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High-risk pregnancies are rising — and the need for specialized maternal care has never been greater.Dr. Kathryn Berryman, board-certified OBGYN and maternal-fetal medicine specialist, sits down with Allison Walsh and shares her journey from military physician to high-risk pregnancy expert serving women and families at AdventHealth for Women. After earning her medical degree at the University of Maryland and completing residency at Brooke Army Medical Center, she deployed to Iraq as an active-duty Army physician before pursuing fellowship training in maternal-fetal medicine at The Ohio State University.Today, Dr. Berryman cares for women navigating complex pregnancies, including medical complications, multiples, fetal concerns, and high-risk postpartum recovery. Her work extends beyond clinical care — she is deeply committed to teaching the next generation of physicians and advancing whole-person women's healthcare.This conversation explores:Why high-risk pregnancies are increasingWhat maternal-fetal medicine really meansThe future of prenatal testing — including genetics and proteomicsThe importance of postpartum and fourth trimester careHow telehealth is expanding access to specialized pregnancy careBalancing motherhood, marriage, and medicineThe role of confidence in high-achieving womenDr. Berryman's perspective blends clinical excellence, military service, and lived experience as a working mother — offering wisdom for women navigating both ambitious careers and family life. Learn more about women's healthcare services:https://adventhealthforwomen.com/ Connect with Dr. Kathryn Berryman:https://www.adventhealth.com/find-doctor/doctor/kathryn-berryman-md-1225249568 Connect with Allison:Instagram → @allisonwalshWork with Allison: Ready to turn your story into a service-driven brand that opens doors and expands your impact?
In this episode of the Capital Raiser Show, hosted by Richard C. Wilson and powered by Family Office Club, we sit down with RT "Rey" Treviño III, President of Pecos Valley Partners, for a deep dive into scaling, risk management, and long-term wealth creation through energy investments. Interviewed by Lisa Carmen Wang, Rey shares how his third-generation investment firm has navigated volatility, structured LP partnerships, and built a platform generating strong annual returns — while positioning for long-term U.S. energy dominance. Inside this conversation: How Rey scaled a billion-dollar real asset platform Why legacy oil & gas assets may offer overlooked upside The operator advantage: cutting costs and increasing transparency How LPs can access active tax deductions in energy deals Risk mitigation strategies in volatile commodity markets Why AI, data centers, and energy demand are reshaping the future The role of oil & gas in long-term American energy leadership Rey breaks down the numbers behind conventional drilling strategies, targeting 18–24 month capital recovery windows, and explains why patience and disciplined underwriting matter more than daily oil prices. If you're a family office, accredited investor, or capital raiser exploring real asset exposure, this episode offers a candid look at how experienced operators evaluate deals, structure partnerships, and think generationally. To connect with investors and attend one of 30+ live events per year, visit familyoffices.com.
Looking for ways to grow your platform without adding another major project to your plate? This week, we're talking about two strategic options: becoming a podcast guest and writing articles for other blogs or websites.These opportunities allow you to step in front of an established audience and share your message in a way that benefits both you and the host. But how do you find the right fit? What makes a strong pitch? And how can you make the most of the opportunity once you land it?In this episode, you'll learn:* Why guest appearances and guest posts can be powerful growth tools* How to identify podcasts and websites that align with your message* What to consider before sending a pitch* Encouragement for overcoming the fear of putting yourself out there* Simple ways to turn exposure into lasting connectionsIf you're ready to expand your reach and connect with new readers—without starting something brand new—this episode will give you practical next steps to get started.For more on the specifics of being a podcast guest, listen to episode 87. The Purposeful Pen is a weekly podcast for Christian writers designed to help you build a writing life with eternal impact. Each week you'll hear practical tips and Biblical truth on topics such as improving your writing, honing your message, and managing your time. I always respond to listener emails and I'd love to hear from you! Amysimon@amylynnsimon.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amylynnsimon.substack.com
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How do you stay audacious in a world that's noisier and more saturated than ever? How might the idea of creative rhythm change the way you write? Lara Bianca Pilcher gives her tips from a multi-passionate creative career. In the intro, becoming a better writer by being a better reader [The Indy Author]; How indie authors can market literary fiction [Self-Publishing with ALLi]; Viktor Wynd's Museum of Curiosities; Seneca's On the Shortness of Life; All Men are Mortal – Simone de Beauvoir; Surface Detail — Iain M. Banks; Bones of the Deep – J.F. Penn. This episode is sponsored by Publisher Rocket, which will help you get your book in front of more Amazon readers so you can spend less time marketing and more time writing. I use Publisher Rocket for researching book titles, categories, and keywords — for new books and for updating my backlist. Check it out at www.PublisherRocket.com This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Lara Bianca Pilcher is the author of Audacious Artistry: Reclaim Your Creative Identity and Thrive in a Saturated World. She's also a performing artist and actor, life and creativity coach, and the host of the Healthy Wealthy Wise Artist podcast. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes Why self-doubt is a normal biological response — and how audacity means showing up anyway The difference between creative rhythm and rigid discipline, and why it matters for writers How to navigate a saturated world with intentional presence on social media Practical strategies for building a platform as a nonfiction author, including batch content creation The concept of a “parallel career” and why designing your life around your art beats waiting for a big break Getting your creative rhythm back after crisis or burnout through small, gentle steps You can find Lara at LaraBiancaPilcher.com. Transcript of the interview with Lara Bianca Pilcher Lara Bianca Pilcher is the author of Audacious Artistry: Reclaim Your Creative Identity and Thrive in a Saturated World. She's also a performing artist and actor, life and creativity coach, and the host of the Healthy Wealthy Wise Artist podcast. Welcome, Lara. Lara: Thank you for having me, Jo. Jo: It's exciting to talk to you today. First up— Tell us a bit more about you and how you got into writing. Lara: I'm going to call myself a greedy creative, because I started as a dancer, singer, and actress in musical theatre, which ultimately led me to London, the West End, and I was pursuing that in highly competitive performance circles. A lot of my future works come from that kind of place. But when I moved to America—which I did after my season in London and a little stint back in Australia, then to Atlanta, Georgia—I had a visa problem where I couldn't work legally, and it went on for about six months. Because I feel this urge to create, as so many of your listeners probably relate to, I was not okay with that. So that's actually where I started writing, in the quietness, with the limits and the restrictions. I've got two children and a husband, and they would go off to school and work and I'd be home thinking, ha. In that quietness, I just began to write. I love thinking of creativity as a mansion with many rooms, and you get to pick your rooms. I decided, okay, well the dance, acting, singing door is shut right now—I'm going to go into the writing room. So I did. Jo: I have had a few physical creatives on the show. Obviously one of your big rooms in your mansion is a physical room where you are actually performing and moving your body. I feel like this is something that those of us whose biggest area of creativity is writing really struggle with—the physical side. How do you think that physical practice of creativity has helped you in writing, which can be quite constrictive in that way? Lara: It's so good that you asked this because I feel what it trained me to do is ignore noise and show up. I don't like the word discipline—most of us get a bit uncomfortable with it, it's not a nice word. What being a dancer did was teach me the practice of what I like to call a rhythm, a creative rhythm, rather than a discipline, because rhythm ebbs and flows and works more with who we are as creatives, with the way creativity works in our body. That taught me: go to the barre over and over again—at the ballet barre, I'm talking about, not the pub. Go there over and over again. Warm up, do the work, show up when you don't feel like it. thaT naturally pivoted over to writing, so they're incredibly linked in the way that creativity works in our body. Jo: Do you find that you need to do physical practice still in order to get your creativity moving? I'm not a dancer. I do like to shake it around a bit, I guess. But I mainly walk. If I need to get my creativity going, I will walk. If people are stuck, do you think doing something physical is a good idea? Lara: It is, because the way that our body and our nervous system works—without going into too much boring science, although some people probably find it fascinating—is that when we shake off that lethargic feeling and we get blood flowing in our body, we naturally feel more awake. Often when you're walking or you're doing something like dance, your brain is not thinking about all of the big problems. You might be listening to music, taking in inspiration, taking in sunshine, taking in nature, getting those endorphins going, and that naturally leads to the brain being able to psychologically show up more as a creative. However, there are days, if I'm honest, where I wake up and the last thing I want to do is move. I want to be in a little blanket in the corner of the room with a hot cocoa or a coffee and just keep to myself. Those aren't always the most creative days, but sometimes I need that in my creative rhythm, and that's okay too. Jo: I agree. I don't like the word discipline, but as a dancer you certainly would've had to do that. I can't imagine how competitive it must be. I guess this is another thing about a career in dance or the physical arts. Does it age out? Is it really an ageist industry? Whereas I feel like with writing, it isn't so much about what your body can do anymore. Lara: That is true. There is a very real marketplace, a very real industry, and I'm careful because there's two sides to this coin. There is the fact that as we get older, our body has trouble keeping up at that level. There's more injuries, that sort of thing. There are some fit women performing in their sixties and seventies on Broadway that have been doing it for years, and they are fine. They'll probably say it's harder for some of them. Also, absolutely, I think there does feel in the professional sense like there can be a cap. A lot of casting in acting and in that world feels like there's fewer and fewer roles, particularly for women as we get older, but people are in that space all the time. There's a Broadway dancer I know who is 57, who's still trying to make it on Broadway and really open about that, and I think that's beautiful. So I'm careful with putting limits, because I think there are always outliers that step outside and go, “Hey, I'm not listening to that.” I think there's an audience for every age if you want there to be and you make the effort. But at the same time, yes, there is a reality in the industry. Totally. Jo: Obviously this show is not for dancers. I think it was more framing it as we are lucky in the writing industry, especially in the independent author community, because you can be any age. You can be writing on your deathbed. Most people don't have a clue what authors look like. Lara: I love that, actually. It's probably one of the reasons I maybe subconsciously went into writing, because I'm like, I want to still create and I'm getting older. It's fun. Jo: That's freeing. Lara: So freeing. It's a wonderful room in the mansion to stay in until the day I die, if I must put it that way. Jo: I also loved you mentioning that Broadway dancer. A lot of listeners write fiction—I write fiction as well as nonfiction—and it immediately makes me want to write her story. The story of a 57-year-old still trying to make it on Broadway. There's just so much in that story, and I feel like that's the other thing we can do: writing about the communities we come from, especially at different ages. Let's get into your book, Audacious Artistry. I want to start on this word audacity. You say audacity is the courage to take bold, intentional risks, even in the face of uncertainty. I read it and I was like, I love the sentiment, but I also know most authors are just full of self-doubt. Bold and audacious. These are difficult words. So what can you say to authors around those big words? Lara: Well, first of all, that self-doubt—a lot of us don't even know what it is in our body. We just feel it and go, ugh, and we read it as a lack of confidence. It's not that. It's actually natural. We all get it. What it is, is our body's natural ability to perceive threat and keep us safe. So we're like, oh, I don't know the outcome. Oh, I don't know if I'm going to get signed. Oh, I don't know if my work's going to matter. And we read that as self-doubt—”I don't have what it takes” and those sorts of things. That's where I say no. The reframe, as a coach, I would say, is that it's normal. Self-doubt is normal. Everyone has it. But audacity is saying, I have it, but I'm going to show up in the world anyway. There is this thing of believing, even in the doubt, that I have something to say. I like to think of it as a metaphor of a massive feasting table at Christmas, and there's heaps of different dishes. We get to bring a dish to the table rather than think we're going to bring the whole table. The audacity to say, “Hey, I have something to say and I'm going to put my dish on the table.” Jo: I feel like the “I have something to say” can also be really difficult for people, because, for example, you mentioned you have kids. Many people are like, I want to share this thing that happened to me with my kids, or a secret I learned, or a tip I think will help people. But there's so many people who've already done that before. When we feel like we have something to say but other people have said it before, how do you address that? Lara: I think everything I say, someone has already said, and I'm okay with that. But they haven't said it like me. They haven't said it in my exact way. They haven't written the sentence exactly the way—that's probably too narrow a point of view in terms of the sentence—maybe the story or the chapter. They haven't written it exactly like me, with my perspective, my point of view, my life experience, my lived experience. It matters. People have very short memories. You think of the last thing you watched on Netflix and most of us can't remember what happened. We'll watch the season again. So I think it's okay to be saying the same things as others, but recognise that the way you say it, your point of view, your stories, your metaphors, your incredible way of putting a sentence togethes, it still matters in that noise. Jo: I think you also talk in the book about rediscovering the joy of creation, as in you are doing it for you. One of the themes that I emphasise is the transformation that happens within you when you write a book. Forget all the people who might read it or not read it. Even just what transforms in you when you write is important enough to make it worthwhile. Lara: It really, really is. For me, talking about rediscovering the joy of creation is important because I've lost it at times in my career, both as a performing artist and as an author, in a different kind of way. When we get so caught up in the industry and the noise and the trends, it's easy to just feel overwhelmed. Overwhelm is made up of a lot of emotions like fear and sadness and grief and all sorts of things. A lot of us don't realise that that's what overwhelm is. When we start to go, “Hey, I'm losing my voice in all this noise because comparison is taking over and I'm feeling all that self-doubt,” it can feel just crazy. So for me, rediscovering the joy of creation is vital to survival as an author, as an artist. A classic example, if you don't mind me sharing my author story really quickly, is that when I first wrote the first version of my book, I was writing very much for me, not realising it. This is hindsight. My first version was a little more self-indulgent. I like to think of it like an arrowhead. I was trying to say too much. The concept was good enough that I got picked up by a literary agent and worked with an editor through that for an entire year. At the end of that time, they dropped me. I felt like, through that time, I learned a lot. It was wonderful. Their reason for dropping me was saying, “I don't think we have enough of a unique point of view to really sell this.” That was hard. I lay on my bed, stared at the ceiling, felt grief. The reality is it's so competitive. What happened for me in that year is that I was trying to please. If you're a new author, this is really important. You are so desperately trying to please the editor, trying to do all the right things, that you can easily lose your joy and your unique point of view because you are trying to show up for what you think they all need and want. What cut through the noise for me is I got off that bed after my three hours of grief—it was probably longer, to be fair—but I booked myself a writing coach. I went back to the drawing board. I threw a lot of the book away. I took some good concepts out that I already knew were good from the editor, then I rewrote the entire thing. It's completely different to the first version. That's the book that got a traditional publishing deal. That book was my unique point of view. That book was my belief, from that grief, that I still have something to say. Instead of trusting what the literary agent and the editor were giving me in those red marks all over that first version, I was like, this is what I want to say. That became the arrowhead that's cut into the industry, rather than the semi-trailer truck that I was trying to bulldoze in with no clear point of view. So rediscovering the joy of creation is very much about coming back to you. Why do I write? What do I want to say? That unique point of view will cut through the noise a lot of the time. I don't want to speak in absolutes, but a lot of the time it will cut through the noise better than you trying to please the industry. Jo: I can't remember who said it, but somebody talked about how you've got your stone, and your stone is rough and it has random colours and all this. Then you start polishing the stone, which you have to do to a point. But if you keep polishing the stone, it looks like every other stone. What's the point? That fits with what you were saying about trying to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one. I also think the reality of what you just said about the book is a lot of people's experience with writing in general. Certainly for me, I don't write in order. I chuck out a lot. I'm a discovery writer. People think you sit down and start A and finish Z, and that's it. It's kind of messy, isn't it? Was that the same in your physical creative life? Lara: Yes. Everything's a mess. In the book I actually talk about learning to embrace the cringe, because we all want to show up perfect. Just as you shared, we think, because we read perfect and look at perfect or near-perfect work—that's debatable all the time—we want to arrive there, and I guess that's natural. But what we don't often see on social media or other places is the mess. I love the behind the scenes of films. I want to see the messy creative process. The reality is we have to learn to embrace the messy cringe because that's completely normal. My first version was so messy, and it's about being able to refine it and recognise that that is normal. So yes, embrace it. That's my quote for the day. Embrace the cringe, show up messy. It's all right. Jo: You mentioned the social media, and the subtitle of the book mentions a “saturated world.” The other problem is there are millions of books out there now. AI is generating more content than humans do, and it is extremely hard to break through. How are we to deal with this saturated world? When do we join in and when do we step away? Lara: I think it's really important not to have black and white thinking about it, because trust me, every day I meet an artist that will say, “I hate that I have to show up online.” To be honest with you, there's a big part of me that does also. But the saturation of the world is something that I recognise, and for me, it's like I'm in the world but not of it. That saturation can cause so much overwhelm and nervous system threat and comparison. What I've personally decided to do is have intentional showing up. That looks like checking in intentionally with a design, not a randomness, and then checking out. When push comes to shove, at the end of the day, I really believe that what sells books is people's trust in us as a person. They might go through an airport and not know us at all and pick up the book because it's a bestseller and they just trust the reputation, but so much of what I'm finding as an artist is that personal relationship, that personal trust. Whether that's through people knowing you via your podcast or people meeting you in a room. Especially in nonfiction, I think that's really big. Intentional presence from a place where we've regulated ourselves, being aware that it's saturated, but my job's not to be focused on the saturation. My job is to find my unique voice and say I have something to bring. Be intentional with that. Shoot your arrow, and then step out of the noise, because it's just overwhelming if you choose to live there and scroll without any intentionality at all. Jo: So how do people do that intentionality in a practical way around, first of all, choosing a platform, and then secondly, how they create content and share content and engage? What are some actual practical tips for intentionality? Lara: I can only speak from my experience, but I'm going to be honest, every single application I sent asked for my platform stats. Every single one. Platform stats as in how many followers, how many people listening to your podcast, how many people are reading your blog. That came up in every single literary agent application. So I would be a fool today to say you've got to ignore that, because that's just the brass tacks, unless you're already like a famous footballer or something. Raising and building a platform of my own audience has been a part of why I was able to get a publishing deal. In doing that, I've learned a lot of hard lessons. Embrace the cringe with marketing and social media as well, because it's its own beast. Algorithms are not what I worry about. They're not going to do the creativity for you. What social media's great at is saying, “Hey, I'm here”—it's awareness. It's not where I sell stuff. It's where I say, I'm here, this is what I'm doing, and people become aware of me and I can build that relationship. People do sell through social media, but it's more about awareness statistically. I am on a lot of platforms, but not all of them work for every author or every style of book. I've done a lot of training. I've really had to upskill in this space and get good at it. I've put myself through courses because I feel like, yes, we can ignore it if we want to, but for me it's an intentional opting in because the data shows that it's been a big part of being able to get published. That's overwhelming to hear for some people. They don't want to hear that. But that's kind of the world that we are in, isn't it? Jo: I think the main point is that you can't do everything and you shouldn't even try to do everything. The best thing to do is pick a couple of things, or pick one thing, and focus on that. For example, I barely ever do video, so I definitely don't do TikTok. I don't do any kind of video stuff. But I have this podcast. Audio is my happy place, and as you said, long-form audio builds trust. That is one way you can sell, but it's also very slow—very, very slow to build an audio platform. Then I guess my main social media would be Instagram, but I don't engage a lot there. So do you have one or two main things that you do, and any thoughts on using those for book marketing? Lara: I do a lot of cross-posting. I am on Instagram and I do a lot of creation there, and I'm super intentional about this. I actually do 30 days at a time, and then it's like my intentional opt-in. I'll create over about two days, edit and plan. It's really, really planned—shoot everything, edit everything, put it all together, and then upload everything. That will be 30 days' worth. Then I back myself right out of there, because I don't want to stay in that space. I want to be in the creative space, but I do put those two days a month aside to do that on Instagram. Then I tweak things for YouTube and what works on LinkedIn, which is completely different to Instagram. As I'm designing my content, I have in mind that this one will go over here and this one can go on here, because different platforms push different things. I am on Threads, but Threads is not statistically where you sell books, it's just awareness. Pinterest I don't think has been very good for my type of work, to be honest. For others it might. It's a search engine, it's where people go to get a recipe. I don't necessarily feel like that's the best place, this is just my point of view. For someone else it might be brilliant if you're doing a cookbook or something like that. I am on a lot of platforms. My podcast, however, I feel is where I'm having the most success, and also my blog. Those things as a writer are very fulfilling. I've pushed growing a platform really hard, and I am on probably almost every platform except for TikTok, but I'm very intentional with each one. Jo: I guess the other thing is the business model. The fiction business model is very, very different to nonfiction. You've got a book, but your higher-cost and higher-value offerings are things that a certain number of people come through to you and pay you more money than the price of a book. Could talk about how the book leads into different parts of your business? Because some people are like, “Am I going to make a living wage from book sales of a nonfiction book?” And usually people have multiple streams of income. Lara: I think it's smart to have multiple streams of income. A lot of people, as you would know, would say that a book is a funnel. For those who haven't heard of it, a way that people come into your bigger offerings. They don't have to be, but very much I do see it that way. It's also credibility. When you have a published book, there's a sense of credibility. I do have other things. I have courses, I have coaching, I have a lot of things that I call my parallel career that chug alongside my artist work and actually help stabilise that freelance income. Having a book is brilliant for that. I think it's a wonderful way to get out there in the world. No matter what's happening in all the online stuff, when you're on an aeroplane, so often someone still wants to read a book. When you're on the beach, they don't want to be there with a laptop. If you're on the sand, you want to be reading a beautiful paper book. The smell of it, the visceral experience of it. Books aren't going anywhere, to me. I still feel like there are always going to be people that want to pick it up and dig in and learn so much of your entire life experience quickly. Jo: We all love books here. I think it's important, as you do talk about career design and you mentioned there the parallel career—I get a lot of questions from people. They may just be writing their first book and they want to get to the point of making money so they could leave their day job or whatever. But it takes time, doesn't it? So how can we be more strategic about this sort of career design? Lara: For me, this has been a big one because lived experience here is that I know artists in many different areas, whether they're Broadway performers or music artists. Some of them are on almost everything I watch on TV. I'm like, oh, they're that guy again. I know that actor is on almost everything. I'll apply this over to writers. The reality is that these high-end performers that I see all the time showing up, even on Broadway in lead roles, all have another thing that they do, because they can still have, even at the highest level, six months between a contract. Applying that over to writing is the same thing, in that books and the money from them will ebb and flow. What so often artists are taught—and authors fit into this—is that we ultimately want art to make us money. So often that becomes “may my art rescue me from this horrible life that I'm living,” and we don't design the life around the art. We hope, hope, hope that our art will provide. I think it's a beautiful hope and a valid one. Some people do get that. I'm all for hoping our art will be our main source of income. But the reality is for the majority of people, they have something else. What I see over and over again is these audacious dreams, which are wonderful, and everything pointing towards them in terms of work. But then I'll see the actor in Hollywood that has a café job and I'm like, how long are you going to just work at that café job? They're like, “Well, I'm goint to get a big break and then everything's going to change.” I think we can think the same way. My big break will come, I'll get the publishing deal, and then everything will change. The reframe in our thinking is: what if we looked at this differently? Instead of side hustle, fallback career, instead of “my day job,” we say parallel career. How do I design a life that supports my art? And if I get to live off my art, wonderful. For me, that's looked like teaching and directing musical theatre. It's looked like being able to coach other artists. It's looked like writing and being able to pivot my creativity in the seasons where I've needed to. All of that is still creativity and energising, and all of it feeds the great big passion I have to show up in the world as an artist. None of it is actually pulling me away or draining me. I mean, you have bad days, of course, but it's not draining my art. When we are in this way of thinking—one day, one day, one day—we are not designing intentionally. What does it look like to maybe upskill and train in something that would be more energising for my parallel career that will chug alongside us as an artist? We all hope our art can totally 100% provide for us, which is the dream and a wonderful dream, and one that I still have. Jo: It's hard, isn't it? Because I also think that, personally, I need a lot of input in order to create. I call myself more of a binge writer. I just finished the edits on my next novel and I worked really hard on that. Now I won't be writing fiction for, I don't know, maybe six months or something, because now I need to input for the next one. I have friends who will write 10,000 words a day because they don't need that. They have something internal, or they're just writing a different kind of book that doesn't need that. Your book is a result of years of experience, and you can't write another book like that every year. You just can't, because you don't have enough new stuff to put in a book like that every single year. I feel like that's the other thing. People don't anticipate the input time and the time it takes for the ideas to come together. It is not just the production of the book. Lara: That's completely true. It goes back to this metaphor that creativity in the body is not a machine, it's a rhythm. I like to say rhythm over consistency, which allows us to say, “Hey, I'm going to be all in.” I was all in on writing. I went into a vortex for days on end, weeks on end, months and probably years on end. But even within that, there were ebbs and flows of input versus “I can't go near it today.” Recognising that that's actually normal is fine. There are those people that are outliers, and they will be out of that box. A lot of people will push that as the only way. “I am going to write every morning at 10am regardless.” That can work for some people, and that's wonderful. For those of us who don't like that—and I'm one of those people, that's not me as an artist—I accept the rhythm of creativity and that sometimes I need to do something completely different to feed my soul. I'm a big believer that a lot of creative block is because we need an adventure. We need to go out and see some art. To do good art, you've got to see good art, read good art, get outside, do something else for the input so that we have the inspiration to get out of the block. I know a screenwriter who was writing a really hard scene of a daughter's death—her mum's death. It's not easy to just write that in your living room when you've never gone through it. So she took herself out—I mean, it sounds morbid, but as a writer you'll understand the visceral nature of this—and sat at somebody's tombstone that day and just let that inform her mind and her heart. She was able to write a really powerful scene because she got out of the house and allowed herself to do something different. All that to say that creativity, the natural process, is an in-and-out thing. It ebbs and flows as a rhythm. People are different, and that's fine. But it is a rhythm in the way it works scientifically in the body. Jo: On graveyards—we love graveyards around here. Lara: I was like, sorry everyone, this isn't very nice. Jo: Oh, no. People are well used to it on this show. Let's come back to rhythm. When you are in a good rhythm, or when your body's warmed up and you are in the flow and everything's great, that feels good. But what if some people listening have found their rhythm is broken in some way, or it's come to a stop? That can be a real problem, getting moving again if you stop for too long. What are some ways we can get that rhythm back into something that feels right again? Lara: First of all, for people going through that, it's because our body actually will prioritise survival when we're going through crisis or too much stress. Creativity in the brain will go, well, that's not in that survival nature. When we are going through change—like me moving countries—it would disconnect us a lot from not only ourselves and our sense of identity, but creativity ultimately reconnects you back into life. I feel like to be at our optimum creative self, once we get through the crisis and the stress, is to gently nudge ourselves back in by little micro things. Whether it's “I'm just going to have the rhythm of writing one sentence a day.” As we do that, those little baby steps build momentum and allow us to come back in. Creativity is a life force. It's not about production, it's actually how we get to any unique contribution we're going to bring to the world. As we start to nudge ourselves back in, there's healing in that and there's joy in that. Then momentum comes. I know momentum comes from those little steps, rather than the overwhelming “I've got to write a novel this week” mindset. It's not going to happen, most of the time, when we are nudging our way back in. Little baby steps, kindness with ourselves. Staying connected to yourself through change or through crisis is one of the kindest things we can offer ourselves, and allowing ourselves to come into that rhythm—like that musical song of coming back in with maybe one line of the song instead of the entire masterpiece, which hopefully it will be one day. Jo: I was also thinking of the dancing world again, and one thing that is very different with writers is that so much of what we do is alone. In a lot of the performance art space, there's a lot more collaboration and groups of people creating things together. Is that something you've kept hold of, this kind of collaborative energy? How do you think we can bring that collaborative energy more into writing? Lara: Writing is very much alone. Obviously some people, depending on the project, will write in groups, but generally speaking, it's alone. For me, what that looks like is going out. I do this, and I know for some writers this is like, I don't want to go and talk to people. There are a lot of introverts in writing, as you are aware. I do go to creative mixers. I do get out there. I'm planning right now my book launch with a local bookstore, one in Australia and one here in America. Those things are scary, but I know that it matters to say I'm not in this alone. I want to bring my friends in. I want to have others part of this journey. I want to say, hey, I did this. And of course, I want to sell books. That's important too. It's so easy to hide, because it's scary to get out there and be with others. Yet I know that after a creative mixer or a meetup with all different artists, no matter their discipline, I feel very energised by that. Writers will come, dancers will come, filmmakers will come. It's that creative force that really energises my work. Of course, you can always meet with other writers. There's one person I know that runs this thing where all they do is they all get on Zoom together and they all write. Their audio's off, but they're just writing. It's just the feeling of, we're all writing but we're doing it together. It's a discipline for them, but because there's a room of creatives all on Zoom, they're like, I'm here, I've showed up, there's others. There's a sense of accountability. I think that's beautiful. I personally don't want to work that way, but some people do, and I think that's gorgeous too. Jo: Whatever sustains you. I think one of the important things is to realise you are not alone. I get really confused when people say this now. They're like, “Writing's such a lonely life, how do you manage?” I'm like, it is so not lonely. Lara: Yes. Jo: I'm sure you do too. Especially as a podcaster, a lot of people want to have conversations. We are having a conversation today, so that fulfils my conversation quota for the day. Lara: Exactly. Real human connection. It matters. Jo: Exactly. So maybe there's a tip for people. I'm an introvert, so this actually does fulfil it. It's still one-on-one, it's still you and me one-on-one, which is good for introverts. But it's going out to a lot more people at some point who will listen in to our conversation. There are some ways to do this. It's really interesting hearing your thoughts. Tell people where they can find you and your books and your podcast online. Lara: The book is called Audacious Artistry: Reclaim Your Creative Identity and Thrive in a Saturated World, and it's everywhere. The easiest thing to do would be to visit my website, LaraBiancaPilcher.com/book, and you'll find all the links there. My podcast is called Healthy Wealthy Wise Artist, and it's on all the podcast platforms. I do short coaching for artists on a lot of the things we've been talking about today. Jo: Brilliant. Well, thanks so much for your time, Lara. That was great. Lara: Thank you.The post Audacious Artistry: Reclaiming Your Creative Identity And Thriving In A Saturated World With Lara Bianca Pilcher first appeared on The Creative Penn.
We are thrilled to announce a new partnership with Communio! Tune in to hear how Communio is strengthening families through data-informed strategies for local churches. In this episode, host Stacy Bellward and Cindy Wilson, the Ministry Partnership & Research Program Manager at Connected Families, sit down with J.P. DeGance, founder and president of Communio and author of Endgame: The Church’s Strategic Move to Save Faith and Family in America. J.P. shares his personal journey into family ministry, the compelling research behind Communio’s approach, and how this partnership will bring Connected Families’ parenting resources into churches across the country, equipping more families with biblical, research-informed tools that transform families for generations. Key Takeaways: Announcing the partnership with Communio and Connected Families Learn about the background of Communio and the research study that reduced divorce rates in Jacksonville, FL Discover the impact marriage has on multi-generational church attendance Hear how growing in parenting skills can complement our spiritual growth Mentioned in this Podcast: Communio Book – Endgame: The Church's Strategic Move to Save Faith and Family in America The Jacksonville Case Study Matthew 22: 36-38 Contact Communio – Platform@communio.org Connected Families Small Group Resources Connected Families Workshop Speakers The Table – Monthly Giving Program Check out our website for more resources to support your parenting! This podcast was made possible by members of The Table, whose monthly support creates a ripple effect of change for generations to come. We'd love to have you take a seat at The Table! Love the podcast? Leave a review to help other parents discover the show! Guest Bio: J.P. De Gance is the founder and president of Communio and co-author of “Endgame: The Church’s Strategic Move to Save Faith and Family in America.” He leads Communio’s work equipping pastors and churches with data-informed strategies to strengthen congregations through relational health. This approach has been proven through a $20 million initiative that reduced the divorce rate among a network of churches in Jacksonville by 24% between 2016 and 2018. Under his leadership, Communio earned the Heritage Foundation’s 2023 Innovation Prize for its groundbreaking research and church partnerships. J.P. is a husband and father, and lives in Virginia with his wife and 8 children. © 2026 Connected Families .stk-f7962e5-inner-blocks{justify-content:center !important;}.stk-f7962e5 {background-color:var(--theme-palette-color-2, #98c1d9) !important;border-top-left-radius:0px !important;border-top-right-radius:0px !important;border-bottom-right-radius:0px !important;border-bottom-left-radius:0px !important;overflow:hidden !important;box-shadow:none !important;border-color:var(--theme-palette-color-4, #1e3f52) !important;border-top-width:0px !important;border-right-width:0px !important;border-bottom-width:0px !important;border-left-width:0px !important;max-width:1500px !important;min-width:auto !important;padding-top:0px !important;padding-right:0px !important;padding-bottom:0px !important;padding-left:0px !important;}.stk-f7962e5:before{background-color:var(--theme-palette-color-2, #98c1d9) !important;}.stk-f7962e5 .stk-block-hero__content{min-height:421px !important;max-width:1500px !important;min-width:auto !important;} .stk-71fb0c5 {background-color:var(--theme-palette-color-2, #98c1d9) !important;box-shadow:none !important;border-style:solid !important;border-top-width:0px !important;border-right-width:0px !important;border-bottom-width:0px !important;border-left-width:0px !important;min-height:0px !important;max-width:1500px !important;min-width:auto !important;padding-top:15px !important;padding-right:15px !important;padding-bottom:15px !important;padding-left:15px !important;margin-top:0px !important;margin-right:0px !important;margin-bottom:0px !important;}.stk-71fb0c5:before{background-color:var(--theme-palette-color-2, #98c1d9) !important;}@media screen and (max-width:689px){.stk-71fb0c5 {padding-top:30px !important;padding-right:30px !important;padding-bottom:30px !important;padding-left:30px !important;}} .stk-ee8f1f2-container{margin-top:0px !important;margin-right:0px !important;margin-bottom:0px !important;margin-left:0px !important;min-height:318px !important;}.stk-ee8f1f2 {align-self:center !important;}@media screen and (min-width:690px){.stk-ee8f1f2 {flex:var(--stk-flex-grow, 1) 1 calc(33.333% - var(--stk-column-gap, 0px) * 1 / 2 ) !important;}} .stk-5f5f0db {background-color:var(--theme-palette-color-4, #1e3f52) !important;padding-top:0px !important;padding-right:0px !important;padding-bottom:0px !important;padding-left:0px !important;}.stk-5f5f0db:before{background-color:var(--theme-palette-color-4, #1e3f52) !important;}.stk-5f5f0db .stk-img-wrapper{width:100% !important;height:329px !important;}.stk-5f5f0db .stk-img-wrapper img{transform:scale(1) !important;object-fit:contain !important;}@media screen and (max-width:689px){.stk-5f5f0db {min-height:0px !important;align-items:flex-start !important;padding-top:0px !important;padding-right:0px !important;padding-bottom:0px !important;padding-left:0px !important;margin-top:0px !important;margin-right:0px !important;margin-bottom:-39px !important;display:flex !important;}.stk-5f5f0db .stk-img-wrapper{height:400px !important;}} .stk-734aee9 {align-self:center !important;padding-top:0px !important;padding-right:0px !important;padding-bottom:0px !important;padding-left:25px !important;}.stk-734aee9-container{max-width:843px !important;min-width:auto !important;}@media screen and (min-width:690px){.stk-734aee9 {flex:var(--stk-flex-grow, 1) 1 calc(66.667% - var(--stk-column-gap, 0px) * 1 / 2 ) !important;}} .stk-b0e3710 {align-items:flex-start !important;max-width:1500px !important;min-width:auto !important;padding-top:0px !important;padding-right:0px !important;padding-bottom:0px !important;padding-left:0px !important;margin-right:0px !important;margin-bottom:0px !important;display:flex !important;}.stk-b0e3710 .stk-block-heading__text{text-shadow:none !important;font-size:47px !important;color:#fffffe !important;line-height:1.1em !important;}@media screen and (max-width:999px){.stk-b0e3710 .stk-block-heading__text{font-size:47px !important;}}Helping Families Thrive .stk-a248cc0 {padding-top:19px !important;}.stk-a248cc0 .stk-block-text__text{color:#fffffe !important;}Our parenting workshops equip parents in your community with practical tools and biblical wisdom for every stage of parenting. .stk-4bbb5be .stk-button{background:var(--theme-palette-color-1, #ee6c4d) !important;}.stk-4bbb5be .stk-button:before{border-color:var(--theme-palette-color-1, #ee6c4d) !important;}.stk-4bbb5be .stk-button .stk--inner-svg svg:last-child, .stk-4bbb5be .stk-button .stk--inner-svg svg:last-child :is(g, path, rect, polygon, ellipse){fill:var(--theme-palette-color-1, #ee6c4d) !important;}.stk-4bbb5be .stk-button__inner-text{font-size:21px !important;font-weight:600 !important;}@media screen and (max-width:999px){.stk-4bbb5be .stk-button__inner-text{font-size:21px !important;}}@media screen and (max-width:689px){.stk-4bbb5be .stk-button__inner-text{font-size:19px !important;}}Book a Workshop
The Platform Mix 597 features Smassh, from Scottsdale, Arizona. He's an exclusive editor for Club Killers, one of the top record pools in the world and he's got a ton of his newest tracks over the next hour including his edits for Haven's - I Run, David Guetta's - Titanium and a bootleg for Daft Punk's - One More Time that's been crushing for my sets. Follow Smassh on all his socials to hear all his latest edits and remixes when they drop. Subscribe to my Patreon to see the full track list from the mixes, take a look at my top tracks of the week and get a look into what I'm playing during my sets. Now turn those speakers up, and let's get into it with Smassh's latest right here, on The Platform. Smassh: https://www.instagram.com/djsmassh/ Podcast: www.youtube.com/@theplatformmix Patreon: www.patreon.com/djdexmke Artwork by Michael Byers-Dent: www.instagram.com/byersdent/
Technovation with Peter High (CIO, CTO, CDO, CXO Interviews)
You can't scale AI on fragmented data. In this episode of Technovation, Peter High speaks with Ogi Redzic, Chief Digital Officer of Caterpillar, about the foundational platform transformation that made rapid AI innovation possible across a $65B industrial enterprise. Ogi shares how retiring legacy systems, consolidating data into the Helios cloud platform, and establishing trusted data pipelines enabled CAT Digital to launch an enterprise AI assistant in just 10 months. Key topics include: Building Helios to process millions of data pipelines daily Turning unplanned downtime into predictive maintenance at scale Scaling $5B in industrial e-commerce Partnering with NVIDIA on edge AI and digital twins Aligning digital teams to measurable business outcomes
Off‑platform doesn't have to mean more complexity. Emma is joined by Instacart's Head of Off-platform Strategy, Adam Silverblatt, to break down how brands can use Instacart's first‑party data beyond Instacart.com. This looks like building high‑intent audiences, activating them via partners like The Trade Desk, Roku, Pinterest, and TikTok, and closing the loop with sales measurement. They dig into what makes Instacart's audiences truly incremental, how to avoid double‑paying for the same shoppers, and what brands should be asking every retail media network about incrementality and accountability.
At CES in Las Vegas, Taylor Szabo, Global PR Manager for XREAL, introduces their platform-agnostic AR glasses that connect via USB-C to devices like laptops, tablets, and phones to create immersive personal displays. Taylor highlights their OLED panels, gaming-friendly refresh rates, Bose-integrated audio, and comfortable design. XREAL has multiple models and pricing tiers, including a new partnership geared to gamers. Show Notes: Chapters: Links: XREAL One Pro AR Glasses with X1 Chip, Native 3 DoF, X-Prism Optics, 3D Mode, 57°FOV 171" 120Hz FHD Display, XR Glasseshttps://amzn.to/46PB7iF XREAL 1S AR Glasses, 500" Virtual Screen Smart Glasses with 52° FOV, Native 3DoF, 3D Mode, Powered by X1 Chip, Supports All USB-C DP Deviceshttps://amzn.to/4qEhots Support: Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon http://patreon.com/macvoices Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect: Web: http://macvoices.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner http://www.twitter.com/macvoices Mastodon: https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner MacVoices Page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/ MacVoices Group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe: Audio in iTunes Video in iTunes Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher: Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss
We had a kwentuhan with Fillr last Philippine Startup Week 2025!Fillr is an avatar-based, curated, and secure freelancing platform that gets your gigs done for you quickly.This episode is recorded live at the Philippine Innovation Hub in Marikina City.In this episode:00:00 Introduction01:11 Ano ang Fillr?25:36 How can listeners find more information?FILLRWebsite: https://fillr.workFacebook: https://facebook.com/fillr.workPHILIPPINE STARTUP WEEKWebsite: https://phstartupweek.comFacebook: https://facebook.com/PhilippineStartupWeekTHIS EPISODE IS CO-PRODUCED BY:Kredit Hero: https://kredithero.com/Yspaces: https://knowyourspaceph.comTwala: https://twala.ioSymph: https://symph.coSecuna: https://secuna.ioSkoolTek by Edfolio: https://skooltek.coMaroonStudios: https://maroonstudios.comCompareLoans: http://compareloans.phCHECK OUT OUR PARTNERS:Ask Lex PH Academy: https://asklexph.com (5% discount on e-learning courses! Code: ALPHAXSUP)ArkoTech: https://www.arkotechspacesolutions.com/DVCode Technologies Inc: https://dvcode.techNutriCoach: https://nutricoach.comArgum AI: http://argum.aiPIXEL by Eplayment: https://pixel.eplayment.co/auth/sign-up?r=PIXELXSUP1 (Sign up using Code: PIXELXSUP1)School of Profits: https://schoolofprofits.academyFounders Launchpad: https://founderslaunchpad.vcHier Business Solutions: https://hierpayroll.comAgile Data Solutions (Hustle PH): https://agiledatasolutions.techSmile Checks: https://getsmilechecks.comCloudCFO: https://cloudcfo.ph (Free financial assessment, process onboarding, and 6-month QuickBooks subscription! Mention: Start Up Podcast PH)Cloverly: https://cloverly.techBuddyBetes: https://buddybetes.comHKB Digital Services: https://contakt-ph.com (10% discount on RFID Business Cards! Code: CONTAKTXSUP)Hyperstacks: https://hyperstacksinc.comOneCFO: https://onecfoph.co (10% discount on CFO services! Code: ONECFOXSUP)Wunderbrand: https://wunderbrand.comUplift Code Camp: https://upliftcodecamp.com (5% discount on bootcamps and courses! Code: UPLIFTSTARTUPPH)START UP PODCAST PHYouTube: https://youtube.com/startuppodcastphSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6BObuPvMfoZzdlJeb1XXVaApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/start-up-podcast/id1576462394Facebook: https://facebook.com/startuppodcastphPatreon: https://patreon.com/StartUpPodcastPHPIXEL: https://pixel.eplayment.co/dl/startuppodcastphWebsite: https://phstartup.onlineThis episode is edited by the team at: https://tasharivera.com
At CES in Las Vegas, Taylor Szabo, Global PR Manager for XREAL, introduces their platform-agnostic AR glasses that connect via USB-C to devices like laptops, tablets, and phones to create immersive personal displays. Taylor highlights their OLED panels, gaming-friendly refresh rates, Bose-integrated audio, and comfortable design. XREAL has multiple models and pricing tiers, including a new partnership geared to gamers. Show Notes: Chapters: Links: XREAL One Pro AR Glasses with X1 Chip, Native 3 DoF, X-Prism Optics, 3D Mode, 57°FOV 171" 120Hz FHD Display, XR Glasses https://amzn.to/46PB7iF XREAL 1S AR Glasses, 500" Virtual Screen Smart Glasses with 52° FOV, Native 3DoF, 3D Mode, Powered by X1 Chip, Supports All USB-C DP Devices https://amzn.to/4qEhots Support: Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon http://patreon.com/macvoices Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect: Web: http://macvoices.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner http://www.twitter.com/macvoices Mastodon: https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner MacVoices Page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/ MacVoices Group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe: Audio in iTunes Video in iTunes Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher: Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss
Thousands of students at Stanford are obsessing over Date Drop, a new platform that uses AI to match singles based on compatibility. WSJ's Jasmine Li joins us to break it down. Plus, WSJ consumer goods reporter Aimee Look sits down with Belle Lin to talk about why tariffs are jumpstarting a boom in the American used electronics market. Isabelle Bousquette hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The gang is across the pond on today's episode. In store: Hylo Athletics, Delta One mishaps, English Breakfast, and really terrible impressions. From West Ham to Platform 9 3/4, this one has it all, folks.SUPPORT OUR SPONSORSLMNTIt's winter, but we're still training and sweating. Which means we still need our LMNT, with 1,000 mg of sodium and key electrolytes. If you haven't had their hot flavors yet, you need to get in on it, because they make the perfect winter treat. Order today and get an 8-count LMNT Sample Pack with any purchase, so don't miss out: http://drinklmnt.com/thedropSOARIf you don't know, Soar makes some of the best running apparel in the world. Like, the whole world. They take design and performance seriously, utilizing cutting edge fabrics that exceed the highest standards for running gear. We love all their winter apparel and their warm weather singlets are unbeatable. Check out their X-Race collections, which are perfect for all the upcoming spring marathons:Men's XRace collectionshttps://www.soarrunning.com/collections/x-raceWomen's XRace collectionshttps://www.soarrunning.com/collections/womens-x-racePILLARCollagen Repair is a smart addition to your routine, ensuring you stay healthy when you're working your hardest. If you want to try PILLAR, you can head to pillarperformance.shop or TheFeed.com/pillar and enter code BITR for 15% off first-time purchases.
Jeffrey Dwoskin's career exemplifies strategic problem-solving through direct market experience. From educating late-1990s clients about websites to building Stampede Social, he consistently identified emerging technologies and learned new skills whenever markets demanded them. Each venture built upon previous knowledge, creating a cohesive journey driven by genuine curiosity. His competitive advantage lies not in staying in one domain but in recognizing opportunities at the intersection of passion and market need, then executing with technical depth. Jeffrey's entrepreneurial insight came from firsthand experience at the agency level working with major brands and influencers on Instagram campaigns. He created Stampede Social to consolidate fragmented data across platforms, enabling creators to identify their most valuable fans, track conversions, and understand audience overlap—transforming raw engagement into measurable business results. His approach democratized enterprise-level analytics for mid-career creators, proving that sustainable success emerges from solving problems you've genuinely experienced rather than imagined ones. Jeffrey Dwoskin's fundamental insight for creators is this: understand algorithms but prioritize authenticity over trends. Ready to consolidate your multi-platform presence and track metrics that matter? Visit Stampede Social—the fastest way to get your fans directly to your content without overwhelm. Everything you need to increase engagement on Instagram is now in one central place, designed to help you amplify your authentic voice and measure what actually drives results. For the accessible version of the podcast, go to our Ziotag gallery.We're happy you're here! Like the pod?Support the podcast and receive discounts from our sponsors: https://yourbrandamplified.codeadx.me/Leave a rating and review on your favorite platformFollow @yourbrandamplified on the socialsTalk to my digital avatar Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Get a FREE COPY of Jeff Dudan's book DISCERNMENT here: https://podcast.homefrontbrands.com/en-us/discernment Private equity is a ladder — and most operators don't know where they stand on it. In this Franchise Friday segment, Jeff Dudan and J. Patrick Galleher break down: • Why 8x EBITDA can become 18x • Platform vs. part of a platform — and why it matters • The mistake of sharing financials too early • How territory decisions quietly destroy enterprise value • Why franchisee validation drives multiples • What to fix 24–36 months before you sell If you're a franchisor, franchisee, or operator thinking about growth or exit — this is the finance language you need to understand. Get a hold of Pat: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickgalleher/ https://www.boxwoodpartners.com/ #FranchiseFriday #JeffDudan #PrivateEquity #Franchising #EBITDA #EnterpriseValue #FranchiseGrowth #ExitStrategy #FranchiseDevelopment #BusinessValuation #PlatformStrategy #ValidationMatters Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Get a FREE COPY of Jeff Dudan's book DISCERNMENT here: https://podcast.homefrontbrands.com/en-us/discernment Private equity is a ladder — and most operators don't know where they stand on it. In this Franchise Friday segment, Jeff Dudan and J. Patrick Galleher break down: • Why 8x EBITDA can become 18x • Platform vs. part of a platform — and why it matters • The mistake of sharing financials too early • How territory decisions quietly destroy enterprise value • Why franchisee validation drives multiples • What to fix 24–36 months before you sell If you're a franchisor, franchisee, or operator thinking about growth or exit — this is the finance language you need to understand. Get a hold of Pat: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickgalleher/ https://www.boxwoodpartners.com/ #FranchiseFriday #JeffDudan #PrivateEquity #Franchising #EBITDA #EnterpriseValue #FranchiseGrowth #ExitStrategy #FranchiseDevelopment #BusinessValuation #PlatformStrategy #ValidationMatters Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Everyone is chasing visibility.More followers.More views.More viral moments.But here's the uncomfortable truth:Platform doesn't equal impact.Clarity does.In this episode, Kellan dismantles the myth that a bigger audience guarantees success — and explains why most coaches, creators, and thought leaders are about to be replaced in the age of AI.If your story isn't clear…If your transformation doesn't bleed out of your pores…If you're polishing tactics instead of embodying truth…You're toast.This episode is a wake-up call for anyone who wants to create real wealth, real impact, and real meaning.Key Takeaways:Why visibility is not the leverage point“You don't need a bigger platform. You need a clearer story.”The myth that scale solves uncertaintyWhy most coaches will be replaced by AIThe difference between tactics and embodied transformationWhy your story is the only thing AI cannot replicateThe power of mining your life journeyJourney → Learnings → Power frameworkWealth, impact, and meaning as the outcome of clarityCreating a Personal Truth and Commitment document (PTAC)Reinterpreting the past to reclaim powerEnding victimhoodWhy authenticity is the new currency
Morgan Evans joins us to talk about her builds, her pushing the Hurricane platform into the 8's and drag racing as a whole. T ake your build up a whole new level with 6XD Gearbox: https://6xdgearbox.com Code "Minnoxide5" for 5% off High Performance Academy: https://hpcdmy.co/Minnoxide Use code "MINNOX" for 55% off ANY course Use Code "MINVIP" for $300 of the MINVIP Package Tuned By Shawn: https://www.tunedbyshawn.com Code "Minnoxide" for 5% off! Ship With Sure Thing Logistics: https://www.surethinglogistics.net MORE BIGGER Turbo T-Shirts: https://www.minnoxide.com/products/more-bigger-t-shirt
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAmazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) used to feel “enterprise-only.” Not anymore. Tyler Masur (Head of Amazon at Pilothouse) breaks down what AMC actually does, how to use the no-code templates without being a SQL wizard, and the audience overlays that make broad keywords finally make sense. Role-based hook: For Amazon operators and DTC teams spending real money on Sponsored Ads who want lower ACOS without sacrificing scale.In this episode, we get tactical on:What AMC is (and isn't): audience building + deeper measurement layered on top of your existing console How to start with the no-code audience + analytics templates (and when AI-generated SQL helps) Why you should test AMC audiences in net-new campaigns (so you don't accidentally choke your winners)The “broad keyword + qualified audience” play (example: bidding on “cooler” but only for outdoors browsers)Measuring DSP impact: what happens after someone sees DSP, then hits Sponsored Brands/Products Who this is for: Amazon managers, DTC founders, and growth teams trying to scale Sponsored Ads past the “set it and forget it” phase.What to steal:Build a “generic keyword” campaign, then overlay an in-market audience (nodes/categories) so you can bid higher without paying for junk clicks.Keep audience tests isolated in new campaigns; don't jam audiences into legacy structures and hope.Run the AMC overlap reporting to spot the campaigns that actually increase conversion when paired together (then fund those).Timestamps:0:00 Amazon Marketing Cloud is now open to all sellers2:05 What AMC actually does: audiences and analytics4:10 No-code templates vs custom SQL queries (and the built-in AI helper)6:10 Audience targeting strategy to improve ACoS without over-narrowing8:55 Using prebuilt analytics to see which campaigns lift conversion together11:10 When AMC becomes worth it based on ad spend and effort required13:15 How Pilothouse uses AI day-to-day for Amazon work (including Rufus content)15:20 Measuring DSP incrementality and overlap with sponsored ads using AMC reports17:30 Platform notes: Amazon layoffs and the OpenAI + Amazon speculationSubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://www.pilothouse.co/?utm_source=AKNF585Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video
Demetria Zinga is the founder of Soul Podcasting Collective, a boutique agency that helps purpose-driven entrepreneurs launch and grow meaningful podcasts. Join my PodFather Podcast Community https://www.skool.com/podfather/about Start Your Own SKOOL Community https://www.skool.com/signup?ref=c72a37fe832f49c584d7984db9e54b71 Join our Brain Fitness SKOOL Group https://www.skool.com/brainfitness/about #podcasting #Podcastmarketing #podcastingtips Join Podmatch https://www.joinpodmatch.com/roy Speaking Podcast Social Media / Coaching My Other Podcasts https://bio.link/podcaster Bio of Demetria ZingaDemetria Zinga is the founder of Soul Podcasting Collective, a boutique agency that helps purpose-driven entrepreneurs launch and grow meaningful podcasts. With over 20 years of experience in digital marketing and podcasting, she has hosted multiple top-ranking shows and helped countless creatives turn their ideas into soulful, standout brands.A former homeschool mom turned full-time solopreneur, Demetria is passionate about supporting women—especially mompreneurs and creatives—who feel stuck in tech overwhelm, mindset blocks, or burnout. She's known for her honest, actionable insights that blend strategy with heart, helping entrepreneurs build authority, share their voice confidently, and create lasting impact through podcasting. What we Discussed: 0:00 Intro 0:21 Who is Demetria Zinga 01:30 Her Podcasting Journey 07:45 How did People listen to Podcast in 2004 08:35 What she wished she had know when she starting Podcasting 12:00 How does it feel when you decide to finish a Podcast 16:06 Does Changing the Name of your Podcast effect the listeners 19:05 Different Podcast Platforms she used 21:10 The Ai on Podbean 21:40 Transfer to a Free planform if you plan on finishing your show 24:40 How to pick the Platform for your Podcast 26:10 Home Schooling 32:27 Having kids while recording a podcast 34:32 Having my son on my Podcast when he was 4yrs 36:30 Should you remove your history from YouTube of another business 39:20 Her Podcast Audit 44:23 The Analytics tell you a lot to improve your Podcast 46:15 Why I edit all my Podcasts myself 47:00 Show you add a Hook at the begining of the Podcast 48:00 Marketing your Podcast is more important than over editing 53:10 Using SEO for your Podcast 55:55 Monetizing your Podcast 58:22 Promoting Yourself and finding Guests that can be a Client 1:00:19 How to Navigate Social Media for your Podcast 1:06:20 Software that Demetris & Roy Recommends How to Contact Demetria Zinga https://soulpodcasting.com/ https://www.instagram.com/soulpodcasting/
Today, Ireland made a giant leap in the evolution of its space, innovation and advanced manufacturing ecosystem with the official launch of ESA Phi-Lab Ireland, the country's first European Space Agency (ESA) 'Phi-Lab', headquartered at Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) in Mullingar. The new facility, run in collaboration with the AMBER Centre at Trinity College Dublin, is to be Ireland's national platform for space technology development, anchoring the country's ambitions within Europe's fast-growing space economy. The launch forms part of a wider national commitment to the European Space Agency, with the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment committing €170 million in investment to ESA over the next five years. The establishment of ESA Phi-Lab Ireland in Mullingar represents a flagship element of that investment, translating policy ambition into tangible national infrastructure designed to accelerate space-enabled innovation, industrial competitiveness and high-value job creation. ESA Phi-Lab Ireland was formally launched by Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke, who unveiled a commemorative plaque at IMR's Advanced Manufacturing Lab. Produced using a space-grade additive manufactured material mounted on a local piece of 6,500-year-old Irish Bog Oak, the plaque heralds Ireland's formal entry into ESA's elite network of applied space-innovation centres, and reflects Ireland's growing role in shaping Europe's future space ambitions and technologies. ESA Phi-Lab Ireland forms part of the European Space Agency's Phi-Lab initiative, whose mission is to bring research closer to commercialisation by bridging disruptive research and commercial needs. In direct response to needs coming from the commercial world, the Phi-Lab Network matures technologies in advanced manufacturing, materials discovery, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and robotics. These technologies have direct application across in-space and terrestrial manufacturing, agriculture, energy systems, climate innovation, and critical infrastructure, positioning the new Mullingar-based centre at the intersection of space research and real-world industrial impact. Speaking at the launch, Barry Kennedy, CEO of IMR, described the new Phi-Lab as a defining moment for Ireland's innovation landscape. "Today marks a significant milestone in Ireland's space and innovation ambition. IMR is proud to lead the launch of ESA Phi-Lab Ireland, establishing it as a national platform for space technology development. This facility positions Ireland at the forefront of European space-enabled innovation, where advanced manufacturing, AI and data-driven technologies can be developed, tested and commercialised for global impact. Ultimately, this is about translating world-class research into real economic and societal value." Minister Burke said the launch reflects Ireland's accelerating momentum within Europe's space and Deep Tech sectors. "ESA Phi-Lab Ireland strengthens Ireland's position, and the midlands region, as a hub for advanced research, innovation and high-value enterprise. It demonstrates our long-term commitment to supporting cutting-edge technologies that will drive competitiveness, create skilled jobs and deliver solutions to global challenges, from advanced manufacturing to industrial transformation. The Government's €170 million commitment to ESA over the next five years is about ensuring Ireland plays a leading role in Europe's space future." At the event, Minister Burke announced the first supported companies by ESA Phi-Lab Ireland – MBRYONICS and Ubotica Technologies – both having been selected from a highly-competitive 'Open Call' last year. Minister Burke also announced the second Open Call for Proposals, which will continue to fund cutting-edge research in Irish industry across the entire life-cycle from materials discovery and testing to the scaled production of components optimised for the unique and challenging environme...
The European Union has launched the cPAID project, short for Cloud-based Platform-agnostic Adversarial AI Defence Framework, to address one of today's most urgent digital challenges: securing Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is now crucial to healthcare, transport, energy, and environmental monitoring, yet it faces new kinds of cyberattacks, such as poisoned training data, deceptive inputs, and model theft, which are risks that traditional security cannot stop. cPAID, an HORIZON project, launched in 2024 with a lifespan of 3 years, brings together 17 organisations across Europe, including universities, research institutes, technology companies, and a hospital. Its goal is to create a framework that protects AI systems throughout their entire lifecycle, from data collection and training to deployment and real-time operation. The project is developing tools to test AI against simulated cyberattacks, monitor behaviour for abnormalities, and adapt dynamically to emerging risks. It extends established practices in software development by embedding privacy, security, and explainability into every stage of AI. Generative AI will be used to create realistic attack scenarios, strengthening defences before systems are exposed to real-world threats. To ensure its solutions are practical, cPAID will be validated in five pilot projects. The project includes five pilot projects, each targeting a critical domain. In Energy, worker robots are deployed to monitor EV batteries. In Surveillance, 5G-enabled drones are used to detect wildfires in remote forest areas. In Health, efforts focus on securing remote, AI-assisted medical devices. In Transportation, pilots will test the robustness of object-detection systems for autonomous ships. Finally, in Cybersecurity Awareness, experts are trained to simulate real-world challenges. Each pilot provides a demanding environment to test the framework and demonstrate its value in critical sectors. By making AI security a built-in feature rather than an afterthought, cPAID will help organisations innovate with confidence while protecting users. More than that, cPAID aspires to support Europe's digital autonomy and prepares the ground for compliance with regulations such as the upcoming AI Act and cybersecurity directives, while at the same time, for citizens, making AI secure means safer services, stronger data protection, and greater trust in the AI systems shaping everyday life. More information is available here: https://cpaid.eu/
What is really happening in the '90s category right now?Josh Adams from 90s Auctions joins me to break it down. We talk about healthy growth, why some grails spike and then cool off, and what collectors misunderstand when they look at big comps in isolation.We unpack the recent 1998 Metal Universe Peyton Manning PMG sale and why the PSA 8 brought $24K while BGS copies trailed far behind. Is it a PSA premium? Timing? Platform? Or something deeper about collector cards versus commodity cards?Josh shares how he thinks about patience, consolidation, and why he stops checking comps once a card hits his PC. We also walk through key pieces from his collection, including a 1998 PMG Frank Thomas, 1997 Diamond Dimensions Jordan, and a 1997 Essential Credentials Future Jordan he consolidated heavily to land.If you care about scarcity, availability, and building a collection that lasts, this one is for you.Check out PSA Vault's Spotlight AuctionFollow Andy (@byebyebabycards)Get your free copy of Collecting For Keeps: Finding Meaning In A Hobby Built On HypeStart your 7 day free trial of Stacking Slabs Patreon Today[Distributed on Sunday] Sign up for the Stacking Slabs Weekly Rip Newsletter using this linkFollow Stacking Slabs: | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tiktok ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
n this inspiring episode of Unleashing Intuition Secrets, Michael Jaco welcomes musician, composer, and innovator Daniel Sproul for a powerful conversation about creativity, technology, and the evolving future of music. Daniel shares his remarkable journey from picking up the guitar at just five years old to co-founding the rock band Rose Hill Drive, touring with legendary acts such as Aerosmith and Van Halen, and eventually transitioning into composing music for film, television, and media. He reflects on the lessons learned from life on the road, the discipline behind artistic mastery, and the deeper purpose that has guided his creative path. The conversation also explores Daniel's groundbreaking project Pump Tracks, an innovative platform merging music and cryptocurrency to empower artists with new ways to distribute and monetize their work while offering listeners and traders a meaningful connection between music, technology, and digital assets. Daniel discusses the vision behind the platform, the role of AI and blockchain in the creative space, and how the music industry may evolve in the coming years. Beyond music and technology, Daniel shares insights into family life, homeschooling, and maintaining balance while navigating a rapidly changing digital world. This episode offers listeners an uplifting perspective on innovation, creativity, and the intersection of art and technology in the modern era.
In "Inside the DAT - Convoy Platform Deal: What This Acquisiton Means for the Freight Market", Joe Lynch and Bill Driegert, EVP of Convoy Platform - DAT Freight & Analytics, discuss how the integration of the Convoy Platform's automation and AI technology with DAT's massive freight marketplace will help brokers combat fraud, increase efficiency, and focus on high-value work. About Bill Driegert Bill Driegert is the EVP of Convoy Platform at DAT Freight & Analytics. He was previously the EVP of Trucking at Flexport and the co-founder and Head of Operations at Uber Freight, Uber's logistics business. Bill began his career in freight as the fourth employee at Coyote Logistics (acquired by UPS), where he grew the role to Chief Innovation Officer. Prior to joining Uber, he served as COO at Pillow Homes. He also spent time at Amazon as Director of Planning and Innovation. Bill holds an M.A. in Supply Chain from MIT, an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. from Southern Methodist University. About DAT Freight & Analytics DAT Freight & Analytics operates the DAT One truckload freight marketplace; Convoy Platform, an automated freight-matching technology; DAT iQ analytics service; Trucker Tools load-visibility platform; and Outgo factoring and financial services for truckers. Shippers, transportation brokers, carriers, news organizations, and industry analysts rely on DAT for market trends and data insights, informed by nearly 700,000 daily load posts and a database exceeding $1 trillion in freight market transactions. Founded in 1978, DAT is a business unit of Roper Technologies (Nasdaq: ROP), a constituent of the Nasdaq 100, S&P 500, and Fortune 1000. Headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, DAT continues to set the standard for innovation in the trucking and logistics industry. Visit dat.com for more information. Key Takeaways: Inside the DAT - Convoy Platform Deal: What This Acquisiton Means for the Freight Market In "Inside the DAT - Convoy Platform Deal: What This Acquisiton Means for the Freight Market", Joe Lynch and Bill Driegert, EVP of Convoy Platform - DAT Freight & Analytics, discuss how the integration of the Convoy Platform's automation and AI technology with DAT's massive freight marketplace will help brokers combat fraud, increase efficiency, and focus on high-value work. Solving Major Brokerage Challenges: The acquisition of the Convoy Platform is a strategic move by DAT to help freight brokers tackle significant industry challenges like fraud, the need for increased automation, and the integration of AI. Automation for Efficiency: By integrating the Convoy Platform, DAT aims to automate routine tasks, which will allow brokers to dedicate more time to complex, high-value work, such as building relationships with clients and carriers. Enhanced Fraud Prevention: The deal combines the Convoy Platform's advanced, machine-learning-powered fraud prevention technology with DAT's extensive network and data. This fusion is intended to create a safer and more secure environment for freight transactions. Augmenting the DAT One Platform: The Convoy technology will be incorporated into DAT's flagship product, DAT One. This integration will offer brokers and carriers new automated capabilities while ensuring that the core, familiar functions of the load board remain unchanged. Leveraging Bill Driegert's Expertise: Bill Driegert's background, including his leadership roles at Uber Freight and Coyote Logistics, is a crucial asset for DAT. His experience as a technologist and innovator in the freight industry is key to the successful integration and future development of the Convoy Platform. The Practical Role of AI: The interview clarifies that AI is not just a buzzword but a practical tool for improving freight operations. The technology will be used to enhance decision-making, optimize processes, and increase overall efficiency for the brokers DAT serves. Building a Comprehensive Ecosystem: The Convoy acquisition is part of a larger plan to unify DAT's recent acquisitions, including Trucker Tools and Outgo. The goal is to create a complete, integrated ecosystem that provides solutions for everything from freight matching and payment processing to carrier tracking and automation. Learn More About Inside the DAT - Convoy Platform Deal: What This Acquisiton Means for the Freight Market Bill Driegert | Linkedin DAT Freight & Analytics | Linkedin DAT DAT - Convoy Platform Convoy Platform - DAT DAT + The Convoy Platform: A new chapter in our marketplace evolution Infographic: Modernize your brokerage MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics with Chris Caplice Navigating Market Uncertainty with Sarah Bertram A Trillion Dollars in Freight Transactions with Ken Adamo DAT iQ: The Metrics that Matter with Samuel Parker Taking the Uncertainty and Risk Out of Freight with Erika Voss The Logistics of Logistics Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a positive review, subscribe, and share it with your friends and colleagues. The Logistics of Logistics Podcast: Google, Apple, Castbox, Spotify, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Tunein, Podbean, Owltail, Libsyn, Overcast Check out The Logistics of Logistics on Youtube
OpenAI launched ads this week, making ChatGPT the newest canvas for advertising. But not before its biggest competitor, Anthropic, lambasted the decision in a Super Bowl ad.
In a podcast recorded at ITEXPO / MSP EXPO, Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, spoke with Krishna Balusu of Meta Platforms about how large-scale digital platforms are using AI agents to improve reliability, performance, and operational resilience behind the scenes. Balusu explained that Meta is actively deploying internal AI agents—designed not for end users, but for developers and operations teams—to identify and troubleshoot platform issues automatically. These agents, part of an internal system known as Opsmate, monitor performance signals such as slow load times or degraded user experiences and work to identify root causes without requiring immediate human intervention. “It's almost like hiring an employee whose job is to retrace the steps a human engineer would take to find the root cause of a problem,” Balusu said, describing how the system reduces operational load on engineering teams. Rather than being self-healing in a purely heuristic sense, Balusu noted that modern platforms face constant change—from weekly application updates and operating system revisions to sudden spikes in traffic driven by global events. AI agents provide a flexible way to reason across many possible variables in real time, proactively isolating issues and accelerating resolution. These agents are already in use on Facebook and Messenger, with broader expansion planned over time. Looking ahead, Balusu suggested that this operational use of AI represents an early stage of a broader shift in software development. As AI systems take on more coding, diagnostics, and analysis tasks, engineers increasingly act as orchestrators and decision-makers rather than line-by-line developers. “We're moving toward a world where engineers manage AI agents instead of writing and reviewing code themselves,” he said, highlighting how agentic AI is reshaping the future of large-scale platform engineering. Visit https://www.meta.com/technologies/
Starfield is one of the most cinematic games Bethesda's ever shipped… so why haven't we seen much machinima from it? Today we're looking at a mod that might finally crack that open: a fully built settlement with lore, characters, quests, and surprisingly strong voice acting, presented with a “lore trailer” that feels like a slice-of-life tour through a corporate-controlled mining town. We'll break down what it gets right, what it's missing as machinima, and why projects like this might be the new bridge between fandom and professional virtual production.Starfield has been sitting there looking cinematic… and creators have mostly not used it for machinima. In this ep, we dig into a standout exception by @team fire: an ambitious settlement + narrative mod (Arinya / Yeltsin Corp vibe) that ships with voice acting, lore, quests, factions, and “paid mod” ambitions - plus what that could mean for machinima, virtual production workflows, and the future of creator-made expansions.We dive into one of the most ambitious Starfield mod creations we've seen: a new settlement with lore, characters, quests, factions, and fully voiced performances. Why this works:· It's a real Starfield creation with serious craft (environment dressing, lore framing, VO credits).· It tees up a bigger convo: “mods as mini-studios,” machinima as a portfolio path (again), and whether Starfield can become a true machinima platform.· It has stakes: paid creations, bugs/beta realities, Bethesda updates potentially reshaping the ecosystem.Timestamps -01:05 Damien's pick: the Starfield settlement mod + why it caught our eye 03:10 What the trailer shows: Arinya, prefab-built scale, and “lived-in” set dressing 05:25 Lore + story hooks: corporation control, unrest, factions, player choice 07:45 Machinima critique: why it works as a “lore trailer” (and what's missing) 10:05 Camera language: sweeping establishes vs character/coverage (tools or style?) 12:35 Voice acting & credits: why human performance changes the feel 15:10 Ambition vs reality: beta bugs, updates, and building a team 18:05 Paid mod potential: bridge between free mods and official-style expansions 21:10 Mods as career pipeline: machinima exodus parallels + mod-to-studio pathways 24:05 Starfield updates/DLC: risk of breaking mods vs reviving interest 26:35 What this could mean for Starfield as a machinima platform 28:40 Viewer question: have you played it / what Starfield machinima should we cover? Credits –Hosts: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy HarwoodProducer/Editor: Phil RiceMusic: Phil Rice and Suno AI
Our open discussion -- we are still working through these ideas -- on how F1 has rapidly evolved from a (mostly) European sport into a global platform with multiple massive revenue-generating ecosystems. New fortunes will be made and new personalities will shine through. It's like private equity, but in reverse. Instead of extracting every resource, today's F1 is enabling thousands of new opportunities to flourish. We also share our thoughts on a potential "F1 World" -- like Disney World, but for Formula 1. Sim race alongside a Charles Leclerc avatar. Enjoy a non-alcoholic beverage at Lewis Hamilton's bar. Drive Sao Paulo Grand in the rain. Text Brian or PatrickAnd as always, thank you for listening to everybody's most beloved father and son F1 podcast!
Guest post by Martin McMahon Ireland's new journalism funding schemes are sold as a boost for pluralism, innovation, and public-interest reporting. Administered by Coimisiún na Meán, they allocate millions of euro across digital, print, radio, and podcast projects. On paper, it reads like a sensible intervention in a fragile media ecosystem. But look closely at the rules, and a different pattern emerges. The key gate is eligibility. Funding is restricted to new projects only. That sounds neutral even encouraging innovation. In practice, it excludes the very outlets that have already done the hard work: building audiences slowly, developing trust over years, and producing consistent investigative or public-interest journalism. A podcast that has run independently for five years, cultivated a loyal following, and held power to account is ineligible. A brand-new series launched by a national broadcaster or media chain qualifies automatically. Continuity, under this design, becomes a liability. Large media organisations are structurally advantaged by this model. They already own studios, employ producers, control distribution, and can redeploy salaried staff internally. For them, launching a "new" podcast can be little more than a branding exercise. The marginal cost is low, the compliance infrastructure is already in place, and the administrative burden of grant reporting is routine. Independent podcasters operate under entirely different conditions. They build audiences incrementally. They rely on consistency rather than launch cycles. Their survival depends on longevity, not novelty. Yet the funding rules reward churn, launch, claim funding, conclude, rather than durable journalism. The schemes also require applicants to be regulated entities or partnered with one. That effectively privileges organisations already inside formal regulatory structures, while freelancers and small independents must align themselves with established outlets to gain access. Platform-neutrality in theory becomes entity-selectivity in practice. Compliance requirements, transcripts, accessibility deliverables, reporting metrics, public portal uploads are not inherently unreasonable. But they function as a moat. Large organisations absorb them as overhead. Smaller operators experience them as strain. The result is predictable: funding flows toward those already institutionally secure. None of this requires bad faith. No editor receives instructions. No voice is formally silenced. Instead, the architecture of the scheme produces a steady, measurable effect. Incumbency is reinforced. Stability outside the system is penalised. Independence becomes harder to sustainwithout alignment. This is not censorship in the traditional sense. It is something subtler: structural selection. Thedesign of eligibility rules quietly determines which media models are viable and which must struggle on the margins. If the goal is pluralism, the question is unavoidable: does a "new-projects-only" model expand the range of independent voices or does it simply subsidise production activity within existing media hierarchies? Public funding shapes markets. The shape it produces here deserves closer scrutiny. See more stories here.
Reel Talk #10 is happening on Saturday, February 21. If you're in the New York area, join me and North Carolina rapper Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon for a screening of the T.I.-starring classic ATL, followed by an interview and audience Q&A. Doors at 6, film starts at 7. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased here via Posh or at the door the day-of. This iteration of Reel Talk operates on sliding scale admission, so if price is an issue, please message me directly and we can figure it out. If you'd like to see full video of this and other episodes, join the Reel Notes Patreon at the Homie ($5/month) tier or higher. Each episode is also available to buy individually for $5 (Buy it through a web browser and not the Patreon app. You'll get charged extra if you purchase through the app.) You also get early access to episodes, an invite to our Discord server, access to the Reel Talk archives, and more! My guest for the season 6 premiere is DC rapper, producer, and visual artist Obii Say. We spoke about The Platform, Menace II Society, rewatching hood classics once you get older, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, his love-hate relationship with making music over a nearly 20-year career, how working in visual art inspires his raps and beats, forging a relationship with Chuck Strangers, and the creative process behind his latest album Public Access Television, available now exclusively on Bandcamp. Come fuck with us. Public Access Television is available exclusively on Obii's Bandcamp. Follow Obii on Twitter and Instagram (@obiisay) and check out his artwork on the Loudmouth website. Reel Notes stands in solidarity with American immigrants against ICE and the oppressed peoples of Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Tigray, and Haiti. Please consider donating to the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, The Palestinian Youth Movement, The Zakat Foundation, HealAfrica, FreeTigray, and/or Hope For Haiti. Protest, fight back, and fuck the system. My first book, Reel Notes: Culture Writing on the Margins of Music and Movies, is available now, via 4 PM Publishing. Order a digital copy on Amazon. Follow me on Instagram (@cinemasai), Twitter (@CineMasai_), TikTok (@cinemasai), Letterboxd (@CineMasai), and subscribe to my weekly Nu Musique Friday newsletter to stay tapped in to all things Dylan Green. Follow Hearing Things at hearingthings.co or @hearingthingsco on all social platforms.
Welcome back to Ditch the Labcoat for our 100th episode. Today we tackle a challenge that touches millions yet remains widely misunderstood: falls and balance loss in aging adults.Host Dr. Mark Bonta sits down with Dan Metcalfe, Founder and CEO of Born SuperHuman and Total Balance Company, to challenge the dangerous assumption that falling is just "part of getting older." They reveal how falls are actually the number one cause of death in older adults, not because bodies weaken, but because the brain-to-body connection deteriorates when we stop challenging our neurological systems. Dan shares groundbreaking insights from training over 70,000 people, explaining why traditional strength training misses the mark and how proper balance work can add eight years of quality life.Drawing from his own journey from paralysis after a stage accident to competing in Ironman races following partial brain death, Dan explains the neuroscience behind balance, fear, and movement. He breaks down how the cerebellum, the pyramis, and neuroplasticity work together, why "muscle memory" is actually neuron memory, and how mental rehearsal can be as powerful as physical practice. Most importantly, he offers practical, accessible strategies anyone can use to prevent falls and reclaim independence.Dr. Metcalfe shares transformative stories, from Bob Eubanks going from wheelchair-bound to running at 79, to his own mother returning to line dancing after a stroke. They explore why static balance tests fail us, how fear creates the very falls we're trying to avoid, and why playing like a kid again might be the most powerful longevity tool we're ignoring.If you've ever worried about losing your independence, watched a loved one shuffle in fear, or wondered whether aging really means slowing down, you won't want to miss this evidence-based, hope-filled conversation.Dan Metcalfe's Links : http://totalbalancecompany.com/ & https://bornsuperhuman.com/Episode Takeaways1. Falls Are Preventable, Not Inevitable – Falls are the number one cause of death in older adults, but they're caused by lost brain-body connection, not aging itself.2. Balance Is Brain-Led, Not Body-Built – Traditional strength training misses the point. Balance comes from neurological pathways, not muscle strength.3. Muscle Memory Doesn't Exist – What we call muscle memory is actually neuron memory. The brain fires signals to muscles through repetitive neural pathways.4. Fear Creates the Falls We're Trying to Avoid – The pyramis in the cerebellum holds movement fear memories, causing the cautious shuffle that increases fall risk.5. Static Balance Tests Are Misleading – Standing on one leg without moving only uses three brain regions. Real balance requires dynamic movement engaging 18+ brain areas.6. Better Balance Adds Eight Years of Quality Life – French study of 1,300 women proved those in the top 30% for balance lived eight years longer with better function.7. Play Like a Kid to Age Well – Swinging, hopping, side-stepping, and playful movement maintain the neurological connections built in childhood.8. We're Born to Heal at Any Age – From Olympic athletes to centenarians, the brain's ability to rewire through neuroplasticity never stops if we challenge it.Episode Timestamps02:03 – Falls: The Silent Epidemic in Aging04:02 – Balance Isn't About Age, It's About Brain Connection06:41 – From Paralysis to Performance: Dan's Story11:39 – The Muscle Memory Myth: It's All Neurons16:40 – The Pyramis and Fear: How Your Brain Stops You26:06 – Visualization and Mental Rehearsal Power33:52 – Prevention Over Treatment: Move Like a Kid Again50:54 – Born to Heal: Unlocking Your Superhuman PotentialDISCLAMER >>>>>> The Ditch Lab Coat podcast serves solely for general informational purposes and does not serve as a substitute for professional medical services such as medicine or nursing. It does not establish a doctor/patient relationship, and the use of information from the podcast or linked materials is at the user's own risk. The content does not aim to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and users should promptly seek guidance from healthcare professionals for any medical conditions. >>>>>> The expressed opinions belong solely to the hosts and guests, and they do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Hospitals, Clinics, Universities, or any other organization associated with the host or guests. Disclosures: Ditch The Lab Coat podcast is produced by (soundsdebatable.com) and is independent of Dr. Bonta's teaching and research roles at McMaster University, Temerty Faculty of Medicine and Queens University.
When you have a big vision but zero “formal” experience in the space, do you move forward anyway? In this powerful episode of She Believed She Could Podcast, host Allison Walsh sits down with serial entrepreneur Rebecca Matchett to talk about how she has repeatedly built successful companies by trusting her instincts, solving real problems, and building the right team around her.From co-founding iconic fashion brand Alice + Olivia, to reinventing women's sizing with TrioFit, to now launching Synchrony, an AI guided social app designed specifically for neurodivergent adults, Rebecca's journey is a masterclass in mission driven entrepreneurship. She shares how she moved from fashion to tech, why she believes lack of “traditional” experience can actually be an advantage, and what it really takes to bring a vision to life in a totally new industry.You will hear a candid conversation about trusting others with your ideas, navigating app development as a non technical founder, handling missteps as learning experiences, and staying anchored in your why when the path ahead feels unclear. If you have a mission on your heart but feel intimidated by everything you do not know yet, this episode will encourage you to take the next right step.In this episode, you will learn:How Rebecca went from co founding Alice + Olivia to building tech and AI enabled solutionsThe story behind Synchrony and how it supports neurodivergent adults who struggle with isolation and lonelinessWhy not having prior experience in an industry can help you see fresh solutions and gaps in the marketPractical ways to move through perfectionism and analysis paralysis so you can actually launchHow to build a trustworthy team around your vision and navigate the risk of outsourcing developmentWhy mission, focus, and taking one small step at a time matter more than a perfect long term planWhat confidence really means when the outcome is not guaranteed Connect with Rebecca:LinkedIn: @joinsynchronyWebsite: joinsynchrony.com
OpenAI's twin initiatives to monetize ChatGPT's free tier through ads and launch the Frontier enterprise agent platform represent a shift in the AI provider's business model, with substantial implications for compliance and operational governance. Free and low-cost ChatGPT users will now see sponsored links unless they opt to reduce daily usage; only customers paying $20 or more per month retain an ad-free experience. OpenAI is concurrently marketing Frontier to enterprise clients such as HP, Intuit, and Uber, offering AI agent orchestration and deploying a team of consultants to support custom AI applications. The company projects enterprise revenue will constitute 50% of its income by year-end, up from 40% the prior month.Operating in both the consumer funnel and the enterprise layer, OpenAI combines top-of-funnel data monetization with vertical integration of services. The ad-supported free tier raises compliance concerns, as user interactions become subject to additional data collection and monetization. For organizations, this means enforcement decisions around whether and how employees may use free AI tools in regulated or sensitive environments. The more consequential development, however, is the introduction of enterprise agent orchestration through Frontier, where questions persist regarding liability, governance, production stability, and how organizations are protected from errors committed by autonomous agents.Related market movements include Anthropic's release of Claude Opus 4.6—which enables multi-agent collaboration with context windows up to 1 million tokens—and Microsoft's planned shift for Windows to a signed-by-default trust model. Anthropic's enhancements to agent functionality remain constrained by key gaps, such as conflict arbitration mechanisms, rollback procedures, and documented cost models, and the expanded context remains limited to beta testers. Microsoft's strategy to enforce signed apps by default mirrors iOS's approach to application trust, but its operational viability depends on how override mechanisms are managed by both users and IT administrators. Additional developments in backup, asset management, and AI governance (as seen with NinjaOne, JumpCloud, and Zoom) reflect a general trend towards increased integration and platform consolidation, though with ongoing gaps in security and compliance as AI adoption accelerates.The practical takeaway for MSPs and IT service leaders is the need to re-evaluate policies around free AI tool usage, invest in governance and auditability for enterprise AI, and prepare operational systems for stricter software trust and exception management requirements. Structural changes in software security and AI orchestration are transferring costs and risks from incident response to ongoing policy enforcement and exception handling. Those offering AI services should prioritize model-agnostic governance and avoid reliance on a single vendor's automation layer, as vertical integration by platform providers is reducing the defensibility of narrow service offerings.Four things to know today:00:00 OpenAI Adds Ads to Free ChatGPT; Launches Frontier Platform for Enterprise Agents04:07 Anthropic Ships Opus 4.6 Agent Teams; Model Found 500 Zero-Days in Testing06:43 Microsoft Announces Signed-App-Only Mode for Windows 11; Phased Rollout Planned10:19 NinjaOne Adds Asset Management; Zoom Launches AI Workspace Tool; JumpCloud Opens VC ArmThis is the Business of Tech. Supported by: CometBackup IT Service Provider University
This week on Next in Media, I sat down with Matt Spiegel, EVP of Marketing Solutions Growth Strategies at TransUnion, to unpack one of the most pressing questions in advertising right now: what's actually changed since cookies started disappearing and privacy laws started piling up? And just as importantly, what hasn't changed? Matt brings a refreshingly practical perspective to the conversation, explaining how disconnected data infrastructure remains the biggest obstacle for most brands, even as everyone races to adopt AI-powered marketing. He breaks down why walled gardens still have an inherent advantage, how signal loss is forcing marketers to rethink their strategies, and why the industry's obsession with the "easy button" might be holding progress back.We also tackled some uncomfortable truths about where the industry is headed. Matt shared his thoughts on agentic advertising and whether bots will really replace media planners, the noisy MarTech landscape that's overwhelming CMOs, and why he believes the next economic downturn could trigger massive layoffs in marketing and advertising. Throughout our conversation, Matt emphasized that while the tools and technology are evolving rapidly, the fundamentals of good marketing haven't changed. It's about understanding your customers, connecting your data, and applying that intelligence at scale. This is a conversation for anyone trying to make sense of the chaos in modern marketing, wondering how to navigate identity resolution in a post-cookie world, or just trying to figure out which AI tools are actually worth the hype._______________________________________________________Key Highlights
The salient point of this podcast episode revolves around the profound exploration of freedom, particularly as experienced by veterans upon their return from combat. We delve into the juxtaposition of life within the protective confines of the military and the harsh realities faced in combat zones, emphasizing the stark contrast in the perception and appreciation of freedom that veterans experience. The discourse further elaborates on the myriad challenges veterans encounter, including the difficulties in transitioning back to civilian life and the struggle to maintain personal relationships amid the chaos of reintegration. Additionally, we highlight the invaluable support provided by veteran organizations, which endeavor to assist those who have served in navigating their post-service lives. Through this episode, we aim to shed light on the intricate tapestry of experiences that combat veterans endure, fostering a deeper understanding and empathy within the broader community.Takeaways:The podcast serves as a platform for veterans to share their stories and experiences.Various nonprofit organizations are highlighted, providing crucial support to veterans in need.The discussion emphasizes the importance of mental health and community support for veterans.Personal anecdotes illustrate the transformative nature of military service and the challenges faced during reintegration into civilian life.The episode discusses the concept of freedom from the perspective of veterans returning from combat zones.Listeners are encouraged to engage with veteran support organizations to foster understanding and assistance.Resources & Contact:Linktree: https://linktr.ee/aqseibert
Scott and Wes break down how they built SynHax, the real-time CSS Battle app powering the upcoming Mad CSS tournament. From SvelteKit and Zero to diffing algorithms, sync conflicts, and a last-minute hackweek glow-up, this one's a deep dive into shipping ambitious web apps fast. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 00:50 March Mad CSS Tournament. 03:19 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 03:59 What the heck is a CSS Battle? 05:34 The tech stack. 06:30 Svelte Kit. 06:44 Zero Sync. Zero Docs Zero Svelte. 07:32 Drizzle. 07:58 Supabase. 08:23 Graffiti. 10:45 Sync Server. 12:10 Cloudflare Workers. 12:23 Local File System. 13:26 How Zero Works. 13:48 Zero Sync Client. 15:39 API server. 19:34 Dealing with states and conflicts. 24:25 The Hackweek Project. 25:29 The Diffing Algorithm. 35:22 The bugs. Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads
We unpack how AI finally lets marketers count what matters, why attribution is broken across platforms, and how to use behavioral insight and benchmarking to choose better bets. We share a simple playbook: listen in niche communities, test in organic, scale what pops, and measure outcomes not vanity.• AI compressing the cost of data integration and analysis• Platform bias, privacy limits and pixel gaps in attribution• Traffic down, leads up as signal quality improves• Behavioral personas outperforming demographic personas• Niche communities seeding mainstream trends with delay• Organic as a testbed to inform paid investments• Benchmarking growth against the category, not just yourself• Operational discipline for clean data and controlled spend• Directional signals over false precision to act fasterGuest Contact Information: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/charliegrinnellWebsite: rightmetric.coInstagram: instagram.com/charliegrinnellTwitter/X: x.com/CharlieGrinnellMore from EWR and Matthew:Leave us a review wherever you listen: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Amazon PodcastFree SEO Consultation: www.ewrdigital.com/discovery-callWith over 5 million downloads, The Best SEO Podcast has been the go-to show for digital marketers, business owners, and entrepreneurs wanting real-world strategies to grow online. Now, host Matthew Bertram — creator of LLM Visibility™ and the LLM Visibility Stack™, and Lead Strategist at EWR Digital — takes the conversation beyond traditional SEO into the AI era of discoverability. Each week, Matthew dives into the tactics, frameworks, and insights that matter most in a world where search engines, large language models, and answer engines are reshaping how people find, trust, and choose businesses. From SEO and AI-driven marketing to executive-level growth strategy, you'll hear expert interviews, deep-dive discussions, and actionable strategies to help you stay ahead of the curve. Find more episodes here: youtube.com/@BestSEOPodcastbestseopodcast.combestseopodcast.buzzsprout.comFollow us on:Facebook: @bestseopodcastInstagram: @thebestseopodcastTiktok: @bestseopodcastLinkedIn: @bestseopodcastConnect With Matthew Bertram: Website: www.matthewbertram.comInstagram: @matt_bertram_liveLinkedIn: @mattbertramlivePowered by: ewrdigital.comSupport the show
What does it look like to turn an idea into a message, a message into a signature talk, and a signature talk into a published book?In this episode, I sit down with Thought Leader Academy graduate Melania Murphy to talk about her powerful journey from spark to spotlight. Over the past couple of years, I've watched Melania take a deeply personal idea and transform it into a compelling signature talk—and now, a published book. If you've ever dreamed of sharing your message on a bigger stage or turning your ideas into a book, this conversation will show you what's possible.Melania's new book, Bound by Love, Not Tradition, explores married name choices and how women can make intentional decisions that reflect their identity, values, and partnership. But this episode isn't just about names—it's about voice, courage, and claiming your message.We talk about why so many people stay stuck in the idea phase, how Melania found the confidence to speak without hiding behind slides, and how her signature talk became the blueprint for her book. You'll hear how storytelling, structure, and clarity helped her move from logic-heavy content to a message that truly resonates with audiences.We also dive into the realities of publishing—what it takes to bring a book to life, how platform-building matters, and why promotion starts long before launch day.In this episode, you'll learn:How to move from idea → signature talk → bookWhy your message becomes clearer when you speak it out loudHow storytelling builds confidence and audience connectionThe role your signature talk can play in shaping your thought leadershipWhat really happens behind the scenes of publishing and promoting a bookIf you've been sitting on an idea—maybe for months or even years—consider this your nudge. Your message doesn't have to stay in your head. It can become your talk, your platform, and maybe even your book.About My Guest: Melania Murphy is a writer, speaker, and author of "Bound by Love, Not Tradition: Empowering Women Through Married Name Choices." With a degree in applied behavioral science, she enjoys blending storytelling with research to explore identity, relationships, and the traditions that shape our choices. She's been a journalist for over 20 years and is a frequent guest on podcasts discussing the deeply personal and culturally complex issue of married name choices.Links:Show notes at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/459/Get Melania's book "Bound by Love, Not Tradition: Empowering Women Through Married Name Choices”: https://www.amazon.com/Bound-Love-Not-Tradition-Empowering/dp/0960132309/ Melania's website: https://www.melaniajoy.com/ Discover your Speaker Archetype by taking our free quiz at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/quiz/Enroll in our Thought Leader Academy: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/academy/ Attend our 1-day in-person Speaking Accelerator workshop in Orlando: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/orlando/ Connect on LinkedIn:Carol Cox = https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolcoxMelania Murphy (guest) = https://www.linkedin.com/in/melania-joy-murphy-28504263/ Related Podcast Episodes:Episode 458: Same Message, Different Medium, Different Strategy with Carol CoxEpisode 407: Building Your Speaking Platform as an Author (Even If You're an Introvert!) with Tiffany Hawk
Show Notes: Angie Lu highlights her background as a McKinsey alum and founder of CasewithAI. Angie explains that CasewithAI is an AI-powered platform designed to help with case interviews, providing practice cases and drills. The platform offers objective feedback to improve case performance. Angie mentions starting a YouTube channel during COVID-19, which led to a high demand for consulting tips and coaching. The Development of CasewithAI Angie discusses the inspiration behind CasewithAI, including the success of Chat PRD, an AI tool for product managers. She explains the decision to build an AI-assisted platform to help more people and learn more about AI. Angie emphasizes her passion for building products and combining it with her curiosity about AI. The conversation turns to the success of Angie's YouTube channel, mentioning specific videos with high view counts. Demonstration of CasewithAI Angie walks through the homepage of CasewithAI, explaining its features and benefits. Angie describes the key challenges of case interviews, such as finding the right case partners and consistent feedback. The platform offers affordable quality coaching and allows users to practice at any time. Angie demonstrates the user interface, showing how to start a free practice session and select specific drills. Market Size and Pricing Market Sizing Drill Practice Angie explains the market sizing drill, describing it as a mini case that requires creating an approach, calculations, and insights.She discusses the pricing options, including pay-as-you-go credits and monthly subscriptions. Angie highlights the affordability of the platform, comparing it to the high cost of hiring a private coach. The platform offers a free trial with three case examples to allow users to fully experience the product before purchasing. The Feedback Features Angie demonstrates the detailed feedback provided by the platform, explaining the rating system and criteria. The feedback includes strengths, areas for improvement, and specific recommendations for each question. Angie introduces the progressive feedback mode, which is perfect for beginners and provides guided practice. The platform offers a real-life interview simulation mode, where users can practice with an AI interviewer. AI Interviewer The Building Process Angie shares the process of building the platform, starting with a simple MVP and quickly iterating based on user feedback. The small, nimble team used AI tools to prototype and improve the platform quickly. Angie emphasizes the importance of training the AI model to provide accurate and detailed feedback. The platform's success is attributed to a combination of product development and effective marketing strategies. Promoting CasewithAI Online Angie discusses the various marketing channels used to promote CasewithAI, including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Chinese social media sites. The platform also engages with users on Reddit and through university partnerships. Angie highlights the importance of marketing in making users aware of the product and its benefits. The platform's visibility on search engines like Google and AI-powered answer engines contributes to its lead generation. Future Applications of CasewithAI Angie talks about the potential of AI tools like CasewithAI in various professional development areas. Angie sees the platform's application beyond consulting, including tech, operations, and product management roles. The tool could also be used for training frontline managers and employees in other industries. Angie emphasizes the importance of AI in encoding tacit knowledge and providing detailed feedback for continuous improvement. Timestamps: 02:13: Development of CasewithAI 04:54: Demo of CasewithAI Platform 07:10: Market Sizing Drill and Pricing 12:29: Detailed Feedback and Progressive Feedback Mode 21:53: Building and Iterating the Platform 23:57: Marketing and User Engagement 24:31: Future of AI in Education and Professional Development Links: Website: CasewithAI.com This episode on Umbrex: https://umbrex.com/?post_type=unleashed&p=243677&preview=true Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com. *AI generated timestamps and show notes.