Podcasts about Personally

Have you ever had a feeling of impending doom? Like you just knew something bad was about to happen? Quite a few years ago, I was in New York City. I went with a friend to a late comedy show, and when it was over we got on the subway to get back to the hotel. This was pretty late, like 2 am or maybe even later. We were on the train, waiting for the doors to close. Personally, I was feeling fine. But my friend, Teri, was more aware of our surroundings. There were a few other people on the train and she did not feel comfortable at all. She said that we needed to get off the train before the doors closed. So we did. I didn't get it at the time. But Teri just had this bad feeling that something was about to happen and it was not going to turn out well for us. But whatever it was, we took a taxi instead and got back safely. My guest today is Jessica. She is an avid rock climber out in the Pacific Northwest. She was involved in setting up a climbing event for hundreds of people, and she just kept having this feeling that something was very wrong. And she was right. Full show notes and pictures for this episode are here: https://WhatWasThatLike.com/242 Graphics for this episode by Bob Bretz. Transcription was done by James Lai. Want to discuss this episode and other things with thousands of other WWTL listeners? Join our podcast Facebook group at WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook (many of the podcast guests are there as well) Get every episode ad-free, AND get all the Raw Audio exclusive episodes to binge, by joining the other listeners at What Was That Like PLUS. Try What Was That Like PLUS free: iPhone: at the top of the What Was That Like podcast feed, click on “Try free” Android: on your phone, go to WhatWasThatLike.com/PLUS and click to try it free on any app Sponsor deals: Visit AuraFrames.com and use promo code WHATWAS at checkout to get $45 off. If you're 21 or older, get 25% OFF your first order + free shipping @IndaCloud with code [WHATWAS] at https://inda.shop/[WHATWAS]! #indacloudpod Go to ThriveMarket.com/WHATWAS to get 30% off your first order, plus a FREE $60 gift just for signing up. Go to Quince.com/whatwas for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns! Get 15% off OneSkin with the code [WHATWAS] at https://www.oneskin.co/ #oneskinpod Try Mint Mobile for 3 months, for just 15 bucks a month - MintMobile.com/WHAT Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the third hour, Mike Mulligan and David Haugh reacted to Packers players expressing their desire to get revenge on the Bears as the teams will meet Saturday in the wild-card round. After that, they looked ahead to the College Football Playoff semifinals.

Join My Private Group: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://theaxioncollective.manus.space/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Email List: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://huntershealthhacks.beehiiv.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get My Book On Amazon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://a.co/d/avbaV48Download⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Peptide Cheat Sheet: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://peptidecheatsheet.carrd.co/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download The Bioregulator Cheat Sheet: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bioregulatorcheatsheet.carrd.co/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠1 On 1 Coaching Application: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hunterwilliamscoaching.carrd.co/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book A Call With Me: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hunterwilliamscall.carrd.co/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Supplement Sources: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hunterwilliamssupplements.carrd.co/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon Storefront: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.amazon.com/shop/hunterwilliams/list/WE16G2223BXA?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsflist_R7QWQC0P1RACB2ETY3DY⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Socials:Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/hunterwilliamscoaching/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Video Topic Request: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hunterwilliamsvideotopic.carrd.co/⁠⁠⁠In this episode, I dive deep into a topic that's been coming up more and more over the last 12–18 months: anhedonia and motivational blunting in people using GLP-1 agonist peptides. While GLP-1s like semaglutide, tirzepatide, and retatrutide have been absolute game-changers for weight loss, metabolic health, and even addictive behaviors, there's a smaller—but very real—subset of people who experience something unexpected: a reduced ability to feel pleasure.Personally, I've never experienced this side effect. In fact, GLP-1s have done the opposite for me by giving me more mental clarity and freedom from compulsive behaviors. But enough people have reported feeling emotionally flat, unmotivated, or disconnected from things they used to enjoy that it deserves a serious, evidence-based conversation.In this episode, I break down what anhedonia actually is, how it differs from depression, and why it can happen with GLP-1s from a neurochemical standpoint—specifically dopamine signaling and reward circuitry in the brain. We'll look at the clinical data, real-world reports, differences between GLP-1 compounds, and why dose, speed of titration, weight loss, hormones, and lifestyle factors all matter.Most importantly, I share practical strategies for mitigating these effects so you can still harness the benefits of GLP-1s without sacrificing joy, motivation, or quality of life.

In this episode, Bridgette and Irvine unpack how leaders can stay grounded and present even when others are criticizing them, undermining their efforts, disrespecting them or reacting in a hostile or aggressive way

THE WARREN COMMISSION AND THE LONE GUNMAN CONCLUSION Colleague Paul Gregory. Paul Gregory discusses the Warren Commission and the enduring conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination. He visited Dealey Plaza personally to assess the sniper's nest, concluding the shot was "fairly easy" for a prepared shooter. Gregory dismisses the idea of a complex conspiracy, noting the spontaneity of Oswald's opportunity at the Book Depository. He highlights the Soviet Union's own suspicion that Oswald was a rogue element. A major focus is Marguerite Oswald's testimony; she confronted Chief Justice Earl Warren, demanding subpoena rights and claiming her son was a scapegoat. Gregory asserts that understanding Marguerite's influence and delusion is essential to understanding the psychological formation of her son, Lee. NUMBER 7

This week in Sea of Thieves, there's not much news to go over, so let's talk about what we hope to see in 2026. I'm curious to know if your top wish for Sea of Thieves made the list. Personally, I think there are some great wishes, and I'm hoping that this year we'll finally get some of the big ones off the list.   Support: https://www.patreon.com/keelhauledpodcast During December, Monthly members can get 20% off using the Code: GIVING Contact Info: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/captlogun.bsky.social Email: Captlogun@gmail.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/capt_logun Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/capt_logun Gamertag: CaptainLogun Community: Keelhauled Podcast Discord: https://discord.gg/5VRabwR Other Places to Listen: iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/keelhauled-a-sea-of-thieves-podcast/id1351615675?mt=2 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2BrEqA6prz6t31wlFgaWaS Merch: Teespring: https://teespring.com/stores/keelhauled-podcast

What if new parents aren’t failing, but simply unsupported? Morgan sits down with Michelle Pool, nurse at Maven Clinic and the person behind One Minute Milk Bites, for an honest, deeply validating conversation about breastfeeding, postpartum mental health, and why modern parents feel so overwhelmed. Michelle shares her own journey from struggling new mom to lactation expert, breaking down why breastfeeding can feel impossibly hard, how baby instincts actually work, and why the “breast is best” messaging has caused more harm than help. Together, they explore postpartum depression, the loss of the village, C-sections vs. vaginal birth, and the quiet identity shift that happens after a baby arrives. This episode is for: New and expecting parents Partners who want to show up better Anyone who’s ever wondered, “Am I doing this right?” If you’ve ever felt alone, unsure, or like you’re not enough, this conversation is your reminder: your best is good enough, and you are the perfect parent for your baby.

Everyday routines don’t always spark excitement—but Colossians 3:23 reminds us that even the most ordinary moments can be filled with purpose when we approach them with our whole heart for the Lord. This devotional reframes enthusiasm as a byproduct of gratitude, inviting us to rediscover joy, sincerity, and meaning in the daily work God places before us. Highlights Enthusiasm often fades in routine, not just in hardship. God calls us to work heartily—with our whole heart—for Him, not people. Gratitude is the gateway to renewed enthusiasm. Sincere thankfulness reshapes how we view mundane tasks. Every opportunity, joyful or dull, can be used for God’s glory. Knowing God’s character deepens gratitude and joy. Everyday faithfulness matters just as much as mountaintop moments. Do you want to listen ad-free? When you join Crosswalk Plus, you gain access to exclusive, in-depth Bible study guides, devotionals, sound biblical advice, and daily encouragement from trusted pastors and authors—resources designed to strengthen your faith and equip you to live it out boldly. PLUS ad free podcasts! Sign Up Today! Full Transcript Below: Renewing Your Enthusiasm for Everyday Life By Keri Eichberger Bible Reading: Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters. - Colossians 3:23 I’m a full-blooded beach girl. But considering I live about ten hours from any coast, I don’t make it to the sandy shore as often as I’d like. And when I do, enthusiastic is a fitting description of my heart posture from the moment my plans are in place, all the way through to the impending day of departure. When I’m not so enthusiastic—the week after. Back at home, when the monotony of the same ole, same old greets me the following Monday morning. What is it that fills you with enthusiasm? Is it a vacation to the beach, mountains, or the city? Maybe family gatherings, milestone celebrations, or certain seasons and holidays? And what doesn’t excite you so much? Maybe you can relate to my lack of enthusiasm on the mundane days of life. Or you may feel the staleness of your job, daily tasks, or house chores and the accompanying list of needed updates. Possibly you’d confess you’re not so thrilled with the constant demands of parenting toddlers or teens, or with the serving opportunities you’re signed up for. I get it. It’s hard to match the excitement we feel with the things that most delight our senses and souls, with the ordinariness of our everyday routines. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could? Personally, I love this idea. I’ve heard it said it’s no fun, to have no fun, or on the flipside, it’s fun to have fun. And I’m sure we can agree. Fun is more favorable. And when we find enthusiasm, we find more fun. Of course, we’d love to find and add more fun, enthusiasm, and enjoyment to the everyday aspects of life because that’s where we spend the majority of our time, thus all our days really. Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” Some versions replace all your heart with enthusiasm or heartily. This verse and varying versions remind me that we are not just to do some things with enthusiasm, but all things. It also speaks to me that if we desire enthusiasm in what we do, we will approach it with our whole heart. And for the sake of the Lord. So then, how do we do something, or everything, heartily and wholeheartedly for God? How do we add enthusiasm to everyday tasks and chores? Assignments that feel more mundane. That we, quite frankly, don’t feel so enthusiastic about. It occurred to me that doing something with a whole heart involves a sincere heart. And I believe we gain sincerity through appreciation and gratitude for the subject. The subject of Colossians 3:23 is God. Do we have an appreciation and gratitude for our almighty Father when we’re walking through the everyday, dull, and disappointing parts of life? As much as when we’re vacationing or celebrating with loved ones? And is our gratitude sincere? Or are we forcing smiles, faking our thanks, and allowing a sarcastic spirit? I know it’s not always natural or easy, but we should aim to be genuinely grateful in all circumstances. In the fun and joyous occasions, as well as in the blah and bothersome moments. The truth is, God gives us all our opportunities for good. For our good, and most importantly for his good and glory. The more we see that everything we do and every opportunity placed before us is for God and his glory, and the more we get to know the character and heart of him who we serve—Him who loves us like crazy and has given us more blessings than we can count—the more we grow in gratitude toward God. He is indeed the giver of gifts. And as we grow in gratitude for God and every moment that he gives, our hearts become more sincere, and we begin to add more enthusiasm to the most mundane of moments and the dullest of days. I know sincere gratitude can be harder in some seasons and on difficult days. I feel this struggle too often myself. And those are the times we need some assistance and additional reminders to refresh our understanding of who God is and what God does. And re`12gardless if you’re feeling jazzed about the task at hand or not, we can always grow in gratitude and benefit from getting to know him better. Intersecting Faith & Life: If you could use a boost in enthusiasm, stop and spend some time reflecting on the work or the day directly in front of you. Sit still in God's presence. Pray for a sincere heart of gratitude for what he has set before you. Soak in his power and greatness in the pages of his word. Understand that he is good. Understand that he is using every single thing for your good and the good of all those around you. And thank him for it all. Even the seemingly not-so-ideal parts. Thank him for that, too. And then rise up sincerely grateful. Deep down in your heart, seek an angle, find a way, to be thankful for the very thing before you. There is always something in everything to be thankful for. And when you find more sincere gratitude in every moment, you'll find more enthusiasm and enjoyment in your everyday moments. If you liked what you read, I think you will love my latest book, Win Over Worry: Conquer What Shakes You and Soar With the One Who Overcomes. You can find it on Amazon or your favorite online retail site. I hope it blesses you! Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Not everyone likes surprises. Personally, I love being surprised – as long as it's a GOOD surprise. And even more than that, I love surprising people and just seeing their reaction. About 3-4 years ago, I got what I think is the biggest surprise of my life. At that time, my dad had been gone for about 6 or 7 years. And one night my mom invited all the family over for a game night at her place. This happens all the time, so nothing unusual. But while we were all there, she made an announcement that, at age 80, she was going to get married again. I never saw it coming. But it has worked out great. Jim and my dad were actually best friends for most of their lives. Jim's wife had passed away a few years earlier, so… it really all made sense. And it made for a crazy and wonderful surprise for all of us. Today you'll hear about a surprise that Victoria got one day, from a former neighbor. It was about her dad, and it was not a good surprise. Victoria told this story on the podcast about 4 years ago, and after our conversation you'll hear an update on what has happened with her family – and her dad – since then. This episode contains discussion of child sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised. Graphics for this episode by Bob Bretz. Transcription was done by James Lai. Want to discuss this episode and other things with thousands of other WWTL listeners? Join our podcast Facebook group at WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook (many of the podcast guests are there as well) Get every episode ad-free, AND get all the Raw Audio exclusive episodes to binge, by joining the other listeners at What Was That Like PLUS. Try What Was That Like PLUS free: iPhone: at the top of the What Was That Like podcast feed, click on “Try free” Android: on your phone, go to WhatWasThatLike.com/PLUS and click to try it free on any app Sponsor deals: Visit AuraFrames.com and use promo code WHATWAS at checkout to get $45 off. If you're 21 or older, get 25% OFF your first order + free shipping @IndaCloud with code [WHATWAS] at https://inda.shop/[WHATWAS]! #indacloudpod Go to ThriveMarket.com/WHATWAS to get 30% off your first order, plus a FREE $60 gift just for signing up. Go to Quince.com/whatwas for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns! Get 15% off OneSkin with the code [WHATWAS] at https://www.oneskin.co/ #oneskinpod Try Mint Mobile for 3 months, for just 15 bucks a month - MintMobile.com/WHAT Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

uplifthere are some uplifting words for the new year drawn from 9 episodes of conscient podcast et 3 extraits du balado conscientThis posting of a calm presence was designed as an audio listening experience though it also exists in written form, here.Ceci est un episode bilingue. Afin de faciliter la compréhension des extraits en anglais, j'ai ajouté une transcription de l'épisode en français dans les notes d'épisode. J'ai aussi ajouté un petit sommaire oral en français à la fin de chacun des épisodes en anglais. Personnellement, je trouve intéressant d'écouter quelqu'un parler dans une autre langue, car je peux me concentrer sur le ton et l'intonation de la voix. This is a bilingual episode. For those who do not understand French I have added a transcript in English in the episode notes. I also created a short English language oral summary for each of the French language episodes. Personally, I find it interesting to listen to someone speak in another language because I can focus on the tone and inflection of the voice.Please note that the pace of my narration is rather slow with the occasional short silence.This is how I like to listen to narrations, with lots of space to ponder what is being said but also to consider what might lie in between the words and in the timbre of the voice. I'm also recording this reading in one take, flubs and all, similar to a late night radio monologue where it's ok to be imperfect and where time is suspended. Finally, a reminder that I now publish a calm presence postings one  at a time, for a few weeks and then replace it with a new one and so on. In other words, what you're listening to now, recorded on January 1, 2026 at 8.51 am it will be erased sometime in February 2026, never to be published again but I hope it might be retained in memory for those who  need it, which is why I created this Substack in the first place, for those in need of a calm presence. *END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODESHey conscient listeners, I've been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020 on un-ceded Anishinaabe Algonquin territory (Ottawa). It's my way to give back.In parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and its francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I I publish a free ‘a calm presence' monthly Substack see https://acalmpresence.substack.com.Your feedback is always welcome at claude@conscient.ca and/or on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Threads, BlueSky, Mastodon, Tik Tok, YouTube and Substack.Share what you like, etcI am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible. Claude SchryerLatest update on December 5, 2025

In this episode of Personally Speaking Msgr. Jim Lisante is joined by Green Beret combat veteran, social media host, and politician Nick Freitas. Nick is a member of the Virginia General Assembly serving in the House of Delegates and he talks about the faith and values that matter the most to him.Support the show

Sean breaks down one of the most common traps parents fall into: Taking things way too personally. He explains why we parents get so reactive, why small comments feel like giant attacks, and how emotional flooding turns everyday parenting moments into battles. Sean teaches a simple, powerful framework to help parents stay grounded, interpret their child's behavior accurately, and stop making their child responsible for their emotional world. This episode gives parents the tools to stay calm, lead with clarity, and respond like the wise, emotionally intelligent adults their kids desperately need. Go deeper with Sean at SaveMyFamily.us Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tiff and Monica talk about the fundamental elements to include when onboarding a new team member, and some of them might surprise you. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. Welcome back. I am just so happy to have all of you. know there are so many people out there that support the Dental A Team in so many amazing ways. And you guys being here downloading these podcasts and having that little, I know Apple allows the like auto download. I always love that. Cause when I'm on flights, I can just, you know, podcast. But you guys being here.   pushing those through for us, being here to just support who we are, what we do is so truly incredible, whether you're a client, a future client, or someone who's just here to listen and you're like, ⁓ you know, never gonna sign up, we don't really have a preference of how you get to us. We just love that you're here. We wanna deliver all of the most amazing information that we possibly can. You might notice we share a lot of information, a lot of tips and tricks, a lot of like, I don't know, feel like, Monica, I feel like they're like.   secrets, trade secrets, right? And people are like, gosh, I'll just listen to your podcast. I'm like, fantastic, do that, do that. When you're ready for someone like Monica, who I have here with us today, you guys, to be like, I'm gonna push you a little bit further. She's here, we're here, and we're ready to help you get to that next level. And as I said, you guys, this is a truly, truly exciting day for us. I have Monica back on the podcast with me today. I am so excited to have you here, Monica. I know.   Monica Gomez (00:57) ⁓ yeah.   The Dental A Team (01:20) Previously, I've kind of given a good spiel of who you are and how we found you. And we got to record a podcast, if you haven't listened to it yet, about this really hiring tips and strategies. But there's so much to learn about Monica, her coaching style and who she is in that episode. So if you haven't listened to it yet, go do that. And as an introduction today, Monica, welcome. I'm so excited to have you here. And I just I'm excited to pick your brain. love I love watching.   I feel like I get to watch the flow of how thoughts come to you and it's just really fun and I love our time together. Thank you for blocking out your morning and being here with me this morning and Monica, how are you? How was your weekend? How's life? How's Monica?   Monica Gomez (02:04) is great and I'm starting off my week with podcasting with you ⁓ and this is so fun. This is my second podcast and I'm so excited to be here. Our first one was really, there was a flow to it, right? It was a ⁓ great little conversation, valuable. We dropped lots of gems, you guys, so go listen to that podcast and I'm excited to be sharing this space again with you, Tish. Thank you for having me.   The Dental A Team (02:19) Yeah.   Thank you, thank you. I do love this and it actually makes me think this is like a little off topic here, but just for a smidgen of time. love the podcast space with you consultant ladies ⁓ on our team because I love that this is a space where I get to, I think I get to share how much I love you guys. Like how much admiration I have, how much I look up to you guys and get to like extract so much.   knowledge and input from you. And I think this is our space of like, truly having some connection time. And we have our one on ones, I mentioned that before, but those are so goal driven and work driven. It makes me think I love relationship and community. And I think that's something that humans are learning again, we're relearning that we need that. I think we lost that for a moment of time here recently and   in the years and we're coming back to that. You kind of don't know what you have until you lose it sometimes and we lost that space. And I think this is our space of true community. We do have our weekly meetings, we have our one-on-ones, we have our data-driven, work-driven time together, but the podcasting space is actually really special to me because I do get to, I get to get to like, want, we get to put you guys out there and I get to just spend this time with you.   And it makes me think you mentioned something on the last podcast that we had recorded together. You mentioned that intentional team time together and that like just clicked. As you're talking, like it clicked for me. This is our intentional time together and instilling that into, infusing that into the workplace. It's really special. And I want doctors and owners and leaders and anyone who's here, dental assistants, treatment coordinators, I don't care who you are. I want you to...   know from the bottom of my heart, this is a really special place and you don't need to go start a podcast unless you want to. But having that intentional time, like coffee time, like go in the break room and have coffee together and talk about your weekend. Like me getting to hear about Monica's family life and Charlie, her puppy, getting to know those pieces of you personally, it changes and it shifts our dynamic. So I wanted to highlight that because as you were speaking, I was like, my gosh, this is   Monica Gomez (04:42) Yeah.   The Dental A Team (04:55) something we haven't had yet because this is only our second podcast together, but that I know I do have with the other consultants and it just totally clicked for me because we just, think, mentioned that in the last one. So Monica, thank you for being here. Thank you for letting me say all that and for giving me this intentional time today.   Monica Gomez (05:12) Yeah, thanks, Tiff. Yeah, I think ⁓ this time together, we get to peek, a little peek behind the veil, right? And yeah, we do have a lot of connection time. It's structured time, right? But the value of unstructured time is just gold. is, ⁓ it builds trust, it builds ⁓ camaraderie, it builds affinity, it builds ⁓ an endearing, right? An endearing kind of sense of   The Dental A Team (05:20) Yeah.   Yeah.   Monica Gomez (05:42) of viewing the other person in a different light. So yeah, I think this is a powerful, like meaningful time. I agree with you. I agree with everything that you said. This is definitely a special magical space. Yeah.   The Dental A Team (05:51) Yeah.   Yeah, thank you.   Awesome. Well, thank you for being here. And again, if you didn't listen to the last podcast, I know this is the third or fourth time we're saying it. You should. This is kind of I think Monica actually helped me choose today's topics that she wanted to speak on. I think they actually naturally flow together. So I would maybe even listen to this one after the last one ⁓ or listen to this one. And then I don't care which order you do it in, but listen to both of them is my is my point here, because today we really we're going to talk about onboarding.   Monica Gomez (06:05) You   The Dental A Team (06:26) And you can onboard anyone, but I think maybe when we add in onboarding the right team member, because the last podcast we recorded was really how to hire the right team member and hiring with intentionality and meaning behind it. And the onboarding, Monica, I think has to flow off of that. If we're not continuously showing up as the person we wanted to hire, like we talked about in the last one.   If we show up in the interview space and we're like, this is who I want you to be, but then we're onboarding and we're like, meh, meh. We're like, this is boring person and we want somebody who's dynamic and fun and engaging and speaking to the patients, but we're like, not that person. I think it makes a huge difference. So Monica, as you've trained people, as you've onboarded, you've trained practices to do this, what are some key highlights that you like to infuse into the onboarding process?   Monica Gomez (07:15) Yeah, great topic. And I agree, this one goes hand in hand with our previous podcast. know, onboarding traditionally has been very much transactional, right? Here's your cubby, here's what you do, here's where you sit, here's how you answer the phones, right? We've got to move. Well, there's a part of it that has to be transactional because you have to learn, you know, what your job is and, you know, the daily to do's.   But I think if we lead with that, it's a mistake. ⁓ As I mentioned before, and we talked about how the workforce has changed, ⁓ and we're leading with connection and engagement and authenticity and all those components that make us unique, I think we, I really feel that we need to move.   from a transactional place to a transformational or transcendental. ⁓ It's gotta be more about behaviors, right? And how we wrap our arms around like this new person that's joining our little family, right? How would you like to be welcomed into a team that would make you feel welcome and received with open arms and warmth? That's how we have to welcome our new people.   The Dental A Team (08:17) Yeah.   Monica Gomez (08:36) You know, we've invested so much time and energy in interviewing our job post, our, you know, filtering our candidates, interviewing, that whole hiring process, offer letter, the whole nine yards. And then we just throw them in, sink or swim. We've got to add, we've got to be intentional and we've got to add more value to the onboarding piece because, you know, people sometimes are left thinking like, gosh,   The Dental A Team (08:54) Yeah.   Monica Gomez (09:05) this is not the place that I thought it was gonna be, right? Like make it the place that you post it on your job ad, right? Like create, you get to be the creator. You're the co-creator, right? This is your platform. Like what do you wanna create for your new people, right? And I think transaction.   It's always part of our industry and in the workforce, right? There is a transactional piece to working. ⁓ But again, that humanist, right? And so one great tip, I'll start with one tip and I'll turn it over to you, Tiff. ⁓ One great tip is have a welcome packet for your team, right? A t-shirt, their name tag, little, you know, if you picked up little sprinkles of who they are and what they like in the interview, like,   The Dental A Team (09:51) Mm.   Monica Gomez (10:02) put together a nice little welcome basket for them, a pen post-it, a nice little saying. I think that's, wow, I mean, that's super impactful on their first day, right? Like, welcome to the team and have everybody go around at Morning Huddle and just give a little shout out as, you know,   The Dental A Team (10:11) Yeah.   I love that. Yeah.   Monica Gomez (10:29) how valuable it is to have a new team member. I think that's super simple and important.   The Dental A Team (10:36) Yeah, I love that. think you hit on something really important there. It's really that feeling of being welcomed, coming into a new space is, I mean, we don't even like going to a party unless we know, a dinner party, unless we know everybody who's gonna be there, right? We're like, I only know two people. Like, is that enough? Right? I got a text from a friend the other day that was, know, or not the other day, it's been a bit, but for, you know, Halloween. And then she's like, I gotta go to this thing with my husband. And like, I don't know anybody. And I was like, okay, like this is, we're all coming into this dinner party not knowing.   anybody else, even if you've done working interviews, you still don't know them. So I love that really just toning in on the personal piece and the relationship, because if you can have a relationship with them, you can, you know, build that camaraderie just from the get go. I think they actually retain information and onboard quicker as well. So I love that. Yeah.   Monica Gomez (11:25) It's hard being an adult, you know? It's hard being an adult. And I think   in the practice, you know, just circling back to our topic on our previous podcast, fun is really important. We forget to have fun as adults, you know? And gosh, you know, think of it like you're in the sandbox again. See through young eyes, see through young eyes. Put those lenses on and just remember what it is to just play in the sandbox.   with your friends, right? And have like that pureness of intention and that pureness of heart and spirit. I think it's just easier when you can kind of connect to that space to welcome others in. And they'll say, I love that you're here. Welcome to the team. How can I make your week and your integration easier? I think that's a gem right there. That's...   The Dental A Team (11:54) Yeah. Yeah.   Mm-hmm.   Monica Gomez (12:21) super valuable for the person receiving and also for the person that's delivering.   The Dental A Team (12:26) I agree. I was thinking,   as you said, you said it's hard being an adult And I thought, yeah, I remember just being like, do you want to swing? Like, there's two, like, do you want to swing with me? Like, that's, we don't do that anymore. Yeah. It was easy. Now it's like, we go to, we're in the same Pilates class 10 times and I'm still like, do I talk to you? Do I not talk to you? And it's like, goodness gracious. So yeah, like just, do you want to swing? Like just, let's just have fun with it. I love that. ⁓   Monica Gomez (12:33) Yeah.   It's easier to fix ones.   The Dental A Team (12:51) And so Welcome Packet is beautiful. if you guys like put it together, it could even be like ⁓ a welcome note card. Like, hey, excited to have you. Like everybody, we write thank you cards to our patients or we write condolence cards or happy birthday or happy anniversary. Like, congrats on your wedding. We write these cards and I've seen them in multiple practices. So I know a lot of people do them. You pass them around to all the team members or the happy birthday for the team members, right? Everybody writes on the card and it's like this little message.   You could do it as simply as that. Like, hey, Monica's starting on Monday, guys. Like, it's Thursday. Let's wrap this up. Let's get this like welcome card together and a candy bar or a little ⁓ bouquet of flowers, like four carnations. Like, it doesn't have to be difficult. It doesn't have to be robust or like over the top. Just speak to who you are and who they are. I love that. And Monica, something you said was we were kind of prepping for this was you don't have to have it all together. And I loved that because we've saw many podcasts on   Monica Gomez (13:32) Yeah.   The Dental A Team (13:48) operations manual and it's fantastic. And I agree with an operations manual and practices come to us and they're like, Monica, we need an operations manual, help us build it. It's like, okay, yes. And it's super cool. Also, it's not a requirement. You can onboard, you can train, you can have them help you build the operations manual while you're training. Don't hold yourself back from onboarding someone successfully.   Monica Gomez (13:59) Yeah.   The Dental A Team (14:15) because you feel like things are missing and I love that you said that. Now, on that same aspect, a job description, super simple, to put together a job description of who they are, how they show up and what their targets are per position and then build off of that to say like, hey, in the first week, two weeks, 30 days and then kind of go from there. Now, implementally, how do you build the action out for...   for teams like that, because I'm an aggriance. I love an operations manual. I think it's great, but it's not end all be all. And just because we get through an operations manual and your consulting journey does not mean you're done. You're set for success and nothing's ever going to happen. I think there's a lot of, we could go on a tangent about operations manuals. We won't today. But how do you do that with your practices you're working with?   Monica Gomez (15:05) Yeah, I mean, I think people ⁓ absorb information and they learn differently. And I think it's really important that we hit on all three things. It's auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. The operations manual or the training manual is valuable, Because it's a resource that you can go to to reference and get a refresher. ⁓ But that shouldn't be your onboarding technique, right? That's like, OK, here you go. Here's the written. ⁓   The Dental A Team (15:30) Yeah.   Monica Gomez (15:34) proof or reference book of what you already learned, right? It is the outcome of your training. ⁓ I think, you know, onboarding can be simple and we make it complicated because everything has to be in writing nowadays and there's value to that. ⁓ But really your team, the biggest piece of ⁓ an employee staying within those 90 days is how we onboarded them.   The Dental A Team (15:48) Yeah.   Monica Gomez (16:03) Did we just give them manual or written instructions and say, okay, here it is, go do it? Or did we say, okay, this week, part of your onboarding is that you're gonna spend time with every single person in this practice in the various roles, including the doctor. You're gonna sit in and listen to the exams and the x-ray take and the hygienist. And you're really gonna understand all the makings of this practice.   it's important that we understand everyone's role and how we contribute to the entire team. So I always recommend that you hire someone and the first three days, break it up. Three, by the way, is a magical number for me. I love everything in series of threes. So three is easy to remember, three things versus five or even four, right? So three days in each role.   And have that person that's learning write down the most impact. What did you learn in these three days sitting with a hygienist? Or what do you want to know more about? This will spark their curiosity. Don't give them a script. Allow them to of grasp the topics and let their curiosity ⁓ be the lead. Take the lead on.   Here's what I want to know more about, or I don't really understand this, or gosh, I didn't know that, right? ⁓ And that goes for experienced employees or people that are new to the industry, right? That's my recommendation. Allow them to spend three days in every single role, like the journey of onboarding, right? Like, I think it's super valuable. And then... ⁓   The Dental A Team (17:32) Yeah.   Fisher.   Monica Gomez (17:51) Again, they could be kind of co-creating your manual with you because what they bring back, the knowledge that they bring back, chances are somebody else is going to have that same curiosity or those same questions, right? Yeah, I think that's a really simple tip. And those also that feedback could be part of your 30, 60, 90 day growth plans. And here's what you're really great at, right? I always like to look at   The Dental A Team (18:04) Yeah.   Monica Gomez (18:22) Think about the growth plan like a sandwich, right? Like there's the beginning, the middle, and the end. And so here's where you are, right? ⁓ Here's where, ⁓ actually, here's your role. Here's where you currently are, and here's where we would like for you to be. And like, what are the steps to get there, right? That should be part of your growth plan, your 30, 60, 90 day growth plan, along with the job description. Yeah, I think, you know,   using the job description like you mentioned as a tool, right, to guide people and also for us to understand like, what are they really great at? What are they really proud of, you know, in this job role? And what do they want to know more about? I think ⁓ I ⁓ one great way to kind of get familiar with someone's knowledge, experience and their desire to grow or learn more about is take the   The Dental A Team (19:03) Thank   Monica Gomez (19:20) the skills and ability portion of the job role and say, tell me three things that you're really great at, that you're really proud of, that you just are an expert in. And then three things that ⁓ you wanna know more about, not weak, right? Things that you don't, let's take that, negative verb out of it, just say three things that you're curious about or three things that you wanna sharpen your skills at. That tells you a lot about their qualifications. ⁓ And I'm really an advocate of ⁓   The Dental A Team (19:22) Mm-hmm.   Yeah. Yes.   Monica Gomez (19:49) eliminating the over-educating and over-matching. This exercise is a great way to kind of level set who your person is, like what's in their brain, right? Like, are you curious about? So I think that's part of like the co-creation of the onboarding and the collaboration, right? This is a partnership, we're in this together. What can I do to help you help me?   The Dental A Team (20:01) Yeah.   Yeah.   Monica Gomez (20:15) and stay. think it's intentional and it is ⁓ structured in a way that's unstructured.   The Dental A Team (20:28) Yeah, for sure. And I think that what you're saying there that co-creation also makes me think of ⁓ like collaborating and co-creating with the people who are going to be doing the training. So if you're not the one who's going to be, if you're an office manager and you're not training this person hands on 100 % of the time, then enlist the team members too. So if this person's job is   I don't know, front desk check-in and she or he has this laundry list of 20 different things that they've got to learn in the series of these 90 days or 30 days or however long you parcel that out for who's helping with those things and allow them to co-create too. And I think what you're saying, the three days, it's like, great, you're learning to answer the phones and confirm appointments. That's what you're doing for three days. You're answering the phone. So you're answering the phones and you're delivering that   patient to whomever, right? You're transferring that patient to whomever they need and you're doing confirmation calls for three days. And then stack on top of that, anything, something you said there, the co-collaborating and the kind of doing it together, but also then enlisting outside perspectives to see what flows together. Because a lot of times our job doesn't necessarily start to end flow in this perfect, beautiful space. Sometimes it's like,   well, I'm doing phones, but I'm doing emails, and I'm doing phones, but I'm checking patients out. And those are very like stark contrasting pieces. And so if we're like jumping them around or trying to do it in what a day might look like, that's very confusing. And it's overwhelming because your brain doesn't operate in that way. You can and you will and you will multitask and they will get it. But when you're learning, you've got to learn succinctly in a flow that makes sense. So you can't start with   Monica Gomez (22:02) and overwhelming.   The Dental A Team (22:17) checking a patient out if you also want them to be doing confirmation calls. Like you've got to find, like you said, your start, your middle and your end and making sure that those pieces flow together and having that outside perspective I think can definitely help. Something you mentioned was those like check-ins. So you're having those conversations with them. So that in itself right there, you guys, if you're not, I want you to pull these action items out too because that in itself, that's an action item. So make sure you've got job descriptions.   make sure you've got some semblance of flow on the pieces that they're responsible for, and then you're checking in with them. And I think frequent check-ins are really smart. We do them in our company with onboarding and we continue them kind of as long as we possibly can forevermore. We do these check-ins because I wanna know where they're at. don't, not necessarily like, did you do this thing? I wanna know like Monica, where are you at today? ⁓   Personally, who are you and where are you at today? Like are we still in alignment because that's the space I think Especially being new to a team. I'm not gonna say I'm not always gonna say hey, I Didn't get this or hey, I need help or hey I'm falling behind or I feel overwhelmed or this is a lot because I don't want to look like I can't do it But if my manager or my lead is like, hey check in how are things going? And I'm like, I think I'm getting it. I think I need more time on this   That's way better than being like, I'm overwhelmed. Like that feels better to me to be like, cool, there's space to have a conversation about this. I'm not complaining or feeling weak or looking as though I can't accomplish something. You are giving the space as a check-in to just be like, hey, tell me where you're at. Okay, great, take the space, take the time, go learn it. Or if I need to show you again, I can.   Monica Gomez (24:06) Yeah, I love that. I love everything that you said. think, ⁓ you know, words create our story, right? And so if we're asking, like, how's it going? ⁓ Are you struggling with anything? ⁓ Our minds automatically go to that negative place, right? So you get to be the creator of the script.   Right. And so if we're saying, Hey, by the way, I heard you answering the phone start, like, listen for the good stuff, right? The good behaviors. Gosh, you were amazing. Greeting that patient. my gosh. I am so proud of you. You are totally getting this and you know, how's everything else going? Right. If you start with that excitement and something positive, that person's already in that positive mindset and it's all about mindset. Right. And if we're concerned that they're not getting it, they're not going to get it.   assume that they are, assume that they are getting it. So gosh, you are, I know you're doing amazing. Tell me all the good stuff. Start.   The Dental A Team (25:08) Yeah, assume good intent, right? Always. We see that constantly. Assume   good intent. I think, Monica, you saying this right here makes me think.   Relationships are relationships, I say that all the time. They just look a little bit different. Like my relationship with Erin is a little bit different than my relationship with you, but my communication skills are gonna be super, they're gonna be the same with the right words, right? So I'm not gonna, communication is communication. And so what we do is we say, okay, this is how you sell a treatment plan. This is how you project to your patients to get them to schedule. And you always start with a positive. You don't ask for a review by saying,   how did everything go today? You say like, oh my gosh, that seemed, you how amazing was your appointment today? Like you're infusing these words in there to get the mindset, but then we don't copy and paste that always into everything that we do. And I think how you show up for anything is how you show up for everything. So show up for your team the same as you're expecting your team to show up for your patients because that's going to translate. And if you're like, oh, it seemed like a,   Gosh, today was a chaotic day, how did you do? It's always chaos, we're in dentistry. Dentistry is chaotic, your days are gonna be crazy. Life is chaotic, you're right, it's always going to be crazy. So saying that, gosh, was, woo, that was a rough day. How are you feeling? Well, I'm feeling really overwhelmed and I'm feeling like I made a really bad decision coming here. I think you're spot on is my point there. So that was beautiful, thank you.   Monica Gomez (26:21) Yeah. And life is chaotic. Period, right? Life is chaotic.   Yeah. And, you know, I when employees share difficult, like a difficult day, you know, like, ⁓ I had a ⁓ client last week share that their new hire said, ⁓ gosh, maybe we shouldn't, you know, ⁓ schedule two crowns back to back because that was really hard. And, you know, my back was hurting. And so, ⁓ you know, the doctor was like, she's already complaining. I'm like, well, okay. Well, how did you respond? Right. Because   The Dental A Team (27:11) Yeah, yeah.   Monica Gomez (27:12) Because, I mean, she's delivering something that's important. She's sharing and she feels comfortable enough to say, hey, that was really hard. That's really what she's saying. That was really hard, right? And so, you know, again, one of my favorite sayings is, you know, get curious, not furious, right? Don't look at it with the negative lens. It's a great way for you to validate, like, how important it is to be seen, and valued, right?   The Dental A Team (27:41) I agree.   Monica Gomez (27:42) And she was opening up because she wanted to be seen, heard, and valued. Like she wanted to be seen. Gosh, I like did those two crowns back to back. My back is hurting me. Are you even valuing that I sat there in fact, right? Even though they could have swapped off with another assistant, but she, you know, she followed him. And so, you know, and my advice was like, you should number one acknowledge that she's sharing, right?   The Dental A Team (27:54) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.   Monica Gomez (28:11) Thank you so much for sharing that. You're right, that was kind of hard. Let's talk about it as a team tomorrow. Let's find ways to alleviate that when this does happen, right? I mean, the patients wanted to start, like they're ready. Let's do it, right? But where were your other team members? Like, let's talk about this. And so seen, and valued. If you can make anyone new, ⁓ a new employee, an existing employee,   your legacy employees, if you can make them feel and create a space where everyone feels seen, heard, and valued, that's huge. That's like you, you will, your team will love you, your patients will love you because again, it's that invisible kind of energy that's flowing through your practice, right? That creates that great space for employees to wanna stay.   The Dental A Team (29:02) I agree. I totally agree. Thank you, Monica. I think this was ⁓ a really, this is just full of so many gems and ⁓ I love the actual pieces of job description, kind of the, I love your three days, spend three days on it and really just making sure you go through that job description. Look at the to-dos of that position.   Enlist the team to help you. Whoever's gonna be helping to train. I had people specific on my team that were like, these are the things you just, you're stellar at and it's gonna be easy for you to train these things. They trained those. So it doesn't have to be one person. It can be whatever you want it to look like. Just make sure it's built out. You have a plan. Preschedule check-ins. I always make sure we preschedule check-ins and you guys check in with yourself too. think Monica, you gave some really wonderful tips on really making sure that we're showing up the way that we should be.   or the way we want people to show up and really just gut checking and making sure that those things are there. And I loved this. Thank you, Monica. Thank you for your words of wisdom. Thank you for flowing off of it. This was perfect. This was divine. Thank you for helping set up this flow of podcasting today and for just bringing your insight and your wisdom and your years of experience of things that you've seen work and ideas. So thank you, Monica.   Monica Gomez (30:16) Thanks, thanks, Tiff. This is definitely a gem for me. I have so much to share and so much, I love sharing, I love brainstorming, I love sharing what works ⁓ and all the knowledge that we, all of us have, right? This is a beautiful space for us to, you know, share that. And this was so fun. Thanks for inviting me and everyone.   The Dental A Team (30:22) Yeah.   Monica Gomez (30:42) Go out and be fabulous and don't forget to have fun. Have fun.   The Dental A Team (30:47) Yes, I love that.   Thank you. Yes. Go be fabulous. That is like Trish's famous words. I love that she says that. always, I know it always makes it just like, yep, I will. Okay. No, questions. So I love it. Go be fabulous. I agree. Drop us a five star review. Let us know what you thought about this. Let us know what onboarding tips you guys have. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com is an easy place to find us and.   Monica Gomez (30:53) So these are the things.   The Dental A Team (31:10) get recommendations or share your tips and tricks. We really do love that. And also we're on Instagram and Facebook, all of those places. So watch us there. Watch out for us there. Thursdays, once a third Thursday, we have webinars. You guys, we're everywhere. So if you're only following the podcast, check us out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com, TheDentalATeam.com. We've got all of it listed there as well. Go find us, follow us and listen for more amazing tips from Monica and the rest of the consulting team. Thank you guys and go be fabulous.   Monica Gomez (31:39) you  

2025 was a turning point.Personally, professionally, and mentally. This episode is a raw reflection on how fixing one overlooked area of my life changed everything, from my marriage and mindset to the growth of The Determined Society.If you feel stuck, overwhelmed, or like something small is quietly holding you back, this conversation is about identifying that one thing and committing to real change.Growth doesn't come from motivation, it comes from discipline, ownership, and doing the work when no one's watching. Key Takeaways-Personal growth off-camera directly fueled professional success on-camera.-Fixing the “one thing” holding you back unlocks progress in every area of life.-Physical health improvements led to better clarity, confidence, and communication.-Consistency and discipline drove massive growth in 2025.-Emotional regulation improved relationships with family, team, and guests.-Growth in the show was a byproduct of personal accountability and self-care.-Feeling “seen” by the audience came from staying authentic and mission-driven.-Long-term thinking (years, not months) is key to sustainable success.-Momentum is built by doing the mundane work consistently and intentionally. Connect with me :https://link.me/theshawnfrench?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaY2s9TipS1cPaEZZ9h692pnV-rlsO-lzvK6LSFGtkKZ53WvtCAYTKY7lmQ_aem_OY08g381oa759QqTr7iPGA Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week’s episode is equal parts chaotic, honest, and deeply meaningful as Morgan is joined by her sister Taylor and her 11-week-old niece, Collyns for a special holiday week conversation. Taylor opens up about becoming a first-time mom, what no one truly prepares you for after birth, and how motherhood reshapes everything. From marriage and identity to sleep, patience, and trust in your own instincts. They talk candidly about pregnancy plans going out the window, postpartum realities, breastfeeding struggles, Bell’s Palsy in the midst of recovery, and the emotional weight of those early weeks that don’t get talked about enough. From choosing the right partner, navigating life with dogs and a newborn, and leaning on community, to trusting your “mom gut” and tuning out outside noise, this episode is an honest look at what it really means to bring a life into the world. It’s a sister conversation filled with love, laughter, tears, baby noises, and perspective for anyone who’s a mom, hopes to be one someday, or just wants a deeper understanding of this season of life.

Sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I pull out all of my records that I’ve acquired over the past twelve months, along with my giant hard drive of files, and I put together a list of the 40 best albums of the year (along with another list of reissues). Besides a box set of homemade CD’s I hand to my friends, the results of this endeavor is my year end retrospective show. The following list (and broadcast) are my picks for the 40 greatest albums of the year. Like I say every year, this has been a fabulous year for music. There’s some wonderful sounds that range from punchy power pop to garage rock to more experimental sounds to classic singer/songwriter fare. There’s something here for everyone! Personally, it’s been an odd year, full of highs and lows. I became a grandfather, but also suffered a couple of health issues. If you’ve listened to this show, you’re probably aware of all of this. But thanks to not only the bands that contribute tracks to the show, but each and every one of you that listen to The Ledge! I guarantee you that 2026 will be an even greater year for the […]

Sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I pull out all of my records that I've acquired over the past twelve months, along with my giant hard drive of files, and I put together a list of the 40 best albums of the year (along with another list of reissues). Besides a box set of homemade CD's I hand to my friends, the results of this endeavor is my year end retrospective show. The following list (and broadcast) are my picks for the 40 greatest albums of the year. Like I say every year, this has been a fabulous year for music. There's some wonderful sounds that range from punchy power pop to garage rock to more experimental sounds to classic singer/songwriter fare. There's something here for everyone! Personally, it's been an odd year, full of highs and lows. I became a grandfather, but also suffered a couple of health issues. If you've listened to this show, you're probably aware of all of this. But thanks to not only the bands that contribute tracks to the show, but each and every one of you that listen to The Ledge! I guarantee you that 2026 will be an even greater year for the […]

In this episode of Personally Speaking Msgr. Jim Lisante is joined by veteran journalist Leland Vittert. Leland is the host of “On Balance with Leland Vittert” on NewsNation. He's written a new book called “Born Lucky: A Dedicated Father, A Grateful Son, and My Journey with Autism”. Leland talks about how his father not only helped him overcome dealing with his autism, but helped him thrive, with perseverance and love.Support the show

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news!

Jesus Followers Can Personally Talk to God, the Universe's Creator, About Issues Like His Will for You; but Do You? MESSAGE SUMMARY: As a Jesus Follower, you have a personal relationship with God, the Creator of the Universe; and you can talk to God like you talk to your father. Remember God loves you. Imagine climbing up into His lap and imagine Him wrapping His arms around you – He is God your loving father. As God tells you in 2 Samuel 7:14-15: “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you.". You need to start talking to Him as the best dad there could ever be. Talk to God, regularly, about your life; your concerns; and your needs. You need to ask Him for His counsel, and you need to ask Him questions regarding His will for your life.   TODAY'S PRAYER: Father, may the pains I experience in life kill the things that need to die in me — arrogance, pride, and indifference to others. Help me, daily, to see my frailty and how dependent I am on you, the Master of the Universe. In Jesus' name, amen.  Scazzero, Peter. Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Day by Day (p. 72). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. TODAY'S AFFIRMATION: Today, I affirm that, because I am in Jesus Christ, I will proclaim Him. (Philippians 1:15f). “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.”. (Philippians 4:14). SCRIPTURE REFERENCE (ESV): Romans 1:7; Matthew 6:7-15; 2 Corinthians 6:18; Psalms 12:1-8. A WORD FROM THE LORD WEBSITE: www.AWFTL.org. THIS SUNDAY'S AUDIO SERMON: You can listen to Archbishop Beach's Current Sunday Sermon: “A Christmas Message – What God Has Done For Us”, at our Website: https://awordfromthelord.org/listen/ DONATE TO AWFTL: https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0Ui000000DglsqEAB

Welcome to Follow Your Gut. Daily Anchors.I'm Juniper, and I'll be guiding you in this daily embodiment practice for grounding, expansion, and self-leadership.I have been on my own personal growth journey for a really long time. I've spent years learning and healing, expanding, unlearning, and rebuilding myself, and something I've really come to notice is that so many of the tools for growth today move incredibly fast. There is so much information, so many practices, so many insights coming at us all the time, and while so much of it is beautiful and so powerful, I've found it harder and harder to actually create the space to embody what I'm moving through.Personally, I have been craving an anchoring practice, something I can return to every day. And originally, this was something I was just going to record for myself as a voice note on my phone. But as I went to press record, I had this very clear, intuitive knowing that this isn't meant to be just mine. That it isn't just me feeling this way. As women, as mothers, and really as humans living in the world right now, our bodies were never designed for the pace we're moving at. We're processing more information, making more decisions, and holding more emotional weight than ever before, and without something steady to return to, it's easy to feel unanchored, even when we're doing all the right things.Welcome to Daily Anchors.This is designed to be a daily practice that you return to once a day for two weeks at a time. Each practice stays the same on purpose, because repetition is how the body learns safety, and safety is where real growth happens.When you come back to the same practice each day, you begin to notice how you're changing, even though the words don't. You begin to embody the work instead of just understanding it.This practice is for you if you are a mother awake in the middle of the night, holding your child and worrying about their health or development. It's for you if you're navigating your own health and feel overwhelmed by how much there is to know. It's for you if you're building something, becoming someone new, or standing at the edge of your next season and wanting a way to stay grounded as you grow.You can listen first thing in the morning before anyone else in your house is awake. You can come back to it in the middle of the day when you feel scattered. You can make it part of your bed time routine or in the middle of the night when you are awake wishing you could sleep. There is no right time. This is meant to fit into real life.At the end of each practice, I'll guide you through a few simple daily anchors.I'm dedicating every other Follow Your Gut Podcast episode to this practice, for you and for me. I'll be doing these right alongside you, and so will everyone on the ōNLē team.This is not about doing more. It's about creating space to actually embody the woman you're becoming.Thanks for listening! I would love to connect with you ♡ Subscribe to the Nourished Newsletter Explore the Gut Rebalance Kits Visit our FAQ's Follow along on a Instagram Take the free Gut Health Quiz Email us at customercare@onleorganics.com Sending love and wellness from my family yours,xx - Juniper BennettFounder of ōNLē ORGANICS

Plus: Top officials at the Heritage Foundation decamp to former Vice President Mike Pence's Advance American Freedom organization. And cosmetics retailer Coty appoints a former Procter & Gamble veteran as interim chief executive. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for WSJ's free What's News newsletter. An artificial-intelligence tool assisted in the making of this episode by creating summaries that were based on Wall Street Journal reporting and reviewed and adapted by an editor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 87 Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold Mark McGuinness reads and discusses ‘Dover Beach' by Matthew Arnold. https://media.blubrry.com/amouthfulofair/media.blubrry.com/amouthfulofair/content.blubrry.com/amouthfulofair/87_Dover_Beach_by_Matthew_Arnold.mp3 Poet Matthew Arnold Reading and commentary by Mark McGuinness Dover Beach By Matthew Arnold The sea is calm tonight.The tide is full, the moon lies fairUpon the straits; on the French coast the lightGleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!Only, from the long line of sprayWhere the sea meets the moon-blanched land,Listen! you hear the grating roarOf pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,At their return, up the high strand,Begin, and cease, and then again begin,With tremulous cadence slow, and bringThe eternal note of sadness in. Sophocles long agoHeard it on the Aegean, and it broughtInto his mind the turbid ebb and flowOf human misery; weFind also in the sound a thought,Hearing it by this distant northern sea. The Sea of FaithWas once, too, at the full, and round earth's shoreLay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.But now I only hearIts melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,Retreating, to the breathOf the night-wind, down the vast edges drearAnd naked shingles of the world. Ah, love, let us be trueTo one another! for the world, which seemsTo lie before us like a land of dreams,So various, so beautiful, so new,Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;And we are here as on a darkling plainSwept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,Where ignorant armies clash by night. Podcast Transcript This is a magnificent and haunting poem by Matthew Arnold, an eminent Victorian poet. Written and published at the mid-point of the nineteenth century – it was probably written around 1851 and published in 1867 – it is not only a shining example of Victorian poetry at its best, but it also, and not coincidentally, embodies some of the central preoccupations of the Victorian age. The basic scenario is very simple: a man is looking out at the sea at night and thinking deep thoughts. It's something that we've all done, isn't it? The two tend to go hand-in-hand. When you're looking out into the darkness, listening to the sound of the sea, it's hard not to be thinking deep thoughts. If you've been a long time listener to this podcast, it may remind you of another poet who wrote about standing on the shore thinking deep thoughts, looking at the sea, Shakespeare, in his Sonnet 60: Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,So do our minutes hasten to their end; Arnold's poem is not a sonnet but a poem in four verse paragraphs. They're not stanzas, because they're not regular, but if you look at the text on the website, you can clearly see it's divided into four sections. The first part is a description of the sea, as seen from Dover Beach, which is on the shore of the narrowest part of the English channel, making it the closest part of England to France: The sea is calm tonight.The tide is full, the moon lies fairUpon the straits; – on the French coast the lightGleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. And as you can hear, the poem has a pretty regular and conventional rhythm, based on iambic metre, ti TUM, with the second syllable taking the stress in every metrical unit. But what's slightly unusual is that the lines have varying lengths. By the time we get to the third line: Upon the straits; – on the French coast the light There are five beats. There's a bit of variation in the middle of the line, but it's very recognisable as classic iambic pentameter, which has a baseline pattern going ti TUM, ti TUM, ti TUM, ti TUM, ti TUM. But before we get to the pentameter, we get two short lines: The sea is calm tonight.Only three beats; andThe tide is full, the moon lies fair – four beats. We also start to notice the rhymes: ‘tonight' and ‘light'. And we have an absolutely delightful enjambment, where a phrase spills over the end of one line into the next one: On the French coast the light,Gleams and is gone. Isn't that just fantastic? The light flashes out like a little surprise at the start of the line, just as it's a little surprise for the speaker looking out to sea. OK, once he's set the scene, he makes an invitation: Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! So if there's a window, he must be in a room. There's somebody in the room with him, and given that it's night it could well be a bedroom. So this person could be a lover. It's quite likely that this poem was written on Arnold's honeymoon, which would obviously fit this scenario. But anyway, he's inviting this person to come to the window and listen. And what does this person hear? Well, helpfully, the speaker tells us: Listen! you hear the grating roarOf pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,At their return, up the high strand,Begin, and cease, and then again begin,With tremulous cadence slow, and bringThe eternal note of sadness in. Isn't that just great? The iambic metre is continuing with some more variations, which we needn't go into. And the rhyme is coming more and more to the fore. Just about every line in this section rhymes with another line, but it doesn't have a regular pattern. Some of the rhymes are close together, some are further apart. There's only one line in this paragraph that doesn't rhyme, and that's ‘Listen! You hear the grating roar'. If this kind of shifting rhyme pattern reminds you of something you've heard before, you may be thinking all the way back to Episode 34 where we looked at Coleridge's use of floating rhymes in his magical poem ‘Kubla Khan'. And it's pretty evident that Arnold is also casting a spell, in this case to mimic the rhythm of the waves coming in and going out, as they ‘Begin, and cease, and then again begin,'. And then the wonderful last line of the paragraph, as the waves ‘bring / The eternal note of sadness in'. You know, in the heart of the Victorian Age, when the Romantics were still within living memory, poets were still allowed to do that kind of thing. Try it nowadays of course, and the Poetry Police will be round to kick your front door in at 5am and arrest you. Anyway. The next paragraph is a bit of a jump cut: Sophocles long agoHeard it on the Aegean, and it broughtInto his mind the turbid ebb and flowOf human misery; So Arnold, a classical scholar, is letting us know he knows who Sophocles, the ancient Greek playwright was. And he's establishing a continuity across time of people looking out at the sea and thinking these deep thoughts. At this point, Arnold explicitly links the sea and the thinking:                                     weFind also in the sound a thought,Hearing it by this distant northern sea. And the thought that we hear when we listen to the waves is what Arnold announces in the next verse paragraph, and he announces it with capital letters: The Sea of FaithWas once, too, at the full, and round earth's shoreLay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. And for a modern reader, I think this is the point of greatest peril for Arnold, where he's most at risk of losing us. We may be okay with ‘the eternal note of sadness', but as soon as he starts giving us the Sea of Faith, we start to brace ourselves. Is this going to turn into a horrible religious allegory, like The Pilgrim's Progress? I mean, it's a short step from the Sea of Faith to the Slough of Despond and the City of Destruction. And it doesn't help that Arnold uses the awkwardly rhyming phrase ‘a bright girdle furled' – that's not going to get past the Poetry Police, is it? But fear not; Arnold doesn't go there. What comes next is, I think, the best bit of the poem. So he says the Sea of Faith ‘was once, too, at the full', and then: But now I only hearIts melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,Retreating, to the breathOf the night-wind, down the vast edges drearAnd naked shingles of the world. Well, if you thought the eternal note of sadness was great, this tops it! It's absolutely fantastic. That line, ‘Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,' where the ‘it' is faith, the Sea of Faith. And the significance of the line is underlined by the fact that the word ‘roar' is a repetition – remember, that one line in the first section that didn't rhyme? Listen! you hear the grating roar See what Arnold did there? He left that sound hovering at the back of the mind, without a rhyme, until it came back in this section, a subtle but unmistakeable link between the ‘grating roar' of the actual sea at Dover Beach, and the ‘withdrawing roar' of the Sea of Faith: Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Isn't that the most Victorian line ever? It encapsulates the despair that accompanied the crisis of faith in 19th century England. This crisis was triggered by the advance of modern science – including the discoveries of fossils, evidence of mass extinction of previous species, and the theory of evolution, with Darwin's Origin of Species published in 1859, in between the writing and publication of ‘Dover Beach'. Richard Holmes, in his wonderful new biography of the young Tennyson, compares this growing awareness of the nature of life on Earth to the modern anxiety over climate change. For the Victorians, he writes, it created a ‘deep and existential terror'. One thing that makes this passage so effective is that Arnold has already cast the spell in the first verse paragraph, hypnotising us with the rhythm and rhyme, and linking it to the movement of the waves. In the second paragraph, he says, ‘we find also in the sound a thought'. And then in the third paragraph, he tells us the thought. And the thought that he attaches to this movement, which we are by now emotionally invested in, is a thought of such horror and profundity – certainly for his Victorian readers – that the retreat of the sea of faith really does feel devastating. It leaves us gazing down at the naked shingles of the world. The speaker is now imaginatively out of the bedroom and down on the beach. This is very relatable; we've all stood on the beach and watched the waves withdrawing beneath our feet and the shingle being left there. It's an incredibly vivid evocation of a pretty abstract concept. Then, in the fourth and final verse paragraph, comes a bit of a surprise: Ah, love, let us be trueTo one another! Well, I for one was not expecting that! From existential despair to an appeal to his beloved. What a delightful, romantic (with a small ‘r') response to the big-picture, existential catastrophe. And for me, it's another little echo of Shakespeare's Sonnet 60, which opens with a poet contemplating the sea and the passing of time and feeling the temptation to despair, yet also ends with an appeal to the consolation of love: And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand,blockquotePraising thy worth, despite his cruel hand. Turning back to Arnold. He says ‘let us be true / To one another'. And then he links their situation to the existential catastrophe, and says this is precisely why they should be true to each other: for the world, which seemsTo lie before us like a land of dreams,So various, so beautiful, so new,Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; It sounds, on the face of it, a pretty unlikely justification for being true to one another in a romantic sense. But actually, this is a very modern stance towards romantic love. It's like the gleam of light that just flashed across the Channel from France – the idea of you and me against an unfeeling world, of love as redemption, or at least consolation, in a meaningless universe. In a world with ‘neither joy, nor love, nor light,' our love becomes all the more poignant and important. Of course, we could easily object that, regardless of religious faith, the world does have joy and love and light. His very declaration of love is evidence of this. But let's face it, we don't always come to poets for logical consistency, do we? And we don't have to agree with Matthew Arnold to find this passage moving; most of us have felt like this at some time when we've looked at the world in what feels like the cold light of reality. He evokes it so vividly and dramatically that I, for one, am quite prepared to go with him on this. Then we get the final three lines of the poem:We are here as on a darkling plainSwept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,Where ignorant armies clash by night. I don't know about you, but I find this a little jarring in the light of what we've just heard. We've had the magnificent description of the sea and its effect on human thought, extending that into the idea of faith receding into illusion, and settling on human love as some kind of consolation for the loss of faith. So why do we need to be transported to a windswept plain where armies are clashing and struggling? It turns out to be another classical reference, to the Greek historian Thucydides' account of the night battle of Epipolae, where the two armies were running around in the dark and some of them ended up fighting their own side in the confusion. I mean, fine, he's a classical scholar. And obviously, it's deeply meaningful to him. But to me, this feels a little bit bolted on. A lot of people love that ending, but to me, it's is not as good as some of the earlier bits, or at least it doesn't quite feel all of a piece with the imagery of the sea. But overall, it is a magnificent poem, and this is a small quibble. Stepping back, I want to have another look at the poem's form, specifically the meter, and even more specifically, the irregularity of the meter, which is quite unusual and actually quite innovative for its time. As I've said, it's in iambic meter, but it's not strictly iambic pentameter. You may recall I did a mini series on the podcast a while ago looking at the evolution of blank verse, unrhymed iambic pentameter, from Christopher Marlowe and Shakespeare's dramatic verse, then Milton's Paradise Lost and finally Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey. ‘Dover Beach' is rhymed, so it's not blank verse, but most of the techniques Arnold uses here are familiar from those other poets, with variations on the basic rhythm, sometimes switching the beats around, and using enjambment and caesura (a break or pause in the middle of the line). But, and – this is quite a big but – not every line has five beats. The lines get longer and shorter in an irregular pattern, apparently according to Arnold's instinct. And this is pretty unusual, certainly for 1851. It's not unique, we could point to bits of Tennyson or Arthur Hugh Clough for metrical experiments in a similar vein, but it's certainly not common practice. And I looked into this, to see what the critics have said about it. And it turns out the scholars are divided. In one camp, the critics say that what Arnold is doing is firmly in the iambic pentameter tradition – it's just one more variation on the pattern. But in the other camp are people who say, ‘No, this is something new; this is freer verse,' and it is anticipating free verse, the non-metrical poetry with no set line lengths that came to be the dominant verse form of the 20th century. Personally, I think you can look back to Wordsworth and see a continuity with his poetic practice. But you could equally look forward, to a link with T. S. Eliot's innovations in ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' and The Waste Land. Eliot is often described as an innovator in free verse, which is true up to a point, but a lot of his writing in that early period isn't strictly free verse; it's a kind of broken up metrical verse, where he often uses an iambic metre with long and short lines, which he varies with great intuitive skill – in a similar manner to Arnold's ‘Dover Beach'. Interestingly, when ‘Dover Beach' was first published, the reviews didn't really talk about the metre, which is ammunition for the people who say, ‘Well, this is just a kind of iambic pentameter'. Personally, I think what we have here is something like the well-known Duck-Rabbit illusion, where you can look at the same drawing and either see a duck or a rabbit, depending how you look at it. So from one angle, ‘Dover Beach' is clearly continuing the iambic pentameter tradition; from another angle, it anticipates the innovations of free verse. We can draw a line from the regular iambic pentameter of Wordsworth (writing at the turn of the 18th and 19th century) to the fractured iambic verse of Eliot at the start of the 20th century. ‘Dover Beach' is pretty well halfway between them, historically and poetically. And I don't think this is just a dry technical development. There is something going on here in terms of the poet's sense of order and disorder, faith and doubt. Wordsworth, in the regular unfolding of his blank verse, conveys his basic trust in an ordered and meaningful universe. Matthew Arnold is writing very explicitly about the breakup of faith, and we can start to see it in the breakup of the ordered iambic pentameter. By the time we get to the existential despair of Eliot's Waste Land, the meter is really falling apart, like the Waste Land Eliot describes. So overall, I think we can appreciate what a finely balanced poem Arnold has written. It's hard to categorise. You read it the first time and think, ‘Oh, right, another conventional Victorian melancholy lament'. But just when we think he's about to go overboard with the Sea of Faith, he surprises us and with that magnificent central passage. And just as he's about to give in to despair, we get that glimmering spark of love lighting up, and we think, ‘Well, maybe this is a romantic poem after all'. And maybe Arnold might look at me over his spectacles and patiently explain that actually, this is why that final metaphor of the clashing armies is exactly right. Friend and foe are running in first one direction, then another, inadvertently killing the people on the wrong side. So the simile gives us that sense of being caught in the cross-currents of a larger sweep of history. With all of that hovering in our mind, let's go over to the window once more and heed his call to listen to the sound of the Victorian sea at Dover Beach. Dover Beach By Matthew Arnold The sea is calm tonight.The tide is full, the moon lies fairUpon the straits; on the French coast the lightGleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!Only, from the long line of sprayWhere the sea meets the moon-blanched land,Listen! you hear the grating roarOf pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,At their return, up the high strand,Begin, and cease, and then again begin,With tremulous cadence slow, and bringThe eternal note of sadness in. Sophocles long agoHeard it on the Aegean, and it broughtInto his mind the turbid ebb and flowOf human misery; weFind also in the sound a thought,Hearing it by this distant northern sea. The Sea of FaithWas once, too, at the full, and round earth's shoreLay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.But now I only hearIts melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,Retreating, to the breathOf the night-wind, down the vast edges drearAnd naked shingles of the world. Ah, love, let us be trueTo one another! for the world, which seemsTo lie before us like a land of dreams,So various, so beautiful, so new,Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;And we are here as on a darkling plainSwept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,Where ignorant armies clash by night. Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold was a British poet, critic, and public intellectual who was born in 1822 and died in 1888. His father was Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School. Arnold studied Classics at Oxford and first became known for lyrical, melancholic poems such as ‘Dover Beach', ‘The Scholar-Gipsy', and ‘Thyrsis', that explore the loss of faith in the modern world. Appointed an inspector of schools, he travelled widely and developed strong views on culture, education, and society. His critical essays, especially Culture and Anarchy, shaped debates about the role of culture in public life. Arnold remains a central figure bridging Romanticism and early modern thought. A Mouthful of Air – the podcast This is a transcript of an episode of A Mouthful of Air – a poetry podcast hosted by Mark McGuinness. New episodes are released every other Tuesday. You can hear every episode of the podcast via Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts or your favourite app. You can have a full transcript of every new episode sent to you via email. The music and soundscapes for the show are created by Javier Weyler. Sound production is by Breaking Waves and visual identity by Irene Hoffman. A Mouthful of Air is produced by The 21st Century Creative, with support from Arts Council England via a National Lottery Project Grant. Listen to the show You can listen and subscribe to A Mouthful of Air on all the main podcast platforms Related Episodes Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold Episode 87 Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold Mark McGuinness reads and discusses ‘Dover Beach' by Matthew Arnold.Poet Matthew ArnoldReading and commentary by Mark McGuinnessDover Beach By Matthew Arnold The sea is calm tonight.The tide is full, the moon lies... Recalling Brigid by Orna Ross Orna Ross reads and discusses ‘Recalling Brigid’ from Poet Town. 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In celebration of the year ending, we are reviewing our top five most listened podcast episodes of 2025. And our second most popular episode of the year was How to Create a Win Win Professionally and Personally with Rebecca Sposita. What does it really take to succeed in a high-stakes, male-dominated field? Today's guest, Rebecca Sposita, President of Sam Bernstein Law and author of Win Win, knows firsthand. Rebecca's journey from litigator to law firm leader is nothing short of inspiring—balancing career, family, and even writing a book to help institutions better support survivors of trauma. In this episode, Rebecca shares the importance of self-trust, the reality of imposter syndrome (even at the highest levels), and why bold, fearless decision-making is key to success. From juggling law school with a newborn to navigating leadership with confidence, she reveals the lessons she's learned along the way. This episode is a must-listen for anyone striving for confidence in leadership, career growth, and making an impact while staying true to yourself. Today we cover:Rebecca's journey to becoming a law firm president and what it took to get thereThe power of trusting yourself, even when others doubt youHow institutions can better support survivors of traumaWriting Win Win and the mission behind itFinding balance between ambition, leadership, and personal well-being Connect with Rebecca:Website: https://rebeccasposita.com/ Instagram: @rebeccasposita Connect with Whitney & Stephanie: captureyourconfidencepodcast@gmail.comStephanie IG: @_stephanie_hanna_The Other 85: https://theother85.net/ Whitney IG: @whitneyabraham

This week's course of study is Christmas. Please enjoy the Christmas holiday and remember to make the Savior a focus of your worship and celebration. This episode is also the final episode in the Come, Follow Me—Mental Health Insights series. Thank you for listening. Personally, it's been a treat for me to share my insights and to hopefully help some of you gain greater insight and motivation to improve your mental health. God bless you in your journey; keep moving forward. There are free worksheets available for the invitations made in the weekly podcasts. To get these worksheets, please sign up for my email newsletter. Not only will you get access to the free worksheets, but access to many more free strategies to help manage your mental health. Please sign up at the following link: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠NEWSLETTER⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠For more information regarding Dr. Morgan, please visit his website here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠WEBSITE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download copy of episode transcript: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TRANSCRIPT

The holidays can be magical: full of twinkly lights, sweet treats, and time with people we love. But they can also shine a spotlight on grief, change, loneliness, and the complicated emotions so many of us quietly carry this time of year. In this episode, Morgan shares vulnerable listener voice notes about the real struggles happening behind the highlight reels. From divorce, illness, mental health battles, and career changes to navigating grief after losing parents, partners, or friends, these stories remind us we’re never as alone as we think. Morgan opens up about her own mixed year and responds to each message with empathy and honesty, creating space for anyone who’s simply doing their best to make it through the season. If this time of year feels heavy, messy, bittersweet, or complicated… this episode is for you.

Work with Carly Ann HEREFollow Carly Ann on Instagram HEREThis meditation is a gentle shield for moments that feel overwhelming.Whether you're navigating difficult conversations, challenging people, intense relationships, or emotionally charged situations, this practice helps you stay grounded without taking everything personally.It's designed to support you in remaining true to yourself, less reactive, and less triggered—so you can move through life with more ease, clarity, and self-protection. By strengthening your inner boundaries, you're more likely to cope calmly and respond from a place of balance rather than stress.You can listen to this meditation before entering a challenging situation, or take a short break during the day whenever you need to reset and reconnect with yourself.Brethren, Arise by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Source: http://chriszabriskie.com/darkglow/Artist: http://chriszabriskie.com/

In this episode of Personally Speaking, Monsignor Jim Lisante replays an interview he conducted with the great film director Frank Capra. Using the transcript from that interview from many years ago, actor Bob Kaliban plays the role of the Academy Award winning director, Mr. Capra, a practicing Catholic, as he speaks about his lifelong journey of faith.Support the show

Thing Discussed: Women's hoops talk: This is the best team in Michigan history. They're tiny up front but they've got a lot of length on the perimeter and are generating a ton of steals. Hung with the best UConn team in a minute for 3 quarters. Reading the DeBoer comments: When someone's at a terminal job he gets to hog both lanes. Our read on it is DeBoer is making the comments you make if you're going to consider Michigan AFTER the Playoff. Timeline is our enemy: if Bama beats Oklahoma Michigan will probably move on to Dillingham and Dillingham will say yes. Dillingham: Meteoric riser, great motivator, Bryce seems to like, Sam thinks his offense is explosive. Concerns are young guys have yet to make their big mistakes. A little weird, but so was Harbaugh. Very ASU with a very Arizona staff. Brohm: Seems like a solid coach, won wherever he's gone but hasn't had that 11-win season; think people are wary that his DC is Ron English (probably can't come here after the EMU stuff) and Vince Marrow, who's said some things about Michigan. Brian: So did Jim Harbaugh. Seth: But Harbaugh was right. Brian: Marrow said Harbaugh was going to the NFL, so he was right too. Think concerns are overblown. Craig makes the case for Scot Loeffler: Michigan guy from Ohio who'd leave the Eagles in a second. Adam Stenavich: Isn't the playcaller, has never been a HC or a college coordinator. Eli Drinkwitz: Not a fan. Schedule winner (they only play 8 games in the SEC and he got an easy one). Personally find him off-putting, not a cultural fit. Gone out of his way to make uneducated comments about Michigan's 2023 season: hard pass. Clark Lea: Intriguing. Offense is 100% Pavia, worried about building an OL, but Seth finds his defense fascinating, seems to be good at putting together a roster. Don't know his buyout because you can't FOIA a private school. Seth: Roster construction is going to be critical in this age. Can you recruit your needs in the portal, build an OL at home, and keep your team together? Whoever they hire the GM is going to be the next most important position. Find the best.

Persuade and Influence for More Effective Selling Have you ever presented a perfectly logical argument, only to have it completely ignored? Most of us believe that if we just explain the facts clearly enough, people will change their minds. But the reality is that decision-making is rarely purely rational; it is deeply rooted in psychology, emotion, and trust. This week on A New Direction with Coach Jay, we are shattering the myth that persuasion is just about having the “gift of gab” and revealing the actual science behind why people say “yes.” I am thrilled to be joined live by negotiation expert Andres Lares, author of The 4-Step Process to Influence People and Decisions. As the Managing Partner at the Shapiro Negotiations Institute, Andres has spent his career dissecting the mechanics of influence. He doesn’t just share theories; he provides a practical, tactical blueprint that you can use immediately. Whether you are leading a team, closing a sale, or simply trying to navigate family dynamics, Andres is going to walk us through how to move from being ignored to being indispensable. In this episode, we are diving deep into the “Persuasion Cycle.” We will explore why credibility is the currency of influence, how to ethically leverage emotion, and why logic only works after you've established a connection. Andres will break down his proven 4-step framework, teaching you how to prepare for high-stakes conversations and how to structure your communication so that your ideas aren’t just heard—they are accepted and acted upon. This is about ethical influence that builds long-term relationships, not manipulation. Don't leave your success up to chance—join us! If you want to stop guessing and start influencing, you cannot afford to miss this conversation.  Let's take A New Direction together! Andres Lares book, “Persuade: The 4-Step Process to Influence People and Decisions” is an outstanding read for anyone in sales or negotiations.  This book is backed by their own research, as well as research of others.  It is timeless and practical. Is it a sales tool kit? Yes!  And so much more! In Persuade, Andres and his colleagues from their research outline the 4 Step process to increasing your sales, closing, and influencing others.  This book is not just about business, it applies to everyone who is ever been in negotiations…that may even include your children, spouse, or significant other. The 4 Step Process builds on each in the form of a pyramid.  So, the base level is “Build Credibility”.  Wait!  Before you assume credibility there is more to it than what you may be thinking.  If you said the word, “trust” as part of that equation you would be correct.  But Andres Lares et al. break it down on how to develop trust.  And it’s not just with words; it is also non-verbal as well. The next stage that comes next is “Engage Emotion”. Fact is, we don’t make our decisions with logic.  That has been demonstrated time and time again.  If you want to really get to the meat of getting people to make a decision you need to understand their emotions, but you also need to understand yours as well.  This is where Persuade really differentiates itself from other “sales how to” books.  The research is quite robust. The third level is demonstrating logic, and the top level is “Facilitate Action” or the close.  I believe this to be one of the best books I have read.  Personally, I have used this on my sales teams and found it to be so beneficial to build confidence and increase their ability to close more. Get Your Copy of Persuade by Clicking Here Please thank the sponsors of A New Direction Linda Craft Team, Realtors   Linda built her business in 1985 one relationship at a time, and her team and her continue to do the same things she did 40 years later. They have provided thousands of people the ability to help people sell or buy their next home with personalized legendary customer service. They have the experience, knowledge, and understanding of the home industry.  They also understand you and what you want and need from your next home purchase or sale. What is more they can help you regardless of where you live.  Ready to buy or sell your next home or your first…click on over to to www.LindaCraft.com Enhance Your Audiobook Experience with Zoundy! If you're an author or narrator looking to produce high-quality audiobooks with ease, Zoundy is the ultimate tool you need. Designed specifically for audiobook creation, Zoundy delivers crystal-clear sound, seamless editing capabilities, and professional-grade production tools—all in one intuitive platform. Whether you're recording your own book or refining your narration, Zoundy ensures every word is heard with perfection. And here's the best part: As a listener of A New Direction, you get an exclusive deal! Head over to zoundy.com/jay and use the code JAY25 at checkout to unlock special savings on your audiobook production. Don't settle for anything less than studio-quality sound—power up your audiobook journey today with Zoundy! Here is the truth: You tune into A New Direction because you want to grow. But consuming content and executing strategy are two different things. If you are leading a company between $5M and $50M and you feel like you are hitting a ceiling, the problem isn’t a lack of information. It's likely a “human” bottleneck. I am Coach Jay, a Behavioral Strategist who specializes in fixing the friction that kills profit. I don't just look at your P&L; I look at the psychology of the people driving it. I recently helped a stalled mid-market firm save $3 Million and secure new capital—not by firing people, but by realigning their behavior. Stop guessing. Let's find the millions trapped in your org chart. Reach out for a discreet conversation: 919-369-2121 or visit TheCoachJay.com.

Aubrey Masango speaks to Linda Gcwabe, Financial education expert, at Nedbank to discuss how you can set goals that actually stick financially, professionally, and personally and how you can move into the new year with intention. Tags: 702, Aubrey Masango show, Aubrey Masango, Bra Aubrey, Linda Gcwabe, Personal finance, Budget, Savings, Investments The Aubrey Masango Show is presented by late night radio broadcaster Aubrey Masango. Aubrey hosts in-depth interviews on controversial political issues and chats to experts offering life advice and guidance in areas of psychology, personal finance and more. All Aubrey’s interviews are podcasted for you to catch-up and listen. Thank you for listening to this podcast from The Aubrey Masango Show. Listen live on weekdays between 20:00 and 24:00 (SA Time) to The Aubrey Masango Show broadcast on 702 https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj and on CapeTalk between 20:00 and 21:00 (SA Time) https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk Find out more about the show here https://buff.ly/lzyKCv0 and get all the catch-up podcasts https://buff.ly/rT6znsn Subscribe to the 702 and CapeTalk Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/v5mfet Follow us on social media: 702 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/Radio702 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702 CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalk567See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Personally, I tend to be an information junkie. If I'm in my car, I typically listen to some form of talk radio. The downside of this approach, however, is the lack of enough quiet time for reflection. Although I have a lot of morning prayer and Bible study, it doesn't always feel like enough. Recently, ... The post Be Still appeared first on Unconventional Business Network.

Welcome back to Raising Confident Girls. In this episode, Melissa Jones dives into the tender and often confusing experience of friendship closeness and distance—especially during emotionally charged seasons like the holidays. She helps parents understand why these shifts feel so personal for girls and how to support them without amplifying the hurt.In this episode, we discuss:Why friendship dynamics often shift during busy or emotional seasons. How to help girls avoid taking friendship distance personally. The importance of separating moments from identity. How identifying the true source of emotional pain brings clarity and calm. Ways to model and encourage healthy, confident communication. Why steady, consistent friendships matter for girls' emotional well-being. How the Girls Positivity Club scholarship is helping more girls build confidence and belonging.Join Melissa for this thoughtful and encouraging conversation about guiding your daughter through friendship changes with empathy, perspective, and confidence.Download the Quick Tips PDF of today's episode for future reference.If you know a parent who could benefit from this conversation, share this episode with them! Let's work together to raise the next generation of confident girls.Melissa's Links:• Website • Instagram • Facebook• TikTok• LinkedIn

Chris Hermansen: Don't be Afraid to Create Summary Jim Grisanzio from Java Developer Relations talks with Chris Hermansen, a Java developer, consultant, and data analyst from Canada. Chris discovered Java in the 1990s and was drawn to its free accessibility and object-oriented design. He particularly appreciated Java's straightforward single inheritance model over C++'s complexity. But Chris's path to technology came through mathematics rather than computer science. He identifies streams as Java's most transformative feature for data analysis work and praises how it improved code readability and maintainability. On consulting, Chris cautions against Silicon Valley mantras like "fail often" when applied outside prototyping contexts, and he observes cultural differences in how engineers approach problem-solving with some preferring abstract discussion while others focusing on concrete data. Chris emphasizes that technology work remains fundamentally human and stresses the importance of listening, maintaining humanity in professional life, and avoiding corporate stereotypes. For students, he notes the differences between learning with modern IDEs versus the command line tools of his era when he learned to code, so he advises that new learners to try multiple approaches to deepen their understanding. His core message, which became the episode's title, is simple: "Don't be afraid to create." Discovering Java in the 1990s Chris discovered Java in the mid-1990 when Java was announced while working as a data analyst. "Java came along and it was free to use. It wasn't open source at that point, but it was free to use," he says. "And it really intrigued me because of its object-oriented approach to things, which was something that didn't come with the platform we were working on." Unlike the purchased software products he was using at the time, Java offered a free and accessible alternative that promised serious long-term value. He also appreciated how Java's design avoided the complexities of C++, especially the problems with multiple inheritance. He and a colleague had been discussing moving from Pascal to either C or C++, but his colleague had concerns about C++'s complexity, particularly around multiple inheritance. "The first thing that really jumped out to me was the straightforward single inheritance pathway and the use of interfaces to define contractual relations between code," Chris says. Java's approach to inheritance immediately stood out as cleaner and more maintainable. Features like array bounds checking and interfaces for defining contractual relationships between code further convinced him he was learning something that would age well. "I felt that I was learning something that would wear well over time. I wouldn't turn around and look at what I'd done 10 or 15 or 20 years later and say, yuck, what was I thinking?" After committing to Java and sticking with it through the learning process, he found it repaid his effort many times over. "I liked it and I stuck with it, and I found it paid me back enormously for my investment in learning." Career Path Through Mathematics Chris's path to technology came through math rather than traditional computer science. He actually stumbled into science during the registration process at school in the 1970s and eventually pursued math after deciding against engineering. His career took him through various mathematical applications, including consulting and data analysis positions in forestry. Java's Evolution: Streams and Beyond Regarding Java's evolution, Chris identified streams as the biggest feature improvement for his work. When asked about new features that have been useful in his applications, he immediately identifies streams as transformative. "I mean, streams was the big one. Streams just made a whole difference to the way you would handle data," he says. He contrasts the old approach of writing hundreds of lines of nested for loops with the more elegant stream-based approach: "And so streams has just made that a whole lot easier. And the code is so much more readable and maintainable than the old 500 line do loops that we used to have in Fortran that turned into the 375 line for loops in Java. Anyway, so streams is a big one, a really big one for me. The biggest, I would say." He also valued the introduction of templates (generics) in Java 5 or 6, which represented a significant evolution in the language and allowed applying libraries to custom classes. He praised the Java community for keeping the platform and ecosystem viable, noting that the combination of an active developer community and a satisfied user base creates a virtuous cycle that keeps the platform evolving and improving: "There's enough Java programmers out there, enough people interested in the continuing viability of Java that they keep it going, that they modernize it, that they solve new problems with it, that they make it perform better than it ever has before." He added a "big shout out to the garbage collection people that do that amazing stuff," acknowledging the often-invisible work that performance engineers at Oracle do to make Java faster and more efficient for developers. Throughout the discussion, Chris talked at length about developers, the user community, and the technology. He has a nice habit of mixing the issues seamlessly. Check out this gem below where he beautifully concluded that Java is far more than a language because it's really a movement. "The user community is, generally speaking, pretty satisfied with it. And it's a broad enough user community. It's got people like me. It's got people still doing desktop Java. It's got people using it on servers. And there's a whole tool ecosystem out there. Personally, I prefer working right at the command line. I always have. But the application that I mentioned we built using NetBeans, which came out of Sun originally. And it's quite a nice IDE. I don't think it's the most popular one. It doesn't really matter. It's still a very nice one. And it gave us a big part of that long-term support. And lately, I find myself using other JVM languages. So it's not just Java. It's the JVM that underpins it, that has permitted a flowering of alternative approaches to things that, generally speaking, work very well together with Java. So, it's a pretty cool thing. It's a movement. It's not just a programming language." Consulting, Professionalism, and Cultural Differences On consulting and professionalism, Chris stresses the importance of contributing to the team to best serve customers. He cautions against embracing some Silicon Valley software mantras — such as "fail early, fail often" — when applied outside their intended prototyping context. "And I know failure is a thing that people talk about in software development. Fail early, fail often. But you don't hear consultants saying fail often. It's not a good look for a consulting company," he says. Instead, Chris focuses on engineering being technically excellent and using open communications to help ensure the team's success. "In a consulting organization, you really have to be a team player," he says. He clarifies that getting prototypes out for feedback certainly has merit: "Get something out there and [letting] people throw rocks at it and [recording] what they say [that's] false and recognize that, okay, you failed, but at least you moved the ball down the field. I'm a huge fan of prototyping." Throughout the years in his career Chris also observed cultural differences in problem-solving approaches around the world. He says that some cultures prefer abstract discussion while others focus on concrete data. "Never mind all these grand theories. Let's actually look what we have. And really, you know, like don't go down that rabbit hole either. Look at what you have and base things on the reality that you know about," he advises. He warns against getting lost in theoretical discussions: "Resist the old, you know, the medieval concept of how many angels on the head of a pin kind of thing. Just don't go there." The Human Side of Technology Work Chris emphasizes that technology work remains fundamentally human. Near the end of the conversation, Chris focuses what he sees as most important: "I would just emphasize maybe that we're human beings here and we're driven by our human desires and wills. And as you rightly pointed out, cultural things roll into that," he says. Despite all the technical discussion about tools, languages, methods, and preferences, the work is ultimately done by human beings with human needs and motivations. Cultural factors, listening skills, and collaborative team approaches matter as much as technical competence. "Remember, you spend a long time of your life at your job. And so, it's important that that contributes to your humanity and that your humanity contributes back." He encourages developers to remember their humanity throughout their careers, to contribute meaningfully to their teams and communities, and to avoid becoming caricatures of the latest corporate culture. "It's really important to remember that you're part of a group of human beings here. You don't want to be a Dilbert comic," he says, using the comic strip as a reference point for the dehumanized corporate worker trapped in absurd bureaucracy. On the importance of listening, Chris shares wisdom from a sign he saw years ago: "If God had intended man to speak more than he listened, he would have given him two mouths and one ear. Listen more, say less." When discussing custom solutions versus off-the-shelf tools, and after discussing how being familiar with algorithms allows you to blend approaches for better solutions, Chris delivers what became the title of the episode: "Basically, you know, if there's not something off the shelf that —  Don't be afraid to create!" This is a message that Chris encourages all developers to embrace because they have such advanced skills right at their fingertips. Advice for Students: Learning Then and Now That creation framework extends to Chris's advice to students learning software development. Students today face different challenges than he did decades ago. Chris compared his learning experience years ago with his daughter's more recent computer science education. Modern students learn differently through sophisticated IDEs that suggest improvements and refactor code automatically, while Chris and his colleagues back in the day learned using only a command line, a text editor, and a compiler. "The difference is really striking between the two because the only tool we had was the command line, the text editor, and the compiler," he says. Modern IDEs provide capabilities like automatic refactoring and code suggestions that fundamentally change what students focus on during their education. He notes that learning with modern tools creates almost a different world than learning in his era: "And so it was really almost learning a different discipline for her than it was for me." He advises students to try multiple approaches to problem-solving and to explore all their options to apply their technical skills in many diverse fields. "And I think if there's a lesson to be taken from that, sometimes it might be fun once you've learned how to do something in the IDEs to try and do it the old way and see what it's like just creating from nothing, you know, and starting out that way. And vice versa, guys like me that always insist on using VI at the command line, we should learn an IDE. It's time." Finally, Chris reflects on the value of learning multiple approaches to solving problems. This goes beyond just technical skills to understanding the problem itself more deeply: "I think learning several different ways to solve a problem ultimately teaches you more about the problem. And learning more about the problem, I think, teaches you a bit about yourself and how you go about solving things and your value to your organization." During the entire conversation on technology, Chris consistently wove in the human element. We are people, after all. We're just using digital tools to create.  Duke's Corner Java Podcast  https://dukescorner.libsyn.com/site   Jim Grisanzio, Host, Duke's Corner  https://x.com/jimgris | https://grisanzio.com/duke/  

"Too Much Money Chasing Too Few Good Businesses" - Candid Insights from M&A Veteran Chad Morissette   This episode dives deep into what actually drives a successful business sale - from the emotional readiness of the founder, to internal due diligence, to navigating PE firms and family offices.   Key Highlights   Chad's journey from tech entrepreneur to M&A specialist The difference between Main Street vs lower middle-market businesses Why personal readiness is more important than business readiness The 2-year preparation window that can make or break a deal Why most owners underestimate due diligence by a mile The value of net proceeds analysis - and why it prevents last-minute deal panic The types of companies buyers are fighting over Why too many businesses are owner-dependent and therefore discounted The emotional roller-coaster of selling - and how to psychologically prepare You'll walk away with a clear understanding of: ✔ How to make your business more attractive to buyers ✔ What PE firms actually look for ✔ Why having your team, not just your finances, ready matters ✔ What it really feels like to sell a company - as a human being, not just a founder Fun Frank Advice from Chad   "It's an emotional roller coaster. It is full of surprises. Just keep your eye on the prize. Focus on the payday."  

#WDRadio WEEK OF DEC 14, 2025 | From an ancient Greek cave where Hercules supposedly descended into the underworld, to a 13th-century castle built to seal a bottomless pit full of demons, these locations around the world are believed by many to be actual gateways to Hell.HOUR ONE: 

Of course a lot of people likely don't believe in heaven or hell and many will dismiss such things as mythical tales or folklore. However there are places on Earth that could be considered hell – no not Detroit or Wichita. We're talking about actual places that look like the entrances to purgatory. And perhaps they really are. (Secret Doors to the Underworld) *** A king, a gossoon and a bear walked into a bar. No, this is not the first line of a joke, but a common occurrence in Potrero Hill in San Francisco, California, during the 1880s. The king was Frank McManus, the gossoon was Frank's baseball-playing brother, Cornelius, and the bear was a large inebriated ursine. (King of the Irish Hill) *** Why are some people suddenly vigorous, alert, and feeling much better shortly before they pass away? It is something that has happened since time began, but medical experts are still baffled by it. (Terminal Lucidity Phenomenon) *** While many say the most haunted hotel is the one in Colorado that was used in the film “The Shining” - there is evidence that one in Eureka Springs, Arkansas deals with even more paranormal activity. (The Crescent Hotel)==========HOUR TWO: Many tales describe encounters with the devil himself. Yet not all are the same. Sometimes Satan approaches his prey… other times, the lost soul goes seeking Lucifer to make a deal. Either way, the results are never favorable. (Diabolical Dealings With The Devil) *** It wasn't until recently that I'd even heard of the cryptid, Ahool. In case it's new to you as well, it's a winged cryptid that some portray as a giant bat, others claim it's a flying primate. Personally, I think it looks like a werewolf with bat wings. Whatever it is, we'll learn a bit more about the Ahool. (The Cry Of The Ahool)==========SUDDEN DEATH OVERTIME: Two men were found dead in the bushes, beheaded… and emasculated. But that was just the beginning of the Mad Butcher's killing spree. (The Cleveland Torso Murders) *** Seeing reptiles in Oklahoma isn't all that uncommon – even dinosaur fossils are found in the state. But there have also been reports of something much stranger – a snake/human hybrid creature more terrifying than it sounds. (Oklahoma Snake Man)==========SOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM TONIGHT'S SHOW:“Baba Vanga” from Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.com/magazine“Diabolical Dealings With The Devil” by Laura for Paranormal Scholar: https://tinyurl.com/y94czoxt,https://tinyurl.com/yc5uy7mj“The Cry of the Ahool” by Gary Brandt from Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.com/magazine“Secret Doors To The Underworld”, by Facts Verse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU6-lfWk3Zo“King of the Irish Hill” by Paul Drexler for Crime Traveller: https://tinyurl.com/y7tmp6lz“Terminal Lucidity Phenomenon” by Cynthia McKanzie for Message to Eagle: http://ow.ly/5G8W30ocL0Q“The Cleveland Torso Murders” by Doug MacGowan for Historic Mysteries: https://tinyurl.com/ycwha94c“The Crescent Hotel” by Amanda Penn for Vocal Media Horror: https://tinyurl.com/ycvral8j“Oklahoma Snake Man” by Bab Salam (link to story no longer exists)==========(Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for material I use whenever possible. If I have overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it immediately. Some links may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)=========="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46==========WeirdDarkness®, WeirdDarkness© 2025==========To become a Weird Darkness Radio Show affiliate, contact Radio America at affiliates@radioamerica.com, or call 800-807-4703 (press 2 or dial ext 250).==========

https://youtu.be/5rB45BEXQLU Edward Francis, executive coach, IBM alumnus, and doctorate holder in Management Consulting, is driven by four lifelong commitments—family, faith, the city of Atlanta, and experiential learning. That fourth commitment fuels his mission: helping leaders bridge the gap between theoretical competency and real-world performance through outcome-based, measurable coaching. We explore Edward's distinctive EMF Coaching Framework, which integrates authenticity, mindfulness, equanimity, and neuroplasticity to help leaders develop soft skills for next-level leadership. Edward explains why authenticity protects your future self, how mindfulness deepens connection and listening, why fulfillment (equanimity) must replace “I don't know,” and how managing the brain—rather than letting it run the show—creates space for vision and innovation. Edward also shares how he teaches passion for the future, why it can be acquired through practice, and how he measures intangible soft-skill growth with precision. For leaders seeking transformation, Edward describes what “serious coaching for serious clients” truly looks like. — 4 Ways to Expand Your Vision with Edward Francis Good day, dear listeners. Steve Preda here, the Founder of the Summit OS Group, and the host of this podcast. And my guest today is Edward Francis, a seasoned coach who provides soft skills for next-level leading with an outcome-based and measured approach. He’s an IBM alumni and holds a doctorate in Management Consulting, so he knows a lot. Edward, welcome to the show.  Thank you, Steve. Glad I could be here.  Yeah. Great to have you. I always ask our guests because I think it’s very important that we have a mission, a purpose in life. Because if we lean into it, then we are going to get a lot better results. So what is your personal ‘Why’, and what are you doing to manifest it? Good question, Steve. I like that. Well, my personal ‘Why’ are my commitments, and I have four of them. Oh. And those commitments are me, they make me who I am. The fourth commitment is why we are here today talking, but I’ll take a minute and touch on the first three because I think they’re worth touching on briefly. The first commitment, and not necessarily in order, is family. I’m a father, uncle, godfather, caretaker for a dog and cat — family. My second commitment of the four is faith. And obviously, I could talk a lot about that, but I won’t. But that is a big commitment that makes me who I am. The third commitment is actually to the city of Atlanta, because that’s where I am and where I have served throughout the years several boards of directors — the large ones that we all know about, some for profit, some not for profit, and some of the smaller ones that we haven’t heard about. I'm at that stage now where I end up doing on boards and doing things that nobody else wants to do, but I think it's very important.Share on X And so typically I’m raising money for this or helping to promote that, or the kinds of things that are very important. But they’re not the big boards, but I’ve served on all of them throughout the years. Done a lot with the arts community, the leadership community, the city government, some politics, but primarily community activism. But the fourth commitment, which makes me who I am and why I’m here, is to experiential learning. And that is that gap between competency and how it plays out in the real world—the bridge. Not just understanding the competency of business or the competency of consulting, but how does it really play out in the real world? I have a passion for that. And that bridge can be coaching, leadership development, mentoring, and so it is experiential learning.Share on X When I was with IBM, people would inherently come to me, especially young people. I think it’s this white hair, Steve, I don’t know. They’d come to me and we’d be talking about this and that. And I began to enjoy those sessions, but found that they really were important for the person coming as well as me, because I learned a lot as well. And then when I went on to study my doctorate and my MBA, I studied experiential learning, where I began to do research on soft skills. So what are soft skills? Earning trust. Can you teach someone how to earn trust? I prove that you can. Passion for the future. Can you teach passion for the future? Can that learn? Is that an acquired skill? Is that an acquired competency? Yes, it is. So experiential learning, I have a passion that comes into my coaching, which is why I coach at a business school, at a major university. And I have clients, private clients as well. Those are my ‘Whys’. And because that’s who I am. I am those commitments.  Yeah, that’s fascinating. So let’s talk about some of the things that you do, because I find it very interesting. But I’d like to start with the framework that you developed, which is a unique coaching framework. I’ve not seen anything like that before, and I think you call it the EMF coaching framework after your name. And it involves authenticity, mindfulness, equanimity, and neuroplasticity. Can you explain what this is, how you discovered it, why it’s important, and how do you apply it? Well, my research brought it to the forefront, but my clients have really discovered it for me. When I work with a client, I take them where they are. Typically, it’s someone with a set of outcomes that they’d like to achieve, or outcomes that they want to develop. Sometimes we don’t know outcomes change, and I also have the ability to measure their outcomes, which is fairly unique. I mean, I give them measurements. People say they want measurements, but I can do them and do them well. But the framework is a way of communicating blocks that we build on, and blocks for active listening on my part.  So what is the authenticity? How do you use authenticity in coaching?  To make sure that you are aware of it, to help you measure your authenticity, to make you value your authenticity, to get you to focus on it as an important element of what you want to do and who you are, so that at the end of your career, or when you’re changing careers because you have one behind you, you can look back on it and feel good about it. And you’re not some sad old guy or sad old lady who wishing you had paid attention to your authenticity. Because what happens when you have that sadness, you end up impacting the people that love you the most. Your wife, your children, grandchildren. So you want to protect this period of time by making sure you pay attention to authenticity. And so we spend a good bit of time working on it, identifying, but more than anything else, letting you know how important it is. And of course, authenticity, I mean, we grow, we bend, we assimilate the cultures, but there’s still an authenticity that you want to measure, promote, and understand. I attempt to drive home that meaning, but more than anything else, I listen to what's important to you about authenticity, it's about listening.Share on X I have more questions than I have answers, but I do have some good questions. And where does authenticity fit, and how do you rate your authenticity, and what does authenticity matter to you are important questions.  Okay. So there’s a lot there. We won’t be able to completely unpack authenticity. Maybe that’s what you do with your client so we don’t have to do it on this call. But let’s switch to the next one, which is mindfulness. So is it about meditation? What does it mean?  Well, mindfulness is all over the place, right? We hear it all the time. It’s almost cache. I mean, it’s all over the place. But in coaching and in my building blocks, we want to examine the benefit to you as my client in achieving your outcomes. The benefit of just understanding and listening rather than making an impression.Share on X You want to listen rather than try to impress. Your listening skills, finding out where someone is before you engage with them. The idea of being mindful of the moment of where are they.  So being present with the person?  Not only present, but giving a lead to listening. What does that mean?  It’s hard to hear them if you are talking. And this type of mindfulness, you want to make sure that you are being more listening than you are trying to impress or engage from your perspective. That type of mindfulness in that moment and in each moment. So we spend a good bit of time understanding that level of engagement, and if that engagement is even authentic to you, but the benefits of that. Can you give an example?  Sure. You go to someone and you want them to help you with something, not necessarily small talk, but find out where they are at that moment, where they are mentally, where they are socially, how’s their day? It’s more than small talk before you engage because you’ll find that them even hearing you, if you show that you care about where they are, their level of listening can be increased. So an example is finding out where the person is before you engage with them.  Okay. So let’s switch gears and let’s talk about equanimity, because that’s something I don’t hear people talk about. Mindfulness is a common topic—maybe not your brand of it—but what's equanimity, and how do you use it in coaching? Sure. Equanimity means a lot of things, but when we talk about coaching in the framework, we’re really talking about fulfillment. Equanimity can mean how you handle stress or how you handle disturbances.Share on X But equanimity in coaching can mean fulfillment, your pursuit of a fulfillment what is it that you really, really, really want? And are you clear on distinguishing that from that tools to get there? The classic one is money, Steve. We all know people with lots of money, and there’s a question even in their mind, if they are really fulfilled. So, an equanimity is understanding fulfillment and that pursuit of fulfillment, and it can change.Share on X When you get to our age, “I don't know” is not a good answer. What fulfills you? You say, “I don't know.” I'd say, Steve, you're too old to be saying “I don't know.” You need an answer. You can change it as often as you want, but the problem with “I don't know” is that it breeds “I don't know.” And if you’re saying “I don't know” at age 30, my fear is you'll be saying “I don't know” at age 45. So being able to pick a horse and ride it, have the flexibility to change whenever you want is critical. Plus, just think about it: let's say you want help. I remember plenty of times people would come to me wanting help, and if they had a target, it was much easier for me to help them if they had a target. They say, I want this, it’s going to be available. Then this is the decision-maker. Can you help me with this venture capital team to see if I can get it swayed my way? They got a target. But if you come to me and say, Edward, help me figure out what I want to be when I grow up, that’s a whole other discussion. It’s very difficult to help you. So when you have a target, when you have an answer, other than, I don’t know, we have a direction to move in. So “I don’t know” is not good for most people. Yeah. And you can honestly not know, but you going to pick something. Because when you pick something, even if you’re going the wrong way, you may see what’s the right way. But you never would see that right way if you hadn’t taken that first step, even in the wrong direction. Give the information and then you can iterate from there. Yeah, I agree. And I love it. So let’s go onto neuroplasticity, which was also a very interesting concept that you talked about.  Sure. How do you use neuroplasticity in coaching?  Sure. Well, neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to create additional neurons, but in coaching it's also the suggestion and the consideration that you move outside of your brain — that you don't let your brain run you, you run the brain. That brain will get you in trouble if you are just running around following it. First of all, the brain’s number one job is to protect the body. That’s the number one job for the brain. So therefore, it often has a negative bias. The brain will think that things are worse than they are. That’s part of the way it protects you. You think a lion is going to jump out of the bushes and devour you when it's just a little puppy dog who's coming up to you. So if you keep going, most of the time you’ll see it’s not quite as bad as you thought it was — most of the time. So following the brain, you have to step outside of your brain and manage your brain. The front part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, is in charge of visioning and innovation. But the funny thing about the prefrontal cortex is that it wants to be filled. It doesn’t want empty space. So wherever you are, it’s going to fill itself with something. And you going to say to your brain, no, we are not doing that. I’m not going to let you get filled up. I’m going to keep room so that I can vision. Visioning and innovation takes time and it takes room, and the brain wants to stock in as much as it can to stay filledShare on X but you going to tell that brain, no, I’m going to sit here. I’m going to eat this ice cream and think about it. And so then that leads into what’s really a coaching dynamic is the art of delegation. In order to clear out that prefrontal cortex, you going to use resources, delegation, so that when that brain is filling up, you have a way of, as we used to say at IBM, getting those monkeys off your back. You create some free space. There was a time when professors, way back in the day, had their sabbaticals. Well, that was well-meaning. That was well-meaning — having that time for visioning. Well, as we have blueprints for business, as we have goals, as we look for moving forward, it requires vision, but vision takes time.Share on X It’s just not going to drop in your lap. Your brain won’t let you do it. Now, we both know people who carry the world on their shoulders, and yet they still get a lot of things done. And it can happen, but it’s just not the best way to do it.  Yeah. And maybe they are giving themselves time. They go on a fishing trip, or a golf trip, or travel. And the best ideas come when you’re not in the office, right?  But I’m talking about more granular than that. Not just vacations or climbing a mountain, I’m talking about just sitting still and breathing. I’m talking about family time, a meal, book, listening to some good music, a walk in the woods, things that help your mind empty out those monkeys, so that you can have space to take the time for the visioning and innovation that’s critical for moving forward. A lot of times you get to where you are by keeping that mind full. You’re always having fires to put out, and that’s fine. We’re experts at putting out fires. But at some point, to take that business to that next level — that soft skill for next-level leadership — you're going to have to manage your brain to create space so that you have time for vision and innovation.Share on X  Yeah. I love that. And I often notice that I’m driving my car and I think, okay, I’m going to switch on the audio book or podcast. I say, no, I won’t do that. I just want to sit here and just daydream over the wheel and just let my mind go different places.  And actually I love that time, and I like the long drives, and I don't take in information. And I guess that’s what’s happening. I didn’t call it that, but I am emptying out my brain and giving it space.  Well, you have to manage that brain because it will get you in trouble if you just let it run the show. I mean, really, it’ll take you to some odd places. You have to say to your brain, “No. That's not what we are doing. That's not the plan.”  Okay. That’s awesome. So your coaching framework is authenticity — being aware and living an authentic life so that you can look back on it with satisfaction. Mindfulness — being present, listening, giving space for other people. Equanimity, which is fulfillment and having that feeling of fulfillment, of living with purpose. That's why I ask you about the purpose as well, so I totally relate to this. And neuroplasticity, I love that concept. I think few people talk about it, especially this way. It’s very powerful. So before we wrap up, I like to ask you about what you mentioned at the top of the conversation about teaching people passion for the future, I’m fascinated by this idea. I thought passion was more of an internally developed thing. Maybe there’s also talent for passion. Maybe it’s part of nurture, but how can you actually teach it, I’m very curious about that.  Sure. Passion for the future. That’s when you want to be passionate about capabilities and opportunities for impacting your clients, impacting the world, and you deeply believe in the quality and breadth of personal, exceptional capability. And the key with passion for the future, when you really are doing it well, then you are energizing others about unique opportunities, and you are conveying passion for the future with them. I have an exercise—several exercises—that we go through and talk about.  So, Edward, just a quick question. So does that mean that you are passionate about the potential of your own and the other people around you? So your passion is derived not from what the politics is doing, or geopolitics, and I don’t know, AI, and that stuff, but is it about the humanistic potential that you see is there and can be manifested?  Actually, Steve, it is outcomes-driven. So it is outcomes-driven, but what I see—and when it works well, you see it—it spreads. It's not that you start out saying, I want to have passion for this client, I want to have passion for this business, or passion for this opportunity. But once you grasp it—the wins or the losses, the yeses, the no's, or the maybes—you take them all. And you are still passionate about winning. You create sense of pride, you’re seeking opportunities, you confront behavior that’s contrary to the values and to reputation. So we teach this and it can be fun, but I’ve also seen tears come from it as well. It can be a tearful experience, but it’s part of what we do, and we do it well. And it’s not cookie-cutter. I take my client where they are. So this is not just some rope that I’m going to take you through. We really have to see this as an outcome that's going to benefit you and an outcome that's desired, and an outcome that you're willing to invest in.Share on X Because look, a lot of people make it, and they are not passionate about the future. So it’s a lot of work.  So you can turn a sheep into a wolf?  Yes. If there is a real support in doing it. If there is personal support in doing it, or corporate support in doing it, or if it’s passionate support in doing it, yes, we can do it. There is a price, but it can be done. A personal price. A mental price, yes.  But doesn’t the mentee or the  coachee have to be willing to pay that price, or can they get the passion without paying any price? Personally, the company will pay, but can they do it?  Sure. Well, first of all, the person needs to be coachable. And it needs to be an objective, or it needs to be an outcome that you see now, or an outcome that you developed over your period of time in working with me. So we can start out that way or it can come, but yes, you have to see that it’s worth it because it does take work. But once you get it, I see it spread, and you in fact are passionate about the future, and you weren’t there in the first place. You might’ve been pessimistic, actually.  That is amazing. I mean, if you can do that, then you can really empower other people that maybe would must be able to empower themselves or be empowered by the usual patterns and approaches.  And we measure it. I have a measurement. I can measure your progress or lack thereof. And let’s be clear, every story is not a success story. But I can measure your progress or lack thereof, and we can agree on a matrix and see how you’re tracking towards that matrix for passion for the future.  So how do I measure my passion, or how do you measure my passion?  I’ll get you to give me an analysis, and I have some questions. And I’ll get you to give me an analysis of those questions, and then I’ll ask you those same questions another way. And then we’ll do training, and then we’ll come back to that and then we’ll do an analysis of where you were and where you are now that we are at the next phase. So that’s one way we can do, we can measure it to see your progress or lack of progress. Now, I also have a role play that we can do. So there's several things we can do. There's role play, there's reading, but primarily it's me listening.Share on X It’s active listening on my part. I don’t have the answers, but I have the questions. Well, the questions are more important than the answers. Because a lot of answers can pertain to one question. That is very fascinating. So if people would like to be coached by you — and I saw on your LinkedIn page that you offer serious coaching for serious clients, so it’s not like dabblers please don’t bother applying kind of thing. So what does it look like?  Serious coaching looks like a commitment of time and resources from someone who's coachable. It starts when you contact me to schedule a chemistry session. That’s typically can be as short as 15 minutes, most of them are an hour. So it starts with a chemistry session. Then once we get out of the chemistry session, it starts when you pay me, that’s when it starts.  Okay. So if those listeners that are taking in this episode, they’d like to explore whether they have the right chemistry for you to coach them, or whether they are considered serious enough for coaching, where should they go and how can they find you? There are two places you can find me. Of course, you can find me on LinkedIn: Edward Francis. I think it’s Edward Francis, DBA (Doctor of Business Administration). So Edward Francis. Or you can go to my webpage, www.edwardmackfrancis.com.  Awesome. So if you’re listening to this and you want a serious coach with serious coaching, and specifically want to be a more authentic person can be more present for others and feel more fulfilled, and have a bigger brain capacity through neuroplasticity, leveraging neuroplasticity, or you want to be more passionate about the future, then do reach out to Edward Francis. You will not be disappointed. And if you have a company and you want to grow it, then reach out to me at the Summit OS Group. So, Edward, thank you for coming, and for those of you out there, thank you for listening. And stay tuned because we have exciting entrepreneurs and thought leaders joining every week. Important Links: Edward's LinkedIn Edward's website

Are you ready to embrace your unique strengths as an introverted leader and give yourself permission to shine? In this inspiring episode of The Quiet And Strong Podcast, host David Hall welcomes award-winning entrepreneur, strategist, and TEDx speaker Courtney Daniels for an empowering conversation all about thriving as a confident, creative introvert.Tune in to discover why introverts don't lack confidence—they simply need permission and systems that support their authentic energy. Courtney Daniels shares her journey from behind-the-scenes powerhouse to permission coach, teaching introverts how to build their own paths to success and step up to the mic without compromising who they are. You'll learn practical strategies for organizing your life and work to match your strengths, setting boundaries that nurture your well-being, and embracing multifunctional passions without apology.This episode is perfect for anyone looking to amplify their voice, create systems for success, and honor what truly lights them up—no matter where they fall on the introvert-extrovert spectrum. If you're seeking encouragement, energy-saving strategies, or just a reminder that your quiet power matters, this is the episode to listen to.Give yourself permission to shine—and be strong.Episode Link: QuietandStrong.com/254Courtney Daniel is an award-winning entrepreneur, strategist, and TEDx speaker with over 20 years of experience transforming chaos into clarity for Emmy Award-winning professionals, multi-million dollar founders, and visionary creative teams. Personally recognized for designing a U.S. Postal Service stamp and featured in outlets like Huffington Post and Entrepreneur on Fire, she excels in executive administration, strategic branding, product launches, and seamless operational systems. A proud multipassionate introvert, Courtney leverages deep listening, intentional creation, and authentic connection to help creative leaders step confidently from behind the scenes and lead with vision, integrity, and quiet power.Connect with Courtney: LinkedInSend us a text- - -Contact the Host of the Quiet and Strong Podcast:David Hall Author, Speaker, Educator, Podcaster quietandstrong.comGobio.link/quietandstrongdavid [at] quietandstrong.com NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you. Take the FREE Personality Assessment: Typefinder Personality Assessment Follow David on your favorite social platform:Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Youtube Get David's book:Minding Your Time: Time Management, Productivity, and Success, Especially for Introverts Get Quiet & Strong Merchandise

Rhaina Cohen (author of The Other Significant Others) joins us to reframe how we think about friendship: past, present, and possible futures. Rhaina explains why intense platonic bonds once held public, ritualized importance (think “sworn brotherhoods” and romantic friendships of the 17th–19th centuries), how marriage’s role shifted to demand emotional everything-ness, and why that cultural shift squeezed out space for friendships. What you'll get out of this episode: The friendship that inspired Rhaina's book Historical models of deep same-sex friendship and how they differ from modern assumptions Why modern romantic relationships often eclipse friendship and why that harms us Real-life choices Rhaina and her husband made (communal living, prioritizing friends) and practical tips to preserve friendships How to be a better friend: rituals, calendars, play, and honest conversation Handling jealousy and myths about opposite-sex friendships If you want to build stronger platonic connections, rethink where you live and who you share life with, or simply appreciate how friendship can anchor a life, this episode is for you.

Find Out More About The Books - https://familyhistorystorybooks.com/ What if you could preserve your family history stories in a children's book, accessible to anyone? Personally, I know that preserving our family history has had an impact on our kids. Cwic Media Website: http://www.cwicmedia.com

Some days feel more like “grit your teeth and get through it” than “rejoice and be glad,” yet Psalm 118:24 anchors us in a deeper truth: God handcrafted this day—yes, even the messy, painful, overwhelming ones. When joy feels out of reach, His sovereignty, His goodness, and His nearness remind us that rejoicing isn’t about pretending everything is fine. It’s about trusting the One who made the day and fills it with quiet blessings we often miss when we’re rushing, worrying, or hurting. Highlights Psalm 118:24 calls us to rejoice because God made the day, not because the day itself is easy. Joy can feel elusive in seasons of pain, fear, or exhaustion—but God sees and understands your struggle. God’s sovereignty means nothing in your day is wasted; everything He allows is woven with purpose. Blessings often sit in small, overlooked moments—noticed only when we slow down and stay present with Him. Rejoicing becomes possible when we remember God’s goodness, even when circumstances don’t feel good. Starting the day with truth (“This is the day the Lord has made…”) reorients your heart toward hope. Joy isn’t the absence of hardship; it’s the presence of God in the middle of it. Gift Inspiration: Crosswalk's Holiday Gift Guide Looking for a meaningful way to celebrate the season? Check out our Holiday Gift Guide—from beautifully illustrated Bibles and devotionals to novels, greeting cards, and picture books, there’s something for everyone on your list. Wrap up stories for loved ones, tuck a book into your own nightstand, and join us in celebrating the wonder of giving this Christmas! Full Transcript Below: Enjoying Moments When You Don’t Feel Joyful By Keri Eichberger Bible Reading:This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:24) I have a confession. I was once known to secretly roll my eyes at a Bible verse that you probably know well. But you know what makes this easier to admit? The truth is that likely many of you have struggled with this scripture too. Psalm 118:24 proclaims, This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Well, let’s be honest. There are loads of days we don’t feel a lot like rejoicing. There are many moments we don’t seem to have much to be glad about. Personally, I have been dealing with debilitating pain for the entire past year. I feel insufficient to fight through the next few demanding months. And I have lots of fear concerning another major surgery on the horizon. The bottom line is, I’ve been digging deep to find joy each and every day. Is there something going on around or inside of you that is keeping you from feeling joyful on this day or lately? You may not necessarily be in a season where joy is hard to find. Maybe you are feeling full of reasons to be beaming and brimming with high spirits. But I do believe we all struggle from time to time. I get it. I’m also wrestling right now. And listen, God sees you, and he gets it too. But here’s what I understand about this well-known verse. When the psalmist says, This is the day the Lord has made, it serves as a reminder that God is sovereign over all things. That he made the day. He made it all. I also understand that our sovereign God is good and trustworthy. And because he is the master and creator of the day, and he is good, we know everything he puts in it is part of his good plan. Therefore, we have hope. Therefore, we can smile, and we can be thankful. Therefore, we can be glad and rejoice because whatever is surrounding us today is for good. And that is good. Not only that, we know that God places good all around us, beyond what we can even see or perceive. His good blessings overflow all throughout creation and all throughout our lives. We just need to take notice, because many times we miss it. We need to be still in his presence in the present, because many times we move forward too fast or get wrapped up in our fears of the future. We need to take notice of the good he has done. Notice the small and simple moments right before us. There may be something big and scary hovering above or ahead. But right in front of us, right beside every single one of us, is the good Lord and an abundance of his blessings. Intersecting Faith & Life: Believe it or not, I no longer roll my eyes when I hear or recite this verse. Rather, I now have a habit of waking up each morning, whispering these words to my heart. And even if my waking hours don’t feel so joyful, the reminder that our good God has created the day that greets me gives me hope and a reason to rejoice. I understand that often as the day moves on, it’s difficult to enjoy moments when you aren’t feeling so joyful. But joy is possible at any moment, at this very moment, if you can remind your heart that this is indeed the day the Lord has made. That this is the season the Lord has made. This is the life the Lord has made for me and you. And it is all good. For your good, his good, and his great glory. So we can thank him for his power, we can thank him for his presence, and we can rejoice. We can be glad at this very moment. And we can praise him for this very day. This day that he has wonderfully and perfectly planned and made. If you liked what you read, I think you will love my latest book, Win Over Worry: Conquer What Shakes You and Soar With the One Who Overcomes. You can find it on Amazon or your favorite online retail site. I hope it blesses you! Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

In today's episode, I answer the question: “Should I use Substack for my newsletter or something like Kit (formerly Convertkit)?” I explain that Substack is a good fit for people who primarily want to share their thoughts or report news to an audience, especially writers and journalists. You can set a premium price for subscribers, though Substack takes a percentage of your earnings.SubstackSubstack is a newsletter-first publishing platform built around simple creation and monetization of written content. It lets creators publish posts that go both to an email inbox and a web page, with built-in tools for paid subscriptions and community engagement (comments, chat, Notes).Kit (formerly Converkit)Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is an email-marketing platform designed for creators who want more control over audience relationships, automation, and monetization — not just basic newsletters. It includes advanced segmentation, automation workflows, and tools for selling digital products alongside newsletters.Growing Your ListI talk about the low conversion rate for newsletter signups—typically only 3-5% of your audience might subscribe, and having a strong lead magnet helps increase that number.Personally, I use my newsletter in a hybrid way: I share my thoughts on podcasting, updates on my latest content, things that have caught my eye, and a call to check out the School of Podcasting. However, if your main goal is marketing, Substack isn't the best choice. Tools like Kit, MailerLite, and Beehiv are better for things like automated sequences, lead magnets, and selling advertising.I also discuss how some platforms—like Riverside and Kajabi—offer podcast hosting, but I don't recommend using services that aren't specifically built for podcast hosting. If you're considering a platform, always check if they offer important tools like 301 redirects for your podcast feed.Got More Questions?In summary, if you just want to inform and connect with your audience, Substack is an easy and free option. If you want to do marketing or advanced list-building, platforms like Kit or MailerLite are better suited.If you need help with any of this, don't hesitate to reach out or join the School of Podcasting, where you'll find step-by-step courses, consulting, and a supportive community.This content may contain affiliate links, meaning I earn a small commission if you purchase through these links at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products or services I trust and believe will provide value to you. Thank you for your support!This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy

To mark two years of The Brilliant Body Podcast, we've gathered a tapestry of answers to one of Ali's favourite closing questions:“How do you define embodiment?”You'll hear a whole range of voices and perspectives, all illuminating this same question in their own way.If a particular moment lands for you, you can dive deeper by listening to the full conversation it came from - you'll find all of those episodes listed just below.If this compilation has been meaningful to you, we'd be really grateful if you'd rate and review the podcast wherever you listen. It's a simple way to help more people find these conversations and join in exploring what it means to live as a brilliant body.***CLICK HERE TO BROWSE OUR FREE EVENTS***GUESTS' FULL-LENGTH EPISODES (in order of excerpt):The Receiving and Giving Body with Dr Betty Martin, Creator of The Wheel of ConsentThe Systemic Body: Navigating Relational Dynamics and Systemic Consciousness with Jane Peterson, PhDThe Released Body with Siv Jøssang Shields: Proust, Bees and Neurogenic TremoringThe Incarcerated Body: Cultural & Institutional Imprisonment with Dr. Kate BalestrieriThe Touched Body with Deane JuhanThe Disarmed Body: Sexual De-Armoring with Sexological Bodyworker, Rahi ChunThe Artificial Body? with TANJA DIAMOND: Love, Pleasure and AI – PART ONEThe Brilliance of Animal Bodies with Longevity Zoologist, DR. ZOOLITTLE (Penny) - PART ONEThe Emotional Body with Healer, Mona WindEmbodied Intelligence with Philip Shepherd: Wholeness, Sensitivity, and the Pelvic BowlYour Resonant Body with Sarah Peyton: Brain Circuits, Childhood Contracts & Reconceiving AddictionThe Fluid Body: Moving Like Water and the Wisdom of Emilie Conrad w/ Marcella BotteroFelt-Sense Thinking - Infusing Education with Somatic Intelligence: Aitabé FornésCameron West yet to comeWalking Somatic Empathy with Joseph Culp: The Mind-Body Process of Walking-In-Your-ShoesBridging Divides with Rachel Fell: Neurodivergence, Conscious Body Awareness & Inclusive IntelligenceA 'Good Death' with Karen Bellone, Death Doula: Embracing Life & Mortality PART ONEThe Curious Body with Kirstie Simson: Improvisational LivingThe Liberated Body: Reclaiming Erotic Wholeness with Somatic Sex Educator Darshana AvilaThe Moving Body with Jo Cobbett: Including the Body, Personally and CollectivelyErotic Grief & Sexological Body Work with Lorraine Pentello & Ali MezeyThe Body is a Gift with Gil Hedley: A Reverential Journey into the Human BodyThe Aroused Body with UMA FURMAN: Living and Aging PleasurablyTrauma and the Body with Amber Gray: Regulation, Restoration, & The Patience of WhalesTABOO Part Three: Money & The Prosperous Body with Somatic Financial Therapist, BARI TESSLERBeyond Massage with Holden Zalma: Body Brilliance as a Tool to Heal OthersCelebrating the Senses with Rose Mary Riggs: Equine Therapy, Erotic Brilliance and Devotional Self-Pleasure

As we near the end of 2025, how was this year for you?  Personally?  Professionally? What was some of the biggest financial news in 2025? What are you looking forward to in 2026? As the year comes to an end, Shawn & George take a look back, and a small look forward at 2025 and 2026, including topics like: Mortgage / Interest Rates Grocery and Utility costs Government Shut Down Student Loan Adjustments Credit Card Debt Personal Guarantees Housing Market Let us know if you enjoy this episode and, if so, please share it with your friends! Or, you can support the show by visiting our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/crushingDebt   To contact George Curbelo, you can email him at GCFinancialCoach21@gmail.com or follow his Tiktok channel - https://www.tiktok.com/@curbelofinancialcoach   To contact Shawn Yesner, you can email him at Shawn@Yesnerlaw.com or visit www.YesnerLaw.com.  And please consider a donation to Pancreatic Cancer research and education by joining Shawn's team at MY Legacy Striders: http://support.pancan.org/goto/MyLegacy2026 

Social media is everywhere and it’s changing the way we think, feel, and interact. Amanda White, licensed therapist and host of Nuance Needed, returns to unpack the real impact of viral trends, rage bait, and online advice on our mental health. Amanda shares practical strategies for: Recognizing and avoiding misleading or extreme content online. Reclaiming your attention in a world designed to distract you. Practicing psychological flexibility and healthy boundaries in daily life. Taking small, intentional steps toward balance and wellbeing. Whether you scroll daily or just peek at trends, this conversation will make you rethink how you interact with social media and help you take back control of your mind.

In this episode of The Russell Brunson Show, I sit down with my friend Victor Damasio, one of Brazil's top expert entrepreneurs, to unpack how he built a multi-million dollar business by doing the right things for a long time and serving people deeply before chasing scale.  Victor is now rebuilding in the United States and Spanish speaking markets, and what makes his story so powerful is that his process works at every level. Whether he had no audience, a small group of early believers, or a huge following in Brazil, he grew by creating real conversations, helping people get results, and earning loyalty through service. If you want to know how to build something meaningful without shortcuts, this episode is a masterclass. Key Highlights: ◼️How Victor built his early business by doing the right thing consistently until results compounded ◼️The simple process he still uses today: start conversations, understand the person, help them solve something small, then guide them to the right offer ◼️Why he has clients who have stayed with him for more than a decade and how long term service became his most powerful growth engine ◼️His formula for building momentum in a new language and new country by applying the same relationship based approach that worked in Brazil Victor's story shows that the most sustainable expert businesses are built on service, patience, and consistent action. His method works in any market because it is human. You begin with a real conversation, create a win, build trust, and only then extend an offer that truly helps the person in front of you.  These principles helped him build a multi-year mastermind in Brazil and now guide him as he starts again in English and Spanish. If you want to follow his journey or connect with him directly, you can find him on Instagram at @victordamasio and you'll hear from him PERSONALLY! ◼️If you've got a product, offer, service… or idea… I'll show you how to sell it (the RIGHT way) Register for my next event →⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://sellingonline.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ◼️Still don't have a funnel? ClickFunnels gives you the exact tools (and templates) to launch TODAY → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://clickfunnels.com/podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Keri Eichberger walks us through one of faith’s less-comfortable gym memberships—rejoicing during trials because trials train endurance. If the struggle feels like mud, endurance is the pair of boots God is forming in the mud. Romans 5:3 reminds us that endurance isn’t an accidental byproduct, it’s a forged outcome. Highlights Rejoicing in trials isn’t pretending it doesn’t hurt—it’s trusting it isn’t wasted. Endurance grows when faith stops asking “why me?” and starts asking “what now, God?” We often want instant relief; God often builds internal reinforcement first. Struggle is the classroom; endurance is the diploma; joy is the confetti we throw early. Every hard season increases your future “I can handle this” capacity. Endurance shapes character, and character holds hope steady like a paperweight in a hurricane. Joy doesn’t cheapen the pain—it celebrates the Trainer, not the treadmill. Gift Inspiration: Crosswalk's Holiday Gift Guide Looking for a meaningful way to celebrate the season? Check out our Holiday Gift Guide—from beautifully illustrated Bibles and devotionals to novels, greeting cards, and picture books, there’s something for everyone on your list. Wrap up stories for loved ones, tuck a book into your own nightstand, and join us in celebrating the wonder of giving this Christmas! Full Transcript Below: Finding Joy in the Endurance of Struggle By Keri Eichberger Bible Reading:We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. (Romans 5:3 NLT) I’ve been through several seasons of struggle and suffering. And there’s something I really wrestle with when I am in the thick of it. It’s a verse and a call to action in the Bible, actually. That simultaneously perplexes and convicts me. It’s the encouragement to rejoice and be glad in our hurts and hardships. Of course, I want to be filled with joy at all times, regardless of what surrounds me. But if I’m being completely honest, my heart seems to resist finding its way to more positive and pleasant perspectives when it’s tossed into turmoil. One instance the Bible encourages this behavior is in Romans 5:3, when it tells us to rejoice when we run into problems. And this frankly can feel like a smack in the face, and add insult to injury. We may already be feeling pretty down, and likely far from rejoicing, and then we’re being told to rejoice in it. Which may knock us further down with self-disappointment. But, regardless of the joy we may or may not muster in the mud of a problem, I bet we can agree we both want the result referenced at the latter part of the verse. Claiming we’ll receive endurance from these trials. Personally speaking, in order to motivate me to seek and see the positive in my difficulties, it helps to understand the benefit of doing so. It helps to understand the benefit of the promised result. In this case, endurance. And let me tell you, friend, you and I definitely need endurance in this life laid out for us. A quick Google search defined endurance as “the power of enduring an unpleasant or difficult process or situation without giving way,” and “the capacity of something to last or to withstand wear and tear.” And because life is hard, difficult, and unpleasant at times, of course, we need endurance. The beautiful blessing for us Christians, who lean on the Lord through our problems, is that we are developing this endurance one season of dependence at a time. We are increasing our capacity to withstand the wear and tear of life, which we know is inevitable. Meaning our problems are one by one strengthening us. By the power of God, strengthening our character, strengthening our ability to take on the next trial with more of God’s peace and grace, and his increased patience and love. All the while reflecting more of him to a watching world. Do you struggle to see joy in your suffering? But can you see the value in gaining endurance to continue to withstand the inevitable, unending flow of problems and trials in this world? And isn't that what we all want? To be able to better handle what comes our way? Because we know so much tough stuff will keep coming. I don’t know about you, but one of my greatest fears is that I won’t be able to handle the hard things on the horizon or that will unexpectedly come my way. So, if you could assure me that the hard thing I’m going through now will allow me to better deal with the things I will face in the future, isn’t that reason to rejoice? I believe so. Intersecting Faith & Life: It certainly isn’t always natural, or even comfortable. In fact, it can be really hard when you’re walking through a dark valley. But I believe there is still a good reason to rejoice and praise God for what he is doing through it. He is the author of all things and has authority over all things surrounding you. This includes your problems, your trials, and your suffering. He will use it to strengthen you; he will use your struggles to serve you and serve others. And though no, it isn’t pleasant to walk through hard things, we can walk those hard paths knowing they will create strength and goodness. And that is something worth rejoicing and thanking God for. Let this encourage you today when you consider the difficulties swarming around you. Know that through this very thing, God will bring about the person in you who will better deal with tomorrow's difficulties. Opening the door to greater ease and peace along the journey of your life. And we can all rejoice and praise God for that today and every day. If you liked what you read, I think you will love my latest book, Win Over Worry: Conquer What Shakes You and Soar With the One Who Overcomes. You can find it on Amazon or your favorite online retail site. I hope it blesses you! Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

A confrontation with the Hexcloak Commander, whose ominous air suggests dire motives. A conversation with the living god of metal, whose curious mind pries into their own. A conflict with an ancient draconic mole, whose thunderous anger threatens the city of chains. Antistrophe Landrace, Bronte Adelvys, and Caoimhe Wake have faced all of this and more during their stay in Cenn. And yet, for now, they've remained to help the city—now blocked off from the rest of the world by a massive sphere of pure iron—as it rebuilds from the dragon's earth-shaking attack. A city as great as Cenn can recover, but it needs more than time. People need healing. Structures need mending. Fearful spirits need to be calmed.  But mysteries abound. Where is Kley Kaina? What is the sourcerot? How are the hexcloaks involved? Lost, they turn to a pair of surprising allies. Johnny Cakes and Jimmy Cones. Mango Chili Chutney. Pineapple Basil. Matcha Sesame Brittle. Mango Habanero. Lavender Lemonade. Coconut Lime Sorbet. Lemon Basil Sorbet. Beetroot Ginger Swirl. These are the leading flavors of Cakes and Cones Ice Cream this year. Sold and delivered across Cenn by the Dessert Brothers' team of noble White Caps, whose confectionary comportment gives them access to the lowest of gutters and the highest halls of power. Perhaps these ice cream boys will have the perspective that team ABC needs to crack their investigation wide open. Or, perhaps, the clue is closer than that, mixed in with the dairy and the fruit and the flavor extract and the sugar, buried in the tasty, tasty cream itself.  This week on Perpetua: In Too Deep 01 Perpetua Guide [In Progress v.055] Some Feedback [Page 25 of 27] Doom_Tree_Anne What do you think every party member's favorite flavor of Ice Cream is? Personally, I think Veile likes Mango Chili Chutney and Elena likes Mango Habanero. For obvious reasons. CarlsJr The best flavor is chocolate. Doom_Tree_Anne But chocolate isn't on the list of available flavors from the Desert Bros., which is actually FASCINATING because of the lore implications. It suggests one of two things is true: Either the people of Cenn (or perhaps the Elevana League, or even the whole Eastern Continent) don't have a taste for it (which is hard to believe!), OR they don't have access to the cacao plant, which would mean no chocolate. In fact, the inclusion of TWO mango flavors might suggest that the flora of Perpetua is more closely tied to that of the Indian Subcontinent and the rest of Southeast Asia. I visited my grandmother in Indonesia when I was on summer break between high school and college, and she had a HUGE mango tree in her back yard! XxZelgadyskXx That's really cool Anne, but remember, Elena did mention chocolate in the marshmallow scene! :3  Anyway, I think Antistrophe probably likes the Matcha one. I haven't had it, but I looked it up and it looks green and healthy, and he seems like someone who takes care of his body in that way. And I think Jonathan would do the Pineapple Basil. I don't know why, I just do.  TheUnforgivenIII Sorry Doomtree, we don't really have a good answer for this. Maybe if Nei actually kept this FAQ updated like it was SUPPOSED TO BE then we'd know what all the flavors do and what the the best ones are for each character. TheDiamondRanger I read in a preview that all the flavors get randomized when you start the game, so that doesn't make sense. Alukard83 I think that's only for Nicky's abilities. Anyway, Bronte likes the most expensive flavor for sure. And I think Unforgiven doesn't like getting any dessert at all because he's always so rude! Hosted by Austin Walker (austinwalker.bsky.social) Featuring Janine Hawkins (@bleatingheart), Sylvi Bullet (@sylvibullet), and Keith J Carberry (@keithjcarberry) Produced by Ali Acampora Music by Jack de Quidt (available on bandcamp) Cover Art by Ben McEntee (https://linktr.ee/benmce.art) With thanks to Amelia Renee, Arthur B., Aster Maragos, Bill Kaszubski, Cassie Jones, Clark, DB, Daniel Laloggia, Diana Crowley, Edwin Adelsberger, Emrys, Greg Cobb, Ian O'Dea, Ian Urbina, Irina A., Jack Shirai, Jake Strang, Katie Diekhaus, Ken George, Konisforce, Kristina Harris Esq, L Tantivy, Lawson Coleman, Mark Conner, Mike & Ruby, Muna A, Nat Knight, Olive Perry, Quinn Pollock, Robert Lasica, Shawn Drape, Shawn Hall, Summer Rose, TeganEden, Thomas Whitney, Voi, chocoube, deepFlaw, fen, & weakmint This episode was made with support from listeners like you! To support us, you can go to friendsatthetable.cash.

Morgan shares the most personal and transformative part of her health journey yet, the cleanse and lifestyle overhaul she’s been doing to heal from long COVID and chronic inflammation. Joined by integrative nutritionist Cara Clark, the two walk through every step of Morgan’s process: the hard conversations, the dietary changes, the mindset shifts, and the surprising challenges of trying to stay healthy in a world that doesn’t always make it easy. Morgan opens up about: ✨ What finally pushed her to start a full-body reset✨ The emotional and physical challenges of her 8-week protocol✨ What she learned about inflammation, stress, and her own habits✨ How long COVID affected her body more than she realized✨ Why “feeling fine” is not the same as feeling good✨ The meals, routines, and supplement habits that helped✨ How her boyfriend supported the process (and felt better too!)✨ The truth about online wellness trends, including parasite cleanses✨ Why healing is slow, individual, and absolutely worth it Whether you're struggling with chronic symptoms, curious about functional healing, or just trying to feel better in your everyday life, this candid conversation offers guidance, encouragement, and a reminder that you don’t have to accept feeling “not great” as normal. Follow Cara: @caraclarknutrition Cara's website for more information: www.caraclarknutrition.com Follow Morgan: @webgirlmorgan Follow Take This Personally: @takethispersonallySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Microplastics are everywhere. In the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. In this episode, Morgan talks with Microplastics researcher Dana about how microplastics affect our health and the environment. Dana breaks down the science behind primary and secondary microplastics, explains how everyday items like tires and plastic products contribute to the problem, and shares practical ways we can all reduce our plastic footprint. Learn why microplastics are a growing threat to food security and plant growth, and discover the hope in knowing that small changes, combined with community and governmental action, can reverse their effects. Follow Dana: @dankazh Get the Free Microplastic Scanner App: App Download Link Follow Morgan: @webgirlmorgan Follow Take This Personally: @takethispersonallySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.