Podcasts about ok it

Hello everybody out there on the planet, we are returning again to post some new shows.. after a few busy months off for (work-Medical emergencies-Life and ect...)  not a good time to be off but were ready to post a new Reggae show for people who want to hear warm songs.So on this show we have songs from: Pat Kelly / The Pretenders / The Clash / Derik  Morgan and The Inspirations and a few more.....OK It's showtime....Intro: Shake Down-August Palo1. Forward Ever-Jakob Miller2. No More Heartaches-The Beltones3. Not Me-The Jamaican Calypsonians4. I Do It-Derrek Morgan5. Rockers Tambourine-Shorty The President 6. Calypso Rock & Roll-Dave Burges & His Caribbeans7. Cuss, Cuss-Lloyd Robinson8. It Was Love-Brent Dowe9. Work Man Song-Pat Kelly10. Black Market-Lord Beginner11. Mix Up, Mix Up-Bob Marley12. Gimmy De Rum-Innocentry13. Eltakenazo-Calimbo Steel Band14. Uptown Top Ranking-Althea Forrest & Donna Reid15. Tighten Up-The Inspirations16.  Bangarang-Stranger Cole & Lester Sterling17. Why Can't We Be-The Great Love Trip18. Corner Soul-The Clash19. Private Life-The Pretenders20. Don't Break Up-1994Outro: Ice Man-Calimbo Steel Band

Label: SGC 001Year: 1968Condition: MPrice: $60.00This is the first release of this much-released single, on the light tan label with no horizontal lines. The single was released again in 1970 on a light green (with some yellow) label. Though the A side is the band's most famous song and was a hit again for Nazz's guitarist and songwriter, Todd Rundgren, in 1973 -- in fact, it was Rundgren's biggest hit and only top 10 single -- my personal fave is the terrific, snarly B side. Rundgren had clearly been listening to the Who, but that's OK: It's a great song and a great sound! That Nazz and SGC thought so, too, is evidenced by the fact that "Open My Eyes" was actually the original A side of the single. As the chart information shows, "Eyes" charted nearly 6 months before "Hello" started up the chart. All in all, this is a nearly Mint copy of a classic single, the first from a Pennsylvania band led by one of the most important figures in American rock'n'roll during the 1970's. Even though he wasn't a consistent hitmaker himself, Todd Rundgren brought a large number of important artists to the studio and became a studio engineer/producer of even higher esteem than as a solo singer/musician. Note: This copy looks new with a drillhole. The sleeve is Near Mint and also has a drillhole. (This scan is a representative image from our archives.)

[✐2.Andante] まあまあでした - adjectives in past tense + Shadowing [07:20]“It was (just) OK.”[00:07]Hello everyone. Let's start right away.[00:11]You went to the party, or you saw a movie, or you had an exam.  How was it?  Tell me your thoughts or impressions.[00:24]For example,How was the party yesterday?  enjoyable, fun→ It was fun.OK?[00:33]1.  How was the party yesterday's party?boring→ It was boring.2.  How was the film?very interesting/funny→ It was very interesting.3.  How was Onsen(hot spring)?feel good/nice/pleasant→ Onsen was nice.4.  How was the test yesterday?easy→ It was easy.5.  How was Panda?very cute→ It was very cute.6.  How was the new restaurant?was OK→ It was just OK.[02:10]Next, we practice in Plain Style (1).For example,How was the party yesterday?  fun→ It was fun![02:21]Now, we speak a bit faster.[02:24]1.  How was the drinking party yesterday?boring→ It was boring.(nomikai = drinking party/session)2.  Have you seen the video? How was it?very funny/interesting→ It was very funny.3.  How was the beauty salon treatment?feel very good/comfortable/pleasant→ It was extremely good.(esute = beauty salon treatments/esthetic clinic)4.  How was the car(license) exam?easy→ It was easy.5.  How was Kabuki?very good→ It was very good.6.  How was the (job)interview?was so-so, was OK→ I did OK.=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= 「まあまあでした」[00:07]みなさん、こんにちは。では さっそく はじめましょう。[00:11]You went to the party, or you saw a movie, or you had an exam.  How was it?  Tell me your thoughts or impressions.[00:24]たとえば、きのうのパーティは どうでしたか？ たのしい→ たのしかったです。いいですか。[00:33]1.  きのうのパーティ、どうでしたか？つまらない→ つまらなかったです。2.  えいがは どうでしたか。とても おもしい→ とても おもしろかったです。3.  おんせん、どうでしたか。きもちよい→きもちよかったです。4.  きのうのテストは、どうでしたか？かんたん→かんたんでした。5.  パンダは、どうでしたか。とても、かわいい→とても かわいかったです。6.  あたらしいレストランは どうでしたか。まあまあ→まあまあでした。[02:10]つぎは、Plain Style(1)で れんしゅうします。たとえば、きのうのパーティ、どうだった？ たのしい→ たのしかった！[02:21]ちょっと スピードアップしますよ。[02:24]1.  きのうの のみかい、どうだった？つまらない→ つまらなかった。(のみかい= drinking party/session)2.  ビデオみた？どうだった？すごく おもしろい→すごく おもしろかった。3.  エステ、どうだった？すっごく きもちいい→ すっごく きもちよかった。(エステ= beauty salon treatments/esthetic clinic)4.  くるまのしけん、どうだった？かんたん→かんたんだった。5.  かぶき、どうだった？すごく いい→ すごく よかった。6.  めんせつ、どうだった？まあまあ→ まあまあだった。Support the show=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=Need more translation & transcript? Become a patron: More episodes with full translation and Japanese transcripts. Members-only podcast feed for your smartphone app. Japanese Swotter on PatreonNote: English translations might sound occasionally unnatural as English, as I try to preserve the structure and essence of the original Japanese.

Tracklisting: 01. Alex Baker - Reflections 02. Joey Pecoraro - You Noticed Me 03. Rob Grant, Lana Del Rey - Lost at Sea (ANNA Remix) 04. Emmit Fenn - It's Ok It's Alright 05. Oceanvs Orientalis, Idil Mese - Heart Pieces 06. Amtrac - Feedback 07. ORACLE, Holochrome - Where Does The Light Go 08. Forester, OCULA, Madeline Magery - Sunrise  09. Klur, Diana Miro - Pull Me Through 10. Jerro - Forever 11. Dokho - Luna's Dream 12. Linney - Together (Chill Mix) 13. Shingo Nakamura - Prism 14. Lstn - Timeless 15. Bye Ocean - Beyond 16. Yim - Sprout

ON CRUMBLING AND RISING STRONGER Owning my view of the world for Taking It Personally’s 100th episode I'm taking the opportunity of this milestone episode of the show to share my view of the world so that you can decide if I can help you realise your business goals. Join me on the show to talk about: Why traditional approaches to business not only don’t work for everyone, there are compelling reasons why they no longer work at all What I’ve been quiet about that I now want to share (and why me doing so will benefit my business, and yours) and Why I’m flawed, privileged and don’t want to be considered an expert (and why that’s OK) It’s a personal one, so take it however you will! (Eep!) I’m taking it personally. Elle xo Anti-racism statement https://elleturner.me/antiracism Join me for a four-month 1:1 VIP mentorship and training programme Entrepreneurial Leadership mentoring and training designed specifically for online solopreneurs and micro business owners who want to show up and share their message confidently and consistently in the online space to attract kindred soul clients and a like-hearted community and so that they can leverage the power of online business to create personal wealth and positively impact the world. https://elleturner.me/liveintoleadership Are you part of our heart-led conversation? Our Heart-Led Conversation is my VIP email community. Find out via the link below why you want to be part of it! You can join here and, to welcome you, I'll send you a FREE guide '5 ways to stop procrastinating and take action TODAY so that you can achieve your business goals' https://elleturner.me/heart-led-conversation True Time Management for new & experienced Solopreneurs If you feel like you need to spend more time in your business to gain traction and see a return for all your hard work, but you just can’t squeeze another minute out of your already packed and overscheduled day, check out the (don't worry, it's short!) Online Course True Time Management for new & experienced Solopreneurs (and take advantage of the bonkers introductory price!) https://elleturner.me/ttm-online-course Website: https://elleturner.me/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elleturner_writer/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elle-turner/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elleturnerbusiness

OK It was just as a guest, but our favorite announcer, Brian Dunseth joined the boys from RSL Random Fan Podcast. He addresses: his playing career His Transition to the booth Watching his kids play How he handles coaches US Men's National Team And Much much more --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rslrandomfan/message

「你這樣穿不會熱嗎？」 英文怎麼說？ 天氣越來越溫暖囉～但是怕冷的 Babii 還常常在穿發熱衣！ “我比較怕冷/我比較怕熱”、“早晚溫差大” 英文怎麼說呢？ 這一集文化閒聊，Duncan 要跟我們分享， 如果冷到狂發抖和熱到爆汗的天氣讓他自由選擇， 實際上 Duncan 會寧願選擇哪一種？ 快來聽這一集內容，聽聽看你這樣穿不會熱嗎的英文怎麼說。 英文口說救星：賴世雄幫你自信開口說英文 賴世雄老師自學口說三心法 - 教你開口說正確、自然的英文。 課程優惠中，馬上點進試看，結帳前輸入 speak200 再折 200 元喔！ https://lihi1.com/qTXgp 快速幫你複習一下這集的主題句 ＆ 單字： 你這樣穿不會熱嗎？ Aren't you hot in that/those ______? 補充學習 還好～ I'm fine. / It's OK / It's alright. 我比較怕冷/我比較怕熱 I don't like being cold / hot (形容詞）. I don't like the cold / heat（名詞，代表很熱的溫度）. I cant's stand the cold/ heat. 早晚溫差大 Temps will rise/ drop throughout the day. It will get cold at night. 情境對話 Duncan：Babii，你這樣穿不會熱喔？你穿很多件耶～ Babii, Aren't you hot in those clothes? You're wearing so many layers. Babii：還好～我比較怕冷 I'm alright. I just don't like being cold. Duncan：是喔～我比較怕熱，我不喜歡流很多汗。 Oh? I can't stand being hot. I really don't like to sweat. Babii：我知道～我記得你有說過一次。 I know. I remember you told me once before. 學英文吧網站 https://ivybar.com.tw/?c=3 或追蹤 iVY BAR 學英文吧的 IG，上面圖文版 podcast 複習也很棒喔！ https://pse.is/39vede 現在我們也有影音版的 Podcast 實境秀喔 https://pse.is/3ahupl Powered by Firstory Hosting

FBLFK 224 – feat. KAYTRANADA, Fred Again.., GEOTHEORY, Marmolak, Supershy ++ track artists Strings Theory (NYC Version) Nickodemus,Chris Annibell Twin Flame KAYTRANADA,Anderson .Paak It’s Ok (It’s Not Ok) (Original Mix) Mindchatter Pockets (Original Mix) Devault,EVAN GIIA Days Handbook Iced Tea KAYTRANADA,Joyce Wrice LADY (feat. Kyle Dion) (Original Mix) j.robb,Elujay Through Enough (Original Mix) VanJess,Goldlink Lifetime... View Article

Nowata, OK - It would've been the perfect hiding spot IF they hadn't found him. Turned out 23-year-old Wolf October Berry hid under all that poop for nothin'. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's Ok / It's Not Ok - to perpetuate the pregnant April Fool's Joke?

It's Ok / It's Not Ok for an 8 year old to go online and have social media presence?

Ok… It's the big question. It's the question that if answered can get you to your goal, your dream, your destiny. What is your why? Let's talk about it today, but not just because it's popular and not just from a perspective of coaches and influencers and mindset gurus these days, but let's talk about your why from a biblical perspective. What does God have to say? And… is He part of your why…How To Consistently Grow Your Relationship with God in 2022 FREE MASTERCLASS (CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS AND TO REGISTER)

Embracing peak suffering with William England In this episode of the CrossLead podcast, host David Silverman speaks with William England, Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Walleye Capital Partners, and world-champion rower who raced for Princeton, Oxford, and the US national team.They focus on lessons Will learned in crew teams and how those lessons translate to managing a high-growth investment firm. William talks about Walleye Capital's operating model, structure, and culture and how they have managed through the last 18 months. He also discusses personal leadership philosophies, his weaknesses, and thoughts on personal development as a senior executive.“Greatest enlightenment comes after peak suffering.” Resources Want to discuss some of these topics directly with Dave? Join the CrossLead LinkedIn Group. Episode Transcript Welcome to the CrossLead podcast. I’m your host, Dave Silverman at CrossLead, we exist to help teams, individuals achieve and sustain optimal performance. In today’s episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Will England, who was a partner and the chief investment officer of Walleye Capital as chief investment officer, Will England oversees internal and external strategy allocations and is responsible for risk management. He earned a Bachelor of Science and Operations Research and Financial Engineering from Princeton and a master’s degree in mathematics and computational finance from Oxford. Throughout his time at Princeton, Oxford Will England was an accomplished rower appearing in multiple world championships for the United States national team and winning the Oxford, Cambridge poses  Today we talk about lessons we’ll learn as a world and collegiate champion rower and how he’s applied those lessons to life in business. We talk about why capitals operating model and why decentralization is critical for their success. We talk about the impact of meme stocks encoded on their investment fundamentals and how they’ve adapted in the face of change. Thank you for tuning in. I hope you enjoy the conversation about. All right, well, thanks so much for making time today. I’d love to introduce you to the audience and maybe just have you talk about your background a little bit if you’d be comfortable  Sure  Like starting from the beginning  Yeah, yeah, take take us back, you know, through your life, sort of where you’re from and how you got to the position you’re at today  So I like to say I grew up in a town that time forgot a little town called. Marblehead, Massachusetts, north of Boston, and it was the 10th largest town in the first census in 1790, and I don’t think it’s changed very much since then  It’s kind of one of those places where if you don’t wear boat shoes, you’re kind of shunned. So, like, not in the normal world at all. But yeah  That’s where I started. And I sort of break my life down into four stages and not all of which are necessarily obviously connected, but there is a sort of a logic to it and a flow in hindsight  So as I said, I grew up in this little town where. It’s very sheltered upbringing. I wasn’t like flying around on jets, but you know, I had pretty much an idealistic way to grow up, frankly  And sort of the first part of my life, which I’d say up until the end of eighth grade, I  I wouldn’t describe myself as employed as it was now. Frankly, I I didn’t work very hard  I was fairly lazy, a little bit fat. I had a lot of raw talent  Unrealistically, realistically  Both in regards to academics and athletics, but just really didn’t ever have to work that hard because of, you know, that sort of situation  And that sort of seemed fine. And something happened in eighth grade. It wasn’t like  This one died. It wasn’t any terrible like that, but for me, very formative time in my life. So in that, in my world, in that frankly part of the part of the country and how I grew up, everyone, you know, it goes to turn not everyone, but a lot of people will go to boarding school and that’s sort of what my whole family died. My sister, you know, it’s very much like playing college is a very difficult school to get into and you just sort of apply. And it just sort of what I what I assume would happen  And what happened in eighth grade is because  I never really worked hard and frankly, wasn’t that special  I actually didn’t like the first time  When I didn’t achieve a goal that I had, and it was really embarrassing and it sucked. And in hindsight, it’s like, Okay, it’s not the end of the world, but for me, being in eighth grade, it was just sort of terrible  And so something in me kind of really snapped, and I never wanted to feel that way again. And that was really  When I said, OK, I’m never going to not be absolutely dedicated to what I’m trying to achieve, as you know, a 14 year old kid. And so the rest that year and next year, I got basically an AA or an A-plus in every single class I took  I started to work out and learn about fitness and sort of develop some of the core traits that still define me today and everything sort of  Worked out. And the next year I applied and come to exactly where we wanted to go and  See NF going there as as a sophomore instead of as a freshman .Yeah, yeah, exactly. And again, there’s sort of everything else that I went to Andover  Which is a, you know, very, very old elite status school  Yeah  But really interesting too, because it is very difficult  To get into and or there are exceptions to this. Generally speaking, it is really just around very smart people and pushed very, very, very hard and then actually end over from an academic sense is much more challenging there  I went to college or grad school  But yeah, I went there as a sophomore and sort of went a little bit of  My shoulder because I hadn’t gone in the previous year. And it’s not typical for somebody on as a sophomore. And I was just  Like, You know, that next phase of my life, I’d say  Was, you know, when I went from south in your nice gold’s all the way through the grad school or sort of transition from I was in my growing up had been this sort of lazy, not cool. Like I said, Well, the fat kid, you know, like this was very successful growing  I did super well in school. It’s kind of this combination of like a, you know, a jock and a super nerd and was just really successful in all sorts of various different things, probably  To my  Detriment at certain points, because I was probably a bit of a dick after  Some things. But that’s sort of the very formative time in my life  I did start rowing in high school  What drew you to rowing? What brought you to rowing? Just like to suffer?Yeah, no. So actually, I resisted doing it for a while  Because my sister wrote, as well as just a couple years older, me or very competitive with each other, among other things, and I was like, I don’t I’m not doing the stupid fucking sport. You just said  That’s just really dumb. I finally was like, Well, you might actually be really good at it, so why don’t  You just sit down?So I actually didn’t start  Until my junior year  In high school, which is, you know, relatively late  For any sport because I was six years old by then. Yeah. And there’s  This thing called the ERG  Which is like this stationary torture device where you sit. Down and you just pull on something until you pass out. I mean  That’s basically if you’re super  Good at that with a little bit of coaching over the years, you’re just going to be really good at rowing. And then as you get higher and higher like genetics matter and all sorts of things like that  But rowing is this amazing sport because probably more so than any other sport that I can think of, how well you do is directly correlated to what  You put into it. You know, maybe weightlifting is like that to some extent  Yeah, but but very much correlated. So I just fell in love with it immediately, and I went from never having tried the sport  To three or four months later, had the best scores on the team and made the top boat and and really just kind of got obsessed. So I don’t know, I had a natural affinity for for rowing. I still wasn’t that good because it does take a little bit of time to to be very, you know, competitive on that level  But when I got  To college, especially my freshman year of the summer before my freshman year, I spent some time and really thinking about how to how to train on my own, which is a huge part of being successful as sort of a sport is that, you know, a lot of people could sit down over coaches yelling at you and saying, you know, just pulling the fucking handles hard as you can do that, but actually being able to do it by yourself and be intelligent about how to design your own training program. That’s, you know, at some point really separates people  Oh, interesting. Yeah, it’s very thoughtful  Yeah. So I I spent some time doing that  Before I went to college. And then, you know, my freshman year, I got a lot better, you know, and that wasn’t just one better than the guys. Most of the guys around me on my team, but it sort of, you know, very competitive on a national level  You had gotten a lot better  Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, you know, again, just very good for learning about work ethic. And I mean, there’s all I  Could talk for a long time about rowing. I talked to the people at work now, but all my stories and rowing  But it’s certainly not the only thing that provides sailing lessons for  Life, but, you know, very sort of obvious and transferable images from from rowing that apply to a lot of what we do. So  So anyway, so I it does go back to  What I saying before as far as figuring out just the benefits, frankly, of of. I would say extreme discipline, but being as disciplined as possible. That’s definitely true in academics as I’ve went through in rowing. So I was fortunate to be able to find and then have the opportunity to to really focus on those activities and wassuccessful to hang out and had a great time. Just really identifying and sort of both of those domains. So when I was  And it was somewhat  Extreme when I say it was like the super nerdy jock or like in in college, I was an engineering major as a particular major to where we went sort of combining engineering, mathematics, economics. But, you know, pretty, pretty intense academically, very different group of people than those that I was sort of spending their time on the riverwith. And then when I went to grad school, I went to Oxford for grad school and originally to do a Ph.D. in math, which is like, really weird for someone that like sports, but very true to me at the same time  one of the reasons why I also went there and was around this thing called the Oxford Cambridge Boat Race, which is one of the oldest  Legendary race right in the world  Yeah, and  It attracts people that, like me, had wrote for their national teams and went to the Olympics and World Championships and all that. So it’s very, very elite level, which is just amazing experience. The first thing worked out well, so  You know, through that basically  So you represented Oxford in that in that match?Yeah, I was  I rode for Oxford. I was the start of of of our trip and we were we won by a lot  Which was just  That  This was an amazing experience in all the ways  I mean, maybe I’ll come back to that as I can  But that’s sort of how to define that, that chapter of my life. And then after grad school and when I said, I’m going to  Stop rowing at that point, I’d I’d done everything except go to the Olympics. I didn’t want to just row and sort of timelines. And as far as when I was in the Olympic cycle, it wasn’t very conducive. Obviously, I just four years is doing that, which is not resistant  There was wasn’t something  I want to do. So I went out to the real world and got my ass kicked. And that’s sort of  You know, what I’d say is the third sort of wilderness phase of my life. Frankly  I don’t know how to  Explain to, you know, people in their early twenties when they’re finishing college or grad school or whatever it is, when they’re coming out of the cocoon  If you know what I mean, the like you’re 20 fucking suck. Like you’re at the bottom again. You really don’t know shit, no matter how smart you  Are, like, you just don’t have the experience and the judgment  And there’s all sorts of  Examples of this sort of in the business world, someone from from your background where  Basically you do just  Need to be humbled  I certainly did  It was very useful in hindsight. And so the story there is, you know, I work for a big firm and in finance, you know, my background as a mathematician academically. So work for, you know, big. Hedge fund  Which is interesting intellectually  But frankly, pretty fucking boring. And then I also worked in a private equity venture capital for for a period of time and just to get some sort of broad experience. And you know, that was super interesting, but I was like, Oh my God, I’m like, I have a lot to learn, basically  And then also in those periods, you know, there was sort of the process of sort of iterating towards my career, my current life and as far as, you know, figuring out exactly what I wanted to do in my career, throwing out what I thought that I was necessarily uniquely qualified to do  But so where some of my relative strengths lie, which is super important? And I just sort of other aspects of life, like being my wife and figure out where going you live. You know, for me, that was effectively in my my late twenties  That’s sort of what I sort of define as the third phase of my life  And the fourth is where I am now  I’m only 36 and so not not super old by any means, although my, my parents and my wife basically say that I’ve been like a 50 year old trapped in a younger man’s life  You know? And so now, you know  I’m sort various different labels that I think are appropriate. You know, whether it’s a husband, father of two kids, two little boys that you know, the most important thing in my life, you know, but also leading leading a company and investment company to which is slightly different than leading a quote unquote normal company  So, you know, you know, investor and and we’re very much in search of what we do about sort of the center of the hedge fund world and by design, we sort of even our business itself as a hub and spoke model  So I’m at the at the center of that. So  So those are  Kind of where I am now and all the experiences that have before that have sort of sort of coalesced into all the things that that make me me  So I want to go back to to one point on the the humbling experience. I think that’s interesting and relevant. And then and then spend a little time, if you would, talking about like, what is walleye capital, you know, you know, how are you different than other hedge funds?I’d be curious about. But before that, if you think about in your twenties, you’re coming out. You’ve been uber successful at this point. And I mean, you’ve gone to Andover and Princeton and now Oxford, and you’re rowing at the national level, competing, you know, world championships  And now you come into business when you say, kick your ass, go back at that and spend a little more time with that. If you what they work for civically was like the eye opening experience for you  Well, that’s a couple of points. Number one, no one gives a shit, and I think that’s really important. That’s great  It opens the door, right? It gets you to be realistic  Like, Yes, absolutely  Those experiences were  Helpful. And yes, I was  Sort of surrounded in a very  Very privileged way, which initially appeared at the time. You know, that initially, like, oh, saying  I have this brand association of being at those places, which is really what they are in a lot of ways. But, you know, also just having a network be exposed people, some of the most important people in my life were those that I met through through those experiences  But then you get out in the real world and you know, you start to say, OK, instead of people giving me credit for my potential abilities, they’re going to start to  Evaluate me on what I can do right now. So what’s the difference between kinetic and potential energy?And also in a way in which you don’t necessarily think of? Because if you’re in an academic environment, you’ve got teachers, you’ve got parents, which are very much your cheerleaders and they’re rooting for you to do well, literally  And so  Yeah, yeah  And then you get into the real world and people like, I fucking hate you do. Do you think you’re just like privilege asshole that went to all these good schools? Like, in a way, subconsciously they’re actually rooting for you to fail  So if you aren’t super good, if you aren’t  Super  Competent, in some ways, you get less leeway. That’s not to say it’s like this is negative by any means, but just actually being totally realistic. And that’s sort of a big part  Of who I am now. It’s just like  Being real and objective and really evaluating things for what they  Are and not telling yourself a story is a big part of that. And then so what I found, it’s like, OK  It’s not about what have you done  In your past? It’s about What can you do now? What can you do well for the environment? Yeah, sure. The fact that you might have been super successful in an athletic endeavor does speak to pride characteristics about discipline and work ethic and all that sort of stuff, but you still need to translate it into another area, whichcan actually be helpful  You know, I know lots of people with gold medals that frankly are pretty fucking useless  The rest of their life because knows it  And so does actually having a bit of an experience of doing that. You know, not fun. Not sort of painful, but like like anything like greatest enlightenment comes after peak suffering, and that’s true in sports. And so that’s why query, isn’t it?And I think  That’s, you know, it’s very much sort of true, true in life  So so did you have a mentor when he got there or just found it was really like, you know, doggy dog  So I do have a mentor  He’s actually my son’s godfather now, who? He was also a 20 years older me who’s basically like my big brother and has sort of been a guiding voice of influence of, you know  Basically saying all these things, which I didn’t even  I believe at the time it’s like, OK  Like you kind of need to go and get  Your ass kicked for a couple of years and then you’ll you’ll start to figure out some stuff. I remember hearing that and not believing that  But yeah, just having  Someone to sort of provide  Perspective on the way has been super helpful for me. And then over the years, I’ve  Had other other mentors, even in my current business. You know, others are senior partners who’s much older and I, you know, very much has aspects of, you know, wisdom which are helpful. And I do think that’s really important  I mean, one of the things that I’ve certainly found over the years going through various different phases of a business as far as the world is really hard to figure out on your own. Having partners or other people that you can talk to is really helpful, even if you are individually very impressive, very much more want todo, you know, have have partners line along for the ride and to be able to come in each other as opposed to doing your own  So that’s probably a good transition to a while. I may maybe spend some time talking about like what is while I capital, how are you different? And then what? I’d love you to use and tie those two themes together, which is, you know, you guys are in a high growth environment now you’re bringing on board  How do you think about taking some of that young potential talent and turning it into kinetic I for you guys?Yeah, sure. So, you know, I like to say a general like we’re a hedge fund, right?So people have a lot of connotations around what that might mean, like, oh, you guys are evil  I mean, first of all, I’d say we’re trying  To be the non evil hedge fund. I don’t think those those are the concepts are synonymous, but  It’s just structurally there’s only about TED  Hedge funds in the world that are structured the way we are for various different reasons. one is just that in order to have our structure, we need a lot of energy, extremely competent and have a lot of trust from your investor group because of, you know, effectively how how Costco sort of shared across the group  But our model is a distributed network  It’s not like we focus on one particular area. It’s sound like they’re saying, Oh, we’re really great at picking tech stocks long and short or biotechs or something like that. We have all these different strategy pods. There’s actually about 100  And almost anything that  You can do in public and in some cases, private markets. So we’ll have people that are, you know, focusing on one for equity and various different sectors all over the world. Well, I think doing quantitative strategies will have, you know, people doing, you know, various different forms of ops and strategies focused on trading all these weird dimensions early to fall and sort of higher or higher order characteristics and various different types of funding trends. As I said, there’s about 100 different across the group  And stitching them all together  Is extremely complex. But if done well, can, you know, can work extremely well. And there’s, as I said, there’s only about ten hedge funds that are structured like this, and they’re they’re the most successful hedge funds other  So my role is is basically  Sitting at the center of all that and very how to tie it together and have been a driving force, not the only running force, but if the driving force in sort of constructing that hub and spoke model over the past couple of years given given sort of the history of of of our firm  And so the way  You know, as I said, it’s it’s a distributed network we have  We’re not trying  To sit at the center and control what everyone is  Is doing. We hire very competent people and then  They largely run their own businesses and are given the freedom to to do that  But at the same time, like that  Center group as well, it needs to needs to think about stitching everything, everything together to make it work better  And this is you asked about  The analogies from from rolling to our business works. I mean, there’s  There’s a ton, I think the most, most salient line from from rowing is it  Sort of regards to creating a team and sort of stitching very complimentary people and and talents together is like  Just the process of making a  Boat in and of itself. So you know, the way what rowing works and every team that  You’ve been on, there’s  There’s a selection process  Where like you’re literally sitting  Down and it  Fit better than the next guy, even  Though he’s going to be on your team. Is that a very competitive in a productive way?And the thing that’s so great about rowing is  Not the only sport like this, but  There’s no like storytelling, right? Like in some other sport, someone can say like, Yeah, you know  I’m super good soccer player or basketball or in football like  I’m the best ever in rowing. It’s just like, OK, sit down both I can score like it’s either going to be better or not or, you know, getting a seat race and then the seat races literally pull two boats together  Is which two guys? And you see, if it went faster than in the  Previous race, and this is very objective  So there’s a whole process in  Rowing about like just making the boat  And and by that, you know, in  Order to sort of be on the boat, especially as you go to higher levels. There’s just this  This baseline  Level of competency involved and sort of this sort of shared  Shared desire and acceptance that, yeah, we’ve all been through suffering again, not not the only there in the world in which this applies, but what  Rowing is certainly one of them where, you know, in order to, you know, be at the highest levels, you know, each person individually has to be very good  At the same time  I mean, there’s a reason why people use the analogy of like making the boat roll faster  Like, you literally have to do that  You have, you know, various different people that sit in the boat and you can’t just be doing your own, your own. Saying and especially if you really want to optimize it, you know, it’s it’s about getting on the same page and  Very severe levels and also respecting that  It’s not just that everyone is the same  You can’t just take a  Bunch of guys that are six, ten and big dumb animals that are ridiculously strong, but maybe don’t have a good feel for rhythm or things like that and put them in a boat and expect that that’s going to do as well  The stroke, as I mentioned, that was sort of my seat as a slightly different role than the people in the middle of the boat at a slightly different role than people. Do you know about the boat? So just actually  Saying, OK, there’s a baseline level of confidence that you  Get into that type of organization, but then in the same  Time, once you’re there, there’s no additional  Selection. So then you really got to go back and be on the same page to to make it go faster. You know, there are there very much analogs to to that in our business, not necessarily  Perfect analogs  But sort of the concept of, you know, our business model, you know, we’re hiring senior people. We’re not really a training organization. We’re giving them a lot of trust. We start with an opening bit of trust. You know, I didn’t make it up that quote, but I think it’s a great quote where we trust that people are. That’s from Jim Collins, by the way. So don’t give it to me  But, you know, just say you’re going to run your  Business here and doing your own thing. But at the same time, there’s this notion of  Why we’ve been successful in growing  In our world in recent years is  We’re not going out and  Saying that the organization is is evil, right where we’re respected at the center for four, applying common sense of situations, not necessarily saying in order to be successful in the fight in the finance industry, you need to be in a time of time that is not respectful of people and developing people and sort of all the aspects that go into being, you know, having individuals that are very good at what  They do and not  Treating them like trading cards as well, which in our case and in some other businesses. one of the things that called the operators really don’t like is that for reasons that are outside of their control, all of a sudden there can be kind of arbitrary decisions about, you know, for whatever reason, they no longer have a job so that those are just some concepts that I  Apply that to do very much go back to kind of throwing ideas. And I think again, the most salient one is there’s  Baseline level of selection. And then  You know, once you’re there is figuring out how we’re all in the same team.Let’s just go really fucking fast  Yeah, super, super interesting. If you go to let’s let’s pivot, send yourself and make your own leadership thoughts, if we could. If you if you think about like, maybe some of these critical lessons that you’ve learned that shaped the current phase of your life you’re in, I mean, you sort of alluded to some of this, you know, based on some of the rowing analogies. But I’d be interested if there’s something you think that’s like really topical top of mind for you, better some you’ve read or so you’ve been thinking about, you know, as you guys, you’re leading as a chief investment officer for a while  I I guess sort of one of the things that I become more  Cognizant of this is not by design is that  To the extent I  Have  A superpower, it’s that I’m extremely disciplined without like trying to be disciplined. It just sort of seems natural to me  You know, I can get into my daily routine if you want, but like, I eat the same thing every day. Very structure and what I do. Big believer in routines, you know, physically, I’m somewhat imposing. I can lift lots of crazy heavy weights and that’s just what’s interesting to me  And I have lots of broad interests of our books. I mean, these are just things that I  Do, and what I’ve learned over time is  Like, that’s not necessarily normal  And there is going back to rowing. This sort of idea like to be super successful in anything. You have to  Trick yourself  That that’s possible. Like saying you’re going to be really good at a sport is statistically irrational  Saying that you’re going to be very successful. Business is statistically irrational or they’re going to have lots of money  It’s just like if you just run the numbers and I’m saying this is a data person, like you said, No, I’m not, I’m going to conclude, that’s just nonsense. And yeah. And so what I remember from from rowing and  What time was helpful, and I think there’s very much from a leadership perspective in  Business is just almost saying like, guys, yeah, we’re going to do this, you know, we’re going to train. And then in the analog of businesses, we’re going to think about strategy  We’re going to see better strategy, the tactics we’re going to, you know, think over the in the context of not just days or weeks, but months and sometimes year actually achieve what we  What we want and just having an underlying level of like belief that you can do that and enthusiasm and optimism for that is is very helpful. And so I guess one of the things  That I’ve just been thinking about recently, partly because I was that I devoured books and podcasts and heard lots of people talking about this is like, Oh yeah, that’s just something that  Is just the concept of of optimism. I’m not like going out and saying I’m going to be inspiring  Today, but just sort of a belief  Of, yeah, like I I think we’re going to achieve X, Y and  Z and optimistic about that. But it’s realistic because effectively, you know what you put  In the training. I mean, when you show up on the  Starting line and rowing, and I imagine that there’s  Probably lots of analogs like this for you. It’s like if you know that you’ve put in years and years  Of practice to get there  Like you just. There’s this calmness, it’s like, yeah, I’m just I’m going to win  The match, takes care of itself. It’s OK, you it  And I think that there’s absolutely an analog for that in our world, especially in investing. It’s like there’s a lot of a lot of things that we can’t control  In our world  There’s there is short  Term luck involved  But if you have a good process across all the various different  Areas of your business  And you’ve been very diligent in putting that place over the years  And  The first principles themselves make make sense and you believe in what you’re doing and can  Inspire other people to  You know, follow what you’re doing and why. Like, it’s going to work and just, you know, all those  Lessons together about, you know, being dedicated and being confident because of, you know, you know, that you put the work in. And for us, that’s been very helpful. And we, you know, a few years ago, five or six years ago, if you looked at where we were relative to where we are today, I don’t think it would have been a stretch to a lot of people to predict that. But you know, here we were. We very much thought that was that was possible. So I don’t know if that  You know, that’s super, super interesting. I mean, what what would I think about, you know, because you’re right, the parallel for me, like with combat experience, is pretty similar seal teams. You hammer the fundamentals over and over again  So when you get on the objective, you’ve got a lot of confidence that regardless of how the objective unfolds, you know, the basics of shooting me, communicate, communicate. You know, you’re going to be better than your adversary and that that Wednesday  The second thing is, if you’re assuming you’re operating in a chaotic or complex, you know, conditions where there are a lot of variables that are moving or changing. The fact that the fundamentals are in place lowers that overall cognitive load and allows you sort of space and time to sort of assess the other opportunities or threats  And and then be it’d be adaptive. Which to me was always the differentiator in a in a in a market. Because really, what equates to speed, right? If you’re faster than your adversary becomes? I’d be curious. Like, what does that parallel for you guys meeting about?Like, so what part of the process was like, Hey, make sure your fundamentals are sound? And then and then, as you know, various factors or conditions are changing rapidly. How do you sort of get into your team? Yeah, it is very much the right parallel  You know, our our business model is sort of predicated on the concept of dynamism being able to sort of pivot literally our exposures to areas that we think are going to be more profitable or interesting or really responding to the world  It’s like a homogeneous blob in a positive sense  And so, you know, the fundamentals that we have in place are, you know  Do we have someone specific to our world? Do we have, you know, infrastructure that’s appropriate to be able to do that from a technology standpoint, from operational standpoint? Do we have risk management systems in place?Do we have the right decision making process? We certainly  Spent time over the years actually  Moving away from  Anything that resembles  Management by committee because it’s just like slow and it  Doesn’t add a lot of value in sort of a cover your ass thing  So you know the reason I’m biased  But but I love her business one, and I do think that as I said, that the most successful groups in our world is structured as in this platform concept is  Have the fundamentals in place, literally have the  Platform in place and then being able to respond and pivot as like, I don’t know, the analog to like  Guys are shooting at you like you need to herd and fucking cannons because now guys are shooting at you from the right instead of the left. But you still need to have that, like, you know, grounded  On the platform. That’s very much the way we operate  So there are things that we do that we’re doing now that six months ago, I just I wouldn’t have thought  Of but intervals throughout our process of identifying opportunities  And it’s like, Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Let’s let’s go and do that  And we don’t have to like retrain  Or pivot all  These various different, highly specialized people because there’s a there’s a generalist aspect to me also to go in that category  And so I do  That’s why is are very bullish on our type of approach. And again, this isn’t something we invented. And in general, I think our industry is sort of moving more towards towards this concept of having a fewer number of firms that are more generalist in nature that can respond and pivot as opportunity sees itself in sort of very structural advantage, advantageous ways  I know walleyes been you guys have been thinking a lot about culture recently and about values and principles, and I know I’d be curious, you know, if you want to share some of your your more recent thoughts about how you how you deliberately set a culture for your firm  We’ve just in terms of headcount, we’ve kind of crossed that  Tribal number that historically just  Empirically pops  Up as like, you know, past a certain point people units divide into into sub units. So, you know, we’re now about 170  People, not that huge by any means relative to the  Scope of organizations, but 170, you know, very high performing people. And because we’re geographically distributed  And give a sense where if you were two years ago, how big were you? About 100, about 100. So you almost doubled in in two years during a pandemic, no less  Yeah. So there’s a lot of people we’ve hired that I’ve never met  In-person one still feels feels weird to  Me, so what we’ve been thinking about is like the so our friends that are around since 2005. And one of  The sort of defining  That there was literally  Talked about when we started it  It’s like we’re not going to hire high maintenance people. Well, trust me, there’s a lot of  Hype is people in finance and  It’s just not the viewers. It’s just not worth hiring someone  Even if you know they might be able to make you a lot of money or a high performance if they’re if they’re high maintenance. And obviously, that’s somewhat subjective because I mean, it’s been from people, but you kind of know what you see it  So. So that was a defining characteristic. But as we’ve grown, we’ve just noticed that it’s  Sort of become harder for people to  Understand like, OK, what are what are these guys about? Who are these white people? It’s like  This  Not small hedge fund that’s based in Minnesota. Like, who the hell is based in Minnesota? All the sort of aspects. So we actually recently took the time to write down some phrases that resonate with  Us  And intentionally did it in a way it’s like literally the first thing says is we hate our documents. Unfortunately, this sounds  Like an H.R. document, but there’s  Some, some momentary forgiveness, all of which is very true. So I remember we talked about it. I’d be remiss if I didn’t have at least one  Thing in there about that involves Rawlings. one of them is like row in unison. Just kind of obvious thing, like being seen with your teammates if you want both to fly. But  But the first thing in is statement is  I asterix out certain parts of this, but  It’s lets be fucking real  And so you don’t attempt to fit  A preconceived notion of what someone says you should be. Yeah, this one is really important  That’s her first statement. And I do think in finance, it’s just the world  In general  Like just being objective  About seeing things for what they are and stop trying to  Put on a costume or tell a story. Again, just like in wrestling, you sit down and urge the number doesn’t lie. You win the race for you as a race that doesn’t lie and finance. The other day you make or lose money  And so, you know, fortunately, we’re we’re in an industry where  There is sort of an objective measuring stick. And what we’ve seen, what I’ve seen and you know, some of the other my other partners here seeing is just people  The better that someone is at doing that  They are, the more successful there there will be  You know, other things that  Just are important to us sort of around, though, like don’t  Don’t have how many people, you know, be  Real, you know, work together, you know, being able to  At times go very, very  Fast, but at times also just just have patience or that that balance, I think think is important. You talk a lot about the speed of iteration today, which is which is super important, but you can’t just be running around like anxious all the time and changing shit for for no reason  So kind of finding that balance between the two other things that are sort of relevant or is this or talking about general concepts of just being humble, like remembering something no  Matter what you do? There’s always someone better, whatever, whatever better might mean  And then also being able to take responsibility, step up to the plate when you need to know things that are super important to us  They are the last one that we sort of ended on. You know, this is a little bit more particular  To to our business and how we’re structured, but  Basically just longevity in our community  And investment community, no matter. I think what you’re doing, whether you’re guessing in sort of the hedge fund world’s economy or, you know, public markets or private markets or venture capital is, it’s just the notion of consistency. And that’s somewhat of a mental thing where, you know, people that are taking huge swings and betting the farm are really the ones that last. So we do just like to sort of remind people that and there’s sort of macroscopic areas of sort of how they can manifest itself, as well as microscopic areas to them or the notion of a long term thinking  Again, these are just. Concepts that resonate with us that I do think they  Transcend  Characteristics of individual people like we don’t want  Everyone to copy what what someone else is doing actually. By design, we very much want sort of different sorts of skill sets, but these are pretty uniform across. You know  When we intuitively have  Been screening people to try and walk away and fit into, quote unquote, the wall way over the years, is there just some some threads that have come up?So we’re very much thinking about how to  Inculcate that into our environment because because yes, we want to continue growing to the extent to which we can do so in an enormously honest fashion. We want people to sort of understands what really matters to the, you know, the leaders of the firm, even if they’re not interacting with us as much on a day to day basis, just as we’ve grown out of necessity, that that’s harder and harder to do  And thinking about to do that thoughtfully and in a genuine way, like just blasting out an email and saying, Hey, these are our values, you should read them and then it will be great. Like, that’s not  Going to work. Yeah  So, you know, that’s that’s certainly 11 area for a culture cultural development that I think is  It’s super important in general to get broad statements. But financial businesses, investing businesses  Obviously need to very much focus on  Investing  You know, how they effectively generate revenue for their, for their investors and for the firm  As far as how those businesses actually operate as businesses, you know how they do things like even think about culture in some ways can be secondary  Whereas in other industries, those are sort of the most important aspects. So we very much are trying to be more deliberate about thinking about both simultaneously  Yeah, no. I love that. I love that you guys have always struck me as different. I mean, the fact just the fact that you’re in Minnesota and you’re sort of approach to the type of people you hire just does seem a bit unique compared to what I’ve seen and the more traditional financial hubs and firms and approaches. So, you know, it’s pretty remarkable. And I think that sort of speaks in your guys retention and you  Know, when your growth over the years, which has been remarkable  As you think about, you know, like over the last year of COVID, I’d be curious to see like what if what it’s been while capital’s approach to the pandemic, but from just a human capital management standpoint and then also like anything you’ve seen from a, you know, fundamentals of of your investing strategy  I mean, I think it generally in like society, there are  Actually a lot of benefits from  COVID, not the  Experience in and of itself, because it was, you know, terrible and also sorts various different ways  But but arguably there could  Be this sort of long run  Benefit of people asking, like, why? Why don’t we do things this way? Like, Why do I sit in a car for two hours a day to commute into an office every day  As well as sort of other types of analogs there?And just the concept of what looks from a systems perspective, like a really high level systems perspective. I think a lot more people are thinking like, how are we structured, how we structured politically, you know, on a national level, on an international level, those types of conversations probably just did occur to people are in our world more of the Microscopic level in terms of, you know, our business because of this idea that we are distributed network, that we have a lot of people kind of doing their own things already and frankly are geographically dispersed  I mean, we’re headquartered in Minnesota, which it turns out is not the center  Of the hedge fund world  And always have good offices all over the  Place  Literally in pods. There really wasn’t that disruptive to us. So what we did and what we still do is we say and this works because of the sort of that concept of like, we have super competent  People that have already pre-qualified themselves to get into our boat, quote unquote  That we said, you guys are adults, just figure out what you want to do when you want to come in the office, the offices open if you don’t come to the office or ship you a computer and like 20 monitors  To your house  Just you’re an adult, let us know and we trust that you’re sensible in that and we obviously can monitor for productivity and in our role  Too, especially when you have people that are, you know, generating revenue, you can say like, OK, like how is that impacting what from what you’ve done historically  Which is a big machine, right? That that works for us because just where we were business comprised of largely senior people where we’re not an apprenticeship organization, so I can understand why, you know, other other types of businesses  You know, banks probably as most salient  Example that you know, they’re training huge  Portions of their workforce, and  That’s very  Difficult to do remotely  Like this. Just you can’t do that. So, you know, I guess where I feel that for us is it hasn’t  Really had an impact  Overall. All things being equal. I just personally like seeing people in person. I think  That’s helpful. I think that humans, you know, very much a wall to communicate  In person and get more  Out of an in-person meeting than the don’t. And so our offices across the country are sort of full to varying degrees, some very fulsome, not full at all. But certainly, I very much still enjoy seeing people, people in person  So I kind of end up as like, I think, complete work at home almost for any organization. And that sounds very intentional from the start. I think that’s just idiotic  I don’t think culture can be maintained long term, let alone develops through through Zoom. It just doesn’t make sense  To me at the same time again, just saying to someone you like, I used to live in Boston, sitting in traffic in Boston is like way worse than  Walking barefoot on glass at times  And so I do that every day. Does that make sense? I don’t know. So I think our companies, just going back to what you’re saying is like, let’s just evaluate some of the why and how some of these questions and they are all just figuring out what that looks  Like moving forward  Which is which is very healthy  I mean, is there a good match to what we talked about as far as, you know, being dynamic and doing things that that overall make sense and perhaps some of the artificial restraints that frankly existed because of industrial area society that was sort of developed long before some of the modern sort of technological age that we have came into being. So  Yeah, I know I love that. I love that. I think you’re right. I think the pandemic has been, you know, almost a forcing function for those types of questions usually leads to like significant leaps and creativity innovation, which is great  You’ve seen probably a number of cycles in your in your professional career at this point. You know, I’d be curious to get your perspective on what you consider to be the latest cycle or evolution and specifically what I hear a lot talking to people on that on the buy side, as is, you know, the retail investor and you know, these these Robinhood’s that they’re they’re fundamentally sort of altering the game. So my question is, is it is it it made? Is it a fundamental shift or do you think this is just sort of like a a fad?I don’t know and someone I don’t mean just able to keep it take a cop out answer, but  Partly know we don’t. We don’t know opine  I don’t know opine on sort of these these broad themes because  I could see it happening  You know, both ways  You know, the retail. This whole concept  Of democratization of access to the markets, I think, is is ludicrous  It hasn’t been that difficult in order to  For for individuals even going back to, you know, certainly the nineties to get access to trading stocks. And just sort of the hype and mania around the internet bubble in the late nineties  When it’s real to say that  People are sort of suffering from from access and  What some of the apps  Have done  Recently is they’ve just obviously hated  The costs of trading  I can tell you, just based on the bids for the  Order flow from these, these retail brokerages, that you’re  Still  Losing money, you’re just not not seeing  It. So there is this sense, a charlatan nature to the whole business model, but it’s really no different. I do think there are some some differences now  Than maybe in the past, you the biggest one just as relates to  Availability of capital  And just how some of the structures for you, particularly call options, are being positioned to individuals. And there’s effectively people are saying  You know, I’m going to because I don’t really care if I lose money and because it’s kind of fun  So it was like gamified  Well, yeah, I mean, it’s absolutely gamified. And there’s there’s just I don’t think that’s contentious at all. I think that’s actually one of the things that’s celebrated about  The whole business model. I mean, you have fucking confetti when you make a trade. OK. But I am not trying to be overly philosophical about it, but it’s like there’s a reason why like, you want bankers and doctors to be boring, like, this is just not an exciting part of the world  You want competency and consistency and you don’t want, you know, confetti. So, yeah, I but I don’t necessarily think this is a new phenomenon in society. To what extent  Is does it lead to structural change in the markets?I don’t know. I can’t say. The one thing that is definitely new is because of technology. I mean, you’ve talked about this in the book, but sort of the ability to network now because of  Tech, which is not it is to just directly to enable coordination  I mean, like humans, main thing in the animal kingdom is that we can coordinate, right? And so now you can have forums by which you can have mass coordination of of individuals. Now everyone that looks at that says, like, yeah, that’s that’s collusion  Of course, that’s collusion. Like, that’s not really saying it’s illegal. But but realistically, yeah, like you’ve got, you know, how many thousands or tens of thousands or 1,000,000 people all doing the same thing, coordinating our activities because of technology that will have an impact  That’s not to say it’s going to get out loud, but I just don’t think that’s even a contentious statement. And so I do think that  Professionals like us, like again  This is not saying this is good or bad  Or right or wrong or anything, but just being cognizant  That that can happen. And objectively, if I’m a retail investors  Or the hive mind or retail investors and I see a stock with high short interest and you have an understanding for  Essentially how the game works. Of course, they’re going to play that game and say, Yeah, I’m going to squeeze the hell out of some hedge fund. That’s not being cognizant of that. It’s kind of like, OK, if you didn’t lock your car in a bad part of the town and someone comes in and, you know, breaks breaks into it, like, whose fault is that obviously that, you know, that’s just the reality of the game that we’re in. So. So I do think, I guess to  Summarize, because of the technology and some of the mechanisms which are more readily accessible  That’s certainly different. Is that systemically different in terms of impact on the overall market? I’m not sure I’d go that far, but just the  General sort of driving force behind, you know, people wanting to participate and, you know, getting a thrill out of sort of, again, not just a negative or positive. They saw it as sort of the negative connotation, but to me, that was just sort of the the idea of  Gambling that that’s not new at all. Yeah  So yeah, if you think about, you know, some of your your notes today at the firm and the decisions they’re making, how do you coach somebody from the center who’s going through a draw in their own business? How do you help them get out of that chair?As I said, I’m a fortunately, unfortunately  A pretty big math nerd historically  And just the general. I just can’t even begin  To explain how much I encourage people to have baseline understanding of statistics  So what I do in those situations is  Say, OK  Why are we here? Why are you here? Is this because you did something really dumb? Or is it just  That this is a natural evolution of of the business that we’re in? It’s like the  You know, the quote from Godfather to like this is the business we’ve chosen in finance. If you are right, 55% of the time on a daily basis, you’re printing money over the long period, but that feels like you’re wrong half the time  Yeah, there’s a sort of a psychological toughness that you need to have. And so I I do think for whatever reason, I just it’s a being  Objective of being able to remind people that, yes, these things happen. You know, let’s let’s understand why. Let’s understand whether something’s changed  And really sort of assessing is that is the process  Itself broken? You know, our our business model and the way I think about where it is very, very process driven. I do have a bad process  Or is it just that basis, a randomness? This is this is not a good period for. For what  You’re doing, that’s not to say we’re  Patting people on the back and saying like, Oh, it’s OK, like, you’ll be fine because it sucks  But at the same time, just being objective about it again, going  Back to the notion of like what is real and removing some of the human psychological biases  And that’s more in the sense  Of people that run fundamental strategies where they have discretion than in what they’re doing. But that’s not to say that even for someone running a content strategy, which is very rules based, that the ones that have had some of those same psychological pressures because at the end of the day, humans are the ones that are designing quantitative algorithms  But just again, applying common sense being objective  You know, looking at sort of statistical distributions and having an appreciation for what can happen. You don’t freak out and when something inherently goes wrong because it is  And because I said that to sit at the center and because of our business model, I said, we have 100 strategies, you know, something always sucks  So it’s like I’m constantly in  That world where it’s like, Yeah, I’m telling you, like, there’s always something that’s not working and  Just having a bit of perspective there to to pass down to people that are kind of, you know, one that monitors points of thing  We’ll going back to you just as we sort of wrap this up here. These are we talked about your strengths. I love to know like, you know, what are some of those like, you know, you see perceived weaknesses for yourself and how you how do you approach how you approach those in life?Sure. Well, you know, I’ve I’ve got a bunch and I don’t. one of the things I don’t shy  Away from it. Sometimes people affectionately call me a cyborg because  Externally, it might seem that way. But I actually very much talk about  You know, hear your things and really sort of working  On a pretty salient example. That’s just it’s somewhat funny, but  But I very actively mention this to people to sort of humanize myself is I really pass out at the sight of blood or the discussion  Of blood. I mean, that’s it’s actually a medical thing. It’s hyperactive  Vagal nerve  You know, everyone has is to some extent, you know  They get a little  Queasy. In my case, it’s like really fucking embarrassing. So I passed out every single time I’ve ever given blood. You know, there’s there is one dinner, a work dinner, whereas actually, I hadn’t really eaten that much. And so my blood sugar was little low and I was actually telling it was  A potential investor and I was  Telling them about this. I was like, Oh my God. By explaining that I have this issue, I’ve actually caused this issue to manifest itself. So I actually passed out at dinner, hit my head in the floor as the ambulance came and people were like, What the hell is wrong with you?The next day I walked to the office and people are like, Are you OK? Like, what the hell? And that’s like, Yeah, you know, it happens. And the last one, again, is that it’s just funny. But again, it’s like, So I was sitting on a plane on pre-COVID  I travel a lot  And it was like one of those flights where I was rushing, you know, got like I moved when I just got a middle seat  It sucked, whatever. I hate sitting in aisle seats. I’m not. I’m a small dude  And I was like, This just sucks. I’m going to watch some mindless movie to get  Through the next two and a half hours, and then I’m going to be home and see my  Wife. So I turn on this movie and it was, is John Wick two, which I want to think about is like, OK, action movie, whatever. But my God, like within 30 seconds, they’re like stabbing people in the Vatican, just white everywhere  And I was like, Holy shit, I’m going to pass the bill. And the play’s about to take off. This is a serious problem  And I did actually it. It was a bit of a problem  But I tell people about it because I a it’s kind of funny, but also it’s just just important. Like humility is a strength and, you know, like making fun of yourself as a drank, particularly if in some other areas  It might seem like  Slightly abnormal. Like, I  Get up at 4:30 every day and do the same thing every day. Like I said, that’s just not normal being  Like, Yeah, well, the same time, like you can look at John Wick and not pass out and I can’t. So yeah  That’s that’s a good one  It’s really it’s really I love that those. If you were going to leave sort of the listeners today of like some something that sort of been focused on recently, is there something like leadership wise that’s really you found impactful?What would that be like? Where would you sort of point someone to if they’re looking for their own personal professional development? Yeah  So one of the things I’ve been thinking about recently and the sounds, I put it in context. So generally speaking, like my  Priorities are in no particular order, but in four main areas, there’s sort of myself from the intellectual and physical sense my family, my business and the world and the percentages that a time that I spent on all those those differ in their so obvious cases  In each one  The last category is the world at large, frankly, something I hadn’t spent  A lot of time thinking about until recently. Like our system in and of itself, policy in and of itself, and have been spending more time just to. King, about that. I mean, I do police have a pretty decent understanding of history  I was very it’s not a chore to go and read history books or first principle sources and have done that for years  And that is something that I  You know, encouraging within myself, encourage you in the sort of other people that are, you know, successful in achieving whatever it is they want to do have sort of achieved some level of influence and responsibility, especially at a younger age  To actually just think about ways to get involved in a  More impactful  Way in policy, not in sort of a superficial  I’m going to do some microscopic charity to make myself feel good enough not to judge any wrong with that  But actually thinking realistically about policy because I do  Think more people like me need to  Think about that and  Figure out ways to get involved. I don’t have an answer to that  But that is  one area  That I’m certainly thinking about and  And I encourage other other leaders to think about, as well as is not just in your own backyard, in your own world and for you on how to sort of optimize your business. But there’s some pretty serious issues in the world and in actually thinking about ways to ways to get involved  More broadly speaking, I do think is very important. And again, particularly at those that are have achieved success and are in their thirties, it’s sort of our generation that is going to be left with the really crazy shit house  So that that is one thing that I was just I was just think of it, I’ve been thinking about it how to apply. Some of the the principles that I have personally, you know, have had some success in developing a business context  How does that  Or to what extent  Is that relevant as much in an in a broader sense? Or what are what are some effective ways to think more about policy involvement?Other areas are like, Where are you? What are your sources of content for this? Like, is there civic books or like blogs?So yeah, I first of all, I don’t do social media at all. And when I say that, like I, I haven’t used Facebook  And Twitter in ten years, but really?And so it’s it’s the ways that I consume material  Ah, well, I I go  For a walk  For 45 minutes every single morning before I work out and I was not. He works on three X speed  So if you do that consistently every day you can read a lot of material  And so that’s it’s a combination of what I It’s just interesting to me from, you know  Audio  Books, typically biographies or descriptions, a certain area of history. I mean, the first principle sources like, you know  Go back and read Milton Friedman’s original  Stuff from the sixties  It’s super interesting as well as podcasts  I was kind of why  I did this. I do listen to a lot of podcast, very fairly eclectic. I like the interviews. You know, I like interviews with people  Just having them actually in long format,

Label: SGC 001Year: 1969Condition: M-Last Price: $18.00. Not currently available for sale.Here's a beautiful copy of the third pressing of this classic single. Though the A side is the band's most famous song and was a hit again for Nazz's guitarist and songwriter, Todd Rundgren, in 1973—in fact, it was Rundgren's biggest hit and only top 10 single—my personal fave is the terrific, snarly B side. Rundgren had clearly been listening to the Who, but that's OK: It's a great song and a great sound! That Nazz and SGC thought so, too, is evidenced by the fact that "Open My Eyes" was the original A side of the single when it was first released in 1968. As the chart information shows, "Eyes" charted nearly 6 months before "Hello" started up the chart. Note: This copy comes in a vintage Atlantic/Atco/Cotillion Records factory sleeve. It has Near Mint labels, and the vinyl has only some light scuffs. The audio grades Near Mint with hardly any surface noise and no distortion on the B side but a bit more surface noise on the quiet A side.

Welcome to The Best Five Minute Wine Podcast, I'm your host, Forrest Kelly. From the seed to the glass, wine has a past. Our aim at The Best Five Minute Wine Podcast is to look for adventure at wineries around the globe. After all, grape minds think alike. Let's start the adventure. Our featured winery is: OK, in this episode, and I'm just going to give you some random questions, Dean. I can imagine having a farm and vineyard located in Virginia. It's very scenic. So what do we see when we come into the parking lot of Pippin Hill Farm and Vineyards? You're looking out over the valley, OK It is up on the high side of the valley facing west, and that there are four mountain ranges. When you come out of the valley, it ends up being where the Blue Ridge Mountains are. So you got four beautiful mountain ranges sort of float in your view and the future and you think they will never be developed close in because John Grisham, the author, owns a big chunk of the ones right in front of us. And the rest of it is part of our Bondurant farm, which is a conservation easement ownership group. So it is all rural. We won't have any homes or anything built in our viewshed. And you're looking out over our six acres of vines, down across a wildflower meadow, and over to some closer woods where we've been able to go in and pull out all the invasive species. And there is a program this last year that was granted to plant native trees. So we were able to go in and replace it with some native oaks and other trees. So it's just a very pristine rural view, very calm. Well, your wife, Lynn, has an exceptional design and event expertise and founded EASTON Events, so merging those two worlds together into the creation of Capitol Hill Farm and vineyards. Was that a difficult transition? After I left, Orient-Express Lynn's business on the Easton Events side was just taking off. She had been doing events just here in Virginia but was beginning to do more nationally. And one of the points she mentioned to me was that she had a lot of clients who really wanted to come to this particularly beautiful part of rural Virginia and to host an outdoor wedding. But there really weren't enough places to do it. And that was when the lights sort of went off my mind. I thought I always sort of love the winery and the vineyard business from having been involved with it in Italy primarily, and so wanting to do it. And it provided us a means of both collaborating and working together. And without Lynn, we wouldn't have been able to get those the initial clients to come in to help underwrite the overall investment. So doing weddings and private events helps underwrite the broader picture of the wine business. So that was kind of what our collaboration was. And her office is still here with us out here. And she also has an office in Charleston, South Carolina as well. So it's been it's been a great partnership because not only are we partners in life, it's now seven grandchildren. But we also have been able to work successfully together with Lynn taking lead on some of the design side and some of the concept development side and my kind of make it happen on a day-to-day basis. We both wanted this important point. We both wanted to create a winery which had a very experiential focus if you will. And what I mean by that is we have, in addition to just doing wine tastings and focusing on just the wine as a singular aspect of it. We do cooking classes, we do horticultural gardening classes, we do some classes. Which are your traditional Sunni view of what we're doing with our wines? Of course. And then seasonally, we do each fall harvest full moon dinner where we bring our primarily our wine club members out and we take over the lawn and we are doing outdoor tables and you're able to go down and actually see some grapes being harvested and go down the garden and you pull up some of beets out of the ground and become part of the dinner. And then the chef is out there with...

It's horrible seeing your baby or child upset, especially when they've hurt themselves. So you can think you're doing the right thing by distracting them from the pain or the upset:"You're OK""It's only a scratch / small bump""Brush it off""You're such a brave boy/girl""Do you want a chocolate to cheer you up?"It's completely understandable that you do - of course you don't want your them to be upset. But when you distract your baby or child when they're upset, you're interrupting something very important that will impact their anxiety and confident levels. Listen in to find out.If you want to help your baby to sleep better without using distractions, join my FREE video series Better Bedtimes for Babies. https://parentingwithplay.com.au/better-bedtimes-for-babies/If you want to help your child with their emotions & behaviour, waitlist now for Annoying to Amazing. Doors are opening soon! https://parentingwithplay.com.au/a2a-waitlist/Website: https://parentingwithplay.com.au/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ParentingwithPlaywithHelenaMooney/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parentingwithplay/

It's New Year's week and many of us are looking to 2020 coming to an end. It is also a time for reflection and making plans for the new year. This wee we want to acknowledge that the struggle IS real!!! In every sense of it - but in particular for transitions. Successful transitions don't just happen. They require: work, planning, sacrifice, blood, sweat and tears. This week we hear from survivor, Mia Nevarez, about how sometimes you simply have to survive in order to thrive. Mia is truly vulnerable and shares some intimate details from her life that, perhaps, she's never shared before. That is part of what makes this episode special. There was so much goodness in my conversation with Mia that I had to make it two parts. Here are just a few of the key takeaways from this week's episode: Do what works for you Sometimes you have to look at your life like it isn't yours in order to survive Breakdowns lead to breakthroughs It's OK to NOT be OK It's all about choices Someone else's reality doesn't have to be yours Be sure to tune in next week for the conclusion of my conversation with Mia Nevarez. If you get something from this podcast please give us a rating of 5-Stars where ever you listen to your podcasts. You can find full episodes of Thriving in the Transition on my website: Click Here. Simply search for us, Thriving in the Transition, where ever you listen to great podcasts! Don't forget about me! Connect with me and follow me on: ~Email: will.campbell@logiqconsulting.com ~Website: http://www.thrivinginthetransition.com ~Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/logiqconsulting ~Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/logiqconsulting ~Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/logiq_coach ~LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/djwillrock ~Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/gqdown ~Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TITT Lastly, tell me what topics you'd like to hear about. Yup, we're taking requests to make sure we create content that really resonates with you and that keeps you Thriving in the Transition. #strivingforthethriving Music by Genesis7. You can listen to more of his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, etc... or anywhere you stream music by searching for Genesis7. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

How are you all doing out there?  Everybody hanging on OK? It's been a disorienting several months for all of us. Megan shares how Evereve is weathering the storm of COVID, how the company is growing and learning in a changing world, and answers questions from her audience. And of course, Megan shares her favorites of fall fashion In The Dressing Room.

[French: Two hundred and forty – OK] It’s another big show of epic pop and dance in languages other than English. Broadcasting live from their bedrooms, Michael and Io have lined up some amazing tracks […] http://media.blubrry.com/babble_pop/p/joy.org.au/babblepop/wp-content/uploads/sites/261/2020/10/2020-10-10-babblePOP.mp3 Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:58 — 49.4MB) The post Deux cent quarante – Ça marche appeared first on babble POP!.

Label: SGC 001Year: 1969Condition: M-Last Price: $20.00. Not currently available for sale.Here's a beautiful copy of the third pressing of this classic single. Though the A side is the band's most famous song and was a hit again for Nazz's guitarist and songwriter, Todd Rundgren, in 1973—in fact, it was Rundgren's biggest hit and only top 10 single—my personal fave is the terrific, snarly B side. Rundgren had clearly been listening to the Who, but that's OK: It's a great song and a great sound! That Nazz and SGC thought so, too, is evidenced by the fact that "Open My Eyes" was the original A side of the single when it was first released in 1968. As the chart information below shows, "Eyes" charted nearly 6 months before "Hello" started up the chart. Note: This 45 record comes in a vintage Atlantic/Atco/Cotillion Records factory sleeve. It has Mint labels except for a tiny "134" inked on the A side. The vinyl looks untouched, and the audio sounds pristine Mint!

Is Keith feeling OK? It looks like Joe Biden works for the Cleveland Indians’ Twitter account. Dr. Fauci hates the 10th Amendment. The rise in COVID-19 cases isn’t because states opened poorly, it’s because of all the protests around the country. The Rock buys the XFL for a whopping $15 million. Oprah calls all white people in the system racists. And her white friends agreed with her. WNBA owner Sen. Kelly Loeffler is betrayed by her own team wearing T-shirts supporting her political opponent. How bad is Portland now? Really bad. Seattle officials don’t care about violent protests until you go to their house. Fordham University student is suing the school for banning him after posting his social media post. Socialists have it easy as all they have to do is endorse whatever Democratic candidate. The University of Buffalo wants to forget Millard Fillmore. Joe Biden has not taken a cognitive test and it's obvious. Joe Biden plans to raise taxes. Remembering "Starsky & Hutch" from back in the day. Sen. Mazie Hirono storms out of Antifa hearing after Ted Cruz accuses her party of "facilitating" riots and violence in U.S. cities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  BE SURE TO SEE THE SHOWNOTES AND LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE HERE.   Eve Picker: [00:00:15] Hi there. Thanks so much for joining me today for the latest episode of Impact Real Estate Investing.   Eve Picker: [00:00:21] My guest today is Avra Jain, co-founder of the Vagabond Group. With a career path that has taken her from bond trading on Wall Street to developing properties along some of Miami's trendiest streets, Avra has earned a reputation for identifying the next IT neighborhood. Her remake of The Vagabond Hotel on Biscayne Boulevard in the historic MiMo District of Miami changed the course of that neighborhood forever.   Eve: [00:00:58] Be sure to go to evepicker.com to find out more about Avra on the show notes page for this episode. And be sure to sign up for my newsletter so you can access information about impact real estate investing and get the latest news about the exciting projects on my crowdfunding platform, Small change.   Eve: [00:01:23] Hi Avra. Thank you so much for being on my show.   Avra Jain: [00:01:27] Thanks so much.   Eve: [00:01:28] Very nice to be here, yeah. I love this quote from your website, which says, "We operate from the perspective as storytellers, allowing history to take center stage and create a genuine sense of place". And I would really love you to tell us a little about what that means.   Avra: [00:01:46] Well, that really has come from the work that we've done. We, kind of, we got there. We, I'd like to think there were people that actually, sort of, do it and then rather than talk about it. So, I can say that that actually, actually came from the work that we're doing. My team is three architects, one of which was, has a master’s in historic preservation. And so, when we start a project, or we do a project, the first thing that we do is that we study the history of the community, of the buildings themselves, architecturally, culturally. And so, we always sort of start from the story. And if there isn't a story, we don't do the project.   Eve: [00:02:36] Oh, interesting.   Avra: [00:02:37] Yeah, so we actually, so that quote really came from how we really operate. So that's a real reflection of the work.   Eve: [00:02:48] So what sort of stories do you look for?   Avra: [00:02:52] You know, it varies. So, in Miami there's a section of, there's a historic strip from the 1950s and 60s called MiMo which stands for Miami mid-century modern. So, there's a boulevard, Biscayne Boulevard, which used to be US1. So, if you were driving down post-World War Two in your 57 Chevy and you were going to Miami, the Magic City, you would have driven on US1 or Biscayne Boulevard. And there is a section that had these old 50s and 60s motels and, you know, with a big neon signs, and so, we came up here, one of the projects, larger projects that we did, that we're known for is the preservation work. When we renovated the Vagabond Motel to Vagabond Boutique Hotel. And that was the tipping point for the historic boulevard. So, we bought about 10. The neighborhood at the time was all drugs and prostitution. And, you know, it had been a neighborhood that you would've just driven right through with, you know, the shades down next to the baby seat, you know, but there were some spectacular, you know, vintage mid-century architecture, which I know you're an architect so you can appreciate.   Eve: [00:04:17] Yeah, I know. I took a look on your website. They are stunning.   Avra: [00:04:21] Yeah. So well, these were buildings that were up for demolition. And they were in disrepair, you know, SWAT teams were coming in once a month to empty them out because of, you know, drugs and things that would go on. And so, we knew that in order to, and this was a neighborhood that used to be Main Street, Biscayne Boulevard used to be Main Street. If you couldn't afford to stay at the Eden Roc or the Fountain Blue, you would've stayed at the Vagabond. Same architect that did the very famous Delanoe Hotel on Miami Beach. So, we knew what it once was. So, it was about, you know, bringing it back. There are other times when we actually, you know, neighborhoods, right, where we go into warehouse districts and create neighborhoods. This was a neighborhood that was so all we do was bring it back. And there was actually some really affluent neighborhoods nearby and surrounding neighborhoods that were also original from the 1930s and 40s. So, it was really a beautiful project to do both architecturally and for what it did for the community. The thesis was, if we bought enough of these motels that were 20 dollars an hour, you know, sixty dollars a night. The hotel that we bought next to Vagabond, in the lobby the sign said: "no refunds after five minutes". And it originally said ten minutes and they whited it out. That was the neighborhood and so we bought six of these old motels. A couple of them were abandoned and the rest of them we shut down. What happened was we thought is, if you shut down where people were actually doing these bad things, could the neighborhood find itself again? And it did.   Eve: [00:06:20] What gave you the courage to do that? And what sort of resistance did you feel for these projects?   Avra: [00:06:28] Oh, no resistance. Oh, my gosh. The city was like, the mayor, you know, we when we opened the Vagabond, we had nine hundred people. Everybody, all the arts, everybody. It was like a really big deal. This was, you know...   Eve: [00:06:40] I suppose I meant from the point of view of, because opening is easy. But what about the financing? I mean, how easy....   Avra: [00:06:47] Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I was going to say, we had no community resistance. In fact, people continually thank us all the time. But the resistance, yeah, sure financing, couldn't get any.   Eve: [00:06:58] Yeah, I'm sure.   Avra: [00:07:00] Yeah, no, I mean you know, you've done this enough times, Eve. So in fact even my traditional real estate investors, I had done a lot of adapted use in New York City and other places and a lot of my investors which go all the way back, you know, twenty five years to New York City, even some of them were like, ah, you've done a lot of crazy things, but they just could not get past the working girl on the corner. They couldn't get past it. They could not see the architecture. They could not see, they couldn't see the history, they just couldn't see it. They couldn't believe that it would come back. And so, a lot of, in this particular case, a lot of the money for that particular project was myself and my partners, you know, my spouse. I mean, we put up, I'd say 40, 50 percent of the money. So, it was really a cash project. But we found some very clever financing opportunities, financial opportunities. So, we did, I did my homework. I always tell people, you know, part of real estate is doing your homework. Understanding zoning, understanding the community and doing the outreach. Understanding building codes, a lot of homework. Well, I'd done my homework and I knew that there had been an ordinance set up in 2010, where you could sell development rights for historic properties. So, you know, in New York City, we knew that we could do this. We call them transferable development rights.   Eve: [00:08:32] Right. I'm very familiar with them. Yeah.   Avra: [00:08:34] So in Miami, for this particular strip, because it was historic, they down zoned it, meaning they limited, they did a height restriction of 35 feet. They took away buildable rights for the property owners. In exchange for doing that, they offered the property owners the ability to sell those development rights. So, floor area ratio, you know how much you could build. And then later they adopted a policy that also allowed you to sell the density. Like how many apartments you could build. The number of doors we call it, right? So, I was able to arbitrage that and the value of the transferable development rights for the Vagabond was three million dollars.   Eve: [00:09:24] Wow.   [00:09:25] And the purpose of those development rights and the ability to sell them is also to incentivize property owners to preserve and invest in the historic preservation of the property. So, you can sell those rights, but you have to reinvest them into the property and meet historic guidelines.   Eve: [00:09:43] Interesting.   [00:09:44] Yeah, it's not a little project. Actually, I think that, you know, in order to get historic preservation to work, you really have to give people incentives because it's very expensive. For those of us who build, doing historic preservation it's more expensive. It would've been cheaper for me to knock the building down and build it again than it was to actually preserve the existing Vagabond. So, they have to give you incentives otherwise... there's a reason why developers let those buildings go into disrepair and   Eve: [00:10:16] because they're expensive, yeah. Historic tax credits help as well. I don't have Florida has a state credit as well, but I've used those in the past and they certainly help to fill the gap, that's for sure.   Avra: [00:10:29] Yes. We qualified. We nationally designated the Vagabond Hotel. We met those standards and got the federal tax credit. So, we got 20 percent of our investment into the property. Yeah, every state's different. Every state's different. Every municipality is different.   Eve: [00:10:47] This really took creative financing and the, since then, you said you bought six of them and how did the financing change one you opened the Vagabond Hotel?   Avra: [00:10:57] Well, once we opened the Vagabond, sold the development rights, we were able to, get banks to give us some financing. But most of the projects we did, we did cash. We did cash and we financed after. It was just still, even now it's easy, you know, but I took rents, rents on the Biscayne Boulevard for twenty, twenty-five dollars. The Starbucks leases from me for 70 dollars, triple net. So, now it's very easy to get financing. And the Boulevard has a lot of cachet, but it   Avra: [00:10:57] It's very difficult, yeah. I mean, this is actually why I started Small Change because, you know, banks almost squash the creativity out of what needs to happen, the creativity and innovation out of what needs to happen in cities, because you can't, they want to only finance what's been done before. So, how do you tackle a place like this if you can't get financing and you don't have the cash?   Avra: [00:12:00] Yes, it's almost, I would say, it's almost impossible. So, you know, you rely on friends and family. A lot of it's your check book. But that's also the opportunity. Those are the properties that are also undervalued, right? The property that trade that are most expensive, are really a function of financing. You know, Multifamily trades at a tight cap rate because that is the darling with the lenders. Banks really, and part of it is the regulations, banks have to fund based on cashflow, income from properties. The regulations almost mandate it.   Eve: [00:12:36] Yes.   [00:12:37] So, lending on land or lending on an abandoned building and for adaptive reuse, which is unfortunate because in a lot of the underserved communities you need.   Eve: [00:12:48] That's exactly what you need, yeah.   Avra: [00:12:49] And what you lose because these are buildings that need a lot of work. Of course, they're not income producing, nobody should be living in them. And some people do live in properties like that and shouldn't be there. So, you know, the banking industry does not set up to be helpful. You know, what has happened, short of being able to fund yourself or have enough track record to to attract funding, is that there's a, sort of a hybrid lending space now. Used to be you could only get bank financing or a bridge loan or, you know, hard money loan you call it, right? 13, 14 percent which makes projects also unfeasible. You just, you give away all your profits in interest costs. But there's hybrid money out there now, that is more flexible, and you can get, you know, between six and nine percent depending on the project and you’re, and the sponsorship. We've been able to get hybrid money for projects like this. And it's really because of our track record. And it's all personal guarantees, right? I have to sign personally on everything.   Eve: [00:13:58] Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I sign my whole life away.   Avra: [00:14:02] Until the projects completed. You know, it's very hard for people to get into this business from the developer's side. You know, I have three architects that work for me and they didn't want to be in a firm, just, as you guys would call being a cad monkey. I think, you know where you're just drawing all day, right? And so, they wanted to be developers. And so, they came and worked with me. And they're learning development really is about money. So, when you think about what does it take to be a developer? We're not licensed. Architects are licensed, builders are licensed, right? Your electrician's licensed. Even the real estate agents are licensed. Developers are not licensed. You can call yourself a developer as long as you have a check book.   Eve: [00:14:52] Yes. So, what would you tell other women who want to be real estate developers?   Avra: [00:14:57] You have to love it. Well, first of all I'd ask, what does developer mean to you? So, if I asked you Eve, define developer, what, how would you define it?   Eve: [00:15:07] Well, for me, it's all about the buildings. I'm very passionate about buildings and places and using architecture to make better places. So being a developer for me is the opportunity to really make some significant change through the money that I invest, or I put together to make buildings better.   Avra: [00:15:34] And then there's a lot of people that would like to do that, right? So how do they do that? Right? And there's, I think there's a lot of people with vision and, so, you need the money, right? And then you have to be able to execute. And so, a lot of what goes right or wrong is in the execution. So, you know, you have the vision, but it's the, now is the execution. You know, how well do you budget, the quality of the work, the team that you can assemble. And you know the surprises, right. You know, we say we're in the problem-solving business, really, especially with more adaptive reuse or historic preservation. You have no idea where you're buying. You know, we've gotten pretty good at it now and I can tell you every time it's different.   Eve: [00:16:24] Oh, yeah, it's a challenge. But that's the fun of it. But listen, why? You know, you're a female developer, I'm a female developer. There are very few of us. Why is that? Because, you know, women are very good at team building.   Avra: [00:16:40] Well, I think a lot of women are doing it. They just don't have the title, right? So, in my particular case, I'm the founder and, you know, I know I run the company, but a lot of women are doing it. They're just not, I think the front person. Interesting. You do your work, you're the front person. You're doing it but the women that work for me, they all work, you know, I give, I empower them, they all have their own projects within, within the Vagabond Group. They all run their own jobs, they do the architecture, they do the expediting, you know, of course, all under. And they've been with me long enough. They know at first, you know, tightly under my watch and now, you know, call me if you need me.   Eve: [00:17:25] But still, that's a little bit different because they don't have access to their own money. And that's, I think, you know, as you said, the deciding factor. So, where I live there's very few women who kind of can plan their own destiny as real estate developers. I actually don't know of anyone else at the moment. So,   Avra: [00:17:45] It's money, so that's it. You've really defined it. But I will say there's a couple of other things. So, you know, because people have asked me Avra, why, you know, why aren't there more? Well, one is money. And a lot of that money comes with track record. You know, I wouldn't give a first-time person, developer money. I mean, you know, you really have to have experience in order to gain that. So, when I first did my first projects, it was mostly my money.   Eve: [00:18:11] Yes.   [00:18:11] You don't want to lose somebody else's money while you're learning, right? So, there's a learning curve here and so, as you learn and you'd have track record, you can get sponsorship, but you really have to have that, you know, especially in what we do, right? So, what you and I do, we find these. It's easy buying a multi-family, lipsticking it up, creating value. OK that's one thing. But to actually go in and create place, that's different. And that requires mostly cash investments. The returns usually reflect the risk, they always do. I mean, I don't, you, know people, you know, people go "I get two times two times my money". And people are happy getting two times their money in four to five years.   [00:18:59] I can tell you that isn't, that would never be a deal on my desk. If I don't think I'm making four to five times equity, in five years, I don't do the deal, which is why I'm able to get sponsorship. So, part of it is discipline. You know, there's a lot of projects I'd like to do, but I look at them and go, you know, I just can't I can't pencil it. And then, those projects that I can't pencil, which is like affordable housing, I just do myself and I'm OK. But those don't make money. I'm OK that they may or may not make money because I'm doing those for different reasons. Those are for social reasons. But when I'm doing deals where I'm taking in investment money, you know, the returns for the type of deals that we do, at least the perceived returns need to be much higher. But I do that for myself. I mean, a lot of this is my own money and I treat everybody's money if it's my own money. I also don't take fees. I'm not a fee developer, so I get paid based on success. So, I don't, I don't take fees.   Eve: [00:20:03] Ok. So, you right alongside equity investors who risk their money, then.   Avra: [00:20:09] Right alongside. So, I don't make a penny until you make money. And I think that's part of what, the other way that I've been able to raise money. Now, not everybody can do that. That's not realistic for a lot of people. But I've been able to do that because I set myself up for that. I saved enough money. I don't want to get paid, which is why I've been able to get, you know, the investment I get. Because people want to know that your interests are aligned and there are a lot of developers out there, they're really in the fee business. They're just, they're in the fee business period. And I don't think that that makes us aligned.   Eve: [00:20:52] So, tell me a little bit more about the 50s motels that you're converting to affordable housing?   Avra: [00:20:58] Yes, we I did one, we did one in Little Haiti, not too far from the Vagabond. So, if you couldn't afford to stay at the Eden or at the Vagabond, if you couldn't afford to stay the at the Vagabond, you would have stayed at Superior, Superior Motel and Apartments, which is west, further west and 1950s. It's a more modest property. You know, in some of the more modest neighborhoods then historic properties are more modest, but it doesn't mean they're less important. And I bought the building to do affordable housing. The person that runs affordable housing for the county, Mr. Lu, he would say, he actually stalked me into doing this. He wanted to put a new face to affordable housing in the projects that were being done. So, I started by giving him suggestions on what I would do and how I would go about it and then he said, then he just asked me to do something and I did. I can tell you that it was a horrible experience. Working under the administrative aspects of affordable housing. You know, they wanted to give me a small sur-tax loan. That was a half a million dollars sur-tax loan. And then by the time they were ready to give me the loan, I said, I don't even want it. It'll be the most expensive money I've ever gotten because I've spent fifty thousand dollars in administrative costs to get a 500,000-dollar loan, right. There was like a 10 percent cost. You know, every draw request was like the size of a Bible. I said, you know...   [00:22:28] No, that's right.   [00:22:29] I said, Mr Lu, I can do the work, but I can't handle the administrative aspect of this. I wouldn't get a draw for, you know, a draw request. I don't know how sophisticated everybody is on the podcast so I'll try to be a little more descriptive, but, every time you build a building and it's time to, and you have a loan, you do the work, you turn in your invoices, so to speak, and you're supposed to get reimbursed. Well,   Eve: [00:22:57] Quickly, right? Quickly is the idea because you'd need the money to keep going.   Avra: [00:23:00] Well, six to 10 weeks.   Eve: [00:23:03] Yes, I've been there.   Avra: [00:23:05] Which means that in you know, that if a guy doesn't get paid for six weeks or would anyway, if you weren't getting paid six weeks after you've done a job, you'd leave the job site.   [00:23:16] Yeah. So, it costs a lot of money in time because you're,   [00:23:19] So I ended up floating the entire job, meaning I paid everybody myself and then getting reimbursed, you know, six, twelve weeks later. And again, that's not feasible for most people. And that's why affordable housing doesn't work. And that's why, when you drive around and you see these, sort of half-completed buildings, is because you have to have the means in order to get through those projects. And I ended up, I probably have a half a million dollars of my own money in the project making zero return. So, because the cost to do it right versus the rents that you should charge. It doesn't mean, I can charge higher rents but truly affordable rents, you cannot build affordable housing in Miami. If you gave me a piece of dirt and said Avra, build affordable housing at 80 percent of the averaged income, I would tell you I couldn't do it.   Eve: [00:24:15] You can't do it anywhere, actually. You can't do it anywhere in the world, I don't think. So, oh, maybe some places, but it's a standard problem, yeah.   Avra: [00:24:22] Right, so it has to be subsidized, so you have to get grants. So, the reason why we were able to do historic preservation was because of the, you know, the entitlement programs to sell entitlements. That allowed us to grant ourselves some moneys to do these, what I called public benefit projects, historic preservation of the benefit. And you're saving time, you're saving moments in time, right. And then, same thing with affordable housing. You cannot do affordable housing without subsidies and grants. It's impossible. So, those are instances. And people think, oh, well you can get financing for it or people will do impact investing on these things.   Eve: [00:25:02] No, you can't.   Avra: [00:25:03] A bank doesn't lend to the same criteria where there's a public benefit or not. It's not to say they don't want to, but they can't.   Eve: [00:25:12] Yeah, so non-profits become very important in this equation. It's very difficult. How successful has that motel been and have you built other ones that are affordable? Do you have a waiting list?   Eve: [00:25:22] Oh yeah. Well that project, it's called, it was a motel and efficiency apartments. So, there's all apartments, most of them efficiency apartments. Very successful, 100 percent occupied. When you can charge a...And we were able to lease to more high risk candidates, you know, maybe people who've a felony in their past, you know, not a violent crime or something, but we're able to lease to people and not take security deposits. And a lot of, you know, our employees, one of the reasons why we started, we did, we started to do some affordable housing. When we opened the motel, or the hotel, Vagabond Hotel, because we realized our staff were taking two or three buses to get to work, and they were single Mums. So, we actually started subsidizing housing for our employees, early on. We bought an apartment building close by and then we realized that obviously this was not just a Vagabond issue. This is a national, well certainly a local and certainly a national issue. So that started our efforts in affordable housing, was sort of subsidizing for existing employees. And then, when we did the other ones, we're very conscious about trying to fill the void. We can do that because it's a personal investment. We're not a large institution doing affordable housing we've seen. This is not a money maker. I think there's a way to do it where you could get, you know, you can you know, people go, well can you do impact investing and get a five or six percent return? We can, because I don't take developer fees.   Eve: [00:27:04] Right.   Avra: [00:27:05] And we self-perform a lot of the work. So, I'm able to do that. So, on the project I did after this, I took in two small investors who wanted to participate in impact investing. So, we did one in Little Haiti and then we did their next projects in Overtown. Forty-four units in Overtown. And we're in the process of renovating that. Also, a 1950s, late 50s, so it's a combination of preservation and affordable housing, which we think is important. You know affordable housing is not bricks and mortar, it's about people and the qualities of their life and how they feel about themselves. We say we're really in the self-esteem business. You know, how does a single mother feel in their house? The stress level, you know, knowing if her kids are in a healthy environment or not in a healthy environment. The projects we're just in the process of doing, we finished two of five buildings so far, we keep everybody on-site and we rotate them. So, nobody leaves the property, they're not relocated. So, people are not, their lives are not disrupted. They stay where the kids go to school, where they went to school. Their friends are still their friends. They go to the same church, you know. So, we think it's important when you do affordable housing to keep communities intact. That's one of our prerequisites. Even when we did the property in Little Haiti, we did two units at a time and rotated people. So, they did not have to move. So, in the building we just finished one of the, in one of the buildings was a single mom and her child was having a lot of health issues and DCF was going to take the child away because they didn't think that the mother was giving the child the asthma medication and everything, because the child was suffering. And the minute we moved her from the apartment that she was in to one of the new apartments, the child was fine.   Eve: [00:28:59] Wow.   Avra: [00:29:00] She almost lost her child because of the housing, the quality of the housing she was living in.   Eve: [00:29:06] That's pretty shocking.   Avra: [00:29:09] It's shocking. It's unacceptable. I mean, so, most of the buildings that we, so all these buildings that we bought in Overtown, I mean, they should be condemned buildings. I mean, I'm surprised people didn't, well apparently, they had. Some people had fallen from the second floor into the first floor. I mean, the people live in those conditions because they can't afford higher rent and they don't want to move. You know, these tend to be closer to core locations, right? They're older buildings, closer to where they work, it's where their communities are and they don't want the landlords to fix up the apartments because if they do, they know they have to raise the rent and then they might get kicked out. So, people choose to live in these really, you know, sub-human conditions because they can't afford the rent if it was renovated. So, in that particular project, we teamed up with the CRH, the Community Redevelopment Agency in the area, and because they had seen our work in Little Haiti, they had asked us to do a similar project in Overtown.   Avra: [00:30:16] And my, my response was, no. I said, it doesn't work. I go, it doesn't work. I can't afford to subsidize all these projects. So, I said, you know, I told them what they needed to do. One, they had to remove all the administrative. No good developer would operate under those administrative restrictions. And two, I said you're going to have to pay for it. And if you want the rents truly affordable, you're going to have to pay for all of it. Because if you want a seven-hundred-dollar rent, I need to be in that unit for seventy thousand dollars. And by the way, it costs eighty-two-thousand dollars to buy the apartment. And it's going to cost you another fifty-thousand-dollars a unit.   Eve: [00:31:03] To renovate it.   Avra: [00:31:05] So if you want me to do it, and I'm not going to wait, I'm not going to take draws, you're going to have to give me five hundred thousand dollars every time I start a building. Because I'm not going to, I'm not going to chase you down. I'll do open book. Open book, come anytime you want, knock yourself out. But I can't do the work and meet all the typical requirements. And so, they, they said Avra, yes. Do it.   Eve: [00:31:35] Wow.   [00:31:36] It went all the way to Commission. Commissioners voted on it and I did the project. So, they basically bought down the rents and people are living in two- and three-bedroom apartments, beautiful two- and three-bedroom apartments. When I say beautiful, you're an architect. You know, I floated the walls. I did resilient channels for the wall boards for sound.  Wool between. Everything's copper piping. We don't, you know, rebuilt from the inside out. If you'd walked in, you would have fallen through to the studs, to the studs on the floor and you would have seen the roof two ceilings up. So totally rebuilt, you know, with all the right quality materials. No, everything mold-resistant, every, you know, impact glass safety, all those things. So, people are living in really beautiful apartments. And, so think about what that's like. For them. For them, they're people, right? The pride, how their kids feel to come home, to work, the family gatherings. Remember it's, we don't build buildings. You build buildings, but it's really the quality of the experience in the building. It's how people feel. Otherwise, buildings can be nice to look at, right? Right? What are they really? I mean, building to me, they're made of organic materials, I mean, buildings live. And as builders and developers, we have to, you know, we feel that, we think about that. You know, so lots of times I get a building and it just doesn't feel right. It doesn't have the life. And our job is, that when we do these projects, these adaptive reuse and historic preservation projects, whether it's for, you know, an adaptive reuse or for affordable housing, you have to think of it as how do people live? How are people going to feel when they're there, when they're inside? And that’s, you know, sort of, that’s sort of how we operate.   Eve: [00:33:48] That's how it drives you. So, these products, I know we've talked about them a lot, and they're clearly your passion projects. You also work on very, very big projects.   Avra: [00:33:58] Yes, so that I can afford to do the passion projects.   Eve: [00:34:02] Yes, that's the bread and butter work, right?   Avra: [00:34:05] So and those, you know, are more traditional, you know, I do. By the way, they're very good local community banks here that I work with in... we're very fortunate during Covid and everything that, you know, my friends that had the large banks, you know, had a lot of trouble getting, having to work with them and work with their tenants. But the community banks in Miami really stepped up and were the first to say, you know, what can we do? How can we help? So, I've good local banking relations, banks that have lent to me for 20, 25 years that support, you know, that support my projects. Even if they're slightly out of the box they, again track record, they support the project. So, I'm able to do, I'm getting ready to do a large adaptive reuse project towards 50,000 square feet of adaptive reuse in a warehouse district. There might have been a day where I wouldn't get financing, but I will get financing for that, 50 percent loan to cost, and then I'll have the capital stack of my own investors. Then, you know, on some bigger projects, I'm getting ready to do a project on the Miami River. That's a big project to earn, it's a new build. Two hundred fifty-nine apartments,200,000 square feet of office and retail. It'll be almost 180-million-dollar project with 120-million-dollar loan. I'M partnering with a very large developer, Property Market Group, PMG, they build really well. I'm really excited to have a chance to work with them, there are developers that you respect and then there's the other developers that you would really like to work with, and this is one of them. And they're both. And so, they build beautifully. So, they, we're teaming up. They're going to do the residential portion and I'm going to keep the office and retail. You know, without them, they're providing that completion guarantee. I mean, I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have the balance sheet. We're talking financing here, right? I wouldn't have the balance sheet to guarantee a 120-million-dollar construction loan. So, you know, so that's very limiting to do big projects. Problem. You know, I don't do, one reason why I don't do a lot of big projects is because of the financing. It's just by the time we bring in the capital stack and everything, you know, and then when you do that, you lose, you give up a lot of control over the integrity of the project. People start value engineering everything out of the project. And so, you know, the vision gets lost and all-of-a-sudden it's work and it's not fun. You know, it's one reason why I don't do a lot of large projects. So, whereas on the smaller projects, we can keep control. So, you know, so, yes, I am doing a large project because it's a spectacular site with a spectacular vision. But I don't do that as often. The risks are high and the loss, I think more than anything, is the loss of, you know, the vision. I mean when you do big, big projects. You know, what I always say you have to have two things when you, when you partner with people. You have to have the same vision, but you also have the same have the same values. Some people can have the same vision but then if they don't the same values, it is not the same. So, lots of times that happens when you do these, sort of, bigger projects.   Eve: [00:37:36] Yeah. You know, I've always stuck with smaller projects for much the same reason. Because I can finish them the way I think they should be finished and no one's egging me on to do something different.   Avra: [00:37:47] Everyone wants you to cut corners. Hey, it's already sold. Hey, it's already leased. You know, then, who cares, you know, it's a, if it's a 10-year paint or a fifteen-year paint? Well I care.   Eve: [00:37:58] Yes, I'm with you.   Avra: [00:37:59] Those decisions that get made, you know, again, the more people that are involved. For developers that have cut those corners, it's short-sighted because then, why do they come and lease my building instead of their building? Because people can feel the difference. They can feel the difference in quality. So, you know, it's interesting right now in this market and during Covid, and people are consolidating and deciding which offices to keep or which ones not to keep or which neighborhoods to be in or not be in. And I can tell you I have two very large tenants that had offices across the city, and they chose to consolidate. And both of them chose to be in my buildings and give up other spaces. And it really is because of the quality of our buildings, the uniqueness of our buildings. It speaks to their brand. And this was a time when spending the money and having your building be special, having there be a story to the building and the neighborhood that is in mattered. Because lots of times you can't spreadsheet this stuff. Anybody in finance and in the financing world wants, you know, a spreadsheet, right? Well, let's do a spreadsheet, right? You can't spreadsheet the quality of a space. You can't spreadsheet cool and placemaking. There's no spreadsheeting that. But when there's stress in the market and you see how people move and what they choose to keep and where they live or work, how, where rents are more stable or whatever, you see the performance. But when I'm doing a spreadsheet and presenting it to a bank, there's no way to quantify that.   Eve: [00:39:45] Yeah. Just shifting gears a little bit, are there any current trends in real estate development, especially around the pandemic, that you think are most important for the future of our cities?   Avra: [00:39:58] Well, we're staying the course. I mean, our mindfulness, our thoughtfulness, it hasn't changed. If it's before the pandemics, during the pandemic, or the after-pandemic. So, we've always practiced sustainability. Even in our new building, everybody's talking about these new air filtration systems and water systems. We had already designed that into our building before Covid. So, you know, it was like we were already there. We already felt like the wellness trend was, we already got on that bus a while ago. Now the tenants are going to be asking about it and insisting on it. We were already on that bandwagon by. My team is architects and so we are always looking at what's new, what's cutting edge and hopefully somewhat cost affordable so we've already, we're adopting a lot of those. So, I think those things will become more mainstream now. Good. And maybe that will even make them more cost effective. So, we haven't changed. Again, our mindset has always been, you know, we need to adapt to reusing. You use existing buildings. I mean that's the ultimate in sustainability, right?   Eve: [00:41:07] Yes, I agree.   Avra: [00:41:09] It's like fruit shopping, right? The most, the best thing, people don't realize how many CO2s go into building a building. And you knock it down, you spend more CO2s and then you rebuild it and spend more CO2s. There is a really great study out there, and I don't know if you've read it, on green building. And it was put out actually by the historic preservation community but if you were to take a building and knock it down, build it back, using green, let's say green technology, all the new Green Technologies, Sustainability, LEED certified, whatever, it would take you 80 years to make up for the damage done. 80 years to make up for the fact that you knocked down a building. So, we think, you know, so we are all about keeping existing building,   Eve: [00:41:56] Keeping, yeah, yeah.   Avra: [00:41:57] Absolutely. And it's interesting. We, and we do it, you know, we don't stop and think, oh, my God, we're saving the environment, right? But we know that it's important to the sustainability story. But we also know that it's important to the cultural story, to the story of community and social resiliency. When people talk about resiliency, but they talk about it like, you know, well, how high is your sea wall, or whatever. Resiliency, by definition, is your ability to bounce back. It does not say how high is your seawall, it's your ability to bounce back. And that is a social, that is a social response, not a building response, not a civilian engineering response. So, we think that focus, that part of social resiliency is part of keeping community. And part of keeping community is to try to save and do adaptive reuse with existing buildings. Again, we're back to why we build our business around this story. We think without the story we, it doesn't, it isn't going to get us where, we won't be interested. And it's got to be a story that, when you do projects that have a story, people want to be a part of it. People want to be a part of it. People want to work on it. People want to help build it. And then people want to live in it and people want to do their business in it. You know, I think builders, developers underestimate the market.   Eve: [00:43:37] Yeah, I think you're right.   Avra: [00:43:38] I think they underestimated them. They know the difference. And they know how it feels. And if they have a choice to spend a dollar here or a dollar there, they're going to spend it where it also feels good.   Eve: [00:43:51] Yeah. So, one last question for you. And that is, what's your big hairy goal?   Avra: [00:43:59] Gosh, you know, I guess just, you know, I'm living it every day. You know,   Eve: [00:44:06] That's a great answer.   Avra: [00:44:07] Yeah, I just, you know, we just keep doing what we're doing, and I think, you know, we talk about, you know, always wanting to learn, right? And knowledge is empowering, but it doesn't give you power unless you use it. So we are, you know, we're always learning, always curious. We're always helpful to other developers. Very transparent. We open source. So, if you go on, I think you've been on, our website. If you go onto VagabondGroupConsulting.com and you hit open source, we open sourced our affordable housing project. You get all the money we spent, all the inspections, all the time, all the materials, everything. The things that went well, the things that didn't go well. I think that one of the goals would be to hopefully encourage more developers and especially people in the public benefits space. Anybody'd be taking public dollars for sure, to open source their projects so more people can learn and so that more, more thoughtful developers can hopefully...   Eve: [00:45:16] That's a great idea. I'm definitely taking a look. And I'm super jealous of all of fabulous 50s motels that you're renovating. It's a fabulous...   Avra: [00:45:26] Here's a question for you. So how, in your platform, can you help developers like me?   Eve: [00:45:33] Well, if you want to start raising money from a broader group of people, from the community, that's really what investment crowdfunding is about. And I see there's a, how can I say this? I landed in Pittsburgh unexpectedly and one of the really big things I learned here is that people really want to be involved with their community and making it better with their city. It doesn't really matter where you go, people are very connected to the place they live in. And I was working with dollars that dried up in the late 2000s and started thinking about crowdfunding to replace them. You know, also working with banks that became more and more skittish and wanted to do less and less innovative project lending. And so, all of that kind of led me to investment crowdfunding, which really lets the crowd decide. So, you could, very soon you'll be able to raise, there's actually upgrades to the rule under way, but very soon an issuer, a developer, would be able to raise up to five million dollars a year from anyone over the age of 18.   Avra: [00:46:47] Wow. No, no subscription agreement.   [00:46:50] No, no, there's subscription agreements, but we handle all of that electronically online. So, if you go to a funding portal like Small Change, we are registered with the SEC and members of FINRA and it's a very heavily regulated rule. We kind of manage all that. And you basically create a disclosure package which we help you create, register it with the SEC and then everything else is handled electronically as people invest. So, I think the most meaningful thing for me is that if you want to bring along people in your community, you normally don't have a chance to invest and create wealth based on what's happening in their own community. This is a way to do that.   Avra: [00:47:38] So, I think it's a great idea. I actually went on your webpage and I thought about it. So, in in the affordable housing project that we did in Overtown, we actually, one of the partners, because we were getting large grants, they asked, they basically assigned us a local CDC, a community.   Eve: [00:48:00] Right, a development corporation, yeah.   Avra: [00:48:02] Yeah, to be part of the ownership. And it was Mount Zion, which was actually the oldest church in Miami, I think. They're a part-owner, you know, less than 10 percent so the lender has no issues. And I was neglecting again, it was more control thing, it wasn't a money thing because we're not making money. Right, so.   Eve: [00:48:24] Right, but they can bring grants to the table that you can't as a for-profit developer, right?   Avra: [00:48:31] But the reason why I don't put myself in a non-for-profit space is because I know, I see a lot of the people, in non-for-profit space and it's not non-for-profit, OK? It's actually, I call it, so, I'm in the no-profit space. So, I'm like, so I won't put on a non-for-profit space because everybody pays themselves salaries and things. We don't pay. We don't pay ourselves.   Eve: [00:48:53] Well, that's right.   Avra: [00:48:54] So the CDC came in and they've been great because they helped, you know, that was the thing. I said, well, as long as everybody understands nobody's getting paid, I'm happy to have a community organization. And I said, so they have ownership, so certainly down the line this, you know, we have a 30-year covenant and down the line there will be some value there. But I thought that it would have been great if, even instead of the CDC or in addition to the CDC, what if everybody in the community, so I get a grant from this CRA. What if every family that lived in that community all got a piece of the project? Instead of this CDC?   Eve: [00:49:37] Yeah, I've thought about this a lot. I've actually thought that, you know, in a poor community, wouldn't it be fantastic if there were even a foundation that matched investments made, or to increase the value to people who invest, you know, maybe even 100 dollars?   Avra: [00:49:54] Yes. So anyway, we got a three-million-dollar grant, just so you know. But I mean the three-million-dollar grant, and you'll see and, you'll like to see the math in our open source, the three-million-dollar grant will save the residents eight million dollars in rental cost over the 30 years. So, that's a huge benefit to the tenants with subsidized rents but if everybody in the community was given, let's say, a thousand-dollar ownership, assigned a thousand-dollar ownership, right? I mean, as long as I don't have to deal with, you know, a thousand investors, you know, I'm happy to have them own a piece of the project. You know, as long as me as a developer I can do what I do, you know? So, any time there's a grant made into a project, why isn't that grant, which is community dollars, community dollars, taxpayer dollars, why not have that grant be a crowdfund investment?   Eve: [00:50:57] Well, it can be. I just think people aren't quite there yet.   Avra: [00:51:00] Well, let's do it.   Eve: [00:51:01] Yeah. I'd love to do it. I've thought about raising a pot of funds for a community, for example, where someone, maybe you partner with a community development financial institution or a community bank, and someone manages the money, but it's programmatically distributed in the community as well. So now you have, maybe not just your project improving the community, but you're benefiting other people directly. Let's just say you're below a certain income and you need your roof replaced, you can get a loan for zero percent.   Avra: [00:51:38] Miami does a lot of that. I have to say, there is a lot of things we do. America Build does that. We have these twenty-thousand-dollar grants. If people know where to look that is made available.   Eve: [00:51:51] I know. But I'm thinking really community specific, you know. You pick a community that you're working and you, kind of, really try to build it up and make sure that people who are not wealthy in that community come along for the ride when developers do make investments and the community is improved. So, I mean, it could happen in any number of ways but, you know, we all think about what happens to people who are left behind, right? So, there's something there. I'm not exactly sure what it looks like precisely, but I have tools in my toolkit, these SEC regulations that I understand very well that could be deployed in that manner. Absolutely.   Avra: [00:52:34] Yeah. I think there's something there and I think, so, you know, we should talk about that Eve because I'd like to explore that. I think that, I think there's the political will to do it in Miami. I think there's enough. Again, you know, the thing is, is if we do one, right, we do one project and it works, it becomes the model.   Eve: [00:52:57] Yes, absolutely.   Avra: [00:52:59] So our study, the one that we did for Vagabond Group Consulting, that open source, has become sort of a case study. You know, I get calls from all over the country. People.   Eve: [00:53:10] Yeah. That's very important.   [00:53:12] You know, and that's what we need to solve some of these problems we need the transparency. We need to have conversations like you and I are having. And we all need to share and figure out best practices. We need to find a solution and it's in the developer's best interest that we find these solutions. I try to challenge some of my big developer friends and say, listen, guys, we need to be part of the solution here. This is really our, becomes our problem. You don't think it becomes your problem, but it does, because if the restaurant in your building, even if you don't want to do it for all the right reasons, you know, you should understand how it affects you, because if the restaurant in your building can't find employees because there's no place for them to live, you know, they're having that problem on Miami Beach and they're having trouble hiring people because nobody can afford to live on Miami Beach. So that affects your ability to rent your space. I mean, you know, so I tried to encourage that, show them even financially why this is in their best interest. That we all, we all don't do well unless we all do well, right? So, how do we incentivize developers to do that? There needs to be policies in place for that as well.   Avra: [00:54:26] In Miami, we have something where we, where developers can write a check. Like you're building a building and you write a check towards public benefits. Well, you know, make the developer build the affordable, do the public benefit. You know, sometimes writing a check is easier than doing the work.   Eve: [00:54:44] Yeah, no, I agree. Well, this has been absolutely fascinating and I'm going to be in touch soon. But we should wrap up and I really enjoyed talking to you, Avra.   Avra: [00:54:56] Yeah, this has been fun. I look forward to seeing your work. So, you have to send me some of your some of your work.   Eve: [00:55:04] I will.   Avra: [00:55:04] Share some stories.   Eve: [00:55:05] Thank you. Absolutely.   Eve: [00:55:13] That was Avra Jain, a wildly creative Miami developer. Avra and the Vagabond Group have built projects that range from converting a 100,000 square foot warehouse, to luxury loft condominiums in New York's Tribeca neighborhood, to the remake of The Vagabond from motel to hotel on Biscayne Boulevard. But Avra's passion lies squarely with the personal project portfolio she's building. The conversion of abandoned and historic motels into reimagined, affordable housing communities. She's leveraging her past success to tackle both the restoration of significant architecture and the making of affordable housing in a very unique way.   Eve: [00:55:59] You can find out more about impact real estate investing and access the show notes for today's episode at my website evepicker.com. While you're there, sign up for my newsletter to find out more about how to make money in real estate while building better cities.   Eve: [00:56:16] Thank you so much for spending your time with me today. And thank you, Avra, for sharing your thoughts. We'll talk again, too but for now, this is Eve Picker signing off to go make some change.  

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="no" equal_height_columns="no" menu_anchor="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" background_color="" background_image="" background_position="center center" background_repeat="no-repeat" fade="no" background_parallax="none" parallax_speed="0.3" video_mp4="" video_webm="" video_ogv="" video_url="" video_aspect_ratio="16:9" video_loop="yes" video_mute="yes" overlay_color="" video_preview_image="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" padding_top="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" padding_right=""][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" layout="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" border_position="all" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding_top="" padding_right="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" center_content="no" last="no" min_height="" hover_type="none" link=""][fusion_text] Watch the live interview below [/fusion_text][fusion_youtube id="https://youtu.be/kTE7MhFGjWI " alignment="center" width="" height="" autoplay="false" api_params="&rel=0" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" /][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]   Transcription (was completed by automated process. Please ignore any speech-to-text errors) Hi, I'm Beatty Carmichael, and welcome back to the Get Sellers Calling You Real Estate podcast. And I'm just really excited about today's call because I get to interview another wonderful set of agents with an amazing story, and who are actually clients of ours. Tom and Nancy Cleppe from Franklin, Tennessee. And I'm just really excited about today's call because I was able to speak with Tom and Nancy earlier. They have a really neat business and story. And I really wanted you guys to hear it. So, Tom and Nancy, how are you guys doing?   [00:00:39] Hi, Beatty, how are you? I am very blessed. We're lucky. Blessed as well.   [00:00:46] Well, very good. Very good. And I want to talk about those blessings in a moment. So they'll be great. Just also, a quick reminder for those who are listening and watching, watching, this is an Internet call. So if there are any type of Internet interruptions, just please part in this part in those four for that. So tell me, Nancy, I'd love just real quickly, just a little story about your real estate career. I know you're in the Franklin area, but maybe how long have you been selling just anything about you guys? Just the introduction of who you guys are.   [00:01:23] Nancy looks at me like I should start right away then. So so Nancy had been in business, in real estate business before I was eight years before I got involved in it. And she said to me, one day, you should get into real estate. This is before we were married, actually. And I said, no, I don't want to work weekends. We can build our business. We don't have to work weekends. So three weeks later, I was enrolled in a class and what, six months or less later, I had my license and we started a team. And so that's eight years ago. 70 years ago, no.   [00:01:57] Ok. So I got to ask your question. Do you work weekends?   [00:02:00] No. Rarely, I should say no. Obviously we if if necessary, we do.   [00:02:07] Ok, cool. Well, it's out now. Let me ask you just Horton comes quantifying purposes like how many transactions a year do you guys do?   [00:02:17] This is consistency we like. We do. I want to say that we do 50 units a year, but it's anywhere from 30 to 60 units.   [00:02:25] Ok. So 30 to 50, maybe 60 on a good year. And rarely work weekends. So I'm out. So the typical client that I talk to works 50, 60 hours a week, works week as you ask them. Hey, what's that? How is your weekend? They kind of with this blank stare or astonished voice pause in the voices, they say. What's a weekend? Right. So how did you how do you guys build your business where it's rarely on the weekends? I mean, how do you make that happen?   [00:02:57] Why you've got to be purposeful. You know, the first thing is you've got a time block and you've got to use your week well so that your week will fall together and follow. It's in the, you know, Monday to Friday business hours. And one of the ways we do that, we put God first, we put family second, and then our real estate business is third. And it seems like doing that, things just kind of fall into place. You know, we work hard during the week. We try to get it all done and we schedule as much as we can during the office hours. And obviously, we have clients that can always meet during office hours, and that's when we fall back to, you know, weekends or evenings to accommodate them. And it's pretty rare.   [00:03:36] You know, I love to explore that just a little bit, because as you're talking, Nancy, my mind went back to two or three other agents I've interviewed, and they all had the same pattern. And I think this is a pattern that's really worked to pull out in terms of setting the parameters. Okay. I'd like one of my clients, he or he does two to three times the volume. You guys do personal production. He does it differently side. I don't want to make that comparison, but what he does is he works. At the time I was asking him this question about thirty five hours a week. Yeah. No, seriously. And and I asked him how in the world did you do that? He said, well I structure. He said, I choose not to work Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and I choose not to work on the evenings unless I just have to. And I'm willing to give up business by me too. But he says when you put those parameters in place, you just fit your business around it. And I think a lot of agents never put those parameters in place. Yeah, sounds like you got some monster over there.   [00:04:51] Well, we have construction going on as well.   [00:04:55] Oh, okay. I love it going on. I thought that was maybe the door. We we're having a fun discussion about the dogs before their call, so. Great. So tell me a little bit. So 30 to 50 transactions a year. You don't work weekends. You set parameters. Tell me a little bit more about your business practice. And most importantly, how do you keep the business going? I don't have I want to kind of go and go towards what is it that you're doing that keeps your business? Because I know a lot of folks who would love to have 30 transactions a year and they're working 50, 60 hours a week just trying to get there. But what have you guys found to be the pattern that works for you that keeps you guys going? Does that is that a fair question to ask?   [00:05:42] Yeah. You know, when Nancy and I got into business or when I got into Nancy's business, she was kind of coasting for the lack of a better term and how she was doing your business. It was kind of coming to her by your relationships. And then I come in and it's like I have a sales and marketing background. It's like, wait a minute, we can be doing this, this and this to bring customers into us. We can do this business to set ourselves up so that there's stuff out there that's working without us kind of dealing in. I have it. I keep saying I'm the luckiest guy in the world because when it comes to contracts and negotiations and closings in one, Nancy's the structured one. She keeps all of that in line. I refer to myself as the guy out front bringing people in and the guy after the close of the sale then keeps in touch with them so that we give referrals and repeat business from that. So Nancy takes care of all the middle. And I take you to the beginning in the end.   [00:06:31] If you're a single agent, that would be a single agent with my capacity. That would be difficult.   [00:06:38] I totally get it. So. So you're more behind the scenes, Nancy and Tom, you're more in front of the scenes, is that right?   [00:06:46] Until it's time to switch. I'm in front of the scenes up front and then, like, we'll go to a listing appointment, get a listing and they never see me again. It's up close.   [00:06:54] Ever from there. I handle the listing and getting up and running and handle all the contract negotiations to get it to close. Okay, cool. Yeah. We don't need assistance to help us with those things, but I think the core of our business has always been it comes from our relationships with people.   [00:07:12] Talk to me about that. Yeah.   [00:07:14] Well, you know, I had a business before Tom joined me and we do a lot of referral business. I think our first several years together, our business was solely on referral business and then friends and family, you know, they trusted some of us and they want their friends to, you know, experience the same trust that they have with us. So whether they use us for a transaction or not, they feel comfortable referring their friends to us.   [00:07:40] So how big of a group are we talking about with this? Your relationships?   [00:07:46] Wow. There's fourteen hundred people in our in our database and we consider two hundred of them close. You haven't referred broken down and advocate a being. See, depending on if their client if they're just friends with referrals and if they're local.   [00:08:04] Ok. And then what? What do you guys take to nurture that? I'm assuming you do something. Is that correct?   [00:08:10] Yeah, we do. We don't do enough. It seems like sometimes. And there's other people that say we do too much. So like events, we're always doing client events to keep people safe. To get as many touches at once makes a lot of sense to us. And of course, everybody appreciates a good party kind of deal. We also do community outreach stuff where we're giving away. We have like an ice cream sundae. We're well into. This is a Sunday where we'll we'll give away ice cream at the local custard store and everybody we publicize it than anybody who comes in, gets to sample the ice cream, obviously, and then we get to shake hands with people that are not necessarily in our database or weren't at that point. And, you know, we're making fundraisers, fundraisers and the local fire department.   [00:08:58] And we've also raised money for a couple other organizations by giving away things and asking just asking people to donate when they can't. Like, we gave out pumpkins last year and pumpkin patch, we gave a pumpkin to everybody that they donated or not. But then we had a little jar set up for donations and those people died.   [00:09:17] So tell me how. Because one of the things that we talk about, especially like with a geographic area to do fundraising events or some sort of civic community event where you get the people into the same a common spot, you're the the civic champion, so to speak, of that cause, and then you get a chance to meet them. Help me guide me through, if you would. Let's take one of these fundraisers that you do. What's the process? How do you if you just come and give me a short synopsis of the process and most importantly, how it's structured so that you interact with the people if you're interacting at all. Does that make sense?   [00:09:58] It was probably our biggest.   [00:09:59] So I guess, you know, maybe when I was a kid, a delinquent and I might have had I had a lot of parties. Right. And it was just a matter of putting ourselves out there. You just create the event and invite people to come in. Those people that came had a good time and those people that didn't come heard about it kind of deal. And so the next time they had one, they wanted to come. And we just kind of promote it that way. The idea is, is we put the event out there and make sure that everybody knows about it, at least four different touches. And if they show great, if they don't, they kind of miss the event when they come, then we try to have as much set up prior to the event so that the day of the event, we're not running around cutting watermelons for everybody. There's somebody either the watermelon is cut or somebody else is doing it. And the more that we have in place for that than we heard the term wants to Elm's buds. That's exactly what it means. But we're just shaking hands. We're walking around laughing with everybody and be who we are socially. And that's really where people then kind of engage in that in in some events, depending on the person and depending on on the drive, we'll say something like, you know why you're here. Can you tell us a little bit, you know, who do you know that might be interested in?   [00:11:11] Might you rarely ever say, who do you know, say something about who might have had the good fortune of having a Beatty that might be interested in in getting a bigger house or what? You know, just got a promotion that's looking into getting a bigger house or something along those lines to start that conversation with Nancy. And I don't have trouble starting conversation. It's a matter of is the event just a celebration or is the event a lead generation event?   [00:11:40] Interesting. Do you all do any follow up after an event like a thank you know for coming or anything like that?   [00:11:46] Yeah, absolutely. Everybody gets a handwritten thank you card. I think last year we made sure handwritten thank you cards went out. They get at least an email. Thank you. And then we got a lot of follow up calls as well. Well, a cool thank you for coming or sorry we missed you.   [00:12:02] I'm sorry we missed you guys are just as important. So we send all of those emails out as well. Man, you missed a good party. Here's what you missed. Kind of deal. And we'll send pictures and that kind of stuff so that they're interested in coming either the next time or or at least keeping involved in what's happening next.   [00:12:18] So these are these are just these are big, maybe not big, but they're fun party happy atmospheric events. And then a lot of follow up to continue touching afterwards. Right. I like that. Have you found anything that's kind of anything that you can share besides what you just shared, that if you go back and say these are really, you know, like the top two or three most important things you've learned and doing these things that make it successful.   [00:12:49] I think advertising at a time or getting the word out ahead of time, it seems, when we get lazy, not lazy, but get busy and we don't get the word out as early as we need to. And and those extra follow up touches prior to the event is what seems to make the most successful. We're doing it and having it catered and, you know, doing all the things we need to do. But if we don't get the word out early, we don't have a good attendance.   [00:13:13] So what? So what's the timeline? How far out do you start contacting in invitations and then talk to me about when you start to actually make the personal contacts to make that personally.   [00:13:25] So the save the date goes out about six weeks in advance. And then I think just as the Sarah question, she's not with us. She's our assistant. But they get text about once a week after that, OK? They get an email that tells what the event's actually about and kind of what they can expect. And then just some reminders for hours, BP.   [00:13:46] And there's a handful. The truth is, is that you're not going to get everybody. You can't call everybody then obviously on the list kind of deal. So you call a couple of key people and make sure that they're coming. Check the RSVP fees, try to get as much RSVP so that you can plan accordingly. Obviously, the earlier the better. And then just create from there, know create the list that you're going to call it is. And then when you make those phone calls to them, you know, are you making sure that you're going to make it? And do me a favor, bring somebody along with you. It's like I can bring somebody in your life. I got you on the phone, of course. You know, so and so. It tends to be good in that sense with our neighbors to come as well.   [00:14:23] We are fortunate enough to live on a farm. And so we don't have next door neighbors what we do, but they're pretty far away. So we like the community to know that we're that we would like to do a lot of fundraising for community community, that we support the churches here. All of the churches have ice cream socials in the summer. And we try to get as many of those as we can, but we get to know the neighbors that way. And then when we have an advance, we'll even put a sign up, a big sign in the yard that says everyone's welcome. So it's not just our client and it's client people that, you know, we love and want to do business with. Right.   [00:14:59] So there are key key for that question. I mean, I'm on the phone every day. I get in the office about seven o'clock. I do a script practicing beforehand. I prepare for my day. And at eight o'clock I'm on the phone and I'm on the phone until noon every day. Whether I'm doing a follow up was how it ended or I'm doing lead generation, calling the people in our database. And there's the it's it's the relationship building. I wish I could say I was better at it.   [00:15:24] Some of the times I get we just switched over a new system in in I'm not making as many context as I'd like to be making because I'm trying to like fill the system in as I go kind of deal and make it good that sense. But for the most part, it's just keeping in touch with them, whether you're sending them a thank you card or thinking of your card or inviting them to an event or sending them birthday cards, we've got to force the birthday process. I mean, you get into an email, you you get a phone call, you get a text messages, and often you'll just get a card as well. So, well, I say often cards take a lot of time and so do the phone calls. So you got to kind of balance your mind on what you're doing with.   [00:16:03] Well, if you were to put an end, I must say, I mean, like these 30 to 50 selves a year that you guys do, are most of those coming from your personal contacts referred to or directs? Is there a way? I don't know if this is a fair question, because I know when you're just doing all these relationship things, it's hard to measure and quantify. One is more important than another. But is there a way that you guys have mentally quantified in your mind, which are the most important things that you're doing in terms of these ReachOut events and which are just kind of supporting things?   [00:16:41] Is that a fair question? It's a great question. And, you know, I'm I would say that we're just not measuring enough to know it.   [00:16:49] I think that. I think the phone calling is actually the most important, because that's something that we can do consistently every day.   [00:16:58] Now, of course, you can't you don't talk to everybody every day, but the events are kind of a couple of times a year event. And so we're touching them. We're trying to do them four times a year. So we're touching them during that time. And I think a personal one on one phone call probably goes the furthest in getting us, you know, repeat business and referrals business.   [00:17:17] I can up my game a little bit here recently in regards to the phone calls, it's like I'm setting up appointments nowadays, which I didn't do in the past because I was so focused on business kind of deal. I'm setting appointments just to have coffee with people in in trying to set up so my afternoons are filled with going and have coffee. No, no, remember. I don't drink coffee. So it's just a matter, it's just a matter of getting in front of these people. In the conversation they bring up real estate, which is really, really enlightening, kind of really cool that they bring it up, you know. So how's business with the man making it into it? You know, by the way, you know you know anybody that just recently had a kid or maybe a job promotion or those kind of questions come up then. And then the other thing is, is that we're tapping back into. So it's Nancy and I have been involved in motorcycle's in fact, that's where we met, was at a motorcycle store alone. And and so Harley Davidson, that's my that's my life for 30 years was motorcycle. So we're going back to those people and creating events around specifically around motorcycle enthusiasts and then doing stuff that is, you know, I guess dovetailing if there's another event going in, we're definitely going to be there and we're definitely going to be a figure in the event. And then we're definitely going to be promoting. It doesn't I don't ever want to make it sound like we're promoting real estate business. We're simply promoting Tom and Nancy and and then talking about business. And it's a different, different mindset than what I've always said or then what I have had. It became a grind in the past. It was how much business can you do, how much business, which business can you do and not doing not even been greatly successful. And then going back to just how what kind of person do I want to be?   [00:18:59] We know that's the basics and real estate. I was interviewing a another friend of mine who's actually here in town and he's been selling real estate twenty five years broker. And the cool thing about him is I was asking him, I said, now, what type of marketing do you do? I've never done any marketing. I said, never done any advertising. Now he's I've never spent any money and marketing for business and said, so what do you do? He says, I'm I'm just cause I I'll call people and say, hey, how's it going? Let's get together. And that's it. I said, that's it. You know, is this what you guys are doing? And what's interesting is, is he has never had a time when he never hit his goals financially because he you know, his just like you guys. God, first family second, business third. And he grows his business to the point that he accomplishes his business goals. So he has time with his family. But it's it's always it's only about Tony furious about a relationship. And that's what you guys are doing. That's what's so beautiful.   [00:20:10] There's lots of room for improvement.   [00:20:12] Yes. Now I get that. I want to shift just a little bit. Have you done. Have you tried things in the past that were an absolute failure? Let me see if I can phrase this the right way. I don't want to say that was an absolute failure in turn someone off from doing that, but maybe it was a failure for you. And you know why. In other words, most things out there work for somebody if they're in business. Hopefully they work for somebody. And the question is, have you tried some things that didn't work that you learned from? And is there something you can share with our listeners as to why it didn't work for you, that maybe if someone has similar, similar or a similar situation as you guys, that maybe you can help them understand what works, what doesn't? I don't know if that's a fair question.   [00:21:03] Now that we have had anything that has just totally failed, we have some things that have been more successful than others. And one thing that happens with us and our agents are like this, but we don't consistently use everything that we have available to use, either from lack of time or lack of money. But there was a couple of years when we farm to market, farm to neighborhood, and we were successful with that. Well, that kind of went away because we got involved in other types of marketing things. And it wasn't that it wasn't successful. We just haven't done it in the last couple years. So we could go back to that. But then we probably have to give someone else, because just the lack of time probably makes sense.   [00:21:45] The other aspect, it would be like open houses. I mean, you can farm the market indefinitely, build the relationships that are indefinitely build. Unfortunately, we don't live in a neighborhood, so we can't farm our own neighborhood, which to me lends credibility a little bit a little bit different way. And then you can grow out from there. If you're moving into a neat or you're working a neighborhood, you're gonna do you gotta find out about the neighborhood. You got to get in a frenzy to make events that happened in there. And it's always kind of out there.   [00:22:12] So that would be reason for a decision not to put that much effort into it. And yet there's lots of reasons to put it into it. Another thing would be something that we have been unsuccessful at following through with the same with the farming is on open houses. You have an open house and you've got people that are coming in. And all you have to do is set up one appointment at every open house to get a buyer or seller. It's like done. We should be doing that. And at the same sense, you know, it's a weekend job. Right.   [00:22:46] And then you have to follow the system not wanting to work weekends.   [00:22:50] Look, system, I think that ideally, you know, if I was to lay out my open house on Tuesday, had put arrows out and start the marketing on it on Friday, I'd put Gob's to somewhere around 20 different signs out.   [00:23:03] And then on Saturday or Sunday, I have open houses.   [00:23:06] There would be two hours long. And, you know, make an event out of that and making sure that we've got up systems to that. And we just don't do that.   [00:23:15] And that's why open houses are such a great way for new agents to start their business because they have time.   [00:23:22] You know, I've always said, what do we have more time or more money to invest in into a certain marketing thing that we're gonna do for that time period in our business.   [00:23:33] And if you don't have any money and you knew you don't have a clients, open houses are definitely the best way to go. We actually have more money than we have time. Right. That's the place to be either right now. Well, I always feel like we have more money and we have we definitely have more money than we have time.   [00:23:52] I totally get it. Well, you know, I think it goes back to the parameters that you guys mentioned in terms of, you know, you set the parameters and you operate within it and open houses violates the parameter if we don't work on weekends. Right. So now, hey, speaking of those parameters, I want to go back if I if we can. So you have a hierarchy, God, family business. Talk a little bit more about that. I want to talk a little bit about just that whole balance and those parameters. I don't have a specific question yet, but can you maybe maybe give me some your thoughts and what you do and how firm those parameters are? Just gonna craft what's going on with you on that.   [00:24:41] Well, this business.   [00:24:44] Can lead you astray easily if you let it. You know, you can get so wrapped up in in making money or pleasing the clients and you can take your eyes off what's really important, which is pleasing God and saying yes to a client isn't always the best thing for them or you. And so I think if you go back to kind of the old bracelets we used to wear, what would Jesus do?   [00:25:10] You know, sometimes you have to say no.   [00:25:12] For whatever reason in kinds don't like to be told no and usually all is business. In that situation. But that's something that, you know, is important to us. We go to a listening appointment. We we talk before we go. And, you know, is this a house that we want to live? And, you know, what are the criterion which we're willing to take this? You know, we're not ruling to compromise our values. We're not willing to be dishonest. We're not willing to just be at the beck and call of our clients knowing that that's not best for them or us. We're not going to serve them well if.   [00:25:51] You know, we're at their beck and call 24/7. That makes sense. We're not here.   [00:25:57] I mean, that's it. So Nancy and I just come from a place of of knowing faith and hope is clearly there for us. So. So we know that there's a that there's a higher power, that what happens to be Jesus Christ as we know and love them. And if she shows up for us, you showed up for us in the past and he's shown up for Stanely.   [00:26:15] And whether we're whether we're saying a prayer before we go into a listening appointment or we're saying a prayer at the listening appointment or or we're just making sure that when we start our day, they were grounded in in in in the word or in, you know, meditative state where we know that, you know, we're covered.   [00:26:35] All right. Hey, let's talk and let me talk on that, because different people bring their relationship with Christ into their business in different ways. When you do your real estate business and you're in interacting with clients, do you do anything that I'll call it just overtly Christian? Let me say this makes sense. When we were looking to buy our house and we were putting the offer, writing out the offer on it, you know, my realtor who's a Christian, said, well, let's pray over this. And we prayed. OK. Do you guys do anything like that with your clients at all?   [00:27:11] Absolutely. We don't want to go in talking about, you know, being Christian, because sometimes people can oversell and under deliver. And I think we'd rather over deliver and undersell. So we try to let that show up in who we are and not what we say. After most listing appointments, Tom just very casually says, is it OK if we say a prayer? He says it just like that. And have we heard anybody say no? No, I don't think we have.   [00:27:40] We've picked up cues along the way. I mean, you know, they've got a cross hanging above their bed or something. I mean, it's it's you pick up cues along the way. But I don't know about you, but I have been turned off by plenty of people that profess to be Christians. And they're the first ones to start like pushing and shoving and lying and cheating, you know, like man men. So so we don't go in there with, you know, a Christian tone. We go in there with a humble tone and then go from there. Like I said, like Nancy just said, the opportunity presents itself to say prayer. Is it OK? It's always a question.   [00:28:15] And how did how did the clients respond to that?   [00:28:18] I mean, I think the majority I can't remember anybody that's actually said no. Most people are very excited. You know, they realized then that these are probably some pretty sincere people that want to pray for us and really are concerned about what goes on with this transaction, whether we lost our house or not, and whether we sell our house or not. You know, it's they're getting a feeling for us through prayer and our actions that we're the type of people that are going to have their back. Even if it doesn't turn out to be a sale.   [00:28:51] I love it. And what other ways? I'd love to find out if you don't mind sharing just a little bit more, maybe your relationship with Christ and how you feel. It's kind of impacted what you do in real estate. Can you share something on that?   [00:29:07] I'm a I'm a recovering Catholic, and what I mean by that is, you know, we went to church as a as a family firm because all the least you could do.   [00:29:20] I just remember Mom saying something felt the least you could do is give God an hour or a week in there. And I went through catechism, confirmation and communion and all of the sacraments. Catholic. And and when I and when I separated from that and I and I needed some stability, I knew that I could go back to the Catholic Church and get that. And yet when I needed a personal relationship, I didn't have that. And I'm also a recovering alcoholic and still in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous. I found Jesus. He showed up differently for me than he did for many other people. But I just developed a personal relationship at that point. So that's just kind of my baseline. So if I've got that personal relationship as a result of my connection, the things that I do, and I don't mean the overt things that I do for other people in regards to my communication, my prayers in the morning, my meditation, my gratitude throughout the day. I've got reminders that proper by my full and that's as a sign for gratitude. And. And those are the things that keep me connected to the spirit, keep me connected to Jesus and go from there. Nancy, similar know, we write we read the Bible and we go to Bible study and we help out at church and we do mission work and we do this. But we don't do that to earn glory or to earn favor. We do that because that's servant.   [00:30:41] Right. Talk to me. This is really interesting. You mention relationship. A lot of times, you know, people think about Christian as a religion. What religion are you? I'm Christian. Things that sort in your life. You use the word relationship a couple of times. What does that mean to you? And why are you using that in this context?   [00:31:04] Help me understand that.   [00:31:07] Wow. Guess because he saved me. Tell me more. I mean, so, you know, my life is is not been a smooth sailing. They say the road to paradise is not it's not smooth. And in mine has been hellish. I mean, I've had a.   [00:31:27] Whether it was.   [00:31:31] Childhood diseases that I was able to to work through or that Jesus pulled me through or whether it was an illness that removed me.   [00:31:39] I was a I had a corporate profile job and I'm moving up in it and I get disabled and I'm not able to go there. And I think it's what what I what I do. That's going to make it better and then make it to the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous and in and pulled from the need to satisfy others so that I can get that paycheck or that notoriety or whatnot. And then I'd like to say that, you know, that recovery at that point was perfect for me, no drugs and alcohol. But the truth is, is that I found Internet addiction, Internet pornography addiction, and I needed to work the steps on that. And as a result of that, unfortunately, I lost my first marriage. And in the way that that was kind of hammered on me, it can have a real negative connotation in society. And with my former wife and and in you know, I had my faith at that point. And so I look back.   [00:32:44] And I know he is with me, and that's in a can't, whether it's Nancy and I or whether it's another close friend or somebody that I work with. I know what teamwork is. And it's not because of what I do. It's because of what we do. And I can't. And I have a relationship with Christ the same way. It's not because of what I do and that just because of what he does, it's what we do together. Next, the relationship.   [00:33:07] That's really neat. In terms of that relationship and trying to I've got kind of pictured in my mind's eye what I want to ask and then trying to formulate it into a question. So someone's listening to this call. They're going through challenges and they pray. They've gone to church. None of that really is not clicking. It just doesn't seem to be, quote unquote, working. They they check off the little list. What is different between what you did and going to church and doing catechism and those things? And this thing you call a relationship. Help me. Help me understand. All right. That person that may be listening. What's the difference between relationship and these things that we call, you know, doing the Christian thing? Is that.   [00:34:10] Yeah. Well, first of all, it's not a checklist. You can't check the list and say, I went to church and I read my Bible and I prayed. So why isn't my life happier or better, whatever it is they're looking for? I mean, that's not how you have a relationship with another person. You don't check off the boxes while I called so-and-so today and I met them for lunch.   [00:34:31] So, you know, we should be really tight now. You know, you have to think of it that way. A relationship is a one on one ongoing experience with another person. And that person has Jesus and he. Is better than to your friends, because he he's always there and he forgives so quickly and so easily. I think a lot of people come to faith when they're that they've hit bottom. And he's standing there waiting. You know, he wants to help you up and pull you up and. I don't know really how to tell people to.   [00:35:10] You get to that place where they're surrendering everything to him. But that really is the only answer. You know, you're probably going to do it. Meaning surrender everything to him. You can do it now or you can do it later. Most people like to go through a lot of pain before they do it.   [00:35:28] Like, do they just.   [00:35:29] Well, they don't like it, but they do it. So if you can do that, you know, sometime in your life. If you're tired of going through the pain or maybe you're not in a lot of pain now, you will be, you know, it's coming. That is something that being a believer or being Christian doesn't mean that you're not going to have troubles. It means that God's going to get you through those. And the sooner you learn that, I think the happier that you'll be just having that solid foundation to turn back to as opposed to what do I do now? And that trying to help yourself.   [00:36:05] It just doesn't work.   [00:36:08] I think the relationship with Christ for me is developed in in two primary ways. And the first one is in nature. I can't look around me and think that there isn't something greater creating this. I mean, we're in the change of seasons right now. The colors of the leaves will be changing colors and then we'll go into winter and then. Oh, my heavens. Spring comes and you're like, well, of course, he's going to put spring after after winter because it's just and, you know, I say he put it there because I believe it was created by him. And so I can just watch around me. It doesn't mean I like all of the seasons. Frankly, I don't even like spring. But it sure does bring out beauty, you know. And and I appreciate that. And the other thing. So in nature, I see that what I've seen in people as well to the relationship I have, you know, this. This is been a twenty five year road for me to get to this point. And that's not twenty five years old, that's twenty five years. When I met Christ in that in that relationship way in like my sister turned me on to a book, The Time for Joy, which is in scrap pages nowadays. But I still read it. Not every day as much as I used to, but I read it. I read it this morning again. And it's just that meditation. And then, you know, eight or ten years ago, another friend gave me a book by Derek.   [00:37:27] It's kind of my Bible leader book. Think of the rings. Dear friends. Thank you. And then, of course, I got a recovery Bible from somebody else. And I got I got in business. I was handed a journal, you know, and said how you can put God first. That's for writing about it when you go to bed and be grateful and in in recovery in the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. You know, they they encouraged prayer and meditation. They encourage a relationship with God. And, you know, so and so all of the friends that I met in that sense and every Thursday night for the past eight years have been in a men's men's meeting which started out at a church. Now we've been through several different churches and it's clearly Christian driven. We just call ourselves the protocols at this point. And there's just a topic where men from thirty six years old at 84 years old are getting together and talking and in that crisis shows up. And in that the relationships built I mean, we cry together, we laugh together. We in in there's not a meeting that goes by that you don't know that there's a presence of God.   [00:38:35] So. That's really neat. I love what you're saying, Nancy. You know, someday you're going go through tough times. And I was thinking I just had one of our podcasts, actually, Elk LP coming out before this one, but I've already recorded it. By the time we're doing this interview and is talking about the Israelites going through the wilderness, you know, coming out of Egypt. And it seems like they always put themselves into a position. God takes them to a position of dry point. OK. Where there is no water and and they always wait till they're about dying of thirst. They start complaining to God and God shows up with their answer vote.   [00:39:19] What hit me reading it is God would have given them the answer. They just ask God to light early before they got to that point for inspiration.   [00:39:26] Does that make sense? Yeah.   [00:39:29] I think sometimes we we wait until it's unbearable and that's when we we, you know, seek the Lord and crown the Lord. And yet Jesus said I came that you might have life abundantly right now and always have to do is this kind of saken right now.   [00:39:47] Let me ask you a question on that, because you guys have gone through a lot of struggles. I know. And if you were look at your life now. I know there still probably struggles. And if you look at your life 10 or 15 years ago or 20 years ago or maybe a little bit further back when your relationship wasn't with the Lord, wasn't his strong. And I'm I'm just looking at the life with a relationship with the Lord now versus where the relationship was a lot less. Are the struggles significantly different? In other words, now that you have a great relationship with the Lord, is the struggle or a stronger relation is a struggle a lot less in terms of things hitting you than it was earlier? Or is the struggle level about the same? Does that make sense?   [00:40:38] Yeah. It's about the same struggles.   [00:40:40] Both the same. What is the response to the struggle? OK. The joy in the struggle helped me. Now the struggles are about the same now with a relationship being more mature vs. not really pursuing it. What's the difference?   [00:40:56] You know, sometimes when something disaster is happens, your first responders response is to panic and, you know, despair and, you know, having this guy here that just says to me, you know, we need to start Perrow right now. And God's not going to leave us now. He hasn't so far. And it's just really a matter of a couple of minutes. You can take a few deep breaths. You can say a prayer and come back to he's going to get us through this. Whereas I think years ago, you know, you rely on your own, like, what can I do to get through this? And sometimes you can. I mean, sometimes it's up to you to do the next right thing, but often it's not in our hands. The things that are really hurting us and bothering us are totally out of our control. And that's what you come to realize in a close relationship with God is that he's in control. And hearing our prayers is the most important thing we can do now. We don't need to try to fix it. You know, either we can't or it's completely out of our hands.   [00:42:01] There's. So you've got to think so.   [00:42:06] There has to be a physiology shift and that can be like breath work, breath work to me has always been extremely important because like breathing happens without me thinking about it. And yet, when I think about breath work, to me it's a connection with with everything else. I mean, I exhale carbon dioxide and the trees inhale it through the trees. Exhale oxygen. And I inhale that. And so there's there's a definite connection there with that stuff. So it's in it's a conscious I'm breathing and I'm kind of counting or I'm doing feeling the chest rising and lower. So there's a physiology that happens with it. And then there's also an anchoring opportunity.   [00:42:41] So for me, I have an inker that when things don't get to it, I can I can just anchor and it'll pull me back into those thoughts of when I was blessed with feelings of blessings or feelings of abundance or whatnot. And just anchoring it added recognize that. That's good. So there's a physiology that starts and then there's that the you know, it's all about mindset, 99 nine mindset. It's got to be 90 percent of it all. And if we're talking about God and we're talking about gratitude and we're talking about abundance in in the proverbial fan gets hit with life, you know, we can go with talking about the proverbial fan and the stuff that's flying or we can talk about the good things. They're in the office. There's a saying that your thoughts eavesdrop, get your thoughts, eavesdrop on your words. And so if you're gonna be talking about the things that are not favorable, then you're that's where you're gonna be hanging on. And that's what you're going to find support in. If you're thinking about things that are, you know what I want I want to use the word good. But that's way too general. Things that are of abundant, things that are of joy, things that are of Christ, things that are of life, things that are of relationship. Then it's soon certain to go in that way in Christians.   [00:44:01] You know, I love the mindset. When you mentioned that my mind went back to Roman, say, with Paul, has the mind set on the flash is death. But the mind set on the spirit is life and peace. And where we set our mind is the outcome we get. Right. And. And I not long ago, we were going through some challenges. And my son is very wise in the spirit and we're talking about these different things. And he said, Dad, the battle is won in the spirit before it's won in the natural. And you know, that's so true. And, you know, God is a god of patterns. And he has a pattern. And he keeps repeating that pattern in one pattern that you guys have seen in your life. I've seen in mine. And that is that. God takes care of you. God takes care of you, as you say, can follow him, in fact. I would probably suggest without knowing the inner workings of your business, that if you were to look back over the life of your business. That all the big wins and and transactions and revenues that covered all your expenses probably were things that God brought to you, that you didn't really work.   [00:45:22] Yeah. Yeah, I would almost guarantee it. Yeah.   [00:45:25] It's a it's a pattern. And because of that pattern, we can live in joy in the midst of the struggles that come our way because we always are in struggles. The question is, do we try to reline ourselves to solve them or rely on the Lord? And the pattern with the Lord is he always handles it for those who love him and who follow him. So that's kind of the big takeaway I'm getting with you guys. Yes. Well, this has been really neat. I've enjoyed this. Is there anything else? As we start to wrap up, is there anything else you'd like to share business spiritually? A combination or anything else that. Before we wrap up the call.   [00:46:20] Thomas reading his notes. No, I'm not. There a tax in place? There's two things that come to mind.   [00:46:28] First of all. In watching videos and in watching and reading other people's real estate businesses and do this, do that, do this, that I've put other people on pedestals and in like that envy, maybe envy is is a word that might fit it as well. But I want to be like them or how come I can't do that or what's happening. And when Nancy and I sit here like this, I don't ever want to be thought of as the guy that has the answers because we struggle day in and day out. But we've got the answer of relying on our greater than ourselves. And we know that if we just get up in the morning and put our best foot forward, that the answers come in as long as our house is in order as we stand in the rooms. And so it's it's their struggle and there's pain and there's loss and there's reward in. Life is clearly way more abundant now than it was before. So. So don't do what I did and yet do what I did. But don't think of Nancy NYes any better or worse than we're just on the same path in the same. Going in the same direction and doing things have a little different speed than you are because everybody is is on the path.   [00:47:52] The other thought is, is.   [00:47:54] Some of the things just kind of along those same lines. Some of the things that were said here by what you've read and what Nancy and I have come up with in the moment, and as we said a prayer before we started this, I think this is a good podcast. And I'm looking forward to listening to those two people because they get some good stuff to say.   [00:48:14] Well, y'all are definitely just an amazing couple. Anything from you announcing that, trying to put you on the spot or anything, that song line before we wrap it up?   [00:48:23] Now, I just you know, for me, the most important thing is to have Tom as the leader of our family. And he continues to do that. He leads our company and he leads our family. And that's important to me. I hope to retire someday sooner than he does.   [00:48:38] And it's just nice to know that the person leading our company and leading our lives is a man of God.   [00:48:46] Absolutely. There is another passage that says no. Why be submissive to your husbands as crisis, as the churches, to the Christ husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church. And the picture that I got was this. You know, in the in the Christ center form of marriage, the husband is the covering of the family. And it's the husband's responsibility to take care of the family. Right. Ultimately, and as the bride of Christ, all of us make up the bride of Christ. He is our husband. And we can trust him to cover us. And trust him to provide for us. And it hit me as I as I was reading through this in the spirit, just kind of spoke this to me. At least I believe it was the spirit that said, you can trust me to Beatty, I'm your husband. And you don't have to worry about all of these decisions just to, you know, follow the leading I give you and leave it all up to me. And it's just really freeing. So it's wonderful to have a man of God is your husband to to just follow and lead your family. So. I really appreciate that.   [00:50:00] Thank you. Thanks. All right. Well, as we wrap this up, if you do like this podcast, be sure to subscribe to it and you'll get a lot more. Be sure to like us on iTunes and YouTube and learn more about us and how to grow your business and how to grow spiritually if you want. At our Web site, get cellar's calling you Acom. Thanks, everyone. You'll have a great day.   [00:50:23] Thank you. Thanks.   P063

Starting out, Louis Avallone tells us Mayor Perkins is to be featured on “Undercover Boss”, which already has been shot. Well….it seems there is a question about Ethics because some of the people in the video are City Employees who were promised “special gifts”. As Stephen Parr summarizes, “Once again, what we have is the City of Shreveport’s Administration doing something that violates the law as it is written, and they go back after they have already done it and said ‘Hey, can we retroactively make this OK?’ It is what they did with the car, it is what they did with the [sewer] emergency declaration. Here we have a chance to get the City shown on National TV and we can’t even do that right?”Moving on to good news….Gallup reports 90% of Americans are satisfied with how their lives are going.

THE PETE SANTILLI SHOW Episode #1662 - Friday - October 25, 2019 - 6PM Live Broadcast Link - https://youtu.be/VJGPVtpBdRI  Warning Shot - Trump Accuses Obama of Treason - 1662-6P President Trump has ratcheted up his claim that the Obama White House spied on his 2016 campaign, charging in a new book that it was a “treasonous” act by the former Democratic president. “What they did was treasonous, OK? It was treasonous,” he told author Doug Wead for his upcoming book, "Inside Trump's White House: The Real Story of His Presidency." “The interesting thing out of all of this is that we caught them spying on the election. They were spying on my campaign. So you know? What is that all about?” said Trump. “I have never ever said this, but truth is, they got caught spying. They were spying,” said Trump who then added, “Obama.” GUEST:  Mark Cage is the elected Sheriff in Eddy County New mexico. He is a recognized expert in civilian and military law enforcement, counter-terrorism/narcotics enforcement, firearms and unarmed use of force as well as law enforcement administration and leadership. He maintains his instructor certifications in General Police Instruction, Firearms, and Defensive Tactics. Sheriff Cage retired from the United States Navy at the rank of Chief Petty Officer after receiving numerous accolades for excellence in leadership and outstanding performance. He is a veteran of the Cold War as well as Operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm and Enduring Freedom. The Sheriff recently said that his deputies would not be part of Beto O’Rourke’s anti-gun, “personal Gestapo,” rounding up guns belonging to law-abiding Americans . “The thought of anyone utilizing my sheriff’s office or any other law enforcement agency in this country as their personal Gestapo to go door to door violating citizen’s rights is disgusting, unrealistic and downright un-American.” Sheriff Cage recently met with President Trump.  E-Militia Article: Warning Shot – Trump Accuses Obama of Treason http://ow.ly/Dz2230pMtN3  B4IN Article: Warning Shot - Trump Accuses Obama of Treason | Politics http://ow.ly/8Q3i30pMtRl 

Exclusive Resource: Revenue Retention Cheatsheet™ - Stop The Bleeding & Scale Your Marketing With Confidence - http://bit.ly/2FHGVOi -- And it goes like this: How much is it? – It’s not that bad… Look, it’s simple. Just give me a number. OK? – It’s 20% – not that bad, right? WOW… Your churn is 20% monthly?  *issues a small prayer to all the SaaS gods* The above is a conversation I recently had with a potential coaching client… GOOSEBUMPS! Let me put this into perspective… If your churn rate is at 20% and for one reason or another you fail to add any new customers… in just 5 months… you will churn through all of your existing customers and be left with nothing – simple math.  The worse part, it pulls down your Lifetime Value of a Customer so it makes it really tough to invest in growth and is usually the reason startups fail. You should always know exactly where you’re standing on your churn levels and you should be doing the best you can to fight these levels back and get that MRR up!  You should make sure you UNDERSTAND CHURN! In this episode of the SaaS Growth Stacking Show, I give you the 4 things you should pay attention to and stay on top of to make sure you stop the bleeding and SCALE-UP! At a high level, these are the 4 things you need to keep in mind: 1. Churn Flatline 2. Maximum Viable Churn 3. Moment of Churn 4. Fight the Impact Now…  Where does it all begin? It starts with answering one simple question… What does churn mean? If you cannot define it – you cannot measure it… and you absolutely need to define it!  You don’t want to find yourself in a situation where your customer success team is measuring something else entirely that skews your data. Start with something simple. Usually, there are 2 types of Churn – one is Cancellations and the other is Involuntary Churn. Involuntary Churn can be 20%-40% of your Churn and a lot of times is quite easily fixable.  There will be times where it is caused by simple payment failures and these ones, as frustrating as they are, can be tackled with great tools such as ProfitWell or FlexPay.  Cancellation Churn’s moment, on the other hand, is well defined – it’s when a client doesn’t renew their subscription.  Between the notice and the renew date, there is a period of time that you can really engage with the customer and save the account.  If you implement a strong cancellation process you can save 30%-40% of these clients. A lot of times it’s up to downgrading, showing the solution, talking about their problems – SIMPLE, RIGHT? You have to sit down and define the moment of churn with your team. Get aligned. There are things you can always do and improve and this is one of them. You need it to blast into space! Don’t worry, it’s a solvable problem and I give you the strategy in my Churn Buster CheatSheet.  I provide 9 strategies that you can deploy today to help you reduce your churn.  If you cannot find the solution for your business there – write a comment below with your question and let’s get the answer your business needs together. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell Exclusive Resource: Revenue Retention Cheatsheet™ - Stop The Bleeding & Scale Your Marketing With Confidence - http://bit.ly/2FHGVOi

If your podcast is more than a year old, you should have two things “dialed-in”: Your comfortable behind the mic (or you fake it well enough) You’ve built an audience (small or large) and have acquired “regular” listeners With those two things in place, you can ask yourself a single question: Why am I doing this? Chances are, the purpose of your podcast has little to do with the cash and time you spend on your show. And you know what? That’s OK. Because it’s your time and your money, and you get to spend it how you want. But I am genuinely curious as to the purpose behind your podcasting efforts. After you’ve listened to this episode, please send me a quick email or a tweet that tells me your purpose, OK? It’s my birthday wish to you. (Yes, it really is my birthday today!) ----- Podcast Pontifications (https://podcastpontifications.com) is published by Evo Terra four times a week and is aimed at the working podcaster. The purpose of this show is to make podcasting better, not just easier. Follow Evo on Twitter (https://twitter.com/evoterra) for more podcasting insights as they come. And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit PodcastLaunch.pro (https://podcastlaunch.pro) to see how Simpler Media Productions can help your firm. Podcasting is our only business. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy Support this podcast

The title of this podcast was inspired by Ira Glass, the public radio personality and the host and producer of the show This American Life.On the topic of the struggles all creatives face, Glass once said the following:Nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish somebody had told this to me — is that all of us who do creative work … we get into it because we have good taste. But it’s like there’s a gap, that for the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good, OK? It’s not that great. It’s really not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not quite that good. But your taste — the thing that got you into the game — your taste is still killer, and your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you.This disappointment is something that we have experienced and we sometimes still experience because, let’s face it, nobody ever feels completely realized in their creative life.So we created this podcast to help all those fledgling creatives that perceive the existence of the gap, but have no idea how to close it. All those who lack inspiration, think they have no talent, are holding back, or never seem to be able to start something or to finish it.We love listening to photography podcasts, but we felt like most podcasts out there talked a lot about gear and technique and very little about topics like:What it means to have talent, or a lack of it,Finding and developing a personal style,Daring to produce something out of the ordinary,Evoking emotions and connecting to people through photographs,Dealing with criticism,Achieving recognition and commercial success.We created this podcast to fill this void and answer those questions. We hope you will follow us along this journey.Click here to find more about us. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There's every reason to be alarmed, but does it help? Does screaming from the rooftops about impending climate doom grab people's attention or make them switch channel? Does *not* sounding the alarm give a false impression that everything's kinda OK? It's a debate as old as the hills, but one reignited by everyone's favourite nonagenarian coming down decidedly on the "alarmism's a turn-off" side. Is he right? We discuss. Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore – @dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast, Soundcloud & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

Amy from Eccentric Earth joins us again this week, and she's picked another of her favourite Eighties' movies to share with us - all the way from 1986, come Critters! This classic horror sci-fi comedy has nothing to do with Gremlins, absolutely nothing, OK? It's all a massive coinkydink. We also have no trouble at all staying on topic. No trouble AT. ALL. Eccentric Earth Podcast: podbean.com/podcast-detail/v7j6p-62b23/Eccentric-Earth-Podcast Back to the Eighties @ Twitter: @BTTEPOD Back to the 80's on Facebook: facebook.com/bttepod

OK It's Sunday, That means it is time for "That Being Said" Sunday noon CST! Season 9 Episode 14!

Issue #39...The State of the Union AddressTalk’N Wrestling host Casey Corbin is out on the road performing comedy. In this issue he is alone and he’s giving the TNW peeps the details on some upcoming events involving the show and possible guests and interviews. Upcoming dates are listed with Hacksaw Jim Duggan, The world’s most dangerous man Ken Shamrock and find out what major indie brand of wrestling Talk’N Wrestling decided to become a sponsor for. Ok It’s Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore. Details on all these events and not much more. So spend less than an hour this week with us on Talk’N Wrestling where wrestling and comedy collide!!Casey CorbinHalifax Comedy FestTalk 'N WrestlingTalk 'N Wrestling Twitter

The White Coat Investor (AKA Jim Dahle, MD) talks debt, investing, philanthropy, investment philosophy, and investment strategies for different stages of your career.   Key Links from this episode Essentials of Emergency Medicine The White Coat Investor website White Coat Investor book   When Jim was an intern, he didn't know much about finance. His education started with this book Mutual Funds for Dummies   Books Jim recommends as foundational reading to understand personal finance The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need The Millionaire Next Door The Coffeehouse Investor The Four Pillars of Investing   White Coat Investor advice for a medical student Try to spend as little as possible. Every dollar you spend in medical school is going to be 3 dollars you pay back later This is they time you're expected to be poor. Be frugal Your specialty choice has a huge effect on your future financial life. Pick the one you will be able to work at the longest that makes you the happiest.   Advice to a young doctor The year that matters most in your financial life is your first year as an attending physician. That year sets habits. In med school and residency, have a plan in place for your first 12 attending paychecks. In the first few years after residency, live the lifestyle of a resident while earning like an attending. This can lead to rapid savings and loan repayment Embrace the habit of saving Calculate your annual savings rate/what you're putting toward retirement. Amount of annual savings divided by gross income. That number should be around 20% Look at your purchases from the point of view, "Will this make me happy?" The is the essence of budgeting: attaching your values to how you spend your money Each month, review where your money is going. Is that where you want it to be going? If it's not, make some changes. Don't buy on credit. Spending your money on payments is not what you want to be doing   Financial Advisors Most doctors want or need a good financial advisor The problem is that what we want is just to have a 'money guy' that takes care of all the money and we don't have to pay attention to it To make sure you're getting good advice at a fair price, you'll need at least a basic level of financial education (or at least get a second opinion) Be aware of the fees your advisor is charging. Expect at least 4 figure amounts   Starting residency. Buy or rent? Buy a home when you are in a stable professional and social situation there are high transit costs. It costs about 15% of the value of the home to make the 'round trip in and out of the home.About 5% to get in and 10 % to get out. If you're not there long enough for the home's appreciation to make up for that 15% loss, you're probably going to come out behind Homes appreciate about 3% per year If you're in a 3 year recency, changes are you won't break even White Coat Investor recommends most residents NOT buy a home and rent   New Attending. Buy or rent? There is a good chance you will change jobs in the first few years This is not the most stable professional time Make sure the job work for you before you buy a house Rent for the first 6-12 months You should still be living like a resident during this first  year Buy a home when you are in a stable professional and social situation   The "Point of Enough" If you don't define it, it will always seem like a number that's twice what you have Take how much you spend in a year and multiply it by 25. When you have that in assets, you have reached finically independence.   Real estate investing Owning actual property is to the only way to do it. Other options include..... The easiest way is the REIT. Real Estate Investment Trust index fund. Syndicated real estate   Pay Down Debt vs Invest in the Market Doing either one will increase your net worth (unless the market tanks) Focus on what percentage of your income is going toward building wealth rather than what compartment that wealth building is going into Student loans have a few negative aspects: You can't deduct the interest when you're an attending; student loans tend to have high interest rates. Try to get rid of student loan debt within 2-5 years after residency   Jim's Ideas on Giving/Philanthropy Good for the soul Develops a stewardship mentality Giving money away sends a message to the subconscious that you have enough - you can give some away and still be OK It keeps you connected to the rest of the world It can make your portfolio more tax efficient  

Bonus! THe Nice Guys talk to Nicole Holland, Caroline Tesone and Lou Diamond on today's Podcaster's Forum and it's all about the equipment. Reach Us Here: Nicole Holland- @niczthename Lou Diamond @ThriveLouD Caroline Tesone- @carolinetesone Doug- @DJDoug Strickland- @NiceGuyonBiz   Show Notes by Show Producer: Anna Nygren   In this episode: Everyone uses different equipment, and that's OK It's so complicated! No, it's not really that bad What about software? We talk about that too Zoom is pretty cool to connect with guests Acuity scheduling is a favorite of many of our forum members You have to set systems up to stay sane and get everything done You don't know what you don't know until you try to do it Here are some links to The Nice Guys recommended equipment list: Equipment List Microphone, cables and equipment can get overwhelming, don't let it scare you. Here is a basic list of the equipment we use to create The Nice Guys on Business.   Hardware: Blue Yeti Mic Boom stand Shock mount for Yeti boom Yeti pop shield Digital Recorder Monster Splitter Cable 1/8 to 1/8 Any Headphones   Software needed for in-studio recording, production and guest management:   Libsyn - hosting platform and analytics for your podcast. Distributes to iTunes and several other podcast channels including YouTube. (We will set this up for you) Acuity Scheduling- great schedule manager with ability to customize guest Q&A, follow up, reminders and links to your CRM. Zencastr - audio recording made very easy. Allows for local browser recording with auto uploading to Dropbox. Skype Recording Skype with a Mac- ecamm Recording Skype with a PC- Pamela Canva - Template creation for show art. Audacity - audio editing software.   Connect with Nicole Building Business Rockstars podcast Connect with Caroline- True Voice Media Podcast or Shareable Connect with Lou- ThriveLOUD Podcast   Nice Guys Sponsor: Interview Valet is the  best podcast booking service. They are the leader in Podcast Interview Marketing to help you easily turn listeners into leads.   Nice Guys Links Support the podcast at www.Patreon.com/NiceGuys   Subscribe to the Podcast   Niceguysonbusiness.com   TurnkeyPodcast.com - You're the expert. Let us help prove it. Podcast Production, Concept to Launch   Book Doug and/or Strick as a speaker at your upcoming event.   Amazon #1 Best selling book Nice Guys Finish First. Doug's Business Building Bootcamp (10 Module Course)   Survey: Take our short survey so The Nice Guys know what you like.     Partner Links: Amazon.com: Click before buying anything. Help support the podcast.   Interview Valet:  Get interviewed on top podcasts and share your message.   Acuity Scheduling: Stop wasting time going back and forth scheduling appointments   Social Quant - Boost your Twitter following the right way. Targeted reach     Promise Statement: To provide an experience that is entertaining and adds value to your life.   Don't underestimate the Power of Nice.

What's going on everyone, this is Steve Larsen and you're listening to Secret MLM Hacks Radio. So, here's the real mystery. How do real MLMers like us who didn't cheat and only bug family members and friends, who want to grow a profitable home business, how do we recruit A players into our downlines and create extra incomes, yet still have plenty of time for the rest of our lives? That's the blaring question, and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Secret MLM Hacks Radio. Hey guys, hope you're doing great. Hope that everything is going fantastic in your life. Hey, I just barely finished a three day event that I got to teach the majority of, and it was a lot of fun ... Anyway, I really enjoy it. I love teaching, I love stage presenting, I did a lot of stage stuff growing up, and I just, I really like it, I enjoy ... There's certainly a rush to it. The way it started out is day number one we went from nine to five, it was kind of normal. Day number two though, we started about 8:30 in the morning and then we went to about 1:00 AM, 12:00, about midnight, 1:00 AM, somewhere around there, and, which is crazy. It's funny, we don't like take like, there's not like breaks, you know what I mean? There's no like bathroom breaks, there's no like hey go get a snack everybody. It's literally straight through the entire time. Then the third day, similar to the first one, it was about nine to five, and by the end of it everyone's just dead, and but it's a ton of fun. I got to share the stage with Russell Brunson, and sometimes literally, which was awesome. He and I tagged, we did some tag teaming back and forth on some different topics and such. It was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed ... It's for what's called the Two Comma Club Coaching Program, and I am one of the coaches for it. Two Commas, meaning a million bucks, which is awesome. It's a lot of fun. I mean I enjoy that setting, I enjoy the ... I think what I like most about it is the high immersion that comes with those kinds of events. Anyway, that's kind of the reason why I wasn't able to podcast so much this last week, because I have been so just, I mean it's intense. It takes me a solid day or two just to recover from that. It's very intense just for the listener, let alone if you're the actual speaker in it for the majority of the time. The first day Russell and I kind of went back and forth, the second day it was mostly me. I went from 9:00 AM until about 9:00 PM, I was on about 12 straight hours, and then Russell came in and picked up for another session, and anyway it was a lot of fun, I really enjoy it. You know what's funny about the whole thing too is that we spent a lot of time helping people figure out what they're selling and how to sell it, that's like the whole goal of the zero to seven figure area, OK, what are you selling and how do you sell it? What we're trying to help people figure out is where their product can exist without really any other competition, OK, it's a hard area to hit. That's not an easy thing to do, because what you're trying to do is you're trying to find the reddest, reddest, bloodiest, red, red, ocean, right where there's the most competition, there's the most people in there who are just spending ferociously, wherever the rabid buyers are, irrational purchasers, you're trying to find those people. Then you're trying to take one step out of that and create a new niche that you can then target that red ocean to come buy it from you. Does that make sense? Here's what's interesting about that with the MLM world. With the MLM world, everyone is inside this super red, red ocean, everyone is, they're selling the exact same thing in the exact same way usually. They're selling the exact same products, the same services, they're even using the same scripts, the same, "Hey, let me three-way in you this guy and he's going to teach us about how do I make a whole bunch of money." Do you know what I mean? It's that kind of thing over and over and over and over again. What's really interesting is to take the same formulas that we use, which there's a lot of them, and try and in the MLM space figure out a new what am I selling and how does it sell, a new what and how, OK? You think through what actually gets people excited, what actually gets people attracted into what it is that you're actually doing and think to yourself, "OK, what do I sell? What do I sell, and what do I sell that's new, that's different, that is different than what other people have been teaching, and selling, and doing inside the MLM space? How can I be completely different than my upline? How can I be completely different to those I will recruit? How can I solve problems for those I will recruit?" Does that make sense? When you do it that way, and that's very similar to what we do, and there's a whole bunch of formulas we follow and there's a whole bunch of cool steps we go through to help that person very clearly figure out hey, here is your new niche, here is exactly how you do it, and if you can start asking those questions inside the MLM space, it's amazing how fast you cut away from everybody else. I know this is a very old number, but years ago I went and I looked at a stat online that said that there's over 10 million MLMers in America alone. I know that's an old stat, it's probably a very small number now, but let alone 10 million people, and they're almost all selling the exact same thing. It may not be that they're all selling the same thing, because I know there's lots of MLMs, there's people selling this, people selling that, whatever it might be, but the how, the how is the exact same. How they do it is the same way, it's the same thing all the time. "Look, go get friends and family. Look," someone called it the NFL, the no friends left zone. I'd never heard that before. But start thinking through that, and some of the easiest ways to do it is to start looking, and I just want to give you guys like two or three steps here on how to actually find a new niche inside of your MLM opportunity, OK? Here's one of the easiest ways to do it. Number one, I want you to know that it is not ... You don't need to go be creative first. Usually whenever I say, "Hey, go create a new niche, go create a new niche," it makes sense that you would run off and you would start creating a new niche, meaning you would be creative and start thinking through like, "OK, what can I create, what can I make, what can I sell that's totally different than anything else on the marketplace?" Right? I understand that, I totally get that, like it's a ... But what I'm begging you to do is to not actually be creative on the first step. It's a little bit counterintuitive. OK, I'm telling you you've got to be creative second. The first thing you got to do, rather than be creative the first thing you got to go do is find the people who are being ultra successful inside your MLM, OK? I know I've gone through a little bit of these steps prior to, I think in a previous episode, but pay close attention to this though, because ... Anyway, if you go find, go find who is actually killing it inside your MLM. Now, let's be real here. If they're your upline, they are your competitors, does that make sense? Your downline is your competitors. Your click funnel, or your ... I almost said click funnels ... I did say click funnels. Your MLM HQ, that's your competition. Whoever it is who's actually selling that same product, they are your competition, and so while they might be helping you, while they might be saying, "Hey, when you succeed, I succeed," that kind of thing, like that's true, that's true, but they're still your competition. Someone inside that MLM that you are in right now, whether or not you're in one, is killing it. What are they doing? What's so different about what they're doing? Did they really just go talk to friends and family, or is there another method that they're using to actually recruit people, another method they're using to attract people to them, OK? Get real, real, really, really familiar and friendly with those people, figure out what exactly it is they're doing. Maybe the script is a little bit different than what the corporate teaches, maybe they offer something in addition when somebody joins their downline, maybe they figured out, maybe they gave a plan, maybe they gave some kind of guide. What is it that they are actually selling, what is it they're actually doing, because I doubt it's just whatever the run of the mill script is that your upline is teaching. I doubt that very much. Most of the time that's not what happens. Most of the time they're not out doing the friends and family hotel meetings, and home meetings, and stuff, and parties, and stuff like that. Usually that's not how it happens. Usually they're not the ones taking the selfies in the gym saying, "Oh, I've got my thing and I'm working from home today in my living room," like that's not ... That's typically not what the big guys are actually doing, so why would you do it? Stop modeling failure, do you know what I mean? I had to realize that for myself too. The first time I joined an MLM, it was about 3.5 years ago, 4 years ago, and I realized that I was modeling failure. I realized that I was modeling, but I was expecting success, I was expecting something different out of it, but I was literally modeling failure. I was going around and I was saying, "Hey, I'm going to do the exact same thing, I'm going to do it big, loud, and proud. I'm going to recruit everybody," I literally walked down Main Street and I started recruiting people, and one of the issues that that caused is that it ticked a lot of people off. There was no one I was really modeling that was uber successful. The people that I was modeling in it, they were not ... It was certainly not passive income like everyone toted around, you know what I mean? Anyway, what I'm telling you to do is number one, go find out what people in your MLM are actually doing to be successful, OK? What are they actually selling? Then number two, how are they selling it? Ask what do you sell and how are you selling it? If you can figure those two things out, and what's cool is that you that, I mean you know someone in your upline is killing it, so go model them, go figure out what it is. If you figure out what people are selling and how they're selling it, that's like step one, OK, that's step one. Step two, step two in my opinion is the more fun part. Step two is where you be creative. Now that you know what someone is selling and you know how they're actually selling it, what script are they using, where are they getting their traffic from, whether it's online or offline, or whatever it is, how are they getting eyeballs? Now that you know what they're selling and how they're selling it, the second thing for you is to be creative, OK, not first. What you do is, this is actually my favorite part of it, what I do is I actually use, it's called a stack slide, and it is a way to model and create new offers out of places that are super competitive. This is one of the easiest ways to create a new offer from something that is super competitive, really red ocean right where there's, there's just, I mean where it sucks to be in, where it's ... When you don't have an offer, when you're not using a stack slide, it is a race to the bottom, OK? It's whoever is willing to take the smallest margins. You're literally competing on price, that's it, because there's nothing different. When you have no offer, you have no other option but to compete on price, and that's what ends up happening inside super red oceans like that, and you've probably felt a little bit of that inside whatever MLM you're a part of. What I do is I look at my MLM, and I look at the one I'm a part of, and I look at all the pieces, and I look at all the places people are selling, and looking at the guys who are killing it, what are they selling, how are they selling it, and I start using what's called a stack slide. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go get the book Expert Secrets. Go to www.ExpertSecrets.com. They're not paying me, there's no endorsement, it's not an affiliate link, but it's seven bucks, and that book's fantastic, and what it will do is it'll teach you how to create a new offer inside of your current MLM, OK? It'll create it inside MLM in general, OK? What's cool about it is that when you create the stack slide, so it goes kind of like this. I'm trying to figure out how to say this without it being too like techno babbly, do you know what I mean? Anyway, but these are the pieces that I go through with people. Maybe I won't go through this whole thing with you right here. But anyways, the whole thing has to do with false beliefs. When you start looking at the industry and you start looking at what people are actually selling, and buying, and what they're doing, there starts to be some false beliefs about what it is that you're selling, whether it's about the product, or the opportunity, whatever those reasons are ... I used to be a door-to-door salesman. I was a door-to-door salesman and I went around, and for two summers actually I was knocking doors. I was knocking doors, and what was funny about it is it was always the same. I was actually a telemarketer too, and I was good at these jobs, and one of the reasons why I was good at the job is because what I learned and what I realized was that honestly about two or three weeks in, I started realizing that I had heard every single objection that I probably was ever going to hear, OK, it was like the same five things. Like when I was selling pest control, it was like, and this is super, super, super like MLM just so you guys know. When I was going, I was knocking doors, and I'd say, "Hey, let's get you taken care of," or whatever, and one of the objections I would always hear is, "Oh, let me talk to my spouse." How many times do you hear that in MLM? "Oh, let me talk to that neighbor first you said you talked to. Oh, let me check you guys out. Oh, is the pest control safe? Oh, is it ..." Do you know what I mean? Whatever the immediate objections were, what I started doing is I could write all those things out, and I knew what each one of those objections were. I also knew what my counter was for each one of those. OK, if you don't know what the top like five, six, seven, eight, nine objections are to your MLM, both the product and the opportunity, my guess is that you've not tried to sell it enough if you don't know what those things are. What we do then is we look through each one of those objections and we try to figure out what the top three objections are. We try to ... What we're looking for is the top false beliefs. OK, in order for me to come up with that objection, what must I be believing in order to say what I just did? Do you know what I mean? When we come up with those false beliefs, that's what we craft the whole message around, that's what we craft the whole sales message, the whole stack, the whole offer, the new opportunity, the new niche, and what it does is it lets us create a new niche out of a super red ocean. If you've not done that kind of thing, and I know I'm kind of going deep through it. People spend three days with us, paying $15,000 a piece to come sit. We had 60 people in the last one, it was a lot of fun, but ... Anyway, if you've not figured out what those false beliefs actually are, and you're struggling to sell your MLM, I would bet that that's the reason why. With this whole what and how, what do you sell and how do you sell it, understand that if you're not changing anything at all, that you really are selling into a red ocean with a red, red ocean opportunity, with a red ocean product, I mean everything you do, and the only thing you can really do is compete on number one, hustle, which is great, but number two, price, which sucks, OK? You're going to become that guy, you're going to become that guy at family reunions, you're going to become that person that everybody runs from. Anyway, that's all I'm trying to say this whole episode is that when you start thinking through your MLM, you start thinking through what it is that you're doing. I would go get the book Expert Secrets, I think I've talked about that before in here, but if you go get that book, it'll teach you how to create a new opportunity out of any really red ocean, it doesn't matter which industry you're in, and just apply it to MLM and start thinking through what is it that I actually sell? How am I selling this thing? How are the top guys actually doing it? And I bet a lot of them are not out doing home meetings and hotel meetings, and the ones that are telling you to do that, they're probably just teaching their downline to do it because it's a great lead gen for them, do you know what I mean? That's not to down them, I mean the strategy works. That's not to say that it's bad. The strategy works. But if you really want to join those top people, you're not going to home party your meeting probably your way to riches. It's not to say you can't, but oh my gosh, that is such a long road. Do you know what I mean? Anyway, that's all I got to say about that. I hope that you understand that if you can start to take your MLM and turn it into what looks like a brand new opportunity, based on the things that you're adding with it, based on the false beliefs that you're overcoming, based on you figuring out how to sell it differently, you're going to be worlds above everybody else. What are people selling that are actually successful with it, is it just really the MLM or are they offering something else with it, and how are they doing it? Is there a script that's different, is there traffic that they're getting somewhere else? Are they online? Are they strictly offline? What is it they're really doing? I would go model them. Anyway, that's all I got to say. That's heavily what the event was about the last three days. The fourth day was so tiring. I slept 10 hours two nights in a row, it was ridiculous, oh man. It's a huge amount of energy output, a lot of fun. I'm super animated as an individual. Sometimes I like try to tone it back a little bit on this podcast so you guys aren't like, "Whoa, this guy's a weirdie." But anyway, it's a lot of fun. We helped them create their whole slide presentations for a new sales message, which is great, an hour and a half presentation we helped them create. I mean it was a lot of fun, the whole thing was great, and really, really love it. We got another one coming up in January, which is super exciting. Anyway, go figure that out, and if you've not taken a look at that, it's going to be an eye opening experience, OK? What I'm inviting you to do is to take off some of the blinders that your upline may have put on you that they probably didn't know they put on you. It's not their fault, it's no one's fault, it's just part of the industry. This is marketing 101 that I'm trying to teach you. It's not so much the three phrases that make anyone want to join your downline, like I don't believe that crap, like I don't think that's true at all. What I'm telling you is let's actually pump new value into the marketplace by creating additional offers, and new offers, and new products, and new things that are there that have never existed. That way you will literally be the only one selling what you are. Does that make sense? That is a new opportunity. I'm trying to help you create that, that's what you need to make. Anyway, I'm going to keep blabbering on, but I get really animated about this topic, so much so that I'll talk about it for three straight days to people. Anyway, I hope you guys are doing great. I just wanted to pass that lesson along, and I hope guys are crushing it, and go figure that out, I'm excited. If you do figure that out, I would love to actually know what you've done that has changed the way you sell your MLM, or the opportunity, whatever it is that you're in, very, very exciting. All right guys, talk to you later, bye. Hey, thanks for listening. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Would you like me to teach your own downline five simple MLM recruiting tips for free? If so, go download your free MLM Master's Pack by subscribing to this podcast at www.SecretMLMHacksRadio.com

These days I often catch myself reflecting on ways that we can get better at our work–be it photography or any other creative endeavor–that go beyond the simple advice you can find in online forums and YouTube videos.Consequently, I am more receptive than ever to learning about the meaning of art, psychology, self-improvement, the life, the universe, and everything! It is with this disposition that I collect what little nuggets of wisdom I can find online. Occasionally I find some that are so good that I can't help but sharing them, in the hope that they will inspire and help my readers as much as they did to me.Ira Glass, the host and producer of the radio show This American Life, once said something that touched me deeply. I am reminded of it every time I feel like I'm struggling to get where I want to be.I hope his words will give you a hint of what you need to do, if you want to grow as an artist.Nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish somebody had told this to me — is that all of us who do creative work … we get into it because we have good taste. But it’s like there’s a gap, that for the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good, OK? It’s not that great. It’s really not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not quite that good. But your taste — the thing that got you into the game — your taste is still killer, and your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you, you know what I mean?A lot of people never get past that phase. A lot of people at that point, they quit. And the thing I would just like say to you with all my heart is that most everybody I know who does interesting creative work, they went through a phase of years where they had really good taste and they could tell what they were making wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be — they knew it fell short, it didn’t have the special thing that we wanted it to have.And the thing I would say to you is everybody goes through that. And for you to go through it, if you’re going through it right now, if you’re just getting out of that phase — you gotta know it’s totally normal.And the most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work — do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week, or every month, you know you’re going to finish one story. Because it’s only by actually going through a volume of work that you are actually going to catch up and close that gap. And the work you’re making will be as good as your ambitions. It takes a while, it’s gonna take you a while — it’s normal to take a while. And you just have to fight your way through that, okay?There is something else that I want to mention here. While you are doing the huge amount of work that Ira Glass is suggesting, it's inevitable that your work will be compared to that of others. Then you start feeling like you can't find your own vision, your won style.What then? How do you find your true and unique vision in photography? Well, I don't want to give you a direct answer to this question. Instead, I am going to point you to an article by Finnish photographer Arno Rafael Minkkinen. A few years ago he wrote about the Helsinki Bus Station theory. You might ask what have buses got to do with art, vision, and photography. You will have to listen to the audio or read it all here.As always, I appreciate your comments and, if you liked this episode, please leave me a review on iTunes. Thank you very much.If you want to receive new episodes of the podcast directly on your device, subscribe on iTunes here.The post The Gap appeared first on Ugo Cei Photography. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What does it mean to sell out? When, if ever, is selling out OK? (It is.) (Is it?) (Sometimes.) We take a long look at musicians who sold their music for advertising. Even though artists sell out all the time, we managed to find a few surprises. Like a soda jingle performed by a band that made sure it never made the air. And a 2 Tone classic used to sell toothpaste. And did you know the Moody Blues sang a jingle for Coca-Cola? They really did. To see the videos we watch in this episode, visit musicraygun.com/playlists.

We review a big box of bling! Otherwise known as Mechs Vs Minions. But first we start off by looking at some games we've played recently : Above and Below 02:00 Oceanos 09:22 Feast of Odin 15:36 Geek Out! 23:20 Inis 29:12 We then look back a year at Lords of Vegas and Vegas Showdown. We then dive into Mechs vs Minions - sure it has fantastic components, but what about the game? How does it play? What about the mechanisms? It's co-op, so how does it handle the alpha player(s)? It's programmed movement, is that OK? It has a simplist minion AI, are we OK with that? It has drafting, does it do that well? Oh, look at the pretty minis.....  

Download MP3 ８月の５週間は、恒例の「超濃縮！やさしい英語会話」です。この８年間に配信した259本の「やさしい英語会話」よりエピソードを厳選し、毎回４本分を濃縮してお届けします。ナチュラルスピードの会話をスクリプトとともにお楽しみください。 夏は体を動かす機会が多い季節ですね。また、広島ではちょうどプロ野球が盛り上がっています。「やさしい英語会話」でも、スポーツに関する話題をたくさんお届けしてきました。そこで今回は"Sports and Fitness"をテーマに、スポーツや健康についての会話を４本選びました。 （初級〜中級）*** Scripts *** やさしい英語会話 (39) Sports W: Oh, Ray, did I tell you? I've joined the baseball team! M: Really? You play baseball? W: Yes, I started to play baseball last month. I played some basketball when I was in high school. But I've decided to try baseball in college. M: I see. Do you like it? W: Yeah, I'm not that bad, I think. Of course I've got a long way to go still, but I feel more motivated by that. And my teammates are really nice people. M: That's great! So, you've never played baseball before? W: Not seriously. I hardly know the rules. M: You seem to have played lots of kinds of sports. W: Yeah. I love sports. I've played basketball, soccer, ping-pong, and I'm a pretty good swimmer. How about you? Do you play any sports? M: Not as much as you do! But I play rugby. W: You play rugby?! Really? Isn't it tough? M: Yes, it's very tough…and it hurts sometimes. But it's really fun. Rugby's really big back in Oz. There was a regional tournament and my team won the championship last year. W: You must be very good then! Do you play rugby here? M: No, I don't think they have a team here…but I want to do some exercise. What sport do you think is good? W: Well, how about track and field? M: Hmm…I don't like just running so much. How about something where you use a ball? W: Then…how about American football? M: Hmm, gridiron. Do you think I can do it? W: Of course! I started to play baseball last month! I'm sure you can start gridiron now. W: OK…Maybe we can play catch sometime! (Written by Ayumi Furutani) やさしい英語会話 (76) Basketball M: Wow. Game seven of the NBA finals! The championship game between the Celtics and Lakers! W: I see. Hey, you know: I also know a lot about the NBA. M: Really? You never told me that. W: You just never asked. M: OK, name a basketball player. I bet you can't even name one. W: Yuta Tabuse. M: Wow, I'm impressed. OK, what NBA team did he try out for? W: Oh. Umm, the Lakers? M: Umm, no. Definitely NOT the Lakers. He tried out for the Suns. W: Fine, you got me. M: OK, this just proves that you know nothing about the NBA. W: No, no. Ask me another question. M: Fine. This is an easy one. Who is the best basketball player of all time? W: Michael. Duh--- M: Michael who? W: Umm. Michael… Jackson? M: Ha ha ha. Not quite. It's Michael Jordan. Jordan! W: Oh, I knew that. Fine, ask something else. Something easy. M: The last one was easy. Fine, do you know who Kobe Bryant is? W: Yeah, of course I do. He's the black guy. M: Oh, boy. W: What? What is oh boy? M: Sweetie, almost everyone in the NBA is black. You know nothing. W: Fine, one last question. M: OK, last one. This is the most important question. You can redeem yourself if you get this right. What team is going to win the championship today? W: The Los Angeles Lakers. M: What? The Lakers? But you KNOW I love the Celtics. That's it. Where is my divorce lawyer? (Written by Kyle Kumashiro) やさしい英語会話 (95) Exercising W: Hey, what a coincidence, running into you here! Do you come to this gym often? M: Yeah, I come almost every day. In the summer I usually just come here to swim, but lately I've been lifting and working on my cardio. I've been seeing pretty good results. …Do you have tickets, by the way? W: Tickets? Tickets to what? M: Tickets to see me in the Body Builders Contest! (flexes muscles) W: Hah! Very funny, but it still looks like you have a long way to go. I should talk, though—I was so lazy up until a month ago. If I wasn't sitting in the office, I was at home on the couch watching TV all day. Then, about a month ago, my friend insisted on dragging me to a yoga class here. It didn't sound too strenuous, so I gave it a shot. M: Yoga? Isn't that just more sitting around, though? You can still be a couch potato and meditate on the Buddha at home, you know. W: What? No. Doing yoga shapes your figure and relaxes your mood. It's basically like advanced stretching—religion doesn't factor into it. M: Oh, I see. I didn't know they offered a yoga class here… You do seem very limber, though… Maybe I could give it a shot as well. Are you happy with the results so far? W: Yeah, it's great! The movements were somewhat painful at first, but after doing it for a few days I got used to it. Then it started feeling better and better. And now if I don't do it for a couple days, I just don't feel right. M: Sounds like you're addicted. Well, I gotta give this a try if it's really as good as you're saying. Any tips for a beginner? W: Well, the main thing is just to stick with it. A lot of the exercises do require you to hold your breath while stretching for a long time though, so you might want to stick with your cardio for now. M: Alright. Well, I'll stick with the cardio, but swap out the lifting for yoga. It's not like I need to keep lifting anyway. I mean, look at me! Do you know a good veterinarian? Cause my pythons are looking sick! (flexes muscles) W: Oh, geez… (Written by Nathan Olson) やさしい英語会話 (141) Take Me Out to the Ball Game M: (Singing) Take me out to the ball game take me out to the park… Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks… W: Boy, you're in a good mood, John. What up? M: Yes, I am going to the baseball game with my kids tonight! I haven't been to the stadium for a long time. So it's super exciting! W: Oh, lucky you! Baseball cheering is great. I remember that I was in the Cheerleader Club in school. I like baseball stadiums because we feel as if we are one when cheering for teams. M: Yes, Japanese really make an art of cheerleading. Americans don't really do it in groups like that. Anyway, baseball games are really fun because we don't know what's going to happen till the 9th inning. It might be a come-from-behind homer! W: Cheering for baseball always gives me power and inspiration. If we don't give up till the end, we can make it! No one knows the results. M: Yes, it teaches us the importance of team play, too. W: Cheering for baseball is fun because there are so many players. Each player has their own role and they are playing each position as hard as possible. It's a great message that we have to do our missions as hard as we can, right? M: Yes, that's true. Hey, why do you like baseball so much? W: It's because of my father. He loves baseball. He used to take me to the stadium at least once a month. I haven't been to the stadium for a long time! M: Oh really? What are you doing tonight? W: Just staying at home and watching TV shows. M: Do you want to come to the stadium with us tonight? W: Would that be OK? I'd love to! M: I'll drive you to the stadium, but you have to help take care of my kids, OK? It's called teamwork. My wife and I might be concentrating on the game! If the kids get bored, can you give us a hand? It's your mission. W: Wow, you're so smart! You just hit a homer now! (Written by Inori Okawa)

Download MP3 ８月の５週間は、恒例の「超濃縮！やさしい英語会話」です。この８年間に配信した259本の「やさしい英語会話」よりエピソードを厳選し、毎回４本分を濃縮してお届けします。ナチュラルスピードの会話をスクリプトとともにお楽しみください。 夏は体を動かす機会が多い季節ですね。また、広島ではちょうどプロ野球が盛り上がっています。「やさしい英語会話」でも、スポーツに関する話題をたくさんお届けしてきました。そこで今回は"Sports and Fitness"をテーマに、スポーツや健康についての会話を４本選びました。 （初級〜中級）*** Scripts *** やさしい英語会話 (39) Sports W: Oh, Ray, did I tell you? I've joined the baseball team! M: Really? You play baseball? W: Yes, I started to play baseball last month. I played some basketball when I was in high school. But I've decided to try baseball in college. M: I see. Do you like it? W: Yeah, I'm not that bad, I think. Of course I've got a long way to go still, but I feel more motivated by that. And my teammates are really nice people. M: That's great! So, you've never played baseball before? W: Not seriously. I hardly know the rules. M: You seem to have played lots of kinds of sports. W: Yeah. I love sports. I've played basketball, soccer, ping-pong, and I'm a pretty good swimmer. How about you? Do you play any sports? M: Not as much as you do! But I play rugby. W: You play rugby?! Really? Isn't it tough? M: Yes, it's very tough…and it hurts sometimes. But it's really fun. Rugby's really big back in Oz. There was a regional tournament and my team won the championship last year. W: You must be very good then! Do you play rugby here? M: No, I don't think they have a team here…but I want to do some exercise. What sport do you think is good? W: Well, how about track and field? M: Hmm…I don't like just running so much. How about something where you use a ball? W: Then…how about American football? M: Hmm, gridiron. Do you think I can do it? W: Of course! I started to play baseball last month! I'm sure you can start gridiron now. W: OK…Maybe we can play catch sometime! (Written by Ayumi Furutani) やさしい英語会話 (76) Basketball M: Wow. Game seven of the NBA finals! The championship game between the Celtics and Lakers! W: I see. Hey, you know: I also know a lot about the NBA. M: Really? You never told me that. W: You just never asked. M: OK, name a basketball player. I bet you can't even name one. W: Yuta Tabuse. M: Wow, I'm impressed. OK, what NBA team did he try out for? W: Oh. Umm, the Lakers? M: Umm, no. Definitely NOT the Lakers. He tried out for the Suns. W: Fine, you got me. M: OK, this just proves that you know nothing about the NBA. W: No, no. Ask me another question. M: Fine. This is an easy one. Who is the best basketball player of all time? W: Michael. Duh--- M: Michael who? W: Umm. Michael… Jackson? M: Ha ha ha. Not quite. It's Michael Jordan. Jordan! W: Oh, I knew that. Fine, ask something else. Something easy. M: The last one was easy. Fine, do you know who Kobe Bryant is? W: Yeah, of course I do. He's the black guy. M: Oh, boy. W: What? What is oh boy? M: Sweetie, almost everyone in the NBA is black. You know nothing. W: Fine, one last question. M: OK, last one. This is the most important question. You can redeem yourself if you get this right. What team is going to win the championship today? W: The Los Angeles Lakers. M: What? The Lakers? But you KNOW I love the Celtics. That's it. Where is my divorce lawyer? (Written by Kyle Kumashiro) やさしい英語会話 (95) Exercising W: Hey, what a coincidence, running into you here! Do you come to this gym often? M: Yeah, I come almost every day. In the summer I usually just come here to swim, but lately I've been lifting and working on my cardio. I've been seeing pretty good results. …Do you have tickets, by the way? W: Tickets? Tickets to what? M: Tickets to see me in the Body Builders Contest! (flexes muscles) W: Hah! Very funny, but it still looks like you have a long way to go. I should talk, though—I was so lazy up until a month ago. If I wasn't sitting in the office, I was at home on the couch watching TV all day. Then, about a month ago, my friend insisted on dragging me to a yoga class here. It didn't sound too strenuous, so I gave it a shot. M: Yoga? Isn't that just more sitting around, though? You can still be a couch potato and meditate on the Buddha at home, you know. W: What? No. Doing yoga shapes your figure and relaxes your mood. It's basically like advanced stretching—religion doesn't factor into it. M: Oh, I see. I didn't know they offered a yoga class here… You do seem very limber, though… Maybe I could give it a shot as well. Are you happy with the results so far? W: Yeah, it's great! The movements were somewhat painful at first, but after doing it for a few days I got used to it. Then it started feeling better and better. And now if I don't do it for a couple days, I just don't feel right. M: Sounds like you're addicted. Well, I gotta give this a try if it's really as good as you're saying. Any tips for a beginner? W: Well, the main thing is just to stick with it. A lot of the exercises do require you to hold your breath while stretching for a long time though, so you might want to stick with your cardio for now. M: Alright. Well, I'll stick with the cardio, but swap out the lifting for yoga. It's not like I need to keep lifting anyway. I mean, look at me! Do you know a good veterinarian? Cause my pythons are looking sick! (flexes muscles) W: Oh, geez… (Written by Nathan Olson) やさしい英語会話 (141) Take Me Out to the Ball Game M: (Singing) Take me out to the ball game take me out to the park… Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks… W: Boy, you're in a good mood, John. What up? M: Yes, I am going to the baseball game with my kids tonight! I haven't been to the stadium for a long time. So it's super exciting! W: Oh, lucky you! Baseball cheering is great. I remember that I was in the Cheerleader Club in school. I like baseball stadiums because we feel as if we are one when cheering for teams. M: Yes, Japanese really make an art of cheerleading. Americans don't really do it in groups like that. Anyway, baseball games are really fun because we don't know what's going to happen till the 9th inning. It might be a come-from-behind homer! W: Cheering for baseball always gives me power and inspiration. If we don't give up till the end, we can make it! No one knows the results. M: Yes, it teaches us the importance of team play, too. W: Cheering for baseball is fun because there are so many players. Each player has their own role and they are playing each position as hard as possible. It's a great message that we have to do our missions as hard as we can, right? M: Yes, that's true. Hey, why do you like baseball so much? W: It's because of my father. He loves baseball. He used to take me to the stadium at least once a month. I haven't been to the stadium for a long time! M: Oh really? What are you doing tonight? W: Just staying at home and watching TV shows. M: Do you want to come to the stadium with us tonight? W: Would that be OK? I'd love to! M: I'll drive you to the stadium, but you have to help take care of my kids, OK? It's called teamwork. My wife and I might be concentrating on the game! If the kids get bored, can you give us a hand? It's your mission. W: Wow, you're so smart! You just hit a homer now! (Written by Inori Okawa)

Back from their long break, Matt and Quintin went to PAX East this week. They someone miraculously didn't get PAX POX and have survived. Also, they plan to tell you all about it! Or, at least tell you what they saw. Games like Super Daryl Deluxe, We Happy Few, Riot: Civil Unrest, Death Stair and Headlander, to name just a few! They'll also tell you about room temperature hot dogs, long lines and watching people play video games poorly. But not them, though. No way. They're totally pro. Just, don't, like, look over their shoulders while they play, OK? It's really distracting. They didn't mean to do that!

OK-It's not one place you bring your chicken & your dog!  We have 2 separate segments! Angie Bailey and Nicky Westbrook join us to discuss their 6 show mockumentary titled, Fowl Play.  Always funny, Angie and Nicky give us something to crow about in this egg-cellent adventure.  Ok…think we are out of chicken references.  Fluffing our feathers about it too.  Going home to roost on this one. Yeah, that’s what we’re clucking about. Plus! Elena Volnova and  Domenico Ponti, co-founders of Dog Fashion Spa will be here to talk about grooming to the “nth” degree.  They have the super spa line for keeping your pooch smelling and looking good. Always fun and informative, this dynamic couple from the #1 rated web tv, blog, radio and podcast show for animal lovers, Pets Teach Us So Much, Robbin and Joseph Everett entertain millions of people from all over the world with segments about: -Pet health and nutrition -Pet behavior -Learning from our pets-how to have better relationships with the people in our lives with The Love Genies segment -Animal stories from around the world -Guests include, authors, veterinarians, bloggers, celebrities, product inventors, charity spokespersons and animal behavior experts. For more information about the global leader in pet related new media entertainment, Pets Teach Us So Much Radio, Podcast, Blog, web tv, Robbin and Joseph Everett, or to book an appearance, go to http://www.TPPC.tv.

このポッドキャストは広島からお届けしています。最近サッカーのサンフレッチェ広島とともに、プロ野球では広島東洋カープが好調です。また今週末の7/20から、プロ野球ファンには楽しみなオールスターゲームが開催されます。これらにちなみ、今回は「野球」をテーマにした会話をお届けします。野球ファンの方も、そうでない方も、どうぞお楽しみください！ 今回お借りした素材 BGM：Freesound Download MP3 （15:19　8.9MB　初級～中級） Take Me Out to the Ball Game *** It's a Good Expression *** （今回の重要表現） Take Me Out to the Ball Game = 「私を野球に連れてって」 ※1908年作。米大リーグの試合では７回裏の「ストレッチタイム」に球場のファンがこの曲を大合唱する。最近はCMなどでもたびたび耳にする。 Cracker Jack = （商標名）アメリカで売られている、蜜のような味のついたポップコーン。 番組ではJoeが"molasses-flavored popcorn and peanuts"と解説している。 What's up? = どうしたの(What's new?) / How can I help you? the Cheerleader Club = 応援団 ※米国でthe Cheerleader Clubと言えば、いわゆる女性による「チアリーダー」を指す。 一方、男性も含む日本の「応援団」を英語に訳すと、やはりthe Cheerleader Clubとなる。 会話で紹介される日米の野球の応援スタイルの違いも注意して聞き取ってみましょう。 a come-from-behind homer = 逆転ホームラン an inspiration = インスピレーション；刺激 to make it = 成し遂げる Each player has their own role. ※eachの後には名詞の単数形が来るので、厳密にはEach player has his/her own role.となるべきだが、最近ではhis/herの代わりに複数形theirもよく使われるとのこと。 to give someone a hand = to help someone *** Script *** (Slow speed) 01:50-04:30 (Natural speed) 11:30-13:25 Take Me Out to the Ball Game M: (Singing) Take me out to the ball game take me out to the park… Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks… W: Boy, you're in a good mood, John. What up? M: Yes, I am going to the baseball game with my kids tonight! I haven't been to the stadium for a long time. So it's super exciting! W: Oh, lucky you! Baseball cheering is great. I remember that I was in the Cheerleader Club in school. I like baseball stadiums because we feel as if we are one when cheering for teams. M: Yes, Japanese really make an art of cheerleading. Americans don't really do it in groups like that. Anyway, baseball games are really fun because we don't know what's going to happen till the 9th inning. It might be a come-from-behind homer! W: Cheering for baseball always gives me power and inspiration. If we don't give up till the end, we can make it! No one knows the results. M: Yes, it teaches us the importance of team play, too. W: Cheering for baseball is fun because there are so many players. Each player has their own role and they are playing each position as hard as possible. It's a great message that we have to do our missions as hard as we can, right? M: Yes, that's true. Hey, why do you like baseball so much? W: It's because of my father. He loves baseball. He used to take me to the stadium at least once a month. I haven't been to the stadium for a long time! M: Oh really? What are you doing tonight? W: Just staying at home and watching TV shows. M: Do you want to come to the stadium with us tonight? W: Would that be OK? I'd love to! M: I'll drive you to the stadium, but you have to help take care of my kids, OK? It's called teamwork. My wife and I might be concentrating on the game! If the kids get bored, can you give us a hand? It's your mission. W: Wow, you're so smart! You just hit a homer now! (Written by Inori Okawa)

このポッドキャストは広島からお届けしています。最近サッカーのサンフレッチェ広島とともに、プロ野球では広島東洋カープが好調です。また今週末の7/20から、プロ野球ファンには楽しみなオールスターゲームが開催されます。これらにちなみ、今回は「野球」をテーマにした会話をお届けします。野球ファンの方も、そうでない方も、どうぞお楽しみください！ 今回お借りした素材 BGM：Freesound Download MP3 （15:19　8.9MB　初級～中級） Take Me Out to the Ball Game *** It's a Good Expression *** （今回の重要表現） Take Me Out to the Ball Game = 「私を野球に連れてって」 ※1908年作。米大リーグの試合では７回裏の「ストレッチタイム」に球場のファンがこの曲を大合唱する。最近はCMなどでもたびたび耳にする。 Cracker Jack = （商標名）アメリカで売られている、蜜のような味のついたポップコーン。 番組ではJoeが"molasses-flavored popcorn and peanuts"と解説している。 What's up? = どうしたの(What's new?) / How can I help you? the Cheerleader Club = 応援団 ※米国でthe Cheerleader Clubと言えば、いわゆる女性による「チアリーダー」を指す。 一方、男性も含む日本の「応援団」を英語に訳すと、やはりthe Cheerleader Clubとなる。 会話で紹介される日米の野球の応援スタイルの違いも注意して聞き取ってみましょう。 a come-from-behind homer = 逆転ホームラン an inspiration = インスピレーション；刺激 to make it = 成し遂げる Each player has their own role. ※eachの後には名詞の単数形が来るので、厳密にはEach player has his/her own role.となるべきだが、最近ではhis/herの代わりに複数形theirもよく使われるとのこと。 to give someone a hand = to help someone *** Script *** (Slow speed) 01:50-04:30 (Natural speed) 11:30-13:25 Take Me Out to the Ball Game M: (Singing) Take me out to the ball game take me out to the park… Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks… W: Boy, you're in a good mood, John. What up? M: Yes, I am going to the baseball game with my kids tonight! I haven't been to the stadium for a long time. So it's super exciting! W: Oh, lucky you! Baseball cheering is great. I remember that I was in the Cheerleader Club in school. I like baseball stadiums because we feel as if we are one when cheering for teams. M: Yes, Japanese really make an art of cheerleading. Americans don't really do it in groups like that. Anyway, baseball games are really fun because we don't know what's going to happen till the 9th inning. It might be a come-from-behind homer! W: Cheering for baseball always gives me power and inspiration. If we don't give up till the end, we can make it! No one knows the results. M: Yes, it teaches us the importance of team play, too. W: Cheering for baseball is fun because there are so many players. Each player has their own role and they are playing each position as hard as possible. It's a great message that we have to do our missions as hard as we can, right? M: Yes, that's true. Hey, why do you like baseball so much? W: It's because of my father. He loves baseball. He used to take me to the stadium at least once a month. I haven't been to the stadium for a long time! M: Oh really? What are you doing tonight? W: Just staying at home and watching TV shows. M: Do you want to come to the stadium with us tonight? W: Would that be OK? I'd love to! M: I'll drive you to the stadium, but you have to help take care of my kids, OK? It's called teamwork. My wife and I might be concentrating on the game! If the kids get bored, can you give us a hand? It's your mission. W: Wow, you're so smart! You just hit a homer now! (Written by Inori Okawa)

Tonight, we return LIVE and continue our discussion of the wine industry in the U.S. and the state of Oklahoma!   Tonight's guest(s): Girls Gone Wine - Broken Bow, OK   It's All About Wine, featuring Ron of Florida Estates Winery in Land O' Lakes, FL.  Call and join the discussion on-air with us!  Or, Email your questions and comments to allaboutwine101@gmail.com   And don't forget to "Like" us on Facebook!

Student Question: In this spiritual path, does one separate from the ego and see it as a witness or does it just dissolve? And if it remains, then what is our relationship to the ego? When I am in the Real Self, does the ego remain or does the ego fall away? “The ego, really, is a set of functions OK? It is a set of capacities that the psyche or soul has. But then those functions get covered over by belief systems and complexes and personalities,” explains Shunyamurti, the director of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. And the functions of the ego—thinking, feeling, sensing, and intuiting—will remain. “So, in that sense, an ego remains. But it is not an ego that identifies as those functions. And it realizes those functions are a conduit of the Supreme Self.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, March 25, 2010.