Podcasts about once covid

Well, what a to-do. The image of Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters slumped in the House, head in his hands, summed it up really. Brooke van Velden dropped the C-bomb in the house, quoting a Stuff article whose author used the word in criticising the government's decision to amend the pay equity legislation. The coalition's female MPs are angry that Labour MPs, particularly the female MPs, have not condemned the journalist's use of the word, which was used as a derogatory in the article. Judith Collins, head of the Privileges Committee, was on with Mike Hosking this morning, ostensibly to talk about the suspension of three Te Pati Māori MPs for their haka in the House, but during the chat she deplored the decline of standards in the House. “There's a lack of civility now and it's not acceptable, and I feel that the comments of the print journalist in the Sunday Star Times this last Sunday was one of the lowest points I think I've seen in 23 years. That and what happened on the 14th of November in Parliament. It's just the sort of behaviour towards each other that is despicable. So I'd say to Brooke, you know I wouldn't use the word myself, but I did feel that she at least stood up for herself and for all the rest of us, and I am waiting for someone of the left persuasion in our Parliament, one MP, just one, to come out and say it's not okay to attack people just because you don't agree with what they do.” I think she'll be waiting a while. Karen Chhour has been consistently attacked by Labour MPs and Te Pati Māori MPs, really for just for being a Māori woman who has the temerity to be an ACT Party MP. And to be fair, when Jacinda Ardern and her preschool daughter were receiving violent threats —violent sexual threats, some of them very real and credible threats— there wasn't a universal condemnation of the abuse from National and ACT. Certainly Judith Collins, when she was the opposition leader, said she did not want to see Jacinda Ardern threatened when she visited Auckland in 2021 after the three-month lockdown. She said I don't want to see anything happen to the Prime Minister or have her threatened in any way. I think it's not good for our democracy and also it is not right for people to do that to each other, which is true, and good on her for saying that. But at the same time, it's hardly a universal, strident condemnation of the threats that the Prime Minister of the time was getting. We were discussing this before the show, one of our colleagues said politicians need to be better otherwise people will just give up. They'll look at the carry on, they'll read the stories and think I'm not going to vote. I argued that there are House of Representatives – they are us, to borrow a phrase. Abuse of MPs on every level increased in 2022, 98% of them reported receiving some kind of harassment. Women were considerably more likely to face abuse on most counts than male politicians. Abuse increased across 11 of the 12 different mediums, with social media overtaking emails, faxes and letters as the most prominent. That came from us. That's men and women, normally erstwhile, law-abiding, God-fearing people who suddenly became more strident. It was a result of societal factors, of lockdowns, of decisions made that had an enormous impact on people's lives and livelihoods and families. And there will be people who will never forget what happened. It can't be undone. But that all resulted in extremes, in the use of language and the vehemence of our opinions and our tribalism. I had a public Facebook page for years. I think in the in the seven or eight years I had it before Covid, I blocked two people. Once Covid started, I just got rid of it because it's why would you be a sitting duck? When I first heard about the death threats against Jacinda Ardern, I thought, well, who hasn't had them? You know that is not normal. That's not a normal response. The days of Socratic discourse are long gone. So does that mean we have to give up, my colleague asked, that we have no expectations of our MPs? No. But I think before we ask anything of our MPs, we look at ourselves. I was thinking about that this morning. Can I call out the Principles Federation representative and say before you start looking at the government, how about you call out the poor parents who send their kids to school unable to hold a pen and not toilet trained? Whose fault is that? That is the parents. Can I say that? Absolutely I can. Should I mimic her voice while I'm saying that? No, I shouldn't. Talkback's a robust forum. It's a bit like Parliament, people get heat up. We're allowed to have opinions. We should have differing opinions, but before I'm going to ask anything of our MPs, before I ask anything of my fellow journalists, I'll have a look in the mirror and check myself out. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 Abigail was diagnosed with dyslexia in 2nd grade. She was tutored in Orton-Gillingham for many years growing up. After graduating college with her degree in Special Education/Elementary Education, she spent a couple of years teaching 5th grade before leaving to pursue a dream of living abroad in London.  Once Covid hit and that dream was put on hold, she found another. In October 2020, Abigail published her debut first children's book, "D is for Darcy Not Dyslexia".Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/no-limits-podcast--5110273/support.

Storage in healthcare is often seen as a low priority. Brad Fitzpatrick of FitzRight Storage Solutions explains why it plays a critical role for hospitals to Jim Cagliostro.    Episode Introduction Brad explains why he is potentially in the business of ‘'life and death,'' how Covid changed the storage landscape and the opposing views of storage as luxury versus necessity. He also highlights the positive impact of storage on hospital margins, and shares why success in business comes from a focus on customers and ‘'attracting'', not chasing.  Show Topics   Two common storage pitfalls The impact of Covid-19 Storage is ‘'potentially life and death'' Convincing the C-Suite Transforming relationships: A storage success story  Leadership tip: Focus on your passion      04:15 Two common storage pitfalls Brad explained why hospitals push storage down the list of priorities.   ‘'I would say probably the number one would just be the misconception that optimizing your storage is more of a luxury than a necessity. And everybody has different reasons for not moving forward, or for lack of a better word, neglecting. Whether it be, "Well, we intend on doing that one day." Or, "It's out of the budget." Those two are usually the biggest ones. But the one day is a slippery slope because you don't want to wait until you have a fire till you get the sprinklers installed. ‘One day we'll do it.' ‘'   05:50 The impact of Covid-19 Brad said the storage landscape changed a lot after the pandemic.  ‘'I'm sure this applies to everything, and it won't surprise you when I say it, but Covid. Once Covid happened, and the pressure came on unexpectedly, I think everybody was able to assess how prepared or unprepared they were when the chips were down. And then, once that dust settled, there were some hospitals that said, "Okay, we never want to be caught off guard like that again. What areas can we fix? How can we fix it?" But then, there were other facilities that said, "We'll wait until the wheels fall off." And, actually, there is one hospital I spoke to recently, and they were told that, "Well, wait until the wheels literally fall off and then we'll redo the room." 11:25 Storage is ‘'potentially life and death''  Brad said access to supplies and equipment can improve patient outcomes.  ‘'Yeah, I don't think it would surprise you that, first and foremost, I think it impacts patients with reduced delays. We're in the business of potentially being life and death. So quick access to supplies and equipment, it minimizes any treatment delays, and that also improves patient outcomes. That said, also, I think the professional environment, a well-oiled machine doesn't work as well if the gears aren't where they should be. A well-organized hospital creates more of a professional and a reassuring environment which, for their patients and their families, can really go a long way. But hospitals aren't exclusive. A library runs a lot better when it's organized. A restaurant, a law firm, everything works better when things are where they should be and there's no surprises.''   15:09 Convincing the C-Suite  Brad explained the advantages for leadership in recognizing the value of storage.  ‘'I don't really see myself as the type of salesman who's really trying to convince anymore. I'm more of attract, don't chase. But that said, when I come in, I can read the room. I know when I'm here to give a bandaid, and then I know when I'm here to give open heart surgery. But that said, there's an increasing number of individuals who see the value in storage after years of working with me. And some of the best projects I have are when these individuals, they get relocated to a new facility with a higher role. And then they have a whole clear canvas that they're able to paint and make their own baby and really create. And I don't think it's a coincidence that the individuals who prioritize organization and storage are the ones who are finding themselves getting these new roles and being scouted for them. It speaks for itself, I think.''   18:14 Transforming relationships: A storage success story Brad shared an example of how storage transformed a customer relationship.  ‘'One comes to mind, is a big hospital system of maybe about 13 hospitals there. Clean supply rooms were all converted over to a system, I won't mention them because I don't want to throw dirt on anybody. But they were sold on the concept on paper. It seemed great. So they went live with it. And out of the gate, they just had a lot of trouble, and they were ghosted by the customer service. And as we said, not to be overdramatic or put my theatrics, but, sometimes, it is potentially life and death. And they just didn't have the margin for error with this system, so they had to take the financial loss. And then they brought me in to convert over to my storage systems. And we had to come in and work weekends when cases weren't going on, and we had to act fast because it's not like one supply room per hospital. It's every floor has a supply room. So I didn't have much of a social life during this conversion, but I learned a lot about my products. I learned a lot about my customer. I like to think that my customer service was put on display, and my relationship with that hospital system became stronger than oak.''   20:24 Leadership tip: Focus on your passion Brad said success in business isn't all about the numbers.  ‘'Obviously, I know that I'm not like everybody else. And I zig when everybody else zags sometimes. But I discovered, around 2018, that storage was my passion. And not to sound too corny, but I think it's my purpose in life is working in hospitals, and getting them organized, and helping them run more efficiently. And as I said to you, my numbers are no longer my motivator. I'm not looking at the numbers and saying, "Oh, is this a good month or a bad month, financially?" I don't watch the pot boil. I just focus on taking care of myself. I take care of my customers, and I think the rest just takes care of itself. I'm more mindful and attentive of what my customers are saying, and I'm not trying to push the most profitable product. I'm trying to, if they have a square hole, I have a square peg. If they have a round hole, I have a round peg. I think that that goes a long way. And my relationships, I think, have just really been cemented, especially the last year, ever since I was able to start FitzRight, and really engrave that culture into the company. I feel that my solid relationships have gotten even more concrete with my customers. And where thoughts go, energy flows, and I know that that's a pretty cliche line, but I like to think that my customers can see that. There's a sense of trust. And, again, it's more of attracting, not chasing.''     Connect with Lisa Miller on LinkedIn Connect with Jim Cagliostro on LinkedIn Connect with Brad Fitzpatrick on LinkedIn   Check out SpendMend    You'll also hear:    Seeing things in a different light; Brad's career journey to Fitzright Storage Solutions: ‘'I always marched to the beat of my own drum. I know I don't really have the same energy as a lot of people out there, but I always found that I saw things in a different light. … then, in my old age, I became focused in on the relationships with my customers, and pushing more of a solution than one particular product.''   Luxury versus necessity; two opposing views of storage: ‘'I have customers who I've had a long relationship, who know the value of getting everything in order and the benefits of it. But then, also, when I'm called in, I also know that if I'm called in because Joint Commission was just in, I'm not there to totally redo the thing. I'm there to put a bandaid on it so they could get Joint Commission or inspection off their back.''   The positive impact of storage on a hospital's bottom line: ‘'Efficient use of the storage space can reduce need for additional storage spaces. And in tow, that means a better inventory management, avoiding unnecessary purchases, or stocking up on materials that can expire, and overstocking on those types.'' What To Do Next:       Subscribe to The Economics of Healthcare.       2.        There are three ways to work with SpendMend: Benchmark a vendor contract – either an existing contract or a new agreement. We can support your team with their cost savings initiatives to add resources and expertise. We set a bold cost savings goal and work together to achieve it.  SpendMend can perform a cost savings opportunity assessment. We dig deep into all of your spend and uncover unique areas of cost savings.      3. If you are interested in learning more, the quickest way to get your questions answered is to speak with Lisa Miller at lmiller@spendmend.com or Jim Cagliostro at jcagliostro@spendmend.com. .  

Here's a fun stat for you, the homeowner association (HOA) industry in the US alone was worth $38.8 billion in 2023. Hussein Reda tapped into some of that value during the Covid lockdowns when he created his startup, Propty, to help HOA meetings run meetings and vote remotely. Pre-Covid, Hussein had just purchased his first property in an apartment building. He learned a lot of maintenance was done through HOAS, aka, groups that manage properties in specific buildings/neighborhoods. Once Covid hit, everyone was trapped inside and began attending HOA meetings since now they had lots of time to think about their homes. Hussein saw an opportunity, created Propty, and used his HOA as his first free test customer. Propty went through two years of ups and downs including embarrassing meetings with 500+ members where not everyone could connect. Everything was made more complicated by the fact that HOA meetings only happened once a year. However, after persistent effort, Hussein secured his first paying customers by mid-2023. Finally, Hussein sold Propty on Acquire.com in 2024 when he realized he didn't know how to scale any further. Now he's working on a project with blockchain technology to facilitate payments for underbanked countries. Tune into this week's SASP as Andrew and Husseing discuss: The hidden gem of the HOA industry Why boring businesses are the best money-makers Why Hussein thinks Acquire.com sales beat other online sales forums Hussien is just getting started and you can follow his journey below: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hussein-reda/ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Be sure to subscribe to see the newest acquisition stories every Tuesday and gain the knowledge to buy or sell your own online business → here Want more stories? Access the past 50+ acquisition stories here → here Thinking about selling your own startup? The number one question is always 'how much can I sell for' and we've got the answers in our biannual valuation multiples reports here → here Thinking about buying a startup? Sign up for a free buyer account and browse all the live listings. Upgrade only when you find the right one that fits your acquisition criteria to engage. Get Started → here ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Follow the Guest: Hussein Reda   ► https://www.linkedin.com/in/hussein-reda/⁠ Follow the Host: Andrew Gazdecki -  ► https://twitter.com/agazdecki​ ► https://www.linkedin.com/in/agazdecki/​ ► https://acquire.com Follow Acquire.com - ► https://twitter.com/acquiredotcom ► https://www.linkedin.com/company/acquiredotcom ► https://www.tiktok.com/@acquiredotcom ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ About Acquire.com: Acquire.com is the largest and most active acquisition marketplace for buying and selling online businesses. Acquire.com is the highest rated platform for both ease and quickness to match buyers and sellers.  We cater to all types of online, revenue-generating businesses while producing the highest success rates for SaaS and eCommerce/DTC businesses in the M&A industry. Join over 350,000 entrepreneurs making life-changing connections and deals everyday.

March 19th Court Leader's Advantage Podcast Episode In April of 2022, we hosted a podcast episode on “The Great Resignation.”  At the time large numbers of employees were resigning, or (after being furloughed for some period) were deciding not to return to work.  The assumption back then was that this was a temporary phenomenon. Once COVID receded, people would return to work, and things would get back to normal.  It is now a year and a half later.  COVID is receding, (or at least we think it is). Yet many courts still struggle with staffing shortages.  And this is not just limited to courts.  The World Bank has predicted that over the next decade, the number of people of working age in the U.S. (between 15 and 65) will decline by over 3 percent. This is a prospect that courts will find increasingly challenging.  This month we're going to look at ongoing staff shortages and the battle courts are having to recruit new talent.  Not every court is short-handed; not all positions suffer from chronic vacancies.  On the other hand, I can't think of a court administrator who has not told me their court struggles to find court reporters, interpreters, and IT staff. Today we are going to delve into several questions:     Who is struggling to hire new employees?  Are there types of employees that are more challenging to recruit? Has your court experienced operational challenges due to staff shortages? What are job candidates asking for these days regarding working conditions? Are you exploring new ways to recruit employees?   Today's Panel          Audrey Anger: Assistant Court Administrator for the City of Olathe, Kansas Danielle Trujillo: Court Administrator for the Municipal Court in Littleton, Colorado Dana Bartocci: Human Resources & Development Director, Minnesota Judicial Branch, St. Paul, Minnesota MiHa Kapaki: Court Administrator & Probation Director, Grays Harbor District Court, Montesano, Washington Creadell Webb: Chief Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Officer, 1st Judicial District, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  Leave a question or comment about the episode at clapodcast@nacmnet.org

Today we welcome Antea Amoroso to the podcast! Antea is the founder of Antea Amaroso Designs. She launched her business in 2011, after designing multiple handmade pieces of decor and signage for her own wedding. Her passion quickly turned into a signage rental business and grew to become one of the top vendors at the most popular wedding venues throughout New England. Once COVID happened in 2020, she needed to pivot, and her sweet little boutique quickly expanded into an online presence. She began designing apparel, accessories, and so much more. Antea is so well known in this area for her amazing energy and genuine nature and people have taken notice with over 25k followers on instagram. She gives honest and open about changes her business faced especially recently in 2023 !Register for our FREE 30 minute webinar, Why You Should Be a Cash Based PT: https://fixxed.brandbot.io/forms/cash-based-pt-webinar-WjSLdz.html?fbclid=PAAabVxaWkuRoERv0G06RrS7LtE39t4-onYVEW4sU01DdFp2p0eprkHegZi_0_aem_Ae-Eptstvjw_H-W5NN-DgXDEpf9nrfWxkOXjW6IuvSQKkBQFBY_ROE4J-q7PTAwMvzkWork with us here: https://www.businessmusclepodcast.com/You can follow us on Instagram @businessmusclepodcast, @elisecaira and @dr.ariel.dpt. Follow us on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100095609733486Join our Facebook community of other entrepreneurs for insider tips and tricks: https://www.facebook.com/groups/255295687403161Get your FREE Business Starter Checklist: https://www.businessmusclepodcast.com/freechecklistFIXXED: https://www.fixxedstudios.com/Sweat Fixx: https://www.sweatfixx.com/

We had the pleasure of interviewing Mike Mains & The Branches over Zoom video!Mike Mains & The Branches have always bottled complex emotions and relatable stories within hummable homegrown anthems. They have organically progressed over the course of Home [2012], Calm Down, Everything Is Fine [2014], and When We Were In Love [2019]. Billboard hailed the "buoyant pop" of the latter, while Atwood Magazine praised its "upbeat, energetic, feel-good pop-rock." Among many standouts, “Briggs” generated north of 4.8 million Spotify streams as "Breathing Underwater" and "Live Forever" each surpassed the 1 million-mark. After trading his native Michigan for Nashville, Mike underwent another era of transformation. Stuck at home mid-Pandemic, he retreated inward and began to understand his past and, ultimately, himself a bit more."Once COVID hit, I finally had the opportunity to allow some things to start boiling over," he elaborates. "I got serious about therapy, my mental health, and my well-being. I acknowledged wounds that had been on the backburner for my entire life. I've been on my own since I was 16, and I come from a family of physical and mental abuse. By living alone and crashing on couches over the years, I've cobbled together a wonderful surrogate family. Growing up, my dad was like, 'You'll never make it'.' Part of me was pleased to find success, move to Nashville, buy a home, and support myself and my wife off rock 'n' roll. Nevertheless, all of this pain came up. So, these songs are little vignettes and snapshots of not only the relationship between my wife and I but what was happening in the world with George Floyd and America's heartbreaking response."We want to hear from you! Please email Hello@BringinitBackwards.comwww.BringinitBackwards.com#podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #MikeMains&TheBranches #MikeMainsandTheBranches #NewMusic #ZoomListen & Subscribe to BiBhttps://www.bringinitbackwards.com/followFollow our podcast on Instagram and Twitter! https://www.facebook.com/groups/bringinbackpodThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/4972373/advertisement

On this episode of RNT Fitness Radio I'm joined by Hemal Shah, who shares his journey so far with us at RNT. After spending years focusing on his career at the expense of his health, Hemal found himself at over 200lbs. Once Covid forced a change in lifestyle, coupled with a few candid comments from his children, Hemal decided enough was enough. When he saw a relative transform with the RNT journey, he knew there was only one place to go. 18 months later, he's down over 70lbs, feeling and performing at his absolute best. His goal now is to build a lifestyle solution to stay in shape, and inside this episode Hemal shares some of his battles on the other side of his weight loss phase. I really enjoyed this episode, especially the story about Hemal getting flagged by a cop on the day of his photoshoot! In the show notes you can check out the transformation pictures in his case study. Book A Call To Start Your Journey!   Thanks so much for listening! If you like this episode, please subscribe to “RNT Fitness Radio” and rate and review wherever you get your podcasts:     Apple Podcasts   Stitcher iHeart Radio Spotify   For any podcast suggestions, or if you'd like to get in touch, please do so on podcast@rntfitness.com here. We'd love to hear from you!    I'm very excited and proud to announce we've developed a brand new partnership with one of the world's leading premium supplement brands, Optimum Nutrition, where they'll be helping support our RNT members, and listeners of this podcast, on their journey of health, fitness and total transformation. With the world's #1 best-selling protein powder in their range, and a growing plant-based range, you can now use the code RNT20 to get 20% off in their US and UK stores. My personal favourite are their plant-based protein bars. I've literally done a 180 on protein bars since discovering these, and these were a game changer during my recent long stints in Bali and the US!   You may be wondering if you're ready for a similar transformation. So I put together a quick 5 min free quiz for you to see if you have the three transformation keys required: commitment, consistency and coachability. In 40 yes/no questions, you'll know exactly what's holding you back from the results you see at RNT, with clear action steps on what to do next. Simply head to www.rntfitness.co.uk/transform to try the quiz.   If you're enjoying these episodes and want to learn a little bit more behind the secrets of our RNT transformations, register for our next free masterclass on scorecard.rntfitness.com/masterclass. The aim of the masterclass is simple - to give you exactly what you need to kickstart your transformation. It's only 60 minutes, totally free, and  I'll be teaching some really cool stuff live, with many opportunities to ask questions. Head to scorecard.rntfitness.com/masterclass to see the next date and I'll see you there.   Resources:   Are You Ready To Transform Scorecard Who Are You? Maxer, Buster or Seeker? Our Book: Transform Your Body, Transform Your Life     Follow RNT Fitness:    Website Facebook Instagram YouTube Email   Follow Akash:   Facebook Instagram LinkedIn   Hemal's case study  

Our well-being is important to maintain in our lives, and different companies can help us with that. In this episode of the Class E Podcast, we talked with Chad Price, an international business consultant and entrepreneur with several successful wellness ventures. Price shares the knowledge he's acquired throughout his entrepreneurial journey from his exercise equipment company, Kettlebell Kings, to his most recent venture, Life Grows Green, a lifestyle brand focused on natural and hemp products. Price also discusses how entrepreneurs in any industry should always be equipped for battle because they never know what hurdles they may face.   Guest: Chad Price Webistes:  https://www.kettlebellkings.com https://lifegrowsgreen.com Host: Mary Sturgill Producer: Isabella Martinez '24 TRANSCRIPT MARY: Hi there, everyone. Welcome to this episode of the Class E Podcast. I am your host Mary Sturgill and this is the podcast that's brought to you through a partnership between the Hill Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship here at Furman University and the Communication Studies Department. Today we have a very special guest, Chad Price is with us. He is the founder of Kettlebell Kings and multiple ventures, which we're going to jump into and talk about. Chad, welcome to the show. CHAD: Hi, nice to meet you. Thank you for having me. MARY: Yeah, thank you. So I want to start by talking about… kind of going way back to your childhood, and I want to find out…where did your entrepreneurial spirit come from?   CHAD: You know, I think it's interesting. I had to really kind of dig on to that question when I was writing my book recently. And trying to figure out, you know, when was the first time that I really kind of thought about being an entrepreneur and I don't know if it was ever, you know, a one kind of light bulb moment in my head.I think it was just, I've been kind of light bulb moment in my head. I think it was just, I've been on so many teams growing up playing sports that I always knew I wanted to be or create, you know, some type of business operation that I respected like the teams I participated in. So, you know, some type of successful operation, a group of individuals that got together and you know, achieve something bigger than themselves. That's kind of always been my dream. When I graduated college, I, you know, I think it was just like anybody else. I went into the corporate America and tried to find different jobs and different experiences that I thought would maybe fulfill that need and in that process, it kinda led me to realizing that, you know, this wasn't the exact experience I was looking for and if I really wanted that type of experience I'd have to create it myself  MARY: Yeah, absolutely. So you mentioned you played football at Rice and you got a business degree while you were there. It was a few years after that though that you started Kettlebell Kings with I believe a couple of your teammates? CHAD: Yeah, so one of my teammates, one is a friend of a teammate. So kind of, you know, small circle. And when we started Kettlebell Kings, it was more for us. We knew we wanted to start a business in general. MARY: Yeah. CHAD: And we knew it's gonna be something e-commerce. We had kind of been doing our research and at the time I was working a corporate job. So, you know, in my free time, I was researching and trying to figure out if I was gonna start a company, what type of company would it be? And at the time there was really no cool brand around Kettlebells. And so, we wanted to kind of build like a network or community of people who use the kettlebell as a tool for health and wellness, but more of a fitness or enthusiast type of community, an overall health and wellness community just using that kind of as a centerpiece. MARY: Yeah, I love that idea. I'm gonna remind our listeners and viewers on YouTube that was back in 2012 right? So it was before Peloton and before the mirror and all of those things. CHAD: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, and it's interesting to see those things come along. Cause like, you know, you kinda feel like, oh, we missed that on these huge ideas, right? Cause we're sitting here selling kettlebells, but you know, I think that's kind of the benefit of starting your own business. You know, there's different kinds of levels to the journey. There's different scales to everything that you do.You know, I think the fitness community, building the online community and kind of aligning different kind of small and niche type of organizations is kind of an expertise of ours and expertise of mine now that I can carry with me and kind of apply that in any organization. MARY: Yeah, absolutely. And well, I think you guys, I mean, I don't know if anybody before you guys maybe unless it was like individual people or individual gyms that were creating this idea of community around the product, right? And before or some of the big ones that we can think of now. So I think that was brilliant that you did that at that time, right? You kind of rode the digital wave a little bit in that regard, I think. CHAD: Yeah, it makes me feel very old that I'm like original like social media, you know, like I had Facebook when it first came out, right?  MARY: Right. CHAD: I thought those were the good old days and I think you're correct in the sense that there weren't any real kind of online communities back then because social media wasn't such a big presence. And we really… in the kind of creation of our business, we really wanted to focus on bringing as many people together as we could through a digital platform and we never really wanted to have like a physical location. We wanted to invest everything in the company that we could to have like the most successful aggregation of content and basically like a superstore for the enthusiasts online and anyone can experience from anywhere in the world.  MARY: Now you also… for people who might not know, you also actually sold kettle bells and worked on the design of them and the manufacturing of them as well, didn't you? CHAD: Yeah, no, I mean that kind of stuff is awesome for me. You know I had many different jobs in college and after college so some of my previous experiences helped out there. Like for example, I was doing stadium seating when I was in construction and if you do stadium seating, you know, like the stanchions or the uprights that hold the seats together, they're made out of caste. And so I would get huge containers of those on the construction site. And you know, for me, it's like, oh, this is how, you know, metal is made. This is how bulk iron is shipped to America. So I kind of had a familiarity with the type of process that was needed. And once we started Kettlebell Kings, we really just found experts and organizations that, you know, we kind of took their advice and took the customer advice and tried to make the best product. So we would take samples from a manufacturer and then just really tweak and tweak those until we got those into the hands of the professionals and they told us it was perfect and then that's the one we'd go with. MARY: Yeah, nice. I love that process. You know, and it's trial and error, right? You just have to go with what's best right now until you find something better. CHAD: One hundred percent and you know, I tell people all the time we got kettlebells with literally, you know, we get them into the warehouse, we want to do quality control and so we literally throw them up in the air, bang on the ground like try to break them on purpose and during that process, some of them would crack open so you know we've got kettlebells literally like factory dust and dirt and cigarette butts inside before. So there's definitely a trial and error process that goes into making things right but you know I enjoy that process and I think that's what helps separate you from another company. So if everyone has to go through kind of those pitfalls and overcome those obstacles, you know, just puts you a little further away from the competition. MARY: Absolutely, absolutely. You know, COVID affected a lot of businesses that were… in a negative way when we all closed and all of that, but you guys actually thrived during that time. Talk a little bit about that and how that happened.  CHAD: Well, I mean, we always knew when we started the company that online fitness and digital fitness at home was gonna be the future of health and wellness. So you know in our eyes, COVID just kind of accelerated that process and took this into that, you know, that new reality forever. So even if you went back to the gym, I think you still remember those days and you still kind of have a plan or backup plan for your online fitness or your home based fitness, let's say initiatives. And so for us, we were already set up perfectly for that. And all that really did was, you know, kind of prove our point and, you know, it proved the kind of the model if you will for Kettlebell Kings as a whole because we weren't even able to fulfill all of the needs at the time, you know? We went from, you know, normal, doing well as a business, growing, doubling every year type of success as a company, but during that time period, you know, we had over 50,000, 60,000 people on our waitlist. Just they couldn't get product so you know it's kind of a crazy time. MARY: Yeah, that is a crazy time. You mentioned your model. Can you talk about that a little bit more? Kind of outline that for our listeners. Your model for Kettlebell Kings.  CHAD: Sure. I mean, I think it's multi faceted, right?  MARY: Right. CHAD: So when you talk about having a business model or, for Kettlebell Kings, specifically our business model, you're gonna have basically your products for your hardware, which is gonna be fitness equipment. The main thing for us is going to be kettlebells. So, you know, we section that up into the different types of kettlebells.There's different, you know, you have kettlebell, sport, you have hard style kettlebell lifters. You have people who want kind of a hybrid. You know, you have kilograms versus pounds, different things like that. So we decide on, you know, which lines of series of kettlebells we carry. And then more importantly, we really try to be a content company. So we try to see ourselves as a kind of like the ESPN of the kettlebell world where we're aggregating all of the content, all of the user generated content that exists out there and trying to create or produce better content from that and work with those people who are creating those pieces of content to, you know, promote them as a, you know, whether they're a trainer or it's a gym or, you know, a facility for kettlebell sport, different things like that. So it's about really kind of having a production, if you will, where we're literally having, you know, 365 days a year. This is what we're going to be producing. This is what we're going to be, you know, when we're going to be filming it, this is when it should be coming out on our social content channels and things like that. So a lot of it was really growing that production side. I think that was the harder part than the equipment. The equipment is just, you know, I think that's kind of the basics of just getting manufacturers from wherever you're getting that manufacturing. MARY: Yeah, but you bring up a good point about having multiple revenue streams. Coming in with that. And correct me if I'm wrong in this, in 2019, you guys actually acquired another company… Battle Ropes. Am I saying that right? Tell us about that.  CHAD: Correct. Yeah, so in 2019, you know, we really decided that kettlebells were really growing. As a fitness company, we had inquiries and we had, you know, the ability to sell other things besides kettlebells, But we didn't wanna have, let's say, dumbbells by Kettlebell Kings. And so we created a new brand called Living Fit. And that brand was basically going to encompass and it's still I say going to because I sold my shares in that when I sold my Kettlebell King shares, but my partner still runs that brand. That brand basically sells all types of fitness equipment and battle ropes was one of those things that we want to incorporate into that. So the purchasing of battle ropes, you know, a strategic decision for us to have those types of certifications and all of the training and workout videos that came with that company. That gave us a kind of a foundation to build other types of products from. So, you know, we'd use that as a structure to build the dumbbell, the barbell, the jump ropes, resistance bands, you know, diet programs. So at that point we really were into building digital programs and digital services that we could offer people and you know there was no actual physical product that we need to ship in that situation. MARY: Yeah, yeah. You mentioned the sale of Kettlebell Kings, a multimillion dollar sale.How did you come to the decision to say, okay, maybe it's time to do this kind of… be open to this?  CHAD: Well, we knew, you know, we…It's a heavy inventory based company. So when you're trying to grow, you know, you can only grow as much as your margins will allow you if you're not taking on a significant amount of financing and when you have 3 partners… We had 3 partners, 2 companies, a bunch of kind of different initiatives so it becomes a challenge just to allocate resources and agree on where you're gonna allocate those resources most effectively to grow the company because when you're growing so fast that, you know, it's not much room to pay yourself personally. Because the company just needs more and more finance for whatever it is, whether it's inventory, marketing, expanding into new countries, different things like that. MARY: Right. CHAD: So on that journey when we're looking for inventory financing or looking for a financial partner, a lot of people were approaching us about owning some type of piece of the company and a lot of those people wanted to own a majority share of the company. So once those conversations started about a majority share, you know, there wasn't a real option for us to stay around as a kind of a side or a minority owner in the company. And so we really just started kind of taking conversations of if you want to purchase the company as a whole and that led us to some of these larger aggregators had already been reaching out to us. You know, I think a lot of people see the brand and has a lot of potential because it has such a great online following and it demands such a big presence in that niche. So, you know, if you're searching kettlebells, you're going to find Kettlebell Kings. You know, we've becomes synonymous with the term kettlebells in a way where you know we have our competitors to have the hashtag “Kettlebell Kings”, on their social channels and things like that. So I think that's one of the benefits to just owning that brand and the expansion that it's capable of is, you know, it's outrageous. You're not even talking about… you're talking about…we've only really been in America. Kind of just dipped our toe into Europe and Australia a little bit.  MARY: Right, right. You mentioned the brand becoming synonymous with the piece of equipment, the kettlebell, and I think that you guys worked hard to make that happen because that's what comes to everybody's forefront of their mind when they think kettlebell. You're absolutely right about that. I know initially…and this is, you know, well documented… as a minority business owner, it's difficult to get funding sometimes.Did you face any of those hurdles based on the fact that well, you had 3 partners, but 2 of you are minorities, right? So, did you face any of those hurdles that people normally face?  CHAD: Yeah, definitely. And, you know, I, you know, I tell people all the time we would never get financing. So we tried to get financing from every, you know, bank that we ever worked with. We ended up leaving every big bank because they kind of, you know, what we felt were not taken as serious as entrepreneurs or as businessmen. We ended up working with smaller credit unions who you know told us that they would take us a little more serious but they never really had any type of financing that was substantial enough to really make a difference for us. So you know. $5,000 is not really gonna change your company when you need, you know, $30,000 worth of kettlebells.  MARY: Right.  CHAD: But in those situations, they also wanted, you know, personal guarantees and things like that. And when you're an entrepreneur, you don't have, you know, a salary, let's say, for example, to guarantee some of the things that they're gonna want to get these types of financing options. So for us, you know, we literally boot strapped it all the way into the point where we were using, you know, these kind of e-commerce type loans, whether that's, you know, PayPal capital or, you know, the different ones that you could just, you know, you basically can sign up online. They take a percentage of your revenue from your ecommerce store. So that's probably the biggest financing that we used. But up until the point in which we were looking for serious financing and eventually ended up selling, that's kind of what led us to that conversation.  MARY: Is this your second or third year staying on and then you're moving on? Kind of talk about that process a little bit.  CHAD: Yeah, so unfortunately I probably should have mentioned this to you earlier, but unfortunately with the company that acquired us, we were then acquired by another company and so we attempted to stay on and unfortunately that ended up leading us to no longer work with them and in the end actually ended up leading to litigation.  MARY: Okay.  CHAD: So we're in pending litigation with that second acquiring company right now because of the current contract.  MARY: Right, because that was part of that original agreement. I'm assuming that you guys stayed on for a period of time to help in the transition and, you know, bringing the company forward in the way that you guys had intended.  CHAD: Correct. Yeah, and it was the 3 year acquisition that had, you know, payouts associated with the 3 years and everything like that.  MARY: Right.  CHAD: And so, it'll get worked out through the course of some, you know, luckily we live in, in a world where there is a way to handle these situations and our lawyers have been involved the entire time. So from this, from the time we sold to the time they were reacquired, the lawyers were kind of never really finished with the first sale so it's something that the lawyers will work out and it's really just a matter of time before everything gets settled.  MARY: Right, right. I think that's important too for our listeners to understand that sometimes these sales don't always go as planned, right?  CHAD: For sure.  MARY: But there are avenues that you can take to protect yourself. And I think that's important for them to know. What did you learn in that process that you wish you had known before you started that process?  CHAD: Yeah, I mean, I was just gonna say that I think even in these situations you learn so much about what you can do, how you can help someone in the future, what, you know, what kind of safeguards you could have put in place. I think in these situations you really have to understand that you're working with a corporation, you know, when you come from being a small business owner, you take a lot of personal pride and, you know, you put a lot of personal integrity into your work, into the brand. And when you're working with corporations, especially international corporations, they don't necessarily look at business the same way or maybe have the same, let's say, personal attachments or personal integrity to what you're trying to do, as an individual brand. So, you know, if a company owns a 150 brands and you come in as one brand, you're just not going to get the same level of care that you know, white glove type of care that you would have given it possibly and I think taking that kind of stuff into consideration and contractually making sure that the things that were most important are contractual and not just kind of word of mouth or handshake agreement, is probably the best way to go in any of those types of situations.  MARY: Yeah, some good advice. I'm sure you have some of that advice in your book too, which we'll talk about a little bit later. Let's go on to your new venture. Life Grows Green. That's your new company that you started in… I believe 2019. Explain to us what Life Grows Green is.  CHAD: So one of the things, you know, through the journey of kind of owning a health and wellness company or fitness company, that I really noticed how you know we could help people, you know, it really inspired me to see how many people would pick up a kettlebell, and, you know, 6 months later they feel like, you know, they've found something great in their life and they really have built kind of a new personality even around. you know, around this new tool and it just really inspires them to just live a healthier life. I think helping people do stuff like that is, you know, part of a good business and part of building community. I didn't realize I had a passion for it when I started Kettlebell Kings, but now I know that, you know, that is the kind of stuff that I wanna work on. You know, I don't think I could ever really work for a company that takes advantage of people, for example. So, you know, my idea with Life Grows Green was to build a company of natural lifestyle products, you know, whether that's hemp based products, you know, plant derived type of supplements and things like that. Or just your, your natural lifestyle products that you use every day, you know, your glassware, your sheets, your bedding, you know, different things like that. Really just trying to build a community of people who see and want to replace any type of product they can in their life with some natural option or natural version.I think there's, you know, there's a lot of kind of missed out opportunities to have natural products in our lives and just because we don't know any better, we end up with, you know, a cheaper plastic or pharmaceutical version of something that could be natural. MARY: Right, I completely agree and I'm one of those people who loves to go natural. I'm in the process of getting rid of all the plastics in my house, at least trying to. Let's talk about… you mentioned some of the products. How can people find the products? How's business going so far? Because you've been what it's… four years now?  CHAD: When we first started, this was right before COVID. And so, you know, the idea of what we're gonna do shifted quite a bit over COVID. You know, at the time when I started Life Grows Green, I had the nail salon still…I was running a nail salon, Kettlebell Kings, and Living Fit. And then I had Life Grows Green as well. So the idea and the popularity around hemp and CBD was a lot higher. Once COVID happened, everything kinda went into, you know, let's say kind of a suspension, if you will, until we figured out how long we're gonna be in quarantine. We have a lot of in person projects and events that we were trying to participate in that obviously got canceled and didn't really get to happen.But not to mention just the space of advertising for hemp is one of the most difficult things that I've probably done in my career because of all the regulations around it. So, you know, Google, Facebook, Instagram, you're not really able to do that. You know, if you see advertisements there, it's usually some type of a gray hat/ black hat method that companies have to use to not get their account suspended or banned or different things like that. We've tried, you know, even to do things the correct way. Hire organizations to do things the correct way and still have gotten our accounts suspended and banned just for trying to do normal advertising like I would with any other company so through that lens…  MARY: That's really interesting. Yeah.  CHAD: Yeah, go ahead. I was gonna say through that lens, it's very difficult to advertise and to grow a brand like this.  MARY: Yeah.  CHAD: With that being said, you know, lately we've been shifting into more natural lifestyle products. So we have all of your hemp products, but you know, you'll see our Amazon store coming online here shortly. We'll be carrying more of your, like I said the universal lifestyle products versus the hemp based products. And I think advertising and trying to use those as kind of a starting point to get more people in online, it's gonna be a lot easier than trying to climb that uphill battle or fighting the quote on quote CBD and the hemp space.  MARY: That's interesting because I know Google Analytics and that online marketing really helped with Kettlebell Kings and you kind of.. search engine optimization and all of that and so it's throwing up roadblocks now though for this particular company, which I find interesting especially since…I mean how many states now have legalized medical marijuana or marijuana for use and correct me if I'm wrong but hemp is not marijuana.  CHAD: Exactly. And weed I don't sell. Everything that we sell is 100% federally legal to ship nationally and internationally. MARY: I wonder why that is. Why do you think that is? Because it's not, I mean the products don't contain THC.  CHAD: Yeah, I think it's the stigma, you know, I think it's the stigma of people thinking that is like kind of a gateway to THC, which is the gateway to, you know, cocaine and just you know it just scares people just you know you take one step in that direction and you know I think that it's coming down. I think the green wave is real and it's continuing to kind of wash across America and like you say legalization is still growing every single… every time we have an election, we, you know, we get more and more states that are going in what I would consider the right direction.  MARY: How are you overcoming that hurdle though?  CHAD: You know, I think everyone who is in kind of that industry has had to overcome hurdles like this. So, you know, I kind of complain about the social platforms, but it's not just them. It's the credit card processors. It's insurance. It's every single part of the business. You know, you can sell 99% of your products, be everything besides let's say hemp or CBD and if you add hemp or CBD, now you're a high risk company for some reason. And these are things that have been in legislation and you know kind of ingrained into corporate America that they need to just be outlawed. Like there's no reason for, you know, hemp has already been basically given the same kind of space as a rice or any other plant or grain that you would grow. So it should be treated as such by every organization. It shouldn't be treated as some kind of high risk event or high risk operation, but currently that's just how it is and there's not really anything you can do. So you just have to…you're paying a higher cost for every single thing that you do and you're getting restricted on advertising pretty much on every platform currently.  MARY: Right. So, you have some strategies, I'm sure, to overcome that. How are you.. what are some of the strategies that you're implementing?  CHAD: What you can do is literally try to create an online community using the products that you sell that don't have anything to do with hemp because you can technically have, let's say two separate stores, an Amazon store and an e-commerce store, and then by building that community of people who appreciate the 100% non-hemp, non-CBD products, you can kind of hopefully get those people through your social channels and things like that.  MARY: I think you're right. I think there's a path forward for these brands because so many of us are turning back to natural, you know, even down to, you know, doing our own gardens every year, right?  CHAD: Exactly.  MARY: So many of us are making that turn back to natural products. So I'm hoping that you are one of the companies that makes it through. I think you will be. You bring up a topic though that a lot of entrepreneurs face and that's just when you're facing so many roadblocks sometimes it kind of deflates your goals a little bit and deflates your passion a little bit. How do you overcome that?  CHAD: Well, I tell people all the time when I first, you know, sports helped me quite a bit when I first got to Rice. Well growing up where I grew up, you know, we were good in sports and I was really good in sports. So I won most games that I played. And, you know, won the state championship in high school. So it was very kind of fortunate to have kind of a winning career up until my college career and in college, I had to kind of do a little more setback. You know, we had a season where we were 3 and 8. And we only won 3 games, which to me… that was outrageous. Only lost two games in high school in 4 years so having those types of experiences just kind of had me on a different mindset, you know, I look at it as like you can have a losing season and you can still come back next season and be better. And even two losing seasons, three losing seasons, you know, I don't look at the losses as a hundred percent something that I need to dwell on, something that I need to make sure I'm learning from and getting stronger from. So it more just calibrates me for the next bat on. You know, I feel more confident going into the next battle because I've lost already and because I already know what that feels like. I know, you know, how I didn't make it last time or why I didn't succeed when I did this in the past. And so those types of experiences, they really give me more confidence if I spend them correctly.   MARY: Yeah, you mentioned battle. Your book is called Preparing for Battle. It was released this fall. Talk about what people are gonna find when they pick up that book from Amazon.   CHAD: Yeah, I mean, I think that's kind of what I talk about in the book as well. You know, I do see business as kind of a battlefield, a competitive playing field. I think everyone who wants to have a successful brand, who becomes an entrepreneur and there can only be so many. You know, one of the things I tell people is that, yeah, I think we all individually only can remember so many brands in our head. So I don't know how many brands, you know, you maybe have 10, I maybe have 10 or 8 or whatever that number is but there can only be so many brands that we actually associate with ourselves and we, you know, we're proud to kind of be a member of or a part of that community. So I want to be that for as many different brands that I work with and I talk about kind of building the mindset to create that in the book. So more than what type of specific industry you're in. I think it's about having the correct mindset to deal with the obstacles that are going to come up in business. You know, the information that in 2012 when we started Kettlebell Kings and how you do social media advertisements, you know the most lucrative ways to kind of build that community are not the 100% same as they are you know in 2023 and I think understanding that you need to go into it with the mindset of this is going to be a battle. I need to learn on the fly. I need to be a lifelong learner you know the person that kind of leads my team as an expert in my industry and expert in whatever field that I'm trying to get in. I think that's more important than, you know, trying to gorge yourself on information before you get there.  MARY: Yeah, yeah. I'm suggesting to our listeners that they go and get your book and read it, but what books along your path did you read that kind of influenced you?  CHAD: So I mean, there would be so many like…I was one of those kids where I literally used to read adult books, you know, like I read every religious book by the time I was like 10 years old. I used to read the encyclopedia. So yeah, I was one of those like, extremely, kind of, nerdy kids that just used to read all the time. At a certain point, you know, reading books to me is just part of the experience of learning. You know, I like to take, I like to take concepts more than kind of the individual words or things, you know, I don't like to idolize individuals, I don't like to idolize books. I really like to learn the concepts and cross reference those concepts. So, you know, if you really were talking about like what are some of my favorite books, it would be like, you know, The Laws of Power, or, The Art of War or something like that. It'd be something more conceptual to where I really just like, how do we apply these concepts universally to whatever we're trying to achieve, whatever goals we have? My experience through sports and seeing so many different personalities and individuals and ways to lead, you know, and lead men and teams and things like that. They really kind of build my philosophy on how I look at business. I don't think when I go into a business that I know everything I need to know. I think that I've been given this responsibility and it's time for me to grow into that person and it's time for me to lead to that person and it's time for me to lead everyone and kind of walk this journey with everyone. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs could learn from kind of that approach versus, you know, kind of thinking that you're already the expert at whatever you're trying to do before you get there.   MARY: Yeah, right. You also consult with businesses and now having this conversation with you, I can totally see why. And the benefits that other business owners would get in kind of hiring you to kind of lead them through some processes that they may have going on. Do you, and you kind of alluded to in that answer, do you have a philosophy of business? And of entrepreneurship?  CHAD: I mean, I think it shifts, you know, I think having the self awareness to assess where you are, you know, I think I tell people all the time, like a good example is I had to learn this for myself when I was having a nail salon and having a fitness company at the same time. The conversations and the motivational conversations that you'd have in the nail salon are not the same that you have in a kettlebell warehouse. Those are completely two different…So I have the same goal, but you do not have the same conversation. You can't have the same tone, the same attitude. You have to take these things into consideration. So I think having that self-awareness not only about who you are as an individual, but who your team is, these types of things. For me, it comes easy because I've been on so many teams. I didn't, you know, I don't, I didn't like everybody I played with. I was the kid that I knew the coach would get on some people and baby other people because that's what it took to motivate them. There was a, you know, there was a method to the madness sometimes and I'm one of those people that can see and I like that kind of psychological strategy to things and so I really try to come in and say, you know, where are you? Where do you think you are? Let's see, you know, how close to my objective, a perception of things is your perception of things and then if we can agree on common points then I think you can kinda coach any team to the direction you want them to go. And that's just a matter of kind of putting the plan in place and executing on it.   MARY: Yeah. Excellent. I love this. I know we can keep talking forever, but I probably need to wrap us up a little bit. I do want you before I let you go to give some advice to some of our entrepreneurs who are maybe starting out their journey. They think they have a product or they think they have an idea, but they're just not sure how to get it started.   CHAD: I mean, I think when you're, when you're just starting out, that's, you know, it's an opportunity and it's kind of one of the most difficult times you're a hundred percent right. You don't know which direction you're always going when you're first starting and there are unlimited directions. So you know that's one of the things that you know, even with Kettlebell Kings, it changed over time. When we started the company, we were going to carry every single brand of kettlebells that existed and because of the first year of trying to do that, it ended up being, hey, you know, now we're just gonna carry our brand and we're gonna manufacture a different series and so I think having the correct mindset going in that you're gonna do whatever it takes to work is more important than, you know, trying to make sure that you've gotten the exact product line up right or you've gotten the exact advertising, the exact logo even. You know, I think there's situations in which action trumps, you know, kind of just sitting there being stale. So, if you have a way to create cash flow, to create revenue, to reach customers, I would say that's where you should start. You know, you should start with whatever can kind of create that initial cash flow. Even if it's not high profit margins, you can, you know, you can work on the margins, especially if you're not doing high volume and you're still able to create cash flow and bring in new customers and generate leads, bring in some type of let's say proof of concept that will allow you to do a lot of different things because as you're doing that you can work with individuals you can, you know, you can mentor or you find yourself. I'm sorry, not mentor. You could find yourself a mentor to help you in these situations. But if you don't really have any real world item to analyze.It's kind of hard for anyone to help. You kind of talk about a figment of everyone's imagination.  MARY: Right, right. I love the way that you said that because so many people I think get almost paralyzed by trying to get everything right before they launch. Right? The right logo, the right, you know, branding materials, the right product. Rather than let's launch, let's bring in some money and let's be ready to educate ourselves on how things are going. And be open to change, which is all the things that you just said. CHAD: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, and that's why I say for me, it's almost natural because of sports and, you know, and sports the games on Friday. So it's like you can do whatever you want to do, but you have to go play on Friday.   MARY: Right.   CHAD: And I think in business you have to, you have to create that for yourself. So that doesn't exist. There's no real game. And if you're, you know, when you're first starting, you get to kind of stall and say, well, we'll just play next week. We'll just play next week. And it's like, no, you have to be the one to say the game is on Friday. So we're starting on Friday and that type of mindset I think is what is most important in entrepreneurs so that you're the person that pushes things forward if no one is there to build your dream for you. Like no one is there to build a brand. It's a multimillion-dollar or a billion-dollar global brand for you. It's like you're going to be the driving force or at least the starting point where the energy comes from.  MARY: Yeah. Oh my god, that's so good. I'm gonna tell everybody right now to go back and re-listen to what he just said because it's so good. The other thing I want to ask you is, okay, so you sold the Kettlebell Kings, you're starting this new company, and you've written the book, what's next for you?  CHAD: So I mean right now I'm working on, you know, quite a few different things. Obviously, Life Grows Green is one of my main focuses right now for sure. The book is just being released, that's what I'm really mainly kind of doing my promotional tour, if you will for the book. So I'll be doing podcasts like this, but I'm also doing in-person events. I'm working on some workshops. So I have workshops and presentations, kind of doing some career development even with some of the young entrepreneurs and things like that. So I'm really just trying to transition to the next chapter of my business life. I am looking for consulting opportunities or joint venture opportunities right now. So, you know, have a couple of potential opportunities that I may do. But I'm, you know, I'm also looking to kind of bring in larger ones. I think that there are some larger fitness brands possibly out there that could use my advice and that maybe you're not doing so well when I look at the landscape, but you know I think those are just kind of… that's just one angle that I'd like to kind of give my feedback on but there's so many different things that I want to do right now. I'm just kind of open to anything.  MARY: So, Chad, how do people get in touch with you if they would like to hire you as a consultant or ask you some questions?  CHAD: The best way to get in touch with me is probably through my website. My website chadprice.com. You know, you can also reach me on all social channels. I'm on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, so Chad Price on LinkedIn, and real Chad Price on the other social channels. And then you can check my book out on Amazon. So, you know, that's probably the number one way to support me and really understand a lot of my philosophies, and it talks about my story and then my story with Kettlebell Kings. So I think that's always a good starting point if you're interested in starting your own business for a business entrepreneur.  MARY: Yeah, absolutely. Because in that book, you have some great advice and you even have a section of the book that's kind of a workbook for entrepreneurs too.  CHAD: Yeah, I mean, like I said, you know, previously I think kind of getting your mindset correct is the best way to start or to look at entrepreneurship. Really self assessing where you are, what skills you may need, kind of building out a roadmap. And I think that's what the workbook section really tries to help you do. It helps you really give a good self-assessment of where you are and where you'd like to go. What tools and resources you're gonna need to put in place in order to get there. And that's why I try to help people.  MARY: All right, Chad Price, thank you so much for joining us today.  CHAD: Thank you for having me.  MARY: Yeah, great conversation. So everyone go follow Chad on his social media and buy that book. But for now that does it for this episode of the Class E Podcast. Remember this is the podcast that's brought to you through partnership between the Hill Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Communication Studies Department here at Furman University. Remember you can catch the podcast multiple ways now. We're on wherever you get your podcast, but we're also on YouTube. So go check out our YouTube channel and make sure that you hit that subscribe button so that you get notified every time we drop a new episode like this one right here. This podcast is produced by Communication Studies major, Isabella Martinez. We want to thank you for tuning in for us today. I'm your host, Mary Sturgill. Until next time everybody, dream big.    

Keepin It Real w/ Caramel Podcast had an unbelievable jaw-dropping interview with two phenomenal teenagers, Hallie Balogh & Auttie Grace (H.A. Stories). These teenagers are on their way to fame. They are well-spoken, well-rounded, and have great energy. They already have a plan on what they want to do and how they are going to do it. Hallie and Auttie are already writing their second novel, and they self-publish. These wonderful teenagers have a lot in store for their future. Look out for their screenplay and so much more. By the way, I am super happy I met Hallie and Auttie in Baltimore at the Inspirational Women in Literature Media and Journalism Awards. When I first met them, I knew they were very special and unique. More about Hallie and Auttie: Everything started in 5th grade when Hallie Balogh and Auttie Grace first met. They quickly became known for always being together. You never only saw one of them. That 5th grade school year didn't only spark their friendship, but it set the foundation of the Auttie and Hallie writing power duo. From 5th grade and all through middle school, they spent their lunches, free time, and every chance in between writing stories together. Once Covid-19 hit, they took it as an advantage to write their first novel, “Empire: To Earth and Back." Honestly, it started as a joke, but here they are, two award-winning teenage authors with a published YA sci-fi adventure novel and many more to come. As young teenage girls, they want to inspire others that no dream is “too big” when you're passionate about something. You just have to follow your dream and do it. This is how H.A. Stories began. Hallie and Auttie are helping others in their dreams, such as friends and other teenagers. The goal for the teenage girls is building their own publishing company because they want to help people who wants to write and publish their book, it doesn't matter what age a person is as long as you reach your goals and dreams they want to be there to help. When they wrote "Empire: To Earth and Back," they never expected that their novel would turn out so great. Just a little overview about the novel. The way you can look at it, you can either welcome the craziness or live your whole life in fear of it. Empires rise and fall all the time, but who knew a couple of kids were going to be the ones who tipped the balances of the universe? Fighting for their lives and on the run from the FBI, a group of kids tries to find their way back home to Esprit, but unintentionally, they mix worlds along the way. When will they finally know the truth? Depends on whether or not they make it out alive. Don't get caught, don't give up, don't die, and most of all, don't lose your mind. You can follow Hallie and Auttie on their website at https://hastoriesofficial.com or email them at hastoriesofficial@gmail.com, you can also follow them on their social media (Instagram - @hastoriesofficial) Thank you for listening to and supporting the podcast. If you want to be heard, email mscaramellucas@gmail.com or follow me on Instagram @mscaramellucas - TikTok @caramellucas - Facebook - Caramel Lucas --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/caramel-lucas/message

In this episode, we connect with Alison Young, the author of Pandora's Gamble: Lab Leaks, Pandemics, and a World at Risk. As a veteran journalist with decades of experience, Alison uses her latest book to outline the history and implications of safety errors in scientific labs – and how such errors could potentially have contributed to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. Alison has worked with news organizations across the country, primarily covering health, environment, and consumer issues. For the past 15 years, one of her areas of expertise involved reporting on laboratory accidents. Once COVID-19 hit, she was well-equipped to dissect the intricacies of this complex situation… In this conversation, we discuss: Often overlooked facts involved in the lab leak theory.  Why it is difficult to consider different motives for creating lab-manipulated viruses.  Why lab leaks are often covered up throughout history.  You can pick up a copy of Alison's new book here! Episode also available on Apple Podcast: http://apple.co/30PvU9C

Themes: COVID, Comedy, Podcasting, Woke Ideology Nick Von Wackerbarth began his career in the Alberta oilfields at a young age in a position with a huge amount of responsibility managing a large oil company. Once COVID hit, he found himself falling into depression with the weight of his company's employees on his shoulders and with the awareness that he wasn't following his passion. After his first mediation session ever, he realized podcasting was his dream and started pursuing that route. Nick is now a podcaster and comedian in Edmonton. In this episode we talk about: ☑️ Nick's journey from blue collar work in the Alberta oil fields into working on his dream of becoming a podcaster and comedian. ☑️ His disgruntled education at University of Alberta teaching and enforcing woke ideology. ☑️ The highs and lows of journeying into the Edmonton comedy scene, handling failure and success with grace and humility. ☑️ The American and Canadian comedy scene and the revitalization that's happening within movies and comedy. To listen to the VonDubCast click here, or to visit Nick's social click here.

We had the pleasure of interviewing Scarlet Parke over Zoom video!Singer, songwriter and self-made producer, Scarlet Parke, releases her latest single, “369,”. Performed exclusively for Grammy.com last year, “369” showcases a combination of Scarlet's confident writing ability, strong production skills, and commanding vocals. Scarlet elaborates; “369 is a manifestation practice I like to do that includes writing down a mantra 3 times in the morning, 6 times in the afternoon, and 9 times at night. I've manifested some amazing things since I started doing it.”A single that Scarlet has named the heart of her upcoming album, Simulation, “369” is all about manifestation. Alongside songwriting, Scarlet has also found herself being an advocate for females in the industry. “Did you know 2% of women are producers?” Scarlet elaborates on her creative process; “I've been holding onto some of the songs on my upcoming album for as long as 9 years. I've just been searching for the right producer, and it was me the whole time. It's been a journey and I really want to talk about how important it is that women support each other more than ever. There's nothing like the freedom that I've felt producing my own music. I didn't really know how anxious I was all the time going into the studio with a bunch of random people. Now that I'm self producing, I don't have to worry about booking time or dealing with studio fees. I can create whenever and wherever I feel safe and inspired to make my music” Scarlet's passion for self-producing has led her to discover a community of women that want to learn these skills for themselves. She has taken it into her own hands by creating “Dreamgirl by Scarlet,” a website that includes exclusive digital resources and opportunities with links to music gear and coaching sessions and the Dreamgirl Shop. As part of this initiative, Scarlet has launched the “Dreamgirl Producer Bag,” available for purchase here. The Dreamgirl Producer Bag was designed with the intention to help artists create freely, whenever and wherever inspiration strikes. Scarlet's mission is to empower more girls to produce and help close the 98% gap between male and female producers. “This first started because I wanted to release resources to share my knowledge and talk about how I got started producing. I think it's important to talk about the mental hurdles around it along with the physical process of it. I've put together a producer starter pack of items that I have in my own kit. It's totally portable and I can produce anywhere, whether that be in nature or on top of a building. Wherever you want to be, wherever you're inspired, you can take that with you. That's what Dreamgirl is, a place to feel encouraged to do things your own way.” Scarlet states. Hailing from Port Orchard, WA, Scarlet has been paving her own way into the entertainment world for the past decade. Scarlet grew up singing in musicals, church, and has been trained professionally in Opera, jazz, and Pop. In the background of all that, Scarlet has always loved writing lyrics, but didn't start her own band until after high school. After gaining experience by playing around her hometown, Scarlet decided to move to Seattle and catapult herself into becoming a household name in the local music scene. Once Covid hit, Scarlet honed in on some untapped talents; teaching herself how to produce, edit videos, and further practice her live show stage presence. Scarlet is a force in the industry and has continued to define her own rules for the artist she wants to be.We want to hear from you! Please email Hello@BringinitBackwards.com. www.BringinitBackwards.com#podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #ScarletParke #369 #NewMusic #ZoomListen & Subscribe to BiBhttps://www.bringinitbackwards.com/follow/ Follow our podcast on Instagram and Twitter! https://www.facebook.com/groups/bringinbackpod

Everything started in 5th grade when Hallie Balogh and Auttie Grace first met. They quickly became known for always being together. You never only saw one of them. That 5th grade school year didn't only spark their friendship, but it set the foundation of the Auttie and Hallie writing power duo. From 5th grade and all through middle school, they spent their lunches, free time, etc. writing stories together. Once Covid-19 hit, they took it as an advantage to write their first novel, Empire: To Earth and Back. Honestly, it started as a joke, but here they are, two teenagers with a published YA sci-fi adventure novel and many more to come. As young teenage girls, they want to inspire others that no dream is “too big” when you're passionate about something. The Storytellers hosted by Grace Sammon, focuses on individuals who choose to leave their mark on the world through the art of story. Each episode engages guests and listeners in the story behind the story of authors, artists, reporters and others who leave a legacy of storytelling. Applying her years of experience as an educator, entrepreneur, author, and storyteller herself, Grace brings to listeners an intimate one-on-one experience with her guests. Visit Grace at her website www.gracesammon.net. Contact Grace about being a guest on the show, email her at grace@gracesammon.net Follow Grace: On Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GraceSammonWrites/ On Instagram https://www.instagram.com/GraceSammonWrites/ On Twitter https://www.twitter.com/GSammonWrites On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-sammon-84389153/ #TheStorytellers #Storyteller #Storytellers # Storytelling #AuhtorInterview #LetsTalkBooks #LeaveYourMark #AuthorLife #StorytellerLife #ArtofStory #AuthorTalkNetwork #BookishRoadTrip #AuthorTalkNetwork #AuthorsOnTheAirGlobalRadioNetwork #author #YA #YAfiction #teenauthors #empire The Storytellers is a copyrighted work © of Grace Sammon and Authors on The Air Global Radio Network.

Everything started in 5th grade when Hallie Balogh and Auttie Grace first met. They quickly became known for always being together. You never only saw one of them. That 5th grade school year didn't only spark their friendship, but it set the foundation of the Auttie and Hallie writing power duo. From 5th grade and all through middle school, they spent their lunches, free time, etc. writing stories together. Once Covid-19 hit, they took it as an advantage to write their first novel, Empire: To Earth and Back. Honestly, it started as a joke, but here they are, two teenagers with a published YA sci-fi adventure novel and many more to come. As young teenage girls, they want to inspire others that no dream is “too big” when you're passionate about something. The Storytellers hosted by Grace Sammon, focuses on individuals who choose to leave their mark on the world through the art of story. Each episode engages guests and listeners in the story behind the story of authors, artists, reporters and others who leave a legacy of storytelling. Applying her years of experience as an educator, entrepreneur, author, and storyteller herself, Grace brings to listeners an intimate one-on-one experience with her guests. Visit Grace at her website www.gracesammon.net. Contact Grace about being a guest on the show, email her at grace@gracesammon.net Follow Grace: On Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GraceSammonWrites/ On Instagram https://www.instagram.com/GraceSammonWrites/ On Twitter https://www.twitter.com/GSammonWrites On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-sammon-84389153/ #TheStorytellers #Storyteller #Storytellers # Storytelling #AuhtorInterview #LetsTalkBooks #LeaveYourMark #AuthorLife #StorytellerLife #ArtofStory #AuthorTalkNetwork #BookishRoadTrip #AuthorTalkNetwork #AuthorsOnTheAirGlobalRadioNetwork #author #YA #YAfiction #teenauthors #empire The Storytellers is a copyrighted work © of Grace Sammon and Authors on The Air Global Radio Network.

This is the first of two bonus episodes recorded live at the Queens Public Library on December 15, 2022. Mark and Max interviewed New York City Schools Chancellor David C. Banks. Banks was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams and is just finishing his first year on the job.The previous leadership of the NYC DOE had supported diversity planning processes in five school districts across the city, including District 28, the subject of School Colors Season 2. Once Covid-19 hit New York, these diversity plans fizzled out, but they were never officially cancelled. So we started by asking Chancellor Banks if he thought diversity planning would ever come back — and if not, why not?This event was co-produced with The CITY and Chalkbeat New York, and moderated by Chalkbeat's Reema Amin.

Have you ever asked your team what they don't want to do anymore? What would your employees eliminate, if they could? One agency owner started asking these important questions and unlocked rapid growth by implementing their ideas and truly innovating processes. For his agency, niching down and adopting innovation as an agency value made all the difference. He discusses how he implemented those changes and the 5 big questions you need to ask your team. Josh Webber is the co-founder of Big Red Jelly, an agency focused on digital branding, web design, and development. His team helps businesses focus on all the steps a business should complete before working on advertising and marketing. Although his agency is five years old, Josh has been in the agency world since graduating college, working at several agencies around the country. As is often the case, his agency started as a full-service digital marketing agency. The decision to niche down came after the pandemic. This marked a point where his team started to focus on what they did best: branding. The decision led to exponential growth for his agency. He now shares how focusing on innovation and making the jump to niche down changed everything. In this interview, we'll discuss: How to make innovation a top value at your agency. Why innovation can also mean simplifying processes. How to get a fresh perspective to bring new ideas. Sponsors and Resources E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Stitcher | Radio FM Overcoming Hard Times By Niching Down For Josh's agency, the two years leading up to the pandemic were years of slow and organic growth. Once Covid hit, more than a third of their clients had to close shop and were unable to pay invoices. It seemed as good a time as any to do something they've been discussing for a while and niche down. Josh had been listening to several experts talk about the importance of niching down and owning your niche. Ultimately, they pulled the trigger and it was the best decision they have ever made. In fact, their finances started to improve almost immediately. If anything, Josh only regrets waiting so long to do it. Luckily, he was able to turn the regret into creating a culture of innovation within the agency. Innovation is probably at the heart of most agencies' mission and vision. What's actually hard is clearly defining it with actions. There is a gap between how many agencies place innovation as one of their top values and how it's actually one of the lowest when it comes to seeing this investment take place. Most agency owners want to be innovative but fail at “how”. How Can You Find and Implement Innovation Within Your Agency? In the agency world, you're either moving forward or going backward. What can you do to make sure you're always moving forward? Josh and his team organized a vision meeting where they defined innovation for their agency.  They started by “abolishing” some terms like “that's just the way it is” and “this is how it's always been”. By doing this, they started recreating their culture. The concept of innovation in the agency space is usually attached to creative roles, which is a mistake. Anyone can innovate and it's the youngest people on the team who usually bring a completely unique perspective. So, step one for Josh's team was deciding that innovation would be a huge part of the agency moving forward. Secondly, they focused on meetings, processes, and implementing tactics to ensure this. Making huge changes in the agency is never easy and some team members may not be on board. In Josh's case, about 30% of the team weren't accepting of the changes. It was his opportunity to see who was willing to be part of an agency transformation. There will always be people who don't like change. However, in the digital marketing space you have to be innovating and changing or you will be left behind. 5 Questions to Kickoff Innovation in Your Agency After defining innovation and bringing ideas to implement it, the team next focused on what they could remove from their processes. The idea was to get employees talking about things they were tired of doing and it was a big success. You can become so inflated with processes and SOPs the question “what can we remove?” brings a lot of suggestions. This helped Josh see innovation doesn't have to be adding more and more. It can also be about removing what no longer serves a purpose for the agency. In advance of the meeting, Josh sent his team some questions to get them thinking about what should be eliminated: What would you like to do more of? What would you like to do less of? Is there something that has always confused you? Is there something that you have always disagreed with? What do you think could be removed that would lead to better results? The exercise led to a lot of ideas which, Josh admits, were spot on. It can be hard to hear because some of the things your team wants to eliminate might be things you put into place. But that is what innovation is all about -- change and growth. Next, they focused on questions about the leadership and the founders. Does X do something that distracts you? You'll need to have thick skin to listen to what your team has to say, but it's a great exercise. How Masterminds Can Help Get a Fresh Perspective on Your Agency Those meetings were such a success they turned into an annual event for his agency. Every year they organized meetings to tackle: how can we renew? What can we change? What can we add? And the second half focuses on what they can remove and simplify. The big takeaway has been simplicity. These meetings have helped his agency build its culture of innovation and allow its team to bring their own perspective. More recently, they are focused on the importance of getting external motivation outside of the agency. It's about maybe finding a peer group or mastermind and learning from someone with a new perspective. Oftentimes, it's the agency owner who gets to experience these things, but they are trying to come up with ways for employees to also have these experiences. Want the Support of Amazing Digital Agency Owners? If you want to be around amazing agency owners that can see you may not be able to see and help you grow your agency, go to the Digital Agency Elite to learn all about our exclusive mastermind.

Veteran's Day is Friday, November 11. In this episode, we celebrate those who have and who currently serve and the special skill set they bring to their civilian roles. Hartford HealthCare's Steve Coates talks with Keith Grant, APRN, vice president of operations for the Hartford Region and United States Air Force reservist.Keith also served as Hartford HeathCare's senior system director of infection prevention throughout the pandemic. Once COVID-19 hit Connecticut, Keith became one of the trusted voices and faces that would update the state regularly through the crisis. His expertise and leadership skills helped both his colleagues and the general public navigate through very uncertain times. Check this episode's links to learn more about Keith Grant, COVID 19 vaccines and resources and Hartford HealthCare's partnership with Jamaica. Follow More Life to be notified each time a new episode drops. Just search Hartford HealthCare on your favorite podcast platform.Watch: Keith Grant - We Stand TogetherRead: Hartford HealthCare Celebrates Special Partnership with the Jamaican Health ConsulateHartford HealthCare: COVID 19 Vaccines and resources

In this episode we interview Ashley and Lennon who are living full time in their RV. Growing up, they both loved the outdoors and were influenced by their parents to travel. It wasn't until 2008 that they met by chance. You could say it was love at first sight (more on that in the episode), and judging how things turned out it was fate. Soon they got married and began traveling the world together. Once COVID hit they realized all they needed was each other and turned to a minimalist lifestyle. After much planning, they sold everything, bought a RV and hit the road. There were some hiccups getting started, but they made the right choice. Now they're on a mission of hitting all 50 states as they please. If you've ever wondered what goes into living a life on the road, how to budget for it, or just want a good love story, then this one's for you! Tweet us and let us know what you think of this episode! @illuminecollect Find more episodes at https://illuminecollect.com/blogs/news/life-in-motion-podcast Since 2017 Illumine has donated over $28,404 to outdoor nonprofits and shared over 123 stories on the Life in Motion Podcast.

Once COVID hit the U.S., everything from fuel to construction material shortages spun out of control - supply chains shut down, materials became a lot more expensive, and it became very difficult to predict when (or if) materials would become available. This episode of the Digging Deeper podcast features Jonathan Kozlowski's interview with Maria Rioumine, CEO and founder of Kojo, to get a look at what's happening currently and how modern technology can help.

How Americans Bankrolled the Chinese Regime's War Against Us. Frank Gaffney. American Thought Leaders  Aug 26 2022   The Chinese Communist Party has “killed at least 100 million human beings out of the womb and they claim they've killed 400 million still in the womb. This is unprecedented in terms of man's inhumanity to man,” says Frank Gaffney. Gaffney is the executive chairman at the Center for Security Policy and the co-author of the new report, “The CCP is at War with America,” which breaks down the Chinese regime's global ambitions and the ways in which it conducts unrestricted warfare against the United States. “Once [COVID-19] was out of the laboratory—whether by accident or unleashed purposefully—what we know happened is that the Chinese Communist Party deliberately, purposefully, and malevolently released it on the rest of the world,” Gaffney says. In the last few decades, he argues that the United States has poured trillions of dollars into the Chinese economy, in effect bankrolling the Chinese Communist Party's war on America. “Every American—and there's about 160 million of us, we reckon, who has money in the U.S. capital markets today—must say to their financial managers, their pension fund managers, the people who are handling their investments, ‘I don't want my money invested in Chinese Communist Party companies. Period. Get it out of there.' Do it while you still can, by the way.” Follow EpochTV on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/EpochTVus Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/EpochTV Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@EpochTV Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/epochtv Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EpochTVus Gab: https://gab.com/EpochTV Telegram: https://t.me/EpochTV   American Thought Leaders on Podcast Addict- https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/3704041  

Once Covid hit us in 2019, many things changed in our lives.  One of the things that changed for us is having dinner parties.  I love to have people over for dinner, and I really have missed this experience.  I love to set the table with my good dishes and have it look beautiful and inviting when people gather to eat.  I especially love it when everyone sits down at the table to simply enjoy the food, the conversation, and the entire experience of table fellowship.  I really believe that extending hospitality to others by eating together is a vital, deeply meaningful aspect of what it means to be human.  The writer of Luke's gospel understood meal-time hospitality and table fellowship.  Luke's gospel contains more meal-time scenes than any of the other gospels.   In fact, meal-time experiences and dinner party gatherings were one way in which the writer of Luke described and portrayed a vision of the Christian life.  In Luke, Jesus is frequently eating, drinking, partying, and participating in table fellowship with all kinds of people.  Eating with people from various backgrounds and walks of life was a frequent occurrence for Jesus whether it was in Emmaus, in an upper room, in the fields along the road as his disciples plucked heads of grain, in the home of a despised tax collector, in the homes of respected religious leaders, or as we see today, in the home of an unnamed Pharisee who offers Jesus hospitality for a Sabbath dinner.  The highly respected, social climbing, religious Pharisees are watching Jesus very closely, watching his every move.  And Jesus has been watching their behavior.  Having observed how they chose banquet seats and noting how they elbowed themselves into the place of honor, Jesus begins to give advice on table fellowship and hospitality, Jesus' style. He says, “When someone invites you to dinner, don't take the place of honor.  Somebody more important than you might have been invited by the host.  Then he'll come and call out in front of everybody, ‘You're in the wrong place.  The place of honor belongs to this man.'  Red-faced, you'll have to make your way to the very last table, the only place left.  When you're invited to dinner, go and sit at the last place.  Then when the host comes, he may very well say, ‘Friend, come up to the front.'  That will give the dinner guests something to talk about!  What I'm saying is, if you walk around with your nose in the air, you're going to end up flat on your face.  But if you're content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”           Referencing verses in the book of Proverbs, the same verses which were our first reading this morning, Jesus advises the hustling guests to not rush to the head of the dining room but sit in a humbler location on the happy chance they should be invited closer to the attractive host.  Well, Jesus' words would have been very disconcerting and offensive to these guests.  They lived in and were the embodiment of an honor-shame culture in which issues of status, recognition, and score keeping were of utmost importance.  Jesus' words would have been humiliating because moving to a lower position would mean a drop in prestige and a loss of social capital. But this was not all Jesus had to say.  There is more to come because Jesus is not done with his critique.  After criticizing the group regarding guest etiquette, he daringly turns to the host and gives a lesson in hospitality.   Jesus says, “The next time you put on a dinner, don't just invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor.  Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks.  You'll be to others a blessing. And you will also experience a blessing.  They won't be able to return the favor, but the favor will be returned – oh, how it will be returned! – at the resurrection of God's people.” In this scene, the writer of Luke's gospel inverts traditional, cultural banquet etiquette and table fellowship.  First, he criticizes the behavior of the prestige seeking guests, then he lectures the host about how he should have invited all those they considered losers in the community.  I have to say Jesus' words and methods were not going to win friends and influence people.  But Jesus was never a candidate for the congeniality award.  Theologian, Robert Capon, writes this about Jesus' response: Jesus is at pains, as [at this point in Luke's gospel] he has been all through his final journey to Jerusalem, to set forth death and lostness, not life and success, as the means of salvation.  And at this dinner party he has found himself in the presence of a bunch of certified, solid-brass winners: establishment types who are positive they've got all the right tickets, religious and otherwise, and who think a fun evening consists of clawing your way to the top of the social heap.  Therefore, when he addresses them, he is principally concerned to redress the imbalance he feels all around him, to assert once again his conviction that a life lived by winning is a losing proposition.  (The Parables of Grace, p.125.) We are a people who specialize in winning, score keeping, and bookkeeping. We like to strive to be first, to be important and be winners.  And we do this by keeping records and keeping score, by focusing on being on top and being front-runners, by constantly juggling accounts in our heads.  We are enslaved to our bookkeeping, our ladder climbing and our scorekeeping.  And, in the person of Jesus, God has announced that God has once and for all, forever, pensioned off the bookkeeping department!  God has in fact rejected our bookkeeping.  Jesus warns the host and each one of us to not consult the records we keep on people:  not the Friend/Foe ledger, not the Rich/Poor volume, not any of the Nice/Nasty, Winners/Losers, or Good/Bad journals and books we keep on people.  I have to say, letting go of that is hard, very hard.  But, as far as God is concerned, that way of doing business is over and done with.  As Robert Capon says, “It may be our sacred conviction that the only way to keep God happy, the stars in their courses, our children safe, our psyches adjusted, and our neighbors reasonable is to be ready, at every moment, to have the books we have kept on ourselves and others audited.  But that is not God's conviction because God has taken away the handwriting that was against us.  In Jesus' death and resurrection, God has declared that God isn't the least interested in examining anybody's books ever again, not even God's own:  he's nailed them all to the cross.”  Jesus is saying to each one of us, “Listen, you are mired in your scorekeeping lives.  You are so busy trying to hold the world together by getting your accounts straight that you hardly have time to notice that it's falling apart faster than ever.  Why don't you just let go?  Why don't you just let that die?  Thumb your nose at the ledger!  Drop dead to the accounting!  Because it's not just one more thing that can't save you; it's the flypaper that catches everything else that can't save you and leaves you stuck with it forever.  Look, I'm on my way to Jerusalem to die so you can be saved, free for nothing.  I'm going up there to give you a dramatic demonstration of shutting up once and for all the subject of divine bookkeeping.  What's the point, then, of your keeping records when I'm not?” (Robert Capon) Yes, meal-time experiences and parties were one way in which the writer of Luke described and portrayed a vision of the Christian life.  And the banquet is a symbol of the reign of God.  Table fellowship becomes a metaphor for the kingdom of God, where social boundaries and unjust divisions in human community no longer exist.  Jesus embodies radical hospitality.  Jesus invites us to stop the bookkeeping and let go of all imposed boundaries and distinctions we try to create.  Jesus invites us to be the hospitable, welcoming community of God's people we are called to be.  Jesus' words reach across boundaries of place and time and call us to bear witness to the fellowship that truly exists between God and humanity.  Jesus' words call us to let go of our score keeping and live into the joy and freedom of fellowship with God and all others.  Such fellowship is all about grace, the grace and love in which God holds not only us, but the entire cosmos.  That is table fellowship Jesus' style!

The Chinese Communist Party has “killed at least 100 million human beings out of the womb and they claim they've killed 400 million still in the womb. This is unprecedented in terms of man's inhumanity to man,” says Frank Gaffney. Gaffney is the executive chairman at the Center for Security Policy and the co-author of the new report, “The CCP is at War with America,” which breaks down the Chinese regime's global ambitions and the ways in which it conducts unrestricted warfare against the United States. “Once [COVID-19] was out of the laboratory—whether by accident or unleashed purposefully—what we know happened is that the Chinese Communist Party deliberately, purposefully, and malevolently released it on the rest of the world,” Gaffney says. In the last few decades, he argues that the United States has poured trillions of dollars into the Chinese economy, in effect bankrolling the Chinese Communist Party's war on America. “Every American—and there's about 160 million of us, we reckon, who has money in the U.S. capital markets today—must say to their financial managers, their pension fund managers, the people who are handling their investments, ‘I don't want my money invested in Chinese Communist Party companies. Period. Get it out of there.' Do it while you still can, by the way.” Follow EpochTV on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/EpochTVus Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/EpochTV Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@EpochTV Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/epochtv Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EpochTVus Gab: https://gab.com/EpochTV Telegram: https://t.me/EpochTV

OVERVIEWFor our second episode of season 5, we caught up with Matt Gentry, owner of Gentry Custom Knives. Based out of southwest Michigan, Gentry crafts each custom knife himself, to the exact specifications of the customer. Amongst Matt's work, you'll find hog splitters, fixed-blade bird and trout knives, gut-hook skinners and even chef's knives. Listen in as Matt chats with our hosts Jeremy and Eric about learning a craft with the help of YouTube, the ins and outs of getting into social media, how COVID impacted his career trajectory, and much more. ABOUT MATTWhen Matt started making knives about eight years ago, it was just a hobby. After receiving a handful of inquiries into how to buy one of these custom knives, he realized this could be more than a hobby. He took it on as a side hustle to supplement his income and things took off from there. Once COVID hit and his day job took a hit, however, he realized this knife business could be something much bigger. “After doing that for like a week, I was like, man, we got to make a change. And I got to sell this business because it's just way more lucrative to make knives and just I enjoyed it a lot more, you know.” He sold his half of his auto shop to his business partner and went all-in on the knife work, which has taken off in a big way. He's now seen so much success that he just takes custom orders; he's already booked into 2023. What makes his business special is that anyone can contact him, share their vision for the knife and from there, the rest is up to him. While it is still a job, he's in a place he wants to be — and he doesn't take it for granted. “A lot of people that reach out to me like, Matt, what do you do? And how do you do it? And I think I'm not saying it's locked [in], because I've worked my ass off to promote and grow and do all this stuff. But I just am really, really grateful for all the awesome customers that I've gained over the years.”

In this episode of the Run Breiter Podcast, Matt Choi who is a very influential guest is brought on! If you're a runner, and you're on Tik Tok/Instagram, I'd be surprised if you haven't seen any of Matt's content. Matt gives high level running tips & advice, and share his journey. Matt didn't always enjoy running, and up to the end of his college years was a football player. Once COVID hit, he found a love for running. He also left the corporate world to pursue both personal training and creating running content, and has since been able to grow a huge audience for his personal brand. Matt has ran multiple marathons, where he recently broke a 3 hour marathon qualifying for Boston. He also has done a 50 mile and 100 mile Ultra Marathon, as well as the David Goggins  4x4x48 challenge. Matt has over 300k Followers on TikTok, 85k Instagram Followers, 34k Subscribers on YouTube, which has allowed his to monetize and grow his personal brand! Enjoy this awesome episode, and of course don't forget to Run Breiter.  

This podcast is for informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your mental health professional or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding your condition.   There's no doubt in Judith Bess's mind that the past two years of pandemic living have been traumatic for nearly all of us. As global head of the employee assistance and work life program at JP Morgan Chase, Judith has been privileged to witness and assist JP Morgan Chase employees as they navigate the impacts on their mental health. In this episode, she sits down with Women on the Move host Sam Saperstein to discuss her journey to leadership, how the pandemic gave people permission to be vulnerable, and how connections with others are so critical to our wellbeing. Two leadership lessons With a social work background, Judith started at JPMorgan Chase early in her career expecting to stay for a short time. Instead, she fell in love with the work and the firm and has stayed for nearly three decades. She's found her background a perfect fit for the employee assistance and work-life programs she heads. “When you're working within an industry like ours, every management triangle is a family. And so you can apply the same systems that you would in a family, right to the corporation,” she tells Sam. Judith discusses her transition from being an EAP counselor to heading the firm's global program, and she shares two invaluable lessons she learned. The first was from a senior HR leader who told her, as she was taking over the management position, that she could build on what had been working well but she could also assess what wasn't working well and what she wanted to do differently; she gave Judith permission to make changes. The second lesson came from outside the firm, from a book by Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign marketing director. “Her book really talked a little bit more about how for Hillary Clinton, they marketed her like they would market a man and they left off her female characteristics, her warmth, her familial attention, her endurance, her ability to bring the community together,” Judith recalls. “And I thought, you know what? I don't have to do it that way. I can come into this with me being a woman and being okay, but being a woman of color and coming into this role.” EAPs and the pandemic Assuming her leadership role just before the pandemic broke out means that “COVID kind of took over my first two years,” Judith says. For one thing, the pandemic highlighted the importance of the assistance program that had been in place for decades. “Once COVID hit in 2020, I think the recognition of the impact to our mental health and our wellbeing became so very clear, and the need for something to really help us learn and not isolate and be able to heal and find coping tips along the way, shot EAP out of a cannon,” she says. One response to the increased need brought on by the pandemic was the introduction of Coping Connections, an online group support model. “We came into Zoom rooms—and still do every week—to support one another, to allow for people to come into the room and say, you know what? I'm not doing great today. And how are you doing? And to really share with one another and break the seal on having to feel like we had to pull it all together all the time,” she describes. “And I saw thousands of people come through. It was amazing.” As employees return to the office, Judith hopes the increased focus on and awareness of the importance of mental health will continue—and that more employees will recognize and utilize the convenience of the EAP. She hopes employees will bring with them the lessons learned from remote work: “You may have 20 things on your to-do list, but how can you listen to good music while you're doing it? Or how can you bring a little bit of sunshine into your day?” In the future, she says, we all have the possibility of changing. “Look what we did to the business world,” she notes. “We're in a hybrid work environment. We can do this. We can make sure that we have an adjustment to our life and our lifestyle, and we can get things done yet push the envelope on what might have been something that was just antiquated at this point. COVID taught us that we could do anything anywhere. So I'm really, really hopeful that we can get creative about what our needs are. How do we bring more joy into everything we do?”   full transcript here

After losing her mom at age 25, Melissa spent over ten years struggling with her pain and grief, which ended up resulting in overwhelming anxiety. Once Covid hit, all the emotions that she had tried to not face came to the surface and she finally stepped towards processing her emotions of trauma and loss. Therapy helped her from feeling alone in her struggles and being unsure of her purpose to living being the “real Melissa” - a woman who wasn't afraid of being vulnerable, facing her shame and guilt, and learning to tune into compassion. She now knows that it's through stillness, calmness and presence that we can allow ourselves to heal and feel, and is now inspired to have more conversations with others to help them do the same.   Melissa's bio: After losing her Mom at the age of 25, she would spend the next ten years not processing the trauma, losing her self confidence along the way, and feeling alone in her struggles. This all came to a head in 2020 when the whole world was hurting, Melissa decided to turn her pain into her purpose and start healing. Simultaneously while starting therapy, she started thinking about her true purpose in life. She looked out into the world and saw other people hurting as well, and wanted to help. Now she puts joy back into people's hearts through her podcast, The Bright Side of Life, where she talks to people that have successfully navigated their way back to joy and happiness despite their struggles, pain and grief.   Learn more here: https://www.thebrightsideoflifepodcast.com/ https://www.facebook.com/MelBright13 https://www.instagram.com/the.bright.side.of.life_/

About Erin Ewing Erin Ewing is the CEO and co-founder of Greener Matters, a group of sustainability consultants firmly committed to helping businesses prepare themselves for the new economy of the triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit. Before becoming a sustainability professional, he had a 20-year career in media, starting out in classified sales for Dennis publishing then swiftly shifting into digital at CNET Networks, where he began his journey in digital and business transformation. Erin transferred all of his skills to sustainability after having the opportunity to help build Channel 4's sustainability strategy in 2019. Once Covid hit he seized the opportunity to hit the reset button and launch Greener Matters with his business partner. Erin is on a mission to help businesses understand that they can be profitable and equitable to society whilst also sustaining our planet for future generations. He believes that the urgent challenges that are now facing the world need a radically different way of doing business, which is why Greener Matters now exists, to help realise a vision of fair and just prosperity. He firmly believes that business can help solve the social and environmental challenges facing us today by working together in collaboration, by reprioritising our values and making planet and people as important as profit.  The old way of doing things is slowly dying and a new collective, caring and compassionate way of being is now within reach. Originally from Buffalo, NY, Erin has lived and worked in the UK since 1998,with a 4-year stint in the Middle East between 2009-2013.

On today's episode, Laura's guest is her dear friend and forever teammate, Hank Richardson. Hank earned a full scholarship for diving to the University of Florida, where he went on to become a ten-time All-American, a US national champion, and a national team member for USA diving. Hank retired from diving when he graduated from college, but some of his old injuries continued to plague him long after he left the pool, the pain becoming so severe that it started to impact his ability to enjoy work. At the urging of a friend, Hank tried a Pilates/yoga/ballet hybrid class and found himself at the beginning of something special: not only did he start managing his pain and experiencing relief, but it led to him teaching classes, opening new studios, and going back to school to get a Master's in business. His senior project in his MBA program became the foundation on which his health and well-being studio, DEFINE, was created. DEFINE has now expanded throughout Houston, the US, and across the globe, but pain management and physical fitness are only part of Hank's passion. He is also a well-being and positive psychology expert, and today, he and Laura discuss positive ways to reframe your thinking and how positive psychology can help and impact athletes on their journey to greatness. First, Hank gives us the lowdown on his remarkable journey, from learning to dive at Camp Longhorn to becoming a champion diver, and giving up diving because of a back injury, before sharing how he transitioned from teaching to fitness instruction to business school. Then he tells the story of surviving month-to-month when launching DEFINE and how he expanded the business into a global franchise, including how he survived COVID by pivoting into online services. Next, Hank talks about his decision to go back to school to get his Master's degree in applied positive psychology and how it has influenced his worldview and business, with DEFINE shifting into a well-being hub with a mission to enrich its members' lives. He also has some advice on how to incorporate positive psychology into your everyday life and how it can help athletes develop resiliency and focus on strengths rather than weaknesses, as well as how meditation and mindfulness can work in partnership to improve self-awareness and enable positivity. Laura then asks Hank about his partnership with Education Based Housing, a nonprofit working with cost-burdened households to provide access to quality housing, and Hank discusses his passion for creating circles of well-being within communities and how DEFINE will offer well-being services through this partnership. And finally, Hank offers his thoughts on what has made DEFINE so successful, pointing to its mission to offer a service that truly helps its communities, and gives some advice to current athletes and coaches, emphasizing the importance of focusing on personal strengths and creatively applying them in challenging situations. Hank's story of determination, resiliency, and willingness to keep learning and developing will captivate and inspire athletes and non-athletes alike to focus on their strengths, keep a positive outlook, and never give up on their dreams. Episode Highlights: How Hank got into diving with lessons at Camp Longhorn Transitioning from school athlete to college athlete Hank's back injury and how diving both caused it and kept it in check Moving on from diving to teaching sixth graders in the South Bronx How Hank followed his passion for movement and interest in health into teaching yoga and Pilates Going back to business school and figuring out his dream of opening his own studio Launching DEFINE and expanding into a franchise Dealing with the impact of COVID by pivoting to online Hank's Master's in applied positive psychology and how it transformed DEFINE into a well-being hub Hank's advice on incorporating positive psychology in your life What Hank would change if he could go back in time with the knowledge he has now The importance of resiliency when a setback occurs Hank's opinion on the benefits of mindfulness and meditation DEFINE's partnership with Education Based Housing, a nonprofit working with cost-burdened households to provide access to quality housing What Hank believes has made DEFINE successful Hank's advice for current athletes and coaches Quotes: “Diving, it truly was a way of utilizing movement as a self-expression. And you know, the many lessons that all of us learned in diving, the overcoming fears, the setting goals and accomplishing them, the concept of resiliency, even during injuries, etc. It's such a powerful, powerful sport.” “Being a student athlete, you are literally performing a job in some ways. You are studying for school, you're going to school, you're training first thing in the morning, you're training in the evening, you're eating, I mean, it's very regimented. Right. And I know for a fact, it made me a much stronger, better person. But I remember that first year being like, oh my gosh, I don't know if I can continue doing this.” “The good thing about the mindset that, really, work being physically hard created is that when we got to the end of the year, I actually really knew I deserved it. I was like, I've worked so hard, I deserve to do well at this NCAA championship. And so that worked, but at the same time, by the end of the year, I was a little burnt out physically, mentally, emotionally.” “It's called spondylolisthesis. And you know, it's manageable. A lot of people have to have fusions done. But that's really how I started getting into the next phase of my life, which was really getting into yoga and Pilates to help to prevent to have to have the fusion.” “When I started thinking about the classes and the things that I really, really loved, it was centered around psychology, it was centered around education, it was around mindset. And so I applied for this program called Teach for America. And they placed me to teach sixth-graders in the South Bronx, and it was truly a life-transforming experience.” “I give all the respect in the world to schoolteachers. Any school has its challenges, any grade level has its challenges. And so working with the various teachers that were in our public school setting just gave me the most utmost respect for what school teachers do on a daily basis.” “I never really thought of myself as being, like, a fitness instructor as my goal in all of this, but I loved working with clients, I loved working with people. And that has been kind of the consistent theme for me throughout. And when you believe in a product or a service so much because of its own transformative benefits that you've received, it's impossible to not want to share that, truly.” “My professor, within that same timeframe, said something that changed my life. He said, ‘You know what? Don't take a job just because it's available.' He said, ‘Do something that will define your role in this world.' And I, literally, the light bulb went off, the chills in my body. And I'll be honest, because it's a process of overcoming fear in many ways, just like diving, that I was like, I don't know if I'm going to open up a studio, but if I do, I know I'm going to name it ‘Define.'” “There are also a lot of negatives, challenges, that can also happen because of the franchise model. And a lot of it is because the mindset of a franchisee is that they own a business, whereas really, they're just licensing the name and the services of the business.” “Once COVID hit, it was a survival mindset and a little bit of a free-for-all. And truly, people felt like they had to do whatever they needed to do to make sure that they survived, and we really responded quickly by pivoting. Within just a few days, our entire business shifted online, we started Zoom classes, we had an on-demand platform.” “The concept is that if we're just focusing on our weaknesses, well, that's how we're going to feel when we're living our lives. Versus if we can put our energy and focus on our strengths, then it's going to have that ability for us to find more of a state of flow, more of a state of ease and also be able to be more proficient.” “It's not simply about just being focused on the good, right? It's also coming up with a plan for when things don't go the way you expected, how to kind of overcome that.” “What I ultimately realized is that what meditation is doing is it's training us simply to become more aware. More aware of our internal dialogue, more aware of the stories we tell about other people or ourselves, more aware of truly how we feel being around certain people, or how we feel about, you know, certain activities that we do.” “I love the analogy for meditation where it's like, you know, you can go a couple of days without showering and not a lot of people notice, but after a while, you know, people are gonna notice, right? And I feel the same way about my meditation. Like, I can go a couple days, and it's not a big deal. But if I go for more than three, four, or five days, my attitude's a little stinky.” “One of my huge passions is about supporting and providing and helping to create circles of, you know, well-being if you will, and support. I feel like the studio business, it caters to a very specific demographic, and that demographic is people who can afford to come and take those types of services. And there's so much that could be done and said in our world that could help various people.” “Walking into the store of DEFINE, it needs to be an experience, and that experience should be, you know, welcoming, it should be truly nurturing in many ways, but at the same time pushing you and challenging you enough to get something out of it. So I think people come to us for that reason.” “It's important that we focus on strengths. And as a mentor or as an athlete, it's important for us to help discover that strength, whether it's a parent role, or a mentor role, or a coaching role, helping to really look at the strength of the individual.” “Instead of using some of their weaknesses, which is very common in a challenging situation, we can now train ourselves to look at our strengths and use creative ways of applying that to our lives.” **Pursuit of Gold Podcast is brought to you by Kaatsu Global.** Links: The Pursuit of Gold Website The Confidence Journal Life at 10 Meters: Lessons from an Olympic Champion Laura's Social Media: Laura's Instagram Laura's Facebook Hank's Links: DEFINE homepage DEFINELIFE homepage Hank's Instagram

Today's podcast guest is Fumi Ogunsemore, RN & founder of Valley of Joy Home Care. Starting off as an LPN in a nursing home, Fumi found her passion for helping elderly patients and quickly went back to school to become an RN. Once COVID hit, Fumi saw a need for high quality home care that was patient centered, which is why she started Valley of Joy Home Care, which not only provides quality home care, but acts as a staffing agency for healthcare professionals. From passing out flyers to putting up ads, Fumi started off with staffing her agency, then quickly moved to providing home care services once her team was formed. In order to provide the best service to her patients, Fumi had to delve into the world of Medicare before she started her agency. She continues to keep up with Medicare education to ensure that she can provide covered care to her patients. In terms of her staffing agency, Fumi goes the extra mile to accommodate her employees by providing them with housing and coverage for certain travel expenses while they are working away from home. Fumi also looks forward to starting a nursing home in the future! To learn more about Fumi and all of her services, visit http://www.valleyofjoyhomecare.com/. Don't Miss These Moments: How to market home care and get patients. Understanding the challenges of owning & operating a home care agency. Medicare credentials. What's next for Fumi & Valley of Joy Home Care?

This week on Kansas City Confidential, local jeweler Emily Walters from Hazel and Ollie talks about her long time career in the jewelry making businesses and what inspires her to create wearables for adults and kids. Once COVID hit and mask mandates were installed, Emily was quick to pivot her business to include masks in her inventory. Being a KC native and no stranger to the food scene, Emily talks about some of the restaurants her and her husband have recently tried.  Special products that take more time to create, typically drop during product launches and tend to sell out within hours. Be sure to follow @hazelandollie on Instagram and check out her website https://hazelandollie.com    Music by Victoria Ball Logo designed by Alexa Cohn 

After spending their formative years in the regional circuit, Set For Tomorrow found their definitive lineup in Autumn 2019 with vocalist Patrick Ryan, guitarist/founding member Mikey Canoy, and bassist Brendan McGlathery. The group was later completed by drummer Deej Virtudazo and guitarist James Lovato the following year. During the 2020 pandemic, the band released multiple singles, and a concept video trilogy that includes ‘What Made You Stay', ‘Purgatory' and ‘Orphic'. It's a story about loss and succumbing to the dark side of the supernatural. In April 2021, they released their first EP with their new lineup. ‘Dreaming in Analogue' was met with high praise, and the band released two music videos to support its release with ‘Hearts in Doubt' and ‘Hopeless'. Once COVID restrictions had been lifted, they quickly began playing shows again, including dates at Launch Music Conference and Blue Ridge Rock Festival. With nearly 40 years of experience between them, the band strives to put on the most memorable live performance possible. Set For Tomorrow is all about working towards being the best version of yourself, and that is what they aim to convey through their music. Set For Tomorrow's new release "Soul Purpose" Is available now! Spotify – Set for Tomorrow Set For Tomorrow | Facebook ⏳

Episode 49 - The Best of 2021As I sit here today recording the last podcast episode of 2021, I'm excited to be coming up on my 1-year anniversary of hosting A Life You Love: Sales Tips with Jennifer Fisher and I want to say a huge thank you to all my listeners who have supported me throughout 2021. As I reflect on this past year, I want to take time to highlight a few of my top episodes from 2021. The first one is “Overcoming Challenges”.Like many people in March of 2020, Covid completely wreaked havoc in everyone's lives, both personal and professional. Through these trying times, we all learned how to tap into our own internal strength through, determination, grit, and resiliency. The ability to bounce back from a negative experience or difficult challenge. Finding a way, moving forward past obstacles, and not settling for the status quo.As a practitioner in the field and managing a team of salespeople through the toughest challenge and most stressful time of my career, selling through Covid. Working for a global sales company, when the news of Covid was spreading through Asia in January and February 2020, I was able to immediately pivot and implement a strategy to continue selling in other regions of the world while continuing to grow revenue. As Covid spread through Europe, I was able to pivot again and implemented another strategy to focus on different areas of growth. Once Covid reached the U.S. I was able to pivot a third time and implemented a different strategy to continue moving the team forward successfully. While the rest of the world was in crisis mode, my sales team saw their numbers for March, April, and May of 2020 as our best sales months on record. How could that happen? Well, I'll tell you how it can happen. Very intentionally. Focusing on what you can control, what you can do, and the impact you can have on the people around you, will help guide you through even the most challenging situations. And in this situation, what I could control was the successful pivot in strategy that was implemented. The intentional strategy and sales approach were designed to drive results. Every pivot was intentional, tied into the overall strategy, to drive results. We were at a time where it was easy to feel overwhelmed as the business landscape changed drastically and overnight. Everyone was working from home, figuring out technical issues; college campuses literally shut down, daycare became non-existent at the beginning. Focusing on what you can control, this was key as we maneuvered 3 successful pivots in a very short amount of time. One of my sales colleagues has this amazing saying, “Always be ready, so you don't have to take time to get ready”. This is profound, yet simple. It's definitely easier to give up in the moment and be overwhelmed with the gravity of the situation. And in the case of Covid, it's perfectly understandable to do that.  Reflecting on my past journey, resiliency, and training, stopping was not an option. Doing nothing was not an option. Overcoming challenges and obstacles in my past led me to this very moment, the ability to lead my team through the toughest obstacles and find new ways to succeed, grow, build, and deepen relationships. My boss still reminds me of comments I made in March 2020 as I discussed my new strategy and pivot, I stated with passion and excitement, “I was born for this – here's what we're going to do”. I continued to discuss the strategy and implementation, which again, led us to our best sales months in March, April, and May 2020. Next up is my episode on prospecting:Good prospecting is extremely essential for finding new business. The better you are at finding prospects who you can help and support with your services, the more likely you are to turn them into happy customers down the road. Finding new customers and growing your busi

Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 39:39) > Buying used clothes is far from a new phenomenon; a certain segment of every new generation of teens and 20-somethings invariably gets drawn into spending time combing through the racks at thrift shops. But in the last decade, the emergence of online, peer-to-peer fashion resale marketplaces has turned the act of purchasing and selling used clothes into a much more mainstream activity. Even before the pandemic, the growing interest in sustainability and the circular economy had helped increase interest in this brand of grassroots-driven ecommerce. Once Covid-19 began, more and more people forced to stay at home found themselves going through their closets to see what potential merchandise they had to offer. Vestiaire Collective is one of the top start-ups helping to drive this trend, and its CEO, Max Bittner, joins us to talk about the challenges and opportunities in the thriving space.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Buying used clothes is far from a new phenomenon; a certain segment of every new generation of teens and 20-somethings invariably gets drawn into spending time combing through the racks at thrift shops. But in the last decade, the emergence of online, peer-to-peer fashion resale marketplaces has turned the act of purchasing and selling used clothes into a much more mainstream activity. Even before the pandemic, the growing interest in sustainability and the circular economy had helped increase interest in this brand of grassroots-driven ecommerce. Once Covid-19 began, more and more people forced to stay at home found themselves going through their closets to see what potential merchandise they had to offer. Vestiaire Collective is one of the top start-ups helping to drive this trend, and its CEO, Max Bittner, joins us to talk about the challenges and opportunities in the thriving space. Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 39:39) >

With almost 25 years of experience, today's guest has taken the trucking industry by storm. Brad Ball, the president of Roadmasters Driver School, joins the Host of Disruption / Interruption, Karla Jo, to talk about how he is disrupting the trucking industry and making it more accessible to anyone!   Takeaways:   The top ingredient for disruption is accessibility. You need to be accessible for people to find your company. Once COVID hit, the trucking industry started taking a big hit. Employees close to retirement age took their retirement early, and others left their jobs, all while the e-commerce boom demanded more from truckers.  The trucks nowadays are much more comfortable and easier to manage than have been in previous years.  Trucking is an industry where there is no pay gap tied to gender or race.  Vocational fields are great opportunities. It takes about 4 weeks to learn how to drive a truck, and it provides a great opportunity for a career. Trucking is a career that is both recession proof and pandemic proof. While it was difficult during the pandemic, it was not shut down like restaurants or other lines of work.   Quote of the show:   9:54 “We can take people that are unemployed or underemployed, regardless of your education status and introduce a career opportunity where there is no pay gap tied to race or gender. So, essentially the opportunity is there for anyone that walks in our door, regardless of what your background is or your education history, because this industry is not looking for degrees.   This is an industry that is looking for people that have a great desire to work and are looking for an opportunity to improve their life. It's really accessible again to just about every aspect of society.”   Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-ball-b0b75616/  Company Website: www.roadmaster.com     Ways to Tune In: Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/eccda84d-4d5b-4c52-ba54-7fd8af3cbe87/disruption-interruption Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disruption-interruption/id1581985755 Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cub21ueWNvbnRlbnQuY29tL2QvcGxheWxpc3QvODE5NjRmY2EtYTQ5OC00NTAyLThjZjktYWI3YzAwMmRiZTM2LzNiZTZiNzJhLWEzODItNDhhNS04MDc5LWFmYTAwMTI2M2FiNi9kZDYzMGE4Mi04ZGI4LTQyMGUtOGNmYi1hZmEwMDEyNjNhZDkvcG9kY2FzdC5yc3M=  Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6yGSwcSp8J354awJkCmJlD Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/disruption-interruption YouTube - https://youtu.be/JAGDhpXGPJg See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Miriam Weiskind is a New-York based pizza connoisseur who started The Za Report during the pandemic and built up major media buzz by baking apartment pizzas and giving them away to anyone who need a hot meal. She likes to say she's just a small town girl from Dayton, Ohio, who moved to NYC in 2004 on a coin toss and a few hundred dollars in her pocket. Little did she know that her calling would be pizza. For the last eight years, she spent every Friday leading 16 strangers around NYC on the greatest tour NYC offered—the tour that retraced the footsteps of the evolution of pizza, it's history and teaching the science behind cheese, sauce and crust. In 2019, she started baking pizza at home, she and quickly got a job at a pizza place to learn the ropes. Once Covid hit, she turned her passion into purpose by making 12 pies a night to give away. She encourages everyone to have a "Slice Day," and no, she's not kidding. Listen in to hear her truly inspiring entrepreneurial and the twists and turns in her story, plus how she comes up with her creative pies.

Did a victim of Covid, return from the grave to live a new life on the other side? Here is a preview of the story. “The building is an older building, so the restroom is in the basement and the nearest breakroom is on the 2nd floor. Sadly, last July our nighttime security guard, Charles, passed away from Covid19.  Charles was an older gentleman, very friendly and as a former Marine, he took his job very seriously. Pre-Covid, a few times a week I would bring him in a cup of coffee in the morning as he would be ending his shift about the time I came in for work. Most days he would stick around a few minutes and chat with me before he left. Charles would often complain about the cleaning crew that came in in the evenings saying that they would turn all the lights on in the office, and just leave them on when they were done. He would joke that most of his job was turning off the lights and cleaning up after the cleaning crew. Once Covid hit, the cleaning crew stopped coming and the Charles was only there over the weekend. So unfortunately, I didn't see much of him before he got sick.” Watch more at: http://www.realghoststoriesonline.com/ If you have a real ghost story or supernatural event to report, please write into our show or call 1-855-853-4802! If you like the show, please help keep us on the air and support the show by becoming an EPP (Extra Podcast Person). We'll give you a BONUS episode every week as a "Thank You" for your support. Become an EPP here: http://www.ghostpodcast.com/?page_id=118 or at or at http://www.patreon.com/realghoststories

Jeremy was born in Kenosha Wisconsin where he was always cracking jokes at a young age. In school he was quickly labeled as a class clown but also still loved by his teachers. As Jeremy got older he began working in customer service and always had fun with his coworkers and jokes and pranks were always involved. In 2008, Jeremy, now living in Winona, Minnesota got married to Brittany Stinson. In 2010, Jeremy started to work with his father at Sauk City Specialty Products, which is now known at Kickass Snacks. His job primarily involved meeting up with current customers and providing product knowledge to the distributors. With his gift to gab, the job with his dad seemed to just come natural and the company began to grow rather quickly.On September 11th, Jeremy posted his first ice fishing video and it went viral. After a few weeks of posting fishing and some jokes here and there, he took a trip to Talladega to watch his buddy win the truck races. On the way down, the guys were bored so Jeremy started telling "Littel Johnny" jokes and posted them on Tik Tok. They were an instant hit and went viral. The videos kept climbing and so did Jeremy's following. His Tik Tok grew to over 100,000 followers within the next week. Posting jokes and fishing videos were what Jeremy primarily posted along with some motivational videos. In January of 2020, Jeremy decided to make another page on Tik Tok where he would recreate the jokes from his current page. This page also grew very quickly and now He had 2 pages to post on sometimes up to 9 times a day. Once Covid hit hard in the spring of 2020, Kickass Snacks was hit hard as well losing close to 80% of the wholesale business. Jeremy had now reached 1 million followers and took to Tik Tok for the first time to discuss Kickass Snacks. His following on the platform rallied together and helped save the business with over 2500 orders in the course of 10 days.  Throughout the Summer and early fall months things were starting to slow down and he wasn't sure if he wanted to continue making videos but then something happened. Jeremy started to get messages and comments that his videos were changing people's lives. The laughter that they brought was helping them with their depression and days that nothing seemed to go right. It wasn't until Jeremy received on direct message on Instagram that he knew he had a real purpose to be on Tik Tok.He was sent a message from someone stating that they were going to watch 5 videos that day and at the end of that, he was going to end his life. Jeremy's video was the last video that he saw and it made him laugh so hard that he knew his life was worth living. This is what kept Jeremy posting and his motto is, "Make at least one person smile today"October of 2020 Jeremy decided to add his kids to the regimen of daily comedy on his backup page and it took off like a bat out of hell. His now backup page is become the main page and there was now a new way to hang out with the kids and have fun. Jeremy and his boys and sometimes daughter create jokes in the way of how "Little Johnny" would act and its what the people seem to love. He will continue to do this with his family until people start to lose interest.Since the start of Tik Tok, Jeremy has since got involve in a multitude of other platforms where you can see all of his material. When asked where he sees himself in five years, he says he's just taking it one day at a time and riding the wave. As long as people are laughing and smiling and need someone to bring that little glimpse of happiness in their life, he's here to stay.Support the show (http://www.paypal.me/BangProductions )

The One Thing Podcast welcomes Type 1 Diabetes specialist Dr. Jody Stanislaw to discuss her holistic approach to helping Type 1 Diabetes with blood sugar management and more. (Please see Dr. Jody's social links and bio below) The show outline is as follows: (0:00) opening (0:42) Show Intro (3:07) Difference between: Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes (9:13) Beta Cell Reserve (10:12) Pre-screening for Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) (13:01) Environmental Triggers for TID (14:58) The daily life of a Type 1 Diabetic (17:24) Insulin Injection and Insulin Pumps (17:45) The Basic Factors of Blood Glucose Management (21:52) TID Myths (24:43) Behavioral and Psychological Aspects of T1D (27:39) What's Lacking in conventional T1D care (33:40) The Dawn Phenomenon (42:13) Dr. Jody's Pillars of Health (46:47) Sleep and Blood Sugar (49:27)Hormonal aspects of Blood Sugar (50:16) Innovations in T1D (54:26) Dr. Jody's online programs and consulting practice overview (1:01:06) Closing About Dr. Stanislaw: Dr. Jody Stanislaw received her Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine in 2007, is a Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist, and has lived with type 1 diabetes since the age of 7. Her TEDx talk, Sugar is Not a Treat, has over 2 million views. Her consulting practice is exclusively for people with Type 1 diabetes and is virtual. She has patients in over 10 countries. In addition to teaching patients how to improve their blood sugars, she also supports patients with critical lifestyle areas such as diet, exercise, sleep, and emotional health. (....Once Covid hit, after being struck by all the fear and negativity that was going around the world, she was moved to make a positive impact in some way. She decided to start doing inspirational Facebook Lives everyday M-F to share optimism and tips for how we with T1D can stay healthy and positive in these challenging times. She has done over 150 FB lives since March 2020 and is now reaching more T1Ds than ever before. Her videos have thousands of views, and more and more T1Ds are sending her testimonials about how much her content has helped them....) From her 40+ years of personal plus professional experience with type 1 diabetes, she teaches life-changing information about how to successfully manage this complex condition that standard medical care often leaves out. She has private programs, online courses, and a monthly T1D training program. For more info, visit: www.DrJodyND.com Dr. Jody's Social Links https://www.drjodynd.com https://www.facebook.com/DrJodyT1D https://www.facebook.com/drjody.stanislaw https://www.youtube.com/user/DrJodyND https://www.instagram.com/type1.dr.jody.nd/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-jody-stanislaw-108436a https://twitter.com/DrJodyND --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/adam-rinde/message

Even if you aren't a tech pundit, who has been following all stories about social media companies, inevitably you stumble upon a breaking story about Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok that talks about their negative impact on our society, on teenagers' mental health and even on the democracy itself. You may get an impression that there is no way how you can design a social network differently, so you won't get such a flip side. But that's not the case and Sacha, CEO of Yubo, will tell us how it's actually possible to achieve. Today's Topics Include: ✔️Sacha is on a mission to improve how people interact online, hence his involvement into developing multiple social media apps prior to Yubo ✔️Yubo is a social media platform for Gen Z to interact with each other in small groups ✔️ It doesn't compete with big social media platforms like Twitch, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat.  ✔️ Yubo is the social media app that doesn't push its users to be hooked on such concepts as Likes, Comments and Followers. ✔️ The app applies 8 age-verification procedures to make sure it has on board legit age users only ✔️ The platform is ads free, it's freemium based with paid options & subscriptions to get more engagement ✔️ Yubo is used by Gen Z on their leisure time - after school, on weekends or holidays ✔️ Once COVID-19 hit both usage and engagement shot up ✔️ Yubo is available on both iOS and Android but the bulk of users on iOS ✔️ On which side of the Android & iOS duopoly Sacha is? iOS ✔️ What apps would Nico miss the most if he leaves the smartphone home. Good old placing calls function :-) ✔️ What is missing from mobile app technology?  Links and Resources: Sacha Linkedin profile Yubo website Quotes from Sacha Lazimi: "...with the same mission "To improve how people meet each other and connect online" Yubo is just an iteration of what I've done with my co-founder and we always have the same mission. Yubo is a social platform to socialize online all over the world and designed for Generation Z. It's a public space where you have a small group that interacting publicly through video, audio and chat." Follow the Business Of Apps podcast Linkedin | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube

In this episode of Start Scale Succeed, Nicole is joined by Laura Nolan Horgan founder of interiors and lifestyle business LNH Edit. Hear all about how Laura went from having life changing surgery to putting herself and her family first, all while setting up her own business. KEY TAKEAWAYS Nicole thought she had hit a wall when the tabletop design scene blew up just as she was getting into it. She had her fabrics and designs all ready but felt that she had missed the boat. It was only when she posted about it on Instagram and showed what her designs would have been that people got in touch telling her to keep going and that they loved her products. Nicole found working within a larger company didn’t give her the access to information she wanted. She wanted to be sitting in on the board meetings and hearing everything about how the business was doing. Getting to know your suppliers over Zoom isn’t idea. When things were easier to do in person you could build and develop those important relationships in person. Talking online it always seems to be focused on business, which while being practical, isn’t the best way to get to know each other which is so important. BEST MOMENTS ‘Instagram was kind of like my therapy’ ‘I wanted to do it using as many sustainable and ethical products as possible’ ‘Once Covid is done I’ll be first in line at every trade show’ VALUABLE RESOURCES www.lnhedit.com www.instagram.com/lauranolanhorgan www.instagram.com/lnh_edit ABOUT THE HOST Buying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years working for companies such as Primark, M&S, Debenhams and Asda, sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line. Nicole now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and small to medium sized business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses as The Buyer And Retail Coach (TM) CONTACT METHOD Website http://www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com IG https://www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach/ LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/nicolehigginsuk Email nicole@thebuyerandretailcoach.com Newsletter https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/ Book a call with me https://thebuyerandretailcoachltd.as.me/discoverycall See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chandler “Chan Luxe” Kryst is a 24 year old recording artist from Charlotte, NC. He is the brother of three older siblings who pave ambitious paths of their own and two younger siblings. He grew up in sports and would go on to earn a full scholarship for football at Coastal Carolina University. He earned a number of accolades and nominations and would sign with KineticSports Agency where he would receive minicamp invites from corner-demanding NFL teams such as the Dolphins. Meanwhile, Chan had a passion for music and constantly song wrote  and sang. Once Covid peaked, he decided to change direction and begin his music career. Since then, Chan has had many collaborations with producers, most notably, Shereen Cheong. Shereen helped Chan produce his first single, “Up,” an r&b/soul song that captivates the rawness of Chan's voice.  He continues his career performing live in Charlotte and creating buzz. Of recent he is making a move to California to better his career.  We are glad he made it on the podcast and know you will enjoy, LET'S GO!General Disclaimer:This Podcast is our own opinions protected by the First amendment and DO NOT represent the views or opinions of any Fire, Police, Emergency Medical service, or public service agency. By listening to this Podcast you agree to not use this Podcast to pursue any legal complaint as it pertains to the hosts or any third party guests of the Podcast. This Podcast should not be used in any legal capacity whatsoever. No guarantee is given regarding the accuracy and authenticity of any statements or opinions made on this Podcast. 

So we know that MFR therapy is one-on-one, hands-on treatments sessions during which therapists use a multitude of Myofascial Release techniques and movement therapy to assist their patients with pain relief. Right? This was definitely the case pre-COVID. Once COVID happened, the pandemic caused global adoption of stay-at-home mandates in an effort to curb the viral spread. This lockdown has had an unintended consequence on the MFR industry. Many therapists had to shut down their businesses as a result but many came up with new products and services to meet the evolving needs of the changing world in order to continue to support their patients. That is exactly what our guest did. Renie Allen found a way to adapt to the needs of this unique moment by advising her patients on the most appropriate ways to perform the services they need through tailored advising and coaching using the online space. Listen in to learn exactly how she was able to do this.   GUEST INFO — Renie Allen, Owner, LMT, Myofascial Release Therapist Website - https://www.stillpointmfr.com/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/StillPointMFR/ Facebook Group - Facial Focus Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/346258603291522 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/stillpointmfr/ Myofascial Self-Care Guide - http://StillPointMFR.com/guide   FEATURED ON THE SHOW — Get your copy of The MFR Coach's Guide To Having Your Own Myofascial Release Business  Workbook The MFR Coach's Guide Money Belief    FOLLOW ME — Facebook  Instagram  Website    RATE, REVIEW, & SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTS – If you love the content that I am providing, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more people — just like you — build a thriving MFR business that they desire. Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!  Also, if you haven't done so already, please consider subscribing to the podcast. New episodes drop weekly and if you're not subscribed, there's a good chance you'll miss out. 

Kim and Tara first met 8 years ago and became fast friends before working together in the educational field. Once Covid hit, they lost their jobs and their identity with it. This began their spiritual awakening and continued path on a self-discovery journey. Kim realized that she had repressed her traumatic childhood and was living with limiting beliefs and a scarcity mindset. Through her spiritual journey, she has become fulfilled, living with an abundant mindset, has found her inner spark and reconnected with her soul. Tara grew up in an environment where she dealt with parentification, adultifiaction, and a narcissistic Step Mom. Her awakening brought awareness that patterns from her childhood kept presenting themselves. Their journey allowed them to find their purpose of serving others. It is now their hope to walk as many people as possible through their spiritual journey so they can become their higher selves._____________________________Thank you to our sponsors:BetterHelp - Visit https://betterhelp.com/brightsideoflife to join the over 500,000 people talking charge of their mental health with the help of an experienced professional.Special offer for The Bright Side of Life listeners... get 10% off your first month at https://betterhelp.com/brightsideoflifeConnect with Melissa: https://www.thebrightsideoflifepodcast.com/Support the show

Once COVID ends are you going to be ready to answer the doorbell or are you still going to be looking for your pants? Find out what that exactly means and much more with this best of episode featuring America's branding expert, Michael Levine. During his career Michael Levine represented a record-breaking 58 Academy Award winners, 34 Grammy Award winners, 43 New York Times best-sellers. Some of his former clients include Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, and George Carlin. His work has included media counsel to former presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. In addition, he has authored 19 books, including 5 best-sellers. Originally recorded August 2020, this episode was an instant classic touching on many points of Michael Levine's best-selling book, Broken Windows, Broken Business and how it relates to current times as well as the difference between activity and results. Episode Action Items: Purchase Broken Windows, Broken Business by visiting Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Broken-Windows-Business-Revolutionary-Smallest/dp/1538719274/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=broken+windows%2C+broken+business&qid=1626032267&sr=8-3 (https://www.amazon.com/Broken-Windows-Business-Revolutionary-Smallest/dp/1538719274/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=broken+windows%2C+broken+business&qid=1626032267&sr=8-3) If you want more information about Michael Levine visit www.michaellevinemedia.com or you can register to join Michael's Zoom Community at RegisterZEC.com ABOUT THE HOST: Andy Splichal, who was recently named to the Best of Los Angeles Awards' 2021 Fascinating 100 List, is the founder and managing partner of True Online Presence, author of the Make Each Click Count book series and founder of Make Each Click Count University. He is a certified online marketing strategist with twenty plus years of experience and counting helping companies increase their online presence and profitable revenues. To find more information on Andy Splichal, visit www.trueonlinepresence.com or read The Full Story on his blog, blog.trueonlinepresence.com. New episodes of the Make Each Click Count Podcast, are released each Friday and can be found on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Apple Podcast and .

Japan's image as a sophisticated country with a solid, unique traditional culture is well placed.  For example, every year around 130,000 Shinkansen bullet trains run between Tokyo and Osaka, bolting through the countryside at speeds of up to 285 kilometers an hour and boast an average arrival delay of 24 seconds.  Think about that average, sustained over a whole year!  Such amazing efficiency here is combined with basically no guns, no drugs, no litter, no graffiti, very little crime and the people are so polite and considerate. If you step on their foot in the crowded subway cars, they apologise to you for getting their foot in the wrong place. If you drop your wallet there is a close to 100% chance of you getting it back, intact. Considering all of the above and with the biggest concentration of Michelin three star restaurants in the world, no wonder Tokyo is the best city in the world to live in.  Once Covid is contained, put Japan on your bucket list folks, you won't regret it. Yet sales professionalism is still so far behind, by Western standards.   I am going to make incredibly broad, general statements here, but actually they are true for most salespeople in Japan.  How do I know this?  We have been teaching sales training here since 1963 and these are the things companies consistently ask us to fix.  Let's highlight a few things which may surprise you about sales in Japan.   Asking for the order is avoided.  Saying “no” is culturally taboo, so the best way to avoid having to say it or to hear it, is to save everyone's face and leave the outcome deliberately vague.  There are shelves of books in English on how to close the sale,  many are in translation, but not a great take up here as yet.  When the seller meets any resistance from the buyer, the first reflex is to drop the price by 20%. Western sales managers would be apoplectic if this was the default objection handling mechanism.  Here defending your price, through explaining the value, is thrown overboard and simple price point reductions are the preferred lever. Objection handling skills are weak, because the seller sees the buyer not as a King but as a God. The seller's job is to do everything God wants.   The salespeople are predominantly on base salary and bonus remuneration arrangements, so not much commission sales “fire in the belly” going on here. Salespeople love the spec, the data, the detail and are not so keen on the application of the benefits. How do we know this?  I am a buyer here too and in they come bearing their catalogue, flyer or their slide deck to take me through all the details. Surprisingly, they never rise above the spec waterline to talk about value or benefits or how to apply the benefits.  It is the same in our sales classes and we see this phenomenon in the role play sequences.  Salespeople struggle to think about what the spec represents in terms of the benefits to the buyer. This opens up the can of worms about understanding buyer needs. By any definition, getting straight into the detail of the product or service, without asking the buyer any questions, is insanity.  Yet this is normal here.  So much for all that slick American consultative sales jive. We are back to the God problem. The seller must not brook God's displeasure by rude behaviour, such as asking questions about what are their firm's problems. Ergo, the buyer completely controls the sale's conversation. They demand the pitch be made straight up, so that they can lacerate it, to make sure all the risk has been cut out.  Buyers are incredibly risk averse in Japan. This a zero default, no errors, no mistakes business culture.  This is great as a consumer of course. However, the seller is not considered a partner here, more of a slave to the buyer's every whim and demand. So the Japan business sales process is pretty “refined”. There are only three steps. The salesperson opens with their pitch, then we move immediately to client objections.  Next, the buyer will get back to you, but probably not.  How does any business get done here?  Please see the next section! Sellers really prefer to concentrate on existing clients, rather than running around trying to find new clients. They rely on the firm brand to do all the prospecting work, rather than their skill as a professional in sales. Hunters are a rare breed of salesperson in Japan, as everyone prefers being a farmer.  This is probably true of everywhere, because obviously it is much easier to keep the business going, than to start a new piece of business.  Japanese salespeople just take it to new heights of speciality. Salespeople never think to ask permission of the buyer to ask questions. Such a simple thing, but so hard to break out of your own cultural context to actually execute.  Once we teach them how easy it is, the scales literally fall from their eyes and they become true believers in asking questions, before introducing anything about the detail of their solution line up.   The first foreigners who lived in Japan in the late 19th Century often described Japan as a “topsy turvey” world, because so many things were opposite to what they were used to back in Europe and America.  The differences are what makes it so fascinating and why I have been here for 36 years and am never leaving.  These differences are also a big business opportunity too, as many companies have found, including ourselves.  See you over here after Covid!

In this episode, I speak with my friend Josh, who I lovingly refer to as Ben Affleck. Josh was a lonely in high school but found community at his girlfriend's church. Not the first time I've heard about libido-prompted conversions. Learning about health, by the end of high school, he was eventually voted Snowcoming King. He got very involved in his church and spoke with other high schoolers about pledging their purity to their future spouse. He married his Christian wife and had three kids in 1.5 years instead of pursuing missions like they had planned. Around 2016, he started to have serious doubts and stopped reading his Bible. He got sucked into some unethical behavior which eventually opened his eyes to how unhappy he was. He and his wife separated in 2018 before Josh made one last ditch effort to save his faith and his marriage, attending 5 different support groups a week. Once COVID-19 hit and the world stopped, Josh's internal veil was lifted. He got on meds, stopped going to his groups, his depression lifted. In May of 2020, he decided he was done with god, got divorced, and bought his own house. He started getting into post-religious content like Voices of Deconversion podcast, Hawking, and Dawkins, eventually leading him to this podcast and to becoming my friend! *** Time Stamps*** 00:53 Monologue 6:11 Announcements10:03 Intro + Interview*****Now that we've begun to process our history with toxic religion, we seek to regain autonomy over our minds and bodies from residual narratives, whether cultural or religious; while working towards respecting and empowering the autonomy of others. Together, we seek to rejoin the human race and participate in this chaotic experience of existence Thanks for listening and remember: You are autonomous and so is everyone else. Please subscribe to my podcast and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Your financial support, if you are willing and able, can make a huge impact on my ability to continue in secular activism. You can become a Patreon supporter or make a one-time donation via PayPal. Links are on EA's website. *** Podcast Links*** www.everyonesautonomous.com facebook.com/everyonesautonomous twitter.com/s_autonomous instagram.com/everyonesautonomous/ *** Marie's Links *** mariedelephant.com fb.me/mariedelephant twitter.com/MarieDElephant Instagram.com/mariedelephant *** MarKei Photo & Video Links *** markeiphoto.com www.facebook.com/markeiphotography/ www.instagram.com/markeiphoto/ twitter.com/markeiphoto *** Credits *** Produced by Marie D'Elephant Edited by Post Christian Podcasting (Caleb Rowe)

This week's episode sheds light on the harm that is perpetuated by purity culture as well as the abuse that can take place within the church. This episode is by no means a denunciation of God or religion. Rather, Brian, who is both a survivor of abuse in the church and a follower of Jesus Christ, sits down with Alyssa to discuss some of the dangerous ways in which religion can be manipulated by humans. Transcript: Alyssa Scolari [00:23]: Hello. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Light After Trauma. I am your host Alyssa Scolari. We are here today to talk about a rather sensitive and difficult topic, I would say. We are here with Brian Catton. I do believe this is Brian's first time on a podcast. I met Brian... Brian Catton [00:47]: In a while. Alyssa Scolari [00:47]: What did you say? Brian Catton [00:49]: In a while. Alyssa Scolari [00:50]: In a while. Oh, so you've been on a podcast before? Brian Catton [00:52]: Yes. Alyssa Scolari [00:54]: Okay. Okay. This is the first time he's been on in a while. I do believe that this is the first time you're on talking about this subject. Brian Catton [01:02]: Yes, that's correct. Alyssa Scolari [01:05]: Brian is a friend of mine and my husband's. I met Brian through my husband. Brian Catton [01:11]: I miss you guys. Alyssa Scolari [01:14]: I know. I hate COVID. We miss you too. Brian Catton [01:17]: I know. Alyssa Scolari [01:22]: It sucks. It really sucks. Brian and I have kept in touch on the internet because he is honestly just social justice warrior. Brian does a lot of work and a lot of awareness on autism, which is not going to be the topic today, although I would love to have him back on to talk about autism because he does a fantastic job, just supporting and spreading awareness but I digress. The topic that we are here to talk about today is Purity Culture and the ChurchToo movement. We are here to spread some awareness and shed light on the sexual abuse that is happening in churches and not just sexual, but also psychological and emotional abuse that is happening in church. I just want to preface this conversation. We'll come back to this a couple of times by saying that the goal of this episode is not to denounce any type of religion or Christianity. We are not here to say, "You should not believe in God because of the abuse that happens in churches." We are here spreading awareness and taking shame, and talking about the idea that changes need to happen within the church, not that we need to turn away from the church. With that being said, hello, Brian. Happy Saturday. Brian Catton [03:10]: Happy Saturday to you too. I forget what national day it is today. Alyssa Scolari [03:15]: Every day's national something. Brian Catton [03:17]: Indeed. Alyssa Scolari [03:23]: The first question I have for you is what is the ChurchToo movement and what is Purity Culture? Brian Catton [03:30]: Sure. Let me start with answering the purity culture thing to the best of my recollection. Let me also just give a little bit of background about my Christian journey, that I that came to Christ in 2004. This is right around the height of... Well, this is after the True Love Waits movements that took place in Purity Culture, and promoting and emphasizing sexual abstinence and promoting a high standard of sexual ethic. Nothing wrong with that. There is Biblical precedents that we must maintain a high sexual ethic. The issue with Purity Culture, is that it's done in a very legalistic framework where that it's done in specific doctrine of man ways that may present itself like you can't hold hands when you do. You can't kiss. You have to pursue Biblical courtship. You may know about Josh Harris's books like with I Kissed Dating Goodbye. I mean, that's one of the big examples with that and then Passion Impurity. There are some others that talked about denouncing dating in the sense that dating is just, "Hey, have that and it's all fun and games." Brian Catton [05:01]: While there is an appropriateness as far as saying, "Hey, let's be intentional about dating," the way how Purity Culture did it was that they set up barriers, not even guard rails, where basically, you can't hold hands. You can't kiss. You can't hang out at night. You can't watch Netflix together because your hormones are raging or whatever the excuse may be, and you need to guard each other's hearts, and you hear that type of language. The thing is that with Purity Culture, that's talked about it in such a way that the fine print with that is or else. For example, the or else may be or else you may get kicked out of the church, or else, you're basically deflowering your girlfriend or your boyfriend, essentially translating it in a dehumanizing way of saying or else you're beyond the reach of God's grace and you're pretty much worthless. Alyssa Scolari [06:09]: Even the word de flowering, it's ichy, it makes me feel ichy. Brian Catton [06:13]: It is. Welcome to spring too. mean, the way how it set up is more than just the dating scene, as you may talk, like, with modesty, and especially with women talking about the idea of 1 Timothy 2 that you have to dress yourself in a certain way in order to make sure that your brother in Christ doesn't stumble, when there's no talk about, "Hey, even if that is true, shouldn't we address the main issue, which is that for the guys, you need to watch yourselves too." It's shifting responsibility away from the guys over the girls in the sense of with modesty and with clothing. How it impacts itself is multi layered, as I've been figuring out. I mean, it could be dating. It could be how you dress. It could even be in the sense of with gender and sexual identity. If you even have an inkling of flirting with the idea of coming out, then forget it. You're beyond help. Alyssa Scolari [07:24]: It takes all of the blame. It shifts it on to all of those reasons, the way you were dressed because... Brian Catton [07:31]: You can't feel this way. You can process things this way. You must think about it in these black and white terms, that there's no room for ambiguity, no room for grade, no room for doubt, no room for questions, no room for having meaningful dialogue, which then because it's framed in that binary way of black and white, that basically if it's the wrong answer, then forget it. Basically you could be shunned. You could be forced out of church. You're basically silenced. That happens too many times. Now with the ChurchToo Movement, that formed shortly after MeToo Movement, which I applaud everyone who has come forward and said, "This happened to me and this is wrong. We need to change it." I applaud them with that. ChurchToo is similar to that, except it's taking on all of those sexual ethics within the church along with it. You hear cases of... There was one book I finished where it's talk about how there was a woman who when she was in her teens, her abuser groomed her and then ended up raping her, and basically she was forced to forgive him, which is another thing. [inaudible 00:09:02]. Yeah, tell me that's not fucked up. Alyssa Scolari [09:08]: Oh, it fucking kills me. It kills me. Brian Catton [09:12]: I know, which I mean, that's... Alyssa Scolari [09:14]: Let's forgive him. Brian Catton [09:15]: Exactly. It's just no. basically with the ChurchToo Movement, it's saying we're done with victims having to be villainized and with the villains having to be victimized. I mean, we see it with church. We see it in politics, we see it within celebrities, but with ChurchToo, we're confining it specifically within the context of evangelicals within the sexual ethics in the church. It's important to make sure that reputation is upheld at any and all costs, even if it means that we have to bulldoze Over the trauma that victims have experienced. We have to maintain its prestige, no matter what. Alyssa Scolari [10:09]: That's what it is. It's so much about self-preservation. Brian Catton [10:12]: It is. Alyssa Scolari [10:13]: I love what you said about, we need to stop villainizing the victims and victimizing the villains, which we do in all of rape, sexual assault. We do that all the time. But when it comes to the church, we really lay it on thick because of that desire to have this self-preservation because we need everything to look hunky dory. Brian Catton [10:43]: We have to whitewash the walls double meeting implied by the way. I mean, there is the report that came out about how less than half of Americans are now identifying as regular church attendees, which I mean, I don't want to celebrate that because what do you expect? I mean, it's almost like this. Say, if you and David were to stay in your house, you had some people over and you're watching your dogs do too, by the way... Sidebar, I miss them, too. Alyssa Scolari [11:21]: They're so big. Brian Catton [11:22]: I mean, I'm seeing pictures on the socials but anyway... Alyssa Scolari [11:27]: It's not the same. Brian Catton [11:28]: I know. Once COVID hits, we're getting our backyard fixed. Alyssa Scolari [11:34]: Oh, good. Then we can see [crosstalk 00:11:36]. Brian Catton [11:36]: Yes, you can see the little toddler. He's getting so big and squishy too. Alyssa Scolari [11:43]: Oh, you're baby is so cute. He's so cute. Anyway, we digress. Brian Catton [11:47]: Yes, indeed. I mean, think about this, if you were to live in a house and you had someone inspect it and tell you that there was black mold, there was termites, there was water damage, wouldn't the common sense solution be, we need to get everyone out of here, we need to make sure that this is fixed, and make sure that it's habitable again? Once it is, then we can return and we can carry on. Nope. Alyssa Scolari [12:17]: That would make sense but not in church. Brian Catton [12:21]: Not in church. Nope. Outcomes the paint, we need to paint over that because if we find out about it, then no one's going to want to stay with us. The irony of it all, is that if we use that house illustration, it's almost like if you were to look at your neighbor's house and say, "Well, wait a minute, the front door isn't painted well or they're siding is all messed up, or, well, their driveway is cracked or something like that. It's basically oh, well, because something else is wrong with them, then that frees us from having to take any responsibility on our end to make sure that we maintain safety within our neighborhood." No. Does that make sense? Alyssa Scolari [13:08]: Just to make sure I understand that correctly, what you're saying is that we tend to shift blame when we see that there are cracks in the foundation in someone else's life. That's the scapegoat for churches to shift blame onto that person? Brian Catton [13:23]: Almost. I need foundation out because the foundation is Jesus Christ. first and foremost. No other foundation can be laid or [inaudible 00:13:34], which is Jesus Christ, which is why I'm focusing more on everything above the foundation, the water game, the black mold, the pesticides, termites. Alyssa Scolari [13:46]: Any imperfection. Brian Catton [13:48]: Any imperfection, as long as we can identify it outside of the church, and demonize, and dehumanize that, then that frees us from having to change anything on our end. No, it doesn't. Alyssa Scolari [14:02]: Because it's like, the church isn't the problem. You're the problem. Brian Catton [14:05]: Exactly. That's pretty much what... I mean, with many church issues, but within Purity Culture, that's the way how it is, that basically, it's almost like everyone is on a sin house that basically, if there's any imperfection with the way how you date or with how you dress, or with how you identify yourself from a gender standpoint or from a sexual standpoint, we are going to exploit that because then that makes us the moral Vanguards, and that makes us the faithful witnesses of what Christianity is like when in reality, no, it does. Alyssa Scolari [14:45]: In a way, and this is what you're saying is really tying both Purity Culture and sexual abuse in the church together forming in my brain in a way, it's like Purity Culture paves the way For churches to blame the other when sexual abuse happens or any abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse. Brian Catton [15:13]: It's rape culture. Alyssa Scolari [15:14]: Yeah, yes. Yes, that's exactly what I'm hearing. It's like, oh, ichy, that's the only word I have. I'm like [inaudible 00:15:24]. Brian Catton [15:24]: Yes. Here's the other thing that I found. Here's the other thing I'm coming to realize. It's very interesting with Purity culture and with sexual ethics, they have the sex talks about just making sure that you guard your heart and keep yourself pure. I mean, that's fine and all, but there's no counterbalance to it. There's no discussion about what to do in cases of rape. There's no talks about the other C word, consent. Alyssa Scolari [15:51]: Mm-hmm [affirmative]. Brian Catton [15:52]: There's none of that happening. In fact, one of the things I've been pushing my youth pastor to do is, "Hey, we need to talk about rape. We need to talk about consent," not to say it's acceptable. We hate it. But we need to basically say, "Rape is wrong. Consent is mandatory." Anything short of a yes means no. No further questions. Hard stop. Remove any ambiguity in that response. Purity Culture doesn't talk about rape or consent. Alyssa Scolari [16:29]: Not at all. They pretend like it doesn't exist. Brian Catton [16:32]: Hence Purity Culture leads to a Church's version of rape cult. Alyssa Scolari [16:37]: Yeah. Yeah. We know why Purity Culture is so damaging. Brian Catton [16:43]: Mm-hmm [affirmative]. Alyssa Scolari [16:49]: I understand more about the ChurchToo Movement. How did you become so passionate about this? Because this is something you're really, really, really passionate about. Brian Catton [17:06]: Story time. Alyssa Scolari [17:08]: You also don't have to answer that question if you don't want to. Brian Catton [17:11]: No, no, I want to. Alyssa Scolari [17:12]: People don't have to answer my questions. Brian Catton [17:13]: I want to because again, as far as raising awareness, if I don't tell the truth about what happened to me, not to say that it's all dependent upon me, but if I don't tell the truth about what happened to me, that may not encourage others to come forward and share their stories as well, and [inaudible 00:17:40] sounds. The issue is with remaining silent about it. As far as my story goes, there was no sexual abuse that happens to me, per se, which is one of the reasons why I was initially hesitant upon it, but nevertheless, as you affirm and as I affirm abuse is still abuse, no matter what shape, size, color. Alyssa Scolari [18:14]: Yes, and you talking about this, even though it's not sexual abuse is all the more important because you're giving a voice to all of the other people who are in that ambiguity going, "Well, it wasn't sexual abuse. Does it count?" Brian Catton [18:28]: It does. Alyssa Scolari [18:28]: You're here being like, "Hell, yes, it counts." Brian Catton [18:32]: Fuck, yeah, it counts. My story, again, I became a Christian 2004, started finding out more about the Josh Harris book, so I could stand by employments girl, back then at. But I mean, since 2019, Josh has come forward and says that he basically terminated all publishing deals on his books, so no more. His books are being published with advance to his teaching. He has taken ownership of that, but still, the damage has been done. That said, one of the books I picked up, talked about courtship, which I mean, I thought, "Well, okay I want to please my God. This seems to be the way to do it." There are a little bit of legalism in that language. Yeah, you better believe it. Here's the other thing that's insightful about this too. You hear a little bit about prosperity Gospel, that if you do these things, if you court the right way, then God's going to bless your marriage. You're going to have the best sex life ever. Yeah, which is just wow, that type of language. But back then, I mean, I was still a fairly new Christian, as far as the conduct aspect is concerned. I thought, "Okay, yeah. Cool. I'm in. I'm buying this. Not be on the book." I mean, I thought, "Okay, this is great." Brian Catton [20:03]: There was a church I attended during my winter, fall, springs, summer breaks. There was a girl who I was attracted to and I found out that she was the admin assistant that had nothing to do with it. But I mean, I found her, well, I'll just say very attractive. I found her conduct attractive. I found a lot of things attractive about her. I thought, "Okay, well, let me pray about it." I think how I used to pray about it [inaudible 00:20:36]. But I mean, I did. I end up talking with the pastor about it. I ended up talking with her dad about it. Again, this is critical too that, basically, you have no free thoughts or very little then that things have to be done under the submission on the other password of pastors and friends because they're there to protect you. You need accountability because we're going to make sure that we protect you from sin. I ended up having a DTR talk, and things were great, except a few months later found out that her dad was [inaudible 00:21:18]. I mean, despite that, I still stayed with her because I mean, anything like that is finding out about your own parents being quiet in something that controversial is like, "Okay, let me bear with you with this. Let me guide you with this." Brian Catton [21:42]: This is all before the days of Instagram, FaceTimes, and all that good stuff. Sticking with Facebook and emails and texting before unlimited texting. Verizon, I hate you with all my heart. But I mean, things progressed from there and then having some more talks with her mom because things had to be done under her watching, with her permission as well which okay, fine, whatever. I'll do it because I want to please God. I wanted to protect her and everything like that. We didn't even kiss then. What is it? This is in P2 year... I was in pharmacy school. P3 year, I came back for fall break, I told her I love her, and I meant it too. I mean, things started to blossom. But I mean, there is no physical... There is nothing controversially physical except for [inaudible 00:22:51] cuddle. Alyssa Scolari [22:58]: Cuddling. Brian Catton [23:00]: But it's just like, "Okay, come on. I'm able to think for myself and know, when it is too much, I'm able to advocate myself in that regard." But also, one of her friends, he would come down through Winchester, Virginia, where I went to college, and he would talk about, "You need to be stable. You need to be a man. You need to be a source of stability for her." I'm thinking, "Well, fuck. I can't do that even if I tried." I mean, forget the fact that I'm in pharmacy school. Forget the fact that I have autism. Forget the fact that I'm trying to do my best with everything. It's just, man, if I can't take care of myself, how much less? Can I take care of her? I mean, it was depressing. I mean, again, that's where the toxic masculinity within Purity Culture takes place that, really? Do I have to? I want to but is it required of me? What's the RLS part? But yeah, so things progressed along swimmingly well, and then I basically got chastised because I end up telling him that, "Well, I love her." He's like, "You what?" It's just like, "Dude, it's dating. Really? While on the fact that she couldn't make a weekend trip to be my plus one at some weddings. Let alone the fact that she would seldom visit unless it'd be with one of her close friends. Brian Catton [24:50]: Hindsight, it was just "Okay, I'm doing all these things for you but I don't feel like that there's any reciprocation." "Oh, well, you're being selfish." "Why? I mean, am I not allowed to say, "Hey, I would love it if you could come down here?" But her parents prohibited for whatever bullshit reason. January came along, and the pastor basically put the E break and he said, "Listen, you guys really need to slow the pace down. You're..." Alyssa Scolari [25:22]: Good lord. Brian Catton [25:26]: Now I'm just thinking like, "Whoa..." Alyssa Scolari [25:29]: We're already at a snail's pace, buddy. Brian Catton [25:32]: Yeah, well, because like I said, I love her and the fact that emotions get entangled so much that it's like you're flying a kite. If a huge gust of wind blows, and then it plummets, and then the kite breaks, and there's no hope of redemption beyond this. Really? Yeah, way to go teaching God's sovereignty and that God does cause all things, including emotions, possibly running wild to happen for our good and learning from our mistakes. Anyways, things took well, opened the door for that nosedive because it was just this is really hard for me, because it's P3 year of my spring semester, I took pharmacy law, gag. I was getting ready for my clinical rotations. I just felt like I wasn't receiving reciprocated support. Well, on the fact that I couldn't talk with other girls within my church, let alone within my own school. I mean, I did. Don't tell anyone. Alyssa Scolari [26:51]: That will be a secret. Brian Catton [26:53]: Well, it's too late. It's already on the interwebs. But yeah, I ended up just sharing my frustrations with her mom and everything like that, and then she withdrew support for us, that basically that was her final straw. Then Easter Sunday night, I was driving back from visiting my parents because I was in Virginia, my parents were in New Jersey at the time, we met halfway. Then basically, my, well, then girlfriend told me that we really need to pray about this. I can tell from the tone of her voice that she's shocked. She basically, "Well, my mom, just word vomited on me." I pretty much went [inaudible 00:27:47] for less than 24 hours I would say. But it was just like, "Wait a minute, I'm not..." Also, by the way, I was having many doubt, which you cannot have any doubt whatsoever. No questions. It was tough maintaining that facade. I just said, "You know what? Fuck it." I broke up with her. The funny thing is that after I told her and as I was walking back in and getting ready to study for one of my therapeutics classes, I felt a weight lift off my shoulders. I thought, "Well, great. That's just..." Alyssa Scolari [28:31]: You broke free from that Purity Culture and the gas lighting. Brian Catton [28:37]: Yeah. In some sense, yes. I mean, that's the biggest one that I broke free from. I mean, of course, with any breakup, it's hard. I did check up with her. I did own up to some things that I did wrong. Then, basically, a week later, I checked in, "Hey, how are you doing?" Essentially, she just in a few short words, in a Biblical sense, she told me to fuck off. Then her pastor came in and said, "Well, actually, you need to write a letter of apology, outlining what you did wrong and how the relationship in a sense was successful and just like, just insert I can't even... Alyssa Scolari [29:31]: That's such an abuse of power. Brian Catton [29:34]: It's just like, "Well, fine. I'll do it." The thing is that still to this day, there has been no mutually reciprocated apology from her to me. Her husband reached out and basically said, "I'm sorry, but you need to do better," which, listen, buddy, my issue isn't with you. It's with your now wife." This still remain sang for over a decade. Part of the reason why I became so passionate about it, it's just that, Purity Culture and ChurchToo, it's one of those, wow, it's not just the sexual abuse. It certainly entails that but there's so much more to it. It's the gas lighting. It's the mental abuse. Alyssa Scolari [30:32]: The psychological manipulation of parents coming into the relationship and telling you who you are is not good enough, and that that prayed on it, and that they have the message that you're not good enough. That wears on you. Brian Catton [30:48]: It did. It was to the point where I mean, I wasn't suicidal, thank God, but, it was almost like, I need professional help. That was being prevented. I felt shamed for admitting that I need professional help. "No, you don't. You just need to pray even more." Really? Alyssa Scolari [31:07]: No. Brian Catton [31:08]: I mean, even in pharmacy school, ironically enough, here's the irony of all of this within Purity Culture, I was anti antidepressants, I was anti psychiatric care and everything like that. Yeah. Now just realizing, one of the big things I learned in clinical rotations is to view the patient as a whole. Don't view the part as the whole. I mean, some of the parts does make the whole but when it comes to with mental issues, I mean, that is a part of them, but it's not the entirety of it, if it makes any sense. It's just, people are just one thing. There's multiple dimensions of who people are. With Purity Culture, it packages it in a nice, easy to understand and apply, and to respond. Alyssa Scolari [32:16]: Very black and white, when humans are anything but in the black and white area. Brian Catton [32:24]: Yeah, absolutely. Alyssa Scolari [32:26]: Now, what would you recommend...? Your story is one of just intense and chronic psychological, manipulation, and abuse as a result of Purity Culture, which leaves you feeling just... It's a mindfuck. I can't think of any other way to put it. It's an absolute mindfuck. What do you recommend to somebody who might be listening right now, who is feeling like, "Hey, I think I'm caught up in this" or is going, "Oh, I was caught up in this at one point in my life." Maybe not what they can do as in how physically within their church but how do they hold on to the faith in Jesus, or whatever their religion may be while also acknowledging that bad things came as a result? Brian Catton [33:24]: First and foremost, I'm going to affirm this with all my heart on [inaudible 00:33:28], what habits you use. Absolutely not. [inaudible 00:33:31] You need to believe that with every single ounce, as hard as that is, what happened to you is not your fault. That's what's painful about it. It's that, well, if I didn't listen, it's not your fault. Yeah, but if I did, and then... No, no, no, I get that. Alyssa Scolari [33:55]: It's not your fault. Brian Catton [33:57]: I realized that there were situations that happen, but you're not responsible for the way how they chose to prey on you. The shame isn't yours. It's theirs that they have to take. They're the ones who have to take ownership of and if there even are a decent human being, let alone a Christian, they should be willing to apologize for that and leave the decision of extending forgiveness [inaudible 00:34:26]. That said, that applies for any human being, irrespective of any religion because like it or not, no matter... Yeah, you've seen my posts that no matter what your gender and/or sexual identity is, no matter what your race is, no matter what your religion is, all human beings are created in the image of God, and because of that every single human being has God bestowed dignity, honor, worth, value, and respect. For Christ's sake, and I mean that with sincerity, for Christ's sake, hold on to that, even if your strength is fleeting. Hold on to, that you are valuable because you bear God's image. That is something that no matter what abuse that you experience, that is something that will never be taken away. Brian Catton [35:30]: Now, as far as the practical stuff goes, if you're in imminent danger, report it to local law authorities right away. Actually, I would say report it to local law enforcement first, whether it was rape or not, whether you're experiencing domestic abuse, whether you're experiencing physical abuse. If you're on a college campus, let the Help Center know. They have crisis centers. They should have crisis centers available and it's been years but zooming, now, if someone you know, is a minor, there are states like Pennsylvania that mandates pastors and clergy as mandatory child abuse reporters. Alyssa Scolari [36:18]: New Jersey, yep, New Jersey too. Brian Catton [36:21]: Excellent. Thank You ACT 31 for PA. I don't know what it is in New Jersey, but if it is, shout it out. Alyssa Scolari [36:28]: No clue. Brian Catton [36:29]: Okay. That said, I say report it first and then report it to pastors. The thing is that also you must... I realize that what about to say is traumatic. Find someone who's going to believe you. I realize that language, it does bring up the same language like with Brett Kavanaugh, Christie Boss report. I believe you friended. I believe he doesn't mean that. I believe everything that you say 100% and throw any logic out of the way. No, if someone told you that your house is on fire, "I believe you. Let's go back and let's take a look and see if it really is on fire. If so, let's make sure that we get the house extinguishment... Let's make sure that everyone is safe. That's all we're trying to say. Alyssa Scolari [37:24]: Find somebody who will take it very seriously. Brian Catton [37:26]: Exactly. That's what churches must do. Now, here's the other thing that I mentioned PA in New Jersey being mandatory child abuse supporters. Now, here's the other thing for the victim, that leaves the victim empowered because now that you reported it to the church, now the church is held responsible for having to report it. If they do not, then they are held liable. Now, I'm speaking only for Pennsylvania, I'm not sure what it is for New Jersey, but penalties for failing to report or to file a report ranges from a misdemeanor to felony both to the second degree. It could be anywhere either one to two years in prison and a fine about the 5,000 or five to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $25,000. Now, again, if what you're experiencing is domestic abuse, here's the telephone number for the National Domestic Violence. Let's see if you can also slap it in the notes too. Alyssa Scolari [38:30]: Yep, I will. Brian Catton [38:31]: Yep, 1-800-799-safe. Again, that's 1-800-799-safe. Here's the other thing, if you don't feel comfortable talking about it, there it is, also a chat function enabled. You can chat with someone right away. You also have the suicide hotline. The new three digit code for that is 988. If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, call that number. Don't question if you are. Here's the thing, once you do escape, and I mentioned this in the beginning, give yourself space and grace to feel. I mean, any violation of trust fails [inaudible 00:39:14]. The interesting thing is that the people who you would expect to trust are the biggest fucking liars out there and the people you expect to who wouldn't believe you are your biggest advocatess. It's very counterintuitive. Alyssa Scolari [39:33]: It is. Brian Catton [39:34]: It is one of the most bitter sweet realities I've come to experience, that non-Christians do far better with dealing with the ramifications of abuse than Christians do, which should not [crosstalk 00:39:49]. Alyssa Scolari [39:49]: It's very sad. Brian Catton [39:49]: It is. Alyssa Scolari [39:49]: It's very sad. Brian Catton [39:52]: Here's the thing, if there were reputable data that had evidence upon evidence, upon evidence to the contrary, I will eat my words and own up to it, but I've yet to see it. I'm pretty sure... Yeah. Now, again, here's the other thing. Once you do escape, be prepared to lose relationships. I mean, that's part of the trauma too. You may have developed some strong friendships, I have, and having to leave that after coming forward because of self-preservation while the church is decaying and importing from within, it's traumatic. It's devastating. It's depressing. Alyssa Scolari [40:41]: Yeah, it certainly is. Brian Catton [40:43]: In a sense, I say with caution, prepare to feel alone. Do what you must, get counseling, start on medication. Alyssa Scolari [40:53]: Know that ultimately, you will find people who stand by your side. Brian Catton [40:57]: Yes. Hard communities. Yes. That's the other thing. S Alyssa Scolari [41:01]: Such great advice. Brian Catton [41:03]: It is. Take care of yourself. Thank you. If applicable, take care of others within your family who are abused, especially if the abuse happened to a minor within someone you know. Now, again, there's no prescriptive way or any straightforward or linear way of saying, here's how you handle... There's no 12 step program. You will follow on this as well. There's no clear cut way as to how to deal with trauma because every human being is different. Every human being processes trauma differently. Every human being feels trauma differently. There may be certain triggers that may happen. There may be some overlap. That's up to you as far as how you want to move forward. Now, for the Christian, I also want to say and this is piggybacking off with Beth Moore's advice after her defecting from the Southern Baptist Convention, sidebar, you go, girlfriend. Embrace your wilderness, wandering. Realize and rejoice with mangled tears, sorrow, angry, that you serve, and you are loved by the Son of God, who Himself became a man of sorrows and acquainted with truth. Yes, we do feel alone. I'm not trying to minimize what I say next. Brian Catton [42:41]: But the good news is that because of what Jesus did at the cross, we'll never had to feel that alone ever again. Alyssa Scolari [42:49]: Yeah, that's great advice. Brian Catton [42:56]: If I could just shake somebody up, check them in their nerds, do whatever it takes to make them believe it, I would. I realized that's going to take time. Now, if you're someone who's advocating for someone, give them space as well. Don't be like Job's friends and offer trite Christian cliches. That may be while true and everything like that, but in the moment, trauma is still trauma. Give them space. Give them a place. Give them grace. Alyssa Scolari [43:29]: Absolutely. Brian Catton [43:31]: Be very, very patient with them. Yes, I realize that you're going to have to associate with someone who has experienced trauma. Yes, I've realized that there may be some, that you may be feeling a little bit outcast. Well, guess what? Get over it. Jesus did, and so can you. He can help you to be a faithful friend. We can help you to be a person who can be a sounding board. He can help you be a good friend to speak a faithful word at an appropriate time. He can also help you just to say, "Listen, I'm going to apply Galatians 6:2, not to get some brownie points with God, but because His love has set me free to bear your burdens." I see your burdens as being heavy. I hear the choking up and fear and I'm going to do what I can to come alongside you no matter what it takes. If Christians within churches began to do that without having to address any bullshit neowans or anything like that, then maybe, perhaps we can reclaim some credibility that yes, we do stand for those who are marginalized and we do stand for justice in the sense that we will do whatever it takes to make sure that those who are truly victims do the same. Alyssa Scolari [45:33]: Thank you. Such incredible advice. Such an important story. I'm sure that that was not easy for you. Thank you so much for coming on the show and for just being vulnerable and for empowering others to take their healing into their own hands. I appreciate it. Brian Catton [45:56]: Yep. Thanks, Alyssa. Alyssa Scolari [45:58]: Thanks for listening, everyone. For more information, please head over to lightaftertrauma.com or you can also follow us on social media. On Instagram, we are at Light After Trauma and on Twitter, it is @lightafterpod. Lastly, please head over to patreon.com/lightaftertrauma. To support our show, we are asking for $5 a month, which is the equivalent to a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Please head on over. Again, that's patreon.com/lightaftertrauma. Thank you, and we appreciate your support.

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Speaker 1: Everyone's favorite radio station is W I, I F M stands for what's in it for me. And so you're only going to pursue a goal probably that you really want  Speaker 2: Raising the water levels of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, the Tri-Cities influencer podcast. Welcome to the TC podcast. We're local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and nonprofit executives to hear how they lean themselves and their teams. So we can all benefit from your wisdom. Here's your host, Paul Casey growing forward services, individuals and teams, breakthrough success.  Speaker 3: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Elizabeth Barnes. She is the executive director of the children's reading foundation of the mid-Columbia. And I asked her for something funny about herself, and she said the word avocado, tell us more about that, Elizabeth.  Speaker 4: So I'm kind of embarrassed about this when my husband and I were actually like brainstorming about, what's a quirky thing about you that people can relate about. And I was like, you know what? You are, I am kind of obsessed with avocados. And I know it's such a millennial thing, but you know, like avocados, I eat one or two a day and I have to tell you, Costco has the best office. I like to create like small little paintings. My mom got me off a couple of socks for Christmas, and I might currently searching on Etsy for a giant avocado painting to hang over my dining room table,  Speaker 3: A little bit of an obsession, a little bit.  Speaker 4: My husband told me that people were going to probably start buying me all the condo, like figurines and stuff after this. And I'm just, oh gosh,  Speaker 3: Probably. Yeah. I had, you know, bald Eagles when I used to be a school principal years ago, it was bald Eagles, and I got all those gifts. So that's, what's coming your way. It's coming. I can't wait, but we'll dive in. After checking in with our Tri-City influencer sponsor, it's easy to delay answering uncomfortable questions. Like what happens to my assets and my loved ones when I die. So it's no surprise that nearly 50% of Americans don't have a will and even fewer have an estate plan, many disabled clients worry that they don't have enough assets to set up an estate plan, but there are important options available to ensure that you have a voice in your medical and financial decision-making. Even if your health takes a turn for the worst estate planning gives you a voice when your health deteriorates or after you're gone. Marin Miller bam attorney at law is currently providing free consultations to find out more about estate planning or to book an appointment. Call Marin at (206) 485-4066 or visit Salem that's S a L U s-law.com today. Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities welcome Elizabeth. I was privileged to meet you. You reminded me early 2020. I was speaking for the Columbia basin Sherm, the HR organization here locally, and you were there. So  Speaker 4: That was, yeah. And you and I ended up connecting because you were speaking about your international experience. And I just moved back to the trace of his, after being gone for 13 or 14 years, doing all international work. And so I came up and introduced myself, wanting to find out what happening internationally. And so, yeah,  Speaker 3: It was good stuff. Very good. Okay. Good stuff. And then you've got like young professional of the year or something, right? Well, you got one of those tough things in the journal business. Yeah. And the connect magazine recently got  Speaker 4: Like the young, well, it was executive spotlight. It was of, it was pretty exciting to get, they actually came in and did photographs at my house with me and my son doing, you know, school. Yeah. It was very  Speaker 3: Cool. It was really cool. Thank you. Well, so that our tries to the influencers can get to know you tell us about what your organization does and what you spend 80% of your day doing.  Speaker 4: Yeah. So the children's reading foundation of the mid-Columbia was actually founded right here in the Tri-Cities about 25 years ago. It was collection of teachers and principals and parents all got together and they really identified that education literacy education was the key to future success of our community. And so they started the children's reading foundation, which is now a national organization. The mid-Columbia is our local chapter right here in the Tri-City. So we serve Benton and Franklin county. Our mission is to encourage and educate families about their important role in raising a reader and preparing their child for kindergarten w also to support schools and ensuring the students read on grade level by the end of third grade, and to facilitate community involvement in helping young readers be successful. So this past year during COVID, we have really been working in the community and showing that we're getting as many educational resources and tools as we can. We I'm so proud of my team. We have actually distributed over 40,000 books to Ben or Franklin county to students, to children and families had been Franklin county. And yeah, I mean, if you've heard the saying read 20 minutes a day with a child, that's us, that's the children's reading foundation. So if you've heard that slogan, then you know who we are. And so, yeah, it's a, it's an incredible organization. I'm so proud to be the, you know, the head of this organization. It's, it's just wonderful,  Speaker 3: Like literally in your email address, right? Yeah. 20 minutes@retwentyminutes.com. Yeah. It's just so  Speaker 4: Important. How do I spend 80% of my day? So I spend 80% of my day making connections with the community to really spread our mission and raising funds for our programming. It's that's really, that is my job. So it's like, how can we, how can we grow? How can we develop? How can we ensure that we are meeting the community's needs? And how can we make sure that we have funding to support that support our mission. And then the other 20% is just managed my incredible team. We're a small little team, but they're awesome. I just, they're just so wonderful.  Speaker 3: And why do you love to do what you do besides my incredible team, but I've just been ranked.  Speaker 4: I really love what I do because I'm really friendly, do believe in our mission. Our non-profit is one of the few that actually provides preventative instead of reactionary measures to help ensure our community grows and thrives. Most nonprofits in our community are reactionary. Okay. We have students that are dropping out of high school. What do we do? And instead of that, we say early childhood education, access to books for children at birth through third grade, that's preventative. That actually changes an entire community. So that's why I'm so passionate about what we do is because we are so preventative, we are ensuring that we are saving our community before anything ever happens. It's just, that  Speaker 3: Is so true. And it's good. You pointed that out. I was in leadership Tri-Cities and I remember the day, well, there's a couple of days where it talked about the community and most of the services and the Tri-Cities were reactionary. It's like, okay, so now that there's a problem, we're going to get funding to this. And you are one of the few organizations that's on the front end. Yeah.  Speaker 4: You know, literacy really is the key to success. Children who are able to read on grade level by the end of third grade are more likely to graduate from high school, go on to college, be more financially stable and be healthy members of rewire of our community, you know? And so why not, you know, why not support that kind of organization  Speaker 3: Prevention? Yeah. So Elizabeth, outside your organization who helps you be successful, do you have any mentors, other people in your network?  Speaker 4: Yeah, so that's really, that's really tricky. So we moved here like six or eight months before COVID hit. And so it was such a tough time. Right. I had big plans. I attended a lot of networking events before COVID, but you know, it's, it's difficult to make those connections and those relationships. And so I don't, I don't really have outside of my board. I don't really have a lot of mentors or like a lot of connections here in the Tri-Cities yet outside of, you know, LinkedIn and maybe it's so hard, but yeah, it's yeah. So, but I have a lot of, I have some really incredible women who have guided and led me in the past. I've been in leadership for 15 years now and I have some incredible, really powerful women who have taken me under their wing and guided me and supported me. And so I've reached out to them or bills last year and just asked for guidance and support. And we're in different fields. Now I was in education in the past. So they're still, you know, they're still leading their schools and, and there, you know, they're gigantic, huge schools and I'm running the small little non-profit, so we're kind of indifferent different fields, but you know, they've still been very, very happy to support me. And it's been, it's been nice.  Speaker 3: Yeah. You're an educator at me too. So leaders have growth mindsets. How are you constantly evolving as a leader what's in your own professional development plan?  Speaker 4: So I had big plans for this last, for this year. Right. And of course, like everything had changed, but so my professional developed plan for this year for the 20, 20, 20, 21 has really been ensuring that our brand name gets out there when people hear read 20 minutes, or when they hear the children who need foundation of Maine Columbia, they understand like, oh, I know what that is like, oh, that started here. Oh, okay. They give us books; they provide educational resources. You know, they're here to support families and really ensure that that brand name is connected. We've been here for 25 years. And when I say the children, we need foundation of the children's Winnie foundation. I didn't have to say make Columbia. They're like, what's, that is that the child development center is that, that place over there off the highway. I literally had that last week.  Speaker 4: And I was like, no, no, we support them. We provide ready for kindergarten with that. But now that that's not us. And so really trying to really trying to get our name out there. And the other thing is really to expand my grant writing because we don't have a lot of opportunities to be on the community to make those connections and to, you know, look for sponsors. I've really turned to grant writing this past year. I, I found that grant writing one is very cathartic, right? Like you sit behind a computer, you talk about your incredible organization and you ask people with lots of money Coca-Cola please give me $40,000 to be able to do ready for kindergarten for, you know, communities and Prosser and it's, you know, like that kind of thing. And so you're like, okay, so they have the money, it's an incredible program.  Speaker 4: And I get to share about this incredible program. And so to be able to, to do that, it feels very achievable, right? Like it's something that can be like, and I did this, this, and I did this. And at this moment in time where like, everything is so like, can I even leave my house today? Like as a grocery store, I'm going to be open, you know, still a year later, it's something that's actually very achievable that I can check off my to-do list. I've written 45 breaths this year. He's like, you know, that kind of thing. I'm like, yes, it has been a successful gear and, and it has been successful. You know, the people are very generous. Grant makers are very generous. And I think COVID, you know, has really highlighted the importance of our mission. You know, literacy is when schools closed and libraries closed and you know, so many, so many children and families stuck at home that our mission has become more important than ever. And so grant makers have seen that and it hadn't have given us a lot of money. It's been a very successful year for us. That's great. A lot of wins to celebrate.  Speaker 3: So how do you avoid burnout and negativity? How do you feed your mental, emotional health and wellness on a regular basis? Being an executive director.  Speaker 4: All right. So there's a couple of things. So I have my little COVID pod. Everybody has them, but I have my little, my little COVID pod. It's my family and my parents who live here and, and then like another little family and we all follow hand COVID guidelines, which we've been doing for like a year now. And surprisingly, we haven't killed each other. It's like, you know, it's just like, how are we still friends? But, you know, so we, we do, we do like large family dinners every week where we all get together every Friday evening and we just hang out and have fun. You know, I just, I really make sure that they're, that we have quality time, and we don't talk about work. And you know, like I don't, I, I choose in the past as an educator, you hang out with other teachers, you hang out with other educators and you spend most of least in my experience, you spend most of your time talking about work. Yeah. And so, which is so annoying, I'm like, come on, we're, we're intelligent, smart.  Speaker 3: We're holistic. We have more people. We have more of a life. Yeah. Well, let's, let's  Speaker 4: Just talk about other things. And so I really worked at not talking about work. And so, yeah. So there's that. And then I go on a lot of walks. I'm all about like, I just, I'm not a runner. I've never been a runner, but I really enjoy walking. And so I generally find like a loop that works. I'm like, okay, so this loop is like a mile long. Okay. So I'm going to go on three of these loops today and I've gotten in my steps and I feel good. And it really does help, like bring down the stress. And then I listened to a lot of audio books. Like I am a, I'm a poor sleeper. And so helps me, like, de-stress at night I can put an audio book and listen to a book and it just helps me like shut off the cool work brain and then last but not least a good top cocktail and how stance party helps ease the stress. That's you know, my husband and I are we really miss going out dancing. And so we have quite a few dance parties  Speaker 3: In our house. A little tick talk for you. All right. No, no, no, no, no, no. It's not that we're not, we're not fancy dancers. No, none of it was choreographed. Yeah. How do you go about getting things done? My, my guess is you're an achiever because you were an educator. That's what I picked up on. Cause there's endorphins that, you know, go through you when you cross something off a list. So how do you organize yourself? Get a little granular with them. All right.  Speaker 4: So I'm all about my to-do lists, but specifically Google calendar and task list. So I love the Google suite because everything is interconnected. So I have my email. So when you emailed me asking, if I could be on your show, I will add that to my task list. And then when I have time, I will get to it. I have I, and then I add a little due date onto my calendar by when I have to have it done. And then, you know, and then I, I have this, I have some of the questions that you sent me. I have an, an, a document, which I attached to my to-do list, which is also connected to my calendar. So I don't lose it and it's all there. And then when I'm done, when we're done here, I'm gonna check it off my list. And I'm going to feel great about myself today. I have achieved something, you know, and in, in, in an organization like this, where achievement is, it's not an everyday thing. You know, if you get a grant, like if you get an email about a grant and I got $5,000, right? Yes. That's an achievement for the day, but you don't get a lot of you don't get a lot of daily wins. And so having that task list of likes, yes, I accomplished that. I call it keeps you motivated. It keeps you going.  Speaker 3: It does. Yeah. Does well before we head to our next question on looking at the bigger picture, a shout out to our sponsor, located in the Parkway, you'll find motivation, new friends and your new coworking space at fuse. Whether you're a student just starting out or a seasoned professional, come discover all the reasons to love co-working at fuse come co-work at fuse for free on Fridays in February, enjoy free coffee or tea, WIFI printing conference rooms, and more, and bring a friend. If you use this, where individuals and small teams come together in a thoughtfully designed resource, rich environment to get work done and grow their ideas. Comprised of professionals from varying disciplines and backgrounds. Fuse is built for hardworking, fun, loving humans. Learn more about us@fusespc.com or stop by seven to three, the Parkway in Richland, Washington. So Elizabeth, easy to get trapped into simply reacting to crises and leadership. How do you specifically step back, take a look at the bigger picture of what the organization is doing and maybe even in your own life? Yeah. You  Speaker 4: Know, it's a little hard, it's hard to, especially this past year where so much has had to be reactionary, as things are constantly changing day to day, right. It's, it's been really hard not to just be reactionary, reactionary, reactionary. And do you actually take that step back and say, okay, what are we actually trying to accomplish this year? And so for me, when COVID hit and we were like, okay, what are we doing? I took a, like a, I think it was even, it wasn't even a full day. I think it was just like, you know, a good six hours of freaked out and just like, no, I was like, okay, now let's get together as a team virtually because our office is at an elementary school in Kennewick. And so we had to shut down, like everything we should have. Like, I literally hauled by printer out under my arms and like, you know,  Speaker 3: A little small desk at a home base. Cause I'd never seen it. So  Speaker 4: Homebase has been my house for the last year, but we do, we have a, we have a couple of portables over at canyon elementary school in clinic. Yeah. So, which we've been solely caught getting back into, which has been nice, but yeah. So had a freak out and then said, okay, what can we, what can we still do? All right. We can, we can pit it, our programs that we have, there's the word of the year, by the way. Sorry. I used, I'm really not going to say, you know, like it's the, it's the, I know. So how can we transition from being in-person? So we ha we had in-person tutoring in elementary schools, and then we also have our early childhood education program ready for kindergarten, which was also in person. So I got with my program directors was about community outreach operations manager and said, okay, what can we actually do?  Speaker 4: And so we, in my incredible team, again, we're able to take what we were doing, which everything was in person and say, we're going to do it virtually. And we did, like, it was, we closed down on Tuesday and we were doing the virtual program on Monday. I mean, it was like that. And so, yeah, actually phenomenal. And my operation like operations and community programs, cause it's the same position because we're small. What, how can we ensure that we're still getting books in the hands of families? If we can't be on the community, if our volunteers, a lot of our volunteers are seniors and it's like, they couldn't be on the community. How could we still get books out into the community? And so we said, okay, let's partner with organizations that are handing out food and clothing, like second harvest, for example, or communities in schools and other organizations like that. The boys, girls club, who were saying, you know what, we're still gonna, we can provide food and clothing to these families. So we said, books, literacy is just as important second to food. [inaudible] Thank you might as well. And so how can we, how can we ensure that, you know, we're saying that literacy is also an essential need and so partnering with them and saying, okay, you're already out there. Can we give you the books? Can you distribute them for us? Our, can we come up instead of a table and be behind you in passing, you know, books through windows and things like that. And so doing a lot of drive-through events, but really partnering with those community organizations that are already out there. And so that's, we really,  Speaker 3: Did you have those partnerships prior? Or did you go after them? Once COVID hit?  Speaker 4: It sounded like the boys and girls club and the way we've always provided books to them for like their afterschool program and Karen like that, but communities and schools and not really, and that's become a really big partner for us. We've also partnered with Cooper cupboard out of WSU. Who's providing like, they have a whole like food and food and clothing closet out there. And we said, okay, can we also get books out to your families? And so they partnered with us and second harvest as also like one of our big ones that were out there probably once a month or so partnering with them. And a lot of partnerships, it's a lot, it's a lot. I think we, we ended up having something like 23 different community partnerships this past year with new ones that we hadn't had in the past, but which was new for us, you know, which was, yeah. But our organization is so old. It's hard to tell like maybe in the past we had had those, those partnerships, but you know, transition happens a new leader come and go. And so, you know, it's good to, it's good to breathe new life.  Speaker 3: Necessity's the mother of invention or, or connection, I guess. So it has a board that you have to change your strategic plan. Cause you probably have a strategic plan every one or two years. Did you have to go, all right, this is back burner. This is back burner. Here's some new stuff.  Speaker 4: Oh, so interestingly enough, the board and I were crafting the strategic plan at the time, of course, because they had just ended their strategic plan. The executive, the previous executive director had just exited. And so they're like, okay, we'll wait to craft the new strategic plan with the new executive director. So I come on board, we had been working on it for a couple months and then COVID hit and everybody kind of for about three or four months, just kind of like disappeared into their own little bubble of panic. And so every, and so right. And so a  Speaker 3: Little bubble of panic and I quit quickly on that one hashtag  Speaker 4: That's what it felt like everybody including myself, right? Like if I'm not serving my, if I'm not doing exactly, if I'm not being reactionary exactly to what I need to do right now, I'm just like focusing on my family and trying not to look at the numbers and freak out about swapping in this country. And so, yeah. And so our strategic plan got put on hold. So we're, we're finishing up this month. Long story short, we're finishing up this month, which is good because I think like, because we are, things are starting to open up, schools are starting to open up, you know, the community is, is getting back on its feet, that this is a good time for us to look ahead the next three years and say, where are we going? What do we want to do? What, what have we done? That's really worked successfully this past year.  Speaker 4: And the hybrid model, as everybody is saying, the hybrid model really is the future. You know? And so we are going to end up keeping a lot of the things that we did in those partnerships that we've created and the model of reaching families, the families that really want to reach those low-income families, those really needy families, the families that actually need educational resources and tools and not just yeah, those families. And so the model that we have at the moment is really serving those families. And so we really do want to continue in the same thing.  Speaker 3: How do you best lead organizational change, knowing how hard it is for most people in change and your organization has been here, like you said, for a long time. So you probably came in, you took the job and it's like, alright, you looked around, you probably assess the situation I'm putting COVID aside just for a moment. Right. And so what's your view on that leading change.  Speaker 4: Okay. So I have a view and then I have what happened with this job, which are interesting. Okay. So, you know, from my view to best organizational change, you have a clear vision of where you want to go, right? You set up step-by-step goals and getting there, you empower your staff to run with their ideas, to get there. You support your team. When they feel at a loss, you utilize the experience and knowledge of your board and you make the connections to bring in funding and change. Then you celebrate every step. Wow. That's all easy because that was your textbook answer. You know, like those are the steps in real life. You know, walking into an organization that's been around for 25 years. Organizational change can be very difficult, but this is the way we've always done it. This is how we've always done. This is how the previous executive director did it.  Speaker 4: And the one before them, and this is how we do it. And so I have to say, COVID saved my life for this, like for this, or for actually being able to create organizational change within this organization in a fast way, in a very speedy way, COVID made it, it had to happen. And so it was, it became, you know, necessity, the mother, the mother of necessity. Right? And, and so we were able to make those changes, which might have taken three years in a year. You know, like we, we knew that we wanted to take things more hybrid to take it less out of. I'll give you a great example. So like our ready for kindergarten program in the past, we had a workshop that were set up in elementary schools. We took our, we loved our laptops. We took all of the supplies over there.  Speaker 4: Parents would sign up, they would show up, we would have childcare. Parents would attend. They would sit in this class. It was very spoon-fed to the parents. They would leave, they would get a box of resources and they would go home. Right. And that was, we would do that three times a year. And we had, we had good success, but we, but my, my program director was like, well, what if we, what if we could do something where like, they could learn it at home. And they have the, you know, they were doing like online education, you know, online learning is really becoming trendy, but it just wasn't the model. Right. And I'm sure it would have eventually become the model in the future, but it became, she was the driving force to make it the model during COVID. She said, okay, I have all these ideas.  Speaker 4: She worked with a national organization and they created it and we've had astronomical success. Like more, more parents are participating our community in this program than I've ever had never participated because they can do it at any time. Right. Especially, we always really wanted to get parents who had newborns to two-year-olds. Right. That's really like the early, early age. And that's always been the age that's been impossible to get. Right? Like the numbers were always terribly low and this year they've been higher than ever because parents can do it at any time. Right. They're at home, they're nursing, they're feeding, it's 2:00 AM the baby's crying that can't sleep, whatever. They can just sit on their phone and do this program and get that early child education to ensure that their child is successful. And so it's been great. It's been absolutely, absolutely fantastic to be able to do that quick transition, but what have happened, but it's going to take them a lot longer.  Speaker 3: You did get blessed with that, but it's not all bad. Yeah. Yeah. With change. Wow. So ready for kindergarten. I know about the program. Some of our listeners may not get, can you do a quick 30 seconds on it?  Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely. And I'll tell you about team read as well, which is our other, our big program. So ready for kindergarten is an early childhood education program. We provide three classes a year and we provide all the tools and resources to ensure that the parents are the teachers at home because a lot of children are at home with their parents all day with a parent or a caregiver all day. And we know even if you're not, but the parent is the first teacher of every child. And so ready for provides those resources and tools to the parent to ensure that they have the knowledge and background, to be able to ensure that their child is ready on the first day of kindergarten. We S there are a lot of children in the Tri-Cities who start that first day of kindergarten, two or three years behind their peers.  Speaker 4: So if they're starting at the age of a two-year-old at five, how long is it going to take them to catch up? Maybe never. I don't want to be, I don't want to be a pest, but like, you know, like they're always behind. They're always behind. And then that's, that's not fair to them. And that's, and that's and no fault to parents in the Tri-Cities, right? Like parents, no fault to parents anywhere. Right. It's parents, every parent wants the best for their kid. No parent is like, I to hope my kid fails, you know, like,  Speaker 3: No,  Speaker 4: Trust me. Like, no, I'm a, I'm a mom, no parent wants that. And so, you know, this is just providing that early childhood educational background for parents. So that way they can ensure their kid is successful. Yeah. It's, it's a phenomenal program. And then we also have team read, which is a tutoring program where we provide tutoring for children who are behind moving for, for first through third grade. And that's in the elementary schools in the past, we've actually had tutors from the community, volunteer tutors, come in and provide them. One-on-one tutoring for 30 minutes a week to, to children who are behind this year. We have changed it. I'm not going to use the P word. We have changed it so that children are, the parents are actually getting the tutoring resources to be able to provide that one-on-one tutoring, that targeted one-on-one tutoring for their kids at home. So the teacher evaluates the student, they said the child is at this reading level. And then here are all the resources. So we provide all the like level tutoring resources for the parent to be able to provide that one-on-one instruction at home for the kids.  Speaker 3: Okay, great, great community resources. Wow. So one of the most difficult tasks of a leader is when you must have a difficult conversation with a team member, how do you bolster the courage to do that?  Speaker 4: So this was a really hard thing for me initially. You know, I was really young getting into leadership. I got my first principal's job when I was 29. And I was the leader of, you know, managing some teachers that were long in the tooth, you know, like in their fifties and sixties had been there forever, who were just like, how dare you leave me? And I had to have those. I had to have some difficult conversations, especially bringing in, you know, new educational theory. And they're like, but I've been doing this for 30 years. What do you know kid? And I'm like, this is what we're doing. And so having to have those long conversations and I used to be a crier like where I would get like, so emotional, you know, like freaking out like panic, like shaking. And I'm like, don't cry, don't cry.  Speaker 4: And so I took this great class from this author. Her name is Jennifer Abrams. She's an educational her, she has a background in education, and it was, it's all about having hard conversations. And she takes you to those steps. You don't have a clear idea of what you want to communicate before you go into the conversation, like already have it in your head, be clear and concise. Like you don't, don't apologize for the fact that you're having this conversation. Like you don't own it. It's not, you lay out the facts had documentation to back up your meeting, practice beforehand, out loud. You can actually hear the words coming out of your mouth. You're not like, you know, you might have practiced them in your head, but actually say them out loud before you go in, take a second person with you, a board member or another leader in your organization. If you're afraid, you won't be able to get through it. And then she said, this is my favorite part. She was like, if you're going to cry, clench, just like collect your booty and the whole back of tears and it'll hold it and then share what you need to share. And I'm like, okay. And I have to tell your work. I haven't cried through a single meeting.  Speaker 3: Wow. That's a very practical tip.  Speaker 4: I know. I just loved it. It was so great. No one has ever shared that.  Speaker 3: That's awesome. Well, finally, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence?  Speaker 4: I have to say like take every opportunity to get out into the community, to meet new people and to really share your vision for your organization. You know, a lot of leaders are passionate. A lot of new leaders are passionate about their organization, but when they might, they might be too passionate and not listen. That's the one thing, right? Like, you know, you're, you're super passionate, but you don't actually listen to what other people are saying. You're just so worried about getting your words out, so, you know, share your vision, but then also take the time to sit back and listen to what other people are saying. Keep current, make yourself a professional development plan. As we talked, like, what is your professional development plan makes you actually have one be looking to the future? What am I, what am I, what am I struggling in?  Speaker 4: What do I need to work on? And then reflection, reflection is key to growth. You know, did you make a mistake? Did you get, you know, did, did the board sit you down and say, Hey, this is an issue. Okay, it's an issue reflect, how can I, how can I own this? It is my fault. What did I do? How can I fix it? So a way, you know, so I can learn from the future and really just, you know, it's, it's what that reflection is key and owning your mistakes, not being like, well, is that my it's not my fault. You know, they just hate me. They're just out to get me. Well, even if, so, even if that's true, you did hurt someone's feelings. So how can you own that? How can you take it on, how can you move forward and how can you move forward? Not just let it hold you back.  Speaker 3: Good stuff, good stuff. Well, how can our listeners best connect with you and also connect to the programs? All of  Speaker 4: Our events can be found on our website on Instagram and Facebook, which is@retwentyminutes.com.  Speaker 3: Well, thank you again, Elizabeth, for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading. Well, let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend it's growing forward service training. I would love to come into your organization, maybe do a lunch and learn, or a couple hours workshop that will help build the leadership skills of your team. So you can resource me@paulcasey.org, and we'll customize something that will fit your schedule and your budget, and sort of beef back up professional development for your, for your people this year. Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guest Elizabeth Barnes from the children's reading foundation of the mid-Columbia for being here today on the Tri-Cities influencer podcast, we want to thank our TCI sponsors and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. It's the great Stephen Covey. He said, listen with the intent to understand not the intent to reply until next time kgs keep growing forward.  Speaker 2: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul and your leadership development, connect with him@growingforwardatpaulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you is free. Control my calendar checklist, go to WWE dot, take back my calendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message 2 7 2 0 0 0, and type the word grown  Speaker 3: Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at fuse SPC by Bill Wagner.

I used to go live 5 days a week, every single week. Afterwards, I'd drop a link to a course or product I offered. I knew this wasn't something I'd want to do ongoing - because for my schedule, it was insanely draining. I'm a Mami of 2 boys. I want to spend most of my time with them - and live streaming was just a part of the process of running my business... Once COVID started - it felt like everyone was online going live... How would I continue to make a place, and more importantly - how could I automate my offers in a way that made sense? Let's talk about exactly what I do to 'make money in my sleep'... How I use Samcart, Free training with Tori + Scott Moran, Co-Founder of Samcart Build a gorgeous website + sales page with my favorite site builder, and get 15% off with code: POSHGIRLSCLUB Looking for a Business Community? Check out The Socialite Society for resources to level all the way up - starting NOW! Get in here --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/theposhgirlsclub/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/theposhgirlsclub/support

This week Lucah and I talk about some of the small and large dynamics that changed in our dating and relationship experiences when we transitioned to male. Neither of us were conscious or aware at the time how we'd need to take stock of these upcoming changes. We were both serial monogamists that kept going from relationship to relationship pre-T (pre-testosterone, ie. pre-transition) and post-T. It took us a while to realize that the expectations were different, the 'game' was different and how we needed to update our approaches to dating and relationships to find healthy and successful dynamics again! We'd love to start hearing from our audience! There's a link in the episode description that you can click to leave us voice messages. Or, you can email us at questions.modlove@gmail.com -- Send us a question, a topic you'd like discussed, or just a comment or story and we'll begin featuring those in our episodes. Lastly, don't forget you can watch these episodes on our youtube channel here. Once Covid is under control, we look forward to recording in the same room! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/modlove/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/modlove/support

This week Lucah and I talk about some of the small and large dynamics that changed in our dating and relationship experiences when we transitioned to male. Neither of us were conscious or aware at the time how we'd need to take stock of these upcoming changes. We were both serial monogamists that kept going from relationship to relationship pre-T (pre-testosterone, ie. pre-transition) and post-T. It took us a while to realize that the expectations were different, the 'game' was different and how we needed to update our approaches to dating and relationships to find healthy and successful dynamics again! We'd love to start hearing from our audience! There's a link in the episode description that you can click to leave us voice messages. Or, you can email us at questions.modlove@gmail.com -- Send us a question, a topic you'd like discussed, or just a comment or story and we'll begin featuring those in our episodes. Lastly, don't forget you can watch these episodes on our youtube channel here. Once Covid is under control, we look forward to recording in the same room! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/modlove/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/modlove/support

Rajeev Kapur is President and CEO of 1105 Media, a company that focuses on events and training.  Before Covid his company was a go-to business for in-person education and training events.  They did more than 70 events in 2019.  Once Covid hit, all of his company's in-person events disappeared overnight. and he discussed the pivots that his various business units had to undertake. Rajeev and team moved quickly to virtualize his business, navigated some audience and pricing challenges for emerging virtual events. 1105 media proceeded to thrive over the last year, with an increase in activity by over 20%, and gross margins increasing significantly, which led to the 2nd best year in the company's history. Rajeev has a long history in the tech industry with roles at Gateway and Dell, as well as more recently at INSTEON/Smarthome.com. I really enjoyed his views on leadership and how that is rapidly evolving due to expectations from today's workforce. Thanks to show sponsor, Collective Genius, whose Peak Planning system is helping high growth companies to build unstoppable teams.

This episode was so much fun to record because Diana and I have been friends for over 25 years (I still can't believe that, but whatever. It's true. LOL) Diana has been an organizer, stager, and designer in the Washington DC area for over 11 years. And during that time, she got to see how people were really living. Not that, “Hey! Company-is-coming-let-me-clean-up kind of living. No. The real kind of living. The living that means your electric bill is in your bedroom, and your old love letters are under your bed and the plastic recycling is piling up in your kitchen because you haven't been able to put it in the bin yet. That kind of living. Once COVID hit in March of 2020, Diana realized that while she loves organizing and helping people with their spaces, the “mess” would come back after she left. So she decided to shift the focus of her business to mindful living when it comes to our “stuff”. Now she helps her clients create homes that help them focus their energy, balance their lives, and manifest their greatest desires. Find the full show notes at: https://sarahwalton.com/diana

FULL TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODEProvided by Otter.aiEoin Trainor  0:00  The views and opinions expressed in Eye on the Triangle do not represent WKNC or the student media.Good evening Raleigh and welcome to this week's episode of Eye on the Triangle on WKNC 88.1 FM HD one Raleigh, I'm Eoin Trainor. On tonight's episode contributor Elizabeth Esser will sit down with Caroline Rocheleau to talk about the North Carolina Museum of Art's new exhibit on golden mummies. And then a little later contributor Lise Knox will discuss live music during the pandemic with Adam Lindstaedt, owner of the local venue the Pour House. Stay tuned.Elizabeth Esser  0:51  I'm Elizabeth Esser with WKNC 88.1 Eye on the Triangle. Today I am speaking with Caroline Rocheleau, curator of ancient art and Director of Research at the North Carolina Museum of Art to talk about the new golden mummies of Egypt exhibition that opened on March 6. Miss Rocheleau, thank you for joining us on Eye on the Triangle.Caroline Rocheleau  1:11  Well, thank you for inviting me Elizabeth Esser  1:12  To get things started can you just tell us a little bit about yourself and your position at the North Carolina Museum of Art.Caroline Rocheleau  1:19  I am director of research and also curator of ancient art, which is I guess, my primary role at the museum. I take care of all the ancient things from ancient Egypt, to the Mediterranean like Greece and Rome and also the ancient Americas but I have a colleague working with me on those last collections.Elizabeth Esser  1:38  What can visitors expect from golden mummies of Egypt?Caroline Rocheleau  1:42  Well, I'll tell you a little secret. Since I started working at the museum about 15 years ago, people have been asking me, when are we going to have mummies? When are you going to bring an exhibition of mummies because we don't have any in our collection. And the second they found out that I was a trained Egyptologist, they thought, Oh, well, she's the person to get us some mummies. So what they can expect to see in Golden mummies of Egypt is mummies. However, we're focused on a very specific cultural period. And that's the end of Egyptian history, when Egypt was ruled by the Greeks and the Romans, so the mummies are not going to look like King Tutankhamun, for example, that's sort of an image that people have in their mind. So it's not going to be that they're still mummies. But there's cultural and artistic influence at that time that's coming from elsewhere in the Mediterranean, and you will see the Egyptians wearing like Roman hairstyles and togas and things like this. So on the outside, they look different on the inside, they're the same.Elizabeth Esser  2:48  So the exhibition focuses on the Greco-Roman period. So what was unique about this particular period? And how do we see that translated in the exhibition?Caroline Rocheleau  2:59  So Egypt has always been a multicultural environment, because of where it's located, you know, northeast Africa, but attached to Western Asia and like the, what we call today, the Middle East, and with access to the broader Mediterranean, now you really see it even more, because Egypt becomes part of other empires that have even further wider reaches. And if you think of just a Roman Empire, the fact that Roman Egypt is on par with Gaul with Roman France, is sort of mind boggling, you know, insert mind blowing emoji here, when you put that into perspective it's like, wow, other countries are as old as Egypt. And Egypt is now part of a much, much bigger network than it was before. So you do see as I mentioned earlier, those cultural influences coming in, because it's all part of the Empire. The Empire is very diverse. It runs from Western Asia, all the way through Western Europe, and the British Isles. So it's, it's quite bigger than Egypt at its height ever was. So you do see those influences? What does curating an exhibition during a pandemic look like? The curating part was not done by me because we this is a traveling exhibition. So it came. It's an exhibition that is circulated by Nomad Exhibitions based out of Scotland and the collection that is being presented is that of Manchester Museum in the UK. So my colleague there, Campbell Price, and Nomad Exhibitions worked together to curate the exhibition. That being said, installing an exhibition during a pandemic is something that nobody had ever done before. And this was complicated by the fact that people from Nomad and people from Manchester were supposed to come travel to North Carolina to install the cases and put the objects in the cases, because of the pandemic and the travel restrictions, nobody could travel. So it was a whole bunch of zoom meetings, phone calls, we had a WhatsApp, you know messaging group, because we're, they're basically helping us remotely put the cases together things we'd never put together before. The material that's you handle any material the same way. So that's not so much of an issue but it was trying to do all of this by ourselves when we were originally supposed to assist. So it was a lot trickier and you're in there with your mask, and you're putting in the objects and you're you're trying to stay six feet apart. That's impossible. So it's very nerve wracking at the same at the same time, but we pulled through, and it looks absolutely fabulous. But it was quite a challenge.Elizabeth Esser  6:06  I understand that the triangle area is celebrating this exhibition along with the museum. Can you tell us a little bit about the community collaborations with the Golden Mummies of Egypt,Caroline Rocheleau  6:16  We actually have a few goodies in various restaurants. And so we have places in Raleigh and Chapel Hill, for example, good day, good night at Origin Hotel in Raleigh. They have a cocktail called Gold of Egypt. There's another one called a golden goddess cocktail that's in Chapel Hill at Honeysuckle Lakewood, there's a bunch of different things. We even have chocolate, custom packaged sea salt chocolate, available at our museum, or I should say, our exhibition store, which is as you come out of the exhibition, it's it's right there, that's Videri Chocolate Factory, and they sell it at their store as well. Even in the store, we do have some goodies related to this bartending cocktail mix that we have. And we also have a candle that where the scent was made exclusively for us. And it's inspired by golden mommies. So that's actually kind of fun. Like you don't really see that in like exhibition stores something custom made like a candle. For example, Honeysuckle Tea House has Egyptian sunset tea made with chamomile, lemon balm, fall gold, ginkgo leaf, gingerroot, and oatstraw. That just kind of sounds nice, actually. So those are the kinds of partnerships that we have with local places like restaurants and tea houses and chocolates, like what could be better a cocktail, some chocolates after you visit the exhibition. That's awesome to me.Elizabeth Esser  7:47  What is your favorite part of the exhibition?Caroline Rocheleau  7:50  Goodness, I have lots of it's like asking for my favorite child. There's lots of different things that I like about the exhibition. I like that we are that we have mummies that people can finally see mummies, like I mentioned, we do not have any in our own collection. But I like also that the exhibition is more than just about mummies that we talk about multiculturalism, we still talk about, what is mummification? Has it changed or not during the Roman period? And a little bit you see this hinted in the exhibition, but there's a catalog also that accompanies it. And we dive into other themes like colonialism as well, because the discovery was made at the height of the British Empire. So how does that play how the objects that were discovered in Egypt ended up in Manchester Museum, for example. And that's one of the reasons I mean, I've been looking for a mummy exhibition for a little while. This one really caught my interest because it was more than just about mummies, but it was also about bringing transparency to how collections have been formed. And that sort of thing. So it was sort of hitting multiple boxes on the best mummy exhibition to bring to the the NCMA. Elizabeth Esser  9:04  Finally, is there anything else that you would like listeners to know about Golden Mummies of Egypt?Caroline Rocheleau  9:09  Well, it is awesome, first of all, so that's the first point. And what I like to our marketing team, we have this little more I'm going to call it a little ad that said that says mummies wear masks too, because you will see a lot of masks and portraits in the exhibition. And yes, these do identify like, Oh look, this is a human mummy. But these are also used as protection, just like the layers of wrapping around the mummy that's for protection. So those mummy masks that you see in the exhibition to offer protection. So wear your mask, do like the mummies, and come see golden mummies of Egypt. Elizabeth Esser  9:47  Golden mummies of Egypt is open from now until July 11. Tickets are $20 for non member adults $17 for seniors and $14 for youth ages 7 to 18 students get in free with their college ID Every Friday from 3 to 5pm with a reserved ticket which can be received through contacting help@NCArtmuseum.org reporting for Eye on the Triangle. This is Elizabeth Esser.Lise Nox  10:15  The views and opinions expressed during Eye on the Triangle do not represent WKNC or student media.Hi, this is Lise Knox, and you're listening to Eye on the Triangle. After spending all of 2020 without seeing live music because of the COVID pandemic the emblematic Raleigh music venue the Pour House House Music Hall started hosting live shows again as of March 2021, I went to one of their COVID safe concerts to see the Latin rock band Tumbao play live on the fifth of March 2021. And I ended up writing about my experience for WKNC's blog, in an article called "I went to a COVID safe concert after one year without any live shows." Adam Linstaedt, owner of the Pour House Music Hall and record shop read my article and thought it would be interesting for him to talk more in depth about what it's really like for a music venue to be hosting COVID safe shows while Raleigh is still affected by the pandemic. I'm really glad we're having this conversation today because I wrote an article a few weeks ago that apparently you've read about me going to a COVID concert at Pour house, which is a very weird experience but really cool experience. So today we're going to be talking about what it's like to be hosting these kind of shows in the middle of a pandemic, because for a lot of people, it can seem kind of weird to be, you know, going to concerts. But before we dive into this very specific topic, I just wanted to like know how it was like for you guys to be going through this pandemic as a venue, you know, like a local business, how are you guys able to survive the pandemic in the first place,Adam Linstaedt  11:51  It was extremely stressful. It still is we're only partially back at this point. But it was just from day one, watching the money in our bank account just dwindle on a daily basis for a venue like ours when we're closed completely not doing anything, the lights are off, it cost $500 a day. And we were closed for 355 days without doing shows. So for all you math majors out there, you know, you can figure that out really quickly of how much we lost. We had nowhere near that amount when we went into the pandemic either we relied heavily on donations, on grants from the city and state and other organizations we've taken out several loans. So yeah, I mean, we've acquired another $400,000 of debt since this time last year just to stay afloat to make sure we don't go anywhere. And now there's some light at the end of the tunnel knock on wood. The venue grant that passed in December through Congress is becoming available the applications opening on April 8, which will be a huge Lifeline not just for us, but for all independent music venues across the country. It'll basically help bring us back to close to zero, which is way better than being a large negative number. There has been days over this last year where it's like, Alright, we got this, we got to figure it out. We're gonna do this, this and that. And then the next day you're like curled up in a corner crying like what the hell am I doing? Why am I doing this? Oh my god, this is such a terrible idea. So it's definitely been an emotional roller coaster, us more than other venues, we're in a slightly better position. So in November of 2019, we converted the second level of the music venue into a record shop. So we've had that open the whole time. Once we closed down, we converted all of our inventory to try selling online the first couple weeks, you know, we basically just had an Excel spreadsheet that we made public that people would tell us what they wanted, they would come to curbside pickup we delivered to their houses, ship it in the mail. And after a few weeks of doing that it was really confusing for everyone and not terribly accurate on our end, since it was like a panic mode. Like we got to do this now. So we can stop the bleeding a little bit. So we launched the true website. It's still active, Pourhouserecordshop.com, and we released new stuff every Friday new and used. And we really developed a great online following and are now selling nationally to all 50 states and several countries as well. So that's been huge for us. It's basically helped sustain us, it's definitely not making us money, but it's you know, making the losses every month a lot less. The intention of the record shop was never to pay for a 5500 square foot building and prime real estate of downtown. There's a reason you don't see places like that very much across the country anymore. It was really a way to provide more services to our customers be open more and use our square footage in a better way. I guess, rather than only using the building at night for a few hours. You know, we wanted to try to use it, you know, 16 hours a day and we had the record shop open. We got a full bar up there. We were doing shows free shows on Saturday and Sunday three to five sets every Saturday and Sunday afternoon up in the record shops. It was really becoming a great thing and then the shutdown happened and everything got wiped out. And really in order for us to get back to doing those types of things. Again, we're going to have to be back with no restrictions whatsoever because it's a pretty small space up there even right now with the show that you went to and that we've been Running on Fridays and Saturdays, it's running at 19% capacity, we normally hold 289 people, we're now letting 54 people in at a time into a big space. They're seated shows, I'm personally bringing everybody in and bringing them to their table, giving them the rundown of how shows are running the expectations that this is a seated show that you should really think of this as going to a movie or a comedy club, you're sitting back and enjoying the show, we're bringing everything to you, there's no reason for you to be up wandering around anything like that, unless you're using the restroom or needing to step outside for whatever reason. Otherwise, if people are just starting to wander around, they see friends at different tables, we talked to them, if they continue to not follow the rules, we kick them out without a refund. Luckily, that hasn't had to happen yet, I'd say 95% of people have been great. And they understand they're, you know, following our protocols, no problem, there's a small group of people that don't want to wear masks, they'll come in, you know, the moment they get inside, they're taking it off. And because you're inside now that COVID is gone, it doesn't make sense. So we are enforcing the mask rule more strictly than say, like a restaurant or a store, we're requiring people to keep it on the entire time, the only time they can take it off is you know, for a drink, they can pull it down, take a sip of their drink, then put it back on. And if people aren't doing that, we ask them to comply. And if they continue to cause a problem, we ask them to leave. We've had a couple people leave on their own, and on their way out calling me a mask Nazi and all this fun stuff. So like cool, like you can have a great day, you know,Lise Nox  16:24  it's like we've been independent for over a year. Now, you should know you're supposed to wear your mask. It's like, you know, basic guidelines for COVID.Adam Linstaedt  16:31  Yeah, there's this strange dichotomy happening because the Pour houses in other music venues are considered private clubs. So like your regular bar that doesn't serve food, it's not part of a brewery, not part of a hotel, not part of the winery, we've been the only classification of bars in the state that hasn't been able to be open, all the other ones have been open since May of last year. So a lot of people have been going out for 10 months at this point. And all those places, you know, you go into a brewery, you go into a restaurant, you wear your mask in, and then you sit down and then you can take it off for two hours and not have to put it back on, getting those people used to the fact that they have to keep it on it feels they feel like they're getting their rights or whatever squashed, blah, blah, blah, but it's our house our rules. And really what the mandate says is, if you're not drinking, you have to be wearing a mask. And we interpret that as if you're not physically drinking, not just sitting there with a drink in front of you that's not drinking, you got to have a mask on. And we're keeping the show short right now to reduce the amount of time that people are in room lessen the exposure risk. So normally, we would have anywhere between two and four bands every night, we're now running one band playing one set for 60 minutes. So people are in and out pretty quickly. And then we turn the house do a deep clean and then do a second show with the same artist. So we're not you know, having multiple bands sharing the stage and having to do deep cleans of the equipment for the artists in between sets. And we've got, you know, plastic shields on all the microphones for when singers are singing, it provides extra protection from them spraying their spit out into the audience. And you know, we're doing everything we possibly can in our powers to do it right and make sure it is a safe experience. In my opinion. I've heard it from countless people that have been to shows already, they felt safer coming to a show with us than going to the grocery store or going to a restaurant or going to this place or that place because the rules are so strictly enforced. Lise Nox  18:15  Yeah, as someone who actually went to a show, I could tell that the venue really looked empty. But at the same time, I was like, I'm glad I have enough space around me to you know, not feel like someone's going to infect me with COVID or something I felt safe. And it was really weird. When my friend told me Oh, actually my partner plays the bass in a band. Do you want to go see him play live? I was like, why would I ever go to a concert like that seems like that most unsafe thing to do. And when I was actually at Pour House, I was like, everything is so much safer than me going to like the grocery store or any other place. So you guys have been doing a really great job of keeping everyone safe props to you guys like that.Adam Linstaedt  18:50  Thank you very much. Yeah, safety and experience for not only the patrons for the bands and my staff as well have always been top priority even before COVID. You know, obviously, it looked different before but the mentality was always there in trying to make it as fun as possible for everyone involved in as safe as possible for everyone involved. And that's just really carried over. I mean, we had these plans in place ready to go in at the beginning of April 2020. We knew what we had to do in order to put on a safe show. Because you know, in the beginning it was it was like on a three week rolling basis. It's like you might be able to open in three weeks. So get ready and then three weeks would come we're like okay, it's another three weeks and kept snowballing on and on and on and on. And then by the time we got to after Halloween into November the numbers were going crazy. So I was like, you know, I'm stopping I can't keep replanning and retooling everything every couple weeks its driving me crazy. I'm getting pretty grey now and I wasn't before. But you know, and then all of a sudden Cooper made the announcement that we could open. It kind of blindsided us we weren't exactly ready for it. And honestly, we didn't think that it was the appropriate time but also at the same time we felt we had safe plans and places have been open for 10 months except 1000 businesses in the entire state. So we felt we could do it safely and properly and provide that Pour House experience, even though in a different fashion, we felt we could do it in a safe and enjoyable way.Lise Nox  20:11  And it was probably even safer at Pour House than any other bar, because I remember going to bar once. And just like you said, People usually tend to like take off their mask to drink. And for two hours, they don't put it back on, we're just not wearing our mask and drinking beers at a bar so. We're just like, not in a pandemic anymore, you know, feels like we're not Adam Linstaedt  20:31  Totally yeah, and you know, there was so much language early on, like concerts are the most dangerous thing you could possibly do on the face of Earth anymore. And everyone's like, concerts. It's the devil's play right there. You can't, you can't mess around with it. And at the same time, during the pandemic, there's comedy shows, and there was concerts happening at places that serve food, it was okay if there was food, so you had to have your mask off and flap your mouth more so more spits flying out into the air that was safer rather than people just sitting down paying attention to what's happening in front of them with a mask on so I mean, the the way it was cut up felt extremely unfair. I do feel like we did our part in doing everything we could to step back and you know, alleviate any sort of pressure that's put on the system for people getting sick. Obviously, that's the last thing we want for anybody. We want this to just go away and nobody else gets infected. But that's not the reality we live in. And but it also got to a point where it's like we were the first ones to jump back into the you know, from the quote unquote, true music venue side of things in the area, we were the first ones to just jump back in. I feel like we've set the bar for expectations for people coming to concerts and what it needs to look like in order to feel safe and comfortable.Lise Nox  21:38  Yeah, cuz it really looks like you guys had been like preparing for COVID safe shows for a long time, because you were able to do it in a way that felt safe professional, and you didn't forget about any detail. I mean, when it comes to COVID guidelines, so that was really impressive to be able to adapt that quickly. You know, like I've seen many record labels and artists have online shows for their audience to watch. Is this something you've ever done with bands who usually play at Pour House during 2020? Adam Linstaedt  22:05  Yeah, for sure. We did probably 20 or 25 live streams over the last year. The first one we did was very early on. Right after John Bryant passed away. We did a tribute to John Bryant with that's when people were still on full lockdown and they're still at their houses. Nobody was coming to the Pour House. We had 8 different acts like BJ Barnum from American aquarium, Kate Rhudy, John Howard Jr, who's playing tonight at the Pour House and a bunch of other really great acts that are influenced by John Bryant. And they each played three songs, nobody replicated songs and we switched myself and one other person we controlled the stream from the Pour house and you know tuned into John Howard's house and over to BJs house then over to Kate's house, and it was like a continuous thing. And it was a really beautiful tribute and you know, tons of people tuned in at that time we were doing it as a fundraiser for the Raleigh music venue employee fund that we started to try to get some dollars in the pockets of all the people that work at Pour House, Lincoln's, Slim's, Kings, and Wicked Witch raised some good money during that for the crews. And then over time, we started doing more in person like Arson Daily and Jack the Radio and Shame did something and a bunch of other artists, Reese McHenry, and over time like as the pandemic ticked on, more and more, the number of people tuning in started going down, I definitely feel like there was like a live stream fatigue happening. I've spoken with several other event producers around the country. And they've seen very similar things. It seems that the most successful live streams are from bands that have a much larger national or international fan base. They're doing it on their own. They're not necessarily streaming from a place for this specific reason. They're just connecting with their, their audience, it was never really an intention for us to make money from it, it was more of a way to be like, Hey, we're going to be gone for a year. Don't forget about us. We're still here. Like, we're still doing these things over here. And we're ready for you when when this is all over. So it was really just a way to try to stay fresh in people's minds. Lise Nox  24:00  Yeah, I feel like the one positive thing that we can all kind of get from this entire pandemic is how we've all kind of learned how to use technology in new ways. You have online shows, which is something you've never would have thought of before the pandemic because if you're going to go to a concert, you're going to go in person, like why would you watch music through computer in the first place? Yeah. And also Yeah, about the, like livestream fatigue. I feel like a lot of people have spent their entire 2020 working from home on their computer, you know, having zoom calls all day. No, the last thing you want to do after an entire day seated at your computer at your desk is watch the live stream again at night. I don't think I've watched any live stream during the pandemic because I was really I wasn't really up to date with everything that was going on, like this, but I think I would have watched one if I kind of knew because I was so caught up in like work and you know, trying to survive a pandemic, I guess but yeahAdam Linstaedt  24:52  it just gets pushed so far down the priority list of things going on in your life and nobody's to fault for that because I mean, everyone's experienced with this last year has been wild. And I mean, nobody's experience has been the same. So I've heard, you know, some artists complaining, like, Oh, so and so these people aren't supporting us anymore. Like, it feels like this isn't worth it anymore. It's like, I get that I understand why you're feeling that. But you also have to put yourself in that in their shoes and understand why they're not. I mean, maybe they had a death in the family from COVID. Maybe they're sick themselves, maybe they're just like losing their damn minds, and just don't know what to do anymore. I had several people approach me over this last year that like, we really need to convert audiences into getting used to watching live streams, because this is going to be the new reality. And like this, and that we can do all these different things to make it more engaging. And at the end of the day, the people that were pitching these ideas weren't even watching or paying for the live streams themselves, they might like tune into a free one. But the moment like the artists can really monetize that and use it as a source of income is they got to charge just like a concert. When concerts are free artists in the venue, make very little money, when there's a cover charge, they're still making very little money, but it's better. And then you have the opportunity to sell merch and actually connect with the fans and get them to come back and multiply those crowds as time goes on the in person interaction that being in the same room with others. And experiencing the highs and lows of a musical set are the things that bond that group together. And all of a sudden, you've got 300 people in a room that are strangers that are all experiencing the same thing in the same way. And you know, they're high fiving each other and hugging and kissing on the way out, obviously pre COVID. ButLise Nox  26:33  definitely, you mentioned earlier that people you are trying to like adapt to the pandemic in the first few weeks or month by kind of selling more records online. And I just think it's really great that people were actually trying to support you guys, just like you mentioned, we've all been kind of struggling in our own ways during the pandemic. So I know that my first priority during this entire year wasn't to buy records or watch concerts online. And also, I feel like it's going to be a great opportunity for you guys to kind of expand your activity, because you mentioned that was a national kind of thing, you know, like selling records all around the country. Like are you going to keep doing this kind of thing after COVID is over?Adam Linstaedt  27:10  Oh, yeah, I mean, in November of 2019, we completely remodeled the second level, turned it into a record shop. So we are open up there from 11am till 7pm, seven days a week, and then we would convert over to shows at night. Right now we're open just Thursday through Sunday from 12 to six. So we're starting to ramp up towards getting back to more normal hours and get more activity going up up in there. And you know, it was it was really a really great scene, having people you know, browsing records peeking their head around the stacks, watching, you know, falling in love with a new act that they'd never heard of easy for them to see it because it's a free admission type show got a full bar people are hanging out, it was like a really cool, really cool scene. And then after four months of doing that it got stripped away completely. And it's like, okay, we had this great thing going on, we still have this record shop, we've got 30,000 records that we are just sitting on now we got to start selling online, and the online stuff has been really great. And we've developed a lot of relationships and deepen relationships with people that were already our customers. And now that we're starting to come back, we're keeping the online and we're trying to get more in person stuff going as people become more comfortable and get vaccinated and start venturing out of their cubby holes that they've been in for the last year. It seems like at this point with the way that vaccines are rolling out. And the way the numbers are starting to go down a little bit. It's very possible July or August, we might see things fully open. And we're back to full capacity shows and shoulder to shoulder and splitting and sweating it out with strangers like we did in the past.Lise Nox  28:35  Yeah, are you guys going to kind of try to make the shows evolve aggressively until the summer because I know you guys are only opened at 19% capacity right now. Do you see yourself like having 30% capacity shows? Because I know it's the maximum percentage, right?Adam Linstaedt  28:48  Well the maximum is up to 50% now yeah. So when you came to the show, we were allowed to be at 30%. But with going to a show, just like if you went to a movie, for example, and you got a seat where you couldn't see the screen, it wouldn't be a terribly enjoyable experience, right? So we could, in theory, put more people on the second level of the venue and push them back where they can't see the stage, but you can't see the stage and you're paying to see a show. So that kind of defeats the purpose. So in order to maintain distancing by our standards, which is a little bit provide a little bit more distance than the six feet that's mandated between tables to just provide that extra comfort level and a stage view. So looking at those two factors together, the maximum we can get to is 19%. So now we're allowed to be a 50% and getting all sorts of bands and booking agents hitting me up like alright, I heard 50% let's do this, you can do 140 people now is like, Well, no, because social distancing is still part of the mandate. And that's the reason until social distancing is not a revenue requirement anymore. We're going to keep operating in the way that we are once we are making plans for about a month and a half from now, to start extending the length of the shows a little bit like to show that you came to for Tumbao, those were 60 minute shows with one act, we're going to extend each show to 90 minutes. So basically add a second act with very minimal change over. So most of the time, it'll be a full band as a headliner, and maybe a solo or a duo act as an opener for 30 minutes, we can get them off stage very quickly, they're set up in front of the band already. So we don't have any big change overs, bringing gear down into the crowd and getting too close to customers or anything like that. And then we can just, you know, within two to three minutes, move on to the next band. So it's now a 90 minute show, instead of a 60 minute show.Lise Nox  30:33  It's really crazy as someone who was part of the audience, how I never like I know how much it takes to you know, keep everyone safe when you're trying to have this kind of event. But I never realized how many small details you have to think about to make sure that every single thing you do is safe. And you've been telling me about cleaning after every band and only choosing to have like one band at a time. So many things you have to think about because I mean, when I went to see Tumbao at Pour House at the beginning of March 2021, it felt weird to have like the venue being almost empty but at the same time. I'm pretty shy person. So if you tell me in the first place, like Oh, you're not allowed to dance or like, you know, jump around, I'm gonna be like, it's fine with me. I wasn't planning on dancing. If I just began my table, and like just enjoying the music and doing my thing, but yeah, no, I didn't mind having to follow all of those right, very strict rules that you guys have been implementing for the past few weeks.Adam Linstaedt  31:23  I mean, we can continue to wait until things are fully open, and then just dive back in at 100% go full force, or we could take some baby steps and get you out in front of that computer screen and actually get you back into the room feeling the music because going to show is more about feeling than anything you can see it on the screen, you can see it in person, it's the feeling that you get when you're in the room, the bass hitting you in the chest, and you know, the vibes that are just going on in the room, feeding off the energy of the other people, whether you're paying attention to them or not its in the air. And that's what that's why we do what we do is that experience of being in the room and collectively going through a moment of time that's memorable with others. And that's the baseline of what this whole experience of live music is all about to us.Lise Nox  32:05  Yeah, clearly. But since you guys were having so little people inside the venue, would you say it was easier for you to have the show since you had to, like, you know, take care of less people at the same time.Adam Linstaedt  32:15  No, because we're running things extremely differently. You know, I mean, we've always been high volume quick service bar, so customers would come to the bar to order their drinks. Now we're going to their tables and taking their order, we have paper menus at each table, people mark down the items that they want, they put it in a little metal stand. And when we see that little paper waving in the air, that's our sign to come and pick up their order. So we come and grab, grab it, bring it back to the bar, prepare those drinks, and then carry it out on a tray. I mean, we've never, we don't have cocktail service with what we run, people are coming up to us. And we're usually struggling to hear what they're trying to order. And then we make their drink as fast as possible and move on to the next one. Because there's you know, lots of people trying to get drinks, and we're doing band merch the same way. So to minimize the number of interactions that the band is having with customers, we're selling it for them. Since myself and our bartenders are already interacting with the crowds, it made better sense for us to sell their merch as well. So they're on each table, just like the bar menu, there's a little menu with the band merchandise and people can select what they want, put in a little metal stand. And when we see that we add it to their tab and bring them their t shirts and CDs and records and whatever it is that they wanted less work on the band's and more income for them because they're selling merchandise, we're not taking any sort of cut of that. So we're providing that service to just minimize the risk of getting anybody else potentially sick. And you know, that coupled with me personally seating every single person that comes through the venue explaining the rules to them. And once that's done and everyones sat I get up on stage and make an announcement and reiterate the rules say what is acceptable, what's not introduce the band, get back down start bartending and helping and clearing dishes and you know, the whole nine yards. It's exhausting. And then, you know, once that Show's over, we do it again and do a deep clean of the entire 5500 square foot venue in between the two shows, but it is really nice. I'm thankful that I had some formal theater training in the past, I used to work at Playmakers in Chapel Hill and I worked at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego before I moved to Raleigh and American Dance Festival and Carolina theater for a little bit I really learned about how other types of live events run not everyone's like come in party, do what you want be on your phone, talk loud, most other forms of art you come in, you sit down and shut up and pay attention. Like I wrote, I had that experience and I was used to enforcing those things from the past. And we're already used to enforcing rules at the Pour House too. So it was just another layer of rules that were different than everyone was used to. So it's definitely been interesting getting folks in tune with that with this new flow of operations and I can guarantee what's gonna happen by the time everyone's like, Oh, Okay, I get it, then everything's gonna change and open back up. And we're not going to be doing things like this anymore. But at the same time, we've always had shows in the past that have lent themselves better to a seated environment, whether it's a an acoustic songwriter where silence is golden, or a jazz show or a folk show, something that is just more mellow, or maybe would attract a crowd that is a little bit older, and they appreciate the seats. So now we've got the operations down to accommodate those things, and we can amplify it a little bit more, maybe not have tables so spread out and bring in additional ones, and run shows in the same way that we are right now. So it's definitely forcing us to be more dynamic. And I think it's only going to be beneficial down the road for us to adapt how we present things based on what it is we're presenting.Lise Nox  35:35  Yeah, cuz I was gonna ask like, Once COVID is over, and you don't have to worry about masks or social distancing, or cleaning up the entire venue after every, like every set, I was gonna ask, are you going to do anything differently going forward, and it seems like you guys are gonna have more opportunities to have, you know, just like you said, lighter shows or like more intimate shows.Adam Linstaedt  35:57  Usually, when we've done seated shows in the past, we've done it more like rows of chairs, without tables, more of like a theater style seating. So we'll bring in 100 chairs or something like that, for the ground floor, maybe some standing room behind it with a few tables, and then general admission behind that at the bar. So people are still able to be fluid. But when you do shows like that, especially when you're in a row of 10 people, and you're in the middle and you want to get up and go get a drink, you're gonna probably question yourself, whether you should do that and interrupt all these seven people that you got to walk past in front of and then come back and how many times you actually going to get up and down. But with doing it with the tables like this, so it's kind of more like a jazz club or a comedy club type approach? I think it works really well. You know, we started a series with NC State live in 2019, we did a handful, maybe three or four shows with them in partnership, and something Those were all seated shows with the sporadic seating and row seating that I was speaking of before, but I was talking to Sharon, who runs the program over there yesterday, actually, like you should really come check out what we're doing now. I think it's gonna lend itself perfectly for the NC State live shows. And she's like, yeah, that's gonna sounds great, we should totally come and check that out. And it just, you know, people are always more comfortable with things they're familiar with. And certain crowds are more familiar with certain types of approaches than others. And it's a way to reflect what the crowd wants. That's our job as a venue is to make it comfortable for people and make it as fun for those people that are there that night. And I think having those seated shows like that is going to continue to be a thing in the future, we might lay off it a little bit for a while and just party as hard as we can, and you know, throw all the ragers. But whenever that whenever that happens, whenever it's safe. It's looking like the later this year, late summer, maybe in the fall, we should be back to rocking and rolling.Lise Nox  37:45  Do you have unless you don't want to talk about it? Because it's a surprise, or, you know, do you have anything planned for when things are gonna go back to normal to kind of celebrate, you know, venue being able to reopen normally?Adam Linstaedt  37:56  No, not at this point. Because if I've learned anything over this last year is the more you put plans down into place and start moving on them, you're going to have to change them. So we know how to run shows like that we're ready for it. It's when it's going to be it might be a Tuesday randomly, it might be a Friday night, a couple of weeks after we get the announcement that we can do things like that as we ride out things that are already in place on the calendar, since we know typically booked further out than this weekend, you know, we've got things on the calendar all the way up to January right now of stuff that was rescheduled from last yearLise Nox  38:28  really seems like the pandemic has kind of taught us all how to be more spontaneous and flexible with our time with our energy our plans, just like you said, Every time you as of right now every time you're going to plan something for the future, you're always going to think in the back of your mind, maybe its is not going to happen. Or maybe everything's gonna change or like my entire world is going to fall apart in like two months from now. So adapt to be changes really quick. It's what we've all been doing for all of 2020Adam Linstaedt  38:53  Yeah, early on in the pandemic, I was talking to someone I don't remember who you know, you seem to really be on top of things and like getting things rescheduled and getting things on the calendar, blah, blah, blah. I was like, Yeah, but you know, at the same time, I'm really trying to look at this, like we're a startup business, when you're a startup business, you don't really you might have a date planned for when you're going to open but there's always going to be surprises that pop up, you have to have this extra permit or you have to have this extra inspection or the plumbing inspector is making you move your toilet over a quarter inch to fall into compliance. So being flexible, having a plan and being able to adapt it in real time is key for everyone right now to maintaining sanity really Lise Nox  39:30  I think the positive things we can remember from this pandemic is like how we've all been able to evolve into new people or you know, just like or new ways to run our businesses, I guess.Adam Linstaedt  39:39  Yeah, hopefully it sticks for a lot of people because typically people tend to forget things very quickly and move on and fall back into old habits. So hopefully it is been long enough that there is a greater good that comes out of this all this downtime we've all had. Lise Nox  39:52  I can say even though you guys had to set really strict rules for your show. I remember having a great time. So thank you so much for making this possible because I'm a really big fan of like music. So spending an entire year without going to a concert and also having started the year 2020 thinking, Okay, this year is the year where I will be going to one concert per month. That's the thing I wanted to do for my 2020 and then having to spend the entire year locked up in my room and be like, not going to happen. Definitely not gonna happen. I just remembered that. So I moved to Raleigh a few months ago. And I remember the first time I went to Pour House, I had no idea what it was in the first place. Like my friend told me, Hey, we should go to pourhouse. I was like, yeah, sure, whatever that is. And she took me to the record shop upstairs. And at the time, I had no idea that you guys were actually hosting live shows, usually, you know, pre pandemic. And she's the one who showed me the stage. And she was like, Oh, my partner usually plays there. And I was like, wow, there's a venue here. Like, that's awesome and at the time, I was like, well, we're, you know, with COVID. and stuff, I'm never going to be able to see a concert anyways, like, good thing to know. But I'm probably going to beAdam Linstaedt  40:58  Thanks for rubbing it in.Lise Nox  41:00  Like, I'm glad to know this information, but I'm not going to be able to do anything about it. And fast forward two months later, I'm seeing a live show of her partner playing the bass on stage. And I'm like, Oh, it was just really, really fun to notice the evolution because we're kind of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel right now know, people are getting more and more vaccinated.Adam Linstaedt  41:18  I think its starting April 6th, or 7th anyone over 16 in North Carolina can get it. You can get it next week. Lise Nox  41:26  Oh, wow. That's, that's coming really quickly. Yeah, cuz I'd like to get vaccinated. And I, for some reason, for obvious reasons, I couldn't. But yeah, it's good to know. So yeah, Adam Linstaedt  41:36  They've fast tracked a lot of things. And yeah, I believe it's the sixth or the seventh, anyone over the age of 16 is eligible. Okay, yeah, I got my second shot on Wednesday, and my wife just got her second shot this morning. That's great. So we're moving, we're moving towards it. And you know, once everyone that works for the venue, is vaccinated, and we're past that two week after, after getting your second shot time period, we are going to be a little bit more flexible with the masks, we're obviously still going to encourage people to keep them on the entire time they're inside the building, but we're gonna fight with them less about it. So if someone feels the need to sit down and take their mask off, and stay in their spot and follow all the other rules, keep their mask off while they're drinking, we're going to allow it at that point in time. But right now, if any of us get sick we had 17 employees when we closed down, and now we're we have 4, so if any of us get sick, we're gonna have to cancel shows for the next month, which is putting all these bands out of work, putting them out of work, we're just doing everything, we can definitely not make that happen. So we'll feel a little bit more comfortable with it once everyone's got their vaccinations fully in their systems. And, you know, hopefully everyone else follows suit and gets their shots as well. And we can get back to this sooner than later since I mean, it's the floodgates are opening next week,Lise Nox  42:53  it definitely matters more than anything that your team is safe first, because for people running the shows, like did you have to let go that many people because of like the debt?Adam Linstaedt  43:02  Well, I mean, that's how many people we need to run shows right now. Okay, so I've got my sound engineer, our door person, and two people working behind the bar plus myself managing so there's four people working than me managing and we're able to make it work with 54 people in the room, that's a fine number for us to deal with. So as things ramp up, we're going to start bringing back more folks, I have a separate person that's running a record shop during the daytime for those hours, technically five people back of the 17 that we had when we closed down initially,Lise Nox  43:34  okay, yeahAdam Linstaedt  43:34  But yeah I mean, we were we had the record shop opened 56 hours a week, we're doing shows seven nights a week with multiple bands, you know, often we would have four or five bartenders on any night, sometimes additional security on the floor, always a manager on duty. So just the need for more people right now isn't there and it wouldn't be fair to bring back more people and cut everyone's money down and then go, we should have stayed on unemployment, we would have been making more money that way, even though people want to get back to work. So it's been a balancing act for sure. We definitely have more folks that we're ready to bring back once restrictions get loosened a little bit. And we're able to bring more bodies in and justify the cost and having more people workingLise Nox  44:13  if you only have to deal with like 40 people like 44 people at the same time, it seems you know, reasonableAdam Linstaedt  44:18  Right, normally, in the before times, if we had a show where you know, 40 or 50 people showed up, that would be a one bartender night because they're not having to go out and run all over the place and cocktail and get their bills. 20,000 steps in in a couple hours. They're behind the bar, people are coming to them, which is a lot more easy to manage than it is with this other process. But yeah, that's where we're at right now. And I have full intentions of getting back to bigger and better places than we were before.Lise Nox  44:42  Hopefully by this summer 2021. That would be awesome. The rebirth of Pour House. Finally,Adam Linstaedt  44:47  yeah, it's coming.Lise Nox  44:49  Yes, it definitely is. I think I've covered pretty much everything I wanted to talk about. Is there anything else you want to add?Adam Linstaedt  44:56  Just let folks know that we're announcing new concerts every Tuesday at noon. So if you pay attention to our social media on Facebook or Instagram, or you get our newsletter that we send out, those are the main places that we're announcing those shows on the record shop side of things, we put out new and used releases every Friday at 10am. online at pourhouserecordshop.com they're obviously available in shop starting at noon, and just kind of keep an ear out for us. Because we're always adding more things, we're always announcing more events. And hopefully soon we're going to announce that things are changing for the better. And we're moving in the direction of not having to be so strict and we can loosen up because at the end of the day, people come and hang out with us to cut loose from life not to follow more rules their here to have fun were very much ready to get back to that. So in the meantime, we're just going to make this as fun as we possibly can and as enjoyable as we possibly can, with the hope of being able to shift back to how things were before and being more fluid of an experience.Lise Nox  45:56  Yeah, and I feel like this interview and the article I wrote, are going to be pretty good proof for people that their shows are safe. So if you want to have fun, if you want to forget about the pandemic for an hour, one night, you can you're not going to get sick with COVID, it's fine, you can go to a concert, like with a clear conscience,Adam Linstaedt  46:14  Right totally. And on that same on that same note we've got, because we're largely selling all of our tickets in advance. So we have contact information for at least one person in every single group that's coming to the venue. And we've asked in all of our terms, hey, if you or anyone in your group gets sick with COVID, within two weeks of being here, let us know. So we can let everyone that was at that show know. So they can, you know, squash it and you know, isolate and do the things that they're supposed to do to help slow the spread of this thing. The answer is to slowing it down are just so painfully obvious. And it's so hard to watch everything happen that are just flying in the face of it and flying in the face of logic. It's really frustrating. We could have been back to rocking and rolling a long time ago if everyone just you know, did what they were supposed to do and were responsible but that's not the world we live in unfortunately.Lise Nox  47:03  Definitely not thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me about this this the kind of information that I think a lot of people are going to be benefiting from people are going to know what it's like with you telling us about Pour house and everything had to go through and how you're running the shows right now. Like it's just really great information. So thank you so much for taking the time to talk about this with me.Adam Linstaedt  47:22  Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you putting it at the forefront and letting folks know and if anyone has any questions or concerns or hesitations about coming out to a show or coming to the shop you know we're an open door people can email me my email is adam@The-Pour-House.com You can also reach out to Nick his emails the same but it's Nick you can reach out to Lacey the same but L A C I E, our phone numbers 919-821-1120. Call us we're happy to talk and ease your mind a little bit. And if we can't convince you that it's safe now we hope that you come back when you feel more comfortable.Lise Nox  47:59  Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eye on the Triangle. This is Lise Knox for WKNC 88.1. My guest was Adam Linstaedt from Pour House Music Hall, and he did a really great job in explaining what it's really like to be hosting COVID safe shows in the middle of a pandemic. Thank you so much for listening once again and I guess I'll see you soon. Take careTranscribed by https://otter.ai

FULL TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODEProvided by Otter.aiEoin Trainor  0:00  The views and opinions expressed in Eye on the Triangle do not represent WKNC or the student media.Good evening Raleigh and welcome to this week's episode of Eye on the Triangle on WKNC 88.1 FM HD one Raleigh, I'm Eoin Trainor. On tonight's episode contributor Elizabeth Esser will sit down with Caroline Rocheleau to talk about the North Carolina Museum of Art's new exhibit on golden mummies. And then a little later contributor Lise Knox will discuss live music during the pandemic with Adam Lindstaedt, owner of the local venue the Pour House. Stay tuned.Elizabeth Esser  0:51  I'm Elizabeth Esser with WKNC 88.1 Eye on the Triangle. Today I am speaking with Caroline Rocheleau, curator of ancient art and Director of Research at the North Carolina Museum of Art to talk about the new golden mummies of Egypt exhibition that opened on March 6. Miss Rocheleau, thank you for joining us on Eye on the Triangle.Caroline Rocheleau  1:11  Well, thank you for inviting me Elizabeth Esser  1:12  To get things started can you just tell us a little bit about yourself and your position at the North Carolina Museum of Art.Caroline Rocheleau  1:19  I am director of research and also curator of ancient art, which is I guess, my primary role at the museum. I take care of all the ancient things from ancient Egypt, to the Mediterranean like Greece and Rome and also the ancient Americas but I have a colleague working with me on those last collections.Elizabeth Esser  1:38  What can visitors expect from golden mummies of Egypt?Caroline Rocheleau  1:42  Well, I'll tell you a little secret. Since I started working at the museum about 15 years ago, people have been asking me, when are we going to have mummies? When are you going to bring an exhibition of mummies because we don't have any in our collection. And the second they found out that I was a trained Egyptologist, they thought, Oh, well, she's the person to get us some mummies. So what they can expect to see in Golden mummies of Egypt is mummies. However, we're focused on a very specific cultural period. And that's the end of Egyptian history, when Egypt was ruled by the Greeks and the Romans, so the mummies are not going to look like King Tutankhamun, for example, that's sort of an image that people have in their mind. So it's not going to be that they're still mummies. But there's cultural and artistic influence at that time that's coming from elsewhere in the Mediterranean, and you will see the Egyptians wearing like Roman hairstyles and togas and things like this. So on the outside, they look different on the inside, they're the same.Elizabeth Esser  2:48  So the exhibition focuses on the Greco-Roman period. So what was unique about this particular period? And how do we see that translated in the exhibition?Caroline Rocheleau  2:59  So Egypt has always been a multicultural environment, because of where it's located, you know, northeast Africa, but attached to Western Asia and like the, what we call today, the Middle East, and with access to the broader Mediterranean, now you really see it even more, because Egypt becomes part of other empires that have even further wider reaches. And if you think of just a Roman Empire, the fact that Roman Egypt is on par with Gaul with Roman France, is sort of mind boggling, you know, insert mind blowing emoji here, when you put that into perspective it's like, wow, other countries are as old as Egypt. And Egypt is now part of a much, much bigger network than it was before. So you do see as I mentioned earlier, those cultural influences coming in, because it's all part of the Empire. The Empire is very diverse. It runs from Western Asia, all the way through Western Europe, and the British Isles. So it's, it's quite bigger than Egypt at its height ever was. So you do see those influences? What does curating an exhibition during a pandemic look like? The curating part was not done by me because we this is a traveling exhibition. So it came. It's an exhibition that is circulated by Nomad Exhibitions based out of Scotland and the collection that is being presented is that of Manchester Museum in the UK. So my colleague there, Campbell Price, and Nomad Exhibitions worked together to curate the exhibition. That being said, installing an exhibition during a pandemic is something that nobody had ever done before. And this was complicated by the fact that people from Nomad and people from Manchester were supposed to come travel to North Carolina to install the cases and put the objects in the cases, because of the pandemic and the travel restrictions, nobody could travel. So it was a whole bunch of zoom meetings, phone calls, we had a WhatsApp, you know messaging group, because we're, they're basically helping us remotely put the cases together things we'd never put together before. The material that's you handle any material the same way. So that's not so much of an issue but it was trying to do all of this by ourselves when we were originally supposed to assist. So it was a lot trickier and you're in there with your mask, and you're putting in the objects and you're you're trying to stay six feet apart. That's impossible. So it's very nerve wracking at the same at the same time, but we pulled through, and it looks absolutely fabulous. But it was quite a challenge.Elizabeth Esser  6:06  I understand that the triangle area is celebrating this exhibition along with the museum. Can you tell us a little bit about the community collaborations with the Golden Mummies of Egypt,Caroline Rocheleau  6:16  We actually have a few goodies in various restaurants. And so we have places in Raleigh and Chapel Hill, for example, good day, good night at Origin Hotel in Raleigh. They have a cocktail called Gold of Egypt. There's another one called a golden goddess cocktail that's in Chapel Hill at Honeysuckle Lakewood, there's a bunch of different things. We even have chocolate, custom packaged sea salt chocolate, available at our museum, or I should say, our exhibition store, which is as you come out of the exhibition, it's it's right there, that's Videri Chocolate Factory, and they sell it at their store as well. Even in the store, we do have some goodies related to this bartending cocktail mix that we have. And we also have a candle that where the scent was made exclusively for us. And it's inspired by golden mommies. So that's actually kind of fun. Like you don't really see that in like exhibition stores something custom made like a candle. For example, Honeysuckle Tea House has Egyptian sunset tea made with chamomile, lemon balm, fall gold, ginkgo leaf, gingerroot, and oatstraw. That just kind of sounds nice, actually. So those are the kinds of partnerships that we have with local places like restaurants and tea houses and chocolates, like what could be better a cocktail, some chocolates after you visit the exhibition. That's awesome to me.Elizabeth Esser  7:47  What is your favorite part of the exhibition?Caroline Rocheleau  7:50  Goodness, I have lots of it's like asking for my favorite child. There's lots of different things that I like about the exhibition. I like that we are that we have mummies that people can finally see mummies, like I mentioned, we do not have any in our own collection. But I like also that the exhibition is more than just about mummies that we talk about multiculturalism, we still talk about, what is mummification? Has it changed or not during the Roman period? And a little bit you see this hinted in the exhibition, but there's a catalog also that accompanies it. And we dive into other themes like colonialism as well, because the discovery was made at the height of the British Empire. So how does that play how the objects that were discovered in Egypt ended up in Manchester Museum, for example. And that's one of the reasons I mean, I've been looking for a mummy exhibition for a little while. This one really caught my interest because it was more than just about mummies, but it was also about bringing transparency to how collections have been formed. And that sort of thing. So it was sort of hitting multiple boxes on the best mummy exhibition to bring to the the NCMA. Elizabeth Esser  9:04  Finally, is there anything else that you would like listeners to know about Golden Mummies of Egypt?Caroline Rocheleau  9:09  Well, it is awesome, first of all, so that's the first point. And what I like to our marketing team, we have this little more I'm going to call it a little ad that said that says mummies wear masks too, because you will see a lot of masks and portraits in the exhibition. And yes, these do identify like, Oh look, this is a human mummy. But these are also used as protection, just like the layers of wrapping around the mummy that's for protection. So those mummy masks that you see in the exhibition to offer protection. So wear your mask, do like the mummies, and come see golden mummies of Egypt. Elizabeth Esser  9:47  Golden mummies of Egypt is open from now until July 11. Tickets are $20 for non member adults $17 for seniors and $14 for youth ages 7 to 18 students get in free with their college ID Every Friday from 3 to 5pm with a reserved ticket which can be received through contacting help@NCArtmuseum.org reporting for Eye on the Triangle. This is Elizabeth Esser.Lise Nox  10:15  The views and opinions expressed during Eye on the Triangle do not represent WKNC or student media.Hi, this is Lise Knox, and you're listening to Eye on the Triangle. After spending all of 2020 without seeing live music because of the COVID pandemic the emblematic Raleigh music venue the Pour House House Music Hall started hosting live shows again as of March 2021, I went to one of their COVID safe concerts to see the Latin rock band Tumbao play live on the fifth of March 2021. And I ended up writing about my experience for WKNC's blog, in an article called "I went to a COVID safe concert after one year without any live shows." Adam Linstaedt, owner of the Pour House Music Hall and record shop read my article and thought it would be interesting for him to talk more in depth about what it's really like for a music venue to be hosting COVID safe shows while Raleigh is still affected by the pandemic. I'm really glad we're having this conversation today because I wrote an article a few weeks ago that apparently you've read about me going to a COVID concert at Pour house, which is a very weird experience but really cool experience. So today we're going to be talking about what it's like to be hosting these kind of shows in the middle of a pandemic, because for a lot of people, it can seem kind of weird to be, you know, going to concerts. But before we dive into this very specific topic, I just wanted to like know how it was like for you guys to be going through this pandemic as a venue, you know, like a local business, how are you guys able to survive the pandemic in the first place,Adam Linstaedt  11:51  It was extremely stressful. It still is we're only partially back at this point. But it was just from day one, watching the money in our bank account just dwindle on a daily basis for a venue like ours when we're closed completely not doing anything, the lights are off, it cost $500 a day. And we were closed for 355 days without doing shows. So for all you math majors out there, you know, you can figure that out really quickly of how much we lost. We had nowhere near that amount when we went into the pandemic either we relied heavily on donations, on grants from the city and state and other organizations we've taken out several loans. So yeah, I mean, we've acquired another $400,000 of debt since this time last year just to stay afloat to make sure we don't go anywhere. And now there's some light at the end of the tunnel knock on wood. The venue grant that passed in December through Congress is becoming available the applications opening on April 8, which will be a huge Lifeline not just for us, but for all independent music venues across the country. It'll basically help bring us back to close to zero, which is way better than being a large negative number. There has been days over this last year where it's like, Alright, we got this, we got to figure it out. We're gonna do this, this and that. And then the next day you're like curled up in a corner crying like what the hell am I doing? Why am I doing this? Oh my god, this is such a terrible idea. So it's definitely been an emotional roller coaster, us more than other venues, we're in a slightly better position. So in November of 2019, we converted the second level of the music venue into a record shop. So we've had that open the whole time. Once we closed down, we converted all of our inventory to try selling online the first couple weeks, you know, we basically just had an Excel spreadsheet that we made public that people would tell us what they wanted, they would come to curbside pickup we delivered to their houses, ship it in the mail. And after a few weeks of doing that it was really confusing for everyone and not terribly accurate on our end, since it was like a panic mode. Like we got to do this now. So we can stop the bleeding a little bit. So we launched the true website. It's still active, Pourhouserecordshop.com, and we released new stuff every Friday new and used. And we really developed a great online following and are now selling nationally to all 50 states and several countries as well. So that's been huge for us. It's basically helped sustain us, it's definitely not making us money, but it's you know, making the losses every month a lot less. The intention of the record shop was never to pay for a 5500 square foot building and prime real estate of downtown. There's a reason you don't see places like that very much across the country anymore. It was really a way to provide more services to our customers be open more and use our square footage in a better way. I guess, rather than only using the building at night for a few hours. You know, we wanted to try to use it, you know, 16 hours a day and we had the record shop open. We got a full bar up there. We were doing shows free shows on Saturday and Sunday three to five sets every Saturday and Sunday afternoon up in the record shops. It was really becoming a great thing and then the shutdown happened and everything got wiped out. And really in order for us to get back to doing those types of things. Again, we're going to have to be back with no restrictions whatsoever because it's a pretty small space up there even right now with the show that you went to and that we've been Running on Fridays and Saturdays, it's running at 19% capacity, we normally hold 289 people, we're now letting 54 people in at a time into a big space. They're seated shows, I'm personally bringing everybody in and bringing them to their table, giving them the rundown of how shows are running the expectations that this is a seated show that you should really think of this as going to a movie or a comedy club, you're sitting back and enjoying the show, we're bringing everything to you, there's no reason for you to be up wandering around anything like that, unless you're using the restroom or needing to step outside for whatever reason. Otherwise, if people are just starting to wander around, they see friends at different tables, we talked to them, if they continue to not follow the rules, we kick them out without a refund. Luckily, that hasn't had to happen yet, I'd say 95% of people have been great. And they understand they're, you know, following our protocols, no problem, there's a small group of people that don't want to wear masks, they'll come in, you know, the moment they get inside, they're taking it off. And because you're inside now that COVID is gone, it doesn't make sense. So we are enforcing the mask rule more strictly than say, like a restaurant or a store, we're requiring people to keep it on the entire time, the only time they can take it off is you know, for a drink, they can pull it down, take a sip of their drink, then put it back on. And if people aren't doing that, we ask them to comply. And if they continue to cause a problem, we ask them to leave. We've had a couple people leave on their own, and on their way out calling me a mask Nazi and all this fun stuff. So like cool, like you can have a great day, you know,Lise Nox  16:24  it's like we've been independent for over a year. Now, you should know you're supposed to wear your mask. It's like, you know, basic guidelines for COVID.Adam Linstaedt  16:31  Yeah, there's this strange dichotomy happening because the Pour houses in other music venues are considered private clubs. So like your regular bar that doesn't serve food, it's not part of a brewery, not part of a hotel, not part of the winery, we've been the only classification of bars in the state that hasn't been able to be open, all the other ones have been open since May of last year. So a lot of people have been going out for 10 months at this point. And all those places, you know, you go into a brewery, you go into a restaurant, you wear your mask in, and then you sit down and then you can take it off for two hours and not have to put it back on, getting those people used to the fact that they have to keep it on it feels they feel like they're getting their rights or whatever squashed, blah, blah, blah, but it's our house our rules. And really what the mandate says is, if you're not drinking, you have to be wearing a mask. And we interpret that as if you're not physically drinking, not just sitting there with a drink in front of you that's not drinking, you got to have a mask on. And we're keeping the show short right now to reduce the amount of time that people are in room lessen the exposure risk. So normally, we would have anywhere between two and four bands every night, we're now running one band playing one set for 60 minutes. So people are in and out pretty quickly. And then we turn the house do a deep clean and then do a second show with the same artist. So we're not you know, having multiple bands sharing the stage and having to do deep cleans of the equipment for the artists in between sets. And we've got, you know, plastic shields on all the microphones for when singers are singing, it provides extra protection from them spraying their spit out into the audience. And you know, we're doing everything we possibly can in our powers to do it right and make sure it is a safe experience. In my opinion. I've heard it from countless people that have been to shows already, they felt safer coming to a show with us than going to the grocery store or going to a restaurant or going to this place or that place because the rules are so strictly enforced. Lise Nox  18:15  Yeah, as someone who actually went to a show, I could tell that the venue really looked empty. But at the same time, I was like, I'm glad I have enough space around me to you know, not feel like someone's going to infect me with COVID or something I felt safe. And it was really weird. When my friend told me Oh, actually my partner plays the bass in a band. Do you want to go see him play live? I was like, why would I ever go to a concert like that seems like that most unsafe thing to do. And when I was actually at Pour House, I was like, everything is so much safer than me going to like the grocery store or any other place. So you guys have been doing a really great job of keeping everyone safe props to you guys like that.Adam Linstaedt  18:50  Thank you very much. Yeah, safety and experience for not only the patrons for the bands and my staff as well have always been top priority even before COVID. You know, obviously, it looked different before but the mentality was always there in trying to make it as fun as possible for everyone involved in as safe as possible for everyone involved. And that's just really carried over. I mean, we had these plans in place ready to go in at the beginning of April 2020. We knew what we had to do in order to put on a safe show. Because you know, in the beginning it was it was like on a three week rolling basis. It's like you might be able to open in three weeks. So get ready and then three weeks would come we're like okay, it's another three weeks and kept snowballing on and on and on and on. And then by the time we got to after Halloween into November the numbers were going crazy. So I was like, you know, I'm stopping I can't keep replanning and retooling everything every couple weeks its driving me crazy. I'm getting pretty grey now and I wasn't before. But you know, and then all of a sudden Cooper made the announcement that we could open. It kind of blindsided us we weren't exactly ready for it. And honestly, we didn't think that it was the appropriate time but also at the same time we felt we had safe plans and places have been open for 10 months except 1000 businesses in the entire state. So we felt we could do it safely and properly and provide that Pour House experience, even though in a different fashion, we felt we could do it in a safe and enjoyable way.Lise Nox  20:11  And it was probably even safer at Pour House than any other bar, because I remember going to bar once. And just like you said, People usually tend to like take off their mask to drink. And for two hours, they don't put it back on, we're just not wearing our mask and drinking beers at a bar so. We're just like, not in a pandemic anymore, you know, feels like we're not Adam Linstaedt  20:31  Totally yeah, and you know, there was so much language early on, like concerts are the most dangerous thing you could possibly do on the face of Earth anymore. And everyone's like, concerts. It's the devil's play right there. You can't, you can't mess around with it. And at the same time, during the pandemic, there's comedy shows, and there was concerts happening at places that serve food, it was okay if there was food, so you had to have your mask off and flap your mouth more so more spits flying out into the air that was safer rather than people just sitting down paying attention to what's happening in front of them with a mask on so I mean, the the way it was cut up felt extremely unfair. I do feel like we did our part in doing everything we could to step back and you know, alleviate any sort of pressure that's put on the system for people getting sick. Obviously, that's the last thing we want for anybody. We want this to just go away and nobody else gets infected. But that's not the reality we live in. And but it also got to a point where it's like we were the first ones to jump back into the you know, from the quote unquote, true music venue side of things in the area, we were the first ones to just jump back in. I feel like we've set the bar for expectations for people coming to concerts and what it needs to look like in order to feel safe and comfortable.Lise Nox  21:38  Yeah, cuz it really looks like you guys had been like preparing for COVID safe shows for a long time, because you were able to do it in a way that felt safe professional, and you didn't forget about any detail. I mean, when it comes to COVID guidelines, so that was really impressive to be able to adapt that quickly. You know, like I've seen many record labels and artists have online shows for their audience to watch. Is this something you've ever done with bands who usually play at Pour House during 2020? Adam Linstaedt  22:05  Yeah, for sure. We did probably 20 or 25 live streams over the last year. The first one we did was very early on. Right after John Bryant passed away. We did a tribute to John Bryant with that's when people were still on full lockdown and they're still at their houses. Nobody was coming to the Pour House. We had 8 different acts like BJ Barnum from American aquarium, Kate Rhudy, John Howard Jr, who's playing tonight at the Pour House and a bunch of other really great acts that are influenced by John Bryant. And they each played three songs, nobody replicated songs and we switched myself and one other person we controlled the stream from the Pour house and you know tuned into John Howard's house and over to BJs house then over to Kate's house, and it was like a continuous thing. And it was a really beautiful tribute and you know, tons of people tuned in at that time we were doing it as a fundraiser for the Raleigh music venue employee fund that we started to try to get some dollars in the pockets of all the people that work at Pour House, Lincoln's, Slim's, Kings, and Wicked Witch raised some good money during that for the crews. And then over time, we started doing more in person like Arson Daily and Jack the Radio and Shame did something and a bunch of other artists, Reese McHenry, and over time like as the pandemic ticked on, more and more, the number of people tuning in started going down, I definitely feel like there was like a live stream fatigue happening. I've spoken with several other event producers around the country. And they've seen very similar things. It seems that the most successful live streams are from bands that have a much larger national or international fan base. They're doing it on their own. They're not necessarily streaming from a place for this specific reason. They're just connecting with their, their audience, it was never really an intention for us to make money from it, it was more of a way to be like, Hey, we're going to be gone for a year. Don't forget about us. We're still here. Like, we're still doing these things over here. And we're ready for you when when this is all over. So it was really just a way to try to stay fresh in people's minds. Lise Nox  24:00  Yeah, I feel like the one positive thing that we can all kind of get from this entire pandemic is how we've all kind of learned how to use technology in new ways. You have online shows, which is something you've never would have thought of before the pandemic because if you're going to go to a concert, you're going to go in person, like why would you watch music through computer in the first place? Yeah. And also Yeah, about the, like livestream fatigue. I feel like a lot of people have spent their entire 2020 working from home on their computer, you know, having zoom calls all day. No, the last thing you want to do after an entire day seated at your computer at your desk is watch the live stream again at night. I don't think I've watched any live stream during the pandemic because I was really I wasn't really up to date with everything that was going on, like this, but I think I would have watched one if I kind of knew because I was so caught up in like work and you know, trying to survive a pandemic, I guess but yeahAdam Linstaedt  24:52  it just gets pushed so far down the priority list of things going on in your life and nobody's to fault for that because I mean, everyone's experienced with this last year has been wild. And I mean, nobody's experience has been the same. So I've heard, you know, some artists complaining, like, Oh, so and so these people aren't supporting us anymore. Like, it feels like this isn't worth it anymore. It's like, I get that I understand why you're feeling that. But you also have to put yourself in that in their shoes and understand why they're not. I mean, maybe they had a death in the family from COVID. Maybe they're sick themselves, maybe they're just like losing their damn minds, and just don't know what to do anymore. I had several people approach me over this last year that like, we really need to convert audiences into getting used to watching live streams, because this is going to be the new reality. And like this, and that we can do all these different things to make it more engaging. And at the end of the day, the people that were pitching these ideas weren't even watching or paying for the live streams themselves, they might like tune into a free one. But the moment like the artists can really monetize that and use it as a source of income is they got to charge just like a concert. When concerts are free artists in the venue, make very little money, when there's a cover charge, they're still making very little money, but it's better. And then you have the opportunity to sell merch and actually connect with the fans and get them to come back and multiply those crowds as time goes on the in person interaction that being in the same room with others. And experiencing the highs and lows of a musical set are the things that bond that group together. And all of a sudden, you've got 300 people in a room that are strangers that are all experiencing the same thing in the same way. And you know, they're high fiving each other and hugging and kissing on the way out, obviously pre COVID. ButLise Nox  26:33  definitely, you mentioned earlier that people you are trying to like adapt to the pandemic in the first few weeks or month by kind of selling more records online. And I just think it's really great that people were actually trying to support you guys, just like you mentioned, we've all been kind of struggling in our own ways during the pandemic. So I know that my first priority during this entire year wasn't to buy records or watch concerts online. And also, I feel like it's going to be a great opportunity for you guys to kind of expand your activity, because you mentioned that was a national kind of thing, you know, like selling records all around the country. Like are you going to keep doing this kind of thing after COVID is over?Adam Linstaedt  27:10  Oh, yeah, I mean, in November of 2019, we completely remodeled the second level, turned it into a record shop. So we are open up there from 11am till 7pm, seven days a week, and then we would convert over to shows at night. Right now we're open just Thursday through Sunday from 12 to six. So we're starting to ramp up towards getting back to more normal hours and get more activity going up up in there. And you know, it was it was really a really great scene, having people you know, browsing records peeking their head around the stacks, watching, you know, falling in love with a new act that they'd never heard of easy for them to see it because it's a free admission type show got a full bar people are hanging out, it was like a really cool, really cool scene. And then after four months of doing that it got stripped away completely. And it's like, okay, we had this great thing going on, we still have this record shop, we've got 30,000 records that we are just sitting on now we got to start selling online, and the online stuff has been really great. And we've developed a lot of relationships and deepen relationships with people that were already our customers. And now that we're starting to come back, we're keeping the online and we're trying to get more in person stuff going as people become more comfortable and get vaccinated and start venturing out of their cubby holes that they've been in for the last year. It seems like at this point with the way that vaccines are rolling out. And the way the numbers are starting to go down a little bit. It's very possible July or August, we might see things fully open. And we're back to full capacity shows and shoulder to shoulder and splitting and sweating it out with strangers like we did in the past.Lise Nox  28:35  Yeah, are you guys going to kind of try to make the shows evolve aggressively until the summer because I know you guys are only opened at 19% capacity right now. Do you see yourself like having 30% capacity shows? Because I know it's the maximum percentage, right?Adam Linstaedt  28:48  Well the maximum is up to 50% now yeah. So when you came to the show, we were allowed to be at 30%. But with going to a show, just like if you went to a movie, for example, and you got a seat where you couldn't see the screen, it wouldn't be a terribly enjoyable experience, right? So we could, in theory, put more people on the second level of the venue and push them back where they can't see the stage, but you can't see the stage and you're paying to see a show. So that kind of defeats the purpose. So in order to maintain distancing by our standards, which is a little bit provide a little bit more distance than the six feet that's mandated between tables to just provide that extra comfort level and a stage view. So looking at those two factors together, the maximum we can get to is 19%. So now we're allowed to be a 50% and getting all sorts of bands and booking agents hitting me up like alright, I heard 50% let's do this, you can do 140 people now is like, Well, no, because social distancing is still part of the mandate. And that's the reason until social distancing is not a revenue requirement anymore. We're going to keep operating in the way that we are once we are making plans for about a month and a half from now, to start extending the length of the shows a little bit like to show that you came to for Tumbao, those were 60 minute shows with one act, we're going to extend each show to 90 minutes. So basically add a second act with very minimal change over. So most of the time, it'll be a full band as a headliner, and maybe a solo or a duo act as an opener for 30 minutes, we can get them off stage very quickly, they're set up in front of the band already. So we don't have any big change overs, bringing gear down into the crowd and getting too close to customers or anything like that. And then we can just, you know, within two to three minutes, move on to the next band. So it's now a 90 minute show, instead of a 60 minute show.Lise Nox  30:33  It's really crazy as someone who was part of the audience, how I never like I know how much it takes to you know, keep everyone safe when you're trying to have this kind of event. But I never realized how many small details you have to think about to make sure that every single thing you do is safe. And you've been telling me about cleaning after every band and only choosing to have like one band at a time. So many things you have to think about because I mean, when I went to see Tumbao at Pour House at the beginning of March 2021, it felt weird to have like the venue being almost empty but at the same time. I'm pretty shy person. So if you tell me in the first place, like Oh, you're not allowed to dance or like, you know, jump around, I'm gonna be like, it's fine with me. I wasn't planning on dancing. If I just began my table, and like just enjoying the music and doing my thing, but yeah, no, I didn't mind having to follow all of those right, very strict rules that you guys have been implementing for the past few weeks.Adam Linstaedt  31:23  I mean, we can continue to wait until things are fully open, and then just dive back in at 100% go full force, or we could take some baby steps and get you out in front of that computer screen and actually get you back into the room feeling the music because going to show is more about feeling than anything you can see it on the screen, you can see it in person, it's the feeling that you get when you're in the room, the bass hitting you in the chest, and you know, the vibes that are just going on in the room, feeding off the energy of the other people, whether you're paying attention to them or not its in the air. And that's what that's why we do what we do is that experience of being in the room and collectively going through a moment of time that's memorable with others. And that's the baseline of what this whole experience of live music is all about to us.Lise Nox  32:05  Yeah, clearly. But since you guys were having so little people inside the venue, would you say it was easier for you to have the show since you had to, like, you know, take care of less people at the same time.Adam Linstaedt  32:15  No, because we're running things extremely differently. You know, I mean, we've always been high volume quick service bar, so customers would come to the bar to order their drinks. Now we're going to their tables and taking their order, we have paper menus at each table, people mark down the items that they want, they put it in a little metal stand. And when we see that little paper waving in the air, that's our sign to come and pick up their order. So we come and grab, grab it, bring it back to the bar, prepare those drinks, and then carry it out on a tray. I mean, we've never, we don't have cocktail service with what we run, people are coming up to us. And we're usually struggling to hear what they're trying to order. And then we make their drink as fast as possible and move on to the next one. Because there's you know, lots of people trying to get drinks, and we're doing band merch the same way. So to minimize the number of interactions that the band is having with customers, we're selling it for them. Since myself and our bartenders are already interacting with the crowds, it made better sense for us to sell their merch as well. So they're on each table, just like the bar menu, there's a little menu with the band merchandise and people can select what they want, put in a little metal stand. And when we see that we add it to their tab and bring them their t shirts and CDs and records and whatever it is that they wanted less work on the band's and more income for them because they're selling merchandise, we're not taking any sort of cut of that. So we're providing that service to just minimize the risk of getting anybody else potentially sick. And you know, that coupled with me personally seating every single person that comes through the venue explaining the rules to them. And once that's done and everyones sat I get up on stage and make an announcement and reiterate the rules say what is acceptable, what's not introduce the band, get back down start bartending and helping and clearing dishes and you know, the whole nine yards. It's exhausting. And then, you know, once that Show's over, we do it again and do a deep clean of the entire 5500 square foot venue in between the two shows, but it is really nice. I'm thankful that I had some formal theater training in the past, I used to work at Playmakers in Chapel Hill and I worked at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego before I moved to Raleigh and American Dance Festival and Carolina theater for a little bit I really learned about how other types of live events run not everyone's like come in party, do what you want be on your phone, talk loud, most other forms of art you come in, you sit down and shut up and pay attention. Like I wrote, I had that experience and I was used to enforcing those things from the past. And we're already used to enforcing rules at the Pour House too. So it was just another layer of rules that were different than everyone was used to. So it's definitely been interesting getting folks in tune with that with this new flow of operations and I can guarantee what's gonna happen by the time everyone's like, Oh, Okay, I get it, then everything's gonna change and open back up. And we're not going to be doing things like this anymore. But at the same time, we've always had shows in the past that have lent themselves better to a seated environment, whether it's a an acoustic songwriter where silence is golden, or a jazz show or a folk show, something that is just more mellow, or maybe would attract a crowd that is a little bit older, and they appreciate the seats. So now we've got the operations down to accommodate those things, and we can amplify it a little bit more, maybe not have tables so spread out and bring in additional ones, and run shows in the same way that we are right now. So it's definitely forcing us to be more dynamic. And I think it's only going to be beneficial down the road for us to adapt how we present things based on what it is we're presenting.Lise Nox  35:35  Yeah, cuz I was gonna ask like, Once COVID is over, and you don't have to worry about masks or social distancing, or cleaning up the entire venue after every, like every set, I was gonna ask, are you going to do anything differently going forward, and it seems like you guys are gonna have more opportunities to have, you know, just like you said, lighter shows or like more intimate shows.Adam Linstaedt  35:57  Usually, when we've done seated shows in the past, we've done it more like rows of chairs, without tables, more of like a theater style seating. So we'll bring in 100 chairs or something like that, for the ground floor, maybe some standing room behind it with a few tables, and then general admission behind that at the bar. So people are still able to be fluid. But when you do shows like that, especially when you're in a row of 10 people, and you're in the middle and you want to get up and go get a drink, you're gonna probably question yourself, whether you should do that and interrupt all these seven people that you got to walk past in front of and then come back and how many times you actually going to get up and down. But with doing it with the tables like this, so it's kind of more like a jazz club or a comedy club type approach? I think it works really well. You know, we started a series with NC State live in 2019, we did a handful, maybe three or four shows with them in partnership, and something Those were all seated shows with the sporadic seating and row seating that I was speaking of before, but I was talking to Sharon, who runs the program over there yesterday, actually, like you should really come check out what we're doing now. I think it's gonna lend itself perfectly for the NC State live shows. And she's like, yeah, that's gonna sounds great, we should totally come and check that out. And it just, you know, people are always more comfortable with things they're familiar with. And certain crowds are more familiar with certain types of approaches than others. And it's a way to reflect what the crowd wants. That's our job as a venue is to make it comfortable for people and make it as fun for those people that are there that night. And I think having those seated shows like that is going to continue to be a thing in the future, we might lay off it a little bit for a while and just party as hard as we can, and you know, throw all the ragers. But whenever that whenever that happens, whenever it's safe. It's looking like the later this year, late summer, maybe in the fall, we should be back to rocking and rolling.Lise Nox  37:45  Do you have unless you don't want to talk about it? Because it's a surprise, or, you know, do you have anything planned for when things are gonna go back to normal to kind of celebrate, you know, venue being able to reopen normally?Adam Linstaedt  37:56  No, not at this point. Because if I've learned anything over this last year is the more you put plans down into place and start moving on them, you're going to have to change them. So we know how to run shows like that we're ready for it. It's when it's going to be it might be a Tuesday randomly, it might be a Friday night, a couple of weeks after we get the announcement that we can do things like that as we ride out things that are already in place on the calendar, since we know typically booked further out than this weekend, you know, we've got things on the calendar all the way up to January right now of stuff that was rescheduled from last yearLise Nox  38:28  really seems like the pandemic has kind of taught us all how to be more spontaneous and flexible with our time with our energy our plans, just like you said, Every time you as of right now every time you're going to plan something for the future, you're always going to think in the back of your mind, maybe its is not going to happen. Or maybe everything's gonna change or like my entire world is going to fall apart in like two months from now. So adapt to be changes really quick. It's what we've all been doing for all of 2020Adam Linstaedt  38:53  Yeah, early on in the pandemic, I was talking to someone I don't remember who you know, you seem to really be on top of things and like getting things rescheduled and getting things on the calendar, blah, blah, blah. I was like, Yeah, but you know, at the same time, I'm really trying to look at this, like we're a startup business, when you're a startup business, you don't really you might have a date planned for when you're going to open but there's always going to be surprises that pop up, you have to have this extra permit or you have to have this extra inspection or the plumbing inspector is making you move your toilet over a quarter inch to fall into compliance. So being flexible, having a plan and being able to adapt it in real time is key for everyone right now to maintaining sanity really Lise Nox  39:30  I think the positive things we can remember from this pandemic is like how we've all been able to evolve into new people or you know, just like or new ways to run our businesses, I guess.Adam Linstaedt  39:39  Yeah, hopefully it sticks for a lot of people because typically people tend to forget things very quickly and move on and fall back into old habits. So hopefully it is been long enough that there is a greater good that comes out of this all this downtime we've all had. Lise Nox  39:52  I can say even though you guys had to set really strict rules for your show. I remember having a great time. So thank you so much for making this possible because I'm a really big fan of like music. So spending an entire year without going to a concert and also having started the year 2020 thinking, Okay, this year is the year where I will be going to one concert per month. That's the thing I wanted to do for my 2020 and then having to spend the entire year locked up in my room and be like, not going to happen. Definitely not gonna happen. I just remembered that. So I moved to Raleigh a few months ago. And I remember the first time I went to Pour House, I had no idea what it was in the first place. Like my friend told me, Hey, we should go to pourhouse. I was like, yeah, sure, whatever that is. And she took me to the record shop upstairs. And at the time, I had no idea that you guys were actually hosting live shows, usually, you know, pre pandemic. And she's the one who showed me the stage. And she was like, Oh, my partner usually plays there. And I was like, wow, there's a venue here. Like, that's awesome and at the time, I was like, well, we're, you know, with COVID. and stuff, I'm never going to be able to see a concert anyways, like, good thing to know. But I'm probably going to beAdam Linstaedt  40:58  Thanks for rubbing it in.Lise Nox  41:00  Like, I'm glad to know this information, but I'm not going to be able to do anything about it. And fast forward two months later, I'm seeing a live show of her partner playing the bass on stage. And I'm like, Oh, it was just really, really fun to notice the evolution because we're kind of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel right now know, people are getting more and more vaccinated.Adam Linstaedt  41:18  I think its starting April 6th, or 7th anyone over 16 in North Carolina can get it. You can get it next week. Lise Nox  41:26  Oh, wow. That's, that's coming really quickly. Yeah, cuz I'd like to get vaccinated. And I, for some reason, for obvious reasons, I couldn't. But yeah, it's good to know. So yeah, Adam Linstaedt  41:36  They've fast tracked a lot of things. And yeah, I believe it's the sixth or the seventh, anyone over the age of 16 is eligible. Okay, yeah, I got my second shot on Wednesday, and my wife just got her second shot this morning. That's great. So we're moving, we're moving towards it. And you know, once everyone that works for the venue, is vaccinated, and we're past that two week after, after getting your second shot time period, we are going to be a little bit more flexible with the masks, we're obviously still going to encourage people to keep them on the entire time they're inside the building, but we're gonna fight with them less about it. So if someone feels the need to sit down and take their mask off, and stay in their spot and follow all the other rules, keep their mask off while they're drinking, we're going to allow it at that point in time. But right now, if any of us get sick we had 17 employees when we closed down, and now we're we have 4, so if any of us get sick, we're gonna have to cancel shows for the next month, which is putting all these bands out of work, putting them out of work, we're just doing everything, we can definitely not make that happen. So we'll feel a little bit more comfortable with it once everyone's got their vaccinations fully in their systems. And, you know, hopefully everyone else follows suit and gets their shots as well. And we can get back to this sooner than later since I mean, it's the floodgates are opening next week,Lise Nox  42:53  it definitely matters more than anything that your team is safe first, because for people running the shows, like did you have to let go that many people because of like the debt?Adam Linstaedt  43:02  Well, I mean, that's how many people we need to run shows right now. Okay, so I've got my sound engineer, our door person, and two people working behind the bar plus myself managing so there's four people working than me managing and we're able to make it work with 54 people in the room, that's a fine number for us to deal with. So as things ramp up, we're going to start bringing back more folks, I have a separate person that's running a record shop during the daytime for those hours, technically five people back of the 17 that we had when we closed down initially,Lise Nox  43:34  okay, yeahAdam Linstaedt  43:34  But yeah I mean, we were we had the record shop opened 56 hours a week, we're doing shows seven nights a week with multiple bands, you know, often we would have four or five bartenders on any night, sometimes additional security on the floor, always a manager on duty. So just the need for more people right now isn't there and it wouldn't be fair to bring back more people and cut everyone's money down and then go, we should have stayed on unemployment, we would have been making more money that way, even though people want to get back to work. So it's been a balancing act for sure. We definitely have more folks that we're ready to bring back once restrictions get loosened a little bit. And we're able to bring more bodies in and justify the cost and having more people workingLise Nox  44:13  if you only have to deal with like 40 people like 44 people at the same time, it seems you know, reasonableAdam Linstaedt  44:18  Right, normally, in the before times, if we had a show where you know, 40 or 50 people showed up, that would be a one bartender night because they're not having to go out and run all over the place and cocktail and get their bills. 20,000 steps in in a couple hours. They're behind the bar, people are coming to them, which is a lot more easy to manage than it is with this other process. But yeah, that's where we're at right now. And I have full intentions of getting back to bigger and better places than we were before.Lise Nox  44:42  Hopefully by this summer 2021. That would be awesome. The rebirth of Pour House. Finally,Adam Linstaedt  44:47  yeah, it's coming.Lise Nox  44:49  Yes, it definitely is. I think I've covered pretty much everything I wanted to talk about. Is there anything else you want to add?Adam Linstaedt  44:56  Just let folks know that we're announcing new concerts every Tuesday at noon. So if you pay attention to our social media on Facebook or Instagram, or you get our newsletter that we send out, those are the main places that we're announcing those shows on the record shop side of things, we put out new and used releases every Friday at 10am. online at pourhouserecordshop.com they're obviously available in shop starting at noon, and just kind of keep an ear out for us. Because we're always adding more things, we're always announcing more events. And hopefully soon we're going to announce that things are changing for the better. And we're moving in the direction of not having to be so strict and we can loosen up because at the end of the day, people come and hang out with us to cut loose from life not to follow more rules their here to have fun were very much ready to get back to that. So in the meantime, we're just going to make this as fun as we possibly can and as enjoyable as we possibly can, with the hope of being able to shift back to how things were before and being more fluid of an experience.Lise Nox  45:56  Yeah, and I feel like this interview and the article I wrote, are going to be pretty good proof for people that their shows are safe. So if you want to have fun, if you want to forget about the pandemic for an hour, one night, you can you're not going to get sick with COVID, it's fine, you can go to a concert, like with a clear conscience,Adam Linstaedt  46:14  Right totally. And on that same on that same note we've got, because we're largely selling all of our tickets in advance. So we have contact information for at least one person in every single group that's coming to the venue. And we've asked in all of our terms, hey, if you or anyone in your group gets sick with COVID, within two weeks of being here, let us know. So we can let everyone that was at that show know. So they can, you know, squash it and you know, isolate and do the things that they're supposed to do to help slow the spread of this thing. The answer is to slowing it down are just so painfully obvious. And it's so hard to watch everything happen that are just flying in the face of it and flying in the face of logic. It's really frustrating. We could have been back to rocking and rolling a long time ago if everyone just you know, did what they were supposed to do and were responsible but that's not the world we live in unfortunately.Lise Nox  47:03  Definitely not thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me about this this the kind of information that I think a lot of people are going to be benefiting from people are going to know what it's like with you telling us about Pour house and everything had to go through and how you're running the shows right now. Like it's just really great information. So thank you so much for taking the time to talk about this with me.Adam Linstaedt  47:22  Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you putting it at the forefront and letting folks know and if anyone has any questions or concerns or hesitations about coming out to a show or coming to the shop you know we're an open door people can email me my email is adam@The-Pour-House.com You can also reach out to Nick his emails the same but it's Nick you can reach out to Lacey the same but L A C I E, our phone numbers 919-821-1120. Call us we're happy to talk and ease your mind a little bit. And if we can't convince you that it's safe now we hope that you come back when you feel more comfortable.Lise Nox  47:59  Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eye on the Triangle. This is Lise Knox for WKNC 88.1. My guest was Adam Linstaedt from Pour House Music Hall, and he did a really great job in explaining what it's really like to be hosting COVID safe shows in the middle of a pandemic. Thank you so much for listening once again and I guess I'll see you soon. Take careTranscribed by https://otter.ai

Whether it's a crude neighbor during a flight, a creepy Uber driver, or the person at the hotel bar that's clearly had one too many, women live in a radically different world than men when they travel. And with the recent rise of nationalism and existing sexism and bigotry in the U.S. and abroad, discrimination and even violence are grave concerns. Once COVID-19 restrictions loosen, how do women and the marginalized get back to seeing the world while protecting themselves? Welcome Leaders for Equity, Allyship, and Diversity where we are having honest and uncomfortable conversations to make a difference in the world. What you're about to listen to is the presentation on Diversity & Inclusion in the Travel Industry by Prachi Thakur. We host these events to allow leaders to come together, discuss, learn, share, activate, and empower to make a difference in this world. These occur every Thursday at 7:30pm Eastern/4:30pm Pacific. You can find our group and upcoming events on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13938399/ Subscribe & Follow Leading People First https://my.captivate.fm/www.instagram.com/leadingpeoplefirst/ (Instagram) https://www.linkedin.com/company/leading-people-first/ (LinkedIn) https://my.captivate.fm/www.LeadingPeopleFirst.com (LeadingPeopleFirst.com)

In this episode of OutBüro Voices featuring LGBTQ professionals, entrepreneurs, and community leaders from around the world, host Dennis Velco chats with Art Smith, artist, promoter, entrepreneur, and founder of Gay Barchieves. Art shares his story of working for two local LGBTQ community local print media companies starting in the mid-'80s. This forced him to both be out as gay but also out and active in the community calling on businesses of all sorts. Through this, he formed relationships with many bar and club owners who wanted to advertise their business and events. In 2019 he was chatting with a bar owner in Atlanta who asked him to create a 45 year since opening commemorative design, although now close for ten years Soon others were reaching out interested in his then one-off project asking about other bars that had closed and should be remembered. He started doing research on LGBTQ bars that once thrived yet no longer open. Once COVID hit, he threw himself completely into this project and as of January 2021 has around 1200 bygone bars documented, logos redesigned, and on the GayBarcheives website. He is gathering information and stories from the bar owners when possible. Throughout the decades, many bars were very discrete. They didn't advertise and often didn't even have signage on their building or door. It was all word of mouth. Gay Barcheives Mission: To build the world's largest archive of the logos and stories of gay bars from the past, preserving the memories of the places that were so significant to the growth and development of the LGBTQ+ community. Art shares a few stories to illustrate the importance of gay bars in the LGBTQ community as places of building friendships, feeling a part of a community, getting information, and even health services throughout the years. He also shares a few stories including police attempts to raid a popular gay hangout donut shop in Los Angles during the mid-'50's as well as a tragic arsine attack on a gay bar in New Orleans. Notable bars already featured on Gay Barchieves: Chicago Eagle Eagle's Nest Kok Bar San Fransico CircusDisco Tradesman LA CooperDonuts Russian River Eagle Man Handler Pulse Orlando Lost and Found DC The Pier Apex DC The Copa Jackhammer Steel Score Jocks Atlanta The Other Side Lipstix The Anvil The Vault Roxy Badlands Crowbar And since there is currently over 1200 (as of Jan 2021) there are just too many to list here. Use these links to connect with Art to suggest additional venues. http://GayBarchives.com website http://facebook.com/GayBarchives Facebook 'like' page http://facebook.com/groups/gaybarchives Facebook group To connect with Art find him on OutBüro here. https://outburo.com/profile/gaybarchives/ Join me and Art on OutBüro, the LGBTQ professional and entrepreneur online community network for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, allies and our employers who support LGBTQ welcoming workplace equality focused benefits, policies, and business practices. https://www.OutBuro.com Would you like to be featured like this? Contact the host Dennis Velco. https://outburo.com/profile/dennisvelco/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/outburo/message

Have you ever felt that you that life and business and being a mom has too many moving parts? Shannon Sundberg knows that this is for sure truth as she is an entrepreneur, a mom and running a successful business. Shannon helps moments of overwhelm come together with calm through her 7 moving plates of "f"s and her oil process to help calm your emotions and reset your energy in your body to nurturing health. In this podcast Shannon is sharing about her tools and the audience is sharing about their experience as being a mom and feeling full overwhelm with sports, dinner and business all at once and the pressures around all that happening. Another person during our LIVE show was sharing how they love how Shannon shared the 7 plates to keep up with life and visually they could see their life being much more manageable. Click play and enjoy episode 18!How to get connected with Shannon Sundberg:https://www.facebook.com/shygirlscentshttps://soilyaromatherapy.square.site/How to get connected with The Fresh Inspiration Show:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/freshinspirationWebsite: www.freshinspirationshow.comAbout Shannon Sundberg: Shannon Sundberg stars in this hour sharing The Seven "F's" to Boost Energy & Frequency" and where she will be sharing stories to connect you to your mindset and breaking through your glass ceiling. Shannon has her store front location in Petaluma, California and she has been lifting her followers and partnering with TFIS through her six week series on having your tools and mindset in tact in these new times.The Fresh Inspiration Show is on a virtual show and our symposium aired November 19th. To watch our LIVE shows you can go to here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/freshinspirationThe Fresh Inspiration Show has been touring in Las Vegas, Arizona, San Francisco, Burbank and throughout Northern California to support the community in creatively living in inspiration and new mindset for lifestyle and business. We have been creating a stage for out of town superstar speakers to come in and support you and your community and you do not want to miss this unique night with The Fresh Inspiration Show. Once COVID 19 affected our lives The Fresh Inspiration Show did a quick transformation and updated our show for not only a LIVE in house show (once everything opens up) but also a virtual. This event is your key to an inspiration-a-thon. Grab your ticket and enjoy front row seat.As the founder of the show, Rhonda Liebig, I am inspired by concerts and music, actors and stars, and speaker that inspire to create an experience as if you went to the movies and / or concert. When I was younger this was the way that I could get through my day and believe in myself as if the actors/inspirers where my coaches at that time when I needed it the most. This is a show that is unique in that the inspirers that we are bringing to you the top creatives and inspirers for your Mindset Transformation Entertainment. I believe you won't find something around like this around anywhere for the flow of the show and the fun and play we have with each superstar/expert.Make sure to grab your ticket and enjoy a day with us virtually.

Have you ever felt that you weren't good enough or that you were in a perfectionist mode and realized how this is affecting your day to day in life and business. If you are ready to release old thoughts and patterns this is the podcast you will want to listen to. In episode 17 of The Fresh Inspiration Show we have Maurine Xavier in as a Divine Channel and she spends an hour with you channeling questions about perfectionism and not feeling good enough and the audience of our show had wonderful responses to the divine downloads such as:"My body is serving me now and the messages are clear when I listen" is a statement from Christi Corradi and "With practice "perfectionism" is not even in play" Deb TernesHow to get connected with Maurine Xavier:The Fresh Inspiration Show - https://www.facebook.com/groups/freshinspirationSpirit Guided Meditation - https://bit.ly/CWS0107-MXVIPWebsite - https://www.maurinexavier.com/How to get connected with The Fresh Inspiration Show:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/freshinspirationWebsite: www.freshinspirationshow.comAbout Maurine Xavier:Maurine Xavier stars in this hour sharing space with you as a recovering CPA who now does transformational leadership, speaking and channels divine guidance. Maurine supports women who are here to make a Real Difference and find themselves thinking. Maurine supports you when you have questions for yourself such as: Am I on the Right Path? I thought I'd be further along by now. I want more peace, self-confidence, and money, but I don't know how! You are going to love this adventure in the divine space of this hour.The Fresh Inspiration Show is on a virtual show and our symposium aired November 19th. To watch our LIVE shows you can go to here: https://www.facThe Fresh Inspiration Show has been touring in Las Vegas, Arizona, San Francisco, Burbank and throughout Northern California to support the community in creatively living in inspiration and new mindset for lifestyle and business. We have been creating a stage for out of town superstar speakers to come in and support you and your community and you do not want to miss this unique night with The Fresh Inspiration Show. Once COVID 19 affected our lives The Fresh Inspiration Show did a quick transformation and updated our show for not only a LIVE in house show (once everything opens up) but also a virtual. This event is your key to an inspiration-a-thon. Grab your ticket and enjoy front row seat.As the founder of the show, Rhonda Liebig, I am inspired by concerts and music, actors and stars, and speaker that inspire to create an experience as if you went to the movies and / or concert. When I was younger this was the way that I could get through my day and believe in myself as if the actors/inspirers where my coaches at that time when I needed it the most. This is a show that is unique in that the inspirers that we are bringing to you the top creatives and inspirers for your Mindset Transformation Entertainment. I believe you won't find something around like this around anywhere for the flow of the show and the fun and play we have with each superstar/expert.Make sure to grab your ticket and enjoy a day with us virtually.

In 2020 Industry Publications and Online Events are more important than ever. Terry and Aaron will be talking with Dave Pomeroy about how GRAPHICS PRO and GRAPHICS PRO EXPO are here to help shops survive and prosper in tough times. We will discuss diversification; new opportunities and new businesses entering the market. Dave is the President of National Business Media, which publishes GRAPHICS PRO Mag and produces GRAPHICS PRO EXPO Sponsored by: Impressions Expo. Head to our website for updated 2021 show dates and to find out more about our new virtual marketplace, Impressions Connect, taking place in January! Our regular listeners know this, but 2 Regular Guys are all about garment decorating, a bit of fun, and no rants or lectures or selling. We are not doing this for our employers, but rather for our industry. Since February 2013, The 2 Regular Guys have been the first and the most listened to garment decorating industry podcast on this planet! We are humbled by all of you tuning in each week. We work hard to bring you information that will make your business better, and our industry better. Take a look at our incredible weekly guest list and you'll understand where this industry goes for news, interviews and the heartbeat of garment decorating. Thanks for listening! News Success Tracker - Introduced in June and we already have people gaining more success than they expected by following the program. A program member, Tina Means of Wagon Wheel said “Every day when I start my day I look at my certificate and carry my coin as a reminder that I am worthy and can do this!  Today I learned that I have surpassed my goal of $30,000 gross and looking forward to seeing how much more I can surpass it before the end of this year.“ Dad Joke: Why is “beefstew” not a safe password to use?Because it's not stroganoff. State of the Industry's Health Terry: Dave Pomeroy is the President of National Business Media, which publishes GRAPHICS PRO mag and produces GRAPHICS PRO EXPO. 26-year industry and NBM-veteran, former publisher of A&E, Custom Gift Retailer and Printwear magazines.Aaron: First, let's talk about the trade show schedule for 2021.Graphics Pro Expo (GPX) Irving May 13-15GPX Indianapolis June 15-17 - midweekGPX Meadowlands July 15-16GPX Long Beach August 12-14GPX Pittsburgh September 24-25GPX Charlotte October 29-30Terry: Aaron and I will both be participating in an event coming up next week, Decorated Apparel Day on November 18th. Tell us about that. https://thenbmshow.com/decorated-apparel-day/scheduleAaron: Publications and online events are more important than ever in 2020. How are Graphics Pro and the online NBM events helping shops survive and even prosper in tough times?Terry: What are you seeing regarding diversification in the industry?Aaron: What information are shop owners looking to you for?Terry: Crystal ball time. Once Covid is just a memory, how do you think trade shows will be impacted in the future.Aaron: Dave, how can our listeners find you?dave@nbm.comhttps://graphics-pro.com/http://graphics-pro-expo.com/GRAPHICS PROhttps://www.instagram.com/graphicspromag/ https://twitter.com/graphicspromaghttps://www.facebook.com/graphicspromaghttps://www.linkedin.com/groups/8906299/Shows (THE NBM SHOW GRAPHICS PRO EXPO)https://www.facebook.com/THENBMSHOWhttps://www.instagram.com/thenbmshow/https://twitter.com/THENBMSHOWhttps://www.linkedin.com/showcase/thenbmshow/ Facebook Live Video Other Events OurSuccessGroup.Com - Success Business Training. Our missing is to provide resources that empower business owners to achieve their idea of success.The Success Tracker - A program from OSG, to get people started on achieving their goals.Master of Success Inner Circle - The next level for people who are serious about their success. Bi-Weekly Mastermind Groups on top of the industry-leading business training.Aaron's Online Video Series "Small Business Saturdays" #SBSVideos Every SaturdayCheck out the Podcast version at S...

In Laura McKenna's voice - Metabolic ChaosOver the course of my life, I have experienced a number of highly stressful events. On the list of things that are most stressful, I have experienced a number of them – job changes, being in jobs that weren't a right fit for me, toxic bosses, relocation, divorce, custody suits, sexual assault, military deployments – when I describe myself as a stress expert, it's not just because of my formal certifications or my degrees, although I do have those official qualifications.Stress affected my mental models. My decisions. My relationships. My behavior. My joy. I'm not talking about positive, challenging, invigorating, growth-inducing stress. I'm talking about dysfunctional, chronic, toxic stress. Stress led to imbalance in my body, which led to symptoms and disease. As a Functional Diagnostic Nutritionist, I call this dysfunctional state of stress, imbalance, and subsequent illness, Metabolic Chaos®.Connect with Laura McKenna on her website: https://strengthandshieldcoaching.com/Connect with Laura McKenna on social media: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2717678011677527 Connect with The Fresh Inspiration Show as a speaker and an audience member : https://thefreshinspirationshow.com Our Facebook Group: The Fresh Inspiration Show – Mindset Transformation Entertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/freshinspirationshow/Our Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/freshinspirationshow/YouTube link to get to all our video podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3JAT_oBj2E8Ut2cTBIMznxn1kyUNsmWBMore information about TFIS:The Fresh Inspiration Show has been touring in Las Vegas, Arizona, San Francisco, Burbank and throughout Northern California to support the community in creatively living in inspiration and new mindset for lifestyle and business. We have been creating a stage for out of town superstar speakers to come in and support you and your community and you do not want to miss this unique night with The Fresh Inspiration Show. Once COVID 19 affected our lives The Fresh Inspiration Show did a quick transformation and updated our show for not only a LIVE in house show (once everything opens up) but also a virtual. This event is your key to an inspiration-a-thon. Grab your ticket and enjoy front row seat. As the founder of the show, Rhonda Liebig, I am inspired by concerts and music, actors and stars, and speaker that inspire to create an experience as if you went to the movies and / or concert. Why this show and podcast is unique:When I was younger this was the way that I could get through my day and believe in myself as if the actors/inspirers where my coaches at that time when I needed it the most. This is a show that is unique in that the inspirers that we are bringing to you the top creatives and inspirers for your Mindset Transformation Entertainment. I believe you won't find something around like this around anywhere for the flow of the show and the fun and play we have with each superstar/expert. Make sure to grab your ticket and enjoy a day with us virtually. Get tickets to our show and then you can be with us LIVE and hear directly from the expert that you would like to learn more from. Here is our group where we go LIVE in Facebook:The Fresh Inspiration Show – Mindset Transformation Entertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/freshinspirationshow/

Christi Corradi does energy creative drawing from an artist that is consistently connecting people with their purpose through art. We cannot wait to see what Christi is going to draw as she opens up how we can master the Art of Life. Christi just released her book to Amazon called, "Beyond The Box", Creative Thinking Expanded". This is the podcast where you will get to be part of my breakthrough journey with Christi Corradi. It's pretty magical and I think you will enjoy this as you will see Christi in her brilliance in this podcast.Connect with Christi Corradi on social media: https://www.facebook.com/MasteringTheArtOfLifeConnect with Christi Corradi book group https://www.facebook.com/groups/816448845759186Connect with Christi Corradi book group:Connect with Laura McKenna on social media: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2717678011677527 Connect with The Fresh Inspiration Show as a speaker and an audience member : https://thefreshinspirationshow.com Our Facebook Group: The Fresh Inspiration Show – Mindset Transformation Entertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/freshinspirationshow/Our Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/freshinspirationshow/YouTube link to get to all our video podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3JAT_oBj2E8Ut2cTBIMznxn1kyUNsmWBMore information about TFIS:The Fresh Inspiration Show has been touring in Las Vegas, Arizona, San Francisco, Burbank and throughout Northern California to support the community in creatively living in inspiration and new mindset for lifestyle and business. We have been creating a stage for out of town superstar speakers to come in and support you and your community and you do not want to miss this unique night with The Fresh Inspiration Show. Once COVID 19 affected our lives The Fresh Inspiration Show did a quick transformation and updated our show for not only a LIVE in house show (once everything opens up) but also a virtual. This event is your key to an inspiration-a-thon. Grab your ticket and enjoy front row seat. As the founder of the show, Rhonda Liebig, I am inspired by concerts and music, actors and stars, and speaker that inspire to create an experience as if you went to the movies and / or concert. Why this show and podcast is unique:When I was younger this was the way that I could get through my day and believe in myself as if the actors/inspirers where my coaches at that time when I needed it the most. This is a show that is unique in that the inspirers that we are bringing to you the top creatives and inspirers for your Mindset Transformation Entertainment. I believe you won't find something around like this around anywhere for the flow of the show and the fun and play we have with each superstar/expert. Make sure to grab your ticket and enjoy a day with us virtually. Get tickets to our show and then you can be with us LIVE and hear directly from the expert that you would like to learn more from. Here is our group where we go LIVE in Facebook:The Fresh Inspiration Show – Mindset Transformation Entertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/freshinspirationshow/

Ep16 It's Time To Partner and Get Your Passion Out There - TFIS PodcastEnergy Revitalizer & Mindset Freedom Coach to Vitality and founder of The Fresh Inspiration Show, Rhonda Liebig. Rhonda is known as a food expert and is a guide to the organs and how emotions and pains can show up when an organ or more are off. Come take a ride through this podcast journey and connect with Rhonda on instant messaging on Facebook, email (rhonda@rhondaliebig.com) or come into the show and enjoy The Fresh Inspiration Show - Mindset Transformation Entertainment group where you receive FREE access to tons of healers and business coaches.Connect with Rhonda Liebig AADP Certified Health Coach on her website: https://rhondaliebig.comConnect with Rhonda Liebig on social media: https://www.facebook.com/RLpersonaltrainer Connect with The Fresh Inspiration Show as a speaker and an audience member : https://thefreshinspirationshow.com Our Facebook Group: The Fresh Inspiration Show – Mindset Transformation Entertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/freshinspirationshow/Our Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/freshinspirationshow/YouTube link to get to all our video podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3JAT_oBj2E8Ut2cTBIMznxn1kyUNsmWBMore information about TFIS:The Fresh Inspiration Show has been touring in Las Vegas, Arizona, San Francisco, Burbank and throughout Northern California to support the community in creatively living in inspiration and new mindset for lifestyle and business. We have been creating a stage for out of town superstar speakers to come in and support you and your community and you do not want to miss this unique night with The Fresh Inspiration Show. Once COVID 19 affected our lives The Fresh Inspiration Show did a quick transformation and updated our show for not only a LIVE in house show (once everything opens up) but also a virtual. This event is your key to an inspiration-a-thon. Grab your ticket and enjoy front row seat. As the founder of the show, Rhonda Liebig, I am inspired by concerts and music, actors and stars, and speaker that inspire to create an experience as if you went to the movies and / or concert. Why this show and podcast is unique:When I was younger this was the way that I could get through my day and believe in myself as if the actors/inspirers where my coaches at that time when I needed it the most. This is a show that is unique in that the inspirers that we are bringing to you the top creatives and inspirers for your Mindset Transformation Entertainment. I believe you wont find something around like this around anywhere for the flow of the show and the fun and play we have with each superstar/expert. Make sure to grab your ticket and enjoy a day with us virtually. Get tickets to our show and then you can be with us LIVE and hear directly from the expert that you would like to learn more from. Here is our group where we go LIVE in Facebook:The Fresh Inspiration Show – Mindset Transformation Entertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/freshinspirationshow/

Susan Tollefson, Productivity with a Heartfelt Approach. Susan has been seeing businesses struggle in keeping up with what needs to be done to keep a business healthy and fully functional to make money. Susan is going to be teaching on her Calendar Approach. We did a Facebook LIVE on Monday about using your calendar and some people were right on board saying, YES and others were saying, oh goodness I am stressed in talking about this calendar thing. We had great conversation on both sides of thought. So either way you will want to be in this session as Susan can speak to both areas and empower you so that you have freedom in your day as a business owner and live fully in your passion making money. https://insideoutbiz.com/ Connect with The Fresh Inspiration Show as a speaker and an audience member : https://thefreshinspirationshow.comOur Facebook Group: The Fresh Inspiration Show – Mindset Transformation Entertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/freshinspirationOur Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/freshinspirationThe Fresh Inspiration Show has been touring in Las Vegas, Arizona, San Francisco, Burbank and throughout Northern California to support the community in creatively living in inspiration and new mindset for lifestyle and business. We have been creating a stage for out of town superstar speakers to come in and support you and your community and you do not want to miss this unique night with The Fresh Inspiration Show. Once COVID 19 affected our lives The Fresh Inspiration Show did a quick transformation and updated our show for not only a LIVE in house show (once everything opens up) but also a virtual. This event is your key to an inspiration-a-thon. Grab your ticket and enjoy front row seat. As the founder of the show, Rhonda Liebig, I am inspired by concerts and music, actors and stars, and speaker that inspire to create an experience as if you went to the movies and / or concert. When I was younger this was the way that I could get through my day and believe in myself as if the actors/inspirers where my coaches at that time when I needed it the most. This is a show that is unique in that the inspirers that we are bringing to you the top creatives and inspirers for your Mindset Transformation Entertainment. I believe you won't find something around like this around anywhere for the flow of the show and the fun and play we have with each superstar/expert. Make sure to grab your ticket and enjoy a day with us virtually.If you want to be in the group while we are going LIVE as to be part of our Facebook Group:The Fresh Inspiration Show – Mindset Transformation Entertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/freshinspirationConnect with Susan Tollefson https://insideoutbiz.com/

Carolyn CJ Jones, Forgiveness Coach - Carolyn will be speaking to the heightened divorce rate and relationships and people dealing with abuse. Carolyn is going to have you go through exercises and answer questions for yourself as you get to start creating your relationship with yourself and feel empowered in your own skin as you get to learn how to forgive. https://carolyncjjones.com/Connect with The Fresh Inspiration Show as a speaker and an audience member : https://thefreshinspirationshow.comOur Facebook Group: The Fresh Inspiration Show – Mindset Transformation Entertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/freshinspirationOur Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/freshinspirationThe Fresh Inspiration Show has been touring in Las Vegas, Arizona, San Francisco, Burbank and throughout Northern California to support the community in creatively living in inspiration and new mindset for lifestyle and business. We have been creating a stage for out of town superstar speakers to come in and support you and your community and you do not want to miss this unique night with The Fresh Inspiration Show. Once COVID 19 affected our lives The Fresh Inspiration Show did a quick transformation and updated our show for not only a LIVE in house show (once everything opens up) but also a virtual. This event is your key to an inspiration-a-thon. Grab your ticket and enjoy front row seat. As the founder of the show, Rhonda Liebig, I am inspired by concerts and music, actors and stars, and speaker that inspire to create an experience as if you went to the movies and / or concert. When I was younger this was the way that I could get through my day and believe in myself as if the actors/inspirers where my coaches at that time when I needed it the most. This is a show that is unique in that the inspirers that we are bringing to you the top creatives and inspirers for your Mindset Transformation Entertainment. I believe you won't find something around like this around anywhere for the flow of the show and the fun and play we have with each superstar/expert. Make sure to grab your ticket and enjoy a day with us virtually.If you want to be in the group while we are going LIVE as to be part of our Facebook Group:The Fresh Inspiration Show – Mindset Transformation Entertainment

Rhonda Liebig Health Coach, Energy Revitalzer & Mindset Freedom Coach to Vitality - Rhonda is going to teach you how to know what your Vitality Rhythm is and how you can catch yourself before you are too exhausted and cannot finish your business day. Rhonda will bring your her Three Energy Revitalizer Pillars to make sure you are creating life and business in full vitality. You will need this during one of our most stressful times.The Fresh Inspiration Show is on a virtual tour and our next symposium will be Thursday, August 27th. You are going to love the experts if you are looking for:Here is Rhonda Liebig's time on the show. Go to Rhonda's website and grab your energy This podcast is pulled from our August 27th show. This is Rhonda Liebig host of the show and founder. This is the theme of this show...Learning how to deal with loss during the Corona Virus timesANDLearning how to have loving relationships that fuel you through forgiveness strategies.The Fresh Inspiration Show has been touring in Las Vegas, Arizona, San Francisco, Burbank and throughout Northern California to support the community in creatively living in inspiration and new mindset for lifestyle and business. We have been creating a stage for out of town superstar speakers to come in and support you and your community and you do not want to miss this unique night with The Fresh Inspiration Show. Once COVID 19 affected our lives The Fresh Inspiration Show did a quick transformation and updated our show for not only a LIVE in house show (once everything opens up) but also a virtual. This event is your key to an inspiration-a-thon. Grab your FREE ticket and enjoy front row seat where you get to ask questions throughout the entire time with the experts.As the founder of the show, Rhonda Liebig, I am inspired by concerts and music, actors and stars, and speaker that inspire to create an experience as if you went to the movies and / or concert. When I was younger this was the way that I could get through my day and believe in myself as if the actors/inspirers where my coaches at that time when I needed it the most. This show is unique in that the inspirers that we are bringing to you are the top creatives and inspirers for your Mindset Transformation Entertainment. I believe you won't find something around like this around anywhere for the flow of the show and the fun and play we have with each superstar/expert.Make sure to grab your ticket and enjoy a day with us virtually and grab your personal mindset transformation entertainment that can help you live freshly inspired.

Sabine Goerke-Shrode, Joy Coach is with us in The Fresh Inspiration Show Podcast. In this podcast you will learn that this last week Sabine Goerke Schrode was almost evacuated out of her home as the fires have been out of control. Sabine was scared but she also knew that she wanted to keep herself calm cool and collective... the only way to do this is through her light body work. Sabine will be sharing with you the tools you need right now for the high stress so that you find joy.Connect with Sabine Goerke-Shrode on her website: https://www.spiritdance.energy/ Connect with The Fresh Inspiration Show as a speaker and an audience member : https://thefreshinspirationshow.com Our Facebook Group: The Fresh Inspiration Show – Mindset Transformation Entertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/freshinspirationOur Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/freshinspirationThe Fresh Inspiration Show has been touring in Las Vegas, Arizona, San Francisco, Burbank and throughout Northern California to support the community in creatively living in inspiration and new mindset for lifestyle and business. We have been creating a stage for out of town superstar speakers to come in and support you and your community and you do not want to miss this unique night with The Fresh Inspiration Show. Once COVID 19 affected our lives The Fresh Inspiration Show did a quick transformation and updated our show for not only a LIVE in house show (once everything opens up) but also a virtual. This event is your key to an inspiration-a-thon. Grab your ticket and enjoy front row seat. As the founder of the show, Rhonda Liebig, I am inspired by concerts and music, actors and stars, and speaker that inspire to create an experience as if you went to the movies and / or concert. When I was younger this was the way that I could get through my day and believe in myself as if the actors/inspirers where my coaches at that time when I needed it the most. This is a show that is unique in that the inspirers that we are bringing to you the top creatives and inspirers for your Mindset Transformation Entertainment. I believe you won't find something around like this around anywhere for the flow of the show and the fun and play we have with each superstar/expert. Make sure to grab your ticket and enjoy a day with us virtually.If you want to be in the group while we are going LIVE as to be part of our Facebook Group:The Fresh Inspiration Show – Mindset Transformation Entertainment

Visible Transitions founder - With recent health crisis that led to a major brain injury, Janet has been able to start her healing right away using her personal Visible Transitions methodology to heal, stay calm and claim her sovereignty. You won't want to miss Janet as she speaks to current events and sharing her signature process that will give you a new way to look at words and how you express physical objects to yourself.Connect with Janet Caliri on her website: https://janetcaliri.com/ Connect with The Fresh Inspiration Show as a speaker and an audience member : https://thefreshinspirationshow.com Our Facebook Group: The Fresh Inspiration Show – Mindset Transformation Entertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/freshinspiration/Our Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/freshinspirationshow/The Fresh Inspiration Show has been touring in Las Vegas, Arizona, San Francisco, Burbank and throughout Northern California to support the community in creatively living in inspiration and new mindset for lifestyle and business. We have been creating a stage for out of town superstar speakers to come in and support you and your community and you do not want to miss this unique night with The Fresh Inspiration Show. Once COVID 19 affected our lives The Fresh Inspiration Show did a quick transformation and updated our show for not only a LIVE in house show (once everything opens up) but also a virtual. This event is your key to an inspiration-a-thon. Grab your ticket and enjoy front row seat. As the founder of the show, Rhonda Liebig, I am inspired by concerts and music, actors and stars, and speaker that inspire to create an experience as if you went to the movies and / or concert. When I was younger this was the way that I could get through my day and believe in myself as if the actors/inspirers where my coaches at that time when I needed it the most. This is a show that is unique in that the inspirers that we are bringing to you the top creatives and inspirers for your Mindset Transformation Entertainment. I believe you won't find something around like this around anywhere for the flow of the show and the fun and play we have with each superstar/expert. Make sure to grab your ticket and enjoy a day with us virtually.If you want to be in the group while we are going LIVE as to be part of our Facebook Group:The Fresh Inspiration Show – Mindset Transformation Entertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/freshinspiration/

The Fresh Inspiration Show Podcast invites you into a discussion with Debbie Ternes - Confidence and Accountability Coach, a life coach that provides a safe, non-judgmental and sacred space for my clients to discover what matters most to them, Debbie supports them in making empowering choices and finding their own unique way to create and live their best lives. She's known for coaching with compassion, an open heart and a high commitment to accountability. Debbie's greatest passion is to help people live their best lives.Connect with Debbie Ternes on her website: https://www.debbieternes.com/ Connect with The Fresh Inspiration Show as a speaker and an audience member : https://thefreshinspirationshow.com Our Facebook Group: The Fresh Inspiration Show – Mindset Transformation Entertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/freshinspiration/Our Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/freshinspirationshow/The Fresh Inspiration Show has been touring in Las Vegas, Arizona, San Francisco, Burbank and throughout Northern California to support the community in creatively living in inspiration and new mindset for lifestyle and business. We have been creating a stage for out of town superstar speakers to come in and support you and your community and you do not want to miss this unique night with The Fresh Inspiration Show. Once COVID 19 affected our lives The Fresh Inspiration Show did a quick transformation and updated our show for not only a LIVE in house show (once everything opens up) but also a virtual. This event is your key to an inspiration-a-thon. Grab your ticket and enjoy front row seat. As the founder of the show, Rhonda Liebig, I am inspired by concerts and music, actors and stars, and speaker that inspire to create an experience as if you went to the movies and / or concert. When I was younger this was the way that I could get through my day and believe in myself as if the actors/inspirers where my coaches at that time when I needed it the most. This is a show that is unique in that the inspirers that we are bringing to you the top creatives and inspirers for your Mindset Transformation Entertainment. I believe you won't find something around like this around anywhere for the flow of the show and the fun and play we have with each superstar/expert.Make sure to grab your ticket and enjoy a day with us virtually through Eventbrite.

Venturing into having a podcast you will want to see the discussion with Rhonda and Maria about Freedom, Play & Fun Podcast. We will talk about what it takes to have a podcast and the perks of doing this with a partner. Also Maria will share what her conscious love journey is about in ways that people heal in their relationships once they heal within themselves.Connect with Maria Appelqvist on her website: http://www.mariaappelqvist.com/ Connect with The Fresh Inspiration Show as a speaker and an audience member : https://thefreshinspirationshow.com Our Facebook Group: The Fresh Inspiration Show – Mindset Transformation Entertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/freshinspiration/Our Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/freshinspirationshow/The Fresh Inspiration Show has been touring in Las Vegas, Arizona, San Francisco, Burbank and throughout Northern California to support the community in creatively living in inspiration and new mindset for lifestyle and business. We have been creating a stage for out of town superstar speakers to come in and support you and your community and you do not want to miss this unique night with The Fresh Inspiration Show. Once COVID 19 affected our lives The Fresh Inspiration Show did a quick transformation and updated our show for not only a LIVE in house show (once everything opens up) but also a virtual. This event is your key to an inspiration-a-thon. Grab your ticket and enjoy front row seat. As the founder of the show, Rhonda Liebig, I am inspired by concerts and music, actors and stars, and speaker that inspire to create an experience as if you went to the movies and / or concert. When I was younger this was the way that I could get through my day and believe in myself as if the actors/inspirers where my coaches at that time when I needed it the most. This is a show that is unique in that the inspirers that we are bringing to you the top creatives and inspirers for your Mindset Transformation Entertainment. I believe you won't find something around like this around anywhere for the flow of the show and the fun and play we have with each superstar/expert. Make sure to grab your ticket and enjoy a day with us virtually.If you want to be in the group while we are going LIVE as to be part of our Facebook Group:The Fresh Inspiration Show – Mindset Transformation Entertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/freshinspiration/

The Fresh Inspiration Show welcomes in Laura Marie to the podcast show this week - equestrian healing, is known for her retreats #setfreetorunfree. Now with the distance space that we live in currently, Laura is going to share how she is going to bring people to her 400 acre ranch in a safe and fun way virtually and LIVE and which she is calling Gather in The Pasture. Laura is always fun and creative. You will want to come in and meet all five of her horses and their equestrian healing.Connect with Laura Marie on her website: https://prettierthan.com/ Connect with The Fresh Inspiration Show as a speaker and an audience member : https://thefreshinspirationshow.com Our Facebook Group: The Fresh Inspiration Show – Mindset Transformation Entertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/freshinspiration/Our Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/freshinspirationshow/The Fresh Inspiration Show has been touring in Las Vegas, Arizona, San Francisco, Burbank and throughout Northern California to support the community in creatively living in inspiration and new mindset for lifestyle and business. We have been creating a stage for out of town superstar speakers to come in and support you and your community and you do not want to miss this unique night with The Fresh Inspiration Show. Once COVID 19 affected our lives The Fresh Inspiration Show did a quick transformation and updated our show for not only a LIVE in house show (once everything opens up) but also a virtual. This event is your key to an inspiration-a-thon. Grab your ticket and enjoy front row seat. As the founder of the show, Rhonda Liebig, I am inspired by concerts and music, actors and stars, and speaker that inspire to create an experience as if you went to the movies and / or concert. When I was younger this was the way that I could get through my day and believe in myself as if the actors/inspirers where my coaches at that time when I needed it the most. This is a show that is unique in that the inspirers that we are bringing to you the top creatives and inspirers for your Mindset Transformation Entertainment. I believe you won't find something around like this around anywhere for the flow of the show and the fun and play we have with each superstar/expert. Make sure to grab your ticket and enjoy a day with us virtually.If you want to be in the group while we are going LIVE as to be part of our Facebook Group:The Fresh Inspiration Show – Mindset Transformation Entertainmenthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/freshinspiration/

The Fresh Inspiration Show has been touring in Las Vegas, Arizona, San Francisco, Burbank and throughout Northern California to support the community in creatively living in inspiration and new mindset for lifestyle and business. We have been creating a stage for out of town superstar speakers to come in and support you and your community and you do not want to miss this unique night with The Fresh Inspiration Show. Once COVID 19 affected our lives The Fresh Inspiration Show did a quick transformation and updated our show for not only a LIVE in house show (once everything opens up) but also a virtual. This event is your key to an inspiration-a-thon. Grab your ticket and enjoy front row seat.The Fresh Inspiration Show has Jane Guyn on our podcast show:As Jane has been giving back through yoga daily to her community to support them through these new intense times. Jane Guyn's main focus a relationship closer together by listening in how they are using phases when they're not very intimate so that they create an intimate relationship through new awareness. This is her sweet spot in where she helps them feel passionate together again.You can reach out to Jane Guyn here: https://www.facebook.com/jane.guynIf you are looking for speaking engagements you can connect with The Fresh Inspiration Show here. thefreshinspirationshow.comGet to know Jane Guyn by following her on Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/jane.guynand connect with The Fresh Inspiration show if you want virtual tickets for the show or fill out a speaker from and connect with us.thefreshinspirationshow.com

The Fresh Inspiration Show has been touring in Las Vegas, Arizona, San Francisco, Burbank and throughout Northern California to support the community in creatively living in inspiration and new mindset for lifestyle and business. We have been creating a stage for out of town superstar speakers to come in and support you and your community and you do not want to miss this unique night with The Fresh Inspiration Show. Once COVID 19 affected our lives The Fresh Inspiration Show did a quick transformation and updated our show for not only a LIVE in house show (once everything opens up) but also a virtual. This event is your key to an inspiration-a-thon. Grab your ticket and enjoy front row seat.The Fresh Inspiration Show has Jane Guyn on our podcast show:As Jane has been giving back through yoga daily to her community to support them through these new intense times. Jane Guyn's main focus a relationship closer together by listening in how they are using phases when they're not very intimate so that they create an intimate relationship through new awareness. This is her sweet spot in where she helps them feel passionate together again.You can reach out to Dirk Schultz here: https://dirkschultz.com/If you are looking for speaking engagements you can connect with The Fresh Inspiration Show here. thefreshinspirationshow.comGet to know Dirk Schultz by following him on Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/dirk.schultz.94and connect with The Fresh Inspiration show if you want virtual tickets for the show or fill out a speaker from and connect with us.thefreshinspirationshow.com

Aditi shares a little about her life growing up in India. Being a middle child, she often felt the need to help others before prioritizing herself. After going off to college, Aditi faced some experiences where she knew she needed to prioritize herself and ask for help. Once COVID happened, she knew it was time to destigmatize mental health and started Speaking Grey. She now offers resources for overall wellness as well as provides a safe space for others to open up. Follow her on Instagram @speakinggrey

This week, Sarah shares that a lot of her childhood identity was rooted in the fact she was a twin as well as being a swimmer. Once she got to college, she decided to totally change paths and was determined to build her own identity. She talks about how she was able to envision the person she's always wanted to be and how she was able to work backward to become that person. Once COVID happened, she saw a need to spread more positivity and Positive Change Project was born.

Once COVID hit, reps were kicked out hospitals making it difficult to support orthopedic surgeries. Enter Avail Medsystems. Avail has the technology to bring a virtual rep into the operating room on demand. They have the perfect technology solution for OR support at the perfect time in history. Read more Q&A with Avail - https://orthostreams.com/2020/06/6-questions-with-daniel-hawkins-ceo-at-avail-redefining-surgery-support-in-the-new-world/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tigerbuford/support

Season 2 picks up right where we left off in Season 1!I've been sitting on these recordings to try and find a way to use them in the lead up to Memorial Day Weekend 2020. Once COVID-19 squashed the lacrosse season, I lost track of how I would release the clips. So, alas, this week we bring it back to Championship Weekend 2019 to celebrate the NCAA Lacrosse Championships and the many reasons they're great.While on site last year, we recorded a series of short interviews with a few different people who were at Lincoln Financial Field to take in the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championships. Hear from former players, fans, and media over what draws them to lacrosse's biggest event each year.Let's go back to Philly!Hosted by Ryan Conwell. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/going-offsides/message

Once COVID-19 hit, I knew I wanted to restart this podcast. Like many of my friends, I'm sure you're wondering how to date right now. So pardon the lower quality audio of my guests! How can we date during the Coronavirus (aka COVID-19)? S and D answer your questions about how they're dating during this era of pandemic (part 2) Submit your questions! DebugDating.com/questions This episode covers: - Do you want sex more or less as a result of the current situation? - What are the types of video dates? e.g. normally we have coffee dates, dinner dates, hiking dates, etc - What are your expectations for a video date? - Are you thinking about breaking quarantine to meet in person and be intimate? - If a man suggested breaking quarantine to be intimate, how would you react? Or, what would you want to have happened, to be comfortable with that? - If you're having sex, has anything changed about it? - What do you look for on someone's instagram? What stands out? What's meh? - What are your top 2 languages of love? - How have you evolved in your dating preferences from 20 to 30? - How would you rate your sex drive, compared to the average woman's?     Enjoyed the episode? Help others find the podcast! It only takes 30 seconds to write a review on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. Subscribe to not miss an episode: Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, Overcast, RadioPublic, Podbean, TuneIn

Once COVID-19 hit, I knew I wanted to restart this podcast. Like many of my friends, I'm sure you're wondering how to date right now. So pardon the lower quality audio of my guests! How can we date during the Coronavirus pandemic, aka COVID-19? S and D answer your questions about how they're dating during this era of face masks, sheltering in place, and social distancing. Submit your questions! DebugDating.com/questions This episode covers: - What's the first dating thing you're going to do when quarantine is over? - In terms of priority level, what level was dating before, and how has it changed now? - Have you changed your distance or started chatting with people from farther away as a result of quarantine? Why? - What are you looking for from men you match with online? How has the coronavirus changed that? - Is it easier or harder for you to feel more comfortable with a guy right now, since it's harder to meet up at present? - Are you more attracted to optimists or realists? Has that changed since before the coronavirus? - Normally how long would you want to wait to go on a first date? And now with the Shelter-in-place, how long are you willing to forgo meeting the guy in person?     Enjoyed the episode? Help others find the podcast! It only takes 30 seconds to write a review on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. Subscribe to not miss an episode: Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, Overcast, RadioPublic, Podbean, TuneIn