Podcasts about once i've

Travel Gluten Free Podcast Episode 89 Gluten Free Ready to Eat Camping Meals   Since many people have been camping for their COVID vacation, I wanted to share with you a great gluten-free and chemical-free skincare line with amazing products for you and your family when you're camping or having fun outdoors. Utah is known for its outdoor fun and adventure; however, when you're eating ready to eat meals and foods, you have to be an avid label reader to make sure you are choosing safe, gluten-free meals.   Today I'll be sharing with you great gluten-free pre-made camping food for you and your family when you're camping or having fun outdoors. Utah is known for its outdoor fun and adventure, and camping is one of the activities almost everyone participates in.   I love camping. I love the outdoors, sleeping outside, sleeping in my hammock, having a campfire every night, not caring about smelling like campfire smoke or makeup. The beautiful trails I hike and the out-of-the-way places I find when I'm taking that road trip to my next camping spot. There are so many things to love!   Ready To Eat Camping Meals Are Quick and Easy   If you love camping, but you don't want to spend the time prepping, making and cleaning up dinner, there's an easy alternative - get pre-made camping food. With ready to eat meals, you can create breakfast, lunch or dinner in a snap by just adding hot water to a resealable pouch and waiting for the food to cook for the specified time on the package. They are easy, lightweight, and take up minimal room for food. If you're a backcountry backpacker, ready to eat meals are an essential part of your daily macros.    Although easy to prep, make, and clean-up the downside to ready to eat meals is that they are loaded with salt. If you're out in the summer sweating and don't have issues related to eating salts such as water retention or high blood pressure, then you are safe! If you do have medical problems associated with consuming high amounts of salt, I would suggest not using ready to eat meals with their high sodium content.   Watch Out for Gluten in Your Camping Food   Additionally, you have to be very careful to choose gluten-free meals. Never trust the label on the package - especially in the US. Andrea Tucker from Gluten Free News podcast has reported on foods whose label says gluten-free, but the ingredients contain gluten.    Make sure the camping food you choose doesn't have MSG monosodium glutamate or modified food starch that isn't explicitly labeled corn or potato. These have gotten me in trouble on more than one occasion. Also, look out for the words "natural spices" as this ingredient may also translate into gluten. Besides, you want to look for labeling that reads "made in a factory that contains" if you are celiac or have a food allergy.   I like to go to my local camping and outdoor stores to see the packaging, read the ingredients, and purchase the camping food. Once I've found food I like, I then buy it online. I would definitely avoid buying these foods online from Amazon as they have issues with knock-offs, and that could completely ruin your vacation! When purchasing online, buy from a reputable outfitter such as REI, or the official company website of the meals you are buying. Making sure that your meals are safe is critical to your vacation experience!   Backpacker's Pantry   Backpacker's Pantry freeze-dried meals that are yummy and gluten-free. These lightweight, freeze-dried, gluten-free meal packs, are designed to be free of gluten. "From potato stew with beef to Santa Fe style rice and beans with chicken, there are plenty of delectable options for just about every type of appetite. You can even get gluten-free risotto with chicken, crafted to mimic the texture and flavor of the original Italian dish with a creamy blend of parmesan cheese, rice, broccoli, corn, onion, bell pepper, and tomato."   Their website makes it easy to find gluten-free choices for breakfast, gluten-free lunch, or gluten-free dinners. You can also sort food by new gluten-free food items. For breakfast, try their carrot-cake pancakes with pineapple, raisins, and coconut milk or their Summit Scramble complete with milk and peppers. These sound like a fantastic breakfast or dinner after a long hike!    For dinner, try their Katmandu Curry, Pad Thai with Chicken, or Jamaican Style Rice Jerk with Beans. With over 60 different entrees to choose from, you are sure to find one that you can see yourself eating around a campfire!   Mountain House Adventure Meals   Certified gluten-free goodness leads the way with Mountain House Entrees. Chicken Teriyaki, Pad Thai with Chicken, and Yellow Curry Chicken and Rice, to name a few of the choices. I like that these are certified gluten-free as we know that these are safe for celiacs.   There are eight gluten-free breakfasts, including Scrambled Eggs with Bacon, Spicy Southwest Breakfast Hash, and Scrambled Eggs with Ham and Pepper.    Good To Go Meals   They are great as they give you many more gluten-free and vegetarian options. Many camping pre-packaged foods are meat-based, however, if you're vegetarian and gluten-free, this may be the best brand to use!   The motto is to create the most delicious meals, using clean ingredients, to be enjoyed wherever your adventures take you. "Chef Jennifer's creations are thoughtfully crafted to provide a meal that not only tastes great but is truly good for you. Whether you've hiked all day for that summit view, rose with an alpine start to earn that backcountry turns, or are simply looking for an easy-to-make option at home, all you need is boiling water, and in minutes you'll have a delicious meal."   Gluten-free choices cooked up by Chef Jennifer are Herbed Mushroom Risotto, Kale and White Bean Stew, and Classic Marinara with Pasta.   Base Camp Food   Based in the UK, Base Camp Food has a selection of freeze-dried meals with lots of tasty gluten-free options. Expedition Foods Beef and Potato Hotpot, which is a delicious combination of minced beef, onion, carrot swede, lentils, and diced potato. "A team favorite is the LYO Expedition Traditional Polish Sauerkraut" 100% natural ingredients with no artificial preservatives and tastes excellent. Real Turmat Kebab Casserole will add some warmth to any camp!  Links and Resources Mentioned Grab the Guide to Traveling Gluten Free Get the BEST all-natural gluten-free travel cosmetics at Lemongrass Spa! Visit my Travel Deals page on my website Support Travel Gluten Free on Patreon   Journey with Travel Gluten Free on Social Media Twitter      Facebook    Youtube      Pinterest    Instagram    On the Web   Spread the love of Travel Gluten Free podcast and share this podcast with a friend!   ***Disclaimer: All content found on the Travel Gluten Free Website, including text, images, audio, or other formats were created for informational purposes only. Content contained on Travel Gluten Free website, podcast, and social media postings are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard or delay seeking professional medical advice, Travel Gluten Free website, podcast, and guests present content solely for educational and entertainment purposes and use of this information is at your own risk.***

Why are people stockpiling? Why does no one remind people not to smoke? Why are some songs music to my ears but a cacophony for others? What determines the rate of radioactive decay? Is COVID-19 an experiment in biowarfare? Can hair carry coronaviruses? Can chloroquine combat coronavirus infection? Once I've recovered from coronavirus infection, am I immune? And will Dettol deactivate coronaviruses? Chris Smith and Jeremy van Wyk answer your science questions... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Jimi Wollumbin joins Mason on the show today to wax lyrical on all things microbe and virus related, very fitting considering the current climate and international lock down. Jimi is true renaissance man, who, over the last 20 years has had the opportunity to research and practice some of the most respected traditional medical systems on the planet, including the Chinese, Tibetan, Indian, Mongolian and Persian traditions. Jimi has also worked extensively in community health and international aid initiatives. These days Jimi's passion lays in the death and birth cycle of transformation. Jimi believes this is what the world needs on both an individual and global level. Jimi supports his clients through this transformational process at his Artemisia, his clinic based out of Northern NSW. "viruses are the medium of evolution, and they're distributed intelligent networks inside a massive big biosphere, which is Gaia, which is a huge supercomputer, single living organism that thinks, and responds, and computes really significantly. So we have to think of viruses in that context if we've got any hope of starting to approach what's happening at the moment, right?" - Jimi Wollumbin.   Mason and Jimi discuss: Crises as a part of the universal order. Disease as a factor driven by your individual belief system and lifestyle. Corona Virus. The role microbes play in the web of life. Drug resistant bacteria. Viruses as a distributed intelligence. Viral replication and eco harmony. The use of reductionist linear thinking in a nonlinear universe. The value of exploring ancient mythology when transforming your personal health culture. Traditional medicine and integrative thinking vs evidence based medicine. Using herbs as allies in healing vs using herbal medicine within the "pills for ills" ideology. Healing and the death/birth cycle of transformation. Who is Jimi Wollumbin ? Jimi Wollumbin is Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Jimi is one of those rare individuals that is an expert in his field that also knows how to teach others. He has spoken at the United Nations, opened for Deepak Chopra and has even been personally insulted by the Dalai Lama. He teaches integrative doctors across America, sits on the faculty of the America Integrative Health and Medicine Association and is a lifetime member of the Tibetan Medical Institute's 'Friends of Tibetan Medicine'. After completing his internship in Chinese Medicine in TCM in Beijing hospital he has since completed 3 research exchanges at Ayurvedic hospitals in India, 2 with the Lama-physicians at the Tibetan Medical Institute, 1 with the Persian Hakims of the Unani Tibb Hippocratic tradition, 2 at the Trad-Med Department of the Mongolian National University in Ulaan Bataar and a 2019 trip through Siberia to research Shamanic medicine. Jimi’s original degree at the ANU was in philosophy and eastern religion which is why Dr Seroya Crouch describes him as ‘a philosopher of medicine’. He has written several books, none of which have been published, acclaimed or even read... yet. Jimi is the CEO and founder of One Health Organisation, a wellness-based charity that has distributed over 10 metric tonnes of herbs and supplements to 100 locations across 13 countries since 2005. Jimi brings passion and enthusiastic hand gestures to every conversation he is a part of.   Resources: Jimi's Website Jimi's Blog Jimi's Instagram   Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast? A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We’d also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or  check us out on Stitcher :)! Plus  we're on Spotify!   Check Out The Transcript Here:   Mason:   (00:00) Jimi, thanks so much man.   Jimi Wollumbin:  (00:01) It's a pleasure.   Mason:  (00:02) Round two for us, first round for Superfeast podcast.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (00:05) Yeah, great. I'm looking forward to it. The last round was really exciting, and we went to all sorts of magnificent places.   Mason:  (00:11) Oh, and your inspiring clinic as well, which you're full time in now.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (00:15) That's right.   Mason:  (00:15)                    Okay.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (00:15) Yeah. At the base of Mount Warning in UK.   Mason:  (00:18) I've been following along. I mean, just before we kick on, I mean, there's not too many people anymore that I follow on Facebook, but I love every one of your posts.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (00:29) I'm very touched.   Mason:  (00:31) Got a lot of them saved. [crosstalk 00:00:32] a lot of them saved. So just go and find Jimi Wollumbin and follow him. We were talking about, you've gone and you've got a clinic, can you just tell everyone the nature of what you're offering there?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (00:48) What am I offering? I previously used to offer alternative and traditional medical services around acupuncture, and herbal medicine, and body work, and helping people get well, and now I help people die and be reborn. And so, if people are just looking to mitigate their symptoms, then I'm not necessarily the best practitioner anymore because I found that those symptoms, whatever it is that they're struggling with, are always an invitation into a larger process of transformation.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (01:25) And at an individual level and a global level what we require, in my book, is transformation. And so, yeah, the dying and reborn process of transformation is what I'm really passionate about out at Artemisia.   Mason:  (01:36) Well, I mean, because coming in off the bat, especially if you're coming in from a Western model, you're like, all right, well that's some pretty heavy language that's going on there. But when you get into a clinical process and when you get into the fact that, how many little deaths are going on within the body at every moment and just the transformation cycles that need to occur with your energy at all times, I mean, these are the things that, the bed of basically all energetic medicine and Taoist medicine that is just... Qi is just.. Energy is just transforming and changing as you go along.   Mason:  (02:11) And in order to really be reborn through those processes, you need to deal with it a very multidimensional level, and I think that's why the only appropriate thing to talk about is to die and be reborn. Right?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (02:24) Yeah. And just to make that understandable to the average person that might not have been engaging in this, is that 90% of our deaths and illnesses, 92-95 are chronic degenerative illnesses, right? And so that means they're lifestyle mediated. So you lived your way into your illness, but the lifestyle that you had is determined upon your beliefs. Right? And so you've got all these particular beliefs, I'm not lovable unless I work my ass off, I'm not safe unless I earn lots of money, something like this. So your belief structures determine your lifestyle and your lifestyle determines your diseases.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (03:01) And so those belief structures are really the viral memes, just to segue us towards the next conversation, that are giving rise to your symptoms. And it doesn't matter whether the symptom is a rash, or a joint problem, or indigestion, underneath that are these core ideas that you have that have driven you to behave and live in an unsustainable manner. And that then crystallizes into your lifestyle, which crystallizes into your diseases. And so it makes no difference what your disease is, if it's, you've lived your way into it, and overwhelmingly we do, it's going to require personal transformation.   Mason:  (03:39) So the personal transformation, especially to go back, because you used the word, you've been living in an unsustainable manner. And that's, I mean, that's where I personally feel that little deaths and reborn processes need to occur for myself, because to have to realize that what you're doing isn't sustainable and generally opens you up to the possibility of degenerating in one way or another.   Mason:  (04:04) As much as you might be doing all this other healthy shit and rocking it, but if you've really got something that's coming from, whether it's a belief pattern, whatever it is that's tweaking year towards unsustainability, then you're going to keep on being caught in that cycle and the only way is to really consistently let a part of you go, just like pass away. Right?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (04:30) Yes, absolutely. And it's not a failure if you find yourself in there, because crisis is woven into the very heart of life, into the fabric of the universe itself, that crisis is what facilitates evolution and change, phase shifts. And so biology, any complex system generates crises, because it's complex. And then as that crisis emerges, then it facilitates the emergence to another level of hierarchy, another level of complexity. So evolution and change has crisis and chaos as a core part of it.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (05:05) And so if you find yourself sinking and swimming and being engulfed in crisis and chaos in your life, then it's not because you're a failure as a human being, it's your living out to the process of the evolution of matter itself. All life passes through that, and all species pass through that, and the earth itself is passing through that. And so I think it's really important not to have some ideal that if you don't have vibrant wellness you're spiritually failing yourself in some way, which is a terrible thing to be putting forth to people because-   Mason:  (05:37) But it's something that hangs on in the background. [crosstalk 00:05:39].   Jimi Wollumbin:   (05:39) It hangs on a lot. It's very, very common in the new age, and it's toxic. It's a toxic meme. But we're going to talk about viruses today, and just to link those two ideas together is, what I was saying there is if somebody comes to me with a viral infection, then I don't... It's somewhat relevant what virus they have. I have to pay attention to that. Is it herpes, is it genital, is it this, where is it, what are the symptoms?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (06:08) But because they're opportunistic overwhelmingly, then I'm just going to go through that process of saying, well, what else is going on, how have you driven yourself to this particular point, and what are the beliefs underneath that? So what are the ideas or memes, if we use that language, right, these, what are the ideas that you've been infected with, the memes, that have driven the behavior that have now made you susceptible to this particular virus?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (06:35) And so that's what the work looks like at an individual level as well as the pragmatic stuff of these are the medicines and treatments that are useful in viral infections that sort of, the day to day bits of medicine. But the personal level goes like that. And I actually think that whilst everyone's got coronavirus on the brain at the moment, it's a perfect time to have the same conversation for us as a culture that needs to happen at an individual level about, wow, you've got a viral infection, so what does this mean? What does this mean to America? What does this mean to the global culture right now?   Mason:  (07:10) What does it mean in Australia when every single pharmacy and supermarket is literally sold out of face masks over this outbreak of the coronavirus. There's obviously a lot of worry and fear, and when you have, let's just say novel virus, if emerging and it's coming into public knowledge, at least, for the first time. It's been the first advertised outbreak. But I don't exactly know. I'm just talking between the lines, because I don't know exactly what's going on with coronavirus. I haven't been looking too much into it.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (07:44) Okay. Well that makes both of us really, I just have to flag my general ignorance as well about, I have an oral only policy on news, so I don't have any Facebook feeds or any social media feeds that I look, and I don't look at any websites.   Mason:  (07:56) Or conspiracy feeds.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (07:57) No feeds at all. The only way I get news about the world is filtered through other human beings that I trust, and so it that makes me the most ignorant and ill-informed person that I know.   Mason:  (08:07) And what it brings up, it's this interesting pattern. We can see with swine flu, bird flu, SARS, corona, it's this new ambiguity of us being susceptible and infected, not understanding quite what viruses are, which, that's where I feel like I'd like to jump into.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (08:26) Let's go there.   Mason:  (08:26) Let's go there, so-   Jimi Wollumbin:   (08:27) It'd be really, really interesting.   Mason:  (08:27) Yeah. Or, you want to just take the bat there and run with what we mean by that.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (08:31) So, just before we go into viruses, there needs to... I think, just a context of microbes. Right? And so just to see the larger context is that the web of life and the idea of a tree of life has been cut down by biologists. It's a bad metaphor, and it didn't work out. It's really officially a web of life.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (08:52) The web of life is microbial. And so that means that of the 23 kingdoms, we've got animals, plants, and fungi being macro, and the other 20 are all micro, right? And those macro ones, they're like the fungi, the fruiting body on top of this vast web of life. So life is overwhelmingly on this planet, microscopic and invisible to us. And the only reason that those microbes account for 90% of the species on this planet rather than 99.8985 or something, is because insects are in the animal category with us.   Mason:  (09:33) Right.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (09:34) Because of insects-   Mason:  (09:37) We bumped up.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (09:37) We bump it up to 10%.   Mason:  (09:38) They bump the mean up.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (09:39) Yeah. They bump it up, but you take them out and it's this microbes, so the web of life is microbial. And it's a web, right?   Mason:  (09:46) That's like cells are most bacteria in the human body kind of ratio.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (09:49) Just that sort of thing. So if you dehydrate me, I'm 19% microbial protein, it's like, wow, okay. And it's like that across the whole planet, the macro and micro thing. And the other important thing to see is that the bacteria are, we think of them as all these different species and that's helpful in a way, but they're all changing DNA, all changing DNA, like microbial lions changing DNA with microbial zebras, with microbial praying mantises, just swapping DNA. And so-   Mason:  (10:27) And many ways to swap as well.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (10:28) So many ways.   Mason:  (10:29) Directly to a different species, I'm randomly just going to leave this information here so that some other life form can come and get this-   Jimi Wollumbin:   (10:38) Here's the app.   Mason:  (10:38) ... and learn how to evolve.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (10:39) That right. Here's the piece.   Mason:  (10:40) It's insane.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (10:40) Grow wings like that.   Mason:  (10:42) [inaudible 00:10:42].   Jimi Wollumbin:   (10:42) You know?   Mason:  (10:43) Yeah.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (10:44) And it's, they're downloading large pieces like that. And so there's this huge subterranean, I mean that figuratively, but actually literally, microbes go kilometers under the earth, and if we would pile them up it's like four stories of microbial protein covering us right now across all of the oceans and all of the land, right? So this vast subterranean network, that's a single organism, that's a single network, because it's all swapping DNA and information around, right?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (11:16) And so it's this vast system of information processing that makes our technology and our internet look like a 1980s space invader machine compared to a quantum computer. The numbers, I mean, if I've got 35 trillion bacteria, and there's 7 billion of us humans, and we're a fraction of this... It's just...   Mason:  (11:36) Yeah, it boggles the mind.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (11:38) Vast, right? And so we have to see this huge web of life that is microbial, that fruits up in towards us and the other cute macro species where we're at, and profoundly intelligent. They invented sex. I mean, hallelujah, thank goodness, they have their own language, quorum sensing, all of these things, they have strategies, they hunt, they flee, they're intelligent, they solve mazes and all sorts of things, and they evolve at a staggering pace. And so, first off, that they evolve at a staggering pace is, we know that...   Jimi Wollumbin:   (12:17) Penicillin came out in '45 and 10 years later 80% of bacteria were already immune to it. Right?   Mason:  (12:25) Mm-hmm (affirmative)-.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (12:26) 10 years later. And Fleming had warned in the late 20s of the way in which they were getting immunity really quickly, before it was even available broadly, right? And so they just...   Mason:  (12:35) How was he onto that? Just working in the field?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (12:38) Yeah, in his own experiments. It's like things get immune really fast.   Mason:  (12:41) Right.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (12:41) He figured out in 1929 and he made a public announcement in 1945, the same year it all came out, right? 1954, nine years later, we got 65% to 80% immunity, right? And so because they're this huge smart network of everything trading genes, you put anything in and it passes all around. And so we throw our finest next generation bacteria antibiotic inside that, and then resistance forms, antibiotic resistance that is spread potentially through everything. Right? But not just resistance to that, but resistance to the next six drugs we haven't yet developed.   Mason:  (13:20) I love this world and it's floored me over the years, and at this point, a lot of it, I'm just like, yep, that's the reality. There's this huge web of life that's communicating and it's a whole kingdom upon itself, but when I think about the fact that they've become resistant to the antibiotic that hasn't been released yet, when I saw that data, I think it's like a Stephen Buhner first had data, is that fact they're living in the antibacterial soaps in the hospitals, you'd learn-   Jimi Wollumbin:   (14:02) Absolute zero, in nuclear reactors-   Mason:  (14:05) [inaudible 00:14:05].   Jimi Wollumbin:   (14:05) ... Out in space affecting them also.   Mason:  (14:06) You learn the reality of just, well, yeah, what we're... And then you watch the traditional mindset go, look what we're up against.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (14:17) Yeah. Wow. Okay. So that's the viral meme that we'll come back to, that pace then. Let's put that one to the side.. At the moment.   Mason:  (14:24) All right.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (14:26) So we've got that vast network of really intelligent super processing that is the web of life, right, that we are a part of. It's not us and them, we're a part of it. And then inside of that then we've got viruses. And not very long ago we were like, viruses, do they even get categorized as being alive, because they're just dumb self replicating chunks of DNA. It's like we don't even give them status as living beings. Right?   Mason:  (14:58) Yeah.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (14:58) That's where it was at. Right?   Mason:  (15:00) Yeah.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (15:00) And since then, thanks, I believe, to computer programming and together with systems biology, we found that viruses have to be understood as a swarm. And so looking at the individual, of course this is one of the things we were looking at in a reductionist way and you can't see the forest for the trees, so we look at an individual virus, it's like an alien coming down and looking at one of our brain cells and saying, these guys are morons.   Mason:  (15:25) Good point.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (15:25) Right? It's like that. So you're looking at one bee rather than a swarm of bees. Right? And then I found that when I look at that they behave in ecosystems like top predators, and they move through large whole areas, right, and inhabit that inside macro species like monkeys. And then they will do that, and they want to maintain, like farmers, say, of animals, equilibrium so that they can have their own going home that's stable.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (15:55) But then if something happens, like a rival troop comes in, then those viruses will become virulent. And when they infect the rival troop, then the rival triple die or get sick and unpleasant and have to run away so that ecostasis is maintained. Right?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (16:12) So we've got viruses as these large a-cellular, not having their own body, distributed intelligences, ecological demon, spirits of place that exist across multiple different beings and yet behave as a system in coordinated ways with all these different mutant mutations, right, all these different cells that have slightly different tweaks that will up-regulate one of those expressions and down-regulate another in order to maintain eco harmony so that they can continue. Right?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (16:49) So it's like viruses are doing this. Wow. So viruses are clever distributed intelligences. And on top of it, the other thing is that the reason why we don't have a tree of life anymore and we've got a web of life, is that the idea of a species doesn't make any sense anymore because we see that species are all changing DNA as well. And that's thanks to viruses. So viruses through horizontal gene transfer are taking DNA out of a zebra and putting it into a rattlesnake.   Mason:  (17:17) That's the best [inaudible 00:17:18]. It's always the best. It's like you're part virus, you're part so many things.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (17:24) We're like 40% viral in origin that we can identify, or something like this, right?   Mason:  (17:28) 40%.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (17:28) Something really, really high.   Mason:  (17:30) I didn't think it was that high.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (17:31) So viruses are the medium of evolution, or at least one of the mediums of evolution on this planet, right? And it creates, that's the tension of micro evolutionary changes in a Darwinian model of random mutation, it's like the fossil record doesn't support it, and it's just like, how do we get these leaps that the fossil record shows? It can be through viruses taking chunks, can be one of the mediums, right? Either way, horizontal gene transfer is taking place.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (17:58) So viruses are the medium of evolution, and they're distributed intelligent networks inside a massive big biosphere, which is Gaia, which is a huge supercomputer, single living organism that thinks, and responds, and computes really significantly. So we have to think of viruses in that context if we've got any hope of starting to approach what's happening at the moment, right?   Mason:  (18:25) Yeah. Well, it brings on a bit of a dichotomy when you have a viral infection and you go... I think because it's like we needed to have started the conversation back a little bit further. It's like, right now you're like, what am I supposed to do? Am I grateful for this? Am I letting it... It's maybe not the time to be have any huge conversations, just go and get yourself dealt with, but what is the conversation that we have then?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (18:53) Well, the conversation is... Let me give a couple more missing pieces of the puzzle before we get to the conversation I think.   Mason:  (19:00) Great. And go into that virus, just clipping parts of DNA of the puzzle and putting them all into one perfect string.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (19:07) So we've got the viruses moving around like this, we've got the vast, huge network of microbes that is the web of life that we are a part of, and we're just little fruiting bodies. And we have, on the planet at the moment, technological evolution like we've never seen before. Right? We've never seen, you're just staggering at the change that has happened in my life.   Mason:  (19:31) Yeah. Staggering.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (19:33) No one can keep up with it, right? But that technological evolution from the industrial revolution or wherever you want to take it, has produced significant changes in the biosphere, and parallel to the technological revolution that we can see in the big clunky things at our big clunky multicellular level, which is not the majority of life, where we are, we see all this technological change because our phones are smarter. Parallel to that is massive microbial evolution, massive change, maybe not like we've never seen before, but like has not been witnessed in a long time I assume.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (20:10) And so this is because we've significantly changed the environment, and we've been pumping out tons and tons and tons and tons of antimicrobial agents like antibiotics through our beef and all of these different things that are all putting pressure on the web of life. And let me say the web of life is fine, the microbial kingdom, fine. Microbes, like we just said, they can exist in nuclear reactors. The first evidence of microbes on this planet is during the Hadean era named after Haitis when the earth is essentially just a slightly cool ball of lava with meteorites exploding on it, the microbes are all right. Right?   Mason:  (20:51) And it's same with the Gaia, same with Gaia.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (20:54) That whole piece, right? Gaia microbes, microbes Gaia, they're sort of cells of Gaia in a way.   Mason:  (20:59) It's fine.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (20:59) Yeah, so that's fine, but it is changing because we have changed the environment so radically. It's having to adapt, so it's adapting. But those adaptions of the microbial kingdom to create ecostasis or harmony like the... You know the viral monkey story? Or you know when microbes first learn how to take in carbon and shit out oxygen they almost killed themselves by producing this noxious gas of oxygen that drowned the whole planet in corrosive, oxidizing, nasty acidic oxygen. And the mass extinction happened because of that.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (21:40) And then they figured out, oh, we can just use that intense, intense gas called oxygen, which is like sulfuric acid, and we can breathe it. And so they adapted to that. And then we got the respiration processes that plants and that we now take a breath, take for granted. And so they evolve underneath those things ecological crisis and adapt. And at the moment we've got this massive bio shift. And so this is massive change in what's happening with the microbes, right?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (22:10) And so we see the extinction of some of the macro species, which is heart rendering, right, for us, but what we don't see is this tsunami of roiling rippling change that's happening at the microbial level that reflects what's happening at the macro level of just like, whoa, okay, there's so much more carbon, whoa, there's tons and tons and tons of antibiotics, whoa, there's less of these species, whoa, there's pesticides, and heavy metals, and whatever else, and-   Mason:  (22:39) And radiation and all the [crosstalk 00:22:39].   Jimi Wollumbin:   (22:39) ... changing temperatures and radiation, gray spaces. And so it's like the web of life, that vast thing that would bury us four stories deep if we put this, the protein, the bacteria on top of us, is going through bacteria and viruses. And so over the last 25 years we've had like 30 brand new diseases emerge predominantly through ecological change and environmental change, and then through damning, through deforestation, through gray space, all that sort of stuff.   Mason:  (23:07) What's the gray space?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (23:09) Gray spaces where you've got huge environments that are manmade. And so-   Mason:  (23:14) Oh, and all that.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (23:15) Yeah, like concrete and all these sorts of things. Bacteria are thriving here, but they have to change to thrive inside plastic, concrete, EMF environments, right?   Mason:  (23:27) No real soil or ground-   Jimi Wollumbin:   (23:30) No, that's right.   Mason:  (23:30) ... just a little bit of [crosstalk 00:23:31].   Jimi Wollumbin:   (23:31) So it's a different culture, right?   Mason:  (23:32) Yeah.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (23:33) So it's a different microbial culture that-   Mason:  (23:34) Literally a different culture.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (23:35) ... thrives inside this culture that's here, right? And so all of those things are producing changes, right, so microbial changes, microbial cultural that reflect our cultural changes and our technological evolution, biological evolution that affects our technological evolution. And so then when we see coronavirus, then we have to have this conversation that we started off with like the person that comes to me with some other virus and say, well, you know what else is going on? I'm really exhausted, and I've been drinking too much, and I just had a divorce. And why was that?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (24:10) So I go, I guess I got a divorce because I was just never available, because I got the idea when I was a kid that I was unlovable. So I just had to work my ass off and all blah blah blah, and I drive people away like that, and now I'm exhausted, and my immune system is crashing, and I've got a virus. It's like, oh wow, good, it's time to take a good long hard look in the mirror.   Mason:  (24:25) Take this.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (24:26) Take a mirror home. That's the main thing, right?   Mason:  (24:31) Yeah.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (24:31) It's like, wow, you lived your way into this.   Mason:  (24:33) Well, then you're asking them to take home a lifelong practice as well.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (24:37) Absolutely.   Mason:  (24:37) Which is interesting.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (24:38) But that's what's being asked of us as a species.   Mason:  (24:41) For sure.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (24:42) That process, right, of, what's coronavirus about, and all these other new diseases about, and what can we learn from it, and in what way do we need to change and adapt? Because at the moment we are on this thing of just like, let's just keep changing the environment to us rather than us changing to our environment, adapted to an environment. So there's a larger conversation of like, wow, okay, things are shifting really fast and we can see some of these diseases coming up.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (25:11) And not to fear monger, because people have pointed out that there's a large amount of fear out in the world at the moment about these viruses, but as somebody that's studied the history of epidemics, then we know that when we've mismanaged our environment really significantly, like in the middle ages or through the industrial revolution, that those diseases that come up, those microbial changes that have to adapt to that really significantly different environment, there's nothing medicine does and can do then or today, and just like, yeah, a third of the population just disappears.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (25:46) And this just comes for a period of time and then disappears like this English sweating sicknesses and you just, you'd be alive and then 24 hours later you'd be dead. And then when it's all done, the sweating, sickness, bacteria and virus have just disappeared. They come for a period and then they go after that. Right? And so there's due course for us as a species to have a degree of alarm about how we're mismanaging our environment and what the biosphere is going to do, not in a punitive sense because we are the biosphere, but just in terms of maintaining equilibrium and balance. Right?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (26:19) And so coronavirus by itself doesn't frighten me, but the rippling and roiling of the microbial underworld is, that's what homeostasis can look like in the process of these mass macro ecological changes. We see the forests, we see the glaciers, we don't see what's happening in the web of life below that because it's too small for us. But it's moving like plate tectonics. Right? And coronavirus is one of those ones that's like this, but coronavirus looks all right. But the epidemiologists and my microbiologists that are alarmist, they have a good reason, because they've seen-   Mason:  (27:06) They've seen what can happen.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (27:08) They know what can happen. They do know what happens. So as a species, not as an individual, as an individual you shouldn't worry. And I just want to repeat that. Anyone that's really worried, I don't think as an individual you should worry at all right now, but as a species I really think we should worry because we terribly mismanaged our environment. And the changes that can come as a result of that can be frightening for us, not for life, not for the web of life, but for us as an individual species.   Mason:  (27:34) Yeah. And it's confronting, I mean, none more than when you go into the healing space of a hospital, and it's, you continue... Last decade I've been around lots of more nurses and doctors and become much more sympathetic of the human element, but I'm not sympathetic towards my own ignorance and nor for general ignorance as well, and also not an asshole when I try and point it out and think I'm a know it al.   Mason:  (28:08) But that environment is literally a storehouse of bacterial and viral infection because we keep on kicking the can down the road with antimicrobials, and antivirals, and antibiotics when it's a virus, just to be safe, so on and so forth, just chopping the organ out, sterile, no plants, no sunlight, none of that. It gets very significant when you take a-   Jimi Wollumbin:   (28:33) Oh, yeah.   Mason:  (28:33) ... back look or look back at, this is where we're doing our healing?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (28:37) It radicalizes and virializes the web of life. And so there's no good metaphors for this, but you could think of it as terrorist training camps, except it's not terrorist, it's just life. You could think of it as-   Mason:  (28:53) The way that we relate to it it is.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (28:54) Yeah. From our perspective, we're radicalizing, it's like that because they're still not terrorists, they're still interested just in harmony, but from our perspective they invoke terror so we think we think of them as terrorists.   Mason:  (29:05) For sure.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (29:06) We radicalize them in the hospital through those particular processes, but we don't just radicalize them, we evolve them.   Mason:  (29:13) We evolve them massively, right?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (29:14) Really quickly. And there's been more microbial generate... How does this go? Because they go through a generation in every two minutes or something like that, so there's more... What we see over the last 300 years of human existence in terms of technological evolution, we say, wow, look at that, that's happening every five minutes in the bacterial world. It's just, it happens so quickly. It's happened so quickly. Like one bacteria listed left to divide uninhibited would produce more cells than there are protons in the known universe in like two years or something like that.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (29:54) And they are evolving through that process constantly. So the process is really, really fast. And compared to our macro evolution, which is quite slow, the micro evolution is really, really fast.   Mason:  (30:06) So then if we start looking at, all right, if we are susceptible to illness and viral infections, say, in a treatment perspective, you've talked to our need to get to the root as well as then personalized treatment. Ongoingly, do you see the fact that we need to be working on that level to come into harmony within ourselves, in lifestyle and state of mind? In that essence, then what? Is it so that our immune system can be strong so we can be a part of nature?   Mason:  (30:38) Do we need to almost practice the little deaths because we've got this inevitable moving back to when we're going to die and be absorbed by this huge microbial kingdom? What's the point? Where do we fit with our health and our relatedness?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (30:54) Okay. So, I hear the invitation to speak in a clinical and individual level, and I promise I will, but first I want to say, if I just have a conversation like that and then said, and for yourself, make sure you do this and this and this so you're strong, I will be perpetuating the problem. And so the problem is this as I see it, right, is that we've been talking about genes and the way in which they move around, but we spoke previously about memes, like the viral infection of an idea that drove that particular man to destroy his marriage and his health. Right?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (31:34) And so memes in evolutionary biology are ideas that spread through culture. So Christianity is a meme, catholicism is a meme, feminism is a meme, capitalism is a meme. All our isms are memes. They're ideologies that affect us, right? And so there's this continuity between microbial culture and human culture, between genes and memes, that goes around and around and around.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (32:02) And so on the one hand we can see, just imagine that there's a gene for selfishness and violence, which there isn't, and genes don't work that way, but imagine there is because it's easier to think about. And then we've got someone that's got that gene and then they create a tribe around them that's all got that gene, and then they create a country and an empire like the Roman empire that's based upon this particular gene spreading, every stage of that. Then they create culture around that, they creates stories around that, they create images, they create are practices that all have a meme involved of violence and selfishness.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (32:37) Now as that meme spreads to other cultures, their stories, their religions, and their religion is, it's survival of the fittest, that's their religion, say, as that idea gets out, then that idea changes those other people in the same way that that gene could change other people. Right? So genes can give rise to meme and then memes come down and change our biology culture. The meta emergent culture changes our biology as a species in the same way that your ideas change your biology and your biology changes your ideas.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (33:12) So we've got this movement of there's unhealthy ideas, cultural memes that are spreading across the planet behind the globalization of the world, and that fundamental... It's hard to put a word to what is that meme, because it's really complex, right? So there's no satisfying single quip. Right? But for the purposes of your question, I'm going to say the meme that is spreading is the meme of the fallacy of separation, that our economy is separate from our fine arts, that human culture is separate from the environment, that the icebergs is separate from your gut health.   Mason:  (33:54) I mean, even in the body strength is separate from flexibility.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (33:58) All of those.   Mason:  (33:58) Yeah. All of those. Yeah.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (33:59) All of those using reductionist linear thinking in a nonlinear universe overwhelming.   Mason:  (34:07) A universe-   Jimi Wollumbin:   (34:07) Right?   Mason:  (34:07) ... that literally doesn't have such thing as a straight line.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (34:09) Right. That's right. So that's the meme that I would say, the fallacy of separation, right? And that that is spreading across lots of different cultures. And as it spreads, they create technology and practices that then alter the environment that then virializes bacteria in particular ways, right? And then those bacteria will then spread genes and do things like that. So we've got this movement up and down in a complex system from its parts and the emergent holes that come out of them like this.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (34:39) And so when you say, well, what should I do? If I say, well, you know what you should do, Mason, is you should make sure that you get all the proper nutrition and you do this and this and this and this and this, I would be potentially spreading the fallacy of separation.   Mason:  (34:55) Well, what I'm thinking, well, yeah, what I was thinking there, what we do in terms of a mindset going forth, is it... Because I've thought about this and meditated on this for so long, and in the end it's just something to do to keep on coming back to yourself I imagine, but is there a surrenderedness, is there you're not in control? Is it, while you are a part of that web of life and so then the context of you becoming healthy isn't in, don't let that opportunistic organism come and kill me you bastard, I'm going to beat you. Is it something bad? I just want hear your insights of that core.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (35:38) Yeah. Good. So I definitely think that our own personal healing and our own personal journey is one of the most profound ways that we can affect the macro level as well.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (35:48) And there's this ancient connection between the micro and macro, right? That by getting healthy, by getting well, by engaging deeply in your process, your addictions, and the viral memes that you have in your family line and your own story, by starting to become conscious of those and healing those, by seeing the cultural ones that you've inherited of separation and fragmentation of who you are and how you see the world, then you're in a better place to be that little meme sharing bacteria in the web of life that says in moments like this, hey, have this little download. That's what I'm doing now. You and I are doing this now.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (36:33) We are virally spreading an idea. Well, we caught it from other people as well, it's not that we came up with it, but we're spreading this idea. And as it spreads that idea, then it changes the culture, and as we change the culture, then we change the way we do things, which is changing the environment, which is giving rise to those bacteria as well. Right?   Mason:  (36:52) Yeah.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (36:52) So I definitely think that people engaging with their own health is really, really important, but it's how you do that and why you do that that makes all the difference. Because a lot of people have still the viruses Osama Bin Laden must be killed and protected against and I'm taking all these super herbs to kill the bug, must kill bug.   Mason:  (37:13) And now the water fast, like more skin scrubbing, more oregano oil all over me. Like it's-   Jimi Wollumbin:   (37:20) It's herbal antibiotics against life, antibiotic, against the web of life. And it's the fallacy of separation that underpins that. And so there can be no health in an unhealthy culture. There can't be. And so our deepest yearnings for self-preservation have to get married to the transformation of our unhealthy culture and the preservation of the environment that we live in. It has to be that. And also along the way, yes, we need to take care of ourselves and we can... Once I've said this piece, I can move on, and then we can talk about antiviral herbs and things like that as well.   Mason:  (37:59) Yeah. I guess it's got a context.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (38:00) It does. Then it has the context. Right? But the larger piece is that we can not isolate ourselves with adaptogenic, immunological, super extracted herbs from the vast biological upheavals of the microbial kingdom. We cannot, our best... We can't do that. Right? Human beings will survive, but there's no guarantees about any individual.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (38:29) And so the idea is, I think, folly to just try and lock ourselves away, and the idea is, I believe, to get whole and healthy, and to become a wellbeing so that we can participate in the process of healing our fractured culture and vanquishing those unhealthy memes that have changed our environment, that are giving rise to those virulent genes, viruses, and microbes. Yeah.   Mason:  (38:59) Then we become, funilly, the micro in the macro of the microbials at that point. Right. Which is a trip. They are our ancestors. Right?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (39:09) Absolutely.   Mason:  (39:10) It's the bacteria that created, and viruses, that created a cell structure that then enabled us to come about that. I like that because it doesn't change us. We're not expecting all of a sudden to put on completely new glasses and see the world in a completely different way, but you can feel the world in a different way. You can trust the course that you're on already. You're trying to become more loving, more healthy, less of an asshole, try and get as much information as possible.   Mason:  (39:36) The internet is connected, but humans aren't connected, so you can't get, as you say, because you have all these memes, and this bias, and these institutional official stories of what reality is. It's hard sometimes to know what's truth and what's not, therefore, it's hard to take action like a microbe would that is going to lead us towards a personalized evolution. And you can see this quagmire happening. I think it's going to pass. I think there's a lot of extremism. I also see a splitting of the chains.   Mason:  (40:13) When you said those gray areas, I always think sometimes you just see... And you can feel the pull, you can feel the pull of modernity and domestication at times, and then as well you can feel that pull of nature. And if you're going to be getting involved in one direction or the other, to an extent, this is all speculation, but this is something I think about a lot, there's various splits in the genes where, not that you have different speices necessarily, but along that line of a conversation. So, because that leads to there had not been a right or a wrong because we have many different paths as well.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (40:52) Yeah, there are. One of the things I was thinking when you were saying that is about the modernity piece, is I think that one of the most radical things that we can do is to not just consume ancient grains, but to consume ancient memes, and to preserve ancient meme. And so ancient memes are contained in the world's mythologies in these ancient, ancient stories because they hold wisdom, they hold huge chunks of information, like the bacterial chunks that say, this is how you fly, or this is how you get camouflaged, right?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (41:34) They contain this in this myth or poetic language. And when we take them in they're like a ferment or something that you introduce into your kombucha. It changes everything. You change the culture within through consuming these leavens of these ancient memes. And so I think when you it's hard to know, it's confusing. There's all these things going on, all that sort of stuff, in the world. It's like, personally, that's one of the reasons why I'm ignorant of a lot of things in the modern world, is because I'm cautious about the information that I consume. I'm cautious about the imagery that I consume.   Mason:  (42:16) Well, that's huge as a health piece.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (42:19) Yeah. Because it changes... They're memes. They're all memes. Right. And you're not immune to it. They're going to become a part of you.   Mason:  (42:25) Discernment is massive.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (42:27) Yeah. Far out, so anyway, so. So that's that piece. I think that it's in terms of saying, well, how do I navigate through this environment? Is the how do I live, is not what science has ever excelled at. Right. Because mythology is not bad science, it is a completely different piece. It's a guide on the nature of being and how to navigate through crisis and change. That's what's in those stories. So that's one of my prescriptions, right.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (43:04) To our culture and to anyone living, read and immerse yourself in ancient mythology, because there's this life saving memes inside there that go in like viruses and change your state of consciousness. And they change it profoundly by giving you different metaphors, different images, and different lenses so that you can see the world in a different way, you can see opportunities and crises in a different way. And if I've arrived at a different perspective in my journey as a practitioner, it's through that. It's through the regular consumption of ancient memes.   Mason:  (43:39) Is that what draw you back to Mongolia?   Jimi Wollumbin:   (43:42) Yes, that's what drew me back to Mongolia. Yes. Speaking of ancient meme, it's a place rich in, and Siberia as well, the shamanism there, a place very rich in ancient memes indeed.   Mason:  (43:55) You've got some of those stories on your Facebook page. I think I'll-   Jimi Wollumbin:   (43:57) I do indeed.   Mason:  (43:58) ... just tell people to stay there rather than going, give us your top 10 mentions.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (44:03) That's right. And so then, I feel like I've dodged your previous question of what are people to do in response at an individual level to viral illness.   Mason:  (44:18) No. You answered it. I mean, clinically it's always interesting. I'm quite over getting a checklist of things to do and the Western approach of having reliance. I think a 20% of your energy in towards knowing the practicality, if you go down there are certain actions that you can take upon infection feeling, whether it's... What is it? Is it hot, is it cold, or is it... And you can take appropriate action to get yourself back into harmony.   Mason:  (44:44) You really answered the beginning of it. Being a part of that web of life, first of all, it means you get infected and, I mean, part of it's a big thing. It's like something's going to get yet you, something's going to get you.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (44:55) But do you not want to be gotten is the question.   Mason:  (44:57) Exactly.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (44:58) Do you not want to be gotten?   Mason:  (44:59) Well, that's what drove me in health, I think, in the very beginning, was a subtle fear of death. And that's why I got a little bit orthorexic and parasites. And now I'm at the point where I feel like I can go back into that conversation of cleansing, knowing that cleansing isn't a separate conversation from my general, it is my general lifestyle and everything that I'm doing anyway. I've got a little bit more of that. What you're saying, it takes a long time to feel that unity and that connectiveness.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (45:30) Purify me of the idea that I need to be purified.   Mason:  (45:34) It's massive. And it's interesting as well, because part of you needs to go forth at times. All you've got is your mind to hang on to protocols to get healthier. But then the transition of when you're rejuvenated to an extent that you can stand in your own sovereignty and start, you start feeling these mythical stories inside of yourself. You don't even have to... all that wisdom inside of yourself, and that capacity to realize, whether you like it or not, on a very practical level, you're not separated. There are microbials in you that have connected...   Jimi Wollumbin:   (46:07) You can't live without.   Mason:  (46:08) You can't live without.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (46:09) You die if they go. We know this.   Mason:  (46:11) But then from there you go, okay, I'm not having a knee jerk response to an official story or a meme anymore. From there, I mean, we don't even have to talk about anti-microbials and antivirals.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (46:28) Well, the best thing you can do is very simple, is to maximize your own wellbeing. And so the goal of health is health, it's not fighting disease, and health is not the absence of disease.   Mason:  (46:38) Well, that's an interesting piece-   Jimi Wollumbin:   (46:40) Right?   Mason:  (46:40) ... because it's a good-   Jimi Wollumbin:   (46:40) We notice. The world health organization agrees, right? And yet again and again, it's same with herbalists, they get suckered into fighting disease and treating disease. And so then you'll see a famous herbalist circulating their coronavirus formula, which just shows disappointingly their absence of education in the foundations of traditional medicine and integrative thinking.   Mason:  (47:04) Do you mean that even, just to bring some context, do you mean that in regards to what we've talked about or even more basically the fact that there are going to be absolutely individualized reasons as [inaudible 00:47:17] the coronavirus in the first place.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (47:19) No. If five people have influenza virus, and let's say they had the same strain, when they come to a good therapist, then they get five different treatments. One of those people is a 85 year old woman, and how she's feeling is really exhausted. The next person is a 45 year old robust man who's got fevers. The next person is a seven year old child who's sweating a lot and vomiting, right? What we treat is we enhance the resistance and the wellbeing of those individuals.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (48:00) Yes, we have an awareness of herbs that are anti-microbial, but that's only one of a whole range of things that go in to improve the way the system is responding. We're trying to harmonize that ecology of that particular person, and so some of the medicines could be diaphoretics that open up the pores and help release, some of the medicines could be heating, some of them could be cooling, some of them could be focused upon reducing nervous tension because that's what's keeping them in a fight or flight response and has switched off their immune system at the mains.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (48:34) And they all require, so evidence based medicine and integrative medicine, and I teach integrative doctors in the States about how to get integrative and to think in an integrative manner, evidence based medicine is giving way to individualized medicine.   Mason:  (48:47) It has to.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (48:48) It has to, right?   Mason:  (48:49) Otherwise it's not medicine.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (48:50) There's no evidence. It's like when you average it out, it's like across 50,000 people, well then it becomes nonsensical because then there's one who is average, right? It's like the matchbox factory that puts 49 matches in every box and the other one that puts 51 they say the average matchbox has 50 matches, but there's no match box that has 50 matches. It doesn't exist. There's no average.   Mason:  (49:12) It's an interesting thing that happened. TCM is the classic example that went extremely Western, and went, even just the categorization of disease based on the symptoms. Which you kind of, you have some sympathy for the Western mind needing to go to an institution and get a piece of paper, and we need a regulatory body because we're not patient enough to have it be like a real teacher student download, and then most people just don't have the patients or...   Mason:  (49:38) I hardly think I've got the skill and patience to sit there in a clinic and do that individual assessment again and again, not at this point in my life anyway. That's tough. It's a special skill.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (49:50) The opposite is really tough actually, I would say, having been a practitioner for 20 years.   Mason:  (49:54) Being ineffective.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (49:56) And also, no one wants to be making burgers. People come, I give you my this protocol, the next person comes, I give you my that protocol. That's why you said, what do you do? And I said, well, I'm interested in helping people transform. I mean, interested in people, helping them die and be reborn, because that's what your ill health is an invitation for always. And that's what globally we require.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (50:23) We require each one of those individuals to be transformed, to die to themselves and to emerge as well-beings having vanquished some of the unhealthy cultural memes that they've had inside them so that then they can be the leaven for a healthy culture, because there can be no health and an unhealthy culture. And so we desperately require well-beings, but that happens individual by individual, and as it happens is a very personal process, and it's gutsy, and it's raw, and it's got sweat, and tears, and snort, and it's hard, and it's terrifying a whole bunch of the time.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (50:59) As you go through it, that's what transformation looks like. Just ask the caterpillar, I used to think the caterpillar crawled into its chrysalis and it was really cozy in there, and mood lighting and all that sort of stuff, and then it elongated and sprouted wings, but it doesn't, it turns to mush, and every single cell in that bacteria just dissolves into a Caterpillar smoothie, right? It's just like, except for these-   Mason:  (51:25) Sexy.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (51:25) ... small cells, the imaginal cells that hold the vision of flying, right? And that's like the soul, right, the imaginal realm, the imaginal cells in us. And so the process of healing is a process of alchemical transformation, and it's tough, and it's hard, and it is scary, but more scary than that is staying where you are. When it feels more scary to lose your soul and to stay in the little cage that you're at rather than to take this risk, and to go through, and to change, that's when I want to see you. I want them to book in with me then.   Mason:  (52:02) Yeah, I mean, and that process, it's, it can be harrowing and can take time.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (52:08) It is always harrowing. I've just been through one myself. It was incredible, but harrowing definitely. I had my own midlife crisis last year, and health things, and all this sort of stuff. It was definitely harrowing, but it's also profoundly liberating. And I'm not in a hurry to go back to it, but I'm so grateful. I would rather go back to that then go back to where I was and just continue indefinitely in the way that I was being, because I was possessed by particular ideas, particular selves, particular memes.   Mason:  (52:42) Identities, and yeah.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (52:43) Yes. All of those things, right, that were way too limiting, way too small for the vast pantheon of gods that inhabits every human being. And so I'm grateful for it, but yes, it was harrowing.   Mason:  (52:55) Yeah. It can be especially harrowing when you are enmeshed in the community where you've got yourselves and your identity tied up, yet it doesn't let you-   Jimi Wollumbin:   (53:04) Families, relationships, all of those.   Mason:  (53:07) Yeah. Cliques, social cliques, all that kind of stuff. It can't not be a part of medicine. You're right. And then these manifestations come up, that's when it becomes less of a mindset of just like this sickness is an opportunity just as an idea and you can actually start dropping into the reality of it. It becomes far more annoying being told that. What a great opportunity. It's like, shut up.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (53:27) Yeah. That's right.   Mason:  (53:30) I'm super sick right now. But it's like-   Jimi Wollumbin:   (53:35) Because there's no sense of what that is. It's just then it's a platitude, right? It's just thrown around, but there's no real understanding of what that is. But again, to come back to the macro, I think that this is required for us as a species, that individuals are willing to go on that journey, that they're willing to go right down that rabbit hole, that they're willing to go on a harrowing journey of initiation of descent into the underworld, like Persephone, of transformation and transmutation, is that, that's the hero's quest.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (54:11) Every one of us has that invitation. And the only way that our culture can be whole is if we have a certain number of imaginal cells, a certain number of initiated individuals that have been down to the underworld, that have died, that have drunk from those sacred waters and have re-emerged with gifts for those around them. And then they share those, those memes, those stories, those songs, right? They share them like that.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (54:36) That's the only way our culture is refreshed. Otherwise, a culture inevitably become stagnant, and ossified, and unhealthy, whatever it was at the start, it ends up, it used to be a signpost that pointed towards heaven, that pointed towards the moon, that pointed towards something worthwhile, and people used to use that signpost where their gaze was directed towards something, something truly worthwhile.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (54:58) And then after a while, people just start worshiping the signpost, and climb up on top of the sign post that pointed to Rome, or to heaven, or the moon and say, I'm at my destination and they get dogmatic and then they fight to defend the signpost, right? And that happens to every culture unless they're those people that go down, and when they go down, they go down crying and screaming, and hurting, and bleeding, and shaking, and terrified, into the underworld. But they emerge renewed.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (55:24) And so there's a lot of people that are hurting that will be listening to this. And there's a lot of people that will be scared and feel like they're not coping and that there are finally because of it, and again, I just want to say that that does not make you a failure. That makes you a hero on a quest, and to have the courage that it takes to keep going through that process, right, that's actually what healing looks like. It's a breakdown, a breakdown of those memes, it's a breakdown of those other identities, right? And that's what creates a well-being. That's what creates a resilient being.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (55:58) And if you want to be resilient, it's not really the goal, how can I be resilient so the bacteria can't get me? Wrong goal, wrong goal entirely.   Mason:  (56:07) Well, it's just a little bit misdirected, and with that reality that you've just been talking about, inclusive in the letting go, is as you move along.. The hardest thing is sometimes you find a community, or a person, or a practice, or diet, or whatever it is that was been super healing, and now a part of your process is to let that go as you go along. It's why it can be so harrowing and confusing.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (56:32) Absolutely.   Mason:  (56:33) However, then when you start talking about hydration, and herbalism, and sun exposure, if you're embedded in the process of the simplicity and enormity of what you're doing in this life and what you're going through, and in that context of I'm connected to all of this, and I don't know where I'm going, but I'm going, I'm doing it for me, and I'm doing it for others, and you're like, there's a focus on that sharing, all of a sudden it takes the charge away from the adaptogenic herbs. It takes the charge away from having to have the right water and diet, because it pulls it into context. Right? And that's what I like.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (57:13) Into a different context.   Mason:  (57:15) A hugely different context.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (57:17) A deeper, and a wider, and a broader context.   Mason:  (57:19) One that has reality. It's why, Superfeast, it's a weird thing, is why I don't go out and say like adaptogens, adaptogens, adaptogens, I talk about, in this instance I have the opportunity to talk about tonic herbalism in a Taoist philosophy. And so it's got this bed of, it's not really about the herbs, they fit in, and then they just fit into the flow, and they support something.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (57:40) They're a means towards an end, not an end unto themselves. Right?   Mason:  (57:44) And that's, it's not effective for longterm cruisy flowing, finding what for you, finding your own sovereign lifestyle and culture as you move along anyway if you create a health trend to everyone's got to be doing these things, it's not effective long term. I think it's a bad business model. Well, I think it is.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (58:09) Probably is, but it reflects a deeper understanding of what health really is as well. Because otherwise, we have this profoundly unhealthy culture with these profoundly unhealthy individuals infected by these cultural memes that rob them of happiness in a deep and fundamental way, that separate us from one another increasingly fragmenting us from parts of ourselves, our left brain from our right brain, our inner child from... All of these different parts of fragmenting and fragmenting and fragmenting. And there can be no health in that. It doesn't matter how many super foods you consume and how...   Mason:  (58:45) Except cacao and [crosstalk 00:58:45].   Jimi Wollumbin:   (58:46) Except cacao. Right. Except chocolate. Okay, chocolate's an exception.   Mason:  (58:48) And then the thing is, it's not. It definitely isn't. So, yeah... That fragmentation.   Jimi Wollumbin:   (58:58)

In this the second episode of "My Beauty Habits", I join the fabulous Trinny Woodall at her swanky new studio.Once I've had a nose around and been bowled over by the sheer amount of products she has (Space NK eat your heart out), we sit down with a cuppa and chat through her skincare routine, her most beloved products, her relationship with her brow tinter and so much more. This is a lovely insight into the life of Trinny via the beauty products that she loves.

On this episode of Dear Strategy, we answer the following question… Dear Strategy: “Thank you for the 5-part series that explained TAM/SAM/SOM back in April. Once I've decided what those are for my company, how do I then figure out how big any of those are in terms of revenue? What sources might I go to in order to figure out how big my market is?” Visit our Blog to read the full post that goes along with this episode. Subscribe to Our Mailing List to stay up to date on all the latest episodes. If you’re interested in having Strategy Generation Company deliver a strategy workshop for your business, please visit us at https://strategygeneration.com

We finally made it to the Atlas! Look out white maps, here we come!Join the party! Check out our website for more episodes and be sure to follow us on Twitter.www.foreverexiled.comTwitter @ForeverExiled82Path of Exile WebsiteWrecker of Days Builds ListFull Transcript of Episode:Justin: Hey there. Welcome to Episode five of Forever Exile. The Path of Exile Podcast. I am one of your host, Justin A K Tags.Tyler: And I'm Tyler Wrecker of Days. Well, we made it Number five. Yeah. Good. Good. We're doing the best of episodes, Ari.Justin: Yeah, where we're at, like, take 41. RoughlyTyler: way. Our we've been We've been giggling trying to start this podcast for, like, the last hour.Justin: You know, actually, you saying that makes me want to just quickly jumped the gun a little bit because I noticed, if you're one of your notes was just how incredible your giggle is.Tyler: So I obviously listen to the podcast. Once you've finished editing them, Justin does everything. By the way, I just sit here and giggle and make fun of him. But after he's edited and what we get to listen to it, I like to listen to it to see what it, of course, sounds, likes weak and make it better make the next episode better and better and constructive criticism I have noticed now that I really ate my giggle. I sound so lame. Gable. It sounds totally fine in my head. I feel like a manly man when I giggle in my head. But my goodness, when I giggle when I hear from the outside, it's brutal.Justin: So that just shows how impressive it is that for four episodes I've been editing your giggle just to increase the highs. I'm just kidding. I should think this is going to be, like, really high.Tyler: No, this episode I'm gonna Ha, ha.Justin: That is hilarious. Yes, I am. Anyway, that made me think of it. You said giggle. It's your fault. Uh, all right, So tell me anyway, tell me about your build. You've been doing it. I mean, do refresher on your building where you're at right now. Let's let's hear it.Tyler: All right. Um, I finally had some time to gets maps, which was nice. I finished last few acts quite quickly. I like those last acts because there's very few side quest you need to do for extra passive points and finally got endgame. Tried to do it with my leveling gear, which wasn't special. It's not leveling gears, just whatever dropped. So I was pretty bad on resist. Tried to do. I know 5 to 10 maps with it, and, uh, just before the podcast started. I finally capped my resists, but damage is good and survivability would be good. I'm really liking it. I don't know what people are complaining about a lot of fun. Single target damage isn't great, but the game's a lot harder to so anyway,Justin: where you build when you say people complaining, Are you referring to just in general or specifically to your build?Tyler: Sorry specifically for that guide? I'm referring to the which building I do, and I'm doing my sion build. It's Ah, deadeye and inquisitor. It's elemental hit with attached to What's it called? It's still the list of support the ballistic totem support, Lester told him, Supports really weak. You basically need four totems, even though it only gives you three. You have to go find 1/4 told him just to make it worthwhile. But I'm quite liking it. And because you're constantly moving and laying the totems with elemental hit and with crit and with all the extra ailments that air happening freezing and shocking, it's I I really like it so far. I mean, I have a four, a blue four link, and, uh, I've been fine, so I'm excited to get a a nice five link.Justin: Your survivability, though, seems to be at least reasonable. So far, you're reallyTyler: very easy. It was really easy while levelling, of course, ramps up a bit once you get into the atlas. But, um, I had 19% fire resist, and I think 55 or 60 Ah, lightning resist. And there's a lot more chaos damage and oh, my goodness. I redid the graveyard. I did the new graveyard boss fight, and that's cool. I don't know if that was in our notes somewhere, so I don't want to jump ahead.Justin: I don't think I've actually done graveyard yet.Tyler: Oh, the chaos. I just love how viable chaos is. I feel like it's syndicate, but without needing the crazy nurse that syndicate needed for a month straight, it's There's so much more chaos, damage, um, the new I don't really want to spoil it, but for the podcast tried Well, for you, the graveyard boss battle that used to just be you'd go into that crypt, right? And then to be that I mean, it's changed a couple of times now. I think it's a change it again and Now it's kind of like an open crypt area where you fight one of the skeleton bosses that existed in campaign. But then, once you beat that one whole wave of enemies come. And then a second skeleton boss comes because I think you can do that. Different ones, Yes, and I love it. There's shocking to let crazy. They're throwing chaos, damage at you from from range. I really liked it and especially because it's what. But it dropped for me. I think it was my fifth map. I don't know if it's Tier 12 or three. I forget, but it was when you're not really set with your resists. That's a punishing boss battle, and I really liked it. But back to the build, I just finished capping my resists and survivability was pretty easy before, so it's gonna be a lot better now.Justin: Nice and damage with elemental hit and ballisticTyler: clearing is no problem. Single target damage requires some patients, Um, but not only for the impatient, I guess you could say, um, I don't find that for me. I'm used to a slower paced game, and I don't find it tedious by any means. umJustin: Well, you actually, because under a single target apartment, do you think you'll do anything to change single target? Like, do you have any plans for?Tyler: Yeah, right now I'm using a blue Oh, right. Four link. Yeah. I'm using a blue for link right now. So it all it does, it's giving me 7 18% attack speed and 24% elemental damage. So I knew the second I even even if I had a white five link or a nice yellow four link, I don't think it would be a problem at all.Justin: Nice. Yes. So, me, I am doing spectral throw, still sticking with it, and, uh, I'm into maps. I've gotten past all of the, you know, the levelling, all that good stuff. Ah, it's been decent. It's solar cell. Found for me is a whole new breed of playing this game. I'm just so used to, ah, hit endgame by some of the gear that I want to at least make the maps a little easier to clear. Make sure I've got ah, you know, the right resists. But the build that I'm just playing around with is working. Fine. Now that I've got my gem slots set up. I'm still also only running off of a four link chest, so that'll make a big difference once I can do that. And I'm swapping GMP for ah, slower projectile still, which I probably I probably will do through the whole thing anyway. So it's it's been not bad. It's a little a little slow, uh, had huge hiccups as I was leveling and I'm realizing I think I made that. We made the comment that we were chatting that weapons hold. My gosh, Did they ever make such a big difference? Like,Tyler: Oh, and I love it. I love it.Justin: Yeah, it's It's nice. It's just it's I feel different. It's weird that that's different. I mean, you've always needed to upgrade weapons, obviously toe to scale your damage, but I don't know if it's just spectral throw. I don't know if it's if there was a specific change that's made that different, but I have found that without that, that constant upgrade to weapons which, by the way, upgrading Klaus Sucks is brutal. To find Klaus that have reasonable roles, especially cousin went straight physical, it's really hard to find replacement clause Once I've got something that's rolled plus physical and plus percentage physical, I can't It's really, really hard to find something that will improve that.Tyler: Catch him Well, I mean, I know your pain. I'm still using my blue four links. So, um, but it's I just love. I think it has everything to do with just the changes that they made to defense in the how bosses they're scale. All the extra armor and chaos and elemental resists. And for everyone, I just I just love that update where they made them harder to kill, but they don't hit harder. I mean, some of the boss mechanics had changed dramatically, which makes them a lot harder to, But it just makes weapons that much more important. And I love it because for melee, they're much more dependent on weapons than any other type of, um, build. I would say, like if you're doing spells, you can get away with not needing a fantastic wander staff, right? Or don't whatever also you're using. But when you're doing spells, you don't need something epic. It's just great to have opinions. You don't need anything, but of course, it's just mid. Maxine if you want to get a convicting one with sweet rolls Malays desperate for a good melee weapon. And I love that right after they have a melee league, they come out, they buff stuff to make melee weapons Much more important, I think it's really cool. I love how they did it.Justin: It is, Yeah, I think if I had maybe thought a little differently into ah, maybe it may be a different skill, or I don't know if I could have incorporated different types of weapons, but I just I feel like for a solo cell found I made it harder than I needed to because I've just I've struggled to roll clause that are good to use,Tyler: are you? Claw OnlyJustin: while I'm spect into a lot of the claw nodes just for the the engine for the crit. ButTyler: that's that's one of those things than that, I guess you kind of cornered yourself into then.Justin: Yeah, so we'll see. I mean, I'm now, uh, into maps. I've gotten it. Did the atlas. I mean, maze will just jump a little bit too. That is kind of cool. I've again, I'm not super far into it of ah, unlocked out Zana. So she's back. I've had these weird encounters with the the new the new bosses, like have just spawned And I can remember the name of the one that I've seen, but he kind of just spawned in, yelled at me and then took off and it just got the notification to keep following him. And I'mTyler: like, Yeah, I had that and I couldn't see what was happening. The map was still busy and I heard some dialogue. I didn't really know what it was, and yeah, that's to read it at the same time.Justin: So I'm I've noticed that as I've done more maps in that quadrant, um, he's popped up a few times. I haven't gotten much further into how that whole system works, but what I will say is, on top of the hole, okay? Trying to figure out weapons as I'm going along it further to what you were talking about with your build. My God resists so resist to me has always they've always been king. You get to endgame, you get resists. You just have to. I have never felt Maur than this league like yes, you Absolutely have to capture resists. It is especially getting into these these new bosses. Yeah, I don't know if he just happens to be lightning based or why everything is lightning. But after he popped up the bosses, or just like random rare Tze and just mobs would all of a sudden spawned with additional lightning damage, they would put these things on the ground. They were shooting. It was killing me so quickly and I think was in 40 48% or so, which normally obviously that's not great. But normally in a tear to map, I wouldn't be Oh, you know, I really need to be in 75. I just be working to get gear. And as I captured that cap it, I had no choice but to actually start adjusting my gear and what it made a huge difference, which I'm not had a lead like that before. And I started thinking because the first it pissed me off first thing I was like Oh my God, so tired of dying. And then, as I started to, you know, just the gear and especially with SSF, it makes it a little bit harder. But the the ability to now have to actually plan around capping my resists walk, maintaining life and damage. It's actually made it kind of fun. Yeah, it really has.Tyler: Yeah, I'm really a one thing. I totally agree with you. I completely agree with you. And one thing that I think I already mentioned it. But just in case I didn't turn now, only thought it. It used to be that you could just ignore chaos. Resist for so many of your bills until syndicate came along, you could ignore your your chaos resistant. You could just do your three elements. Now I feel with all the different roles they've done, they've added a lot of chaos, damage to some big, big boss battles and a lot of the metamorphose stuff. Specifically, it's almost like you can't get away. You It's always gonna have some sort of chaos. A we it's really made it so that you need all four. Captain. Oh, I used to just do the three. I'm sure many died. Many did. But I'm really finding the value and crafting some of those chaos rules just to at least get to the baseline of 0%. I think I saw this in a lot of chaos. Damage?Justin: Yeah, I have to. I don't know if I found it as, um it's definitely beneficial. I'm not at minus 60. I think I'm at 35 or something. So it's not. It's not zero, but it's definitely better than nothing but it to me. He was not as bad as the I don't know Lightning. I couldn't believe the difference from 48 to 75 obviously that's always gonna be a huge difference. It's just never been a huge difference. A tear to Oh, yeah, you know what I mean? Like, I've always felt like Okay, I'm getting into, like, six. You're seven. You know, it's time to actually start really paying attention to everything. Yeah, this is like it's cool. It's really cool, because that one of the complaints I've had in the past is just end Game now had become stale, so I think it's aTyler: sexy independence all the way through. Maybe we won't think that in the fifth league of this end game, butJustin: yeah, I don't know. I mean, I don't know enough about how the endgame all works yet, so it's kind of hard to say, but I am enjoying The metamorphose stuff is sometimes enjoyable. I've started to get some of the boss ones the ones that you actually collect. I haven't Not enough to actually do much with them. Ah, some of them have been reasonable. But even still, some of them are very, very difficult, Which is good. I don't mind. I don't mind not being able to kill a boss like a meta morph boss. Yet if I made it too strong and I'm like, Oh, God, this I just can't do it. Yeah, it sucks for me. I gotta learn to the next one.Tyler: I've heard a lot of people. Well, whether it's within my guides air on Reddit complained that it's too difficult And then there's some people of the mentality that a lake just turn. Just turn the difficulty down like you're not forced to do the hardest one. And if your build can't do it, don't do it on. And then there's other people that think. I've heard the complaints that they should be able to do the hardest ones, and I don't like that I like the you know, it should be terrifying to do the hardest. Have you got all the body parts in the map? It should be terrifying. You should expect it to be a long time or you should I don't know. You know what I mean? Totally beat Easy for you shouldn't expect to do it with mediocre everything.Justin: Yeah, I totally agree to me. It goes back to bay two days and like the early release days where there were some builds just could not do it, you just couldn't. And it wasn't It wasn't something broken in the game. It was something you did just didn't work. And you either adjusted or I mean, then it was start over. But yeah, yeah, I don't know. I've been I've been relatively pleased so far. I mean, I'm pretty early into the tears of the palace, but I found the difficulty to be decent. Uh, I mean, for me, for path of Exile, it's rewarding enough. Antemortem is adding the ability to get a lot of cool stuff that you couldn't get in other ways before you had to do specific league things to do it. So that's kind of fun.Tyler: Yeah, it is. It's It's really cool. I think they've done a very good job. I know that there's glitches for people that are a lot farther into endgame. Unlike us, we're still in our white maps. But, um, I think in terms of stability, this was really, really good. I just, um I forget where this isn't a list. So cut me off. If I'm too far ahead of myself. I just really wish that what they did was introduce this next league. But I love the new endgame, and I'm really excited about it. But to introduce a brand new endgame and then go on a skeleton crew for Christmas, it doesn't make sense to me.Justin: Yeah, but I think that's also for you. Somewhat related to other things. Not just specifically the league. The big leaguesTyler: challenges, but they're they're running into they. Some of the stuff that I'm watching this one is a little bit farther down, but the guy that I watch relax r o l a X on mixer. His issues are very different than mine. I'm waiting for cause I play standard. I'm waiting for the map tab to get fixed, but that's not gonna happen till after Christmas, because they have one person that works on the map tapping there on vacation. So but roll axes. His issue is he's getting to engage with every single character that he makes. He's already on. His fourth character is crushing Endgame, and his issue is that there's a glitch with Final Boss. And I've seen lots of stuff in the patch notes about the final Boss is and how they're glitches and they're not dropping this or they're not. You know, this, that another thing and he can'tJustin: What's the alternative? I mean, you're suggesting that they push of a game changing league to a ah, further release so that they don't have it come over Christmas,Tyler: right? I don't think any time you're gonna have a skeleton crew for two weeks, even if it's just one week, I really especially because it's going to be what, a three week point of the league right? Like this came out December 9. I think it was to have Christmas two and 1/2 3 weeks later, after you've completely revamped the entire endgame, I don't know.Justin: Yeah, I don't know what to me. It's hard, though, because if they come up with a league that barely has any changes just because they're gonna have a skeleton crew. That league ends up being garbage. It's people. People may not play it. I mean, the thing is, if they go, if they go skeleton crew, Firth, whatever it is, 2 to 3. I don't even think it's three weeks, two weeks, three weeks. Someone like that. Two weeks to, um, that's better to me than three months of, Ah garbage league.Tyler: Well, but imagine Metamor for the old Atlas. To me,Justin: that's fantastic. Yeah, I don't know. I don't knowTyler: how everything Woods with how it all works, right, Like, it's been a long time since I've worked in the video game industry, and when I did, I wasn't at the top of the food chain making the decisions with all the decisions that the higher ups need to make. But it's just for me. It's every Christmas. I really don't get to play until the new year, when the league comes out and then it's gonna be the Christmas League, as I call it as a standard player. I don't get to play until January, so it kind of sucks. ButJustin: I don't see the alternative to that, though, and I think that I mean, I I can see where you're talking about in the fact that it's ah ah, huge game changing league and it comes out right before they. I don't know how often else in the year they even have skeleton crews. I imagine it's not very often, but ah, I would rather I would rather it affect the I mean, people may really, really be angry about the fact that I say it or that they may disagree with me in some sense. But it's affecting the people who have a lot of time and have power rushed to end game, which is awesome, like That's cool that they have done it. But I imagine that that portion of the player base is small compared to the players who are still working their way up through be Atlas and you're never going to make it perfect. Old big release almost ever has been Yeah, so there's going to be something that goes wrong to me. At least there's nothing game breaking and even the ones I've read night for league players and but I don't care about standard, but I mean, even on center,Tyler: You're in the minority there.Justin: No, I'm definitely. I definitely know for sure. Not on that. Most of them. I might be in the minority that when I'm definitely not. But even your issue, it's still very specific, too. A mechanic not working. Not all mechanics not working now. Granted, it's a pretty I read that they, like, literally turned it off, right, Like they just turned off the convert button. I thought I heard. Yeah, yeah,Tyler: yeah, they did. It turned off, and it's true. I could play it. I could spend 15 bucks and get a new map stash tab.Justin: No, I don't think you should. And I agree, like frustration that comes from that. But I don't think you'll ever have a league release that's going to be perfect off the bat, even 2 to 3 weeks, and hopefully it's as close as possible. But I read the complaints. I've read the comments that they've made. They're not. It works. There's just some stuff. That's your rape. It's kind of frustrating for such is, but it's not broken. I would rather like I said, I would rather have maybe 2 to 3 weeks of Okay, this is stupid. I'm frustrated. I'm annoyed, and then they're coming back, and they're gonna fix it. Uh, and they still have staff working. It's not like a game. Breaking bugs is just going to go on because they want to enjoy Christmas. God forbid. But yet, uh, if if that means that, okay, I gotta wait 2 to 3 weeks for them to fix something that is really just irritating me versus having to deal with three months of a league that I found boring because they wanted to make sure not to get people upset. I feel like that's maybe worse. Yeah, I don't know, but I mean, yeah, yeah. I don't know. I don't mind it, but I'm not there, so it's not affecting me.Tyler: Yeah, way need to. I need to be more familiar with the endgame bugs that are happening to. But you've almost converted me almost. You may have let them have Christmas tie. Just let them have Christmas am. I am. But have Christmas with the old atlas, all right? Just bored again. So remember last episode we're talking about holy and showing up. I was all mystified. I thought it was fantastic that when you click on a crafting recipe, yeah, she just appears Yes, you know, she'd smoke bombs like a ninja turtle on, comes in and says her little piece and then goes away. I thought that was a really cool little thing. Um, so I hear you've been a little disappointed with the frequency of it. Now,Justin: is it just our last time that we talked about with that when this you first brought this up? Yeah, I think it was just last episode. Yes, So it was. It must have been, cause that's when I finally got some free time to play and every freaking recipe I would zoom in my damn camera, click it. And there were times I think I was even streaming at one point so you could watch, and I clicked it, and I I message you and said you're you're freaking liar. She didn't jump up and you said, Oh, it's because you were standing right in front of it. I was like, Oh, okay, maybe it wasTyler: always your fault.Justin: Now I will just say I was about to go into it. I was in a trial when I got that one. So I went to the next one and it actually kind of irritated me a little bit because the next one I found was within just the regular story of the game. So I moved off to the side, clicked it, and sure enough, she popped up. I was like, God damn it, Tyler was right. Yeah, And she did, like, smokes in. And she says, Ah, I think she said the same line every time. Something about this is very interesting. And then she smoke clouds out. But it's only the more I did it, the more I was watching it. She she doesn't so nothing related to a lab. Nothing related to trials will ever show up. Nothing related to delve will ever show up. And once you beat the game, that's it. She's done. She doesn't show up in maps. WhyTyler: do itjust campaign? I was really surprised. That's dumb. Yeah, whyJustin: I don't understand is that there's no Maybe somebody knows some weirdo lower to the game that somehow stopped actin that she couldn't help you with the recipesTyler: anymore. Well, maybe maybe they'll add it more if it's a new thing that we just have If it's new right and we didn't miss it before, maybe it's just they're adding it in and then they'll be able to add it to more. As, uh, maybe you just would have added, you know, to my previous complaint about having a new atlas. Maybe it just would've added more possible glitches when they were going on. No, no. HowJustin: hard could it have been? Toe added toe labs to delve, too. Maps everywhere.Tyler: Every little thing you add. Construe something elseJustin: does nothing. She's she literally does. She is. She's not even an actual like thing that interferes with you. You can walk right through her. She does nothing. It's like she's not there. It's dumb. Just put it into all of them. I irritated me more so than anything that you told me about it, because I remember it took me. It took me so much longer to get through some of the acts because I would run into them and be like, Okay, maybe, Maybe if I stand a little bit over here. No. Yeah. She doesn't show up in those places through.Tyler: Well, I hate you more than you hate me for Helena, Because you're playing solo Cell found this time for the first time in forever. And you couldn't give me the ridiculous Val City way point.Justin: You know it was you this times you I found it almost right away.Tyler: Oh, I don't even want to hear your solo. No. Found luck with a locked. Why did he lock? Hold your hand and show, YouJustin: know, but But something pointed the way I could tell. I could sense it. It was those fireflies they were leading.Tyler: Yeah, fireflies that don't stack in your inventory. Um,Justin: crabby old man. Yeah, I found I found that when I found thanks for not beingTyler: able to give you $2 city waypoint. I appreciate it.Justin: You have to work for things. That's how you enjoy the gameTyler: Can. The Bell City is really enjoyable.Justin: It's annoying because it not only is it probably one of the most frustrating spots to find it for, but then also, the next level that you load into is the freaking longest set of map or area. I think in the whole game that hope Rose is to get down to the spider. Oh, my God, It's exhausting. it's worse than Vow. Pyramid Way Worse, I don't know why. Maybe it's God's going down instead of up.Tyler: Well, it's twice as long. Yeah, well, Pyramid, I think it's three levels and then you're actually at the top. Whereas when you're going down to the spider, it's three levels and then you're just another second section, and then it's another three levels. If I'm correct, it's I don't mind that part, though. That one's relatively easy to navigate. And there's not a lot of wrong turns, not a fan. I don't mind the maps that get me, Um, but that's just because of my concussion. Symptoms and stuff are the maps with trees and the trees that go in front of the screen. Um, what would be one deal? I don't know howJustin: Jungle is brutal. I actually noticed that just today I was thinking to myself, Okay, we're talking about that whole technology of the stuff is cutting. You go through jungle. The trees do not fade it all, they say, right up in your face through the hole. I was like, Why would they not have these ones fade out? I don't know if it's just because it's older, and maybe it's more difficult for them to do that. But it is really weird to me that jungle, the jungle map Jungle Valley. The maps do not fade or sorry, the trees don't fade. Yeah, it's kind of weird.Tyler: Yeah. And you, old atlas. I would never, ever shaped the ones that had those tall trees that will go in front of the camera. It was just too too nauseated for me.Justin: Would it change it if if it had that effect, where they they weren't really? I mean, that kind of see through,Tyler: um Well, there's that. What was it? Is it Lava lake map that had, um I don't know if they're the same. A CZ they used to be. But the lab a lake when they had caught Eva was a tear 14 or 15 last week. That had some trees. Cem, Cem. Nice apple trees. ErJustin: over there. Just little ones rightTyler: there. Well, they were. They were big, They didn't go all the way up across the screen, and it would have that technology where it would fade so you could see yourself on the other side. That still gets me a little bit, but it's nowhere near as bad as something that's crossing my eyes really fast. Like car driving through and, you know, shaded woods Interest. Bang, bang, bang. Just shade hitting. You left, right and center.Justin: Yeah, it's funny. I just I literally just today was doing Jungle Valley and thought of that. Come on. And then I did. I think it was right after we finished Episode four. Maybe that next day I finally got to play, and I'm I'm running through an area goingTyler: the hell areJustin: these things popping up? My screen is unlike running through killing stuff. And yeah, that's the monster parts picking up. Yeah. Is that I'm sure people listening to it Or like what a whiny baby like it's alreadyTyler: faced. I'm sorry. Fix happen hour later, but what do you think of it?Justin: Uh, I I do like it. Obviously, I actually this is just me being a turd. I'm not a big fan of the way it shows up, because it and maybe we'll just take a bit of getting used to playing more to get used to it. But it throws me off for some reason, a little bit And maybe it's just cause I'm not playing a very fast build. I'm not moving super quickly through the map or through the zone. There's something about the way it pops up that just throws me off from looking at what the drops are to the interest at part going up. But I I love it. I absolutely love the fact that I don't care what it does. I don't care what flash my whole screen. The fact that it I don't have to be. Oh, I don't have to go and pick them all up is so much better. Yeah. You like it?Tyler: I like the animation. Yeah, I like it. I don't get distracted with it. I don't get it mixed up with other possible drops. I really like it. And the thing that I I don't know if this was how it used to be, because you and I have progressed slowly, but whether it was added new or not, I love that when you're about to go through a portal or a door. Um, what's his name shows up.Justin: Oh, yeah, kind of warns you.Tyler: Yeah, but I like that, you know, because I'm going to go through and I'm gonna clear the map. How I normally cleared I don't go out of my way for any lead content if it's going to be, You know, if if there's two monsters left and I'm missing one body part, I'm not going for it. So it's nice when I'm vote to go into this or I'm gonna portal. Oh, that he shows up. He's like a Okay, let's use up your pieces. Yeah, I like it. I think it was a very it was a gamer's choice, You know what I mean? Whoever came up with that idea, it was it was the gamer in them that came up with that. That was really convenient.Justin: Yeah, I think it is. Good, cause I would probably forget Maur often than not if if he didn't do that, and I'd probably load the next map and be like, damn it, I forgot to use up those parts. So that's at least good. Now, did you Did you get Ah, Did you get your Christmas gift from G, which I feel like you should take away from you? I feel like people who are complaining about them going to skeleton staff don't deserveTyler: a gift. I don't maybe. Oh, everything. Oh, they deserve a wicked Christmas. Well, old Atlas.Justin: So what you're saying, though, is the people that stay working what I'm saying? That'sTyler: qu'est er of words. No. Um, no, no, no, no. Not at all. Not at all.Justin: Did you get you get from them there? It was one of the boxes. Right.Tyler: Okay, well, you got I do not. What? But it was white.Justin: So I on on that same topic, because I I did get, um, a gift. I got the white, uh, missed, I think for the for your base, The white It's like, OK, but I also I decided I was going to do the grand sanctum pack because I really like the wings. And I like the outfit. That was the thing is the $60 pack. I'm still I'm still boycotting. Currently, there their core packs. I just Maybe I might really I might buy this the snake one just because it's, you know, it's it is a little bit unique, but I just can't I I was like, Well, I don't see myself going this time for there's no shirt. So why spend 240 bucks? But ah, it So I bought the couple of the boxes. I have 55 versions of God. What is it? The blink. Ah, it's one of the skills that they went there. No, no, no, it's Ah, it's not whirling blades. It's something Blade. What is it called, anyway? It's I have five of them. I hate that. That's the one thing that drives me crazy. You know, all I want is a damn portal. I think I've opened maybe 20 boxes, so not like a ton, but 25% of them have been the same thing killing me, G.Tyler: But I got to say, normally I'm I'm portals, is what it kind of revolves around for me. You know, you need to have a nice portal that matches the set. And because it's so much bigger and brighter, that color stands out to the others that you can get away with footprints that don't aren't the exact shade of white or green that you're looking for to match your set. You know what I mean? Because it's much farther away and it phase and it's busy, but portal portals really stand out there there the whole time. You stand next time for a while. The grand sanctum support pack is so nice that I'm gonna get it, even though I don't like at a normal that could match it.Justin: Well, give me a portal that you have because there's portals that mattersTyler: and that really, I don't think so. Well, sometimes it's also it's not just the color. It's also the action that the portal does, or the colors and how it goes. You know what I mean? AndJustin: wings air really cool with it, though.Tyler: I love it. I love it. I'm, uh I'll be getting it as soon as we're done.Justin: I'm actually using some of the white armor that I got from the boxes with the grand sanctum, but, uh, yeah, I I don't remember. I do have two of the white floaty mists. Uh, you can put in your base. I also I don't think you've seen it yet, but I have I did get that new base, butTyler: so did you.Justin: Yeah, the completely I did it mostly because I knew it would drive Ethan crazy. And so I loaded it up. I put it in there with absolutely nothing. And I just spaced the characters out, and I When he walked by my office, I was like, Look, check out how awesome this is. And he was upset right away. And I told him it's going to stay like that All league. I'm not gonna put anything down. If anything, I might put like a fire pit for some random reason. Like one fire pit.Tyler: Well, it's cold in the stars. Yep. It's gonna look awesome. So you can sit cross leggedJustin: and put all of my petsTyler: so they can float around. And don't forget you're missed.Justin: Oh, yeah. I should put down that white mist. I'm gonna put it in a corner just so that when people visit, I'd be like, Hey, did you see there's twoTyler: also you. I'll even give you a discount. But you've got to go in the mist.Justin: There's two of them up there, but I love that they give those little boxes. I think it's fun.Tyler: Yeah, they're very generous company. And every time I realized that we've complained about something in the game that I don't like or you don't like, I feel really bad. I don'tJustin: feel bad, and I think it's good. It's I don't think we're being fixed. It's no, I get it. ITyler: get. It's constructive. But I still when I really when I remember that it's free and everything's free. I feel like a prick.Justin: Well, I mean, you're a prick, but it doesn't mean that they're doingTyler: anything wrong. I'm not the one that went solo. Cell found. You're a prick.Justin: Yeah, but you also said that they don't deserve a merry Christmas.Tyler: No, I said enjoy your merry Christmas with the old Atlas.Justin: I think I think it isTyler: you not being able to give me the Val City waypoint is way worse than anything anyone else has ever done toJustin: me. I think that merry Christmas box makes up for the bugs. So two people complaining about the bugs. At least you got a box,Tyler: right? And he didn't play peewee a Christmas. You're not a real fan. Anyway. It's true, right, Britta?Justin: At least to log in. Get your freaking box.Tyler: You did have to be in game to get it. Well, you couldn't click on it on the website.Justin: Yeah, but you didn't have to be on that day.Tyler: I remember.Justin: I got mine today, I think because I didn't go on you saidTyler: you were on yesterday. Yeah. Yesterday I was able to finish my just for the box. No, no, I was able to finish an actor to yesterday. I think it was yesterday that I got two maps. Who? I think the boxes logging in until January 6.Justin: Oh, yes. I didn't think it was just the single day that that would be a jerk. Move. Geez, like,Tyler: Well, we're a little Bell City. Wait points a jerk. MoveJustin: How? We're at home enjoying our Christmas. If you don't log into the video game on that day, you don't get it. Uh,Tyler: enjoy your family, Bond.Justin: Yeah, I don't think anything we've said is mean spirited. And yeah, I think we're fair. We're now We're nice people in general, right?Tyler: Well, one of us, one of me. That's true. Yeah.Justin: So that's why did I look through the post that they made because they had put up a post about like, uh, some of the known issues that they were going to deal with, But I didTyler: nothing in there really,Justin: like, stood out to me like Oh my gosh, I can't play this. I will be honest. There is one that says the convert maps button in the map stash tab has been temporarily disabled as there were problems converting to the new layout. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I laughed so hard when I read that. Why fly? What? You've just popped into my head instantly. I don't know why you just made me laugh. I was like, Oh, but they're listening. Listen,Tyler: every time the game updates whether waiting for you and I hate how long steam takes to frickin update a 30 makeup date. But anyway, when I'm I mean, it gives me 10 hours. Thank you, Steam for being able to check the patch notes every time I'm just control f that I see my console game updating him like, Oh, well, maybe because they group their patches together for Consul cause they don't promote us frequently. I don't know how it works in the console back end, but that's really do. And so then I'm like, Oh, sweet, Maybe maybe a new one came out for PC today, and then I control control F on the patch notes for Xbox. You mad? I'm excited. It'll happenJustin: yet to me. When I read through this stuff there was, I think only one that maybe kind of popped out to me is like, Okay, this is actually something they need to work on. And it was releasing legion generals during legion encounters can cause a client crash. I think something that can actually crashed the game, that that's a bit of a problem. And that mostly just cause we both dealt with leagues where I mean you, especially where that was an issue. So I can I can, you know, I can see that a little bit. But when I look at their posts that they put out and this is days before Christmas, I think this one popped up. I don't rember who posted it. Uh, it still impresses me like they're legitimately looking into stuff. They know stuff there, and they're gonna fix it. And the stuff that I was reading was not game breaking. Besides, the fact that the client could crash that that to me is a bit of a big deal. I had an issue with one of the valves side areas. Who cares? It was not a big deal. It took into when I when I exited, it didn't bring me back. So where I had entered into the map, I actually thought it was cool. Yeah, I don't know. The rest of the stuff wasTyler: even something like Metamor. Fosse's not being able to be frozen were used to Boss is not be able to be frozen. It was just chill, right, Right. So I, you know, even with something that was frozen dependent, you're getting a very good chill on them, especially because it was buff. So that's not even a big problem either.Justin: Nothing stood out to me where on and again, that could have been because there have been stuff fixed that were more game breaking that I just never encounter because I hadn't gotten up there. But I didn't really stand out to Mia's thes terrible things.Tyler: Yeah, I can see the There's a There's an issue where the awakened cast on Krit um, is creating cooled elms where when there shouldn't be any, I could see that being a big issue for builds. But at the same time, you don't need the awakened jewel to have a successful build. SoJustin: you're already having a problem with an awakened version of a skill? Boo hoo. I don't feel bad for you. Even a tiny bit. A tiny bit. Put the cast on. CreatedTyler: for not to drop.Justin: Sure, I'm thrilled. If it didn't work on the lake first week of a league lunch, I wouldn't be like you wreckedTyler: my bill. No, you haven't. Go put the normalJustin: one in the one you used all the way up until you found that one. Yeah. Yeah, I saw. I don'tTyler: know if anybody's actually complaining about it, but we did see it on the bug report,Justin: right? I imagine it's probably because somebody complained about it. Ah, but yeah, I just It made me laugh. Yeah, there were. There were some really fun, uh, things that I saw in in red It actually in the last couple of days that made me laugh or not laugh with smile there. Only because I get so jealous I still haven't seen exults this league. Nothing cool has dropped yet besides garbage unique ce which is still fine. But the critic I that posted he did ah ah Contains a valuable gym. He got to You got enlightened and empower both level force. They dropped as a light on level four. Empower little for. And there was other stuff too, but oh, my gosh. I was like, What? The hacky. There was a screenshot of it, and I'm thinking in solar cell found I would leave in a heartbeat. I like buying stuff through a felon. I'm getting stuff, but it was crazy. And then, uh Okay, So there. Did you see? I don't know how often you check credit, but there was a helmet that somebody posted that was crafted. This was It was it was with that the ah, the awaken, her orb. So where you combined the two things? Now I feel like this is a lot because this helmet just Oh, man. Perfect. It's a meat. Well, yeah, it used to be. I mean, it sucks now because zombies are terrible, but Okay, I'm just gonna read through it.Tyler: I don't think they're terrible, ByJustin: the way, we're talking about a bone helmet. Yeah, Minion steal. 20%. Increased is the, uh,Tyler: got Ah. So a max. ImplicitJustin: max. Implicit of minions deal. 20% crease damage plus three toe level of soccer Did Minion Gems socket of gems. Air supported by level 18 million. Life soccer. The gems air supported by level, 18 million damage. Now, if it stopped here, you've already done really, really well. Like, really, really? Well, like last season. Last league. Oh, my God. You could have bought 20 years. It everybody wanted every freaking minion thing. Now, yeah, we're gonna continue on. Minions have 19% increase Max life minions deal 20%. Increased damage, 5% reduced manner. Reserved glow. And he had the intent on it for flesh offering. Granting an additional 21% increase. Attack speed for flesh. And then he had craft. That was insane. Lightning resist.Tyler: But nuts it is. Of course, it's incubating something just to make it even more exciting.Justin: I it just seemed fake when I read it. Yeah, I was like, Oh, my God. I would like last league. I would have liked just two of those options to force their six good things on there.Tyler: I can't tell you how much currency I've spent on console trying to get a plus three to the level of socket 1,000,000 Jim's. I still don't have it. I am trying everything. The craft. I'm going crazy. I make I I can't do it. I can't do it. And then here's this year's this.Justin: Yeah, it's just I don't know what he was crafting. Four. I did Rhea little bit about the threat, and the guy who actually crafted it kind of came on. It was like, I don't know what to do with this, which made me laugh because I would be the same way. I would have been really upset that I didn't have it last league because, I mean, it's awaken. Or that's new, though, isn't it? I mean, you couldn't have really done it, but still,Tyler: no, but it doesn't have to. I mean, I know you're against how zombies were were cut down a bit, this league, but that's not so. I'll be specific by any means. No, I know. But so respect all Dominion buffs from last later still applicable. That thing's crazy but still insane. It's still absurd. That's something like, even if you had a mirror, you would just put that somehow on display just so that you could look at it sometimes,Justin: yeah, It's crazy. I couldn't believe it when I was reading through it. So cool. Yeah, I wanted to just give a quick show boat. We've gotten some pretty cool feedback from people that have been listening and people that have given us some advice and some constructive criticism. You know, the lovely kind, But I want to just give a shout out to all those people and, ah, we don't have a list of everyone, but we're going to start making a list because it's it's a really big deal to us. It really helps us figure out what we should do better for the next ones. And let us know that people enjoy the time that we share together, you know?Tyler: Yeah. No, it's It's been really cool. It's been a lot of fun. We're only five episodes in, but every episode has been listened to more than the previous one, and it's ah, it's exciting to see how it goes, but it's ah oh, we just want to say a big thank you to people that do find this enjoyable, and we definitely would value your feedback for sure. So I know we said at the end of every episode. But just to emphasize, if you tweet us at forever exiled 82. Just positive feedback, negative feedback. Whatever it is, we do want to make this a really good podcast for you and something that lots of path of exile players would really enjoy it here. So let us know what you think. We thank you very much for listening to all the episodes that you already have.Justin: If it's mean we'll start a Twitter war straight up. That's right. Fight to the death of Twitter. All right, cool. Well, listen, Thanks for everybody listening. This, uh, this has been a lot of fun. This was Episode five of Forever Exile. The Path of Exile Podcast. I am one of your host tags, A k a JustinTyler: A key. I'm Tyler, also known as Wrecker of Days......ThanksJustin:  Check out the show Notes below. To find more information on today's episode, you can find us online at www dot forever exiled dot com as well as on Twitter at forever exiled 82

Our last episode walked you through the Forgiving Experience, a tool not to be used lightly. It is a heavy work to forgive and a merciful gift to be forgiven. But what then? Once I've asked for forgiveness and you've granted it, what do we do next? If I still get sad or mad or triggered, does that mean I haven't forgiven you? And how long should we process through the triggers, how do we handle those? Drs. Tom and Bev walk through what happens after we grant forgiveness and how to love in the renewed state of the relationship.

-- FROM CHRIS -- Dear JBR family, I hope you're all excited about 'No Time To Kill.' Let's hope it's an absolute belter! This is a bit of a heartfelt message, but with so many ongoing things at the moment, unfortunately, I'll be stepping away from JBR for the foreseeable future. It's been such a fun five years of Bondage. I'm incredibly proud of what JBR has become. It was brilliant to meet so many fellow Bond geeks, and it was especially cool seeing all the JBR communities spring up around the globe, but the time has come for me to move on. Sometimes life gets in the way of Bond, and sadly this is one of those times. So this is Agent Wright signing off. Au revoir. PS. Roll on 3rd April 2020! -- FROM TOM -- JBR Family, What can I say? After 5 years and 2 million downloads, I'm of course gutted to see our man in Cardiff go, but like all good things, it has to come to an end eventually. As far as the future of the podcast goes? I'm not yet sure. I'll be thinking things through over the next few weeks. Ultimately I need to go with what feels right in my gut. Whether that's following Chris' lead and bowing out gracefully, or coming back with a kiss kiss bang bang. I'm sure with a bit of reflection the right decision will come soon enough. Whatever happens, I want to thank all the members of the JBR family from the bottom of my heart. Without you guys, JBR wouldn't have lasted beyond the first year, let alone five. Once I've done some thinking, I'll of course be in touch. For now, let's enjoy this little highlight reel of some of our more "professional" moments from the last 5 years. Thanks again everybody, Tom PS. Oh by the way, in case you were wondering how I feel about Bond 25's new title?...I f***ing love it, mate!

James: Hi, audience. This is James Kandasamy. You're listening to Achieve Wealth Podcast through Value at Real Estate Investing. Today, we have an awesome guest. His name is Nikolaï Ray. He's who's the founder and CEO of MREX, which is an acronym for Multifamily Real Estate Exchange; is considered by many of his peers in North America as the leading expert in apartment investing with over $1 billion analysis, underwriting and transactions. He's also a pioneer in mid-cap, multifamily financial engineering, which is, you know, he's regarded as the teacher, advisor and also the keynote speaker. He's also a real estate tech innovator to his current work on the multifamily real estate big data, artificial intelligence and property tokenization using blockchain technology. Hey, Nikolaï, welcome to the show.   Nikolaï: Hi, James. Thanks for having me.   James: Okay, so do you want to mention anything that I missed out about your credibility?   Nikolaï: No, that sounded like a mouthful.   James: It's going to be ready technology-centric discussion today, right?   Nikolaï: Yeah, the full story is that it should probably a lot longer, but I mean, that could be for, that could be for a whole other episode of the origin story of how, how'd you get to, you know, how you get to where we get in life, and professionally and personally, but yeah, that's, that's the gist of it, you know, everything that's underwriting and, you know, acquisitions, dispositions, refinancing, obviously, portfolio management, whether it be the small market, small cap market, you know, between 500 units, all the way up to the mid-market, you know, market cycles, and obviously, have a very strong penchant for data and for technology.   So, so that's, that's pretty much what I've done over the last, I guess, over the last seven or eight years, is focused on, you know, for the most part, I focused mostly on acquisitions. So I was in charge of an investment banking firm, we worked, you know, on both sides of the transaction advisory side of things, for investors and we also work with a lot of ultra high net worth investors, that's kind of where I built my speciality. Eventually, ultra high net worth investors and private equity firms and family offices, you know, by doing all that I kept on, kept on getting annoyed with the fact that the multifamily market is so fragmented, and the data is so packed, I just kept on thinking to myself, you know, this, this market this, which is an important market, I mean, the apartment building investment market is a almost a $10 trillion market worldwide.   It's a, quite, house is a primary need of human beings, which is to have somewhere to live. And yet, you know, we're kind of in the dark ages as multifamily investors, because number one, we don't have access to any centralized marketplace. If you compare us to a stock investor who can go on the NASDAQ and trade every type of tech stock or stock market investing world, the New York Stock Exchange, and we don't have access to any data, the data is very raw, it's very, it's kind of, you know, what I call legacy data, as you look at like Costar and, and all these various data providers who provide this very raw and inert data, without any actual, you know, context around the data, and without any helps with regards to making decisions business intelligence wise, as a multifamily real estate investor. So that's kind of how that's how my career has gone so far. That's why I went from transactions and more towards data technologies because I felt like there was so much work to be done to help investors just you know, be better investors for once.   James: Okay, so let me understand MREX because I think it's important since you have a lot of passion we need right now. Right? So --   Nikolaï: Yeah.   James: Multifamily Real Estate Exchange, if I understand it correctly, so what you're saying is right now, the data is so fragmented, and a lot of times when, you know, people like me underwrite deals, we have to do so much work, I did too. I mean, I really learn to write [inaudible 04:05] for four hours because I did all the property management financial, that there are so much of mistakes in the property management financials, you have to do T-3, T-12, you had to do expense ratio, you have to do market comps, and all that. So what you're saying is, you are going to summarize all that, and make it so easy to look at so that it can be treated as a commodity, commodity, is that right?   Nikolaï: Not necessarily. So, so the idea is taking you as an example or any of your listeners, right now, who are multifamily real estate investors actually acquiring properties, let's say you have the capital ready, or your investors have the capital ready to allocate to an acquisition, you know, just actually finding that first property to buy or the next property to buy is a very time intensive and energy intensive job, right. You have to go on, you have to go on all the different MLS, you have to go on the loop that's of this world, the [inaudible 00:05:00] and the [inaudible :00:05:01] and, you know, just --   James: [inaudible00:05:02]   Nikolaï: Right, and then you have all the brokers, and then you have all the broker websites, then you have all the pocket listings and you have not even really touched the majority of the market, you're actually still missing probably, you know, anywhere between 25% and 50%, of actual transactional inventory, depending which metro area you're in. So it's a lot of work, even just looking at the stuff that's on websites. That's a lot of work because you have to go on between five and fifteen websites, each website has a different user interface, this different user experience, and actually shows different information. On one site, maybe on [inaudible 00:05:42] you might have a cap rate, maybe on the MLS, you won't have cap rate, you'll just have gross revenue.   So then you have to figure out your own cap rate off of that. It's a lot of work, you know, and for me, I just never thought it made sense, to not be able to say, hey, I want to buy a multifamily property, whether it be a five unit, whether it be a 50 unit or 500 units, I want to go on to one marketplace, we're all properties are centralized in a unified, and normalized manner. Because that's the second point of it, is you have to be able to normalize expenses, if you want to start comparing apples with apples, and oranges with oranges. So that's the second phase. So what we're doing with MREX is we're building a unified, standardized marketplace for multifamily investors, where they will be able to see every single property that exists, that is for sale, despite on the way it's being sold or listed or marketed. We're going to be working with brokers obviously, the goal is not to get rid of brokers or anything like that, that's not, that's not what our goal is. Our goal is to help brokers, help investors just make the whole transaction process much quicker and more time efficient. And that way, you know, we're making the market more, you know, just a more efficient market.   James: Okay, okay. Got it. Got it. So you are basically streaming lining the whole selling and buying process, I guess, just to make --?   Nikolaï: Absolutely. Absolutely.   James: Okay, got it.   Nikolaï: And the analysis process as you said too, right, because it's one, it's one thing finding the properties and having them all in one marketplace. Okay, let's say, let's say you have the NASDAQ, let's say I wanted Lesson TechStars rather than multifamily properties. I go the NASDAQ and I can see every single company, I could have access to inventory, now that's the first step. Now the second step is, once you have access to inventory, and the information provided on all that inventory is normalized and standardize, well, I still have to be able to start comparing and start, you know, building my own models to say, well, if I'm a cash flow investor, which stocks are generating the most cash flow relative to the other, to the rest of the inventory. So that's where you know, context and alternative data comes into play with our platform, is that we want to be able to, to offer data and tools to you as a multifamily investor, to help you streamline your underwriting of the inventory that you've seen. So that's really the two things we're focused on at the moment.   James: Okay, got it. Got it. So interesting. So that'll be, that'll make a lot of, I mean, for investors or for buyers, they would be able to see what kind of deals that they want to buy,--   Nikolaï: Right.   James: Not just what they want to get the yield out of --   Nikolaï: Exactly and instead of going on fifteen websites, well, they've only one website, instead of having to, you know, start normalizing expense ratios and sifting through, through T-12 and T-3, and doing all that, it already kind of be all chewed up and kind of built up already. So you can actually focus, focus on analyzing, focus on comparing and establish, okay, I want to buy this property using this strategy. And why would I do that versus the other property that I see over there? That's ultimately what's the most important thing.   James: Okay, okay. So could it then be a good idea to match this with a crowdfunding platform, because during the crowdfunding, they can choose what deal they want, right?   Nikolaï: Right. So crowdfunding is an interesting thing. The problem is crowdfunding, obviously, crowdfunding, crowdfunding has tried to kind of attack two things. Number one is liquidity, right? Because, as a multifamily investor, the more properties that you acquire, you increase your net value, right, you're a richer person. But the problem with that, is that you have to leave equity in every single deal, right. The banks won't finance you 100%. So you always have to leave equity. So as you get richer and richer, value wise, you are actually cash poor, because you're leaving so much equity in each property that you acquire. And there's always a part of the equity that has to stay in those properties. But the problem, the second problem is that as you get, as you become a bigger investor, and you acquire more properties, and you're more well known in the market, well, you get access to better deals, but now you have less access to more money, even though you're richer. That's kind of the liquidity conundrum of multifamily investors. So that's why crowdfunding is interesting, because it gives kind of, you know, after the JOBS Act, it helps multifamily investors, particularly syndicators, to go and raise capital from, you know, from investors either through the regulation CF, you know, and obviously, regulation D506C was quite an upgrade also to be able to start to, to market capital raises. But what we're doing is we're actually building a second platform that is shadowing the Emirates platform. And what that platform will be doing is, we're actually going to create a sort of stock market and take the crowdfunding thing a bit further, because crowdfunding, as I said, tries to attack the liquidity conundrum. But the problem is, is that when you invest in a crowdfunding deal, you as an LP, are stuck in that deal for the lifetime of the deal. So if it's a five, it's a three to five year exit, well, your money stuck in that, so you, you as a passive investor, or as an LP, do not have liquidity. That's, that's one problem. And obviously, crowdfunding also helps with accessibility, right. So obviously, regulation D506C is only for accredited investors, which doesn't really help accessibility that much. Regulation CF has helped that because now then, that kind of lowers the barrier to entry for everyday retail investors who don't have that much money, but it's still a fairly limited regulation. At the moment, I know, they're trying to pass a couple of bills to increase the opportunity for regulation CF investors. So what we're doing is we're building a second platform, that's going to be basically a stock market, in its own sense, where, you know, through a broker-dealer partner that we hope to get. And then also through eventually a, an ATS license with the SEC, we would like to be able to take it a step further, and allow a multifamily investor to pretty much offer his property through one the various regulations on that marketplace. That way people could invest as passive investors, as LPs, either through Reg D, Reg CF, or eventually maybe even Reg A plus, but then they would also be able to acquire or access a secondary trading market so that they're not stuck in an illiquid period of three to five years. They would actually eventually be able to re trade part of their shares or all of their shares, kind of like you would at the stock market.   James: Wow. So it looks like you are trying to really disrupt the industry.   Nikolaï: Yeah, definitely. [inaudible 00:12:36]. You know, multifamily real estate looks like the stock market before the arrival of NASDAQ. Right? It's like before the internet, even though we have internet and multifamily real estate, it's as if people are still trading kind of like stock market investors were trading on floors, you know, with papers and screaming and doing all that stuff. It, you know, it doesn't make sense.   James: Yeah, yeah. It's so private nowadays, right? I mean, everybody has priority, we do not know how, even multi families performing under a different private LLC.   Nikolaï: Exactly.   James: There's a lot of good news out there. But there's also bad news, but nobody talks about it. right. So I think,--   Nikolaï: Oh, right. And the data, the data out there, like look at any of the data from, you know, even from the really big organization like NCREIF so the National Council of Real Estate Investment Trusts, NCREIT sorry. Even their data, when they know these indexes based on multifamily markets is based on a very low volume of the actual number of transactions. So when say a, a company, various data company says, well, the cap rate right now of say Atlanta is 5%, for example, well, that's actually based on a very small portion of overall transactions. So it's hard for us as multifamily investors, to really be sure are about the numbers that we're inputting into our underwriting models, because we're basing it off so little data.   James: Got it. Got it. Yeah, it's, it is just so limited, right? Because everything is done on a private basis on syndication, which is not much of the data being published out there, right. So --   Nikolaï: It's like investing in the stock market, but not knowing how the stocks have performed historically.   James: Yeah. Correct. Correct. So but why do you think this would work? And because if you look at the demographics of the, I mean, because I'm looking at syndication, when we whenever we buy for multifamily.   Nikolaï: Right.   James: But for me, it's just a small part of the whole market.   Nikolaï: Right.   James: Even though we are I mean, maybe my group or my network thinks that that's the whole thing how people buy multifamily. I don't know, that's true, because I network with a lot of different type of people, right. So looking at the classes of investors who are buying multifamily, I think I know for me, my thing is maybe we are one of the, I am one the lowest level part of it, right, because we are buying Class B and C using high net worth individuals and all that, but there are a lot of higher network, higher calibre people who are playing at a different level, which we don't have, which I don't have visibility, maybe you have it right so. So are you trying to look at different classes of investors and cut through all of them? Are you looking at only some classes of people?   Nikolaï: So we're trying to help what we call the small cap to mid middle market investors.   James: Okay.   Nikolaï: So anyone who owns between five units and about, you know, I'd say around 2500 to 5000 units.   James: Okay.   Nikolaï: That's kind of where we stopped, you know, that's where we're focusing on because that, you know, the majority of transactions are actually done by, by small cap to mid-market investors.   James: Okay.   Nikolaï: You know, the multifamily market is historically a mom and pop market. Now, it's, you know, it has transition a bit, investors are getting bigger and bigger. But the reality is the majority of the market is not an institutional market, you know, at the root level, or the private equity firm level or family office level, depending obviously, which metro area you're in, right. New York City is obviously more of an institutional market. Canada, Toronto is a very institutional market, but the majority of cities and metro areas are still, you know, very small cap market. And the problem is that, you know, take you for an example as a syndicator, or even take someone who's not a syndicator, right, because a lot of investors, multifamily aren't syndicators, they just buy their own properties, you know, they end up with maybe, you know, anywhere between 50 and 500 units as time goes by. Now, the problem with with those types of investors and syndicators as yourself is that you do not have access to a team of underwriters, you don't have access to, you know, expensive data that say a real estate investment trust has more than a very big private equity firm has, you don't have access to all those analysts. So, you know, we want to try and make sure that the market stays very level and stays is a level playing field. Because, you know, ultimately, I think the multifamily real estate market is very important for a couple of reasons. Number one, you know, everyone talks about the disparity of wealth, right of the 1%, and how the disparity is getting bigger and bigger. And we could do a whole podcast on that and why it's happened and where it's kind of going. But ultimately, I think, you know, the multifamily market is probably, the market, it's probably the asset class that offers the best returns based on risk, with the best risk-adjusted returns. If you look at Sharpe ratios, and Sortino ratios and all these things. Now, it's also been proven, there's a lot of studies about this, a lot of university studies done on this, that, you know, social mobility comes from education, and access to property, right. The reason why people have been so poor for so long, and like the Brazilian favelas, or the Indian shanty towns, is because people don't have education, and they do not have access to property, they are not able to become landowners, or owners of their own homes, even less become investment property owners, right. So I think multifamily stays as a very important asset class, because, on top of filling a basic need of human beings, that means providing somewhere to live, it also is a very important mover, for the everyday investor, the mom and pop, just the normal person need you to be able to access a very good, very safe, wealth building asset class that does not have the same volatility, or the same pitfalls as say, the stock market and other types of asset classes. So I think it's very important that we provide, you know, tools and data and allow for the smaller investor, the investor that has less than 1000, or even less than 5000 units to be able to continue on performing, continue on from this, this asset class.   James: Got it. Got it. So let's go to a bit more details on some of the big data and artificial intelligence, right.   Nikolaï: Yeah.   James: So yeah, I studied artificial intelligence almost 24 years ago, every now it has become really popular, a lot of startups with artificial intelligence, right.   Nikolaï: Absolutely.   James: So the question is, how do you, I mean, first of all, let's define what, can you define artificial intelligence in your terms in terms of real estate? Because I studied engineering standpoint.   Nikolaï: Yeah, well, I'm not an engineer, by trade, so at least I'll give more of a generalist definition to the people listening which I think is probably gonna be very good. The important thing is to understand, kind of the difference between machine learning and artificial intelligence. So you know, machine learning is more of a, it's a less automated process, right. So a lot of what people are calling artificial intelligence is ultimately just machine learning. And what it is, is that let's say, let's say, you know, I'm a data scientist or an economist, and I build a predictive model using, say, Monte Carlo simulations. Well, I set a, I build a set of hypotheses, I plugged them into my Monte Carlo simulation, and then that runs. Now, with machine learning and artificial intelligence, what becomes very fun as you know, statistics are a funny thing, right? And economic modeling is a very funny thing because even though, you know, people in the economics world swear by predictive analytics, the reality is in data science, it's garbage in garbage out, right. So the outputs always depend on the inputs. So let's say you're doing an underwriting model, and you're looking at an apartment building, and and you say, well if I buy this apartment build in this way, my internal rate of return is going to be 25%. Okay. Now, internal rate of return, net present value is a, is an output or their outputs based ultimately on the strength of those outputs are only as good as the strength of the inputs.   James: Correct.   Nikolaï: And the very important inputs that affect an IRR and NPV, which ultimately led to two of the most important metrics to help you decide whether it's a buy a property or not are rent growth, expense inflation, refinancing interest rate; if your IRR and NPV is based on on refinance, because obviously IRR and NPV has to be based on an exit model. And the exit model can either be a refi or it can be a sale; disposition. And then if it's a disposition, while your IRR and NPV is based, ultimately off the reverse, the reversion cap rates, so the exit cap rate upon sale. Now what everyone's doing right now, in the multifamily market, especially small investors, and mid-market investors is they're just entering these inputs. You know, they're just playing it by ear, and they're not even playing it by ear. They're coming up with these random inputs that are based off absolutely nothing. I just had a huge discussion on LinkedIn about this, with a couple of investors where one guy was saying, well, you know, if I buy it at 5% cap rate, my underwriting model, what I do is, to establish the reversion cap rate. So the cap rate upon eventual sale, let's say five years, is I add 20 basis points to the purchase cap rate per year. So if I bought it at five today at a 5% cap rate, well, then five years from now, I predict that I'll sell it as 6% cap rate, okay. And, you know, people kind of hide behind this type of rule of thumb model, say, well, I'm being conservative, therefore, my underwriting models very good. The reality of it is your underwriting model is bullshit. Okay. It's not worth the the Excel spreadsheet that it's been written upon. The reality is, where are you pulling this, this expansion of 10% or 20%,10 or 20 basis points per year? What are you basing that off? Right? That's what anyone should be asking, What are you basing this off? While being conservative. How do you know you're being conservative?   James: Yeah.   Nikolaï: How do you know you're not being optimistic? Right? You could be being you could actually be very optimistic with that. And conservative might be and then an increase of 0.25 a year, right? The reality of it is that everyone underwriting deals, right now, they're not basing their inputs off any data, right. And they're definitely not basing it off any predictive analytics, because it's one thing to have the data, the historical data. But you know, just because you have historical data doesn't mean necessarily, that's going to repeat itself in the future. That's why we have predictive analytics. So let's say that based on historical data, your 5% acquisition cap rates will actually be a 5.5 in five years. Now, the problem with that is that the future, that history is never guaranteed of the future, right. So that's why you then have to plug in various scenarios where you're considering this. And that's where predictive analytics come very difficult because you're pretty much just kind of taking a shot in the dark and basing things off the past, but you're putting in like a margin of error. With machine learning and artificial intelligence, you're able to make your predictive models better ex post based on ex ante results. So let's say you create a model to predict the future cap rates, well, you want to predict the future cap rate of in five years, it's your goals to sell within five years. Well, if you predict that today, the probability that your five-year cap rate from now is going to be precise, is a lot lower than let's say, in four years, you predict the cap that same cap rate, right, because you'll be closer to your exit. So there'll be less room for margin of error. So what machine learning and artificial intelligence will allow you to do is to consistently kind of reset your model as time advances. So maybe your initial model based upon acquisition was off. But as you advance in time, the artificial intelligence and machine learning continues on training that same model, the same algorithm that you had, and adapts the various inputs and algorithms to make it more and more precise as you get, as you get closer. And on top of that, as you get closer, the range of distribution of property probabilities get smaller. So it's a double effect, your predictive models get even tighter and tighter as time goes by. And that's where [inaudible00:26:03] machine learning and artificial intelligence can really help out. Is that instead of just plugging in these ridiculous exit cap rates, and ridiculous growth rates and ridiculous inflation of expenses, and absolutely ridiculous refinancing interest rates, when we get closer and closer to being able to actually put in inputs that are based on something very, very solid and then, therefore, our underwriting models will become more and more precise. And what we want in underwriting when you're buying a property, whether you're a syndicator, and you're responsible for money of your LPs, or whether it's your own money, the goal of underwriting is not to be conservative. That's not what the goal of underwriting is. And anyone who says that they underwrite, and they're concerned, their underwriting is conservative, what they're really telling you is they don't know how to underwrite, okay.   James: Yeah.   Nikolaï: You don't want to be conservative, you want to be right on the dot, that's what you want to do with underwriting, you want to be as precise as possible because the reason that you buy the property today is you buy it for future cash flows. And cash flows can come in various ways, they come in an annualized cash flow so, so free cash flow, they come in the appreciation of the asset, so the value of that asset gains because of various market dynamics and because of the way you're, you're managing that property. And they also come through the capitalization of your mortgage. So there's a part of your mortgage that you're paying down, which is principal, right. So those are the three cash flows that you can receive. Now, when you're underwriting a deal, and you're looking at how much you should pay for, say, this hundred unit building you're looking at, well, if your inputs are off, you might buy that property. But it's a bad acquisition because you were too optimistic in your inputs. But it also happens that you were too conservative in your books, therefore, you didn't buy the property. Because if you input that at the exit capital, that property is 7%, but, in reality, five years from now, the exit cap rate is five and three quarters, well guess what? You missed one hell of an opportunity.   James: Correct.   Nikolaï: And in real estate investing, the most important thing is time value of money, we only have a very limited time during our lifetimes in which we can invest and create wealth. And we only have so many hours during the day. Therefore the cost of opportunity, the time value of money are the things that we should consider the most in our underwrite. And that's really where machine learning and artificial intelligence will help investors become much, much better. Obviously, you also need education, right? You have to understand these, I mean, this is advanced stuff. And I'm trying to kind of explain it in a simple way, where people who don't have master's degrees and PhDs in finance and engineering can understand it. But the reality of the matter is that multifamily investing is very, it's a very complex, it's a very sophisticated asset class, and you need a certain level of education.The problem being right now, despite the very high level of education that some investors have, we just don't have solid, predictive analytics tools and data to be able to make sure that we're actually able to transfer education into decent acquisitions.   James: Yeah. Well, that's very interesting, because exit cap rate is always being misused or mis-conservative right? So --   Nikolaï: Well, even entering cap rates, even acquisition cap rates, I see people saying, well, you know, I'm not gonna buy that property because it's a five cap rate and the markets trading at 5.5. Okay, is that a stabilized property? No, it's a value add property. Well, the cap rate doesn't, the cap rate is meaningless then. A cap rate is a metric of a stabilized asset. If the asset is not stabilized, there is no cap rate, because a cap rate is a perpetual annuity. It's a return metric, based on an unlevel perpetual annuity, which means the same cash flow every year forever.   James: Correct.   Nikolaï: Now, if you want to be able to calculate that your property has to be stabilized. So if you're not buying a property, because it's a five cap rate, and the market sharing at 5.5, but it's a value add deal, well, I'm sorry, I'm sorry to tell you, you should change, you should change fields, you should go play, you should go to Las Vegas and put it on red.   James: Not only that, I mean, not only new investors don't understand the entry cap rate doesn't matter [inaudible 00:30:46] and I don't know, I never see a reason not to do a stabilized deal. Not on commercial, right? So for me, I'm always [inaudible00:30:53] guy, that's why I --   Nikolaï: Well, unless you're a private equity firm or your family office or you're a RET or you're an ultra high net worth individual who now has, you know, net value of anywhere between ten and hundred and fifty million dollars, there's no real reason to do stabilize deals, right. The reason you wanted to stabilize deals is, because you have a very high net worth, or because you're trying to de-risk your portfolio. Right?   James: Correct.   Nikolaï: That's why you would just stabilize deals for small cap or mid cap investor.   James: Yeah, yeah. Most of the time. I mean, commercials always value at play. I mean,   Nikolaï: Of course.   James: I mean, there's a lot of people doing stabilized deal nowadays, just by getting a higher mortgage and getting slightly lower price, play on the mortgage side with the interest to get a cash flow, but --   Nikolaï: And that can work if you're a neurosurgeon, right? If you're a surgeon making a million and a half a year, and you're 35 and you say, well, you know, I want to start buying multifamily property because I like, I like real estate and I like the tangible part of the asset class. But I don't need any money right now, because I'm making a million, I'm making a million and a half a year. I don't need any cash flow. And I'm very long term and I just want to build myself a nice retirement, you know, because you know, that's what I want as objective. Well, then yes, buy stabilize property or be an LP and syndication, or purchase that stock in the [inaudible00:32:23], that's fine. But if your goal is to increase your wealth exponentially, in a short period of time, and what I mean by a short period of time is fifteen to, five to fifteen years. Well, then, yeah, you're gonna have to do some kind of value add, you can't just do financial arbitrage all the time.   James: Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of deals out there in different asset class, which can give you that cash flow, right. I mean, you can buy a stabilized mobile home park, you know, it'll give you higher cash in cash than any multifamily deals.   Nikolaï: Right.   James: So even self-storage, or even multifamily, which has been stabilized, you get, you'll get good cash flow. But how long will that cash be guaranteed? Because you have a very tight DSER at that point of time. And let's say the market turn, you may not be, your DSER might be compromised right now, because you don't have any buffer. Right?   Nikolaï: Especially if you did not properly manage the terms of your mortgages. Right. So that's very dangerous. Like if you feel that you're, if you feel that the markets going to shift, say interest rate wise, the easiest way to kind of pull yourself out of that situation you just talk about is, you know, just take longer-term mortgages, you know, make sure that the mortgage does not end in five years, make sure it's a 10 year term, or even maybe a 30 year term. Right? That's, that's the easiest way to manage that risk.   James: Yeah, just do a hard loan.   Nikolaï: Right.   James: Which gives you like, 45 years. I mean, there's the other trick that a lot of people play is, you know, showing you need cash in cash based during IO period. And nowadays, people are getting five years, seven years, IO period and sometimes people think, oh, I will not hold, you know, that deal for long term. I mean, you are hoping on not holding, holding, right. But you do not know what's going to be happening to the economy, right?   Nikolaï: It's a dangerous game to play. And I'm not saying don't play it, but make sure you have the, make sure you have the education and the know-how to be able to manage that risk. It's all risk management. Ultimately, that's what it is.   James: Yeah, yeah.   Nikolaï: The problem, the problem is a lot of people are doing this, and they don't know what the hell they're doing.   James: Yeah, I mean, I think so there's so much of capital out there right now, looking for money to be placed in some way.   Nikolaï: Oh definitely.   James: And people don't think that are they going to putting 1% in the CD, I might as well put here and get like six, seven per cent, right? Cash Flow, right? And,--   Nikolaï: And that's, that's the retail market. Like that's, that's small investors like me and you the reality of is the real cap, the real capital flow right now is at the institutional level, there is so much higher level money and smart money searching for returns right now. I mean, we can't even fathom small investors, how much money, I mean, family offices, typically, if you take the family office market, typically always allocated maybe like, I don't know, depending on the family office in the region, but usually anywhere between, you know, maybe eight to twelve per cent of their overall asset allocation, capital allocation to what they call alternative assets, right. And real estate as part of alternative assets. Now, over the last 10, I'd say over the last 10 years, the last decade, family offices have become more and more in tune to the real estate markets. High net worth families also, especially towards like multifamily real estate, and more and more real estate is no longer considered just as, as something under the alternative asset umbrella. But now it's kind of becoming its own umbrella. And what that's doing is that instead of family offices, and we're talking about family offices that have trillions of dollars, right. These are not these are not small things, these are big moving bodies with a lot of capital, we're talking about multi-billions of dollars, not trillions, multi-billion dollar family offices, that are now instead of allocating, you know, 8% to real estate, well, now they're allocating 20% to real estate. So and that's, that's a scale like, there's a lot of them out there. And we haven't even talked about the private equity firms. We haven't even talked about the pension funds, the International pension funds, you know, people talking about globalization and international money, thinking that it's just, you know, rich Russians is going to Sunny Isles, Florida, buy $10 million condominiums. That's not what it is. The global movement of money to American and Canadian Real Estate are things like the Amsterdam teachers pension fund, or government workers pension fund, you know, allocating, allocating, you know, 100 billion dollars to the American real estate market. Now that's, that has a big, that puts a big dent on the supply and demand of real estate. And that's what ultimately drives property value is much more than interest rates. Interest rates only, only influence property values, like people were talking about, especially the last couple of years, all we know, if interest rates go up, cap rates will follow up, they'll go up. That's not true. Capital flow drives cap rates and values and properties and multifamily; interest rates only influence cap rates and values.   James: Very interesting perspective, that's you are right. There's so many, too much money, even out of United States is looking for money to place, right. Like the other dad had a call from the UK. It's a family office who want to invest in the UK and they're looking for like operators like me, and I was asking them, what's the return expectation? They say this 22% IRR credits and I said, well, I [inaudible 00:37:58] you guys, I can get better money in the United States right, so --   Nikolaï: Exactly. And all the, all the money from the quantitative easing the follow the 2008 crash, I mean, all that quantitative easing money, a lot of it still, after even 10 years, has not even found a place for it yet. Right? So there, there's a lot of money chasing deals, there's a lot of money chasing deals.   James: Correct. Correct. Right. That's true. That's true. So coming back to the exit cap rate. So I know that's one of the hardest parameters to measure. Right? So.   Nikolaï: Absolutely.   James: But can you clarify again, how did you, how would you use artificial intelligence to find that a more accurate exit cap rate? You know, T minus five, my T minus 5, five years earlier, before you hit that five years mark of selling, assuming five years of selling.   Nikolaï: So it's the computing power, right. So it's a computer, what we do is, we'll build, so we'll do we'll say, I'm sorry for anyone who hasn't studied, you know, high level university finance, but or statistics, you know, we'll build a, say, a regression model. So we'll look at past data. We'll plug all that in, in order to build a predictive model, a future model being able to come out with future cap rates, and, you know, the more data that we're able to plug into our regression model. So historically, what real estate institutions and economists have use is what they call the linear regression model, use the Monte Carlo simulations. Now, the problem with the linear regression model is that you know, past transactions or data are, are, are also affected a lot by various things like, you know, political environment, and capital markets. And there's a whole bunch of factors. So there's a new model that's being used more and more, especially with a lot of postdoctoral students in statistics, it's called a Quantile regression model. So that's where we're able to create that same kind of, I'm saying this in layman's terms as much as possible, we're able to take past historical data, build that kind of linear model, kind of, like build that line chart for people to understand, and we kind of repeat that line chart in the future. But we're also able to start to weigh that those data points with various things like a new government, with quantitative easing, with the war, with various factors that may be affected that models to make it less linear. And then we're able to start to better predict future stats and future cap rates. So that's the first step of it. The second step is, let's say, right now, we built our Quantile regression model. And now we compute it and what it says to us is well, T minus five cap rates, or five-year cap rate is going to be between, let's say, we have a couple of tracks, it's hard to explain to people who have not done statistics. But we have a couple of tracks. And ultimately, what it says is that the highest probabilities are that cap rate is going to be between 5.75 and 6.10% in five years for that specific market. Now, like I said, as we get closer to the five year period from now, the less the margin of error is, because we're closer and multifamily market moves very slowly. So predicting, the easiest way to understand is predicting 25 years out from now, it's very hard? Your 25 year prediction is going to be way more, there's more room for it to be completely off than your two-year prediction. So we build a model for the five-year prediction, and then starting tomorrow, every day, our artificial intelligence recalculates that model. So as it recalculates, the model gets more and more precise, because let's say we took statistics from today to 20 years ago, let's say we took the cap rate of that market, starting from today, and 20 years back. Well, obviously, the next 20 years are not going to be exactly the last 20 years. But that's ultimately what statistics do, we try and kind of say, well, let's take the last 20 years, there's a margin of error, that's what's going to be the next 20 years.   So what's cool with the artificial intelligence is without actually having to do anything, every day, the artificial intelligence kind of brings the model a day closer and adapts the model with more and more weight on what's going on right now, rather than what happened 20 years ago. And the artificial intelligence is also able to measure what today it predicted for yesterday, versus what actually happened. And what's the spreading difference and what caused that spread? And therefore, once it's able to determine what caused that spread, it'll add that into the equation for the future cap rate model so it becomes much more precise.   James: Yes, but don't try to run it in iteration on a daily or monthly basis to watch the whole investment process. But how do you make it on day zero? Well, today we're buying today how does it iterate then when on a day zero?   Nikolai: Well, what it is I don't understand the question.   James: So my question is, you said the data is being fed into the system to get more accurate exit cap rate. But you're making a decision to buy today? Is the iteration happening from today to all the investment cycle? Or do you do it earlier before you decide to buy a deal?   Nikolai: Okay, I understand what you mean. So like, for determining your actual purchase cap rate,   James: Yes, correct whatever price that I'm going to pay today because that's what I'm getting into the deal. That's the point of me making a decision, whether this is a good deal, and I'm going to be raising money and telling everybody it's a good deal.   Nikolai: The purchase cap rate is a whole other set of statistics and data models. That's more I'd say, determining today's cap rate is much more endeavor of collecting more historical data. Because like I said, let's say JLL Jones Lang LaSalle which is one of the biggest brokerages, they come out with reports and say, Okay, well, the cap rate, let's say in Austin is, 5.2%. Let's say the mean cap rate is 5.2%. Well, that's based on maybe what like 30 or 40%, of actual transactions that happen because they don't have data on like the off-market transactions, or the pocket listings or this and that, right. And on top of that, they haven't normalized the cap rates on whether, let's say, a building traded at a 4.6 cap rate. Well, as we said, if that property wasn't stabilized, well, then that cap rate is off. That's not a good cap rate. So that's a second thing. So for establishing what you should pay to the intrinsic, what's intrinsic value today. that's ultimately what I think the question is, and correct me if I'm wrong, but let's say you're looking at a 100 unit property, what is the actual intrinsic value of that property? What's the real capital I should be buying at? Well, that's a question of having the proper volume of data, Okay, number one. So that's what we're working on right now is making sure we keep on building our database. So instead of our market cap rates being based on the off 30 or 40%, of inventory, or transactions. Well, it'll be based off maybe 60, 70, 75%, therefore, that cap rate becomes more precise. Secondly, we actually look at every transaction and say, qualitatively because that's the first thing is a quantitative aspect, in statistics, we have quantitative, qualitative. So the quality of the data, once we have the quantity, we look at the cap rates and say, okay, that property traded for a 4.2 cap rate. Was that a stabilized property? No, it was not. Once we add the cap x, we have the new revenues. And we adjust the sales price for cap x, but we also adjust NOI. Now we can look at the stabilized cap rate. So that's the qualitative aspects of it. And now we're able to say, here are the market cap rates, here's the low end of cap rates, here's the high end of cap rates, here's the mean, or the media. And here's that range of cap rates. Because cap rates are based on the Capri calculation ultimately, even though people think it's NOI divided by sale price, I'm sure that's not what a cap rate is, that's how you find the cap rate of a soul stabilized property. The actual cap rate calculation or formula is a mathematical equation of R minus G, it's algebra, so are being returned minus g, which is growth. And R is defined as RF plus RP. So the risk-free rate plus the risk premium that you as an investor are looking for or that the market is looking for, a perceived risk premium, obviously. So what we want to do then, that would be like a third step, and we're not at that level right now. But I hope within the next couple of years, we will be, and I'm sure you as an engineer, probably understanding how valuable our ability to do that would become for the market. Is that then you're starting to be able to say, well, right now, that property is being listed at a say, let's say the range for cap rates in Austin is really five to six, obviously, six is going to be in the worst neighborhoods. Five is going to be the best neighborhoods because it's a matter of risk. Well, then you're looking at the property, let's say it's at a 5.7 cap rate. But it's kind of on the limit of a bad neighborhood, good neighborhood. And then you're able to intrinsically say, but the intrinsic cap rate of that property, the real intrinsic value of that cap rate is actually 5.3. Now, if you didn't know that, and you just said, well, the average cap rate is 5.7 well, it's not so much of a deal, I'm not gonna buy that property. But now with this new data, what you're able to see is, wait a minute, it looks more expensive than what it should be but in reality it's not, it's actually cheaper because the real intrinsic value is a 5.3 cap rate. And that would really unlock the potential of what we call value investing, what like a Warren Buffett has built his entire career off of the stock market? Well, he was able to build that value investing exists so much, in the stock market, because of the quantity and the quality of the data. The quantity of data is accessible to everyone, the quality of the data is a bit harder to get the qualitative aspects. That's why Warren Buffett was has been such a great investor, because he invested so heavily into being able to pull out the qualitative aspects of the data, well, now we would be able to do the same thing, you would be able to do the same thing as a multifamily investor. You would have access to the quantity of data needed for you, then to increase your knowledge based on the qualitative aspects of it, and then be able to properly price that acquisition. And then once you're able to do that, well, then you can go say to your investors, look, this is why I'm buying this deal. This is why it's a good deal. And if on top of that, you're able to be more precise with your exit cap rate, and the growth rates of your revenues and expenses and your refinancing rates. Well, you're going to be a much more confident investor.   James: You are making it really what you call a --   Nikolai: It's a more efficient market.   James: It's a more efficient way of actually determining your purchase because you can really just say generally, Austin is what five cap, it's not true, [inaudible00:50:46].   Nikolai: It's kind of scary to say, but we're all kind of invested in multifamily kind of half blindfold. The guys like me and you, and there's a whole bunch of other guys out there really intelligent wrestlers. We're all invested, based on intuition experience, a very strong knowledge base. But we're ultimately kind of invested with one eye closed. Now it's even worse for people who don't have our knowledge base and experience because they're all invested in completely blindfolded.   James: Interesting. So, if you can get that kind of data where you can look at the stock market, and what's the potential, especially if it's in the path of growth. And what's the risk that you're buying? There are some deals, even though you buy it at the lowest cap rate for that market, it could be still the best growth because it could be just like another big explosion, in terms of jobs, is going to be happening in that area just because of the path of growth.   Nikolai: That's so important because if you're a pro forma and you're underwriting you predicted a 2% growth rate in revenue. But in those five years, the analyze growth radio was six. Well, you probably didn't buy that property, when you should have. And the other thing is the same if you predicted a 6% growth rate, and it was two, then you bought that property you shouldn't have, But what most people will say is well, the guy who predicted 6%, he should have put in 2%, like he should have been conservative, but that's not necessarily true. That's a half-truth. That's actually a mistake in logical reasoning because the other guy who says, I'm going to plug in a 2% growth rate because that's what historically happens. What happens if you invest in a market where the growth rate is actually 6%? And that the other intelligent investors knew or predicted that it would be 6%, while they're willing to overpay, according to you for a property, and then you're not buying anything, you're not generating any returns, you're not building your wealth, and you're just kind of sitting on the sidelines there, Bah, humbugging saying, well, the markets paying way too much for the properties and these guys are stupid, stupid money, blah, blah, blah, I'm going to wait for the market to crash and blah, blah, blah, I know guys who've been saying this since 2012. And they have not bought anything since 2012. They haven't generated any returns. All under the pretext of being conservative investors. You know what, they're not conservative investors, you know why because they're not investors. They haven't bought anything, because they take themselves out of the market, and they're sitting on the sidelines, and they're just making up for lack of precision in their underwriting through, this kind of pseudo-conservatism.   James: I think it just depends on the sophistication of the investors. If you look at nowadays, multifamily has become so popular, so many people who did not have the financial education background or the way to analyze a deal. There's a lot of parameters that go into any deals. That's what you mentioned, you mentioned so many parameters, nobody will look at that. Everybody said multifamily is good. I bought it and it went 300%. And they say, Oh, I'm a really good operator. Well, actually, you should have made 500% because the market gave you at least 400%. 100%, you just did 300%, why did you do 300%?   Nikolai: That comes down to what we call the search for alpha. We want to outperform the market. And all these people and there's a whole bunch of them now there's gurus and mentors and coaches, and they're giving all these online classes or seminars or whatnot, or they're boasting about being such great real estate investors. And the reality of it is they don't even know what they did. They're like, well, I generated X percent returns, and I've created X amount of millions of dollars in profit over the last five and 10 years. But that's actually quite average. That's what the market does, as long as you are in the market. Of course, that's what you generated. Now, did you generate more than what the market did? That's the real question. And unfortunately, there are not enough people in the market asking that question. And if you're a passive investor, that's the question you should be asking your syndicator or your GP is not this is what you generated, great. That sounds awesome. You generated 22% IRR annually over the last five years. What did the market generate? The market generated 23.   James: I remember the other day I saw someone, he said, I made 60%. In one year, I bought it in the first year and I sold it in twelve months, I made 60%, I said well, you should have made that 100% because the market went up by that much.   Nikolai: And that's why I'm so bullish on education, and why I think it's so important that multifamily investors get educated and push their knowledge base, because, this is not Nintendo, this is not Xbox, we're not just playing, baseball on our PlayStation three, or Playstation four, this is serious business, and even more, so if you're syndicator. Just in the knowledge base, you know needs to continuously be expanded. And that's why data also needs to be there because knowledge without data is also quite useless.   James: Correct. So coming back to being the alpha in the market. I know you can look at different market appreciation versus how much you are making money. So coming to, let's say, for a decision where you have a deal in your hand, and you're deciding whether you want to sell or you want to refile, or you 10:31 exchange. So can you give us a good methodology to do to make that decision?   Nikolai: To make the decision on whether you beat the market or...   James: Whether you want to sell a deal, or whether you want to refinance, whether you want to hold it for long term or you want to do a 10:31 exchange? How would you approach it?   Nikolai: Well, I'd approach it on a very individual basis. Number one, I think everyone has a very different investor profile. What I mean by investor profile is, what type of returns do you want? And when? What are the strengths and weaknesses that you possess as either an owner-operator or syndicator or whatnot? What access to capital do you have? How patient is that capital? What's the cost of the capital? Now, if it's your own money, obviously, it's probably the most patient money with the cheapest cost of capital. If you're raising money from other people, well, then obviously, there's a less patient aspect to it, and the cost of capital is going to be higher. If you're taking money from bridge loans, well, that's even worse. So if you're taking money from hard money lenders, well, then obviously, your cost of capital is going to be very, very high. So these are all things that you have to consider, you also have to consider where you are in your career with regards to what it is that you want to achieve, either as annual cash flow or just overall that value and what type of risk you're willing to accept.   So ultimately, you have to be able to answer those questions initially, to be able to decide on the strategies. Because ultimately, people in multifamily investing, what they do not understand is the difference between philosophy and strategies. Now, everyone should have their own investment philosophy, based on their investor profile. Now, once you have that philosophy, what you want to do is adapt your strategies according to where you are in the market, and where you are in your career. That's something that is very misunderstood. People say, I'm a buy and hold investor. We hear that a lot in multifamily. So ultimately, what you're saying that you do not have an investment philosophy, that you think you do. You think your philosophy is to buy and hold. But buy and hold is not a philosophy, it's a strategy. So what you're saying is, ultimately, you're investing all the time throughout the whole of your career, using just one strategy. That's very dangerous because let's say the exit point of that strategy eventually, say the day that you do have to sell upon retirement because even though you're buying a whole, you might not be a legacy buy and hold investor. What I mean by that is a legacy buy and hold investor is someone who's just going to pass down the properties to their children, upon death, or upon retirement, whereas most buy and hold investors, what they really need is, I'm going to buy and hold until my retirement, then I'll start selling off. Well, what happens if, during your retirement, you're in a trough of the market cycle. What if you're in that part of the market cycle, or you're at the bottom of it, that's a really bad time to sell? Well, that's the mistake of always investing using only one strategy. So what I would say is that you have to establish your philosophy, understand that your investor profile is going to change over time. And the market cycle moves through phases, there are different phases of the market cycle and your strategies, you have to be able to use different strategies at different phases of the cycle, and at different phases of your career as your profile changes, or adapts or morphs. And that's how you then establish well, with this property, should I buy it and hold it or should I sell it? Or should I just refinance it? What should I do? And I'll give you a very concrete answer. Once I've explained all this.   I have a student here because I do teach real estate investing courses. We actually built a college we call it The College of the Emmerich's. Now you don't have to, it's not college level education. But what we're saying is that from everyday multifamily investors, if you really want to learn college level stuff without having to go to college, well, we have a couple of courses that we teach you very high-level stuff, very concrete work. You still need coaching from coaches and mentors and all that stuff. We actually teach courses. So one of my students in these courses, he's a very successful real estate investor in Montreal, Canada, Montreal is the most important multifamily market in Canada. It's a very strong multifamily market, very competitive. Now he's up to about I guess, 150 units, all on his own, no outside money, no passive money. And he started having trouble refinancing out of his properties because what he was doing, it seems a very big value add investor. So he was using two strategies value added buy and hold. But he was erroneously thinking that value-added and buy and hold was his investment philosophy, which is not, those are two strategies that are part of the philosophy. So he came to me and he said, well, look, banks have now started to tighten their DSCR ratings, and their LTV, therefore, I'm buying a property at a billion dollars, and putting in $300,000 into it. And now the market value of that property is $2 million. But I'm not able to refine it $2 million, because of the banking standards, they're only allowing me to refine out of 1.6. So now, if they're letting you refine out at 1.6, on a 75%, LTV, what they're saying is when you have to leave in 25% of 1.6 plus $400,000, that's a lot of equity, that it is unable to pull out because he was doing too much of a good job at value add. And the capital markets, the banks are not able to follow market value, banks, especially in Canada, are much more conservative than in the US, but even in the US, there is a lot of people buying properties. And they're not able to refine the whole value, because their total loan dollars are blocked by either LTV or DSCR. What I call economic value, the economic value is not as high as market transaction value. Therefore, instead of leaving 25% of equity, you're leaving 25 plus, in this case, $400,000.00. Now that's where I said to him perfect, I looked at his portfolio, I said, well, you have to adapt your strategies, you have to change the strategies, you can no longer at this moment, use the buy and hold strategy, you have to use the fix and flip strategy.   Because you're too good at fixing value add. And you're not able to pull out as much equity as you used to be through refinancing. Therefore, now you have to seriously consider selling that property. Because you can go and get $2 million for other markets right now. So that's an extra $400,000. Because he was able only to refinance 1.6 out of it. So now he's able to get the full market value, pull that cash out, and he has access to a lot of opportunities. He has a really strong bird document work. So his cost of opportunity is very high. If he's leaving all that equity, in these properties that are all stabilized, he's making way more money by doing more value-add stuff. So he made the decision and now he holds zero properties. He sold all of his 140 units because that has allowed him to get more and more cash rich, with less and less money and equity and properties and gain access to more and more opportunities. And ultimately, his annual portfolio, the total return on investment is in the 40 to 70% IRR. Whereas while he was doing buy and hold his overall portfolio was only returned to him maybe 20% if you consider the weighted average return on investment. So that's how I would attack that. I know, that's a very long-winded answer.   James: I think that's the right answer. So I mean, the return on equity, which is date right now, I mean, on this deal. There's so much of dead equity not producing cash. And if your cost of capital, which is also equal to an opportunity outside is much higher, you might as well just cash that out by selling it off.   Nikolai: Because the refinancing is living you to a liquid.   James: Recently, I mean the banks have been more stringent on refine. So the last refine they did ask me to leave 5% my cash basis, which they never did in the past, things have changed. I think that's okay. That's how the banks work now.   Nikolai: It's okay. But the problem is that on a $15 million property, you know, that's two and a half million dollars less cash you have for the next acquisition.   James: Correct. I mean, it depends on what is the cost of capital outside plus how much you can pull out and how much your equity stuck on it. So, coming back to market cycles, because I think this is one thing that I want to ask you because I think you have studied with Dr. Glenn Mueller. So right now, if I look at the latest Q1 forecast for apartments in the hyper supply market. I don't know if that's something that you are aware or not, but...   Nikolai: Nationally?   James: Nationally yes it's not a local, but lots of markets are in it for supply. It's very, very few markets are in the expansion cycle. And even though they are in the expansion cycle, they are at the last stage of the expansion cycle. And all the markets that are on expansion cycle, or the market that recovered late like Las Vegas, Phoenix and a lot of Econo markets. So can you give an overview of what do you think the market is? And what would the strategy be for investors now?   Nikolai: Well, I think number one, I would say that I try not to look at national or macro market cycles. I think that's the first thing to consider. Because multifamily real estate is so hyperlocal. So I look much more at those markets, cycles of hyper supply and expansion and contraction, I look at more of like a metro area. So like you're in Austin, Texas, I look at Austin, I wouldn't really consider the multifamily market at large, because it's kind of like looking at cap rates on an unstabilize property, it's kind of a waste of time. Now, I'd say that I haven't looked at recent data of where all the cycle, where all the markets are, the phases of the cycle. But I mean, I think it is safe to say that, most of the markets right now are in the later phases of the game, or later innings, as Howard Marks likes to say, in the stock market and capital markets. But also, as he says, we don't really know, see the thing with market cycles, and whether it be with Dr. Mueller, whether it be with Karen Trice, out of Australia, and also all the other various professors and researchers of market cycles, is

How does your body change during pregnancy? How can you ease the discomfort of some of the common changes that occur and can cause pain such as pubic symphysis dysfunction, back and hip pain and abdominal separation. Previously named 'The Health & Wellbeing Podcast', now 'Guts and Girl Bits' - delving into all things women's health, digestion, kid's health and more. This episode we are joined once again with the lovely Brooke Hile, Women's Health Physio. Recorded in Brooke's backyard you get to enjoy the sounds of nature, plus a few contribution's from Brooke's puppy Simba. We chat about topics such as constipation, pelvic alignment, c-sections, abdominal separation, pubic symphysis dysfunction, pelvic floor preparation for birth, tearing, birth interventions, back pain during pregnancy and after birth, and varicose veins. We also answer some listener questions: - Once I've fallen pregnant is it safe to continue training? - Are there any exercises you shouldn’t do during pregnancy - Are there any exercises you should work on to prepare yourself for having a baby? - Are there any supplements that can aid fertility? (I talk a bit about what you should look to address when trying to conceive, nutrients needed to load up on during preconception and some of my favourite pregnancy/preconception supplements.) - What can you do to increase your chance of falling pregnant? - When would you recommend postnatal walks with bub, I felt heaviness early on during walks. -Posture during walking with a pram - Do you have any tips for strengthening back and shoulder muscles to condition the body for breastfeeding? Plus posture during breastfeeding -Managing colds during breastfeeding.

Well folks we made it to episode, so that also means a year of podcasting. For this one I wanted to have a relaxing chat with some of my prior guests and get an update to what has happened. It's been an amazing, emotional and hard working lesson in life. I've met some very interesting characters around the world whom I now call friends. From my early days of just using my mobile phone and playing with different ways of recording, i've settled down in to something custom built by myself. This now allows me live video with my guests, which helps us with the conversation and allows me to see emotion. Once I've converted this to audio I can then present the important part of our conversations. For this show we have: Paul McKay from Analogue Wonderland Jon Scrimshaw from Instinctive Photography Jason "speed plates" Lane of Pictoriographica Steve Lloyd from Chroma Camera Paul Lefko from L.A. EM from emulsive.org Yes this did take some planning and took a fair bit of time to get this episode ready for you. Everybody on the show has interesting news since their podcast interviews and due listening to in their own right. In summary we discuss: life changes collaboration websites Kickstarter + plate holders latest shoots podcasts award nominations scanning origin of random questions RANDOM QUESTIONS To mix this up everybody was invited to ask the Phlogger questions for a change. One of my guests tries his hand at a new way to answer the questions too! But find out: Phlogger's embarrassing accident origin of random questions why i'm an honorary scouser my favorite film I'm a humble person who loves to celebrate the work of other people, hopefully you will enjoy listening to our guests. I really can't thank you all for joining in this one off show. A couple of people had to cancel or couldn't make it, so a shout out to Dominique in New York, Leyton in Scotland and Ashley in Australia. I'm nothing without my wonderful guests, each one has inspired me in a different way, each one has shown compassion and an insight in to their personality. It is great to say many have remained friends and the Phlogger will always follow their work and showcase where possible. Finally thanks to all you listeners too, i'm nothing without you and hope you get something out of the show. My aims are to help educate people about other processes and genres of photography. It's important they remain fun but also show the personality of the person, its these insights that resonate within me. TIMINGS 0 mins - Paul McKay (Analogue Wonderland) 23 mins- Jon Scrimshaw (Instinctive Photography) 37 mins - Jason Lane + Steve Lloyd 66 mins - Paul Lefko 79 mins - EM (emulsive.org) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/photography-insights/message

July Goals: - Each week review monthly goals. - publish book 2 - run 10km - release ep3 ep 1 - app ideaslast week's goals - run 10km - record all EP3 lines - create EP theme song - Begin audio book of book 1Frictionless story telling Story telling is powerful. It is what our civilisation, all human civilisation is built on from the earliest cave man to the most modern cyber community (whatever that means) The stories we tell ourselves define us and I spoken about how I changed the stories to change myself. Stories also define our brand. I mean brand in a holistic all-encompassing sense. The persona in your head, as you listen to me, that is me as far as you're concerned and the persona you transmit about me to others. Gravity Undone as a brand exists not just on a web site nor just in my head but it spiders out from me into the world and exists in your head. It is a little different in your head to in mine and when you transmit it to others it has been filtered. The story of Gravity Undone is what carries the brand and defines it. Story telling is the vector through which meaning goes viral. But every time the Gravity Undone brand leaves me and is absorbed by another it goes through their filters and when they retransmit it is slightly changed and so on. So it becomes vital that the source be as pure and consistent as possible. If I present a different message about Gravity Undone each time then I'll end up with brand fragmentation which is where the Gravity Undone in person x's head interferes with Gravity Undone in person y's head and the message is weakend. So to ensure my message is as clear, strong and far reaching as possible I need to have what is known as frictionless story telling. That is when someone asks me about gravity undone I can respond quickly, easily and naturally and consistently. When I'm presented with a situation I will be able to respond easily and convey my values effectivly. That's frictionless story telling. My mission is to create a collaborative entertainment network that inspires creators and is supported by patrons not ads. So I need to get my story straight. This is where brand manifesto and ethos come into play. It is what I have to work on, what any of us has to work out if we intend to successfully and sustainably create. The way I'm doing this is: 1. List values: What is important to gravity undone. These things will also be important to me personally but filtered through the concept of gravity undone. I must personally share these values to ensure an authentic set of values. Gravity Undone will not embody all my values, just the ones that promote and provide focus on my mission and purpose. 2. Identify say 3 to 5 issues or topics and for each I need to know how gravity undone responds to them. What opinions gravity undone will hold on those topics. These will be around the values already identified. 3. Write a manifesto. This is a statement of the core emotional value and belief I want gravity undone to embody.For example Apple's manifesto: It is the primary story that I want people to tell when they think of gravity undone. 4. Now I can start engaging with a consistent story. I can begin marketing and getting my message out in a way that will be amplified by everyone who hears it and with whom it resonates rather than being deminished by noisy interference.This is one of those things that in the past I've rolled my eyes at and just kind of skpped over on the assumption that "I already knew it" but all the experts tell you to do it. All the successfull businesses and the long-term successful creatives have done it. In many cases it is a matter of gaining some level of success and then defining story, the manifeto and ethos but every brand manager and every business coach will tell you to do it and tell you to write it down and keep it handy. And at hte start of this I committed to doing the things the experts say to do, doing the things the successful people have done.Once I've got Exit Plan 3 recorded and out and once book 3 is written and published I'm going to go on a marketing bender and really get my name out there. But that means I need to know what my name means and what I want to tell people. To fail to plan is to plan to fail and I've already done that enough to learn that I don't want to repeat those same lessons. it's time to move to the next level. I'm a creative, a writer, and I want to create and I want to make money doing it so I can continue to create and inspire others to create. That is why I have to plan to succeed.next week's goals - run 10km - record the rest of ep3 - audio book of book 1 invite people to send in goals next week is Claire Scherzinger of Arca 45672. She's an artist and creative across multiple disciplines and she does it full time. As a result she has a great insite into the business of being an artist and it isn't all sipping lattes and writing in a notebook. She has to get investors, submit for grants and plan. It was a great interview and I think we'll all get something from it. Until then, good luck and tell your story. see ya.

This is a special episode courtesy of the Dorks Delivered Youtube channel where Josh interviews Scott Aurisch about his life in business and what motivates him. Josh Lewis and Scott from NRG Boost Fitness talk about taking the plunge in business in the fitness industry. Watch this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX1YaTk2bl0&t=22s Josh: I've got Scott here from NRG Boost Fitness and today we're going to be talking about taking the plunge in business. My understanding is you've been in business for a while and about 12 months ago, you decided to go for some brick and mortar. Scott: Yeah, exactly right. I've been in the fitness industry now for over 20 years but in business for myself for coming up to 8 years, and very close to 12 months in my own premises. Josh: Right. Are you loving it? Scott: Absolutely loving it. It's probably been one of the most tiring years of my life but certainly the most fulfilling, from a professional standpoint. Josh: I think it's a big discipline thing. You get your own business and you take a plunge and you do something that you're thinking, should I or shouldn't I, and if you take the risk, sometimes against all odds, and it's not that you fail, you don't fail, you make sure you don't fail. Scott: Exactly right. You sort of get rid of that safety net and you're just forced to step up and it's an enormous growth experience and I'm really pleased that I did. Josh: That's cool. And has there been any milestone moments over the last 12 months that really stood out as a, ‘I've made it’? Scott: Yeah! Probably no one moment, just lots of little moments along the way, where, when you do take a moment to reflect back on where things were... Pretty much 12 months ago was when I was in the planning phase for opening here, which all came together super quickly. Once I've made the decision to make this happen, things just seemed to fall into place, which is something we might talk about a little bit later on, but as the year has unfolded, just sometimes when I'm training somebody that I've built a good relationship with, in some cases over the years, but in some cases, people I've just met this year, it's in those moments that I realise what I've achieved, when you make those connections with people. So that's what I mean by what some people would regard as little things, rather than big milestones, but they're the most rewarding moments for me. Josh: That's cool. Prior to running out of brick and mortar, how was your business beforehand? Scott: I was working out of a local gym and I'd been there for several years, and it wasn't that I got to a point where I was unhappy, but I did feel like I wasn't growing professionally anymore, and I just needed a new challenge that would present that opportunity for growth and freedom as well. Josh: Cool, cool. I guess you haven't looked back. You're 12 months in. What sort of aspirations do you have for the next 12 months? Scott: Yeah, I guess I haven't looked too far ahead, which is probably something I need to get a little bit better at, but certainly, consolidating what I've achieved in the first 12 months, and I think one of the keys to that is building good relationships with my client base but also other industry associates that I have contact with. So I'll definitely be looking to build on that over the next 12 months in a way that is sustainable in terms of my energy and my own health and wellbeing because, as you would know, when you work for yourself, you can get a little bit focused on the business and some of your personal life can tend to suffer. Josh: Absolutely, it can go by the wayside. Scott: Yeah. Josh: It becomes a very addictive, very addictive thing, having your own business. Scott: It certainly can, and in my situation, where I'm preaching to people about achieving balance in your life. It's really important that I practise what I preach and set the example of having a balanced lifestyle where I'm looking after myself and looking after my personal relationships outside of work as well because your business might be firing on all cylinders but if some of those other areas of your life begin to suffer, that's going to impact on you as an individual at some point, and then ultimately affect your business. Josh: Yeah, completely agree. It's all about having balance. Otherwise, the whole system breaks. Scott: Yeah, that's right. Josh: If you were to go back to the moment while you were working for someone else and you didn't have your own business, can you remember what made you take the step and take the leap towards doing everything, wearing all the hats, and doing the payroll, doing your taxes, doing everything underneath your own banner? What was the catalyst towards the move? Scott: Yeah, probably just a couple of little moments. Again, it was nothing major. There was no massive falling out with anyone at my previous workplace, but just piecing a few things together and just some little frustrations and I thought it was time to take control of things myself and when you run your own business, you get to do things your way and you are absolutely responsible for everything that occurs. So, yeah, it was nothing major and just a couple of little things and I do distinctly remember in those moments thinking, yeah, I've got to do this because there was a lot of thought that went into it beforehand but when I eventually made that decision, like I said earlier, it all just fell into place. Josh: That's cool, that's cool. You do a lot of stuff for communities, and I understand you've gone back to the school that you went to and you've helped them out. Tell me more about what happened there. Scott: Well, I was fortunate enough to be contacted by the Logan PCYC who run a lot of great programmes and one of them is called the Deep Blue Line programme, which is in association with Queensland Police, where they visit local high schools and present an 8 to 10 week programme to a group of students of various ages. I was invited to come along and speak for one particular week about the importance of exercise and nutrition and, yeah, it was pretty cool. But one of the schools I got to visit was my own old high school that I had not stepped foot inside for 25 years and it was my Back to the Future! Josh: That would have been weird. Scott: It really was. It was a really cool experience, though. The place had not changed. It had been really well maintained over that time but it was just like going back to how I remember it. And then to go back as an adult, as a professional, and feel like you're adding some sort of value to a place that played a role in your own development. It was very fulfilling for me, and I've been back a couple of times since as well. Josh: Was there any old teachers that you saw and you were like, ‘Oh, no… Sir, what are you doing?’ Scott: No, no. Very much a turnover of staff but while I was at the school office, I did look at the boards with all the photos and the honour boards with the kids' names and that sort of thing. And just to tie that into NRG Boost Fitness here, I've actually got three old schoolmates as current clients. Josh: That's cool. Scott: Yeah. So that's also something that I find very rewarding as well and makes me feel really good. Obviously, we all run businesses to earn money. Josh: Ideally, yeah. Scott: Yeah. You've got to earn a living. You've got to support yourself and your family, but for me, I think one of the keys to my success is that I don't focus on just the dollars. It's about a lot more than that. It's about personal fulfilment and things that make me happy and the fact that I've got three guys that I'd probably fallen out of contact with a little bit over the years but have reconnected with in recent years. They're now current clients, and I'm helping them improve their lifestyles. Josh: That's cool. So you've been in business for a long time, you've got your bricks and mortar now, have a rough idea of where you're wanting to go. If you were to do it all again, would you change the order of events or what would you do differently? Scott: I honestly don't think I would change a great deal. One of the things I think I got right from the outset was as professionals, as entrepreneurs, you would have to read a lot about the importance of beginning with the end in mind, having a clear picture of what you want your business to look like, and it was the clearest example in my life where I was able to come up with a very clear picture of how I wanted this place to look, how I wanted this place to operate, and doing that, and putting effort into getting those details right from the start, allowed me to almost follow that to the letter and it was amazing watching that unfold. To have ideas go from just words on paper through to, a little over two months later, from when I first decided to undertake this venture and then to actually open my doors, it was literally two months, but the reason it was able to happen so quickly is because I was clear on what I wanted and things literally just fell into place. There was no forcing or pushing. Things just sort of fell my way. Josh: That's very, very serendipitous, or lucky, I guess, or fortunate that that worked out that way. Scott: Yeah. So just to answer your question in fewer words, basically, beginning with the end in mind was the most important thing that I did and I would recommend that for anybody else looking to do anything similar. Josh: Cool. A lot of people get into business and they think, ‘Oh, in two years' time I'm going to retire. I'm going to make a million dollars,’ and have these huge thoughts of grandeur and they don't necessarily make the appropriate planning before jumping in and understanding the depth of the water and realising how deep it goes and how much is actually involved in running your own business, especially when you're starting up and you need to be the person wearing all of the different hats. You need to be the technical person, you need to be the administration, you need to be the marketer, the salesperson, you do all of the different things all at once, and as you said, you want to have a balance in your business, you want to have a balance in your life. Was there any steps that you went, ‘Oh, shit, I need to learn more about this,’ or, ‘I need to learn more about that,’ or things that you went, ‘Oh, wasn't expecting that to be a hurdle?’ Scott: Yeah. Not really. That's probably another thing I think I got right—the scale of the venture that I took on, I think, was appropriate for that first leap. But the point you make about a lot of business people taking the plunge but not realising the depth of the water they're diving into, in my industry it might be somebody that says, ‘Oh, I can run a gym,’ and they take on this big operation and then it's not until they're in it and they realise what an undertaking it is. So I was pretty happy to start with a personal training studio that's literally a couple of hundred metres around the corner from home, so it suited my lifestyle and I've been really comfortable with the size of the jump, so to speak. There have certainly been things that I've had to learn as I went along but that was the whole point to begin with—to learn new things and challenge myself. Josh: I think it's very sensible the way that you've gone about the business because, as you said, a lot of people might just go in and they jump straight into a lease but they don't have any clientele and they have no idea about marketing. They just think they get some business cards and then they will come, build it and they will come, and that's not how it really works. I think it's great that you're in the IT world, they call it agile development, where you try and make the smallest profitable item first and then you build upon that. A good example would be Uber. So you don't start with an autonomous vehicle that's driving everyone, tens of thousands of autonomous vehicles driving everyone around countries. Instead, you start with an app that allows for people to take in that step until they've saved up enough money to then be able to move onto the next ventures, and Elon Musk does the same things. Josh: And you've done the same thing in where you've built up your clientele, you've created a rapport and the message is strong and your social content in strong, and the community that you've created around your business is very strong. Different events that I've been to with Scott have been 60, 70 people upwards. Your opening day here, I don't know how many people you would have had here, it was stacks, so it shows the belief and the message that you've instilled in all the people that you have come here is very strong and the allegiance of people. Scott: Well, I think, getting back to one of your earlier questions about community, I've done things outside of here for the broader community, but I placed great emphasis on the importance of building a community within your business, in much the same way that a café might do the same thing. There are hundreds of cafes, Brisbane wide, and what makes you choose one over another? It’s generally the one where you feel most welcome and almost like it's a second home, and so that's what I try to do here, again, not in a forced kind of way but just in an organic way, and it's been another very satisfying thing for me to observe, friendships being formed and I know that some of my group members socialise outside of here, that didn't know each other previously but they met through NRG Boost Fitness and that's sometimes more rewarding than dollars. Josh: I think just, straight on the friendship situation, it's something, it's a place... I come here myself and it's a place that I feel very comfortable in, and I've brought multiple friends here because I find it's a good time to be able to catch up and see people while having a workout, as opposed to catching up and having a beer and a pizza, which is lovely as well, but it's not as great for your waistline and your health, and I can definitely say you...we, two and a half years ago, met for the first time and I told you my goals and you said, ‘That's not achievable’, in nicer words, in the timeline that I wanted to achieve it in. You said, ‘Look, see how you go’, I think, and I tried really hard, twisted my ankle, stopped trying as hard for a while, but I continued to persevere and 12 months later I achieved the goal that I wanted to, the weight that I wanted to, the percentage of body weight that I wanted to, and I'm very impressed with the results I was able to get from you. But it was not just the journey of the weight. It was also the friendship that was made along the way, and a great example would be Scott coming over and surprising me of a lunchtime and taking me over to see the jolly old Saint Nick. Scott: That's right, yeah. Coming up to a year ago. Josh: Yeah, that's right. We were able to sit on Santa's lap together which was… Scott: For the first time in probably 30 years! Well, for me, anyway! Josh: For you, yeah! And I thought it was great that you definitely went above and beyond and I don't think there would be many business owners, or especially PTs, that would do that level of commitment towards the friendships and the bonds that were created within the community, so it's a testament to the way you create your business. Scott: Thanks, Josh. Josh: I'd like to cut across to a quick video that discusses more about taking the plunge and we'll talk more about that afterwards. It's big, it's wet, it's wild. That's right. It's Niagara Falls, and if you've ever been here or any other large waterfall, you might have wondered, what would it be like to just jump in? So, there was this time when Sam Patch, who was the first daredevil to take the plunge over Niagara, all the way back in 1829. He shot to fame and his slogan became part of a popular slang. The slang was, ‘Some things can be done as well as others.’ It's a great line. You could take it to mean that our achievements are equal, or you could also take it like we are trying to do our own thing as best we can, or maybe he was telling us that we can do those things that others think are impossible. So what about you? What's your Niagara Falls? What's that big challenge that you are scared to take on? Well, let me tell you, it's often much easier than you think once you just commit to it. For Sam Patch, he was actually pretty disappointed with the crowd that turned up for his first successful attempt. There was bad weather and he'd been delayed, so he announced that he would do it again a few days later. This time, 10,000 people turned up and he cemented his place in history. So, if old Sam can jump off Niagara Falls twice, there's nothing to stop you taking the plunge. Whoa! Josh: Good to be back. I thought that was pretty good. So we went through that you can sort of see sometimes it's not the first time, the first step, but just taking the plunge and just being the person that commits to that can really make a big difference in your business. So it's cool that you've gone through and you've done that and you've experienced that firsthand and you didn't, in a sink or swim situation, you were able to swim and, if anything, swim very, very well. Scott: Yeah. Well, just one point I'd like to add to that, Josh. As any person should do when making a decision to go into business or not, you're going to come up with your list of pros and cons, and you'll have your moments of bravery and you'll have your moments of fear and ultimately, for me, it came down to a fear of financial risk and when I really thought about it, I then fast-forwarded to when I'm 80 years of age and I look back, and if I hadn't done this, what would have been the reason that I didn't and would I be comfortable with that decision? And if it was just a money thing that held me back, I think I would look back and regret it and be disappointed that I wasn't bolder at the time. So, yeah, I think it's a useful exercise sometimes, to fast-forward to when you're in your final years, will you wish that you had have taken more risks? Josh: Definitely, I agree completely. I've always looked at it like, who would you like to see standing there at your funeral and... as dark as that is, who would you like to see standing there, at your funeral, and what was the reason you were remembered? And hopefully, there's a legacy that you've left behind, whether that be children or even just a nice smile in helping someone out and that's there some memory that you've left there. So it's work your way back from there. Scott: Yeah. And it might seem a little bit dark to some people but it's an extremely powerful exercise to take yourself through as well. Josh: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Definitely. So what would you say would be the life tip or quote that you live by? Scott: Well, there are probably a few but one that I have been thinking about recently is not being a victim in life and basically taking absolute personal responsibility for your life circumstances. I just believe that as soon as you blame somebody else or other people for your situation, is when you give away your power. Sure, bad things are going to happen in your life and some will be other people's fault, but it's how you respond to that really makes the difference. So I really try to remember that all the time and take the appropriate action. So there might be people out there who are unhappy with their job and it's as simple as changing jobs. I understand that it's scary in that moment but if you're truly unhappy, you have the power to find a better job. Josh: Absolutely. Scott: And if you're overweight, you can continue blaming this, blaming genetics, whatever the case might be, but ultimately, if you eat better and exercise, you're going to improve that situation. Josh: Absolutely. And it's all about baby steps and getting the understanding, sometimes understanding your weak points and turning them into your strengths or at least having recognition towards them so you know how to work and come out of your comfort circle, to grow into a better person, whether that be through weight loss or a change of job, or a change of marriage, or whatever the situation is, it can all make you a happier you. Scott: Yeah, exactly right, Josh. Josh: Cool. And we're going to do something here. So we're going to do a shout out. You've done really, really well. Public speaking and especially in a global audience, like YouTube, can be scary. It's all imprinted in stone forever. It's going to live on longer than us. This could be our legacy. If nothing else, this is it. Scott: Don't stuff it up. Don't stuff it up! Josh: So you've done really, really well and I really appreciate your time that you've given me today, and I'd like to see if there's maybe another business coach, leader or business that you think would benefit from having a review and that the public would benefit from hearing from. Scott: Yeah, well, certainly one of the best things I've done in recent years in terms of developing my own business expertise, for want of a better term, is I undertook an internship with a business called Create PT Wealth. I attended a free workshop. It was probably over three years ago now, and that, in itself, was a half day, full day workshop that was highly valuable and I took a lot out of that and I realised the position my business, and I'll use the term business fairly loosely because at that time it was a fairly poorly structured business, and it made me realise what work I needed to do to make a real business. Scott: So I then undertook an 18-month personal training business internship and it covered all sorts of things: business systems, marketing, the whole gamut of things. At the time, I could not afford it, well, I told myself that, ‘You can't afford this,’ but something in me knew that I needed to do it and it wasn't an expense, it was an investment in the future of my business. So that was another time where I took the plunge and found a way to afford it and what I learnt in 18 months has been a massive reason behind where I'm at today, in terms of having my own premises and being very happy with my professional life. Scott: So Create PT Wealth is the name of the business and I would strongly recommend that anybody else in the fitness industry or a personal trainer seek them out and see what they can offer your business. Josh: Cool. Is there anybody particular at PT Wealth that stuck out for you? Scott: Yeah, well, certainly both Brad and Jason were both extremely helpful, right from that initial workshop and I also had a business coach, Leanne, through that time as well, that I would check in with, every fortnight, and just have a phone conversation, and it was a good way to be kept accountable. She would set me certain business-related tasks that I would need to report back to her on in the next fortnight and that's a really important thing, is accountability, because sometimes it's easy to make excuses to yourself but when there's somebody else that you've got to report back to, I found that that really kept me on track. Josh: Definitely. Scott: Thank you to Create PT Wealth. Josh: Cool. Well, I think we should all take a deep breath and give yourselves a clap. That's awesome. Thank you very much. Scott: No worries, Josh. Thank you. Josh: Awesome. Read about the interview: https://dorksdelivered.com.au/business-tips/interview-with-scott-aurisch-of-nrg-boost-fitness?highlight=WyJzY290dCJd I hope you enjoyed the episode. Every little bit helps and a small thing that you could do, as a token of appreciation, would be to jump onto iTunes and rate and review to make sure that other people can listen and get the same helpful help that you guys had. Thank you, and keep good.

Once I've figured out what my add-ons a bonuses will be, I need to create my offer assets. Join my Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChristianInternetEntrepreneurs (you'll have to log in to Facebook). You might also be interested in joining me in my journey by joining this challenge at www.funnelsforprofit.com --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/biblicallyfocusedbusiness/support

I've almost finished programming the first game for Multi-Races.  Bally's Turf King is one of the last one ball horserace games, and therefore one of the most complex.  Once I've finished it, I should have no trouble with other games.  I talk about the interesting parts of portioning, as well as some of the features of the game. Robo-Frenzy is coming along quite nicely.  Two units remain to be wired into the game, and I have a plan on how to do it. Today's featured game is Williams "Dreamy" from 1950.   You can reach me at  or via the bingos line at 724-BINGOS-1 You can listen to the show on iTunes, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Google Play Music, Spotify, Facebook, Twitter (bingopodcast) or follow me on Instagram (also bingopodcast). The show's website is foramusementonly.libsyn.com If you like video games, you might enjoy Gaming on Ten Minutes a Week at   Thank you very much for listening, and I'll talk to you next time.

My business planning follows the school year!  A lot of people do their planning at the beginning of the year.   I don’t. I use the school year. Because I’m a mom of school-age children and it just makes more sense for me.   I used to do the yearly thing but then every summer it seemed that my plan got hijacked by the kids, vacations, etc. So I switched to have my work calendar to follow the school year.   Now, I feel more ready for the summer when it comes around and I don’t feel so guilty or like I have to work my ass off to keep up. I enjoy my summers a whole lot more. Here’s how I do it. My business planning process. The 1st week of school, when the kids are out of the house... I sit down for an hour or two and plan. I pull up my Google Calendar, you know...where my life is. And I also print a yearly calendar.  It’s just one of those calendars that have the entire year on one page. Then I grab some highlighters. First, I download my kids' school calendar and I insert all of their holidays and days off into my Google calendar. Plus, I share them with my husband too so he knows when we can take mini trips or long weekends. And then mark them off on my yearly printed calendar with a color that I choose for the kids. Afterward, I mark off any vacations, trips or conferences that I will be away for in another color. Now that I have all of my days off clearly marked and put into my Google calendar, I can start the planning. I am a firm believer in 90-day goals.   I did Todd Herman's 90 Day Year and I’ve been a believer ever since. He teaches that you should go big picture and then work backward to what you can accomplish in the 90-day chunk. 90 days is a reasonable amount of time to really make an impact on your business/life. Then I set goals. I set good, better and best goals.   That means that I set a goal that is like knock it out of the park amazing like I’m crazy for thinking I could accomplish that goal.   That’s my best goal. Then, I scale it back a bit and make a better goal.  Something still amazing but seems more realistic. Finally, I make a good goal that is basically what absolutely has to happen. I don’t attach any personal feeling to these goals.  They are just outcomes of the work that I put in. From this point, I have a good idea of how long it will take me to get to my big goals and I start planning the calendar. I’ll have special focuses for each 90 day period.   Keep in mind that this allows your plans to be more fluid and can pivot or change. For example:  Say I want to set a goal to generate $100,000 in revenue in the next year. Well, what has to happen to make that happen. Currently, I only offer coaching. So if that was all I was going to offer I would need to work backward from the $100k to see how many clients I needed to work with. From there, I would be able to set 90-day goals that help get me to that bigger goal.   Like promotions or launches or webinars or list building funnels. Once I decide what I need to do in that 90-day period, I work backward again and plan in 2-week sprints.   Sprints are usually 2 weeks and I plan each task that needs to happen in that 2 weeks to move me forward.   Once I've done that all of this, I feel great about my new year and know that I'm going to knock it out of the park. This is how I plan out my year and it has helped relieve some of the pressure and guilt that come with business planning and kids.   Accountability = Success If you do have big goals and dreams for your online business and you want to set up a solid strategy to get you there don’t forget I have strategy calls and accountability packages.   You can check them out over at MommysHomeOffice.com. Have a great week and I’ll catch you in the next episode. Links mentioned in this episode: Mommy's Home Office Online Business Starter Kit Thanks for Listening! Check out the most recent episodes: 7 of My Favorite Instagram Tools What to Expect: Having a Baby and an Online Biz with Sarah Siems Local Marketing for Service-Based Businesses Balance is a Dirty Word  4 Steps to Getting Back into a Routine  7 Steps to Get Out of a Funk Check out the most popular episodes: How to Make $10k a Month as a Virtual Assistant  Help! I Need an Idea!  I Already Have a Business BUT It Needs to be Easier!  To share your thoughts: Leave a note in the comment section below. Ask a question over on hello@MommysHomeOffice.com To help out the show: Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help reach more moms and I read each and every one. Subscribe on iTunes.

Oftentimes, we find ourselves stretched thin, over-extended in everyday life. True to our human nature, we naturally try to find ways to be more efficient, sometimes taking shortcuts. Today, Summer and I discuss the positive and negative effects of taking the easy way around and how important it is to actually do the work when it's necessary, rather than delaying the inevitable.  Summer encourages us to"Take the extra two minutes and allocate your resources to do the job the right way the first time, save yourself the grief. The temporary solution is never going to be the resolution." When checking things off the list, Sarah says, "I feel so great when I do those tiny little things, and in my head, I just don't think about them anymore. It's done, it's over. Once I've made a decision, it's the same thing. I don't want to have to touch it and do it twice. Let's just make the decision, if I need more time to research it, that's fine. But once I finally commit, unless there's really compelling reasons to back up, I just move on." Moral of this story: either you put in the work on the front or you put in a lot more work on the back end. Remind yourself that you will ultimately save time, energy and mental stress. Taking shortcuts or only doing half the work, both of those things wear on us day to day and they steal our joy. And so, when you are struggling, remind yourself, put in the work and at the end you'll have more joy. Like what you've heard on this podcast? Sarah offers coaching and consulting services, helping others to put in the work and reclaim their joy! Learn more at www.SarahBoxx.com or get on her schedule here:  https://sarahboxxcoaching.appointlet.com/s/coaching-exploratory-call-15-minutes See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Breadcrumbs and Troubleshooting This week I'm taking a break from design patterns to talk about a useful skill to prevent you and your team having to reinvent the wheel when it comes to troubleshooting problems or working through new tools or frameworks. Sponsor - DevIQ Thanks to DevIQ for sponsoring this episode! Check out their list of available courses and how-to videos. Show Notes / Transcript Have you ever spent a few hours working through getting a new tool, library, package, or framework working? Along the way, did you run into things that didn't quite go as easily as the documentation, video, or presentation on the subject made it out to be? Did you end up spending time on Google, StackOverflow, etc. trying to figure out how to really get things to work in your real world environment? If you answered yes to these questions, you're in good company. I've certainly been there countless times. Now, follow-up question. Have you ever done all of the above, but with a sense of deja vu, because you'd had to do the exact same thing some time previously? And when you found the blog post or sample that reminded you of the issue, you were like "Oh yeah, I had to do this last time, too!" I find these to be some of the most frustrating hours of my work. I want to be building things, making progress, seeing things grow in functionality, not banging my head against the same walls I've left dents and bloodstains on in the past. I also want to make sure my coworkers, my teammates, and my clients benefit from the cuts and bruises I acquire as I blaze a trail through unknown territories. So, what can you do to limit the amount of retreading through through the same painful terrain you (and often your team) have to do? Obviously the first thing you could do is take notes. This is natural for some developers, but others find it distracting. When they're in the zone, figuring things out and getting things done, they don't want to stop to document things along the way. Breaking their flow might mean the difference between getting things working and giving up and walking away. If you can take notes, do so. I suggest keeping track of the URLs you found useful, along with screenshots of things like property settings or other configurations that you needed to modify to get things working. Sometimes, you can document things after you got things working. This is often true for fairly simple problems. However, for something that's taken hours rather than minutes, it's likely that by the time you're done, you've forgotten a few steps along the way. Here are a few things you can do to leave yourself a trail of breadcrumbs as you work. And of course, by breadcrumbs, I actually mean something better than breadcrumbs that you'll actually find later, since the whole origin of breadcrumbs is from a story in which breadcrumbs are a decidedly poor choice to leave behind you in order to find your way. One approach I use is to use a particular browser instance while I'm working on a specific problem, and to open all links related to the problem at hand in their own tabs. If they're useless, I close them, but if they're at all helpful, I leave them open. Once I've figured out whatever it is I've been working on, I can look at my tab history and add the links as references wherever is appropriate. Sometimes that's a link in a source code file. Sometimes it's in a README file. Sometimes it's in a blog post (or a Trello card for a blog post I want to write). In any case, I associate the links to the resources that helped me along the way with the problem I just solved while everything is still fresh in my mind and the links are literally stil open in my browser. Another tool you can use is screen recording. If you don't like actually writing/typing notes, you can record conference calls with clients using tools like Zoom or GoToMeeting. You can also record your own screen using tools like Camtasia, which I highly recommend. Then you can quickly jump around in the video to see yourself tackling problems, and retroactively make notes or write up a postmortem or checklist. Occasionaly the video itself might even be worth editing into something, perhaps for internal consumption by your team. Yet another tool I've used in the past is TimeSnapper, which would take and store screenshots every so many seconds on your machine. Then it would let you play them back later to see what you'd been spending your time on. I haven't used it in a while but it appears to still be active. You could do something similar by just taking a screenshot periodically as you progress through a problem, but you're much more likely to forget without a tool like this. The most important thing to take away from this episode is that you don't want to fight through the same problem more than once. Ideally you want to prevent your team from having to fight through problems you've already solved. The key is to share the necessary information in a way that doesn't slow you down while you're solving the problem, but which ultimately is discoverable by you and your team the next time you encounter the same problem. An approach I've used for years is to blog about things once I find a solution. I can't tell you how many times I've googled for something only to find the answer on my own blog. If you have your own techniques you use to rediscover solutions to problems you've previously solved, please leave them in the comments for the show. Oh, and I wrote an article last year on Working Through Roadblocks - A Guide for New Programmers. I'll leave a link in the show notes for that as well. Would your team or application benefit from an application assessment, highlighting potential problem areas and identifying a path toward better maintainability? Contact me at ardalis.com and let's see how I can help. Show Resources and Links Camtasia TimeSnapper Working Through Roadblocks - A Guide for New Programmers

Ulysses Owens Jr. demonstrates some sweet ideas using a 5 stroke roll.===================================================================================(rhythmic drumming) It's Ulysses Owens Jr. With "Two Minute Jazz." Having fun with rudiments: I'm taking a really cool rudiment by the name of "Five Stroke Roll." One two three four five. (rhythmic drumming) And having fun with it, taking it around the kit. A lot of times as young drummers, even older drummers, experienced drummers, whatever part of the drummer thing you fall into, we all get bored and we wonder, man what do I do with these rudiments? Especially the 28 Essential Rudiments. So one of those 28 Essential Rudiments being the "Five Stroke." Like how do I move that around the kit? Once I've learned it what do I do with it? So I like to explore and experiment and I'm gonna do that right now with the rudiment. So I will play it for you again.(rhythmic drumming) A little faster.(frantic drumming)You can try different things like: (rhythmic drumming) Five stroke roll. Take it around the kit, play it with the cymbals. Play it in any way you want. Just keep moving forward with it. Create a continual rhythm around it. Create continual phrases andfills and setups around it, but just keep pushing the boundaries and using that rudiment, and never tiring of it, and figuring out how can you explore and have fun with it. So(rhythmic drumming) Have fun with the rudiments.===================================================================================For full comprehensive courses from Ulysses Owens, check out Finding Your Beat at Open Studio today. ---> Watch on YouTube See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Listen (and learn) Faster If you can do it without getting left behind, listen or watch educational content at a higher speed. Show Notes / Transcript I've always been interested in speed reading. As a child, it seemed like a super-power, since it would dramatically increase how quickly I could consume information, giving me more time to do other things. On a related note, I often have wished for a nice substitute for sleep that didn't have nasty side effects. But I digress... Listening faster If you're listening to this episode on a phone or mobile device, the app you're using most likely has an option to change the speed. I try to record these at a fairly measured pace, even if I'm otherwise animated or excited by the topic, because I want to make sure they're understandable even to those of you for whom English is not your first language. However, for those of you who can manage it, I encourage you to listen faster by adjusting the play speed to 1.25 or 1.5x, or even faster if you can manage it. If you're not sure how to configure a particular player, I cover a few options in an article on my blog about listening faster. Look for it in the show notes. If you're in a web browser on the show's site, there should be a little 1x icon on the right side of the player. Clicking it will cycle you through different speeds. Give it a shot and pick one that's comfortable for you. Watching faster Of course, there's also a lot of great content online. Whether it's YouTube, DevIQ, or Pluralsight, you can learn a lot about programming and your career in software development from video content. Here, too, you can usually adjust the playback speed. By adjusting the speed from 1x to 1.5x, you can consume a 30 minute presentation in just 20 minutes. Over time, these gains really add up and can make the difference between you falling behind and you passing by others as you compete to be the best you can be. Counterpoint There are those who disagree, and feel that listening to content at 1.5x (or whatever speed you prefer) messes up the artistic intent of the author. A fairly recent article on The Verge is titled simply Stop listening to podcasts at 1.5x speed. I mention this mainly to disagree with it and to give you my permission, as the author and "artist" involved in this podcast, to listen faster. There may be instances where some subtlety is lost, especially when you're talking about a heavily produced and edited show with multiple speakers involved. I'm going to strive not to be that subtle. My goal for these shows is that they provide you with small, useful, concrete nuggets that you can immediately apply to your work. If you can't consume this information at a faster speed because I'm using too much nuance and subtlety (and not because perhaps English isn't your first language), then I'm failing. Once I've produced one of these podcasts, I'm done with it. My only goal is that a significant number of developers find it, listen to it, and find it useful. The more content you're able to consume, hopefully the more value you're able to get from it. To that end, I encourage you to listen at a speed that works well for you. Show Resources and Links Life Hack: Listen Faster Stop Listening to Podcasts at 1.5x

Read the show notes for this episode at http://doubleexposure.show/episodes/45 - This week we are talking about how to speed up your photo editing process so that you can spend more of your time shooting and bringing in new paying clients. - First, we recommend breaking up your process into smaller chunks. Let's start with my (Sophia's) post-shoot process. I complete each segment over several days following the session or wedding. The day after: download and backup photos. A couple days later: sort the photos into folders. This especially makes culling and colour correcting weddings easier by making each segment smaller. A couple more days later: cull photos. This is the slowest part due largely to technological limitations. I'll zip through a section of photos and reach a section of photos which haven't fully loaded... Then I wait... A few more days later: colour correct photos. Once I've edited a few of my favourites, I sync those settings across all of the photos (except exposure and white balance) to speed up the process. Then all I have to do is correct the exposure and white balance of all of the photos, which I can do in large chunks. Really, this part is pretty quick. Pretty much immediately afterward: upload photos to the client's gallery or contact them to schedule their proofing session. By following the same process each I edit a shoot I don't get sidetracked, and each segment seems more manageable when performed on its own. - After you've broken down your process into smaller, bite-sized chunks, there are a few things you can do to speed the the process up even more. Here is some advice from Petro: Frame photos in your camera so you don't have to crop anything later. Properly expose your images in your camera. This will take so much work out of colour correcting later. Know your equipment. For example, if your camera shoots dark, bump up your exposure meter. This will help make it so you don't have to bring up the exposure in every image later on. Cull images as you download them. This will save you a lot of time in editing. Save presets with your preferences and apply them on import. - If you still cannot for the life of you get through editing another single wedding, consider outsourcing. Include the price of editing in your packages. Remember that by paying someone else to do it, you are saving the money you'd be paying yourself to do it. While you're not editing you can be spending time bringing in new business and making even more money.

We're heading toward a market shift, so pricing a home properly is going to be a more important skill now that it has been in the last 10 years. How do you help your sellers do this?Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.I wanted to give you some advice on helping your sellers choose the right price for their homes.As we go into this shifting market, pricing a home is going to be a more in-demand skill than it has been in the last 10 years. As we come into the fourth quarter of 2016, we’re starting to see that the homes that aren't priced exactly right are sitting on the market. In fact, a lot of them end up having multiple price reductions and selling for less than they probably should have right out of the gate.When you're helping your seller choose the right price, here's the simple formula for me: I want to get real about the condition of the property I'm about to bring to market. Is it a two or is it a 10? From there, I want to get real about the condition of the other properties on the market. Are they nicer, or is your seller's property nicer?Once I've identified that, then I'm going to look at the competition and the way they are priced. I intend to be the best, highest quality home on the market for the price. What I'm saying is that if you're the best value on the market, you'll always be the first to sell. As somebody who has sold dozens of properties of my own and thousands for other people, I can tell you unequivocally that the market does not let properties sell too cheaply. Here's what I mean by that–if you think a property is worth somewhere between $450,000 and $500,000, I'm listing it at $450,000 every time. If I list at that price and it was supposed to be $500,000, I'm going to get multiple offers in a short time and it's going to sell for $500,000 or maybe even more.“The free market will always help you find the right price. ”That's the beauty of the free market system; the market always helps you get the pricing right. It also punishes you when you get greedy on the front end.If the property is worth $500,000 and you price it at $510,000, the property begins to stagnate on the market, you have a low number of showings, and buyers start to wonder what's wrong with the property. Other agents may not show it, and it eventually sells for far less than it should.Do the right thing by helping your sellers pick the right price out of the gate and get the home sold quickly. If you have any more questions about pricing homes or I can help you in any way with your real estate career, give me a call or send me an email. I'd love to help you out!

Dr. Veronica Anderson, Host, Functional Medicine Specialist and Medical Intuitive interviews Jennifer Fugo on How to be a Savvy Gluten Free Shopper. Do you want to regain your health? Certified Health Coach and founder of Gluten Free School, Jennifer Fugo, has created the number one spot for those living a gluten-free life seeking community, simple & clear information about their condition, and ways to become empowered and finally feel better. She is dedicated to teach gluten-sensitive individuals simple, savvy and empowering steps to get healthy. In this episode, Jennifer will talk about how she healed her gluten sensitivity in 3 days, the issue with the food supply in America and how choosing certified gluten free product can simplify your life. She will also share the biggest tips that will help you transition into a gluten-free lifestyle, key GF products and companies and how to order food when eating at restaurants. Listen to the end to access to the 9 Homemade & Store-bought Gluten Free Breads cheat sheet.   Dr. Veronica Anderson's Links https://www.linkedin.com/in/drveronicaanderson/ https://www.facebook.com/drveronicaanderson/ https://twitter.com/DrVeronicaEyeMD?lang=en https://www.pinterest.com/drveronicaeyemd/?eq=dr.%20veronica&etslf=14837 https://www.instagram.com/drveronica/?hl=en   Recommended Books: Jennifer Fugo: The Savvy Gluten-Free Shopper- http://amzn.to/2ogW8i1   Discussed: 9 Homemade & Store-bought Gluten Free Breads - http://eatbettergfbread.com/   Show Notes: 01:50 - Is gluten free a weight loss program? 02:45 - Developing gluten symptoms   07:00 - Gluten sensitivity 3-day cure 09:30 - Why Jennifer started the Gluten Free School 14:00 - Severe IGG sensitivity to eggs 15:00 - Celiac disease vs. gluten sensitivity 16:55 - Non-invasive Celiac test 18:00 - Leaky gut and digestive repair 23:00 - The issue with the food supply in America 29:30 - What is Certified Gluten Free? 31:00 - Biggest tips when transitioning to gluten free 35:52 - Gluten free products and companies 40:00 - Ordering food at PF Chang's restaurants 49:00 - Finding the right practitioner 52:00 - Eating GF free bread _______________________________ Dr. Veronica Anderson is an MD, Functional Medicine practitioner, Homeopath. and Medical Intuitive. As a national speaker and designer of the Functional Fix and Rejuvenation Journey programs, she helps people who feel like their doctors have failed them. She advocates science-based natural, holistic, and complementary treatments to address the root cause of disease. Dr. Veronica is a highly-sought guest on national television and syndicated radio and hosts her own radio show, Wellness for the REAL World, on FOX Sports 920 AM “the Jersey” on Mondays at 7:00 pm ET.   If you enjoyed this episode, do us a favor and share it! Also if you haven’t already, please take a minute to leave us a 5-star review on iTunes and claim your bonus here!   Want to regain your health? Go to http://drveronica.com/ Transcripts Female VO: Welcome to the Wellness Revolution Podcast, the radio show all about wellness in your mind, body, spirit, personal growth, sex, and relationships. Stay tuned for weekly interviews featuring guests that have achieved physical, mental, and spiritual health in their lives. If you'd like to have access to our entire back catalog visit drveronica.com for instant access. Here's your host, Dr. Veronica. Dr. Veronica: Welcome to another episode of Dr. Veronica's Wellness Revolution. It's hot where I am today. It's humid and me and my guest are having bad hair days. This is why you say, "Dr. Veronica, you don't look as good as you usually look."  Jennifer: Bad hair day. Dr. Veronica: But you're not looking at us because we have good hair or bad hair you are listening to the Wellness Revolution because you need knowledge about a particular subject. So I'm going to talk about a subject today with my guest. We're going to talk about gluten once again. Why am I going to hit gluten again? Because there's so much everything going around with the gluten. So much everything that I can't talk to enough people.  Why? Because there's myths, there's facts, there's different ways to go about it. And if you are struggling with figuring out, "Can I do this? How do I do this?" The more people that you hear, you might hear that piece of information that helps you get on the road because this is crucial to your health. Let me say one other thing about this. Although a lot of people go gluten free because they want to lose weight, this is not why we do the program. Going gluten free is not a weight loss program. Pure end of the discussion. So if you think I'm going off gluten because I want to drop a lot of pounds, go ahead off of gluten.  But if you can keep gluten in your eating plan I recommend that you do it because that group of foods has particular nutrients in it. And if you're not gluten sensitive you should keep eating them. Not excessively but everything, pretty much unless you have a sensitivity you should be in your eating plan.  Having said that I would like to introduce to you the founder of the Gluten Free School. How about that? The Gluten Free School where you can go and learn how to do this. It's a little bit more. Now we have a school about it. Jennifer, oh my gosh. I always come across this. Jennifer Fugo? Jennifer: Yes, Fugo.  Dr. Veronica: People have these names and everybody tells me I'm very good at pronouncing people's names. But Jennifer Fugo? Jennifer: Fugo... My family's name got shortened on Ellis Island so... Dr. Veronica: So Jennifer Fugo, Gluten Free School. We're going to talk... But instead of me telling you all her accolades I want you to hear her story about how she founded the Gluten Free School. Jennifer, welcome to the Wellness Revolution and jump right in and just start talking to the viewers about where you started on this gluten free journey. Jennifer: First I want to thank you so much Dr. Veronica for the invitation to come on your show and get to educate people about this because I know that where I started I had never heard of gluten before. And I come from an Italian... I just mentioned my name got shortened on Ellis Island. My great grandparents came here from Italy. We still have relatives that we're connected to in Italy. There's a lot of traditional things about my... I never heard of gluten. I was like, "What, gluten? What is that? Glue?" I had no idea. Dr. Veronica: It is like glue. Jennifer: Right, it is. More like breads and all sorts of things because of the nature of the protein. But I think a lot of people come at this from reading things online that are incorrect, and sometimes make them afraid to eat. That sort of what happened to me. I was 27 when I was actually diagnosed with non-celiac gluten sensitivity which is different than celiac disease. And we can certainly talk about that if you haven't talked about that before.  I had terrible brain fog. I couldn't remember things. I had acne. I had round rashes on my arms and on my legs. I would sleep for 9 to 12 hours a day and I still couldn't get up. So my husband would have to shake me and pull me out of bed and I still could've taken a nap in the afternoon. And then I was just so fatigued.  I have these digestive problems that I just thought were normal. How many of us are like, "I have stomach problems. It's natural. Whatever." It wasn't. I would get diarrhea all the time. I had terrible gas. I know people start to chuckle. They're like, "Oh my gosh, she's going to talk about this." But if I don't talk about it who's going to talk about it.  My gas actually smelled so bad that my husband got to a point where he didn't want to be around me. It's funny but it's not funny because can you imagine if you're in a business meeting, or you're with family or friends, so you're trying to hold that in and it causes stomach pains and all sorts of problems.  Occasionally we get constipated but my issues with gluten were more of the spectrum of just diarrhea. Like in the middle of a meal I'd be running to the bathroom five, six, seven, eight times, doubled over in pain. I had to go now or I would have had an accident, like bathroom emergency. And so I really didn't know that any of this was abnormal because I'd had it so long. And what I also didn't know that was connected to this was that I had chronic headaches since I was a teenager. So I've been taking Tylenol for a very long time. And about a year period I had gained almost 20 pounds despite being a total gym rat and trying to eat really well, eat organic, whole grains, and all that stuff. I had kept putting on weight that I couldn't get rid of and I felt very puffy.  Bloated, yes, but it was more just all over. It's just an all over puffiness that no matter how much I exercised, no matter how much I tried to diet, the needle wasn't going in the direction I wanted it to ahead. It kept going up and I was starting to get really concerned that something... I'm like, "Did I break me? What's going on? I'm so out of control and I don't know what to do." I've tried everything that I think I needed to do like cutting calories, and watching my fat intake, and doing all of these... and it just wasn't working at all. Anyway, after going through a rigmarole of doctors and things and they didn't know what was wrong I landed in a nutritionist's office and she looked at my diet and said, "Have you ever heard of gluten? And do you know what gluten sensitivity is?" And I was like, "No, no clue. You have to enlighten me." This is full disclosure that is not the case with everyone. My journey is my own and I don't want people to think, "I have all these symptoms the same as Jen. So if do what she does I'm going to feel magically better in three days." That's not true. Some people it takes longer than that. But my story is that within three days the terrible gas stopped. The explosive diarrhea stopped. The stomach pain stopped. And I just felt overall more with it. That was the initial thing, and after a week I was like... even my husband said something's different. We did blood spot testing and it turned out that I had not just sensitivity to gluten, I have an even more severe reaction to eggs. And I'm also sensitive to the casein protein which is found in all dairy products including goat, or sheep, or anything else. The cashew family, the cruciferous family, I had a lot of things that I had to take out of my diet.  Again, I mentioned, I didn't put together the pieces that the headaches were connected, or the weight gain was connected, or the fact that I was getting sick about every six weeks with whatever cold or flu or bug that was going around. I didn't know that all these things were connected to what was happening in my digestive system. And by taking them out my life changed.  If you go to my website you can see a before and after picture and it's not one of those things where you're like, "Is that person sucking in?" I'm not sure, the lighting's hard to tell. I look very different. I looked so different at that point that I had friends that I haven't seen in about a year who are like, "Are you okay? You look so different than I'm used to seeing you. Are you sick? What's going on because I lost a lot of weight."  My husband and I hadn't put it together until he happened to be... he was on Photoshop going through photos that we were taking on our trip and have those two pictures up side by side and he was like, "Now I know why people think you look different." It takes time, number one. But when I went gluten free back in 2008 when all this happened to me there was some books they weren't that great. I was given three websites. "Best of luck. I'll talk to you in eight weeks." And I had to figure it out myself.  And so the whole point of founding Gluten Free School, and I also want to share too. I'm not just coming at this from what my experience has been. I worked for 10 years for my father who's an MD and a surgeon, an ophthalmologist just like yourself. And so I worked right with patients with him. I have a lot of experience first-hand of what patients go through, not just for myself but also what a patient goes through when they go to the doctor's office. I understand a lot about that. And then I decided to go back and become a certified health coach because I wanted to help people with their diet. And now I'm in the process of finishing my final semester of Masters in Nutrition program. I'm so excited. I'm almost close to [Unintelligible 00:10:38] done that. And I actually just started an internship yesterday with a functional medicine doctor. I have continued to take this very seriously because I understand that there's an incredible knowledge gap. And it can seem so daunting and so impractical, and so inconvenient, and so hard, and so expensive, and we could go on and on and on about all the barriers that prevent people from actually making this lifestyle change. The reason that Gluten Free School exists is not only just to educate people but to empower them to make better choices to be able to talk to their doctors with confidence. And to also know that the decisions that they're making aren't nuts, that they're practical for their own lives, that you don't have to go broke doing this, and that you can be incredibly happy and incredibly satisfied living a life that happens to be gluten free. And by the way it benefits your health if that's what you need. And I agree with you, you shouldn't ever do this diet just to lose weight. Just because that was my experience does not mean that that's going to happen for everyone. It does not mean that everybody's migraines are going to away if they go gluten free or any number of things. There are maybe other... For me I had multiple food sensitivities. I have gut issues that needed to be resolved. So it's not a quick fix. It's not a miracle. It's not some heaven sent thing. Yes, people who are sensitive to it are going to experience changes but I'm also very cautious and pragmatic about how I talk about this because there are a lot of emotional implications. There's a lot of stuff that frankly sucks especially when you're dealing with family and friends that don't care about how you're eating now and it's an inconvenience to them about dining out and all that stuff. So I want to make it easy and simple. But I also want to make sure that people feel happy and satisfied in their lives. And that the diet isn't going to drive you nuts. Dr. Veronica: Let's sort of transition, and I always like to add on a little bit to what people say because everybody brings out a little bit of different nuggets. And so first of all when you went to a professional because you didn't know what was going on. And so now gluten free and everything is all over the place so people may want to say, "I don't want to go to a professional. I just want to do it myself. There's more resources out there." However, let me just point out one piece of your story that was quite important, you found out you were sensitive to gluten but this, and this, and this, and this too. And that's what happens with people, sometimes people go off gluten and they have sensitivities in other areas. And they say, "I went gluten free and it didn't work." They may be the persons that are not sensitive to gluten.  I say that in that you ended up finding out not only is it gluten, it's all these other things too. And I have all these other things affecting my digestion, and that's a completely different issue than just I'm sensitive to gluten.  Jennifer: Right. And Dr. Veronica to add to that, remember I said I took gluten out. That first week I was like whoa, it's different. The thing was I kept getting really sick, like that explosive, painful diarrhea, like everyone once in a while I can't figure out what it was. I was like, "I don't have any gluten in my diet. I don't know why this is still happening." I want to tell her that I feel better and maybe it's gluten, maybe it's not.  If I was doing this on my own I might have concluded that I kind of feel better but not 100%. It turns out and I didn't know this until I got those blood results back that I have a severe sensitivity and IgG sensitivity to eggs. And I eat a lot of eggs. And the last time I ever ate eggs which I remember because I still to this day, that was 2008 I still have not eaten eggs.  I had egg salad with mayo in it and I got so sick that I thought I was having a heart attack. I was at the gym working out and I was jamming my fist into my stomach because I was like oh my gosh, and it started here. I could feel the pain moving down and I need to go home, I need to go home. And part way home I had to pull over the car because I thought I was going to pass out. I was in so much agonizing pain. It goes to show you, and you're right, that's a very good point to make and to clarify for people that if you go it alone it can be a real challenge to pinpoint exactly what's going on. And then also too, and this is one my biggest regrets, my practitioner never told me what celiac disease was. And celiac disease is different than being sensitive to gluten, because celiac disease is an autoimmune disease. So there's a lot more implications if you have an autoimmune reaction to something. So I never got tested.  So could I go and get genetic testing now to find out if I have one of the two or both of the celiac genes? Sure. At this point [Unintelligible 00:15:48]. But I'm not going to go any gluten for six weeks in order to get an endoscopy with a biopsy. That's considered the gold standard. I would advise somebody if you're going to go it alone just be aware, if you find gluten bothers you you got to go back to a gastroenterologist and find out if you have an issue beyond just being sensitive to gluten. Because having celiac disease predisposes you to developing other autoimmune conditions.  Like Hashimoto's thyroiditis for example, you're four times more likely to develop Hashimoto's. So most people who develop one autoimmune disease are more likely to end up with multiples. And that's not good. That's a state where you're body's attacking itself. So my biggest regret, that's why I say to people, it's not good to go this alone is that you can end up being in a state of uncertainty for a very long time. And that can catch up with you down the road if you don't do it the right way. I always think the most efficient way to do it is the right way from the get-go, not have to figure it out later on when there's a huge problem.  Dr. Veronica: One thing I just want to clarify for people, you said the only way to get diagnosed with celiac is to get an endoscopy. There are other tests that you can get that are not invasive now, that are very, very predictive of it. If you have one of these sensitivities then you have to go to a doctor. And it's not usually a gastroenterologist. It's usually a functional wellness specialist type doctor that's going to know, "Okay, we need to get this or that to figure out whether or not you look like you have celiac versus you don't have celiac." And so understand there are other ways to test this other than cleaning yourself out and having somebody scope you. Because I know that prospect will scare people right away. There are many invasive ways that are not painful to figure it out and then you could be on the road. And you want to know, because if you're feeling miserable you're making yourself sicker, and autoimmune diseases have all kinds of ugly complications including organ failure. So you don't want to just do it.  And let me just say, the number one cause of these autoimmune disease are food sensitivity. Food sensitivity is what's causing a lot of this so you have to understand what you're sensitive to. Let's talk a little bit more as we're talking about gluten some of the big terms right now. You mentioned one of them. I see it a lot of time, leaky gut.  I talked to people about leaky gut, and whenever I see somebody like Jennifer, their tests come back after I do testing, and they're sensitive too. There's 90 foods tested, they're sensitive to 80 of them. I don't say, "Stop eating everything." I say, "They have leaky gut and so therefore we have to do  a digestive repair." And there's a particular protocol for that. That's what I say. You're sensitive to everything, leaky gut. Jennifer, in layman's terms to the audience tell people what I just and why I said it from your perspective. Jennifer: Essentially from my perspective as well, to give people a little bit more of clarity. If you go to a regular doctor and you say, "I think I have leaky gut." They're going to be like, "You have what? What is that? Excuse me? That's not a real thing."  You'd want to use the term gut permeability because that's the correct medical term for it. And there actually is a lot of data out there and a lot of research around gut permeability. One really interesting study that came up recently, and maybe I'll talk about this in a moment after I explain what leaky gut is just in layman's terms. But there is a lot of interesting research as you said to go back to that whole thing about autoimmune disease. That food sensitivity specifically gluten actually play a huge role in altering what can essentially stay within your digestive track and what sneaks out into your body. Realize that you're digestive system, that tube if you want to think it as a host, so the stomach to the small intestine, to the large intestine, etc., technically the outside of your body. Even though we think of inside it's the outside. And that hose there's only one cell layer of thickness that constitutes that host. So you've got one cell layer that's preventing you from getting exposed to bacteria, parasites, viruses, food particles, all sorts of things.  What can happen with gluten, and actually this is the study that I was talking about. They said they took three different groups of people, three or four actually. They took people with celiac disease, individuals who were I believe gluten sensitive and then healthy individuals who reacted not at all to gluten. And they exposed them all to gluten and looked at the gut permeability. That means essentially could particles pass from the host into the body. They shouldn't be able to do that. That's not actually good. In all cases, no matter whether you are healthy or not gluten increased the permeability of everybody's digestive track, AKA, the hose. Dr. Veronica: I'm going to reiterate this. I want to reiterate this. I'm familiar with the study obviously and I heard one doctor say it at a conference gluten will eventually get everybody. Gluten will eventually get everybody. What Jennifer told you, here's what the study says, what the bottom line is gluten will get you even if you're not sensitive today, ultimately you will begotten.  There's three groups of people here. You have celiac disease, you have a genetic predisposition. You're never going to be able to handle it. Horrible for a gluten. Then there's other people who just are more sensitive. Their system's more sensitive and it gets turned on. And those depended usually. And so if you're eating less you might not even realize that it was gluten.  I'm one of those people. I'm sensitive to wheat. I never even realized it because I didn't have a ton of wheat in my diet. So I never realized what was happening. I couldn't put it together. There it is. Because I eat it today three days later is when you're having a problem.  Group number two, sensitive, they go from people like me who it's relatively mild, to the Jennifer's of the world who, oh my god, you can't even stand in a room with her when she eats wheat. And then there's the third group of people that they have the iron stomach, and the iron stomach means they can pretty much take everything they're not really sensitive. But what we found is in all of these people, even in the people with the iron stomachs who are not sensitive, it will begin to breakdown their digestive system if they eat enough of it. And so people have to understand you eat too much gluten eventually it will get you. And this is why if you're somebody who you noticed over the years has gotten worst, and worst, and worst, this is how food sensitivities work. And that's what happens to the iron clad people. Gluten will get everybody and especially in this country, where it's genetically modified. And so let's go into the segue about what you know about the food supply here. You talked about traditional versus non-traditional. This is important in you schooling people. Talk about that Jennifer. Jennifer: I guess the issue with the food supply, I have a lot of friends at work in the food industry. One thing that I came to learn as a result of their deciding to start food companies was that our food supply is inundated with wheat. There's wheat everywhere. It's in most factories. They find wheat or contamination of gluten.  By the way, just to be clear with everyone, gluten is not necessarily wheat. It can be other gluten-bearing grains. You have wheat, you have barley, and rye. Oats are an example of a contaminated grain. Spelt is a form of wheat. Farro, einkorn, those are all forms of wheat.  And so unfortunately you can't just pick a product off the shelf that isn't more gluten free and look at the ingredients on the back. Let's just pretend it's nuts for example. You're at the grocery store and you want to pick up a package of nuts. People will see maybe a warning on the back that'll say, "Made in the same facility that contains wheat, eggs, dairy, soy..."  They don't legally have to disclose that information to you. That's something that a company will put on the back of the product. But the reason they do that is because wheat is just everywhere, and so is gluten. And it becomes a problem for people who are not just allergic to wheat itself but also people who are sensitive to gluten, people who have celiac disease and other autoimmune diseases. It's important to understand this is where the knowledge gap really becomes quite apparent with people. Consumers especially don't understand any of this. They think that this was made in a facility that is sterilized and clean so there shouldn't be any risk of gluten being in this because it's rice. Unfortunately if the bag of rice isn't marked gluten free believe it or not there's about a 30% chance that that rice is contaminated with gluten. There was a study done of gluten free grains that were tested for gluten contamination. This was several years ago and they found that about 32% of those grains have gluten in them because they were exposed or contaminated at some point along the way. It's why if you go gluten free and you're still going to eat oats you have to find oats that are certified gluten free. Because the processing that goes on, it's typically on same equipment. The fields are usually, oats and wheat are side by side. So there's a lot of issues with that. And no, Quaker Oats, unless they're marked certified gluten free are not gluten free. I've had friends actually test them with testing kits, they're not gluten free.  So it's important to understand, you think that a sterilized facility is going to eliminate your gluten problem, that's not true. And that's actually not the case of your kitchen either. Because gluten can hide in a number of different areas like cutting boards, toasters, pasta strainers. We think that we just do a once over and it's good. "I'm just going to brush off the cutting board after I cut some bread and I'm going to make my gluten free whatever." That's not how this works. Gluten's not a virus. It's not bacteria. You can't cook it away. You can't just brush things off and say, "It looks clean. I don't see any gluten. There's no crumbs." It actually only takes a very small amount to make most people sick. A small crumb actually is the amount that it takes to make people sick. So it's important to understand the ins and outs not only in your own kitchen but also what happens in the food industry. It forces you essentially to become your own advocate not just for your health when you go to the doctor's office, but additionally when you go to buy food.  And so one thing that I advise people of just to keep things simple, to keep your sanity is to buy foods that happen to be gluten free. There's plenty of healthy gluten free... because if you're sitting here thinking, what can I eat. Gluten's in everything. There's a lot of food that's gluten free. The problem is when it's packaged.  The first thing I always tell people, and Dr. Veronica I'm sure you're a big fan of this. I tell people when you go to the grocery store the first spot you should go is to the wall of green along the one side and fill your cart with that. Don't go to the fruit section. Don't head into the cereal aisle or the packaged fruit area, go to the wall of green and start eating real fruit. Vegetables more so than fruit, but you want to have a variety of different colors in your diet. Those items are all gluten free naturally. You can have poultry, you can have fish, you can have beef, you can have all sorts of meats, eggs. Most dairy, you just have to be kind of careful with yogurts and stuff that's, again, very processed. And nuts, seeds, legumes, and there are gluten free grains. There's plenty of them out there. There are plenty of gluten free products as well. It's just important that you look for a gluten free label. If you're a celiac you should look for certified gluten free because there is always that issue that nobody's regulating the gluten free claim that is made on packaged products. It's required by the FDA that a product test under a specific threshold in order to qualify as gluten free, and that threshold's 20 parts per million. That said unless the FDA gets enough complaints that people have gotten sick, which is what happened with Cheerios, they don't do anything. They're not randomly going and testing the company or saying, "Hey, are you checking where your ingredients came from?"  That's why certified gluten free is always better because there's a protocol in place. They're actually testing those products to be 10 parts per million, sometimes five, sometimes three parts per million. They do it regularly. They check the batches. They find out if the raw ingredients are gluten free. They store them in a particular manner that makes sure that there's no cross circulation of air, believe it or not.  Because think about it, a flower floats through the air that doesn't contaminate the ingredients, it doesn't contaminate the equipment. And that if it is processed, and I would tell people don't flip out if something is made on the same equipment as other things that are made with wheat because if it's certified gluten free they, number one, have to make sure that the equipment is really cleaned appropriately. And number two, they're testing the batches. There's accountability there's all that stuff. And yes, every once in a while there's a recall. It's not often but as with anything in life. So that's why you want to focus your diet around real food. And if you want to indulge in a gluten free food product once in a while that's alright. It's not the end of the world. But I believe that real food is the best way to go. Plus, if you've been sick for a long time you want to get the most bang for your buck with nutrition. And frankly there's a lot more nutrition in real food than there is in something like processed rice bar. Dr. Veronica: Okay. Let's talk about you have particular tips that I think are just excellent for people to think about. You ran over some of those tips as you were talking but let's go through the few pointers that you like to tell people, when you're going gluten free here are some tips that I want you to think about ahead of time. Not just looking at the gluten, you've talked about the certified versus the not certified rate. What other tips do you tell people when they're going gluten free? Jennifer: My number one rule that goes with that is don't be a food detective. You're not Food Babe. I know everybody's like, Food Babe, she helped us find yoga mat material in our Subway sandwiches. That's all well and good but you can't find gluten in your food. I'm sorry. It does not work. You can't scan an ingredients list... Dr. Veronica: I'm in multiple of these very large gluten free Facebook groups and I cannot tell you, it angers me so much that people keep posting up pictures of the product with the ingredients and they're like, "Do you think this is safe?" I'm like, "I'm sorry. Do any of us work for these companies? I don't know what's in this. I don't know how it was processed. I don't know anything." Maybe the garlic was contaminated with gluten. Maybe the pasta sauce was contaminated with gluten because of [Unintelligible 00:32:11]  Dr. Veronica: I really think rule number one, because... Jennifer: Don't be a food detective. Dr. Veronica: You hit a pain point for me with the Facebook groups. You have to realize being a physician who has holistic, real education and clinical experience, real, not just my experience of one, I go into these groups and it's a peer-to-peer. And I see the reason why you're sick is because you're listening to your peer and not somebody who really knows something. Jennifer: Correct. Dr. Veronica: Rule number one should be don't get your advice from Facebook. You need support but you need to invest some time into getting advice from people who really have some knowledge and background. So rule number one is going to be don't get your advice from Facebook. What's the matter with you? Jennifer: Correct, I agree with you. Dr. Veronica: Number one, don't be the food label. Number two, let's go and see some more. Jennifer: Number two, do not buy from bulk bins. Even if you're like, "Oh, but it's rice but it's nuts." You don't know where the spoon was put. You don't know if they were cleaned. You don't know anything. So no bulk bins unless you go into a dedicated gluten free grocery store. You have to swap out your cutting board, any utensils. And yes, if you have bamboo or whatever, anything that's wooden, wood-like has to go. You cannot use it anymore. If you're going to do a toaster you got to get your own that's separate from the other toaster. You can't clean it. There's no way. It's not worth it.  And a pasta strainer is non-negotiable, unless it's one of those really nice ceramic ones where it doesn't have little tiny crevices. I would just say you got to get new ones because you're never going to be able to clean all those little nooks and crannies if it's like a wire or even a plastic one. As far as condiments are concerned you have to have your own condiment jars. Here's the thing. If you're family is willing to do this with you and get onboard that makes life a whole lot easier, because then you're just buying one of everything and everyone is agreeing within the household to just keep it gluten free. And that's cool and that's usually the easiest and the best way to go. And when everybody goes out they can eat whatever they want. The gluten free person eats gluten free and you can have a hamburger with a bun fine.  But if people are not willing to do that you have to have multiple condiments. You have to have ones that are marked for gluten free only and ones for everybody else. You cannot even share those squeeze bottles because if you actually watch people with squeeze bottles they touch the bread. So those bottles are contaminated so you can't use those. Again, you have to get all new condiments any time the knife goes in new condiments. So it's got to be brand new peanut butter, brand new jam, brand new whatever. And make sure they stay gluten free only. You want to pay attention to body care products and especially lip products. Because ladies, Dr. Veronica, you know that you're eating your lipstick. I eat my lipstick. We all know we're all eating lipstick and it's very common that gluten is added to lipstick to keep the... It's like a binder as you said. It's like glue. It helps hold things together. Dr. Veronica: That's the question about that when you're talking about those products. What should people be looking for on the label to know whether or not it's okay. Because you... Jennifer: You really can't. Dr. Veronica: ...and I can't tell... This is what I tell to people. People say, "What should I buy and how do I know it's good?" I said, "Listen, I don't know. And so I know you don't know." If you think you know that's fine but I can't figure out this so you can't figure out either. What do you tell people? Nobody wants to go like [Unintelligible 00:35:56], so what do you tell people about it? Are there products that are better or...? Jennifer: Yes. There are products and companies that do serve these... We're considered a specialty group, right? Anybody' that's looking for vegan cosmetics, or gluten free cosmetics, or allergen free cosmetics, any of that kind of stuff you're a specialty group. And yes, there are companies that help work with us and are willing to go that extra mile. That means that you really need to do some research. As far as I'm not the best resource for what makeup has gluten free in it but there is somebody who is. I don't know her name but her website is glutenfreemakeupgal.com. And she is constantly reviewing stuff.  I'll use Red Apple Lipstick. They're really good. I apologize. There's a bunch of companies, like I don't even know their names anymore that will send me stuff and I'll use. But I'm mainly concerned with what goes on or around or in my mouth. Anything dental I want to make sure my toothpaste is gluten free. My floss is gluten free. My mouthwash is gluten free. Lipstick, ChapStick, lip balm. I'm not personally so concerned with all the rest of my face like foundation and all that stuff because I don't react to it. Some people have that issue where they do. And so for them it's important to go all out. That said with body care products I do have to use gluten free shampoo because my scalp gets incredibly scaly when it's exposed to gluten. There are a few companies now that do offer really great gluten free body care products, Mineral Fusion is one. There are two companies that have certified their products as gluten free. Jason has a whole line that's certified as does Avalon Organics. They were actually the first two body care products ever to get certified. Dr. Veronica: Alright, I'm familiar with some of those... Jennifer: Yeah, and they're sold at Whole Foods and you can buy them on Amazon if you're not in your Whole Foods. These aren't crazy wackadoo companies. They're major brands. Nature's Gate is another good one. Kiss My Face is another good company as well. There's a lot of companies now that they're offering this.  And you also want to be careful of sunscreen because sunscreen does run down your face. You don't realize if you're rubbing it on who on earth goes to wash their hands after putting on sunscreen? Nobody. Actually I do have a list of gluten free sunscreens on my website that I posted a few weeks ago that I personally called the companies.  I checked the list that were old because everyone was referencing these lists from 2005 and I was like, that seems kind of old. I should call these companies. And I came to find that 85% of those lists were wrong. They weren't correct. I have an updated list of all the companies that I personally contacted, that I spoke to somebody, or I got an email back explaining exactly what they did. That's up on my website. You have to be careful of supplements, over-the-counter drugs, and prescription drugs. So you need to speak, if you are gluten sensitive or you have celiac, you've got to avoid gluten, you have to tell your pharmacist every single time like, "Hey, can't have gluten. Does this have gluten in it?" Remind them because sometimes they'll change the formulary. Sometimes they'll change suppliers. There can be all sorts of problems.  Your doctor's not going to know that you're now gluten sensitive. Dentists actually are a lot better about it than traditional doctors because they're operating in your mouth. And so yes. Gloves are safe. Powdered gloves are okay. I actually called because of my dad, I thought, "Oh my gosh, all those powdered gloves," and I was wearing the powdered gloves, and I thought I was getting gluten on my hands. And it turns out that they're well aware of it. And so it's cornstarch. If you have a corn allergy just FYI, powdered gloves have cornstarch on them. Dr. Veronica: So true. There's a couple of other things that you talk about like being aware of pet treats and things like that. And also if you're gluten free to make sure you do your gluten free cooking first. And so that's a great thing. Remember if you're making multiple meals. But some other type of stuff that's going on out here are for instance going to restaurants and apps and things like that. First, apps, what do you say about apps that help people with a gluten free lifestyle? Jennifer: Apps can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. They are great because they give you options and it helps narrow down your search especially in whatever area you're in, whether it's your local area you're traveling. The downside is that they're crowd sourced. So just like you don't like Facebook groups it's sort of a similar situation that you have all these people who don't know how to dine out, going to restaurants, don't know how to ask the right questions, or just simply don't know what to ask at all.  And then posting up the reviews, saying, "Oh my gosh, that food was amazing. The fries were fantastic." I'll show up to the restaurant and I'll be like, "Do you have a dedicated fryer? Do you have this? Do you use that?" And then I'm like, "That review is completely wrong. The fries aren't safe. Why are these people saying this is safe?" Because they don't know.  You have to take the apps and any reviews with a total grain of salt and do your own homework. And to be honest with you I train clients on how to dine out. Because once you know how to do it it's a lot easier. But it's not as simple as just going and like, "I need gluten free." That's not enough to ensure that you're [Unintelligible 00:41:39]  Dr. Veronica: When you say double and triple check your meal what do you mean by double and triple check your meal? How do you do that? Jennifer: When a waiter comes to your table with your meal you say, "Wow, that looks great. That's gluten free, right?" And then he'll go, "I think it is." "Okay. Could you double check that with the chef? Can you just double check that I got the right plate?"  The thing that's always a concern is that when restaurants don't serve on different plates... Some restaurants like P.F. Chang's have totally different set of plates that identifies your meal. It separates your meal from the other people's meal at the table. Dr. Veronica: I'm glad you mentioned P.F. Chang's because P.F. Chang’s is great at that, and how do I know why? Because I'm very sensitive to soy. Not all but I don't know what P.F. Chang’s is doing. I would go to P.F. Chang’s I love to taste their food. I love it. And I'd get so sick always. I ate at another Chinese restaurant and eat a little bit of soy and I'd be fine. P.F. Chang’s I feel like I was going to die.  So one day everybody decided they were going to P.F. Chang’s. I'm not going to be the party pooper and say I can't go there. I went. I got their menu that was gluten free, soy free, and I was absolutely fine. They obviously know how to do it. Because before I can tell you eat in that same restaurant I feel like we have to stop on the side of the road like you said because I thought I was going to die. I would have those kind of reactions. Jennifer: There's extra preparations that restaurants will go through. That's why people get mad when their food takes so long to come out. I'm like, you know what, I'm getting a safe meal. I don't care if I have to pay a dollar, two dollars, or three dollars extra. If I know that, number one, I'm not going to be running to the bathroom every 10 minutes, which is by the way embarrassing and humiliating depending on who you're out with. And it just feels awful and you want to go home. So it doesn't make dining out fun.  Number two, if it's safe I'd rather eat safe food if it cost me a little bit extra than complain. I just thing we have to look at the bright side of things in life. I think a lot of people get very negative and skeptical, and they nitpick on things that don't really matter. To me it's more important to have safe food even if it means taking an extra five or ten minutes, or that it costs a little bit extra. I'd rather the restaurant go the extra mile. Dr. Veronica: We mentioned P.F. Chang’s particularly because we have both found whatever they're doing to keep people safe is working. In your experience have you found any other restaurant names that you know that you feel also have a really good protocol to keep people safe, or is it just restaurant to restaurant? Because I found P.F. Chang’s to be in the different ones, they seem to know how to do it. Jennifer: There's a protocol in place that restaurants as a chain will create. Some are certified by consultants to be able to handle gluten free diners like you and I. There's a program through Beyond Celiac. They were formerly called the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness. They have a program called Great Kitchens. And they train restaurants on how to handle gluten and such in the kitchen so that we will get safe food.  In the Philadelphia area The Couch Tomato is a great restaurant to go to. They've been trained. They proudly put emblem of the The Great Kitchen seal because they have to go through a process and keep getting that updated and renewed every so often. They're great. There are some chains that are pretty good about it. I know Maggiano's is really great about it. Dr. Veronica: Oh really? Okay. Jennifer: Seriously, go on a gluten free app like Find Me Gluten Free and start checking things out. They'll usually be marked. They'll tell you if they've gone through The Great Kitchen Program. Let me just give you one quick example. There's a restaurant in Philadelphia called Sazon. They're amazing. It's a Venezuelan restaurant. They're certified gluten free through the The Great Kitchen Program. I thought that because I was ordering something off the menu, this is a while back and it was marked in the gluten free section that it was automatically gluten free. And I didn't have to tell them that I was gluten free. It turns out that what I ordered was fried in a shared fryer. That was the lesson to me, that if you're gluten free no matter where you eat you have to tell them upfront. Even if you see it's marked gluten free next to it, a kitchen has to go an extra mile when they know that you need to be gluten free. The responsibility is on to communicate that clearly, not just to pick something that looks good and call it a day and hope for the best. They're not mind readers.  That was just [Unintelligible 00:46:35] and I've shared that with clients ever since then is to be very clear, be very upfront. The best thing to do is make reservations. Tell the person who takes the reservation, "Hey, by the way we have somebody in our party or I'm in the party and I'm gluten free." Let them know upfront. Try not to dine out at the prime times. Don't go to lunch at noon. Go at 11:45 when they're not busy. Then you're going to get more attention and they're not going to be a rush in the back.  Or if you go out to dinner, depending on where you are just don't go at the prime time. Make a reservation when you can. Be very clear with the waiter upfront. Ask for help if you need it. Talk to the chef if need be. And if you're really just uncomfortable then thank them so much for trying to help you but say, "I'm not comfortable eating this." It is what it is. But there's a lot more restaurants out there that are trying to cater to dietary needs than they were three years ago especially depending on where you live. But again, I don't have any issues traveling anywhere. I traveled on a book tour and I was okay. You can go in any grocery store and find plenty of gluten free food even if they don't have a gluten free section, because what, the whole produce section is gluten free. And so I don't want people to leave this conversation thinking this is like massively hard. So I guess it's like becoming a parent, you got to figure it out. And to be honest with you, it shouldn't take you more than two to three months to get this down. If you don't have the time to do the research then you need to go get help and you need to ask somebody to help you that way you can get it done. Because the longer you expose yourself to gluten the leakier your gut will be. So take it back full circle.  The leakier your gut will be that unfortunately increase your risk as you share Dr. Veronica of increased food sensitivity. So increased reactions, increased being sick, increased autoimmunity, all sorts of things. It's not like, "Oh I ate gluten in this one. I'll wake up tomorrow and be fine." No, it is a process that happens through your body over a series of days, weeks, months. So no one exposure is not just like, "Oops, that was this one meal and now I'm fine." Not like that. Learn how to do it right the first time is the most efficient way and you're going to get better faster. Dr. Veronica: When we talk about doing it right I'm going to tell you from my perspective as a physician and doing coaching, very high level health coaching where I'm helping people with strategic eating and targeted supplement, what is doing it right to me look like?  First of all as Jennifer pointed out, going to somebody who knows how to ferret out the diagnosis in the first place or what's going on or the sensitivity in the first place. This doesn't happen in regular doctor's offices. It just doesn't happen at regular doctor offices. Realize it, deal with it, get over it. [Unintelligible 00:49:36] you're going to have to make an investment of both time and money to find somebody who knows what they're doing.  Why do I say the investment of time? Because people who know about this are just not around every corner so you may have to travel. They invest enough money because those of us who do this realize that insurance is not friendly to anybody who has these issues. And so therefore we don't deal with insurance because they just make life more of a headache and say no, no, no. So upfront instead of dealing with insurances all day we say, "Here's what it's going to be. Here's what we're going to get. And we move in life." So you're going to have to make some type of financial investment. So understand I just upfront want people to know that, if you're not willing to make the investment... First of all you got to make the investment in good quality food. So if you're willing to make the investment in good quality food then you're going to stay sick. That's just the bottom line.  But then expanding your team, so what else does the team look like? Once I've said, "Hey, this is what you're sensitive to and you need to figure out how to do it." And I give you the initial coaching and some initial background. And I've sent you to the computer with every day email about your first day it's been gluten free. And here's your little manual which is... Most doctors you realize they're not doing it on this level. Then you have to find somebody to partner with you who's going to help you do it even better level. And those are people like Jennifer. That's why I say we got to have somebody here to start on the path.  But most of the time a lot of practitioners will say, "You have this. Don't eat this." And then they don't tell you how to do it. And so when I do coaching, which is different than just giving out a diagnosis it's, "Here's how you start down the pathway." But then you have to have partners for life.  You said to me, I know you hate these Facebook groups. No, I don't hate Facebook groups. I think they're very entertaining because there's a lot of misinformation on it. So I don't hate them because they make me laugh most of the time. But on the other side, the more serious side I get concerned that people rather than going to experts, true experts who know...  Listen, I'm not an expert. I'm not authority. An expert is somebody who's self-proclaimed. I have no education, training, and experience. I'm an authority, you're an expert. Stop it with the Facebook experts and get people who have real background authority. Jennifer would be one of those people too because she has some real education and training that backs up her personal experience, and now she's worked with a lot of people. Plus she was in there with that seeing real patients.  If I can't say it anymore, where people fail the most, number one secret is you have to have the right team. Jennifer: You do. Dr. Veronica: People fail. You go to university of Google. You have all the pieces, you've done all the reading, you're a cocktail party expert but yet you can't implement it and you're running to the bathroom every other day. Here we are. Now, here's the good piece about this. Jennifer has a gift. She has her free cheat sheet for her favorite gluten free brands. Everybody goes wild because, "I want to eat bread. I love bread." People are addicted to bread. Jennifer: I know. Dr. Veronica: If you're addicted to bread and think you can't go off of it, that's a neurotransmitter hormonal problem and we need to straighten that out. And then that makes your gluten free journey better.  Let me just say it again. If you feel like you can't give up, and I say give up gluten. And you feel like you want to murder me because I told you to get off of gluten. That means your hormones or your neurotransmitters are out of balance and there's ways through strategic heating and targeted supplements getting back in the balance and then you can do it. But then you're going to go eatbettergfbread.com. You get that free gift from Jennifer. Gluten Free School. If you Google just Gluten Free School, Jennifer's going to come up. I was just surfing the web one day and I just found her. And then we found out we're close to each other geographically and that was pretty cool. Jennifer I thank you. I'm sorry that you were sick in the beginning of your life but it's ended up being a blessing for a lot of people. And so for people like me, I can hand them off to you because I don't want to sit around and talk about gluten all day and all night. Go to Jennifer. What you have, talk to Jennifer. Jennifer: There's tons of free, great content on Gluten Free School. I went through the work and I've compiled everything. I keep it up to date. Like I said, I called the sunscreen companies. You don't have to do that. I believe that if I'm going to give out information it's something that I've referenced, that if I'm going to make a claim there's going to be a scientific reference that's based in real evidence to back things up. Not just something like mouse study and say, this is...  No, we've got to look at this from a real science perspective. If we want to be taken seriously as a community then we need to do the diligence behind, ensuring that the information we're providing people is accurate. And I know people are busy. I know that they don't know all this stuff. They don't have time to go get a master’s degree in nutrition. They don't have time to go and just do everything that you've done Dr. Veronica.  And so I think that's the real big piece to this is being willing to get a team together than help you navigate from point A to point B, my goodness think about all the time you save not being sick anymore. Dr. Veronica: Yeah, that's right. We take our knowledge together. I tell people, "Listen, by the time I've gotten to this point in my career I go... My wheels are turning and those are half a million dollar cogs in there and I'm willing to shortcut and give you my half a million dollars of information. You add it all with other people who have that kind of information that really works. And they get results. Jennifer has all these tools to help you get results in your life. I want to thank you for being on the Wellness revolution, that gluten free is not just a weight loss plan, it's not a weight loss plan. It's a way of life for people who have sensitivities. Thank you Jennifer. Jennifer: Thank you so much Dr. Veronica for having me. I really appreciate it. Female VO: Thank you for listening to the Wellness Revolution Podcast. If you want to hear more on how to bring wellness into your life visit drveronica.com. See you all next week. Take care. 

From Iguaçu Waterfalls to Patagonian Mountains When I think of Evita, I think of "Don't cry for me Argentina" Many many water, falling down down down... Replace skyscrapers with mountains please! Hello there! Hola! Another instalment of Traveling Kit picking up where I left off in Brazil. Starting my journey in Argentina, but it's a big ass country therefore I'm going to break it into two parts. Transition into Argentina began in Puerto Iguaçu where I caught the Iguaçu Falls on the Argentinian side. Check out my previous post for a more in-depth review of Iguaçu Falls! Then it was off to the capital, Buenos Aires, to educate myself with Argentina's history. Moving on, I wanted to get to the southern-most city in the world, but it would take half-a-lifetime to get there from Buenos Aires. Therefore, I broke the trip up and decided to check out Puerto Madryn. And it has been one of the highlights of my trip so far. I cycled to look for sea lions, only to find a forever-alone sea lions chilling by itself at the colony. So I went on a boat to look for more sea lions, and snorkelling with them was a beautiful experience getting up close and personal with them. On top of that, the numerous whales I've seen from Puerto Madryn's promenade as well as up close from the boat. After a pleasant stay in Puerto Madryn, I finally the arduous journey to Ushuaia. With countless hours on different buses, switching buses, and having to go through Chile to get to Ushuaia. I finally got there! Despite the heavy snowfall and gusty winds which obviously was not conducive for hiking and to capture sceneries, good company made up for it. Aside from the weather, it was pretty expensive staying in Ushuaia. Once I've checked the "Been to the southern-most city in the World" box, I left for El Calafate.  El Calafate itself doesn't have much to offer. However, it's not to be missed. Glacier Perito Moreno is simply enchanting. This is not just any block of ice I can assure you of that! Finally, I end off in El Chaltén, the supposed hiking mecca in Patagonia. It was a quiet town and the part about hiking was well justified. I'm a little gutted I forgot to save my pictures of two of my hikes. Despite my brief experience in Finland hiking the icy/snowy trails, hiking here was completely different and more challenging. Yet it was equally rewarding in the end to sit on a rock and enjoy the view.Next stop to Bariloche, further up north of El Chaltén. Look out for the next episode where I will be zig-zagging between Chile and Argentina before heading to Bolivia! Glacier Perito Moreno

Tonight's I will be plotting during the podcast. Participation in the chatroom is welcome BUT don't be an asshole.What does "plot drift" mean? It means I give myself or a guest a prompt and they plot on the fly without any prep. This will open up their thought process and allow you to learn how to explore and build a plot yourself in a very organic way.Once I've exhausted the first try at the prompt - I'll have a guest to bounce more ideas off and Jilly James has volunteered as tribute.You do not have permission to use this plot for your own writing. Period. Extinction by Original Tempushttps://originaltempus.wordpress.com/fanfiction/stargate-atlantis/extinction-part-1-the-return/ Sentience Series by Tarlanhttp://archiveofourown.org/series/9174 Forever Lost by Tarlanhttp://archiveofourown.org/works/221637 Marines to the Rescue! by crimsoncladhttp://archiveofourown.org/works/218320 Double Occupancy by Isishttp://archiveofourown.org/works/662667 High and Tight Verse (NCISS) by thecookiemommahttp://archiveofourown.org/series/15154 Advantage by Resonanthttp://archiveofourown.org/works/59436

Luke Tyburski has designed the past three years of his life to push the limits of what “we” think to be possible. He’s designed an event to test his mental and physical skills over the course of 12 days, which has been named the Ultimate Triathlon. He’s trained for it for 3 and half years. On October 20, Luke will be taking on a never before attempted challenge- a 1250 miles in 12 day swim, cycle, and run adventure from Morocco to Monaco; The Ultimate Triathlon. Show Notes: 8:15: Life as a journeyman in soccer 12:41: Reasoning for doing the ultimate triathlon "Once I've made up my mind that I'm going to do something, that's it, I'm like a steamroller, I just go for it and do everything I need to do to be able to achieve that." 15:44 24:15: Why he feels what he is doing just needs to be done "During endurance sports...your legs and bodies and shoulders are always going to be in pain...but for me, it's...being comfortable with being uncomfortable" 25:54 28:54: Finding the limits and why he wants people to join him on his journey "I think it's less about the miles and more about the challenge and finding the limits" 28:54 30:43: Most difficult moment in his life 37:03: Seeing where his best fit in with others 48:40: One phrase that governs his life 54:38: Dealing with his inner critic 1:04:06: Importance of mindset and mental skills in completing his journey 1:09:19: Defining success "[Success is] being happy knowing that you've done everything you can do" 1:09:25 1:14:12: Defining mastery

Don't tell my wife, but after all these years of her asking if I'd ever consider building new cabinets for our kitchen I'm finally getting around to doing it. Except they're not for the kitchen, and they're not even for our house. Instead, it's a small build for a client. The good news is Samantha shouldn't be too upset by it for two reasons; 1) I'm getting paid to build them, and 2) Once I've built these, I'll know how to build ours even better if we still want to replace the existing ones! In today's episode we're getting started on the construction of a pair of overhead cabinets for my client's laundry room. The case construction is pretty straight forward, and made all that much easier because I'm using a blind rabbet joint which makes assembling them so much easier. As a matter of fact, that's what we'll be discussing and demonstrating in today's episode - milling the blind rabbet joint and then assembling the case from start to finish. Then in the next episode we'll move on to milling and constructing the face frame and the two sets of overlay doors to wrap up the project. Help support the show - please visit our advertisers

Don't tell my wife, but after all these years of her asking if I'd ever consider building new cabinets for our kitchen I'm finally getting around to doing it. Except they're not for the kitchen, and they're not even for our house. Instead, it's a small build for a client. The good news is Samantha shouldn't be too upset by it for two reasons; 1) I'm getting paid to build them, and 2) Once I've built these, I'll know how to build ours even better if we still want to replace the existing ones! In today's episode we're getting started on the construction of a pair of overhead cabinets for my client's laundry room. The case construction is pretty straight forward, and made all that much easier because I'm using a blind rabbet joint which makes assembling them so much easier. As a matter of fact, that's what we'll be discussing and demonstrating in today's episode - milling the blind rabbet joint and then assembling the case from start to finish. Then in the next episode we'll move on to milling and constructing the face frame and the two sets of overlay doors to wrap up the project. Help support the show - please visit our advertisers

One last thing needed to be done before I could start promoting my product on Amazon... I had to decide what my initial sales price would be.  Generally, I would recommend doing that ahead of time...  In any case, once that was done I was ready to launch my PPC campaign(s) and get those first sales rollling in! For the full transcript head to http://brandingblitz.com/9/ or see below. --- Hello again! I'm JR, and you're listening to episode 9 of the Branding Blitz!   Let's go ahead and jump right in here. At the end of episode 8, I mentioned that my products were ready to go live on Amazon. And it's true, the listings were live and the products were available for sale, but there was one last thing I needed to decided before I could start promoting the product.   Believe it or not, I got this far without deciding what price I wanted to start out selling the product for. I had put some consideration into the price I wanted to eventually sell at, but I planned to start at a lower price so that I could build up my sales velocity more quickly and start ranking organically for some keywords so I can get some non-paid traffic.   I mentioned before that the main product is a low priced product which only works because there is such low competition and I can get it so inexpensively. I'll have to do some testing to see what prices the market can handle, but I don't expect it to go above $10. It's a consumable product which I can eventually add variations of with larger quantities and that should be able to sell over $10, but this initial offering probably won't.   I'm okay with that though because my TOTAL product cost including shipping from China, the packaging, the extra business cards I had to get for labels, and shipping to Amazon comes just under 60 cents per unit. So a $10 sale would net about $5.35 cents profit.   All that said, my initial goal is to scoop up as many sales as possible even if I'm only making a marginal profit. Once I'm getting traffic from the regular search results and not just the paid advertising, I'll begin to gradually raise my prices. But I had to figure out where to start at.   I figured a good place to start was by looking at my main competitor. They are merchant fulfilled not FBA – which means it isn't elligible for free shipping. So I took their base price and added their shipping cost to it and tried to just match their price – even though I'm pretty confident my product will be perceived as more valuable.   I ran into a little snag with that plan because at under $6, my product got flagged as an add-on item. Which meant it wouldn't have even been available to purchase at all unless you placed a larger order – I forget if it's $25 or $35... but it doesn't really matter, I didn't want that restriction.   I don't think Amazon has ever clearly defined what qualifies something as an add-on item, but one of the factors is a low price, so I began to play around with the price a bit. Finally I landed at $6.25 per unit. This is less than a dollar more than my main competitor while clearly showing more value because my product is a larger quantity and it was a high enough price that it became prime eligible. So I was confident I would be able to snag some market share at this price.   I set it up so that this was a “sale” price. So it has the “List price” which is marked out and below it is my normal price which is a little lower – that is also marked out. Then finally below that in red it shows the sale price of $6.25 and tells how much money they're saving by getting it at the current price rather than paying full retail.   I net about $2.11 per unit sold at this price, so substantially lower than I'd like eventually, but gives me enough room to do a little bit of lightweight advertising to start generating some sales.   Speaking of generating sales... now that I'd determined what I felt was an optimal starting sale price, I was ready to set up my PPC campaigns. I set up three separate campaigns.   The first campaign I set up was just an automatic campaign. This lets Amazon choose some keywords it thinks are a good fit and start promoting you on those.   The second campaign were the obvious keywords I could think of regarding my product. Think about what you would type in if you were searching for your product. In fact start slowly typing some of those into the search bar on Amazon. They have a predictive text feature which tries to guess what you might be looking for as you type – and sometimes it can give some helpful hints of different things people might type in for your product. Add those to your campaign. Think of different words you could substitute or different ways you could describe the product.   For the third campaign, I went to the Google Keyword Planner. It's a free tool Google provides to help people set up AdWords campaigns. And one of the features allows you to put in a webpage and let Google scan it and decide what it thinks might be relevant keywords. I simply put in the URL for the product listing and downloaded the list of what it came up with and put that straight into the PPC campaign on Amazon.   Some of the suggestions it came up with weren't all that helpful like, “where are the amazon distribution centers,” I doubt anyone is ever going to search that on Amazon and click the link to my product. A bunch of the suggestions were spot on, and some of them were related, but I'm not sure how effective they'll be.   But at this point, you really don't need to do a lot of filtering because the goal of this is to see what keywords are successful and sometimes it's not the main ones you think will be. Sometimes it's the more obscure indirectly related ones that convert especially well.   So I'll run this for a while without filtering out the bad ones. Once I've gotten enough results to see that something is either costing way too much per click or isn't converting then I'll take it out. If something is doing really well I may increase my bid for it – although I think I've got it set where I have a page-one bid for most of the relevant search terms.   It was Friday, July 10th, 2015 when I got this all set up, my first product went live and I began advertising. Within a couple of hours from the time I set up the PPC campaigns, I had received my first sale – I could officially say my new brand had a product selling on Amazon. And I had spent 88 cents on 3 clicks at that point – less than half of my profit margin sounded pretty good when I would have been happy to break even. Later that day I got a second sale and the PPC campaign was still well within ideal limits.   So I ended my first day live having sold 2 units and made a dollar or so on each one. Not quite time to begin planning my retirement, but I have to say it felt like a good start as we headed into my first weekend selling this new product. I was and am anxious to see what the coming days and weeks hold.   I also realized that day that Amazon was promoting July 15th as “Prime Day”. I obviously am not a big enough seller to be included in the sales they're promoting, but it should still garner me some extra traffic since they're promoting this thing so heavily. Should be interesting to see what happens – I'll report back once those numbers are in!In the meantime, there's a full transcript of this episode available on brandingbliz.com/9 I'd love it if you stopped over there and left a comment about the show. I really appreciate your feedback!   Another way you can let me know you're enjoying this show is by letting me know what questions you have about selling on Amazon, sourcing a product, or developing a brand. To do that, head over to brandingblitz.com/ask and leave me a question.     Finally, would you subscribe to the show on iTunes? Each new episode comes with a complete 100% moneyback satisfaction guarantee. And hey, while you're there could you go ahead and leave me a review? I'd really appreciate it!That's it for this show, I'll catch you next time on episode 10 – that's right, we're headed for double digits on episode 10 of the Branding Blitz!

What use is an F-call? As you've heard me talk about making contacts with other countries on many occasions, I thought I'd spend a little time describing what I do when I've actually made the contact. At the moment I'm logging my contact on CQRLOG, it's a Linux based programme that manages each contact, tracks to show if I've uploaded it to Logbook of the World, eQSL and Clublog. I chose those three services based on their functionality and their availability. I won't go into each of them, but combined they allow me to confirm the contacts I've made. Once I've done that I also log into the WIA members section of the Awards system where I upload my contacts. The awards system confirms my contacts with those same three services, Logbook of the World, eQSL and Clublog, to confirm that I have in fact made the contact. There is a ranking system, and if you're into league tables, there is ample opportunity to rank yourself against others. There is even a special section for Foundation Licensees, so you can compare your contact prowess against that of others. For me, it's a place to log what I've done and to keep track of where I'm at. While it's a thrill to be ranked against others, for me it's about my personal achievement. I get the thrill when I make the contact and another one when I see it confirmed. I special mention should go to Marc VK3OHM who spent many emails making sure that the upload actually worked as expected. He helped me figure out that my previous logging software had the grid locator in the wrong field and helped me work out that I needed a later version of CQRLOG to upload to the WIA Awards System, because there was a bug in the one I was using. So, however you keep track of your own progress toward world DX coverage, be it on a piece of paper in a binder, in a notebook or online, I recommend you check out the WIA Awards System. So, where was I, 39 countries towards my QRP DXCC, 5 Watts SSB. More to go. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

I believe the way you start your day determines how it will end; productive and happy, or frustrated and fruitless.  That's why I put so much focus on my morning routine,  which is the foundation of my personal “Productivity Protocol”.  My morning routine is an intentional set of activities designed to set me up for the best possible day. With the right routine in place, I believe we can make our best days better, and perhaps even salvage what might have been a “bad day.” If you are familiar with my work, I have written about this before. But my routine has changed , and I have refined my process. On today's show, I will pull back the curtain on my newly re-engineered morning routine. Also coming up… The Post-It Note ToDo System. Stu McLaren returns. A super-simple copy outline. Now let's get on with it… Announcements: Thanks to all who have left a review of the Ray Edwards Show in iTunes. For more info about the one-day mastermind with me and 11 other people, where we make radical progress in your business… is on. Click this link to make your deposit and application. Conferences where I will be attending and/or speaking: Social Media Marketing World, March 26-28, 2014, San Diego, CA The Launch Conference, April 7-10, 2014, Orlando, FL SCORRE Conference May 5-8, Orlando, FL Tip Of The Week  The Post-It Note Planning System. Lifestyle Business Segment  With Stu McLaren Copywriting Corner This week I share a “super simple copywriting outline”. It goes like this: Headline: How to Get the Thing You Want, In Three Easy Steps Here's the problem, and what happens if you don't solve it… I solved the problem, and here's how… Who the heck am I, and why should you believe me? Introducing my Fancy New Problem-Solving System It's worked for me, for my other customers, and it will work for you… Here's exactly what you get How much it costs, and why it's worth 10 times more I will take all the risk Here's exactly what to do now Sure, there are lots of nuances to writing great copy. But this basic outline will help you quickly write a sales message. I flesh out the process and explain how to use the outline on today's show. Spiritual Foundations I have been accused of being a “hyper grace teacher”. According to this accusation, I have overemphasized the importance of the grace of Jesus Christ at the expense of his Lordship. Of course, I vehemently disagree with this criticism. I recently had a discussion about this for a topic with my friend Frank Viola, and I asked him if he would be willing to join us on the show so we could talk about the controversy over so-called “greasy grace”. To hear this fascinating interview, you'll need to listen to the audio of this week's show. You can find the course Frank mentioned by clicking here. Feature Segment: Create A Morning Routine That Sets You Up For Success The purpose of creating an intentional morning routine is to develop an habitual set of activities to start each day. The way you start the day sets the tone for the way you will finish out the rest of the day. A good routine in the morning will give you momentum for the rest the day, that increases the likelihood for productivity and success. My own routine has gone through considerable evolution over the last few years. Recently, I found my previous routine had become stale and somewhat out of alignment with my current priorities. So I've decided to reengineer it. This new routine will also undoubtedly evolve over time, but this is what I'm doing now, and what seems to be working for me. Get up early. I don't use an alarm clock, but I tend to naturally awaken between 4 and 5 AM. Most days, my day starts at 5 AM. Drink 24 ounces of water. Most of us live in a constant state of mild dehydration. This is bad for your body, and bad for your brain. I intentionally hydrate first thing in the morning. Especially considering the next part of my routine… Drink a cup of Bulletproof Coffee.  This is a blend of organic coffee, high quality MCT oil, and butter, blended into a delightful, flavorful, and creamy beverage. It tastes better than a latte, and  supports the healthy functioning of your brain.  there is a great deal of research about the benefits of Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCT), especially for preventing or alleviating the symptoms of conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. The best part, though, is that drinking Bulletproof Coffee gives me a great jolt of energy and mental clarity and focus. Prayer and mindfulness. This is where, in the words of Brother Lawrence, I “practice the presence” of Jesus. I'm listening for what he has to say to me today. Execute the Morning Reading Process. I'm currently reading nine books simultaneously, and I have written about this process recently. If you'd like to know more about how I managed to read as many as 40 books in a week, refer to this post. Quickly, though, I start by reading the Bible, then a devotional, and follow that up with some kind of theological work. Then I read a chapter in each of the other books I'm currently working through.  Write in my journal. I use the journaling app Day One, a template for each station journal entry that I adapted from one Michael Hyatt wrote about his blog, and usually spend only about 15 minutes journaling. The template is key. Before, whenever I attempted to Journal, I felt as though it was some sort of “artsy crafty” thing and really couldn't get into it. Having a template gives me an intentional set of data and/or thoughts that I want to record each day, and makes the journaling process as easy as filling in the blanks. It also means that later in life, when I refer back to this journal, it will have context and meaning. Plan my day. I still plan my day the night before. Planning tomorrow is the last activity I will do today. However, I have found it is extremely useful to review that plan at this step in my morning routine. I often end up changing the plan, because I have a fresh perspective on the day. While I am a big proponent of David Allen's GTD methodology, I'm afraid I still use a daily task list. I know GTD devotees will be disappointed to hear this, but this is what works for me. Years ago, I learned the “6 Most Important Things” to-do list method from Earl Nightingale (if memory serves correctly.) Robert Plank and Lance Tamashiro teach a system they call “4 Daily Tasks”, which I think is a better refinement of Nightingale's original idea. I simply make a list of “5 Things”. Each day, I have 5 things I want to accomplish, no matter what else happens. I start with number 1 and don't work on anything else until that is done. Then I move to number 2, and so on until I get to number 5. Once I've completed number 5, I am free to do whatever I want for the rest of the day. The key to making the system work is to make sure that they really are 5 “things”, and not 5 “projects”. Exercise.  By this time it is around 8 AM. At least four days out of the week, but ideally seven, I either go to the gym or hit the road for 40 minutes of physical exercise. It's good for your body,  it's good for your brain, and it's good for your emotional well-being. If I don't do it at this point in my day, it becomes much less likely that I will do it at all. Start working on my “5 Things.” Once upon a time, I wrote my 5 Things on a whiteboard, and at the end of the day would take a photo with my iPhone of the 5 Things crossed out. These days I use the Post-it note system I described in the Tip of the Week. I admit that I still cross off the items… but I don't take a picture. I just throw the Post-Its away.  Stop working at 3 PM. This is more of a goal than it is a reality as of this writing. This represents a big change in my modus operandi. But having a hard stop at the end of the day, and making it this early, give me the freedom to engage in other activities that are important to me that otherwise get shortchanged by work. That's my morning routine, and how transitions into the rest of my productivity protocol for the day. It's a new revision, I just started working this routine, and I will update you let you know how it's going somewhere down the line (if you're interested.) What To Do Now If you enjoy the podcast, I would consider it a great favor if you subscribe (and leave a review) in iTunes. This helps new people discover the show. You can also find the podcast on Stitcher. Question:   What is your morning routine, and is it time to reengineer it? Click here to leave your comments.