Podcasts about organizationally

In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, Dan and I explore how organizations can balance productivity with employee well-being through structured breaks and strategic planning. Dan shares insights from Strategic Coach's approach of giving employees six weeks off after three months of work, using Calgary's changing weather as a metaphor for workplace adaptability.  Looking at the British Royal Navy's history, we discuss how its organizational structure relates to modern planning methods. Dean explains his 80/20 framework for yearly planning—using 80% for structured goals while keeping 20% open for unexpected opportunities, which helps teams stay focused while remaining flexible. The conversation turns to a long-term perspective through 25-year frameworks, examining how past achievements shape future goals. Dean shares a story about the Y2K panic to illustrate how technological changes influence our planning and adaptability. We conclude with practical applications of these concepts, from cross-training team members to implementing daily time management strategies. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS We discuss the adaptability of humans to different climates, using Calgary's Chinook weather patterns as an example, and emphasize the importance of taking breaks to prevent burnout, citing Strategic Coach's policy of providing six weeks off after three months. Dean and I explore the planning strategies inspired by the golden age of the British Royal Navy, advocating for a structured year with 80% planning and 20% spontaneity to embrace life's unpredictability. Dan reflects on using 25-year frameworks to evaluate past achievements and future aspirations, noting that he has accomplished more between ages 70 to 80 than from birth to 70. We delve into the importance of discernment and invention, highlighting these skills as crucial for problem-solving and expressing creativity in today's world. Dean talks about sports salaries, noting how they reflect economic trends, and discusses the financial structure of sports franchises, particularly in relation to player salaries and revenue. We touch on government efficiency and cost-cutting measures, discussing figures like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, and the impact of Argentina's President Milley. The conversation shifts to global trends and AI's role in the future workforce, noting the significance of recognizing patterns and making informed predictions about future technological advancements. Dean and I emphasize the importance of weekly and daily time management strategies, suggesting that structured planning can enhance both personal and professional effectiveness. Dan shares his year-end practices, including reflecting on past years and planning for the new year, while also noting his personal preference for staying home during the holidays to relax and recharge. We humorously recount historical events like the Y2K panic and discuss how technological shifts have historically reshaped industries and societal norms. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan. Dan: Mr Jackson, I thought I'd just give you a minute or two to get settled in the throne. Dean: Oh, you see, there you go. I'm all settled, All settled and ready. Good, it's a little bit chilly here, but not you know, not yeah it's a little bit chilly here too. Dan: Yeah, it's a little bit chilly here too. It just shows you there's different kinds of little bits. Dean: Different levels. Choose your chilly. Yeah, that's so funny, are you? Dan: in Toronto. It just brings up a thought that there are people who live in climates where 40 degrees below zero is not such a bad day. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And there are people who live in temperatures where it's 120, and that's not a too uncomfortable day. Dean: Right. Dan: So that's 160 degrees variation. If nothing else, it proves that humans are quite adaptable. I think you're right. I think you're absolutely right. Dean: That's what that shows. I use that example a lot when talking about climate change. We're very adaptable. Dan: Oh yeah, yeah, there is a place in. I looked this up because in Western Canada I think in the Denver area too, they have a thing called a Chinook, and I've actually experienced it. I used to go to Calgary a lot for coach workshops and I'd always, if it was like February, I'd always have to pack two complete sets of clothes, because one day it was 20 degrees Fahrenheit in the morning and it was 75 degrees Fahrenheit in the evening, the morning, and it was 75 degrees Fahrenheit in the evening, and then it stayed. And then it stayed that way for about two days and then it went back to, back to 20. And uh, this happens about, I would say, in Calgary, you know Alberta. Uh, this would happen maybe three or four times during the winter mm-hmm yeah, so so so there? Dean: well, there you go, so are you. Are you done with workshops therefore? Dan: yeah, yeah of strategic coach does the whole office closed down from the 20th and 20th of well yeah 20th was our party, so that was friday night. So we have a big in toronto. We have a big christmas party. You know, we have 80 or 90 of our team members and they bring their other, whatever their other is and not all of them, but a lot of them do and now we're closed down until the 6th, uh, 6th of january. That's great. Yeah, you know what? Dean: a lot of people that's 17 days, that's that's 17 days yeah that's a very interesting thing. Dan: So you know, it's like um so completely shut down as there's nobody in the office nobody, you know there's people who check packages like, okay, yeah, and they live right around the corner from the office, so they just go in and you know they check and, um, you know, and if, um, but no phone calls are being taken, it's like uh company free days. Dean: Is that what it is? Dan: yeah, there. Dean: There's no phone calls being answered, no emails being attended to, anything like that. It's all just shut down. Dan: I'm going to take a guess and say yes. Dean: Right. That's great and that's kind of you know what. One of the things that I've often said about you and the organization is that you are actually like products of your environment. You actually do what you see. Dan: We're the product of our preaching. Dean: That's exactly right Organizationally and individually. Right Organizationally and individually. And when I tell people that new hires at Strategic Coach get six weeks of three days After three months. Dan: After three months. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they don't get any free days for the first three months, but you know, and they pass the test, you know they pass the test. Then in the first year year, they get six weeks, six weeks, yeah, and it's interesting, right? Dean: Nobody gets more. Right, everybody gets six weeks. Dan: Shannon Waller, who's been with us for 33 years. She gets her six weeks and everybody else gets their six weeks, and our logic for this is that we don't consider this compensation OK right, we do it for two reasons so that people don't burn out. You know they don't get, you know they they're not working, working, working, in that they start being ineffective, so they take a break. So they take a break and we give a one month grace period in January If you haven't taken your previous six weeks for the year before. You can take them during January, but you can't carry over. So there's no building up of three days over the years. Right, yeah, if you have, if you don't take them, you lose them. And but the other thing about it that really works one, they don't burn out. But number two, you can't take your free days in your particular role in the company, unless someone is trained to fill in with you so it actually it actually pushes cross training, you know. So in some roles it's three deep, you know they, yeah, there's three people who can do the role, and so you know you know, we've been at it for 35 years and it works yeah, oh, that's awesome dan I was curious about your you know. Dean: Do you have any kind of year end practices or anything that you do for you know, preparing for the new year, reflecting on the old year, do you do anything like that? Dan: I'd probably go through a bottle ofish whiskey a little bit quicker during that period that's the best I'm. I'm not saying that that's required, but sometimes exactly, just observation. Yeah, uh-huh you know, knowing you, like you know you right, yeah, yeah, not that it's noticeable you know I try to not make it noticeable. Uh, the other thing, the other thing about it is that we don't go away for the holidays. We we just stay put, because babs and I do a lot of traveling, especially now with our medical our medical journeys, uh and uh. I just like chilling, I just like to chill. I know, you know I I'm really into, um, uh, historical novels. Right now dealing with the british navy, the royal navy around 1800. So the golden age of sailing ships is just before steam power was, you know, was applied to ships. These are warships and and also before you know, they went over to metal. The boats started being steel rather than wood. And it's just the glory period. I mean, they were at the height of skill. I mean just the extraordinary teamwork it took to. You know just sailing, but then you know battles, war battles and everything Just extraordinary. This is cannons right, yeah. These were cannons, yeah, extraordinary, this is cannons, right? Yeah, these are cannons, yeah, and the big ones had 120 cannons on them, the big ships, right before the switchover, they just had this incredible firepower. And the Brits were best, the British were the best for pretty well 100, 150 years, and then it ended. It ended during the 1800s. Midway through the 1800s you started getting metal steam-powered ships and then it entirely changed. Yes, yeah, but back to your question Now. You know I do a lot of planning all the time. You know I do daily planning, weekly planning, quarterly planning. I call it projecting. I'm projecting more than planning. The schedule is pretty well set for me. I would say on the 1st of January, my next 365 days are 80% structured already. Dean: Yes. Dan: Yeah, and then you leave room for things that come up. You know, one of the things I really enjoy and I'm sure you do, dean is where I get invitations to do podcasts and we tell people you got to give us at least 30 days when you make a request before we can fill it in. But I've had about, I think during 2024, I think I had about 10. These weren't our scheduled podcasts with somebody these? Were. These were invitations, and yeah. I really enjoy that. Dean: Yeah, I do too, and that's kind of a I think you're. This is the first year, dan, that I've gone into the year, going into 2025, here with a 80% of my year locked, like you said. Like I know when my Breakthrough Blueprint events are, I know when my Zoom workshops are, I know when my member calls are, all of those things that kind of scaffolding is already in place right now. And that's the first. You know that's the first year that I've done that level of planning ahead all the way through. You know, going to London and Amsterdam in June and Australia in November and get it the whole thing, having it all already on the books, is a nice that's a nice thing, and now I'm I'm really getting into. I find this going into 2025 is kind of a special thing, because this is like a, you know, a 25 year. You know, I kind of like look at that as the beginning of a 25 year cycle. You know, I think there's something reflective about the turn of a century and 25 year, you know the quarters of a century kind of thing, because we talk about that 25-year time frame, do you? You're right now, though you are five years into a 25-year framework, right, in terms of your 75 to 100, was your 25? Yeah, my guess, my yeah, I didn't. Dan: I didn't do it on that basis I know I did it uh, uh. Um, I have done it that way before, but now it's I'm just uh 80 to 100, because 100 is an interesting number. Dean: Yes. Dan: And plus I have that tool called the best decade ever. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And so I'm really focused just on this. 80 to 90, 80 years old, and when I measured from 70 to 80, so this was about two years before it was two months before I got to my 80th birthday. I created this tool. And I just reflected back how much I'd gotten done. Dean: 70 to 80. Dan: And it occurred to me that it was greater than what I'd gotten done 70 to 80. Dean: Yeah, and it occurred to me that it was greater than what I had done from birth to 80. Dan: Birth to 70. Dean: Birth to 70. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dan: So I had accomplished more in the last 10 years and I used two criteria creativity and productivity like coming up with making up more stuff. And then the other thing just getting lots of stuff done, and so I've got that going for 80 to 90. And it's very motivating. I find that a very motivating structure. I don't say I think about it every day, but I certainly think about it every week. Dean: That's what I was very curious about. I was thinking this morning about the because this period of time here, this two weeks here, last two weeks of the year, I'm really getting clear on, you know, the next 25 years. I like these frameworks. I think it's valuable to look back over the last 25 years and to look forward to the next 25 years. And you and I've had that conversation like literally we're talking about everything. That is, everything that's you know current and the most important things right now have weren't even really in the cards in 2000. You know, as we were coming into you, know, we all thought in 1999, there was a good chance that the world was going to blow up, right y2k. Dan: Everybody was uh some of us did. Dean: I love that but you know, it just goes to show. Dan: Yeah, I thought it was uh right yeah, there was this momentary industry called being a y2k consultant you know computer consultant and I thought it was a neat marketing trick. The only problem is you can only pull it off once every thousand years. Dean: Oh yeah. Dan: Yeah, but there was vast amount. I mean all the big consulting, you know, mckinsey and all those people. They were just raking in the money you know they were out there, All those people they were just raking in the money. Dean: You know they were out there. You know, I think probably the previous five years. Dan: It was probably a five year industry you know they probably started in 1995, and they said oh, you don't realize this, but somebody didn't give enough room to make the change. You know every computer system in the world is um, we forgot to program this in. They're all going to cease to. They're going to cease to operate on. Yeah and then. But all you had to do is watch new year's from australia and you knew that wasn't true, do? Dean: you know what? Uh, yeah, jesse, uh, jesse dejardin, who I believe you met one time, used to work with me, but he was the head of social for Australia, for Tourism Australia. Yeah, and when the world I don't know if you remember in 2012, the world was supposed to end, that was, uh, yeah, a big thing and uh so, that was that, wasn't that? Dan: uh, it was based on a stone tablet. Dean: That they found somewhere. South America, south America, yes, it was yes, peruvian it was uh, that's right, I think it was? Dan: I think it was the inca inca account yeah, yeah mayan or inca calendar. Dean: That's what it was, the mayan calendar. Dan: That's what it was ended in 2012. Yeah, and so jesse had the foresight it actually ended for them quite a bit earlier oh man, it's so funny. Yeah, you don't get much news from the mayan, no, no you say like when they created that mayan calendar. Dean: They had to end it sometime. Would you say something like that listen, that's enough, let's stop here, we don't even keep going forever. Dan: You know what I think the problem was? I think they ran out of stone I think you're probably right. Dean: They're like this is enough already. Dan: They got right to the edge of the stone and they said well, you know, jeez, let's go get another. Do you know how much work it is to get one of these stones? That? Oh yeah, chisel on yeah yeah. Dean: so jesse had the uh, jesse had the foresight that at midnight on Australia they're the first, yeah, to put the thing up. So once they made it past, they made a post that said all it said was we're okay. Dan: We're okay. Dean: You know, it was just so brilliant. You know we're okay. Dan: You know the the stuff that humans will make up to scare themselves oh man, I think that that's really along those lines. I just did a perplexity search this morning yeah and uh. For those who don't know what perplexity is, it's an a really a very congenial ai program and I put in um uh uh 10, um crucial periods of us history that were more politically polarized and violent than 2024. Dean: Okay. Dan: And you know, three seconds later I got the answer and there were 10. And very, very clearly, just from their little descriptions of what they were, they were clearly much more politically polarized and violent than they are right now. Yeah, the real period was, I mean the most. I mean Civil War was by far. Dean: Of course. Dan: Civil War, and. But the 1890s were just incredible. You had, you had a president. Garfield was assassinated in the 90s and then, right at 1991, mckinley was. So you had two presidents. There were judges assassinated, there were law officials, other politicians who were assassinated. There were riots where 200 people would die, you know, and everything like that. And you know, and you know, so nothing, I mean this guy, you know, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare gets shot on the street and everybody says, oh, you know, this is just the end. We're tipping over as a society. And I said nah nah, it's been worse tipping over as a society and I said nah, nah, there's been worse. Dean: Yeah, I think about uh. Dan: I mean you know you remember back uh in the 70s, I remember you know I mean in the 60s and 70s assassination attempts and playing yeah, well, they're hijacking. Yeah, there were three. You had the two Kennedys and Martin Luther King were assassinated within five years of each other. I remember the 60s as being much more tumultuous and violent. Yeah it seems like. Dean: I remember, as I was first coming aware of these things, and I remember, as I was first coming aware of these things, that you know remember when. And then Ronald Reagan, that was the last one, until Trump, that was the last actual attempt right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Dan: You know one thing you got to say about Trump. Dean: Tell me. Dan: Lucky, he's very lucky. Dean: Yes, but in a good sense lucky, no, no, I mean that I think luck is very important. Dan: Luck is very important, you know but, he's lucky, and his opponents, you know. I mean he had Hillary and you know, that was good luck, and Joe turned out to be good luck. You know, Joe Biden turned out to be good luck. And then Kamala was. I mean, you couldn't order up one like that from Amazon and have it delivered to you? Oh man, yeah, I mean, yeah, that you know. And, uh, you know, I mean, you know, the news media were so, uh, bought in. You know that it was like, oh, this is going to be really close. This is, oh, you know, this is going to be razor thin. We may not know for days what the election is. And when Miami-Dade went to Trump, I said it's over. Miami-dade's been Democratic since, you know, since the 70s. You know, Miami-Dade. Dean: And. Dan: I said if Miami-Dade this is like the first thing in this is, like you know, when they start eight o'clock I think it was seven o'clock or eight o'clock. Dean: I'm not sure Eastern. Dan: And they said Miami-Dade has just gone to Trump and I said that's over, I went to bed at nine o'clock. I went to bed at nine o'clock oh man. That's so funny. Yeah, but that's the news media. You know they got, so bought into one side of the political spectrum that they, you know, they were, you know, and I think what Elon is introducing is a medium that's 50-50. You know, like they, they've done surveys of x. You know who, yes, seems to be. You know, it's like 50-50. It's 50 um republican, 50 democratic or 50 liberal, 50 conservative, whatever you know. Uh, you want to do about it, but I think he's pioneering a new news medium oh for sure. Dean: I mean. Well, we've seen, you know, if you look at over the last 25 years, that you know we've gone from nobody having a voice to everybody, everybody having a voice. And I mean it's absolutely true, right Like that's the, that's the biggest. I think that's the. I guess what Peter Diamandis would call democratization, right Of everything. As it became digitized, it's like there's nothing stopping, there's no cost, there's no cost. Dan: There's no cost. There's no cost and there's nothing stopping anybody from having a radio station or having a television station or, you know, magazine, like a newsletter, or any of that thing we've got. In all the ways, it's completely possible for every human to meet every other human. Here's a, here's a question. Uh, I have and uh, I I don't know how you would actually prove it. So it's uh just a question for pondering do you think that the um people were just as crazy before they had a voice as they are after having the voice, or is it having the voice that makes them crazy? Dean: I think it's having access to so many convincing dissenting or, uh, you know voices like I'm talking about the person who's the broadcaster you know they weren't a broadcaster 25 years because there wasn't a medium for doing. Definitely, uh, I think there's definitely a piling on, yeah, of it that I think that you know. If you think about your only access to crazy opinions and I say crazy with air quotes it is was somebody you know in, uh, in your local environment. It's like you remember even in toronto, remember, they had speakers corner. Uh, yeah, sydney tv had speakers corner where you could go and down on uh down on uh cane street queen street down on queen and john queen and John Queen and John Street. I lived about three plus. Dan: Yeah, you never paid any attention to them. I mean you, I just made sure I was on the other side of the street walking, so they wouldn't, try to engage me you know and uh and uh, yeah, so I. So having the capability uh has its own bad consequence, for for some people, yeah, I think so, because the um, you know, I mean you and I couldn't be crazy like this, like we're doing right now. Dean: We couldn't have been crazy like this 25 years ago, but we would have had to just do it together at table 10,. Just yeah, just talk, that's all it is we just let everybody else now hear it? Come listen in. Dan: I don't think we're crazy. I think we're the height of sanity. I think we're the height of sanity. Dean: I do too, Absolutely. Yeah, it's so, but I do. I definitely think that that's that's one of the things is that it's very it's much more difficult to discern. Discernment is a is a big. You need discernment in this, in this period more than ever probably do you have that in your working genius? Dan: do you have that in your working genius? Dean: yeah, that's my number one thing discernment. I think we're the same, yeah invention and discernment which which is first. Dan: Mine is invention and discernment. Dean: Okay, so mine is discernment and invention. And it's an interesting. Chad Jenkins has been asking this. He's been kind of exploring with people what he calls their perpetual question, like what's the constant question? That is kind of like the driving question of what you do. Dan: Do you know yours? Dean: I do. I think, in looking at it, mine is what should we do? Dan: I know, what mine is, what's yours? I wonder how far I can go. Dean: I wonder how far I can go. I like that. Dan: I've had that since I was 11 years old. Dean: Yeah, yeah, that's really. It's very interesting, right like I look at it. That, uh, you know, there were years ago, um, there was a guy, bob beal, who wrote a book called uh, stop setting goals if you'd rather solve problems or something. And so I think I'm, I am a problem solver. Simplifier, you know, as I learn all the layers about what I am, is that I'm able to I just think about, as my MO is to look at a situation and see, well, what do we need to do? Right, like, what's the outcome that we really want? Right, like, what's the what, what's the outcome that we really want, and then go into inventing the simplest, most direct path to effectively get that outcome and that's the driver of, of all of the uh things you know. so I'm always. I think the layer of I think it's a subtlety, but the layer of discernment before inventing, for me is that I limit the inventing to the as a simplifier, you know, and I think you as a, you know I'm an obstacle bypasser, a crusher, uh-huh, uh, no, I I just say, uh, what's the way around this? Dan: so I don't have to deal with it. Dean: Yeah, yes and uh, yeah and uh I can't tell you that you that that progression of is there any way I could get this without doing anything, followed by what's the least that I could do to get this. And then, ok, is there, and who's the person? Dan: who's the person that can do it? Now I tell you, I've already thought about that 10 times this morning. Dean: It's a constant. Dan: It's right there. It's right there. It's a companion. And I sit there and you know, for example, you get caught in a situation where you have to. You know you have to wait, you know like you have to wait and I asked myself is there any way I can solve this without doing nothing? And I said yes, you have to just be patient for 10 minutes. Ok, I'm patient for 10 minutes. You know, oh, right, yeah, yeah you know, yeah, I experienced that a lot at Pearson Airport. Oh, yeah, right, yeah, yeah. Dean: Right, yeah, yeah, for sure, there's a lot of travel shenanigans, but I think, when you really look at, I think just it's fascinating what shifting your, shifting your view by an hour can do in travel. Oh, yeah, yeah. Like, if your target is to arrive three hours, yeah, you start the process one hour earlier than you would normally. There's so much, so much room for margin, so much. Dan: Uh, it's so much more relaxing, you know yeah, it takes us anywhere from uh 40 minutes to an hour to get to Pearson from the beach. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And so we leave three hours before the flight time three hours. And we're there and actually the US going to the US. They have a nice on one side. They've got some really really great um seating arrangements, tables and everything and uh, I really like it. I like getting there and, yes, you know, we starbucks is there, I get a coffee and yeah, you know I sit there and I'll just, uh, you know, I'll read my novel or whatever, or you know I have my laptop so I can work on it. But my killer question in those situations is it's 1924, how long does this trip take me? That's the best right. Dean: Yeah, or if that's not good enough 1824. Right, exactly. Dan: Right, exactly yeah. Dean: I just think. I mean, it's such a, would you say, dan, like your orientation, are you spending the majority of your time? Where do you, where do you live mentally, like? How much time do you spend reflecting on or, you know, thinking about the past, thinking about the future and thinking about right now? Dan: well, I think about the past, uh, quite a bit from the standpoint of creating the tools, because I don't know if you've noticed the progression like over the year, almost every tool has you say well, what have you done up until now? you know, and then your top three things that you've done up until now. And then, looking ahead, you you always brainstorm. That's a Dean Jackson add-on that I've added to. All the tools is brainstorming. And then you pick the top three for the past up until the present. And then you brainstorm what could I do over the next 12 months? And then you pick the top three. But the past is only interesting to me in terms is there a value back there that I can apply right now to, uh, building a better future? Dean: you know, I don't. Dan: I don't think I have an ounce of nostalgia or sentimentality about the past you know, or yearning, you know you don't want. No, I get you know, especially especially now you know it's uh. The boomers are now in their 70s. And I have to tell you, Dean, there's nothing more depressing than a nostalgic baby boomer. Dean: Yeah, back in our day, You're right. Dan: Yeah, that's back in the day, back in your day, you were unconscious. Yeah right, yeah, right, yeah, and I really I noticed it happening because the first boomers started to be 65. So 46, 46 and 65 was the 2011. They started to, you know, they crossed the 65 year mark and I started noticing, starting yeah, oh boy, you know, I'm really spending a lot of time with the people I graduated from high school with and I said, oh yeah, that's interesting, why haven't you seen them for 40 years? Right, yeah, yeah, I went to a 25-year graduation reunion, yeah, so I graduated in 62, so that was 87. And I went back and we had clients here and I told people you know, I'm going back for a high school reunion. I got back and there was an event, a party, and they said, well, how was that? And I said nobody came. None of them came. And he says you had a reunion and nobody came. I said no, they sent a bunch of old people in their place. You know they were talking about retirement. I only got another 20 years to retirement. I said, gee, wow, wow, wow I can't believe that. I mean, if you haven't seen someone for 50 years, there was a reason. Dean: Yeah, absolutely. I just look at these. You know I graduated in 85. So 40 years this year that just seems impossible, dan, like I just I remember you know so clearly. I have such clarity of memory of every year of that you know the last 40 years, that you know the last 40 years, but you know it's. It's a very. What I've had to consciously do is kind of narrow my attention span to the this. What I'm working on is getting to more in the actionable present kind of thing. You know more in the actionable present kind of thing, you know, because I tend to, I mean looking forward. You know if you, it's funny we can see so clearly back 25 years, even 40 years. We've got such great recollection of it. But what we're not really that great at is projecting forward, of looking forward as to what's the next 25 years going to look like. Dan: Well, you couldn't have done it back then either? Dean: then either, and that's what I wondered. So you, I remember, uh, you know, 25 years ago we had we've talked about the um, you know the investment decisions of starbucks and berkshire hathaway and procter and gamble. Those were the three that I chose. But if on reflection now, looking back at them, I could have, because they were there. I could have chosen Apple and Google and Amazon. They would have been the, they would have been eclipsed, those three. Dan: Yeah, but you did all right. Dean: Yeah, absolutely no. No, here's the thing. Dan: The big thing isn't what you invested in, it's what you stayed invested in. Yes, it's moving around. That kills your investment. We have whole life insurance, which is insurance with cash value. It's been 30 years now and the average has been 7% per year for 30 years now and the average has been 7% per year for 30 years. Yeah, I mean, that's interest. I mean interest. So it's not a capital gain, it's just interest. Dean: I was just going to say, and you can access the money. Dan: It's like a bank. It's like your own personal bank. We have an agreement with one of the Canadian banks here that we can borrow up to 95% against the cash value, and the investment keeps on going you just took out a loan. It doesn't affect the investment. What's his name? Dean: Morgan H morgan household. Dan: He talks about that. Yeah, he said it's the movement that uh kills you. Yes, he says, just find something you know you know, government bonds are good over 25 years. I mean people say yeah but I could have gone 100. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you have to think about it. This way, you don't have to think about it. Right yeah that was the Toronto real estate. Toronto real estate, you know, geez yeah. Dean: Yeah, you're right, do you? Dan: know what the average price of a single detached is in GTA right now? I don't know. It's over a million dollars. Yeah, it's about 1.2, 1.4. That's a single detached, I'm not talking about a big place? No, no exactly. Dean: Just a three-bedroom, two-bed single-family home Too bad single family home. I remember when I was starting out in Georgetown the average price of that million dollar bungalow now is like a staple was a bungalow that was built in the 50s and 60s three bedroom, 1,200 square foot. Three bedroom brick bungalow uh, was on a 50-foot lot. Was uh a hundred and sixty five thousand dollars, yeah, and it was so funny, because now it's two uh, probably, uh, georgetown. Georgetown is a very desirable place, yes, and so, uh, when you look at the, I remember carol mcleod, who was in my office. She'd been in real estate for you know, 20, 20 years when, uh, when I joined the office and she remembers thinking when, the price of a prince charles bungalow there was a street called prince charles in, uh, georges, it was kind of like the staple of the uh, the like the consumer price index, bread basket kind of thing when a, uh, when a prince charles bungalow went for $100,000, she thought that was the end of the world. That that's like. This is unsustainable $100,000 for a house. Who's got that kind of money? How are people gonna be able to sustain this? I just think, man, that's so crazy, but you think about it. Do you remember when Dave Winfield got a million-dollar contract for baseball? Dan: Oh yeah. Dean: What an amazing thing. That was the million-dollar man. It's crazy. Now you know. Dan: Yeah, you know, it's really interesting If you take the salaries, let's say the Yankees right now the. Yankees, ok, and you know they're there. You know they have some huge, huge, huge contracts, you know, I think I'm trying to think of the biggest one. Dean: Well, aaron Judge, you know, is like three, three hundred and twenty million judge, you know is like three, 320 million, you know, and uh, but the guy in LA just you know, 700 million yeah, 760, 760 and Soto Soto with the mats. Dan: He just I think his is around 702 and uh and everything and people say this is just unsustainable. If you add up all the salaries of, you know, the yankees, their entire team, you know um, uh and, and average it out against what the market value of the yankees is. Yeah, you know, like this total salary. Dean: The average is exactly the same as it was 70 years ago and that's the thing people don't understand, that these salaries are based on collective bargaining and the basketball, for instance, half of the money goes to the players. So half of all the revenue from tickets and TV and media and merchandise, all of that stuff, half of the money that the organization makes, has to go to the players. And so on a basketball team they have maybe 12 players who are getting all of that money. Dan: You know, so that see the basketball players get I think it's 15, I think they have 15 now. 15, now 15 players. Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah so you look at that and it's like, uh wow, now collectively they have to be within their, their salary cap or whatever is, yeah, 50, 50 percent of their revenue. But I mean it's kind of, uh, it's market value, right, it's all relative, yep yep, yep, yeah, and all the owners are billionaires. Dan: You know, they're. They mostly use it for a tax write-off, I mean that's yeah, yeah, yeah I have to tell you talk about tax write-off. About three blocks from us here in the beaches in Toronto, there's an Indian restaurant that's been there for about two years and every night we come by it on the way back from the office and I've never seen any customers. I've never once if I pass that restaurant and this is during business hours. I've never seen, I've never once if I pass that restaurant and this is during business hours yeah I've never. I've never seen it and I said I got a feeling there's some money laundering that's crazy. Dean: It's like I I look at the um, I'm trying right now, and this this next couple of weeks. One of the things I'm really gonna uh reflect on is kind of looking forward. I think about I did this with our realtors. I created an RIP for 2024. So RIP meaning reflection on what actually happened in the last year for you how many transactions, how much revenue, how much whatever came in. And then inflection, looking at what is it right now, where are you at and what trajectory is that on right? If you're looking, what are the things that you could make a change on? And then projecting projection into 2025. And I realized you know part. One of the things I said to the people is you can't same your way to different, that's, you can't save your way to different. I mean that's really if you're thinking that something different is going to happen. Something different has to take place. Dan: You can't crazy your way to normal either. Dean: Exactly. Dan: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's really. It's really. Yeah. I think you know that Morgan House book. We gave it out. We gave it out. I have to check on that. I put in a request for that. I don't know if it went out, you know, but he's just I. I told joe he should have him as a speaker at the national the annual event yeah, yeah, I think it'd be good. I mean because joe's really, really, really got to hustle now, because he uh really established a new standard for who he has. But yeah, I was just looking at an article this morning because it reminded me of who Joe had. He had Robert Kennedy and Jordan. Peterson and Tucker Carlson, tucker Carlson, yeah. Dean: And it was great. Dan: It was great. And then I was thinking about the role that elon musk is playing in the us government. There's no precedent for this in us history, that you have a person like that, who's just brought in with somebody else, vivek ramaswamy and uh, they're just given a department of government. Dean: A department of government oh, did I miss a vivek uh appointment. Was he appointed to something? Dan: no, he's, he's appointed with uh, with um with uh, elon, oh, I see, okay, yeah. Yeah, it's called the department of government efficiency right okay, uh, which may be a contradiction in terms, but anyway, but they're hiring people, but the people they hire don't get any salary. You have to volunteer, you have to volunteer to work. So you got to have, you got to be well funded to work there. You know you got to. I mean you got to be living off your own savings, your own investments, while you're there. You know you got to. I mean, you got to be living off your own savings your own investments while you're there. But I was thinking because we've been observers now for 13, actually just a year of President Milley in Argentina and he's cut government costs by 30% in one year. Dean: Wow, yeah there's interesting stuff. Dan: He eliminated or really cut 12 departments. Nine of the departments he just got rid of you know the one, you know they have departments like tuck you in safely at night, sort of that had about that, had about 5000 employees, you know, and you know, and send letters to your mom let her know you know that sort of department, but they were just creating employment, employment, employment where people didn't really have to work, and he got rid of seventy five thousand federal employees in a country of forty Forty six million. Forty six million, he got rid of seventy five thousand. Well, in the US, if they did equal proportions, we're about 350, so 46, that's about seven, seven, eight times. That would get rid of 550,000. I think it's doable, yeah. Dean: I mean that's fascinating and we don't get access to that right. You sought that out and you only came into contact with that because you're a frequent traveler to Argentina. Yeah, Argentina, and it feels better, yeah, and it feels better. Dan: We were noticing because we hadn't been there since March and we were there right at the end of November. We were there right at the end of Thanksgiving. We were actually American Thanksgiving. We were that week, we were down there and the place just feels better. You can just feel it there, there, and the place just feels better. You can just feel it. There is uh, you know, and uh, you know, and there's a real mood shift, you know, when people just feel that all this money is being, you know, confiscated and paid to people who aren't working. You know that yeah it doesn't feel good. Doesn't feel good, then there's Canada, then there's Canada. Dean: Right. Dan: Yes. Dean: It's great entertainment, I'll tell you. Well, you know it's funny. I don't know whether I mentioned last time, the guy from El Salvador, what he's done in since being elected. You're a young guy, I think he was elected at 35 or 37. And he's completely turned around the crime rate in El Salvador by being 100%. Dan: You just have a 50,000 convict prison. Well, that's exactly right, yeah, yeah. And that's the thing. Dean: It's like lock him up. That's the thing. Dan: He's like led, and they guard themselves. It's a self-guarding prison. Dean: Is that right? I didn't know that. No, no, I'm just kidding, I'm just playing on your theme. Dan: Right right, right'm just kidding, I'm just playing on your thing. Dean: Right, right, right, yeah, yeah. Well, that would be the combination, right, self-guarding. That would be the most efficient way to have the situation. Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Dean: But it is amazing what can happen when you have a focus on one particular thing. Dan: Well, you know what it is. I think partially and Peter Zion talks about this that, generally speaking, the way the world has been organized, during the 20th century the US really didn't pay much attention to South America, latin America at all, and never has you know the. United States never has, because they've been east and west, you know it's either Europe or it's Asia. But now that the US has decided that they're going to be very discerning about who gets to trade with them they're very discerning about who gets the benefit of US protection and everything else All of a sudden, the South Americans are getting their houses in order which they haven't been. It's been a century of mostly really bad government in Latin America. Now they're all getting things in order so that when the US looks south, they're front of the line. The only thing that the US really paid any attention to was Cuba Cuba's like a piece of meat. Dean: You can't yeah. Dan: The only thing that the US really paid any attention to was Cuba. Yes, right, cuba's like a piece of meat you can't get out of your teeth. For the United. States and your tongue is going crazy, trying to get that piece of meat out of you. It's just been sort of an annoying place, it's just been sort of an annoying place. Dean: Yeah, this is, I think when you look at you know Peter Zions stuff too. If you think about definitely the trend over the next 25 years is definitely more. Dan: I think it's trend lines are really almost eerily accurate. The one thing he doesn't understand, though, is US politics. I found that he doesn't have a clue about US politics. He's a Democrat. He told me he was a Democrat. I spent it. He came and spent a day at Genius, yes, and he said that he was a Democrat. He's an environmentalist, and you know, and you know, and. But he says but I can also do math, you know, he says I can do math so you can see what, which direction the numbers are going in. But he, I mean right up until a week before the election, he says Kamala is going to take it, Kamala is going to take it. You know and everything like that. So he didn't. He didn't have any real sense of the shifts that were going on voter shifts that were going on. I mean Trump went in and almost every county. There's 3,000 counties in the United States and he didn't go backwards in any of the counties, he went up in every county. Dean: Oh, wow, that's interesting so you didn't lose anything. Dan: That's really widespread. I mean, there isn't 3,001. There's just 3,000. Yeah, and he went up. It was just as it was. Like you know, it was like the tide came in. I think I've never seen in my lifetime, I've never really seen a shift of that proportion. And I wonder, you know, you look at over the new political establishment. Well, this isn't my thought George Friedman, who was Peter Zion's, because the political establishment in the United States, in other words, where the proportion of the votes are, is going to be working class. It won't be highly educated you know, professional people. For one thing, ai is really feeding. You know, if you have somebody's making $30,000 a year and somebody else is making $100,000 a year, which job would you like to eliminate to economize? Dean: Right, yeah, yeah, you look at the. That's one thing I think we, like I, look at when I am thinking about the next 25 years. I think about what are the like there's no way to predict. There was no way in 1999 to predict YouTube and Facebook and the things that are TikTok, you know, or AI, all of that impact right. But I think there. But, like I said, there was evidence that if you were, if you believe, guessing and betting, as you would say, you could see that the path that Amazon was on made sense and the path that Apple was on and the path that Google was on, all are ai for certain. Like that dna, all the like the things that are that we're learning about stem cells and genetics, and all of that kind of stuff. And Bitcoin, I guess, right, digital currency, crypto, you know everything. Just removing friction. Dan: Yeah, I think the whole blockchain makes sense. Yeah, yeah, you know. I mean I think the thing in the US dollar makes sense. Yeah, $1.44 yesterday. It's up 10 cents in the last eight weeks. Wow, yeah, I think when you were there in September it was $1.34, probably $1.34. Dean: Now it's $1.44. Oh, that's great yeah, yeah. Dan: And yeah, so yeah, I mean the ones that I mean. People say, well, bitcoin, you know Bitcoin is going to become the reserve currency. I said there's 21 million of them. It can't become the reserve currency. Dean: Right right. Dan: There is no currency that can replace the dollar. Dean: You know, it's just. Dan: And still have a livable planet. Dean: Mm-hmm, anyway, we've covered territory. Dan: We've covered territory today. Dean: We have Holy cow. It's already 1203. Dan: That's amazing. We covered a lot of territory. Dean: We really did. Dan: But the one thing that is predictable is the structure that you can put onto your schedule. That is predictable. Dean: You know, I have one. Dan: I have a thing I hadn't talked to you about this, but this is something I do is that when I start tomorrow, I look at next week, ok, and I just look at and and I just get a sense and then I'll put together some changes. I'd like Becca Miller she's my high beams into the future and she does all my scheduling and so I'll notice that some things can be rearranged, which if I got to next week I couldn't rearrange them. But I can rearrange them on Monday of this week for next week. Dean: But I I couldn't do it on. Dan: Monday of next for that week. So more and more this this year. Um, every uh Monday I'm going to look at the week uh, not this week, but the week ahead and make changes. I think, I bet there's uh, you know, like a five to 10% greater efficiency. That happens just by having that one habit. Dean: Yeah, dan, I'm really getting down to, I'm looking at and I do that same thing. But looking at this next, the 100 hours is really from. You know, hours is really from Monday morning at eight o'clock till Friday at noon is a hundred hours and that to me, is when everything that's the actionable period, and then really on a daily basis, getting it to this, the next 100 minutes is really that's where the real stuff takes place. So anyway, I always love the conversations. Dan: Yep, back to you next week. Yes, sir, have a great day. I'll talk to you soon. Dean: Bye, okay, bye.

Mike and Rico discuss what needs to change for the Lions and their roster/organization.

Shaun is convinced that the latest injury report for the Giants signals an organizational tank. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this edition of Around with Randall, we examine the role hope plays in philanthropy and our communities. How does hope motivate action and foster resilience, especially in challenging times? Looking at historic examples, we see that hope is not merely an emotion, but a powerful catalyst for positive change, encouraging us to engage and uplift those around us in our quest to make the world a better place.

Wise organizational leaders think big; they study Scripture to understand the metanarrative, seeking to discern their assignments in God's plan. They understand the purpose of humanity is to serve as God's ruling agents who execute his will according to his ways in his timing and all for his glory. Organizationally, this means that everything should be aligned with God's purpose as outlined in the original Creation order and contextualized in the metanarrative. This requires both macro and micro discernment and application of a Christian worldview to all aspects of organizational behavior. Leading this way is the only path to success.

Here are the communities that I am called to: “A number of ways to categorize types of community have been proposed. One such breakdown is as follows: Location-based Communities: range from the local neighbourhood, suburb, village, town or city, region, nation or even the planet as a whole. These are also called communities of place. Identity-based Communities: range from the local clique, sub-culture, ethnic group, religious, multicultural or pluralistic civilisation, or the global community cultures of today. They may be included as communities of need or identity, such as disabled persons, or frail aged people. Organizationally-based Communities: range from communities organized informally around family or network-based guilds and associations to more formal incorporated associations, political decision-making structures, economic enterprises, or professional associations at a small, national or international scale. Intentional Communities: a mix of all three previous types, these are highly cohesive residential communities with a common social or spiritual purpose, ranging from monasteries and ashrams to modern ecovillages and housing cooperatives. The usual categorizations of community relations have a number of problems:[28] (1) they tend to give the impression that a particular community can be defined as just this kind or another; (2) they tend to conflate modern and customary community relations; (3) they tend to take sociological categories such as ethnicity or race as given, forgetting that different ethnically defined persons live in different kinds of communities—grounded, interest-based, diasporic, etc.[29] In response to these problems, Paul James and his colleagues have developed a taxonomy that maps community relations, and recognizes that actual communities can be characterized by different kinds of relations at the same time:[30] Grounded community relations. This involves enduring attachment to particular places and particular people. It is the dominant form taken by customary and tribal communities. In these kinds of communities, the land is fundamental to identity. Life-style community relations. This involves giving primacy to communities coming together around particular chosen ways of life, such as morally charged or interest-based relations or just living or working in the same location. Hence the following sub-forms: community-life as morally bounded, a form taken by many traditional faith-based communities. community-life as interest-based, including sporting, leisure-based and business communities which come together for regular moments of engagement. community-life as proximately-related, where neighbourhood or commonality of association forms a community of convenience, or a community of place (see below). Projected community relations. This is where a community is self-consciously treated as an entity to be projected and re-created. It can be projected as through thin advertising slogan, for example gated community, or can take the form of ongoing associations of people who seek political integration, communities of practice[31] based on professional projects, associative communities which seek to enhance and support individual creativity, autonomy and mutuality. A nation is one of the largest forms of projected or imagined community. In these terms, communities can be nested and/or intersecting; one community can contain another—for example a location-based community may contain a number of ethnic communities.[32] Both lists above can be used in a cross-cutting matrix in relation to each other.” -Wikipedia. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/antonio-myers4/support

This week Sara welcomes Rita! She's a digital fabrication, education consultant. They talk about providing feedback Organizationally and in the Education System. Breaking down comfortableness and approaching feedback alongside someone and not above them. Having the mindset that failing is ok. It's a process that we might not get right the first time, but are in this together.

Baskin & Phelps speak with Daryl Ruiter about Deshaun Watson's season ending injury, the options available at quarterback, the current quarterbacks on the roster, why it would make sense to play Dorian Thompson-Robinson, along with what Watson's injury could mean for next season & the future.

It's happening again. We've reached the breaking point and it's only week two. An unfiltered episode of Bears Nation Podcast features Jake and Kevin's raw thoughts and emotions towards the Bears' loss to the Buccaneers and the organizational failure we are witnessing again.

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/thkAtqoQwN6DtaiGT/carefully-bootstrapped-alignment-is-organizationally-hardIn addition to technical challenges, plans to safely develop AI face lots of organizational challenges. If you're running an AI lab, you need a concrete plan for handling that. In this post, I'll explore some of those issues, using one particular AI plan as an example. I first heard this described by Buck at EA Global London, and more recently with OpenAI's alignment plan. (I think Anthropic's plan has a fairly different ontology, although it still ultimately routes through a similar set of difficulties)I'd call the cluster of plans similar to this "Carefully Bootstrapped Alignment."

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: "Carefully Bootstrapped Alignment" is organizationally hard, published by Raemon on March 17, 2023 on LessWrong. In addition to technical challenges, plans to safely develop AI face lots of organizational challenges. If you're running an AI lab, you need a concrete plan for handling that. In this post, I'll explore some of those issues, using one particular AI plan as an example. I first heard this described by Buck at EA Global London, and more recently with OpenAI's alignment plan. (I think Anthropic's plan has a fairly different ontology, although it still ultimately routes through a similar set of difficulties) I'd call the cluster of plans similar to this "Carefully Bootstrapped Alignment." It goes something like: Develop weak AI, which helps us figure out techniques for aligning stronger AI Use a collection of techniques to keep it aligned/constrained as we carefully ramp it's power level, which lets us use it to make further progress on alignment. [implicit assumption, typically unstated] Have good organizational practices which ensure that your org actually consistently uses your techniques to carefully keep the AI in check. If the next iteration would be too dangerous, put the project on pause until you have a better alignment solution. Eventually have powerful aligned AGI, then Do Something Useful with it. I've seen a lot of debate about points #1 and #2 – is it possible for weaker AI to help with the Actually Hard parts of the alignment problem? Are the individual techniques people have proposed to help keep it aligned actually going to work? But I want to focus in this post on point #3. Let's assume you've got some version of carefully-bootstrapped aligned AI that can technically work. What do the organizational implementation details need to look like? When I talk to people at AI labs about this, it seems like we disagree a lot on things like: Can you hire lots of people, without the company becoming bloated and hard to steer? Can you accelerate research "for now" and "pause later", without having an explicit plan for stopping that their employees understand and are on board with? Will your employees actually follow the safety processes you design? (rather than put in token lip service and then basically circumventing them? Or just quitting to go work for an org with fewer restrictions?) I'm a bit confused about where we disagree. Everyone seems to agree these are hard and require some thought. But when I talk to both technical researchers and middle-managers at AI companies, they seem to feel less urgency than me about having a much more concrete plan. I think they believe organizational adequacy needs to be in something like their top 7 list of priorities, and I believe it needs to be in their top 3, or it won't happen and their organization will inevitably end up causing catastrophic outcomes. For this post, I want to lay out the reasons I expect this to be hard, and important. How "Careful Bootstrapped Alignment" might work Here's a sketch at how the setup could work, mostly paraphrased from my memory of Buck's EAG 2022 talk. I think OpenAI's proposed setup is somewhat different, but the broad strokes seemed similar. You have multiple research-assistant-AI tailored to help with alignment. In the near future, these might be language models sifting through existing research to help you make connections you might not have otherwise seen. Eventually, when you're confident you can safely run it, they might be a weak goal-directed reasoning AGI. You have interpreter AIs, designed to figure out how the research-assistant-AIs work. And you have (possibly different interpreter/watchdog AIs) that notice if the research-AIs are behaving anomalously. (there are interpreter-AIs targeting both the research assistant AI, as well other interpreter-AIs. Every AI in t...

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: "Carefully Bootstrapped Alignment" is organizationally hard, published by Raemon on March 17, 2023 on LessWrong. In addition to technical challenges, plans to safely develop AI face lots of organizational challenges. If you're running an AI lab, you need a concrete plan for handling that. In this post, I'll explore some of those issues, using one particular AI plan as an example. I first heard this described by Buck at EA Global London, and more recently with OpenAI's alignment plan. (I think Anthropic's plan has a fairly different ontology, although it still ultimately routes through a similar set of difficulties) I'd call the cluster of plans similar to this "Carefully Bootstrapped Alignment." It goes something like: Develop weak AI, which helps us figure out techniques for aligning stronger AI Use a collection of techniques to keep it aligned/constrained as we carefully ramp it's power level, which lets us use it to make further progress on alignment. [implicit assumption, typically unstated] Have good organizational practices which ensure that your org actually consistently uses your techniques to carefully keep the AI in check. If the next iteration would be too dangerous, put the project on pause until you have a better alignment solution. Eventually have powerful aligned AGI, then Do Something Useful with it. I've seen a lot of debate about points #1 and #2 – is it possible for weaker AI to help with the Actually Hard parts of the alignment problem? Are the individual techniques people have proposed to help keep it aligned actually going to work? But I want to focus in this post on point #3. Let's assume you've got some version of carefully-bootstrapped aligned AI that can technically work. What do the organizational implementation details need to look like? When I talk to people at AI labs about this, it seems like we disagree a lot on things like: Can you hire lots of people, without the company becoming bloated and hard to steer? Can you accelerate research "for now" and "pause later", without having an explicit plan for stopping that their employees understand and are on board with? Will your employees actually follow the safety processes you design? (rather than put in token lip service and then basically circumventing them? Or just quitting to go work for an org with fewer restrictions?) I'm a bit confused about where we disagree. Everyone seems to agree these are hard and require some thought. But when I talk to both technical researchers and middle-managers at AI companies, they seem to feel less urgency than me about having a much more concrete plan. I think they believe organizational adequacy needs to be in something like their top 7 list of priorities, and I believe it needs to be in their top 3, or it won't happen and their organization will inevitably end up causing catastrophic outcomes. For this post, I want to lay out the reasons I expect this to be hard, and important. How "Careful Bootstrapped Alignment" might work Here's a sketch at how the setup could work, mostly paraphrased from my memory of Buck's EAG 2022 talk. I think OpenAI's proposed setup is somewhat different, but the broad strokes seemed similar. You have multiple research-assistant-AI tailored to help with alignment. In the near future, these might be language models sifting through existing research to help you make connections you might not have otherwise seen. Eventually, when you're confident you can safely run it, they might be a weak goal-directed reasoning AGI. You have interpreter AIs, designed to figure out how the research-assistant-AIs work. And you have (possibly different interpreter/watchdog AIs) that notice if the research-AIs are behaving anomalously. (there are interpreter-AIs targeting both the research assistant AI, as well other interpreter-AIs. Every AI in t...

Wise organizational leaders and managers understand that Jesus is Lord and resist the temptation to presume that anything exists outside of his sovereign control. Accordingly, they understand that every person and organization is accountable to Christ. Organizationally, this means that to the best of their ability every aspect of the organization should be aligned with the will of God. This includes the enduring purpose of the organization.

Intelligent power management company Eaton contributed more than $300,000 to 35 non-profit organizations in Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania. Regional employees working in the company's electrical business stepped up to endorse applications from local organizations for financial support through the Eaton Charitable Fund.  Listen to EATON's Kelly Waldron and Brittany Ramos detail how regional Eaton employees are helping build a stronger community by participating in numerous regional organizations, volunteering their time and acting as stewards for the Eaton Charitable Fund local support. In the region, the Eaton Charitable Fund will provide support to both long-standing and new recipients, including Meals on Wheels, Verland, the Matt Alterio Foundation and many other nonprofit organizations serving the community.   “For the last 18 years, Eaton employees at the Cherrington location have volunteered their time to deliver nutritious meals and make wellness checks to seniors and individuals in our local communities. Organizationally and individually, Eaton is a key partner in helping make possible our much-needed support to the communities we serve,” said Barb Hess, Kitchen Director at West Hills Meals on Wheels.  “At Eaton, we inspire our employees to bring their passions to work and foster deep and long-standing involvement in Southwestern Pennsylvania organizations involved in many aspects of our community,” said Ray Huber, senior vice president, information technology, Digital Center of Excellence, Eaton. “I've been involved with Verland, which provides compassionate care for people with complex physical and intellectual challenges, and I know that Eaton's support expands the impact of my volunteer activities.”   “Building community at work requires shared experience and, in our view, fosters long-standing relationships at work and in our community. In a world that is navigating through numerous challenges, our volunteers and the work they do are essential and central to who we are and the legacy we hope to leave behind us,” said Kelly Waldron, channel manager – sales agencies at Eaton and coordinator for the company's local volunteer program with West Hills Meals on Wheels.    As part of its comprehensive sustainability strategy, Eaton actively encourages employees to volunteer and support community organizations. And employee engagement is one of the factors influencing the Eaton Charitable Fund investments. Learn more about Eaton's community involvement approach.   Eaton is an intelligent power management company dedicated to improving the quality of life and protecting the environment for people everywhere. We are guided by our commitment to do business right, to operate sustainably and to help our customers manage power ─ today and well into the future. By capitalizing on the global growth trends of electrification and digitalization, we're accelerating the planet's transition to renewable energy, helping to solve the world's most urgent power management challenges, and doing what's best for our stakeholders and all of society.   

A --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/onnabob/support

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller. When startups come on the podcast, we talk a lot about the need and the challenge to deliver digital financial services at scale. There's probably no better example of that in the US market today than JPMorgan Chase. The firm has 60 million clients that access Chase products and services through digital channels. When it comes to scale, you don't need to look solely to big tech – Chase is already there. On this episode, I'm joined by Rohan Amin, Chase's chief product officer, and Gill Haus, Chase's chief information officer. You'll get a feel for the rapport between the two executives as we explore their roles and responsibilities in leading the firm forward into the future. Rohan and Gill discuss the evolving dependence consumers are building around their banking apps and the role banks play in their lives. Organizationally, Chase has adopted agile methodologies and teams. The duo discuss how product, engineering, design, and data and analytics get seats around the table. We also talk about their firm's hiring activities and its appetite around technology talent right now. Chase's Gill Haus and Rohan Amin are my guests today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

This one is a good one, we talk about the centeres of personal and organizational life and what are the results of focussing our center in our personal and organizatioanl lives on a Principle Center vs any other "center." Follow along with me in this journey to achieve principle-centered leadership, in leading personal life and organizational (family, sales team, business, etc). Just like in my 7 Habits episodes, in this series I'm following Covey's advice to study with the intent to teach. I figured that by sharing what I'm learning, I can more effective learn the principles of living a meaningful life, and then have that be a documentation of my own processes, seeking to study, tech, and apply them in real time. On my channel I talk about all things related to sales training, persuasion and influence, personal development, leadership development, and the pursuit of truth-centered living. This episode specifically is called "How to Fix the Problems Holding You Back from Massive Results | Principle-Centered Leadership Approach PCL e3". ENJOY! consider subscribing to my channel on Youtube

You don't have to leave your organization to advance your career. Many mid-career employees find ways to grow their careers and advance within their organizations. The key is working for a company that can provide opportunities for you and knowing how to open doors, network, and create those opportunities.   John gets on the mic with Hallmark's Digital Catalog and Marketing Manager, Theresa McGeehan. They talk about how she's worked for Hallmark since her college graduation and why Hallmark is a great company for her to learn, grow, and serve her customers each day.  Connect with Theresa McGeehan on LinkedIn.  Key Topics & Time Stamps: ·      Introduction (0:00)·      Episode Background (0:43)·      What Theresa Wanted to Be Growing Up (4:36)·      Wanting to Work for Hallmark (5:23)·      Transferring Skills (6:55)·      Being Organizationally Loyal (8:25)·      Finding Ways to Grow Internally (9:56)·      The Customer Journey (11:12)·      Career Lessons Learned During the Pandemic (12:21)·      Finding Internal Advancement Opportunities (18:30)·      Being Open to Learning New Things (19:52)·      Rising Stars | Network of Executive Women (22:25)·      Three Things Theresa Needs for Her Career (24:36)·      Theresa's Advice to Build Your Mid-Career GPS (28:10)·      Connect with Theresa McGeehan (29:01)  List of Resources:·      Network of Executive Women – Rising Stars·      Your Mid-Career GPS – Four Steps to Figuring Out What's Next by John Neral·      SHOW UP - Six Strategies to Lead a More Energetic and Impactful Career by John Neral Calls to Action: ·      Get your free Mid-Career GPS Resources that include a job search tracker and reflection questions at https://johnneral.com. ·      Join the “Your Mid-Career GPS Private Facebook Group” here and be part of a fantastic group of like-minded professionals navigating their career paths just like you. ·      Get notified when new podcast episodes drop. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts here or wherever you listen. And don't forget to rate and review to let me know what you are enjoying or learning. ·      Let's stay connected by following me on social. LinkedIn @johnneral, Instagram @johnneralcoaching, Facebook @johnneralcoaching, Twitter @john_neral.·      Visit https://johnneral.com for more information. 

Once a decision is made, it becomes a story. Enough stories make up a life. When you look back and tell that grand story to your loved ones, do you want to be the hero or the villain?We'll all be faced with decisions either personally or professionally that will go against our values. Framing each decision as a future story can help us develop and shape our careers and personal lives. We speak with Andy Stanley, Founder of AndyStanley.com & Author of Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets, about his idea of the internal salesperson and creating clarity for your organization.What we discussed:Andy's book and the internal salespersonMaking the tough decisions as an organizationYour integrity as a leader & simplifying decision makingHow to know what the wise thing to do isAudience questions & answersA challenge to the audienceThis is a #FlipMyFunnel podcast. Check us out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or here.Listening on a desktop & can't see the links? Just search for Flip My Funnel in your favorite podcast player.

Maria and Michelle continue their book series this week by taking a deep dive into The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. Recommended to our hosts at a conference a couple years ago, this is a book that they both have positive reviews for, and which they analyze here today to demonstrate how it can prove beneficial to you as well.   They begin by looking at some of their favorite parts of the book, including its analysis of the equality piece within organizations, and their own observations of leadership failure and systemic issues in this area. They go on to explore the concepts of consistency, equality, and sameness, as well as flat organizations and equality within them, and their own roles as agents of change and consultants. Maria and Michelle finish up with one of the other aspects of the book which really speaks to them – the concept of multitasking – and their hearty recommendations of the book for listeners to read and challenge themselves. Far from the mixed reviews that last week's selection received, The One Thing is, according to our experts, a worthwhile resource for all, and today you'll learn precisely why. The Finer Details of This Episode: The parts of the book that stood out for Maria and Michelle The equality piece and Michelle and Maria's perspectives on it Leadership failure Systemic issues Consistency, equality, and sameness Equality in flat organizations REL Talent as agents of change The role of a consultant Multitasking Quotes:     “In the world of achievement, everything doesn't matter equally. Equality is a lie.”   “We use words like a quality to create generalizations, because we're trying to simplify the conversation. But what we do when we generalize stuff like that, is we strip away what does matter.”   “One of the things I do like about it, in this section, is that he doesn't wimp out and go with a simplified answer. It's like he really digs in and explains things in a way that you can actually use it and apply it to your life.”   “But if your people leader isn't giving you the opportunity, and you don't have those opportunities because they're always going to their one person or one resource, and they're always pivoting there, then you don't have the opportunity to become an equal.”   “I'm definitely a ‘pay for performance' person.”   “Organizationally, there are systemic issues that keep certain groups from improving the quality of their lives based on how the system is created.”   “The system is broken in many corporate establishments.”   “I think it's just critical…that everybody identifies where the gaps are in their organization, and takes a look at how they can continue making adjustments.”   “We're challengers of the status quo as it relates to HR.”   “I could not agree with him more that multitasking is ridiculous.”   “The way he lays out these chapters, and the way he explains it is pretty helpful for anyone reading it.”   “I think it's a great book. It's a great read for anybody from a business perspective.”   “I have nothing but good reviews for this book, for sure.”   “I'd recommend it so that you could challenge yourself and try to read it and interpret it in a way that's a little bit different.” Show Links:   REL Talent: HR Consulting   Email REL Talent   REL Talent on LinkedIn The One Thing Homepage

On this week's episode of Inside Outside Innovation, we sit down with April Rinne, author of Flux: Eight Superpowers for Thriving in Change. April and I talk about what it takes to thrive in a world of constant change and uncertainty and explore some of the skills and tactics you can use to better prepare yourself and your organization for a world of flux.Inside Outside Innovation is the podcast to help you rethink, reset, and remix yourself and your organization. Each week, we'll bring you latest innovators, entrepreneurs, and pioneering businesses, as well as the tools, tactics, and trends you'll need to thrive as a new innovator.Interview Transcript with April Rinne, Author of Flux: Eight Superpowers for Thriving in ChangeBrian Ardinger: Welcome to another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. I'm your host, Brian Ardinger and as always, we have another amazing guest. With me today is April Rinne. She is the author of a new book coming out called Flux: Eight Superpowers for Thriving in Change. Welcome April. April Rinne: Thank you, Brian. Glad to be here. Brian Ardinger: I'm super excited to have you on the show. When I got a preview copy of the book, I started going through it and it's like, ah, this resonates with everything that I've been talking about, and our audience has been talking about. This whole idea that the world is changing. I think we fundamentally or theoretically understood that 18 months ago, but now every individual has felt that we are in flux.So, this is an amazing book. You start off the book with a gut-wrenching story that gives you immediate insights into what's required to live in a world of flux. And I don't know if you can share that story and maybe its impact on your life and your career and how you got to this place. April Rinne: Yeah. Sure. So, it's interesting. Just picking up on what you just said, which is I was actually working on this book for a long time. Long before the pandemic or lockdown. I like to say that the book itself was about three years in the actual writing, but it was more than three decades or close to three decades in the making. And that relates to my earlier story. But it is kind of interesting where over the last 12 to 18 months, people are like, oh, world in flux, you know, welcome to my life. But I'm sort of looking at this saying, Hm, there was a lot of flux before and there's going to be a lot more moving forward. But my entry into a world in flux or what I, what I sometimes call like my baptism. But my baptism into flux happened more than 25 years ago. I was in college, and I was a junior and I was studying overseas, and I'd had this kind of life expanding mind expanding year.And just as it was wrapping up, I received a phone call and basically at age 20, both my parents were killed in a car accident. And that was that moment where whatever you think your future is going to be, whatever you think the world has in store for you. However you think the world works, like it just all changed.You know, I would not have imagined back then that I would write a book about this sense of like, what do you do when you just can't control constant change. But that's when the seed was really planted. Brian Ardinger: Whether it's the loss of a parent or a major job change or a pandemic. A lot of folks are in that space right now. Like they're trying to understand what I thought the world was going to be is different. So, I think the book helps outline some of the things you can think about or some different ways to approach it. So, tell me a little bit about the book and why a person should pick it up. April Rinne: Yeah, absolutely. And you really nailed it. That sense of like, that was my version, but everyone has today I believe their own version. And what's key is the future is not more certainty. It's not more stability. The future is more uncertainty, more change, more flop, and are we really ready for it? And so the crux of the book is exactly that. That's sense of, you know, on the whole humans, we tend to love change that we opt into. You know, exactly. But we tend to really, really struggle with change we don't. The unexpected change. The change that waylays you. The change that is unwelcome. And yet that's the world we live in today. There's more, not less of that. And so, the fundamental premise of Flux the book is that in a world in constant change, we need to radically reshape our relationship to change from the inside out. I can add. In order to have a healthy and productive outlook. So, we're good at a slice of change, but we're really, really bad at a big chunk of it. This is where I get excited because also individually, this plays out. Organizationally, this plays out. And societally this plays out. So that's the basic punchline of the book, but the eight superpowers are the kind of how to. Brian Ardinger: Talk us through, like, how did you come up with those eight and maybe an overview of those. April Rinne: Sure. This is one of my favorite framing devices, which is, you know, Flux is both a noun and a verb. As a noun it means constant change. I think we all kinda get that. It's also a verb and as a verb, it means to learn to become fluid. So, the way I like to put it as the world is in flux, and we need to learn how to flux. To become fluid in our relating to all kinds of change. And so, I'll be really candid. The Eight Flux Superpowers evolved through a lot of hard work and thinking and post-its and reframing and structuring, you know, all of that.And I will admit now, you know, the book's been written for some time. It's obviously in the publication process. I haven't yet found the ninth one. So, I feel pretty good about that right now. But in short, the eight flux super powers, the first one is run slower. The second is see what's invisible. The third is get lost. The fourth is start with trust. The fifth is know you're enough. The sixth is create your portfolio career. The seventh is be all the more human and the eighth, one of the more provocative, although they're all provocative I think in some way. The eighth is let go of the future. Each of those kind of relates to different themes, you know, run slower is a lot about anxiety and burnout and so forth. And start with trust is obviously about trust. And letting go of the future is not about giving up or failing. It's actually about our relationship to control. So there's a lot more packed in each of those, but that's a quick summary. Brian Ardinger: Absolutely. The first one you start off with in the book is run slower. And I think a lot of people, when you talk about innovation, and you see what's out there in the press and that everybody talks about acceleration and speed of change and that. And the obvious antidote people think of is well, I've got to run faster. I've got to go, go faster and that. So, it's kind of a contradictory approach to that. So, talk about what you mean by run slower and let's unpack that a little bit. April Rinne: Landing on this particular superpower did result from a range of sources. But one of which was my many, many years as an advisor to companies, many of them were startups. But also, governments and think tanks and nonprofits. Organizations of all stripes, shades, colors, flavors, whatever, and their quest to innovate. And recognizing that change breeds innovation, but innovation itself, that simply means something new.It's not inherently good or bad. And I'm looking at this going, how do we innovate well. How do we innovate responsibly? How do we innovate in ways where we don't end up having blind spots and regretting some portion of what we did later on, et cetera. And I think we see a lot of that today, right? So back to the superpower. Run slower. The way I define it is in a world of ever faster pace of change, societally. The way we thrive is to slow our own pace. So again, you nailed it where I like to say the pace of change has never been as fast as it is today. And yet it is likely to never again, be this slow. Right. Now just let that sink in for a moment.Right. It's sort of exciting and it's kind of terrifying as well. And I kept looking around as a futurist, as an adviser, as a human being and saying, okay, society tells us that when the pace of change increases, we need to run faster. We need to keep up. And if we know that tomorrow, there's going to be more change than today and next week there's going to be more change than this week.And next year, next decade. Draw that out as far as you wish. If you know today that every single day for the rest of your life, your mandate from society is to run faster. That does not look like a future in which I want to live. And organizationally run ever faster. Wait a minute. You're gonna miss the very best decisions you could make. You're going to miss the very best opportunities. At an extreme, I say, you know, when we run ever faster, we run the risk of running right past life. This is not about doing nothing. This is not about being lazy. This is about slowing your own pace so that it's sustainable. So that in fact, you can be in touch if you will, with yourself, as opposed to just chasing after the next thing that you're supposed to do or the torrent of the info flow.But also, it helps us make wiser decisions. You want to slow down enough so that you can see, recognize, identify, and focus on the things that really matter. So there are lots of different angles there, but I find this is a lot with people, both struggling with anxiety and burn out. But also, when it comes to innovation, how do we make the best decisions? How do we make sure that we've covered our scope of possibility and so forth? Brian Ardinger: Yeah, it's, it's very much like that professional athlete. When they get into that flow, they talk about this idea of everything slows down. And they can understand the environment that they're in. And I think that's kind of what you're talking about.I've also seen the reverse where people go slow because everything's moving so fast, they fail take any action. Or they're scared of being able to keep up, so they don't make decisions and things like that. So, it's, it's that balance almost of like you said, running. But running at a pace that finished the marathon. April Rinne: Very much so. Exactly. I did not say sit still. I did not say do nothing. I said, run, but run slower. Run at a pace that you can sustain over time. Run at a pace that allows you to take in and take stock of everything that's going on. That really matters. And it's funny that you bring up athletes. There's a section in the book there, too.Everything from, you know, what's the right time to make a judgment or a decision. To also one of my favorite quotes. And it relates to athletes, but also children. And I think adults too. Certainly, for me. This notion that there is a kind of growth that comes only with rest. Just think about that. We assume that growth has to happen through motion and action.Think about how kids grow. Think about how athletes strengthen their muscles. It doesn't happen only when they're in motion. It happens when they're at rest. Brian Ardinger: Another area that you tackle is this idea of getting out of your own way and expanding your vision. And you're talking about expanding your peripheral vision, specifically. Being able to look at industries and ideas in that in different ways and, and expanding your business. So talk a little bit about that particular superpower April Rinne: Yeah. So that's the second one. See what's invisible, which says that, you know, when life feels uncertain or blurry, we need to shift our focus from what's visible to what's invisible. And actually, there are all kinds of overlaps with innovation here. The classic cases that, in which again, what does society tell us? You need to focus on your goal straight ahead. And I'm not saying that having goals isn't important and that you shouldn't know how to focus. I'm saying that actually, where is typically most of the action. It's right in front of you or so we think. Where's the actual and really new ideas. The really game changing opportunities. They tend to be on the periphery. They tend to be outside the mainstream. They may end up going mainstream some years later. And then you feel like, oh, I was a really early, you know, joiner to that particular company or idea or whatever. And so expanding our peripheral vision to see more and to see what is again by society standards, quote unquote, invisible.Now just one quick example here. I've spent much of the past decade in the space called the sharing economy. You know, access over ownership and this, that, and the other. It's a classic case in which entrepreneurs and innovators in the sharing economy saw what was invisible to traditional companies. So, case in point, you know, a car sits parked on average 23 hours a day, 95% of the time. We've come to believe that's kind of normal. How in the world that got normalized to have a 95 or 96% inefficient asset is beyond me? But you look at this and you go, this doesn't make sense. Yet society tells us everyone needs a car, not just one car. You need many cars. This is how we're going to build the car. Yeah. And so, you have, car sharing entrepreneurs who look at this and say, no, we actually see value in that parked car.We actually see value in that parking space. We're going to flip the lens and actually put these assets into shared use, thereby helping people save money. Helping reduce CO2 emissions. Freeing up space. I mean, the list goes on and on. But that's a really interesting case. Society tells us to focus on what's visible, which is the cost of a car. GDP. Things with dollars and cents, but there was idling capacity, or what we could think of is invisible value in streets and cities around the world.When you learn how to see that there's a whole new kind of ecosystem, not just for transportation, but far beyond, that can be developed. So that's an example on, again, the innovation kind of organizational end of things. But it definitely applies in terms of individuals and our own blind spots. And where we think we should be looking versus where the action, the action that really matters where it happens to be.Brian Ardinger: And it doesn't even have to be within your industry. I think some of the low hanging fruit for a lot of corporations would be just to look at other industries and see what they're doing when it comes to customer relationships or whatever. And it may not be in your wheelhouse, or your industry may not be doing it, but it may be something that's very easy to adapt or adopt into your industry. And all you have to do is just quite frankly, look at a different set of competitors out there and see what happens. April Rinne: I love that you bring this up, Brian, because I joked with you in advance. Like ironically, what people often call me is a kind of insider outsider in terms of my advisory work. And I have lost count. I'll share this with you. It's so fun because I have lost count of the number of times I've been contacted by an organization and they've said, we want you to do what you did for that company, for our company. But they're in a domain, I'm like, I think you have the wrong person.I began by saying that, because it was like an energy company that first asked me this. And I was like, I'm not an energy expert. They were like, we know. But, you know, just enough about us to actually be able to bring in insights from financial services, from the sharing economy. You know, and the point was not that I had their solution, but then I could bring a perspective and a set of examples and a set of ideas and a set of principles, et cetera, et cetera.That were wildly different than what they were used to hearing. That ended up kind of churning their engines, if you will, around creativity, curiosity, and innovation. So you're absolutely right. And one of the things not just to see what's invisible, but all of the eight superpowers in the entire book. What I love is that I'm not asking you to have any kind of technology or money or whatever that you don't already possess. It's a matter of knowing where to look. So, see what's invisible. All that you need to learn how to see what's invisible. It's right there in front of you. It requires you actually though, to be able to take the step, to reach out and say, I need to learn more about what I don't know. I need to go somewhere that again, society tells me that's outside my domain. That's outside my sector. It's actually really, really relevant for what you're doing. Brian Ardinger: Well, that power of exploration. I think people underestimate it. And a lot of times it's not even exploring for a specific solution. It's just literally the act of exploring leads you to collisions of ideas and thoughts that lead you to that epiphany of whatever the thing is you're working on.April Rinne: And just a quick side note there, which is it's a little bit meta, but I like to bring it up because I think the moment in time, we're all living in right now. Whether it's reopening, whether it's, you know, what parts of normal are going to continue to exist. You know, is there a such a thing as normal?What, what do you want to leave behind in the last year? And what of the ways in which you changed; do you want to take forward. In this world of like we're in not just massive flux, but the sense of we don't have the solution. We're figuring them out. And we're in the early stages of what I believe will be a massive phase of exploration, iteration, experimentation, improvement, but like, we're not even close to those solutions right now.And I think especially like hybrid work. I focused on the future of work for years. Anyone who tells me they figured out hybrid work. I'm like, no, you haven't. And the more you believe you have, the more, I'm less inclined to actually listen to what you're saying. But if we can all kind of wrap our arms around the fact that we don't know, and we won't know, and to start that process exactly as you've said of, of exploring and experimenting and iterating, we're going to be just fine. But it's the people who want to control and know right now, what it's going to look like. Those are the ones that I worry about where we're going to find ourselves in some trouble. Brian Ardinger: And that's probably a good segue to the last superpower I kind of want to talk about. It's this idea of creating your portfolio. I think maybe you and I are similar from that perspective that, you know, every couple of years, it's a new hat we throw on. I talk about it from the standpoint of everybody's going to have a slash in their name. So, I'm a, you know, entrepreneurial slash podcast slash director of innovation slash whatever. And this idea that everyone in society is going to have this portfolio of experiences that they bring to the table. Talk a little bit about why that superpower is important and, and what I that means to you. April Rinne: Yeah. So this does relate directly to the future of work. It's a bit unique in that regard and that a lot of the superpowers are more applicable personally, professionally, societally. Portfolio career is very much about you and your career.And fundamentally what we're looking at is the career of the future looks much less like a career path, a kind of linear trajectory, and much more like a portfolio that you take responsibility for. And you curate. It gets super interesting. So, the whole like study work, retire, learn linear path that we, again, society told us this is how your professional life is likely to play out.Not to say that that didn't work for some time, but what we're finding is it's broken at every node today. And a lot of people want something more, once something different. I think the great resignation that's going on right now is directly related to this. And so, the notion of a portfolio, it's not just acknowledging that the structure of the workforce is changing.It is now possible to work in more ways than ever before. The role of technology, et cetera, et cetera. But it's also looking at, you know, our professional identity. How do you actually want to show up and bring your best to the world? And so the shift from the career path, which you can think of as a ladder to climb, you know, it's, it's that linear, like pursue, pursue, pursue.So, what's happening is more and more people are not wanting to climb that ladder. More and more people are finding that ladder is teetering, if not broken. And it doesn't work for a whole lot of people. A portfolio, which again, just in the spirit of creativity, you'll hear them refer to it as a jungle gym, rather than a ladder.You'll hear them refer to it as a bento box. If you know the Japanese delicacy. But we're looking, I've also heard of actually a flower that has different pedals and different ways of blossoming. But what we're looking at is basically a shift in how you view your professional development. Your professional identity. And your career overall. And that it's not a path, but it is exactly, as you say, it is a curation of all of the things you care about. All of the things you can do. And if you will, your best work. So, from a portfolio perspective, there are lots of ways you can look at it. The two that I prefer, because I find most people gravitate towards one or the other. One is, you know, investors have a portfolio. It's a portfolio of their investments obviously, but why do they have a portfolio?They have it to diversify, to diversify and to mitigate risk. Right? Then you've got an artist portfolio. Well, what's in his or her portfolio, their best work. So whichever of those, you like, it's more a matter of everything that you've ever done or want to do or skills you have paid or unpaid that can contribute to society. All of that's in your portfolio. And then it's up to you to mix and match and curate it into something that's unique, which is where we end up with hyphens. Brian Ardinger: The other thing about the portfolio career concept is that as the world is accelerating and you know, new tools are becoming easier for the average Joe or Jane to pick up and that. The fact that, you know, what you learned in college is no longer relevant after four years because of the, you know, the world's changed. It's both easier and harder to jump into that next portfolio or learn and take advantage of that, whatever that is. So if you look at it from an opportunistic perspective and it's like, as an opportunity, this pace of change is actually a really good thing. Because you're never really that far behind whatever the next thing is. Because you can jump in and become a part of it and learn faster, because those tools are available to you as well. So because of that pace of change, not only you have to be good at it, but it also gives you an opportunity to be able to flex and change in ways you've never done it in the past. April Rinne: Absolutely. And this is, it's actually a perfect entry or a segue into the portfolio career being much more aligned with and fit for a future of work in flux. And what's interesting, there's a quote, it's actually by Jerry Garcia of all people, but you know, the quote is don't be the best be the only. And the reason I like this is because in the future, being that single greatest expert on X, Y, Z, less and less likely, more and more difficult and less and less just not really aligned with reality.It's going to be the combination of different skills in your portfolio that allow you to stand out. And the more things you have in your portfolio, the more you can mix and match. And to your point, the easier it becomes to add things, layer up or level up. Moving forward as new technologies come through, as new roles become design, become available, et cetera.So it is that sense of this is how not just that you're ready and prepared for the future of work, but also the more robust your portfolio, the harder it is going to be to automate some portion of what you do. The easier it is to keep refreshing your portfolio over time, et cetera. So, one thing I would add, because this comes up a lot where people are like, wait, are you just talking about kind of hustling and the gig economy and that sort of thing, when they hear the word portfolio and I'm always like, no, no, no, no, no, absolutely not.Any full-time job you have is in your portfolio, any side hustle or gig you have is in your portfolio too. Any volunteer experience you have is in your portfolio. The thing I like to remind people is each and every one of us already has a portfolio today. The hook is most of us don't realize it and we're not necessarily being deliberate about curating it.But that's where, like I say, you've already got again, you've got the pieces of your puzzle. It's a matter of putting them together in a different way. That's much more aligned with and ready for constant change. For More InformationBrian Ardinger: We have plenty more superpowers to cover. I encourage people to pick up Flux: Eight Superpowers for Thriving in Change. If people want to find out more about you April or about the book, what's the best way to do that.April Rinne: The best website for my book and all things flux is fluxmindset.com. And I also have my site, which is just more about me, aprilrinne.com, but head to Flux first and feel free to follow up with questions. I'm super easy to reach. My email is april@aprilriinne.com. I'm always happy to be in touch and thank you again for today.Brian Ardinger: Well, April, thanks for being on Inside Outside Innovation. I look forward to having you as part of the community in the years to come, and I appreciate your time today. April Rinne: Absolutely. Likewise, thank you, Brian.Brian Ardinger: That's it for another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. If you want to learn more about our team, our content, our services, check out InsideOutside.io or follow us on Twitter @theIOpodcast or @Ardinger. Until next time, go out and innovate.FREE INNOVATION NEWSLETTER & TOOLSGet the latest episodes of the Inside Outside Innovation podcast, in addition to thought leadership in the form of blogs, innovation resources, videos, and invitations to exclusive events. SUBSCRIBE HEREYou can also search every Inside Outside Innovation Podcast by Topic and Company.  For more innovations resources, check out IO's Innovation Article Database, Innovation Tools Database, Innovation Book Database, and Innovation Video Database.  

On this week's episode of Inside Outside Innovation, we sit down with April Rinne, author of Flux: Eight Superpowers for Thriving in Change. April and I talk about what it takes to thrive in a world of constant change and uncertainty and explore some of the skills and tactics you can use to better prepare yourself and your organization for a world of flux.Inside Outside Innovation is the podcast to help you rethink, reset, and remix yourself and your organization. Each week, we'll bring you latest innovators, entrepreneurs, and pioneering businesses, as well as the tools, tactics, and trends you'll need to thrive as a new innovator.Interview Transcript with April Rinne, Author of Flux: Eight Superpowers for Thriving in ChangeBrian Ardinger: Welcome to another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. I'm your host, Brian Ardinger and as always, we have another amazing guest. With me today is April Rinne. She is the author of a new book coming out called Flux: Eight Superpowers for Thriving in Change. Welcome April. April Rinne: Thank you, Brian. Glad to be here. Brian Ardinger: I'm super excited to have you on the show. When I got a preview copy of the book, I started going through it and it's like, ah, this resonates with everything that I've been talking about, and our audience has been talking about. This whole idea that the world is changing. I think we fundamentally or theoretically understood that 18 months ago, but now every individual has felt that we are in flux.So, this is an amazing book. You start off the book with a gut-wrenching story that gives you immediate insights into what's required to live in a world of flux. And I don't know if you can share that story and maybe its impact on your life and your career and how you got to this place. April Rinne: Yeah. Sure. So, it's interesting. Just picking up on what you just said, which is I was actually working on this book for a long time. Long before the pandemic or lockdown. I like to say that the book itself was about three years in the actual writing, but it was more than three decades or close to three decades in the making. And that relates to my earlier story. But it is kind of interesting where over the last 12 to 18 months, people are like, oh, world in flux, you know, welcome to my life. But I'm sort of looking at this saying, Hm, there was a lot of flux before and there's going to be a lot more moving forward. But my entry into a world in flux or what I, what I sometimes call like my baptism. But my baptism into flux happened more than 25 years ago. I was in college, and I was a junior and I was studying overseas, and I'd had this kind of life expanding mind expanding year.And just as it was wrapping up, I received a phone call and basically at age 20, both my parents were killed in a car accident. And that was that moment where whatever you think your future is going to be, whatever you think the world has in store for you. However you think the world works, like it just all changed.You know, I would not have imagined back then that I would write a book about this sense of like, what do you do when you just can't control constant change. But that's when the seed was really planted. Brian Ardinger: Whether it's the loss of a parent or a major job change or a pandemic. A lot of folks are in that space right now. Like they're trying to understand what I thought the world was going to be is different. So, I think the book helps outline some of the things you can think about or some different ways to approach it. So, tell me a little bit about the book and why a person should pick it up. April Rinne: Yeah, absolutely. And you really nailed it. That sense of like, that was my version, but everyone has today I believe their own version. And what's key is the future is not more certainty. It's not more stability. The future is more uncertainty, more change, more flop, and are we really ready for it? And so the crux of the book is exactly that. That's sense of, you know, on the whole humans, we tend to love change that we opt into. You know, exactly. But we tend to really, really struggle with change we don't. The unexpected change. The change that waylays you. The change that is unwelcome. And yet that's the world we live in today. There's more, not less of that. And so, the fundamental premise of Flux the book is that in a world in constant change, we need to radically reshape our relationship to change from the inside out. I can add. In order to have a healthy and productive outlook. So, we're good at a slice of change, but we're really, really bad at a big chunk of it. This is where I get excited because also individually, this plays out. Organizationally, this plays out. And societally this plays out. So that's the basic punchline of the book, but the eight superpowers are the kind of how to. Brian Ardinger: Talk us through, like, how did you come up with those eight and maybe an overview of those. April Rinne: Sure. This is one of my favorite framing devices, which is, you know, Flux is both a noun and a verb. As a noun it means constant change. I think we all kinda get that. It's also a verb and as a verb, it means to learn to become fluid. So, the way I like to put it as the world is in flux, and we need to learn how to flux. To become fluid in our relating to all kinds of change. And so, I'll be really candid. The Eight Flux Superpowers evolved through a lot of hard work and thinking and post-its and reframing and structuring, you know, all of that.And I will admit now, you know, the book's been written for some time. It's obviously in the publication process. I haven't yet found the ninth one. So, I feel pretty good about that right now. But in short, the eight flux super powers, the first one is run slower. The second is see what's invisible. The third is get lost. The fourth is start with trust. The fifth is know you're enough. The sixth is create your portfolio career. The seventh is be all the more human and the eighth, one of the more provocative, although they're all provocative I think in some way. The eighth is let go of the future. Each of those kind of relates to different themes, you know, run slower is a lot about anxiety and burnout and so forth. And start with trust is obviously about trust. And letting go of the future is not about giving up or failing. It's actually about our relationship to control. So there's a lot more packed in each of those, but that's a quick summary. Brian Ardinger: Absolutely. The first one you start off with in the book is run slower. And I think a lot of people, when you talk about innovation, and you see what's out there in the press and that everybody talks about acceleration and speed of change and that. And the obvious antidote people think of is well, I've got to run faster. I've got to go, go faster and that. So, it's kind of a contradictory approach to that. So, talk about what you mean by run slower and let's unpack that a little bit. April Rinne: Landing on this particular superpower did result from a range of sources. But one of which was my many, many years as an advisor to companies, many of them were startups. But also, governments and think tanks and nonprofits. Organizations of all stripes, shades, colors, flavors, whatever, and their quest to innovate. And recognizing that change breeds innovation, but innovation itself, that simply means something new.It's not inherently good or bad. And I'm looking at this going, how do we innovate well. How do we innovate responsibly? How do we innovate in ways where we don't end up having blind spots and regretting some portion of what we did later on, et cetera. And I think we see a lot of that today, right? So back to the superpower. Run slower. The way I define it is in a world of ever faster pace of change, societally. The way we thrive is to slow our own pace. So again, you nailed it where I like to say the pace of change has never been as fast as it is today. And yet it is likely to never again, be this slow. Right. Now just let that sink in for a moment.Right. It's sort of exciting and it's kind of terrifying as well. And I kept looking around as a futurist, as an adviser, as a human being and saying, okay, society tells us that when the pace of change increases, we need to run faster. We need to keep up. And if we know that tomorrow, there's going to be more change than today and next week there's going to be more change than this week.And next year, next decade. Draw that out as far as you wish. If you know today that every single day for the rest of your life, your mandate from society is to run faster. That does not look like a future in which I want to live. And organizationally run ever faster. Wait a minute. You're gonna miss the very best decisions you could make. You're going to miss the very best opportunities. At an extreme, I say, you know, when we run ever faster, we run the risk of running right past life. This is not about doing nothing. This is not about being lazy. This is about slowing your own pace so that it's sustainable. So that in fact, you can be in touch if you will, with yourself, as opposed to just chasing after the next thing that you're supposed to do or the torrent of the info flow.But also, it helps us make wiser decisions. You want to slow down enough so that you can see, recognize, identify, and focus on the things that really matter. So there are lots of different angles there, but I find this is a lot with people, both struggling with anxiety and burn out. But also, when it comes to innovation, how do we make the best decisions? How do we make sure that we've covered our scope of possibility and so forth? Brian Ardinger: Yeah, it's, it's very much like that professional athlete. When they get into that flow, they talk about this idea of everything slows down. And they can understand the environment that they're in. And I think that's kind of what you're talking about.I've also seen the reverse where people go slow because everything's moving so fast, they fail take any action. Or they're scared of being able to keep up, so they don't make decisions and things like that. So, it's, it's that balance almost of like you said, running. But running at a pace that finished the marathon. April Rinne: Very much so. Exactly. I did not say sit still. I did not say do nothing. I said, run, but run slower. Run at a pace that you can sustain over time. Run at a pace that allows you to take in and take stock of everything that's going on. That really matters. And it's funny that you bring up athletes. There's a section in the book there, too.Everything from, you know, what's the right time to make a judgment or a decision. To also one of my favorite quotes. And it relates to athletes, but also children. And I think adults too. Certainly, for me. This notion that there is a kind of growth that comes only with rest. Just think about that. We assume that growth has to happen through motion and action.Think about how kids grow. Think about how athletes strengthen their muscles. It doesn't happen only when they're in motion. It happens when they're at rest. Brian Ardinger: Another area that you tackle is this idea of getting out of your own way and expanding your vision. And you're talking about expanding your peripheral vision, specifically. Being able to look at industries and ideas in that in different ways and, and expanding your business. So talk a little bit about that particular superpower April Rinne: Yeah. So that's the second one. See what's invisible, which says that, you know, when life feels uncertain or blurry, we need to shift our focus from what's visible to what's invisible. And actually, there are all kinds of overlaps with innovation here. The classic cases that, in which again, what does society tell us? You need to focus on your goal straight ahead. And I'm not saying that having goals isn't important and that you shouldn't know how to focus. I'm saying that actually, where is typically most of the action. It's right in front of you or so we think. Where's the actual and really new ideas. The really game changing opportunities. They tend to be on the periphery. They tend to be outside the mainstream. They may end up going mainstream some years later. And then you feel like, oh, I was a really early, you know, joiner to that particular company or idea or whatever. And so expanding our peripheral vision to see more and to see what is again by society standards, quote unquote, invisible.Now just one quick example here. I've spent much of the past decade in the space called the sharing economy. You know, access over ownership and this, that, and the other. It's a classic case in which entrepreneurs and innovators in the sharing economy saw what was invisible to traditional companies. So, case in point, you know, a car sits parked on average 23 hours a day, 95% of the time. We've come to believe that's kind of normal. How in the world that got normalized to have a 95 or 96% inefficient asset is beyond me? But you look at this and you go, this doesn't make sense. Yet society tells us everyone needs a car, not just one car. You need many cars. This is how we're going to build the car. Yeah. And so, you have, car sharing entrepreneurs who look at this and say, no, we actually see value in that parked car.We actually see value in that parking space. We're going to flip the lens and actually put these assets into shared use, thereby helping people save money. Helping reduce CO2 emissions. Freeing up space. I mean, the list goes on and on. But that's a really interesting case. Society tells us to focus on what's visible, which is the cost of a car. GDP. Things with dollars and cents, but there was idling capacity, or what we could think of is invisible value in streets and cities around the world.When you learn how to see that there's a whole new kind of ecosystem, not just for transportation, but far beyond, that can be developed. So that's an example on, again, the innovation kind of organizational end of things. But it definitely applies in terms of individuals and our own blind spots. And where we think we should be looking versus where the action, the action that really matters where it happens to be.Brian Ardinger: And it doesn't even have to be within your industry. I think some of the low hanging fruit for a lot of corporations would be just to look at other industries and see what they're doing when it comes to customer relationships or whatever. And it may not be in your wheelhouse, or your industry may not be doing it, but it may be something that's very easy to adapt or adopt into your industry. And all you have to do is just quite frankly, look at a different set of competitors out there and see what happens. April Rinne: I love that you bring this up, Brian, because I joked with you in advance. Like ironically, what people often call me is a kind of insider outsider in terms of my advisory work. And I have lost count. I'll share this with you. It's so fun because I have lost count of the number of times I've been contacted by an organization and they've said, we want you to do what you did for that company, for our company. But they're in a domain, I'm like, I think you have the wrong person.I began by saying that, because it was like an energy company that first asked me this. And I was like, I'm not an energy expert. They were like, we know. But, you know, just enough about us to actually be able to bring in insights from financial services, from the sharing economy. You know, and the point was not that I had their solution, but then I could bring a perspective and a set of examples and a set of ideas and a set of principles, et cetera, et cetera.That were wildly different than what they were used to hearing. That ended up kind of churning their engines, if you will, around creativity, curiosity, and innovation. So you're absolutely right. And one of the things not just to see what's invisible, but all of the eight superpowers in the entire book. What I love is that I'm not asking you to have any kind of technology or money or whatever that you don't already possess. It's a matter of knowing where to look. So, see what's invisible. All that you need to learn how to see what's invisible. It's right there in front of you. It requires you actually though, to be able to take the step, to reach out and say, I need to learn more about what I don't know. I need to go somewhere that again, society tells me that's outside my domain. That's outside my sector. It's actually really, really relevant for what you're doing. Brian Ardinger: Well, that power of exploration. I think people underestimate it. And a lot of times it's not even exploring for a specific solution. It's just literally the act of exploring leads you to collisions of ideas and thoughts that lead you to that epiphany of whatever the thing is you're working on.April Rinne: And just a quick side note there, which is it's a little bit meta, but I like to bring it up because I think the moment in time, we're all living in right now. Whether it's reopening, whether it's, you know, what parts of normal are going to continue to exist. You know, is there a such a thing as normal?What, what do you want to leave behind in the last year? And what of the ways in which you changed; do you want to take forward. In this world of like we're in not just massive flux, but the sense of we don't have the solution. We're figuring them out. And we're in the early stages of what I believe will be a massive phase of exploration, iteration, experimentation, improvement, but like, we're not even close to those solutions right now.And I think especially like hybrid work. I focused on the future of work for years. Anyone who tells me they figured out hybrid work. I'm like, no, you haven't. And the more you believe you have, the more, I'm less inclined to actually listen to what you're saying. But if we can all kind of wrap our arms around the fact that we don't know, and we won't know, and to start that process exactly as you've said of, of exploring and experimenting and iterating, we're going to be just fine. But it's the people who want to control and know right now, what it's going to look like. Those are the ones that I worry about where we're going to find ourselves in some trouble. Brian Ardinger: And that's probably a good segue to the last superpower I kind of want to talk about. It's this idea of creating your portfolio. I think maybe you and I are similar from that perspective that, you know, every couple of years, it's a new hat we throw on. I talk about it from the standpoint of everybody's going to have a slash in their name. So, I'm a, you know, entrepreneurial slash podcast slash director of innovation slash whatever. And this idea that everyone in society is going to have this portfolio of experiences that they bring to the table. Talk a little bit about why that superpower is important and, and what I that means to you. April Rinne: Yeah. So this does relate directly to the future of work. It's a bit unique in that regard and that a lot of the superpowers are more applicable personally, professionally, societally. Portfolio career is very much about you and your career.And fundamentally what we're looking at is the career of the future looks much less like a career path, a kind of linear trajectory, and much more like a portfolio that you take responsibility for. And you curate. It gets super interesting. So, the whole like study work, retire, learn linear path that we, again, society told us this is how your professional life is likely to play out.Not to say that that didn't work for some time, but what we're finding is it's broken at every node today. And a lot of people want something more, once something different. I think the great resignation that's going on right now is directly related to this. And so, the notion of a portfolio, it's not just acknowledging that the structure of the workforce is changing.It is now possible to work in more ways than ever before. The role of technology, et cetera, et cetera. But it's also looking at, you know, our professional identity. How do you actually want to show up and bring your best to the world? And so the shift from the career path, which you can think of as a ladder to climb, you know, it's, it's that linear, like pursue, pursue, pursue.So, what's happening is more and more people are not wanting to climb that ladder. More and more people are finding that ladder is teetering, if not broken. And it doesn't work for a whole lot of people. A portfolio, which again, just in the spirit of creativity, you'll hear them refer to it as a jungle gym, rather than a ladder.You'll hear them refer to it as a bento box. If you know the Japanese delicacy. But we're looking, I've also heard of actually a flower that has different pedals and different ways of blossoming. But what we're looking at is basically a shift in how you view your professional development. Your professional identity. And your career overall. And that it's not a path, but it is exactly, as you say, it is a curation of all of the things you care about. All of the things you can do. And if you will, your best work. So, from a portfolio perspective, there are lots of ways you can look at it. The two that I prefer, because I find most people gravitate towards one or the other. One is, you know, investors have a portfolio. It's a portfolio of their investments obviously, but why do they have a portfolio?They have it to diversify, to diversify and to mitigate risk. Right? Then you've got an artist portfolio. Well, what's in his or her portfolio, their best work. So whichever of those, you like, it's more a matter of everything that you've ever done or want to do or skills you have paid or unpaid that can contribute to society. All of that's in your portfolio. And then it's up to you to mix and match and curate it into something that's unique, which is where we end up with hyphens. Brian Ardinger: The other thing about the portfolio career concept is that as the world is accelerating and you know, new tools are becoming easier for the average Joe or Jane to pick up and that. The fact that, you know, what you learned in college is no longer relevant after four years because of the, you know, the world's changed. It's both easier and harder to jump into that next portfolio or learn and take advantage of that, whatever that is. So if you look at it from an opportunistic perspective and it's like, as an opportunity, this pace of change is actually a really good thing. Because you're never really that far behind whatever the next thing is. Because you can jump in and become a part of it and learn faster, because those tools are available to you as well. So because of that pace of change, not only you have to be good at it, but it also gives you an opportunity to be able to flex and change in ways you've never done it in the past. April Rinne: Absolutely. And this is, it's actually a perfect entry or a segue into the portfolio career being much more aligned with and fit for a future of work in flux. And what's interesting, there's a quote, it's actually by Jerry Garcia of all people, but you know, the quote is don't be the best be the only. And the reason I like this is because in the future, being that single greatest expert on X, Y, Z, less and less likely, more and more difficult and less and less just not really aligned with reality.It's going to be the combination of different skills in your portfolio that allow you to stand out. And the more things you have in your portfolio, the more you can mix and match. And to your point, the easier it becomes to add things, layer up or level up. Moving forward as new technologies come through, as new roles become design, become available, et cetera.So it is that sense of this is how not just that you're ready and prepared for the future of work, but also the more robust your portfolio, the harder it is going to be to automate some portion of what you do. The easier it is to keep refreshing your portfolio over time, et cetera. So, one thing I would add, because this comes up a lot where people are like, wait, are you just talking about kind of hustling and the gig economy and that sort of thing, when they hear the word portfolio and I'm always like, no, no, no, no, no, absolutely not.Any full-time job you have is in your portfolio, any side hustle or gig you have is in your portfolio too. Any volunteer experience you have is in your portfolio. The thing I like to remind people is each and every one of us already has a portfolio today. The hook is most of us don't realize it and we're not necessarily being deliberate about curating it.But that's where, like I say, you've already got again, you've got the pieces of your puzzle. It's a matter of putting them together in a different way. That's much more aligned with and ready for constant change. For More InformationBrian Ardinger: We have plenty more superpowers to cover. I encourage people to pick up Flux: Eight Superpowers for Thriving in Change. If people want to find out more about you April or about the book, what's the best way to do that.April Rinne: The best website for my book and all things flux is fluxmindset.com. And I also have my site, which is just more about me, aprilrinne.com, but head to Flux first and feel free to follow up with questions. I'm super easy to reach. My email is april@aprilriinne.com. I'm always happy to be in touch and thank you again for today.Brian Ardinger: Well, April, thanks for being on Inside Outside Innovation. I look forward to having you as part of the community in the years to come, and I appreciate your time today. April Rinne: Absolutely. Likewise, thank you, Brian.Brian Ardinger: That's it for another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. If you want to learn more about our team, our content, our services, check out InsideOutside.io or follow us on Twitter @theIOpodcast or @Ardinger. Until next time, go out and innovate.FREE INNOVATION NEWSLETTER & TOOLSGet the latest episodes of the Inside Outside Innovation podcast, in addition to thought leadership in the form of blogs, innovation resources, videos, and invitations to exclusive events. SUBSCRIBE HEREYou can also search every Inside Outside Innovation Podcast by Topic and Company.  For more innovations resources, check out IO's Innovation Article Database, Innovation Tools Database, Innovation Book Database, and Innovation Video Database.  

Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, Gary North, Ron Paul, "North-Paul Strategy," 2008 Ron Paul Presidential campaign, fiat currency, financial collapse, Federal Reserve system, Minutemen, Jekyll Island, '90s militia movement, Mormonism, Mormon Constitutionalism, Cleon Skousen, Ezra Taft Benson, Edwin Vieira, 2007-2008 subprime mortgage crisis, Tea Party, patriot movement, Obama administration, Republican Party, home schooling, nullification, "continental congress," Chuck Baldwin, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy the Fed, Civilization Preservation Teams, Fourth Generation Warfare, "David vs Goliath" concept, Sagebrush Rebellion, Battle of Bunkerville, Bundy standoff, American Legislative Exchange Council, Ken Ivory, Utah, Koch Brothers, Council for National Policy, Mormonism in the patriot movement.    Below are James notes' for this discussion. This is not the actual transcript, just the notes James put together for the show.    Questions Now, a major influence on the ideology of the Oath Keepers in your estimation was Gary North. Can you give us a bit of an overview of this guy and the world view he held? Gary North is a major strategist of the Christian Reconstructionist religious movement founded by Rousas Rushdoony. North was Rushdoony's son-in-law. Rushdoony was a religious forerunner of Fourth Generation Warfare. Rushdoony borrowed the idea of presuppositionism, that is, our beliefs are based on our presuppositions, and argued that Americans had two opposing choices: follow the laws of God or follow the laws of man. Following the laws of God meant building the Kingdom here-and-now earth and putting religious zealots in charge. It is a philosophy of theonomy and dominionism. This is the entire idea of making the US once again a Christian nation and the foundation for Christian nationalism. Christian Reconstructionism is the guiding philosophy, the driving force, of the Christian Right—though most people in the movement may never have heard of Rushdoony. If Rushdoony is the Karl Marx of the movement, Gary North may be its Lenin. North was both a political strategist—how to implement this religious philosophy—and an economist—how to bring the US economic system under biblical law, which, funny enough, was the gold standard, railing against fiat money of the Federal Reserve System, and an extreme libertarianism. As a strategist, he believed like Paul Weyrich and William Lind, in a centralized strategy executed through decentralized networks, which is exactly as Weyrich did through his ad hoc Arlington Group and Lind described for the militia. Alright, get into North's perception of the Federal Reserve system. This is crucial to so much of this stuff, so it warrants an in-depth explanation. North's notations of a pending economic collapse sounded outlandish to many normal Americans for decades. But in recent years, they've become harder and harder to ignore. Even many leading mainstream economists have expressed concerns in recent years, correct? The standard right-wing theory of how they will come to power is based on the Weimar model: catastrophically high rates of inflation and economic collapse. They have been pushing this idea since at least the 1980s, if not before. So, they believe in the Weimar model. And they push for a return to the gold standard, the abolition of the Federal Reserve System, and a balanced federal budget. The difference between, for example, the economic collapse conspiracy theory pushed by Oath Keepers and its libertarian allies and mainstream liberal economists, is that the former believes the elites will engineer a collapse. Gary North, on the other hand, thinks the economic collapse will be God's judgement for running an unbiblical and fraudulent fiat money system. Mainstream, liberal economists with impeccable credentials believe this economic system is inherently unstable and, if it does suffer a catastrophic financial crash—because it keeps growing larger and larger, with more opaque financial instruments, and ever greater global connectivity—it could take the US government down with it. For the mainstream, it is the system's inherent instability that causes a crash rather than the evil intentions of financial elites. You can find progressive analysts thinking a future economic collapse is possible. Indeed, it is possible to argue that both right-wing populists and left-wing populists believe the economic system is rigged by the political-economic elites against much of the American people, even if both populist wings differ on the causes, consequences, and remedies. But, whatever the cause of a future economic collapse or catastrophic financial crisis, the right-wing expects it and is prepared to exploit it to push their dominionist political agenda. Now, how does the militia movement of the 1990s tie into these notions of economic collapse? And what were some of the characteristics and hotbeds of the movement back then? New right-wing movements cannot be isolated from the dominant ideas of the conservative movement and Christian movements. These new movements may express the issues more starkly or in more extreme rhetoric, but they are not independent of these larger ideological schools of thought. The innovation of the militia/patriot movement was the idea of the New World Order. But this is rehashed, rebranded John Birch Society rhetoric about “insiders.” When globalization is the buzzword, the insiders become globalists. But “insiders” and “globalists” are sanitized code words for Jews. The Christian Identity movement believed the country was headed towards an economic collapse and racial civil war. They and the “patriot/militia” sphere trained in survivalism and borrowed from the “prepper” movement. The religious foundations of many right-wing movements are apocalyptic—they believe they are in the End Times or the end of the world. They then look for secular signs of the economic collapse. When the militias began resurging in 2004, one of their main ideas was that foreign or domestic terrorism could lead to an economic collapse. Let's talk Mormon Constitutionalism for a moment. What is it, and how did it serve as a bridge between the Christian right and the later patriot movement? I want to address this question in a broader context. I want to leave your audience with the idea that there are at least three religious movements on the right that have their differences and yet they also have some commonalities. And unless you put an individual or a group in its proper religious context, you may make some wrong inferences. Mormon Constitutionalism, according to sociologist James Aho, who published a foundational book on “Idaho Christian Patriotism” in 1990, noted that these “Christian patriots” believe in the organic Constitution—the original 1787 articles and the Bill of Rights that were ratified in December 1791. That the Constitution and the United States of America is part of God's plan and America is God's chosen country. Hence Americans, especially white Americans, are God's chosen people, not the Jews. That Americans must choose to obey and follow God or obey and follow Satan. And it follows that the Great Conspiracy is the Battle of God vs Satan on earth through their respective human agents. And those beliefs are consistent with the views of the Christian Reconstructionists, the Christian Right, the John Birch Society, and Christian Identity. Even if these religious movements put different emphases on the villains, they do share a common narrative structure that allows them to understand each other and cooperate. The Christian Right and John Birch Society tone done their anti-Semitism. They do not go for overt promotion of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. But their promotion of “Cultural Marxism” as a conspiracy theory is rooted in the Protocols and Pat Robertson's book The New World Order borrowed from anti-Semitic sources. They can signal to the hard right that they are on-board with the anti-Semitism without alerting watchdog organizations that they are anti-Semitic. They may get a wrist slap from these watchdogs, but that amounts to a nominal reprimand while the main show continues. Now, let us take a simple concept to show how one simple concept can serve as a bridge between four movement. That concept is “county supremacy” or sometimes expressed as the supremacy of the constitutional sheriff or simply as a constitutional sheriff. Mormon prophet Ezra Taft Benson believed there were three levels of legitimate government in the United States: the county, state, and federal government. Both Benson's and fellow Mormon constitutionalist W. Cleon Skousen placed great emphasis on the significant role and importance of the county sheriff. Skousen, collaborated closely with the John Birch Society, which in the 1960s, had a “Support Your Local Sheriff” campaign. Skousen founded the Freemen Institute which later became the National Center for Constitutional Studies. The latter organization became, through Glenn Beck's boosterism, the leading source of constitutional theory for the Tea Party movement. The Christian Reconstructionists also placed a great emphasis on county or local officials. In 1983, Gary North published an edited book, The Theology of Christian Resistance, which included a chapter on the “lesser magistrates” which was derived from John Calvin. Indeed, North also included Calvin's brief writing on the topic. According to the Christian Reconstructionists, individuals should not resist tyranny on their own. Instead, resistance to tyranny was the responsibility of “lesser magistrates” or local officials. “Lesser magistrates” could be the governor, a board of county supervisors, or the county sheriff. Some analysts suggest that the reduction of the Christian Right's “lesser magistrates” to the exclusive focus on the county sheriff is the product of Christian Identity and its related Posse Comitatus movement. That would give the concept a racist and anti-Semitic lineage. But prophet Benson wrote that in the “‘lawless West'” settlers came together to “hire a sheriff” and at “this precise moment, government is born.” The settlers “delegate to the sheriff their unquestionable right to protect themselves.” Thus Benson gives primacy to the county sheriff “who now does for them only what they had a right to do for themselves—nothing more.” Moreover, Benson viewed “defense against bodily harm, theft, and involuntary servitude” as the only “proper function of government.” Logically, then, the county sheriff is responsible for community defense against tyranny. Thus, when we hear about “constitutional sheriffs” or “county supremacy,” the person or organization expressing those views may or may not have derived those terms from the anti-Semitic Posse Comitatus. If that person lives in the West, in an area dominated by the Church of Latter-Day Saints, his or her views may be from Mormon sources, or even John Birch Society sources. The fact that there is consistency across three religious movements—Church of the Latter-Day Saints, Christian Reconstructionism, and Christian Identity—does not mean that the expression of a common term makes the speaker a racist or anti-Semite, especially an overt racist or anti-Semite like the Christian Identity and Posse Comitatus were. Okay, let's talk some Edwin Vieira for a moment. He had a considerable influence on the post-9/11 militia movement. Can you break his views down for us? Edwin Vieira wrote many papers on how the militias were to be properly organized under the Constitution. But he viewed all the unorganized, disorganized, and current militias as constitutionally suspect. The Southern Poverty Law Center, however, called him the “architect of the militias” for the central role he played in the 2009 meeting on Jekyll Island that led to the revitalization of the patriot/militia movement. He may have been, though I could be wrong, the first who linked the need to have gold and silver currencies for individual states as an alternative to fiat money and constitutionally organized militias as necessary to have to prevail during a catastrophic financial crisis. He believed it necessary to complete both actions—gold and silver currencies and constitutionally-organized militias—before the crisis occurs. Gary North, on the other hand, argued against the Federal Reserve System and expressed his sort-of biblically based proposals on the post-collapse reconstruction period. In North's 1986 book, Honest Money, he called for the elimination of the Federal Reserve System and “all central banking.” Vieira's “Purse and Sword” view linked Federal Reserve System collapse and Department of Homeland Security suppression. An economic collapse would require the political-economic elites to use DHS to remain in power. That was a major innovation on the right-wing. Thus, all gun control measures were not only unconstitutional in his view but served the larger purpose of tilting the battlefield in favor of DHS over the militias. Vieira also wrote that there was a right way and wrong way for a state to secede from the United States or the Union. Because he believed so many people were doing things wrong, he may not have been the most popular strategist. But he believed that the national security state was going to suffer a financial collapse. He advocated NOT for the return to the gold standard, but for individual states to have gold and silver currencies that would allow them to secede before or during a severe financial crisis. He was an ardent supporter of Ron Paul. Popular or not, Vieira was the deepest thinker on these issues, and he did have a direct influence on the Oath Keepers who promoted him vigorously starting in 2011 and up to at least 2014 when Vieira featured in two Ron Paul and Oath Keepers-linked videos. Prior to that Oath Keepers' promotion, Vieira's ideas were the foundation for the 2009 “continental congress” organized by Ron Paul's collaborator Bob Schulz. Vieira's ideas started to gain traction around 2008, as the subprime mortgage crisis began to unfold. There were two right wing movements that emerged around then as well, the Tea Party and the patriot movement. Do you want to go over those briefly? Progressives always miss a chunk of history. Starting in late 2004 and roaring to life in early 2005 was a strong nativist movement centered on John Tanton's white nationalist anti-immigration movement and the surge in border militias that went to our southern and northern borders to “stop the invasion” of immigrants. This movement picked up significant support in small cities and suburbs. This movement sunk President Bush's immigration policy in 2005 and by 2009 immigration reform in the GOP is on life support. It is now pretty much dead. Then comes the financial crash of 2008. Bush and the GOP elite are already ideologically suspect. The Tea Party movement, effectively a subsidiary of the Christian Right, jettisons the culture war issues of abortion and gay rights, and concentrates the extreme libertarian message of the Christian Reconstructionists, the Christian Right, and the libertarian strains of Ron Paul and the Koch brothers. The Tea Party movement attacks the mainstream Republican Party and the new Obama administration on taxes, spending, and deficits. Their large, nation-wide protests attract white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the white nationalist anti-immigration movement who all begin to network and try to influence this new batch of conservative, Christian activists. Organizationally, there is a centralized strategy—through the Council for National Policy and its various front groups in Washington, D.C.—and decentralized execution in the states. The Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity and the Forbes-funded FreedomWorks give the Tea Party movement its organizational coherence. The John Birch Society and Skousen's National Center for Constitutional Studies begin the process of indoctrinating these new members on their interpretation of the Constitution. The Oath Keepers, as part of a resurgent militia/patriot movement also began to network and indoctrinate Tea Party members on the importance of resisting tyranny the proper way at the local level, as well helping spread conspiracy theories into this movement. Both the Tea Party movement and the patriot/militia movement are the product of more than a decade of right-wing organizing through annual conferences. For example, Ron Paul participated in the Freedom21 conferences held annually between 2000 and 2009. This coalition of 17 groups were fighting the United Nations' Agenda 21 program for sustainable economic development. In May 2009, Vieira was a founding member of the “Jekyll Island Project Freedom.” Eric Cunningham, an Oath Keeper, was also a founding participant. The SPLC suggested this meeting “appears to have played a key role in launching the current resurgence of militias and the larger anti-government ‘Patriot' movement.” The Jekyll Island conference led to the November 2009 “continental congress,” held in Illinois. The organizing group, Bob Schulz's We The People, had been collaborating with Oath Keepers since at least October 2009. Among the “articles of freedom” published by the so-called “continental congress,” “asks [that] Americans treat county sheriffs as the highest legitimate police authority,” according to an SPLC summary. In a long, round-about way, we have the Christian Reconstructionists with their doctrine of the “lesser magistrates” leading the resistance to tyranny, William Lind's advocacy of militia units as local defense forces (aka “neighborhood watches”), and Edwin Vieira's “militias of the several states” all coming together to put Oath Keepers and the militias under the control of the local constitutional sheriff to contest the legitimacy and territorial claims of the United States government during a period of secession or severe economic crisis. The “continental congress” signaled that the broad right-wing as early as 2009 was preparing for revolution. This is a full-blown Fourth Generation War, particularly when you add in the Disinformation and Propaganda Machine of the right-wing. When did these movements start embracing Vieira's ideas? It is hard to answer this question. Vieira participated in the Jekyll Island Project Freedom and his writings informed a good deal of the discussions at the “continental congress.” From 2011 to 2014, Oath Keepers made promotion of Edwin Vieira's voluminous writings, his own videos, and videos promoted by Oath Keepers a centerpiece of their outreach. Alright, let's get into Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign and the "North-Paul strategy." Before we get into the Oath Keepers proper, take us through some of the other militant groups that came out of the Paul campaign. There are four groups that come out of Ron Paul's presidential campaign. First, a homeschooling project in association with nullification advocate and secessionist proponent Thomas Woods. Second, the National Precinct Alliance to capture the Republican Party at the level of precinct captain. Third, were Richard Mack's Save Our Sheriff and The Sheriff Project that eventually became the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA), which was aligned with Oath Keepers and is the vehicle for putting militias under the rubric of “sheriff's posses.” Fourth and last, was Oath Keepers itself. Now, there were some other movements, such as those dedicated to homeschooling and nullification, that came out of the Paul campaign. What were their relations to these more militant groups? Ron Paul is a bridge figure between the Christian Reconstructionists and Christian Right via Gary North and to the neo-Confederates and secessionists through Thomas Woods. The neo-Nazis saw him as a “friendly.” David Duke and Stormfront raised money for his campaign. The idea of nullification is widespread across the right-wing. It is not advocated just by the neo-Confederates. The Catholic journal First Things advocated nullification of Supreme Court decisions to provoke a constitutional crisis in 1996. What we are witnessing now is not the fringe with extremist ideas attacking the center. No, we are seeing fringe ideas promoted by the Republican Party and the Christian Right attacking the legitimacy of a secular constitution and an economically shaky neoliberal economic regime. Let's briefly touch on this coalition's efforts to remake the Republican Party and drive out the "RINOs." Political scientists have known that the Republican Party and the conservative movement have been organized around the principle of orthodoxy. Sam Tanenhaus in his 2010 book The Death of Conservatism argued that the “modern liberal worldview is premised on consensus. Movement conservatism emphasizes orthodoxy.” Tanenhaus further argued that the “primary dynamic of American politics…[is] a competition between the liberal idea of consensus and the conservative idea of orthodoxy.” Numerous political scientists since 2010 have published articles on the Republican Party rejecting the legitimacy of the federal government, the legitimacy of the Democratic Party, the use of constitutional hardball tactics, and the winking toleration of political violence. I am not talking about mass murder events. The GOP for decades has done nothing and said nothing about anti-abortion violence. They gave a winking tsk-tsk. It therefore stands to reason that a political party driven by orthodoxy, appealing to authoritarian Christians with an apocalyptic worldview, and viewing its political opponents as either “traitors” or “satanic agents” would not tolerate dissenters, heretics, and apostates. The Tea Party used secular economic issues. But right-wing movement activists have used immigration issues. They have used abortion and gay rights issues. They have used church-state separation issues. They have used the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in public schools. For decades, the Republican Party has been transforming itself into a Leninist combat party or a fascist combat party—pick your favorite model. Alright, let's start getting into the Oath Keepers. So first off, let's go over Stewart Rhodes' background. Can you get into his military career and pre-2008 activities? He graduated from Airborne school in 1983. He completed the first phase of the Special Forces course. In 1985, he was medically discharged from the Army after having been injured making a night jump with the 9th Infantry Division as a long-range reconnaissance scout. After the Army, in May 1998 he graduated from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas with a BA in Political Science. He graduated from Yale Law School in June 2004. He held a variety of jobs in public and private law offices. From May 2007 to January 2008, he was “counsel for the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Indians.” He lectured at Stanford and Yale. He does not seem to have stayed in any position for very long. In April 2007 he began writing for SWAT magazine. So, how did Rhodes become involved with the Ron Paul campaign? Stewart Rhodes was a staffer in Ron Paul's House office from June 1998 to February 1999. In November 2007, Rhodes made his first donation to Ron Paul's presidential campaign. Gary North had been a Ron Paul staffer in 1976—so that relationship goes back decades. Rhodes' most complete biography is taken from his personal website. He claimed that he of “Hispanic decent [sic]” and “part American-Indian.” He claimed that his “great grandfather…rode with Pancho Villa.” On his mother's side of his family were “migrant farm workers.” Now, the Oath Keepers made good use of pre-existing networks to build up their membership circa 2009. What were some of these networks and how did the Oath Keepers hitch their cart? The first thing to recognize about the movement conservatives and the Christian Right movement is that despite its belligerent rhetoric and policies, very few of the elite and rank-and-file in Washington, D.C. have ever served in the military. In fact, very few Americans have served in the military. For example, when veterans stand up and salute for the “Star Spangled Banner” at Blue Wahoos games in Pensacola, very few people stand up. So they are in awe of military people. Since the Oath Keepers came out of the Ron Paul presidential campaign, Stewart Rhodes had access to various movements supportive of Ron Paul. The fact that Oath Keepers came out of the semi-secret Paul-North strategy meant that Rhodes had access to the Christian Right and the Council for National Policy. I do not know how much access he had or how much support he was given, but while Rhodes may have been a political nobody in 2009, he was connected to a few political somebodies. Rhodes connected with Richard Mack which opens the militia/patriot movement. Gary North could connect him with the Christian Right. Ron Paul could connect him with the neo-Confederate movement. The Oath Keepers distinguished themselves in two ways. One, Rhodes claimed that Oath Keepers was not a militia. Two, Rhodes was recruiting active and retired military and law enforcement. Hidden in their scrambled ten orders they will not obey was the obvious, which Chris Matthews nailed Stewart Rhodes on: defending a state's right to secede from the United States. There are other movements that Oath Keepers could connect with. There was the anti-environmental movement or the Wise Use movement. They could connect with the Reagan-era county supremacy movement that existed among Western county commissioners. They could connect with Larry Pratt and Gun Owners of America and the absolutist gun rights movement. They could connect with the nascent Three Percent movement. They could connect with the white nationalist anti-immigration movement. When did the Oath Keepers first discover Vieira? The first promotion of Vieira on the Oath Keepers' blog came in January 2011. They promoted his 8-hour video The Purse and the Sword. The same article also promoted two other books that make up the trilogy of right-strategy: The County Sheriff by Richard Mack and Nullification by Thomas E. Woods. By trilogy of the strategy you can see how in an economic collapse, or, now in a highly contentious dispute over the validity of an election outcome (h/t Bruce Wilson), you have the idea of resistance by lesser magistrates, constitutional sheriffs imbued with a sense of county supremacy, and the sheriff's posse consisting of Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, the militias of various flavors, and other right-wing street fighters. In May 2011, they promoted a Vieira article on the twin dangers of a financial collapse and the suppression of rebellion by the Department of Homeland Security. Vieira argued for the creation of an alternative currency based on gold and silver, not simply backed by gold and silver. They pushed Vieira's articles on the formation of properly constituted militias. They also promoted Vieira's view that all gun control laws constituted “treason.” What are the ties between the Oath Keepers and Ron Paul's "continental congress"? The most obvious physical tie between Oath Keepers and the “continental congress” is the fact that Eric Cunningham, represented Oath Keepers at the meeting. Cunningham and the other “Project Freedom Keepers” described by the group as “leaders of the growing freedom movement.” William Taylor Reil from Pennsylvania and David Helms from Arizona were Oath Keepers and delegates at the “continental congress.” Helms was on the national board of Oath Keepers. Reil was pushing the Sheriffs program in the civic actions to be approved. But the “continental congress” was put on by Bob Schulz and his We The People foundation. Schulz has long-standing ties to Ron Paul. Edwin Vieira's documents were part of the foundation of ideas considered and voted upon by the “continental congress.” The fact that two years later Oath Keepers is the most important proponent of Vieira's ideas I think ties the Oath Keepers tightly to the “continental congress.” How about the connections between the Oath Keepers and Pastor Chuck Baldwin? In 2008, Ron Paul endorsed Chuck Baldwin for president running on the “openly theocratic Constitution Party” ticket. In 2004 Baldwin was the Constitution Party's vice-presidential candidate. In the 1990s, Baldwin had been pastor at Pensacola's Crossroads Baptist Church, a radio talk show host, a militia proponent, an ardent anti-abortionist. Baldwin was also connected to the racist Council of Conservative Citizens, a prominent neo-Confederate group. In 2013, Baldwin became the national chaplain of Oath Keepers. But between 2007 and 2013, Baldwin was involved in the “Black Regiment” organization that recruited pastors to support an upcoming American revolution. In late 2013 Baldwin preached and asked if “secession time is coming again?” How did the Oath Keepers approach Occupy Wall Street? The Oath Keepers put on a false front regarding Occupy Wall Street. Initially, it endorsed the idea of the 99 percent against the 1 percent. But sociologist Spencer Sunshine, who studied the infiltration of Occupy by right-wing groups noted that Oath Keepers was among 20 right-wing groups, some like the LaRouche movement, white supremacist groups, as well as Ron Paul supporters and Alex Jones. That is not to say that Oath Keepers operated in concert with these white supremacist groups. What Oath Keepers did underhandedly was push the Ron Paul idea to “End The Fed.” But given that Rhodes and Paul and North are all extreme libertarians, they do not actually advocate for helping the American people on economic issues. It is hard to figure how cutting taxes on billionaires, cutting environmental and other regulations on corporations, and working to transfer hundreds of millions of acres of public lands to billionaires and energy/mining corporations helps the ordinary American. Okay, let's get into their concept of Civilization Preservation Teams. This was kind of their sneaky way of getting around being labeled a militia. So, what of them James? In October 2013, Oath Keepers launched their “Civilization Preservation Teams” based on the premise that the Great Collapse was coming. These CPT were based on a Special Forces “A-Team” or Detachment Alpha concept. Twelve Oath Keepers would link up with existing veteran's groups and organize a local resistance to an “oppressive regime” in addition to disaster preparation—the kind FEMA already does. The SPLC commented that it was “the first time the Oath Keepers… has moved in the direction of actually establishing any sort of militia or fighting force of its own.” US News & World Report reported that local Oath Keepers “preservation teams” will “‘draft and introduce militia bills, posse bills, and nullification bills, among other items to support liberty.'” In fact, that Oath Keepers statement is exactly what the semi-secret North-Paul strategy called for. In January 2008, Gary North explained the semi-secret part of the strategy. The homeschooling of children would prepare future Christian libertarian radicals. The National Precinct Alliance would produce local GOP organizations controlled by Christian libertarian radicals. The constitutional sheriffs would command and operate the local militias as part of his or her posse. And Oath Keepers teams would be the glue holding this local resistance together. North explained this openly: “When checks from Washington no longer buy much, there will be a monumental political transformation…. The primary goal is to get positioned locally with numerous officials to present a united front against the Federal government when it begins to falter.  When the Feds' money buys nothing, the hard corps needs to be influential locally to block all attempts of the Feds to impose controls over the local economy. This has been known historically as the doctrine of interposition.” Inevitably, the Oath Keepers follow Fourth Generation Warfare. They have an interesting concept in regards to conflict, which is dubbed David and Goliath. Can you get into that a bit and how it plays into the Civilization Preservation Teams? Let me start with Gary North explaining the Fourth Generation Warfare strategy that was embedded inside the semi-secret North-Paul strategy that informs Oath Keepers' overall strategy. Keep in mind that Gary North as early as 2004 was using William Lind's writings on Fourth Generation Warfare to explain Osama bin Laden's strategy. Middle East scholar Michael Ryan noted that Abu Ubayd al-Qurashi, a highly probable advisor to Osama bin Laden, “might have been influential on the topic of fourth-generation warfare” because his second article in Al-Ansar, the online military strategy journal of al Qaeda, was “Fourth Generation Warfare” which cited Lind and other 4GW strategists. North wrote in January 2008, before Oath Keepers was established: “The central issue is legitimacy. The supreme goal is to undermine the legitimacy enjoyed by the prevailing central state. This task is doable. We have the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve System working for us: a debt disaster to be funded by fiat money. When the dollar dies, political legitimacy dies with it. This is the central premise of my recommended strategy.” The David and Goliath example is easy to understand. We understand that David represents a weaker opponent, but a highly moral opponent. Goliath was large, a brute, and on the side of the enemy of the Israelites (and God). William Lind used this concept to explain why US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq a small footprint should have, use nimble infantry forces, use force sparingly, and not become a Goliath—thus depriving the insurgents of a strategic level moral victory. A Goliath is inherently illegitimate. What Oath Keepers wants to do, borrowing from Lind and North, is label the federal government as a tyrannical, illegitimate government like a Goliath. Alright, I want to start getting into the centerpiece of this discussion, the Battle of Bunkerville. This event has a very deep background. In fact, it's considered to be the third Sagebrush Rebellion. The second one is most relevant to our discussion. So, how about that, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and the so-called "Cowboy Caucus" of the 1990s? Paul Weyrich founded The American Legislative Exchange Council. Weyrich is the same Christian Right leader who helped formed the Christian Right by the mid-1980s; he founded the Heritage Foundation; he co-founded the Council for National Policy; and he was instrumental in forming the Moral Majority. He was a key strategist. ALEC takes the needs of the Christian Right, the GOP, and Big Business and translates them into pieces of model legislation. These legislation models are then transmitted to state legislatures for passage and signing into law by the governor. In the 1980s, personnel formerly with the Reagan Administration and Coors money help launch the Second Sagebrush Rebellion. ALEC is involved. The Heartland Institute is involved. Both would remain highly active in the 1990s and to the current day. ALEC is helping attack environmental regulations and the Endangered Species Act, one the most prominent federal laws used by environmentalists to halt mining and energy drilling, as well as ranchers misusing federal lands. During the 1990s, the Christian Right formed the Wise Use movement to oppose the environmental movement. The militia/patriot movement's opposition to the New World Order aligns itself with the Wise Use movement, the county supremacy movement, and the Sagebrush Rebellion. The goal is to transfer about 750 million acres of public lands in the Western states to energy and mining corporations, and billionaire landowners. Alright, let's get into the Council for National Policy's role in the Second Sagebrush Rebellion. What were the moves made by ALEC and the CNP in the run up to the Third Sagebrush Rebellion? The Council for National Policy operates at the strategic level of the movement. It brings together operational planners, communication companies, and funders. Once they decide on a strategy or a campaign, that campaign is executed through other networks or movements. Recently, the CNP has begun forming an action group that attracts other action groups from different movements, like bringing together the Tea Party movement, the anti-immigration movement, Americans for Prosperity, and a major border militia group. The CNP's influence is indirect, though not always so. But the fact that the Koch brothers have a representative seat on the CNP's executive board demonstrates how influence works. In the 2010s, ALEC and the overall Sagebrush Rebellion are pushing for local control of public lands. The Koch brothers become more involved. The aim is also to rollback environmental regulations and defund the Environmental Protection Agency. The Bureau of Land Management is the central object of attack. It has one of the most difficult jobs in the federal government: managing and balancing the competing economic, political, and environmental interests trying to maximize their use of public lands while conforming to federal law and being subject to intense political pressure by conservative politicians operating at the county, state, and federal levels. And periodically subjected to violence by militias and lone wolf terrorists. The Council for National Policy is not directly involved. What the Christian Right had formed is another anti-environmental movement, the Cornwall Alliance, which sought to delegitimize the environmental movement as socialist and satanic. These operations are multi-faceted and multi-dimensional. Let's talk some Ken Ivory for a moment, a onetime rising star in Utah's state legislature. This guy has a lot of interesting ties. Ken Ivory does not become a state representative in Utah until 2010. He is a Mormon. In 2011, he is pushing Edwin Vieira's gold and silver legislation in the Utah legislature. Utah became the first state to authorize gold and silver as a legal currency. That was a civic action recommended by the “continental congress.” From there he moves into the Koch-funded speaking circuit of Americans for Prosperity. He then becomes a proponent of transferring public lands to the states. By 2014, the national Republican Party is supporting the transfer of public lands to billionaires. Also in 2014, state-level representatives from several Western states are starting to coordinate their political demands and actions regarding such transfers and concocting false histories to back their claims. By 2014, Ken Ivory and Americans for Prosperity are making connections with Oath Keepers, the constitutional sheriffs head Richard Mack, and the opponents of the Agenda21 movement. He eventually becomes director of the Koch-funded Americans Land Council. That organization is instrumental in bringing together elected state officials to push for public land privatization or county control of public lands. Now, let's talk about the role of Mormonism in all of this for a moment. The bulk of the support for ALEC came from Western states, many with large Mormon populations. The first formal effort to seize federal lands came from Utah. The Oath Keepers featured a lot of support from the same states, and featured more than a few Mormons in their ranks. Cliven Bundy was a Mormon, as were many of his supporters at the standoff. Is this an element that's been overlooked? The Mormon background of these participants tends to be glossed over or not given very much weight. What missed by many is that the Church of the Latter-Day Saints is one of the largest landowners in the West. I am not saying that the LDS supports Cliven Bundy and various rebellions. They did not. But they certainly have an economic interest at stake or in play. If we can return to our previous segment about Posse Comitatus. There is no doubt that in the West over a period of decades you have the Silver Shirts; the Klan was active in the West; Posse Comitatus was active. So the white supremacists have influenced political discourse in the West. But the Mormons were also active. While the LDS was not officially aligned with the John Birch Society, leading members of the LDS were. And the Mormons had their own take on county supremacy, their own interpretation of the divine nature of the Constitution and America. Mormons see themselves as saving America at a time of dire need. So you cannot omit the religion or the religious ideas of participants from the analysis. As James Aho wrote in the 1990s, the Christian patriots came in different flavors and not all were racist anti-Semites. That is not to say they had great positions on race or Jews, but they were not overt racists like the Christian Identity movement which gets far more credit than it deserves. Alright, take us through the onset of the Battle of Bunkerville and how Rhodes became involved. The Battle of Bunkerville is really about the Bureau of Land Management trying to enforce three court orders that Cliven Bundy, a Mormon rancher using federal lands, requiring Bundy to pay his grazing fees to the BLM. At the outset I want to remind your listeners that in 2018 a federal judge dismissed all the charges against Cliven Bundy due to the DOJ withholding evidence and other misconduct. And in 2020, the 9th Court of Appeals dismissed the case with prejudice. The Department of Justice, the FBI, and the BLM made the Bundy clan heroes in the West and the right-wing in general. To enforce the last court order, the BLM decided it was going to seize Bundy's cattle. Bundy put out a call for help and hundreds of militia personnel and other supporters turned up at his ranch in Nevada. The Oath Keepers and Rhodes personally are part of a gaggle of unorganized militia that show up to protect Bundy and prevent “another Waco.” Security at the Bundy ranch is a three-ring circus. Bundy hired his own personal protection as the inner ring. The ad hoc militia is the second ring. They were more a danger to themselves than the federal law enforcement that showed up. The outer ring was the Oath Keepers who patrolled the perimeter. The Oath Keepers thought the ad hoc militia in the second ring were nutjobs. When Rhodes thinks you are crazy, you must be out there. Eventually there is an armed standoff. The BLM backs down. The cattle were released. And then starts the long legal fiasco of the DOJ, FBI, and BLM becoming the Keystone Kops of federal prosecutions. How about the Oath Keepers departure? That ruffled some feathers, right? Rhodes loves to portray the Oath Keepers as active, retired, and former military who are professionals. He touts that some members are Delta, Special Forces, Rangers, or Marines. Rhodes himself was only an E-4, an airborne qualified specialist. So during the Battle of Bunkerville, Rhodes claimed that the Obama administration is planning a drone strike on the entire Bundy Ranch compound. He claims there is a source inside the Pentagon. This source in the Pentagon comes via a source in Texas who called Rhodes. Rhodes took this “intel” to the head of security for Bundy. The Texas source and the security chief talked. Then Rhodes claimed that he had an Oath Keeper in Texas who had the same background as the Texas caller: ex-CIA, ex-Delta. The Texas Oath Keeper confirmed that the Texas caller had a verifiable background in Delta and the CIA, but the information could not be corroborated and could be disinformation. Rhodes then claimed that he had a second source in the Nevada governor's office who had previously given them “intel” that had been deemed to be true. And so with that inconclusive reporting that shades towards at best an unfounded rumor and at worst disinformation, Rhodes pulls out of the Battle of Bunkerville and becomes the laughingstock of the right-wing. His reputation is saved by Three Percent founder Mike Vanderboegh who concluded in his after-action review: “Their failure was not one of cowardice as has been alleged…. The failure was one of lack of hard-headed analysis and an equal lack of hard-hearted decision taking.” Looking back, what do you see as the long term legacy of the Battle of Bunkerville? I think it has only emboldened the right-wing. After Bunkerville, the Bundy clan then seized the Malheur nature preserve. The DOJ and FBI prosecution was again bungled, and Ammon Bundy walked out a hero. He is now leading his own militia against any sensible COVID policies to end this pandemic. Of course, the strategic position of the United States has changed since the Battle of Bunkerville. The West is being ravaged by massive forest fires, life-threatening heat domes, and growing droughts. The idea that climate change is not responsible is growing less tenuous by the day. There is much less urgency to transfer public lands to billionaires, but much sharper, fiercer battles out West are coming. People in the West are facing an existential crisis. I lived and traveled in the West. Water is the most precious resource. People kill for water. And water resources are shrinking. In 1982, the RJR Tobacco company commissioned a strategic report on the nine nations of the United States. Much of the West was called “The Empty Quarter.” Ironic that Big Business would call a large portion of the West the “Empty Quarter” while right-wing groups are fighting against the mythical Agenda21 they believe will empty the West of people. The strategic report warned that “Enormous conflict is anticipated over water supplies, electric power, pollution and physical destruction of national wilderness areas. Most of the U.S. portion of the Empty Quarter is controlled by the federal government.” It concluded that the major battle over water would pit the cities against the oil companies. In that regard I do not think much has changed. But there is one other legacy of Bunkerville relevant today. Bunkerville and Malheur demonstrated that the Department of Justice and the FBI are very capable of blowing slam dunk prosecutions through their misconduct and incompetence. The Oath Keepers and Proud Boys conspiracy cases related to the January 6 insurrection are going to be fascinating. This will be the probable end of Stewart Rhodes and the Oath Keepers. Let us hope that the DOJ and FBI do their jobs properly.

When Colorado became a state in 1876, its state fair was already earning its place in history. The first recorded gathering was in 1869, when approximately two thousand people converged on what is now Pueblo for a horse exhibition; from that meager beginning was born the Colorado State Fair. The Colorado State Fair is an event held annually in late August in Pueblo. The state fair has been a tradition officially since October 9, 1872. The fairgrounds also host a number of other events during the rest of the year. Organizationally, the fair is one of the divisions of the Colorado Department of Agriculture. On August 21, 1984 for the first time ever the Fair was closed after a vicious hailstorm struck. 9 people were injured; 500 light bulbs were broken by golf ball sized hail; 1 person among the injured was knocked unconscious. Damage totaled $40 million. In 2020 because of COVID gone were the concerts, the rodeo and the shopping exhibitions, The Colorado State Fair board canceled a majority of the events and concerts. In 2021 the fair is back to in person events held August 27 to September 6. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sanjiva Weerawarana (@sanjiva, CEO of @wso2) talks about the intersection of low-code and business applications, the Ballerina language, and the WSO2 iPaaS platform Choreo. SHOW: 527SHOW SPONSORS:CloudZero - Cloud Cost Intelligence for Engineering TeamsOkta - Safe Identity for customers and workforceTry Okta for FREE (Trial in 10 minutes)CBT Nuggets: Expert IT Training for individuals and teamsSign up for a CBT Nuggets Free Learner account SHOW NOTES:WSO2 (homepage)WSO2 iPaaS (Choreo)Ballerina Programming LanguageTopic 1 - Welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about your background as an inventor, prior to founding WSO2.Topic 2 - We are at a stage where every business opportunity requires new applications, and every application requires integration with multiple systems. Let's begin by talking about your philosophy behind the Choreo iPaaS platform. Topic 3 - How do you view the intersection between low-code visual coding and the needs to get under the hood of the code for professional developers? Topic 4 - What are some of the common application-types or usage-patterns you're seeing with early users of Choreo? What are some of the patterns that have surprised you? Topic 5 - Organizationally, do you see the iPaaS platform as being operated by an integrated team, or did you design it to be flexible about which teams/groups are engaged with or around the platform?Topic 6 - There is quite a bit of intelligence and self-service built into the platform. Where do AI-driven guidance and self-service marketplaces fit into the way developers do their day-to-day jobs? FEEDBACK?Email: show at thecloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Mrs. Natasha Lamb received her Bachelor's of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of North Florida, minoring in Criminal Justice. Natasha then went on to earn her Master's of Social Work Degree from the University of Southern California with a concentration in Children and Families. Experience Natasha is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has several years experience working with individuals seeking to overcome Depressive and Anxiety Disorders, Bi-polar Disorder, PTSD, grief and loss, as well as difficulty managing stress. While there is no cookie-cutter approach to working with different mental disorders, Natasha has a strong foundation in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT is based on the idea that changing the way one thinks will then change associated feelings and behaviors. Natasha devotes her time to working with adults to improve their overall mental health and quality of life. Natasha seeks to help those who have had difficulty reaching their “best” mental and physical self. Natasha works with clients to decrease their mental health symptoms that may serve as a barrier to achieving an overall sense of well-being. Natasha has worked with victims of domestic violence, children and families within foster care, adolescents and adults with co-occurring substance abuse and mental health disorders, relationships complications that affect heterosexual and homosexual couples. Organizationally, Natasha has also worked as a Clinical Supervisor, training staff on evidence based interventions to help low income individuals and families overcome mental and substance abuse challenges. Natasha has also worked as a program supervisor for a non profit community mental health agency in which she developed mental health and substance abuse programs to the underserved within the community. As the Director of Court Services for a local community health agency, Natasha built programs to support individuals presenting with co-occurring disorders with drug related offenses. Within this role, Natasha received the "Game Changer" Award for organizational commitment, dedication and innovation with a client centered approach for 2019. Personal Info Natasha is a military spouse, as her husband has served 24 years with the United States Coast Guard. Natasha understands military culture and understands the sacrifices made being military affiliated. Natasha resides with her husband and two children in the Orange Park area. In her spare time, Natasha enjoys lifting weights, personal training others, running and can usually be found at the gym at least 5 days per week. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/new-mind-creator/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/new-mind-creator/support

We are all striving to survive these VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) fraught and frightening times.  Covid has taken huge numbers of vibrant people.  The loss to families has been immense and devastating.  Companies have lost collective corporate memories, a hoard of rich experiences and real wisdom.  The survivors carry on, never assured they will not succumb too at some point.  Vaccinations proffer the opportunity to secure herd immunity and defeat the spread of the virus.  What next for those survivor leaders and what do they need to be working on for a post-pandemic world?   Own The Future Well organized leaders lead intentional lives.  What does that mean?  They have goals and plans and they calibrate and recalibrate their progress.  They are brutally buffeted, but not thrown totally off course by unpredictable, violent direction changes.  The ancients believed that their fate was not at their determination.  Many of our staff are still with the ancients on that one and are not leading intentional lives.  Many leaders have seen Covid throw the commerce rulebook right out the window, but their True North is still there.  Now is the time to work on the team and rebuild their belief in the future of the firm.  We need to reintroduce the idea of leading intentional lives for everyone in our crew.   The company Vision, Mission and the Values may need a real refresh thanks to the pandemic.  Knowing where you are going, clarifying what you do and who you are makes sense in a senseless pandemic. Now is a good time to work together and re-create these behavior drivers and help the team to become more intentional about their future prospects.  Probably no one could recite the old versions from memory anyway, so this time let's make that possible.  If you cannot remember them, you won't be living them.  How can we get all the important things which need to be included into a format which we can recite from memory, simply and easily?  This is a good problem for the team to work on together and reinforce the sense of ownership.   Craft Culture Every leader gets the culture they deserve.  Covid has brutally exposed the leaders who had failed to build a robust culture in their team.  Things break down when you don't have good teamwork.  When we work in isolation, we can depend on others much more than when we are all together in the office.  Small tears in the fabric of cooperation became gaping wounds very quickly. Now is the opportunity to tune up the existing culture or to create an even better one.  When the culture weaknesses have been exposed, it becomes painfully  plain what needs to be done.    Unfortunately, leaders who have failed to unite the team during the pandemic will be unable to do much. Frankly, their credibility has been trashed.  What is the organisation's plan for them – continued neglect, retraining, the axe or do nothing? The stronger leaders will have seen their team culture strengthen under their leadership and become a formidable weapon in the market.  As workplaces come out of the pandemic, it will be time for some serious weapon wielding.   Collaborators Will Win The strong, silent John Wayne hero type leader is too expensive.  The opportunity costs of not achieving collaboration critical mass cannot be denied.  Leaders have had to coagulate disparate team members working at home in isolation from each other, into a powerful collaborative team.  This melding process isn't easy even when everyone can see and talk with each other every day in the workplace.  The exodus to our homes just adds that deadly dimension of separation that increases the leader's difficulty of keeping it all together and going smoothly.   The business world is too complex today for any of us as leaders to imagine we can do it on our own.  We need 1+1=5 outcomes.  There is a lot of coordination grunt effort required, which is one reason why many leaders cannot pull it off.  Those who have managed it, can migrate into a post-Covid world with a powerful collectivization of the team's intellect, experience and insights achieved.   Critical Communication Skills The first casualty of leadership during Covid was communication.  The traditional leader casting a carefully trained eye over those beavering away at their desks, had suddenly lost all visibility of what was going on.  Leadership fault lines, previously masked, hidden and indulged were rapidly exposed.  Frantic times makes inept leaders frantic and their tempers snap. Not good. Feeling valued by the boss is the springboard to engagement in teams.  Capable leaders were able to communicate that to their team, despite their work location.  In fact, the isolation amps up the need for many team members to feel valued and if that is not being communicated, Netflix and Clubhouse are the press of a button away.   Like a convoy escort, the effective leader learnt how to keep everyone together and moving forward.  Motivating and encouraging people replaced scolding, cajoling and criticizing.  Explaining the location of True North over and over, constantly stressing the WHY and creating the right narrative all proved powerful.  This facility must be kept in perfect working order for the days ahead when people again can gather together in an office.   The samurai sword is beaten, heated for red hot tensile strength and plunged into cold water over and over again in order to harden the blade.  Covid is beating us mercilessly. Organizationally, we leaders have to harden up and help our team members to become more resilient, flexible, cooperative and accountable.  If we can't manage that and our rivals can, then we are in for a depressing, remorseless post Covid business gloom of missed business opportunities. 

Tennessee Titans fourth-round selection Rasah Weaver facing simple assault charges. What happens next could have large person repercussions. From the on-field perspective, it carries a hefty effect on the Titans' defense in search of a pass rush. Organizationally, is there an issue spotting character concerns for the Tennessee's front office?Ross and Tyler share their favorite draft classes of the 2021 NFL Draft. Is there a new quarterback waiting in the wings in Minnesota?Kate Magdziuk of Locked On Dynasty Football joins to talk about rookie running backs to invest in ahead of the 2021 season and other offensive players who landed in fantasy-rich environments.Follow Kate on Twitter @FFBallBlastFollow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow Ross on Twitter @RossJacksonNOLASupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you'll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.NugenixText now, and they'll include a bottle of Nugenix Thermo, their most powerful fat incinerator ever with key ingredients to help you get back in shape, absolutely free! Text DRAFT to 2-3-1-2-3-1. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tennessee Titans fourth-round selection Rasah Weaver facing simple assault charges. What happens next could have large person repercussions. From the on-field perspective, it carries a hefty effect on the Titans' defense in search of a pass rush. Organizationally, is there an issue spotting character concerns for the Tennessee's front office? Ross and Tyler share their favorite draft classes of the 2021 NFL Draft. Is there a new quarterback waiting in the wings in Minnesota? Kate Magdziuk of Locked On Dynasty Football joins to talk about rookie running backs to invest in ahead of the 2021 season and other offensive players who landed in fantasy-rich environments. Follow Kate on Twitter @FFBallBlast Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitans Follow Ross on Twitter @RossJacksonNOLA Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Built Bar Built Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order. BetOnline AG There is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. Rock Auto Amazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Nugenix Text now, and they’ll include a bottle of Nugenix Thermo, their most powerful fat incinerator ever with key ingredients to help you get back in shape, absolutely free! Text DRAFT to 2-3-1-2-3-1. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode contains multitudes. Callid and Aria are an unlikely combination, but they came into each other’s lives at a time when life circumstances created opportunities for engagement. And thank goodness! They hold each other in dear care. In this episode, Aria and Callid talk about the role of higher education in the contemporary American experience, power and privilege (in everything), parenting and families, democracy and spirituality.     Callid Keefe-Perry is a proud father and husband. He serves in the traveling ministry within and beyond The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), often working as an organizational consultant, retreat leader, or workshop facilitator for faith communities and non-profit organizations. Originally trained as a Communication and Media Theorist, he served as one of the two Co-Executive Directors of ARC: Arts | Religion | Culture until November 2020, an organization committed to supporting individuals and organizations whose work is at the intersection of spiritual and creative practices, especially as those practices are done for community-building and work towards justice. Organizationally, he focused on helping groups clarify their goals and make sure that their commitments to justice and equity become more than just aspirations and good intentions. He currently serves as Senior Editor of the academic journal "The Arts in Religious and Theological Studies (ARTS Journal). He works with ARC to steward that publication in collaboration with The Society for the Arts in Religious and Theological Studies and United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. Callid is also a Lecturer in Practical Theology at Boston University’s School of Theology. Academically, his research is about encouraging ways that religious and spiritual perspectives can be discussed in the public square in ways that support pluralism, democracy, and social justice. He publishes on issues related to the ways that schooling affects the interior life of children as well the importance of imagination and creativity in spiritual life.  Previously, Callid has been a public school social studies teacher, the co-founder of a community theater in Rochester, NY, and the Executive Director of The Transformative Language Arts Network. He thinks it is OK for people to laugh a lot, that power cedes nothing without demands, and that creativity is a vital quality of adaptive and effective leadership. More about Callid is at CallidKeefePerry.com   Resources & Links:  Callid’s Website: https://callidkeefeperry.com/ Callid’s Poem: https://artsreligionculture.org/blog/2020/10/19/chronicles10-19-20 Boston University School of Theology: http://www.bu.edu/sth Kimberlé Crenshaw (originated term: intersectionality): https://aapf.org/kimberle-crenshaw Intersectionality: https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality?language=en     Keywords: education, anti-racism, higher education, college, university, practical theology, arts, spirituality, democracy, intersectionality, privilege, marginalized identity 

Are you looking to accelerate your team's performance and impact? Are you looking for actionable ideas to enhance your own leadership and the leadership of your team members? Would you like to better understand the genetics of leadership and what it takes to build systems of leadership? Our special guest Dan Edds answers these and other questions about leadership, systems of leadership and building sustainable high impact teams. Dan Edds is Founder of Praxis Solutions, a management consulting and leadership development firm. Dan has 25 plus years as a practicing management consultant in a wide range of industries, including public sector, health care, K- 12 education, higher ed, and non-profits. He's written two books, the most recent of which is Leveraging the Genetics of Leadership: Cracking the Code of Sustainable Team Performance. Most important, Dan is someone who understands, studies and is constantly evolving when it comes to leadership. Listen in as Dan shares his wisdom and experience on leadership, systematic change and high performing teams. Show Notes Episode highlights… Leadership is getting work done with and through other people Leadership is a relational enterprise – get to know your people as human beings Start by designing a series of routines to build your leadership A team of great individual performers are not enough High performing organizations have a very systematic approach to leadership While leadership is a relational enterprise, those relationships can be achieved with a systematic approach Companies often succeed despite themselves and this gets in the way building great cultures and teams that achieve high impact (missing enormous opportunities) Beware losing out on the best parts of people (their humanness, creativity, innovation, etc.) when you ask them to only bring their technical skills It's essential to include the whole human side of every person on your team Beware elevating your top performers bases upon performance and not focusing enough on character Your reward systems will determine your leadership – leaders often won't take care of their people until they're rewarded for taking care of their people Being a people centric organization is not the same as being a person centric organization (great teams flow from people centric organizations) When you're clear with expectations, then people who choose not to meet the expectations are taking themselves off the team Organizationally, the leadership system is always focused on the experience of the workforce (a relationship experience) Learn from the US Army's approach to leadership – servant leadership and love Organizations and leaders must lead from a common set of values and experience priorities Get clear that team experience is your top priority – then decide what you want that experience to be – and then decide what behaviors will feed the intended experience outcome If team members are coming to you to solve problems, you have a leadership and management problem High impact organizations develop the whole person / human being – not just the professional Resources: Dan Edds (425-269-8854) Dan Edds Website Leveraging the Genetics of Leadership: Cracking the Code of Sustainable Team Performance book by Dan Edds

Phil is joined by change expert Rich Batchelor to discuss the best ways to define how people must change to adopt a large-scale change. People need to operate differently for positive change to happen. Organizationally, this could include new reporting relationships, skills, processes, co-workers, locations and culture. Preparation and readiness for these adjustments require people to adopt new mindsets, actions and behaviours. So, how do define how people must change to prepare them for taking on new ways of working? Rich can be reached at: Email: rich@capillaryconsulting.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richbatchelor/ Websites: https://www.capillaryconsulting.com/ https://capillarylearning.com/ Twitter: @RichBatchelor Instagram: @richbatchelor1

Looking for ways to create positive change in the world even during a pandemic? Look no further than this interview between Heidi Rupke and the Rev. Fletcher Harper, the latest in our series of Lenten Preaching Series podcasts highlighting the work of faith leaders, authors and creative thinkers. The Rev. Fletcher Harper is an Episcopal priest and the executive director of GreenFaith, an organization that inspires people to form local "green circles" around issues of importance to local communities. Organizationally, GreenFaith pushes for government policies that protect people and land in the broadest possible sense. Conversationally, the Rev. Harper describes the importance of relationships, spirituality found through text and creation, and the decisive actions that result from all of these. Search for Calvary Episcopal Church on your favorite podcast app or go to calvarymemphis.org/podcast.

Potential 2 Results helps organizational leaders and professionals bridge the gap between where they are and where they aspire to be. Professionally, this translates into high performance and impact. Organizationally, it means stronger relationships and teams.  Personally, it results in less stress and increased clarity, purpose and overall well-being.We are on a mission to help people identify and remove the barriers keeping them from from being who they want to be and accomplishing what they want to accomplish - at work, at home, in life.Doing so requires a specific form of self-awareness and a shift in focus. We must stop living for the 12 Prevailing "P's" and begin aligning our life around the 3 Go-to "G's"Learn more:  https://potential2results.com/

You are holding your child's report card and are immediately gripped by a combination of panic, frustration and anger. Why can't he simply turn things in? How is this hard? And how will he succeed in college if he can't handle high school?  One of the most difficult and terrifying situations that parents can face is a child who has the intelligence to do well in school, but who can't seem to manage competing homework, turning in assignments, getting projects done or remembering to bring his ID everyday.  Smart, But Scattered is a great resource for parents who need to navigate how to support their child in the process of becoming an independent adult.    Link to Smart by Scattered Book

Welcome to the first episode of BryghtCast Weekly, our new podcast, for the week of October 21st, 2019. Prior to today, this podcast had been published as a part of our long-running Managing Uncertainty Podcast, but now we're spinning this off into its own podcast. We explain our thinking a little more deeply in the episode, so have a listen. Topics discussed on today's podcast include: WSJ: NBA Arenas prepare for Hong Kong protests WSJ: US troops withdrawing from Syria draw scorn International Elections:  Canada, Israel The Conversation: Chile protests escalate as widespread dissatisfaction shakes foundations of country's economic success story Leadership vacancies at the US Department of Homeland Security Episode Transcript Bray Wheeler: Hi. Welcome to this week's episode of BryghtCast for the week of October 21st, 2019. Before we get started, I mean everyone may have noticed there was some new music. There is some potentially new graphics up for this podcast. We have elected to spin this off a little bit from the Managing Uncertainty podcast where it has lived since we've started doing this into its own podcast. We've gotten some overwhelming support from folks and listeners, so we've decided to break that apart. So over the next few weeks, you'll see the new graphic, you'll see this split off. There may be some additional things that we're kicking around to include with this podcast. So before we jump in... Bryan Strawser: So this is Bryan Strawser here at Bryghtpath. I think one of the important things to point out here is really two fold. This is now going to be its own podcast. So if you're listening to this on the Managing Uncertainty podcast, this is the last episode we'll be posting to this channel, this subscription of the BryghtCast. We'll continue with what you're used to on Managing Uncertainty, which is this deeper 15 to 30 minute dive into a particular topic related to crisis management, business continuity risk, organizational resilience. Bryan Strawser: You'll want to subscribe to BryghtCast Weekly, which will be the new podcast name in order to continue to receive BryghtCast, and that should be up in the next day or so, should be available on iTunes and Stitcher and Google play and all the wonderful places where you can find podcasts. We'll remind you of this a few times in the coming weeks as well. But with that... Bray Wheeler: Yeah, we're super excited. Bryan Strawser: Welcome to BryghtCast Weekly. We've got a handful of topics I think that Bray's going to kick us off on. Bray Wheeler: Again, this is Bray Wheeler consultant here at Bryghtpath and so for the week of October 21st, we're going to just kick right into it. The big topic that we've been talking about for weeks and weeks and weeks, Hong Kong. What's unique about the situation that we're going to delve into here real briefly is the fact that not much has changed, status quo. Hong Kong continues to be filled with unrest, but what's unique is the NBA is now prepping for protests at games in the US and Canada, in particular the opening night games in both Toronto and Los Angeles. Bray Wheeler: So it'll get very interesting for the National Basketball Association here over the next couple of weeks in terms of their fallout from their back and forth with China around support for Hong Kong, freedom of speech. It's been just a mixed conversation, even within the NBA and with fans of the NBA as well as just the public at large, but really for this demonstrates the NBA as organization wading into the waters of Hong Kong and the results of how they've handled themselves, probably not so well. Bryan Strawser: Not so well. The NBA's in a really difficult situation, right? I mean they are organization that was founded in the United States and has a market. Their largest market is still the United States, although that may change in the future. Their teams are in the US and Canada, but there are attempting to turn themselves into a global league, and they're playing games in International locations and they have a huge deal, huge contract in China that will likely become their largest market over time. The Chinese citizens are huge into basketball. That's been a trend that's been going on for some time. If I take off, my I'm an American hat, for a minute, the NBA is in a horrible bind. Bryan Strawser: From a purely business perspective, there is no easy decisions for them here. I think they're going to try to thread the needle. I don't know. It really never works to do that. But they are faced with a really difficult decision and that is do they cater to their existing market, which will piss off their likely future larger market, or do they cater to the future larger market and piss off their current market, or do they find some way to thread the needle in the middle? I'm not sure how they do that. But the complicating factor to all of that is that activists have figured out that the NBA is sensitive to this, and it's making a lot of play and therefore the activists, are going to lean into this issue with the NBA and provoke responses that will likely benefit the activists over anything else, so that's the bind they're in. Bryan Strawser: If I put my American hat back on, I think the message that they're receiving here in the United States is you should... I mean, why would you not back democracy? Why would you not eject these people, or why would you not welcome these kinds of protests? Why would you not make statements in support of that? Why are you censoring people who are? Bray Wheeler: Right. Bryan Strawser: And then I think I've mentioned in all of this too is the NBA has changed their rules of conduct for fans and taunts and basically even if you don't bring in a sign or wear a shirt, if you chant things that are not related to the game, you can be ejected. Bray Wheeler: Correct. Over the past few weeks in these pre-season games they've kicked out a number of fans for holding up simple Pro-Hong Kong signs, Chance, T-shirts, the whole nine yards and they've booted them right out. They're in a really, really tough spot. In the sport of basketball, just in comparison to the other major sports in the US, that's the one that's really gotten international foothold and really taken off that the other sports leagues don't necessarily have to combat with. Certainly baseball is an International sport. Certainly hockey is very popular in North America and Europe. But in terms of actual leagues, actual connectivity with the Pro League, the NBA is really the only one that has to deal with this. Bryan Strawser: Right. Baseball and football have just stepped there. They've just dip their tippy-toes in- Bray Wheeler: Right. Bryan Strawser: With all of this. Bray Wheeler: It's all localized in a way that the NBA certainly has capitalized on the big market and popularity in China and globally. But it definitely is for organizations, just a good case study and a good reminder of engagement, and even engaging for the right reasons has potential consequences and opens you to reputational crises, operational crises around these different policy issues and political issues that are going on now globally. It's not just State by State. It really is international flares to these issues. Bryan Strawser: One of the challenges, I mean we've talked about this in various ways in the past on the podcast and on Managing Uncertainty around globalization and deciding to take your business outside of where it started, and doing so usually requires that you find ways to adapt to the norms of the countries in which you're operating in. Bryan Strawser: I know from my own experience in doing this in India and in Asia, my operating model there was different. My leadership approach was different. In some cases, more reserved than what my brash American in your face leadership style is, in some cases more aggressive because that's what the local situation demanded and that's just adapting my own leadership style. Your business has to adapt to the local cultural and norms. Bryan Strawser: That's the real challenge here I think is as we've talked about previously, the Chinese do not expect to be challenged by a business that they've granted permission to operate, particularly an American business. And so the NBA is going to have to really think about, any company that's going to do this, is going to have to really think about the reputational aspects of this. I don't know that the NBA or any company could have predicted what's going on in Hong Kong this year. Bray Wheeler: Right. Bryan Strawser: But this kind of disruption is going to continue and the challenge will not be contained as we're seeing here to just businesses operating in Hong Kong. Bray Wheeler: I mean this is certainly headline grabbing type stuff. Things like regulatory and safety in factories and things like that in Country State you're operating in aren't the same as the US and that's made some headlines here in the past few years. But, even things as simple as that, just how you operate your business even behind the scenes, there is an adaptation factor that has to take place. Bray Wheeler: So moving on from Hong Kong until next week, the next topic is Syria. And so there is a few different things that are going on with the Syria Kurd issue, post US withdrawal or as we're seeing active US withdrawal. Over the last 24, 48 hours, there's been a lot of international media attention around Kurdish forces, Kurdish population's reaction to the US leaving. Bray Wheeler: There has been pictures of them throwing stones at different military vehicles. There has been pictures of US soldiers with patches of Kurdish forces to try and show the symbol of unity that, we're still with you even though we've been ordered to leave, so there is just a lot of tension with the US-Kurd position now that the final US troops are moving out of that Kurdish region. Bray Wheeler: President Trump has indicated that some troops may stay in Syria in order to protect oil fields, oil facilities in order to prevent ISIS who has capitalized on those facilities in the past from regaining control of those to sell oil on the black market, which was very lucrative for them for a while. So that's the last force. Otherwise, the rest of them are moving into Iraq. Bray Wheeler: As a result of piling on to that, ISIS has been posting a lot of propaganda material, particularly on the newer social media site that's gaining popularity Tik Tok, which has meant to largely be funny. Their stuff is not so funny that they're posting on there. So ISIS is really capitalizing here in the last week around this attacking prisons, attacking Kurdish forces to try and free up some of that land, facilities, captured members of ISIS, things like that, so ISIS has really been on a little bit of an upswing here the last week in terms of from where they have been at least relatively speaking. Bray Wheeler: Finally, the unique piece that's we're recording this on Tuesday, October 22nd, but what has broken here today within the last couple of hours is, Turkey and Russia have reached an agreement on patrolling that Syrian border between Turkey and Syria. The US vacating that role as influencer in that area, Russia has stepped into that, and so they're the power broker for moving the Kurdish forces out of that buffer area that Turkey is seeking to establish on the Syrian border. So a lot going on in Syria, a lot of different implications that will continue to play out, but really for organizations watching that, staying on top of all the different tentacles of what's going on there is going to be very important, particularly on the US engagement front. Bray Wheeler: If you have business with Turkey, that kind of relationship is a little bit unsettled. On the terrorism front, there is certainly the ISIS factor in that popularity. You may get some, not necessarily copycats, but sympathizers that may take action as, Oh, ISIS is back, I'm going to do something to affirm my spot. So there is just a lot going on that front. Bryan Strawser: There's a lot to keep an eye on, I think because you may not be doing business in... Well, you're probably not doing business in Syria if you're listening to this podcast. Bray Wheeler: Hopefully not. Bryan Strawser: Right. Hopefully not, but you're probably doing business. If you're international, you probably have some connectivity to Turkey and you're more than likely have some connectivity to the Middle East region as a whole. This is definitely something to monitor. When we've talked about this on a previous episode, there's a lot going on in terms of military conflict there that can expand. Bryan Strawser: There's obviously other countries that are bordering Syria have concerns about what's going on and then the regional terrorism concern with ISIS and even their global reach. As this continues that they continue to gain foothold, a chance to reconstitute. There's a lot to keep an eye on here and I'm sure we'll be talking about this much in the future. Bray Wheeler: I have a feeling it's going to be another Hong Kong here over the next few weeks. Bryan Strawser: It's going to come out of nowhere and... Bray Wheeler: We're just going to keep talking about that, which transitioning into another topic we've talked to a lot a bit about is Brexit. So over the last 24, 48 hours here, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has moved to have the House of Commons vote on the agreements with the European Union that he reached with them over the last week. That got nixed yesterday by the House Speaker. He shut that down as a breach of protocol, but today they're actually reviewing that agreement and hopefully voting on that. That's the expectation. Bryan Strawser: So they have voted. While we've been here- Bray Wheeler: They voted. Bryan Strawser: Recording this episode and we're recording this episode. Bray Wheeler: Look at that. Bryan Strawser: A little afternoon on a Tuesday the 22nd, you'll be hearing this likely on the 23rd- Bray Wheeler: Real time. Yes. Bryan Strawser: Update from just about 10 minutes ago while we were recording the podcast, UK Lawmakers, and I'm reading from the Wall Street journal here, UK Lawmakers on Tuesday endorsed Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit deal, giving it critical momentum in Britain's factual parliaments and raising the prospect that the country's protracted divorce from the European Union is finally reaching the end game. The fight's not over. Johnson will face further votes in the House of Commons that could delay or frustrate the deal, and he's even threatened to pull the deal if they refuse to fast track the legislation. Bryan Strawser: But in principle, this vote marks a remarkable turnaround for the Prime Minister who in three months has managed to both renegotiate an agreement with the EU and persuade the deeply divided house of commons of its merits. Earlier today, he was telling lawmakers that he would pull the deal and call for a General Election if they did not push this through in the calendar year 2019. Where was the vote? Here we go. Bryan Strawser: Mr. Johnson negotiated a deal last week with the EU that covers payments to the EU, citizens' rights and arrangement to avoid a hard border, a physical border from being built in Ireland. Despite running a minority government, Mr. Johnson in the last 48 hours has managed to win over to his course, a group of opposition labor lawmakers who backed Brexit and also persuaded almost all of the conservatives that he threw out of the party last month for defying him on a Brexit vote to rally behind his deal. Bryan Strawser: Whether this alliance will hold is unclear. Lawmakers have already begun publishing proposed amendments to the now approved divorce deal. So there's a lot here left to do, but in principle this is pretty remarkable turn around from even say Friday where things were at. Bray Wheeler: Bryan correct me if I'm wrong, essentially the vote today was just to advance the conversation and movement to make the conversation official that yes, we are actually talking about it because for the longest time it's been talking around the agreement or the process of getting to the agreement. Not necessarily the agreement itself, particularly in the last couple of months. But you're right, I mean this is a huge move to even just open up that conversation channel implications if this does go through- Bryan Strawser: They're huge. Bray Wheeler: Or a lot, they're huge. I mean even down to, Scotland potentially thinking about breaking away from the United Kingdom to go back to the EU. I know there's some tensions or uncertainty around what that lack of hard border in Ireland really the means, and whether or not that will play out how people say it will play out. Bryan Strawser: What happens to Balmoral or Scotland succeeds? I'm sorry, I just went to the Queen's favorite palace, but no, I mean you're right. I mean there's a ton of concerns around where things could go from here that are- Bray Wheeler: Beyond the just [inaudible] economy. Bryan Strawser: And I think, and I've mentioned this before and I like to just make this real for the impact on individuals. I'm a Grad student at a UK College and most of my classmates are not... I would say most of my classmates aren't British. They're from mostly from Commonwealth countries and a lot and then there's a bunch of Americans in there. They don't even know what this means. There was an email from the Principal of Kings college, which is the President of an American college, Dr. Byrne yesterday morning that said, we know many of you are concerned about this and the fact of the matter is we don't know what's going to happen, but here's what we do understand today. And I thought that that was extraordinary that you'd have to send out a message about what your country's immigration policy might be because you don't know. Bray Wheeler: Well in real time. Bryan Strawser: In real time. Bray Wheeler: And it's not. Sadly- Bryan Strawser: I mean I should let- Bray Wheeler: You probably get an update. Bryan Strawser: Maybe I'll got an update from Dr. Byrne here on a... Bray Wheeler: Perhaps by the time you've completed your coursework, it will be settled and finalized and you'll be able to just- Bryan Strawser: You'll be able to figure it out. Bray Wheeler: Float in for graduation. So for organizations around Brexit, I mean really between now and the 31st the deadline, things should become clearer or become muddier, one of the two. But now is the time to really pay attention. Now is the time to make sure that travelers are aware of what's going on and the potential implications, both short-term and in the near term until things settle out or there. Organizationally, you're having those discussions around what does this mean for our organization, whether we have operations in the EU and the UK or one of the other. Bray Wheeler: Really now is the time if you... And we've stressed this over the last couple of months, but really watch what's going on here and really start having real conversations around what this means for your organization. Because if you're not, you're going to be unprepared and you're going to be in some trouble no matter how this shakes out, even if it's orderly and everything else. The complexity here is pretty high and so to not have a good sense and feeling of what's going on and understanding of some of the implications, you're going to be behind the ball. Bryan Strawser: Brexit's a big one, most large organizations I think are studying this carefully and it's tough as fast as this moving to understand the various provisions that are going on. I do think though, if you're a US based company and you're doing business in the UK, the US has individual agreements with the UK that will likely protect your business, but it will depend on where you're coming from, where your folks are citizens of. There's a lot of moving parts here to keep track of. Bray Wheeler: Keeping with elections and votes and things like that, a couple of notable international elections have taken place here and we won't go too deep because the actual impacts of these are still a little bit unknown, but Canada here today, last night in the last 24 hours, finalized their elections. Prime minister Trudeau was re-elected, however his party lost the popular vote. So there's some political tensions going on within Canada itself. It's been a little bit of an abnormally contentious election for them. Bray Wheeler: I would probably argue they're a little bit more civilized than the US elections typically, but this one was pretty contentious. Kind of a split votes. He was able to get his majority coalition. However, there's a lot of uncertainty that has to play out on that front. Bryan Strawser: Who did the liberals ally themselves with in their conservative government or I'm sorry, in their Coalition government. Do you know? Is it the new Democrats? Bray Wheeler: I believe so. I have two of- Bryan Strawser: The most ideologically aligned. It was interesting. I think everybody expected this to be closer between the liberals and the conservatives and it wasn't. The liberals, that's Trudeau's party took a 157 seats losing 20. The conservatives gained 24, I think the surprise of the night was the Quebec Bloc, the [inaudible] names and one of the names they picked up their 32 they picked up a bunch of seats. Bryan Strawser: They picked up 22 seats, almost as many as the Conservatives dead. And so I think somewhere in there lies the coalition that went on. But yeah, it's interesting. Everybody expected this to be closer, I think, and it wasn't. The liberals primarily relied upon Ontario for their votes in the popular vote, but there's a lot of seats there. The conservatives could sort of vote was heavily concentrated in Alberta and Saskatchewan, but there's not a lot of seats there, so that shows big in the popular vote, but just like our electoral college, it didn't translate to seats. Bray Wheeler: And then the other election, which has already taken place, but this is the aftermath is in Israel. So there was a very close vote with no majority, no rival at a coalition between Prime Minister Netanyahu and his counterparts... I'm going to probably, what's his name? Gantz, former Israeli military general. Really Gantz took a little bit of a gamble and allowed Netanyahu to try and form his coalition first. Bray Wheeler: Netanyahu had the majority of seats but really Gantz challenged that Netanyahu's ability to try and form a coalition first. Unfortunately here Netanyahu's coalition did not happen. He was not able to do it and it has now moved over to Gantz to try and form that coalition and if he is able to do that, that will be a shift in Israel's coalition that they've seen for quite awhile. Bray Wheeler: It has real political and personal implications for Netanyahu who is trying to stay in power in order to be exempt from some of some legal challenges he's facing. If he is not Prime Minister, he is open to those legal challenges. So there's a lot playing out there. Nothing is settled, but it is an interesting turn of events that Netanyahu was not able to get a coalition formed. Bryan Strawser: And is likely the end of Benjamin Netanyahu's political career. I mean there's a criminal investigation that's going on that I think was pending the outcome of this election to some extent? Bray Wheeler: Yeah. Bryan Strawser: I don't know if you had more context on that. Bray Wheeler: No, I think that's... I mean that's the piece that everybody's playing up a little bit, but I think from implication to Israel standpoint that has less implication to operations and to the public of Israel other than removing somebody who's faced a lot of controversy, especially over the last few years. Bray Wheeler: So more to come there. Chile topic we haven't talked about in quite a while. I want to just briefly touch on that. There has been protests here over the last four days in Chile, particularly in the major cities. The protests really started over a small increase in transportation costs, but that was really the straw that broke the camel's back for the public in Chile who's seen in spite of economic growth that Chile has experienced, wages have stagnated, the quality of living has not improved. Bray Wheeler: So there's just a lot of tension going on in Chile. And so this transportation increase on top of the fact that people aren't making more wages has set off a lot of protests that's taken place across the country with the military being deployed, political implications for the Presidents and some of the other politicians that are in an office. Bray Wheeler: So if you have operations in Chile, you're probably likely aware that some of that's going on. But really this has the potential to turn into a Hong Kong situation where it could play out over a long period of time. Chile has a history of being a little bit more forceful on some of those things. So there's more a physical security threat potentially with some of these protests here in Chile. Bray Wheeler: So just another area to keep an eye on and we'll likely be talking about that here in the next couple of weeks as well. Last topic we have of course, our first BryghtCast Weekly edition is a nice long one. We have lots of topics, but really this one is a little bit of an interesting one. I'm going to turn it over to Bryan, but it's really around DHS, Department of Homeland Security here in the US. Leadership vacancies and the implications of that inability to fill some of those key spots. Bryan Strawser: So there's a really... So I think everyone's aware at the start of this administration, John Kelly was the Secretary of Homeland Security. He resigned that position to become White House Chief of Staff, and then Kirstjen Nielsen came in as the Secretary of Homeland Security and was confirmed by the Senate. She served in that role until she was asked to resign by the president, and then the President named the Commissioner of Border Protection, I believe this is a McLaren as the Secretary of Homeland security, the acting DHS Secretary. And he resigned, was it last week? I think that took effect last week was his last week. Bryan Strawser: And so now the President has to fill the role... The president never has a nominated a secretary. There's no one pending. It's been open for months. The acting Secretary has resigned. There is no Deputy Secretary. So the challenge becomes filling the role of a Cabinet Secretary means invoking part of a law called the Federal Vacancy Reform Act, which gives the President power to appoint individuals in roles within the Federal government in an acting capacity, except that there's restrictions on this. Bryan Strawser: And to appoint someone to the Secretary role, you have to have someone who has been either confirmed by the United States Senate in a previous role that's currently serving for 90 days under the previous Secretary who was [inaudible] confirmed. That means it can't be in a... It's not service under an acting Secretary, it's got to be serviced under a Senate confirmed secretary. Bryan Strawser: Well, the last Senate confirmed Secretary was Nielsen, and since then we've had months without a Secretary in place. So my understanding from an article yesterday was that the President was looking to appoint Ken Cuccinelli, who was previously the Virginia Attorney General, or another individual who I believe was the acting Head of Customs and Border Protection. Bryan Strawser: Cuccinelli is the acting Head of Citizenship and Immigration services. Neither of them served under Secretary Neilsen. So they're not eligible and they're not Senate confirmed. So they're not eligible, and I believe most of the Assistant Secretary roles in DHS are either open or unsuitable in terms of the President's mind. This is information that leaked out of the White House personnel office yesterday. Bryan Strawser: So we're in a really interesting bind here because there needs to be an acting DHS Secretary. There's a number of statutory issues associated with that role. The department as a whole, one of the largest departments in the Federal government needs leadership, and we can't even name an Assistant Secretary, Oh I'm sorry, an acting Secretary because we don't have these roles. So the president's really in a bind on this right now until he appoints a secretary. I'm not sure that we see any other way out of that. Bray Wheeler: No, I mean it's going to force his hand a little bit in terms of this acting leader position that he's trying to put into place across several agencies. He's likely going to have to nominate somebody in likely going to have to play the political game with those nominees that he's successfully avoided here over this year in particular, he's going to have to probably play ball again in that capacity. What would be, Bryan and your take and your expertise, what would be some of the implications just for from that lack of leadership with the organization's thinking like FEMA and immigration and all those different pieces that DHS potentially overseas not even counting. Bryan Strawser: Well, I think there's a couple of key things that come to mind and I'm not an expert in all things that DHS does as a whole, and I want to make this nonpolitical in terms of content, but I think just there's a number of issues in the public sphere right now related to DHS as work that I think are important to have a secretary or release an acting secretary in place in order to represent these issues before the American people and drive some of these policy questions to resolution. Bryan Strawser: I mean, honestly I think the biggest one in the public policy spirit now is just immigration. The president's made that a key part of his administration, as a key part of his campaign in 16 and will be again in 2020 and if you don't have a public face of that, a policy face to that, that's really the role of the Cabinet Secretary's play as in implementing and speaking to the President's policy and defending the President's policy and bringing those policies to life. Bryan Strawser: And whether you agree with the President's view on immigration or not, we need to have that debate with that position filled in. There needs to be somebody that's overseeing that work. I also think there's been a number of things that don't look good that have happened around immigration and detention and deportation of people and I think you need somebody there to mind the ship so to speak. Bryan Strawser: That's a civilian appointed at the Cabinet Secretary level to do that. And then I think there's the contingency issue of we're confronted with natural disasters all the time and FEMA, I think does a very good job of managing those in the role of the Federal Government to provide logistics and support and funding to the States who are really the ones in charge of response and the FEMA administrator as pending Senate confirmation. Bryan Strawser: But there's an acting Head who came from within FEMA and I'm sure they'll do just fine, but they need top cover and it don't mean to hide or conceal something. Bray Wheeler: No. Bryan Strawser: They needed somebody to help take the political issues off of their backs so that acting administrator, Pete Gaynor and the team can manage the situation. And I don't think this any different from the other big agencies within DHS. I think that's true for the US Coast guard. The Coast guards part of DHS and the Commandant who I met in Aspen in July is extremely capable leader and so as his team, but again, you need the civilian leadership to help you navigate situations, particularly political one. Bryan Strawser: And let's face it that the Federal budget is something that is a constant debate in Washington. And although the Commandant and the few minutes later to go and testify and make their own arguments, they worked for the DHS Secretary and they need to be able to be there as a part of that as well. So that's probably a long winded answer, but I think those are the challenges we're faced with. Bray Wheeler: Yeah, no, I think to your point, it's less the political implications and more the operational challenges for businesses around with these vacancies and acting leadership and a lot of these key posts within DHS and those implications on business, because you're talking about travel and work visas, you're talking about FEMA response to different things. You're talking about coast guard implications to supply chain and logistics, all those different things. Bray Wheeler: And to your point, that lack of not necessarily top cover but support to take the other issues off the plate so those Department Heads can actually do the things that they're tasked with doing and that their agencies are required to do and should be doing. That's really the main focus of that secretary is to act on their behalf and to support and redirect and direct as appropriate and triage for them, and that lack of stables leadership, consistent leadership in the agency has some very potentially real implications with this. Bray Wheeler: And so hopefully it is going down that path of assigning a Permanent Secretary that being forced in that position while probably not what President Trump necessarily wants to have happen might actually be a silver lining for him in that agency and thereby the public in business operations in different organizations. So with that, that concludes the first of official separates BryghtCast Weekly Edition. We will be back next week with more topics, so look for this as a separate podcast subscription again, and we'll chat next week. Bryan Strawser: Thanks for listening.

Austrian Capital Theory holds that capital assets are heterogeneous and complementary. In business language, that means an entrepreneur can assemble set of assets that are special to his or her firm and combined in such a way that the combination is unique, or at least hard to copy. If the assets generate consumer value, and hence a revenue stream from consumer purchases, then the entrepreneurial firm can be said to have marketplace advantage—it is unique or advantaged in its creation of consumer value. The Resource-Based View (RBV) of the firm came from this thinking. The marketplace advantage available to any firm results from its assembled resources (synonymous with assets for the purposes of our discussion). We talk to Professor Steven Phelan, Distinguished Professor at Fayetteville State University, an expert in this field. Note: The conventional language of RBV is competitive advantage. At Economics For Entrepreneurs, we prefer the idea of the search for uniqueness, where the point of reference is the consumer rather than the competitor. Therefore, we'll use terms like marketplace advantage and commercial advantage. Show Notes Resource-based strategic thinking guides entrepreneurs in the identification, assembly and use of resources in unique (or at least differentiated) ways to create sustained marketplace advantage. The use of resources is how entrepreneurs create revenue flows from consumers. The money-value of the resources—and hence the market value of the firm—derives from these revenue flows. The goal is to align the resources as perfectly as possible with consumer wants and preferences. Entrepreneurs who combine consumer-valued resources in unique ways can establish an advantage in the marketplace. If their combination of resources is unique, or at the very least hard to copy, then the advantage is sustainable and the revenue flows can be anticipated to continue absent changes in consumer preferences. What kind of resources are we talking about? All kinds, both tangible and intangible, and both physical capital and human capital. It's the combination that counts. A handy acronym for the kinds of resources available for entrepreneurs to combine is PROFIT: Physical, Reputational, Organizational, Financial, Intellectual and Human, and Technological resources. It's a good exercise to review your resources under each of these headings and question whether they are unique and hard to copy. Reputational, Organizational and Intellectual (Human) resources are the most usual sources of uniqueness (in the VRIO framework, “unique” translates into valuable, rare, hard to copy / inimitable and non-substitutable). Reputational resources can include brand, customer satisfaction levels and trust. Organizational resources can include processes, methods, and culture, and also includes the bundles of resources we call capabilities. Intellectual resources include people (always unique), teams, decision rights, as well as patents and recipes. Sustainable advantage is reinforced when other firms can't see inside the “black box” of the combination of resources and can't reproduce the “secret sauce”. It might be the case that your Physical, Financial and Technological resources are not differentiated, or even rare. The “secret sauce” is in how you combine them, and especially how you combine them with Reputational, Organizational and Intellectual resources. If outsiders can't see inside, and can't decipher the combination or copy the recipe, you can separate yourself in the consumer's perception as a unique choice. How you deploy the resources can also be a source of advantage. Operational excellence can be differentiating and value-creating. If you can guarantee customers and suppliers that you'll operate with excellence in all directions—on time, on budget, high responsiveness—you'll create an advantage over other firms that don't keep their promises. Think of this as a bundle of resources that you deploy really well. The business literature sometimes calls it “core competence”. High quality, consistent operations do not come easily. This capability is also a resource. Dynamic flexibility can be thought of as a bundle of capabilities around detection of and action in response to the need for change. Austrian economics stresses marketplace dynamics and the role of entrepreneurs in detecting and responding to changes in consumers' wants and preferences. Such agility does not come easily to the firm. It requires “sensing” the uneasiness of consumers and using empathic diagnosis to identify the source of the uneasiness, and creativity and imagination in rearranging resources to produce new offerings. Organizationally, the entrepreneur must make the change occur—ready the organization for the adjustment and orchestrate individuals and functions to shift. It's a rare capability. Implementing the resource-based strategy is a continuous activity. Winning entrepreneurs shuffle and reshuffle resources continuously. Professor Phelan urges entrepreneurs to ask this question every day: what can we do better? Ask it in every resource area of the PROFIT framework. Gather information that tells you where you need to improve or change (You can use a template like SWOT—Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats; but make sure your use of it is deeply analytical and not just a laundry list of what you do). And then execute the hard part of dynamic flexibility: taking rapid action. This is the advantage of small companies and entrepreneurs. Additional Resource Resource-Based Theory of Entrepreneurship (PDF): https://Mises.org/E4E_18_PDF Useful books mentioned by Professor Phelan Entrepreneurship Strategies and Resources by Marc J. DollingerThe E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. GerberCrossing The Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore

Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts Bernie’s guest on this episode is Darryl Praill, CMO of VanillaSoft, a Sales Engagement platform that provides sales and marketing teams tools to more efficiently engage, qualify and close the sale. Darryl is a passionate guy who has strong and informed opinions about the role of marketing. On this episode, he provides a clear picture of the evolving role of the Chief Marketing Officer, how it came to be the huge responsibility that it is, and even peeks into the future with his predictions of what is likely to happen for CMOs as time goes on. Don’t miss this episode. Attend the annual Brightcove PLAY event May 14 – 16, 2019. Visit www.play.brightcove.com to get all the details. The content at Brightcove PLAY is content you won’t find by searching online. When you attend PLAY, You’ll leave the event with a solid understanding of how organizations similar to your own are tackling video challenges and moving their business forward. Bernie will be there both days, speaking on May 15th at 11am on how salespeople can use video to engage the modern buyer. Get 20% off by using this code: PLAYpc2019 What IS The Role Of The Modern CMO? There are many things you could say about the work the CMO of today does to contribute to the success of their organizations, but Darryl says they really boil down to two priorities. ROLE ONE: Lead generation The CMO is responsible to significantly contribute to the sales pipeline in real, tangible, measurable, and substantive ways. ROLE TWO: Awareness Today’s CMO is responsible to create awareness of his/her brand and the solution it provides to buyers. That is achieved through a variety of means - content, influencers, press, analysts, social proof, targeted advertising, review sites, and more. The CMO must be a SPOKESPERSON who portrays the brand accurately and in a compelling way. This reduces the feeling of risk buyers have when considering a purchase. Why Is A C-Suite Level Marketing Executive Needed? Gone are the days when marketing and sales were two separate islands. So much has changed in the sales environment that demands an integrated approach between marketing and sales. Organizationally, the head of marketing now owns the marketing and sales technology stack (aka - tech stack). This happened out of necessity and the sales department has gladly given the responsibility to the marketing team in most cases. That puts marketing in a place of significant influence and importance. The marketing team is the keeper of the data with reporting responsibility for what leads are qualified, converting or failing to meet the qualification criteria. Marketing has become a structured, methodical, repeatable, transparent, measurable discipline. The CEO, CFO, COO, investors, and Board of Directors all love that marketing has evolved into a measurable function. For these reasons, a CMO has become imperative in the modern B2B organization. Should The Modern CMO Have Sales Experience? Darryl’s belief is that anyone serving as a CMO today needs to have at least some sales experience. Why? The integrated way that marketing and sales work in companies these days demands it. The CMO must understand the motives, thinking, objections, and requests the sales team is likely to make of them. It’s therefore highly beneficial for the CMO to have experienced rejection as a salesperson, to have had to refine their sales message on the fly, to have empathy for having a quota staring them in the face each quarter, and to have felt the pain of missing quota, as well as the excitement of closing sales. All of this not only enables the CMO to understand what the sales team is going through day to day, but it also gives the sales team reason to respect the CMO. How Does The CMO Build And Retain A Competent Team? The modern CMO is responsible for overseeing everyone on their team from junior marketers to a data scientist. How do they go about finding and keeping such a wide variety of individuals? Darryl says it comes down to how the CMO interacts and engages with the people on his/her team. Communication must be open and respectful The CMO must also understand that they can positively influence the career trajectory of those on their team. And they need to understand that most team members will likely evolve their careers to another company To foster loyalty, the CMO must create an environment where the team can be forthright and open Perhaps most importantly, the CMO must treat the team like the adults and professionals by holding them accountable for outcomes, not time in a chair or behind a computer screen Today’s CMO Could Be The CEO Of The Future Customers are increasingly able to research and make buying decisions themselves with greater ease. The impact on sales is significant. In many cases, sales is becoming more of an order-taking and customer experience role than an actual sales role. Currently, only one-third of sales development teams are reporting to marketing, and Darryl predicts that number will increase to two-thirds within 5 years. When that happens, the CMO role will evolve to a Chief Revenue Officer in addition to existing responsibilities. Darryl believes that will put more CMOs in a position to move into the CEO role. He believes it to be the most logical choice since they understand the data that drives customer decisions and how that data impacts the type of messaging the organization needs to win and keep customers. This fabulous conversation between two CMOs - both with significant sales experience - will help you think about the evolution of the modern CMO in light of what’s happened in the industry and what is still to come. Don’t miss it! Featured on This Episode Darryl on LinkedIn Twitter: @OHpinion8ted Instagram: @DarrylPrailll Darryl’s Podcast: Inside Inside Sales VanillaSoft Outline of This Episode [2:13] The place VanillaSoft plays in the marketing and sales workflow [3:55] What is the role of a chief marketing officer? [6:22] Why does the role of CMO even exist? [10:43] Should the modern CMO understand sales or need sales experience? [18:00] How does the CMO strategize on building and retaining staff? [24:32] Darryl’s view of the evolution of the CMO role Resources & People Mentioned Attend the annual Brightcove PLAY event May 14 – 16, 2019. Visit www.play.brightcove.com to get all the details. The content at Brightcove PLAY is content you won’t find by searching online. When you attend PLAY, You’ll leave the event with a solid understanding of how organizations similar to your own are tackling video challenges and moving their business forward. Bernie will be there both days, speaking on May 15th at 11am on how salespeople can use video to engage the modern buyer. Get 20% off by using this code: PLAYpc2019   The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr Connect With Bernie and Modern Marketing Engine https://www.Facebook.com/modernmarketingengine/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/ https://twitter.com/bernieborges https://instagram.com/bernieborges https://Twitter.com/MMEnginePodcast   Subscribe to Modern Marketing Engine Apple Podcasts |Stitcher |Google Play | Google Podcasts There are TWO WAYS you can listen to this podcast. You can click the PLAYER BUTTON at the top of this page… or, you can listen from your mobile device’s podcast player through the podcast subscription links above.

We got so many questions that I had to split up the mailbag. Thanks!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We got so many questions that I had to split up the mailbag. Thanks!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jesse Fewell on Drunken PM, Dave Dame on Agile For Humans, Stephen Bungay on Boss Level, Julia Wester on SPAMCast, and Matty Stratton on Greater Than Code. I'd love for you to email me with any comments about the show or any suggestions for podcasts I might want to feature. Email podcast@thekguy.com. This episode covers the five podcast episodes I found most interesting and wanted to share links to during the two week period starting February 18, 2019. These podcast episodes may have been released much earlier, but this was the week when I started sharing links to them to my social network followers. JESSE FEWELL ON DRUNKEN PM The Drunken PM podcast featured Jesse Fewell with host Dave Prior. Dave and Jesse talked about the role of the Project Management Office (PMO) in organizations that are transitioning to Agile methods. Jesse talked about the invitation-orientation of the Agile PMO as defined in the Project Management Body Of Knowledge (PMBOK) in which the PMO acts to support teams as they learn to become agile. Dave brought up that most people he has spoken to from PMOs want everyone in the organization to “do Agile” the same way, which Jesse described as management junk food. This led to a further discussion about why people want consistency and why most of their reasons are due to misunderstandings and anti-patterns like optimizing resource efficiency over flow efficiency. They also delved into some of my favorite topics: the leadership circle concept from Anderson and Adams, the competing values framework, and Carol Dweck’s ideas around fixed and growth mindsets. iTunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/evolving-role-pmo-in-agile-organization-catching-up/id1121124593?i=1000428696329&mt=2 Website link: http://drunkenpm.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-evolving-role-of-pmo-in-agile.html DAVE DAME ON AGILE FOR HUMANS The Agile For Humans podcast featured Dave Dame with host Ryan Ripley. Dave talked about growing up with cerebral palsy which led to a discussion about the opportunities brought about by improvements in accessibility in recent years. He talked about how a technology like Apple Pay that might seem like a relatively minor innovation to most people can be a complete game-changer for somebody with cerebral palsy as it lets them pay for something without having to trust a stranger to go into their wallet. He talked about how social media has given him a voice where in previous generations there just wouldn’t be the opportunity. Nowadays, he says, the biggest accessibility obstacles at work for him are not buildings lacking ramps and elevators, but the inaccessible nature of the company’s org charts. iTunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/afh-105-agile-leadership-and-management-with-dave-dame/id991671232?i=1000429122862&mt=2 Website link: https://ryanripley.com/afh-105-agile-leadership-and-management-with-dave-dame/ STEPHEN BUNGAY ON BOSS LEVEL The Boss Level podcast featured Stephen Bungay with host Sami Honkonen. This episode is a few years old, but I recently finished reading Melissa Perri’s new book The Build Trap which referenced Stephen Bungay’s book The Art Of Action and I have been reading his work non-stop ever since, which got me interested in hearing more from him. I liked what he had to say about uncertainty’s central place in strategy and its distinction from risk. He also told a compelling story about a friend of his working in strategy at a UK retailer and how he went against the traditional rollout of store layout changes to all stores at once and instead rolled out changes a few stores at a time so that he could tweak the design as he went. This is something any entrepreneur would recognize as Lean Startup thinking, but it was completely foreign to the management of this retailer. iTunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/stephen-bungay-and-strategy-under-uncertainty/id1041885043?i=1000376171555&mt=2 Website link: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com/stephen-bungay-and-strategy-under-uncertainty/ MATTY STRATTON ON GREATER THAN CODE The Greater Than Code podcast featured Matty Stratton with hosts Janelle Klein, Coraline Ehmke, and Jessica Kerr. They began the discussion by having Matty summarize his REdeploy conference talk ‘Fight, Flight, or Freeze – Releasing Organizational Trauma.’ Taking the idea of incidents and outages as a form of organizational trauma, Matty talked about the importance of being able to tell stories about your incident responses and how that helps the organization process the trauma. He cited John Allspaw regarding the idea that incident postmortems should ask questions that trigger conversations rather than give answers. Janelle brought up the point that the stories we tell are sometimes lies that cover up the trauma rather than address it when the environment of the organization lacks psychological safety. This brought them to a discussion of blameless postmortems and how a culture of blamelessness is so hard to build and so easy to lose. iTunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/116-healing-organizational-trauma-with-matt-stratton/id1163023878?i=1000429285663&mt=2 Website link: http://www.greaterthancode.com/2019/02/06/116-healing-organizational-trauma-with-matt-stratton/ JULIA WESTER ON SPAMCAST The Software Process & Measurement podcast featured Julia Wester with host Thomas Cagley. Tom and Julia talked about the need for spectrum thinking, discussed the distinction between spectrum thinking and binary thinking, and then Julia described how she uses the Cynefin framework to identify whether or not a problem requires spectrum thinking. While this is a straightforward concept, I see binary thinking being applied all the time to address problems that require something more akin to spectrum thinking. iTunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/spamcast-532-spectrum-thinking-interview-julia-wester/id213024387?i=1000429098317&mt=2 Website link: http://spamcast.libsyn.com/spamcast-532-spectrum-thinking-an-interview-with-julia-wester FEEDBACK Ask questions, make comments, and let your voice be heard by emailing podcast@thekguy.com. Twitter: https://twitter.com/thekguy LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithmmcdonald/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thekguypage Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_k_guy/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCysPayr8nXwJJ8-hqnzMFjw Website:

CFTROU 0043: Creating a Healthy Church Culture - Organizationally. We’re continuing our conversation on creating a health church culture because culture eats programs for breakfast! Today on the show we are joined once again by Leslee Bennett, Family Church Communications Director, as we continue peeling back the layers of this topic. We are diving into organizational side of church culture to talk about what it looks like to have a first-team culture at your church. We also explore the importance of building on the foundations of what you believe and implementing clarity around the core “why” of the church. Key Points: Creating a first-team culture. What it means to fill the gap with trust to create a healthy culture. Creating clarity around your “why”. Building philosophy and strategy based on your church doctrine. Relating doctrine to membership process. Importance of communicating what we believe. Creating a clearly-defined mission statement and core values. If you want to create a healthy culture, you have to create a healthy structure.Click To TweetWe should be building our philosophy and our strategy on our doctrine, not the other way around.Click To TweetYour culture really doesn’t matter if your culture isn’t based on what you believe.Click To Tweet Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Auxano CFTROU 0018 Sharper! 2019 Conference Jimmy on Twitter Get podcast updates delivered to your inbox. This podcast releases every Monday morning. Subscribe for free and never miss out on an episode of Church for the Rest of Us. Subscribe via Email iTunes Google Play Stitcher RSS If you like us, rate us or leave a comment below. Hopefully, this episode has given you principles, strategies, and ideas that you can implement right now with the resources you have. If so, can you let others know? The best way to do that is to rate the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher and leave us a brief positive review! This will help us place the podcast in front of more pastors and ministry leaders. It also lets us learn from you. Thank you for taking the time to get the word out about Church for the Rest of Us.

I’ve always described our work as being called upon to be creative on demand. Whether an agency employee sits in the creative department, codes apps, builds strategy or works on new business – we are all tasked with being fresh thinkers. Our clients hire us to ask the right questions. We feel the pressure to provide answers or at the very least, to know the next right question.  It’s incredibly satisfying when a prospect or client says, “I’ve never been asked that before.” My podcast guest Larry Robertson, encourages his clients – and us – to sit with questions – to not look for quick and easy answers. But to recognize that the real insight rarely comes from the first layer of questions. The paradox is that in times of frenetic change, having the right answers are more important than having the quick answers. Organizationally speaking, it’s a matter of life and death. Larry Robertson is an innovation and strategy advisor. He is the author of two award-winning books: A Deliberate Pause: Entrepreneurship and its Moment in Human Progress, and The Language of Man: Learning to Speak Creativity, honored with a combined 16 awards. During our conversation, Larry talked about the research he did as he was prepping to write “The Language of Man.” He interviewed recipients of the McArthur “Genius” award to gather their collective wisdom on creativity and staying power in business and life. Along with being an author, he’s also a columnist for Inc. Magazine and The Creativity Post, and a regular contributor to Fast Company. He also has been featured guest on or in MSNBC, the Chicago Tribune, AdAge, SmartBrief, and in numerous podcasts. He is a Graduate of Stanford University and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a former Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. What you’ll learn about in this episode: How to help clients recognize their value proposition The five layers of “why” and how it can be a powerful tool for agency How to answer the “so what?” question about what you do and why it’s important The importance of staying curious and open-minded no matter how long your agency has been around Cultivating the Five Habits of the Mind in your agency and weaving it throughout your discovery process What prospects are looking for when picking an agency The two things you can’t do as you implement the Five Habits of the Mind Your role as an agency during the discovery session Larry’s perspective on change and how it affects your agency and clients The three key things you need to do to expand your agency’s brand lifespan to last longer than 15 years The benefits of implementing “play“ as a habit and how it can help you become a better on-demand creative How to encourage better micro-habits as a leader within your agency Ways to contact Larry Robertson: Website: larryrobertson.me We’re proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

How can early stage SaaS startups dramatically expand brand awareness and increase lead generation without spending a ton of money? On this week's episode of The Inbound Success Podcast, Sigstr VP of Marketing Justin Keller talks about co-marketing partnerships and how they've helped Sigstr gain traction without requiring a massive budget.  Listen to the podcast to hear how Justin built and nurtured co-marketing relationships and get actionable tips on building your own co-marketing program. Transcript Kathleen Booth (host): Welcome back to The Inbound Success Podcast. My name is Kathleen booth and I'm your host and today my guest is Justin Keller, who's the Vice President of Marketing at Sigstr. Welcome, Justin. Justin: Hello, I'm so glad to be here. Here's Justin and I doing our interview Kathleen: I'm looking forward to interviewing you and learning more about the journey with Sigstr and how you guys have grown. Before we dive in, tell the listeners a little bit about yourself, your background, and also Sigstr and what it does. Justin: Yeah, absolutely. So, I've been doing digital marketing for software companies for about 15 years now. I got my start as the first non-founding employee of a company called ChaCha way back in the day, and that's what really gave me my bug. They were located in Indianapolis and I really wanted to do the high tech thing, like full boar. So I went, I got myself an MBA and the day after I graduated, I packed up my car and I just drove west to try and make it happen in San Francisco. So I was out there for about seven years, running a SaaS marketing team, having a great time learning a lot. And my wife and I decided, you know what, I think it's about time to head back to the Midwest. And so through my network found Sigstr and came on as the Vice President of Marketing about two months ago now. I've been absolutely loving it. What Sigstr does is, we take over -- not take over -- get into the employee email system and we standardize the business card info in an email signature. But what's really cool about what we do, is we insert dynamic, targeted ads in every single email. And employee email is just a ridiculously high balling channel. It's going to extremely engage people and we can get really targeted promotions in every email, and really magical stuff can happen for marketers. Kathleen: That's awesome. And, full disclosure, here at IMPACT, we just started using Sigstr a couple of months ago and it was largely because one of our newest team members in the team that I run, which is our marketing team, came from another company that had Sigstr and she, from day one, was singing your praises about how effective it was and what a game changer it was for their marketing. So, we just implemented it recently and it's been really fun to watch the results. I mean, you're right. There are so many different ways you can use it. I think for us, initially, we've been using it to try to drive registrations for our webinars. We do two webinars a month and email does have such incredible reach, especially when you think about people, like on your sales team, who are really out there emailing people that might not be in your day to day contacts. It's such a good way to get your content and other things in front of people that otherwise might not necessarily see it right away. Justin: Yeah, and it's passive, it's kind of like where it's very frequent and it's not like a hard call to action, right? It's not like a mass email where you get it and you're like, "Okay, I can delete this out of my inbox right now." You're gonna pay attention to that first email and you're definitely gonna see what's in the bottom. We actually ran out of some eye tracking studies with an artificial intelligence company that showed that people's eyes start right down to the bottom of the email if there's a well branded signature there. Kathleen: That's so cool. What I like about it, selfishly as the person responsible for marketing, is it gives my team a lot of control over how the brand is deployed, and the consistency with which it's deployed. Instead of having everybody going rogue and creating their own signatures that may or may not be great, we can establish a format and we can maintain control over that, while still giving the individual some input into what they want to have in there, which is what is so nice about it. Justin: Definitely. But no more Comic Sans in the signature, no personal quotes. Kathleen: Exactly, exactly. Oh boy, I could spend a lot of time talking about that. So, Sigstr's great and everybody should definitely check it out and certainly, if you've ever gotten an email from me, you'll see it at the bottom. What's been interesting to me is, Sigstr as a company, at least from the outside looking in, has really had this meteoric rise in terms of visibility. I've been in the agency world for a long time, and I feel like you guys came onto the scene and it was like, hot and fast. As a marketer, when I see something like that, I'm always curious to dive in a little bit more deeply and learn what was happening behind the scenes that leads to that because, obviously, that's what this podcast is all about. It's like, "Hey, share your secrets with us so we can do it, too." So tell me a little bit about that. Justin: Absolutely. And you're right, we had a really big year last year. We got Series A funding from a bunch of phenomenal investors and that's really when we were able to step on the gas. We were kind of bootstrapped before that. What happened is, it's one of those things where unfortunately it's kind of everything. Everything kind of came together at once. But I think the things that really allow those things to come together is a really strong content program and a really big focus on developing co-marketing relationships and kind of agency relationships as well. Kathleen: Really? Okay, let's start with the content program. That's obviously the heart of inbound marketing, which is what we like to talk about here. Tell me a little bit about your approach to creating content for Sigstr. Justin: So, when you're working with a product like Sigstr, it's one of those things where, email signatures are very familiar but the way we're approaching them is completely novel, right? It's kind of like a brand new channel in many ways. So there's a lot of market building we have to do and we felt like content was the best way to do it. We're lucky to have on our team Brad Butler, whose just a phenomenal content marketer. It kind of heads up the program and he's really, really good at getting in with our customers and learning about the ways that they're using it and celebrating their success in finding different ways to tell a similar story, in repeatable ways, things that we can use for both lead generation but for sales enablement too, and that's been huge. He's also really good at kind of taking what we do, so again, it's a new channel, we need examples, right? So customers are great but we definitely "drink our own champagne," that's the term we use here. We drink our own champagne. Kathleen: Can I just stop you and say how much I appreciate that you say champagne because, maybe it's just that I'm like old, but every time someone says they're drinking the kool-aid, all I can think of is- Justin: Is Jonestown? Kathleen: Mass murder in Guyana and I'm like, "I don't know that it's a positive thing to be a Kool-aid drinker." And the fact that Kool-aid is, objectively, kind of a disgusting drink in my opinion. Justin: Yeah. Kathleen: And this could be controversial, because I have an eleven year old who loves it, but I look at it, and I'm like, "That is just gross. Don't put that in your body." Justin: Yeah, no, absolutely not. And then the other one people, the other thing people say is, eating our own dog food. Kathleen: Oh, which is also just horrible. Justin: Yeah, how much are actually making dog food, in which case that's actually really gross. Kathleen: If we accomplish nothing else on this podcast today, other than getting people to switch to "drinking their own champagne," I will feel as though we've made an important contribution to society. Justin: Yes, yes. Absolutely. Kathleen: This is major. Justin: Cool. Thanks for joining us everybody! Oh, champagne. So, we tell really cool stories. I mean, we're using our product in really, really innovative ways. Just to give an example, and I'm not trying to make this into a commercial, we align the signature message with opportunity stages. For example, when one of our AE's completes a demo, they click the little button in sales, the demo's done, and for the next two weeks, anytime anyone at Sigstr emails someone at that company that we just finished the demo with, they will get a message that says, "Hey, thanks for taking a demo. Click here for more resources, so they can kind of learn a little more, kind of thing. There's kind of an IT process when you're installing Sigstr, and when we go into that phase, the signature's like, "Hey, here's everything your IT team needs to know about onboarding signatures." Telling stories like that, and getting people to think really creatively about how to use the tool is great. And then lastly, developing relationships on the co-marketing thing is one of the biggest legs that a co-marketing relationship stands on is kind of content swaps and developing content together. So we've been really fortunate to make a lot of really good friends in the marketing community and being kind of a unique product, we don't really have any competition, and so we're able to play really well with a variety of different vendors and tell really cool stories together. Kathleen: So I want to get to the co marketing and content swaps in a minute, but first, on the subject of the content you're creating for yourselves, the thing that I always find interesting, especially with companies like Sigstr, that -- you said it, you make a product that helps people create email signatures -- you could very easily have an entire content strategy that revolves around talking about email signatures, but, that can be a really boring subject, right? So I'm curious to know how you guys think about content, how much of your content is specifically about the product, how much of it is about the broader subject of email signatures, and then how much of it really departs from that and is about the broader challenges that your audience is facing? Justin: Yeah, I'd say it's probably 30/70. I think 30% is probably talking about email signatures -- maybe more like 40 -- because you're right, it can get old quick. And so our kind of guiding light, really, in our content program, is, will a marketer read this blog post and walk away a better marketer? So you can get that done with email signature stories, sure, but we really like to focus on the broader industry and figure out how we can tie in our story wherever it's appropriate. But we're really, really focused on creating content that just like is valuable, right? We do a lot of talking at ABM (account-based marketing) events. We kind of have an ABM product ourselves, so we've been driving a lot on the power of aligning content at the right time, whether it be through an email signature or through an email or what have you. We see ourselves as one of many channels that every email marketer, or I'm sorry, every marketer should use. And so we don't just focus on ourselves. Kathleen: And so for anybody listening, ABM -- account based marketing -- and I know you guys, in fact, I went to an event recently where somebody from Sigstr spoke about that; how to use Sigstr for account based marketing. That is such a hot topic right now, so that's pretty cool.  Okay, so you've had this content strategy. Let's shift now and talk about the content swaps, because you're obviously creating content for your own site. When you think about co-marketing, let's take a step back and just, if you could explain a little bit more about how you think about it. Who are you looking to form partnerships with? Is it companies that have an audience you're looking to reach? Or is it companies that have complementary products? Justin: Mmm-Hmm (affirmative) Kathleen: Or is it all of the above? Justin: It is a little bit of all of the above. And like I said, we are pretty neutral in the marketplace. We've got a wide variety of friends that we can pick to work with, the more the better.  Organizationally, Sigstr is all about developing relationships and being just a good partner. And so, yeah, we absolutely are looking for people with sympathetic audiences. We are a reseller to marketers, we provide full marketing to tech companies. And we work with brands that we really admire. There is no shortage of ... I think the most recent marketing landscaping is over 5000 companies. So there's a lot of people to play with, but we really like to find the brands that we look up to. And I mean that, we look up to the brands. We definitely feel like we're lucky to be hanging out with some of the brands we work with. Kathleen: What would be some examples of brands like that? Justin: So we work a lot with Terminus, whose kind of an ABM app platform. We work with PathFactory and with Uberflip. We work with, kind of everyone you know? A lot of people that are in the ABM landscape or demand-based ... those guys. And, it works out really well for us because ... let me back up. The way we approach it is, "Hey we really want to work with you. You definitely have a bigger reach, and a bigger microphone towards the audience we want to get in with, but let us do all the groundwork. Let us, kind of, help you create a great piece of content and if you'll do us the honor of posting it on your website or putting your logo on a piece or whatever" it feels like a fair trade to us. Kathleen: That's great. And funny enough, so, Nikki Nixon who heads up the #FlipMyFunnel community for Terminus has been a guest for us on this podcast in the past and I too ... I look up to them. I think she's done a great job building out communities so, that's an awesome example. Justin: They really have. That whole #FlipMyFunnel thing is amazing and again it's another example of just being super neutral. It spun out of the Terminus company but they are agnostic when you're dealing with vendors. When Terminus goes to the #FlipMyFunnel conference, they are going as sponsor they're not like the people that are hosting it. Kathleen: Yeah, That's awesome! I'm interested in the content swaps because I think there is ... There's a lot of potential there. There's not only the opportunity to get in front of a new audience by creating content on somebody else's website, but there's also backlinks which, as a geeky marketer I'm really into. I guess the question that I have -- because we look at this all the time -- is about bandwidth. You have your own content you're creating for your site and then it can be very time consuming. Do you have a certain target for how much of your marketing team's time goes into creating content for your own platforms versus content for your partner platforms? Justin: I think it's really ad hoc and it's opportunistic for us. The way we evaluate it really is, it's kind of like getting to first base with a partner, right? The content swap is the easy thing to do, right? If you have content laying around that is somewhat relevant to the partner or whatever, it's really easy to kind of repurpose that. Just take it, put a fresh coat of paint on it. Figure out how you can talk about the partner and yourselves in it in a way that tells both of your stories. But then really, when we're looking at it, it's partners with whom we want to partner more deeply, right? We want to be hosting events with them, we want to be doing web events with them. Maybe there's even a product integration down the road and it's really a good way of dipping your toe into a bigger partnership because, it does kind of have lower overhead than, I think, many other marketing initiatives and if you can prove that success there it makes sense to keep the relationship going and getting a little more serious about it. Kathleen: I'm sure there are people listening who are thinking, "this is an approach I might want to experiment with" and I would be willing to put money on the fact that a lot of them are probably in the same shoes you were in when you started, which is, "I'm gonna be approaching partners that have a bigger audience than I do." As a David going after a partnership with a Goliath, can you give listeners some advice on how you approach it so that both parties feel like it's a win? And, how do you then manage and maintain that relationship in a way that's mutually beneficial? Justin: Yeah. One of the ways that we approach it is, usually, we will do the majority of the work. We get really scrappy about it and say "Hey, just by virtue of participating with us ... that's all you have to do. You have to show up and smile, right?" And, we'll kind of do the rest. So offering to just "plus up" whatever their content initiatives were, kind of for free, is usually pretty healthy. I think developing personal relationships is also a really good way to do that though so, a lot of the relationships that we've got are people that we've met out on the road at conferences or just kind of networked with and it started as a buddy-buddy relationship. Having conversations marketer to marketer, kind of like we're doing just now. Not having an agenda really in place. Just kind of be like, "I really think what you guys are doing is amazing, I want to learn more about it. What are your big campaigns and projects this quarter?" And then, ending with "I'd love to have our brands play together one day." You know it's great. I think the more partners you have, the better. It helps kind of edge out competition and it helps really shine a brighter light on both of your brands even if you don't have as big of a reach. You're still introducing new people to that brand. Kathleen: Yeah, definitely. I have a little anecdote about this. I think people are gonna hear you say things like, "Oh, we're big into relationships and individual one-on-one stuff.” It's easy to kind of hear that and be like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." So the reason that we started talking to Sigstr is that we had a new employee who had used them previously -- and that's Stephanie Casstevens -- and she came from another company that had Sigstr and she was ... She's just like, the most enthusiastic individual on the planet to start with. Justin: It's true. Kathleen: Which is why we love her! But it's easy to find somebody like that who evangelizes your product and say thank you and appreciate it, but I think a lot of companies don't take that extra step and really show the love back. I'll never forget ... I think we were on Slack or on a Zoom call and she's like, "You're not gonna believe Sigstr just sent me this amazing box full of swag and really cool stuff!" And, it was just that little touch. I know that there was a handwritten note in there just saying how much you guys appreciated her, and that kind of thing goes a long way. And so, I think from what I've seen, you all do a really nice job of that. Justin: We spend a lot of time and a decent amount of money doing that. We do send a lot of swag ... If, anyone really wants some Sigstr swag, hit me up! Kathleen: Ooh, what's the best way? Should they Tweet you? Justin: They can Tweet me or they can shoot me an email. @JustinKeller is my Twitter handle and Justin@Sigstr is my email. Hopefully this doesn't come back to bite me. When we get new customers, we send a note. We spend a lot of time doing handwritten notes. And we'll recruit many people. We'll have our design team. We'll get some of our sales people, and we'll all huddle around a table and write personal notes just to ... Kathleen: That makes such a difference. Justin: I one hundred percent think it makes all the difference in the world, and it's not scalable, and that's probably why more people don't do it and why it does have such and impact. Kathleen: Yeah. Justin: It's just rare. I mean, it takes a lot of manpower to pull it off. But, it's kind of one of our core beliefs that we need to be good partners and that's kind of how it shows up for us. Kathleen: Yeah, I feel like handwritten notes are a lost art and I think it's only going to get worse because I was just talking with my son, who is 11, the other day and, you know, he's not ... they're not teaching him cursive and ... Justin: Mmm-hmm (affirmative) Kathleen: I just think all of these things, when combined, and the fact that they all live on devices ... You're only going to see fewer and fewer handwritten notes. But even my son, who doesn't write anything, when he gets something in the mail, he's like, "What? I got mail?" And he's so excited! So, I just think it's such a great opportunity to make a connection. Justin: It's true. And that old school thing is coming back again, right? Back in the day, everything was done via mail. And, back in the day, email was not thought of as a channel. But you know, now here's Sigstr growing like a weed using email signatures. I mean, I don't want to say direct mail but kind of like, really personalized handwritten stuff -- I think that's, it's so old school, its new school again. It's like the vinyl records of marketing. Kathleen: Well, even direct mail -- I think you have to do it right but, we used to do dimensional mail for clients, which is direct mail but in a box. Justin: Yeah. Kathleen: And, there's almost nobody out there who will get a box and not open it. Justin: Totally. Kathleen: You get direct mail and if it's flat mail, you just toss it right in the trashcan so, that's the first hurdle you have to overcome. It's just getting somebody to open your thing. Justin: Yeah. Kathleen: And, everybody thinks, "Ooh it's a box, maybe it's a present." Justin: Yeah. Kathleen: So, I think with all of these things it's just about how you use it, because I can't even count on one hand how many times I've read articles about email being dead, which is just so false. It's how you use it, you know? Justin: It's true, it's true. We actually included in your swag box, we've got stickers that say "Email will never die." Kathleen: Yeah. Justin: And ... Kathleen: Long live email! Justin: Yeah, I agree. Kathleen: I love that. So, you've done all of these ... This co-marketing. You've got your content strategy. Can you share any numbers about the impact this has had on the business, whether that's in terms of traffic growth, or new leads? You're saying that this has been successful for you and it's ... Justin: Yeah. Kathleen: ...really driving your growth. Do you have any data to back that up? Justin: We do, yeah. So, in terms of the content swaps I don't think I can point to any good numbers. Our traffic -- website traffic -- has definitely increased, I mean, substantially for us. Almost 10 times in the past year. Kathleen: Wow, that's amazing! Justin: And I can't point back to any co-marketing initiatives exactly. I think that's just kind of a ground swell. But through these partnerships we've started hosting third party events at all the conferences. So we've kind of got this little branded event that we've called "All about margaritas," which is a different interpretation of the ABM acronym, right? And ... Kathleen: That sounds like an event that I would come to. Justin: Exactly, right? So we worked with BrightFunnel and with UberFlip on hosting these events. And it's one of those things where like, I mean, you know conferences are not cheap. I mean that is ... Kathleen: Yeah. Justin: I would posit pretty much everyone on this call, it's probably their biggest -- if they do conferences -- their biggest line item in the marketing budget. If you kind of have a bad place -- a bad booth place -- or you know, it's a really crummy conference, it's really tough to maximize your investment there. So what we've done is we do these little after parties where we're all promoting it together. We're all having a lot of fun with the promotion. And yeah, I mean for the one we just did -- the Marketo Summit -- we had well over 700 people registered. Kathleen: Wow. That's a lot of margaritas. Justin: It is a lot of margaritas. We actually had to kind of get a waiting list going. It was a very good problem to have and it's been tremendously successful. So we're kind of doing that more and more. We're taking that on the road. Kathleen: So are you getting lists of conference attendees from the conference organizer and that's how you're reaching out or how are you doing that? Justin: Totally organic social, a social promotion. We put it in our, you know, our newsletters or whatever. I will tell you a little secret, and again, I'm so not trying to make this commercial for Sigstr. Ten percent of those -- no twenty percent, twenty percent of those -- registrations came from Sigstr signatures, right? So it's one of those things where you're just passively emailing, doing your thing, but you know, people see the call to action and they're like, "Oh, that sounds like me." Kathleen: And you know that because, as I understand all of the links in the Sigstr signatures, you can build them out as tracking url. Justin: Oh come on, yeah. Kathleen: So concrete proof that that's where it came from. Justin: Yeah. Really, really deep analytics. Everything integrates with marketing automation or with your Salesforce or whatever. So you can get really good analytics and even kind of attribute pipeline to it. Kathleen: That's awesome. Justin: Yeah it's really, really great. So yeah, huge. We did another one. We had almost 200 people register for that, which we were thrilled about because it was the day before the conference even started and it was, you know, it's a smaller conference to begin with anyway. So that's kind of been like the ultimate culmination of these partnerships and how things have really, really shown up in the pipeline for us. Kathleen: That's great. Well all really cool and really interesting stuff. I love what you guys are doing. You were also mentioning that, you know, you have some great strategies for building relationships and what a big part of how you approach things that is outside of, you know, sending people swag boxes. Any other tips you have for listeners on that? Justin: Yeah, we spent a lot of time on social media, like engaging. Not like trying to be like, "Hey, take a demo," you know. I'm just kind of like following him around, like engaging with them, actually keeping up with their tweets, retweeting big moments for them and just kind of being a friendly face in the social crowd. And we think, you know, even the personal engagement, it's tough to fly out and see customers, especially when you're a small company, a growing company like us. We do try and make a point to build in as many customer visits as we can. Just because that face time is so much ... so important, right? When you really connect with someone on a human level, the relationship changes, but you know, people develop an attachment with you and I think that's such ... I think emotion is such a huge buying trigger that people ignore. And I think that's what it all comes down to is really, you know, developing relationships, developing an emotional connection is really what I think helps drive a business and a brand. I may get this quote wrong, so please fact check me audience, but I think it's like 95 percent of all buying decisions are based on emotion. Then the rest of the buyer's journey, I mean, that's like before the purchases or the buying committees even started. And from that point on, the buyer's journey is all about substantiating those emotions, right? And that's why content is so important in showing up data is to prove to someone that their emotions are correct. Kathleen: Yeah, I definitely can see that. And I'm curious, you know? Well, I can see see where emotion is so important, especially because your audience is marketers. Justin: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Kathleen: And I know from being a marketer myself for a long time that one of the biggest challenges we face is tool overload. Justin: Yeah. Kathleen: You know, every organization I've worked in, one of our biggest line items is recurring monthly SaaS subscriptions. Individually, they might be small amounts of money, but it adds up quickly and so what happens when you have this proliferation of software tools is inevitably, you know, there's some percentage of them that you don't use. Certainly you don't use them to their fullest. But I have found in my experience that when I have a good relationship with the vendor then, you know, those are the ones that tend to get the love. And what's great about that for you -- as somebody who is selling SaaS is -- churn goes down with those situations. So I think what you've said rings really true to me as somebody who is a target for you guys, and I know it's true for us at IMPACT. Like, we felt a lot of attention from Sigstr in terms of helping us get started and get going with the product and that makes a huge difference. Justin: Yeah, totally. I think you had the podcast with Dan Moyle. Like, I think he's telling the same story. It's all about developing those relationships and, I think that especially in the age of automation and robots and everything, I think just like how email is kind of important for the same reason, right? Bringing the humanity back into marketing is more important than ever. Kathleen: Yeah, so true. Well I want to make sure before we wrap up that I have two questions I always ask everybody who comes on this podcast and I definitely want to ask you and get your perspective. One of them is company or individual, who do you think is doing inbound marketing really well right now? Justin: So we do this thing and we were trying to get the ball rolling on it, but we do this thing internally we're calling "Brand Crush Monday" where we kind of just find a brand we really like and ... Kathleen: I love that. Justin: And so the most recent one that we're all kind of fawning over is a company called Tunnelbear. Really, really just like, it's just one of those websites where it's like, even if you're not a buyer, you just kinda want to click through and see what all the pages have. They've done a really good job of that. I think Uberflip does a really good job with inbound just because it creates such a good time to experience where you kind of are, okay, piecemealing your information away for an exchange for interesting content. They do a really good job of progressive profiling. So I like what they're doing a lot too. Kathleen: Oh, I can't wait to check out Tunnelbear. I've seen it Uberflip and I agree they're great. Justin: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Kathleen: But I love when I hear new ones that I didn't know about before. So that's awesome. Second question, you know, with the world of digital marketing changing so quickly and especially with it being very technologically driven, the challenge that I hear most from marketers is just keeping up with all that new information and staying educated. How do you keep up and stay educated? Justin: Yeah, I think I try to do about a book a month, either read or listen to. Now that it's nice and I can walk to work, I get a lot more of that in and then podcasts for sure. Kathleen: Any particular favorite podcasts? Justin: Well since we've met, I've grown quite fond of yours. Also like, I liked the Andreeson Horwitz podcast a lot. I like Sangram Vajre's #FlipMyFunnel podcast. I think that one's also pretty great just because it's so frequent and it's pretty digestible. What else? What else, what else? I mean those are my main ones off the top of my head. I do have a lot of guilty pleasure podcasts I listen to as well, but those are the marketing ones that I really, really like. Kathleen: And then a fall onto that, any particular books that you've read lately that you would recommend? Justin: So when I joined Sigstr, I bought for my entire team a copy of Contagious by Jonah Berger. That was kind of like my bio. I was like, "Read this, this is the new Bible." And then Good to Great I think is another. Who wrote that? Jim Collins. Kathleen: Yeah. Justin: Another fan. I think those are both like 101 -- you have to read these if you're a marketer -- books. Kathleen: Yeah, those are some good ones. I just finished Eating the Big Fish, which is about what it means to be a challenger brand. That's also a great book if you want one for your recommendations. Justin: I do. I'm going to the beach. I'm going to need some reading materials. So I appreciate that. Kathleen: Yeah. It's funny because I've been wanting to read more books and so I finally bit the bullet, and I really like actual books because I like to underline and write notes and margins and things, but I just couldn't move fast enough doing it that way. And so I finally bit the bullet and decided to try Audible and now I'm completely hooked because I listen to books on 2X speed and I'm like tearing through these books. So that's one of the reasons I love asking people this question at the end of the podcast. I get to get recommendations from my own list. Justin: Awesome. I will think of some and I'll shoot you an email. Absolutely Kathleen: Great. Alright. Well for people who have questions for you or who want to check out and learn more about Sigstr what is the best way for them to find you individually online and of course then please, if you could share Sigstr's url. That would be ... Justin: So Sigstr is Sigstr dot com. And then if you want to find me online, I think probably the best way is just a twitter, @JustinKeller, one word, is my handle. And then LinkedIn, I think is just Justin Keller, but I think your listeners are probably pretty savvy with the Google. Kathleen: They'll figure it out and if they can't, I will put those links in the show notes. Awesome. Great. Well thank you so much for joining me today. This has been really fun hearing about how you guys approach things. Justin: Thank you so much. This was a treat. I really ... this is my first podcast as well, so thank you for that. Kathleen: Well great. I'm so honored. That's great. Well, hopefully first of many. Justin: Hopefully. Kathleen: Well, thank you again for joining me and if you are listening and you liked what you heard, I would really appreciate if you would consider giving the podcast a review on iTunes, Stitcher, or the platform of your choice. And if you know somebody who's doing kick ass inbound marketing work, tweet me at @workmommywork because I would love to interview them. Thanks again.

In today’s episode, Val Lewis and I follow up on our discussion of marketing. If you are interested in an AUSIM marketing campaign, what to do and what not to do then this show is for you. Here is a synopsis of what we spoke about during the show:AUSIM Marketing ProcessAnalysis: • Do your homework • Gather information on your: o Business internals o Customers o CompetitorsUnderstanding: • Learn from the information collected. • Test your marketing assumptions.Strategy: • Develop a plan based on the data collected and the learnings from that data • Validate the plan against its objectivesImplement: • Execute the validated Strategy.Maximize: Taking the above steps will maximize your marketing efforts.AUSIM Marketing Components 1) Situational Analysis      a. Take stock of your company           i. Financially          ii. Competitively         iii. Organizationally     b. Develop a plan2) Offerings Developments.     a. What products will you carry?     b. What services will you offer?     c. How will the products be packaged?     d. Who needs the service you are offering? 2) Marketing Research.      a. Conduct survey at mall     b. Use SurveyMonkey     c. Use Facebook and Twitter    4) Channels Distribution     a. Retail     b. Wholesale     c. Online     d. Through Agents5) Persuasive Pricing     a. Market penetration     b. Prestige pricing     c. Based on cost6) Effective Communication      a. Radio      b. Social media      c. TV      d. Direct mailIf you want more information on AUSIM marketing you can download a free PowerPoint presentation here. Thank you for listening to two-part discussion about marketing

After spending 14 years in corporate America, Geoff Bellman launched his consulting firm – 40 years ago.  His consulting has focused on renewing large, mature organizations the likes of Verizon, Shell, and Boeing. Geoff is also an author and has written such books as, The Consultant’s Calling: Bringing Who You Are to What You Do, which is how I was first introduced to him.  His most recent book, Extraordinary Groups: How Extraordinary Teams Achieve Amazing Results, explores teams, families, and groups that perform beyond everyone’s expectations.  In this book, Geoff seeks to find out what enables such breakthrough performance to happen.  Listen in to learn more about Geoff and his insightful views on this fascinating topic. Essential learning points: The speed at which we work today discourages reflection. Organizationally we’ve not been in this phase for very long. It has only been a couple of decades that we’ve been working at this speed, and we truly don’t know what the hell we are doing right now. Organizations have not found ways to adapt yet. We know how to deluge people with data but we don’t yet know how to put it together as information that’s really useful. It is a mess as it ought to be. This is a transformative time, and we don’t know what we are transforming to. We are used to being in control. We should be seeking answers now. And I don’t think we should know what the answers are now.  “Our thesis was that if you gather people in a gymnasium and you asked them to sort out what made teams great, they would come to agreement about certain elements regardless of the skills and or the context.” What the six needs that people have when they join a team? There is a healthy tension between the current state and the future possibility and between the need to be accepted as you are (current) to the need to be realizing your potential (future). People describe great team work as magic, chemistry, we love each other, but I cannot come to a new team and say “do magic, do chemistry”, so we had to get beneath the magical expression. How do you encourage and help a team become great? What are the behaviors and ways to help a team discover a peak experience? What are the eight indicators of extraordinary teams? The transformation is more about seeing than about doing; more about perspective than it is about a skill. The world looks different when you have been transformed. Pay attention to yourself and who you are becoming. Full show notes: http://www.avivconsulting.com/cnf27

當我們觀察到，一個網路交換器的物理埠上面，學習到多重的MAC地址的時候，這個物理埠，有可能是連接到了另一套網路交換器，或者是，連接到了一個包含多重虛擬機器(Virtual Machine)的物理伺服器(Hypervisor)。如果我們能夠直接透過簡單的命令，找到哪些物理埠，跟虛擬機器有關，尤其是連接PC或是伺服器的埠，我們可以馬上指出來，哪些PC、伺服器上面，的確有虛擬機器的存在。這對我們數據中心的管理，將會是很有幫助的。我之前找到了一個Microsoft TechNet網站上面的資訊，內容是將常用的、預設分配給虛擬機器的MAC地址範圍的組織識別碼(Organizationally Unique Identifier, OUI)號碼，整理成一個對應表。其中，包含VMware、Xen、還有Microsoft。Microsoft Technet: How to Set the Static MAC Address Range for Virtual Network Devices Reserved For Prefixes VMware 00:05:6900:0C:2900:1C:1400:50:56 Microsoft 00:03:FF00:0D:3A00:12:5A00:15:5D00:17:FA00:1D:D800:50:F2 XenSource 00:16:3E 有了這個對照表之後，我們很容易就可以用命令，找出包含虛擬機器的物理埠。使用的命令很簡單，其實就是 “show mac-address-table interface”。我們看第一個例子。Switch# show mac-address-table interface f0/1Vlan Mac Address Type Ports---- ----------- -------- -----100 0015.5dXX.YYYY DYNAMIC Fa0/1100 0015.5dXX.ZZZZ DYNAMIC Fa0/1Total Mac Addresses for this criterion: 2Switch#根據以上的截圖，我們幾乎可以確定，FastEthernet0/1其實所連結的，是一套Microsoft Hyper-V的伺服器。我們還可以將命令做一點點的修改。例如，”show mac-address-table | include 0015.5d”。我們現在可以列出這個交換器，上面所有的Hyper-V伺服器裡面，虛擬機器的清單。例如下面第二個例子。Switch# show mac-address-table interface | include 0015.5d100 0015.5dXX.YYYY DYNAMIC Fa0/1100 0015.5dXX.ZZZZ DYNAMIC Fa0/1200 0015.5dWW.YYYY DYNAMIC Fa0/3200 0015.5dWW.ZZZZ DYNAMIC Fa0/4Switch#One more thing…我另外找到，一般在KVM上面，預設的MAC地址範圍是：QEMU's registered OUI (52:54:00)合併到前面的表格。新的表格如下： Reserved For Prefixes VMware 00:05:6900:0C:2900:1C:1400:50:56 Microsoft 00:03:FF00:0D:3A00:12:5A00:15:5D00:17:FA00:1D:D800:50:F2 XenSource 00:16:3E KVM (QEMU) 52:54:00 前面這些列表，所假設的，都是虛擬機器只使用各廠牌方案預設的、保留的MAC地址範圍。事實上，虛擬機器的管理者，很容易就可以透過各種設定，將MAC地址改換到其他的OUI範圍內。因此，這個方法，只能算是一個簡單的輔助的工具。使用時，需要注意它的限制。Welcome to virtualized world!吉野櫻下，仰望著天空玉淵潭公園，中國北京市

This cast concludes our guidance on how to stay up to date on what's going on in your company.

This cast gives our guidance on how to stay up to date on what's going on in your company.