Podcasts about questions are

Paul McDonald and Jay Heck conclude the series on the Lord of the Rings with The Return of the King (2003) starring Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, and Orlando Bloom (among many others!). The story of The Lord of the Rings sets a vision for who we could be as men. We see that through testing and pain, our growth is possible and our true selves are revealed. For all the armies, politics, strength, and wisdom, the fate of the world depends on the small battle for our hearts. Join us as we discover our stories in this movie! Questions Are there things going on in my story and my world that I don't understand? What will you do when faced with evil? Where does the larger story invite you? How can we manage to do anything great? What identity must be put aside to become who you were called to be? What doubts do you face when invited to become who you were born to be? What kind of man do you want to be? What words describe that man? Have you asked God what He thinks of you? What words does He use? How does He see you? Spend some time listening (and be sure it aligns with what the Bible says). What vision do you have for your life? Where did it come from? About Jay Jay Heck is married to Heather, with son Baer (18 and off to college in a few weeks) and daughter Bozlie (17). He is the Director/Founder of Being Sons, an "Outfitter" of the masculine soul. God changed Jay when He invited him to follow the rabbit hole of identity as His son, and that changed everything. Now he creates content and adventures to help men discover their identities as sons. Read more about Being Sons at their website: www.beingsons.com Check out the Being Sons Podcast Subscribe to the Being Sons YouTube channel - short videos to illuminate sonship Adventures include: Boot Camps (for men only) First Tracks (1-on-1 adventures for father + sons 9-13) First Bloom (1-on-1 adventures for father + younger daughter) Trailhead (1-on-1 adventure for father + sons 14+) Edited and mixed by Grayson Foster (https://graysonfoster.com/) Audio quotes performed by Britt Mooney, Paul McDonald, and Tim Willard, taken from Epic (written by John Eldredge) and Song of Albion (written by Stephen Lawhead). Southerly Change performed by Zane Dickinson, used under license from Shutterstock

Join Pastor Plek and Pastor Joseph Aiken as they discuss the two witnesses in Revelation 11.Questions: Are the two witnesses actual people or is it more a picture of the church or a group of people? They have similarities to Moses and Elijah so are they like them?

IMAGE, Episode 3 from May 30, 2021Big Idea: “God sends us as ambassadors of His kingdom to every nation.”Exodus 20:1-17, Isaiah 30:1-5, Isaiah 31:1-7, Romans 13:1-8 by Michael Lockstampfor (@miklocks)Questions:Are we too quick to forget God is in charge of the nations? Is Yahweh king over our social and political life?Will we honor God and love our neighbors with every gift from Him?Additional resources:Read Exodus 20Read Isaiah 30 Read Isaiah 31 Read Romans 13 God is in control of the nations (Psalm 2) We are citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20-21) Audio VideoLinksVisit our WebsiteWatch the video on YoutubeFollow our InstagramLike us on FacebookMusic by Blue Dot SessionsImages courtesy of Free Bible ImagesPresentation

Glory Through Anguish, Episode 3 from April 18, 2021Big Idea: "Jesus was remained steadfast through a completely unjust trial."Luke 22:63-23:25 by Michael Lockstampfor (@miklocks)Questions:Are we closed off to what God would teach us?To whom do we look to decide what is right and just?Additional resources:Read Luke 22 Read Luke 23Audio VideoLinksVisit our WebsiteWatch the video on YoutubeFollow our InstagramLike us on FacebookMusic by Blue Dot SessionsImages courtesy of Free Bible ImagesPresentation

READ: Ephesians 4.22-24 NLT 'Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.' Do you like change? If I’m honest I have a love hate relationship with change and I suspect we’re all a bit like that. There is much about life that is comfortable and congenial and I would be happy if it stayed the way it is, but there are other things that I would be happy to change in an instant. In these verses Paul confronts us with the fact that, as Easter people, we need to get used to the fact that God is looking for revolutionary change in our lives. And he wants that because his desire is that our lives should be completely blessed, and not merely an improvement on what they used to be. This process of change is so radical that it has to start in our thoughts. Only if God can renew our thinking will any real change take place in our actions. I know that this could sound ultimately scary. But when we realise that God is motivated by perfect love and that his intentions are that we should reach our true potential we can be completely confident as we place ourselves in his hands. God’s amazing intention is that our new nature should be just like his. So we need have no apprehensions about the changes that God wants to see in our lives. They will all be for the best in every possible way. Since God is holy and perfectly loving it might seem sensible if he were to impose his changes on us. But God is always unwilling to do that. The decision always lies with us. And that’s why Paul uses the language of changing clothes. God looks to us to throw off the old suit of clothes. He wants us to make the deliberate decision that we want to change our way of life before he will give us a wonderful new suit of clothes to put on. In his love he lets us decide. QUESTIONS: Are you willing to let God change your attitudes and thoughts? PRAYER: Dear Lord, thank you that you only ever ask me to change because of your perfect love for me. Amen

Glory Through Anguish, Episode 2 from April 11, 2021Big Idea: "Jesus shows His grace to the guilty by willingly suffering their merciless execution."Luke 23:26-56 by Michael Lockstampfor (@miklocks)Questions:Are we so offended at warnings that we disregard their wisdom? What do we conclude about Jesus when we consider His execution?How will we honor Jesus “this Tuesday?”Additional resources:Read Luke 23Jesus lifted the full weight of our sin (Hebrews 4:14-16) Audio VideoLinksVisit our WebsiteWatch the video on YoutubeFollow our InstagramLike us on FacebookMusic by Blue Dot SessionsImages courtesy of Joel Milhouse & UnsplashPresentation

Journey Together, Episode 4 from February 28, 2021Big Idea: "True strength is humbly following Jesus all together."Philippians 2:5-18 by Michael Lockstampfor (@miklocks)Questions:Are we the only beneficiaries of our faith?Are we reverently troubleshooting our faith?Do we journey together with others who are pointing to Jesus?Additional resources:Read Philippians 2 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding.” (Psalm 111) Audio VideoLinksVisit our WebsiteWatch the video on YoutubeFollow our InstagramLike us on FacebookMusic by Blue Dot SessionsImages courtesy of UnsplashVisuals

To watch this episode, please visit Rachel’s YouTube channel. Listeners can find Melissa Paris at her website https://www.melissaparisfitness.com/, and on Instagram @melissaparisfitness. Melissa earned certifications in personal training from the National Academy of Sports Medicine, pre and postnatal, CES, integrated flexibility training, and the TRX system. Melissa has competed in many of the bikini divisions of the National Physique Committee. In order to achieve her optimal physical goals for the competition, she went against the grain of traditional dieting ie: whey protein powders, fat burners, carb-cutting, etc. She incorporated techniques from her unique and healthy lifestyle: an all-natural, organic approach to her nutrition regimen. Melissa challenges herself and others that there is another way, a healthier way, to reach their maximum potential. Melissa has trained at the exclusive Reebok Sports Club in Manhattan as well as the CORE club and can be seen teaching her classes all over NYC and the Hamptons. Her list of clientele includes some of the most elite entrepreneurs and CEOs in New York City. She works with each client on an individual basis, focusing on achieving long-term results through challenging and varied workouts, as well as focusing on the positive, self-empowerment, and enjoyment aspects of the process. In this episode, we talk about pre-pregnancy nutrition, debunking pregnancy and postpartum fitness myths, how to strengthen your core postpartum, Melissa’s bodybuilding competition experience and more! "Your body is very smart, it works like a pressure system. So, the best thing you can do postpartum is breath work. Your diaphragm and your pelvic floor work together." Melissa Paris Top Takeaways: Three crucial things to implement to prep your body before a baby  Most effective postpartum core workouts  Rule of thumb for how many extra calories you need during pregnancy Reasons seeing a pelvic floor specialist is a must even if cleared for fitness at 6-8 weeks postpartum Today’s Questions: Are there any specific nutrients that you would say to focus on in that prep phase of pregnancy? Are there any deficiencies that you've seen in your practice with women that they need to be aware of before pregnancy or during?  Can you debunk some of the myths that surround training during pregnancy, and what to look out for during specific trimesters? Are there any specific training exercises you should be doing during that 6-week postpartum period? Can you debunk some of the myths around core training at a postpartum stage? Do you have any tips on stretch marks and loose skin postpartum? Can you tell us about your body building competition experience? Were there any pitfalls from your competition experience? Show Notes: [0:00] Welcome back to MetFlex and Chill! Rachel gives a brief summary of today’s episode with guest Melissa Paris [1:30] If you're enjoying the show share it out by screenshotting an episode and tagging @rachelgregory.cns or leave a review on itunes to help grow the show!  [2:00] Rachel introduces Melissa Paris to the listeners! [2:30] Melissa shares how she found her passion within postpartum health/fitness [5:00] Myths around pregnancy and nutrition [7:30] The Zero Trimester [8:00] Question: Are there any specific nutrients that you would say to focus on in that prep phase of pregnancy? [9:00] Question: Have you ever seen or worked with anyone who's suffered from gestational diabetes or anything like that? [11:00] Question: Are there any deficiencies that you've seen in your practice with women that need to be aware of in terms of whether before pregnancy or during pregnancy? [11:30] Vitamin D  [12:00] Question: Can you debunk some of the myths that surround training during pregnancy, and things to look out for during specific trimesters? [16:00] Diastasis recti [19:00] Question: Are there any training exercises you can be doing during that six week postpartum period? [22:00] Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization [22:30] Can you debunk some of the myths around core training at a postpartum stage? [22:30] Turkish Get Up Roll [25:30] Question: Do you have any tips on stretch marks and loose skin postpartum? [27:30] Question: Can you chat about your body building competition experience? [33:30] Question: Were there any pitfalls from your competition experience? [38:30] Iron Maiden [41:00] Question: Is there anything that you've personally changed your mind about in the last year, and why and it can be anything? [44:00] If you want to learn more about Melissa’s programs check her out on Instagram @melissaparisfitness, bells-up.tv and her website https://www.melissaparisfitness.com/ [45:00] If you're enjoying the show share it out by screenshotting an episode and tagging @rachelgregory.cns or leave a review on itunes to help grow the show!  [45:00] Keto For Women DIY program is now live! --- Join the FREE MetFLex Life Course: www.metflexandchill.com Rachel Gregory (@rachelgregory.cns) is a Board-Certified Nutrition Specialist, Strength and Conditioning Specialist, and Author of the best-selling book, 21-Day Ketogenic Diet Weight Loss Challenge. She received her Master’s Degree in Nutrition & Exercise Physiology from James Madison University and Bachelor’s Degree in Sports Medicine from the University of Miami. Rachel helps her clients transform their lives by starting with the physical (body), realizing the power of the mental (mindset), and ultimately gaining massive confidence that bleeds into every aspect of their lives (family, relationships, work, etc.).

Journey Together, Episode 1 from February 7, 2021Big Idea: "No one can follow Jesus alone."Philippians 1:1-11 by Michael Lockstampfor (@miklocks)Questions:Are we grateful for all those Jesus has partnered us with?Will we use our grace-gifts to share the Good News?Does our knowledge increase our love?Additional resources:Read Philippians 1:1-11 The story of the beginning of the church in Philippi (Acts 16) “The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me” (Psalm 138:8) Audio VideoLinksVisit our WebsiteWatch the video on YoutubeFollow our InstagramLike us on FacebookMusic by Blue Dot SessionsImages courtesy of UnsplashVisuals

In our firth Q&A host special, Veronica and Chris jump into your questions! What to look for in the land before you buy? Can you retire with just investment properties? Is buying and building your own home a good idea? How do you know if you're buying the top end of a suburb? High strata cost, what are you paying for? Is there a new incentive to buy sustainable properties?  Questions: “Are there any things a buyer should look for in land besides location and size? If it slopes? Do all new properties decrease in value after build?” “How does buying your own land and building vs house and land packages, and renovation of established?” “Is there a viable option to retire without selling down or without killing the geese that lay the golden eggs? How does one do it before the age of 60 without super and just via property, and without selling down half or most of the properties to get there. I guess that's an episode I'd love to listen to?” “One of the things I would like to hear your views upon is how do you evaluate / research when you are, say buying a market leader property in a suburb ?” “I've noticed when I look in the lower north shore that a lot of properties have high strata, I've heard councils are starting to audit strata run buildings to confirm they are up to fire code etc?” “Do sustainable properties receive a premium on the potential property value? ie: is there any analysis on buyers being willing to pay more for a sustainable product?” RELEVANT EPISODES:Episode 127 | Q&A 3 Episode 99| Archi Blox Episode 98 | Q&A 2  HOST LINKS:Looking for a Sydney Buyers Agent? www.gooddeeds.com.au Work with Veronica: info@gooddeeds.com.au Looking for a Mortgage Broker? www.wealthful.com.auWork with Chris: hello@wealthful.com.au Send in your questions to: questions@theelephantintheroom.com.au EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Please note that this has been transcribed by half-human-half-robot, so brace yourself for typos and the odd bit of weirdness…This episode was recorded in January 2021.

Abide, Episode 2 from January 17, 2021Big Idea: "God’s plan for blessing does not bypass suffering."Acts 3 by Michael Lockstampfor (@miklocks)Questions:Are we prepared to point to the Truth amidst misunderstandings?Will we trust Jesus for true life?Will we stand as witnesses to Jesus’ unmerited kindness?Additional resources:Read Acts 3Jesus walks with His disciples after the resurrection (Luke 24:13-27)Pharisees performance have their reward (Matthew 6:1-18)Suffering for doing what is right (1 Peter 4:12-19)Audio VideoLinksVisit our WebsiteWatch the video on YoutubeFollow our InstagramLike us on FacebookMusic by Blue Dot SessionsImages courtesy of UnsplashVisuals

Akshay Bhargava is the Chief Product Officer at Malwarebytes. Malwarebytes is described as the leading advanced malware prevention and remediation solutions provider. In this role, he leads product organization, guides all Research and Development activities, and drives the company's technology vision/product road map. He previously served as Vice President for Oracle's Cloud Business Group, as a product executive at FireEye, and as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co. Akshay is a board adviser to several tech startups and was named one of The Software Report's Top 25 Software Product Executives of 2020. A proven thought leader, Akshay writes for Forbes Technology Council and is a frequent speaker at industry events. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from MIT Sloan. Some of the takeaways you will get from listening to this interview with Akshay are how to apply a purpose-built framework to product innovation. Akshay is using this for security innovation, but this is a framework that you can apply to any innovation. On LinkedIn, he has a really nice interaction with the CIO and CISO community about this innovation framework. You will also learn about how to remove luck from the innovation process. He is a big proponent of removing luck in the innovation process. Another takeaway is how to align customer pain, feature requests, and customer empathy with purpose in building your products. How to stop responding to endless feature requests and build products. Also discussed is how to prioritize and choose what to do and what not to do with product development. We also talk about the mindfulness and Zen approach to security. There is research that is done that compares users that have been trained in mindfulness versus users who haven't been. There is a stunning 38% decrease in hitting inadvertent malware. Here are some of the things that you will learn in this podcast episode: -Akshay's purpose-built innovation framework. -How to remove luck from the innovation process. -Aligning customer pain and empathy to the purpose of your company. -How to prioritize and choose what to do and what not to do. -Mindfulness and Zen approach to security. -Why purpose, vision, and mission are all closely related. -Why during these unprecedented times, individuals and organizations have an opportunity to practice anti-fragility. -The power of asking the question, "Why?" How to Connect with this Guest: LinkedIn     Akshay’s Purpose-Built Framework   Twitter      Books referenced in podcast: Thinking, Fast and Slow, 1st Edition, By Daniel Kahneman, Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013  The Infinite Game, 1st Edition, By Simon Sinek, Published by Portfolio, 2020  Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, 1st Edition, By David Epstein, Published by Riverhead Books, 2019  Questions Are the Answer: A Breakthrough Approach to Your Most Vexing Problems at Work and in Life, 1st Edition, By Hal Gregersen, Published by Harper Business, 2018  Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, 1st Edition, By Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Published by Random House, 2012  Articles referenced in podcast: Failing Toward Zero: Why Your Security Needs to Fail to Get Better, By Akshay Bhargava, for Dark Reading, 11/27/2020.   Reaching Zen In Cybersecurity, By Akshay Bhargava, for Forbes Technology Council, 9/25/2020.   Takeaways from Five Books Executives Should Read Now, By Akshay Bhargava, for Forbes Technology Council, 10/19/2020    Technologies referenced in podcast:  Malwarebytes  Transcript: You can go to the show notes to get more information about this interview and what we discussed in this episode. Click Here for the full transcript. Leave a Review: Love this episode? Share it with your LinkedIn community here. If you haven’t already, please make sure you leave us a review on iTunes or Stitcher. Not sure how to leave a review? Check out the instructions here. About Bill Murphy: Bill Murphy is a world-renowned IT Security Expert dedicated to your success as an IT business leader.   Follow Bill on LinkedIn and Twitter. If you are interested in learning more about RedZone and our security expertise in particular related to Cloud and Email Security Kill Chain Strategy, Techniques, and Tactics you can email myteam@redzonetech.net.   Music provided by Ben’s Sound: http://www.bensound.com/ Other Ways to Listen to the Podcast: iTunes | Libsyn | Soundcloud | RSS | LinkedIn

Questions and Answers, Answers and Questions… Are some questions worth answering, or are some self-justifiably worth answering? As a human, we sometimes believe that we are entitled to an answer for all our questions… Questions of suffering, of finances, of hatred, and of pain… But what Answers can God keep? Sometimes we believe we are justified to demand all our questions be answered from God. Job kept his focus on God throughout all the trials and tribulations he endured. Is Job an example of Christian behaviour to follow? Join us and discover the answer to that question…

SERIES: GODLY LIVING IN A FOREIGN WORLDMESSAGE: Your Life: Living With the End in MindTEXT: 1 Peter 4:7–11MESSAGE BY: Pastor Tim Lewis 1. Prioritize prayer (V. 7) - Refuse to be distracted. (1 Thes. 5:1–8) - Pursue spiritual discernment. (2 Pet. 3:11) - Questions - What on Earth are you here for? - Why on Earth are you here? - Why has God left you here? - What is it that you can do that no one else can do - What is the mission for your life? - What is the mission for our church? - What place does prayer have in your life? (Eph. 6:18; 1 Thes. 5:17; John 15:7; Zech. 13:9)2. Fervently love (V. 8) - Don’t let your love grow cold. (Rev. 2:2–5) - Let love do its work in your life. (Prov. 10:12) - Questions - How can I love others if I am not in love with the Lord? - How can I love others when they are wrong? - Do you need others to love you? - What hinders us from loving? (1 John 4:7–12) - Demonstrate Christian hospitality (V. 9) - Welcome others into your life and home.3. Don’t complain about serving. (3 John 5–11) - Welcome others into your life and home. - Don’t complain about serving. (3 John 5-11) - Questions - Do you welcome others into your life? - Are you meeting needs with love?Do you have genuine friendships? - Do you have a gracious spirit? - What is the motive of your giving?4. Serve one another as good stewards (V. 10) - God has given you grace to serve others. - Put His gifts to work in your life. - Questions: - How has God gifted you? - How are you serving now? - What hinders you from serving the Lord?5. Do all things for the Glory of God in Jesus (V. 11) - Do your best. - Live seriously. - Be real. - Be dependent on God. - Questions: - Are you living for God’s glory? - Are you giving Him the best of your life? - What will He say to you when your life is finished on Earth?

Topics: Welcoming The Latest Patrons • Patreon Question: When It Comes Choosing Clothes Or Sunglasses, Do You Prefer What Is Most Comfortable Or What Looks Good To Other People? • Tommy’s Dress Code In High School • Movies Tommy Was Too Cool To Watch • Stereo Television • "Stevie Wonder Isn’t Blind?” Follow Up • Responding To More Clips About Stevie Wonder’s Blindness Featuring Moe713 of High Roots TV • Why Haven’t We Seen Stevie Wonder Using A White Cane? • Why Does Stevie Wonder Wear A Wristwatch If He’s Blind? • How Do Blind People Tell Time? • The YouTube Purge and How It Affects This Podcast • Did You Know That Rudy Giuliani Has A YouTube Channel? • Hunter Biden’s Computer Repairman Is Legally Blind • Bill Maher Weighs In On The Legally Blind Computer Repairman • Bruce Willis Reprises Die Hard's John McClane For A Battery Commercial • Laura Wolk, The First Blind Woman To Serve As A Law Clerk on the SCOTUS & Former Student of Amy Coney Barrett • Can of Questions • Are you Blind Or Illegally (Legally) Blind? • Learning How To Stay Out of Trouble As A Teenager • Joe Biden’s Car Horn Rally In Detroit • President Donald Trump’s Dancing vs. Tommy’s Dancing • And More!

Crystal and Mark Victor Hansen show us why asking for help make you appear smarter and more likable. I share my story about asking Mark for help years ago - and how that opened the door to millions of dollars for me. Questions: Are you trying to be self-sufficient? Are you depriving yourself of resources that could transform your success? Have you seen how freely children ask for help? What do you think you “deserve”? What are the roadblocks that are keeping you from asking? What is your responsibility when you ask God for help? Get the direct link to get the free ebook, How To Be Up In Down Times in the show notes at https://www.48days.com/asking-for-help/

Silver Linings, Episode 3 from September 20, 2020 Big Idea: "God wants more for us than just to be near." 1 Samuel 3 by Michael Lockstampfor (@miklocks) Questions Are we ever still enough to be interrupted by God? Will we share what God is doing? How do we receive God's Word?Additional resources:Read 1 Samuel 3God's grace before His judgment (Jeremiah 6:16-19)Audio LinksVisit our WebsiteWatch the video on YoutubeFollow our InstagramLike us on FacebookMusic by Blue Dot SessionsImages courtesy of UnsplashVideoVisuals

He is the Executive Director of the MIT Leadership Center and a Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management where he pursues his vocation of executive teaching, coaching, and research. He is passionate about exploring how leaders in business, government, and society discover provocative new ideas, develop the human and organizational capacity to realize those ideas, and ultimately deliver positive powerful results. Before joining MIT, he taught at INSEAD, London Business School, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, Brigham Young University, and in Finland as a Fulbright Fellow. His most recent book, Questions Are the Answer, delivers insights about the conditions that give rise to catalytic questions and how anyone can create them. His previous book, The Innovator’s DNA (with Jeff Dyer and the late Clayton Christensen), explored where disruptive innovations come from. Join me on this episode of the Curve Benders Podcast with Hal Gregersen. The Way I See It... Finding a Path Forward article can be found in our blog at NourGroup.com/Blog. Don't forget, I turn the show notes from these podcasts into more in-depth articles, so check them out in our Free, Member-Based community, Nour Forum. Join us at NourGroup.com/Forum. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/david-nour/message

While his biography is included here, let me just say how much I enjoyed getting to know the man behind this conversation! Hal Gregersen, I'm so grateful we're connected. Hal Gregersen, PhD, is a senior lecturer in leadership and innovation at MIT's Sloan School of Management, former executive director of the MIT Leadership Center, and a renowned expert on leadership, innovation and creative culture–– dedicating his career to helping companies stay ahead in an accelerating world by teaching them how to implement a culture of inquiry and transform themselves into innovative powerhouses. Gregersen created a repeatable three-step methodology, the Question Burst, by which companies can build better problem solvers and enhance creative impact at all levels. The crux of Gregersen's argument is spelled out in his Nautilus award-winning book (based on 200+ interviews with catalytic questioners like Elon Musk and Orit Gadiesh),“Questions Are the Answer: A Breakthrough Approach to Your Most Vexing Problems at Work and in Life” (Harper Collins, 2018). While people are programmed to look for answers, the real catalyst for disruptive change is questioning. Gregersen argues that leaders can deliberately overhaul and transform cultures to habitually produce pioneering breakthroughs. His Question Burst method, along with other habits of productive inquiry, have helped redesign company cultures at Chanel, Daimler, Danone, Disney·Pixar, Fidelity, Genentech, Patagonia, Salesforce, and the World Economic Forum, among others. Gregersen also co-authored, with Clay Christensen and Jeff Dyer, “The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators” (Harvard Business Review Press, 2019), a guide to cultivating the discovery skills that CEOs and entrepreneurs rely on to build the most innovative companies in the world. Having interviewed 100+ ground-breaking leaders at the world's most innovative companies, including Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Salesforce's Marc Benioff, Gregersen draws on rigorous research (based on a database of +15,000 leaders) to successfully advise the world's largest corporations on transformation challenges. Ranked as one of the world's 20 most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50 and winner of the 2017 Distinguished Achievement Award for leadership, Gregersen regularly delivers thought-provoking, interactive keynotes and workshops and transformational coaching experiences. Along with ten books, Gregersen is the author of over fifty articles, book chapters, and cases on leading innovation and change (with over 10,000 citations by other scholars). His research has been highlighted in media such as BBC, CNN, The Economist, Fast Company, Financial Times, Forbes, Fortune, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. In 2020, Gregersen was named a Top 30 Global Guru.

Our guest on the podcast is Carl Richards, who specializes in conveying sophisticated financial concepts in an easy-to-understand way--specifically, using a Sharpie. Carl is a Certified Financial Planner™ and creator of the Sketch Guy column in The New York Times. He’s also author of two books, The One-Page Financial Plan: A Simple Way to Be Smart About Your Money and The Behavior Gap: Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb Things with Money. In addition, he hosts the “Behavior Gap Radio” podcast and also co-hosts a podcast with financial-planning guru Michael Kitces called “Kitces and Carl.”BackgroundCarl Richards bioCarl Richards' booksCarl Richards articlesCarl Richards “Sketch Guy” column in The New York Times Behavior Gap Radio podcastKitces and Carl podcast“12 Simple Sketches That Perfectly Illustrate the Path to Wealth and Financial Happiness,” by Libby Kane and Libertina Brandt, Business Insider, July 22, 2019.The Behavior Gap“The Behavior Gap,” by Carl Richards. Medium.com. Oct. 18, 2018.“To Avoid the Biggest Investing Mistake, Stay Strong,” by Carl Richards, The New York Times, March 26, 2013.“Yes, Numbers Matter in Financial Decisions, but So Do Emotions,” by Carl Richards, The New York Times, May 8, 2017.Articulating and Achieving Goals“Goals As Guesses,” by Carl Richards, YouTube, Jan. 16, 2018. “The Magic of a Single Micro-Action,” by Carl Richards, The New York Times, Nov. 6, 2017. “A Simple Formula for Making Dreams Come True,” by Carl Richards, Medium.com, June 28, 2018.“Hal Gregersen Interview: Asking the Right Questions,” YouTube.com, April 8, 2018. Questions Are the Answer: A Breakthrough Approach to Your Most Vexing Problems at Work and in Life, by Hal Gregersen, Harper Business, 2018. The Dan Sullivan Question, by Dan Sullivan, The Strategic Coach, 2009. “Your Future Should Be Bigger Than Your Past. Here’s How to Do It,” by Carl Richards, The New York Times, Sept. 14, 2018. “The First (and Last) Step to Financial Satisfaction? Defining ‘Enough’,” by Carl Richards, The New York Times, May 1, 2017.“Setting Aside Shame and Blame in Financial Decisions,” by Carl Richards, The New York Times, Sept. 8, 2015.“How to Talk About Money,” by Carl Richards, The New York Times, Dec. 18, 2018.“Look Inward to Determine Your Financial Values,” by Carl Richards, The New York Times, April 20, 2015. “Where Does the Time Go? You Can Find Out, If You Dare,” by Carl Richards, The New York Times, July 5, 2017.“Seeking More Fun? Examine the Returns on Your Time Investments,” by Carl Richards, The New York Times, July 10, 2017. When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times, by Pema Chodron, Shambhala, 2016.“We Are All Normal,” Meir Statman, Morningstar The Long View podcast, Oct. 30, 2019. Finance for Normal People, by Meir Statman, Oxford University Press, 2019.Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman, FSG Adult, 2013. “The Benefits of Getting an Icy Start to the Day,” by Carl Richards, The New York Times, March 14, 2016.

With everyone and their cat launching a membership site and getting into the whole online learning thing these days, how do YOU intend to stand out? One of the things that has helped us stand out over the years is the Quality Control Bar we set for ourselves with all of our courses, workbooks, online meditations, community posting guidelines and even the way I onboard new clients. Questions: Are you clear about your quality control bar? Have you created posting guidelines and a clear protocol? How do you ensure you maintain a professional, consistent look, feel and experience across the board? Listen to this short lesson from our April 15th Majik Mind. How often have you been on a website, in a membership or watching a video that was poorly put together and something about it made you feel on edge? I get this all the time. If something is not designed well or produced professionally, I immediately get my bullshit detectors out and I lose trust, or at the very least, I lose interest... The bottomline is, if you can create a beautiful & consistent look, feel and experience in your online community, courses or website, then you will minimize chaos, which on a deep, subconscious level will put your members or audience at ease. If people are at ease, they will be more open & receptive to listening, more inspired to stick around and more trusting of what's coming out of your mouth. And ultimately, they will if they enjoy themselves while interacting with your creations, they'll be more likely tell their friends. Join our Majik Media Membership at www.MajikMedia.com

Introduction How was your week? Anything new? From BLOCKS to BADGES (Questions from Fans) Question from EJAY214 on Instagram: Have negative things/ situations being on the job ever affected your families lives when you come home from work and what advice can you give your fellow LEO’s in dealing with stuff like that. I know sometimes I myself get home and I’m not the same person after experiencing terrible at work. Silverback Chronicles News from Police One.com Back Story: 2 Maryland LEO’s assigned to US Marshalls task force were shot, suspect killed. Officials says the officers sustained gunshot wounds while attempting to make arrest as a part of the Capital Areal Regional Fugitive Task Force on Wednesday 2/12/2020. Questions: Explain what you all go through being on a special task force and how serious it is to stay in shape physically and mentally. How do officers prepare to go out every night? Have you ever been shot on the job and how does it affect you or your family? Back Story: Ohio Police Chief George Kral bans tactical vest for officers, says it sends wrong message to the community. Questions: Are there advantages to wearing a tactical vest vs. a regular vest? The officer said it relieved back their back pain, should the Department sided with their officers? I Got A Story to Tell: Silverback Chronicles NYPD: Man walked into Bronx PD and Open fire on police officers. · Outro Disclaimer --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/silverbackchronicles/message

My guest today is Hal Gregersen, the executive director of the MIT Leadership Center and a senior lecturer in leadership and innovation at MIT Sloan School of Management. A Thinkers50 globally ranked management thinker, he has authored or coauthored ten books. His most recent book, “Questions Are the Answer,” examines the fact that while people are pre-programmed to look for answers, the real catalysts for innovative change are questions. Join us as we discuss Hal’s early careers in photography and politics; what makes a catalytic question; and the question that best motivates him to take action. Complete show notes and links can be found at https://whitneyjohnson.com/hal-gregersen

● Renaissance Man: Going from pastor to podcast host to pass on inspiration to others, especially women ● Equality Issues: White-male domination and leadership ● Characteristics of being Stuck: Creatures of habit trying to eliminate possibilities to feel empowered rather than overwhelmed ● Change your habits by asking accessible questions to get unstuck ● Look toward the future for possibilities and options: What if…? ● Take time to ask yourself and others without enforcing personal beliefs, opinions, and options: What do I/you want? ● Unhelpful, harmful, judgmental, negative, and limiting questions: What were you thinking? Why did you do that? ● Shift from Habits to Questions: Are there other possibilities? Is there a more fulfilling path? Links and Resources: Inspiration Rising Podcast Dr. Michelle Rozen Quotes by David Trotter: “I have an infinity and a care for helping women who are already doing great things to help expose them to other women who are inspiring.” “Sometimes, even when we can articulate what we want to someone else, then we kind of realize how ridiculous it sounds.” “There are lots of ways to phrase a question that can be either judgmental or can be possibility producing.” “I’m an over-responsible person. After a lifetime of that, I just got sick of it. Are there other possibilities? A new path that would be more fulfilling?”

How can asking the right questions change our lives? Hal Gregersen is the author of the new book, Questions Are the Answer:  A Breakthrough Approach to Your Most Vexing Problems at Work and in Life, which is based on interviews with leaders like Pixar founder Ed Catmull and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.  Hal is well-known as an innovation and leadership guru who is the Executive Director of the MIT Leadership Center and Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hal Gregersen is Executive Director of the MIT Leadership Center and Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. His new book is Questions Are the Answer: A Breakthrough Approach to your Most Vexing Problems at Work and In Life. Hal has been ranked one of the world’s 25 most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50 and was winner of the 2017 Distinguished Achievement Award for leadership. He’s co-authored ten books, including The Innovator’s DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators. He is also founder of The 4-24 Project, an initiative dedicated to rekindling the provocative power of asking the right questions in adults so they can pass this crucial creativity skill onto the next generation. He is the creator of a unique executive development experience Leadership and the Lens: Learning at the Intersection of Innovation and Image-Making a course that draws on his two passions – photography and innovation–to teach participants how to ask radically better questions and change their impact as leaders.In this episode Stew and Hal discuss the importance of posing questions and allowing them to sink in rather than jumping to answers and solutions. They talk about the ways in which putting yourself in a novel, even uncomfortable, situation compels you to ask questions that not only inform your understanding but can also challenge your grasp of the status quo. Hal provides a compelling example of his method for setting aside a four full minutes to do nothing but generate questions about a given dilemma or challenge and how that exercise alone can alter one’s perspective. For more about Hal, go to halgregersen.com and for those who are curious about Stew’s father’s photography, which they discussed, check out http://victorfriedmanphotography.com/. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

CHECK OUT THE FULL EPISODE 197 WITH HAL BELOWHal Gregersen is Executive Director of the MIT Leadership Center and a Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management where he pursues his vocation of executive teaching, coaching, and research by exploring how leaders in business, government, and society discover provocative new ideas, develop the human and organizational capacity to realize those ideas, and deliver positive, powerful results. He is a Senior Fellow at Innosight and a former advisory board member at Pharmascience, a privately held pharmaceutical company based in Montreal, Canada. Before joining MIT, he taught at INSEAD, London Business School, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, Brigham Young University, and in Finland as a Fulbright Fellow. To grasp how leaders can ask catalyic questions - ones that disrupt the world - Gregersen has studied 200+ renowned business, government, and social enterprise leaders for a forthcoming book "Questions are the Answer: A Breakthrough Approach to Your Most Vexing Problems at Work and In Life" with HarperCollins (2018). This question-centric research project is surfacing insights into how leaders build better questions to unlock game-changing solutions. The first article from the project -"Bursting the CEO Bubble" (March/April 2017 Harvard Business Review) - explores how senior leaders can ask better questions to unlock what they don't know they don't know - before it's too late. Gregersen is also founder of The 4-24 Project, an initiative dedicated to rekindling the provocative power of asking the right questions in adults so they can pass this crucial creativity skill onto the next generation.Gregersen has co-authored ten books, including his most recent, The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators, which flows from a path-breaking international research project (with Jeff Dyer & Clayton Christensen). They explored where disruptive innovations come from by interviewing founder entrepreneurs and CEOs at 100+ of the most innovative companies in the world and by assessing how 15,000+ leaders leverage five key innovation skills to create valuable new products, services, processes, and businesses.Putting his insight into practice, he is the creator of a unique executive development experience "Leadership and the Lens: Learning at the Intersection of Innovation and Image-Making." The workshop draws on Gregersen's two passions - photography and innovation - to teach participants how to ask radically better questions and change their impact as leaders. Ranked as one of the world's most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50, Gregersen regularly delivers high impact keynote speeches and executive workshops with companies like Adidas, AT&T, Christie's, Coca-Cola, Daimler, Danone, Discovery Chanel, EY, Genentech, GM, IBM, IMF, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, LG, Lilly, McAfee, Marriott, MasterCard, SAP, Vivendi, WalMart, & World Economic Forum. He also works with governments, not-for-profit and NGO organizations to generate greater innovation capabilities in the next generation of leaders.Gregersen has lived and worked outside the United States for over a decade - in England, Finland, France, and the UAE. He and his wife now reside in Boston where he pursues his lifelong avocation, photography, and she her lifelong love, sculpture.What if you could unlock a better answer to your most vexing problem—in your workplace, community, or home life—just by changing the question?Talk to creative problem-solvers and they will often tell you, the key to their success is asking a different question.Take Debbie Sterling, the social entrepreneur who created GoldieBlox. The idea came when a friend complained about too few women in engineering and Sterling wondered aloud: "why are all the great building toys made for boys?" Or consider Nobel laureate Richard Thaler, who asked: "would it change economic theory if we stopped pretending people were rational?" Or listen to Jeff Bezos whose relentless approach to problem solving has fueled Amazon’s exponential growth: “Getting the right question is key to getting the right answer.” Great questions like these have a catalytic quality—that is, they dissolve barriers to creative thinking and channel the pursuit of solutions into new, accelerated pathways. Often, the moment they are voiced, they have the paradoxical effect of being utterly surprising yet instantly obvious.For innovation and leadership guru Hal Gregersen, the power of questions has always been clear—but it took some years for the follow-on question to hit him: If so much depends on fresh questions, shouldn’t we know more about how to arrive at them? That sent him on a research quest ultimately including over two hundred interviews with creative thinkers. Questions Are the Answer delivers the insights Gregersen gained about the conditions that give rise to catalytic questions—and breakthrough insights—and how anyone can create them.Please do NOT hesitate to reach out to me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or via email mark@vudream.comLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-metry/Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/markmetry/Twitter - https://twitter.com/markymetryMedium - https://medium.com/@markymetryFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/Humans.2.0.PodcastMark Metry - https://www.markmetry.com/Humans 2.0 Twitter - https://twitter.com/Humans2Podcast

Hal Gregersen is Executive Director of the MIT Leadership Center and a Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management where he pursues his vocation of executive teaching, coaching, and research by exploring how leaders in business, government, and society discover provocative new ideas, develop the human and organizational capacity to realize those ideas, and deliver positive, powerful results. He is a Senior Fellow at Innosight and a former advisory board member at Pharmascience, a privately held pharmaceutical company based in Montreal, Canada. Before joining MIT, he taught at INSEAD, London Business School, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, Brigham Young University, and in Finland as a Fulbright Fellow. To grasp how leaders can ask catalyic questions - ones that disrupt the world - Gregersen has studied 200+ renowned business, government, and social enterprise leaders for a forthcoming book "Questions are the Answer: A Breakthrough Approach to Your Most Vexing Problems at Work and In Life" with HarperCollins (2018). This question-centric research project is surfacing insights into how leaders build better questions to unlock game-changing solutions. The first article from the project -"Bursting the CEO Bubble" (March/April 2017 Harvard Business Review) - explores how senior leaders can ask better questions to unlock what they don't know they don't know - before it's too late. Gregersen is also founder of The 4-24 Project, an initiative dedicated to rekindling the provocative power of asking the right questions in adults so they can pass this crucial creativity skill onto the next generation.Gregersen has co-authored ten books, including his most recent, The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators, which flows from a path-breaking international research project (with Jeff Dyer & Clayton Christensen). They explored where disruptive innovations come from by interviewing founder entrepreneurs and CEOs at 100+ of the most innovative companies in the world and by assessing how 15,000+ leaders leverage five key innovation skills to create valuable new products, services, processes, and businesses.Putting his insight into practice, he is the creator of a unique executive development experience "Leadership and the Lens: Learning at the Intersection of Innovation and Image-Making." The workshop draws on Gregersen's two passions - photography and innovation - to teach participants how to ask radically better questions and change their impact as leaders. Ranked as one of the world's most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50, Gregersen regularly delivers high impact keynote speeches and executive workshops with companies like Adidas, AT&T, Christie's, Coca-Cola, Daimler, Danone, Discovery Chanel, EY, Genentech, GM, IBM, IMF, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, LG, Lilly, McAfee, Marriott, MasterCard, SAP, Vivendi, WalMart, & World Economic Forum. He also works with governments, not-for-profit and NGO organizations to generate greater innovation capabilities in the next generation of leaders.Gregersen has lived and worked outside the United States for over a decade - in England, Finland, France, and the UAE. He and his wife now reside in Boston where he pursues his lifelong avocation, photography, and she her lifelong love, sculpture.What if you could unlock a better answer to your most vexing problem—in your workplace, community, or home life—just by changing the question?Talk to creative problem-solvers and they will often tell you, the key to their success is asking a different question.Take Debbie Sterling, the social entrepreneur who created GoldieBlox. The idea came when a friend complained about too few women in engineering and Sterling wondered aloud: "why are all the great building toys made for boys?" Or consider Nobel laureate Richard Thaler, who asked: "would it change economic theory if we stopped pretending people were rational?" Or listen to Jeff Bezos whose relentless approach to problem solving has fueled Amazon’s exponential growth: “Getting the right question is key to getting the right answer.” Great questions like these have a catalytic quality—that is, they dissolve barriers to creative thinking and channel the pursuit of solutions into new, accelerated pathways. Often, the moment they are voiced, they have the paradoxical effect of being utterly surprising yet instantly obvious.For innovation and leadership guru Hal Gregersen, the power of questions has always been clear—but it took some years for the follow-on question to hit him: If so much depends on fresh questions, shouldn’t we know more about how to arrive at them? That sent him on a research quest ultimately including over two hundred interviews with creative thinkers. Questions Are the Answer delivers the insights Gregersen gained about the conditions that give rise to catalytic questions—and breakthrough insights—and how anyone can create them.Please do NOT hesitate to reach out to me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or via email mark@vudream.comLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-metry/Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/markmetry/Twitter - https://twitter.com/markymetryMedium - https://medium.com/@markymetryFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/Humans.2.0.PodcastMark Metry - https://www.markmetry.com/Humans 2.0 Twitter - https://twitter.com/Humans2Podcast

Emily Rasowsky Show Notes   Emily Rasowsky is Customer Experience Lead for Spark Fund and Spark Fund is an organization that helps companies to upgrade energy technology. So, because that's not really an area of expertise for Yanique, she will allow Emily to explain in the very simplest of terms as we welcome her, what it is that her company really does do and how does this really impact a customer's experience regardless of your business type or industry.   Emily shared that Spark Fund and what that actually means, in layman's terms, our job is to make it as easy as humanly possible for energy managers and financial leaders to update their energy technology. So, things like lights, a jack, chillers, boilers, refrigeration, anything that goes into your space and consumes energy. We work with a lot of large organizations that don't have the same sorts of incentives or access to resources to upgrade their technology to be energy efficient. And it's crazy because buildings emit more OCO2 than cars. So, this is a huge problem. And our job, we have an integrated a team of engineers, project managers, and financiers, people who provide everything you would need to do a project. So, we take it off your hands. In essence it really is meant to be a company that makes the experience of owning and operating energy technology no longer an issue because we do this whole process on a subscription. So, we own the technology, people get out of the business of ownership which causes so much heartache and pain and bad experiences. So, we own it and they no longer have to worry about taking care of it.     Questions Are you the only type of company that offers this service? Could you share with us a little bit of some of the things that your customers have shared in terms of benefits that they've gotten in utilizing the way how your program is set up and structured, both from a financial point of view as well as an emotional point of view, do they feel less stressed, has it improved their productivity? In terms of customer experience innovations and new technologies, is there anything on the brink that Spark Fund is looking to tap into for 2019 or even in the next two to three years that you think will help to revolutionize what you're doing even more? As a technology company and you are in charge of customer experience do you find that you may hire people who are competent leaders in the technical areas that they've been hired to perform in but for some reason they lack that human side. They're so focused on the technicality of a job, they lack the interpersonal side, and do you find that hinders from that whole framework that you're trying to achieve? Could you share with us how do you stay motivated every day? What's the one online resource tool, website or app that you couldn't absolutely live without in your personal life or your business? Could you share with us what are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? What is the one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – either something that you’re working on to develop yourself or people? Where can our listeners find you online? What’s one quote or saying that during times of adversity or challenge you revert to this quote to kind of help you to push through on those days that are challenging or seems a bit overbearing?     Highlights   When asked if they are the only type of company that offers this service, Emily stated that right now in the market they're the only one that's integrated in all of the unique ways that they are. So, there are certain types of offerings out there that provide, let's say financing so that you don't have to worry about finding money for it. There are companies out there that provide general contracting so someone to manage the installation of a new piece of technology. But they are the first that does all of these things together. And they are definitely the first that does it on a subscription contract. So, there's also things out there that are similar they look kind of similar, but nothing is quite the setup in the same financial structure that we are.   Yanique agreed and stated that because when you do it on a subscription basis it makes it more affordable for the organizations because they pay on a month to month basis.   Emily agreed. So, the thing that we're really taking away a lot of financial pain with is when you have a piece of aging technology you never quite know. Even think about even yourself in your home when HVAC unit starts to go you don't know how much that's going to cost or what's going to be wrong with it. We take care of all of that - complete lack of clarity. For example, we have a customer, they're a school and they had to shut down an entire part of their school district, an entire part of their school facility because the heating wasn't working. So, we obviously work with them, they don't have that problem, but you think about all the pain that comes down later down the line. So yes, you're reducing your maintenance costs, you're getting energy savings but you're also reducing these costs that you can't even forecast for. And some companies that are really sophisticated have a budget for that and some companies don't have any budget and that hits them somewhat by surprise. So yes, in a lot of ways we are we're keeping it much more predictable and lower cost which is behavior science tells us when we know what to expect, it feels less painful.   Emily stated absolutely. So, the way that we work with our customers is that essentially, they can write this off of their to do list maintaining their equipment, managing their equipment. They don't have to worry about that anymore. So, what we really boil this down to and what we've experienced in the market is our customers are seeing and financially they're seeing three core benefits that are aggregated into these themes. One is they're saving money, in most cases we are not pricing in when we share our proposals with them the energy savings they're going to receive because it's very hard for us to predict those. And in the air of transparency we don't want to force them to be tied to those savings which is how a lot of people do that in the market. So, it's based off a function, they don't have to worry about is it going to work or not. We guarantee its function, so it always gets fixed and it always has something, you have a support team behind you. So, you're saving money which is obviously a huge benefit and you're getting energy savings. But emotionally you're saving time because now you don't have to worry. For example, we had one customer who showed us before working with us these are a lot of kind of pre-customers conversations. He said, “How do you know who to call when you're HVAC unit or your backup generation or your lights they break? Who do you call?”He literally pulled up his phone and goes to his contacts and types in HVAC, eight people who could potentially solve his problem. So, right there you have an overload of information, an overload of choice when all the customer wants, truly, think about getting any renovations on your home, you just want it fixed and you want it fixed well, in a timely manner and in a way where you get clear communication on what's happening in your space. So, that is one just small example of something that we do. We are a single point of contact that aggregates all of those key players, so you don’t have to figure out who you call in that situation, we are your point of contact and then we take care of all of that back and forth in detail. So, they're saving time and they're also reducing the risk because when something breaks that's often on the risk of the company, they're actually tracking that financially which we take all of that risk off of their balance sheets literally. So, with schools for example that have certain debt limits right you can't upgrade a building if you have a debt limit or debt ceiling and how much you can borrow being an institution, we can reduce that risk literally off their balance sheet and we make it because it's in a subscription you pay like you would for Netflix or Uber or any of those. It's coming out of your operational budget not your capital budget, so it provides a lot of little flexibility and ease for customers that they're not getting in other financial models.   Yanique stated that she thinks it's a wonderful idea. And she like the fact that as Emily said it's aggregated all under one roof and as a customer, I don't need to contact that person and this person because you are the point of contact and then you take care of everything from there and when you really think about it that's what people want. They're willing to pay for convenience and ease of mind and just to know that a responsible organization has this covered, and they can take that as a responsibility off of their plate.   Emily stated that what's interesting she thinks about the ways CX (customer experience) works at Spark Fund is that they are a relatively small startup. They have about 50 people who work for them and when she thinks about what's happening in the market and the types of technologies people are innovating within. She has two ways that she basically will answer this. One is of course they are investing in technology and in particular in the energy side, monitoring technology because for Sparkfund, they can understand absolutely everything that's happening in someone's building without them ever having to pick up the phone. Then they can deploy a maintenance team. They never have to tell them that there's an issue, they tell the customer, “Hey, we noticed that your machine might need a little tune up. We're going to send someone out, tell us which day in time works most effectively for you.” That is a tremendous pain point that we can alleviate. And something that is tremendously challenging if you are a segmented organization. So, you have monitoring with one company, and you have maintenance with another, you still need that human to call them from the maintenance to the vendor to connect to those two. So, we are to get off of our customers plate with things like monitoring technology and we'll only get more and more sophisticated as that technology gets more and more sophisticated. So yes, absolutely we are investing in full structural changes and by the way, that includes creating an entire new platform, a digital platform that our company will maintain and manage that doesn't give you a crazy chart. So, if you look at with monitoring companies and you're an energy manager you will get a log in that shows you all sorts of numbers and charts and so much information that some people enjoy but others it's a lot to take in and when you’re really are just going from one point to another and you're managing let's say 900 locations which is not a typical, you just want to make sure everything is running okay, nothing is a big flag you got to take care of that morning. So, we're literally on top of these technologies building a very seamless, very easy to understand customer platform and portal so those are some tech staff things that we're investing in but the other side of that is we are really investing a lot of time in and have invested a tremendous amount of time in making our company have some baseline understanding of what it means to really be a CX forward organization and I think that alone is what is driving our innovation. I can't be in every single product meeting, I can't be in every single monitoring meeting but we have people on the organization who understand this is where we're going as a company and they can innovate with this framework of understanding the baseline of behavioral science and how we use it here so this human side is so important and to be honest, one of the biggest challenges she has heard and seen in other organizations is when you don't have that organizational alignment that really moves things forward.   Yanique agreed and stated that everybody has to be aligned, everybody has to be singing the same song.   Emily stated that she thinks that's definitely natural, you have people who their strengths are in different areas of course. But she does feel that one of the things that we truly invest in at Spark Fund is making sure that people we bring on have this vision for where we're going. And one of the biggest reasons that she can say that with confidence is because their product is not just an online product and in fact, it's even more salient than that is an in-person product because you have to go to someone's space and install a piece of really big equipment that requires a huge human element. And so, anyone who is going to come and work for Spark Fund must understand just kind of as a prerequisite that you have to be very aware of what that in-person element is going to do for an online tool. Now, she thinks the benefit of having a very CX forward company is that their hiring structure is one that values obviously people who have specific expertise in particular types of code or particular types of technology build but mirrors that with a product team that understands the customer experience tremendously well and is invested in making sure that that moves forward and a user experience team. So, UI and design team that actually understands how to make these things come to life and they have repeatedly gotten very positive feedback on the experience that we've built because it has a heavy design and UI element. They never build anything that isn't collaborative between both tech and design and experience which she thinks is the benefit of having a small company and you see this in big organizations too. But they have a team that's distinct and aligned and where it needs to go and they wouldn't push something forward if it didn't have that checkbox of thought, “Hey, we did think through the experience and how things are actually going to be taken in by the customer.”   Yanique added, you've taken it on from a recruitment aspect which is very important. One of the things that she has been hearing buzzing around in the last six months or so is that technology is great, and it has advantages and disadvantages and as a business owner herself, she finds that technology does help to ease the process, increases efficiency, frees up your time, it just makes you a little bit more productive in your day because there are so many hours and the reality is you can't be everywhere at every moment but one of the things that she would love push more for 2019 or she'd like to see organizations push more. Technology is important but do you believe that at some point the human element fades or do you think the human element is always going to still be a part of the customer experience because she finds that human beings still want to speak to another human being especially when something goes wrong?   Emily agreed with that sentiment and stated that technology is huge but one of the things that is so clear to her is that as a consumer herself and also someone who really truly cares about customer experience journeys is that she thinks we get too caught up in one singular journey and we don't take a step back and look at all the different journeys that a customer is going through in order to engage with your product. An example with Uber, Uber obviously is a tech platform and they have a tremendous amount of money and resources into building that tech platform. But she thinks the people who are going to win, the customer not just that discrete experience which is one element of technology, but the actual customer are the ones who are going to sit back and think, “Okay, what did the customer have to do to get into the Uber? Where is the customer going when they leave Uber? and how are they going to connect all these experiences together?”And the reality is you do need that human element because she thinks inherently, we are people, we are connected beings, we can't just interact with our phones all day, every day but there is a lot that supports that sentiment that we need this human connection. So, there is this reality that fusing those two worlds together will lead to the winners, what she thinks is most interesting and she have experience with Spark Fund as well and kind of how they've navigated that technology heavy lense. But first start with a bigger picture. So, Amazon obviously has invested a tremendous amount of money in an online platform, but she’s based in DC and they just opened a store, a physical store with actual people who check you out at the front desk and answer your question as you're walking through and reading the titles of these books. So even though they have this amazing online platform they're also investing in in-person experiences and she thinks you're going to see that more and more. She thinks it's dangerous to do too much in tech and not also think about where the human side is and the Spark Fund, they are a small company, she mentioned this a few times and she thinks it is important to note that a lot of CX out there is focused on these big organizations that have processes and lots of resources to make widgets and all that. For Spark Fund, they experienced this very intimately with their proposal process. They were scoping out what platform that would help their customers have better and more seamless experience. And as they were doing the exploration process, the information gathering, customer conversations, one of the things they realized was their goal is to create trust with their customer and also a seamless pretty easy experience where they get the questions they have get answered right away. In talking with financial leaders and the folks that are actually decision makers on these projects, one of the things they realized was that they don't need a tech platform, they have a million of these, what they need is a spreadsheet and she doesn’t hire 6 developers to build a really good spreadsheet that they can toggle and understand how to customize based off of the numbers they want to see in front of them so that has created a lot of trust with their customers and helped them ease a lot of pain in the sales cycle. So, you don't have to always just go to high tech too, she thinks there's a low-tech version that is accessible for companies no matter how big you are, there are two ways to look at it.   Yanique agreed and stated that it's in the conversations that you have, are you really listening to what they're saying, are you just trying to sell them something that's just really out there or are you trying to actually meet that immediate need that they're indicating that they're having to you and soothing that pain that they're feeling.   When asked how she stays motivated every day, Emily stated that for her, she is constantly inspired by companies and organizations that she interacts with on a day to day basis who gets the experience right. She is a big fan of this one solid place that's nearby in DC. called Sweet Green, she's giving them a them a shout out of course. And she sees that every time, so these small things in her personal life that she seeks out because she genuinely cares about the experience and the companies that she’s going to pay money to, they inspire her. She has an insurance company that she loves, she loves the experience they create, and they have this app that when she opens up the app it shows a picture of her apartment, something so small that inspires her to keep going and keep thinking about how she can apply those things to Spark Fund. Sometimes it’s a challenging industry to be in because people are unpredictable but there are things that are universal and for her it's those moments of delight when she can speak to a customer and hear how they really alleviated their pain. Recently they created a little Spark Bot, it's a little robot. It's this little guy that follows people around and it's fun for her to think through, “What are the cute little ways that we can delight our customers?”and something so small like that and she gets that inspiration from other companies that she admire but also this idea that we really can make a difference in someone's day. She experiences it when she gets a salad, you walk out feeling better and happier. So, for her it's making sure that she is surrounding herself with the right types of companies that she wants to emulate and really have be a part of the whole fabric of this CX program at Spark Fund so it is really external for her and of course she has got an amazing team who is constantly thinking about how we can change stuff and move forward in a more positive direction. It helps to have a very customer forward, customer motivated company.   Emily stated that at Spark Fund they are a huge, huge, huge Slack company and so she would say to her if she didn't have Slack connected with her all the time, she would have missed so much but she also have to say it's allowed her to have a lot of flexibility in the way that she work because it is something that she can access any point in time and she really loves it. It allows her to be autonomous, work from home if she needs to, work at the office if she needs to and constantly being in contact everybody so she really just like the platform they've injected quite a bit of delight into it which is quite fun. And the other thing she'll say is she knows she has to address some of the personal side as well is Evernote. She is obsessed with Evernote, it is her lifeline, she has everything in there, from her to do list to her grocery shopping to little voice notes that she left to herself and if she did not have Evernote with her all the time she thinks she would be a mess because she would never know where she’s supposed to be or what am she’s supposed to be doing. So, a notes platform, a place where I can jot down ideas and it's searchable so she can pull up those things that she forgot about, that she thought of last week.   Yanique shared that for those of you that are not familiar with Slack, it's a cloud based a proprietary team collaboration tools and services. So, it's where everybody gets to connect in the organization and you're able to track projects and see how things are going throughout the course of the day even if you aren't physically in the office.   Emily agreed and stated that they have a really simple user interface. A lot of community groups that she’s a part of also use Slack.   Yanique also shared that Evernote is a note platform and it's brilliant. And it's grown so much, they've really developed that platform so much that it has way more features than it had 5, 10 years ago. You can take pictures as you said, you can send yourself a voice note, you can do scanning and send it to yourself.   Emily stated that she has had Evernote since maybe 2015 and to be able to go back that far in time, she has old notes from things she'd never thought that she would need to resurface but when you search for something and it comes out to the same, it's been so cool for her to have all that creativeness in one spot.   Emily shared that the book that really, truly made CX the thing she wanted to go into was hands down The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg. This book when she read it revolutionized the way that she thought about her own life but also her background is in marketing and communication, so she came from a digital background and also in-person previously helping companies try to move to Washington, DC. “So how do you make that experience something super seamless?” And as she was reading this book it not only had so many “aha”moments from her personal life and personal experiences but also because they talk about how you set up habits for yourself and how you create a good space and habit in time for your own personal life but also in marketing and they have some amazing examples in there like the Febreze, she’s not sure if you read this book and if this is going to go too into the weeds but they talk about this whole theory of how people are emotionally attached or they use their senses to drive emotions towards certain things which is a good argument for creating multi-sensory experiences for companies that they're not just something online to that point earlier. We've even talked about having a certain scent, like can we have people come with a certain sort of cologne or perfume when they come to install something to have a consistent experience but that they talk about Febreze and this is one of the most interesting stories anecdotes around CX stuck with her for a while that they couldn't quite figure out how to get people to adopt this cleaning product, they tried so many different types of messaging, different images, research groups subjects, all of this. And one of the things that they found after many years of this work was that people weren't necessarily interested or addicted to using a cleaning product but what they were most interested in was that sense of relief and release after they cleaned the space so the smell of Febreze and that “Ha” moment you see it in the commercials now and they were like “mmmm…..Ha”, it was the “Ha” moment that people were looking for.   Yanique shared that's how she feels when she sprays her Febreze.   Emily agreed and stated that they nailed it and it's been a very successful product for them comes in all sorts of scents now. Now you're never going to be able to un-see it when you look at those commercials, they always end with the big inhale and the sigh out through the mouth, so it's a relief.   Yanique shared that one of the things that she teaches because she’s a Customer Service Trainer and that's what inspired her to start this podcast was that customers have two needs and regardless of the industry, you're in or the product or service that you sell or your ethnicity or whatever your background is. Those two needs are their intellectual needs and their emotional needs. And through the research that she has done, books that she has read, people she has spoken to locally and internationally, people she has trained, it really boils down to how you make people feel and if you can find a way to have your product or your service connect to people emotionally, Febreze clearly figured that out as you said the relief and that's the emotional component. It will tie them to your brand, and they become so loyal to your brand that now they become your brand advertisers.   Emily agreed and stated that she thinks we try to figure out ways to do that most creatively and part of that, our structural changes, how do we create ease in the process of course investing in different technologies like monitoring ease is an entire thing. But to your point earlier there is something really important with the human element and something as small as an installation is happening in your space, can we make sure that our vendors show up with a cup of coffee, “Hey, we brought some coffee for you just to make sure that you’re caffeinated and feeling okay throughout this experience.” And obviously we try to use behavioural science any time we can and finishing really strong is something we care a lot about. So once something is over, and it sounds a little old school, but can we send them like a handwritten note and something that's thoughtful that makes them understand that we've been caring about them throughout this process.   Yanique agreed and stated that it's really the little things as you said handwritten note a while ago. There is an activity that I do in my training sessions is called a gratitude letter and it's a framework that we created where the participant has to choose an employee in their organization that they’re writing them a letter to tell them thank you for something that they've done for them. It could be something work related or something personal and it doesn't have to be anything big, I've had participants come and say they did surgery on their co-worker came to their house and washed their clothes for them or their kid was sick and they gave them some very good tips or it was the beginning of the year and your co-worker brought him a copy of a daily bread and the daily bread has really helped them to overcome some of their personal challenges, but the reason why she thinks the letter has been so impactful to the point of tears, the way how the letter is designed it forces you to pull details out of the experience, it forces you to choose adjectives to describe how it is that this person impacted you and to really show gratitude and appreciate because one of the things she has found generally speaking is that people complain a lot in life but they don’t actually take time to show gratitude and nobody writes letters anymore, it’s all about the tech, so I’m texting you to say, “Hey, thanks a mil,” through WhatsApp or whatever messaging app you use or through an email but I’m not actually handwriting you a letter or a note and it makes a very big difference.   Emily agreed and shared that we get more communication feedback responses when we take the time to write something out than we do, when we send out a mass email, so you can't discount those things. Emily truly believes in the offline experience just as much as the in-person and the more you can create a connection with the organization, the more you're going to have loyalty and for them, they measure that, they look at how many people are coming back and using them for more or more subscriptions and more different technologies they want to procure so for them it is something that they have honestly invested a lot of their marketing in because it's very high touch. They are working with big companies and it's no longer enough just to have one casual conversation, you need to really permeate an entire organization and make an impression. So, she loves that Yanique do those gratitude letters, she feels like she needs to make that a monthly sort of practice.   Yanique stated that the gratitude letter is really an amazing activity and every time she does it with an organization over the years, she’s just amazed at how the participants really take it and run with it. She has had one doctor that said the letter meant more to her than her degree as a doctor and she framed it and she put it up in her office because she said nobody has ever done anything like this for her before. So, you'd just be surprised to know, that didn't take anything, it cost nothing just to sit down and write out how you feel about what the person had done for you that you're showing appreciation for.   Emily share that what's interesting about this too is we care so deeply about these sorts of moments that we are finding ways to systematize these things, so it just becomes a no brainer, it's just a part of our process and for her they use tools to track customers and their emails and their names and all of that. But there is a note section that they are actually working on building out that has personal details there like a customer who has a daughter who recently has this particular interest or is on a soccer team, so we know these things that we can really customize small things like maybe over the holidays we send them a little ornament with a soccer ball something that is seemingly small but really does matter.   Emily shared that there's a lot of different things. She’s very excited because at Spark Fund they are beginning to look very intimately at each of the sales and accounts that they have, their customers intimately. They are really big organizations, they're working with Fortune 100 companies that have a thousand, couple thousand people who work with them and one of her jobs at this point is to look at those companies and try to understand the people pretty intimately. So, they’re doing things like elevate the sort of customer intelligence and customer experience to make it really personalized. They talk a lot about personalization and technology but what she is talking about here is personalization in relationships and those in-person relationships and she really thinks it will transform the way that their customers look and engage with them. So, things like mapping out the customers and where they sit in the organization, taking those notes and doing it on a customer and organization to organization basis. So, that's something that they're working on now and it's a slightly hybrid approach to CX, it's definitely not something that she was able to read anywhere that people were doing. So, she’s really excited to figure that out and the other side that she’s most excited about outside of her work with Spark Fund and she also lead a technology, Women in Technology Organization and they're launching a new set of programming around diversity and inclusion, so how do you get people to feel safe and secure in their environments and they are really tied CX and inclusion. She believes this to her core that if people don't feel like they are safe or that they can speak up or that they are valid, or points are valid in a company, you're not going to get really good ideas and you're certainly not going to be able to connect with different types of customers. You can't relate with somebody on a different level, then you're missing out so there's a huge component of how do you actually internalize safety within a company so that people feel like they are equal and she can connect people who have similar values and similar backgrounds with the customers that they do feel like they have someone who's rooting for them and understands them deeply within an organization. So, she’s really excited about both of those things and a lot of it goes to this idea of getting really connected with not just one person but multiple people so that you can create that surround sound experience that everyone's raving about in a company.   Emily shared that it’s called Women in Tech Campaign but one of the things that they're doing is these events that we're bringing to folks that help people physically reduce their barriers to conversation so people can relate to one another who are different from them and that's a huge skill and customer service, customer experience especially if you're getting someone who's calling and they're not happy how do you break down those barriers and open that up regardless of background and so that's really what they're focused on. And of course, tech is a very broad term, it's not just developers, it's people who are using tech like we're doing now.   Yanique agreed that stated because we're using the podcast to reach out to many different people and share all this amazing information, so yes, technology really does work, it definitely has given her a platform as customer service is something she’s extremely passionate about to reach and connect with people from all different parts of the world. And even though we’re as small as we are here in Jamaica, some of the expectations that our customers have here are no different from the expectations that a customer would have if they were in Paris or if they were in China or if they were in DC., at the at the end of the day we're all human beings at the core with emotions and we do have certain expectations.   Emily agreed and stated that to be fair these big companies Amazon, Google all of them that are international, they are training us all to expect a certain level. And it's the companies that really take that on and you don't have to be big, you don't have to be Amazon to care about it in this way. And like I said we are not an Amazon but we've made some strides and investments in making it from the very beginning work and make the experience valuable for customers and she truly believes that the innovators and the disruptors in the market are the ones that are going to look at these tried and true systems and apply a positive experience because as you said at the very beginning, people are willing to pay for that, they're willing to pay, not a huge premium but a premium for service and it's not a new concept, think about how airlines are priced, people are willing to pay for business class. And the more you can make that accessible, the more you can have those intermediate tiers, you see them get leverage and use so there's truth to all that.   Emilyshared listeners can find her at – www.sparkfund .com LinkedIn – sparkfund Facebook – @sparkfund Twitter – @sparkfunder Instagram – @emilyrasowsky Twitter - @ERasowsky LinkedIn – Emily Rasowsky   Emily shared that one the thing that she constantly repeats to herself or when she’s having a moment, it's not necessarily a quote but it's almost a reminder, it's that, “You've been through challenge and you always will get to the other side, that this too will pass.” You will have a moment and then it'll end and it's a reminder of how she has gotten through things that have been challenging before. So, it's less of a quote and more of a reminder, our grounding. “Okay, you've gone through worse.” And to Yanique’s point about gratitude, she finds in those moments to bring up something that she’s really grateful for even if it's really hard to do because sometimes it's really hard. It can just automatically take you to a different space, it’s like things are kind of going awry but it can't be that bad there are people in this world who don't have the same privileges and luxuries that she has right now and that's enough to be grateful for.   Yanique agreed and stated that we do need to remind ourselves of that sometimes because we do get caught up in everything that's going on and we're complaining, and we're just frustrated, and things didn’t go the way that we planned but sometimes God has a bigger plan for us and when one door closes another one surely opens. So, we just have to be open for that.       Links   The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg Slack Evernote

On this weeks episode 1) Round 4 Review 2) News 3) 3 Questions -Are the number of penalties ruining the game? -How far can Ivan Cleary take the Tigers this season? -Does Shaun Johnson still have the same importance at the Warriors? 4)Competition 5)Multi 6)Supercoach 7)Round 5 Picks Thanks for listening and please share with friends and family :)

Each day comes with challenges that the world has never seen before. This requires a special kind of leader that prioritizes problem-solving skills over influencing others. Minds Worth Meeting converses with leadership expert and MIT professor Hal Gregersen, who discusses problem-led leadership and how it is changing the world. Keep an eye out for his new book, "Questions Are the Answer," coming out later this year (Harper Collins, 2018). Follow Professor Hal Gregersen on Twitter @HalGregersen and www.halgregersen.com. Hal Gregersen is available for paid speaking engagements, including keynote addresses, speeches, panels and conference talks, and advisory/consulting services through exclusive representation by Stern Speakers, a division of Stern Strategy Group®. Visit https://sternspeakers.com/speakers/hal-gregersen/ for more information.

This episode we tackle a fantasy genre for the first time and once again ponder the question “How much history do you really want in your historical [genre]?” We encounter a lot of ghosts and westerns, but not nearly enough luchadores, wonder how steampunk fits into Historical Fantasy, and discuss the importance of research, the appeal of setting, and how authentic we should expect historical fiction to be in regards to race and gender. Plus: We say goodbye to Amanda :’( Your Hosts This Episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray Recommended Hellboy in Mexico by Mike Mignola and Richard Corben (Comic) (Recommended) Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente The Girl With Ghost Eyes by M.H. Boroson Vermilion by Molly Tanzer The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke His Majesty’s Dragon - Temeraire Series by Naomi Novik The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold Soldier of the Mist by Gene Wolfe The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle Read The Bone Collector’s Son by Paul Yee The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson New Amsterdam by Elizabeth Bear Did Not Finish Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Other Books and Comics by order of mention: The SEA is Ours: Tales from Steampunk Southeast Asia (Recommended) John Carter by Edgar Rice Burroughs Outlander by Diana Gabaldon A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin The Sixth Gun by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurt The entire Hellboy universe by Mike Mignola and others (Recommended) Wise Child by Monica Furlong (Middle Grade) (Recommended) The Beetle by Richard Marsh Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (Recommended) Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear (steampunk via science, no magic) The Professor’s Daughter by Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert (Recommended) Obsidian and Blood by Aliette de Bodard (Recommended) The Others by Anne Bishop (Recommended—not historical at all, just really good contemporary pseudo-urban fantasy) The Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton Links/Other Get Genrefied: Historical Fantasy How much history is in the maybe-historical fantasy novel The Curse of Chalion Novelist, again Call of Cthulhu RPGAchtung! Cthulhu RPG Sexism in historical fantasy We have always fought: Challenging the 'Women, Cattle and Slaves' Narrative RRRrrrr!!! - Trailer (in French), Wikipedia page (in English) Krogslist (and more!) Ostern or Red Westerns Wuxia martial arts stories The other genre Matthew mentioned is linghuan, which apparently means something like “spirit magic” (and seems to be predominantly in film?). There’s a brief description on M. H. Boroson’s website (that’s who wrote The Girl with Ghost Eyes) that might give you some idea of what it is. Basically “spooky horror, but also funny”. Matthew’s list of Batman comics and books for every genre. Readers’ Advisory for Library Staff Facebook group Questions Are you powerfully attracted to or repelled by the fantasy genre and whyever for? Do you like your historical fantasy historical-ish with an extra helping of fantasy or light on the fantasy and heavy with history? How far did we stray from your definition of Historical Fantasy in our reading this month? What is your dream historical fantasy period/style? Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts for all the books about Historical Fantasy people in the club read (or tried to read), and follow us on Twitter! Join us again on Tuesday, October 18th, when we discuss Self Help!

In our ongoing quest to become better librarians by reading every genre (regardless of our actual interest) we tackle Aboriginal, Indigenous, and First Nations Books.   This episode we're looking at another thematic genre/non-genre, so join us as we discuss the problems of reading aboriginal or indigenous characters written by non-indigenous authors, how we really didn’t get enough education in First Nations/Native Americans in school, and why it’s hard to find Australian Aboriginal or Sami books in Vancouver libraries. Your Hosts This Episode  Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Amanda Wanner  Recommended A Short History of Indians in Canada: Stories by Thomas King (Cherokee) The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie (Spokane/Coeur d'Alene) Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival by Velma Wallis (Gwich'in Athabascan) Read The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf (The Tribe #1) by Ambelin Kwaymullina (Aboriginal Australian - Palyku) Sweat by Lesley Belleau (Anishinaabe) Three Feathers by Richard Van Camp (Dogrib [Tlicho] Dene) (Comic) Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction edited by Grace L. Dillon (contributors include Native American, First Nations, Aboriginal Australian, and Maori) War Dances by Sherman Alexie (Spokane/Coeur d'Alene) Children's Picture Books  The Giant Bear: An Inuit Folktale by Jose Angutingunrik, illustrated by Eva Widermann (Inuit folktale - not certain how the author identifies) Missing Nimama by Melanie Florence (Cree), illustrated by François Thisdale (Québécois) The Son of the Sun and the Daughter of the Moon by Holly Young Huth, Illustrated by Anna Vojtech (Sami folktale by non-Sami author & illustrator) The Reindeer People by Ted Lewin (American writing about Lapland) Did Not Finish Forty Days Without Shadow by Olivier Truc (French author writing about Sami) Bearheart: The Heirship Chronicles by Gerald Vizenor (Anishinaabe) Born with a Tooth by Joseph Boyden (Métis) (worth returning to) Other titles mentioned Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (our youthful memories recommend this one) Recently featured on the Overdue podcast Morning Girl by Michael Dorris The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (totally recommended) Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George Talking Earth by Jean Craighead George Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson (highly recommended by a non-podcasting group member) Servant of the Underworld (Obsidian and Blood, #1) by Aliette de Bodard (French-American of French-Vietnamese descent writing historical fantasy about Aztecs) (recommended) I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala by Rigoberta Menchú, edited by Elisabeth Burgos-Debray Tilly, a Story of Hope and Resilience by Monique Gray Smith (recommended) My Name Is Seepeetza by Shirley Sterling Red Spider White Web by Misha Nogha Neither Hero nor Anti-hero: Misha’s Red Spider White Web Review of Red Spider, White Web Interview: Misha Nogha and the Weird The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America and Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King Skin Room by Sara Tilley The Orenda and Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden Comics The Ballad of Nancy April: Shawnadithit by David Alexander Robertson and Scott B. Henderson Little Plum, a problematic old UK comic strip Scalped by Jason Aaron, R.M. Guera, and others (recommended) Tintin in America shows First Nations people being kicked off their land Links/Other American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL) Canadian First Nations and Inuit reads from The 49th Shelf The Sixties scoop is vastly more complicated than described in our podcast so PLEASE take the time to get better facts on this subject from more knowledgeable sources. Maybe start with: This article by Indigenous Foundations - an information resource on Aboriginal peoples in Canada from the University of British Columbia This article on the legacy of the child welfare system on Canadian Aboriginal Communities from the First Nations newspaper, First Nations Drum The plain ol’ Wikipedia entry on the Sixties Scoop Remaining Aztec Codices JK Rowling under fire via CBC and The Guardian El Supremo Dictador, who forced racially integrated marriage in Paraguay “In order to destroy the colonial racial hierarchy which had also discriminated against him because of his mixed blood, Francia forbade Europeans from marrying other Europeans, thus forcing the élite to choose spouses from among the local population.” Originally discovered via this comic The Super Shamou comic and a rather scrambled safety video! Matthew Henson, the first African-American explorer in the arctic, and the review of the (problematic) comic recently written about him That moon landing was sooooooooo fake! Podcasts Métis in Space podcast from Indian and Cowboy podcasting Ryan McMahon (who pretty much is Indian and Cowboy podcasting) is also doing some amazing podcasting on Truth and Reconciliation in Canada in the Red Man Laughing podcast and just generally has a lot of stuff to say that’s worth hearing SS Librarianship and guest Michael Wynne on cataloguing First Nations and Aboriginal materials Questions Are there any First Nations mysteries? Are there Indigenous/Aboriginal specific genres? Does your library have an Aboriginal/Indigenous/First Nations section, sticker, or other method of bringing attention to these titles? Is there anything that we missed, misunderstood, or misspoke on? Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts for all the Aboriginal, Indigenous, and First Nations Books people in our club read (or tried to read), and follow us on Twitter!  

Kevin Jones is the featured guest for the next 3 episodes. In this episode we talk about: Working through the balance of technology and human side of business and how we cap employees potential.   Even though we have the best intentions employees are still  disengaged. The importance of designing our business for the employees not just the customers. And one “simple” solution that can help move your organization to more collaboration and engagement.   Kevin Jones works with companies to help them reimagine and change the way they work, operate, and how they engage their employees.  The only way to do this is to challenge the status quo.Kevin is an advisor, international speaker, and videographer, his expertise lies in organizational strategy, Enterprise Social Networks (ESNs), initiative adoption, and bringing the best out of employees.  He focuses on the human side of business and technology. Kevin’s clients include NASA, Lowes, JCPenny, Dell, and many other well known companies.  He’s authored two e-books, and produces videos that help communicate how we can challenge the status quo.   Questions Are your company processes, structure, and culture truly aligned to relinquish some control to allow your team to be more agile?   Do your employees understand the why of their work? The purpose?   What can you do to design your work so that you enable employees to give their best to provide the best product for the cusotmers?   Resources Kevin Jones at vinjones.com - https://vinjones.com/   Employee Engagement measurement tools at viaPing - https://viaping.com/   Kevin Jones interview on the Switch and Shift podcast The Rebel Leader, Our Complicated Fascination with Employee Engagement - http://switchandshift.com/fascination-employee-engagement   http://www.xplane.com/   Notes Taken During Editing Technology’s advanced but how we design our work hasn’t advanced as much.   Are humans in the workplace just resources simply to be managed?   We’re marginalizing our people and capping their potential because of how we design our work.   Do you want to move beyond corporate zombies and tap into the potential of your employees? Listen here.   How often are you shooting down the ideas of your team members without consideration for validity.   Employee Capping example: Senior leader who is so busy that he doesn’t have the time to respond to the feedback, so people stop providing feedback, next time he asked.   Is your company set up to put caps on people?   Employees, do you want to love your work?   Engagement is more of a personal thing. Does the employee understand the why of their work? The purpose?   The culture is how we work together. The unsaid things. How we interact. How things get done. 1420 Cost of disengagement and bad culture: mediocrity.   When starting a company we design it for customers. At some point, we need to also think how we design our company for the employees.   Q 2100+-  Design to enable employees to  give their best to provide the best product for the cusotmers.   Change means change in the company structure and processes as much as in people.   Change can come from a scary yet simple solution: give up some control.   Do you want your company to be more agile? Release some control and let your people be more agile.   Portrait Artist - I discovered Meredith Binnette at her school’s senior art show. She's recently graduated high school and is pursuing art in college. Meredith, good luck in your pursuits.The Inspired and Intentional business show is about those at the vanguard of a movement of business, government, and nonprofit leaders who believe work can be better...different.   You can run a business or organization that: Affirms people Is financially solid Inspires your community Operates openly with excellence And Communicates a clear, consistent vision   Now let’s be inspired.   The Inspired and Intentional podcast/business show is copyright 2016 by it's owner.  The music is Funk Game Loop, Kevin MacLeod Royalty Free from Incompatech.

Welcome to part 2 with Cindy Stein, Greene County Missouri Auditor since 1994. We’ll continue our conversation with Cindy today about how the Great Game of Business is being implemented in the Greene County Government. Social Friendly Shareables: “Are your employees bringing solutions to the organization’s problems?” “Moody’s cites Open Book Management as one of the reason’s Greene County has come out of it’s economic troubles.” “It’s not the leadership, it’s the Greene County employees that got us to a better place financially.” “Not only did we improve cash balance, but we also had 18 pages of efficiency improvements.” “Getting fully engaged employees involved in projections helps expedite the budgeting process.” Questions “Are your employees bringing solutions to the organization’s problems?” Cash balance is the critical number Greene County focused on for the first couple of years. Entrepreneurs, what is your number that is critical to your survival and ultimately growth? What departmental/division critical numbers do you have that can tie into a bigger critical number? Should you come up with this number or your team? Cindy speaks a lot about projections and how it helps stave off problems and helps expedite the budgeting process. How can you engage employees to project the numbers that are critical to your business? How would this improve your finances and budgeting? How can the leadership of the company understand how they fit into the bigger goals of the organization? Could something like HIPS or High Level Planning Sessions help? The best place to share your answers is on the comments section on the blog at http://inspiredandintentional.com/episode23. You will also find links to the resources mentioned. Right now, I’m hyper focused on increasing the number of subscribers to the show. This will help how this shows up on iTunes, making it easier for entrepreneurs, leaders in business and government find the show. There’s currently not a way to see how many subscribers are on iTunes, however, when we reach an average of 200 downloads per episode, I’ll have a drawing for book on this topic. Click the link in the show notes or on the blog that will lead you to the iTunes subscription page. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inspired-intentional-business/id1049626659?mt=2 Next week we’ll conclude our discussion with Cindy as she explains her vision for open book management in government. Thank you so much for listening and until next time, be inspired and intentional. The inspired and Intentional podcast is copyright 2016 by its owner. The music is Funk Game Loop, Kevin MacLeod Royalty Free from Incompatech. Thank you for sharing your talent. Resoures http://www.greenecountymo.gov Moody’s upgrade of Greene County, Missouri - http://www.greenecountymo.gov/files/PDF/file.pdf?id=2159 Greene County, MO Auditor office info - http://www.greenecountymo.org/auditor/index.php Greene County, Missouri’s Great Game of Government dashboard - https://www.greenecountymo.org/dashboard/ggg.php Website - http://inspiredandintentional.com/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/ToddAReed LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddareed Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Inspired-and-Intentional-1658283491074728/?ref=hl

Questions: Are there any common roots between Christianity, Judaism and Islam? Does God hear and answer the prayer of non-believers? What is the right of the firstborn and how does that relate to Jesus? What are Pastor Scott's thoughts on the prosperity doctrine? Can Satan enter the minds of Christians? Text question to 33444 for free apologetic studies by Pastor Scott NoOtherDoctrine.org

Are questions the answer? Well, many who left organized religion--those who are tired of trite answers--seem to think so. In this episode, I interview David Hayward (aka Naked Pastor). He is one of the most prolific cartoonists of the online world--describing himself as "a graffiti artist on the walls of religion." He's the author of books such as Without a Vision My People Prosper, The Liberation of Sophia, and his latest one, Questions Are the Answers. He also launched an online community called The Lasting Supper where people can learn and live in spiritual independence. IN THIS EPISODE, DAVID ANSWERS THE FOLLOWING: • How did you end up being called "Naked Pastor"? • When did you get into drawing? • Is there a tension between "intellectual integrity" and "just believing"? • What good can questions do for a person that "answers" can't? • What were the "3 stages of questions" you went through? • When was your first "crisis of faith" experience? • At one point you entered a "dark period" in life. What was going on? • How did your encounter with a street person dramatically impact you? • Tell us more about what your wife calls your "Gandhi phase." • How can theology hurt people? • When you were pastoring, what did your services look like? • What advice would you give to pastors who are facing a theological crisis? • When did you realize you were finally done with it all (ministry, attending church)? • Is it possible to criticize the church and still love it? • You had a dream where you heard the words "It's time!" What happened? • What is The Lasting Supper community? SUPPORT THIS PODCAST TO HELP KEEP IT RUNNING! • Please Support This Podcast by Making a Donation (any amount helps!) LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE • nakedpastor.com • thelastingsupper.com • David's new book Questions Are the Answer book • nakedpastor on Facebook • nakedpastor on Instagram • nakedpastor on Youtube

David Hayward is a former pastor, leader of an online community called, The Lasting Supper, and the author of a new book entitled, Questions Are the Answer.David's new book: http://goo.gl/TrHuiMDavid's website: www.nakedpastor.comThe Lasting Supper: www.thelastingsupper.comPlease support this podcast by making a donation at my Patreon page: www.patreon.com/lifeaftergodVisit our website at www.lifeaftergod.org

In this episode, I reflect on risk. We face risks all the time. Sometimes the risks are small. Sometimes they are huge. We need to learn to properly handle risk. In Jon Acuff's book "Quitter," he has a chapter devoted to facing risk in light of pursing your dream job. Risk brings fear with it, which he also deals with in his newest book, "Start." These principles of facing risk also apply to every area of our lives. Here are some highlights from this chapter in his book: "Every dream has risk associated with it." "90 percent perfect and shared with the world always changes more lives than 100 percent and stuck in your head." "You have the perfect amount of time each day for the things that matter most." Questions: Are you getting paralyzed by the risks you face? Do you have anything that helps you conquer the fear?

Beginners. Are you musical? Which instrument do you play? There are so many to choose from: piano, flute, vioin, guitar, trumpet, drums and percussion instruments. I could go on and on. It can be fun to play an instrument, especially if you practice enough to become good at it. I started to play the violin last year. There are many pieces of music that I love which have main violin parts. Two of my favorites are Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings. I can lose myself in the music. I take a class once every two weeks. My teacher told me that it is important to practice every day. I try to, and when I do, I can see that I am improving. However, if I go for a week without practicing, my playing certainly does not improve. And if you play the violin badly, it sounds terrible. I suppose it is like all hobbies; you get better and better with practice. The hard work does pay off. My children are taking piano and guitar lessons, and we hope that next year, at Christmas time, we can all play carrols together. Perhaps we could play for my podcast listeners too. Grammar notes.  Related vocabulary: woodwind instruments, stringed instruments, percussion instruments, concert, piece of music, composer, to practice (reg. verb), hobby. Questions: Are you musical? Is she sporty? Are they flexible? Are we ready? Is it necessary? Future: We hope that next year we can (will be able to) play together. They think that, in three years, they can (will be able to) buy a house.  *Will be able to is grammatically accurate, but 'can' is commonly used. To go for (time) without: If I go for a week without practicing, my playing sounds terrible. We went for a month without milk. She had gone for several months without paying her bills. Advanced. When it comes to being musical, my family is just starting out. My children are signed up to take their first piano and guitar lessons, and I have been playing the violin for only a year. But, I suppose, it is never to late to start, especially if you are willing to put the time and the practice in. The violin is quite a complex instrument. Not only do you have to position your fingers correctly to create the notes, but the bow has to move just right to create the right tone. If you are uptight or badly positioned, it can sound horrendous. So, needless to say, practicing is one of our family's routines. Any time, after the kids come home from school, you can hear sounds of guitar, violin, or mini organ echoing through the house. And, believe me, it often doesn't sound good. Even the dog will move away to another room to get away from the racket. But, it is all good. With practice comes progress; progress leads to skill, and skill should sound good at some point or other. I'm trying to encourage my busy husband to take up an instrument also. He tried the violin when he was in Kindergarten, but after several months, his parents couldn't stand the squeaks and grinds any more, so he was obliged to stop. The poor guy, he could have become a great violinist. Mind you, being a parent myself, I know the value of some ear plugs. At this stage, I think I will be using them quite a lot. Grammar notes. Related vocabulary: notes, bow, echo, squeaks, grinds, progress, skill, to stand (to not stand) something, to be willing, ear plugs. Exs: I can't stand pork. She couldn't stand the noise. My parents can't stand their neighbors (neighbours). 'Racket' = colloquial British for bad noise.