprehensive 2026 Update. You get all that for free. So, your book stays current. Go to EvanNappen.com and get your copy today. Teddy, what do you have for us today? Teddy Nappen 37:15 Well, as we know, Press Checks are always free. And look, everyone has been seeing it on the Left, where they’re all of a sudden now everyone seems to have become an expert on the Second Amendment. As you, which, every time I hear that, I think the words Second Amendment TM – trademark, because it’s their version of the Second Amendment. They never actually go into too many details. But I will say, and this is very funny. From MSN, from this writer, Adam Lynch, “‘Never seen a surge like this:’ Panicked liberals are stocking up on guns..” (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/never-seen-a-surge-like-this-panicked-liberals-are-stocking-up-on-guns/ar-AA1QuJEL) Huh! The 500 million mark is coming into play. But I love this. If you ever want to laugh, read an MSN article, because it’s just so, not just the propaganda, but the sourcing and how it works. It’s, okay. It goes. “NPR reports liberals and members of the LGBTQ community are buying guns to protect themselves as both the White House and national discourse grows increasingly hostile.” I love how Page – 9 – of 14 they cite their sources, NPR. Like NPR is a reputable source, but yeah. And I love this, a random unnamed Maryland Doctor. It just says Maryland Doctor. I’m not saying. Evan Nappen 38:40 Oh, is he related to the Maryland man? Teddy Nappen 38:43 I guess. I know. Maybe he’s from Venezuela or El Salvador. “I’m not saying that’s what’s going to happen. What I’m saying is none of this is out of the question.” In regards to, like, Trump is going to start kicking in doors on like just. And I love this. “Charles, who is black, says he bought his handgun after Trump administration did things that scared him . . .” Okay. Evan Nappen 39:15 Well, I’ll tell you what. Every gun owner is someone with a vested interest in the Second Amendment. So, good. Yeah, good. Teddy Nappen 39:24 And they decided to do interviews. They say 30 sources, unnamed, mind you. Where they’re saying NPR reports, the face of gun ownership is changing. Once perceived as the white, rural and Republican, gun clubs or trainers, Second Amendment advocates and academic researchers now say that liberals, people of color, and LGBTQ members have been buying guns and training with them since Trump’s re-election. First of all, I like how they separate people of color and Republicans when the mass. Evan Nappen 39:54 The Second Amendment is for everybody. Teddy Nappen 39:56 Yeah! Evan Nappen 39:56 It’s for everybody. Teddy Nappen 39:57 Yeah. And also they need to remember that Hispanics overwhelmingly voted for Trump and are leaning conservative. Blacks overwhelmingly, comparatively, Trump had the most vote of black Americans since dating back to Nixon. So, whenever they try to separate out and try to paint the Republican Party as racist. I always remind them of that. It’s just such stupidity on their part. But going into that, I did love this. So, Thomas Boyer, the spokesman for the San Francisco Chapter the Pink Pistols, said, “Armed gays don’t get bashed.” Evan Nappen 40:37 Right! They don’t. Page – 10 – of 14 Teddy Nappen 40:39 I know. Didn’t you actually like, did they bring you on once, the Pink Pistols? Evan Nappen 40:43 They made me an honorary life member of the Pink Pistols, believe it or not, which is fine, great. The Second Amendment is for everyone. And you know, it doesn’t matter whether someone is liberal or conservative or what their sexual preference or race is. It is all our right. All of us have this right, and we always want to be consistent. Whether or not politically I agree with anything on the Left, it doesn’t matter. In the same way that I support their right to free speech, even though I disagree with them. Rights are rights. And the point here is we can have common ground, and we’re seeing common ground. We’re actually seeing it. Because as more of the Left wants guns, that’s great. Join with us, and let’s pass laws that enhance the Second Amendment. As a matter of fact, think of it this way, folks. The anti-Second Amendment, the Second Amendment oppressors, they don’t want the Left to exercise gun rights any more than they want the right to exercise gun rights because they are anti-gun rights. We are pro-gun rights. We want all people. And every time anybody becomes a gun owner, they now get a vested interest in our Second Amendment rights. So, this creates that common ground, and that can include national reciprocity. It can include Pretti’s Law that we’ve talked about, right? It means this is an opportunity. So, don’t let the Left’s political views cloud our commitment to universal Second Amendment rights. Teddy Nappen 42:56 So, going off of that, one of the things the article cited to was a group known as, I never heard of these guys, the Liberal Gun Club. It was from this firearm instructor, David Phillips. They have 30 chapters in other, in other states. And they said their membership has grown from 2,700 in November to 4,500. So, going off of that, I actually wanted to look these guys up to understand, like, what is a Liberal Gun Club? (https://theliberalgunclub.com/) Like it just, you just, you’re going off of that. I hear those two words, and it just doesn’t sound right. And so. Evan Nappen 43:32 But, it is right. It is right. Evan Nappen 43:35 But I know why you would think it wouldn’t be. Teddy Nappen 43:35 I know. Evan Nappen 43:37 Bingo. Teddy Nappen 43:37 Yeah, exactly. And I went to their website, and this is what was funny. The common ground managers, where they go into, we are, they go into. They include and oppose the assault weapon ban as well as restriction of magazine capacity. Page – 11 – of 14 Teddy Nappen 43:37 And this view is directly related to our preference of an enforcement approach rather than regulation. Then, and what’s even funnier, the one thing that I found, the little nugget in their entire list, they are for national reciprocity. Evan Nappen 44:11 The other factor is, and I dug deeper into them, they actually spoke out against Bloomberg and the Moms Demand Action. Evan Nappen 44:11 Okay. So, look at this liberal gun group here, the Liberal Gun Club. Liberal gun group is against the assault firearm ban, against the magazine ban and pro-national reciprocity. Guess what? We’re all on the same page. This is our common ground. This is a common ground that we need to further develop. We need the pro-Second Amendment side to happily join in the same issues that we mutually support. Look, there are things we have differences about, without a doubt, okay? Most of the liberal agenda I am not, not, on board with at all, but that’s okay. Because the issue that I care most about, the issue that is my entire life’s calling and yours as well, Teddy, is the Second Amendment. And if this group is supporting what I support, then we can be together on those issues. We need to be together on those issues and not try to exclude or judge or separate anybody away because we don’t agree with the rest of their politics. I don’t care about the rest of their politics. That’s fine for us to have our differences, but this is where we’re together. And what you just said, there is great. We need more of that. Because that’s how we can finally get the rest of the Left to lay off our rights and to pass something like National Reciprocity, to quit trying to screw with us at every turn, to disenfranchise us from our gun rights. We can unite here. Evan Nappen 46:09 Even better. Teddy Nappen 46:12 Which they go into with the head president of the yet all actions they say you need to take is to donate to them. And what can they do with their donations, or, quote, unquote, saving lives and quote unquote, ending gun violence, or so they say. However, they spend, the national group spends most of their time advocacy related to gun violence focused exclusively on passing stricter gun control laws, which have already been disproven. So, they even agree that gun control fails. They actually agree it does not solve any of the issues that they actually are worried about. And they cited to a book, and this reminded me of one you brought to me once, it was “Restricting Handguns” by Don Kates. Evan Nappen 47:07 Yes! Teddy Nappen 47:08 Where it was the liberal. It was the liberal skeptics guide where, you know, liberals. Page – 12 – of 14 Evan Nappen 47:14 The Liberal skeptics speak out. Okay. Don Kates was one of my mentors when I first became a lawyer. And prior to becoming a lawyer, I was a member of the very first firearm law firm in America. It was Bennison, Kates and Hardy, and I was in the New York City law office of Bennison and Kates. I knew Don Kates and Mark Bennison, and Dave Hardy. Don Kates was out in California, and he was criminology professor. Don Kates was great guy, and he wanted to do this very thing we’re talking about here. Of cross trestling, of uniting, of making liberals see that the Second Amendment is critical for them as well as us. And so, his book “Restricting Handguns – The Liberal Skeptics Speak Out” was all about folks who you would normally think would be anti- Second Amendment and were not. (https://openlibrary.org/books/OL4408746M/Restricting_handguns) Evan Nappen 48:26 Interestingly, Mark Benson, who was the other partner, was a former president of Amnesty International. But Mark was solidly pro-Second Amendment. I mean, Kates taught criminal justice and law in California. Okay? We’re talking about folks you might normally think of on the Left, but were actually hard-core Second Amendment great pro-gun fighters. I’ll tell you. Don Kates was the first guy that I ever met that carried a firearm, regardless. He said, Second Amendment, and that’s it. And I always was impressed how much he believed in the Second Amendment. He was fantastic. And it was great experience working for that firm and being part of the very first firearm law firm in America. Of course, now firearm law is an identified area of practice, but then people had never heard of such a thing. So, Don Kates, with this book, really had a lot of impact, and to this day, it’s still being utilized and cited because the Liberal Gun Club that you talk about is the same idea. And Kate was really ahead of his time in identifying this very thing. We need to join with the other side when they are with us on our issue. Teddy Nappen 50:14 And what was really, really funny is he meant, and there was a similar book where he references a book called “Beyond Control” by Jacob Sullum. He talks about the racist roots of gun control and drug control. (https://www.beyondcontrolbook.net/) Evan Nappen 50:27 There you go. Teddy Nappen 50:28 And it’s that, it’s that inner weaving of the policies to actually put that in perspective, because everyone on the Left, like they typically, are in lockstep on this. But if we can turn this, just like with the trans issue, if we can turn this into a 90/10 issue, we could get national reciprocity. The vast majority like this. Imagine The Trace and Bloomberg having to, I just saw this, just on my feed, where they’re trying to say, don’t go out and buy firearms. Don’t, don’t kid. Telling their liberal followers, don’t go out and buy firearms, even though they’re all calling for the Second Amendment on it. It’s that level. They have so pushed. Page – 13 – of 14 Evan Nappen 51:12 They are so scared to death that, yeah, this very thing that we’re talking about here is actually happening and taking place. And we on the pro-gun side need to put out our hand of friendship to the other side when they’re with us on our issue. Because those that oppose us, the oppressors, are scared to death of it, and with good reason. This can make us win. It can get our rights back. This is the way to do it, folks. I honestly believe and have fought for this. And throughout my legal career, we’ve seen how the liberal causes so-called, whether you know, traditionally where they claim were pro-civil rights, yet they go after a single black mom. Shaneen Allen, who had a carry permit from Pennsylvania and happened to be in the Democratic People’s Republic of New Jersey, gets put through the shredder. It’s the institutionalized racism that our good friend John Petrolino has talked about and shown in the permitting system. These are the things that are out there that the Left, historically, would have been concerned with, but somehow they block it out with guns. No, no. Join. Join together. This can get our movement over the top. Evan Nappen 52:44 The other thing they can do. This will be the Midas touch. Once they see the National Reciprocity and start carrying, all of a sudden, all the things that they were supporting, Red Flag, Universal Background Check, both things are going to predominantly deny them their rights. Because I think there’s a statistic showing, I think, it’s 67 or 68% of liberals or Democrats have mental health issues which screws them out of their rights. So, this is the key to getting them to see that this is the path to victory of how to get the Second Amendment back. Then we can remove all these insane regulations. Evan Nappen 53:22 Incrementally, get to where we need to be. Well, Teddy, I appreciate it. A great, great topic. And I want to tell you about this week’s GOFU, which is, of course, the Gun Owner Fuck Up, where actual clients, actual cases, where we see the problem, and you get to learn the lesson for free. And this week’s GOFU is pretty simple. Don’t involve the police in your life unless you absolutely have to. And what I mean is this. There are mechanisms in law that are there that people have no idea how it suddenly affects your gun rights. And that includes the so- called wellness check, even domestic violence, all these things where they’re played up as extremely important. And I’m not saying they aren’t. But it makes it so that individuals that invoke any of these laws and involve the Government in your life, next thing you know, guns are being seized. Individuals are losing their rights, and they’re having to fight to get them back. Evan Nappen 54:36 Often it’s the very person that invokes the law itself. Yeah, we see this. We get cases where the person called the police to scare their partner or to just get more attention to it. But they don’t realize that gets the entire system to come down on them, taking guns and ruining lives. They have no clue of the impact once the Government gets in your life. Forget it. It’s going to be a fight. It’s the old, I think, Ronald Reagan said, you know, “We’re here from the Government. We’re here to help.” Yeah, that’s the joke, and it’s true. This is what happens. You get a wellness check done, and boom, guns are taken. You’re now fighting for your rights. We get these all the time. Look, I understand. If someone has serious problems and they need help, maybe you’ve got to do it. If you’re being abused, okay. But, you know, if it’s not something that the Government has to get involved in, do not involve the Government. Page – 14 – of 14 Evan Nappen 55:22 Over and over and over again, we get, I get the calls. I call them “the calls of regret”. The phone calls of regret. They’re GOFUs. And yet, for me to even say this, I’ll get criticized. How dare you say that? How about stopping me? We need to know call. I see the reality of it in the practice. I get the phone call of regret when you involve the Government. So, the GOFU is that be very, very careful. Very, very selective, if you ever want to put the Government in your life or a loved one’s life. Because the ramifications, particularly in the Democratic People’s Republic of New Jersey, can be very significant and can dramatically impact yours and your loved ones lives. Evan Nappen 56:47 This is Evan Nappen and Teddy Nappen reminding you that gun laws don’t protect honest citizens from criminals. They protect criminals from honest citizens. 56:57 Gun Lawyer is a CounterThink Media production. The music used in this broadcast was managed by Cosmo Music, New York, New York. Reach us by emailing Evan@gun.lawyer. The information and opinions in this broadcast do not constitute legal advice. Consult a licensed attorney in your state. Downloadable PDF TranscriptGun Lawyer S5 E276_Transcript About The HostEvan Nappen, Esq.Known as “America's Gun Lawyer,” Evan Nappen is above all a tireless defender of justice. Author of eight bestselling books and countless articles on firearms, knives, and weapons history and the law, a certified Firearms Instructor, and avid weapons collector and historian with a vast collection that spans almost five decades — it's no wonder he's become the trusted, go-to expert for local, industry and national media outlets. Regularly called on by radio, television and online news media for his commentary and expertise on breaking news Evan has appeared countless shows including Fox News – Judge Jeanine, CNN – Lou Dobbs, Court TV, Real Talk on WOR, It's Your Call with Lyn Doyle, Tom Gresham's Gun Talk, and Cam & Company/NRA News. As a creative arts consultant, he also lends his weapons law and historical expertise to an elite, discerning cadre of movie and television producers and directors, and novelists. He also provides expert testimony and consultations for defense attorneys across America. Email Evan Your Comments and Questions  talkback@gun.lawyer Join Evan's InnerCircleHere's your chance to join an elite group of the Savviest gun and knife owners in America.  Membership is totally FREE and Strictly CONFIDENTIAL.  Just enter your email to start receiving insider news, tips, and other valuable membership benefits.   Email (required) *First Name *Select list(s) to subscribe toInnerCircle Membership Yes, I would like to receive emails from Gun Lawyer Podcast. (You can unsubscribe anytime)Constant Contact Use. Please leave this field blank.var ajaxurl = "https://gun.lawyer/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php";

In this episode, we sit down with Jack Wingate, an experienced small business owner and strategic leader, to unpack what truly drives long-term success in today's competitive business world. From outworking the competition and building disciplined systems to using automation without losing the human touch, Jack shares real-world insights that every entrepreneur and leader needs to hear.This conversation dives deep into leadership mindset, smart resource allocation, team productivity, business scalability, and why consistency and adaptability matter more than shortcuts. Whether you're growing an agency, launching a startup, or leading a team, this episode will leave you with practical strategies and a renewed drive to build something meaningful.Join the elite ranks of P&C agents. Sign up for Agent Elite today and get exclusive resources to grow your agency!

In this insightful episode, we sit down with an entrepreneur, sales strategist, and creator of Racing Snail and Leaderboard Legends, Seth Preus. We explore leadership, motivation, sales productivity, accountability, and performance psychology. His work has transformed the approach of thousands of professionals to productivity and team engagement.From understanding intrinsic motivation and building accountability-driven cultures to using data intelligently, improving ROI, and creating systems that help teams stay consistent, focused, and inspired, this conversation unpacks what it truly takes to build high-performing teams that grow sustainably, lead with purpose, and deliver long-term results in business and life.Join the elite ranks of P&C agents. Sign up for Agent Elite today and get exclusive resources to grow your agency!

In this episode, we are honored to sit with Sheppard Bowen, co-founder of EVER.PARTY and a former Farmers Insurance agency owner to talk about what actually drives long-term success in the insurance business. From consistency and lead generation to retention, tracking, and team motivation, this conversation breaks down the real levers behind sustainable growth. This episode is a must-listen for agents and entrepreneurs who want clarity, structure, and real growth strategies that work in the real world.Join the elite ranks of P&C agents. Sign up for Agent Elite today and get exclusive resources to grow your agency!

What if the most transformative thing you can do for your writing craft and author business is to face what you fear? How can you can find gold in your Shadow in the year ahead? In this episode, I share chapters from Writing the Shadow: Turn Your Inner Darkness Into Words. In the intro, curated book boxes from Bridgerton's Julia Quinn; Google's agentic shopping, and powering Apple's Siri; ChatGPT Ads; and Claude CoWork. Balancing Certainty and Uncertainty [MoonShots with Tony Robbins]; and three trends for authors with me and Orna Ross [Self-Publishing with ALLi Podcast]; plus, Bones of the Deep, Business for Authors, and Indie Author Lab. This show is supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn  Joanna Penn writes non-fiction for authors and is an award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers, dark fantasy, and memoir as J.F. Penn. She's also an award-winning podcaster, creative entrepreneur, and international professional speaker. What is the Shadow? The ‘creative wound' and the Shadow in writing The Shadow in traditional publishing The Shadow in self-publishing or being an indie author The Shadow in work The Shadow in money You can find Writing the Shadow in all formats on all stores, as well as special edition, workbook and bundles at www.TheCreativePenn.com/shadowbook Writing the Shadow: Turn Your Inner Darkness Into Words The following chapters are excerpted from Writing the Shadow: Turn Your Inner Darkness Into Words by Joanna Penn. Introduction. What is the Shadow? “How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also if I am to be whole.” —C.G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul We all have a Shadow side and it is the work of a lifetime to recognise what lies within and spin that base material into gold. Think of it as a seedling in a little pot that you're given when you're young. It's a bit misshapen and weird, not something you would display in your living room, so you place it in a dark corner of the basement. You don't look at it for years. You almost forget about it. Then one day you notice tendrils of something wild poking up through the floorboards. They're ugly and don't fit with your Scandi-minimalist interior design. You chop the tendrils away and pour weedkiller on what's left, trying to hide the fact that they were ever there. But the creeping stems keep coming. At some point, you know you have to go down there and face the wild thing your seedling has become. When you eventually pluck up enough courage to go down into the basement, you discover that the plant has wound its roots deep into the foundations of your home. Its vines weave in and out of the cracks in the walls, and it has beautiful flowers and strange fruit. It holds your world together. Perhaps you don't need to destroy the wild tendrils. Perhaps you can let them wind up into the light and allow their rich beauty to weave through your home. It will change the look you have so carefully cultivated, but maybe that's just what the place needs. The Shadow in psychology Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychologist and the founder of analytical psychology. He described the Shadow as an unconscious aspect of the human personality, those parts of us that don't match up to what is expected of us by family and society, or to our own ideals. The Shadow is not necessarily evil or illegal or immoral, although of course it can be. It's also not necessarily caused by trauma, abuse, or any other severely damaging event, although again, it can be. It depends on the individual. What is in your Shadow is based on your life and your experiences, as well as your culture and society, so it will be different for everyone. Psychologist Connie Zweig, in The Inner Work of Age, explains, “The Shadow is that part of us that lies beneath or behind the light of awareness. It contains our rejected, unacceptable traits and feelings. It contains our hidden gifts and talents that have remained unexpressed or unlived. As Jung put it, the essence of the Shadow is pure gold.” To further illustrate the concept, Robert Bly, in A Little Book on the Human Shadow,uses the following metaphor: “When we are young, we carry behind us an invisible bag, into which we stuff any feelings, thoughts, or behaviours that bring disapproval or loss of love—anger, tears, neediness, laziness. By the time we go to school, our bags are already a mile long. In high school, our peer groups pressure us to stuff the bags with even more—individuality, sexuality, spontaneity, different opinions. We spend our life until we're twenty deciding which parts of ourselves to put into the bag and we spend the rest of our lives trying to get them out again.” As authors, we can use what's in the ‘bag' to enrich our writing — but only if we can access it. My intention with this book is to help you venture into your Shadow and bring some of what's hidden into the light and into your words. I'll reveal aspects of my Shadow in these pages but ultimately, this book is about you. Your Shadow is unique. There may be elements we share, but much will be different. Each chapter has questions for you to consider that may help you explore at least the edges of your Shadow, but it's not easy. As Jung said, “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.” But take heart, Creative. You don't need courage when things are easy. You need it when you know what you face will be difficult, but you do it anyway. We are authors. We know how to do hard things. We turn ideas into books. We manifest thoughts into ink on paper. We change lives with our writing. First, our own, then other people's. It's worth the effort to delve into Shadow, so I hope you will join me on the journey. The creative wound and the Shadow in writing “Whatever pain you can't get rid of, make it your creative offering.” —Susan Cain, Bittersweet  The more we long for something, the more extreme our desire, the more likely it is to have a Shadow side. For those of us who love books, the author life may well be a long-held dream and thus, it is filled with Shadow. Books have long been objects of desire, power, and authority. They hold a mythic status in our lives. We escaped into stories as children; we studied books at school and college; we read them now for escape and entertainment, education and inspiration. We collect beautiful books to put on our shelves. We go to them for solace and answers to the deepest questions of life. Writers are similarly held in high esteem. They shape culture, win literary prizes, give important speeches, and are quoted in the mainstream media. Their books are on the shelves in libraries and bookstores. Writers are revered, held up as rare, talented creatures made separate from us by their brilliance and insight. For bibliophile children, books were everything and to write one was a cherished dream. To become an author? Well, that would mean we might be someone special, someone worthy. Perhaps when you were young, you thought the dream of being a writer was possible — then you told someone about it. That's probably when you heard the first criticism of such a ridiculous idea, the first laughter, the first dismissal. So you abandoned the dream, pushed the idea of being a writer into the Shadow, and got on with your life. Or if it wasn't then, it came later, when you actually put pen to paper and someone — a parent, teacher, partner, or friend, perhaps even a literary agent or publisher, someone whose opinion you valued — told you it was worthless. Here are some things you might have heard: Writing is a hobby. Get a real job. You're not good enough. You don't have any writing talent. You don't have enough education. You don't know what you're doing. Your writing is derivative / unoriginal / boring / useless / doesn't make sense. The genre you write in is dead / worthless / unacceptable / morally wrong / frivolous / useless.  Who do you think you are? No one would want to read what you write. You can't even use proper grammar, so how could you write a whole book? You're wasting your time. You'll never make it as a writer. You shouldn't write those things (or even think about those things). Why don't you write something nice? Insert other derogatory comment here! Mark Pierce describes the effect of this experience in his book The Creative Wound, which “occurs when an event, or someone's actions or words, pierce you, causing a kind of rift in your soul. A comment—even offhand and unintentional—is enough to cause one.” He goes on to say that such words can inflict “damage to the core of who we are as creators. It is an attack on our artistic identity, resulting in us believing that whatever we make is somehow tainted or invalid, because shame has convinced us there is something intrinsically tainted or invalid about ourselves.” As adults, we might brush off such wounds, belittling them as unimportant in the grand scheme of things. We might even find ourselves saying the same words to other people. After all, it's easier to criticise than to create. But if you picture your younger self, bright eyed as you lose yourself in your favourite book, perhaps you might catch a glimpse of what you longed for before your dreams were dashed on the rocks of other people's reality. As Mark Pierce goes on to say, “A Creative Wound has the power to delay our pursuits—sometimes for years—and it can even derail our lives completely… Anything that makes us feel ashamed of ourselves or our work can render us incapable of the self-expression we yearn for.” This is certainly what happened to me, and it took decades to unwind. Your creative wounds will differ to mine but perhaps my experience will help you explore your own. To be clear, your Shadow may not reside in elements of horror as mine do, but hopefully you can use my example to consider where your creative wounds might lie. “You shouldn't write things like that.” It happened at secondary school around 1986 or 1987, so I would have been around eleven or twelve years old. English was one of my favourite subjects and the room we had our lessons in looked out onto a vibrant garden. I loved going to that class because it was all about books, and they were always my favourite things. One day, we were asked to write a story. I can't remember the specifics of what the teacher asked us to write, but I fictionalised a recurring nightmare. I stood in a dark room. On one side, my mum and my brother, Rod, were tied up next to a cauldron of boiling oil, ready to be thrown in. On the other side, my dad and my little sister, Lucy, were threatened with decapitation by men with machetes. I had to choose who would die. I always woke up, my heart pounding, before I had to choose. Looking back now, it clearly represented an internal conflict about having to pick sides between the two halves of my family. Not an unexpected issue from a child of divorce. Perhaps these days, I might have been sent to the school counsellor, but it was the eighties and I don't think we even had such a thing. Even so, the meaning of the story isn't the point. It was the reaction to it that left scars. “You shouldn't write things like that,” my teacher said, and I still remember her look of disappointment, even disgust. Certainly judgment. She said my writing was too dark. It wasn't a proper story. It wasn't appropriate for the class. As if horrible things never happened in stories — or in life. As if literature could not include dark tales. As if the only acceptable writing was the kind she approved of. We were taught The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie that year, which says a lot about the type of writing considered appropriate. Or perhaps the issue stemmed from the school motto, “So hateth she derknesse,” from Chaucer's The Legend of Good Women: “For fear of night, so she hates the darkness.” I had won a scholarship to a private girls' school, and their mission was to turn us all into proper young ladies. Horror was never on the curriculum. Perhaps if my teacher had encouraged me to write my darkness back then, my nightmares would have dissolved on the page. Perhaps if we had studied Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or H.P. Lovecraft stories, or Bram Stoker's Dracula, I could have embraced the darker side of literature earlier in my life. My need to push darker thoughts into my Shadow was compounded by my (wonderful) mum's best intentions. We were brought up on the principles of The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale and she tried to shield me and my brother from anything harmful or horrible. We weren't allowed to watch TV much, and even the British school drama Grange Hill was deemed inappropriate. So much of what I've achieved is because my mum instilled in me a “can do” attitude that anything is possible. I'm so grateful to her for that. (I love you, Mum!) But all that happy positivity, my desire to please her, to be a good girl, to make my teachers proud, and to be acceptable to society, meant that I pushed my darker thoughts into Shadow. They were inappropriate. They were taboo. They must be repressed, kept secret, and I must be outwardly happy and positive at all times. You cannot hold back the darkness “The night is dark and full of terrors.” —George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords It turned out that horror was on the curriculum, much of it in the form of educational films we watched during lessons. In English Literature, we watched Romeo drink poison and Juliet stab herself in Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet. In Religious Studies, we watched Jesus beaten, tortured, and crucified in The Greatest Story Ever Told, and learned of the variety of gruesome ways that Christian saints were martyred. In Classical Civilisation, we watched gladiators slaughter each other in Spartacus. In Sex Education at the peak of the AIDS crisis in the mid-'80s, we were told of the many ways we could get infected and die. In History, we studied the Holocaust with images of skeletal bodies thrown into mass graves, medical experiments on humans, and grainy videos of marching soldiers giving the Nazi salute. One of my first overseas school field trips was to the World War I battlegrounds of Flanders Fields in Belgium, where we studied the inhuman conditions of the trenches, walked through mass graves, and read war poetry by candlelight. As John McCrae wrote: We are the Dead. Short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In Flanders fields. Did the teachers not realise how deeply a sensitive teenager might feel the darkness of that place? Or have I always been unusual in that places of blood echo deep inside me? And the horrors kept coming. We lived in Bristol, England back then and I learned at school how the city had been part of the slave trade, its wealth built on the backs of people stolen from their homes, sold, and worked to death in the colonies. I had been at school for a year in Malawi, Africa and imagined the Black people I knew drowning, being beaten, and dying on those ships. In my teenage years, the news was filled with ethnic cleansing, mass rape, and massacres during the Balkan wars, and images of bodies hacked apart during the Rwandan genocide. Evil committed by humans against other humans was not a historical aberration. I'm lucky and I certainly acknowledge my privilege. Nothing terrible or horrifying has happened to me — but bad things certainly happen to others. I wasn't bullied or abused. I wasn't raped or beaten or tortured. But you don't have to go through things to be afraid of them, and for your imagination to conjure the possibility of them. My mum doesn't read my fiction now as it gives her nightmares (Sorry, Mum!). I know she worries that somehow she's responsible for my darkness, but I've had a safe and (mostly) happy life, for which I'm truly grateful. But the world is not an entirely safe and happy place, and for a sensitive child with a vivid imagination, the world is dark and scary. It can be brutal and violent, and bad things happen, even to good people. No parent can shield their child from the reality of the world. They can only help them do their best to live in it, develop resilience, and find ways to deal with whatever comes. Story has always been a way that humans have used to learn how to live and deal with difficult times. The best authors, the ones that readers adore and can't get enough of, write their darkness into story to channel their experience, and help others who fear the same. In an interview on writing the Shadow on The Creative Penn Podcast, Michaelbrent Collings shared how he incorporated a personally devastating experience into his writing:  “My wife and I lost a child years back, and that became the root of one of my most terrifying books, Apparition. It's not terrifying because it's the greatest book of all time, but just the concept that there's this thing out there… like a demon, and it consumes the blood and fear of the children, and then it withdraws and consumes the madness of the parents… I wrote that in large measure as a way of working through what I was experiencing.” I've learned much from Michaelbrent. I've read many of his (excellent) books and he's been on my podcast multiple times talking about his depression and mental health issues, as well as difficulties in his author career. Writing darkness is not in Michaelbrent's Shadow and only he can say what lies there for him. But from his example, and from that of other authors, I too learned how to write my Shadow into my books. Twenty-three years after that English lesson, in November 2009, I did NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, and wrote five thousand words of what eventually became Stone of Fire, my first novel. In the initial chapter, I burned a nun alive on the ghats of Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges River. I had watched the bodies burn by night on pyres from a boat bobbing in the current a few years before, and the image was still crystal clear in my mind. The only way to deal with how it made me feel about death was to write about it — and since then, I've never stopped writing. Returning to the nightmare from my school days, I've never had to choose between the two halves of my family, but the threat of losing them remains a theme in my fiction. In my ARKANE thriller series, Morgan Sierra will do anything to save her sister and her niece. Their safety drives her to continue to fight against evil. Our deepest fears emerge in our writing, and that's the safest place for them. I wish I'd been taught how to turn my nightmares into words back at school, but at least now I've learned to write my Shadow onto the page. I wish the same for you. The Shadow in traditional publishing If becoming an author is your dream, then publishing a book is deeply entwined with that. But as Mark Pierce says in The Creative Wound, “We feel pain the most where it matters the most… Desire highlights whatever we consider to be truly significant.” There is a lot of desire around publishing for those of us who love books! It can give you: Validation that your writing is good enough Status and credibility Acceptance by an industry held in esteem  The potential of financial reward and critical acclaim Support from a team of professionals who know how to make fantastic books A sense of belonging to an elite community Pride in achieving a long-held goal, resulting in a confidence boost and self-esteem Although not guaranteed, traditional publishing can give you all these things and more, but as with everything, there is a potential Shadow side. Denying it risks the potential of being disillusioned, disappointed, and even damaged. But remember, forewarned is forearmed, as the saying goes. Preparation can help you avoid potential issues and help you feel less alone if you encounter them. The myth of success… and the reality of experience There is a pervasive myth of success in the traditional publishing industry, perpetuated by media reporting on brand name and breakout authors, those few outliers whose experience is almost impossible to replicate. Because of such examples, many new traditionally published authors think that their first book will hit the top of the bestseller charts or win an award, as well as make them a million dollars — or at least a big chunk of cash. They will be able to leave their job, write in a beautiful house overlooking the ocean, and swan around the world attending conferences, while writing more bestselling books. It will be a charmed life. But that is not the reality. Perhaps it never was. Even so, the life of a traditionally published author represents a mythic career with the truth hidden behind a veil of obscurity. In April 2023, The Bookseller in the UK reported that “more than half of authors (54%) responding to a survey on their experiences of publishing their debut book have said the process negatively affected their mental health. Though views were mixed, just 22%… described a positive experience overall… Among the majority who said they had a negative experience of debut publication, anxiety, stress, depression and ‘lowered' self-esteem were cited, with lack of support, guidance or clear and professional communication from their publisher among the factors that contributed.” Many authors who have negative experiences around publishing will push them into the Shadow with denial or self-blame, preferring to keep the dream alive. They won't talk about things in public as this may negatively affect their careers, but private discussions are often held in the corners of writing conferences or social media groups online. Some of the issues are as follows: Repeated rejection by agents and publishers may lead to the author thinking they are not good enough as a writer, which can lead to feeling unworthy as a person. If an author gets a deal, the amount of advance and the name and status of the publisher compared to others create a hierarchy that impacts self-esteem. A deal for a book may be much lower than an author might have been expecting, with low or no advance, and the resulting experience with the publisher beneath expectations. The launch process may be disappointing, and the book may appear without fanfare, with few sales and no bestseller chart position. In The Bookseller report, one author described her launch day as “a total wasteland… You have expectations about what publication day will be like, but in reality, nothing really happens.” The book may receive negative reviews by critics or readers or more publicly on social media, which can make an author feel attacked. The book might not sell as well as expected, and the author may feel like it's their fault. Commercial success can sometimes feel tied to self-worth and an author can't help but compare their sales to others, with resulting embarrassment or shame. The communication from the publisher may be less than expected. One author in The Bookseller report said, “I was shocked by the lack of clarity and shared information and the cynicism that underlies the superficial charm of this industry.” There is often more of a focus on debut authors in publishing houses, so those who have been writing and publishing in the midlist for years can feel ignored and undervalued. In The Bookseller report, 48 percent of authors reported “their publisher supported them for less than a year,” with one saying, “I got no support and felt like a commodity, like the team had moved on completely to the next book.” If an author is not successful enough, the next deal may be lower than the last, less effort is made with marketing, and they may be let go. In The Bookseller report, “six authors—debut and otherwise—cited being dropped by their publisher, some with no explanation.” Even if everything goes well and an author is considered successful by others, they may experience imposter syndrome, feeling like a fraud when speaking at conferences or doing book signings. And the list goes on … All these things can lead to feelings of shame, inadequacy, and embarrassment; loss of status in the eyes of peers; and a sense of failure if a publishing career is not successful enough. The author feels like it's their fault, like they weren't good enough — although, of course, the reality is that the conditions were not right at the time. A failure of a book is not a failure of the person, but it can certainly feel like it! When you acknowledge the Shadow, it loses its power Despite all the potential negatives of traditional publishing, if you know what could happen, you can mitigate them. You can prepare yourself for various scenarios and protect yourself from potential fall-out. It's clear from The Bookseller report that too many authors have unrealistic expectations of the industry. But publishers are businesses, not charities. It's not their job to make you feel good as an author. It's their job to sell books and pay you. The best thing they can do is to continue to be a viable business so they can keep putting books on the shelves and keep paying authors, staff, and company shareholders. When you license your creative work to a publisher, you're giving up control of your intellectual property in exchange for money and status. Bring your fears and issues out of the Shadow, acknowledge them, and deal with them early, so they do not get pushed down and re-emerge later in blame and bitterness. Educate yourself on the business of publishing. Be clear on what you want to achieve with any deal. Empower yourself as an author, take responsibility for your career, and you will have a much better experience. The Shadow in self-publishing or being an indie author Self-publishing, or being an independent (indie) author, can be a fantastic, pro-active choice for getting your book into the world. Holding your first book in your hand and saying “I made this” is pretty exciting, and even after more than forty books, I still get excited about seeing ideas in my head turn into a physical product in the world. Self-publishing can give an author: Creative control over what to write, editorial and cover design choices, when and how often to publish, and how to market Empowerment over your author career and the ability to make choices that impact success without asking for permission Ownership and control of intellectual property assets, resulting in increased opportunity around licensing and new markets Independence and the potential for recurring income for the long term Autonomy and flexibility around timelines, publishing options, and the ability to easily pivot into new genres and business models Validation based on positive reader reviews and money earned Personal growth and learning through the acquisition of new skills, resulting in a boost in confidence and self-esteem A sense of belonging to an active and vibrant community of indie authors around the world Being an indie author can give you all this and more, but once again, there is a Shadow side and preparation can help you navigate potential issues. The myth of success… and the reality of experience As with traditional publishing, the indie author world has perpetuated a myth of success in the example of the breakout indie author like E.L. James with Fifty Shades of Grey, Hugh Howey with Wool, or Andy Weir with The Martian. The emphasis on financial success is also fuelled online by authors who share screenshots showing six-figure months or seven-figure years, without sharing marketing costs and other outgoings, or the amount of time spent on the business. Yes, these can inspire some, but it can also make others feel inadequate and potentially lead to bad choices about how to publish and market based on comparison. The indie author world is full of just as much ego and a desire for status and money as traditional publishing. This is not a surprise! Most authors, regardless of publishing choices, are a mix of massive ego and chronic self-doubt. We are human, so the same issues will re-occur. A different publishing method doesn't cure all ills. Some of the issues are as follows: You learn everything you need to know about writing and editing, only to find that you need to learn a whole new set of skills in order to self-publish and market your book. This can take a lot of time and effort you did not expect, and things change all the time so you have to keep learning. Being in control of every aspect of the publishing process, from writing to cover design to marketing, can be overwhelming, leading to indecision, perfectionism, stress, and even burnout as you try to do all the things. You try to find people to help, but building your team is a challenge, and working with others has its own difficulties. People say negative things about self-publishing that may arouse feelings of embarrassment or shame. These might be little niggles, but they needle you, nonetheless. You wonder whether you made the right choice. You struggle with self-doubt and if you go to an event with traditional published authors, you compare yourself to them and feel like an imposter. Are you good enough to be an author if a traditional publisher hasn't chosen you? Is it just vanity to self-publish? Are your books unworthy? Even though you worked with a professional editor, you still get one-star reviews and you hate criticism from readers. You wonder whether you're wasting your time. You might be ripped off by an author services company who promise the world, only to leave you with a pile of printed books in your garage and no way to sell them. When you finally publish your book, it languishes at the bottom of the charts while other authors hit the top of the list over and over, raking in the cash while you are left out of pocket. You don't admit to over-spending on marketing as it makes you ashamed. You resist book marketing and make critical comments about writers who embrace it. You believe that quality rises to the top and if a book is good enough, people will buy it anyway. This can lead to disappointment and disillusionment when you launch your book and it doesn't sell many copies because nobody knows about it. You try to do what everyone advises, but you still can't make decent money as an author. You're jealous of other authors' success and put it down to them ‘selling out' or writing things you can't or ‘using AI' or ‘using a ghostwriter' or having a specific business model you consider impossible to replicate. And the list goes on… When you acknowledge the Shadow, it loses its power Being in control of your books and your author career is a double-edged sword. Traditionally published authors can criticise their publishers or agents or the marketing team or the bookstores or the media, but indie authors have to take responsibility for it all. Sure, we can blame ‘the algorithms' or social media platforms, or criticise other authors for having more experience or more money to invest in marketing, or attribute their success to writing in a more popular genre — but we also know there are always people who do well regardless of the challenges. Once more, we're back to acknowledging and integrating the Shadow side of our choices. We are flawed humans. There will always be good times and bad, and difficulties to offset the high points. This too shall pass, as the old saying goes. I know that being an indie author has plenty of Shadow. I've been doing this since 2008 and despite the hard times, I'm still here. I'm still writing. I'm still publishing. This life is not for everyone, but it's my choice. You must make yours. The Shadow in work You work hard. You make a living. Nothing wrong with that attitude, right? It's what we're taught from an early age and, like so much of life, it's not a problem until it goes to extremes. Not achieving what you want to? Work harder. Can't get ahead? Work harder. Not making a good enough living? Work harder. People who don't work hard are lazy. They don't deserve handouts or benefits. People who don't work hard aren't useful, so they are not valued members of our culture and community. But what about the old or the sick, the mentally ill, or those with disabilities? What about children? What about the unemployed? The under-employed? What about those who are — or will be — displaced by technology, those called “the useless class” by historian Yuval Noah Harari in his book Homo Deus? What if we become one of these in the future? Who am I if I cannot work? The Shadow side of my attitude to work became clear when I caught COVID in the summer of 2021. I was the sickest I'd ever been. I spent two weeks in bed unable to even think properly, and six weeks after that, I was barely able to work more than an hour a day before lying in the dark and waiting for my energy to return. I was limited in what I could do for another six months after that. At times, I wondered if I would ever get better. Jonathan kept urging me to be patient and rest. But I don't know how to rest. I know how to work and how to sleep. I can do ‘active rest,' which usually involves walking a long way or traveling somewhere interesting, but those require a stronger mind and body than I had during those months. It struck me that even if I recovered from the virus, I had glimpsed my future self. One day, I will be weak in body and mind. If I'm lucky, that will be many years away and hopefully for a short time before I die — but it will happen. I am an animal. I will die. My body and mind will pass on and I will be no more. Before then I will be weak. Before then, I will be useless. Before then, I will be a burden. I will not be able to work… But who am I if I cannot work? What is the point of me? I can't answer these questions right now, because although I recognise them as part of my Shadow, I've not progressed far enough to have dealt with them entirely. My months of COVID gave me some much-needed empathy for those who cannot work, even if they want to. We need to reframe what work is as a society, and value humans for different things, especially as technology changes what work even means. That starts with each of us. “Illness, affliction of body and soul, can be life-altering. It has the potential to reveal the most fundamental conflict of the human condition: the tension between our infinite, glorious dreams and desires and our limited, vulnerable, decaying physicality.” —Connie Zweig, The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul The Shadow in money In the Greek myth, King Midas was a wealthy ruler who loved gold above all else. His palace was adorned with golden sculptures and furniture, and he took immense pleasure in his riches. Yet, despite his vast wealth, he yearned for more. After doing a favour for Dionysus, the god of wine and revelry, Midas was granted a single wish. Intoxicated by greed, he wished that everything he touched would turn to gold — and it was so. At first, it was a lot of fun. Midas turned everything else in his palace to gold, even the trees and stones of his estate. After a morning of turning things to gold, he fancied a spot of lunch. But when he tried to eat, the food and drink turned to gold in his mouth. He became thirsty and hungry — and increasingly desperate. As he sat in despair on his golden throne, his beloved young daughter ran to comfort him. For a moment, he forgot his wish — and as she wrapped her arms around him and kissed his cheek, she turned into a golden statue, frozen in precious metal. King Midas cried out to the gods to forgive him, to reverse the wish. He renounced his greed and gave away all his wealth, and his daughter was returned to life. The moral of the story: Wealth and greed are bad. In Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge is described as a “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner.” He's wealthy but does not share, considering Christmas spending to be frivolous and giving to charity to be worthless. He's saved by a confrontation with his lonely future and becomes a generous man and benefactor of the poor. Wealth is good if you share it with others. The gospel of Matthew, chapter 25: 14-30, tells the parable of the bags of gold, in which a rich man goes on a journey and entrusts his servants with varying amounts of gold. On his return, the servants who multiplied the gold through their efforts and investments are rewarded, while the one who merely returned the gold with no interest is punished: “For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” Making money is good, making more money is even better. If you can't make any money, you don't deserve to have any. Within the same gospel, in Matthew 19:24, Jesus encounters a wealthy man and tells him to sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor, which the man is unable to do. Jesus says, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” Wealth is bad. Give it all away and you'll go to heaven. With all these contradictory messages, no wonder we're so conflicted about money! How do you think and feel about money? While money is mostly tied to our work, it's far more than just a transactional object for most people. It's loaded with complex symbolism and judgment handed down by family, religion, and culture. You are likely to find elements of Shadow by examining your attitudes around money. Consider which of the following statements resonate with you or write your own. Money stresses me out. I don't want to talk about it or think about it. Some people hoard money, so there is inequality. Rich people are bad and we should take away their wealth and give it to the poor.  I can never make enough money to pay the bills, or to give my family what I want to provide. Money doesn't grow on trees.  It's wasteful to spend money as you might need it later, so I'm frugal and don't spend money unless absolutely necessary. It is better and more ethical to be poor than to be rich. I want more money. I read books and watch TV shows about rich people because I want to live like that. Sometimes I spend too much on things for a glimpse of what that might be like.  I buy lottery tickets and dream of winning all that money.  I'm jealous of people who have money. I want more of it and I resent those who have it. I'm no good with money. I don't like to look at my bank statement or credit card statement. I live off my overdraft and I'm in debt. I will never earn enough to get out of debt and start saving, so I don't think too much about it. I don't know enough about money. Talking about it makes me feel stupid, so I just ignore it. People like me aren't educated about money.  I need to make more money. If I can make lots of money, then people will look up to me. If I make lots of money, I will be secure, nothing can touch me, I will be safe.  I never want to be poor. I would be ashamed to be poor. I will never go on benefits. My net worth is my self worth. Money is good. We have the best standard of living in history because of the increase in wealth over time. Even the richest kings of the past didn't have what many middle-class people have today in terms of access to food, water, technology, healthcare, education, and more. The richest people give the most money to the poor through taxation and charity, as well as through building companies that employ people and invent new things. The very richest give away much of their fortunes. They provide far more benefit to the world than the poor.  I love money. Money loves me. Money comes easily and quickly to me. I attract money in multiple streams of income. It flows to me in so many ways. I spend money. I invest money. I give money. I'm happy and grateful for all that I receive. The Shadow around money for authors in particular Many writers and other creatives have issues around money and wealth. How often have you heard the following, and which do you agree with? You can't make money with your writing. You'll be a poor author in a garret, a starving artist.  You can't write ‘good quality' books and make money. If you make money writing, you're a hack, you're selling out. You are less worthy than someone who writes only for the Muse. Your books are commercial, not artistic. If you spend money on marketing, then your books are clearly not good enough to sell on their own. My agent / publisher / accountant / partner deals with the money side. I like to focus on the creative side of things. My money story Note: This is not financial or investment advice. Please talk to a professional about your situation. I've had money issues over the years — haven't we all! But I have been through a (long) process to bring money out of my Shadow and into the light. There will always be more to discover, but hopefully my money story will help you, or at least give you an opportunity to reflect. Like most people, I didn't grow up with a lot of money. My parents started out as teachers, but later my mum — who I lived with, along with my brother — became a change management consultant, moving to the USA and earning a lot more. I'm grateful that she moved into business because her example changed the way I saw money and provided some valuable lessons. (1) You can change your circumstances by learning more and then applying that to leverage opportunity into a new job or career Mum taught English at a school in Bristol when we moved back from Malawi, Africa, in the mid '80s but I remember how stressful it was for her, and how little money she made. She wanted a better future for us all, so she took a year out to do a master's degree in management. In the same way, when I wanted to change careers and leave consulting to become an author, I spent time and money learning about the writing craft and the business of publishing. I still invest a considerable chunk on continuous learning, as this industry changes all the time. (2) You might have to downsize in order to leap forward The year my mum did her degree, we lived in the attic of another family's house; we ate a lot of one-pot casserole and our treat was having a Yorkie bar on the walk back from the museum. We wore hand-me-down clothes, and I remember one day at school when another girl said I was wearing her dress. I denied it, of course, but there in back of the dress was her name tag. I still remember her name and I can still feel that flush of shame and embarrassment. I was determined to never feel like that again. But what I didn't realize at the time was that I was also learning the power of downsizing. Mum got her degree and then a new job in management in Bristol. She bought a house, and we settled for a few years. I had lots of different jobs as a teenager. My favourite was working in the delicatessen because we got a free lunch made from delicious produce. After I finished A-levels, I went to the University of Oxford, and my mum and brother moved to the USA for further opportunities. I've downsized multiple times over the years, taking a step back in order to take a step forward. The biggest was in 2010 when I decided to leave consulting. Jonathan and I sold our three-bedroom house and investments in Brisbane, Australia, and rented a one-bedroom flat in London, so we could be debt-free and live on less while I built up a new career. It was a decade before we bought another house. (3) Comparison can be deadly: there will always be people with more money than you Oxford was an education in many ways and relevant to this chapter is how much I didn't know about things people with money took for granted. I learned about formal hall and wine pairings, and how to make a perfect gin and tonic. I ate smoked salmon for the first time. I learned how to fit in with people who had a lot more money than I did, and I definitely wanted to have money of my own to play with. (4) Income is not wealth You can earn lots but have nothing to show for it after years of working. I learned this in my first few years of IT consulting after university. I earned a great salary and then went contracting, earning even more money at a daily rate. I had a wonderful time. I traveled, ate and drank and generally made merry, but I always had to go back to the day job when the money ran out. I couldn't work out how I could ever stop this cycle. Then I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, a book I still recommend, especially if you're from a family that values academic over financial education. I learned how to escape the rat race by building and/or accumulating assets that pay even when you're not working. It was a revelation! The ‘poor dad' in the book is a university professor. He knows so much about so many things, but he ends up poor as he did not educate himself about money. The ‘rich dad' has little formal education, but he knows about money and wealth because he learned about it, as we can do at any stage in our lives. (5) Not all investments suit every person, so find the right one for you Once I discovered the world of investing, I read all the books and did courses and in-person events. I joined communities and I up-skilled big time. Of course, I made mistakes and learned lots along the way. I tried property investing and renovated a couple of houses for rental (with more practical partners and skilled contractors). But while I could see that property investing might work for some people, I did not care enough about the details to make it work for me, and it was certainly not passive income. I tried other things. My first husband was a boat skipper and scuba diving instructor, so we started a charter. With the variable costs of fuel, the vagaries of New Zealand weather — and our divorce — it didn't last long! From all these experiments, I learned I wanted to run a business, but it needed to be online and not based on a physical location, physical premises, or other people. That was 2006, around the time that blogging started taking off and it became possible to make a living online. I could see the potential and a year later, the iPhone and the Amazon Kindle launched, which became the basis of my business as an author. (6) Boring, automatic saving and investing works best Between 2007 and 2011, I contracted in Australia, where they have compulsory superannuation contributions, meaning you have to save and invest a percentage of your salary or self-employed income. I'd never done that before, because I didn't understand it. I'd ploughed all my excess income into property or the business instead. But in Australia I didn't notice the money going out because it was automatic. I chose a particular fund and it auto-invested every month. The pot grew pretty fast since I didn't touch it, and years later, it's still growing. I discovered the power of compound interest and time in the market, both of which are super boring. This type of investing is not a get rich quick scheme. It's a slow process of automatically putting money into boring investments and doing that month in, month out, year in, year out, automatically for decades while you get on with your life. I still do this. I earn money as an author entrepreneur and I put a percentage of that into boring investments automatically every month. I also have a small amount which is for fun and higher risk investments, but mostly I'm a conservative, risk-averse investor planning ahead for the future. This is not financial advice, so I'm not giving any specifics. I have a list of recommended money books at www.TheCreativePenn.com/moneybooks if you want to learn more. Learning from the Shadow When I look back, my Shadow side around money eventually drove me to learn more and resulted in a better outcome (so far!). I was ashamed of being poor when I had to wear hand-me-down clothes at school. That drove a fear of not having any money, which partially explains my workaholism. I was embarrassed at Oxford because I didn't know how to behave in certain settings, and I wanted to be like the rich people I saw there. I spent too much money in my early years as a consultant because I wanted to experience a “rich” life and didn't understand saving and investing would lead to better things in the future. I invested too much in the wrong things because I didn't know myself well enough and I was trying to get rich quick so I could leave my job and ‘be happy.' But eventually, I discovered that I could grow my net worth with boring, long-term investments while doing a job I loved as an author entrepreneur. My only regret is that I didn't discover this earlier and put a percentage of my income into investments as soon as I started work. It took several decades to get started, but at least I did (eventually) start. My money story isn't over yet, and I keep learning new things, but hopefully my experience will help you reflect on your own and avoid the issue if it's still in Shadow. These chapters are excerpted from Writing the Shadow: Turn Your Inner Darkness Into Words by Joanna Penn  The post Writing The Shadow: The Creative Wound, Publishing, And Money, With Joanna Penn first appeared on The Creative Penn.

¿Por qué algunas personas parecen ganar siempre... y otras siempre pierden? ¿Qué sucede exactamente en tu cerebro cuando tienes éxito? ¿Por qué el poder cambia a las personas... y cómo evitar que te pase a ti?En este episodio analizamos El Efecto Ganador, de Ian Robertson (The Winner Effect, 2012), un libro que revela los mecanismos neurobiológicos más profundos del éxito y el fracaso humano.Ian Robertson no es el típico autor de autoayuda. Es profesor de Psicología en Trinity College Dublin, profesor visitante en University College London y científico en el Instituto de Investigación Rotman de la Universidad de Toronto. Es miembro de la Academia Real Irlandesa y ha dedicado décadas a estudiar cómo funciona el cerebro humano bajo presión, bajo estrés... y bajo el poder.Lo más valioso: Robertson descubrió que ganar literalmente reprograma tu cerebro para más victorias —a través de testosterona y dopamina— pero también que el poder puede corromperte sin que te des cuenta si no construyes los sistemas adecuados para protegerte.