Podcasts about northern idaho

A record producer just revealed what really kicked off one of Eminem's biggest feuds, and Sydney Sweeney says her family used to own a little compound out in Northern Idaho. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Fourth Crusade was arguably the most disastrous of them all. In the year 1204 Catholics betrayed Catholics, Catholics and Byzantines betrayed one another, and Byzantine royal family members betrayed and murdered one another. What could go wrong?! I narrate the role and place of Venice in the fourth Crusade. Across the episode I also ruminate about all the Christian De-Converters we are reading about today (how to assess what they are doing), what is the difference between Islam and Christianity on the topics of being inside and outside the religious community?, and describe a recent extraordinarly beautiful trip to Northern Idaho. Come think carefully and laugh with me! 

Today's guest is William Geroux. Bill graduated from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia before becoming an author. He spent more than 25 years as a newspaper reporter and editor in Virginia and Northern Idaho, winning numerous awards for breaking news coverage, feature writing, and investigative reporting. He also worked as a writer for Maersk, the global shipping conglomerate. I invited Bill onto the podcast to discuss the hundreds of Nazi POW camps that sprung up all over the United States during World War II, the inevitable escape attempts, and the conflicts between prisoners that led to multiple murders within the camps. Connect with Bill:penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2109520/william-geroux/Facebook: William GerouxCheck out the book, The Fifteen, here.https://a.co/d/6wkcyy7Connect with Spycraft 101:Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.spycraft101.comIG: @spycraft101Shop: shop.spycraft101.comPatreon: Spycraft 101Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.OC Strategic AcademyLearn spy skills to hack your own reality. Use code SPYCRAFT101 to get 10% off any course!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show

What happens when a man dedicates over a decade to quietly observing the hidden world of Sasquatch — and discovers they might be trying to communicate? In this gripping episode, we sit down with Tim from Northern Idaho, a passionate experiencer with 12 years of personal encounters deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Tim shares chilling stories of subtle hand signals, unexpected moments of contact, and the life-changing events that followed him even after he left the woods. You'll hear about moments when Bigfoot showed themselves — and why sometimes, they choose not to. Plus, a strange moment of interference that left even us wondering if some things aren't meant to be known. If you're ready for a raw, eye-opening journey into a hidden world right here in America, this one's for you.

Join host Jeremiah Byron with Bigfoot Society as we dive deep into the extensive and captivating experiences of Ray Harwood, editor of Bigfoot Quest Magazine. From childhood memories of strange howls in Lassen National Forest to intriguing stone tool findings, Ray shares his unique journey into the world of Bigfoot. Explore his adventures across Yosemite, the Mojave Desert, Northern Idaho, and Montana, where he uncovers intriguing evidence of Bigfoot's existence, including footprints, mysterious nests, and even hair samples. Ray also delves into fascinating Native American legends and the scientific studies he has conducted over the years. Don't miss this episode for an in-depth look at Ray's remarkable encounters and invaluable contributions to Bigfoot research.Resources:Bigfoot Quest Magazine: https://amzn.to/3XBoLWV (Amazon affiliate link)Sasquatch Summerfest this year, is July 11th through the 12th, 2025. It's going to be fantastic. Listeners, if you're going to go, you can get a two day ticket for the cost of one. If you use the code "BFS" like Bigfoot society and it'll get you some off your cost.Priscilla was a nice enough to provide that for my listeners. So there you go. I look forward to seeing you there. So make sure you head over to www. sasquatchsummerfest. com and pick up your tickets today.If you've had similar encounters or experiences, please reach out to bigfootsociety@gmail.com. Your story could be the next one we feature!

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus content most Mondays, bonus episodes every month, ad-free listening, access to the entire 800-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/ This episode explores a disturbing incident in Northern Idaho where activist Teresa Borrenpohl was forcibly removed from a town hall meeting by unidentified men, believed to be part of a private security team, raising concerns about the erosion of democratic norms and the rise of extralegal militias. Brad speaks with activists Tamara Sines-Kermelis and Megan Kunz to discuss the political climate in Northern Idaho, the implications of such actions, and the importance of public accountability and civic engagement in combating authoritarian tendencies. They share their personal experiences and emphasize the need for vigilance and bravery in the face of growing extremism. Linktree: https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC Order Brad's book: https://bookshop.org/a/95982/9781506482163 Check out BetterHelp and use my code SWA for a great deal: www.betterhelp.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jodi Goettemoeller, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor with Catholic Charities of Idaho, joins Morning Light today to talk about the mental health ministry team that she is part of.  It's a multidisciplinary team between the diocese, Catholic Charities and other counselors and nurses. She also shares details about an upcoming event in Northern Idaho in April. For basic info, please visit the Diocese's website. https://www.dioceseofboise.org/mental-health  

If you love lakeside camping, small-town charm, and access to world-class outdoor recreation, Coeur d'Alene should be at the top of your RV travel list. Nestled in Northern Idaho, this stunning destination is home to one of the most beautiful lakes in the country.In this episode, we explore why Coeur d'Alene is the perfect spot for RV travelers. From scenic byways and lush forests to a historic downtown filled with shops, restaurants, and local charm, this town is an RVer's dream.Send us a textPlease follow the show so you never miss an episode. We ask that you also kindly give the show a rating and a review as well. Learn more about RV Out West over on our website at www.rvoutwest.com Join in on the conversation via social media:InstagramFacebook

In this episode the boys sit down with Idaho badass, BJJ Black Belt AJ Larson. AJ has a growing school in Northern Idaho and teaches gi, no gi and mma. Coach Bryan is available worldwide for Catch Wrestling Clinics. Bring value to your school and learn some new concepts! DM for details. For Stem Cell or PRP please check out Russald Medical: https://www.russaldclinic.com/contact/

This is an unlocked Patreon episode originally released 5/4/24.Join host Jeremiah Byron from the Bigfoot Society podcast as he delves into an intense and detailed encounter in Northern Idaho. Hear from Dan, a seasoned hunter, recount his terrifying experience during the 2021 elk hunting season in the rugged terrain of Idaho's panhandle. Initially dealing with harsh weather and challenging landscapes, the situation takes a strange turn when Dan hears a series of eerie wood knocks, leading him to an encounter with an enormous creature. Overcome by fear and uncertainty, Dan shares his struggle to comprehend the massive, human-like figure he saw. This gripping story includes intricate details of the location, the encounter's escalation, and the emotional aftermath, making for a riveting episode that questions the very reality of these mysterious creatures.

Tonight's first guest, Steve, had his first Sasquatch sighting in 1975, while he was stationed at Fort Polk, in Louisiana. His first sighting didn't happen on the base, though. It happened at the farm his girlfriend's family owned, about 4 1/2 hours away, 10 to 15 miles from Camden, Arkansas. Her family's farm was 250 acres in size, and very remote. The closest neighboring house was about a mile away. He had weekends off, so he had decided to go spend the weekend with her when the encounter happened. Steve got along well with her father, so he'd help her father do various chores around the farm. About 9 PM, on the Friday he'd gone to the farm, his girlfriend's grandmother screamed because she'd seen a Sasquatch that had been hanging around the property. All of the men, in the house, jumped into action, including Steve. They all grabbed guns and poured out of the house to try to deal with the problem. Steve didn't know what his girlfriend's grandmother had seen. He just wanted to help his girlfriend's family deal with whatever it was that had frightened her grandmother so much. Moments later, Steve's view of how the world and everything in it worked was shattered. That's because he found himself just 25 feet from a creature that wasn't supposed to exist. What happened that night left Steve forever changed. He'll never be the same.Tonight's second guest, Mark Blank, had his sighting on the 28th of December, in 2023. He was driving north, on Route 87, through Colorado, at the time. He was heading north to visit a friend who lives in Northern Idaho, to help him build his new home. Mark expected to see some interesting things, but he never expected to see what became the highlight of his trip. After having that sighting, he's been a hardcore Bigfoot enthusiast. He can't get enough of the topic.If you've had a Bigfoot sighting and would like to be a guest, on the show, please go to https://MyBigfootSighting.com and let us know. We'd love to hear from you. Premium memberships are now available! If you'd like to be able to listen to the show without ads and have full access to premium content, please go to https://MyBigfootSighting.com to find out how to become a premium member.If you'd like to help support the show by buying your own My Bigfoot Sighting T-shirt, sweatshirt, or tank top, please visit the My Bigfoot Sighting Show Store Page, by going to... https://dogman-encounters.myshopify.com/collections/mens-my-bigfoot-sighting-collectionShow's theme song, "Banjo Music," courtesy Nathan BrumleyI produce 3 other shows that are available on your favorite podcast app. If you haven't checked them out, here are links to all 3 channels on the Spreaker App...Bigfoot Eyewitness Radio https://www.spreaker.com/show/bigfoot-eyewitness-radio_1 Dogman Encounters https://www.spreaker.com/show/dogman-encounters-radio_2 My Paranormal Experience https://www.spreaker.com/show/my-paranormal-experience Thanks for listening!

I'm not a financial advisor; Superpowers for Good should not be considered investment advice. Seek counsel before making investment decisions.Watch the show on television by downloading the e360tv channel app to your Roku, AppleTV or AmazonFireTV. You can also see it on YouTube.When you purchase an item, launch a campaign or create an investment account after clicking a link here, we may earn a fee. Engage to support our work.Devin: What is your superpower?Alice: Something that led me here that's a superpower is seeing opportunity where others don't. I think I have this; my magic is, what I always say is, seeing white space.Maternal health in the United States is in crisis. Alice Crisci, Co-Founder and CEO of Ovum Health, is addressing this urgent challenge by merging her personal journey with cutting-edge technology to transform the reproductive health landscape. Diagnosed with cancer at a young age and enduring nine pregnancy losses, Alice's resilience fueled her mission: ensuring that anyone who dreams of having a healthy family can do so without financial or medical barriers.“We are diagnosing on average four conditions that weren't previously diagnosed and restoring health,” Alice explained during today's episode. “If you can imagine the joy people feel when they suddenly have hope again… that they're going to become a mom.”Ovum Health employs precision diagnostics—using genetic testing, virology, toxicology, and advanced analytics—to uncover root causes of infertility and maternal health challenges. Their holistic care approach combines personalized medical interventions with lifestyle modifications, leveraging a proprietary app to guide patients incrementally toward better health.Alice's vision extends beyond reproductive health. The company's methods address broader chronic conditions, offering solutions for men and women across life stages, including menopause and perimenopause. “Sixty percent of all Americans now have chronic illness. That has to reverse,” she emphasized, highlighting the potential to improve lives far beyond maternal health.Ovum Health is currently raising capital through a Regulation Crowdfunding campaign on Start Engine. As Alice noted, “Reg CF gives the same people who might become a patient… the opportunity to own stock in the company.”You can support Ovum Health's mission and invest by visiting s4g.biz/ovum.Alice's inspiring story and Ovum Health's groundbreaking work remind us of the profound impact of innovation driven by empathy and purpose.tl;dr:* Alice Crisci shares her journey from personal challenges to launching Ovum Health, transforming maternal care.* Ovum Health uses cutting-edge diagnostics and holistic care to address infertility and chronic health issues.* Alice emphasizes the importance of perseverance and identifying opportunity as key entrepreneurial superpowers.* Today's episode highlights Ovum Health's accessible solutions and its Start Engine crowdfunding campaign.* Alice inspires with actionable tips for recognizing patterns and solving problems at their root.How to Develop Seeing Opportunity As a SuperpowerAlice's superpower is her ability to see opportunities where others see challenges. With a unique talent for recognizing patterns and identifying untapped potential, she excels at connecting the dots to drive innovation and progress, both for her ventures and the people she supports.Alice exemplified this superpower when analyzing anonymized user data from Ovum Health's Fertility Answers app. She uncovered patterns that challenged the prevailing narrative about infertility, which often blames women for delaying childbirth. Her insights led her to develop new diagnostic tools and solutions tailored to people's unique circumstances, enabling access to better healthcare regardless of geographic location.Tips for Developing This Superpower:* Embrace data: Analyze patterns in the information available to you. Look for trends or inconsistencies that challenge conventional wisdom.* Focus on root causes: Avoid addressing symptoms alone. Use a cause-and-effect framework to define the actual problems you're trying to solve.* Foster ideation: Practice brainstorming with a focus on connecting unrelated ideas to create innovative solutions.* Encourage collaboration: Involve others in identifying causes and effects to expand your perspective and refine problem-solving approaches.* Act on insights: Move beyond identifying opportunities—take decisive action to bring them to life.Closing Paragraph:By following Alice's example and advice, you can make seeing opportunity a skill. With practice and effort, you could make it a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world.Remember, however, that research into success suggests that building on your own superpowers is more important than creating new ones or overcoming weaknesses. You do you!Guest ProfileAlice Crisci (she/her):Co-Founder and CEO , Ovum HealthAbout Ovum Health: Ovum Health is a preconception health and wellness company for men and women.Website: ovumhealth.comX/Twitter Handle: @ovumhealthCompany Facebook Page: fb.com/ovumhealthInstagram Handle: @fertility.answersOther URL: startengine.com/offering/ovumhealthBiographical Information:Alice Crisci is a serial entrepreneur, healthcare media host, author, and activist. A cancer survivor, she co-founded Ovum Health and MedAnswers, pioneering solutions for women's health and fertility through technology and patient-centered care. Her ventures have raised millions, amassed significant user engagement, and facilitated groundbreaking clinical trials. Alice also founded Fertile Action, an oncofertility charity, and championed legislative efforts to secure insurance coverage for fertility preservation in California. She has guest lectured at top universities, contributed to national media, and serves as a columnist for Money Inc. Alice resides with her son, Dante, splitting time between Northern Idaho and Atlanta, GA.Personal Facebook Profile: fb.com/alicecrisciLinkedin: linkedin.com/in/alicecrisciSupport Our SponsorsOur generous sponsors make our work possible, serving impact investors, social entrepreneurs, community builders and diverse founders. Today's advertisers include FundingHope, How to Make Money with Impact Crowdfunding, Honeycomb Credit and Motivated Money with Dakin Capital. Learn more about advertising with us here.Max-Impact MembersThe following Max-Impact Members provide valuable financial support:Carol Fineagan, Independent Consultant | Lory Moore, Lory Moore Law | Marcia Brinton, High Desert Gear | Paul Lovejoy, Stakeholder Enterprise | Pearl Wright, Global Changemaker | Ralf Mandt, Next Pitch | Add Your Name HereUpcoming SuperCrowd Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.* SuperCrowdHour, January 15, 2025, at 1:00 PM Eastern. Devin Thorpe will be doing investor-focused training on building an investment strategy focused on investing in debt instruments to match or even exceed stock market returns. This is great for people serious about investing, whether you are starting with $100 or $100,000. Don't miss it!* Impact Cherub Club Meeting hosted by The Super Crowd, Inc., a public benefit corporation, on January 21, 2024, at 1:00 PM Eastern. Each month, the Club meets to review new offerings for investment consideration and to conduct due diligence on previously screened deals. To join the Impact Cherub Club, become an Impact Member of the SuperCrowd.* SuperCrowdLA, we're going to be live in Los Angeles late in the spring. Plan to join us there for a major, in-person event focused on scaling impact. Details to come soon!Community Event Calendar* Successful Funding with Karl Dakin, Tuesdays at 10:00 AM ET - Click on Events* Community Capital Live, Havell Rodrigues, New Majority Capital, January 15, 2:00 PM Eastern.* Community Capital Live, Bernel Hall, New Jersey Community Capital, January 29, 2:00 PM Eastern.* NC3 Changing the Paradigm: Mobilizing Community Investment Funds, March 7, 2025* Asheville Neighborhood Economics, April 1-2, 2-25.If you would like to submit an event for us to share with the 8,000+ members of the SuperCrowd, click here.We use AI to help us write compelling recaps of each episode. Get full access to Superpowers for Good at www.superpowers4good.com/subscribe

Victory Over Sin is a show hosted by Mark Renick that addresses issues pertaining to returning citizens and the challenges they face coming out of incarceration. Victory Over Sin airs Saturdays at 12:30 pm. On KBXL 94.1 FM Idaho's Treasure Valleyhttps://svdpid.org/advocacy-systemicchangeofid/facebook: systematic change of IDInstagram: systematic change of IDhttps://www.imsihopecommunityphaseii.com/IMSI HOPE COMMUNITY PHASE II can also be found on facebook as well as Instagram and Youtube. Correspondence can be directed to: Address: 1775 W. State St., #191, Boise, Idaho 83702Phone: 208-629-8861 Podcast Website: https://941thevoice.com/podcasts/victory-over-sin/

In this episode, Dr. Leif Tapanila and Peter Pruett are joined by Elise Brown, a restoration coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Coeur d'Alene, and Mike Schlepp, a landowner who sold the easement to the government. Together, they discuss the transformation of farmland into the Schlepp Wetland easement in Northern Idaho.

It was a standard road project in Northern Idaho, but when crews began digging they ran into something unexpected, hundreds of cultural artifacts that may change our idea of how long people have lived in this area of Idaho.

Send us a textCheyenne Jackson, the amazingly talented Broadway star known for his electrifying and hysterical performances in "Xanadu" and "All Shook Up," opens up about his career in theater, film, and television, including cherished roles in "American Horror Story" and "Glee." He passionately discusses his transformative venture into cabaret with his latest show, "Signs of Life," where he shares personal stories and carefully chosen songs that create an intimate connection with his audience. Cheyenne is a treasure of our community, and it's a joy to hear him candidly talk about being a parent and engaging with the world.In a heartfelt exploration of authenticity and activism, Cheyenne recounts his journey from Northern Idaho's oh-so-conservative landscapes to the vibrant life of New York City. He describes the challenges and triumphs of coming out, navigating fatherhood with twins, and balancing a thriving career in the arts while advocating for LGBTQ+ rights. Amidst sharing the joys of family life, the discussion highlights their involvement with Amphar's AIDS research and an eagerly anticipated cabaret show in Houston, underscoring the importance of community support.Tickets for signs of life: https://www.thehobbycenter.org/events/cheyenne-jackson-signs-of-life/Deborah Moncrief Bell talks with Mo Cortez about being intersexed and what that means in our community. It's a fascinating discussion about something people are often curious about but rarely gets explained as personally and properly as Mo does.  And Davis Mendoza Darusman talks with Sirius star Eddie Robinson about being a black, gay journalist who covers sports! He is also a single dad and has many topics to cover that reveal just what a community treasure he is. Our episode takes a global perspective on LGBTQ+ rights, spotlighting critical issues from Italy's restrictive surrogacy laws to progressive steps in transgender rights in New South Wales, Australia. NEWS WRAP brings us the latest Global Queer News; we ensure our listeners are well-informed about the pressing issues shaping the queer community worldwide, reminding us all of the power of advocacy and awareness.Queer Voices airs in Houston Texas on 90.1FM KPFT and is heard as a podcast here. Queer Voices hopes to entertain as well as illuminate LGBTQ issues in Houston and beyond. Check out our socials at:https://www.facebook.com/QueerVoicesKPFT/ andhttps://www.instagram.com/queervoices90.1kpft/

Join us as we explore a series of intriguing and chilling Bigfoot encounters spanning from Louisiana to the wilderness of Idaho and Alaska. Navy veteran Jason shares his haunting experiences near Palmetto State Park, Louisiana, including eerie footsteps and a face-to-face encounter with a mysterious creature. Another story takes us to the remote woods of Northern Idaho, where unsettling wood knocks and strange life beacon sounds turn an ordinary camping trip into a spine-chilling ordeal. Delve deeper into eerie phenomena in Montana and Alaska, where outdoorsmen recount massive creature sightings and strange noises mimicking human and animal sounds.Share your Bigfoot encounter with me here: bigfootsociety@gmail.comWant to call in and leave a voicemail of your encounters for the podcast - Check this out here - https://www.speakpipe.com/bigfootsociety(Use multiple voice mails if needed!)

In this episode of the Bigfoot Society podcast, host Jeremiah Byron brings together a series of gripping encounters with Bigfoot from multiple guests. We hear from a 15-year US Army veteran who recounts an eerie experience on Christmas Eve in the Uwharrie and Pisgah National Forests, North Carolina. Another guest describes a late-night road encounter in High Point, North Carolina, where a Bigfoot stared down a trucker. From the wilderness of Homer, Alaska, there's a tale of mysterious knocking sounds and growls near China Poot Trail and Port Chatham. The episode also explores a spine-chilling story from Lake Tyler, Texas, recorded during a blood moon. Finally, listeners are taken to Northern Idaho's panhandle for a retelling of a bowhunting trip interrupted by rhythmic wood knocks and a powerful musky smell. Dive into these captivating stories that span across America's wildest regions.Share your Bigfoot encounter with me here: bigfootsociety@gmail.comWant to call in and leave a voicemail of your encounters for the podcast - Check this out here - https://www.speakpipe.com/bigfootsociety(Use multiple voice mails if needed!)

In this episode of the Agile Mentors Podcast, Brian Milner and Mike Cohn reveal the keys to achieving lasting success with Agile methodologies. From embracing experimentation and fostering a culture of continuous improvement to improving communication with consistent vocabulary, they offer practical, relatable insights for Agile practitioners at all levels. Overview Brian and Mike discuss the essential ingredients to Agile success, touching on the power of experimentation, the need for flexible coaching, and building a culture of continuous improvement. The conversation dives deep into the importance of effective communication within teams, especially through user stories and consistent vocabulary, ensuring that Agile teams stay aligned. With personal anecdotes and actionable tips, this episode provides a roadmap for anyone looking to excel with Agile. References and resources mentioned in the show: Mike Cohn Essential Scrum by Ken Rubin Agile & Scrum Glossary #85: Effectively Managing Dependencies with Ken Rubin Dependencies Are Killing Your Agile Flow at Scale by Ken Rubin Creating a Software Engineering Culture by Karl Wiegers Private Scrum & Agile Training Agile For Leaders Working on a Scrum Team Classes Story Writing Workshop Join the Agile Mentors Community Subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast Want to get involved? This show is designed for you, and we’d love your input. Enjoyed what you heard today? Please leave a rating and a review. It really helps, and we read every single one. Got an Agile subject you’d like us to discuss or a question that needs an answer? Share your thoughts with us at podcast@mountaingoatsoftware.com This episode’s presenters are: Brian Milner is SVP of coaching and training at Mountain Goat Software. He's passionate about making a difference in people's day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work. Mike Cohn, CEO of Mountain Goat Software, is a passionate advocate for agile methodologies. Co-founder of Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance, he thrives on helping companies succeed with Agile and witnessing its transformative impact on individuals' careers. Mike resides in Northern Idaho with his family, two Havanese dogs, and an impressive hot sauce collection. Auto-generated Transcript: Brian (00:00) Welcome in Agile Mentors. We're back for another episode of the Agile Mentors Podcast. I'm with you as always, Brian Milner. And today we have our favorite back with us, Mike Cohn is here. Welcome back, Mike. Mike (00:12) Thanks, Brian. It's good to be here. Hi, everybody. Brian (00:15) So happy when Mike can make time and be with us here on the show. Obviously Mike has a lot of wisdom and experience to share with us. So we wanted to bring him in because we were talking about doing an episode titled The Secret Staggile Success. I remember back in the day in the 80s, was a movie called The Secret to My Success. There was a really obscure movie. was Michael J. Fox. Yes, it was Michael J. Fox. Mike (00:37) Michael J. Fox? Yeah, so it's not that obscure. Brian (00:41) But I still hear that theme song in my head. when we talked about this title, that's what I thought about. But we wanted to talk about maybe some hidden things or things that aren't as immediately apparent to people that are crucial to being successful when you go agile or if your teams are working in an agile way. So let's just open things up, Mike. What's one of the things you had thought about when we talked about this? Mike (01:10) think the number one secret to Agile success for me is being willing to experiment, to try new things. And if you think back, Agile itself, Scrum itself, began as experiments. They were probably teams going, know, this waterfall stuff we've been doing doesn't work. Let's try something different. Somebody else went, yeah, let's do something unusual, and let's try iterating or something. And so Agile itself began as experiments. And yet I see teams kind of get stuck in the mud and not willing to experiment. And I think that's to their detriment. We want to try things out. And silly, trivial examples, try different sprint links. Don't do a one -week sprint link and go, Agile doesn't work. It's not for us. No. Brian (01:52) Yeah. Mike (01:59) Maybe one week sprints are for you. Try a three week iteration or I try something different. And I think the the idea of experimentation is how we come up with new ideas. It's how we learn. It's how we get better. And so if you're going to succeed, you better have that that focus on experimentation. Brian (02:19) Yeah, there's a surprising number of Scrum Masters I've encountered that I'll hear stories about how they run the same exact retrospective, every single retrospective. And I just think, what are you doing? How can you be trying to communicate this and teach the team that this whole thing is based on doing little small experiments and seeing what the result is, when you're not willing to try something new in just how you run a retrospective? So yeah, I completely agree. I think the key there for me is demonstrate it. If you want them to pick up on that, then do it yourself. Mike (02:56) worked with a company years ago that fired their scrum master for basically for being too rigid. He had read something in Ken Schwaber's second book, and I don't want to pick on Ken's book, but he has this wacky sentence in there, and there are wacky sentences in my books, right? So somebody can go find those, and I mean, I get it. But anyway, Ken wrote that the daily scrum must be conducted left to right, starting with the person on the left of the scrum master. And it's like, what? Why is this mandatory? It must be left to right. Anyway, this guy read that in the book and insisted that the Daily Scrum be left to right, starting with the person on left of the Scrum Master. And his team knew that was insane, right? It's just nuts. And so they would mess with him. They would do things like he would call on the person to his left and the person on the right would start talking. he would point to the person on the left to start and they were standing in a semi -circle. They would move, right? So the person on the left was no longer on the left. And they were just messing with him over this. And he would just get mad and insisted it had to be left right because the book said so. And I don't know what it was with him, but he was just stuck on this. Ultimately ended up getting fired for it. Yeah, I heard this story because I ran into him at a conference and I saw him there and he Brian (04:14) Wow. Mike (04:20) looked a little down. It's like, you know, said his name and how are you doing? And he told me this story. And he said, you know, he'd gotten better since then. But, you know, don't get stuck on things. It's just not the it's just not a very agile mindset. Brian (04:34) Yeah. I mean, if you can't, no matter what it is too, I think that if you can't point to what you hope to achieve from doing it that way, or what's the purpose behind us doing it that way, that's questionable part of your process to just say, I can't point to any reason why this, any good that this thing does going left to right person by person, but. Ken said we should do it. I guess, no, I mean, if there's no reason, if you don't see the benefit in it, why would we do that? Mike (05:07) Knowing Ken, I think he was just trying to make it easier for people. Here's one less thing you got to think about. Start on your left and go around the room. But the way it's written and the way this guy interpreted it was like, shalt go left to right. It's like you've got to be willing to, I think, out the way that a known proven way start out that way. So yeah, go ahead and start left to right. It says so. I don't know any different. Might as well go this way. Brian (05:17) You Mike (05:35) But then experiment, learn, figure it out for yourselves. I I can't think of a successful company or team that I've worked with that ever quoted this Scrum Guide at me, right? You know, they may start out exactly the way a Scrum Guide says, or my favorite is Ken Rubin's Essential Scrum Book, start out in a known proven way, but then experiment, make agile your own. Don't throw away the important stuff, and that's why you have to start in a known proven way, but as you get experience, experiment, throw things out. Brian (05:46) Yeah. I love that. Yeah, I think that's a really good one. So a good one to start us off. Thanks for that. Mike (06:12) Yeah, that's, that's what I'm buying. Brian, can I ask you for one of your secrets to agile success? Brian (06:17) Sure. Well, and this one I know it's going to be a little, know, boy, it'd be nice if I could do that, but I, you know, we can't do that. And I understand that this is not going to be for everyone, but one of the things that I think is important is to have some kind of a coaching presence. Now, just to be clear about this, this doesn't mean that you have to, you know, fight tooth and nail to hire some outside consultant or anything like that. I understand budgets are tight and there may not be an ability to do that. But I think if I, you know, if you're a scrum master, then I think that having the ability to continue your learning journey and grow is really important and, and having someone you can go and bounce things off of. So if you can't have someone, if you, if you can't have someone on staff or someone there that's an outside consultant that can help you and coach you through the early stages, I think that could be really, really helpful. And to me, it's an accelerator. I think that kind of thing is something that can really, yes, we will go through training. We understand kind of the basics, but then the coach is sort of like pouring gasoline on that fire to say, now we're going to go from zero to 60 and I'm going to help you get there because I know the pitfalls to look out for and I know how to get you there. But if you don't have that ability, I think it's important to maintain some of those mentorship relationships that you can find through different community groups. Mike (07:18) Mm Brian (07:44) Maybe you'd find some kind of a weekly meetup or a monthly meetup or something that you could go to. Even if it's just a meetup of peers, right? There's not someone that you would say, that person's been in this for 10 years. No, we're all kind of in the same place. But if we can meet up in their network of my peers and let's talk about what's going on at your place, I'll talk about what's going on at my place, and we can share with each other and... help each other find the best solutions. Even that level, I think of coaching is really imperative and can really make an impact on how successful your implementation is. Mike (08:25) I think you're right. I think back to the earliest days of Agile, and at least of Agile training. And I'm thinking back to when I was teaching public courses on Agile in 2003, 2004, 2000, actually, the early days. One of the big benefits of the class, beyond whatever learning somebody had in the class, one of the big benefits was just feeling like you weren't alone in the world. And I remember people describing a problem, whatever it was. Like, my bosses aren't on board with this. and somebody would describe a problem and then somebody else in the class would just merely sympathize. Right. Yeah, mine too. I'm struggling with that too. That was like one level of support that was awesome. It was even better if there was somebody in the class who said something like, yeah, we had that problem and here's what we did. Right. But these were not people who were any smarter than each other. It wasn't like the person who'd worked through the problem was that much smarter. They probably just had a six month head start and Having that ability to go into a class and hear that you weren't alone and that your problems were not that unique was extremely valuable for people even way back then when there were not a lot of people doing this. Brian (09:32) Yeah, and I've said this before, and I probably said this to you, Mike, but one of the things I think people love the most when they come to the advanced classes that we offer is really being able to get sympathy from others, the camaraderie of talking to somebody else and saying, yeah, I've gone through that. It's not, I tell people at beginning of the class, it's Mike (09:48) Mm -hmm. Brian (09:59) likely not going to be a teaching point that sticks with you as much as it's going to be hearing from your peers and actually getting to learn from each other that's going to stick with you as much through those classes. to me, I think that's one of the reasons why those classes are so much fun is because I learned from the people who come to them. Mike (10:20) absolutely, absolutely. Some of what you're describing is why we set up our Agile mentors community years ago. Agile mentors community, not just the podcast, is a community we have where people who take one of our courses get a free membership. I hired a consultant to kind of give me advice on some business stuff years ago. he used the try. And I asked him, hey, we're thinking about starting this community. What do you think? I don't remember if he said do it or don't, but I do remember a term he used. He called it a continuity program. And it was a way to continue a relationship with people who taken our courses. And like I said, we give it away free to people who take classes because we know that a class isn't enough to get people successful, but it's a start. It gets people over some hurdles. It gives them the foundations of the education they need. But they're going to have ongoing questions. And our community has been wonderful because we have so many good people in there who helped each other out. And again, they're often somebody who's just six months ahead in their journey, helping somebody who's right behind them or, you know, there's somebody just in a similar industry and can sympathize or give advice on how they worked through a problem. Brian (11:29) Yeah, that's awesome. So we talked about experimentation, we talked about coaching. Mike, what was another one that was on your list? Mike (11:36) One for me is to focus more on practices than frameworks. The frameworks get all the attention. Should we do Scrum or should we do Kanban? Should we do extreme programming, going back a little bit more when that was extremely popular, still around, but not as popular? Should we do safe? And so people focus on their frameworks because they're these big, visible things. And I think what we want to do more is pick the right practices for us. Now, that's not to diminish frameworks. I think the frameworks are good. They're a good starting point. But I've said for years, if I have a team and they start with Scrum or if they start with Kanban, if they're doing the good old inspect and adapt thing, they're going to end up in the same place. They're going to invent the right Agile for them. And very likely, that's going to be some elements of Scrum, some elements of Kanban, perhaps some elements of Safe if it's big. I don't think it matters all that much where you start. I think it's worthy of some consideration. But if you're inspecting and adapting, you're going to end up in the same place. And that means that Agile needs to be thought of more as a set of practices rather than we do Scrum or we do Kanban. Brian (12:49) Yeah. Yeah, I love that. And, and, you know, we've talked about the kind of that concept before of, you know, trying to fit the right practices in place. I know when even on this podcast, when we talked about scaling and then couple of those episodes, we talked about how, you know, it may be better for you to, to, find the unique collection of practices that fits your situation. because, know, a lot of these frameworks, they're designed to handle everything. They're designed to handle any possible scenario and. Mike (13:14) Mm -hmm. Brian (13:18) You're not going to encounter every possible scenario. You're going to encounter the ones that are only particular to you. Yeah. Mike (13:24) Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I've thought that there's I don't want to do this. I've never taken the time to really run this as an initiative. But I felt like there are a core set of practices that kind of everybody should do be iterative, right? know, inspect and adapt, right? Those type of things. But then there's a set of practices that are good for startups, let's say there's another set of practices that are good for people in the banking industry. Right. And that everybody in the banking industry should be doing a certain set of practices, and those will differ a little bit than perhaps every company in the game industry. And so there's these set of practices out there that can be grouped, but they do also need to be kind of tailored and hand -chosen for your particular organization. Brian (14:11) Yeah, yeah, I like that kind of the idea like a template, right? I mean, like when you use the template on a software program, that's a starting place, but you're expected to kind of customize it a little bit to your specific needs. Yeah, I like that. Mike (14:25) Yeah, wouldn't it be great if you're a startup and somebody said, here are the 20 practices you really got to do if you're to be successful as a startup. Here are the 10 you should think about, and then the rest, see if you like them. Same thing, bank. the bank, might have 30 practices you start with. Ivar Jakobson, who's the inventor of use cases, part of the unified method back with Bucin Rumba. He's had an initiative going on the last handful of years where he talks about method prisons and that the practices are all kind of locked up in these methodology prisons like Scrum and Kanban and everything else. And he talks about like free the practices, right? Let the practices loose of these method prisons and let people just more readily select the set of practices that are best for them. Brian (15:15) Love it. Yeah, I love it. That's a great concept. Mike (15:17) Yeah, I think it's a great, it's a great approach. It's got some traction, but it's something that more people need to hear and do. Brian (15:22) Yeah, I think that there's also maybe some stuff mixed in there with what you were saying that I've heard from the heart of Agile people. There's a lot of good stuff that's overlapped there as well. So that's awesome. Mike (15:32) Absolutely. What's another secret you can reveal Brian? Brian (15:37) Sure. Now, this is a big one, but what I would say is maybe moving in a different direction, the idea of how important the culture is and just setting the right culture even more so than trying to get things like time boxes correct. I was talking with a friend of mine at a conference recently and one of the things we kind of discussed was that whole inspect and adapt process, how important that just getting that ingrained into the DNA of what the team does. And Mike, like you said earlier, if they have that inspect and adapt built into who they are, then the practices come. The practices will actually kind of coincide with those because they'll find the right things to do. Like you said, they'll end up at the same place, right? They'll end up at the things that really are important to them. But I've seen lots of places where they go straight to the rule book and want to implement all the rules as quickly and possibly as they can. If the teams don't understand, when something goes wrong, when something does not happen the way that we thought it should, then that's a target to inspect. and dig in and find out why it happened that way, and then find a new way of doing it. I've told the story in classes before that I've encountered multiple situations, scenarios where I've worked with teams where they'll be doing something that they've identified as a problem. They've said, hey, yeah, this is wrong, this doesn't work. well, that's what I'm saying. Mike (17:26) Why are they doing it then? Brian (17:32) They'll identify something and say, yeah, that's not good. We need to do something else. But then they'll stop and say, all right, so let's really, we want to find the right thing to do to replace that with. So let's take the next two months and really investigate, find, and then we'll come back and we'll change in two months over this new thing. And my advice to them is always, so you're gonna just intentionally do the wrong thing for two months? Right. Mike (17:59) for two more months. Brian (18:01) You know, like you should try one of the other possibilities because you could get lucky and that could be the first thing you try. You know, and oftentimes it is something that is better because your gut instinct is usually pretty good about that kind of stuff. So yeah, try it. Something's not going well, all right? Then we're not doing that again, right? We're gonna try something new, whatever that is, and we're gonna try something new and then we'll do the same thing at the end of the next sprint. Mike (18:27) Mm -hmm. Yep. One of my favorite comedians, this guy named Bob Newhart died early, he was earlier this year. And he has this one comedy routine that he does where he's a psychiatrist and somebody walks into his office and she describes some problem he has. And he's like, okay, I'm going to give you the advice. It boils down to two words. And she goes like, should I take notes? Should I write the two words down? It's like, nope, you'll remember them. And he just looks her really like stern in the eye and says, stop it. Brian (18:54) you You Mike (18:59) She has a phone question. He's like, just stop it, right? Whatever you're doing, just stop it. And which is like just hilarious, right? Imagining, you know, some psychiatrist or therapist giving the advice of just stop doing whatever it is you're doing. But it's so reminiscent of what I've seen with agile teams, right? And with what you're describing here, you know, we're doing the wrong thing. We need to change, but we're going to stall looking for the perfect answer instead of just stopping and figuring out something, right? Just try something different. Brian (19:28) Yeah. And if our culture is a culture of always inspecting and adapting, then like you said, we'll end up at the right place because when something's wrong, we'll change it. And we won't just sit on something that we, I don't know how many times I've seen the organizations where you talk to people and take them out for a beer and they'll say, well, here's the real problems. everyone knows what the problems are. So why not fix it? Why not change it? Mike (19:41) Mm -hmm. Yeah. It's hard. It's hard in a lot of organizations. You and I both do sessions where we'll talk to executives, right? And to me, it's a really fun, like 90 minute training session that we have because the way we deliberately set that up was to talk about the benefits of agile. So we get people kind of interested, right? you know, those benefits. But then we tell them why it's going to be hard and what they're as executives, what was leaders, what they're going to have to change. And what I find is when we do that, if the leader starts arguing with me, because I tell them, look, here's going be hard. You're going to have to change this. You're going have to stop doing this. If they start arguing with me, we'll change that behavior if we get those benefits, then we know we've got them hooked and they want to be agile. But if I say agile's great, here are hard things you're going to have to change personally. And they're like, yeah, that'd be hard. We probably wouldn't make those changes. I don't want to go anywhere near working with that company. They're not going to succeed. They don't have a culture that's going to make those changes. And so I love doing those executive sessions because we hear it's just so instant, it's instant feedback on whether this company has a chance of being successful or not. Brian (21:06) Love him. Is there another one on from your list, Mike (21:10) One that I want to add is a little bit more about not just having one team be successful, but if you're working to get a set of teams, your department, your group, something like that. I think it's really important to have a consistent vocabulary across teams. Because we're talking about this idea of continuous improvement. And if your team and my team are using words differently, how do we share ideas back and forth? And that sharing of ideas is really important. if we don't have a consistent vocabulary, think it's hard to do. I worked with a team a couple years ago. I worked with this team, and I'm there for like two or three days. I think I'm there on the second day. And they've been using the words sprint and iteration interchangeably, just both words. And I'm sure you've encountered that. It's kind of normal. I think it kind of depends on if you grew up in the Scrum world, you call them sprints. If you grew up more generically agile, you call them iterations. They're using both words. And the second day I'm in a meeting and somebody says, well, yeah, that's how we do it in a sprint, but it's totally different when we're in an iteration. And I'm like, huh? What's the difference? And the guy had a really great answer. He said, a sprint is when we're working overtime and iteration is when we're going at a sustainable pace. That actually, there's a lot of logic to that. It's kind of a cool idea. I could see that. Brian (22:17) Ha ha ha. Mike (22:37) But I could tell by looking around the room that others were surprised as well. They'd been using the words interchangeably too. They didn't know there was this specific meaning that, I don't know, three Algel coaches had decided three years ago, this is how we use the words. But it wasn't part of, to your word, moment ago, culture. It wasn't part of their culture. And so some teams were calling them sprints, some teams were calling them iterations, and it was just creating a lot of confusion. when we found out that there were different meanings and different rules for whether you were in a sprint or iteration. So. Brian (23:08) Yeah. It reminds me of a Dilbert cartoon I saw a while ago, or it's been several years now, it was about, were talking to their big dumb boss, right? And they were saying, yeah, we're in the middle of a project and we're about halfway through, but we need, you know, six more months to complete this. All right. What's the project you're working on? We're taking all of our website addresses and we are transforming them into URLs. Right. Yeah. It's yeah. Okay. Yeah. Obviously, the boss didn't know the difference, right? Mike (23:37) That's a nice project, right? That's my assignment next month. Yeah, the vocabulary just creates confusion. like how Ken Rubin, I mentioned him earlier, the author of Essential Scrum, my favorite book on Scrum. You've had him as a guest before. I love how he writes his books. He starts out, I just start out, I just plunge in. just like, just start writing. And I have an outline, but I just start writing. Ken sits down for seriously months, I think it is. Brian (23:39) Right. Right. Mike (24:07) and defines a glossary, right? Here's how I'm gonna use certain words. then he, man, if he says a word means a certain thing, he uses it that way every single time. And he has a wonderful, agile glossary on his website, inolution .com. And so he's like defined every kind of agile word you could look for. He's got it defined there. But that's how he starts, right? So he defines all these words. And then if he writes a book and he... Brian (24:10) Wow. Mike (24:33) wants to use the term sprint, he knows exactly how he's going to use it. That's an easy one, but he will define all those words so they're clear up front. We do these working on a Scrum team classes for companies, which is a of a private whole team training class. And some of the feedback we get is that it really helped them get their vocabulary consistent. It allowed them to talk about ways to improve that were challenging until they had a common vocabulary. What is a Scrum master? What are the responsibilities of a Scrum Master? And that's not just defining the word sprint, but it's defining a more complex word and saying, what does it really mean? But if you don't have agreement on what a Scrum Master is or who is on the team or things like that, it's really hard to talk about that across a larger group. And so that, to me, is one of the secrets to Agile success is that consistent vocabulary. Brian (25:25) Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that class because one of the things that that that we do periodically when we are not here every time. One of things that we do when we have one of those classes is I'll meet with their with a company in advance and have a conversation about what is it that you really want to get out of this. And one of the most consistent things that I hear over and over again from companies that come to us is we want consistent vocabulary. We want a consistent language that people use across this so that When we say something, means the same thing across all our teams. Mike (25:58) I think it's become more of an issue the last, I don't know, five, 10 years or whatever it is because we've got so many people that know Agile by now, right? But of course, they were trained by different people. They were trained in different ways. And so they'll be coming to it and using terms slightly differently. I'm going give a little example here. Velocity, right? Velocity can really mean two different things to people. Velocity can mean the amount of forward progress you made. in a sprint, right? How much forward progress did we get? Instead, velocity could mean capacity to do work. How much work did we get done in the last sprint? And forward progress, capacity to do work are slightly different things, right? And if we don't have agreement on that term, we're going to get into those fights about, bugs count towards velocity, right? Well, if you're using velocity to mean capacity to do work, yeah, bugs should count. If you're using velocity to mean forward progress, no. Bugs shouldn't count. And defining velocity, having that conversation with the team, once you get that figured out, a whole set of problems go away. All those discussions about what gets points, they all go away instantly. But most teams don't think to have that conversation. And they will have some team members using velocity one way, others another way. Important to get that defined. It's not hard, but it's important to get that consistency. Brian, do you have another secret, or have we revealed all the secrets? Brian (27:24) Yeah, I got one more. I got one more. you might, you know, if you're listening this far, you may notice that I have a sickness. I picked all C words. I don't know why, but that's just what I had to do. But my last C word was communicate. And really just the idea here was, you know, if you've ever gone to see a youth sports team, you know, a kid's soccer, kids basketball, whatever, right? If you ever go to see any of those things, one of the things that you will hear over and over screamed from the sideline from the coaches is, talk to each other. And it's a really important part of learning how to play that sport is, hey, I've got a call for the ball. I've got to let everyone else know, hey, here's what I need. And I think that's an important part of Scrum as well. Scrum is a team sport. It's a... Mike (28:02) Haha. Brian (28:19) You know, I apologize to people in classes and say, apologize for the sports analogy, but scrum is a sports analogy. You know, it comes from rugby and, it's, it's intentionally there as a team sports so that people can, can recognize and look at that and say, yeah, we're not, we're not playing golf, right? We're, we're, playing this as a team altogether at the same time with the same goal. And so you got to talk to each other. You got to have communication. I know, you know, Mike (28:24) Yeah, itself, Brian (28:47) One of the main ways that we try to help that here at Mountain Goat is when we talk about things like user stories. That's a main tool that the teams will use in their communication back and forth between the business and the developers. And I know in your Better User Stories course, we go in detail about that. And we also have this thing that we do occasionally called a story writing workshop that's kind of more coaching, where we'll sit down with people and kind of Mike (29:01) Mm -hmm. Brian (29:17) actually work through stories that they're writing to help them effectively communicate what they're trying to get across to the developers. Any communication takes practice. Any relationship, the communication grows and gets better the more you do it. Mike (29:36) I think it's a good point about using user stories as an example, because one of the user story mistakes people make is to think that user stories exist to document an agreement. They don't. They exist to facilitate a conversation. And then the conversation is where we're going to figure out the specific needs and things like that. Yeah, maybe we could document that. It's got to be documented for various reasons. in many organizations, but the story itself is there's a reminder to have a conversation, right? It's not there to document an agreement, which is different from things that came before, like a use case or IEEE 830 document, right? Those did document agreements. User stories, they're there to make sure we talk. Brian (30:13) Right, right. Those were in essence contracts, right? I mean, they were, you shall do this, the system shall and whatever. But yeah, user stories, not that. I love the way that you put that and I've said that for years as well. It's a placeholder for the conversation. Mike (30:28) Well, let's add one more C then. didn't realize you were on a C theme here. So let's add one more secret to Agile success with a C. Crack the whip, right? Yell at your team, make them work harder, right? That's the secret to Agile success. I shouldn't say that because you'll pull that out as a little clip. crack the whip on your Agile team. That's how you get them successful, right? Brian (30:30) Hahaha! Hahaha. I can guarantee you that's gonna be the cold open here for our show. It's Mike Cone saying, the secret is cracking the whip. I love it. Well. Mike (30:59) So there was a great book by a guy named Carl Weigers on culture. is like creating a software engineering culture. And he has these little gray boxes in there. There are things not to do, right? Don't do this. But the boxes don't say don't do this, right? You have to have read like the intro to like, hey, don't do the things in the gray boxes. But he also has like anti -patterns in there. And I just remember being a, a, I think it was a director, VP at the company. And I showed it to one of the directors. I'm like, man, look at this. He's got guys highlighted all the things to do in the boxes here. And he was like, really? We should do that? Okay. And he was like, ready to go do these things. I was like, no, no, no, these are the things not to do. So you gotta be careful with things like crack the whip, right? It's, you know, a direct quote. It sounds pretty horrible. It's a joke. It's like, hopefully people understand. So. Brian (31:42) That's hilarious. Yeah, yeah, I think everyone who's, you know, listening to this would understand that, right? Would understand that that's a joke, but and just in case. Mike (31:56) As a guy who had the whip cracked on me as a young developer, I've always been a very much do not crack the whip. I'd rather I'm always after people's energy rather than their time. Right. It's kind of like we do four day work weeks, right? I'd rather have energy than time. And so, don't think cracking the whip is the way to succeed. Brian (32:15) Yeah, I'm in the same boat. remember having a boss once that used to take me into the server room to yell at me because he could raise his voice in there and nobody would hear it. So, that was fun. Right, right. Well, this has been great, Mike. I really appreciate you making time for this. And I think everyone's going to get a of good tips out of this. Mike (32:23) You I gotta remember that. Great, thanks for having me, Brian. Bye.

 When a body washes ashore on Lake Coeur D'Alene in Northern Idaho, residents of the popular vacation destination have their suspicions as to who it must be. When the body's identity is confirmed, the residents are left asking another question, why? Did they really need to die?Case begins at 15:30 And a big thank you to one of our 11 listeners, Chelsee Connors. For her hilarious factoid and case recommendations. Much appreciated! Support the show

Join Brian and Mike Cohn as they dissect the vital roles and responsibilities of the product owner, from story mapping to stakeholder management. This episode is a treasure trove for anyone looking to sharpen their Agile skills and understand the nuanced demands of a product owner. Overview In this insightful episode, Brian and Mike Cohn explore the multifaceted role of product owners in Agile development, discussing everything from market analysis and vision creation to the nuts and bolts of sprint planning and retrospectives. Emphasizing flexibility and adaptability, Brian and Mike offer a comprehensive look at how product owners can excel by focusing on strategic planning and fostering strong team dynamics. This episode is essential for product owners seeking to enhance their impact in Agile environments and drive successful outcomes. Listen Now to Discover: [1:07] - Brian welcomes special guest Mountain Goat Software and Agile Alliance founder Mike Cohn. [1:31] - Brian introduces Mountain Goat Software’s What Happens When for a Product Owner, and Mike flips the script, setting Brian, as the creator, into the guest seat on this episode. [3:16] - Join Brian as he explores the vital, behind-the-scenes efforts of product owners that set the stage for Scrum success, all before the first sprint begins. [6:24] - Brian explains the dynamics of crafting a product vision, clarifying how much responsibility lies with the product owner and how much is shared with the team. [7:46] - Brian offers expert guidance on the optimal timing for creating a story map within the Scrum process. [9:46] - Brian and Mike explore the optimal quantity of backlog items to have ready before adding them to a sprint. [13:45] - Join Brian as he explains the importance of setting a product goal in Scrum, detailing how it enhances functionality and guides the development process. [17:03] - Brian invites you to download Mountain Goat Software’s What Happens When for Product Owners, a comprehensive guide designed to support your Scrum journey. [17:43] - Brian explains how to effectively integrate road mapping into the Scrum process, ensuring it adds valuable foresight and preparation without causing shortsightedness. [19:55] - Mike suggests a strategy for managing stakeholders who overemphasize the product roadmap, offering a creative approach to preserve the flexibility and adaptability that effective road mapping allows. [22:48] - Brian delves into the critical role and strategies of effective sprint planning, essential for driving successful Scrum projects. [24:20] - Brian offers his perspective on the significance and involvement of the product owner in the daily scrum, detailing their role and contributions. [26:15] - Mike recounts a memorable story about receiving exceptionally impressive customer feedback at trustworthy.com, highlighting the impact of genuine client interactions. [28:30] - Brian emphasizes that the product owner is an integral part of the team and its goals, underscoring their collaborative role rather than being separate. [29:18] - Brian explores the crucial involvement of the product owner in the backlog refinement process, detailing their responsibilities and impact. [30:48] - Brian explains why he views the sprint review as the product owner's event and offers strategies for executing it effectively. [32:17] - Brian delves into the product owner's essential participation in the retrospective, emphasizing that their insights and experiences are crucial for the team's growth and improvement. [34:10] - Brian outlines ways the product owner can proactively prepare for the next sprint, ensuring a smooth transition and effective planning. [35:27] - Brian discusses a key pitfall that product owners should avoid to ensure success in their role. [37:35] - Brian shares a big thank you to Mike for taking over this episode of the show. [37:57] - Do you have feedback or a great idea for an episode of the show? Great! Just send us an email. [38:08] - We invite you to like and subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast and share the episode with a friend who could benefit. [38:56] - If you’d like to continue this discussion, join the Agile Mentors Community. You get a year of free membership into that site by taking any class with Mountain Goat Software. We'd love to see you in one of Mountain Goat Software's classes, you can find the schedule here. References and resources mentioned in the show: Mike Cohn What Happens When For Product Owners trustworthy.com Subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast Mountain Goat Software Certified Scrum and Agile Training Schedule Join the Agile Mentors Community Want to get involved? This show is designed for you, and we’d love your input. Enjoyed what you heard today? Please leave a rating and a review. It really helps, and we read every single one. Got an Agile subject you’d like us to discuss or a question that needs an answer? Share your thoughts with us at podcast@mountaingoatsoftware.com This episode’s presenters are: Brian Milner is SVP of coaching and training at Mountain Goat Software. He's passionate about making a difference in people's day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work. Mike Cohn, CEO of Mountain Goat Software, is a passionate advocate for agile methodologies. Co-founder of Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance, he thrives on helping companies succeed with Agile and witnessing its transformative impact on individuals' careers. Mike resides in Northern Idaho with his family, two Havanese dogs, and an impressive hot sauce collection. Auto-generated Transcript: Brian (00:00) Welcome in Agile Mentors, we are back. We are here for another episode of the Agile Mentors podcast. I'm here as always, Brian Milner, and today I have the big man back with me, the OG, we've got Mike Cohn in the house with us. Welcome in, Mike. Mike (00:15) Hey, Brian, thanks for having me back. Brian (00:18) Always happy to have Mike here. Always a pleasure to have him here and learn from his experience. And really, really grateful he's here. We wanted to have Mike on because we have something that we put together recently. Honestly, it's kind of been something we've been talking about we just haven't put together. We had a document that we had out there called What Happens When for Scrum Master. And we just didn't have one of those for a product owner. So I did some work there on the side on that and put it together. And we're getting that out for people so that you can find that and download it from our site. And we wanted Mike to come on to share his wisdom in that area as well, because a lot of this is stuff that I put together. But we wanted to get Mike's insights on these areas as well. Does that sound about right, Mike? Mike (01:11) That's what we agreed to do, but it's not what I'm going to do. Brian (01:14) Okay. Sounds good. Mike (01:19) I'm going to turn the tables on you, Brian, because it's your PDF. It's your document. You're the ideas behind this. So I kind of want to turn it around and take over. I'm going to kind of interview you, ask you things. I mean, I'll chime in with opinions here, of course. I can never shut my mouth long enough to not share an opinion. But it's your PDF. I want to ask you some questions about it, if that's OK with you. And I assume we'll have the link for this in the show notes for folks. They can get the. Brian (01:41) Sure, fair game. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, they'll be in the show notes. Anyone can find this. If you want to download it now and follow along, just pause, you know, go find that in the show notes and you can follow along as we talk through this. Mike (01:55) Great. So Brian, you separated the document out into things that a product owner does. And of course, I mean, kind of naturally you did it by timeframe, right? Do this before you even go and do this every sprint, things like that. I want to talk to you about some of the stuff that we do before the project that a good product owner should do before a project. You had in there a couple of things like do market analysis and create a vision. You tell me more about what you would expect of a great product owner in that world. Brian (02:25) Yeah, that first bullet point, what I was trying to capture is that there's some behind the scenes kind of product, standard product work that we don't really account for in a scrum sense. Things like market analysis and trying to understand the competitive landscape. There's a whole discipline there of activity and work that goes on behind the scenes. And I think it's important to understand, that Scrum isn't in any way saying throw that out or that that's not needed, that is something that would come, in my opinion, before you even begin this kind of work. Scrum does not include in it a process that would say, let's verify that they should fund this product. Let's do a pitch. So the CEO of, you know, here's why you should have this product. That's what I was trying to capture in that first bullet point is just understand there are some standard kind of product development work that goes on that we're not, we're kind of skipping over a little bit. Mike (03:36) That's one of the things I've always loved about Scrum is that Scrum is silent, deliberately so on many topics. And occasionally I will have somebody that I'll meet and they'll say, Scrum doesn't say how we should do product envisioning, right? It doesn't say how we should do that. So I guess we don't do it. It's like, well, Scrum doesn't say that you should code, right? Nowhere in the Scrum guide does it say code your software product, right? Yet if you're doing a software product, somebody's coding, right? Somebody's doing something. And so I like that Scrum is deliberately silent on a lot of things like this because you're talking about doing this market analysis. I work with plenty of companies that are doing internal software. And if we're doing internal software, we're not going to do a market analysis, just kind of internal user needs analysis perhaps, but it's going to be very different. And so I do like that flexibility there. Brian (04:13) Hmm, yeah. Yeah. So that's a good point, though, is depending on the product, it is sort of more as needed or as it would fit. Like you said, if it's an internal product, it's going to look very different than if you're doing a public -facing one. Mike (04:40) I think for any of the steps that you've outlined, I think they can vary. I'm sure some are going to be the same for everybody, but I always think of it as commercial development, right? We're making Microsoft Word, right? I think of it as in -house development, right? We're making a payroll system to pay our employees or contract development are kind of the three big branches to me. And then things get very different within those three types of development. I'm thinking more product development there specifically, but of course we can be using this for non -product things. Brian (05:10) Well, and I do want to say that that second bullet point, they're talking about vision. That's where I honestly, from my perspective, that's where the product owner portion of this begins, right? Because that's sort of the first thing you need to do. And in fact, when we teach our CSPO class, this is, you know, if you've been through a CSPO class with us, you will recognize this order because that's exactly how we go through it in our CSPO class, very deliberately. You know, that Mike (05:39) I'm sorry, I was getting off there, but I was getting interested in something you're saying there. So product owner kind of starting with the vision. I know that the team can influence the vision, right? But where would you draw the line or how much of the vision is the product owners? Is it like, you know, I'm the product owner dictator. Here's my vision, shut up and build it. Brian (06:02) Yeah, I don't know that there's one answer there. I mean, I have seen in certain situations where it's more of a group effort. And that might be part of that earlier genesis of the product, where we go through an effort to define the vision with other key stakeholders, with leaders in the organization. I do think that there is sort of a separate activity that I would take with the team itself. So I might spend a deal of time with key stakeholders developing a vision, but then I might also then have a separate meeting with the team once that's established to say, you know, here's kind of what we're defining it as. Let's walk through this. Tell me if you agree, disagree, or how you might improve or change this. Just so that we, you know, part of our job as a product owner is to cast that vision. and help people get caught up in the excitement for what it is we're trying to do. So that's kind of the purpose there I see of doing that. Mike (07:04) Yeah. Yeah, the more excited we get people about it, the better off we're going to be throughout the course of the project. You also have some things in here about things to do before the first sprint about identifying users, possibly go into the persona level, but then also story mapping. I want to ask you about the story maps for a second. What's your guideline? Because somebody asked me this recently, I'm curious on your answer. What's your guideline for when we should create a story map? Do you do always, only at the start, only in the middle? What's your advice? Brian (07:35) Creating it, I always created at the start. I mean, my, just, and again, this is my experience, right? But what I have found to be useful is to do it at the beginning. And it's sort of right in that order, right? I've done the vision, I've talked, I figure out who my users are. And then I wanna know what the general big picture is for my product. I wanna be able to step back from a 50 ,000 foot view and say, all right, here's kind of the step by step of what we're gonna be doing. Because, you know, kind of like a product backlog, it's a living, breathing document. It's not done, you know, we do it once at the beginning of our product and then it's done set forever. It's constantly adapting and changing as we add new feature areas, as we, you know, understand differently how our users would interact with the product. We're going to adjust and change it. I want it to always reflect reality. Mike (08:30) Do you, so let's talk about reality there. I mean, I agree with that, but what I see is story maps that are hard to keep up to date. Are you seeing teams that really succeed at keeping them up to date all the time? I know the living breathing thing for like a couple months and then it's like the dusty old story map, right? Brian (08:47) Yeah, well, this is kind of one of the things where it was kind of hard for me to put this in a time frame because there's really two time frames that I would like this to appear in. Yes, I do think we should do it before the first sprint. And by the way, again, there, I would do this in multiple rounds with different sets of stakeholders. But then once it's established, I kind of would slide that into that quarterly kind of activity to say, we may not touch it every quarter, but every quarter I would want to... Mike (09:03) Sure. Brian (09:16) check in on it and just say, is this still accurate? Do we need to adjust it? Do we need to do anything different about it? Mike (09:16) Okay. see that. A couple of the things on the before the first spring here, you've got identify assumptions, possibly test some of those, and then create a product goal. And then the last couple of you got, you know, get enough of the backlog written to get started. And a sprinkle, how much of the backlog do you think a team should have to get going? I mean, I know it's probably not like seven and a half items, but you know, you're looking for, you know, one sprint, one or two sprints, eight sprints. Brian (09:45) Bye. Well, no, Mike nailed it. It's seven and a half. Seven and a half items. No, just kidding. Now we can start. No, yeah, I mean, it's, you know, that's why I use the term enough, right? What is enough? Well, you know what enough is, right? You kind of know what that is. There's a, you know, there's a goal that we have in general that we've, lots of us trainers and coaches have put out there to say, Mike (09:52) seven and a half backlog items. There we go. Once you've written seven and a half, we can get started. Brian (10:14) you want to aim for about two to three sprints worth of items that are in ready to go shape. They're ready to move into a sprint and start at any given time. I don't know that you need two to three sprints to start. Yeah, I mean, I think you need, I think there's sometimes a hesitancy in teams to get everything documented upfront. And I'm trying to help people kind of push past that to say, no, we don't need to have everything. Mike (10:25) That's a start. Brian (10:42) We just gotta have enough to start. And when I'm working with a team, I wanna get them into that first sprint as soon as possible because they're gonna learn much more from just doing it than they are from talking about it beforehand. That's why I've never been a real big fan of like a sprint zero or something like that because it just doesn't take a whole sprint to do everything that you need to do to get ready for your first sprint. Mike (10:58) Right. Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, to me, I always put it in terms of like, we're gambling our time, right? Is it worth gambling more of our valuable time writing more backlogs, or should we just play and get started? And if we're a company whose name is invoices are us, right? You know, should we go ahead and write some stories about the invoicing part of the system? Yeah, I bet we should. But if we're not sure that, I don't know what we're building, but if we're not sure invoice is going to be part of it, don't write anything about that on the backlog yet. Just put one big item, do invoices, right? Break it down when you get there. So. Brian (11:36) Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you typically know where you need to start. You know, there's a million things you could do. But when you have a big idea for a product and you're starting fresh and you're starting new with it, at least in my experience, again, I found like, I always know where I'm starting. And that's what I would encourage you to do is just get it out there, get it started. Even if you don't have all the different features and aspects of it thought through, that's OK. Mike (11:44) Right. Brian (12:05) You just want to start making progress so you learn. Mike (12:08) That reminds me of something I've shared with a lot of leadership teams that I've met with over the years, which is that I'll tell them that they're basically solving the wrong problem. And they're trying to answer the question of what should we build? What should the product be? And that's totally the wrong question. The right question is what should we build next? What's that next one or two steps that would tell you what the next four or five steps will be? And so simplify the question, not what are we building, but what are we building next? And I think you're right there. Brian (12:26) Yeah, yeah. Mike (12:36) one sprint worth is enough and put in the backlog if you need to write more backlog items. Go from there. Brian (12:41) Yeah. And I don't want anyone to hear us incorrectly here. I mean, part of the reason that we had them there to identify assumptions and try to test hypothesis is I don't want to open a, the silly example I always use in classes, I don't want to open a store that sells lip balms online and not test whether people want to buy lip balm online or not. There's some fundamental assumptions that you're going to have to test and know. Mike (12:48) Thank you. Brian (13:11) probably before you're gonna even get with a team and start getting up and running on this. And that should happen here. Mike (13:16) Yeah. I was with a company, this is years ago, they were in Boston, we finished the engagement, I'm walking next to my rental car, and one of the guys walks out with me, one of the like VPs, and he's like, I got a question for you. He says, how often should we cancel projects? And I said, Brian (13:34) Seven and a half. Mike (13:35) I don't know, seven and a half. I said, I don't know. So I don't know how often, but you should be canceling a fair number of projects. You get started, you find out it's going to take twice as long as you thought, or you get started, and it's not really going to deliver the value that you hoped for. So you stop. And he's like, I thought so. He said something like, I've been here, I think, eight years, we've never canceled a project. And it's like, OK, that's bad. You should get into these and find out your assumptions are wrong. Brian (13:51) Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Mike (14:04) I want to talk about your quarterly items on here. And you've got a couple, let me just kind of read some of these here. So you've got establish a product goal. That's a relatively new thing in Scrum. I mean, I still think of 2020 as relatively new, but as a old timer with Scrum, product goal is one of the newer enhancements. You've got doing the story writing workshop. So you're supporting what you said there. Talk to me about the product goal here. Brian (14:19) Yeah. Yeah, so I feel silly talking to Mike Cohen about what a product goal is. Product goals are just that neck, they're a milestone, right? And that's typically the way I talk about this in class is to say, especially when you're starting something new, you may not know everything that you're gonna do, but you know the next big thing that you need to accomplish. You know the next big mile marker that you're gonna hit in the life of your product. Mike (14:56) Mm -hmm. Brian (14:59) And that's what we want to establish with the product goal. Something that's going to take longer than a sprint, multiple sprints to do. I've got this in the quarterly section. And that's kind of how we tend to talk about it a lot here at Mountain Goat. But even in class, we'll even say quarterly -ish. Right, right, bigger than a sprint. And sometimes it'll be longer. Sometimes it'll be shorter. That's OK. Mike (15:16) It's the bigger than a sprint section, right? Brian (15:25) You just want to have that big thing that the team can keep their eyes on and kind of know, you know, here's, you got a sprint goal that tells us why what we're doing in this sprint is important and how my small task feeds into that. And you've got this product goal to say, how does the sprints work fit into this bigger picture of what we're trying to do? So you're making those... Mike (15:47) Yeah. Brian (15:50) connections consciously for the developers so that they are not just, hey, here's a laundry list of stuff to do, but here's the objective we're trying to accomplish. Mike (16:01) Yep. I think it's important to have something that's out there bigger than a sprint. A sprint is just, it's just kind of suboptimizing, right? I think about if you're climbing a mountain and a sprint is like, what's the highest thing I see and just always walk into the highest thing you see. Meanwhile, those are all false summits. The real summit is, you know, behind some valley, but you don't see it because you don't set out that bigger goal. And I like how you talked about it quarterly because if the goal's too big, if it's too far out there, we're not going to feel very motivated. about it. I had this the wackest example of this. I hope the guy's not listening. Actually, I hope he is. But he was told me he was on a project with the large particle collider. And he said his whole project won't be due for 40 years, right? I mean, I don't get it. But it's like they've got to run like 40 years worth of data before it's like totally done. And I just picture myself showing up for work on a 40 year project, right? Brian (16:31) Right. Yeah. Mike (16:57) I know you, you're going to be reading Dallas Cowboys news for the first 35 years, right? You know, sports news and you know. Brian (17:04) That's a 40 year project too. Mike (17:07) Well, you're not going to take it serious for 35 years. Then you're going to wake up and go, the deadline's only five years away. I better get to work on this. And then what I would do is realize, wow, I'll be retired after 40 years. So anyway, I've been silly. But I mean, you're on a project with a 40 -year deadline. How do you say motivated? And I think three months is a really good time where I can see a bigger impact than a sprint. But it's not so far. Brian (17:15) Right. Right, right, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Mike (17:34) that that student syndrome kicks in and I feel, I don't really have to worry about it. Let's go to a long lunch. We'll get to work on it tomorrow. So I do like the quarter -ish approach there. You mentioned here a couple others here. These are probably straightforward, but manage and maintain the economics of your project, assess stakeholder relations, and road mapping. You want to talk about any of those, maybe road mapping especially? Brian (17:46) Yeah, yeah. Yeah, road mapping, I think, is an important aspect. I mean, it kind of goes along with that product goal. But I do get people who come through a product owner class that will say, I don't like this approach because it seems like it's all so short -sighted. And we're not really having the big picture of where we're going. And in my world, we have this year -long thing, or 10 year. I've worked with some teams that build automobiles and they're on a three -year release cycle. They're working on the model year that's three years ahead. I've worked with some teams that do aerospace kind of stuff and they're working on a space launch that's multi -years out in the future. Mike (18:34) Yeah. Brian (18:43) And when you ask them, how certain are you that you're really going to be working on this five years from now? Pretty darn certain, right? Because it's there. We're building toward that launch date's going to be there. So I think that that roadmap is an important step for a product owner. Now, I just want to be clear about this. When I say a roadmap, I'm not talking about setting hard and fast dates and saying, we're going to be here by this date. We're going to be there by this date. Mike (18:50) Yeah. Brian (19:12) It's okay for us to say, here's kind of where we feel things are gonna fall, but I really am a strong proponent of the forecasting method, like kind of looking ahead and seeing, you know, kind of based on yesterday's weather kind of thing, right? Here's what the weather was like at this time last year. So it's probably a good indicator of where we're gonna be at this season this year, that sort of thing. So I'm a proponent of the forecasting forward. And I think a roadmap can fall very well in line with that because we can slot things and say, here's kind of this quarter's, here's the next quarter kind of things that we're thinking that are gonna take place. And if one thing moves forward or backwards, one of those sections, that's not a big deal. It's not gonna change earth shatteringly the course of our product, but it does allow for preparation. And that's what I think is the most important thing that people lose sight of in sort of forecasting and projecting forward is why do we do this in the first place? Well, we do it most of the time because there's someone else who needs to get ready. They need to be prepared. They need to be ready when this is delivered to do XYZ. And that's what we're trying to accomplish with this. We can do that with forecasting. Mike (20:32) Yeah, I think you talk about taking those things seriously. And if we miss one, it's not the end of the world. Except there's always somebody in an organization who's going to say it is the end of the world. The danger for me with roadmaps is how serious people take them. They'll look at it and go, we got a roadmap. It says we're going to come out with this in 12 months. I bet we're going to do exactly these 12 things. And so that literalness to a roadmap. Brian (20:50) Yeah. Mike (20:59) is scary. I've only done this a couple of times, but I like the result is I put together roadmaps for with teams in a couple of organizations. And we kind of modeled them on the idea of the old, I don't know, 200 or 300 year ago, 400 year ago maps, right? And you would have like, you know, the. horrible map of what the world looked like, right? And there'd be Darby Dragons right on the edge of the map. And we actually did that on a roadmap, right? It had stacks of items are going to be delivered. You know, this, this six months, this six months. And then below there, we had just put a few things in kind of an unreadable font at Darby Dragons below there. Trying to reiterate that you can't take this that literally, but there often is somebody who's like, my annual bonus is tied to that box on the roadmap. Brian (21:24) I'm going to go ahead and close the video. Right. Well, you can see this in, you know, I'm not going to get on a tangent here on safe, but you even see this in safe when people do things like PI planning and they plan out the next quarter. One of the pitfalls that I think a lot of organizations fall into when they do that is that they see it as a commitment. That the team is making a commitment to getting all that work done in that PI, in that program increment. And that's not the way it's intended. It's intended as here's our loose plan. We know what we're going to do in the next sprint, but the other sprints are Mike (21:48) Right. Yep. Brian (22:17) more fluid and we'll adjust as we need to. Mike (22:20) Yeah, I've written so many times about a plan is not a commitment or commitment is not a guarantee, right? You know, I can make a commitment to this. I'm going to commit to do my best. We're going to commit to try to achieve these. But I love a Clint Eastwood quote, one of his movies. He said, if you want a guarantee, buy a toaster. Right. So. Those are the days when supposedly banks used to give you a toaster when you open a new account, right? That. Brian (22:25) Yeah, yeah. you can guarantee a toaster in today's world. Well, we joke in our family because my wife's grandparents have a, well, they're no longer with us, but they had a refrigerator that was from the 1950s that was sitting out in their barn that still worked perfectly. But we had, you know, our refrigerator is, you know, five years old and it's already breaking down and you have to consider replacing it. So, yeah, yeah. Mike (22:49) precede my day, but I... Wow. It's all the electronics in them, I think, right? So I want to move on to the sprint planning. So from the quarterly planning. So in sprint planning, you've got this broken out by what people do in the planning meeting daily during the sprint. So I want to start in the planning meeting. You're proposing a goal and work with developers to kind of improve that, answer questions about backlog items, and talk about your schedule as the product owner share your schedule. You want to elaborate on what you're thinking about with these sprint planning activities? Brian (23:15) Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, so I think a goal is important for the sprint. I think that gets us all on the same page and it's kind of one of the teaming aspects of it. We want to all have our eyes on the prize of what it is we're trying to accomplish together so that we're not all just in different places working on different things. I think it's important that we're there in sprint planning to answering questions because that's when they come up. We're making our plan for when we're going to do something. So I think it's important that we're there to kind of help them plan how they're going to accomplish stuff. Mike (23:59) Yep. Brian (24:08) We're not telling them how to, but we're giving them the information they need to determine how. And then, you know, as far as our schedule is concerned, I think it's a great idea for a product owner in sprint planning to say, you know, here's the next two weeks of my calendar. Here's where I'm going to be out of the office these days. I'm going to be at a client site on these days, just so that people can prepare. If I'm a developer and I know I need to get approval from my product owner and I know they're going to be out for the next two days at a conference or something, well, that might... guide me in how I'm going to plan and arrange my work. Mike (24:38) Yep. Some of my favorite POs have been ones that have done something like said, look, between one and two o 'clock every day is total team time. I will never schedule a meeting. I'll always be available if you need me from one to two or one to three or eight to nine, whatever it is, but they'll have some sort of window there that is basically guaranteed access. Doesn't mean that's the only time they're available, but it's a guaranteed time, which is nice. I think it's nice. Brian (25:04) Yeah, I love that too. Mike (25:06) Talk to me about the daily scrums and what you'd expect out of a product owner during the daily standups. Brian (25:08) Ha ha ha. Yeah, daily scrums are kind of a controversial thing here for lots of reasons, but I mean, there's some who would say a product owner doesn't need to be at a daily scrum. I disagree. I think product owners do need to be there. I don't think they're required. Actually, if you want to ask me my opinion, the only people I think are required are the developers, because it's for them, it's by them. You can't have it if they're not there. If anyone else is not there, you can still have the meeting. Mike (25:14) Thank you. Brian (25:38) But the product owner, I think, is important to try to be at as many of these as they possibly can. Because just like in sprint planning, they're making a plan for what they're doing, here it's immediately before they're going to be doing this work. So it's the time when the rubber meets the road. And here's where they're going to have some real practical questions. And if you're not there to answer them, you could hold them up. You could delay them. Mike (26:04) Yeah. Brian (26:05) I also, like you said, I like to use this as an opportunity to say, here's when I'm available today. Mike (26:10) I wake that product owners attend because of the message it helps sends as well. If the PO never goes, is this project important, right? Or team members start to think, we have to show up daily and say what we did yesterday, that that person never has to do this, you know? And we started to get some resentment towards them. So I strongly encourage product owners to attend. I'm like you, that don't require, but my requirement test is always, would I cancel the meeting if this person had a dentist appointment, right? Brian (26:16) Yeah. Mike (26:41) If the product owner had a dentist appointment in the morning of planning, I'd probably say, can we do it in the afternoon? My product owner can't make the daily scrum because I've got a dentist appointment? well. We're still doing the daily scrum. But you're right. If all of the teams, this will be silly, but if all of the team members were all having dentist appointments, yeah, we'd cancel the meeting. There'd be no point. So. Brian (26:53) Right. Yeah, the Scrum Master and Product Owner can't have a daily scrum, just the two of them. Mike (27:07) What should we make them do? Let's talk about what to do during the sprint. You talked about kind of ongoing research. So you don't want to do all the research upfront on this. Brian (27:09) Right, exactly. Right, no, it's a continual thing, right? I mean, if I'm working on my product and my competitor comes out with a killer feature that's starting to gain traction, I can't do that research upfront. That's something that becomes apparent as the product kind of goes along. So I think it's important that we keep in touch with what's going on in the real world with our product and the competitors. Mike (27:43) Mm -hmm. through the marketing, through the market. The thing you had next here was about connecting with customers to hear feedback. I want to share a story on this one because it literally just happened. I told you I was out of the office. I got back like 15 minutes before we wanted to do this recording. And I'd been gone all morning, so I talked to my wife for about five minutes. And she and I had come across some software recently that we're using that looks kind of interesting. It's things like, you know, when you die, who gets access to your Facebook? Brian (27:57) Yeah. Mike (28:18) password, right? And most of my friends are pretty shifty. So I don't want to give my Facebook password now because they'd probably go post weird things. But I want you know, when I die, I want that to happen, right? And so we're looking at various software that does those things like who do you notify when after you died? Brian (28:19) Yeah. Mike (28:35) And we signed up with this company. I'm actually going to share the name because I like them so much here in a minute, but let me say why I like them. My wife and I both had interactions with them by email about totally different things. One was a little bug that I came across and then something that I think she was asking about how does the future work. But here's what I love. They contacted her today and said, can we get on the phone with you and hear what you think about our product? They're a fairly new company, I believe. what you think about our product and what you think about how we've, in particular, have like the three tiers of service that we offer, right? You know, this feature, this feature. And I just love that they're doing that, right? Because not as many companies do that as they should, right? As they should. Because I love that company, so I'm gonna mention their name, trustworthy .com. Probably nobody listening needs them, but they are just this kind of like, you know, I don't wanna say like death planning, because they're not like playing your funeral, but it's like. Brian (29:23) Hahaha. Mike (29:28) Who gets your Facebook account? What bank accounts do you have? So your heirs can figure it out. Right. So, so. Brian (29:34) Yeah, yeah, that's great. No, I love having that mission if they're, they have good customer service. Yeah, definitely. Let's, let's mention them. Mike (29:40) Yeah, and my wife and I favorably disposed of them, and that just put me over the top with them literally a half hour ago. You talk about checking in with the Scrum Master, about how you as a product owner are doing, but also staying in touch with devs. Brian (29:46) That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think that it's important for us to understand that we are not somehow separate from the team. We are part of the team. So we have the same goal as everyone else, and that's to deliver as much value as we can to our customers. We have a specific role, a responsibility to play in that. But I think checking in, partly I put that on there because. checking with a scrum master. That's something that we have on our scrum master sheet is to check in with a product owner. And I do think that those two need to kind of work hand in hand over the course of a sprint. And on an ongoing basis, kind of touch base to see how are things on your end? How are things on my end? And how can we help each other to kind of achieve our goals here? Mike (30:24) Yeah. Yeah, you often notice something about somebody else before they may notice it themselves, right? We've got a couple other meetings that I'll move on to. So let's talk about refinement. Can you share what your thoughts are for a product owner's responsibilities during refinement? Brian (30:43) Mmm. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, refinement, I always hesitate to even think about it as a meeting because it's kind of more of a series of activities. And you might have multiple meetings that would need to take place here. But yeah, I think that there's a lot of prep work that goes into. If I'm going to have the stakeholders come in and help me prioritize, I've got to prep a lot of that work. I've got to have the stuff that's ready to go prior to that meeting. I can't just show up and go, let's see what we got in our backlog. And we'll just kind of wing it. Mike (31:02) Good point. if What do you think about this product owner? I don't know. Let me think now. Yeah. Did I write that one? Brian (31:21) Right. Right. I don't even know what that is. I don't know. Let me read it. Right. That's just going to waste everyone's time and frustrate people. So I think there's a lot of prep that goes into that and prepping to go into anything like estimation. Do we have the right sort of things that are going to be estimated? I don't want to waste my team's time estimating stuff that's maybe really a long way in the future. And I'm not going to look at it for a while. So, you know, I think there's a lot of prep time that goes into that. And I think that, you know, we're at the center, at the focal point of any kind of refinement activity. as a product owner. So that's going to be, I don't really know exactly how those meetings are going to play out for you, but I think that there is some configuration there that you got to plan for. Mike (32:02) I'm hearing your message. There is the old boy scout motto, be prepared, right? It's a new product owner motto, right? We'll, we'll steal it from the boy scouts. you have any, that's true. Just don't take away my Girl Scout cookies. So let's talk about the, the sprint review. what do you think a great product owner does then? Brian (32:06) Yes, yes. Yeah. Well, that's okay, because there's no more Boy Scouts. So you don't have to worry about that. Right. wow. So this is our event. I really think of this as the product owners event. Yeah, exactly. I think you're the emcee. I think you show up, you host it, you send out the invites for it. What I typically tell product owners is kick it off with kind of a look back at some things that have been done recently by the team. Here's some features that we developed in the past three to six sprints and maybe even show some statistics about the impact those things are making. Mike (32:30) you Showtime! Brian (32:56) on the product and the market, on the customers. Our customer satisfaction has gone from here to there as a result of releasing these features, those kinds of things. So I think that the meeting opens that way. Then we move into the demonstration of the work and what we've done in that sprint. And yes, I would turn that over in large part to the developers so that they can demonstrate. But then I think it circles back at the end to come back to the product owner to say, all right, let's take a peek ahead. Let's look ahead what's coming up in our product backlog. Here's what our... looking at as candidates for the next sprint. And I think that's really important. It gives the stakeholders a chance to speak up and say, hey, what about this thing that I had that was really important? I don't see that prioritized. I really need that in the next sprint. I want to have those conversations in advance, not after sprint planning, when it's sort of locked in. Yeah. Mike (33:45) Tell me about the retrospective. One of the things I noticed you had in there was that you want product owners to attend every retrospective. There's going to be pushback on that from some teams. What's your thought there? Brian (33:59) Yeah, my thought there is, again, kind of reiterating that point that we are on the team, we are a team member like anyone else. And again, we have different responsibilities. We have a named kind of set of accountabilities that we have that may differ from others. But I kind of consider it like this. If I'm on a, in the US, we'd say soccer team, but if I'm anywhere else in the world, I'd say football team. If I'm on that kind of a team and I'm the keeper, the goalkeeper. I've got a very unique role, right? I mean, there's a set of things I do that no one else does. I'm allowed to do things that nobody else is allowed to. I'm allowed to touch the ball with my hands. Nobody else is, right? But if there's a team meeting, you're not gonna have a team meeting without your goalkeeper. They're an important vital part of your team. And that's what this is. It's the team meeting to get together to say, how can we get better? How can we improve? What's going on? What's wrong? What's right? And what do we wanna focus on? Mike (34:36) Right. Yeah. Brian (34:58) So I think it's vital for a product owner to be at every one just because like I said, we're a team member. Mike (35:04) I agree. To me, it's always like, if you don't feel comfortable having your product owner at the retrospective, that's the first thing I want to talk about at the retrospective. Right? It would figure out why we're not comfortable with that so we can move past that. I do like here in the retrospective, you talked about having the product owner commit to making progress on the improvement items, which I think is important because sometimes it is product owners who have to improve. Right? So. Brian (35:31) Yeah. Yeah, I mean, one of the things we'll talk about in class is how the product owner is a vital communication relay point. They are the, I call them kind of the, it slipped my mind. What's the stone that had the different languages on it from Rosetta Stone, sorry. They're kind of the Rosetta Stone, right? Because they speak tech with the developers. They speak. Mike (35:36) Mm -hmm. Rosetta. Brian (35:57) business with the stakeholders and they translate across those two groups. So I think, yeah, I think it's important that we're there to try to, if there's communication issues with us and the developers, this is the place to work it out, right? This is the place to say, what do you need from me so that it's more clear the next time I write stories. Mike (36:02) Yep. Yeah, that's a good point. What about for the next sprint? What should product owners do this sprint to be ready for the next one? Brian (36:24) Yeah, excuse me. Yeah, I think it's important that we really get a handle on what should be prioritized, that we have a good understanding of what's going to be coming up, that we have that idea of what our next proposed sprint goal might be, where we're focused on stuff. And as I said, I want to check in with my stakeholders, especially my key stakeholders, on that prioritization so that it's not a surprise to anyone. I don't want to. I don't want anything to be a surprise when it gets to sprint planning. By the time we circle back around in sprint planning, I want my developers to have looked at these things multiple times before they see it in sprint planning. We've had estimations. We've had discussions about these. So there could have been multiple times we've had conversations about these. So by the time we get to sprint planning, it's not the first time we're looking at these things. Mike (37:00) Yeah. Yeah, it should be a surprise. Brian (37:15) And that's kind of what I'm trying to allude to here is that there's a series of activities that just are kind of the glue between one sprint to the next sprint. And if we kind of drop that ball in any way, like I said, I can't show up at sprint planning and sort of just say, well, let's see what we got, guys. I have no idea what we're going to do, but let's just take a look. Yeah, I can't wing it. Mike (37:30) Right. Yeah, wing it. Yeah, that's not a good approach for things. Brian, you told me a lot of things that product owners should do. I want to twist it a little bit and ask you for one thing product owners should not do before the sprint, during the sprint, before the project, whatever. What's one thing, the one thing you would tell product owners to not do? Brian (37:57) Wow, that's such a great question. I think probably the number one thing that I would say is to understand the boundary between the what and the how, and really to try to stay out of the how. What I mean by that is we're in charge as product owners of the what side of the equation. What is it that we're going to be doing? What are we focused on? The developers are in charge of the how. How do we accomplish this? What's the best way to deliver this? And I... I know as a product owner in my past, I've always struggled with that balance of, yeah, but I've got a vision in my head of exactly the way I want it to play out. And I have to kind of rein myself back in a little bit and say, yeah, but kind of remind yourself that that's not really my role here. My role is not to explain exactly how the page is going to need to look and exactly how this feature plays out. If I have no really discernible reason that I have to have it one way over another, right? If there's not like a legal reason or compliance that I've got to do it one way, then I want to as much as possible stay out of the house so that the developers really get to exert their expertise. Mike (38:59) Right. Yeah, that's where they're going to be, they're going to be best at. I was describing it as that there's, there is a fine line between what and how, which is why people often will struggle with it. the way I think about it is like every time we dip into that, how at all product owners dip into that at all, they start to kind of take away degrees of freedom from the team. The team has less maneuvering room on how they're going to solve the problem. And great, take away one degree of freedom here and there. It's not going to be the end of the world. Take away too many, and you over -constrained the solution. The team doesn't engage as fully. All sorts of negative things, as you've touched on. Brian (39:39) Yeah. Mike (39:40) Brian, I want to thank you for letting me take over and turn the tables on you and ask you the question. Since you had made the PDF, I wanted to be the one asking you what your thoughts were on your great PDF that we have for folks. So I'll turn it back over to you. Let it be back to your show now. Brian (39:41) Hahaha I... Yeah, no, well, thank you very much. This has been a pleasure. It's been really fun to have to see what it's like on the other side of the table a little bit. So thanks for being willing to do it, Mike, and thanks for being willing to share your insights as we walked through this.

Ben and his wife, Claire, run Allicin's Ranch where they grow over 50 varieties of garlic year round through a migrant farming lifestyle on their properties in Northern Idaho, Baja California and Argentina.  Throughout our conversation, we discuss what it means to be a migrant farmer, and all of the unique benefits and challenges that come with it. We explore the romanticized narratives about farm life, and shed light on the invisible systemic barriers that make the life of a small farmer more difficult.  Tune in to learn more about:  Why garlic is an ideal crop for migrant farming  How they continue building their soil throughout the years  How different types of animal manure impact the yield of a crop  Leaning on perennials as a way to be able to leave for stretches of time  The many varieties of garlic that exist, and why grocery stores only carry one variety What the color of your garlic says about the quality of your soil  Insights from family members that pioneered the original organic movement The current state of corruption behind the "USDA organic" label  The true cost of eating cheaper produce from monocrop farms  … And so much more!  Connect with Ben: Website: allicinsranch.com Instagram: @allicins_ranch Website: garlicbraids.com Connect with Hannah: Instagram: @hannahkeitel

Erik is truly a man of integrity, work ethic and an overcomer. Growing up with a complicated childhood and broken home, to raising himself from the age of 14. Unfortunately, finding trouble along the way, desperately trying to fill the gaping voids in his life. As a young man Erik found himself empty and tired of settling for less. After the feverish pursuit of the Holy Spirit, Erik decided to surrender and trust the One that would never let him down.Now, Erik and his wife of nearly 19+ years and their two children live in Northern Idaho and live a humble and blessed life. Together they are breaking the cycles handed down to them of divorce, addictions, depression, abuse, and lies. They are leaving a new legacy for their next generation built on a biblical foundation.On this episode of the Strong by Design Podcast, Jared and Erik discuss the value of establishing and maintaining healthy rhythms, and how those rhythms affect your mind, body, and spirit.  “A divorce can cause generational struggles to get back on track.” -Erik Allen Time Stamps  00:47 - Welcome to the 'Strong by Design' Podcast02:25 - Get to know today's special guest, Erik Allen, founder and host of 'The Erik Allen Show' and 'Top MMA Podcast' 07:05 - Erik's jail experience: How his complicated, abusive childhood affected him08:45 - How a simple church invitation from a woman reshaped the course of his entire life10:40 - Erik talks about his calling to break the cycle of abuse, addiction and divorce18:34 - Discover how he is helping entrepreneurs get known and noticed online20:06 - Erik on managing the chaos of daily life22:56 - The power of leading your kids by example29:25 - How to stay connected with God through community36:25 - The power of Prayer38:14 - Where you can go to connect with Erik Allen   Resources:·         ErikAllenMedia.com  Connect w/ Erik:·         Instagram·         Facebook ·         YouTubeSupport the Show.Connect w/ CriticalBench: Youtube Facebook Instagram CriticalBench.com StrongByDesignPodcast.com

  A northern Idaho prosecutor won't bring hate crime charges against an 18-year-old accused of shouting a racist slur at members of the Utah women's basketball team during the NCAA Tournament. In an announcement Monday, officials wrote that though the use of the slur was "detestable" and "incredibly offensive," there wasn't evidence suggesting that the man was threatening physical harm to the women or to their property. KSL Legal Analyst Greg Skordas joins D2 to explain the details, and discuss what is and isn't protected speech.  

Smith Entertainment Group and the NHL turns to the public to decide Utah's new pro hockey team name  U.S. Senate candidate Brad Wilson  Northern Idaho to not press charges over racist incident involving UofU NCAA Women's basketball team Is camping a valid form of protest? 

On "Forbes Newsroom," Karl Eastlund, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and Northern Idaho, reacted to the Supreme Court hearing about Idaho's abortion law and what he's seeing happen to women and reproductive rights in Idaho.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Join Tom Schneider and Sy Kirk talking about trail cams in this episode.Our first ever live movie night in Northern Idaho is Friday April 26thYou can get your TICKETS HEREWe have a new website with hunts, apparel, and new events coming!stuckntherut.comJoin Tom at:Elk CampSheep CampWolf Camp

In today's Worst Day On The Web, Danny and Dusty try to understand why there are still racist people acting stupid towards a college basketball team over in Idaho during the NCAA Tourament.

In Hour 2, Danny and Dusty talk about the changes to NFL kickoffs and if they make the game better or not, lament at the stupidity of racists in Northern Idaho, and more.

Tonight's guest, She'Anna Slover, had her paranormal experience on the north side of Lake Pend Oreille, in Northern Idaho, while she was on a multi-state rockhounding adventure, with her ex-husband. What should have been a great time for them wound up being anything but. If you listen to She'Anna share everything that happened to them, on their outing just north of Lake Pend Oreille, it will blow your mind. She and her ex-husband experienced some incredibly strange phenomena! If you've had a paranormal experience and would like to be a guest on the show, please go to https://www.MyParaEx.com and let us know. Thanks for listening!

Have you ever returned to an old User Story and wondered, “what was I thinking?” On today’s episode, Mike Cohn, walks us through how and why he recently revisited and updated 200 Real Life User Story Examples from his past projects and updated a resource for you! Listen in as Mike and Brian share what worked and what didn’t work from the past, in an effort to make their user story writing skills stronger. Overview What makes a user or job story great? In this episode of the Agile Mentors Podcast, Brian Milner and Mike Cohn of Mountain Goat Software, share Mike’s recent updates and edit to 200 Real Life User Story Examples. Listen as they revisit 200 older user stories, breaking down their analysis through the lens of more experience and an evolving technological landscape. Plus, in true iterative fashion, Mike shares how he is still working to write better user stories after years of perfecting and teaching the art of story writing. Tune in to learn what makes a great clear user story, and what makes a story that stinks. Listen Now to Discover: [00:57] - Brian is joined today by Mike Cohn who will be revisiting user stories. [02:58] - Mike talks about how he came back to these 200 user stories and decided that some of them sucked and needed updating. [04:42] - When writing user stories, Mike talks about prioritizing meaningful conversations over perfect user stories. [06:35] - Brian underscores the importance of efficient communication with developers through unconventional yet practical user stories. [07:22] - Brian points to previous podcast episodes with Mike that delve into the basics of writing user stories, in episode, #10 Why User Stories are the Best Way to Capture Requirements with Mike Cohn and #39 The Art of Writing User Stories with Mike Cohn [08:22] - Mike walks through a story written for the development of the Scrum Alliance website, noting it is framed well within the site's premise. [09:10] - Brian raises considerations about inserting information mid-story. [09:57] - Mike finds the story intriguing but suggests simplifying it by moving details into acceptance criteria, a notion that didn’t exist at the time, for clarity. [12:03] - Mike advocates for concise user stories, suggesting omitting unnecessary details and using acceptance criteria for specifics. [13:52] - In a job story example, Mike and Brian point out common mistakes from an era without distinct fields. [16:34] - Brian understands the attempt to prompt discussion in the job story but finds it normal overall. [17:32] - Mike critiques a job story for site admins approving job postings, suggesting modernizing language for notification methods and flexibility. [19:34] - Reflecting on a story about user authentication, Mike acknowledges a bias toward email-centric perspectives, and questions if this story goes too far separating the what and the how. [21:22] - Mike highlights story #42, recognizing a potential mistake in specifying UI details in a story about navigating job listings. [23:24] - If you’re struggling to get your team or organization on the same Agile page from team members to senior executives. Mountain Goat Software can help you Build a Common Understanding of Agile on your team! [24:17] - If you’re a visual learner or you’d like to follow along, you can find the pdf of all the user and job stories discussed in this episode, plus many more, right here. [25:12] - Mike defends a story about viewing detailed course pages, acknowledging UI implications but justifying the necessity of the detail. [27:13] - Mike critiques a user story about creating user accounts, cautioning against a potentially misleading "so that" clause with a specific example. [29:18] - Reflecting on the evolution of user stories, Mike emphasizes a shift from stating "I can" or "I want to" to a more neutral "I." [30:40] - Critiquing a user story about browser compatibility, Mike suggests that it's a nonfunctional requirement and better suited as part of the definition of done. [33:18] - Brian presents a user story for Mountain Goat Software’s Planning Poker tool about database indexes, expressing reservations about the commonality of developer-focused stories. [34:00] - Mike reflects on the “as a developer” story and expresses uncertainty about its inclusion, considering it potentially problematic. [36:22] - Mike critiques a story about database analysis, acknowledging its verbosity but justifying the detail as necessary for clarifying the researcher's role and objectives. [38:03] - Brian appreciates the brevity of the "I want" part of a user story and finds the "so that" clause acceptable as it provides examples and context for developers. [38:39] - Considering a story about storing results, Mike deems it not bad but potentially too long. [40:00] - Mike highlights that the best way to get better at writing stories is to write a bunch of them, acknowledging that his early stories taught him valuable lessons. [41:03] - Brian thanks listeners and invites them to share and subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast on Apple Podcasts. [41:29] - Do you have feedback or a great idea for an episode of the show? Great! Just send us an email. References and resources mentioned in the show: Free download: 200 User Story Examples #10 Why User Stories are the Best Way to Capture Requirements with Mike Cohn #39 The Art of Writing User Stories with Mike Cohn User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development by Mike Cohn Job Stories Offer a Viable Alternative to User Stories by Mike Cohn Mountain Goat Software’s Planning Poker Better User Stories Course Build a Common Understanding of Agile Subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast on Apple Podcasts Mountain Goat Software Certified Scrum and Agile Training Schedule Want to get involved? This show is designed for you, and we’d love your input. Enjoyed what you heard today? Please leave a rating and a review. It really helps, and we read every single one. Got an Agile subject you’d like us to discuss or a question that needs an answer? Share your thoughts with us at podcast@mountaingoatsoftware.com This episode’s presenters are: Brian Milner is SVP of coaching and training at Mountain Goat Software. He's passionate about making a difference in people's day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work. Mike Cohn, CEO of Mountain Goat Software, is a passionate advocate for agile methodologies. Co-founder of Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance, he thrives on helping companies succeed with Agile and witnessing its transformative impact on individuals' careers. Mike resides in Northern Idaho with his family, two Havanese dogs, and an impressive hot sauce collection.

In this week's episode I am joined by Shaun Brophy of Northern Idaho. Shaun was born and raised on the East Coast, lived in the Midwest for a few years and finally landed in Idaho. He has run almost every type of game imaginable in the US with a hound. These days he splits his time between a chasing rabbits with Beagles and big game with his Redbone.  Besides a few good stories Shaun brings up a fe good topics about promoting and preserving hound hunting.  Sponsors: https://conkeysoutdoors.com  Promo Code TREETALKINTIME5 https://fullcrymag.com Merch: https://treetalkin.com/collections  Social Media: https://www.patreon.com/treetalkintime https://www.instagram.com/treetalkinmedia https://www.facebook.com/treetalkinmedia

Dr. Zachary Miller, known by most of his patients as Dr. Z, is a first-generation dentist practicing in Western Washington state. He graduated from USC dental school in 2019 and immediately relocated to Northern Idaho where he practiced for 3 years before moving to Washington to be closer to his wife's family. He has worked as an associate until this point and is currently in the process of acquiring a practice. Join the community on Dentaltown at https://www.dentaltown.com

This episode of the Plastic Surgeon Podcast features Dr. Sajan's patient, Ember. She tells her story of undergoing facial feminization and breast augmentation with Dr. Sajan. Ember grew up in Northern Idaho and discusses her experience with gender dysphoria in the late 1980s and 1990s.Ember presented as male throughout high school, college, and her early adulthood. Working as an IT professional, Ember went on to get married and continue to present in traditionally male ways. In 2020, she began experiencing declining mental health which forced her to reckon with her gender identity. After confiding in her partner, Ember was met with unending support and began transitioning chemically and physically.Six months after coming out socially, Ember moved to Portland and started undergoing gender affirming surgeries. After her first surgery, she sought out facial feminization and reached out to Dr. Sajan. Ember underwent facial feminization surgery that included forehead skin reduction, frontal bone reduction, orbital bone reduction, forehead bone reduction with frontal sinus setback, hair transplant, brow lift, midface lift, rhinoplasty, lip lift, chin bone reduction, and jaw bone reduction.After healing from FFS, Ember then underwent a transgender breast augmentation with 370cc Smooth Round Moderate Plus Xtra silicone breast implants. Listen to Ember's story of coming to accept her gender identity and transitioning on the newest episode of the Plastic Surgeon Podcast with Dr. Javad Sajan.Subscribe to the Plastic Surgeon Podcast for more plastic surgery stories from real patients and providers. Follow Dr. Sajan and the Plastic Surgeon Podcast on social media @realdrseattle.To learn more about the Plastic Surgeon Podcast, visit https://www.plasticsurgeonpodcast.comLearn more about Dr. Sajan's plastic surgery at https://www.allureesthetic.comSupport the show

Are you part of a struggling Agile team? Join Mike Cohn and Brian Milner in this episode as they uncover the primary signs of a team in distress. Listen in as they share the common causes of underperforming teams, and what to do to boost morale, enhance collaboration, and transform your Agile team from struggling to thriving! Overview What is the primary sign of a struggling Agile team? It's when the energy in the room feels like a deflated balloon, and laughter is a distant memory. In this episode of the Agile Mentors Podcast, Brian Milner and Mike Cohn of Mountain Goat Software help listeners identify the signs of a struggling Agile team and the common culprits. Listen in as they unveil the key principles of cultivating a positive work environment and the vital importance of addressing CYA behavior. Plus, they share their top-notch tips on boosting team morale and enhancing collaboration, all while preventing unfinished projects and ensuring consistent delivery. Tune in to transform your Agile team from struggling to thriving! Listen Now to Discover: [01:23] - Brian welcomes back Mike Cohn to the show to discuss how to identify the signs that your team is struggling and what to do about it. [01:54] - Common causes of unfinished work. [04:45] - Do developers use Scrum as an excuse to be lazy? No—that’s rare but can be easily corrected. [07:36] - How to manage underperforming teams. [09:04] - Teams that lack excitement and laughter may be struggling. Work should be fun and enjoyable. How to create a positive work environment. [10:32] - How to break the habit of rolling unfinished work forward. [12:44] - The power of small wins to improve job satisfaction. [14:12] - How to boost morale and deliver small wins that create a sense of accomplishment. [14:30] - The Agile Mentors Podcast is brought to you by Mountain Goat Software and their Certified Scrum Training Classes. Whether you want to be a Scrum Master, Product Owner, or even take an advanced certification, all courses are designed to give you the skills that agile teams and organizations value so you’ll stand out in the market. For more information click on the Mountain Goat Software Certified Scrum and Agile Training Schedule. [15:35] - What CYA is really telling you about your team. [16:59] - The role of managers in creating an environment of openness and collaboration [19:03] - How individualistic behavior—working in isolation, not collaborating—hinders teamwork. [21:08] - Introducing Swarming—a horrible way to work, you’ll get less done—but a great drill to help teams discover new ways to collaborate. [27:54] - Thank you to Mike Cohn for joining us on the show. [28:18] - Please share this episode with others if you found it useful. Send feedback and suggestions for future episodes to podcast@mountaingoatsoftware.com. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast on Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. [27:54] - If this topic was impactful to you and you want to continue the discussion, join the Agile Mentors Community, where we have a topic discussion for each podcast episode. References and resources mentioned in the show: #70: The Role of a Leader in Agile with Mike Cohn #39: The Art of Writing User Stories with Mike Cohn Subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast on Apple Podcasts Certified ScrumMaster Training and Scrum Certification Certified Scrum Product Owner Training Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner® Advanced Certified ScrumMaster® Mountain Goat Software Certified Scrum and Agile Training Schedule Join the Agile Mentors Community Want to get involved? This show is designed for you, and we’d love your input. Enjoyed what you heard today? Please leave a rating and a review. It really helps, and we read every single one. Got an Agile subject you’d like us to discuss or a question that needs an answer? Share your thoughts with us at podcast@mountaingoatsoftware.com This episode’s presenters are: Brian Milner is SVP of coaching and training at Mountain Goat Software. He's passionate about making a difference in people's day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work. Mike Cohn, CEO of Mountain Goat Software, is a passionate advocate for agile methodologies. Co-founder of Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance, he thrives on helping companies succeed with Agile and witnessing its transformative impact on individuals' careers. Mike resides in Northern Idaho with his family, two Havanese dogs, and an impressive hot sauce collection.

Sepsis presents an enormous public health threat. There are for approximately 1.7 million hospital cases and 270,000 deaths per year. Sepsis is consistently in the top five for hospital case volumes and is the most expensive and resource intensive medical inpatient condition, representing approximately 15% of total hospital costs despite accounting for less than 4% of hospital stays.  Various studies estimate sepsis is present in 30% to 50% of hospitalizations that culminate in death.  Because two-thirds of sepsis cases are paid for by Medicare, beginning this January 1, HHS will add sepsis care Medicare's Value-Based Purchasing/VBP program. Meaning, Medicare hospital reimbursement will be determined in part on adherence in meeting a multi-step sepsis treatment protocol focused on timely diagnosis and treatment.  Dedicated listeners of this podcast may recall ten years ago this week I interviewed Dr. Jim Palmer regarding the use of heart rate variability to identify the onset of infection.During this 23-minute interview Dr. Scoggins begins by explaining why timely diagnosis of sepsis has remained challenging and why the Medicare program will now tie reimbursement to meeting a sepsis quality measure or protocol. He explains the SEP-1 measure, addresses concerns regarding the sepsis measure driving antibiotic overuse and administrative burden, whether paying for sepsis performance will unduly penalize hospitals serving poorer communities, how the Medicare rule will impact his program, comments on emerging technology improving sepsis diagnosis, the extent to which commercial payers will adopt a similar sepsis pay for value payment rule and finally why we are seeing more sepsis infections and mortality. Robert Scoggins, MD, PhD, has been a practicing medicine for over twenty years as a pulmonary and critical care physician. He currently is Chief of Staff and ICU Medical Director at Kootenai Health in Northern Idaho. He earned his undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology from Vanderbilt University and his MD and a Ph.D. in Microbiology at the University of Virginia. Dr. Scoggins completed his residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care at Vanderbilt University. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thehealthcarepolicypodcast.com

This week, Christopher talks with Valerie Fast Horse, IT director and creator of Red Spectrum, a broadband company serving the Coeur d'Alene Reservation in North Idaho. They delve into Red Spectrum's history, infrastructure upgrades, and challenges in expanding services, highlighting the importance of community involvement, local talent, and overcoming funding obstacles in the pursuit of success. ★ Support this podcast ★

Join co-hosts Richard Coyne & Bill Zahller as they interview guests who left successful careers to pursue a different path on the Road Less Traveled Show! In this episode, we spend time with Jamie Major!  Jamie is a former law enforcement officer who rose to be an executive in Human Resources.  Jamie later left Corporate America and is now a successful franchise owner and franchise consultant!   A bit more about Jamie: Jamie enjoyed a multifaceted career with metro Atlanta law enforcement. After many years as a Detective and Field Training Officer, Jamie shifted to working in Human Resources.  Jamie went to work in Corporate America where he served as an executive in Human Resources & Business Administration. Jamie left Corporate America to have more control over his time. Now, Jamie is a multi-unit, multi-brand franchisee operating businesses in various industries. Jamie, his wife Melissa, and their 2 children live in Idaho. As a family, they can often be found on the ski slopes around Northern Idaho or watching football.  Jamie holds an MBA from Mercer University, a BA from Reinhardt University, and is a Certified Franchise Consultant. Contact Jamie: Email: jamie@franpathconsulting.com LinkedIn:  linkedin.com/in/jamiemajor   Contact Bill Zahller Phone: 828-275-5035 Email: Bill@ParkCapitalPartnersLLC.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/billzahller   Contact Richard Coyne Phone: 404-245-9732 Email: Richard@ParkCapitalPartnersLLC.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/richardjcoyne   If you would like to learn more about: How Park Capital Partners connects investors with passive income-generating opportunities through real estate, Our Park Capital Value-Add Fund (a 506c fund), Our latest multifamily acquisitions, or The Park Capital Partners Foundation, Inc. (a 501(c)3 non-profit).   Please contact Park Capital Partners LLC in the following ways:  Website: ParkCapitalPartnersLLC.com Email us: info@ParkCapitalPartnersLLC.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ParkCapitalPartners/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/park-capital-partners-llc/   Music by Aliaksei Yukhnevich/Jamendo. Audio and Video Production by Kerry Webb of KLAW Machine Media.   If you would like to be a guest on our show and have a “path change” story, please reach out to Richard at Richard@ParkCapitalPartnersLLC.com.  We would love to chat with you!

On this Episode 406 of Health Solutions, Shawn Needham R. Ph. talks with Sarah and Dustin Adair about leaving traditional healthcare and getting back to basics. Sarah and Dustin own Revival Wellness in Northern Idaho and Sarah is a nurse who left traditional healthcare in Colorado. Sarah is a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP-C) who has worked in healthcare for over a decade. Her background includes emergency medicine at a Level One Trauma Center as a Registered Nurse. While there, she obtained her Masters of Science in Nursing and graduated Cum Laude from the University of Colorado College of Nursing at Anschutz in 2017. 00:00 - Start 00:59 - Sarah Intro 02:22 - Diabetes 04:14 - Parents Modeling Healthy Habits 06:03 - About Sarah's Clinic 07:11 - Obesity 09:32 - Exercise 12:55 - Sarah's #1 Diet Tip 14:39 - Red Meat 16:37 - Eggs 17:42 - Most Popular IV 18:53 - Testosterone for Women 22:00 - Keeping People Sick 25:06 - Sexual Health 26:12 - Issues with Traditional Medical System 30:02 - Closing Comments Episode Resources Facebook ~ https://www.facebook.com/revivalwellnessclinic Instagram ~ https://www.instagram.com/revivalwellnessclinicpnw/ Website ~ https://revivalwellnessclinic.com/ EP 406: Sarah Adair Leaving Traditional Healthcare and Getting Back to Basics ~ #healthcaresystem #backtobasics #healthyhabits #healthylifestyle #rolemodel #diettips #podcastshow #optimalhealth #healthfreedom #medicalcare #HealthCare #PriceTransparency #freemarket #Liberty #FitAfter50 #FitOver50 #fitover40 #fitafter40 #Boise #IdahoFalls #Tricities #SiouxFalls #Wenatchee #EducateAndEmpower #NeedhamHealthSolutions #TeamNeedham #ShawnNeedham #HealthSolutions #MosesLakeProfessionalPharmacy #MLRX #SickenedTheBook #ShawnNeedhamRPh #ThinkOutsideTheSystem #OptimalHealthMatters #ItsTime ~ *** #BenShapiro & #DaveRamsey Fans. Learn how to be in the driver's seat for your healthcare choices {not the system or doctors!}

Do you really have to give up ALL of your rights to get attention in the mainstream? Is country music having a Nirvana/Grunge moment? What drives folks to head to Nashville? Is it harder to make it now vs "the good old days"? Colby Acuff is a country music artist from Northern Idaho who is currently residing in Nashville. The dude has fantastic songwriting chops, and puts on a great live show. I am super, super excited to get this episode out there, and I think you are really going to enjoy this conversation. Check him out on his website HERE: https://www.colbyacuff.com/ Give him a follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colby_acuff The Text Chat is back!Hit me up at (503) 751-8577 You can also help out with your gear buying habits by purchasing stuff from Tonemob.com/reverb Tonemob.com/sweetwater or grabbing your guitar/bass strings from Tonemob.com/stringjoy Release your music via DistroKid and save 30% by going to Tonemob.com/distrokid Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Brian sits down with Mike Cohn, the CEO of Mountain Goat Software to talk about how leaders can use agile concepts in order to keep their team operating at its best. Overview Today, on the Agile Mentors Podcast, Brian sits down with Mike Cohn, the CEO of Mountain Goat Software to discuss the role of a leader role in Agile. Listen in as Mike and Brian share their combined years of knowledge to help leaders use agile concepts to avoid the pitfalls of becoming a manager “behaving badly.” Listen Now to Discover: [01:08] - Brian introduces the show and his special guest Mike Cohn here to talk about the role of a leader in the Agile space. [01:53] - "Don't command, create a culture." Mike shares the difference between Agile leaders and traditional leadership. [02:59] - The concern about a resurgence of ‘old-school’ leadership and the concerns that brings. [04:48] - Mike shares how leaders can use agile concepts like self-organization, setting goals, choosing team members, and defining constraints in order to keep the team operating at its best. (Resource: Wicked Problems, Righteous Solutions: A Catologue of Modern Engineering Paradigms). [06:26] - Brian shares options for management to allow teams to figure out how to address problems as a team. [08:23] - Trust but verify isn't ideal—Mike shares why it’s better to manage by exception, i.e. giving trust upfront and asking questions later. [11:18] - Did you know the Agile Mentors Podcast is brought to you by Mountain Goat Software? Whether you're looking to get Certified Scrum Master Training or would like ​​Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner® training, Mountain Goat has plenty of options. To see everything Mountain Goat has to offer visit Mountain Goat Software. [12:01] - Delving into the complexity of the relationship between leadership and employees, especially when it comes to trust, self-organization, and planning. [12:48] - Mike introduces the “Cone of Uncertainty” concept, sharing that having a plan is not a problem over any horizon, (over three days, three months, or three years) but managers need to accept that the level of precision in the plan should match the timeframe. [14:23] - Mike refers to an article from Harvard Business Review that highlights the difference in scrutiny between product development deadlines and sales projections, and the need for a more balanced and flexible approach in evaluating both areas. [16:05] - Language and terminology shape our perception—how the shift from "estimating" to "forecasting" helps facilitate the recognition of uncertainty in future predictions. [19:12] - Mike shares an anecdote about a client in Kansas City, who wanted him to use the word "forecast" instead of "estimate." [20:31] - The importance of assessing metric application in a leadership context. [21:06] - Mike highlights the danger of using "velocity" as a metric for team performance, explaining how subtle pressure on teams can lead to estimate inflation, rendering velocity less reliable for forecasting and more as a tool to pressure (and demotivate) teams. [24:12] - Brian encourages leaders to reflect on the motivation behind using things like velocity as a metric to measure teams and how this relates to the principles of self-organization in Agile. [25:22] - How a lack of proper training during role transitions can lead to managers ‘behaving badly,’ despite well-intentioned actions. [26:45] - A special thank you to Mike Cohn for joining us and sharing his knowledge. If you're interested in further discussions on this topic join us in the Agile Mentors Community where you can access exclusive content, participate in discussions, and attend Q&A calls with Mike and me. [27:50] - As always we’d like to invite you to subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast on Apple Podcasts. Do you have feedback or a great idea for an episode of the show? Great! Just send us an email. References and resources mentioned in the show: Wicked Problems, Righteous Solutions: A Catologue of Modern Engineering Paradigms Agile Mentors Podcast from Mountain Goat Software Subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast on Apple Podcasts Certified Scrum Master Training and Scrum Certification Certified Scrum Product Owner Training Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner® Advanced Certified ScrumMaster® Mountain Goat Software Certified Scrum and Agile Training Schedule Join the Agile Mentors Community Subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast on Apple Podcasts Want to get involved? This show is designed for you, and we’d love your input. Enjoyed what you heard today? Please leave a rating and a review. It really helps, and we read every single one. Got an Agile subject you’d like us to discuss or a question that needs an answer? Share your thoughts with us at podcast@mountaingoatsoftware.com This episode’s presenters are: Brian Milner is SVP of coaching and training at Mountain Goat Software. He's passionate about making a difference in people's day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work. Mike Cohn, CEO of Mountain Goat Software, is a passionate advocate for agile methodologies. Co-founder of Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance, he thrives on helping companies succeed with Agile and witnessing its transformative impact on individuals' careers. Mike resides in Northern Idaho with his family, two Havanese dogs, and an impressive hot sauce collection.

In this episode of AromaticChat, I have the honor of chatting with Heidi Villegas, an Aromatherapist out of Northern Idaho.Heidi specializes in teaching and herbalism.She became an Aromatherapist after finding an herbalism book in a feedstore, and this was just the beginning of her amazing story.Tune in and stay all the way to the end to hear:Her experience with doctors and medicine, About her website and her school, Some of her other hobbies, What she's working on now, And one of her favorite Bible verses.LINKS:Healing Harvest Homestead and The School of Botanical Arts & Scienceshttps://healingharvesthomestead.com/YouTube: @HeidiVillegas https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzvKWWvwemPeZlcwtag0x4g                         Instagram: @HealingHarvestHomestead  Facebook: facebook.com/HealingHarvestHomestead     Feebie: https://healingharvesthomestead.lpages.co/how-to-relax-using-herbs-opt-in/Do you have a business that supports the Aromatic Community? Join us as a sponsor and exhibitor at the 2024 in-person conference in Nashville, TN, USA, in September 2024.The Alliance of International Aromatherapists has Sponsorship and Exhibitor packages for every budget.Contact the AIA at info@alliance-aromatherapists.org or call them at 877-531-6377 to become a sponsor or exhibitor.I look forward to seeing you there! Blend Precisely is the software business toolkit for Aromatherapists, Herbalists, and Formulators.Try out Blend Precisely RISK FREE for 14-Days to discover how they can support you in your Aromatic Life and Business.Use MY AFFILIATE LINK to sign up and begin blending taking advantage of this amazing toolkit that includes safety information, dilution, Chakras, perfumery notes, Pricing, and more.Sign up today!Support the show Music by Adipsia Shownotes by VerdantHeart VA Be a Guest HERE

Erik Allen, Raised in a broken home, battled addictions, was jailed at 18, bankrupt at 21 only to give his life to Christ and turn everything around. Erik is truly a man of integrity, work ethic, and an overcomer Erik and his wife of 16+ years and their two children live in Northern Idaho and live a humble and blessed life. Together, they break the cycles handed down to them of addictions, depression, abuse, and lies. He believes in giving back, and in this episode, he teaches us valuable lessons and how to break from your false identity through hard work, vulnerability, and consistency!  Enjoy the show!   Connect with Erik: http://erikallenmedia.com/   How To Get Involved:  From rock bottom and $500 to his name, Pedro Meneses moved to the US, leaving everything behind seeking answers to turning his life around, becoming an entrepreneur, and thriving in business. This show is for entrepreneurs who need a dose of reality to develop mental toughness, remove the fear of taking action, and are ready to pay the price, fight, and win at all costs! In each episode, Pedro introduces you to world-class entrepreneurs and leaders who will share their stories and knowledge to help you get a clear vision, operate at the highest level, and build an empire. Be sure to Connect With Pedro and check out the most recent episode of Chronicles of a Modern Beast in Apple Podcasts

At 13 years old, Ian Reid was a homeschool student in Northern Idaho, creating fun videos as a hobby with his friends. That year, he came up with the name for his future company: Distant Moon. He now runs Distant Moon full-time, directing projects for clients across the US. In this episode, Ian (founder of Distant Moon) joins Jeremiah Lorrig (Deputy Director of HSLDA's Generation Joshua) to discuss how homeschooling provided the opportunity to foster creative skills. They also chat about Ian's latest project—an online civics course.  “I think if you homeschool, you have the opportunity to dive into these things at the level to which you personally feel driven, if you are driven to become someone who understands how to tell stories … dive into history, dive into philosophy, dive into theology, and study what has come before you, because only then will you understand how you, as a human being, can participate in the great tradition of storytelling.”—Ian Reid

Addison Gronley is just getting ready to start her sophomore year of high school and second year of FFA, and there are possibly some big changes coming her way.  I interviewed Addison right after she had attended the Idaho State FFA Convention.  Even before the convention she was very fired up about showing and judging livestock with some big goals on the horizon, namely proficiency awards. The long drive back to Northern Idaho from the State Convention in the complete opposite end of the state did not reduce Addison's passion for the FFA.  She told me that she was strongly considering becoming a home school student in the 10th Grade so that she could show sheep even more and develop her skills even further.  A classic line from a very focused FFA student, "school gets in the way of shows". I am fortunate to be able to interview a lot of National Proficiency and American Star winners on this show, and a frequent theme is setting the goal of achieving at that level early.  Addison has definitely done this, and she is doing whatever she can to remove any obstacles that might stand in her way.  

In this episode, I interview Susan Millender, who shares with us information about a rare brain malformation (primarily diagnosed during pregnancy and sometimes diagnosed after birth). She wants us to know that her organization Families for HoPE is the only organization whose mission it is to support the entire family impacted by this disease.  She works, along with a dedicated Board of Directors and with volunteers to meet the direct service needs of the Holoprosencephaly community. Susan has always had an interest in community service and working in environments that have a strong mission to help ameliorate anxiety and isolation.  Susan is currently the Executive Director of Families for HoPE, Inc., an Indianapolis based nonprofit serving children diagnosed with Holoprosencephaly and related rare brain malformations.  She is the first person to fill the role in the organization's 17-year history.   Susan was born in East Chicago, IN and grew up in nearby Gary. She attended Ball State University and graduated from Calumet College, Whiting, IN, with a BA in Mass Communications.   Susan has worked as a health advocate in nonprofit settings in the Pacific Northwest for more than 30 years, specifically among children and families struggling to gain and maintain well-being and resilience.  She is a member of the National Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health. Previously,she led Seattle-King County Washington's Guided Pathways nonprofit family support organization as Executive Director. She has served as Program Director for the American Diabetes Association of Washington and Northern Idaho, and directed marketing communications programs for Seattle Counseling Services, Sound Generations of Seattle-King County, and Seattle's Bloodworks.   She counts travel and reading among the leisure-time activities she most enjoys.   Susan can be reached directly through info@familesforhope.org

On today's episode, we bring you an engaging presentation from the Dental Success Summit 2019 by the super funny and dynamic Dr. Erin Elliott. Dr. Elliott, owner and partner at Post Falls Family Dental and Sleep Better Northwest in Northern Idaho, takes the stage to discuss the fascinating world of sleep and its impact on overall health. In her captivating talk, Dr. Elliott breaks down the common myths about getting into sleep and highlights how it's not as difficult as it may seem. With her signature humor and relatable storytelling, she shares valuable insights on why getting into sleep is crucial for both patients and dental professionals. Dr. Elliott also sheds light on the signs of sleep apnea, providing real-life examples to help identify this common sleep disorder. By raising awareness and providing practical tips, she empowers her audience to recognize the signs and seek appropriate treatment for better sleep and overall well-being. If you're interested in learning more about the importance of sleep and its connection to dental health, this presentation is a must-watch. Tune in now to gain valuable knowledge from Dr. Erin Elliott's entertaining and informative talk. Don't miss out on this opportunity to expand your understanding of sleep and its impact on your patients' lives. EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.truedentalsuccess.com Dental Success Network Subscribe to The Dentalpreneur Podcast

This will be a 7-part series where I'll be asking them about their lives as Dads and we'll talk about what their experiences have been like so far in our amazing group of family men with businesses, not businessmen with families. I hope you'll check out these conversations with some badass members of our community each week. And don't be afraid to share these episodes with your friends and let us know your thoughts along the way! For anyone that isn't already a Front Row Dads member, you can sign up right here: Join The Brotherhood! Here's what you need to know about today's guest, Ben Golden. Kristian Nylund is father to Adeline (7) and Stella (5) and resides in Spokane, Washington with his girlfriend Kelly.  Growing up with Norwegian immigrant parents who chased the American dream, he learned from an early age that taking risks is vital to success. Having traveled overseas to visit family multiple times throughout his childhood, he developed a love for flying and a passion for traveling/aviation. Kristian started his first flying job at a regional airline (Horizon Air) in 2006, and throughout the next decade accumulated enough flight time flying for airlines and private aircraft owners to get hired at his dream job flying for Delta Air Lines. He is currently a Captain on the Airbus 220 based in Seattle. With the freedom and scheduling flexibility an airline career can offer, it opened the door to find a new challenge in business ownership and real estate investing.  In 2020, Kristian acquired a flight school and aircraft maintenance shop in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. As Co-Owner and Chief Flight Instructor of Coeur d'Alene Aviation & Maintenance, he spends his time teaching and mentoring students and flight instructors to become pilots and future aviation professionals.   Outside of aviation, Kristian and Kelly have taken an interest in real estate investing and have recently acquired multiple properties for both short and long-term rentals in Washington and Northern Idaho. After enduring a divorce and battling alcohol addiction for years, Kristian has embarked on a path to sobriety, dived deep into emotional healing, and dedicated his time to what is most important; becoming the best father, significant other, and person he can be.  Want to learn more about Front Row Dads? We are in the business of building better families. While most dads would say that family matters most, the challenge is they feel guilty knowing their careers get the best of them, and their family seems to get the rest of them. We help Dads become family men with businesses, not businessmen who have families, so they can thrive personally AND professionally. Subscribe to the Front Row Dad podcast to learn about fatherhood, marriage and how to level up your game at home, or if you're ready for the best coaching and true brothers to grow with, Join The Brotherhood! Are you getting all the shows? Subscribe today! Want to leave a review? THANK YOU! http://FrontRowDads.com/review

In this episode of Intermittent Fasting Stories, Gin talks to Leslie Taylor from Northern Idaho. Leslie is a freelance health writer, and her work can be found at https://fastwell.substack.com/.Are you ready to take your intermittent fasting lifestyle to the next level? There's nothing better than community to help with that. In the Delay, Don't Deny community we all embrace the clean fast, and there's just the right support for you as you live your intermittent fasting lifestyle. You can connect directly with Gin in the Ask Gin group, and she will answer all of your questions personally. If you're new to intermittent fasting or recommitting to the IF lifestyle, join the 28-Day FAST Start group. After your fast start, join us for support in The 1st Year group. Need tips for long term maintenance? We have a place for that! There are many more useful spaces beyond these, and you can interact in as many as you like. Visit ginstephens.com/community to join us. An annual membership costs just over a dollar a week when you do the math. If you aren't ready to fully commit for a year, join for a month and you can cancel at any time. If you know you'll want to stay forever, we also have a lifetime membership option available. IF is free. You don't need to join our community to fast. But if you're looking for support from a community of like-minded IFers, we are here for you at ginstephens.com/community. Leslie was thin well into her thirties and even after having kids, but several stressful life events caused tremendous weight gain. In January of 2020, Leslie found herself at 180 pounds and prediabetic. She had heard of IF and decided to research its health benefits. Leslie read Fast Feast Repeat and The Diabetes Code, and dove into her IF journey. She was ready to change the course of her life!After switching to Alternate Day Fasting, (ADF) the weight quickly came off, normalizing Leslie's A1C numbers. She has lost almost 50 pounds and feels amazing.Leslie decided to write about the incredible health benefits that IF brings to share the message with others. Leslie's advice: “You can change! You can fast! Know and understand why IF works!” Get Gin's books at: http://www.ginstephens.com/get-the-books.html, including Cleanish and New York Times Bestseller, Fast. Feast. Repeat., available wherever you buy books! Delay, Don't Deny is available on Amazon. Join Gin's community! Go to: ginstephens.com/community Share your intermittent fasting stories with Gin: gin@intermittentfastingstories.com Follow Gin on Twitter @gin_stephens Follow Gin on Instagram @GinStephens Visit Gin's website at: ginstephens.com Check out Gin's Favorite Things at http://www.ginstephens.com/gins-favorite-things.htmlSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Einstein and astrophysicists have long theorized the existence of wormholes throughout the universe allowing humans to travel across time and space within minutes or hours. In Stargates, Betsey Lewis, Earth Mysteries Investigator for nearly 50 years, reveals for the first time there are countless stargate portals on planet Earth used by extraterrestrials to travel the intergalactic highway.Stargates exist everywhere on Earth—over land under our oceans and on planets. Government and military have known about the Stargates and ETs but have denied their existence publicly until recently when Naval pilots revealed they tracked them on radar off the coast of Southern California, a hot spot for UFOs. Discover the locations of the worldwide portals where UFOs are witnessed, human abductions take place, and inexplicable events happen. Discover how ETs incorporate advanced holographic imaging to create certain historical dramas. Lewis recounts amazing stories of human abductions, human cloning, cattle mutilations, and human genetic experiments to alter DNA. The most shocking revelation is the U.S. military has been colluding with extraterrestrials for over 50 years.In November 2017, Robert Bigelow, billionaire, and previous owner of Skinwalker Ranch for 20 years, was interviewed on CBS 60 Minutes and asked if the aliens are already here. He replied, "They are right under people's noses." Lewis believes Bigelow's strange remark suggested, “aliens are right under our feet and under our oceans!"Betsey Lewis (aka B.E. Lewis) is an author, radio personality, world-renowned psychic, and Earth mysteries investigator. At eight months old Betsey and her parents encountered a UFO in Northern Idaho and may have been abducted by aliens for two hours during their missing time. This began a lifetime of paranormal experiences for her. For over forty-five years, Lewis has investigated UFOs, cattle mutilations, ancient petroglyphs in Idaho and Nevada, ancient civilizations from the Northwest to Central America, UFOs, and other Earth mysteries. She was a keynote speaker at the 2013 UFO Conference near Las Vegas and a keynote speaker at the 2018 Stargate to the Cosmos in Albuquerque, New Mexico and has been a featured guest on Fox's KTRV News, Coast-to-Coast AM, Ground Zero, KTALK's The Fringe, Fade to Black, KCOR's Hyperspace, and other popular radio shows. She predicted on Newsmax that Donald Trump would win the 2016 election six months before he was elected as U.S. President. To learn more about Betsey Lewis visit her website at: www.BetseyLewis.com.