Podcasts about multiply

Friday Fail Series: Locked Out of Church Episode Title: Friday Fail Series: Locked Out of Church Host: Rob Skinner Podcast: The Rob Skinner Podcast

Kevin Surace is an acclaimed technology innovator, keynote speaker, inventor, and Silicon Valley futurist whose pioneering work laid the foundation for modern AI virtual assistants. With 94 patents to his name and credits that include reinventing the Empire State Building's energy systems, Kevin brings decades of expertise, visionary leadership, and a passion for demystifying artificial intelligence. Through his roles as entrepreneur, advisor, and inspirational speaker, he empowers companies and individuals alike to embrace the AI-first mindset and leverage cutting-edge tools for radical productivity and business transformation. As the architect behind breakthrough technologies and a mentor to organizations adapting to the AI revolution, Kevin is recognized for bridging technical depth with real-world, actionable strategy. In this episode of Marketer of the Day, Kevin Surace shares the actual impact of generative AI on our lives, careers, and companies. Kevin challenges common fears about AI and offers practical frameworks for using it to achieve “10x” results across marketing, sales, creativity, and software development. He recalls lessons from decades of innovation and shares stories from building music demos to orchestrating press quotes with AI. He explains why mindset, judgment, and continuous learning are more vital than ever. The conversation dives into future trends like humanoid robots, the changing nature of employment, and the keys to thriving, not just surviving, in the fast-moving world of artificial intelligence. Quotes: “If you can't find a 10x productivity improvement (with AI), you're either doing it wrong or have the wrong technology; that's what you should be looking for.” “AI is a game changer. You have to use it every hour. Think AI-first, not AI-second or third. Everything is AI-first.” “It's only as good as the information you give it, just like if you had a PhD sitting next to you—you need to put in the effort.” Resources: Connect with Kevin Surace on LinkedIn. Watch Kevin Surace on YouTube ELEVATING VISION WITH FUTURISM AND AI INSIGHTS

The Great I AM Is With You Scripture: Matthew 28:20 The Rob Skinner Podcast | The 10X Christian In today's episode, Rob Skinner shares an encouraging message about courage, calling, and the powerful promise Jesus gave His disciples: "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." — Matthew 28:20 If you've ever felt nervous, inadequate, or afraid while stepping out in faith, this episode will strengthen your confidence and remind you that you never walk alone.

When thriving is your greatest priority, your whole life will glow. When you skip over this important metric, it's very hard to make big breakthroughs.  Sign up HERE to start the FREE New Year Decluttering Workshop: https://www.fengshuimagical.com/the_professional_decluttering_workshop  

Activity doesn’t equal impact. In this REVERB episode, Andy Stanley and co-host Suzy Gray revisit last week's conversation with Jason Jaggard to reveal why focus fuels growth and distraction kills it. They discuss the hidden cost of trying to do everything, how to align a team around a shared vision, and why scaling influence requires letting go of certain responsibilities, not adding more. Whether you lead a team of two or two hundred, this conversation will help you lead with purpose, confidence, and sustainable impact. Recognized as one of Forbes' 6 Leadership Podcasts To Listen To In 2024 and one of the Best Leadership Podcasts To Stay in the Know for CEOs, according to Industry Leader Magazine. If this podcast has made you a better leader, you can help it by leaving a quick Spotify or Apple Podcasts review. You can visit Spotify or Apple Podcasts, and then go to the “Reviews” section. Thank you for sharing! ____________ Where to find Andy: Instagram: @andy_stanley Facebook: Andy Stanley Official X: @andystanley YouTube: @AndyStanleyOfficial See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Make Yourself Available to God The Rob Skinner Podcast Episode Summary In today's episode, Rob Skinner explores one powerful question that can transform your spiritual life: Are you available to God? Just like a phone line that's busy or a message that goes unanswered, our lives can become so packed and distracted that God can't reach us. Rob shares why availability—not talent—is often the key to being used by God. With biblical examples, practical insights, and a relatable message, this episode will help you slow down, create margin, and open your life to the opportunities God has already prepared for you. What You'll Learn in This Episode Why God values availability more than ability How busyness and distraction can block God's work in your life What Ephesians 2:10 reveals about your purpose How biblical figures like Isaiah, Mary, and the disciples made themselves available Practical ways to create margin for God to speak and move Daily steps to become more responsive to God's calling Key Scriptures Ephesians 2:10 – "For we are God's workmanship… prepared in advance for us to do." Isaiah 6:8 – "Here am I. Send me." Luke 1:38 – "I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said." Practical Takeaways Build intentional margin into your schedule Say "no" to some good things so you can say "yes" to God's things Slow down enough to notice the people and opportunities around you Disconnect from digital distractions to reconnect with God Pray daily: "Lord, I'm available. Show me where to go." This Week's Challenge Create space in your schedule and your heart. Listen for God's voice. When He calls—don't be too busy to pick up. Say with Isaiah: "Here I am, Lord. Send me." Support the Rob Skinner Podcast If this episode helped you grow, you can support the mission by: Sharing this episode with a friend Leaving a review on your podcast platform Sign up for Rob's newsletter on his website scroll down About Rob Skinner Rob's mission is to inspire you to: Live a no-regrets life Make this life count Multiply disciples, leaders, and churches

Episode Summary In this first installment of Faith Fails Friday, Rob shares one of his most unforgettable—and cringe-worthy—moments from early ministry life. During a special visitor day in the summer of 1991, something completely unexpected happened in the middle of Rob's sermon… and the result was a story he's never forgotten. Rob opens up about the moment, the chaos that followed, what people thought was happening, and the surprising backstory behind it all. It's an honest look at one of his biggest "faith fails" and a reminder that even in our most awkward or imperfect moments, God is still working. What You'll Hear in This Episode Rob's introduction to the new Faith Fails Friday series The unforgettable moment when a man stood up mid-sermon during a special visitor day Why some people thought the incident was staged Pam's reaction (including the "No smoking!" moment) Why Rob's friend Paul was mortified watching it unfold The full, unexpected backstory behind the incident How this experience reminded Rob of 2 Timothy 4:5 and the call to "keep your head in all situations" Why faith fails can become powerful spiritual lessons Key Scripture 2 Timothy 4:5 — "But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry." Support the Rob Skinner Podcast If this episode encouraged you, here are three ways you can help support the mission: Share the podcast with a friend who wants to grow in their faith and leadership. Read and review Rob's book The 10X Christian on Amazon—it helps spread the message. Support the podcast with a gift using this link. Rob's Mission Rob's goal is to inspire you to: Make this life count. Live a no-regrets life. Multiply disciples, leaders, and churches. Thanks for listening! Have a great day—and make this life count!

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Kintore College in Toronto on December 3, 2025, on the feast of Saint Francis Xavier.Matthew 15:29–37 recounts Jesus healing many sick people by the Sea of Galilee. Matthew tells us about how there were large crowds of people. They were not just numbers to him, or statistics. They brought these people to him. The illnesses were varied. He made them whole again. There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves". But that clearly did not make sense. It was not logical, as the disciples barely had enough for themselves. But with that little contribution, those few loaves, and a couple of fish, that was enough for Jesus. It can be enough too in our apostolate.Music: O Holy Night by Christmas choir in Youtubetomp3.scThumbnail: Mosaic cycle Saint Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna 6th century, AD.

To hear more about what God is doing in Sheboygan County and beyond, visit us at posc.church!

Most discourse on AI is low-quality. Most discourse on consciousness is super-abysmal-double-low quality. Multiply these - or maybe raise one to the exponent of the other, or something - and you get the quality of discourse on AI consciousness. It's not great. Out-of-the-box AIs mimic human text, and humans almost always describe themselves as conscious. So if you ask an AI whether it is conscious, it will often say yes. But because companies know this will happen, and don't want to give their customers existential crises, they hard-code in a command for the AIs to answer that they aren't conscious. Any response the AIs give will be determined by these two conflicting biases, and therefore not really believable. A recent paper expands on this method by subjecting AIs to a mechanistic interpretability "lie detector" test; it finds that AIs which say they're conscious think they're telling the truth, and AIs which say they're not conscious think they're lying. But it's hard to be sure this isn't just the copying-human-text thing. Can we do better? Unclear; the more common outcome for people who dip their toes in this space is to do much, much worse. But a rare bright spot has appeared: a seminal paper published earlier this month in Trends In Cognitive Science, Identifying Indicators Of Consciousness In AI Systems. Authors include Turing-Award-winning AI researcher Yoshua Bengio, leading philosopher of consciousness David Chalmers, and even a few members of our conspiracy. If any AI consciousness research can rise to the level of merely awful, surely we will find it here. One might divide theories of consciousness into three bins: https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/the-new-ai-consciousness-paper

Join us this week as Andrew speaks on "How to multiply Grace in your life" Discover more at: https://www.exchangechurchbelfast.com/ Subscribe to our channel to be notified of our future uploads & livestreams!

David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will continue our discussion about the AI Approach to Multiply Your Sales. This is part four in our series, and today we'll be talking about learning, segmenting, and the Three Ds. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, thank you so much, David. I really, really enjoyed this. I know I’ve said that in previous podcasts, but it’s true. After each one, I’ve gone into my own business and I’m like, okay, I got to apply this and apply that because these conversations are of such value. So I appreciate your time. I love this. And hopefully it’s been helpful to everybody else. David: I’m glad, I feel the same way, and I’m really looking at this almost like a mini-course. If people were to put together these four episodes and say, “How much of this stuff am I doing in my business?” You can probably implement some things very quickly that can probably help you get some great results. Jay: 100%. David: All right, so let’s do the quick review. And again, what we’re talking about here is we asked AI what will help you to multiply your business because that’s been a focus of our conversations recently. AI came back with some different responses, and then we’re talking about what AI says and how we’re able to help implement those things in business with our clients. And so let’s just recap. Number one was refine your target audience. Number two, develop a compelling value proposition. Number three, optimize your marketing channels. That was our first episode on that topic. In episode two, we covered points four, five, and six. Number four was enhance your customer experience. Number five, implement a referral program. And number six, leverage the power of content marketing. In episode three of this series, we hit utilize upselling and cross selling strategies, which was number seven. Analyze and optimize your sales funnel, which was number eight, and invest in customer relation management software, CRM, which was number nine. Now we’re going to be doing 10, 11, and 12. Eleven and 12 are really bonus because originally I asked it for 10 and then I realized that doesn’t break out well if you’re doing three in a podcast. So I went back to the AI and I said, give me two more. And it did. So we’ll be talking about numbers 11 and 12 in this podcast as well. So number 10 in the list of things that AI says will help you to multiply your sales is: 10: Continuous learning and adaptation. Stay updated with industry trends, attend relevant workshops or conferences, and be open to adapting your sales strategies to meet changing market demands. Well spoken AI! Continuous education. It’s a good call! Jay: It is, and some professions actually require it. But again, that continuous education is often on a service or a specialty or things like that. It’s not really on customer service or the technology or things like that. I feel like in that regard, so many of us are a hamster on a wheel. You know, we’re just trying to keep up with what today is giving us. We’re putting grease on the squeaky wheel and we don’t have time to really think about staying up on, you know, all the latest trends and those kind of things. David: Yeah. And a lot of people just don’t like continuing education, because they feel like so much of it is platitudes. It’s like, I already know this stuff. I already know it, right? But knowing what to do is very different than knowing how to do it. And that’s really what I’ve been trying to differentiate in this series of podcasts is that, yes, these are great statements. Continuous learning. That sounds great. But what are you learning? Are you learning things that you can implement immediately? Are you putting in place processes that will allow you to start getting results right away so you can gauge those results and then adapt, change, or tweak the process as you go to make sure that it’s working for you? So once again, we’re focusing on all the little details that make these general recommendations profitable. Jay: You know, I don’t know where I get it. I think I get it from my dad, but I am on a never ending quest to make things more efficient. I am always looking for the next software, the next device, the next system. I’ve done it since I was 15. My first job was in a burger barn at an amusement park. And I was watching how they put everything on the grill and what they would do is they’d cover the whole grill with burgers And then they would flip them all at the same time, and then they would pull them all off at the same time, and while they’re preparing them, the grill is sitting there empty. And so the line would move, and then it would stop, and I’m like, this is crazy. Put down two rows, wait a second, put down two, put down two, and at 15, I changed the whole thing. I’ve been doing that stuff my whole life, so I I love the tech. I love the next thing. And I’ll spend weeks and months finding the right thing knowing that it’s going to improve my business for years to come. David: Yeah, and that really goes to the point. The words that the AI used , it said continuous learning and adaptation. Jay: Yes. David: And what you’re talking about there is adaptation and implementation. Adapting the system to be able to get the result that you want Jay: Yes. David: So that everything gets better for everybody. Beautiful thing. Jay: Yeah, KPIs, Key Performance Indicators, that’s kind of what we use nowadays. And we’ve talked about this in previous podcasts, understanding every aspect of your business and knowing how you can influence it and adapt it. Because you can’t adapt, if you don’t know the reality of what’s going on. And I’ve worked for so many companies where management has no clue what’s happening on the front lines. And so we’re asking them, we’re begging them to adapt. Or they have software built by engineers who aren’t on the front line and we’re pulling our hair out because it doesn’t answer any questions. It makes life harder for us. David: Right. And unfortunately, a lot of it boils down to not knowing what to do and not knowing how to do it. “Yes, this is a problem, but I don’t know how to fix it. I don’t have time to think about how to fix it. Therefore, soldier on, keep moving, keep working. Good luck with that.” And so much of this, and even this point, continuous learning and adaptation is about identifying those small hinges that swing the big doors. And so much of what we do with our clients is about doing just that. Finding what is a small and obvious fix to a problem that could have been plaguing a company for literally months or years. You fix it in 10 minutes with a one sheet piece of paper that says, “Do it this way,” and they implement it, and they immediately start to see better results. So, I think in terms of, okay, this is what AI suggests, this is how we end up getting it done. So that’s number 10, continuous learning and adaptation. 11. Targeted Marketing Campaigns. Develop targeted marketing strategies tailored to specific customer segments. This approach ensures that your marketing efforts resonate deeply with your intended audience, leading to higher conversion rates. Once again, a lot of buzzwords in that sentence. A lot of really good recommendations in that sentence, but a lot of confusion too. Jay: Yeah, absolutely. Can I brag for a minute? David: Please do. Jay: I want to brag for a minute. So a lot of people know that I’ve just recently started an accounting firm that focuses on day traders and they’re taxes. And we’ve spent over a year and a half with my current company and my last company working on keywords to make sure we get the right leads from Google advertising. And David, in the last four months, I have not had one lead that is not right in the strike zone. Now, think about that. Think, I mean, that is unbelievable to me. That, and they, you know, we’re in constant contact with the company that we use. And every month they’re like, okay, how many leads were outside? What do we need to adjust? And I’m like, just keep pitching ’em, man, because they are right there. And the beauty of that is, all we have to do is adjust the volume. Right? Certain times of the year we crank that volume up, and certain times of the year we crank it down. And, wow! When we have the secret sauce, I mean, everything else is just gravy at that point. David: Exactly. And what you’re talking about really ties back to point three, earlier in our conversation, which is about optimizing your marketing channels. Jay: Right, right. David: When you’re able to do that, and you combine that with what we’re talking about here in number 11, which is targeted marketing campaigns, it’s a double whammy. Because now you are getting to the right people through the stuff that you’re doing with your SEO. And your communication is better, which is something we also talked about in the first episode in this four part series. And now, when you talk about targeted marketing campaigns, to me what that means is you’re taking the communications that we’ve perfected, creating value in the communications like we talked about in a previous episode, and now you’re sequencing that communication. That’s how we describe it to our clients inside our program. You’re sequencing your communication. You’re putting together a series of messages that go out in a specific order, in a specific timeframe, so that you’re getting the information in front of them when they need it most. To me, a targeted marketing campaign is about doing that. You’re getting the right message out to the right people at the right time. Using the right targeted marketing vehicle. Jay: I love that. Sequencing the information. That makes a lot of sense to me. And I think understanding that in first contact, they might not understand your product or the need for it. But we all know if they see you a couple times, you know, what is it? You used to hear they have to see you seven times, you know, a billboard, a TV ad, or whatever that is? Meeting them where they’re at. Instead of trying to force them to be where you want them to be. It sounds to me like a great way to go. David: Yeah, no question. I remember, I think it was in the Guerrilla Marketing book, he was talking about the fact that somebody had to be exposed to your message nine times before they’d be ready to buy. And at that point, I extrapolated for myself. I said, well, what if they only see one out of every three messages I put out? To me, that means I need to do nine times three, 27. I need to get out to them 27 times before they’re going to be ready to make a buying decision. And that’s really the essence of what sequencing communication is. A lot of times we feel the need to try to tell everybody everything up front, before they even know who we are. And their eyes glaze over and like, Oh, this is too much. This person’s too full of hot air. I’m moving on. And when you sequence your communication properly, you’re dripping it out a little bit at a time. You’re giving them a little bit this time and a little more the next time, a little more the following time. And each part of it reveals a different aspect of your approach. A different aspect of the way that you do things, and the benefits that you bring to them. And if number one didn’t completely resonate, maybe number two will, and maybe number four will, and maybe number seven will. And the ones in between, if it’s good, useful information, and it’s creating value for them, they’ll still be happy to see it. They’ll be happy to look at it. But then, when you get to the ones that really resonate with them, they’re going to respond. Jay: Yeah, absolutely. And I love how you said they don’t know who we are, but I would also flip that. We don’t know who they are yet, right? And so, like you said, we’re kind of dividing their possible interest into this sequencing. And hopefully, at some point, we’re going to land on who they are and what their needs are in that moment. David: Exactly. And so much of it really becomes fun when you’re taking an approach like this. And I use the word fun a lot when I’m talking with my clients. Because I figure if what we’re doing is not actually fun, we’re not doing it right. Because if it’s miserable, if it’s a big old slog and we can’t stand it, Let’s face it, they’re not going to do it. But when you’re able to make it fun by taking the appropriate action with the appropriate people at the appropriate time, everything gets a lot easier and a lot more fun. Jay: Absolutely, absolutely. David: All right, so number 12, this is the last one on our list. And this is: 12. Data Driven Decision Making. Leverage data analytics to understand customer behavior, preferences and buying patterns. Data driven insights empower you to make informed decisions, refine your strategies, and optimize sales processes. Many words. Jay: Yeah, and again, how do you extrapolate that out into your own business? I know this is something we work on constantly. I don’t think there’s ever going to be a point where you’re like, “okay, got that one done,” right? It’s got to be constant. David: Yeah, and once again, going back to the idea of simplification, which is a really big part of what we do with people, boiling it down to its essentials. Data driven decision making, to me, and this is what I refer to as the 3 D’s at the beginning of this podcast, data driven decisions, right? To me, that means that you are making your decisions based on the right information, the actual information, not what we think might be right, not what we feel, oh, I feel like I should do this. What does the data say? What’s working well? What are the things that we’ve done in the past that have worked well? What are the things we’ve done in the past that have not worked as well? How can we continue to replicate the things that we did that did well? Do adaptations on those, to be able to continue to move that needle forward. How can we avoid the mistakes that we made in the past based on what we’ve done and the responses that we’ve gotten? To me, that is the essence of data driven decision making. And if you look again at the AI description, leverage data analytics to understand customer behavior. That just means looking at what are the customers doing based on what you’re sending out? Leverage data analytics to understand customer behavior, preferences, and buying patterns. Okay, so that’s all the same. Data driven insights empower you to make informed decisions. Right, your decisions are now informed. They’re not just decisions, right? And then it says, refine your strategies and optimize sales processes. It allows you to do all of that. So, I would argue that this one, data driven decision making, is essentially a combination of all of the above. Because when you’re implementing the things that we talked about over this series of podcasts, and you’re gauging the results, you’re tracking it down, you’ve got the tracking sheets or however it is that you’re keeping track of what’s going on, and you’re making the decisions based on, not what you think is going to work or what you think might work, but what actually is working, everything becomes a lot easier. Jay: Yeah, absolutely. Can I give you a bad example of not using data? David: Sure, I love bad examples!. Jay: So, I worked for a national pizza chain. I’ll give you a hint, Pizza Pizza. Still family owned, even till today. And one day the daughter of the owner came up with this brilliant idea that people wanted bigger pizzas. I don’t know if you remember this. It was called Bigger is Better. So they forced every franchisee to go out and retrofit all of their ovens. Buy new pans. The whole thing probably cost five grand per business to just do this. And they of course marketed behind it. Guess where all those pans are? They’re sitting on top of the walk in refrigerators. Because there was no data, it was not driven by anything more than a feeling. And it was just the most ridiculous effort I’ve ever seen. And that’s some of the problems you can get into with a family run business, because you are making gut feeling decisions instead of looking at the data. David: Yeah, I’d love to say it’s just family run businesses, but wow, New Coke. Two words, right? Jay: Yeah. David: This kind of thing just happens everywhere. And some things just seem like a really good idea. Hey, wow. If they like this one, they’ll probably like that one when you say it out loud. Sure. It seems reasonable. And if the marketing was right and if the people wanted it, then that would have worked, but we just don’t know. So data driven decision making is also a big one. All right. So in terms of sort of wrapping this up, because we’ve been doing this now over a period of four podcasts over four weeks. I feel like we touched on a lot of really good topics. I feel like we were able to dive deep in terms of some of the how, of how to do these things. And I’m hoping that the people who have actually paid attention through each of these episodes got some really solid ideas on specific things they can do to grow their sales and profits. If that’s the case, and if you’d like to have a conversation about how we can help really just Implement this stuff inside your business, go to Topsecrets.com/call. Let’s have a conversation. See if we can help. If we can, we’ll let you know. If we can’t, we’ll let you know that too. There is zero pressure on these calls. It’s about identifying the primary areas where you need help, providing recommendations on what you can do and how you can do it, and then saying, all right, if you want to do it by yourself, you can do that. If you want to do it with us, you can do that, but you have the option. So hopefully that makes sense. And if you’d like to do it, TopSecrets.com/call. Jay: Yeah, I love it. And I’ll just kind of add my feedback on this series of podcasts. I’ve learned a tremendous amount. I’ve applied a bunch. But one of the things that stands out to me, is that you don’t have to do it alone. And I think sometimes we see it as weakness, right? I should be able to run this all. I should be able to do it all. Yeah, maybe, maybe. But there are people who have gone before you. There are people who’ve spent, David, how many years have you spent doing this and refining this and, and talking to customers? So, I mean, it’s just a great service. Again, just speaking out loud about it has made such a difference for me. So, I’m a huge fan of what you do and I hope people will recognize your sincerity, that it is just a call, and you do have a very strong desire to help. And you help a lot of people. David: Well, thank you. And we never try to push anyone into our programs. All we’re looking to do is we’re looking for the right fit. If you are a smart, focused, motivated business owner, and you are determined to get from here to there, then we probably want to work together. If you’re not good with making decisions, if you’re kind of iffy or wishy washy, then it’s probably not going to be a good fit. And in many of the calls, we can get two thirds of the way through the call and recognize pretty early on it’s not a good fit. At which point we’ll say, yeah, I don’t think we can help you. You know, maybe you can try this resource or that resource. So, it’s really not about us trying to sell you into anything. If we can work together, great. If we can’t, that’s perfectly fine too because we’ll know, right? We’ll have the conversation, and we’ll both know! You’ll know, “oh, it’s not a good fit,” I’ll know, it’s not a good fit. And you get closure, which is beautiful. If you’ve been thinking about scheduling a call and just haven’t, there’s no closure, right? Have the call. It’ll be a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Either way, it’s great. You’ll have a great experience. We’ll have a great conversation, and I hope you do it. Jay: Yeah, and listen, there’s no reason to be a salesperson when your product is great, and yours is. So, David, I love our conversations, and thank you so much for your time today. David: Thank you, Jay. Ready to Multiply Your Sales? If so, check out the five primary ways we help promotional product distributors grow: Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just getting started in promotional products sales, learn how we can help. Need Clients Now? If you're already grounded in the essentials of promotional product sales and just need to get clients now, click here. Want EQP/Preferential Pricing? Are you an established industry veteran doing a significant volume of sales? If so, click here to get End Quantity Pricing from many of the top supplier lines in the promo industry. Time to Hire Salespeople? If you want to hire others to grow your promo sales, click here. Ready to Dominate Your Market? If you're serious about creating top-of-mind-awareness with the very best prospects in your market, schedule a one-on-one Strategy Session here.

Leave an Amazon Rating or Review for my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!Check out the full episode: https://lewishowes.com/podcast/e-brendon-burchard-high-performance-habits/From identifying and leveraging your unique skills to creating multiple streams of income, Burchard provides a roadmap to financial abundance. With a focus on mindset, productivity, and strategic planning, he empowers listeners to break free from limiting beliefs and tap into their full earning capacity. This episode serves as a catalyst for listeners to take control of their financial future, unlock their entrepreneurial spirit, and create a life of abundance.Sign up for the Greatness newsletter: http://www.greatness.com/newsletter Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Heather continued to teach on GC Values that sustain the four pillars of purpose. She touched on how to build as a family with courageous faith to multiply.od.

The sermon from The Oaks Church weekly gathering.

In this episode of The Ross Simmonds Show, Ross dives deep into embracing AI with clarity and direction rather than chaos and overwhelm. Rather than chasing trendy tools or piling on new software, Ross introduces the powerful AIM Framework—a proven model he's developed to help founders, marketers, and operators use AI with intentionality. AIM stands for Accelerate, Integrate, and Multiply. Whether you're a startup founder, marketer, or operator, this episode will help you cut through the AI noise, re-center your focus, and make AI a meaningful part of your business operations—without burning out or overengineering.   Key Takeaways and Insights: 1. The AI Trap vs. The AI Advantage - Most people and teams are experimenting with AI but lack a clear direction - Too many tools, not enough strategy—resulting in overwhelm and inefficiency - AI should be used as leverage, not decoration 2. The AIM Framework Overview - Accelerate — Ask: What's slowing you down that AI can speed up? — Time-saving use cases: email follow-ups, brainstorm facilitation, web research, document summarization —  Pro Tip: Use AI not just to cut corners, but to build momentum - Integrate — Ask: Where does process friction slow down workflow and can AI resolve it? — Look for bottlenecks across marketing, sales, operations, and finance — Real-world scenarios: auto-updating sales decks, syncing spreadsheets, draft consistency, SOP standardization — Daily mantra: “Where is there friction, and can AI remove it?” - Multiply — Ask: What's already working well, and how can AI do more of that? — Repurpose top-performing assets using tools like Distribution.ai — Perform customer insights, expand reach, clone high performers — AI is best when compounding what already brings value Resources & Tools:

Questions? Thoughts? Comments? Leave me a voicemail message to use in a future podcast episode: https://www.speakpipe.com/timschmoyerComment on the full post here: https://read.timschmoyer.com/p/business-makes-kingdom-men----I used to believe business existed mostly to fund ministry, that the people in the pews wrote checks so the people on staff could do the real Kingdom work.I grew up in a pastor's house. Ministry shaped everything: Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, Wednesday nights, and the hours between. I went to Bible college and seminary fully expecting to spend my life in full-time ministry. Business was necessary, sure, but it was for other people.However, as I read Luke 19 more carefully today, I realize Jesus doesn't tell his servants to plant churches or care for the poor or grow in spiritual disciplines. In the parable of The 10 Minas, Jesus says this:Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, “Engage in business until I come.”… When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business. -Luke 19:13, 15The master doesn't hand his servants a theology quiz or a spiritual gifts assessment. He gives them money and says, “Engage in business.”Not prayer. Not Bible study. Not ministry. Business.This Parable Ruins My CategoriesWhen the master returns as king, he asks about ROI (return on investment). The servant who turned one mina into ten gets authority over ten cities. The one who made five gets five cities. The one who buried his mina?He's slaughtered.Not demoted. Not reassigned to a lesser role. Killed. Jesus puts these words in the mouth of the returning king: “As for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.”I want to soften this. I want to explain it away as hyperbole or limit it to the political enemies mentioned earlier in the parable. But the servant who buried his mina is grouped with those who rejected the king's reign entirely. Playing it safe wasn't neutral. It was rebellion.Apparently, Jesus believes something I struggle to accept: fruitfulness isn't optional. Multiply what the Master entrusts to you and receive cities. Bury it? You've declared whose side you're on.To the master, one's fruitfulness in business today seems to determine one's fitness to rule cities in the age to come.I realize this makes most Christian men uncomfortable. Some of us have been trained to see business as secular, something we do to fund ministry or a necessary evil to provide for our family while we wait for the real work of the Kingdom to begin. But Jesus presents business itself as a proving ground for eternal authority.Subscribe to join me and other Christian men in pursuing the noble task of eldership (1 Tim 3:1).Why Business?When I think about my experience in starting, growing, and ultimately selling my business, a few reasons come to mind.* Business forces you to create value where none existed. It requires you to manage resources, assess risk, lead others, and bear the weight of both success and failure. It tests whether you can be faithful with what's entrusted to you when no one is watching and the outcome is uncertain.* Business reveals character like few other pursuits. You can fake spirituality in a prayer meeting. You can coast on charisma in ministry. But business is ruthlessly honest. Did you create value or didn't you? Did people freely exchange their resources for a solution you offered or didn't they? Did you multiply what was given or let it stagnate?* Business joins God in His mission of being fruitful and multiplying, and his subsequent blessing to us to do the same. Any successful business revolves around solving problems for people. The whole endeavor focuses on turning someone's chaos into order, exactly what God did when he took an empty and formless earth and turned it into something orderly and beautiful.The Bigger StoryWhen God created man, his first words to us were not “be holy” or “worship me” or “evangelize.” His first words were, “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” Not only was it a command, but it was also a blessing. Genesis 1:22 starts the command by saying, “He blessed them…” We were created to work. And it's good (until work is cursed in Genesis 3; it's still a blessing, but now it's toil).This is the original job description for us: Take what God has made and make it more fruitful. Extend order into the chaos. Multiply goodness. Create culture and civilization from raw materials. Take the garden and grow it until cities like it cover the face of the earth.This is what business does at its core. It takes resources, applies our creativity and effort, and produces something more valuable than what existed before. It's subduing the earth. It's multiplying fruitfulness. It's fulfilling the original design for manhood that God stamped into us at creation.The Master's command to engage in business isn't an arbitrary test. It's reconnecting His servants to their primal purpose as image-bearers. It's asking:“Can you do what men were made to do? Can you take what I've given you and make it fruitful?”Training Ground for CitiesIn Luke 19, the servants who succeed in business receive cities to govern.This is the connection I missed while in Bible college and seminary. Business is not an end in itself. The goal isn't only to make money. It's preparation for rule. It's the fulfillment of the Genesis 1 blessing had sin not entered.When I build a business, I was learning to:* Assess people and situations accurately* Make decisions that impact my family' life, my employee's lives, and our customers* Bear responsibility for outcomes that affect others* Multiply resources rather than merely preserve them* Lead people toward productive ends* Create order and value in a small domainThese are precisely the skills required to govern a city. The man who can make one mina into ten has demonstrated he can take a small domain and multiply its fruitfulness. He's ready for a larger domain.The man who buried his mina revealed he's a steward who preserves but never increases. He maintains but never multiplies. He's risk-averse, suspicious of his master, and content to merely survive rather than grow. It appears that this man is not fit to rule anything.Subscribe to join me and other Christian men in pursuing the noble task of eldership (1 Tim 3:1).What This Means for Men TodayIf business is the training ground for Kingdom rule, then our work as a Christian man is not a necessary evil or a distraction from real ministry. It's the arena where we're being tested and trained for eternal authority.The faithfulness we show in building our businesses, managing assets, creating value—this is not separate from our spiritual formation. It is our spiritual formation.Every hard decision we make is teaching us judgment. Every risk we take is training us in faith mixed with wisdom. Every person we lead is preparing us to shepherd a city. Every failure we endure and recover from is forging the resilience we'll need to govern in the age to come.This has implications for how I father my sons. I'm not just teaching them to love Jesus and be nice people. I'm training them to be fruitful, to multiply what's entrusted to them, to take dominion over small things so they'll be ready for greater responsibilities. And every day that my 15 year old son gets excited to see his hard-earned money growing in mutual funds, and the patience he shows when it looses money and he doesn't pull it out, he's learning to have a long-term perspective on ROI.The Master Cares About ROI, so I Should, Too.To the seminary version of myself many years ago, the most unsettling part of this parable is how much the master cares about return on investment. He's not impressed with the man who played it safe. He's furious with him.The master calls him wicked for not even putting the money in the bank to earn interest. He demands fruitfulness, not just faithfulness in the sense of careful preservation. He rewards multiplication, and he punishes stagnation.This reveals something about the heart of God that shapes how I think about my life right now. The Kingdom is not coming to men who merely showed up and didn't make too many mistakes. It's coming to men who took what they were given—gifts, opportunities, resources, time—and took risks to make them more fruitful.God is not honored by when I play it small. He's not glorified by my risk-averse self-protection. He's entrusting me with minas today because he's preparing me for cities tomorrow.The question is whether I'm engaging in business or burying what I've been given.Every hard moment I face in business, in leadership, in leading a family, and multiplying—that's not a distraction from the Kingdom. That's training for cities. And the Master is watching to see what kind of return I'll bring Him when He comes back as King.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​P.S. In 2013 I was in the startup grind, trying to grow a brand new business with a wife and three small kids depending on me. During that season of life, Timothy Keller's book, “Every Good Endeavor,” completely shifted my understanding of what I was doing. I wasn't just trying to survive financially or even grow a business. I was seeking the Kingdom and joining the Master in His work. I highly recommend this book. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit read.timschmoyer.com

Canada's energy sector has long struggled with low productivity on the front line, as indeed the entire Canadian economy. Despite heroic efforts by tradespeople, their effectiveness is hamstrung by badly dated processes, old disconnected systems, and paper-based workflows. The problem isn't the workers. It's that they're too often sent out with the wrong drawings, the wrong tools, the wrong permits, or even to the wrong location. Multiply that by a hundreds of thousands of jobs, and you've got a national productivity drag. One company, MSCP Heat Management Solutions, set out to build a completely paperless, digitally connected operation, starting at the job site. By linking trades, materials, safety workflows, and quality processes into a seamless digital flow, MSCP has achieved something few believe is possible: cutting required manpower by 40% to 45% on major jobs. In this episode, I speak with Chris Maki, MSCP's founder and CEO, on lessons he took from Fort McMurray's distant job sites and turned them into a blueprint for frontline innovation, cross-trade productivity, and system-level change. We talk technology, training, and trust, and why it's not about buying a platform, but building a mindset.

What if you could get paid not to sell more… but to license what you've already created?In this episode, I chat with April Beach—business strategist and licensing expert—about how to license your IP (think: courses, frameworks, trainings) to companies who will pay 8 to 10 times MORE than your regular buyers.April has helped entrepreneurs land licensing deals with brands like MAC, Estée Lauder, and universities worldwide—often earning $50K to $100K+ per deal.We dive into:What licensing actually is (and why it's not just for the “big” players)How to know if your content is licensable (hint: it probably is!)The difference between selling to an end-user vs. licensing to a buyerHow to protect your IP, price your offer, and pitch with confidenceIf you're ready to scale smarter—not harder—this episode is your permission slip to unlock a new revenue stream and reclaim your time.

David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will continue our discussion about the AI Approach to Multiply Your Sales. This is episode three in our series, and it's about upselling, sales funnels, and your CRM. David: Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Thank you, David. This has been fascinating for me as I look at what AI recommends. And even just apply some of those basics to my own business but also realizing that these are kind of general, and figuring out how to apply them to everybody's individual circumstances is no easy feat. David: Exactly. And one of the things that I've really liked about this series is having the opportunity to talk about the "how" of a lot of this stuff, because as business owners, as salespeople, we've heard these recommendations forever. But the question is always, "well, how do you go about doing it?" And so what I've been trying to do in this series is to say, okay, here's the general what you ought to do, but then there's the, how do you go about doing it? And this is exactly what we help our clients with. So it's been really fun for me to be able to go through these and say, okay, there are probably lots of ways to do these things, but this is how we do it. Because our goal is to simplify it for our clients. So you don't have to say, Oh, well, should I do this? Should I do that? Should I do this? It's like, okay. Implement this, gauge the results, see how it goes, report back, if we need to tweak it, if we need to do something different, we can, but you have an instant starting point, and that allows you to get actions taken, get results back quickly, and then be able to adapt as you go. Jay: Yeah, I love that, that you're able to kind of cut through all of the noise out there because there's so much noise, and help them identify for their individual situation what they need because they may have asked AI and we have some of those lists here and items from AI, but again, it's just a starting point. David: Exactly. So let's take a look at the things that we already discussed in the previous episodes. And once again, what we're doing here is we asked AI, what are the things that will allow us to multiply our sales? It came back with number one, define your target audience. Number two, develop a compelling value proposition. Number three, optimize your marketing channels. We covered that in previous episodes. Number four was enhance your customer experience. Number five was implement a referral program. Number six was leverage and the power of content marketing. So now in this episode, we're going to tackle numbers seven, eight, and nine, which is upselling, sales funnels, and your CRM. So let's get to number seven. 7. Utilize upselling and cross selling strategies: Offer complementary products or services to increase the average transactional value and maximize customer value. What do you think? Jay: Yeah. I mean, it makes a lot of sense. I will tell you this was much easier to grasp in my mind when I was in the restaurant business, right? It's like, you want fries with that? You know, let's make it a value meal. Let's make it a, you know, a combo, whatever. I will tell you, we've spent a lot of time in my current business identifying what are the other things, other products that we can offer that our customers will want, not things that we can shove down their throat, but what other things can we add that they may be looking for because they came to us? David: Yes, exactly. And I think people hear about upselling and cross selling and they're like, Oh yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Most people are familiar with the restaurant, the McDonald's example, "want fries with that." So it makes sense, but it's like, okay, how do I apply that to my business? And one of the ways that we help our clients do that is to identify, okay, well, what does this mean? What is upselling versus cross selling and all that sort of thing? And in a nutshell, the way that I view it, upselling is when you're selling them a better version of the thing that they're considering buying or a more expensive version of the thing that they're considering buying. Cross selling is the idea of "want fries with that." It's okay. You're already getting this. This goes with it. Would you like to do that as well? In the promotional products industry, where I do a lot of my work, cross selling is, "ah, you're buying t shirts, want sweatshirts with that." Or if you're buying sweatshirts, want sweatpants with that, right? Want caps with that. Shirts and caps go together, that type of thing. So, It's pretty simple when we boil it down, and it's even better and it's even easier when we turn it into a process so that everybody knows the words you say when someone is ordering a particular type of product. Jay: Yeah. So I think that there's two steps, right? Identifying what those things are based upon your industry. And I think the key to that, honestly, for me is just listening. Right? I'm on the phone with these people every single day and over time I'm starting to sense, wait a minute, there's an opportunity here that we can fill. But then there is the implementation of that process, right? If you don't make it a process, if you don't identify it, define it, implement it, and track it, then it's probably not going to happen, or it's not going to be as successful as you would hope. David: Absolutely. I think that a lot of people know that they need to be doing these things, but once again, they're not quite sure exactly how, they don't get a system in place, and as a result, it doesn't happen. And that's going to really apply to all the different points that we're talking about here. Jay: Yeah, I totally agree with you. David: So the next one... 8. Analyze and Optimize Your Sales Funnel: Continuously monitor and analyze your sales funnel to identify areas for improvement and optimize the conversion rates at each stage. That sounds a little complicated. I don't know how you could possibly get more buzzwords into one sentence than that.. Jay: That's what AI likes to do. They like to cram all these big words in there, and you kind of sit back and roll your eyes like, okay, how David: You're really smart. I don't know what you just said, but you sound really, really smart. Jay: Yeah, and how on earth am I going to do that? I will tell you, we've spent almost a year on this, and I don't think we're even close, David. I don't think we're even scratching the surface on this. David: Yeah, and I think you're really not alone. Most people, when they think in terms of optimizing their sales funnel, they immediately think in terms of the tech. Right? What does the tech need to do? What do I need to have the tech do? And, once again, we're all about simplifying things. So when I'm doing work with clients, we first look at, okay, what needs to happen from a human standpoint? What words need to be said to which people at which times? At which intervals? And once you've identified that and you get something in place, you can test it out and see how it works. It's not like you put something in place and it's immediately perfect. But I'll go back to one of the mantras that I say over and over again to prospects and clients all the time. Done is better than perfect. You are far better off getting something reasonably good in place today than something perfect six months from now. Because that's six months worth of missed opportunities and so many people do that and don't even realize they're doing it. Jay: Yeah, I love that. Done is better than perfect because there are perfectionists out there. I also think that people need to recognize that, yeah, it may seem daunting, but if you get it done, and you get it at least defined to some degree, you're gonna save time over the next months and years because it's just gonna become automatic. And if you bring in new people, you're like, this is our system. And so, you know, a lot of that kind of haphazard nature will go away. And you'll have more time, not less time. David: Exactly. Another thing that we do in our approach, I look at a statement like that, analyze and optimize your sales funnel. And I just think of it in terms of the things that have to happen. If you send out a hundred emails, how many people reply? And of the people who reply, how many of them are ready to buy now? How many have specific dates in mind? How many are generally receptive? How many are rude, obnoxious, belligerent, disqualified? And how many don't reply at all? Because then it becomes process of elimination. If I send out a hundred emails and I hear back from seven people, that means that there's a hundred minus seven people that so far have been unresponsive. So the next message that I send to them can be designed to pull them in. It can reference the previous message and we can get more juice out of the fruit. Jay: Yeah, I love that. More juice, but also, that seven that you've spoken to, maybe you made customers out of two. What about the other five? What is your continuing message to those people? How do you stay in touch? You know, you've got to identify each group and how they're going to be handled going forward. And once you've maximized that, I've found it really starts to feed itself. And then it's kind of fun, right? Because I'm dealing with the leads that I got this month, but all of a sudden I get people who call me up and they're like, yeah, we talked three or four months ago, or yeah, we talked two weeks ago. I got your email, and you're like, you know, I didn't have to do anything, because I set up a system to handle that for me. David: Yes, and we have tracking sheets that we use, that we give to our clients to use, so that they can say, alright, I sent out 100 emails, that goes in the one column,

If 2025 is ending up feeling like a blur of boxes, Keepa charts, and packing tape, you're in good company. This week, we're zooming out and talking about leverage—specifically, the small but mighty levers that can multiply your Amazon profits without multiplying your hours. These are the three areas where intentional tweaks make everything easier, smarter, and more profitable as we head into 2026. Show Notes for this episode - http://www.fulltimefba.com/319 The Full-Time FBA Podcast Page - http://www.fulltimefba.com/podcast Subscribe to the Full-Time FBA Newsletter and get some helpful freebies - http://www.fulltimefba.com/    

Brian White | Acts 28:17-31

In this special Vision Sunday message, Pastors Dave and Bob lead MBC into a milestone season—our 175th anniversary year—celebrating God's faithfulness in the past and clarifying His calling for the future. Through Scripture, stories, and a powerful relay-race illustration, we are reminded that every generation must faithfully pass the baton of the Gospel.Together, we unveil major initiatives for 2026 and beyond: expanding parking to welcome more people, building a prayer garden, strengthening discipleship pathways, resourcing the next generation, partnering globally with missionaries in Senegal and Romania, expanding local outreach to the VA and City Relief, launching Summerfest, and stepping into a new disability ministry—Upside Down Glory.Now we unite around the vision God has given our church:Firmly Planted. Growing Together. Made to Multiply.

Great Oaks Community Church Weekly Sermon Podcast.

Stan spoke about the importance of Christ centered families and what it means to trust God boldly and making disciples

Money can so easily capture our hearts. It promises security, comfort, and control—but often leaves us anxious and striving for more. Yet when we give, something remarkable happens. We're declaring our dependence on God, not our bank accounts.Dr. Art Rainer—founder of the Institute for Christian Financial Health and author of Money in the Light of Eternity: What the Bible Says about Your Financial Purpose—joined us recently to explore how generosity becomes an act of trust that transforms our hearts and deepens our faith.Money Reveals the HeartLarry Burkett often said, “Every spending decision is a spiritual decision.” Dr. Rainer agrees.“Jesus said, Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” Art explained. “The Bible makes it clear—money management reflects heart management.”Scripture contains over 2,000 verses about money and possessions. Why? Because few things so clearly reveal what—or whom—we truly trust. For believers, the central question is this: Do we believe God's promises about provision, and are we willing to surrender this area of life to Him?Giving as an Act of TrustDr. Rainer describes giving as a tangible expression of faith. “God doesn't tell us to give and then leave us hanging,” he said. “He ties promises to generosity.”Those promises fall into three beautiful truths—God will provide, multiply, and enrich.1. God Promises to ProvideIn Malachi 3:10, the Lord declares:“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do, I will open the windows of heaven for you and pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in. Try it! Put me to the test!”“God invites us to trust Him,” Art said. “He promises to pour out an abundance of blessings—not necessarily material wealth, but blessings that can be spiritual, relational, or emotional. Maybe it's the contentment you've been chasing for years, or the joy of being part of something far greater than yourself.”2. God Promises to MultiplyIn John 6, a young boy offers his five loaves and two fish to Jesus—hardly enough to feed five thousand hungry people. Yet Christ multiplies that small gift until everyone is satisfied, with twelve baskets left over.“Many of us feel like that boy,” Art said. “We look at our meager resources and wonder, What difference can this make? But God is a God of multiplication. He can take whatever you give and expand it to accomplish His purposes. That's His promise—but it requires trust.”3. God Promises to EnrichWho doesn't love a good return on investment—or ROI? “God does too,” Art said.In 2 Corinthians 9:11, Paul writes, “You will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous.”“God gives so that we can give,” Art continued. “He blesses so that we can bless others. He's looking for conduits of generosity—people through whom His blessings can flow. When we live that way, generosity becomes not just a habit, but a way of life.”Trusting God With Your MoneyAs Dr. Rainer summed it up:“Generosity is an act of trust. It shifts our hearts from reliance on ourselves and money to reliance on God. If you're a Christian, you've already trusted Him with your soul. It's time to trust Him with your money.”When we give generously, we're not losing—we're investing in eternity. We're saying, “Lord, I believe You are my provider.” And that's one of the clearest ways to live out genuine faith.Learn more about Dr. Art Rainer's work at ChristianMoneySolutions.com.On Today's Program, Rob Answers Listener Questions:I'm 69 with no debt and considering a whole life insurance policy—$100,000 with premiums for 10 years—to leave tax-free money to my children. I already have a term policy that ends at 75. I also have $28,000 in an underperforming annuity with no surrender charge, and was advised to do a 1035 exchange into a new annuity at 4.65% for seven years. I've also invested in CDs at 4% and am considering high-yield savings accounts. What's the best strategy moving forward?My in-laws are around 80 and have fully matured savings bonds. When they used some for home upgrades, they faced a large tax bill. Is there any way to move or reinvest those bonds to delay or avoid taxes—perhaps into an IRA or Roth IRA?I manage finances for someone receiving annual settlement payments until 2036. He wants to create a trust now to support three families, but his lawyer recommends keeping the money in savings while he's alive. The payer says a trust can be set up after his death. Should he establish the trust now or wait?I'm debt-free and have my cash in a high-yield savings account, but rates are dropping. Should I invest some of it or find another way to protect and manage my money?Resources Mentioned:Faithful Steward: FaithFi's Quarterly Magazine (Become a FaithFi Partner)Money in the Light of Eternity: What the Bible Says about Your Financial Purpose by Dr. Art RainerThe Institute for Christian Financial HealthChristian Money SolutionsWise Women Managing Money: Expert Advice on Debt, Wealth, Budgeting, and More by Miriam Neff and Valerie Neff Hogan, JD. Christian Community Credit Union (CCCU)GainbridgeWisdom Over Wealth: 12 Lessons from Ecclesiastes on MoneyLook At The Sparrows: A 21-Day Devotional on Financial Fear and AnxietyRich Toward God: A Study on the Parable of the Rich FoolFind a Certified Kingdom Advisor (CKA)FaithFi App Remember, you can call in to ask your questions every workday at (800) 525-7000. Faith & Finance is also available on Moody Radio Network and American Family Radio. You can also visit FaithFi.com to connect with our online community and partner with us as we help more people live as faithful stewards of God's resources. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nearly all of us want to give wisely—but few know how to make their giving truly multiply Kingdom impact.In this episode, Jeremy sits down again with Doug Kiesewetter—CEO of Cogency Power, Founder & Chairman of WaterStone Foundation, and a veteran entrepreneur who's led ten successful startups and helped steward over $2B in charitable giving.Doug shares how ordinary believers can give smarter—not just more—and how strategic generosity can fund discipleship efforts for decades to come.In this conversation:Why how you give matters as much as what you giveCreative ways to give—stocks, real estate, crypto, and moreHow to use a Donor-Advised Fund to reduce taxes and multiply generosityReal stories of Kingdom ROI through business, missions, and disciple-makingIf you've ever wondered how to make your generosity go further—this episode will change how you think about giving.Share it with someone who's ready to give boldly and wisely.Let's do this,Jeremy---Ordinary Movement is a discipleship platform that equips men and women to be disciples who make disciples. Our focus is on supporting small groups led by ordinary/everyday Christians. We have specialized discipleship tracks that center around Intimacy with Jesus, Intentional Relationships, and Multiplication. Groups are designed for individuals to easily engage in leading groups.Ready to be a disciple who makes disciples?If so, come and join us!Visit ordinarymovement.com to learn more!#discipleship #disciplemaking #disciple

In this episode, you'll learn a fresh perspective on exactly where your time goes, how to cut the investments where you're least effective, and multiply your time investments in the activities that generate the most results.

You Can Save the West by Having a Family The Patriarchy Podcast | Pastor Joseph Spurgeon In this episode, Joseph Spurgeon dismantles the foolish idea that “you can’t save the West by having a family.” He walks through the biblical, historical, and cultural reality that civilizations live or die on the strength of the household—and why children are not a distraction from the cultural battle… they are the battle. Joseph responds to a popular post-liberal article claiming young men should avoid marriage and kids in order to “fight the culture war.” In typical Patriarchy fashion, he exposes the lie, opens Scripture, and makes the case that families—not frustrated bachelors—are what actually build nations and save civilizations. Be fruitful. Multiply. Take dominion. This is how you fight. Episode Description Civilizations don’t collapse because men have too many kids—they collapse because men stop having them. In this episode, Pastor Joseph Spurgeon dismantles the idea that young men should avoid marriage and children for the sake of “saving the West.” He exposes the shallow logic of post-liberal elitism, shows why children are weapons in the cultural battle, and walks through Scripture and history to demonstrate one central truth: Nations are built, defended, and renewed by fathers, mothers, and their children—not isolated activists. If you want to strengthen the church, rebuild culture, and see Christ’s Kingdom advance, then pick up a hammer, marry a wife, raise godly children, and take dominion. This is how men fight. Be strong in body, mind, and heart—for the glory of the Lord, the love of neighbor, and the blessing of your posterity. Build. Fight. Protect. Lead. This is The Patriarchy. 00:00 – Cold Open: “The Bureau of Approved Opinions” 01:50 – Birth Rates, Civilizational Collapse, and the Return of Patriarchy 03:45 – Psalm 127 and God’s Design for Family and Dominion 05:40 – Setting Up the Debate: Post-Liberal Article Against Family 08:34 – Angry Young Men, the Culture War, and Misguided Solutions 10:58 – “You Can’t Save the West by Having a Family?” Examining the Claim 15:50 – History and Demographics: How Patriarchy Rebuilds Civilizations 20:28 – Greece, Rome, and Why Low Fertility Destroys Empires 22:52 – Modern Western Decline and Conservative Fertility Advantage 25:18 – Genesis 1: Marriage and Children as the Foundations of Dominion 27:40 – Keeping Perspective: Psalm 73 and Trusting God in the Battle 30:09 – The Household as First Government, Economy, and Mission 34:54 – Biblical Law, Fatherhood, and the Structure of Civilization 39:46 – Family Order, Justice, and Social Stability 42:06 – Do Families Hinder Political Engagement? Scripture’s Answer 44:29 – Proverbs 31 and Household Order Enabling Public Leadership 46:52 – Eldership, Leadership, and Why Fathers Make the Best Rulers 49:23 – Historical Witnesses: Pagans and Christians Agree on Family 54:12 – Teddy Roosevelt: Sterility as a Civilizational Curse 58:57 – The Danger of Childless Politics and Short-Term Thinking 01:03:40 – What the Article Gets Wrong: Faithfulness vs. LARPing 01:06:40 – Max Jukes vs. Jonathan Edwards: Generational Consequences 01:08:23 – The Real Arena: Family Faithfulness as Cultural Warfare 01:10:45 – Final Exhortation to Men: Build, Fight, Protect, Lead 01:13:40 – Closing and Support for Sovereign King Academy About the Show The Patriarchy Podcast features in-depth conversations on faith, culture, theology, and leadership. Each episode equips Christians to live boldly and biblically in an age of compromise—exploring the challenges and opportunities of standing firm for truth in the modern world. Support the Mission We’re still raising funds to expand Sovereign King Academy and keep tuition affordable for families. Want to invest in the future of Christ’s Kingdom?Give here: https://sovereignkingacademy.com Connect with The Patriarchy Podcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePatriarchyPodcastSpotify: https://tinyurl.com/58tm5zjzApple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/f3ruzrsaWebsite & All Links: https://linktr.ee/thepatriarchypodcast Follow Joseph Spurgeon:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePatriarchyPodcastX/Twitter: https://x.com/PatriarchyPodInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepatriarchypodcastGab: https://gab.com/thepatriarchypodcast Sponsored By Steadfast Cigars – For men who reject passivity and take dominionOrder: https://steadfastcigars.com/ Fit Father Project – Reclaim discipline and strength for lifeStart: https://secure.fitfatherproject.com/a/transformation/4539 Books by Joseph Spurgeon:It’s Good to Be a Boy – https://a.co/d/7zpEh5DIt’s Good to Be a Girl – https://a.co/d/6VlBTzS Final Call to Action Subscribe for more conversations that sharpen men for battle.Turn on notifications so you never miss an episode.Like and share to support biblical masculinity.

From aircraft maintenance officer to professional fitness champion to executive coach, Tanji Johnson Bridgeman '97 has exhibited leadership on many stages. SUMMARY In the premiere episode of Focus on Leadership, she joins host Lt. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz '99 to share how resilience, self-care and feedback transform challenges into growth — and why caring for yourself is key to leading with presence and impact.   SHARE THIS PODCAST LINKEDIN  |  FACEBOOK    TANJI'S TOP 10 LEADERSHIP TAKEAWAYS Lead with a Whole-Person Approach: Effective leadership requires nurturing mind, body, and spirit, not just focusing on one aspect. Reframe Failure as Feedback: View setbacks as events and learning opportunities, rather than personal flaws or endpoints. Consistency Over Perfection: Strive for regular, sustainable effort and give yourself grace rather than aiming for flawless execution. Self-Reflection Builds Authenticity: Regular reflection (e.g., journaling, meditation) helps clarify values and stay true to yourself as a leader. Executive Presence Matters: Project confidence through body language, eye contact, and purposeful communication to influence and inspire others. Take Inventory and Set Self-Care Rituals: Assess mental, physical, and emotional health, then develop small, habitual self-care practices to maintain energy and focus. Recognize and Address Burnout: Leaders must be attentive to signs of burnout in themselves and others, emphasizing rest, breaks, and boundaries. Normalize and Model Wellness in Leadership: Leaders should model healthy habits and make personal wellness a visible priority to support team well-being. Focus on Connection and Service: Shift focus away from self-doubt by being intentional about serving, connecting, and empowering others. Adapt and Accept Change: Growth requires adapting to new realities, accepting changes (including those related to age or circumstances), and updating strategies accordingly.   CHAPTERS 0:00:06 - Introduction to the podcast and guest Tanji Johnson Bridgeman. 0:01:07 - Tanji shares her journey from the Air Force Academy to wellness and leadership. 0:04:13 - Discussing wellness strategies and advice for cadets and young leaders. 0:12:10 - Recognizing burnout, setting boundaries, and maintaining consistency in habits. 0:17:39 - Reframing failure as feedback with examples from Tanji's career. 0:27:58 - Exploring the concept of executive presence and practical ways to develop it. 0:38:07 - The value of authenticity and self-reflection in leadership. 0:44:21 - Creating sustainable self-care rituals and adopting healthy habits. 1:00:54 - Emphasizing wellness in leadership and the importance of leading by example. 1:02:18 - Final reflections and a summary of key takeaways from the episode.   ABOUT TANJI BIO Tanji Johnson Bridgeman graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 1997, where she distinguished herself by navigating the rigors of cadet life with both determination and initiative. As one of the first women to serve as Group Superintendent during Basic Cadet Training for the Class of 1999, she honed her leadership and public-speaking skills by addressing hundreds of incoming cadets nightly. Following her commissioning, she served on active duty in the U.S. Air Force — initially in the Academy's admissions office as a minority enrollment officer, then as an aircraft maintenance officer at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, where she led over 200 personnel across six specialties supporting KC-135 air-refueling operations. After four years of service, Tanji pivoted to a second career in fitness and wellness, becoming an 11-time professional champion in the International Federation of Bodybuilding & Fitness (IFBB) and competing for 18 years in 54 pro contests. She later leveraged her competitive success and military-honed leadership into executive-presence and lifestyle-coaching, founding the “Empower Your Inner Champion” brand and offering keynote speaking, coaching, and wellness solutions.    CONNECT WITH TANJI LinkedIn Instagram: @OriginalTanjiJohnson   CONNECT WITH THE LONG BLUE LEADERSHIP PODCAST NETWORK TEAM Ted Robertson | Producer and Editor:  Ted.Robertson@USAFA.org Send your feedback or nominate a guest: socialmedia@usafa.org   Ryan Hall | Director:  Ryan.Hall@USAFA.org  Bryan Grossman | Copy Editor:  Bryan.Grossman@USAFA.org Wyatt Hornsby | Executive Producer:  Wyatt.Hornsby@USAFA.org      ALL PAST LBL EPISODES  |  ALL LBLPN PRODUCTIONS AVAILABLE ON ALL MAJOR PODCAST PLATFORMS     FULL TRANSCRIPT Guest, Tanji Johnson Bridgeman '97 | Host, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz '99   Naviere Walkewicz 0:00 If you love the Long Blue Leadership podcast, you'll want to discover Focus on Leadership, a Long Blue Leadership production of the U.S. Air Force Academy Association & Foundation. Here on Focus on Leadership, we move beyond the “why” and dive into the “how,” exploring the habits, mindsets and lessons that turn good leaders into great ones. In each episode, host, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz, Class of '99, sits down with accomplished Air Force Academy graduates and other influential leaders to uncover their stories, their insights and real-world actions that drive excellence. Focus on Leadership: Offering impactful and actionable lessons for today's exceptional leaders. Without further ado, sit back and enjoy this premiere episode of Focus on Leadership. Naviere Walkewicz 0:58 Welcome to Focus on Leadership, where we take a close look at the practices that make strong leaders even stronger. I'm your host, Naviere Walkewicz, Class of '99. Today we're joined by Tanji Johnson Bridgeman, Class of '97, an Air Force Academy graduate whose journey has taken her from aircraft maintenance officer to professional fitness champion, American Gladiator known as “Stealth,” entrepreneur and executive coach. Tanji is here to teach us about leadership through the lens of health and wellness, how caring for yourself physically and mentally fuels your ability to establish presence and lead others with confidence. Tanji, welcome to Focus on Leadership. Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 1:36 Thank you, Naviere. It is so good to be here. Naviere Walkewicz 1:40 Such an honor to see you. I mean, as a ‘99 graduate to have a ‘97 trainer here in the presence, I'm already feeling wonderful. And you know, it's been about 10 years since you've been at your academy. How are you feeling? You came back last evening. What are your thoughts? Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 1:54 Wow, I was here nine years ago for my 20th reunion. I just feel so much gratitude. I mean, it's so surreal. Even last night, we went to work out. And you know, you're driving up the hill towards Vandenberg, and all these memories are coming back to me from the good times. But the biggest thing I'm feeling is pride, you know, pride and gratitude. Because, you know, we don't always reflect, but just being here, it forces you to reflect, like, this is where it all started. I mean, it really started with my upbringing, but the Air Force Academy, my experience here, laid the foundation for who I became, and I'm so grateful for that. Naviere Walkewicz 2:29 Well, let's go back to the fact that right off the bat, you got off the plane, you met me and we went to work out. So wellness, no joke, is right at the top of your foundation. So how did you get into this space? Let's kind of introduce that to our listeners, because I think it's important for them to really understand the depth of what wellness means. Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 2:46 Well, the funny thing about it is I never would have imagined that I would be doing what I'm doing today, because I was a die-hard — I thought I'm going in the military, and I'm staying in for 20 years. So when I was here, you know, I was on the cadet Honor Guard and I cheered, and that's when I fell in love with lifting weights. So I got into competing, even as a lieutenant, and I just I fell in love, and I turned professional. And so there was these transitions where I had an opportunity to be a professional athlete, and I took it, right? And so I became a professional bodybuilder, fitness champion. And then next thing you know, I'm on NBC's American Gladiators. That was wild. And so I did that for a while, and then I became a trainer and a coach and a promoter and a judge, and did all the things bodybuilding. And then I retired in 2016, and that's around the time I met my husband, and so really that's when my real wellness journey began. Because prior to that, it was heavily around physical fitness, but wellness for me began when I transitioned and retired from competing. And really, I had to figure out what is my fitness life going to look like, because it's not going to be working out three times a day on a calorie-deficient diet. Naviere Walkewicz 3:57 Three times a day… Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 3:58 Right, none of that. I was like, I'm done. I'm done. But I really had to design the rest of my life and really figure out what that was going to look like. So I got into functional medicine, health coaching. I married a chiropractor, so we believe in holistic medicine, and that's where it started. Naviere Walkewicz 4:13 Excellent. And so this is not a traditional career path. So let's kind of go back to the cadet mindset. For example: How would you — knowing what you know now — maybe talk to yourself as a cadet, or actually, cadets that might be listening, of what they should be thinking about in this priority space of wellness, in leadership? Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 4:30 Absolutely, I think that's a great question. The disadvantage for young leaders, whether they're cadets or lieutenants, is that they don't have the luxury of having a lot of life experience. And so building a foundation is important, and it takes mindfulness and just, “What should we be aware of?” So what I would want to impart on them is to adopt the philosophy of looking at wellness from a whole-person approach, because high performance is going to demand it. And so when I say whole person, wellness is multi-dimensional. So we want to look at the mindset, we want to look at the body and we want to look at the spirit, and being able to start from a place where you're going to go into all of those. Naviere Walkewicz 5:13 Well, as a cadet, there are so many hats they have to wear. No pun intended. They have to be on top of their game in the academic space. They have to be on top of the game in the military, and then also athletically. Can you talk about, or maybe share an example as a cadet, how you navigated that journey of wellness and what that looked like? Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 5:32 Well, let's go back to — so I didn't get a chance to break down. So mind, body, spirit. Why is that important? Because in anything, any philosophies that we adopt, we have to really see where it's important. So when you think of what is an officer, what is a leader going to have to do with their mind, this is where they have to have clarity. It's going to help with focus, creativity to innovate new solutions. And so we need to be able to prioritize our mindset and our mental health. And then there's the body, right? So a lot of us are going to be going on deployments. We're going to work long hours. Our body is what's going to give us the fuel and energy and the stamina to get through a day. It's literally bringing our energy. And then you think about the spirit, and this one is really special, and it's probably the most neglected. So when you think about the spirit, this is where you're going to anchor in with your emotional health. What is your purpose? What is your “why?” You know, earlier today, I was having a great discussion with Gen. Marks, and he shared with me that one of his goals for the cadets is that when they graduate, you know, they're going to be committed to being leaders, but are they committed — like really committed — and bought in to knowing what their purpose is going to be? And I think that a big part of that is being able to explore their spirit in advance, so they can discover their identity and their strengths in advance and to be able to go off into the leadership and fully own it. And so an example that I would like to present: When I was coaching bodybuilders and female athletes, I remember I started a team. And now this is going to be a team of women that they have the common goal of competing. So they're trying to pursue physical excellence with how they transform their physiques. But what I did was I brought this team together, this sisterhood of women. So a couple of things that I wanted to see, I wanted sisterhood and support. I wanted them to have the commonality of the same goal, and I wanted them to be able to support each other, and I wanted to be able to support them by elevating their mindset. And so one of the things that I did that was really unique at the time, that a lot of other coaches and leaders weren't doing, — when somebody wanted to work with them, they just sign them up. But I would have a consultation. It was kind of more of an interview, because one of the questions I would ask is, “Naviere, why do you want to compete?” And then I'd give them examples, like, you know, “Is this a bucket list? Are you trying to improve your health? Is this for validation and attention? Is this because you're competitive? Because, if you're competitive, and you're telling me that you just started working out last year, maybe we need to wait a couple of years.” You see what I mean. So when you go back to the “why,” it keeps you in alignment to move forward, in alignment with your why, but a lot of people don't know what that is, and sometimes all it takes is asking the question. Naviere Walkewicz 8:17 So the question I'd love to ask you then, is going back to the cadet side, because I think talking to Gen. Marks and the purpose piece, you know, you actually, I think as a cadet, remember, you were on Honor Guard. You were also a cadet… I think you were the cheer captain of our cheerleading team. I feel that that is such a great testament to the fact that you have to figure out, you know, the purpose of, how do I do more and give more and still stay connected to my purpose of where you said in the beginning, “I was going to serve 20 years in the Air Force.” How do our cadets get that same level of interviewer coaching with someone without having that life experience yet? Like, what would you share with them now, from your learning experience? Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 8:55 So when I think back to… OK, so when you look at wellness, and you think of mental wellness, physical wellness, emotional wellness, you know, I think what happens here at the Academy — and I remember starting this way — we prioritize physical fitness, right? I remember being in that fight-or-flight mode like, OK, if I can just show that I am, you know, prioritizing physical fitness, that strength is going to get me respect, and I could definitely feel the difference in how I was treated. The problem sometimes with prioritizing physical fitness… It's great because, you know, it can strengthen your mind. So if your body's feeling strong, your mindset is strong, but it becomes problematic when your body fails. So what happens when you fail? And I have plenty of stories and memories, my goodness, of being on Honor Guard, one that I remember distinctly is, you know, if you had me doing push-ups or pull-ups, oh, I was in a zone. I was impressing everybody. I was passing all the tests, but you put me in a formation where the short people are in the back, you throw a helmet, M1 Garand, and we have to go run 3 miles now, now I'm falling out and I'm getting exhausted. And you know, the body goes — the stress goes up, the blood sugar goes down. It's just physiology, right? And so what happens is, now mentally, my mind is becoming weak. So when the body fails, my mind is getting weak,   Naviere Walkewicz 10:13 And you've been training your body right? Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 10:14 Right, right. And so I look back, and I just, I remember those days in Honor Guard where I would feel doubt, like, “Am I going to make it do? I deserve to be here? Am I good enough?” I would feel discouraged, right? And I would go back to my room and then something happened. So after about two weeks of suffering through this pain and this big challenge, I remember thinking, “Gosh, every time they beat me down physically, I feel so weak mentally. But I was in my room and I remember having anxiety for the next day, like, “Oh, I'm going out there again.” And for some reason that meme, you know, with the Asian guy that says, “But did you die?” Right? That's always in my head, and I remember saying that to myself, like, “It was hard. Today was hard, but did I die?” No. And actually, after two weeks, I'm like, “It's actually getting easier,” like, because I'm getting more fit, right? I'm able to do the push-ups. I'm running further. And I remember that was the mindset shift where I realized, “OK, now, tomorrow, when I go out to practice, I'm not going to be as afraid, because I've already decided that I can do hard things.” And so now, when I was enduring the practice, right, and the leadership of my Honor Guard cadre, I was prepared with that mental strength, right? And so that's what we need. We need to be able to train so that when our body fails, our mind prevails, right? Naviere Walkewicz 11:39 Love that — those three facets of wellness, and that's a really strong way to explain it. And so you gave a couple examples about when the body fails, so when we think about how we're wired, and I think many of us are this way, as cadets, as graduates, as those who really want to succeed in life, right? Thinking about resilience, how do we balance? Or maybe balance isn't the right word, but how do we make sure we're very mindful of that line between healthy discipline and then harmful overdrive. How do you navigate that? Maybe, what would you share with some of our listeners? Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 12:11 Well, you were asking like, how do we recognize when it's happened? You know, the good news is, your body will leave clues. You will have emotional clues, you will have physical clues, you're going to have behavioral clues. Your body will leave clues. So the first thing is, I think that if we can be willing to evolve — you know, look at what culture are we in now, like you and I, we come from a culture where the philosophy was grit at any cost. Push, push, push, push, and drive, drive, drive. You know, I think about, as an athlete, you know, especially if you're motivated. You're thinking, when I was training my body, I remember thinking, “I want to get these results, and so I'm going to do what it takes. So every day I'm doing the lifting, I'm eating the food, and I'm going to train every day.” And I remember on that seventh day, you know, I had done all the things, I took the supplements, I got all the sleep, and I went in to train, and my body was exhausted. And it's because I was physically burning out, and my body needed the rest. And then it really transferred into how I would choreograph my training and so with routine. So I was a fitness competitor. I did these fitness, crazy fitness routines where I'm doing push-ups and squats and gymnastics and flying around, right? And it's two minutes long. So think of doing like a crazy CrossFit routine for two minutes straight without stopping, and smiling. And so I remember being strategic, right? And how I would lay out those practices athletically, where I would do a portion, 30 seconds — I would train 30 seconds at a time, and then the next day I would do the next 30 seconds, a week later I would go for about a minute. But the part I want you to know is, right before the competition, I would decrease that training load. I would actually do less, because the year that I trained full out, all the way up into the competition, I didn't do well on stage because my body was exhausted. So again, our body is going to leave us clues, and we have to be willing to evolve, to say that self-care — it's not selfish, but it's strategic. And so we need to pay attention to those signs, because we're going to have a choice to either pivot and be intentional and strategic with taking care of ourselves, or we're going to stay stuck in this old-school thinking that's not going to serve us. Naviere Walkewicz 14:38 So if it's not the body telling you — because we talk about how wellness is more than just physical — how do you recognize signs on the spiritual side, on your emotional side, that you might be in this harmful space of it's too much give, give, give, and not enough fill, fill, fill. Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 14:55 I think that's a great question. So here's some telltale… So going back to physical, you know, like the examples I gave, you're going to feel exhausted, you're going to have muscle tension, you might even start to have stomach issues. Those are all great physical signs that you're reaching burnout. Now, when you think of mentally, if you notice emotionally and mentally, that you start getting irritable and you've become more impatient and you're having a harder time making decisions, those are also great clues that mentally, you're starting to get burnt out. And then when you think of behaviorally, you know, let's say you had a great morning routine, and now all of a sudden, you find yourself in this season where you've abandoned that, or you have deadlines that you're usually very protective, and you can get things done, but now you're starting to procrastinate, and you're thinking like, “Who am I right now? I'm procrastinating. I've abandoned my wellness routine. I'm not even… I don't even have a morning routine.” That's when you should really step back. And I think one of the practical tools that everyone can do is check in with themselves on a regular basis. So I'm being very transparent. I check in with myself daily. So let's say I do three back-to-back hours of Zoom calls: Maybe ones with an executive coaching clients. Maybe another one is a team Zoom, where I'm training a group of folks, and then another team meeting. After that three hours, I will stop, and I'll check in with myself, and I'll take a deep breath and say, “How am I feeling? Do I feel like getting right back on a call? No, my brain is fried right now.” And then I'll pivot and I'll go take a 10-minute walk around break. And that's just one of my strategies. Naviere Walkewicz 16:30 So it does… A check in doesn't have to be this grand “I take time off and I spend a week.” It literally could just be a few minutes of [breathes deeply] and check in with yourself, because I think sometimes time is a challenge as well, right? We talk about, how do we prioritize all these things and we're within this 24-hour period. How do we make sure that the time piece is something that we can also utilize to take care of ourselves, and so when you said it doesn't have to take a lot of time to check in. Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 16:58 And think about it. So we just talked about how to check in with yourself daily. What about like in your career? You know, I was helping physique athletes with poise mastery, basically teaching posing to athletes for over 15 years, and towards the end of that career, what I started to notice when I would mentally check in with myself, is I would notice that as I was driving to the office to go work with another client, I just did not feel as energized. I didn't feel as passionate. My motivation was going down, and this was a sign for me that I was getting burnt out from this specific way of serving, and it was my first clue that it was time to pivot and to look at something else. Naviere Walkewicz 17:38 That's really interesting, because when you think about when you're making big decisions, whether in career, whether in leadership or just, you know… The fact that you have these signs help you make those decisions, but I also wonder if it helps you at times think about part of the growth is maybe not totally pivoting, but it's recognizing that I'm supposed to go through this period of hardship. So what I'm kind of alluding to right now, is failure, right? So failure, as we go through some of our experiences are inevitable, right? How do we make sure we're using failure in a way to grow, as opposed to the easy button of, well, I failed, so I'm pivoting. Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 18:18 OK, so that would be like a reaction. You're reacting to what happened, and you think what you need to do is flee from it. So you have to be able to discern, “Am I pivoting because I'm afraid, or because I feel like I'm not good enough, or because my purpose and my spirit is telling me that my work is done here, and I'm looking for innovation.” I'm looking for something new. I'm looking to impact new people. So going back to failure — like public speaking, it's one of the top two fears, right?   Naviere Walkewicz 18:52 What's the other? Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 18:53 Oh, public speaking, flying, swimming [laughs]. No, I'm just kidding. Only if you grow up like me. But going back to failure, I think that people fear failure a lot because they make the mistake of connecting it to their identity instead of realizing failure is an event. It's not your identity. And so how many times do we do something, and maybe it's a competition, or it's an event or an application, and you fail. You don't get the desired result. It's an event. So what we need to do is reframe failure as feedback. That's it. So I have a great example. When I think about a great example of someone who was able to show in person, in reality, that when they failed, it did not disrupt their identity at all. So I don't know if there's any boxing fans out there, Naviere Walkewicz 19:46 Oh, we have some, I'm sure. Yeah. Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 19:47 The Canelo and Crawford fight, it was a couple weeks ago. Did you see that? Naviere Walkewicz 19:50 I didn't, but I did hear about this. Actually, honestly, I fell asleep. I planned to watch it. My husband watched it, but I fell asleep. Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 19:57 Oh, they went all the rounds, right? It was a great fight. Really, really great. You saw two physical specimens, you know, at the top of their game. They were both undefeated. I believe Canelo was favored to win, but he didn't. He lost the belt, right? And so Crawford wins. And so I'm always very intrigued with how people respond to failure when it's public, right? And so Crawford got to make his speech, and then when Canelo made his speech, you know, one of the first things they ask is, “OK, so you didn't get the result you were hoping for. You didn't win this bout. How are you feeling?” And he gave an answer that I totally didn't expect. He said, “I feel great.”   Naviere Walkewicz 20:39 Just like that?   Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 20:40 Yes. He was like, “I feel great.” He was like, “It was a great fight,” you know. He affirmed Crawford, you know, edified him. Talked about how great he was, you know, but he maintained his identity, and you could feel that in his spirit. He said, “I feel great. I came out here. I did a great job. I did what I was supposed to do. Obviously, there's room for feedback, to learn. You know, I didn't get the result I wanted. So whether it was endurance or I wasn't strategic enough, or I didn't prioritize my offense, there's feedback there.” He's going to learn from that. But he basically had such a great attitude. And he ended it by saying, you know, “I feel great and it was great time.” And I remember thinking like, “Wow, now there's an example of someone who did not own the failure and make it a part of his identity. It was just an event.” And his legacy will still be restored, right? And to be honest with you, it made me think about my own career. Naviere Walkewicz 21:31 Yes, so did you, have you experienced anything like that in your career? Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 21:34 Have I experienced failure? Over and over again. Naviere Walkewicz 21:39 And how did you respond in your, you know, the wellness side of it, when you think about, you know, what you're trying to do, your purpose. How did you use that? Did you use it as feedback? Or what did that look like for you. Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 21:50 So let's say in sports, if you don't win, then that event is deemed as a failure, right? And so if you think about it, I did 54, I've done 54 professional bodybuilding, fitness competitions.   Naviere Walkewicz 22:04 Wow. OK, what year did you start, just so we can get some perspective?   Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 22:06 I started in 2001 and retired in 2016, so about 17 years. And I won 11 of them. So that means out of, and that's a lot, actually. So out of that many, that means I lost all the others. And there's one particular competition that will always be dear to my heart, and it was the Arnold Classic. Yes, the Arnold Schwarzenegger. You know, he has this gigantic competition every year. And midway through my career, I started I got in the top five. So I would get fourth, and then the next year I'd get third, and then I'd go down to fourth, and then I'd get second, right? I think I got second maybe four years in a row. So basically, in my 10th year of competing, I finally won the darn thing. So Arnold comes from across the stage, and I'm already crying, and, you know, with his accent, “Why are you so emotional?” And there's a picture of me taking the microphone from him because I had something to say, and in that moment, because it was a special moment, I realized, yes, all of these years of failure, every time I competed, I missed the mark. I missed the mark. I missed the mark. But what did I do? I took that feedback and I went back and said, “What do I need to do differently? What does this mean? How can I improve my physique? How did I need better stamina in my routine?” And every year, I was coming back better and better and better. But guess what? So were the other athletes, right? And so when I won in that 10th year, I actually would not have had it any other way, because I don't think it would have meant as much to me. Because what was happening, I may have won the Arnold Classic on that day, but I was becoming a champion throughout that whole 10-year process. You see what I did there. So it's not your identity, it's an event. So if you look at it and reframe it as feedback, then you can leverage that and use it as an opportunity to win. Naviere Walkewicz 24:00 So failure, and we're going to say synonym: feedback. Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 24:03 Exactly. Naviere Walkewicz 24:04 I like that. Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 24:05 I mean, and I'll give you another example. So you know, I did my first TEDx Talk last year, and I was a part of this coaching group. And here's the thing: As leaders, we get to create and build culture. And I think it's very important for leaders to create a culture where they normalize failure and they teach their teams that it's meant to be for feedback. So encourage courage, and then help them leverage the failure or the mistake as lessons learned so that they can grow and move forward. So I'm in this coaching group, and they told us, “We're going to have you send out probably an average of 80 applications. Now we're going to guide you and tell you what to do, but every application is different, because the event promoters are different. So we can't tell you exactly what they all want, but you're going to find out when you apply.” So I remember applying, I think, to UCLA Berkeley or something, and I applied to do a TEDx Talk, and midway through my application, they asked me, what was my scientific evidence and proof of my theory and my great idea? And I didn't have one at the time. And I remember thinking, “I'm going to go ahead and finish this application, but yay, I just got some feedback that I need to include scientific data in my pitch and in presenting my idea.” And it was shortly after, I think I did five more applications and I got selected. And so now I have been so trained to see failure as an opportunity to grow and excel, that when I am afraid of something, I reframe it immediately, and then I actually look forward to it, like, “Oh my gosh, I can't wait to get out there and do this thing, because I'm going to get this feedback, and that's going to make me better.” Naviere Walkewicz 25:39 Well, I think that's really wonderful in the way that you frame that. Because, you know, in the military, and I was actually just at a conference recently, and they were talking about how failure should be a part of training. Failure is actually the most important part of the training, because when it comes time to actual execution, operationally, that's when we can't fail, right? So, like, you want that feedback through all the training iterations, and so, you know, the way you just, you know, laid that out for us, it was in a sense that, you know, you had this framework, “I'm getting feedback, I'm training, I'm training, I'm training.” And then, you know, of course, when you took the champion spot… Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 26:10 And I love… I think back to when I physically learned to appreciate failure was through weight training. And I know you've done it too, because can you go back and remember the first time you know, as a bodybuilder, when you lift weights, you're trying to grow your muscle, and to grow the muscle, the muscle fibers have to tear, and so there has to be a certain level of intensity and hardship in doing that. So if you're one of those people that you go to the gym and you're doing, you know, 15 easy reps, four sets, you never break a sweat, you're toning and you're getting some movement in, but you're not tearing your muscle fibers, and that's probably why they're not growing. So when I worked with the trainer and we were doing overhead military presses, and I physically felt like I was done at about 12 reps, but he was spotting me, so he just kept force repping me through six to eight more. I mean, until my arms were done, and I put my arms down, and they started to float up in the air. And he looks at me, because I'm looking at him, like, “Dude, what are you doing?” I'm like, “Wow, are you trying to hurt me?” And he just said, “No, but I do need you to learn that you're going to have to fail in order to grow and win.” And I was like… So then after that, we're going in the gym, like, “All right, Naviere, we're going to hit failure today. Oh yeah, we're going to learn how to fail.” “Did you fail at the gym last night?” “Yes, I did.” So in the bodybuilding community, it's celebrated. You know, it's a concept where that's we're trying to work through failure because we know it's on the other side. Naviere Walkewicz 27:34 Yes. Oh, I love that. That's fantastic. Well, and then you said you retired in 2016, so that was probably quite a transition in the fact where you had to… You probably have been doing all the wellness check-ins. “Where am I at? What am I thinking?” How did you make that transition into the executive presence space? Because it doesn't seem like it's a direct correlation from someone's body building to executive presence. Or maybe it is. Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 27:58 So, in in body building, I developed a niche. So I started off as a trainer, and then very quickly, probably because of some of my Honor Guard background, I mean, we did precision drill, and I just realized that I can… I learned things really easily, and then I can teach it. I can see something and break it down in detail and teach it. And so I got really good at doing that for the athletes proposing to where I was able to build a whole career and get paid really well through poise mastery. Now what I think? You know when I think back to all the things we had to do as a cadet, from standing at attention, keeping your chest up, you know, your chin in projecting we were all we were already starting to work on our executive presence, but we just didn't know realize it, right? And so in the real world outside of the military, where people are not building habits of standing up straight on a regular basis, they don't. I go into board rooms. I go to events where I see people get on stage. They're looking down, they're fidgeting, they're not making eye contact, they're speaking too softly. And so executive presence is the ability to project confidence in how you show up and the way that you communicate and how you get people to experience you, because, unfortunately, we live in a society where perception shapes opportunity. So as a leader, if you're not commanding that authority right off the bat, you may you may be missing the mark on being able to influence, and that's what leadership is. And so I was basically elevating all of these athletes to just present the best version of themselves, and in leadership, that's what we want, too. We all have strengths, we all have learned skills. We all have something to offer. But if we're not projecting and presenting our inner power externally, a lot of times we miss that mark, and I want to connect the dots. And that's kind of what hit me when I thought about moving into the executive space, is, you know, I can… sure I can teach you how to stand in front of a red carpet and some power poses, but it goes beyond that. It's how we communicate. It's our body language. And so there's, there's a lot of skills that can be learned. Naviere Walkewicz 30:09 Well, let's start with maybe just sharing a couple. How can our leaders, our listeners start to display a stronger executive presence every day? What's the first couple things you might have them start thinking about? Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 30:22 OK, so physically, I would start like, let's say with body language is eye contact. So my concern with this, the generation that we have now is they're dealing with a disadvantage that we didn't have to deal with. You know, when we were in school together 20 years ago, we were connecting all the time. It wasn't even a challenge. We were always together in person, building relationships, connecting, communicating. And now we're in a digital world where our attention is, is we're fighting for it, right? And so a lot of times I will watch people, and I realize whether they're going out to dinner and they are not maintaining eye contact because they're distracted, and they really haven't been, they haven't been trained to really be present. So for example, when you're speaking with someone and you're making eye contact with them. They feel seen,, you know? And so that's, that's one of the strongest ones. OK, Naviere Walkewicz 31:16 OK. I like that a lot. That's perfect. So as they're starting to think about the first thing is being present and making eye contact, from a — that's a physical standpoint. Maybe what, from a mental or emotional standpoint should be they be doing from a starting point for executive presence? Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 31:33 OK, so being intentional. So when you think about your leader, and let's say you're going to speak in front of the Cadet Wing, or you're going to start managing a team, or you're going to a networking event as an executive, and you're trying to pick up a few sponsors. Before you even go to the event, you can be intentional about who am I meeting with, what is my goal and how do I want them to feel. So when you think about networking, a lot of times, there's people, I have a client. You know, she hired me because she has a little bit of social anxiety. She's younger, and so she's on a board where everybody's older than her. So there's a little bit of that mental insecurity of, you know, “Am I good enough? Do I have what it takes? Are these people going to respect me,” right? And so she's coming into the situation already insecure, and she's thinking about herself. “How am I going to be perceived?” instead of going there, focused on connection, right? So if she was to go there and say, “This is who's going to be there. This is how I want to make them feel. So I'm actually going to be very intentional about asking questions that's going to connect with them, that's going to make them feel a certain way. If I want this audience to feel respected, what do I what do I ask them, and what do I say? What do I highlight? If I want them to feel accepted and warm. What can I say?” And so it just gives you more power to show up, be present and be intentional, and you'll feel more confident, because now you've taken the focus away from yourself to how you're going to serve others. Naviere Walkewicz 33:02 That is excellent, and that leads us into a bit of the mental piece of it, right, the mindset. So earlier, you talked about how you had a mindset shift when you were getting beat down in Honor Guard, you know, you're in the back, you know, because of the vertical challenge, and you're running, you know, and you're hanging in there, and you got better. Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 33:19 Well, it makes me think about when I was auditioning for American Gladiators. And again, I'm going to go back to this executive presence and where I use my mental training to serve me, so when I was auditioning, so if you guys don't remember, the old show was, there was no water, right? It was just everything was over big, you know, pillows and just a flat area, OK? So when I went in there to audition, I remember there was for the sake of diversity, there was like, two of everything. There was two Black women there, there was two redheads, two blondes. And I remember looking around thinking, “OK, both of us are not getting this job.” And so the very last part of the audition, after many rounds, is you had to go in front of the executive committee, and you had a one-minute pitch. You could say whatever you want, but they're all sitting there with their arms crossed, and you just get to go in there. And I remember thinking, “OK, I am shorter than her, but I'm more muscular. And, you know, she's been on tons of fitness magazines. She's, you know, super beautiful, more popular. I want to go in there, and I want to be intentional about showing them that what I'm going to present is the right fit for the show.” And so I walked in there and I called the room to attention. I used my Honor Guard diaphragm, and I called the room to attention. And then I went in and I started telling them about how during basic training, I was like one of the pugil stick champions. And they thought that was great, because we had an event for that, right? And so, you know, going back to that mental training, you know, part of it is just that intention of being prepared, you know, what is it that you want to achieve? What are you going to do? And then you strategize and have a game plan for how you're going to go in there. Now, another example: So once I got… I got the job, yay, right? And then we go to Sony studios, and I look at the set, and I realized that half of the set is over water. So half of the events, the joust, Hang Tough, the rock climbing, it's all over water. And you guys remember when I talked about a little bit not, not being a big swimmer. And so this was fascinating to me, but I didn't want anyone to know, because I didn't want to lose my job, right? And so here's where I tapped into my mental and mindset training. So as an athlete, I did this a lot: To preserve my physical body, because of all the gymnastics and routines, I didn't overtrain, because there's damage when you over train. But I would visualize myself going through my movements, and I would picture myself being successful, so I didn't visualize myself messing up or anything like that. And there was, there would be repetition after repetition after repetition. And so what I did to face that fear of having to do events that were going to land me in the water is I had to use logic, you know, so I literally would say, “OK, if I end up being in the joust and I get hit, I'm going to fall in the water. And this is how far away the edge of the pool is. I'm going to take a deep breath. I'm going to I know how to do the stroke, so I'm going to get over there.” But I had to visualize myself falling and then I use logic to just keep myself calm. So I visualize myself hitting the water and being calm, because I would prepare myself to be calm. If I wasn't, I probably would have panicked and drowned. And so I think back to that, and I never told anybody, but I was ready, and I was not afraid, because I had already went through the mental training to prepare myself to do something that I was uncomfortable doing. Naviere Walkewicz 36:50 And so did you fall into the water, and did it play out the way that you had mentally prepared it for? Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 36:56 So here's what's crazy. I'm probably not even supposed to talk about this, but the way they film some of these shows, they're not in sequence. So imagine that I'm filming a water event from Episode 1, 3 and 8. OK, well, for me, like, my third day there, I actually tore my ACL falling off the pyramid. And so, you know, those viewers at home didn't know that. So actually the answer is no, I actually didn't even get put into a water event because I got injured beforehand. But I was ready mentally. Regardless, I was actually disappointed, because I was ready to see that courage come to the surface. Naviere Walkewicz 37:32 Oh my goodness! These are all such wonderful examples of how you have really almost embodied wellness throughout your decisions as a leader throughout your career. I'm really curious, as you think about how you've been true to yourself in this journey, because there's an authenticity to you that only Tanji could bring. And so I'm wondering, how do you know who is your authentic self as a leader, and how have you continued to really show up for yourself in that way? Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 38:07 I think this is very important. And you know, my heart goes out to the young leaders, because, again, like I was saying earlier, they haven't had the experience yet. And I even remember when my sister, my younger sister, she was struggling to figure out what she wanted to do for a living, and she was a college graduate, and she still didn't know. And a lot of it is because when you don't have that personal life experience, you know — experience is a teacher. It tells you, it leaves clues. So when you don't have that, you kind of feel like you're just shooting from the hip trying to figure it out. And so what I think is important is to start the art of self-reflection early. I will never forget I was on a TDY during the Kosovo crisis. I was at RF Mildenhall, and I was a maintainer, and I remember having, you know, a lot, I think, over 200 troops over there, but it was kind of a lonely season for me, because all my peers were pilots, and they were all flying, and, you know, I didn't have anyone to hang out with, and I wasn't home, you know, I was, I was TDY. So I remember just spending my time. I would go to the gym, and then I would go for walks, and I did a lot of journaling. And I don't know why I had the foresight been but I would, you know, ask myself questions like, “Who am I? What matters to me? What values are important to me?” And the process of doing that really helped me solidify my identity. And so, for example, I knew that I thought self-love was really important to me. It was a value that I care about. So when I see people that are self-deprecating, they're talking poorly about themselves. They don't believe in themselves. This hurts my soul. It's a part of who I am, right? And so I've always believed in self-acceptance, you know. For me, as a Christian, you know, I want to celebrate how God made me and have that level of self-love. So when I was a cheerleader at the Air Force Academy, I remember I didn't have self-esteem issues with my body image. Nothing about it, right? And then I go off an become a professional fitness competitor — now I'm competing. And in that industry, breast implants were very prevalent and they were starting to get really popular. And it made me really insecure. So if you think about it, I did not change, but my environment changed. So as leaders, how often are we going to be in situations where your environment is constantly changing and maybe you feel that pressure to conform? And so in my environment, most of the women around me, as a means to an end, were getting breast implants to change how their body looked, to look more feminine, to be more accepted. And there's nothing wrong if that's what you want to do, but I remember feeling like, “Now I'm insecure about my body. Now I don't feel as pretty. Now I don't feel as feminine.” And I remember that being problematic because it wasn't in alignment with my identity. And so, again, knowing what my values are, I thought, “Well, I could go get the operation like a lot of people do. But this is problematic because I don't want to lead a life — and how am I going to go back and coach other women and lead a team if now what I'm saying is whatever is true to who you are and your identity, it's OK to abandon that.” And so, for me, that's why I chose not to have that surgery. And I started this journey — it took about two years — of being able to redefine beauty, redefine femininity. And this is kind of where all the different tools came in. So I started looking in the mirror and I would do positive — because it's self-taught. Instead of looking at my chest and saying, “You're flat and it looks masculine and you're not feminine enough,” I would say, “Girl, do you know what this chest cand do? We can do crazy push-ups.”  And I would say, “Wow, you're strong.” And over time, I changed how I felt about myself. And it was a very proud moment for me, because I look back, and that's why identity is so important. You need to take the time to reflect on who you are, what do you stand for, so that when those moments of pressure come, you're going to be able to make a decision to stay in alignment with who you are. Naviere Walkewicz 42:15 So you said — and maybe it's by grace — that you hadn't really planned. You just started journaling in those moments of quiet when you're feeling a little bit alone as TDY. Is that the best way, you think, to spend some time figuring out who you are? What's important to you? Or are there other tools you might suggest? Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 42:33 There's going to be multiple tools. You know, for me, I like to write. You know, for some people, they will pray and they will just ask a higher being to guide me and to make me more aware, make things known to me. For other people, they're going to meditate. You know, I liked journaling. I also have the strength of curiosity. And so, because of that, I was always not only asking myself a lot of questions, but I was asking other people too. And so, for example, if people don't have that strength of curiosity and they're thinking, “I really don't reflect very much and I'm never asking myself those questions,” you know, you don't necessarily have to journal it, but you can just take time to spend in reflection. But some of the work that I do, I take people through identity activation drills where I will list several, several different lists of values, different lists of strengths, and they'll think about each one and they'll really start to think about, “Let me think of a time where I experienced one of these strengths.” Or, “What's the last thing somebody celebrated?” Or, “What do people tend to tell me or complement?” And then all of a sudden they realize,” I didn't realize this was a strength, but, wow, this is a strength!” And now they can own it because they're aware of it.  Naviere Walkewicz 43:48 That is outstanding. So, you've really taken wellness into practice with everything you've done. You started to elevate others around you to have this ability to discover themselves and then have this executive presence. You know, if all the things you are doing, it takes energy. How are you… Because I know you talked about not overtraining and making sure you preserve that and doing mental reps. Is that really the special sauce? The mental training so that you don't find yourself in a period where you just lack energy and burnout?    Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 44:22 So basically, how do you sustain energy when it comes to wellness? So again, you go back to mind, body and spirit. So what I would do is I would — and this is for each person… You just break it down. You ask yourself, “OK, mind. How am I going to keep energy in my mind? What can I do?”  One of the easiest things to do is to just take a short break. So when I gave you the example of how my mind was working at full capacity for three hours straight. So when I was done, it needed a bit of a reset. And so what I do every day when I'm at home is I go outside and I visit with my chickens. So I have chickens and I have four cats. And so I will take a mental break and it's a habit for me now. I get up from the table and I will walk, because it decreases your stress hormones when you have movement, and I will give my mind a break and I will allow myself to observe. That's my favorite thing: I call it mindful walks where I just go outside and I will just take a moment. You know when they say, “Just stop and smell the roses.” No, seriously.   Naviere Walkewicz 45:28 Or the chickens…   Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 45:29 So the chickens make me smile because when I come out there I typically have treats. But they just come… They bumrush me.  So I go out there and they make me smile and then something wonderous will happen, like I might see my cat just sprinting up a tree and I'm just thinking, “Wow, what a hunter,” right? They're so fast. Then, you know, I see my dahlias that have been sprouting and I just can't believe how fast they grow overnight with sunshine. And that's just 10 minutes. And then I come back in and I instantly feel recharged and I sit down and I'm restored and ready to focus again on the next task. So, mentally, I like taking breaks. When it comes to physically, just getting into movement. And, you know, a lot of times people will think, “Well, I don't have time to go to the gym for an hour.”      Naviere Walkewicz 46:16 Or, “I'm tired already. How am I supposed to go workout?”   Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 46:17 Exactly. So when I think about the body, you know, there's four pillars that you can focus on. And if you feel like you're not mastering any of them, just start with one. So food is one. Food is fuel. And then we have hydration. You know, my husband's mom actually went to the hospital because she works all the time and she had been out in the sun and we discovered that she was dehydrated and it put her in the hospital. So sometimes when we're going after the mission and we're doing one task after — you know, when people forget to drink water and eight hours later you're dealing with brain fog, you're irritable, you don't understand what's happening. But you didn't fuel the body. So hydration, movement, food and sleep. So those are like the four pillars. And I would just ask yourself — so if I'm working with a health coaching client, I would say, “Out of those four areas, where do you want to start?” They'll say, “Sleep. My sleep health is terrible.” And then I can take it step further and say, “Have you heard of a thing called sleep hygiene?” They're like, “What's that?” “Sleep hygiene is literally, what is your sleep ritual? What are your habits to prepare for bedtime? Do you have a consistent bedtime? Do you decrease blue-light therapy? Do you put the phone away? Do you take a bubble bath to relax?” When you think about your environment and what your habits are, when some people tell you, “I do not feel rested,” we look at your sleep hygiene. What's going on? There's things that we can fix, and that's just with sleep. And so I ask people, “Where would you like to start? And you just pick one habit that you can commit to over time and once you've mastered that, you start to habit-stack.” Naviere Walkewicz 47:57 Amazing. So that was — you talked about, from the energy, when it comes to your physical and then your mental. What about from the spiritual side?    Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 48:07 OK, so, this is — and I think this is important because, again, I talk about the spirit is the anchor for your emotional health, right? And so you want to think about activities that's going to feed your soul and your spirit. Now I'll give an example. If you're going through, let's say, a season where you're irritable and you're feeling ungrateful and you're pessimistic and everything just seems bad. We're actually kind of in a season like that right now sometimes. One of the things I do — so this is just an exercise, but it's a gratitude process. Write down 100 things you are grateful for. I did this for three months straight. It took me about 20 minutes, but I got really good at it. And when you have to list out 100 things, you know, at first you might do 20 and you're like, “All right. Where do I go from here?” But you're forced to dig deeper. And when I came up with my 100 list, first of all, I would think about my husband. And 10 things, I would get specific. Grateful for his provision. Grateful for support, for his sense of humor, for his hot, fit body. You know, I'd just go down all the things, right? And then every day I'm grateful for my home, for my physical abilities, for my flexibility, my mobility. You're just in a different frame of mind. And anyone can get there if they choose to do an exercise or a prompt that shifts them from their current circumstance. And that's why I'm most passionate about empowering people that they truly can design their life utilizing these tools. Naviere Walkewicz 49:47 Can you share an example when you've seen someone that was maybe in that season…   Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 49:53 What kind of season? Negative season?   Naviere Walkewicz 49:54 In the negative season. And how going through some of these, kind of, wellness check-ins or activities — what did it allow them to do? What did it open on the other side that changed for them with your help?   Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 50:06 OK, so, one example would be we have social media; we have digital devices. And we can easily… Everything is about habit management and that's one thing I would tell people to do, you know? If you were to take inventory, look at how you live your life every day, and if you were to put every single action you did down as a habit — brush your teeth is a habit. Stop by and grab the Diet Coke is a habit. Sit down on the couch to watch TV is a habit. If you put it in a category of what serves you; what doesn't serve you. You know, one of the most…      Naviere Walkewicz 50:41 So first list out all your habits and categorize them?   Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 50:43 Right, right. So then you would recognize, “Oh my goodness. I have a habit of scrolling Instagram. Or social media.” And then you ask yourself how much time do you spend doing that. “Oh, I get caught up in a loophole of 30 to 45 minutes. And then what are you consuming? You know, so let's say the things that have happened in the last couple of weeks, you know, say something negative happens in society that's getting a lot of public attention and you're just ina rabbit hole reading about that incident over and over and over again. And when you're done scrolling, the question is, “How do you feel after that activity?” And most people would say, “I feel tense. I feel angry. I feel disappointed.” They list off all of these negative feelings. And so what I do is I help them realize, “OK, so does that serve you? Because you were in this negative health space, when you went to dinner with your family or when you went into this next assignment, how did you show up? How did you perform?” And then they realize, “Oh, wow. Not very well. I treated my wife like crap because I was irritable.” And so then you go back again. Your experience… We leave clues with how we're living our lives. So then you go back and you realize, “That is a habit I need to change.  And I just need to make a decision, and I have to have a compelling reason. So let's say you want to work on your marriage and you want to show up better for your spouse, but you're always showing up with negative energy because of this habit that you do right when you get home, then you can — so we just come up with a plan, and it's different for each person. You know, “What could you do that would be more positive?” “I could come home play a game with my kid, because, you know, my kid is amazing, and it makes me smile and laugh,” and you're in a good mood, you know? And this is why, if I am stressed during the day, I already know if I get exposed to my chickens, my cat, or just go outside, I'm so mesmerized by the beauty of nature. All of those things I know fill me in a positive way. And so I am very intentional and aware of when I need to shift, and I know what my go-to are. So when I work with clients, I help them discover what their database of go-tos are going to be. The first part is just helping them become more aware of when it's happening so they can decide to shift. Naviere Walkewicz 52:57 Right. So that awareness is really critical, but then the next step is probably the discipline and actually doing something about it?   Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 53:07 Right. Naviere Walkewicz 53:08 How can you take the lessons that you've had in bodybuilding, and then, you know, in all of your journey to help those now move from the awareness bucket to actually…   Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 53:17 To making it happen? So I think that the first goal should be consistency, not perfection, right? And I learned this the hard way as a bodybuilder, because in the beginning of my career, I hated dieting. I've always hated dieting. I love food.   Naviere Walkewicz 53:31 You and I are kindred spirits in that way.   Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 53:32 I don't mind being, yes, I don't mind being on a structured, you know, meal plan. But, you know, being on a strict diet can be hard, so anytime you set a goal to do something that is difficult, you know, the first thing that I tried to do was be perfect. So I would hire a coach, and my nutritionist would tell me, “This is what you're supposed to eat for meal one, two, three, four, exactly down to the macros. And maybe I would do great for three days. And then, you know, I would fail. I would cheat or have something I'm not supposed to have, and I would feel so bad again. Going back to a lot of these principles are coming back up. I was letting the failure identified me as a bad person, so now I'm feeling shame, and that's making me feel discouraged. And I kept doing this thing, like, “Well, I blew it, so I'm just gonna take the whole day off.” Like, how dumb is that, right? Like, there's four more meals you can eat and you're just gonna sabotage the rest of the four. So think about if I did that every day. So if you messed up every day and you sabotage three out of the six meals every single day, where would you be at the end of the week?   Naviere Walkewicz 54:31 Worse off. Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 54:32 Fat. [Laughs] No, I'm just kidding,   Naviere Walkewicz 54:33 Worse off than you were when you started.   Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 54:35 You would be, with no results.   Naviere Walkewicz 54:37 No more Oreos in the house so you wouldn't have to worry about eating them anymore. Tanji Johnson Bridgeman 54:40 So that's when I realized, “Oh, I'm getting caught up with perfection, and that's causing me to sabotage.” So then I changed. I said 80/20, 90/10, I just want to be consistent. And so when you fail, you know you give yourself that grace, right? And so I always like to say courage, grit and grace. You have to have the courage to do something uncomfortable, the grit to endure and then the grace to embrace when you've messed up and then move forward. And so the first thing I would do with wellness habits is, you know, you build one habit at a time, and you do what you can to be consistent, and when you fail, again, here's that theme, you take that failure as feedback. “Why did you fail? Did you get hungry? Did you have temptation in the house? Did you not set your alarm?” Right? You know? “What could you do differently?” And then you just recommit to being consistent. Naviere Walkewicz 55:31 That is excellent. So talking about everything, this has been a wonderful conversation. When I think about lasting impact, right? So you know, you've had this incredible journey. You've helped people understand how to be more aware of their wellness, how to take action, be consistent and really drive change. What is one challenge you might have our listeners take in the w

Season 5: How to Build the Team of Your DreamsEpisode 3: How to Build a Healthy Team Culture That Lasts You've heard what the 3 Covenants are—now it's time to learn how to actually live them out.In this episode of the Worship Catalyst Podcast, Austin Ryan and Ben Barfield share practical ways to implement and reinforce the 3 Covenants in your ministry, business, or organization. If you've ever wondered how to build trust that lasts or how to create a culture of unity on your team, this episode gives you the step-by-step roadmap.You'll learn how to:✅ Introduce the 3 Covenants to your team with confidence and clarity✅ Keep them alive in weekly meetings and daily interactions✅ Handle broken trust and rebuild relationships quickly✅ Create a culture where honesty, humility, and loyalty thrive✅ Multiply covenant relationships throughout your entire organizationThis episode is packed with actionable tips you can use right away to start building the team of your dreams—one that communicates clearly, trusts deeply, and thrives on mission.Our NEW Book, The 3 Covenants: Building Team Loyalty is AVAILABLE NOW! https://the3covenants.com to order a copy for you and your team! Watch the VIDEO Podcast HEREDid you enjoy this episode? Do us a favor and share with worship leaders & pastors around you! Also, leave a rating and review so it makes it easier for other worship leaders to find us! Follow Us on Facebook and Instagram for more content on worship leading every week. The Worship Catalyst Podcast is produced by Worship Catalyst. A non-profit ministry that serves churches by training, mentoring and coaching worship leaders and their teams. For more information about Worship Catalyst or for more resources to help you become a better worship leader, visit worshipcatalyst.com.

Show #2541 Show Notes: Called to Multiply: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1503973217561070 Jerry Lucas: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1525467495169173 Satan’s devices: https://uasvbible.org/2025/05/27/what-are-satans-devices-and-how-does-scripture-instruct-believers-to-resist-them/ 7 Deadly sins: https://inspirationfeed.com/what-are-the-seven-deadly-sins/ 7 Weapons of Spiritual Warfare: https://www.simplycomplicatedlife.org/weapons-of-spiritual-warfare/

Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be continuing our discussion on the AI approach to multiply your sales. This is part two in our series, and today we'll be discussing service, referrals, and content marketing. David: Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Thank you so much, David. I'm really enjoying this discussion about AI because I think we've already established there are some great tools and resources with AI, but it's not exactly to the point where it needs to be. But more specifically, can it really speak to your individual situation? How do you pick through that and know what's right for you? David: Exactly, and last week we were talking about the first three recommendations it made, which were define your target audience, develop a compelling value proposition, and optimize your marketing channels. This week, we're going to be talking about its next set of recommendations. And it starts with number four on its list is: 4. Enhance Your Customer Experience. Focus on delivering exceptional customer service and creating a positive experience at every touch point to build loyalty and encourage repeat business. That sounds nice. Jay: It sounds fantastic. Again, just do that. You know, but how do you do that? I think I mentioned in the last podcast that so often people go into business not because they're great at customer service, but because they have a great recipe, or they have a great product. And they don't really think about how to offer that in a great way. I'm in the accounting field now, which kind of blows my mind and is a different conversation. But I find generally, David, that accountants don't know how to give good customer service. And they kind of feel like they have a captured audience and so they don't even try to give good customer service. David: And a lot of accountants also really struggle with marketing because they feel like it's Jay: Yes, yes. David: Kind of, if not beneath them, they feel uncomfortable with it. They don't want to come across as a salesperson. They're very good at what they do and they're less good at finding the people they need to do that sort of thing. And that's why a lot of them, a lot of small business accountants struggle, because they're great at accounting and not so great at the things that we're talking about here that will actually allow them to service more customers. Jay: Yeah, you're exactly right. Where I've come from, the retail side, the customer service side, that's been my whole background. So, we're kind of owning our little space in the marketplace, because we're focusing on that up front, and people recognize a difference immediately. David: Yeah, exactly. So, one of the things we talked about in the previous podcast related to AI telling us how to multiply sales is that some of these recommendations come across as rather general. Okay, so enhance your customer experience is not really the kind of thing you would think of as "okay, this will allow me to multiply sales." It's a necessity. You have to have exceptional customer service in your business if you want to survive, let alone thrive, let alone multiply business. But it doesn't seem to me to be a multiplier in and of itself. However, when we think about this idea, what can we do to make the experience better, what can we do to expedite the experience, make these things happen better and more consistently, that will allow us to get the velocity we need, in my opinion, to be able to then Multiply your sales. In other words, it's not enough to just do a great job with customer service. We need to be able to do it with a cadence of accountability. We need to be able to do it in a way where it's happening consistently. People are able to move through our process, get what they need, feel like they've been extremely well taken care of, and then we can move on to the next person. Jay: Yeah, when I hear enhance their customer experience, for some reason, I think of Disneyland, like better rides or better signage or, you know, things like that. It's very ethereal, like, how do I apply that to my individual experience? I think a key here is that our attention span with TikTok and all of these things is so low. And so when somebody lands on your website or when they've picked up a phone to call you, if they're not moving through that process fast enough, you're going to lose them. And that's just the reality of the world that we live in. David: Absolutely. And I think this general idea of enhancing your customer experience is good. And again, some of the words they use are delivering exceptional customer service and creating a positive experience at every touch point to build loyalty and encourage repeat business. So those are all great recommendations. But again, the question is, how are we doing those things? And in our work with our clients, the way that we do those things is through procedures and processes. Jay: Yes. David: And the next time method of delegation is one of the things that we use inside our program to say, okay, how can we make sure that things are being done the way that we as a business owner want them done and that our people can feel good about because they know they've got a system or a process in place to be able to achieve the result that they're looking for. Jay: Yeah. David: So I think that's what's missing there. Jay: Yeah, this is so important. We've spent the last six months in our business just identifying this process. What happens when they land on the website? What happens with our CRM if they've scheduled a consultation? What happens once they've had a consultation? What happens down to, it's funny to me, down to the forms that we send them. If those forms don't look professional, if they look haphazard, then people will be turned off by them. And that's such a simple thing when you think about it. Just get them done right so that every step of the way you look professional, that builds confidence in your product, and that's the face of our business. That's the storefront now. And, it has to be pristine, in my opinion. David: No question. And I think, you know, the idea of customer service is something that we could dedicate multiple podcasts to, but that was recommendation number four from AI. Recommendation number: 5. Implement a referral program. Encourage satisfied customers to refer your business to others by offering incentives or rewards for successful referrals. What do you Think? Jay: This one's hard for me. I'm not very good at tooting my own horn. Some people really are and it's always been hard for me to say, Hey, if you liked us refer us to other people. I don't know why that's hard for me. And I know that when I have good customer service, I'm very quick to recommend other people. So oftentimes it's not even saying it, it's just providing that extra level of customer service so that we naturally will do that. I think we want to do that. David: We all do. And whenever I talk to business owners, everybody knows the importance of referrals. Most people that I talk to know they should be doing it more. They should be asking more often than they're already asking. And one of the primary reasons they don't goes back to what we were just talking about. They don't have a process for it. They don't have a system or procedure for it. Earlier today, I was talking with one of my consulting clients and he was working on reactivating some old clients and we put together a process for him, just a week ago, that he was able to get out in front of people and the response that he got was amazing. There were eight people in particular that he had great relationships with previously that he hadn't heard from in a while. He initiated contact using the procedure we outlined. All eight of them responded to him within the first week. Jay: Wow. David: He's back in conversation with them. Doesn't mean they're all going to become customers again, but he's got eight out of eight. And that happens when you've got the processes and procedures in place that allow you to just deploy it. Right? Too often, if we want to get referrals, we're going to spend way too much time thinking about it, worrying about it, gnashing our teeth and saying, I really need to do this. Whereas, if you've got something that you could just send out via email this afternoon, You'll know what results you're starting to have by tomorrow. So once again, the recommendations that we're getting from AI are great. The devil is in the details. It's about, okay, how are we going to do it? And once again, one of the things that we do with our clients is we get the things in place, the sort of triggers, the switches that they can throw the switch, make this happen, report back on your results. If it's working great, awesome. If it's not, we'll tweak it and we'll flip a different switch. And we'll keep things moving forward. Jay: Well, I love that you use the word switch, because in today's world of technology, it can be as simple as flipping that switch. But are you sending out quality? Are you sending out things that we've already talked about? Targeting your customers? Identifying their needs and their concerns? Because, you know, in my CRM system, I can set up a drip program, right away. But like you said, the devil's in the details. Is it going to be something that is beneficial to me or am I just going through the motions because AI told me to do it? David: Right. And a lot of that goes back to the idea of creating value in your communications, which we talked about. That was number two, essentially. In what AI came up with and what we expanded on it to mean, AI was talking about developing a compelling value proposition. I was broadening it to include communication. How are we communicating with our clients?

Thanks for listening to this week's message from New City Church in Shawnee, Kansas. To learn more about New City Church, visit newcitychurch.com.

In the Christian walk we will sometimes sow exhaustingly for the gospel and sometimes we will reap what we have sown. But we should be encouraged by Jesus' words and interaction with his disciples after he meets the woman at the well.

In today's episode of Dents in the Darkness, we sit down with Matt Seay, Worship Consultant at the Multiply Group, to talk about the intentional development of worship leaders. Drawing from his experience in both local church leadership and national coaching, Matt unpacks practical strategies for identifying, equipping, and releasing worship leaders who are spiritually grounded and musically skilled. Whether you're a lead pastor, worship pastor, or ministry leader, this conversation will give you tools to build a worship leadership pipeline that lasts. What You'll Learn:Why developing worship leaders is more than just teaching musicHow to create a culture of spiritual formation in your worship teamHow pastors and worship leaders should partner together.Practical systems for mentoring and multiplying leadersCommon mistakes churches make when building worship teamsHow Multiply Group partners with churches to raise up worship leaders About Our Guest:Matt Seay serves as a Worship Consultant with the Multiply Group, helping churches across the country develop sustainable systems for worship ministry.  Resources & Links:Learn more about the Multiply Group: www.multiplygroup.orgConnect with Matt Seay on Instagram: @mattseay

Episode 861: Be Fruitful and Multiply! This simple command in Genesis is being challenged today, but God knew what He was doing when he gave it to us! Find out more on this insightful episode of Good News with Greg Fritz. Download or request your FREE Study Notes for this series at https://gregfritz.org/study-notes/. Greg Fritz is on a mission to get the truth of the Good News to as many people as possible. The truth is God has a plan and a meaning for your life. You are extravagantly and deeply loved by God, and you were created for a purpose.  Receive a free CD and our newsletter: https://www.gregfritz.org/free-cd/   Follow Greg on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gregfritzministries/  Follow Greg on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregfritzministries/ Watch more videos: https://www.gospeltruth.tv/   Learn more on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrR9Rsx4h_RqYigda2PysZQ  Email us: info@gregfritz.org  Partner with us:  https://gregfritz.org/partners/ Donate: https://gregfritz.org/donate/

Jason Feifer discusses how to advance your career by creating winning LinkedIn content. — YOU'LL LEARN — 1) Why LinkedIn matters even when you aren't job hunting2) What most get wrong about personal branding 3) The trick to getting your posts seen on LinkedInSubscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep1110 for clickable versions of the links below. — ABOUT JASON — Jason Feifer is the editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine, a startup advisor, host of the podcasts Build For Tomorrow and Problem Solvers, and has taught his techniques for adapting to change at companies including Pfizer, Microsoft, Chipotle, DraftKings, and Wix. He has worked as an editor at Fast Company, Men's Health, and Boston magazine, and has written about business and technology for the Washington Post, Slate, Popular Mechanics, and others.• LinkedIn: Jason Feifer• Newsletter: OneThingBetter.email• Website: JasonFeifer.com— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW — • Book: The Three-Body Problem (The Three-Body Problem Series, 1) by Cixin Liu• Past episode: 664: Dr. Robert Cialdini on How to Persuade with the 7 Universal Principles of Influence• Past episode: 848: How to Quickly Grow and Future-Proof Your Career with Jason Feifer• Past episode: 997: How to Push Past Self-Doubt and Find the Confidence to Pursue Big Things with Pat Flynn and Matt Gartland• Past episode: 1089: Mastering New Skills and Information Overload through Lean Learning with Pat Flynn— THANK YOU SPONSORS! — • Vanguard. Give your clients consistent results year in and year out with vanguard.com/AUDIO• Quince. Get free shipping and 365-day returns on your order with Quince.com/Awesome• Cashflow Podcasting. Explore launching (or outsourcing) your podcast with a free 10-minute call with Pete.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Episode 065 - Spiritual Math and the Nate Jones Effect What if the good you do doesn't stop when you do it? In this episode, Dr. Ed Tori reflects on a powerful discovery: a newspaper article from 1995 that his late mother had saved - a story about his college t-shirt fundraisers that raised thousands for charity. Hidden in the article was a forgotten thread: he had once donated in the name of a 7-year-old boy named Nate Jones, who had raised $100 for a homeless shelter. Decades later, that act reemerged - shaping reflection, identity, and a concept Dr. Tori's mentor would later call “The Nate Jones Effect.”

In this special workshop episode, Rich Birch unpacks the same five systems thriving churches use to move from hoping for growth to launching it. If you've ever felt like your church's momentum is hard to sustain—or that your people love your church but don't naturally invite—this episode gives you a simple roadmap to turn things […]

Simon's live update for Natasha Devon's Saturday afternoon programme on the UK's LBC.

From the archive: This episode was originally recorded and published in 2022. Our interviews on Entrepreneurs On Fire are meant to be evergreen, and we do our best to confirm that all offers and URL's in these archive episodes are still relevant. JiNan Glasgow George has built her career from engineering to patent law and investment by transforming ideas into assets and connecting innovators to the resources they need to make positive impact. She is the CEO and co-founder of Patent Forecast, a business intelligence SaaS company that provides insights for investors and executives, serial entrepreneurs and innovators, giving vision ahead of market data using patent data and AI. Top 3 Value Bombs 1. With imagination and ideas, you have an unlimited resource for solving problems and creating a positive impact in the world, however, most people do not use it. 2. Almost everybody has a trademark to register, copyright, or patent. 3. You can make the most valuable asset in your business from your ideas and transform that into intellectual property, but you have to know how to use it in your industry. NEO IP is an intellectual property law firm with a holistic approach for creating IP assets - NEO IP Sponsors HighLevel - The ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies. Learn more at HighLevelFire.com. The Dealmaker's Will - If you're ready to sharpen your instincts, elevate your mindset, and learn what separates deal-takers from deal-makers. Go grab your copy of The Dealmaker's Will today on Amazon. Quicksilver Scientific - Make advanced liposomal supplements so you can actually feel the difference - energy, focus, calm, recovery. Get 10 percent off plus free shipping at TryQS.com/fire!

What if the greatest leadership blind spot isn't about people at all, but about the space between them?In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli speaks with Jim Ferrell, renowned leadership thinker and author of You and We: The Relational Rethinking of Work, Life, and Leadership. Known for co-authoring the international bestseller Leadership and Self-Deception, Ferrell's latest work shifts the lens from managing individuals to managing the relationships that determine whether strategies succeed or fail.Ferrell explains why execution often falters not inside functions, but at the seams — the handoffs, dependencies, and connections that link people, teams, and departments. He challenges leaders to rethink the org chart: while boxes and reporting lines are visible, the real value is created or lost in the white space between them. CEOs and boards who fail to see and lead that space risk blind spots, stalled strategies, and underperformance.In the conversation, Ferrell outlines a framework of “levels of connectivity” that helps leaders diagnose whether relationships are dividing, subtracting, siloed, multiplying, or compounding results. He shares why leaders at the top often get the worst data, how systems and incentives frequently reinforce silos, and what it takes to truly lead at the relational level.Whether you lead a global enterprise, a nonprofit, or a government agency, Ferrell's insights invite you to rethink what leadership demands today: not simply inspiring individuals, but intentionally managing the relational field that drives execution, culture, and long-term performance.Actionable TakeawaysHear why execution fails most often at the seams, not inside the silos—and what this means for how leaders should focus their attention.Learn how to spot the blind spot on your org chart and why the white space between boxes matters more than the boxes themselves.Discover Jim Ferrell's “levels of connectivity” and how each level determines whether relationships subtract value, add value, or compound it.Find out why CEOs at the top often receive the worst data—and what kind of leadership it takes to cultivate candor and real feedback.Explore how system design and incentives can quietly sabotage collaboration even among well-intentioned people.Understand how mapping connections across teams can reveal hidden risks and opportunities for acceleration.Learn practical moves senior leaders can make to strengthen critical relationships across teams, functions, and business units.Hear how leaders can build an organization where success is shared and compounded, rather than siloed and slowed.Connect with Jim FerrellJim Ferrell LinkedIn You and We Withiii Leadership Connect with Mahan Tavakoli: Mahan Tavakoli Website Mahan Tavakoli on LinkedIn Partnering Leadership Website

Register here to attend the live virtual event "How to Scale Your Portfolio, with Tenanted Cash Flowing, New Construction Properties" on Thursday, November 13th at 8pm Eastern. Keith introduces a profound life perspective: humans are typically allotted only 30,000 days. What will you do with the days you have left? Every moment not spent building wealth is a moment lost forever. Adam Schroeder, a real estate investment strategist, joins the conversation to talk about current opportunities with new build properties with significant builder incentives and the potential for high appreciation. Resources: Switch to listening to the podcast on the Apple Podcasts or Spotify app, as the dedicated GRE mobile app will be discontinued at the end of the month. Show Notes: GetRichEducation.com/578 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREinvestmentcoach.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE  or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments.  For predictable 10-12% quarterly returns, visit FreedomFamilyInvestments.com/GRE or text  1-937-795-8989 to speak with a freedom coach Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search "how to leave an Apple Podcasts review"  For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— text 'GRE' to 66866 Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript: Keith Weinhold  0:01   Keith, welcome to GRE. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, the real estate market is slow when this happens in a cycle. What does it mean to a real estate investor? What type of return can you really expect today? I'll tell you exactly, and you'll be surprised. Learn more about new build properties and why investors often prefer DSCR loans over conventional loans today on get rich education,   Keith Weinhold  0:28   since 2014 the powerful get rich education podcast has created more passive income for people than nearly any other show in the world. This show teaches you how to earn strong returns from passive real estate investing in the best markets without losing your time being a flipper or landlord. Show Host Keith Weinhold writes for both Forbes and Rich Dad advisors and delivers a new show every week since 2014 there's been millions of listener downloads of 188 world nations. He has a list show guests include top selling personal finance author Robert Kiyosaki. Get rich education can be heard on every podcast platform, plus it has its own dedicated Apple and Android listener phone apps build wealth on the go with the get rich education podcast. Sign up now for the get rich education podcast, or visit get rich education.com   Corey Coates  1:13   You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is get rich education.   Keith Weinhold  1:29   Welcome to GRE I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, yes, America's favorite shaved mammal on a microphone is back with you for another wealth building week. Just the talking primate that's heavily mortgaged here. I'm also a landlord still waiting for a security deposit from back in 2018   Keith Weinhold  1:51   Hmm, oh, I'm so into self deprecation today that I forgot about the place names hitting you, from Dover, Delaware to   Keith Weinhold  2:01   Andover, Massachusetts and across 188 nations worldwide, you're listening to get rich education. There's a realization that can sharpen your investor focus when you think about the fact that, in a sense, how little time you are allotted in your life. It's something that I've thought about more. You're only given about 30,000 days. That's the typical lifespan of a human being, and that goes for both shaved mammals and others. Well, you've already spent 1000s of your 30,000. The question is, what are you doing with the rest? At some point, people understand or they better that they need to go out on a limb. There are people less qualified than you living the life you want to live simply because they chose to believe in themselves, and really, that's the moment everything shifts. belief. It's not a feeling. It is a decision backed by action. Too many people learn this lesson the hard way. They discover, often too late, that relying on one income stream is the most dangerous financial plan of all. A job can vanish. Federal Workers found that out amidst a government shutdown, a business model can change. AI can intrude. A paycheck can stop. But when you own assets that pay you month after month, no matter what you're doing, you slowly begin to untether yourself and move toward freedom. And here's the truth about pain and money. Poor and middle class households work for money, so to them, that's why every dollar spent feels like a little loss. It can even hurt, and that is why they hesitate even on opportunities that could change everything. The wealthy, on the other hand, own assets that pay them, so therefore every dollar spent feels like a seed, because it grows when you own enough income property, you can move away from constantly asking yourself, can I afford this? And start asking, What will this investment earn me? Over time, this mindset shift changes everything at that time when other people's money starts working for you, not the other way around.    Keith Weinhold  4:45   And here's the thought experiment I use, take the hourglass of your life and flip it, watch the sand fall. That's time, 30,000 hours, 30,000 grains. That is. Is time the one resource that you cannot get more of. So every day you delay prudently investing the sand does not pause. It just keeps flowing. But you can choose how that time compounds the sand that's left over and hasn't fallen through the neck of the hourglass. Yet that is your opportunity to build multiple income streams from real estate, from ownership and from leverage, it is your chance to replace anxiety with well autonomy. Every family with generational wealth can trace it back to one person, one risk taker who decided to stop trading hours for dollars. They believed in ownership and control. They believed in themselves. They acted before the sand ran out. If you've already started real estate investing, well, then you've already begun to break that cycle. If you've done it for a time, you're going to have more time, more income and more options than you had before. That is worth celebrating and scaling, because the best time to start was yesterday, and the next best time is before the next grain of sand hits the bottom.    Keith Weinhold  6:22   Later today, I'll talk about taking this sentiment and moving it towards something very specific and actionable. Now, in this era, the real estate market is slow. That is in terms of transaction volume, there just aren't as many sales. Sometimes this whole thing feels more sluggish than Jabba the Hutt after Thanksgiving dinner.   Keith Weinhold  6:49   5 million is a typical number of existing homes sold every year in the US. 5 million. That's normal. That's baseline during the pandemic frenzy. It reached over 6 million, and now it's about 4 million. That's why I say that housing transaction volume has slowed, and appreciation is only about 2% that's below historic norms, and rent growth is like barely doing push ups. It's two to 3% in single family homes volume now it has picked up a little here lately with lower mortgage rates, and so have home prices. Redfin now tells us that home price appreciation is 3% but most outlets say 2% some analysts that are more optimistic than me call today's housing market healthy. They don't call it slow. And why is that? Well, it's the healthiest it's been since covid, because now you have a good balance of buyers and sellers. The real estate market isn't so miserably deprived of inventory like it was back in 2022 in 2023 but I am going to go with slow now, as you know, I coined the phrase real estate pays five ways back in 2015   Keith Weinhold  8:09   But how exactly does that hold up in today's slow transaction market? Could an income property buyer's return even be disappointing now? Well, let's do it. Let's determine what you can expect if you purchase an investment property here in these slow market conditions, we'll determine your total rate of return in year one. And you know, this will be sort of like dating someone that's not the first date, but to really get to know them, to know if they're potential spouse material. You want to see them at their worst and be sure that they look good on their bad days. So let's just be conservative and use 2% home price appreciation. Say that you buy a 200k single family rental. Now a 20% down payment means 40k down. Sellers are willing to give you concessions now, say that they're going to pay your closing costs, because the 200k that you're paying is their full asking price, so it's your terms and their price. Well, say that you don't get any cash flow. The rent only covers the expenses exactly. Okay, so we're really painting on a not so pretty picture. Here, it would seem. Here we go, in a slow market, the first of five ways you're paid is that erstwhile appreciation. Your property only appreciates 2% from 200k up to 204k not so exciting, until, of course, as we know around here, you realize that your return is your gain on your skin in the game, your 4k gain divided by your 40k down payment gives you a 10% ROI. There it is leverage. Didn't just show up. It brought donuts. 10% just from the first of five ways you're paid. The second way is cash flow. Say that rent minus your 160k mortgage payment here and your operating expenses, that merely breaks even, like I was saying. So 0% additional return from cash flow. And before we add on numbers three, four and five to get your total rate of return in a slow market, let's take a moment to check on Jabba. How's Jabba doing? No, Jabba still hasn't gotten up from that heavy Thanksgiving dinner. It's still a slow market. We've confirmed that we're going to continue   Keith Weinhold  10:41   the third way you're paid, as any GRE listener knows by now, is with that ROA return on amortization, also known as principal pay down with a 7% mortgage rate in your 160k loan on this property, an amortization table shows you 1625 bucks a tenant made principal pay down. Divide that by your 40k down again, that is another 4% return. All right, so you add that to your 10% from leverage depreciation, and you've now got 14%   Keith Weinhold  11:17   next is your tax benefit. It's a 150k structure value, not the full 200k because raw land can't be depreciated. Multiply that by 3.6% depreciation, that means you've tax sheltered 5400 bucks. That is like a phantom loss that you get to show the IRS. Just a little more math here, and this is as far as you have to stretch it, in visualizing numbers in an audio format at a 24% income tax rate. That is 1296 saved on 40k down again, another 3% for you, and your running total is a 17% ROI before we get to the last one, which is inflation profiting, not inflation hedging, which almost everyone mistakenly says in real estate investing, it is inflation profiting.    Keith Weinhold  12:13   Your 160k loan gets eaten by 4800 bucks at a 3% inflation rate, divided by 40k down. And you know, inflation is usually the villain. Now it is the hero. You've got another 12% from inflation profiting. And here's the sum in this slow market, your total year one rate of return is 29%   Keith Weinhold  12:43   and you're like, my gosh, did that really just happen? Now you might want to skip back on some parts of that to help make it crystallize in your mind. I've got to tell you before I ran these numbers in this slow market with this 2% appreciation and even assuming zero cash flow, I thought your total rate of return would be in the low 20s, not this high, not 29%   Keith Weinhold  13:09   the numbers don't lie. They just don't get enough attention on CNBC.   Keith Weinhold  13:16   Now I did use shorthand and simplify. You would also have to adjust your 29% for inflation, just like you do for any investment. So then about a 26% inflation adjusted return for you. Wow. And if you want to know more about what I just used shorthand on, you can always watch the five videos on the five ways real estate pays for free at getricheducation.com/course that's get richeducation.com/course, the most valuable video course you'll ever see on real estate investing, but a huge investor lesson here, an epiphany today, is that it does not take a high growth market to build wealth. Even when it seems like real estate's half asleep, it can still work five jobs for you, we could be near the nadir of the cycle here.    Keith Weinhold  14:16   Appreciation has picked up in recent months, with mortgage rates being lower than they've been in a while, but even when appreciation and rent growth slows now, you can see that the ROA tax benefit and inflation profiting just keep working overtime. The bottom line here is that income property still pays a lofty 29% if you buy today, even in a slow market, and this is at a time when investors, a lot of them, don't know what to do with their money, since every market type seems to be near an all time high, and people don't want to buy in at those high levels, and savings accounts pay you less than a gumball machine, owning investment property proves its resilience. I mean, this is why we do this. It's kind of like stocks can party with a surge in an upcycle, and then they can bust and boom and bust and boom. But all the while, instead of partying, real estate just keeps its head down and works the night shift for you, your wealth quietly compounds in the background while the rest of the world panics or debates interest rates on LinkedIn or something.    Keith Weinhold  15:33   All right. Well, with that in mind, where can we take advantage of that real estate return and expect to do even better with it, even if the market did stay slow. Well, builders have unsold inventory in places like Texas and Florida, like I mentioned before, and to a lesser extent, in parts of the West as well, but the prices are too high out in the west for a cash flow investor. So today, you can buy at a discount in a way that you absolutely could not during the height of the pandemic.    Keith Weinhold  16:06   A guest and I are going to talk about a specific opportunity in today's market, and then how you can exploit it. The National Association of Homebuilders has even noticed that home flippers have switched gears, and increasingly, what flippers are doing is instead buying new build properties and then renting them out, because new builds have lower upkeep costs come with a lower mortgage rate because the builder is buying it down for you, they have lower insurance and they attract a better quality tenant that stays longer, even if the HVAC did break. That's okay, because new build homes often come with a warranty. The smart money knows that new build is where the opportunity is today. That's something that I've discussed for a while here, but today we're getting more actionable. CNBC let us know that the CJ Petra company reports that investors now make up the highest share of Homebuilders in five years. And you'll recall that we've had CJ Patrick, company founder, Rick sharga, on the show a lot with me here the past few years. Some say that the smart money is waking up again. I don't know investor activity is steady, but it's not really that much. It only seems like a lot because the wannabe owner, occupant, buyer has been priced out. So it's better to say that investor activity has been steady. Investors bought fully 1/3 of single family homes this past summer, and that is up from 27% in q1 I'll discuss that more soon.    Keith Weinhold  17:44   Hey, you know one thing that makes GRE different is that our show sponsors are here to supplement and benefit your specific investor activity. And another thing is that I use them myself. Thank God we are not here to tell you about pneumococcal pneumonia or your moderate to severe plaque, psoriasis. I don't even know what that stuff means. Freedom, family investments and Ridge lending group. I very know what they're about. I'm a satisfied client with each of them myself. So listen in.    Keith Weinhold  18:21   You know, most people think they're playing it safe with their liquid money, but they're actually losing savings accounts and bonds don't keep up when true inflation eats six or 7% of your wealth. Every single year, I invest my liquidity with FFI freedom family investments in their flagship program. Why fixed 10 to 12% returns have been predictable and paid quarterly. There's real world security backed by needs based real estate like affordable housing, Senior Living and health care. Ask about the freedom flagship program when you speak to a freedom coach there, and that's just one part of their family of products, they've got workshops, webinars and seminars designed to educate you before you invest. Start with as little as 25k and finally, get your money working as hard as you do. Get started at Freedom, family investments.com/gre, or send a text. Now it's 1937795898, 377958989, yep, text their freedom coach directly. Again, 1-937-795-8989,   Keith Weinhold  19:32   the same place where I get my own mortgage loans is where you can get yours. Ridge lending group NMLS, 42056, they provided our listeners with more loans than anyone because they specialize in income properties. They help you build a long term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage. Start your prequel and even chat with President Caeli Ridge personally while it's on your mind, start at Ridgelendinggroup.Com, that's Ridge lending group.com   Kathy Fettke  20:05   this is the real wealth network's Kathy betke, and you are listening to the always valuable get rich education with Keith Weinhold.   Keith Weinhold  20:14   I'd like to welcome in a new guest to the show. He is a real estate investment strategist that's been working in the media industry since 2001 and throughout the career, he's held the title of a local news reporter, podcast host and producer for nationally syndicated companies like NPR. He's been in real estate nearly 20 years. Adam Schroeder, welcome to the show.    Adam Schroeder  20:48   Thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it.    Keith Weinhold  20:50   Yeah, I'm looking for your read on today's real estate market, just the general landscape overall, because Adam, I've shared that national transaction volume is down about 25% appreciation is still there, although it's been slow. Rents are just steady. We do, however, still have this supply that is down among entry level homes, something a lot of media articles broad brushstroke and don't understand, and really it's still a valid question to ask, even today. Is there any better risk adjusted return than income property that's bought, right? So what are your thoughts on the overall real estate investing landscape?   Adam Schroeder  21:30    Yeah, overall real estate investing, it's kind of like what you said, entry level housing. I remember I saw a heat map. This was probably five or six this was pre covid. It was maybe even seven or eight years ago. It was a heat map that showed, like, new construction, home pricing, and, you know, there was like 500,000 and up. Was just this massive chunk. And then there was all these ones, ones that were under about 300,000 it was around, like six or 8% or something like that. It was really, really small. If you look around, it hasn't gotten bigger. And so the question of inventory and availability and pricing, they're never going to talk about it on the national media, because there is no entry level home in Chicago, in New York, in LA, you're not going to find that. I mean, you're paying 200 grand for a doghouse in the backyard, if you're there. And so we are finding the entry level housing, but I think right now, an oversupply of inventory in some of these markets is a very good opportunity for people. If you're buying for with the right fundamentals, if you're buying in an area that's growing and has good long term, you know, 8,10, 15 year diagnostics. Then if you're buying now with builder incentives and all of that, yeah, your year one, year two, year three. Appreciation may not be the greatest because of that oversupply, but if you look at what's happening now with construction starts in a lot of places, builders have gotten scared off. They're not really starting them now. So if you're buying new now, in 2,3,4, years, all of the inventory will be sucked up, and there won't be new homes coming to the market. So you're going to be one of those people who has one of the newest homes in the area, more people are going to want to be getting in. And so your appreciation and rent growth is much more likely to be growing. So that's one of the things I love to look at, is I look at what new home starts, what happened in the past, what was oversupplied, but now, who's what cities aren't building. And if I know what cities aren't building, then I can compare it to, okay, well, you know, there are some cities in California that aren't building anything I'm not going to buy in California, but there are some cities in Minnesota, in Oklahoma, you know, in Texas, where they're not building anymore. And if it's landlord friendly and can cash flow and all of that, Sign me up. I'm bullish on parts of this, of the United States real estate market, not the whole United States real estate market.    Keith Weinhold  23:55   It's been pretty well documented that parts of the nation are overbuilt. However, especially in Florida and Texas. And I brought up the point months ago Adam that if you buy, say, a new build income property in temporarily overbuilt pockets today, five years from now, looking back five years onto today, you could be like, Yeah, I bought five years ago, when some areas were actually overbuilt, and I snagged a deal, and the builder was even giving me incentives like my rate at that time, because, you know, long term, the demand is going to be there and that the absorption is going to be there. So it's about knowing what's happening and then identifying the right time in that cycle. In today's environment, some feel that DSCR loans are a better option for investors, and what that means a debt service coverage ratio loan is that you qualify for the loan not with your personal income, but instead with the property's income. Do you see more investors employing dscrs?    Adam Schroeder  24:55   We see a ton for a really good reason. That is simply put, especially if you're utilizing these builder incentives, buy down rates on DSCR frequently outperform ones with conventional like some of the lenders we're working with. I look and let's say you're putting 4% I looked at it this morning with an investor with 4% of purchase price towards your loan on a DSCR loan, you're down to 5.49% on a DSCR, but conventional, you're at 5.75 that doesn't happen for the most part. It's just something that right now, the risk profile of investors is allowing the rates to be either at or better than conventional many times. Plus, people love to put their properties in LLCs for protection, and they'll worry with conventional, oh, what if a due on sale clause gets triggered, even though it's really hard to trigger that, if you worry about it, well, why not just get a loan that's equal or better than a conventional that doesn't go on your you know, debt to income and can go straight into the LLC to begin with, and then your hands are clean the whole way through, and you're not having to worry about transferring titling. Honestly, my wife is about to murder me because I have some properties that were meant to go into an LLC two years ago that are not currently in an LLC.   Keith Weinhold  26:17   Well, hopefully you'll live until the end of this interview. Tell us more about DSCR loans, and maybe some that, no you talked about the upside, maybe some red flags and some things to look out for, times when we would not want to employ that loan type.    Adam Schroeder  26:30   A lot of it with the DSCR you're looking at like you said, they're not evaluating you necessarily. Now you do have to show reserves. You do have to show that the property will perform on its own. But sometimes full doc loans with conventional can be the way to go, because, like I said, in the past, it used to be that DSCR loans were three quarters of a percent, or a full percent higher than the DSCR. Or, yeah, DSCR was higher than the conventional. And so if you could get a four and a half with a conventional versus a five and a half on a DSCR. It's well worth the extra paperwork that might come with doing it to save yourself that money and really build up your cash flow. We are just in a very awkward time of investing, where the investors for DSCR loans, the people who are buying those mortgages, are not the same people who are buying the Fannie Mae Freddie Mac secondary loan market, and so they just have different risk profiles, which allows the rates to be different. So that's really the big thing. Is, if you've still got your Fannie Freddie slots, it's worth talking to your lender and saying, what would it look like if I did this loan? What would it look like if I did that loan? Where am I? But when it's all said and done, if you're really close or equal, I would almost always skew towards the DSCR to protect myself, go straight into an entity and keep it off of my debt to income ratio, plus on dscrs. You also have the option, and we don't recommend this for every property or even for certain people, depending on risk profile, but you have the option to do an interest only loan with 20 or 25% down, which allows you to do kind of what we call cash flow management, where people get worried about interest only loans and say, Well, I'm not building equity. I'm not doing this, not doing that. Well, you're not, but you're also, you can still put principle towards your loan every month, right? Like a principal loan, maybe you're throwing 200 bucks a month, a principal towards that. Well, with an interest only loan, you can still put that $200 in. But what it means is, if there's a month where maybe you have some repairs that need to be done, or something like that, don't pay the principal and on the interest only, you're still okay on a principal and interest. If you can't pay that, if you just pay all the interest, they're still going to say, well, Keith, you're late on your loan, right? And so it gives you a little bit more flexibility, but it's not for everyone. It's not for every property, so definitely talk with lenders about that. But conventional loans don't offer that. DSCR loans can.    Keith Weinhold  28:53   There's always opportunity in every real estate market. It's just identifying what those are and then ethically exploiting the opportunity. So we're talking about buying in areas that are temporarily overbuilt utilizing DSCR loans. And another advantage in this market, which is an aberration, is the fact that new build properties, like few times in history, if any, actually cost less than renovated existing properties.    Adam Schroeder  29:20   Yeah. I mean, when you can get into, you know, an A class neighborhood with 80% owner occupied, 90% owner occupied, and you're getting in for way less than the median cost of a home in the US. You mean, you're getting in for, I mean, we've got new builds in the 220 range on some of them up to 400 you know, which is still below the median cost. Yeah, that's really good. If you're looking to get into any a class neighborhood, or even B plus neighborhood, finding a property that's 200 $250,000 in those areas is tough. It's just tough. And so especially because as pricing went up for everything with inflation, you know you can't do. Do a cheap rehab anymore. If you're going to do a good rehab, you can't do a cheap rehab. I talk to our teams all the time and tell me, Hey, I did, you know, I only spent $70,000 to renovate this property and like that is a lot of money. I know you're getting it out whenever you do the burn, you know, or sell to an investor, but still a lot of money to put in to get there.    Keith Weinhold  30:20   Well, then let's talk about identifying possible growth markets for long term investing success. New build properties tend to appreciate better than rehab properties. And you know what's funny, Adam, I was just sharing this with my audience on a recent episode. I largely disagree with this long time investing axiom in real estate that says appreciation is just icing on the cake. I think I know what they're saying that doesn't help you out on a month by month basis, but we're in real estate investing for the long term and long term, more of your returns typically come from leveraged appreciation than they do on the cash on cash return from cash flow. So to me, appreciation is not just icing on the cake. In a lot of cases, it is the cake. And really, that's something that new build can offer more of.    Adam Schroeder  31:09   Yeah, I mean, it's almost in, especially in today's market, it's almost like cash flow is the icing on the cake. You know, you can get a property that, you know, is in that really good area, like we're talking about, and is, maybe it's appreciated a little bit now, but it's very likely to appreciate a lot later. If you're only making, if you factor everything in maintenance, vacancy, all of that, and you're making $100 a month, that's solid, you know, if you look at it, and if you're in those areas, if you appreciate 5% on a $300,000 property, let me tell you this, you're not going to make $15,000 in cash flow that year on that property. So if you look at the people who are really retiring on cash flow, are usually the people who have 100 200 300 doors or something like that, and they play the law of large numbers. I don't want to play the law of large numbers personally, I want to have really good quality assets and have fewer of them, and really work on having positive cash flow, but having the equity growth that allows me to pull money out tax free and either buy more investments or utilize how I want in my life.    Keith Weinhold  32:16   Exactly. If your property cash flow is $100 a month and it's a single family home. Some people say, Oh, that's awful. You would need 100 of them just to get 10k pass it per month. Now you're thinking wrong, and you're oversimplifying it like to your point, with the 300k home and 5% appreciation, that's 15k in one year, you're building equity that can be borrowed against, tax free, and you're building up that lump sum cash flow windfall down the road, if you will, in real estate pays five ways and cash flow matters, but it's only one of five profit centers and all that. So yes, we're so aligned on that one, appreciation is not just the icing on the cake, it's substantially more than that. Well, I've got something to announce. Adam here is going to co host, along with our own longtime investment coach, Naresh, an upcoming live virtual event. And it's called how to scale your portfolio with tenanted cash flowing new construction properties. And it aligns in every way with the trends that we've been talking about and that Adam and I have been identifying here. The event takes place next week. But first, tell us more about what you and the ray shall be speaking about at the event there. Adam.   Adam Schroeder  33:29    one of the biggest concerns people have about real estate, and one of the things that can eat in your cash flow more than anything, is vacancy. I mean, vacancy can kill your deal whenever it's all said and done, because it's one thing, if you're, you know, break even or $100 a month positive cash flow. But whenever you've got a vacant property and you're negative $1,500 a month, that can hurt, that can hit the wallet. And so what we really love, if you can hit it, is a tenanted property that's new and is in a growing area, yeah, and we've got that thankfully. I mean, we've been able to work some really good relationships with national builders that have allowed us to get into they were doing a lease to purchase option with tenants who wanted to buy their property but didn't have it saved up, and these people didn't exercise their option, but they've renewed their lease so you can come in and buy a property that has them in place. It is a house that they wanted to buy. So how long are they likely to stay? Probably quite a while. They like the school district, they like the neighborhood. They like everything about it. You're coming in, you've got the builder incentives we talked about before, and you're just in a positive cash flow position already. Now we're in Texas, which I was actually funny enough. Earlier, right before this interview, I was reading about the states that are going to grow the most, projected until 2050 and they expect Texas to grow by nearly 9 million people between now and believe it was 2050    Keith Weinhold  34:55   everyone's asking, when is it going to pass? California is the most populous state in the nation.    Adam Schroeder  35:01   Well, it depends how many people. In California are part of that 9 billion we've gotten quite a few of them there. As somebody who lives in Texas, and we're in the big cities too. We're not in the Podunk Texas towns you think about in, you know, east or west Texas. We're talking Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, which are three of the top, I believe, 15 largest cities in the country. We're getting some really good incentives. You can get up to right now, 10% builder incentive. So a $300,000 house, you have $30,000 that you can use. That's massive. Yeah, you can get that money back after closing. We can buy your rate down. And we have some people who have literally taken the whole 10% and put it towards a fixed 30 rate at four and a quarter percent. Wow, they are locking themselves in at four and a quarter. Or we have some people who say, like, we were just talking about cash flow is not a concern for me. I'm going to take half my down payment back, and I'm going to go buy another property, because I'm only in this property for 10% now, and so they're able to be, you know, roughly break even in a good growing area, and they can acquire a second property. So you're buying two properties without mortgage insurance for essentially a 30% total down payment, and you're getting your 10% back if you buy the second property. So it's just really incredible time. Like you said, we haven't seen a time like this before. We were able to get into the wholesale division of these builders and provide these incentives that I've personally never seen before. Some of our reps are buying these homes themselves, so we're putting our money where our mouth is. It's just a great time, especially like you were saying, these homes the inventory, take advantage of the opportunity, right? And there's an opportunity that's presenting itself. And if you look at the long term demographics of Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. It's an arrow pointed up. That's what those areas are.    Keith Weinhold  36:46   100% I mean, it's almost as predictable as anything. There's never a guarantee, but continued population growth and obvious need for housing there is about as close as you can get. That's massive. 10% back, 380k purchase, $38,000 back at the closing table to use in discount point buy downs completely or half on discount point buy downs and half to pocket and use on another property or use on your next vacation or whatever you want to do. That's massive.    Adam Schroeder  37:18   Yeah, it's fantastic. One thing I forgot to mention about Houston. It's one of the things I love that people don't think about has the third most headquarters of fortune 500 companies in the country, behind New York and Chicago. So people don't think about that when they think of Houston. But I love to throw that out there, because it's there. I love Houston. I lived there for seven years. It's where I met Naresh, actually, and would happily move back there again   Keith Weinhold  37:42   right? Houston has moved so far past the monolith of just having oil be the economic driver. So we're talking about tenanted new construction properties in pretty hot markets, Houston, San Antonio and Dallas ready for you to purchase with that 10% builder incentive. And these are in communities that are primarily owner occupied, so they do have that high appreciation potential and that potential for solid rent growth. So on the live event, the webinar that you are invited to attend from the comfort of your own home, what you can do is just learn more about this overall strategy and why the time in the market is right for this. Learn more about those geographic markets themselves and then their drivers, and even see available new build income property. And the benefit of you attending a live is that you can have any of your questions answered right then and there. You can sign up at grewebinars.com, and Adam, before I ask you if you have any last thoughts, that event is next week. It is Thursday, November 13, at 8pm eastern time again, you can sign up. It is free. Space is limited, so that's something that you want to do now at grewebinars.com, any last thoughts? Adam   Adam Schroeder  38:51   yeah, I will just remind people there's always a reason to buy real estate, and there's always there's always a reason not to buy real estate, and depending on which one you subscribe to, you can always find those opportunities, or you can scare yourself off. So, you know, find the right opportunities that are there for you and your investing style and jump in. Because if you look at what's happening right now. When rates start coming down, owner ox are going to jump back in, and that tends to lead to prices going back up. Like Keith said, these are 85% owner occupied areas, and you're setting yourself up for success. And if you do it now, you can always refi later if rates come plummeting down right so find the right areas. Find the reasons to buy and go for it.    Keith Weinhold  39:41   This is a time when builders are really willing to give you a break. Take advantage of it if you possibly can. Adam, it's been great having you here on the show, and our audience looks forward to seeing more of you next week.   Keith Weinhold  40:00   Yeah, some real potential here. I'm rather excited for your future as a listener next week, investors like DSCR loans, since the qualification looks at the property, not you, and see conventional loans are more for owner occupants. They're fine. They work for investors too. But with dscrs, besides their other advantages, they're a check on making sure your property is profitable. It is just your rent divided by your debt service. That's all it is. So for example, with a $1,000 rent and a piti payment, principal, interest, taxes and insurance payment of 800 bucks. Well, then your DSCR is 1.25 Investors love them because there's no personal income verification, no W twos, tax returns, pay stubs. There's no debt to income ratio bar for you to have to clear also conventional loans often cap you at 10 financed properties, and DSCR loans have no such limit, so there's faster underwriting and easier approval. But with dscrs, look out. I mean, there could be some higher fees, and you might have a three to five year prepayment penalty. But buy and hold investors often keep the property that long anyway, so grow your income streams with dscrs, even when the w2 world says no. And notably, dscrs have absolutely nothing to do with job of the hut either. No sluggy concerns there   Keith Weinhold  41:42   if you've wanted a deal on a property today, here you are with these new build incentives that are really good, better than what most builders are giving looks like. Here's your chance. One reason that the builders are giving us a deal is because of the bulk of GRE buyers. This is for you, if you might want one property or 14 properties load up with these up to 10% builder incentives, or just attend the webinar and learn more. We got into the wholesale division of these builders. We got them right where we want them. The properties are typically already tenanted. So plant your flag in the ground, and call this the pivot point. This whole thing could be a bigger deal than the first man to walk on Mars. We'll see, though, no man has walked on Mars yet, but you don't need to wait that long. Take one of your 30,000 days that you've been gifted in this life of yours, the 30,000 days you've been allotted on this earth to win back some of your future finite time. It is next week, Thursday, the 13th, at 8pm Eastern. It's also GRE last event of the year, your last chance, a live, virtual event where you can attend from the comfort of your own home or anywhere. And it's free. Registration is open now. Sign up at gre webinars.com that's gre webinars.com Until next week, I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, don't quit your Daydream.   Unknown Speaker  43:17   Nothing on this show should be considered specific, personal or professional advice, please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of get rich Education LLC, exclusively you   Keith Weinhold  43:45   The preceding program was brought to you by your home for wealth building, getricheducation.com