Podcasts about northern jersey

Erik has been in and around the beautiful game since his days as the Operations Director for Giants Stadium around year 2000. In that role, he got his first taste of professional soccer through the NY/NJ Metrostars, and the international teams that rolled through that area. Around 2008, he became the Managing Director for Red Bull NY and oversaw the development, opening, and operation of one of the US's best soccer-specific stadiums; Red Bull Arena. In 2012, he moved on to be the CEO in the successful reboot of the New York Cosmos in 2013. He oversaw international tours, championship teams, US Open Cup wins, and more. Around September of 2018, Stover Management and Consulting, LLC started up and Erik was involved in projects from Fox Soccer Academy (of Christian Fuchs fame), to consulting for Bundesliga teams, and something that is near and dear to my heart as a native Northern Jersey guy, the redevelopment of Hinchcliffe Stadium in Paterson, NJ.  Erik was kind enough to carve out time in his day to jump on this humble production to talk about his journey in soccer and the recently announced "USL to Jersey" campaign. There are so many reasons to be excited about this project, and the announcement of USL's intention to go D1 only adds to it.   

CLICK HERE! To send us a message! Ask us a Question or just let us know what you think!Have you ever wondered what it takes to recreate your grandmother's most treasured recipes? Join us on a heartwarming journey with Tony Farina as he shares the cherished Italian culinary traditions passed down from his mother and grandmother. Growing up in Newark, New Jersey, Tony's family used food to maintain their Italian heritage. Hear about the meticulous effort Tony's mother put into documenting family recipes like eggplant parmesan and unique meatballs, ensuring that these culinary treasures would be preserved for future generations.Step back in time with us to family gatherings filled with the aroma of Sunday gravy and macaroni, a staple in Italian-American households. Listen as Tony and I reminisce about sneaking bites of food before dinner and the significance of specific ingredients like breadcrumbs, garlic, and canned tomatoes. The stories about favorite brands like Wonder Bread  add a personal touch, highlighting the joy and warmth these culinary traditions bring to family bonds and friendships.From the art of bread baking to the quest for Grandma's elusive tomato pie recipe, experience the challenges and triumphs of mastering Italian home cooking. Tony discusses the importance of using the right yeast and letting the dough rise properly, while we also explore some of the best pizza and Italian restaurant experiences in New Haven, Brooklyn, and Northern Jersey. Concluding with exciting possibilities for the future, we chat about opening an Italian provision store in Charleston. Tune in for a delightful blend of personal stories, culinary tips, and the essence of Italian home cooking that will leave you both nostalgic and inspired.

Wondering how to convert your cluttered space into a voiceover success story? Let Anne Ganguzza and the ever-resourceful Tom Dheere, be your personal guides in the transformative journey of setting up a home studio that screams professionalism but whispers in costs. Starting with the bare bones of our make-do booths fashioned from closets and basements, we'll share how to shield your sound from the noisy world outside, using everyday materials to master the art of sound absorption. Our candid conversation is a treasure trove of relatable anecdotes and practical wisdom, perfect for any voice actor eager to refine their recording environment and captivate their audience with crystal-clear audio. 00:01 - Intro (Host) It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a boss, a VO BOSS. Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza.  00:20 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Hey everyone, welcome to the V-O Boss podcast in the Real Bosses series. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and I am so excited to be back again with Real Boss guest co-host Tom Dheere. Hey, tom.  00:33 - Tom Dheere (Host) Hey Anne, I'm feeling very bossy today, but not in a mean to tell people what to do today. I'm just feeling bossy, but in a good way.  00:38 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) You got good boss colors on.  00:40 - Tom Dheere (Host) Yeah, and I got some good boss vibes going today too. Yeah, and you sound good, Tom. I do sound good today. It's funny, so do you, as always Well thank you.  00:49 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I'm going to be speaking next week at a conference to podcasters who are interested in becoming voice of artists. Part of my conversation is going to include the equipment they need, the skills they need and, of course, what's so important to us as voice actors our environment, our studios.  01:08 And you know it's so funny because we are on opposite coasts and I feel like we also have opposite type studios, but yet they both work amazingly well for our businesses. So I wanted to talk to you about your studio and our differences so that this could be a good reference for those bosses. Just starting out that you don't necessarily need a $20,000 recording studio, because when I first started I certainly didn't have one, and I know that Tom has the same story. As a matter of fact, when I first started, I was in my basement in New Jersey, because basements are a good place where you don't have to deal with, let's say, external noises as much because you're half underground.  01:50 It was a closet for me that I started off with, and, tom, I mean talk to me about when you first started. What was your first studio like?  01:58 - Tom Dheere (Host) Okay, my first studio was also in New Jersey, parcipany, new Jersey. I'm sorry, where were you in New Jersey?  02:04 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I don't remember Northern Jersey. I was in North Haldon, oh, right, by Wayne. Okay, I know exactly where that is.  02:10 - Tom Dheere (Host) I was in the 20, 25 minute drive west of North Haldon, so I lived in a garden apartment. For those of you who don't know New Jersey, garden apartments are these sets of apartment buildings.  02:21 They're almost always red brick, they could be white or other colors, and there's usually there's anywhere from like three to 50 of them. And I lived on a second floor and my first home recording studio was the front closet which was over the steps that would lean to the door that would let you go outside. So what I did was I went to Home Depot and I got carpet remnants on the cheap. I had a quilt that I think my mother-in-laws aunt made. It's a lovely quilt but like oh, this is a good use for it, I wove it into, you know, like the bar that you'd hang your coats on. Sure.  02:56 I would weave it through there.  02:57 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) So it's like a little tent.  02:59 - Tom Dheere (Host) Yeah, actually it was even better than a tent, because the shelf that was above the bar rested on wooden blocks in this apartment so you could lift it up. So I actually threaded it through, threaded it back and folded it under so it completely encapsulated the shelf that was above the bar and that was that. So the quilt was around there. The carpet remnants from Home Depot were on the ground and in front of me and behind me and I made a point to, since the closet was a square box instead of having be an angle, I wouldn't push the corner of the carpet remnant all the way into it, so it would be curved.  03:32 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) So all of the corners, so it would be like square, sharp corners Right.  03:36 - Tom Dheere (Host) So I would put it in with penny nails. And then I had, you know, those football blankets, the kind that you roll up to take a football game. I had one of those and I nailed that into the closet door and that was it. And then I had a little snack tray with a desktop mic stand and my mic was there. And then I got a monitor which I drilled into the well, no, that back then I didn't drill it into the wall, it was on a stand which was on the snack tray. And then I got a splitter, so the monitor that I would sit at at my desk would show the same exact stuff that it would show inside the booth. And then I would bring my air mouse into the booth and sit down and I would just, and then it's.  04:14 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Well, you were actually advanced because you had a monitor in your booth and you had an air mouse.  04:20 So, for me. I'm gonna tell you, my first experience was when I moved from one place in New Jersey to the next and I had my second studio in the basement. Was really cool, because you don't know what you don't know. And so for those bosses just starting out and I've done multiple audio episodes, just a real quick recap you need to really have a good environment before, I think, you even make a decision on your microphone and within that environment you have to make sure that you're not having any kind of echo or noise. So there's internal noise of your studio and there's external noise that might be trying to come into the studio and you certainly don't want any of the noise that you're making, right as you're voicing, to be echoing off of walls or hard surfaces. So it's important to kind of have yourself surrounded with some sort of material that can absorb that sound rather than have it be reflected back into the microphone. So when Tom talks about having his blankets and his carpet remnants up above him, to the left, to the right, keep in mind you wanna have some form of absorbing material that's in front of you, to the left, to the right, behind and above you and that will help curb any type of reflective sounds that might come back into the microphone. And then, of course, there's always sounds that come in from outside of the studio that we can't always control. I mean, studios have a recording sign for a reason. So even in a real studio, right where this is what they do for a living, you can't run down the hall screaming at the top of your lungs while people are recording, because not everything is completely soundproof.  05:53 However, getting yourself in an environment where you're not gonna get that much reflective sound and sound that might come in is best, and so one thing that that proves, tom, is that for both of us, when we started, we didn't really have to invest a lot of money into our studios to get good quality sound.  06:12 You just have to be a little bit educated about where you're gonna place those materials, and I think it takes a lot of experimentation. I do know when I first started, I didn't know what kind of sound I was supposed to have, and so really helpful to me was getting an engineer on the line and kind of assessing my sound and assessing my studio. However, in the beginning I didn't know anybody, and so I basically it was trial and error, trial and error, and sometimes you can place a blanket and it doesn't do any good. And sometimes you can put another blanket and it still doesn't do any good, and at that point it's helpful to maybe have somebody come and assess your studio sound. And with that I've got multiple places that I recommend. I know, george, the Tech is one of the best.  06:57 That's the first one came to my mind and I think both of us recommend him and bosses will put that link in the show notes for you. But it really can help to have a trained ear, assess what your studio sounds like but also know that you don't have to spend thousands and thousands of dollars. Now I remember back when I moved right from New Jersey to California. Then I had a town home and I was up on the second floor and then I had an office. Well, I had a second bedroom which was right outside of the kitchen and I had a closet and I said, oh great, I've got a closet, I'll make a studio out of that.  07:31 Well, that closet had no clothing in it, right? And that became a whole different set of circumstances where I thought, oh, it'll be easy, I'll just hang carpet, or I've got some old carpet, I'll hang some blankets. Well, it was actually more difficult to create a good sound with an empty closet than it was to actually build. My father actually built me a structure, so it was a little four by four by eight foot room in a room which actually works better than my closet which had nothing in it, like no clothes. So I feel like a clothing closet with clothes in it is really something that can help and can be better in a lot of cases than a clean closet.  08:10 - Tom Dheere (Host) Right, I think I don't remember who was it said it, but sound functions like water and you have to understand where the sound flows and it always has to go somewhere. It's gonna go down, it's gonna go towards you or behind you, it's gonna get bounced around and moved around. So, under a standing, how and where the sound goes will help you figure it out Whether that involves getting bass traps or whether you gotta get Aurelix.  08:35 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Now people are going what? Or some people buy pool noodles. What are bass traps?  08:39 - Tom Dheere (Host) Aurelix is a form of acoustic foam. I don't even know if I can properly define bass traps are. They're usually in the corners of the room, corners of the room, padding the corners there.  08:47 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I think what you're trying to do is not have any. The other thing, if you can, because of reflection, right, Sound bouncing If you have walls that are perpendicular to one another or parallel.  08:59 - Tom Dheere (Host) Right, you don't want angles, you want curves.  09:01 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Curves or angles, or if you do and I'm gonna get to our studios in just a moment if you do, you wanna make sure that you've got adequate coverage for sound absorption in there.  09:11 - Tom Dheere (Host) Right, but at the same time you don't want a dead space either. Too much acoustical treatment can be a bad thing, because your space has to have some kind of texture too. Not like a signature texture that is like oh, I could tell I listened to that commercial. I know Ann did it in her booth. It's not like that, but just something that doesn't sound like you're talking in a safe. You know what I mean.  09:29 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Absolutely, absolutely so. Ultimately, tom, it wasn't until I moved and this is after 14 years of actually being a full time doing voiceover and making money and so I had to have a booth that created good audio that people didn't reject. And, trust me, I did have a time when people rejected my audio, and that was when I didn't have an ear for what I needed to know, and that was very distressing.  09:53 By the way, all I can say is that once you figure out how to get your sound where it needs to be, it is a big load off your shoulders. But once I decided to move, I actually was able to kind of plan and really think because, okay, I'm 13, 14 years into my full time business, I wanna actually have a space that is created just for recording. And so I was fortunate and I researched, I researched a lot of different things. I thought, well, I can't bring the booth. My father had constructed a booth for me at my town home in Irvine and I couldn't really deconstruct it and reconstruct it again to have the same properties and everybody. I love that booth, by the way, and it was really wonderful and I had had that assessed and blessed by George the Tech, by the way, at the time. But now that I had an opportunity to actually have some time to sit down and think about it, I decided and I looked into researching, I looked into buying a Studio Bricks and it was gonna be really expensive at the time and at the time they were shipping it from Spain, I believe. There was no timeframe as to when I would get it and I thought, oh God, I can't move to a new home and not have a place to record, and so I said, well, let me look into something different. I spoke to George the Tech, who said you know, you might consider having this built for you a custom booth built for you and I started looking into that and fortunately I was able to find someone and, of course, everybody that's ever followed me or I definitely have a podcast on this with Tim Tippetts who designed and built my booth a custom built booth for me and I'm going to tell you that it was a luxury, but it was also something that it was great, because everything was custom tailored just for me and I'm sitting in it now. So if you're watching this podcast on YouTube, you can see my studio.  11:36 I've got sound panels in here. I actually have something that's not quite 90 degrees to one another, but you wouldn't know it by looking at it. It's just very slightly angled, but I do have ceiling acoustic tiles. I have acoustic tiles on my left, to my right, behind me, and I've got a double door, and so that cost me some dollars. I'm gonna say my first studios were a few hundred. Once I upgraded the studio that my father built for me, I would say that cost me about $1,000 with all the treatment and improvements to that, and this one was in the thousands of dollars.  12:09 But it's kind of set it and forget it and done, and so, comparatively, I live in a very quiet area to you, tom, and we'll make that comparison Cause, right, I'm West Coast. I live in a home, I'm in a studio that is dedicated and built custom for me, with double walls, green glue, acoustic panels. I live in it over 55 retirement community, on a cul-de-sac. There's not people racing around here. Well, if there are, that's some other issue. And so I have all the blessings of being able to sit in here and very rarely have to stop recording because there's something noisy happening outside. But, tom, tell me about yours because, again, mine cost thousands of dollars and I'm not saying it was super expensive, because I think for a custom built booth I got a really great deal. But, tom, talk about your studio because, again, you have an amazing studio that you've been working out of for years and just producing broadcast quality like beautiful stuff, one after the other.  13:05 - Tom Dheere (Host) Well, it's funny because I lived in that apartment in New Jersey for 12 years, so I was recording from that space for 12 years and it was regularly a pain in the butt because there was landscaping going on, there was a lot of cars driving by, there was Snow shoveling, there was kids going to school, coming home from school because the high school was right across the street, so there were a lot of problems with that one. Now I live in Midtown Manhattan. For those of you who don't know, there are certain cross streets in New York City 9th Street, 14th Street, 23rd Street, 34th Street and then higher. I live on 34th Street, which means it's one of the two-way streets. Also the Lincoln Tunnel entrances just stones throw away. So I am literally living in the second floor of an apartment building over one of the most heavily trafficked Streets in Manhattan, if not the country.  14:01 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Wow, not the world.  14:02 - Tom Dheere (Host) Wow. So what's crazy is that when I moved in here about five and a half years ago, there was a front closet, just like I had in New Jersey, and I'm like, well, let's not try to reinvent the wheel, let's just do what I did there and do it here and see what happens. It turns out that it's even better. The sound is even better than the one in New Jersey, and here's why is that. I'm sitting here at my desk and the front door to my apartment is like literally right here. I can't quite touch it, but it's pretty close and then there's a closet front closets right here, so I sit in it. When I'm sitting, my back is to the hallway and behind me this wall separating the hallway from the apartment is concrete, so that's yeah, concrete is always good.  14:45 And I using my Sennheiser 416, which is facing the concrete now.  14:50 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Why is that important that it's a 416?  14:53 - Tom Dheere (Host) the 416 is great because it has a very, very tight field. It doesn't pick up a lot outside of here, which is why, if you get a Sennheiser 416, your angle to the microphone makes a very, very big difference. So you need to find that sweet spot where you're sitting, how it's angled up like this and where it is like this, and where you are seated In relation to it to kind of get into that very tight Right and that's what makes that an ideal microphone for, let's say, a less than ideal Space right and it's also one of the reasons why I use it for travel as well, because of the pickup pattern, is very Concentrated and you don't have to worry so much about.  15:32 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Like I also have a TLM 103, which is a beautiful microphone. However, it picks up when you breathe because the pickup pattern is much broader than a 416. So yes, I think in terms of studio spaces, if you have less than idea, 416 or a shotgun type of mic that has a smaller pickup is much more ideal for that right.  15:51 - Tom Dheere (Host) The other thing is that the windows this is a 60-something year old apartment building here in New York City, but the windows are very new. They're very, very tightly sealed.  16:02 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Are they double-pained?  16:03 - Tom Dheere (Host) They are double-pained.  16:04 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I think most apartment buildings that are in in cities are double-pained anyways, right, A lot of them are double-pained yeah and I used the same exact carpet remnants and and Bessie's quilt.  16:14 - Tom Dheere (Host) From there I said everything I love it.  16:16 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) You got Aunt Bessie with you, see I ban out Bessie's quilt. She's with us, ann always she supports it.  16:22 - Tom Dheere (Host) Yes, and the monitor. Actually my wife, who's actually more mechanically inclined than I, and she actually drilled the monitor into the wall, so we set up all the acoustical treatment. She drilled it right in there and then it's still. It's a new set of monitors since the ones I had in New Jersey, but they're also networked the same way, with a splitter I bring the earmouse into the booth and so I just scroll, scroll, scroll. So I haven't printed a script in years, in years. And the quality it's even better than it was in New Jersey and I attribute it to a more solid floor and the concrete wall and better treated windows, so I actually didn't spend anything on the new booth actually.  16:58 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Right. And the other thing, too, is you probably have to be concerned A lot of times, like an inside wall or a wall that has concrete on the other side of, or a wall that isn't near plumbing is very helpful, and so if you're too close to a window, sometimes you don't have the protection I mean because that's yet another medium that can allow sound in or out or be reflective. I, literally right outside of this door, probably five feet away, is my front windows, and so I've got double windows there. But because I've got double doors here, if the waste removal trucks come right, actually I don't hear it through this, which is really fantastic, but if I've wanted the doors open, or if I have both these doors open, or if I'm sitting outside, yes, obviously I won't be able to record.  17:42 - Tom Dheere (Host) I've had jackhammers outside.  17:44 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Wow, that's fantastic.  17:46 - Tom Dheere (Host) The only thing that really really gets through is if my upstairs neighbor is vacuuming. That's the only thing that makes it impossible to record.  17:53 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) So you're talking about the closet, then your actual studio is the closet behind you.  17:57 - Tom Dheere (Host) Right now that I'm seeing right, there's a front closet right here and then these other doors actually leading to the kitchen.  18:02 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) And how big is that closet?  18:03 - Tom Dheere (Host) Three, by three maybe.  18:05 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Okay, and do you have anything else in it besides your recording equipment and or absorption material?  18:10 - Tom Dheere (Host) Not really. I mean, there's two shelves above it which we use for storage of various things. This time of year I've got two winter coats in there, but the rest of the year they're not in there.  18:20 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) So actually, the two winter coats actually make it even a little more insulated, absolutely Especially if they're puffer jackets, right, I mean you can-.  18:26 - Tom Dheere (Host) One's puffy and then one's like a really nice one, like when we go out out. Actually, the only thing I did buy was the cable. I needed to make sure that the cable can run. So I'm sitting here and it runs and it runs across the floor right all the door and then I've got a rug that covers that and just snakes into the booth. I think that was the only additional investment and I live it by B&H, so it was like 20 bucks. I just went across the street, got it. Whatever, this is a 15-20 foot cable. I think that was the only additional expense to moving here from the old department and that was it. I also want to say this, ann, is that I was ashamed of my studio setup for a very, very long time. I thought that I wouldn't be regarded as a true professional, much less the VO strategist, if I didn't have a $5,000 booth. I am proud of my space.  19:07 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) You should be.  19:07 - Tom Dheere (Host) I am proud of the work that I do in it and the work that me, and with the a lot of help from my wife, did to get it to where it is. No, it doesn't cost a lot. No, it isn't pretty, but your job, bosses, is to be effective as voice actors on a performance level, on a logistical level, on a financial level and on a technical level.  19:25 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) So I don't care if it ain't pretty Well again, nobody's necessarily looking, and even if they are looking at you and your studio, really what comes out of that studio is what's important, right? It's not what the studio looks like, and I know a lot of bosses out there. I think it becomes complicated to them and sometimes a pre-built studio solution or a studio solution like Studio Bricks or Vocal to Go or LA Boos or whichever is out there, it becomes a solution that's simple to them. Well, you don't necessarily need to spend that kind of money. If you have it, of course I think that's great, but I think if you're just starting out in the industry and you're just trying to see if this is something that is going to be good for you, and if you're going to really make a go at it and have a successful voiceover business, I don't think you need to invest a lot in a studio right away.  20:15 I mean, gosh, I always talk about when we are traveling and on the road. Tom, we certainly don't have optimal recording situations in a hotel room, because a lot of times you've got the ventilation system, you've got fans running, you've got people out in the hallway in your hotel room, you've got windows and what's happening outside of windows to deal with. And so for us again, what's important is that we protect ourselves to the front, to the left, to the right, behind and above. And so a lot of times when we are away and traveling, I do the old pillow fort, the non-glamorous pillow fort, and that is literally put the pillows in front of you, to the left, to the right, above you. I take the actual luggage rack and put it on top of the desk.  21:01 And then I take the extra comforter and I make a tent out of it and then I take my 416 and that's what we do. Now I also have a tri-booth, which is great. A tri-booth, love the tri-booth, and I've got a review of the tri-booth on my blog for any of you that are interested in it. That is a PVC kind of put together constructed booth with moving blankets and a stack that has been created by George the Tech so that you can recreate your home studio on the go, and so I absolutely love my tri-booth. If I decide that I want to take that, I can check that right on the plane. It comes in its own suitcase and it's super, super easy to assemble, and so you can do that.  21:42 It's not always necessary, though. I say Create a studio, try to get yourself acclimated to what sound it is that you're looking for, great sound. If you are somewhat into audio today, if you're a podcaster, make sure that that studio really does have your acoustics properly set up and oriented, because sometimes a podcast I mean I know that when I first started podcasting I would listen to other podcasts and go why are they not concerned about their room, their sound? Because I would hear echo, sometimes the sound quality just wasn't there. But if you are coming in from another segment of the industry or another part of the industry, understand that your environment is important so that you can create good quality audio Does not have to cost a lot of money.  22:29 And, tom, I love our conversation because you are proof that you can have an amazing sounding studio and not have to invest a lot of money. You can be in a crazy city with tons of traffic, not a lot of space, and create an environment that you can do work and excel at over and over again and you don't have to invest lots of money. So thank you so much for talking to me today about your studio. Any other tips that you have for, let's say, bosses, maybe just starting out, or investigating what kind of studio to get or things to do to create a great studio.  23:07 - Tom Dheere (Host) Well, I do at vostratagescom. I also have blogs and videos that talks about gear, and I also have a gear section on my site.  23:13 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I believe you do too right, I do Absolutely Studio gear.  23:16 - Tom Dheere (Host) Check out both, because I guarantee there are some gear recommendations I have on my site that Ann doesn't, and then she has some on her site that I don't. So definitely check them out. There's different price points and I've talked about this stuff for many, many years, just like Ann is. But do your research. Harlan Hogan's Guide to Home Recording Studios is a great book. Sound Advice by Dan Friedman is another great book those who can be a very, very big help. And you can always book a free consult. I believe George the Tech has free consults, or at least you can contact him through the George the Tech website, because he's got an army of great engineers and that between all of them they know every microphone, they know all the hardware, they know all the software, they know all the acoustical treatment secrets.  23:57 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I have an affiliate page with him too, so do I VO Boss can get you a discount as well, so there you go, whether you come to Tom or VO Boss, absolutely you can get a discount ona consult with George I don't promote that because I am an affiliate with him, but literally George has been with me from the beginning. I mean, he is the one who and I have blog articles written on that who literally took my father and my homemade booth and when we were like, okay, what else can we do? There's something missing, he was the missing key. He was the one that was able to take what we had done and make it sound.  24:31 And I used to get complimented all the time by audio engineers saying what is your studio?  24:36 It's amazing and in reality it's hysterical, because if you saw what my studio looked like, it certainly wasn't glamorous or elegant, but it really did the job and just like Tom's. I mean absolutely. And I think you can be proud and it's important for you to feel proud and feel good in the space that you're in, because it is our personal voice and it is our performance that needs to excel in a booth or in a space that we feel good in, and so you want to make sure you create that space. And so if Ant and I'm sorry, your Ant's name again, bessie, so if Ant Bessie is fully supporting you in your booth. I mean, I cannot tell you the affection and how good I felt being in a studio that was designed and built by my father and my father, by the way, had a lot to do with this studio as well and it does help. I sit in the studio and I feel good, and when you feel good, you can produce good audio, and I think that that's super important. And what a fun conversation today.  25:29 Tom, thank you so much for sharing your space and talking about studios with me today. Bosses, I want to invite you to imagine a world full of passionate and empowered, diverse individuals giving collectively and intentionally to create a world that you want to see. You can make a difference. Visit 100voiceshukerorg to learn more and, of course, our sponsor, ipdtl. I love IPDTL and use it on a day-to-day basis. I just love it. Use it for all my coaching students. Find out more at IPDTLcom. You guys have an amazing week and we'll see you next week. Thanks, guys, bye.  26:10 - Intro (Host) Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host, Ann Ganguzza, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies and new ways to rock your business like a boss. Redistribution with permission. Coast-to-coast connectivity via IPDTL.   

Cool.  Spring AAU season's here. Kevin, tell the people, how you feeling about Rise as One, the Basketball Factory plans, expectations. I know that leans a little bit into the topic we're going to talk about. Introduce the audience to who you are and what has you excited for the spring? What I think just to piggyback on what you said about the spring obviously we do a year round program. Like most programs that come back in the spring. We go year round. Also, we've been prepping for this the whole year knowing that actually, Kev, before even getting into that, why don't you just introduce yourself first? I'm trippin Introduce yourself. Who are you for the people who are just listening out of the blue?  Yeah, for the new people that don't know me at all,  Kevin Houston played  10 years of professional basketball. The original one absolutely played at university of Miami. Even further than that, played at Seward County community college, transferred into the university of Miami, then transferred again to St. Bonaventure. Brooklyn kid went to John Jay high school in Brooklyn. Same, but a whole bunch of more famous guys than me that went to John Jay high school. I've come from a a great high school.  Great basketball background with a lot of my family members playing ball. Yeah, that's me in a nutshell I could sit here there and bless you all my awards But you know that would take a long time I want to just say people to trouble I was a great, you know I was a great player that I was a fortunate to be on great teams with great teammates. So  Yeah, that's I think  That's pretty much who I am.  All right. Now I'll get into it. Spring AAU, you're the director of RISE as one AAU club. Introduce RISE, talk about the Basketball Factory and let's get into it.  Yeah. AAU wise, like we've been going year round, so we, I have a program that we do AAU, but it's not your typical AAU, whether you meet once a year or twice a year, you I have kids that play, you go around from, fall to right now to, to the spring, summer winter. This is our Superbowl, we lead up, we try to prepare ourself as much as possible leading into the spring season and we don't have that much turnover. Although this year was an unusual year with.  having a ton of kids. I don't know where these kids came from but I'm glad that the program is growing to give you an indication piece of how many kids that came this spring or our AU program on a typical year on the probably let's go by my best year, but my best year my best year was, Back when I had two courts and the most I've ever had was 74.  So this year coming into this year I was expecting just to retain the kids that has always came to my program, but then we had an explosion, especially middle school of 97 middle schoolers, not your typical 74. So I think from that standpoint shows me we're on the right path of doing things because I'm pretty sure these kids wouldn't have came unless, and I don't do that much advertising. Okay. You don't mean I'm not a social media guy. I'm not on social media a lot. I send out, email campaigns to just my parents. So to have that many kids is really impressive, but I'm really happy because I feel like the kids that have been in my program the longest, I think they are getting new teammates that, you've seen it. They're more talented. They're more talented kids that are in the program and I'm excited to have them there and I'm excited to coach them and develop them over the next couple of years.  Definitely worth congratulating. Just seeing progression. Not only have I been a player, but not only helping you coach and train these kids, it's always nice to see your standard as for local basketball in the area to just exceed your expectations. But really just leaning into expectations. We wanted to hop on this podcast and talk about player expectations. Before we even dive into player expectations, do you have any expectations out of the spring leading into the summer, any goals, things you're looking forward to?  I have goals. I have expectations like anything. Just, I had a parent's meeting last week and we talked about a lot of this stuff. Last week, and I think  especially for me being in that area, because being in different areas, you should have different expectations, right? If you're in an area that is producing year after year, division one players, I can't have that same expectations on my kids that these other areas have on theirs because we frankly are not a basketball area. We've become a basketball area. Because the atmosphere we've created at Rises 1 but we're not necessarily per se, everyone thinks of, okay, Northern Jersey has as a hotbed for basketball, but I think we've created something. And so my, my, my expectations, especially with the kids with the coaches, with anything is let's have a standard, let's stand for something. And what that is, If you come to our program, you're going to work hard. You know that you're going to do a certain amount of work  to get you ready and prepared.  So for us, me, it's about setting a standard and holding the kids to the standard. And I think everyone who comes to my program realizes that, Hey he's going to, we're going to practice hard. We're going to practice the right way. We're going to practice like a college atmosphere where I have you on schedule and we're doing stuff as if we were a college now we're not. Okay. But my thing, my thinking is if we can get on a schedule of a college program, then we're setting these kids up for success. Okay. Also, a lot of my background is European. So a lot of my drills that I do is a lot of European stuff in which you're sharing a ball, you're moving the ball, balls, not sticky. So for my expectation this year really is just to develop the new kids, continue developing the kids that have been in my program and the parents have been in my program for, for the last three years. And basically get some of the newer kids on the same schedule as the kids who are in my program. And in doing this, I think you create a continuity that, it might pay off this year, but I think in the next few years, I think if you can get them on the same schedule, I think it will pay off. And in the long run, I think a lot of  AU stuff is short term. This it's like a microwave success. Okay, they come over to, they're supposed to win right away. They're supposed to do all this stuff right away. And then when it doesn't happen,  whether it be the director or the kid okay, I'm done. I'm going to go somewhere else and try it again, but it doesn't work that way. Especially for areas like ours, like I'm such a developer that I tell the parents like, Hey, especially the new players are coming in this year that it's going to take a while. It may take the whole season. It may take two, two more seasons.  It's no different than learning at school. It takes a while for the kids to understand what you want, what the expectation is, because a lot of these kids are coming from programs. That they have no expectations. Like no  cash or cash out cash in cash out, but here you have expectations because you cannot let your teammate down. I'm a big team guy and playing for one another. I, we got our hands full, but we got to this group. And I told you this when I put it together, this group of kids. They feel different. They're different than the last group. And I feel like they're more engaged in basketball. They're more eager than ever. We also have younger age groups. So I think that's gonna, that helps because we're having younger age groups comes at excitement for practice, come for that hunger for learning. Yeah, I'm very excited. I'm very excited. Having a lot of these new kids and seeing what they can do. And. And I'm a developer. So anytime I can sit there and develop talented kids, that's what I want to do.  Something I think that goes unnoticed, so to speak, and not just your club, or basketball and other sports is How set, how unique setting standard is relevant to how society portrays it and really what effects it has in long term success for these kids. The reality is what's the percentage one, two, 3 percent people actually get to play at the collegiate level, let alone division one or two. Instilling, these disciplines and behaviors and structures for these kids in these kinds of communal environments and sports right within your gym  is useful and necessary, right. To help introduce them to the real world, teamwork in the working environment when you get to the university level.  And again, player to coach in regards to my relationship with you in this professional realm. It's definitely something I've seen useful for myself and my peers, right? And other individuals that went on to play college basketball and seeing some of the kids we've coached, right? To see how it translates and how well prepared they are and seeing their outcomes. But yeah, shout out to you in that regard. But really, to get into it, man, player expectations. I know you briefly mentioned your expectations or goals, as you recall,  into what you're looking for this spring and this summer.  But I think something that needs to be vocalized or shared or discussed is player expectations. A lot of players have expectations, in different realms, right? We could talk about  skill expectations, right? They think they have a certain skill set and then when they go to these games and they're essentially failing, they think they've set such a high bar of expectation, how good they are, that they get disappointed due to the lack of influence from, rental input or, coaches that have, don't have their  well being and first thought, what are your thoughts on just that, that particular segment of player expectation, kids and their skill sets.  Yeah it's a different day and age. We've had numerous conversations about this where  kids expectations don't meet their work habits.  And I think that's the biggest thing. When you look at, again, my background's from Europe. So you'll hear me talk about Europe compared to the United States. So in Europe, and I believe Luca Dots has talked about this. There, there's a, there's an interview about him saying this. That they,  in Europe, they practice more than they play, right? And because they do that, they're high skill guys. So look at all this, I'm talking about skill guys, I'm not talking about who's the best, I'm talking about plain skill. If you talk about the plain skill, who's the highest, whether you're talking about the girls games or the guys game, it's gotta be your European,  right? Because they're in academies that are just drilling them about skill. We're in the United States. I feel like they're more like gameplay. Okay. What about the games Kevin? What do you know game? Where's our game? but where's our games and they're playing games more than they practice on the skill and Because of that they have an expectation that oh,  I should be here right because they're playing all these games And sometimes, especially as a young age, this is what I find is  as opposed to do, like someone has expectation while they're young and someone has expectation while they're older. When you're younger and you say you're at the middle school age where you have expectation, you don't know.  So you think you belong, right? You think Hey, I'm the best player in my area. I should be X, Y, Z. I I'm, I should be here. But you don't realize like the amount of people in the United States that are striving for the same thing that you are striving for until you go and you play  different teams. Now you start realizing like, Oh, I'm not as good as what I thought, right? You need to have that honest conversation with yourself saying, maybe I'm not, or you could fool yourself by saying. Oh, I'm not at that level because of so and I'm not at that level because of the team I'm playing for. I'm not at that level because of whatever. Where as an older person, I believe in high school, I think by the time you get to 10th or 11th you realize where you are in the pecking order. Okay? Because  If you, if it's not you that, that don't realize it, the college coaches do, and they tell you by  whether or not they're contacting you, whether or not they're offering you, whether, so you get you'll get constant feedback where you are. And you'd be surprised. A lot of people think that they are division one players. And then by the end of it they're sometimes not even a division three player where they don't even go on to college. So I think player expectations. You got to be real with yourself and you got to, the most important thing about that, because I went through the process is you got to have people around you telling you the truth. If you don't have a good support support camp that is basically helping you through the whole process. And that person who's helping you or people that are helping you are not telling you the truth.  They're basically doing you a disservice because at the end, you're You know, everyone's going to, the college coaches are going to be telling you.  And I think a testament to that practice in regards to the European style. Look at, just in regards to the NBA, man, Europe is taking over, right? The Luka Dances of the world, the Yokushas of the world, right? Even this upcoming NBA draft, I think under the projected top 20 picks, I think 70 percent of them are coming over from Europe, right? And it's slowly been increasing for the past couple years. Yeah, I think you touched on a lot of good stuff. One thing I think segues really well into this next topic is, How this lack of realistic expectation  translates to, college coaches, right? Which is essentially the end goal for a lot of these players wanting to compete at the next level. Can you speak a little bit on the expectations or I guess I don't want to be cold and say unrealistic expectations, or I guess we could lean on just the lack of awareness in terms of expectations from a player or parent when it comes to the opportunity to play in college and the correlation of their already existing skill sets and how it compares to other kids.  Yeah, I think you're right on that. I think you, you have to say,  you don't want to put kids down and say, Hey, your dream, you're never going to accomplish that, right? You never want to crush their dreams because look, I didn't even know I was going to do the things that I did in my career until I start setting goals and stuff like that.  I think being realistic is probably the most important thing that kids, Nowadays, I just don't think they have I think they do set unrealistic goals because when you look at the numbers of things of making a division one team or division eight, let's take the visual out of the equation. Okay. Because most of my kids in my area are D2 players and they turn into division one players based off of their work habits.  It's hard to make D1, D2, and even D3, people don't understand the difference between all three levels. And I get asked this quite a bit size, yeah, and it's always size.  You can find a great guard at the division three level that can poop against a division one guard, right? It's the size of the guard though, because now sometimes at the division three level, he's six foot, but then you're dealing with a guard that's six, four at the division one level. So it's mainly, and it's not so much the guards. It's so much the bigs. The bigs are truly bigs. I remember I was playing in Miami and I can't, my background was great. I came from the number one junior college conference in the country where they were producing at least 20 to 30 division one athletes out of that conference every single year. And it was known, the J Hawk conference, it was known in Kansas that it was the number one, if you wanted to do anything in Juco basketball and go to the next level to the video one, you had to go to the J Hawk conference. So when I, and we had guys, we had, in fact, we had three NBA guys, my year that I played, we had a guy got, it was like seven, three, okay. That ended up getting dropped. I forget his name.  He was seven, three  piece.  I've never seen a guy at Chicago level that tall before, right? But I only seen him once a year.  I only seen him once a year. Just so you're talking about, you're talking about the division one level when I got to Miami. Now I'm seeing guys on an everyday basis. Not only my teammates, right? The inside players are tall. The guards, we had a guy named Johnny Hemsley. Like he 6'6 dynamite, absolutely electric with the ball, right? I'm going against him in practice. John Sammons, who, was another NBA guy played at least 10 years in the NBA. I'm playing alongside him. So for me, it's that is the biggest difference when you're talking about division one, division two, division three, because I think young kids, they get in their mind that all division three is bad. No it's actually quite good. If you go to a game. It's actually pretty good basketball, man. You got good, you got great coaches at that level. That's going to coach you up, but it's just on a smaller scale. So I think having a realistic expectation  of saying, all right now, my level is division two.  I just don't think people are humble enough to tell themself that it's too easy and it rolls off the tongue too easy saying, I'm a division one player.  It's 1 percent man.  And I talked about is 1 percent that makes it to that level. And I'm talking about all around the country, all around the world, but now you got Europeans that are jumping in there, right? You got us guys coming in here. So it's. It's not easy and the way people talk about it nowadays Oh, she's also a Division 1 player, she's also a Division 1 player. Oil and sport. Please, I wasn't a Division 1 player. I did not make Division 1 right out of high school. Okay. I made junior college. I think just, I guess really just to fine tune the language. I think when we speak of being realistic with players, I like to lean a little bit on being more realistic on just the environment and the ecosystem. Once you're able to really see the ecosystem wow, like numerically, it's extremely difficult to compete at certain levels. I think, like you said, it starts to humble players and parents towards, okay let's look at basketball or AAU or school team in a different light. Rather than, oh, we need the division one thing or we deserve it. It's more so what, life skills or what disciplines can we pull from these experiences while still being in shape and having potentially the opportunity to compete. at that level.  But as I said earlier, a huge part of expectations relies on parents. The kids go home, parents have opinions, whether they play professionally or even play basketball or not there's definitely an influence on children's behavior, how they look at the game, how they play the game, right? Can you speak a little bit on, parental level?  Yeah, I've been fortunate enough to have been around a lot of parents, especially my parents, who are realistic. So I don't really deal with that a lot. Okay. There are parents that come to me that are unrealistic, but as and everyone knows who knows me I'm going to tell the truth. So I really am very honest with kids because again, I'm in an area that, Really, these kids are coming, the better kids are always coming to me every year, right? I have a program in which all the better kids are coming to my program. For me, I don't need to lie to them like other programs need to do to retain them. I don't need to say and neither would I do it, say Hey, you're a Division 1 player. And I don't handle those type of compliments. With some of the parents though because some of the parents talk to each other and I think they get information from each other I think that's where I find the disconnect because they talk to one another and they exchange information But that information is wrong.  The information is wrong that they're getting and they're and that's where you know the disconnect between some programs and parents lie is when you have a director and That, buys into whatever the parents are saying, because they want to retain that kid. So for me, the expectations from the parent has to be  humbling. You have to humble your kid. You can not be saying to your kids like, Hey, you're a division one athlete. No, I don't remember even me saying I'm a division one athlete in my  senior year. And I was all, I was an all city kid. I was second team, all city. If you're a second, if you're either first, second, or third team mall City,  you're really good. In New York City, it's a hotbed, right? So if you're either first, second, or third, you're the guy, right? I don't, I didn't even think like that, I didn't think I was a visual one player. I was like, oh I think I was still thinking like I got holes in my game. Where nowadays I think the talk that I hear from the kids, it rolls off the tongue too easy. Hey, I'm a division one player,  . I laugh at it because it's.  The more and more I do this job of a you, the more I hear it. And the more I say, you have no idea what you're facing. And we know what we're facing. Cause we've been on the circuit before we see the kids that they're going to have to go against. We see the lack of skills that they have compared to what the college coaches want, because every college coach has a.  Have a skill set that they like for their team and you must fit that skill set. And if you don't fit that skill set they're not going to get you. I always say you have to have one exceptional skill. Either you have to have one exceptional skill that trumps everything else. Then they want you for that one exceptional skill, or you've got to be good across the board between all the skills, but it's got to show. But if you don't have a skill to hang your hat on, okay, whether it be defense, shooting dribbling organizing your team. Being a hustler, okay, being a defender, if you don't have one skill set that sticks out, that is better than everyone else. Yeah, you're going to have a hard time. Think about it, how are you going to stick out?  Yeah, you're going to have a hard time and I think something you, you briefly touched on is really just the expectation from parents of, Forgetting again, leaning back into the having realistic awareness of the situation. Like a lot of these AUs, man, like it's a business. So they're like any other business. They're willing to almost sell you, the river essentially, right? Saying, Oh, I know this guy, I can get you a scholarship. Again,  the numbers tell you these colleges, man, these coaches, they get paid to perform, March Madness is here. Like people are going to lose their jobs, man. And. The whole, I know this person, you're like, no, you got to earn it, man. And leaning back to the original part of the conversation there has to be an element of, realism in terms of the environment you're in, who you are as a player and what you want out of the game. Because, it's clearly easily easy to get duped in this industry. But how would you.  How'd you advise kids to manage expectations when it comes to the skill sets, when it comes to really just dealing with the outside world? I think the manage expectations, I think you don't listen to the noise. I say that a lot. I said I was fortunate to have, three to four division one players in my program. And I said the same thing to the parents, same thing to the kids. You have to block out the noise. There is going to be so many people that come at you that say, Hey, I can do this for you. Hey, you should be here. Hey. And if you're not a realistic parent and you are so focused on.  Saying, Hey, my daughter's here or my son's here.  Then you've already caught up in the game because it's a business. If you don't think it's a business, you have no idea what's going on. Directors, AAU programs, college coaches, like it's all a business. It's a big business in which, college coach, I don't think parents need to understand. They get paid to do a job. And if they don't get, if they don't do their job, they get fired. They get fired right away for not doing their job. So for me if parents can really block out the noise and I say run your own race, don't look at someone else saying, Hey, this is how he did it, this is how she did it. I need to be on that same path. No, there's no particular, if anyone tells you they have it down to a science where you know, I can get them to here. No, it's not an exact science. Because when you look at certain people, why they get scholarships, there's really no exact size other than  particular teams, particular colleges have a certain set of skill set that they're looking for, right? So I just think run your own race, understand that if you're running your own race, their skills will dictate where they go. The higher the skill level, you don't have to worry about it. The lower the skill level of not having these skills. It's not, it's not going to end out well for you because you don't have a certain set of skillset to make it to the next level  and really just closing it off as well. It's worth noting, AAU or any sport you play is really meant to be an opportunity for kids and parents, man, essentially learn, grow, get these, life skills, these disciplines that do project into other avenues of your life, post high school. And, sometimes we talk about it, it's a shame to see these kids not really.  Take what they should get out of AAU or playing on these teams, right? And then it ruins their, not only ruins their experience, but then they end up having a bad taste in their mouth when it comes to, sports or team sports or working with teams and things like that. Just worth noting that, it's meant of course for fun, but of course known to grow and develop. And I like that.  You touched it. That's a great point piece. And I think the parents have to focus on them being, especially you're coming from middle school, let's focus on them being a good high school player.  That should be the focus. Let's not focus on. What's going to happen. What five years down the line, let's focus on I'm more anything I do in life. It's more or less short term goals. I have long term goals, but I really focus on the things that I can control in a short term, because if you add up all these small short term goals, it ends up being your long term right. But if you're so far ahead and you're thinking so far ahead,  It's never good because as things change, okay. Things change. Your role has changed. Nowadays with AAU people,  they say they'd love this AAU one point, then the following year, they're with another team, they say they love that team. Then the following year, they're on another team. So it's this AAU game. It's not going to get it down to a science. I've been doing it 13 years and I've seen everything in the business that I could shake my head at. And I said, that's not the way to do things. But.  I would hope that parents, and I say this to you a lot, there's a roadmap  on how things are done. If parents are looking.  There's a way in which if someone makes it or someone doesn't make it that is your level of skill set, there's someone out there that you can look at and say,  you know what? Look how they made it, right? They made it this way. Maybe I'm gonna do it a different way, for me, I'm looking at, she has the same skillset, same, it's a roadmap or  she went over here. She didn't pan out. There's a roadmap. So if the parents do their background check of checking on. Who was who and who did what they will know right away, whether or not their player or their daughter or son is a division one player. Like I knew, and I always take it in my, my, my instance, I knew after my sophomore year, heading into my sophomore year, I was a division one player because I had the  skillset because I looked at certain players that had the same skill set at me. And I looked at them and I said, I'm at that level. And I was realistic with my level. You hit it on the nose. I think this is a good way to end it. Until the next one.  Peace. 

This weeks guest Mariel Loveland paid her dues with her Northern Jersey pop-punk band Candy Hearts for nearly a decade, before going solo under the moniker of Best Ex. She joins us on the show and talks about the musical journey that led to the release of the fantastic Best Ex full length album entitled "With A Smile" on Iodine... The Charms "So Pretty"(theme song) Best Ex "Die Dor You" Best Ex "Tell Your Friends" Contact: Steev Riccardo twistedrico@gmail.com Support the podcast" patreon.com/twistedrico #MarielLoveland #BestEx #Candy Hearts

(4:35) Episode 500: You predict what we'll be talking about 500 episodes from now.(11:00) NFL Schedule: Germany and London are getting some heavy-hitter games this season.(18:45) Top 40 QB Countdown: What did Chris learn from looking back at last year's list?(41:20) Simms 500 Trivia: Chris and Ahmed try to go 5-for-5.(51:35) #AskMeAnything: What are the Cowboys missing to beat the Eagles & 49ers?(54:25) Giants: Can Evan Neal take a Year 2 leap, like his teammate?(57:45) O-line: The Broncos, Steelers, and Bengals made some big improvements this offseason.(1:00:30) Steelers: Are they being overlooked?(1:01:50) Chargers: Will they finally be able to stop the run?(1:03:40) Playoffs: Do too many teams make it now?(1:07:10) Patrick Mahomes: Why didn't he play at a better college?(1:10:45) Seahawks/Jets: Would you rather have Sauce Gardner & Garrett Wilson or Devon Witherspoon & Jaxon Smith-Njigba?(1:14:10) Chris' Replacement: What current QB most reminds Ahmed of Simms?(1:16:20) Pizza: Where's the best spot in Northern Jersey?

Rob (Hazeboiz) joins Dan for some hard hitting gonzo journalism at one of the best places to drink beer East of the Mississippi!  That's right Taphouse 15 and proprietor Tom Alphabet (not his actual name) celebrate 7 years as the undisputed best beer bar in the Garden State.  If you guys are not from Northern Jersey and you are ever making a trip to this beautiful part of the country Taphouse 15 is a MUST STOP for any self respecting neck beard.  Tune in and find out what you missed or reminisce about the great time you had at this great event!

The powerful story of Hagar in the Bible underscores how messy and complex God's work in history really is. As people of faith, we believe that God answers prayer and keeps his promises, but this story will shake us out of simplistic notions of God's call, God's promises, and God's faithfulness. Hagar is not just a supporting character in the story of Abraham and Sarah. She is not just the mother of Ishmael. Looking at Genesis 16 and 21 through Hagar's eyes reveals that her story is Israel's story. And it has a lot to teach us about how God shows up in our own stories. I encourage you to get the book: She Is Called Women of the Bible Study Vol. 2, by Rev. Ming Chen Lo Rohrer (Grace) is pastor of the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church of Northern Jersey in Livingston, New Jersey. Listen in as we take a deeper dive into the life of Hagar. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ray-martinez7/message

Erica Schultz is back on the Word Bros. She is honestly one of our favorite guests because of her candor, quick wit, and overall awesomeness. Are we gushing over Erica? Well, too bad! She deserves the praise.Erica is here to promote her new book Bylines in Blood from Aftershock Comics. So we chat about the book as well as jerky kids with motorized bikes in Northern Jersey, older siblings, and the benefits of being born a “grumpy old man.” This episode of The Word Bros is brought to you by Bad Bug Media and their new book Black Jackets. Subscribe at thewordbros.substack.com

Gerber, Danko and Chuck get together for a long conversation about only three things: the Browns, the Tribe and the premier of Many Saints of Newark. The Guys get a chance to offer kindness, support and understanding to Baker Mayfield after a tough game and to celebrate the defense that pulled out a big win against a good Vikings team. The Guys also waive a final goodbye (24:40) to the Cleveland Indians and give their final thoughts on the 2021 season. Off the Field (45:58), the Guys travel to Northern Jersey to recap the Many Saints of Newark Sopranos prequal (without spoilers... sort of). Stick around for the outtakes and a lot (for real this time, a lot) more talk about the movie - the outtakes contain spoilers, all of them, don't listen the outtakes if you don't want the movie ruined. UaU is on the web on twitter @andunprepared and on Instagram @unprofessionalandunprepared and Facebook (when they are working) Seriously, spoilers in the outtakes. Several of them.

Kevin and Sayje Lasenberry are the owners of Onyx Mana, a Northern Jersey-based Black-Owned e-commerce CBD store. This father-son duo is very dear to our hearts at DANK Discussions as they are a proud part of the Calacann Family. They join me in this very special episode to talk about being a black-owned company during […]

Before we install, we survey the property for a variety of reasons. Electrical, roof, sun-eye, etc. At the moment solar costs make it a no brainer. The price of solar is less than what you're paying. We don't nail the panels directly into the roof anymore.  It's based on a bracketing system.  The panels are attached to the bracketing system.  It's just a bracket that runs across your roof. What's going to happen is we're going to have one of my solar experts on out. They actually going show you on our program and you'll be able to see what the panels would look like if they were on your house that way if down the road if this is something that you're interested in at least you'll have the idea of why we don't nail them right into the roof, how we bracket them to home itself, and lastly how it protects the roof from whatever mother nature throws at it.  While we don't install on cedar shake and roofs, we will get you a brand new roof.  With older homes in Northern Jersey like in Maplewood, NJ and in Newark, NJ, this month alone we're removing cedar shake roofs here.  These homeowners are getting a 50-year roof with 3D composition shingles.  Before we install on your roof, we do a site survey.  If it's determined that the roof won't outlast the life of the panels, we'll replace the roof for you.  

Uprise was a hardcore band based out of Northern Jersey.  I heard about them when Mike Z joined the band because he was a classmate of mine at Jefferson Township High School and it was the first time I ever saw a local band put out a 7in which blew my mind. I talk about this in the interview. You may also remember the Morris County Youth Crew from back then which Matt formed. That name has come up a few times in previous podcast interviews. Especially Episode 23 with Brian Molloy who talks about the Morris County Adult Crew. Which, btw, I made merch for. You can check that out on thiswasthescene.com in the STORE. https://thiswasthescene.com/product-tag/mcac/ I got Matt on the phone and this is what we talk about: Hair metal Growing up in Morristown Straight edge Gorilla Biscuits His band Downfall The Music Den in Jefferson The NJ Impossibles Replacing Fortitude with Uprise on a show THE Morris County Adult and Youth Crew Ben from Dillinger Escape Plan being in the band Frank Cappuccio Their 7 in being pink Weston Hello Bastard’s artwork ripping off another album And a ton more Check out Matt’s other band Dead Nation on Spotify. And his other other band Kissing is a Crime feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon.

The Co-Founder's of Perseus Financial talk Cryptocurrency and the Exotic Car market. Both Adam and Rob also brought on the GM of an Exotic Car Dealer in Northern Jersey with McLaren of Ramsey NJ.

Jason is back on the show to tell us about the execution of an apartment syndication deal in which he was able to return 75% of his investors’ capital in just 13 months. We have actually heard about this deal before, about 400 episodes ago when Jason purchased the property he came on and told us about how he was able to obtain the deal Now we’ll hear about his business plan execution on that same deal. If you enjoyed today’s episode remember to subscribe in iTunes and leave us a review!   Best Ever Tweet: “We don’t want to push our rents and have an occupancy problem” - Jason Yarusi   Jason Yarusi Real Estate Background: Managing Partner of Yarusi Holdings a full service real estate and construction company His companies Flip and wholesale properties in Northern Jersey while controlling over 100 units in the midwest Listen to his previous episode: Based in Greater NYC area Say hi to him at   Get more real estate investing tips every week by subscribing for our newsletter at   Best Ever Listeners: Do you need debt, equity, or a loan guarantor for your deals? Eastern Union Funding and Arbor Realty Trust are the companies to talk to, specifically Marc Belsky. I have used him for both agency debt, help with the equity raise, and my consulting clients have successfully closed deals with Marc’s help. See how Marc can help you by calling him at 212-897-9875 or emailing him

Welcome everyone to This Was The Scene, the podcast that takes a look back at the late 90s / early 2000 Nj Jersey Punk scene, I am your host, Mike Doyle. If you grew up in Northern Jersey and needed a place to find independent music you would go to Scotti’s record shop in Morristown, sound exchange on rte 23, hot topic in the Rockaway mall (yes that’s where you could actually find bands) OR you could take a ride to Pompton Lakes and visit Flipside Records where you would find Alan Rappaport manning the register. He opened people’s eyes to bands like Sicko, Discount, Plow United, Mineral and Jimmy Eat World before they were making videos about underwear pool parties. My friends and I would pile into my buddy Lucc’s car, drive to Flipside and use whatever money we could find to stock up on new music. I wanted to get his perspective on the scene back then, he said “totally down man” and this is what we talked about: Who actually kicked him out of Lanemeyer Disney World’s effect on his punk rockness How he started working at Flipside Introducing Donuts and Glory and Steve from Right Turn Eddie His Lua pool party shows with Discount, My Pal  Trigger and LTJ His relationship with Jimmy Eat World The Backstage rehearsal studio And a ton more This week’s episode sponsored by Southern Tier Distilling Company. Building on 300+ years of western NY spirit production, Southern Tier Distilling Company puts that heritage into every bottle. Now, expanding their market to NJ, DE and Ohio, more of us can enjoy these premium spirits such as STDC’s Straight Bourbon, Silver Medal Award winning Vodka, Smoked Bourbon and their 2XHopped Whiskey (a whiskey distilled from their gold medal winning 2XIPA) In addition to their spirits, also available are their premium canned cocktails! Soon to hit the market are the Gin & Tonic with elderflower & cucumber, the Bourbon Smash with ginger, mint and lime and the Vodka Madras with cranberry, orange and camomile. Great for camping, the beach, tailgating and the golf course. Check out Southern Tier Distilling at www.stdcspirits.com and follow Rob at southern_tier_nj Southern Tier, Why the hell not?   This episode is also brought to you by my new book I’ll eventually like kids when they’re adults. This is a collection of comics I’ve drawn daily on my Instagram account. You can find me on Instagram by searching for yourdailybred.   As always, thank you to the people who’ve donated to the podcast. If you’d like to do so just go to thiswasthescene.com and send whatever you’d like. It helps me with the $20/month to keep this thing live. You can also buy merch there. Feel free to subscribe, leave a review and share this with anyone who would love some nostalgia. With that said, let's get started.  

This week, Stubs give a heartfelt apology about his previous weeks picks. We say goodbye to Football in New York, well Northern Jersey, for the rest of the season. Stubs chats about what a year it’s been so far in the NHL standings and his superstitions for games. He takes a walk down memory lane … Continue reading Stubs Sports Radio 1/7/16 →

This week, Stubs give a heartfelt apology about his previous weeks picks. We say goodbye to Football in New York, well Northern Jersey, for the rest of the season. Stubs chats about what a year it’s been so far in the NHL standings and his superstitions for games. He takes a walk down memory lane … Continue reading Stubs Sports Radio 1/7/16 →