Podcasts about no so

VII Radio 67 - Simon Patterson 1. Astrix & Freedom Fighters - Burning Stones - Simon Patterson Remix 2. Reaky vs Audioklink - Paradisia - John Askew Remix 3. Jay Lumin - Preacher 4. Will Atkinson vs Klaus Kaz - Hard Vox Tech 5. Simon Patterson - Beyond 6. No So feat Tess Fries - In The Darkness 7. A.P. Definition two 8. Acti - Vicker - T78 Remix 9. Rudosa - Obsolescence 10. Volcano On Mars & Bliss - Trippy Blinders 11. Zach Zlov - Ergo 12. Jody 6 - So you want some more 13. Greg Downey & Alex Di Stefano - Among Us - Chris Schweizer Remix

Here's my mix of the best new uplifting trance releases from the past month. Free download. Enjoy! X | 1  | Beside You feat. Liliia Kysil (Extended Mix)  | /  | Liam Wilson, Liliia Kysil | 2  | Forever Free (Extended Mix)  | /  | Freigeist, Dreamy | 3  | Yellow (Eugenio Tokarev Remix)  | /  | Zaa, Mino Safy, Cari, Leonard A | 4  | Sail Away (Roger Shah & Yelow Extended Remix)  | /  | Sunlounger, Susie Ledge | 5  | Orenda (Extended Mix)  | /  | Ferry Corsten, Gouryella | 6  | Talvi [Reimagined] (Extended Mix)  | /  | Cold Blue, Josh Kramer | 7  | Mar-Vell (Extended Mix)  | /  | Nikolauss | 8  | Time To Say Goodbye (South Of The Stars Extended Remix)  | /  | Envio | 9  | Leonie (Alan Morris Extended Remix)  | /  | DJ T.H. | 10  | Beautiful Day (Original Mix)  | /  | Nicholson | 11  | Gravity (Daxson Extended Remix)  | /  | Aly & Fila, Deirdre McLaughlin, Daxson | 12  | Abstractivate (Extended Pure Mix)  | /  | Abstract Vision, Aimoon | 13  | Hymn Of Hope (Extended Mix)  | /  | Aly & Fila, Denise Rivera | 14  | Boomer (Extended Mix)  | /  | Kiran M Sajeev | 15  | Still We Rise (Extended Mix)  | /  | Sue McLaren, Yoshi & Razner, BiXX | 16  | Feels Like Heaven (Extended)  | /  | NO-SO | 17  | Exponent (Extended Mix)  | /  | Will Rees | 18  | Merekara (Rene Ablaze Extended Remix)  | /  | AstroFegs | 19  | Seven Cities (Alex Di Stefano Extended Remix)  | /  | Solarstone, Andy Bury |   | 93mins  | /  | 140bpm

SMR LVE & That Girl, NO-SO, Drival and many more. This is Ganorium Voyage 533.

I told the church last week that Mayberry is gone and it’s not coming back. The little town and its lifestyle featured in the Andy Griffith Show is gone forever. In fact, The America of Mayberry has been gone for a long time. America didn’t change last November when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the election. American has been in a state of change for generations. This change has brought to the US the decline of Christianity and the reality of persecution. For that reason, I want to take 2021 and prepare our church for this coming persecution. So for the next several months, we will study: Our Responsibility to One Another and our Responsibility to our community Our Responsibility to Our Government How to Test the Spirits How to Endure Hardship, Suffering, and Persecution How to Evangelize and Disciple When We are Not Permitted The Things We Must Die For In today’s lesson, we will set an important foundation for this series. We will establish a base upon which all the other messages must be built. And I will share with you four ways that we can avoid the coming persecution. Let’s Pray The Foundation Everything every church does must be based on some key Scripture. Obviously, all Scripture comes from God. All Scripture is equal in importance. But when it comes to the mission and purpose of the church there are five passages that must come first. Let’s first turn to Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. What is the popular name for this passage? (The Great Commission.) A Commission is an instruction or a command given to a group of people or possibly to an individual. In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus commissioned His apostles, His disciples, and all local churches to do something. That means whether you are Wakefield Valley Bible Church or Westminster Baptist, you have the same marching orders. Whether you are Church of the Open Door or St. Paul’s in downtown London, God has the same expectation. A secret house church in China is under this commission. A small group of worshippers meeting under a tree in Kenya are commissioned the same. The Great Commission is the Mission Statement for every church ever planted. Every small group. Every Sunday School class. Every Christian ministry. What did Jesus commission us to do? Make Disciples of Every Nation Baptize them Teach them to obey everything Jesus taught What is the promise of this commission – Jesus will always be with us. Why do you think this promise is important? One reason is that when we go about accomplishing the Great Commission, it will seem like no one is with us. We will suffer attacks from Satan and the world. We must always know that Jesus stands with us as we go about completing His commission. Every Creature I did promise to share with you how we can avoid this coming persecution. But first, let’s look at: Turn to Mark 16:14-18 Years ago I learned that the passage in Matthew 28 is not the only Great Commission. There are actually four more. In Mark 16:14-18, we find one of these four. I want to share this and the other commissions with you. When I do I want to point out what I have identified as the key teaching in each. Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. 15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they[b] will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” It sounds like Matthew’s but I will point out the preaching of the gospel is not to be exclusive. We are to share the gospel with every creature. People naturally like to be with people who are like them. What’s the expression? “Birds of the feather flock together.” For that reason, you end up with places like Little Italy and China Town. This desire to group culturally is not necessarily sinful, but it can lead to prejudice and segregation.  The Jews at the time of Jesus, possibly even the Apostles, were very nationalistic and inward-focused. They did not easily relate to other cultures. But here, Jesus commands them to leave this mindset behind and to reach everyone with the gospel. A quote attributed to Martin Luther King Jr. is that “Sunday is the most segregated day of the week.” Consider your church. Look around at the congregation where you worship. How representative of the surrounding culture is it? I like what Ed Stetzer says about this. Mr. Stetzer says “People like the idea of diversity. They just don’t like being around different people,” “Maybe their sense is that church is the space where they don’t have to worry about issues like this,”   He goes on to say, “If you don’t like diversity, you’re really not going to like heaven.” But Jesus has called us to not segregate but to share Christ with everyone, regardless of race, gender, or even sexuality. He is calling us to share the gospel with people who make us uncomfortable. But don’t let my illustration make you think only black and white, only race. What about sharing Christ with someone who hates you? That applies here as well. Look at John 15:18-19 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. On the one hand, Jesus tells us to share with everyone. On the other, he tells us that since we are His we will be hated. Jesus is telling us to share with those who hate us. God has called us to share Christ with every creature America is changing. Christianity is in decline. These changes will soon be felt here. As we go forth and share the gospel with every creature, most of those we meet will hate us. With that hate will come persecution. The Full Gospel Persecution is coming, but there is a way we can avoid it. I want to share that with you. But first lest look at Luke 24:44-49 Turn to Luke 24:44-49 We looked at this passage a few weeks back. But we need to return to it with the Great Commission in mind. 44 Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” 45 And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. 46 Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 And you are witnesses of these things. 49 Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.” Many churches teach many things other than the gospel. Sometimes they teach good works. Sometimes they teach morality. Often the sermons address current events. But Jesus called upon us to teach the gospel. What is the gospel? It is the fact that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again on the third day for our eternal life. It is a command for repentance – a turning from sin and a turning to Christ. This needs to be the heart and soul of preaching. I first heard this illustration from J. Vernon McGee. And I have told it over the years. Here it is again. In England, there is a chapel built over 200 years ago bearing these words over the door: "We Preach Christ Crucified." The chapel's early pastors did preach Christ crucified. People came with testimonies of how lives were changed, and there was vitality in the church. But time passed. Vines grew over the motto "We Preach Christ Crucified," until it read-only, "We Preach Christ." The men who stood in the pulpit named the name of Jesus Christ but preached a social gospel of good works and morality. The vines continued to grow until the motto read "We Preach." And they did. They preached philosophy, ethics, politics, and literature. But not Jesus Christ. Not long after that, the little chapel was emptied. I grew up in a church that would be classified a “We preach” church. Jesus on the cross and the empty tomb was displayed in the stained glass windows. A crucifix hung over the altar to remind us of His death. The prayers we recited recognized that Jesus died for sin. But when the priest entered the pulpit to preach, he never once told me why Jesus died and what I needed to believe for salvation. Never in all my years did I hear the gospel taught. We must preach the fact that Jesus died and rose again. And we must tell people why this is essential. Persecution is coming. Our country is changing. But we must share the gospel with everyone. Even if it costs us, We must preach Christ crucified and risen. Sin and Salvation Soon we will get to what I promised, how Wakefield can avoid the coming persecution. But first, turn to John 20:19-23 19 Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” At first glance, this commission is like the others. But I believe there is something very important in it that the Holy Spirit through the Apostle John wants you to know. Jesus sent these disciples and sends us. That is the same. Jesus empowers us with the Holy Spirit. That’s new. I’ll address that later. The thing that really stands out to me is the ministry of the church in regards to sin. Look at verse 23. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” We know that Christ has commissioned the church to share the gospel with all nationalities, all peoples, even those who hate us. We know that we are to make disciples of them and to teach them to obey everything that Jesus has spoken. And now we know that God has commissioned the church to proclaim the hope of forgiveness found in the gospel and the curse of unforgiveness retained by those who reject the gospel. Let me ask you a few questions: What motivates God to forgive sin? Why would God not forgive someone? Why is that important? What ultimately happens to the person who accepts the gospel? What ultimately happens to the person who rejects the gospel? God has commissioned the church to proclaim this truth – there is sin and death, but then there is salvation in Jesus Christ. Today, not every church calls sin a sin. There are many reasons for this; here is one reason. Cultures change what sin is and is not  I’m not good with math. How many years back is 2015? (5-ish) What is significant about the date of June 26, 2015? (the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all state bans on same-sex marriage, legalized it in all fifty states, and required states to honor out-of-state same-sex marriage licenses in the case Obergefell v. Hodges.) As a country, our laws changed. What was once wrong in society, is now allowed. Countries change. Laws change. People change. But here’s a question - does God change? (Numbers 23:19,Hebrews 13:8,James 1:17) I live in a community and interact with all types of people in the community. I believe that I should be gracious to all who I interact with. I believe we should treat each other with kindness and respect. But as a pastor of this church, it is essential that I proclaim both the curse of sin, the destination of the sinner, but also the salvation that can only be found in Jesus. America has changed and will change even more. Persecution is on the horizon. But we as a church must continue to proclaim that Jesus forgives sin and saves the sinner from eternal hell. Empowerment and Company One last section and then I will share how to avoid the coming persecution. That will be good to know. But first turn to our last commission Turn to Acts 1:4-8 This is the last commission we will examine. And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be [a]witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” There are two important teachings in this commission. When we do the work Jesus has called us to do, we are not alone nor are we without power. God has given us the Holy Spirit to do this work. That means many things. Here are two. It means that anyone can make disciples, not just professional clergy. Why? Because every believer has been filled by the Holy Spirit. It means that when we are in a hard place, a place where we are not accepted, a place where we are suffering or under persecution, then we know we are not alone, God is with us. There is a second thing that stands out in this passage. God has called us to reach our surrounding community as well as the world. In fact, I personally think that our heart for local, personal, evangelism, is the true measuring stick for a heart of missions. Not foreign missions. Come back to me. Stop thinking about your upcoming lunch. I want you to hear from me. I greatly value the fact that we support foreign missions. It means a great deal to me that we send about 25 percent of our budget to people doing God’s work in the Philippines, Turkey, the continent of Africa, Argentina, Japan, and even Brazil. That number equals about $41,000 dollars per year. But how much money in our budget is allocated to local outreach? And how much did we spend? More importantly, do we only write a check and ask the people on that bulletin board to witness on our behalf or do we share Christ as well? Let me dive even deeper with this last question. And this question will be directed to both you and to me. When is the last time you witnessed to someone? We can no longer hide behind our missionaries and hope they will witness on our behalf. God commissioned us to make disciples, not just write checks. Conclusion Mayberry is long gone. It left long ago. America changed long ago. And it will continue to change. With this change will come even greater persecution. I believe persecution will come upon us. But I have promised all along a way or ways we can avoid this persecution. Here are four ways we can avoid the coming persecution: Stop preaching to every person Christ crucified and risen. If we stop that, persecution will pass us by. Stop telling people that sin is sin and salvation is found only in Jesus. If we stop doing that, then persecution will pass us by. Stop witnessing to our neighbor and to the world. If we just turn inward and leave everyone alone, then persecution will pass us by. Stop making disciples and teaching the words of Jesus to those who attend this church. If we stop doing that then persecution will not come. The way to avoid the coming persecution is to disobey the Great Commission. Is that what you want to do? (NO) So since we have decided to Share the gospel with everyone, even those who hate us Tell people about sin and salvation Witness to our neighbors To make disciples and teach all to obey Christ Since we have decided to obey the Great Commission, then persecution will come. So now let’s prepare. Let’s Pray:  “Please God forgive us, forgive me, for not obeying the Great Commission.”

This week we are joined by special guest Steve Saka who gives the story behind his new Unstolen Valor, the latest edition to his Muestra De Saka line up. We paired the Unstolen Valor with Old Forester Rye. While we smoked the cigar and gave thoughts about the pairing, Pastor Padron peppered Steve with a series of questions that were aimed to reveal the man behind the legend. No "So when did you have your first cigar?" questions here! The result is an in depth interview that took up more than an hour of the show. In the second half, we lit up the first Plug released by GL Pease, his Jack Knife Plug. We paired that with an Italian Coffee (i.e. black coffee with Frangelico and Disaronno). This is one packed episode that you don't want to miss!This episode is an edited audio recording of our fifth Facebook Live event which aired on May 15, 2020.This is the only podcast that brings the wealth of knowledge, expertise, and fun of Twins Smoke Shop, New England’s premiere smoke shop, right to you, wherever you are, whenever you want it. Each week we review a cigar and a pipe tobacco and have each expertly paired with a spirit or cocktail from the bar at our own 7-20-4 Lounge. And that is…Not Just Blowing Smoke! New episodes every Monday. Follow us on Podbean, iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, and Google.  

Did you want to be an astronaut when you were a kid? Did you dream of building your own spaceship out of used carnival parts? Did you wish you could share an airtight bubble with River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke in the cold depths of space? Did you fantasize about making out with large, green aliens with weirdly human lips? No? So, just us then? Oh well, you should listen to this episode where we talk about Joe Dante’s Explorers anyway. There may even be some appearances by some Clamshell Case favorites!

How often do you do a number '2'? Seriously! And do you know how often your friends and family members have a poo? No? So how do you know if you're normal and what does a well functioning gut system mean when it comes to our toilet habits and our health? Pennie Latin goes on a frank and fearless journey to find out more about the human gut system. Along the way she talks to Kevin Whelan, Professor of dietetics at King's College London, about what normal is when it comes to going to the loo. Dr Alan Walker, principal investigator at the Rowatt Institute in Aberdeen, shows Pennie how they're using an artificial gut to research how microbes in our gut interact with the food we eat and she takes a tour of EnteroBiotix where faeces from healthy donors are processed to make a radical treatment for c difficile infection. Pennie also manages to persuade a family to keep a 'jobbie journal' for a week so they keep account of the regularity and consistency of their toilet habits. Bold, brave and utterly fascinating, join us for an irresistible slice of everyday science which impacts each and every one of us!

Come on admit it, how many of you have now got that song from King and I stuck in your head? No? So it is only me (Jayne) that lives life in a musical and always has some random song playing as the backtrack to their life then? In this episode we (Michelle and Jayne) are being asked a series of questions by producer Alex so that you can get to know the people behind the voices and also so we can get to know each other a little better. The questions are from a card game we found online called Moments. We actually bought the one for couples which you can buy here, but you can also get them for kids or for families. They are a good ice breaker and we imagine would be good fun to play at family occasions like Christmas Day which is fast approaching. So we are learning about each other, talking about families, childhoods and other random things as dictated by the cards which were totally random so we had no clue what we were going to be asked. Give us a listen and see what you think.

Raw News No Fluff presents: Being Single in a Social Media World. . I really never stoped to ask myself this question... in relation to the subject and center of this podcast. It's crazy. I feel like... "well um Brandy... this should have prolly been your first episode, sweetie." But lo and behold, it's number 7. Lucky number 7!!! Maybe the man that encompasses all of these things will listen and be like... "I'm your him giiiiiiiiirl!"... Right. But, you never know. But I had a few people come to me, inbox me, text me, just reach out to me and ask... "Why are you single?" I was like... perhaps I should explain for everyone. Again, it is what this podcast is all about. The single life. No? So... here are the reasons why I'm single. For the most part... LMBO!!!!! . Question Time: 1. If YOU are single... why are you single? 2. Do you believe you will find, or be found by, the exact picture you've painted for a mate/partner? (Go to Raw News No Fluff on youtube to submit your answers!) . Instagram: @BrandyLGrant

Have you heard about dinosaurs? Yes, you have! But have you heard about other huge animals that roamed the Earth even before them? No? So you can learn about them in this episode. So it's not only Polish, but also some great knowledge that you can use to impress your friends. Of course, the animal was discovered by a guys from Poland - professor Tomasz Sulej and his colleagues. Have a nice time listening to this episode.Check out the full transcript of this episode, vocabulary, grammar and other resources on my blog! https://wp.me/p4D8ou-UhIf you like my podcast, support me on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ioannesoculusMusic used in the podcast:"Sing Swing Bada Bing" Doug Maxwell/Media Right Productions; source: https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music (attribution not required)This is a podcast for people learning Polish. It's aimed to help you achieve your language goals and improve your listening comprehension skills.To jest podcastem dla uczących się polskiego. Jego celem jest pomóc w osiąganiu celów językowych oraz podnieść umiejętności rozumienia ze słuchu.

Welcome to the periodcast! Yep, today’s show is all about menstruation—the good, the bad, and the get me a frickin’ heating pad already. So grab your period product of choice, and join us as we get comfortable talking about the politics of periods, what it’s like to talk about your cycle at work, and why we refuse to keep quiet about this super normal bodily function. Our guest is Nadya Okamoto, executive director of PERIOD, a nonprofit she founded in high school that’s dedicated to turning menstrual care from a taboo topic into a basic right. She’s also the author of the new book Period Power: A Manifesto for the Menstrual Movement, which comes out October 16. > Eighty percent of our congressional positions are held by men. And if people in power continue to be afraid to talk about periods and do not acknowledge it as an actual need, then where it counts, periods will continue to go unaddressed. So that’s why we need people who don’t menstruate and people who identify as men to be involved. > > — Nadya Okamoto , founder, PERIOD & author, Period Power We chat with Nadya about: How experiencing housing instability as a teen led her to see what happens when people can’t afford period products Why PERIOD is on a mission to make periods something we celebrate, not hide Why she ran for Cambridge City Council at the age of 19—and what she learned in the process What it’s like to be running (and scaling) an international nonprofit at the age of 20 Links on bloody links PERIOD Nadya’s Instagram On Nadya’s city council run Pre-order for Period Power: A Manifesto for the Menstrual Movement Also on the agenda: Bringing up menstruation on stage Monster post-pregnancy periods The unbearable gender-normativity of way too many period-tracking apps The magical properties of heating pads Stop calling us “girls” already And finally: if you’re eligible to vote in the U.S., time to check your registration—your state’s deadline might be coming up in the next couple weeks, and you don’t want to miss all the awesome women you could be voting for in the midterms this year. Sponsors This episode of NYG is brought to you by: Shopify, a leading global commerce platform that’s building a world-class team to define the future of entrepreneurship. Visit shopify.com/careers for more. Harvest, makers of awesome software to help you track your time, manage your projects, and get paid. Try it free, then use code NOYOUGO to get 50% off your first paid month. Transcript [Ad spot]   Sara Wachter-Boettcher This season of No, You Go is sponsored by Harvest—my favorite tool for tracking time, projects and payments. Today I used Harvest to send a couple invoice reminders and to run a quick report on year-to-date payments. It only took two minutes and now I feel totally on top of things, or at least on top of that one thing. Try it for yourself at getharvest.com and if you like it, make sure to enter the code NOYOUGO when you upgrade to a paid account. That will get you 50% off your first month. That’s getharvest.com, code NOYOUGO. [intro music plays for 12 seconds] Jenn Lukas Hey, welcome to No, You Go, the show about being ambitious—and sticking together. I’m Jenn Lukas. Katel LeDû I’m Katel LeDû. SWB And I’m Sara Wachter-Boettcher. And today’s show is all about periods. Not the ones at the end of a sentence—although I do really like to talk about punctuation—today we’re talking about menstruation. And it’s one of those super normal things that we just don’t talk about enough. We are joined today by someone who is working to change that. She is Nadya Okamoto and she’s the founder and executive director of Period—a non-profit she started with a friend in high school that is dedicated to turning menstrual care from a taboo topic into a basic right. She is awesome! And I have to say, I freaking love talking about periods. I seriously bring them up in almost every conference talk I give, which means I bring them up a couple times a month. KL That’s so awesome, and I have to personally say I’ve seen you do it twice recently and I’m [laughs] so excited you’re doing that. SWB Yeah, so I remember the first time I did it, I was actually really nervous about it. It was 2015 and at the time I wanted to talk about things like bias in tech products. And I realized that period tracking apps are a really great way to do that because there’s so many assumptions about gender and sexuality in them around things like pink and hearts and flowers, but also things like assumptions that you must be using this app because you’re trying to get pregnant or trying not to get pregnant. And so I decided it was important to talk about this on stage, both because I thought it was a good example and because I was just like, “people have periods, we should talk about them! ” And so after that talk—I will tell you—people loved it. People came up to me, tons of people—definitely mostly women—and they told me that it was so powerful to hear me up on a stage just acknowledging periods as something that exist like it was a totally normal thing because they felt like that wasn’t something they had been allowed to talk about. And I was just like “fuck it, I’m talking about periods every time I get on stage now!” [SWB and JL laugh] JL Yeah, I mean I knew about period tracking apps, but I never really used one until I heard it in one of your talks and then I was like “oh.” And then I actually started using it when I was trying to get pregnant again. And also after you have a baby, your period is so irregular, so I was also just trying to have any semblance [laughs] of like what my body was trying to do. So I started using one regularly and it just was really helpful. And I mean I do have to admit, I really, really love not having my period right now, [SWB laughs] but of course that’s really going to come back to haunt me after I give birth and I bleed for possibly up to six weeks, which is really pleasant let me tell you. KL Oh yeah, that just does not seem like the appropriate treat [Jenn laughs] after having given birth. JL People don’t really talk about that part. KL Yeah. JL It’s like you skip a period for nine months and then it’s like [laughing] “hey! remember me?” KL Your body’s like, “hey, what’s up!” [laughs] JL [laughing] Yeah! SWB It just sounds so tiresome because you’re already exhausted, you have a newborn and then when you’re on your period, you’re losing all that iron, that just wears you out all by itself. And so the combo sounds deadly. JL Yeah. KL Seriously. I tried a period tracking app for a little while because a couple years ago, I wound up being off the pill for a little bit. But when I went off the pill at that point, I realized that it was the first time in twenty years that I’d been off the pill. And when I started having a natural period—which was all over the place and hence the period tracking app—I felt kind of sad because I was like “oh.” Like I haven’t really understood what my body is doing for this whole time, so it was kind of cool to get back in touch with that, but I also felt lots of feelings about it. JL I had started the pill really early because I had really irregular periods so before sexual activity or anything like that. And I had really bad cramps and once you change that, your body is like…it reacts! KL Yeah. I had no idea what to expect and I feel like when I went to my doctor and I said, “okay, I’m going to do this, I’m going to go off the pill,” they just don’t really tell you a whole bunch of details. They’re like “okay, it may do this, it may do that [laughs]. You may get lots of periods, you might not get any! [laughs] And it’s sort of like, why don’t we know this? [4:55] SWB And I think part of it is everybody’s body is different and who knows what’s going to happen, but then part of it is that a lot of women’s health stuff is just so chronically understudied— KL Yeah SWB —that nobody’s done the research to figure out what tends to work or what tends to be a good way for people to do this. I also went off the pill to get an IUD and I had been on the pill for a very long time and I had not gone on the pill because of cramps and heavy periods, but I had cramps and heavy periods. And I remember being sixteen years old or something and getting like nine-day periods. [JL sighs loudly] I know that’s no six-week, post-pregnancy period, but it was still awful and it was just very, very draining. When I mentioned it being exhausting, like that would wear me out, and I’d just be craving spinach and steak—[laughing] because I’d like need this iron supplement [JL & KL laugh] and so I feel like being able to have access to a range of different ways to lessen the impact of the period on my life has been obviously really important for me. Like if I had to go through these massive nine-day periods to this day, I think that it would be harder for me to get the things done I want to get done in my life! JL Yeah, I mean, but that’s the thing, right? Like who do you talk to about this? It’s one of those things you didn’t talk about. You didn’t turn to your friend and be like “hey, are your periods nine days also?” SWB I know, I talked to my mom about it and her periods were also really heavy! [laughs] KL [laughing] Ohh! SWB But of course—what do you feel like you’re going to do about it? But of course going on the pill helped me a ton, but now looking back on that, I think like, well shit, we should all be talking about periods a lot more—which is, hence, why I get on stage and talk to hundreds of people about periods. Because they’re just periods, right? They’re just a normal thing that a huge percentage of people have and it’s totally fine to acknowledge they exist and to acknowledge the part about them that sucks and also the part about them that’s really cool. JL Yeah, I won’t ever forget the time that I worked at Lockheed Martin. As you can imagine, it’s very business [all three laugh] and I was sick one day and my manager was asking me if I was okay or something and I didn’t want to talk about it, I was just having really terrible cramps and I just didn’t want to talk about it. And what I would normally do in that situation is like make something up like, oh, I don’t know, I had food poisoning or a cold. And then I remember finally saying like, “I’ve got my period and have really bad cramps” and he was like “oh, okay.” And I remember feeling so free! KL That’s amazing. I want to start doing that more and just being like “you know what? [laughs] I’m really crampy and I’m really not up to doing this particular thing right now.” SWB Excuse me, I need a no bullshit day— KL [laughing] Exactly! SWB —because I can not handle any bullshit. KL Can we just like write each other notes to get out of stuff for period cramps and period nonsense? SWB [laughing] I mean yes, although a part of me is like, I would so abuse the privilege. JL I mean I don’t necessarily want to get out of it—right—I just want people to acknowledge that I’m coming from like— KL Totally. JL —they have the Myers-Briggs test and these color tests and I just want you to know that my personality right now is period. [SWB & KL laugh euphorically] SWB Completely! KL You are so right, you are so right. SWB Well I mean if you had some other issue like if you had a migraine, for example, you could tell your coworker “I’m sorry, I need to be in a dark space, I have a migraine.” I think having really bad cramps is similar, right? Where you’re like, “I’m sorry, I just have really bad cramps right now, and it’s hard for me to focus”—it’s a totally normal thing to say if we just let that be a normal thing to say. KL Yeah, you’re totally right. And I was just thinking that I still—there’s always one day whenever I get my period now where I want—like all day it would actually be ideal if I could sit there with a heating pad. And I do it for as much of the day as I possibly can, but it’s like yeah, if we could just say, “this is something I need to do to like actually get work done today,” so. JL [laughing] Yes. SWB So I think clearly we have a lot of thoughts about periods, but there is a lot more that we haven’t even gotten into about some of the politics of periods and how people get access to period products and who pays for those and I think we should hear from our expert on the topic. JL Yeah, definitely. _[music fades in, plays alone for five seconds, fades out] _ Interview: Nadya Okamoto KL Maybe you haven’t picked up on it yet, but we’re always looking for reasons to talk more about our periods. But why do we have to look for reasons? Why can’t we just talk about them? We are going to ask our guest today that exact question. Nadya Okamoto is an activist and entrepreneur and she was sixteen when she founded PERIOD, the menstrual movement—four years ago. She did it after realizing that menstrual products are not reliably available to those who need them the most and we have so many questions about Nadya’s journey and what’s next for her, and we cannot wait to dig in. So, Nadya, thank you so much for joining us on No, You Go. Nadya Okamoto Of course, thank you for having me. KL Well, let’s start with PERIOD. Tell us what it is and what y’all do. [9:56] NO So, PERIOD—we are a global youth-run NGO that provides and celebrates menstrual hygiene through service, education and abbacy. And we do that through a number of different ways. We do it through primarily the global distribution of menstrual products to menstruators in need and we mobilize young people all around the world through our campus chapter network to push forward social and systemic change around periods. So, as you were saying, we work to change the narrative around periods to be something that’s more positive and normalized, while also pushing for systemic change towards menstrual equity. So in the last about three years, we’ve addressed over 300,000 periods through product distribution and registered over 200 campus chapters at universities and high schools around the US and abroad. KL Was there a moment that made you decide this is something I need to do? NO Yeah, so my passion for periods comes from a really personal place. I started the organization when I was sixteen after my family experienced housing instability my freshman and sophomore year of high school. And during that time my commute to school was about two hours long each way and my bus stop was in old town Portland, Oregon, where there are like ten shelters in a two block radius. And at that bus stop was where I actually became sort of accidental friends with a lot of homeless women who were there trying to go to their local shelters or just trying to [laughs] pass the day. And I think I was really curious about their stories, especially at this time when my family was on paper legally homeless and through hearing their stories of hardship, but then also sort of collecting this anthology of their stories of using toilet paper, socks, brown paper, grocery bags, and cardboard to absorb their menstrual blood and take care of their period, that I essentially became obsessed with periods and would spend my free time learning that periods are the number one reason girls miss school in developing countries, are a leading cause of absenteeism in the States for girls in school and about the sort of systemic barriers like the tampon tax that exists here in the US still. And so it was really after becoming obsessed with it, learning a lot about the issue, realizing that there weren’t really any non-profits around that were doing what I thought needed to be done that I decided that as soon as my family got our feet back on the ground, that I would start my own organization. KL This is so interesting to me because I feel like very specifically you talk about period hygiene and it seems like it’s one of the tenets of PERIOD’s mission. So why is that aspect so important and why is it a focus for the education part of what you’re doing? NO I think we really operate off of the idea that it’s a fundamental human right to be able to discover and reach your full potential regardless of an actual need, right? So we support menstruators feeling clean, confident and capable regardless of whether or not they’re menstruating. And I think that the word hygiene is very controversial in this space because it implies that menstruation is inherently dirty and we’re not saying that menstruation is inherently dirty, but we’re saying that when people do not have access to period products and they’re menstruating, it can be an unclean experience that can one, cause infections, can cause discomfort. Because of the stigma around periods, the shame around free bleeding or the nervousness about bleeding through your clothes or just people finding out that you’re menstruating can cause someone to feel less confident about seeking and reaching their full potential while they’re on their period. And that’s something that we’re really fighting. KL Related to that—how do you see the taboo of talking about periods manifest itself most in terms of that stigma? For example, when we’re at work, there’s been a long history of just you’re kind of trying to scuttle to the bathroom and hide your tampons or your feminine products and that just feels really shamey. How do we get past that and just talk about it more? NO That’s something we’re really working on as well. So making sure that we’re pushing schools especially—but also workplaces—to hold period products, make them available and make it known that they’re available. Being able to have a workplace where you can say, “hi, for all menstruators in the office, we have free tampons and pads in the bathroom,” because like—treat it like toilet paper, it’s something that we all have to do and that happens to us and that’s a healthy part of life that we should really be supporting. I think a big part is one, making it clear that people deserve access to period products and creating a space where people if they’re having cramps, if they’re struggling with their period, can feel comfortable talking about it. KL Does everyone want to talk to you about their periods? NO Um, no, but I usually push them to do so. And I will tell you—I think as a young activist, I get so much excitement and pleasure when I meet someone who doesn’t want to talk to me about their period and I push them to. Like I think every, single person in our chapter network in our team sees it as sort of like an exciting challenge to make people think about periods and realize the need for the menstrual movement. And I think that’s why we’ve been so successful. That’s why we’ve been able to grow so fast and so big. We’re now the largest youth run NGO in women’s health in the world and a lot of that is due to being able to convince people that they need to care about the menstrual movement very effectively. SWB So you said that you oftentimes find yourself pushing people who don’t necessarily want to talk about periods to talk about them, how do you do that? And is there a time when you’ve done that where you feel like it really changed the conversation? [15:05] NO Of course. I mean, we do it every day. We’re constantly meeting people who don’t want to talk about periods or haven’t even thought about it before. You know, our tactic is really being able to frame the menstrual movement as a small part of the larger movement towards gender equality, right? So being able to talk to people and say ‘if you believe in gender equality and global development or breaking the cycle of poverty or you call yourself a feminist, you inherently have to join our army of what we call [laughing] ‘period warriors,” right? We’re a movement of people who are fighting to normalize the conversation of periods because we can throw stats at you about how periods hold people back from equal opportunities in education and employment and if you really support equal opportunity in every field and support our achieving gender equality, it is an integral part of progress to be able to accelerate the menstrual movement. And I think that we’ve also mastered being able to combat ways people might challenge us. You know, we often get ‘oh, I get what you’re saying, but what about climate change or sustainability, or what about equality in sports?’ Like anything like that. And regardless of what people throw at us, I think we’ve found ways to bring periods into the conversation. So for example, with sustainability, that’s the one I get a lot. How do you prioritize periods when we’re really talking about the Earth and I can say ‘well, you know, the average disposable pad or tampon can take up to five to eight centuries to decompose and people are using tens of thousands of products in their lifetime, how can we open up conversation for more sustainable use of period management?’ Right? So I think that there’s ways that we’ve been able to find avenues to bring people into the conversation regardless of how they’re coming into it and I think that that’s been a big way Period has grown our movement. SWB You know, there’s a couple things in there that really caught my attention. One of them is this idea that there’s this what-about-ism, right? With every time you bring up one issue, it’s like ‘well, that’s not the biggest thing we should be worried about right now.’ And that’s such a derailing tactic I think is oftentimes—even if it’s unintentional, I think so many times that ends up derailing conversations where it’s like, well, nothing gets better if we don’t talk about it, and so if you create the situation where it’s simply undiscussed, then there’s no way to actually improve things for anybody. We’ve had guests on before who have talked about things like racism in the workplace and how reluctant companies are to even say the word race or to even talk about black employees and say the word “black”—they can’t do it because they’ve been trained that somehow talking about race is the real racism. The result of that, is they can’t put their finger on the actual issues, like how can you actually affect specific gendered issues—in your example—if you can not talk about what they are as what they are? So I really love that message of like, “it’s just a fucking period, talk about periods!” NO Yeah, of course. I think a big part of it is—we will tell people like, “do you know that in 36 States, there’s a sales tax on period products because they’re considered luxury items, but Rogaine and Viagra aren’t?” And I think that we bring up the tampon tax a lot because I think it’s such a clear example of misogyny in the US that people don’t really think about and take for granted and we say ‘we need to talk about these issues’ and in the US, less than 20% of our congressional positions are held by women. So whether or not you get a period, whether or not you identify as man, woman or anything in between, we all need to be talking about periods. KL So, I think I read somewhere recently that you’re taking leave from your studies at Harvard to focus on scaling PERIOD and speaking more, which is amazing. So what does scaling mean for the organization—you know—now and kind of as you look forward? NO As an organization, we have full time staff now, which is still crazy for me to think about and as an organization, we’re constantly thinking about how we can push deeper impact in our focus cities. Right now we have offices in Portland and New York City and interns at both places and remotely. And we’re continuing to figure out how we’re going to scale. Right now our focus cities for 2018 were New York and Portland and Boston and we’ve really scaled up our distribution there. But it’s making sure that we’re supporting shelters and supporting legislation in those areas and really deepening our impact with chapters. KL So, related to that, what has it been like to be such a young entrepreneur, but an entrepreneur in general? NO I think every day is a challenge and I constantly struggle with imposter syndrome and feeling like I’m not doing my job well, [laughs] but I think that that sort of insecurity is definitely what keeps me working really hard. I think one of the biggest challenges on a personal level is maintaining self care and confidence because I think that—I run into all the time people telling me that I’m doing my job wrong, or I could be doing my job better, or people telling me they disagree with what I’m doing. And of course we get a lot of support, but as a perfectionist, [laughing] those are definitely the comments I remember. And I think also PERIOD the movement is growing so fast, which is so exciting, but our resources are not growing at an equal rate, so a big challenge for me has been teaching myself and then learning how to do non-profit development when I don’t have a degree in non-profit or business management. So it’s been very much learning as you go. And I think the reason we have been successful thus far is because I’ve sort of adopted this mentality of being completely unafraid to ask for help, Google questions and admit when I really don’t know what I’m doing. KL God, everyone loves to tell you how they think you should do something from the outside. I have also learned this and [laughs] I feel like it’s extremely frustrating. Is there anything that you kind of felt surprised to learn along the way? Like something that has made you grow? [20:25] NO I’ve been really pushed to think about gender when I work on this. Like gender is a social construct because when I started this organization I started it to help homeless women and I wasn’t even thinking about—to be completely honest—trans identity and experience with periods for trans people. And it’s been through working on this organization, being called out by trans people about the need to be more inclusive that PERIOD has sort of become one of the leading organizations in being gender inclusive and that’s very much because I think for me it was a surprising learning experience to be able to take a step back and realize that I am not the person to be leading those conversations, but we’re building a platform to have conversations like talking about gender as a social construct and people who don’t identify as women but also menstruate. SWB We’ve talked about trans issues on the show a lot of times—both with guests who are part of those communities, but also with each other, kind of talking about how we’ve learned and continue to learn, right? Like still have a lot to learn when it comes to questioning things about gender and it’s so useful to say the way that you came to this issue is via these homeless women that you got to know, but that you’ve realized that it is not limited to that and it’s not limited to women and that you were able to kind of hear that and make that part of what you do. And I think that’s so hard to do in the moment—it’s so easy to go to that place of defensiveness like, “ugh, I mean well though, like don’t they see that I mean well?” And to learn that skill of holding that feedback and processing it and then choosing to do something productive with it is great. Was there anything that you found helped you learn to do that well? NO My biggest inspirations and the people who keep me extremely grounded are my mom and my two younger sisters. I think that it was very much my sisters and my mom who taught me to listen and know when it’s my time to take lead and know when it’s my time to empower others. And I think from a really young age I have always thought about leadership as truly being able to empower others to be leaders themselves and I think that that’s something I carry really deeply within me as we grow PERIOD and we’re not just about recruiting volunteers, we’re about recruiting chapter leaders and people to lead activism in their own communities. KL So we heard that you’re now also releasing a book about periods. Can you tell us about that? NO Yeah, so a few months ago—actually like last, oh my gosh, like last year in 2017—I signed with Simon & Schuster, the book publisher, to write Period Power: A Manifesto for the Menstrual Movement. It’s my first book and it comes out October 16th and I’m very, very excited for it. KL Congratulations, that is amazing. [laughs] SWB I want to ask some questions about the book, but before we ask questions about the book, can we just say, like, hell yeah, that’s so great, congrats! It’s so much work to write a book and you mentioned like, “oh my gosh last year.” Even that—that’s moving pretty fast. Most books take so long— NO Oh, I wrote it in like a month! [laughs] SWB Wow! What was that like? NO It was crazy, I was constantly behind deadlines. I missed most of my deadlines and my literary agents are incredible and were really the ones who kept me on track and then thank goodness some higher power might have been watching out for me, [laughs] but I ended up getting stranded at the Tokyo airport for 30 hours coming back from a speaking gig in Singapore and wrote half the book in my extended layover. So I think that it was definitely a hectic process. I don’t think of myself as a great writer so it was definitely a challenge of believing in myself, but my tactic was just I would say the words as I would write and I just sort of thought of me explaining to a little sister—or someone I thought of as a little sister—about their period and how I think that they should think of their period and what they should know about it, what they should know about the menstrual movement. And I would just write down what I was saying out loud. And that was sort of my strategy with writing. SWB That’s so cool. Was your audience for it as you were working on it—were you really imagining that being sort of like the younger sister, the younger version of yourself—is it really meant for teen girls and young women? NO Yeah, so it’s young adult non-fiction. KL Well, I definitely want to read it regardless. [laughs] NO My dream is for this to be a manifesto for the fourth wave feminism. Of young people using social media to mobilize thinking about feminism in a very intersectional way. But I want this book to be super accessible to people of all ages and of all genders and of all menstruation or non-menstruation experiences. [24:50] KL This makes me think of how, you celebrate periods a lot and I think that is so important. Like on PERIOD.org’s website, the team’s bios have a stat and it’s essentially ‘menstruating since’ and I—for some reason I loved that so much because I thought about when I first got my period and I was like, hell yeah. I’ve been menstruating for a long time and that’s really fucking cool. And it’s just this little thing that starts to destigmatize—and again—celebrate our period. How do you advocate that people start to do that a little bit more? NO The whole book opens with my own personal story of my first period about how when I got it, it was a really scary experience. But when I told my mom, it was a really happy experience because she was so excited that I was a woman [laughs]. And I think that for me, I talk in the book about how this is something that tells us that our body is growing and working. Like framing periods as something that’s like about growth. There is so much we can know about our bodies from getting our period. Whether it’s knowing whether or not we’re pregnant or—you know—knowing how our blood health is. Like anything like that. I think being able to frame periods as like—this is something that first of all—makes human life possible, but also, is something that is positive in many ways. Like the experience might be hard, you might get cramps, but at the end of the day, getting your period is something that should be celebrated. KL Totally. SWB So Nadya, there’s one other thing I wanted to ask you about. So earlier, you were talking a bit about how you really want people who have periods to have more access to information, feel more comfortable talking about it, and I’m curious what your thoughts are about people who don’t have periods and what their role is in the period movement. NO I always use the example of US congress. The movement can make noise about how we need to make access to period products equitable, how we need to get rid of things like the tampon tax and how we need to change society and change systems to advance the menstrual movement. We can say that as much as possible, we can make people care. At the end of the day, in order to do that successfully, we need to engage both people who have periods and people who don’t have periods. For the most part, people who don’t have periods are men, and we still live in a world where almost 50% of our world identify as men and don’t get their period and still even in progressive countries—quote, unquote progressive countries like the US—80% of our congressional positions are held by men. And if people in power continue to be afraid to talk about periods and do not acknowledge it as an actual need, then where it counts, periods will continue to go unaddressed. So that’s why we need people who don’t menstruate and people who identify as men to be involved. SWB Yes and—I don’t think that any of our listeners are in Congress probably—I don’t know if they are, that would be great, but—you never know!—but I do know that we have at least a good chunk of listeners who are men. And so men, if you are out there listening, learn to talk about periods. It’s not that hard! KL Yeah, seriously. Well and speaking of Congress, I want to ask you about in addition to running an organization with increasing visibility, last year you ran for Cambridge City Council. What was that like? NO It was one of the most terrifying, exhausting, but of course meaningful experiences of my life. I was constantly feeling under scrutiny, but I really believed in what I was doing, I had an incredible team and I was really passionate about the platform that I was running on. KL So you didn’t win, but you were nineteen and if you had been elected, you would have been the youngest and first Asian-American female city councillor in the city’s history. That’s badass! NO Yes. Well and it was really exciting! Actually, one of the most surprising learnings I got out of it was learning to be proud of my racial and ethnic identity. I grew up feeling really ashamed of being Asian and it was actually running that I first experienced extreme hatred for being Asian, but also a whole new level of support for being Asian. Because I didn’t know, but Asians are the fastest growing minority population in the US, but more underrepresented at every level of government than any other racial or ethnic group and that’s the same for media and politics. And so I think that it was an incredible experience of learning to be okay with myself and who I am, but it also taught me to be completely unapologetic about myself because every way I turned, there was always someone telling me what I was doing wrong or what made me wrong. KL Right, yeah, absolutely. What made you decide to run in the first place? NO For me, it was really the passion about housing affordability. It was me going on runs, being able to see gentrification in the city and then just wanting to learn more, get more involved, ended up with an 80-page word document of what I thought city council could be doing better and then when I started hearing jokes of “oh if you have so many ideas, why don’t you run yourself?” I decided to look up what it took to run. I saw that you just needed to be 18 and I was 19, so I sort of thought, “okay, I’m qualified” and went for it. KL [laughs] I was reading a Teen Vogue article that you had been interviewed in earlier this year and you talked about campaigning and the toll it took on you. You were understandably tired and exhausted and you also say you felt alone at points and didn’t feel all that confident. That sounds really fucking hard. How did you work through that? [30:03] NO I mean, I think that it’s something that I still deal with—I still feel very alone at times, especially when things start to ramp up. I got really close with my mom actually. My mom and I have always been really close, but it was an experience where I wanted to talk to my mom a lot more and I think she was the one that I would always tell I was feeling tired when I was really feeling tired. I think that support was really meaningful for me. KL I get the sense from following you on Instagram because we follow you and you’re—you’re wonderful [laughs and NO laughs] that you’re always inspiring folks with your energy and your creativity and your drive. What do you do if you’re the one in need of inspiration? NO I watch a lot of videos of Beyoncé performing. [laughs] I watch a lot of videos of Sean Lew dancing and I follow some incredible people that I really look up to like Alli Webb, the founder of Drybar. Like Blair Imani and Phillip Picardi of Teen Vogue, Elaine Welteroth—I really use Instagram as a place to just be inspired by people and I think a lot of it is—or what I’m inspired by—is people who give their all to what they do and also give us insight into their world of self care too. So, being able to see Beyoncé performing, I’m just always in awe of how much she gives herself to every performance. Like I have friends who aren’t big fans of her or her music, but I’m like, okay, you can not watch a video of Beyoncé and say she doesn’t give it her all, right? No person gets up on stage on tour for two hours at a time and just goes that hard, you know? And I think that I very much use that as inspiration especially when I’m on speaking tour—obviously not performing for as big of crowds or as often—but I sort of take that mentality of no matter who I’m performing, even if I don’t know anyone in the audience or I don’t know what organization I’m actually speaking at, [laughs] I give it my all and I get up on stage each time thinking, like, there’s someone in the crowd who what I’m going to say could really mean a lot to them. KL Yeah! Hell yeah! I think we—we can all benefit from channeling some of that Beyoncé energy and that drive and just—I really feel like you can feel it. Whether you’re watching on YouTube video or there in concert, it’s like—it’s, yeah, it’s very cool. NO I completely agree. KL So one last question. What is next for you and PERIOD? NO Yeah, I’m not going back to school for this year so I think I’m just going to be growing a lot of it and then we have PeriodCon 2018, which is our global conference. That will be in December in New York City. So it’s doing Period, really working on those and also I guess getting ready for my book to come out! KL Well, that all sounds amazing and we will absolutely be following along with you. Thank you so much for joining us today. NO Thank you so much for having me! [music fades in, plays alone for five seconds, fades out] [Ad spot] KL Hey everyone. Let’s take a sec to talk about our favorite topic: careers. This week’s focus is interviewing. To help us, Shopify’s VP of UX, Lynsey Thornton, tells us what she looks for when she’s trying to grow her team. Lynsey? Lynsey Thornton So I care a lot about bringing people into the team who are passionate about the problems we’re solving for independent business owners and who aren’t afraid of challenging us to be better. So that’s what I look for when interviewing at Shopify. What’s different in your company, project or team because of you? And that doesn’t always have to be a big thing. Maybe you were the first person to bring customers into your project process. Or perhaps you were the one who took the initiative to update your companies job descriptions so they were more inclusive. Changing things for the better, even the little things, shows not only that you care, but that you can act. KL I love this tip. If you’re looking for a new role, show your potential employers how you grow and hey, maybe your new role could even be at Shopify. Check out Shopify.com/careers to see their latest roles. [music fades in, plays alone for five seconds, fades out] Vocab Swap KL So girls, should we do a vocab swap? SWB Bleughh, girls! [all three sigh and laugh] KL It’s—why. It’s so terrible. SWB I have been called a girl so much recently. In fact, Katel, me and you—we were at the beach a little while back in the summer with two other women and literally all of us were old enough to be president [KL laughs] and yet, our Airbnb host—as he was showing us around this house—kept calling us girls.’ And I don’t know, it feels so infantilizing to me. It feels like nails on a chalkboard, I hate it so much. And I have been called a girl at the airport, at a hotel, I was at a farm stand buying some fucking tomatoes—I feel like I’ve been called a girl so much in the past month and I am so over it. KL I know, I am too. I mean, I feel like it’s probably not—you know—everyone’s intention of the person who’s saying it to infantilize or shut things down, but that’s how I feel about it. And—it just seems so flagrant. Like when you’re addressing a group of men, you never think to say ‘well, boys.’ [35:11] JL Right? Speaking of vocab swaps, there’s plenty of things to say. Women, ladies. I’ve always been a really big fan of ladies because I just think it sounds classy as fuck. [laughs and KL laughs] Just like ‘yes, I’m a fucking lady.’ SWB And I know not everyone loves the word “lady” either, but I do think it’s definitely—for me—always, it’s always a better option than girl. KL Yeah. JL I used to work with this man and he was not my direct supervisor, but I would hear him talk to the women that he worked with and he would call them over and he’d be like “girls, girls, come over here”—to talk about their designs. Like he was in an episode of Mad Men! SWB Super gross. JL It was like, every time I’d hear it—“girls, girls”—I would just vomit in my mouth and I was like, “this is the worst—please stop belittling them!” SWB Yes! I’ve heard some push back about this like, “well, what are we supposed to call groups of women in a casual way like we would say ‘guys’? There’s no equivalent to ‘guys,’ so ‘girls’ is the equivalent to guys.” And the reality is there isn’t really a precise equivalent to the term “guys”—which has its own problematic backstory—but it turns out you don’t even necessarily have to replace “guys” or “girls” with anything else. Sometimes you can just say “hey, how are you all doing tonight?” or “hope you all have a fun weekend,” right? You don’t have to say “girls” or anything to fill that gap in there, because there’s really not a gap. I think it’s just this assumption that you have to add some kind of gendered statement in there and…turns out you don’t! KL Yeah, the guy who showed us around the beach house, he could have just said, “here’s where the keys are.” [all three laugh] Still works. JL It’s like magic! KL So this isn’t so much a vocab swap for us, but it’s something I really wish more men realized and—you know—so just men listening, everyone listening, just please think about it, y’all! Okay? [all three laugh] JL So, fuck yeah to that statement! But that’s not even our fuck yeah this week, is it? FYOTW KL Oh gosh, I think I’ve got something. I know we’ve been talking about this for a while, we even talked to someone who is running for office—Liz Fiedler—early on in our first season. But with the midterm elections coming up, there are just so many women running for office and it’s fucking amazing and I just thought we should take a moment to look at who is running and just—I think it’s amazing, it’s so cool to see so many people. SWB Well, there’s a few that we’ve talked about in the newsletter, so folks like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York or Stacey Abrams running for governor in Georgia. But there’s so many other people out there who we are just starting to research! KL Yeah, it’s not just the first time we’re seeing so many women, it’s like then—these people running are breaking through all these firsts in their own areas. Like Ilhan Omar in Minnesota—she, in 2016, she became the first Somali-American Muslim legislator in the US and now she’s running for Congress in Minnesota, which is just amazing. And there’s also Deb Haaland in New Mexico and she will be the first Native American woman in Congress if she wins. And she is currently favored to win. There’s a lot of women currently favored and I think that’s just so fucking cool. [38:28] SWB I have recently been following this organization that is called the Voter Participation Center. And what they so is quote increasing civic engagement among the rising American electorate. Which they mean unmarried women, people of color and millennials. And so I think that’s really cool because obviously those are groups that I care a lot about and I care about making sure younger people, people of color and women of all kinds are able to get out and vote. So, they’re looking at stuff like which states are closing polling locations or if states are enacting legislation that makes it more difficult for people to vote and they’re also doing things like keeping track of when different voter registration deadlines are. So, I was taking a look at their site because it’s a little complicated. There’s online registration deadlines and mail registration deadlines for different states and so they have kind of done all of the math for you so you don’t have to read the thing that says ‘within 28 days of this, this has to happen’ and instead you can just kind of get an update on when it needs to happen in every, single state. JL That is so helpful. KL I know, that’s really cool. SWB It is very helpful. And I looked at it and I wanted to give a shout out to them because a whole bunch of states have deadlines in just a few weeks like in early October. The earliest one I saw is October 7th. And so if you’re a US citizen and you want to vote and you’re not 100% sure that your registration is current, I think it’s definitely time to double check because this is the time of year when you want to make sure that you are going to be able to get in and vote. And also if you know people like college students, people who are often really busy in the fall, maybe aren’t paying attention to this, this is a great time to check in with them and make sure they’re registered too. KL Fuck yeah to women on the ballot and to all of us going to the polls. I hope everyone does. So if you don’t need this list, please share it. SWB Fuck yeah! JL And that’s it for this week’s episode of No, You Go, the show about being ambitious—and sticking together. NYG is recorded in our home city of Philadelphia and is produced by Steph Colbourn. Our theme music is by the Diaphone. Thanks to Nadya Okamoto for being our guest today. And if you like what you’ve been hearing, which I assume you do because you’ve made it this far, [laughs] please be sure to subscribe and rate us on wherever you listen to your podcasts because your support helps us reach more people and keeps us going. And we’ll be back next week with another great guest. See you then! [music fades in, plays alone for 32 seconds, fades out to end]  

Download Episode! Matt Landau         To many hundreds of independent vacation rental owners and VR managers, Matt Landau is the guru of the vacation rental market.  He translated his remarkable experience in Panama into a valuable VR knowledge base that continues to expand within the large, virtual community that he has created.  Matt’s experience, his sense for kind and appreciative personal relations, and his drive for professionalism make him a natural leader for other VR entrepreneurs.  Matt talks with Debi about his background, creation of his VR community Inner Circle, and why he involved gang members in his vacation rental business.  It was a triumph of conversion from a severe, dangerous  humanitarian loss into a unique asset. Debi finds out how Matt found Costa Rica, Panama, New Orleans, how he got his start, what his mistakes have been.  Despite Matt’s experiences and position at the center of the Inner Circle, he is a humble, genuine person who earns people’s trust honestly. Debi Hertert encourages Matt to share some of his experience with her audience. The following show notes are a full transcript, with time markers. LINKS: Matt’s heartwarming article in VRMB about the gang conversion https://www.vrmb.com/hope/ Matt’s Vacation Rental Marketing Blog:  https://www.vrmb.com/ Sense of Place TV show (also can find via the VRMB.com site):  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=matt+landau+sense+of+place [00:45] Debi Hertert introduces the audience to Matt Landau, his “Inner Circle”, and his YouTube TV series “A Sense of Place”. [05:00] Finding Costa Rica:  Using Matt’s Inner Circle members’ questions, Debi asked Matt about the “back story” – how’d he get started?  Matt studied economics in school – but might not have been that enamored with the major.  He chanced upon a story about a University of Richmond graduate who moved to Costa Rica and started an online travel agency, Costa Rica Vacations.  Casey happened to be in Charlotte, VA when Matt called him, and agreed to meet.  He made a 6-month job available to Matt in Costa Rica in 2006.  Casey asked Matt to write a book for Costa Rica Vacations that would be informative for guests, and not be available from any other source.  Matt traveled around Costa Rica to see the various partners that Casey worked with and was jazzed with the experience of traveling in the country, staying sometimes at vacation rentals, sometimes hotels and immediately knew he loved the vacation industry. [09:00] – Finding Panama:  Everyone he met in that first six months encouraged Matt to check out Panama – coincidentally, Casey was at that time interested in possibly opening a branch of his travel agency in Panama, so they checked it out together.  Matt started a blog “The Panama Report” which was one of the first Travel and Investment blogs for Panama, and he found a taste for the life.  On that very same visit, he found the tiny historic district of Casco Viejo: Matt: “I met two gentlemen from Holland, Paulus and Eric who were running the only accommodations in all of Casco Viejo.  It was called ‘Los Cuatro Tulipanes’ (The Four Tulips).  And it was a revolutionary experience for me.  I went into it nervous and uncertain and curious not only about the rentals but the neighborhood.  And it just blew my mind and I decided that this was a neighborhood in which I wanted to live.   Almost within the next 6 months, a series of events happened that I could have never planned but that ended up setting me up for where I am today.  It was a combination of the travel agency that Casey was opening up doing really well, and needing to place people in the evolving historic district of Casco Viejo, and Paulus and Eric determining they were going to leave Panama for some reasons that are probably worth a separate day. And they said to me ‘we are going to shut this business down unless we can sell it to one person and that's you”. Debi: you had you had not spoken to them about it? Matt:  “Not at all. I was helping them a little bit with their marketing after I had stayed. I was living in Panama in the downtown area but I just felt like it was an alignment of stars. And I found a small handful of business partners who were already involved in the neighborhood and on the real estate side of things and others were coming from the United States and we put together a little team. And next thing you know we are running a vacation rental business in Panama.  It was the only place to stay in town and if you had come to Casco Viejo between 2009 and 2013 there was nowhere to stay but with us. We just learned everything on the fly. Fantastic and there was nobody to take our place.” [13:00] Birth of the Vacation Rental Marketing Blog: Debi: and then while you were there you started the vacation rental marketing blog? Matt:  “So that was a really hilarious pivot in all of this in that we learned everything on our own in very much the same way all our colleagues have. I felt like I had a really good notebook of information of stuff that worked because I keep copious notes and I structured it a little bit and made it into the form of an eBook. And it was essentially like the best ways to market your vacation rental business but I wasn't sure that vacation rentals were the right demographic to buy the eBook. So I made four.  I've actually never shared this.  I made four websites: HowToIncreaseHotelOccupancy.com; HowToIncreaseResortSales.com; Bed and BreakfastAdvertising.com and VacationRentalMarketingBlog.com.  One page on each website; the same book for sale on each website with a different title.  The same price. It was an ultimate control versus variable experiment. I pumped probably like 200 bucks worth of add words into that experiment. I was driving traffic from Google to these four sites to see which ones worked.  And one of them blew the others out of the water: Vacation Rental Marketing Blog.   I dropped all the others and I said okay I guess this means I should focus on the vacation rentals.” Debi: Holy cow! On my computer I have a file folder that says ‘The Vault’ Matt:  “Yes!  Those were the original documents; like How to Boost Occupancy. And I refer back to those fairly often to see if they’re still good or not, has the industry changed, and most of the advice was pretty solid”. Debi: Can I ask you how old you are?  (35) So you started this when you were 25 years old? Matt:  “Yeah – right out of college” I would say it's fearless but it's really what everybody in our industry does at the beginning.  It’s just winging it. Debi: Honestly, all the dominoes falling in the right place all the right people came. The universe just looked after you beautifully! Matt: “and I think that's true. A lot of people got into this business. If it wasn't an accident it was some bit of alignment of stars adversity whatever you want to call it that brought this opportunity in front of them and they ran with it.” [15:30] “The Inner Circle” Debi: So what was your thinking when you started the Inner Circle? What was your goal then, and how do you see that you might have met or not met that? Matt:  “Well, before the Inner Circle I was creating one-off Learning Materials eBooks video courses, guides, things like that and I realized that I was putting myself at a bit of a disadvantage because even if someone absolutely loved my work and purchased the book or the video course or whatever, I needed to go and create more in order to sell to them and that was like a bit of a spinning wheel. So I decided to pivot the business model instead of selling one-off learning materials to build a small fee, monthly membership Community where you would have access to all the learning materials that are created on a regular basis but also get this community element that has that's kind of proven to be so unique.” Debi: Have you been in a community like that before? (No) So you really didn't know whether or not it was going to go. Matt:  “Virtually speaking, no. But guess where I was? Physically located in a community called Casco Viejo that was developing from scratch. We were solving our own trash problems, crime problems, we were dealing with like every type of neighborhood building challenge you can imagine.  And I all the sudden start seeing all these overlaps.  Like wait a minute, this is how we do it in real life, why shouldn't that work virtually? And what we have now I think in the Inner Circle is a very tight-knit Community. People who stand for the same thing but who happen to be located everywhere throughout the world. It's a cool thing to compare real life community building and virtual community building. It's a private community, so that kind of immediately rules out anyone who's not serious. The fact that you have to pay means that you will need to be committed to learning. It's one part learning materials, eBooks, courses, workshops. One part open forum - ask questions and get answers from people who have been through it before. And the Inner Circle membership also includes real life meetups. Last year we hosted 26. And you attended one yesterday and those are a chance to bring the virtual sides of our lives down to earth and actually meet each other in person and learn. That’s the value proposition but in general it's owners and managers who are serious and who want to grow.  And it's a very small minority of the general vacation rental population but we're okay with that.” Debi: You also have grown immensely in the last few years. How many members are there now? Matt: “842 - not that anyone's counting” [ [18:45] From Gangs to Esperanza (Hope):  Debi:  Rick Oster wants to know why you started the charity with the gang members? Matt:  “Necessity. This neighborhood that I had fallen in love with had a very serious problem which was prohibiting me and others from contributing, and that was gang violence.  And we had specifically 4.5 almost five street gangs who were constantly at one another and that made walking to the grocery store in the morning a bit of a challenge.  It also made running a hospitality business a little daunting. I wasn't even comfortable with guests walking to certain areas for fear that they would get robbed. So the first, real reason that we put together the program was safety. That's the number one thing about any community. If it's not safe nothing else can happen.” Debi: And did that ever happen? Did anyone get robbed? Matt: “Yes, on a regular basis. In the early days we had a map and we would draw very clearly where it was okay to walk and where was not okay to walk.  And of course, the adventuresome traveler who doesn't like to listen to instructions would venture off the beaten path and almost like clockwork get robbed. It was never a violent crime it was almost always petty stuff. But we had plenty of gunshots. The specific impetus for Esperanza was when we lost a little neighbor of ours named Kevin, who was eight, on the block right outside Tulipanes. I would say that was the breaking point.  We realized this is something needs to be done and no one else is going to solve this problem.  I also had the wonderful guidance of another mentor whose name is also KC, who had a vision. And that was to not only demobilize these gangs but to give their members a real opportunity to participate in the community. And that was something so fascinating to me it was almost beyond my comprehension. But I knew where I could be helpful. I knew how to mobilize the neighbors, all of whom were ready to be helpful. Again, ‘Community 101’. And once the program picked up steam it was almost just this epiphany of realizing that we could take a problem and actually make it part of a solution. And that ended up benefiting everybody in the neighborhood to the point that the very same gang members that were robbing my guests in the early days were at this point offering walking tours to the same tourists and being featured in Travel, and Leisure, and GQ, adding value to the community where they were formerly taking it away. It got started out of pure necessity but picked up momentum because of hope. And I think those are probably the two little factors that start most of these revolutions that are happening in neighborhoods around the world.” [listeners/readers – please do yourselves a favor and follow the link at the end of these show notes] Debi: So where do you see yourself going now? Matt: “San Francisco…my mom is going to receive an award and my whole family is going to celebrate that with her. But what I always like to say is that I know I'm not exactly sure where this is all going but I do know that I'm doing it with the right people. 23:30 New Orleans: Debi: And you're in your next phase, you’ve sold Los Tulipanos and you’re now living in New Orleans.  You’re renting so you're not quite settled Matt:  “Home base will be New Orleans and people ask why I chose New Orleans.  One, because I like the idea of spending some time in the States after almost 12 years living in Panama. Two, I wanted warm weather. I'm big on that. I’ve spent plenty of cold winter months in New Jersey. And, I wanted to be central to where most of my travel and my colleagues are located which is North America. And in some cases South America and perhaps most importantly I wanted to be somewhere with character. Which New Orleans has. That's my home base for the moment and I'll keep going back there in between my trips and I'll begin you know writing my address on Decatur Street on forms and things like that. I have a license plate. So I guess that qualifies as a home for the moment but I'm not sure where I'm going. I do know that I'm doing it with a lot of people that I admire.” [24:30] A Sense of Place Internet TV Show: Debi: Well in your phase includes the TV show or, would you call it a TV show? Matt: “Jessica Mosel just said it's an Internet TV show. It's a travel show that features vacation rentals.” Debi: And you got your blog still and you got your podcast that you say you’re reviving and the Inner Circle. So do you have to have plans for the Inner Circle?  I mean what I'm seeing you do is kind of pull all of this together into kind of one overarching support activity. Matt:  “The inner circle is certainly critical to my livelihood because it's where I generate dollars like that's my salary income. The other stuff tends to be a way to ultimately get someone to join the Inner Circle even though maybe only a small percentage of the people actually will.  But there's a general direction through the podcast through the blog through the show after most of the events that I like to support like this one where we are right now, the Vacation Rental Success Summit. To get my brand out there and my brand is primarily education and empowering these owners and managers with all the right tools and resources to do their own great work. And I believe that that kind of positive energy that style of help don't sell marketing will ultimately trickle back so we are indeed looking to grow the Inner Circle but slowly and surely and I think that's a nice recipe. You’re very much of a founding member there and people think I exaggerate but I consider all of my inner circle colleagues very much my mentors and my friends and we all bring to this community something so different from our former lives. And they were all looking to improve and grow.” 27:00 So what about Airbnb?   Debi: It’s just so charming to watch you grow! I remember not too long ago you were like really down on Airbnb, you didn't think Airbnb was ever going to make it or be a presence in this industry. What do you think now? Matt:  “They most certainly are I'll tell you that much if you close your ears off to reality you don't grow one bit that's for sure. That's a survival tactic!” Debi: So you’ve now stayed in Airbnb’s? (Many) Okay and so what do you think? Matt: “I think Airbnb is probably the most important thing to happen to this industry. I say this industry because they are very much synonymous with what we do. The gentleman in the lobby of this hotel asked ‘are you here for the Airbnb thing?’ (Oh dear) Of course I didn't correct him, I know exactly what he was talking about and that represents the general public.  Airbnb is synonymous with short-term rentals. I think that that kind of awareness is incredible.  I mean you could not have asked for a better explosion in this movement. That being said, I think with that comes a whole lot of responsibilities that Airbnb is still trying to figure out. And I also constantly go back to this question what is best for the greater vacation rental industry. And sometimes it will frustrate an independent owner because they don't think that we’re actually including them personally, but it also goes for Airbnb.  And when decisions are made that impact the greater industry, one bad apple in an Airbnb could affect a greater population. And I think there are plenty of challenges that come with that role in the community. It's changed a whole lot of people's lives. I think there's a huge gamut of players in the Airbnb ecosystem there's people that are as professional as any of the other vacation rental owners and managers we have here. I stayed in an Airbnb in Amsterdam two weeks ago that was one of the worst hospitality experiences of my life and it was 500 bucks a night. So I think again not unlike the greater industry, plenty of room for improvement but what you can't ignore is the scope of their role in all of this. And people like you, who just adopted the role of community leader and with the help of Airbnb, very much using it almost to get on the shoulders of giants in a way. I think that's a pretty amazing thing.  And really fun watching you go through that process. And I will just add this: I have also got to watch everyone in our community grow too. This is a relatively new industry only been around for 10 or 15 years. Some of us for more but the majority of us have started within that time. And I've had the pleasure of watching them become incredible vacation rental professionals just in the past five ten years. I think that's a really cool thing about our industry we've all got to watch one another grow and evolve and those of us that are still here doing something right.” Debi: And you know the home share [hosts] that I connect with, a lot of them don't really feel like they're part of the vacation rental industry.  They think ‘I'm just retired sharing this room.’  [They often deliver great hospitality, but] they don't really identify with the industry aspect. Matt: “I'm pretty sure they will because I believe the moment you're accepting someone's hard-earned dollars that could otherwise be spent at a local hotel, you’re accepting that you are entering the hospitality industry.  And if you don't, recognize that you're leaving open a lot of room for issues.  This place I stayed in Amsterdam it was a two-bedroom place. We had three people staying there, two people in one bedroom and me in the other and there was only two towels. There was hair in the bathroom and we weren't allowed to check in until 7 in the evening. It was not a lovely experience by any means and I knew that this person didn't necessarily do it as a business more so as a hobby. For that reason I get it. But I do think that if the greater industry again is to involve, every single stakeholder needs to understand that this is indeed a Hospitality business. If you feel like doing someone a favor or doing a little side gig do it on the side don't call yourself a professional vacation rental host, because you’re not. 31:30 Have you ever failed? Matt:  “Oh yeah I feel pretty much every day.” Debi: What is the is one of your biggest failures? Matt: I think I made a pretty sincere failure when I started and I entered with a partner who I was very much simply friends with at the time. We went to the same University. And we had our roles and responsibilities; I was more in charge of the marketing and the sales and branding. He was more in charge of the accounting and the operations side of the business but we never actually clarified it. We never actually wrote it out. Which seemed just like a silly formality”. Debi:  It sounds like a marriage. Matt:  “It was.  And we got divorced. If I had done that all over again I probably would have established roles and responsibilities up front. As well as a timeline just so that the communication was crystal clear. And it wasn't that one another's character or values or anything was being compromised but it became a relationship that wasn't working. In hindsight, I don't think necessarily it could have saved it or made it any different but it would have made it certainly clear and we would have had one less variable to worry about. So now when I go into any kind of partnership, I decide to be very upfront about who's doing what and sometimes it feels weird like even if it's a super close friend or someone at work with for many years. It feels strange to sit down and say you're responsible for this and that's so many hours and if you go over this hours you responsible for this.” Debi: And that's what makes you a good leader too because you know where your boundaries are. Matt:  “And I've seen plenty of spouses and couples in this industry learn this one too. And I'm not married nor am I engaged, don't even have a girlfriend but I hear that relationships are best when there's great communication.” 33:50 “Help, don’t sell” Debi:  Okay, I have a question for you here.  It’s from Terry from the Inner Circle. Where does your penchant come from to help people where you're nurturing nature comes from by continually putting people in a position to succeed? Which you do over and over well. He's a sweetheart. Matt: “He is a sweetheart” Debi: But you do help people. The whole ‘help don't sell’, recognizing people in their success mode, where does that come from? Matt:  “Probably the general generosity comes from my parents. My dad is probably the most generous person that I know. He never ever looks out for himself always someone else first. But I also think it's the path of least resistance when it comes to business. ‘Help, don’t sell’ and generosity in your marketing when it comes to business is the path of least resistance. And it's the most enjoyable path because no longer are you going against anything, trying to break down anything, trying to win over somebody. Rather it's a very passive style you're putting out there helpful things. Most of us have this helpful information within us already so it's merely the act of documenting it and distributing it. And being incredibly open about all of that and just giving it away. What ends up happening is it becomes almost addictive because you've got this momentum about your work and the most grateful people or the people who resonate with that bubble up to the top. And they say ‘you know like that I think I'd like to align myself with this business’. And that goes for all of our business vacation rentals. It is a great example, if you're giving away tons of helpful information about your area and not really caring whether or not the person takes it and runs off and does it on their own at your competitors vacation rentals on the street or not. It's less stress. It’s just like feel free to take this and run if what I'm saying resonates I'd love to speak with you further. It's just more lovely and I think that that common denominator of generosity of giving instead of trying to take. Like they say, all of philanthropy gives you back much more in spades.” 36:30 Vacation rental owners/managers as leaders:  Debi: Thank you so much for doing this with me. Is there anything else that you’d like people to know about you, about your business? Matt:  “Thanks for having me! But I know for a fact that I went through this process the exact same way that all of us have. And I may have been fortunate to stumble into a neighborhood that happened to be evolving, and I happened to have the opportunity again to find vacation rentals in a country that was exploding and these are all convenient factors. But at the end of the day the people who make up this vacation rental movement are all leaders. And I think recognizing that I try to remind people that all the time. The fact that you are very much a Pioneer in this industry, you represent the very cutting-edge, you are the Trailblazers of what has happened in the history here recognizing that and taking on that leader role that you so deserve. And that sometimes means helping others, sometimes means stepping up and taking risks. Whatever that means to you I think we all have it inside of us. I was very humbled just to be sitting here with you sharing my story. I feel a little bit awkward, because you could be interviewing one of the 250 people out there [at the VRSS conference] they all inside of them have a very similar Journey. I think the magic right now is about recognizing that. We have a number of Inner Circle members who are presenting at this conference, hosting panels, who are sharing their wisdom. I even if you go home and you're sharing your advice with other local competitors I think that is something that is truly special and I think it's what makes vacation rentals different from everything else.” Debi: Thank you Matt Landau. Matt: “Thank you Debi Hertert!” LINKS: Matt’s heartwarming article in VRMB about the gang conversion https://www.vrmb.com/hope/ Matt’s Vacation Rental Marketing Blog:  https://www.vrmb.com/ Sense of Place TV show (also can find via the VRMB.com site):  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=matt+landau+sense+of+place    

I had an epiphany in the shower that I just had to share with YOU! Have you met CuntCliff? Do you have a CuntCliff living with you? No? So goes the tale of my three births, two c´s and one vag, and all of this as I drove to work!

I had an epiphany in the shower that I just had to share with YOU! Have you met CuntCliff? Do you have a CuntCliff living with you? No? So goes the tale of my three births, two c´s and one vag, and all of this as I drove to work!

// Think back to a time when one of your best friends was going through a really rough time. Maybe it was a breakup or she lost a job. Maybe a death or other profound loss. Heck it could have been an extraordinarily bad hair day. Whatever it was, she came to you for support. And you probably rolled your eyes, sighed dramatically, puffed up, and said, "What the hell is wrong with you? I told you this was going to happen. Why do you keep getting yourself into these situations? You brought it on yourself just like you always do and you deserve what you get. Now quit your whining, pull yourself together, get over it, and stop being such a hot mess!" No? So let me ask you this: When's the last time you said any of that nonsense to yourself? If you're like most people, You'd do anything for your best friend. You're her biggest fan and her strongest ally. You're always there for her no matter what. Right? So why aren't you treating yourself the same way? Let's face it, you are the only person who can logistically always be there for you. You're right there by your own side no matter what happens. So you can do this the hard way, or you can learn to be the very best friend you could ever have. Girlfriend, it's about time! So this week I'ma teach you how to be your own bestie. First I'll go over the fine points of what it means to really be a best friend. And then I'll share 3 simple tips that you can put into action today to start generating immediate and lifelong self-bestie mojo. Listen now and allow me to introduce you to the very best friend you will ever have: yourself!

Metropolitika: 26 Şubat 2014 Metropolitika'da Soçi Olimpiyatları'nı konuşmak üzere "No Soçi" hareketinden Çiğdem Kelemet konuğumuzdu. Soçi Olimpiyatları'na neden karşıydık?

Do you want to twiddle your thumbs forever? No? So what do you think "abundant life" is all about?