POPULARITY
70 episodes with reinvesting
34 episodes with reinvesting
3 episodes with reinvesting
3 episodes with reinvesting
2 episodes with reinvesting
2 episodes with reinvesting
2 episodes with reinvesting
2 episodes with reinvesting
2 episodes with reinvesting
Join Christina Warren and Brett Terpstra as they navigate the freezing Minnesotan cold without running water, delve into the intersection of tech and political turmoil, and explore the latest in AI agents and multi-agent workflows. Dive into a whirlwind of emotions, tech tips, and political ranting, all while contemplating the ethics of open source funding and AI coding. From brutal weather updates to philosophical debates on modern fascism, this episode pulls no punches. Sponsor Copilot Money can help you take control of your finances. Get a fresh start with your money for 2026 with 2 months free when you visit try.copilot.money/overtired. Show Links Crimethinc: Being “Peaceful” and “Law-Abiding” Will Not Stop Authoritarianism Gas Town Apex OpenCode Backdrop Cindori Sensei Moltbot Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Host Updates 00:21 Brett’s Water Crisis 02:27 Political Climate and Media Suppression 06:32 Police Violence and Public Response 18:31 Social Media and Surveillance 22:15 Sponsor Break: Copilot Money 26:20 Tech Talk: Gas Town and AI Agents 31:58 Crypto Controversies 37:09 Ethics in Journalism and Personal Dilemmas 39:45 The Future of Open Source and Cryptocurrency 45:03 Apex 1.0? 48:25 Challenges and Innovations in Markdown Processing 01:02:16 AI in Coding and Personal Assistants 01:06:36 GrAPPtitude 01:14:40 Conclusion and Upcoming Plans Join the Conversation Merch Come chat on Discord! Twitter/ovrtrd Instagram/ovrtrd Youtube Get the Newsletter Thanks! You’re downloading today’s show from CacheFly’s network BackBeat Media Podcast Network Check out more episodes at overtiredpod.com and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Find Brett as @ttscoff, Christina as @film_girl, Jeff as @jsguntzel, and follow Overtired at @ovrtrd on Twitter. Transcript AI Agents and Political Chaos Introduction and Host Updates Christina: [00:00:00] Welcome back. You’re listening to Overtired. I’m Christina Warren. Joined as always by Brett Terpstra. Jeff Severns. Guntzel could not be with us this week, um, but uh, but Brett and I are here. So Brett, how are you? How’s the cold? Brett: The cold. Brett’s Water Crisis Brett: So I’m going on day four without running water. Um, I drove to my parents last night to shower and we’re, we’re driving loads of dishes to friends’ house to wash them. We have big buckets of melted snow in our bathtub that we use to flush the Toyland. Um, and we have like big jugs with a spout on them for drinking water. So we’re surviving, but it is highly inconvenient. Um, and we don’t know yet if it’s a frozen pipe. Or if we have [00:01:00] a bad pump on our, well, uh, hopefully we’ll find that out today. But no guarantees because all the plumbers are very busy right now with negative 30 degree weather. They tend to get a lot of calls, lots of stuff happens. Um, so yeah, but I’m, I’m staying warm. I got a fireplace, I got my heat’s working Christina: I mean, that’s the important thing. Brett: and that went out, that went out twice, in, twice already. This winter, our heat has gone out, um, which I’m thankful. We, we finally, we added glycol to our, so our heat pumps water through, like, it’s not radiators, it’s like baseboard heat, but it, it uses water and. Um, and though we were getting like frozen spots, not burst pipes, just enough that the water wouldn’t go through fast enough to heat anything. So we added glycol to that [00:02:00] system to bring the freeze point down to like zero degrees. So it’s not perfect, but we also hardwired the pump so that it always circulates water, um, even when the heat’s not running. So hopefully it’ll never freeze again. That’s the goal. Um, and if we replace the well pump, that should be good for another 20 years. So hopefully after this things will be smoother. Political Climate and Media Suppression Brett: Um, yeah, but that, that’s all in addition to, you know, my state being occupied by federal agents and even in my small town, we’ve got people being like, abducted. Things are escalating quickly at this point, and a lot of it doesn’t get talked about on mainstream media. Um, but yeah, things, I don’t know, man. I think we’re making progress because, um, apparently Binos [00:03:00] getting retired Christina: I was going to say, I, I, I, I heard, I heard that, and I don’t know if that’s good or if that’s bad. Um, I can’t, I can’t tell. Brett: it’s, it’s like, it’s like if Trump died, we wouldn’t know if that was good or bad because JD Vance as president, like maybe things get way worse. Who knows? Uh, none of these, none of these actual figureheads are the solution. Removing them isn’t the solution to removing the kinda maga philosophy behind it. But yeah, and that’s also Jeff is, you know, highly involved and I, I won’t, I won’t talk about that for him. I hope we can get him monsoon to talk about that. Christina: No, me, me, me too. Because I’ve, I’ve been thinking about, about him and about you and about your whole area, your communities, you know, from several thousand miles away. Like all, all we, all we see is either what people post online, which of course now is being suppressed. [00:04:00] Uh, thanks a lot. You know, like, like the, oh, TikTok was gonna be so terrible. Chi the, the Chinese are gonna take over our, uh, our algorithms. Right? No, Larry Ellison is, is actually going to completely, you know, fuck up the algorithms, um, and, and suppress anything. I, yeah. Yeah. They’re, they’re Brett: is TikTok? Well, ’cause Victor was telling me that, they were seeing videos. Uh, you would see one frame of the video and then it would black out. And it all seemed to be videos that were negative towards the administration and we weren’t sure. Is this a glitch? Is this coincidence? Christina: well, they claim it’s a glitch, but I don’t believe it. Brett: Yeah, it seems, it seems Christina: I, I mean, I mean, I mean, the thing is like, maybe it is, maybe it is a glitch and we’re overreacting. I don’t know. Um, all I know is that they’ve given us absolutely zero reason to trust them, and so I don’t, and so, um, uh, apparently the, the state of California, this is, [00:05:00] so we are recording this on Tuesday morning. Apparently the state of California has said that they are going to look into whether things are being, you know, suppressed or not, and if that’s violating California law, um, because now that, that, that TikTok is, is controlled by an American entity, um, even if it is, you know, owned by like a, you know, uh, evil, uh, billionaire, you know, uh, crony sto fuck you, Larry Ellison. Um, uh, I guess that means we won’t be getting an Oracle sponsorship. Sorry. Um, uh, Brett: take it anyway. Christina: I, I know you wouldn’t, I know you wouldn’t. That’s why I felt safe saying that. Um, but, uh, but even if, if, if that were the case, like I, you know, but apparently like now that it is like a, you know, kind of, you know, state based like US thing, like California could step in and potentially make things difficult for them. I mean, I think that’s probably a lot of bluster on Newsom’s part. I don’t think that he could really, honestly achieve any sort of change if they are doing things to the algorithm. Brett: Yeah. Uh, [00:06:00] if, if laws even matter anymore, it would be something that got tied up in court for a long time Christina: Right. Which effectively wouldn’t matter. Right. And, and then that opens up a lot of other interesting, um, things about like, okay, well, you know, should we, like what, what is the role? Like even for algorithmically determined things of the government to even step in or whatever, right now, obviously does, I think, become like more of a speech issue if it’s government speech that’s being suppressed, but regardless, it, it is just, it’s bad. So I’ve been, I’ve been thinking about you, I’ve been thinking about Jeff. Police Violence and Public Response Christina: Um, you know, we all saw what happened over the weekend and, and, you know, people be, people are being murdered in the streets and I mean that, that, that’s what’s happening. And, Brett: white people no less, Christina: Right. Well, I mean, that’s the thing, right? Like, is that like, but, but, but they keep moving the bar. They, they keep moving the goalpost, right? So first it’s a white woman and, oh, she, she was, she was running over. The, the officer [00:07:00] or the ice guy, and it’s like, no, she wasn’t, but, but, but that, that’s immediately where they go and, and she’s, you know, radical whatever and, and, and a terrorist and this and that. Okay. Then you have a literal veterans affair nurse, right? Like somebody who literally, like, you know, has, has worked with, with, with combat veterans and has done those things. Who, um, is stepping in to help someone who’s being pepper sprayed, you know, is, is just observing. And because he happens to have, um, a, a, a, a gun on him legally, which he’s allowed to do, um, they immediately used that as cover to execute him. But if he hadn’t had the gun, they would’ve, they would’ve come up with something else. Oh, we thought he had a gun, and they, you know what I mean? So like, they, they got lucky with that one because they removed the method, the, the, the weapon and then shot him 10 times. You know, they literally executed him in the street. But if he hadn’t had a gun, they still would’ve executed. Brett: Yeah, no, for sure. Um, it’s really frustrating that [00:08:00] they took the gun away. So he was disarmed and, and immobilized and then they shot him. Um, like so that’s just a straight up execution. And then to bring, like, to say that it, he, because he had a gun, he was dangerous, is such a, an affront to America has spent so long fighting against gun control and saying that we had the right to carry fucking assault rifles in the Christina: Kyle Rittenhouse. Kyle Rittenhouse was literally acquitted. Right? Brett: Yeah. And he killed people. Christina: and, and he killed people. He was literally walking around little fucking stogey, you know, little blubbering little bitch, like, you know, crying, you know, he’s like carrying around like Rambo a gun and literally snipe shooting people. That’s okay. Brett: They defended Christina: if you have a. They defended him. Of course they did. Right? Of course they did. Oh, well he has the right to carry and this and that, and Oh, you should be able to be armed in [00:09:00] these places. Oh, no, but, but if you’re, um, somebody that we don’t like Brett: Yeah, Christina: and you have a concealed carry permit, and I don’t even know if he was really concealed. Right. Because I think that if you have it on your holster, I don’t even think that counts as concealed to Brett: was supposedly in Christina: I, I, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t. Brett: like it Christina: Which I don’t think counts as concealed. I think. Brett: No. Christina: Right, right. So, so, so, so, so that, that, that wouldn’t be concealed. Be because you have someone in, in that situation, then all of a sudden, oh, no. Now, now the, the key, the goalpost, okay, well, it’s fine if it’s, you know, uh, police we don’t like, or, or other people. And, and, and if you’re going after protesters, then you can shoot and kill whoever you want, um, because you’ve perceived a threat and you can take actions into your, to your own hands. Um, but now if you are even a white person, um, even, you know, someone who’s, who’s worked in Veterans Affairs, whatever, if, if you have, uh, even if you’re like a, a, a, you know, a, a gun owner and, and have permits, um, now [00:10:00] if we don’t like you and you are anywhere in the vicinity of anybody associated with law enforcement, now they have the right to shoot you dead. Like that’s, that’s, that’s the argument, which is insanity. Brett: so I’m, I’m just gonna point out that as the third right came to power, they disarmed the Jews and they disarmed the anarchists and the socialists and they armed the rest of the population and it became, um, gun control for people they didn’t like. Um, and this is, it’s just straight up the same playbook. There’s no, there’s no differentiation anymore. Christina: No, it, it, it actively makes me angry that, um, I, I could be, because, ’cause what can we do? And, and what they’re counting on is the fact that we’re all tired and we’re all kind of, you know, like just, [00:11:00] you know, from, from what happened, you know, six years ago and, and, and what happened, you know, five years ago. Um, and, and, and various things. I think a lot of people are, are just. It kind of like Brett: Sure. Christina: done with, with, with being able to, to, to, right. But now the actual fascism is here, right? Like, like we, we, we saw a, a, you know, a whiff of this on, on, on January 6th, but now it’s actual fascism and they control every branch of government. Brett: Yeah. Christina: And, um, and, and, and I, and I don’t know what we’re supposed to do, right? Like, I mean it, because I mean, you know, uh, Philadelphia is, is, is begging for, for, for them to come. And I think that would be an interesting kind of standoff. Seattle is this, this is what a friend of mine said was like, you know, you know Philadelphia, Filch Philadelphia is begging them to come. Seattle is like scared. Um, that, that they’re going to come, um, because honestly, like we’re a bunch of little bitch babies and, um, [00:12:00] people think they’re like, oh, you know the WTO. I’m like, yeah, that was, that was 27 years ago. Um, uh, I, I don’t think that Seattle has the juice to hold that sort of line again. Um, but I also don’t wanna find out, right? Like, but, but, but this is, this is the attack thing. It’s like, okay, why are they in Minnesota? Right? They’re what, like 130,000, um, Brett: exactly Christina: um, immigrants in, in Minnesota. There are, there are however many million in Texas, however many million in Florida. We know exactly why, right? This isn’t about. Anything more than Brett: in any way. Christina: and opt. Right, right. It has nothing, it has nothing to do with, with, with immigration anyway. I mean, even, even the Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal who a, you know, ran an op-ed basically saying get out of Minnesota. They also, they also had like a, you know, a news story, which was not from the opinion board, which like broke down the, the, the footage showing, you know, that like the, the video footage doesn’t match the administration’s claims, but they also ran a story. Um, that [00:13:00] basically did the math, I guess, on like the number of, of criminals, um, or people with criminal records who have been deported. And at this point, like in, you know, and, and when things started out, like, I guess when the raid started out, the, the majority of the people that they were kind of going after were people who had criminal records. Now, whether they were really violent, the worst, the worst, I mean that’s, I’m, I’m not gonna get into that, but you could at least say like, they, they could at least say, oh, well these were people who had criminal records, whatever. Now some, some huge percentage, I think it’s close to 80% don’t have anything. And many of the people that do the, the criminal like thing that they would hold would be, you know, some sort of visa violation. Right. So it’s, it’s, it’s Brett: they deported a five-year-old kid after using him as bait to try to get the rest of his family. Christina: as bait. Brett: Yeah. And like it’s, it’s pretty deplorable. But I will say I am proud of Minnesota. Um, they have not backed [00:14:00] down. They have stood up in the face of increasing increasingly escalated attacks, and they have shown up in force thousands of people out in the streets. Like Conti, like last night they had a, um, well, yeah, I mean, it’s been ongoing, but, uh, what’s his name? Preddy Alex. Um, at the place where he was shot, they had a, like continuing kind of memorial protest, I guess, and there’s footage of like a thousand, a thousand mins surrounding about 50, um, ICE agents and. Like basically corralling them to the point where they were all backed into a corner and weren’t moving. And I don’t know what happened after that. Um, but thus far it hasn’t been violent on the part of protesters. It’s been very violent on the part of ice. I [00:15:00] personally, I don’t know where I stand on, like, I feel like the Democrats are urging pacifism because it affects their hold on power. And I don’t necessarily think that peace when they’re murdering us in the street. I don’t know if peace is the right response, but I don’t know. I’m not openly declaring that I support violence at this point, but. At the same time, do I not? I’m not sure. Like I keep going back and forth on is it time for a war or do we try to vote our way out of this? Christina: I mean, well, and the scary thing about voting our way out of this is will we even be able to have free elections, right? Be because they’re using any sort of anything, even the most benign sort of legal [00:16:00] protest, even if violence isn’t involved in all of a sudden, talks of the Insurrection Act come Brett: yeah. And Trump, Trump offered to pull out of Minnesota if Minnesota will turn over its voter database to the federal government. Like that’s just blatant, like that’s obviously the end goal is suppression. Christina: Right, right. And, and so to your point, I don’t know. Right. And I’m, I’m never somebody who would wanna advocate outwardly for violence, but I, I, I, I, I don’t know. I mean, they’re killing citizens in the streets. They’re assassinating people in cold blood. They’re executing people, right. That’s what they’re doing. They’re literally executing people in the streets and then covering it up in real time. Brett: if the argument is, if we are violent, it will cause them to kill us. They’re already killing Christina: already doing it. Right. So at, at this point, I mean, like, you know, I mean, like, w to your point, wars have been started for, for, for less, or for the exact same things. Brett: [00:17:00] Yeah. Christina: So, I don’t know. I don’t know. Um, I know that that’s a depressing way to probably do mental health corner and whatnot, but this is what’s happening in our world right now and in and in your community, and it’s, it’s terrifying. Brett: I’m going to link in the show notes an article from Crime Think that was written by, uh, people in Germany who have studied, um, both historical fascism and the current rise of the A FD, which will soon be the most powerful party in Germany, um, which is straight up a Nazi party. Um, and it, they offered, like their hope right now lies in America stopping fascism. Christina: Yeah. Brett: Like if we can, if we can stop fascism, then they believe the rest of Europe can stop fascism. Um, but like they, it, it’s a good article. It kind of, it kind of broaches the same questions I do about like, is it [00:18:00] time for violence? And they offer, like, we don’t, we’re not advocating for a civil war, but like Civil wars might. If you, if you, if you broach them as revolutions, it’s kind of, they’re kind of the same thing in cases like this. So anyway, I’ll, I’ll link that for anyone who wants to read kinda what’s going on in my head. I’m making a note to dig that up. I, uh, I love Crime Fake Oh and Blue Sky. Social Media and Surveillance Brett: Um, so I have not, up until very recently been an avid Blue Sky user. Um, I think I have like, I think I have maybe like 200 followers there and I follow like 50 people. But I’ve been expanding that and I am getting a ton of my news from Blue Sky and like to get stories from people on the ground, like news as it happens, unfiltered and Blue Sky has been [00:19:00] really good for that. Um, I, it’s. There’s not like an algorithm. I just get my stuff and like Macedon, I have a much larger following and I follow a lot more people, but it’s very tech, Christina: It’s very tech and, Brett: there for. Christina: well, and, and MAs on, um, understandably too is also European, um, in a lot of regards. And so it’s just, it’s not. Gonna have the same amount of, of people who are gonna be able to, at least for instances like this, like be on the ground and doing real-time stuff. It’s not, it doesn’t have like the more normy stuff. So, no, that makes sense. Um, no, that’s great. I think, yeah, blue Sky’s been been really good for, for these sorts of real-time events because again, they don’t have an algorithm. Like you can have one, like for a personalized kind of like for you feed or whatever, but in terms of what you see, you know, you see it naturally. You’re not seeing it being adjusted by anything, which can be good and bad. I, I think is good because nothing’s suppressing things and you see things in real time. It can be bad because sometimes you miss things, but I think on the whole, it’s better. [00:20:00] The only thing I will say, just to anyone listening and, and just to spread onto, you know, people in your communities too, from what I’ve observed from others, like, it does seem like the, the government and other sorts of, you know, uh, uh, the, you know, bodies like that are finally starting to pay more attention to blue sky in terms of monitoring things. And so that’s not to say don’t. You know, use it at all. But the same way, you don’t make threats on Twitter if you don’t want the Feds to show up at your house. Don’t make threats on Blue Sky, because it’s not just a little microcosm where, you know, no one will see it. People are, it, it’s still small, but it’s, it’s getting bigger to the point that like when people look at like where some of the, the, the fire hose, you know, things observable things are there, there seem to be more and more of them located in the Washington DC area, which could just be because data centers are there, who knows? But I’ve also just seen anecdotally, like people who have had, like other instances, it’s like, don’t, don’t think [00:21:00] that like, oh, okay, well, you know, no one’s monitoring this. Um, of course people are so just don’t be dumb, don’t, don’t say things that could potentially get you in trouble. Um. Brett: a political candidate in Florida. Um, had the cops show up at her house and read her one of her Facebook posts. I mean, this was local. This was local cops, but still, yeah, you Christina: right. Well, yeah, that’s the thing, right? No, totally. And, and my, my only point with that is we’ve known that they do that for Facebook and for, for, you know, Twitter and, and, uh, you know, Instagram and things like that, but they, but Blue Sky, like, I don’t know if it’s on background checks yet, but it, uh, like for, uh, for jobs and things like that, I, I, I don’t know if that’s happening, but it definitely is at that point where, um, I know that people are starting to monitor those things. So just, you know, uh, not even saying for you per se, but just for anybody out there, like, it’s awesome and I’m so glad that like, that’s where people can get information out, but don’t be like [00:22:00] lulled into this false sense of security. Like, oh, well they’re not gonna monitor this. They’re not Brett: Nobody’s watching me here. Christina: It is like, no, they are, they are. Um, so especially as it becomes, you know, more prominent. So I’m, I’m glad that that’s. That’s an option there too. Um, okay. Sponsor Break: Copilot Money Christina: This is like the worst possible segue ever, but should we go ahead and segue to our, our, our sponsor break? Brett: Let’s do it. Let’s, let’s talk about capitalism. Christina: All right. This episode is brought to you by copilot money. Copilot money is not just another finance app. It’s your personal finance partner designed to help you feel clear, calm, and in control of your money. Whether it’s tracking your spending, saving for specific goals, or simply getting the handle on your investments. Copilot money has you covered as we enter the new year. Clarity and control over our finances has never been more important with the recent shutdown of Mint and rising financial stress, for many consumers are looking for a modern, trustworthy tool to help navigate their financial journeys. That’s where copilot money comes in. [00:23:00] With this beautifully designed app, you can see all your bank accounts, spending, savings and goals and investments all in one place. Imagine easily tracking everything without the clutter of chaotic spreadsheets or outdated tools. It’s a practical way to start 2026 with a fresh financial outlook. And here’s the exciting part. As of December 15th, copilot money is now available on the web so you can manage your finances on any device that you choose. Plus, it offers a seamless experience that keeps your data secure with a privacy first approach, when you sign up using our link, you’ll get two months for free. So visit, try. Copilot money slash Overtired to get started with features like automatic subscription tracking so you never miss a renewal date and customizable savings goals to help you stay on track. Copilot money empowers you to take charge of your financial life with confidence. So why wait Start 2026 with clarity and purpose. Download copilot money on your devices or visit. Try copilot money slash [00:24:00] overti today to claim you’re two months free and embrace a more organized, stress-free approach to your finances. Try copilot.money/ Overtired. Brett: Awesome that I appreciate this segue. ’cause we, we, we could, we could be talking about other things. Um, like it’s, it feels so weird, like when I go on social media and I just want to post that like my water’s out. It feels out of place right now because there’s everything that’s going on feels so much more important than, Christina: Right. Brett: than anything else. Um, but there’s still a place for living our lives, um, Christina: there are a absolutely. I mean, and, and, and in a certain extent, like not to, I mean, maybe this is a little bit of a cope, but it’s like, if all we do is focus on the things that we can’t control at the expense of everything else, it’s like then they win. You know? Like, which, which isn’t, which, which isn’t even to [00:25:00] say, like, don’t talk about what’s happening. Don’t try to help, don’t try to speak out and, and, um, and do what we can do, but also. Like as individuals, there’s very little we can control about things. And being completely, you know, subsumed by that is, is not necessarily good either. Um, so yeah, there’s, there, there are other things going on and it’s important for us to get out of our heads. It’s important, especially for you, you know, being in the region, I think to be able to, to focus on other things and, and hopefully your water will be back soon. ’cause that sucks like that. I’ve been, I’ve been worried about you. I’m glad that you have heat. I’m glad you have internet. I’m glad you have power, but you know, the pipes being frozen and all that stuff is like, not Brett: it, the, the internet has also been down for up to six hours at a time. I don’t know why. There’s like an amplifier down on our street. Um, and that has sucked because I, out here, I live in a, I’m not gonna call it rural. Uh, we’re like five minutes from town, [00:26:00] but, um, we, we don’t. We have shitty internet. Like I pay for a gigabit and I get 500 megabits and it’s, and it’s up and down all the time and I hate it. But anyway. Tech Talk: Gas Town and AI Agents Brett: Let’s talk about, uh, let’s talk about Gas Town. What can you tell me about Gastown? Christina: Okay. So we’ve talked a lot about like AI agents and, um, kind of like, uh, coding, um, loops and, and things like that. And so Gastown, uh, which is available, um, at, I, it is not Gas Town. Let me find the URL, um, one second. It’s, it’s at a gas town. No, it’s not. Lemme find it. Um. Right. So this is a thing that, that Steve Yy, uh, has created, and [00:27:00] it is a multi-agent workspace manager. And so the idea is basically that you can be running like a lot of instances of, um, of, of Claude Code or, um, I guess you could use Codex. You could use, uh, uh, uh, co-pilot, um, SDK or CLI agent and whatnot. Um, and basically what it’s designed to do is to basically let you coordinate like multiple coding agents at one time so they can all be working on different tasks, but then instead of having, um, like the context get lost when agents restart, it creates like a, a persistent, um, like. Work state, which it uses with, with git on the backend, which is supposed to basically enable more multi-agent workflows. So, um, basically the idea would be like, you get, have multiple agents working at once, kind of talking to one another, handing things off, you know, each doing their own task and then coordinating the work with what the other ones are doing. But then you have like a persistent, um, uh, I guess kind of like, you know, layer in the backend so that if an agent has to restart or whatever, it’s not gonna lose the, [00:28:00] the context, um, that that’s happening. And you don’t have to manually, um, worry about things like, okay, you know, I’ve lost certain things in memory and, and I’ve, you know, don’t know how I’m, I’m managing all these things together. Um, there, there’s another project, uh, called Ralph, which is kind of based on this, this concept of like, what of Ralph Wickham was, you know, coding or, or was doing kind of a loop. And, and it’s, it’s, it’s a, it’s kind of a similar idea. Um, there’s also. Brett: my nose wouldn’t bleed so much if I just kept my finger out of there. Christina: Exactly, exactly. My cat’s breath smells like cat food. Um, and um, and so. Like there are ideas of like Ralph Loops and Gastown. And so these are a couple of like projects, um, that have really started to, uh, take over. So like, uh, Ralph is more of an autonomous AI agent loop that basically like it runs like over and over and over again until, uh, a task is done. Um, and, and a lot of people use, use Gastown and, [00:29:00] and, and Ralph together. Um, but yeah, no Ga gastown is is pretty cool. Um, we’ll we’re gonna talk about it more ’cause it’s my pick of the week. We’ll talk about Molt bot previously known as Claude Bot, which is, uses some, some similar ideas. But it’s really been interesting to see like how, like the, the multi-agent workflow, and by multi-agent, I mean like, people are running like 20 or 30 of them, you know, at a time. So it’s more than that, um, is really starting to become a thing that people can, uh, can do. Um, Brett: gets expensive though. Christina: I was, I was just about to say that’s the one thing, right? Most people who are using things like Gastown. Are using them with the Claude, um, code Max plans, which is $200 a month. And those plans do give you more value than like, what the, what it would be if you spent $200 in API credits, uh, but $200 a month. Like that’s not an expensive, that’s, you know, that, that’s, that, that, like, you know what I mean? Like, like that, that, that, that, that, that’s a lot of money to spend on these sorts of things. Um, but people [00:30:00] are getting good results out of it. It’s pretty cool. Um. There have been some open models, which of course, most people don’t have equipment that would be fast enough for them to, to run, uh, to be able to kind of do what they would want, um, reliably. But the, the AgTech stuff coming to some of the open models is better. And so if these things can continue, of course now we’re in a ram crisis and storage crisis and everything else, so who knows when the hardware will get good enough again, and we can, when we as consumers can even reasonably get things ourselves. But, but in, in theory, you know, if, if these sorts of things continue, I could see like a, a world where like, you know, some of the WAN models and some of the other things, uh, potentially, um, or Quinn models rather, um, could, uh. Be things that you could conceivably, like be running on your own equipment to run these sorts of nonstop ag agentic loops. But yeah, right now, like it’s really freaking cool and I’ve played around with it because I’m fortunate enough to have access to a lot of tokens. [00:31:00] Um, but yeah, I can get expensive real, real fast. Uh, but, but it’s still, it’s still pretty awesome. Brett: I do appreciate that. So, guest Town, the name is a reference to Mad Max and in the kind of, uh, vernacular that they built for things like background agents and I, uh, there’s a whole bunch, there are different levels of, of the interface that they kind of extrapolated on the gas town kind of metaphor for. Uh, I, it was, it, it, there were some interesting naming conventions and then they totally went in other directions with some of the names. It, they didn’t keep the theme very well, but, but still, uh, I appreciate Ralph Wig and Mad Max. That’s. It’s at the very least, it’s interesting. Christina: No, it definitely is. It definitely is. Crypto Controversies Christina: I will say that there’s been like a little bit [00:32:00] of a kerfuffle, uh, involved in both of those, uh, developers because, um, they’re both now promoting shit coins and, uh, and so that’s sort of an interesting thing. Um, basically there’s like this, this, this crypto company called bags that I guess apparently like if people want to, they will create crypto coins for popular open source projects, and then they will designate someone to, I guess get the, the gas fees, um, in, um, uh, a Solana parlance, uh, no pun intended, with the gas town, um, where basically like that’s, you know, like the, the, the fees that you spend to have the transaction work off of the blockchain, right? Like, especially if there’s. A lot of times that it would take, like, you pay a certain percentage of something and like those fees could be designated to an individual. And, um, in this case, like both of these guys were reached out to when basically they were like, Hey, this coin exists. You’ve got all this money just kind of sitting in a crypto wallet waiting for you. [00:33:00] Take the money, get, get the, the transaction fees, so to speak. And, uh, I mean, I think that, that, that’s, if you wanna take that money right, it’s, it’s there for you. I’m not gonna certainly judge anyone for that. What I will judge you for is if you then promote your shit coin to your community and basically kind of encourage everyone. To kind of buy into it. Maybe you put in the caveat, oh, this isn’t financial advice. Oh, this is all just for whatever. But, but you’re trying to do that and then you go one step beyond, which I think is actually pretty dumb, which is to be like, okay, well, ’cause like, here’s the thing, I’m not gonna judge anyone. If someone who’s like, Hey, here’s a wallet that we’re gonna give you, and it has real cash in it, and you can do whatever you want with it, and these are the transaction fees, so to speak, like, you know, the gas fees, whatever, you know what you do. You, even if you wanna let your audience know that you’ve done that, and maybe you’re promoting that, maybe some people will buy into it, like, people are adults. Fine. Where, where I do like side eye a little bit is if you are, then for whatever reason [00:34:00] going to be like, oh, I’m gonna take my fees and I’m gonna reinvest it in the coin. Like, okay, you are literally sitting on top of the pyramid, like you could not be in a better position and now you’re, but right. And now you’re literally like paying into the pyramid scheme. It’s like, this is not going to work well for you. These are rug bulls. Um, and so like the, the, the, the gas town coin like dropped like massively. The Ralph coin like dropped massively, like after the, the, the Ralph creator, I think he took out like 300 K or something and people, or, you know, sold like 300 K worth of coins. And people were like, oh, he’s pulling a rug pull. And I’m like, well, A, what did you expect? But B it’s like, this is why don’t, like, if someone’s gonna give you free money from something that’s, you know, kind of scammy, like, I’m not saying don’t take the money. I am saying maybe be smart enough to not to reinvest it into the scam. Brett: Yeah. Christina: Like, I don’t know. Anyway, that’s the only thing I will mention on that. ’cause I don’t think that that takes [00:35:00] anything away from either of those projects or it says that you shouldn’t use or play around with it either of those ideas at all. But that is just a thing that’s happened in the last couple of weeks too, where it’s like, oh, and now there’s like crypto, you know, the crypto people are trying to get kind of involved with these projects and, um, I, I think that that’s, uh, okay. You know, um, like I said, I’m, I’m not gonna judge anybody for taking free money that, that somebody is gonna offer them. I will judge you if you’re gonna try to then, you know, try to like, promote that to your audience and try to be like, oh, this is a great way where we, where you can help me and we can all get rich. It’s like, no, there are, if you really wanna support creators, like there are things like GitHub sponsors and there are like other methods that you can, you can do that, that don’t involve making financial risks on shit coins. Brett: I wish anything I made could be popular enough that I could do something that’s stupid. Yeah. Like [00:36:00] I, I, I, I’m not gonna pull a rug pull on anyone, but the chances that I’ll ever make $300,000 on anything I’m working on, it’s pretty slim. Christina: Yeah, but at the same time, like if you, if you did, if you were in that position, like, I don’t know, I mean, I guess that’d be a thing that you would have to kind of figure out, um, yourself would be like, okay, I have access to this amount of money. Am I going to try to, you know, go all in and, and maybe go full grift to get even more? Some, something tells me that like your own personal ethics would probably preclude you from that. Brett: I, um, I have spent, what, um, how old am I? 47. I, I’ve been, since I started blogging in like 1999, 2000, um, I have always adhered to a very strict code and like turning down sponsors. I didn’t agree with [00:37:00] not doing anything that would be shady. Not taking, not, not taking money from anyone I was writing about. Ethics in Journalism and Personal Dilemmas Brett: Like, it’s been, it’s a pain in the ass to try to be truly ethical, but I feel like I’ve done it for 30 some years and, and I don’t know, I wouldn’t change it. I’m not rich. I’ll never be rich. But yeah, I think ethics are important, especially if you’re in any kind of journalism. Christina: Yeah, if you’re in any sort of journalism. I think so, and I think like how people wanna define those things, I think it’s up to them. And, and like I said, like I’m not gonna even necessarily like, like judge people like for, because I, I don’t know personally like what my situation would be like. Like if somebody was like, Christina, here’s a wallet that has the equivalent of $300,000 in it and it’s just sitting here and we’re not even asking you to do anything with this. I would probably take the money. I’m not gonna lie, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t [00:38:00] know if I would promote it or anything and I maybe I would feel compelled to disclose, Hey, Brett: That is Christina: wallet belongs to me. Brett: money though. Christina: I, I, right. I, I, I might, I might be, I might feel compelled to com to, to disclose, Hey, someone created this coin in this thing. They created the foam grow coin and they are giving me, you know, the, the, the gas fees and I have accepted Brett: could be, I’d feel like you could do it if you were transparent enough about it. Christina: Yeah, I mean, I, I, I think where I draw the line is when you then go from like, because again, it’s fine if you wanna take it. It’s then when you are a. Reinvesting the free money into the coin, which I think is just idiotic. Like, I think that’s just actually dumb. Um, like I just, I just do like, that just seems like you are literally, like I said, you’re at the top of the pyramid and you’re literally like volunteering to get into the bottom again. Um, and, or, or b like if you do that and then you try to rationalize in some way, oh, well, you know, I think [00:39:00] that this could be a great thing for everybody to, you know, I get rich, you know, you could get rich, we could all get money out of this because this is the future of, you know, creator economy or whatever. It’s like, no, it’s not. This is gambling. Um, and, and, and, and you could make the argument to me, and I’d probably be persuaded to be like, this isn’t that different from poly market or any of the other sorts of things. But you know what? I don’t do those things either. And I wouldn’t promote those things to any audience that I had either. Um, but if somebody wanted to give me free money. I probably wouldn’t turn it down. I’m not gonna pretend that my ethics are, are that strong. Uh, I just don’t know if I would, if I would, uh, go on the other end and be like, okay, to the Moom, everyone let, let’s all go in on the crypto stuff. It’s like, okay, The Future of Open Source and Cryptocurrency Brett: So is this the future of open source is, ’cause I mean like open source has survived for decades as like a concept and it’s never been terribly profitable. But a [00:40:00] lot of large companies have invested in open source, and I guess at this point, like most of the big open source projects are either run by a corporation or by a foundation. Um, that are independently financed, but for a project like Gastown, like is it the future? Is this, is this something people are gonna start doing to like, kind of make open source profitable? Christina: I mean, maybe, I don’t know. I think the problem though is that it’s not necessarily predictable, right? And, and not to say that like normal donations or, or support methods are predictable, but at least that could be a thing where you’re like, they’re not, but, but, but it’s not volatile to the extent where you’re like, okay, I’m basing, you know, like my income based on how well this shit coin that someone else controls the supply of someone else, you know, uh, uh, created someone else, you know, burned, so to speak, somebody else’s is going to be, uh, [00:41:00] controlling and, and has other things and could be responsible for, you know, big seismic like market movements like that I think is very different, um, than anything else. And so, I don’t know. I mean, I, I think that they, what I do expect that we’ll see more of is more and more popular projects, things that go viral, especially around ai. Probably being approached or people like proactively creating coins around those things. And there have been some, um, developers who’ve already, you know, stood up oddly and been like, if you see anybody trying to create a coin around this, it is not associated with me. I won’t be associated with any of it. I won’t do it. Right. Uh, and I think that becomes a problem where you’re like, okay, if these things do become popular, then that becomes like another risk if you don’t wanna be involved in it. If you’re involved with a, with a popular project, right? Like the, like the, like the creator of MPM Isaac, like, I think there’s like an MPM coin now, and that, that he’s, you know, like involved in and it’s like, you know, again, he didn’t create it, but he is happy to promote it. He’s happy to take the money. I’m like, look, I’m happy for [00:42:00] Isaac to get money from NPMI am at the same time, you know, bun, which is basically like, you know, the, you know, replacement for, for Node and NPM in a lot of ways, they sold to Anthropic for. I guarantee you a fuck load more money than whatever Isaac is gonna make off of some MPM shitcoin. So, so like, it, it’s all a lottery and it’s not sustainable. But I also feel like for a lot of open source projects, and this isn’t like me saying that the people shouldn’t get paid for the work, quite the contrary. But I think if you go into it with the expectation of I’m going to be able to make a sustainable living off of something, like when you start a project, I think that that is not necessarily going to set you up for, I think that those expectations are misaligned with what reality might be, which again, isn’t to say that you shouldn’t get paid for your work, it’s just that the reason that we give back and the reason we contribute open source is to try to be part of like the, the greater good and to make things more available to everyone. Not to be [00:43:00] like, oh, I can, you know, quit my job. Like, that would be wonderful. I, I wish that more and more people could do that. And I give to a lot of, um, open source projects on, on a monthly basis or on an annual basis. Um, Brett: I, I give basically all the money that’s given to me for my open source projects I distribute among other open source projects. So it’s a, it’s a, it’s a wash for me, but yeah, I am, I, I pay, you know, five, 10 bucks a month to 20 different projects and yeah. Christina: Yeah. I mean, I think it’s important, but, but I, I don’t know. I, I, I hope that it’s not the future. I’m not mad, I think like if that’s a way where people can make, you know, a, a, an income. But I do, I guess worry the sense that like, if, if, if, I don’t want that to be, the reason why somebody would start an open source project is because they’re like, oh, I, I can get rich on a crypto thing. Right? Like, ’cause that that’s the exact wrong Brett: that’s not open source. That’s not the open source philosophy. Christina: no, [00:44:00] it’s not. And, and so, I mean, but I think, I think if it already exists, I mean, I don’t know. I, I also feel like no one should feel obligated. This should go without saying that. If you see a project that you like that is involved in one of those coins. Do you have a zero obligation to be, uh, supportive of that in any way? And in fact, it is probably in your financial best interest to not be involved. Um, it, it is your life, your money, your, you do whatever you want, gamble, however you want. But, uh, I, I, I, I do, I guess I, I bristle a little bit. Like if people try to portray it like, oh, well this is how you can support me by like buying into this thing. I’m like, okay, that’s alright. Like, I, I, if you wanna, again, like I said, if you wanna play poly market with this, fine, but don’t, don’t try to wrap that around like, oh, well this is how you can give back. It’s like, no, you can give back in other ways. Like you can do direct donations, you can do other stuff. Like I would, I would much rather encourage people to be like, rather than putting a hundred dollars in Ralph Coin, [00:45:00] give a hundred dollars to the Ralph Guy directly. Apex 1.0? Brett: So, speaking of unprofitable open source, I have Apex almost to 1.0. Um, it officially handles, I think, all of the syntax that I had hoped it would handle. Um, it does like crazy things, uh, that it’s all built on common mark, GFM, uh, like cmar, GFM, GitHub’s project. Um, so it, it does all of that. Plus it handles stuff from like M mark with like indices. Indices, and it incorporates, uh. Uh, oh, I forget the name of it. Like two different ways of creating indices. It handles all kinds of bibliography syntax, like every known bibliography syntax. Um, I just added, you can, you can create insert tags with plus, plus, uh, the same way you would create a deletion with, uh, til detail. Um, and [00:46:00] I’ve added a full plugin structure, and the plugins now can be project local. So you can have global plugins. And then if you have specific settings, so like I have a, I, my blogs are all based on cramdown and like the bunch documentation is based on cramdown, but then like the mark documentation. And most of my writing is based on multi markdown and they have different. Like the, for example, the IDs that go on headers in multi markdown. If it’s, if it has a space in multi markdown, it gets compressed to no space in common Mark or GFM, it gets a dash instead of a space, which means if I have cross links, cross references in my document, if I don’t have the right header syntax, the cross reference will break. So now I can put a, a config into like my bunch documentation that tells Apex to use, [00:47:00] um, the dash syntax. And in my Mark documentation, I can tell it to use the multi markdown syntax. And then I can just run Apex with no command line arguments and everything works. And I don’t know, I, I haven’t gotten adoption for it. Like the one place I thought it could be really useful was DEVONthink, Christina: Mm-hmm. Brett: which has always been based on multi markdown, which. Um, is I love multi markdown and I love Fletcher and, um, it’s just, it’s missing a lot of what I would consider modern syntax. Christina: Right. Brett: so I, I offered it to Devin think, and it turned out they were working on their own project along the same lines at the same time. Um, but I’m hoping to find some, some apps that will incorporate it and maybe get it some traction. It’s solid, it’s fast, it’s not as fast as common Mark, but it does twice as much. Um, like the [00:48:00] benchmarks, it a complex document renders in common mark in about. Uh, 27 milliseconds, and in Apex it’s more like 46 milliseconds. But in the grand scheme of things, I could render my whole blog 10 times faster than I can with cramm down or Panoc and yeah, and, and I can use all the syntax I want. Challenges and Innovations in Markdown Processing Brett: Did I tell you about, did I tell you about, uh, Panoc Divs? The div extension, um, like you can in with the panoc D extension, you can put colon, colon, colon instead of like back, take, back, take backtick. So normally, like back ticks would create a code block with colons, it creates a div, and you can apply, you can apply inline attribute lists after the colons to make, to give it a class and an ID and any other attributes you wanna apply to it. I extended that so that you can do colon, [00:49:00] colon, colon, and then type a tag name. So if you type colon, colon, colon aside and then applied an attribute list to it, it would create an aside tag with those attributes. Um, the, the only pan deck extension that I wish I could support that I don’t yet is grid tables. Have you ever seen grid tables? Christina: I have not. Brett: There, it’s, it’s kind of like multi markdown table syntax, except you use like plus signs for joints and uh, pipes and dashes, and you actually draw out the table like old ASCI diagrams Christina: Okay. Brett: and that would render that into a valid HTML table. But that supporting that has just been, uh, tables. Tables are the thing. I’ve pulled the most hair out over. Christina: Yeah, I was gonna say, I think I, they feel like tables are hard. I also feel like in a lot of circumstances, I mean obviously people use tables and whatnot, but like, [00:50:00] only thing I would say to you, like, you know, apex is, is so cool and I hope that other projects adopt it. Um, and, uh, potentially with the POC support as far as you’ve gotten with it, maybe, you know, projects that support some of POC stuff could, could, you know, uh, jump into it. But I will say it does feel like. Once you go into like the Panoc universe, like that almost feels like a separate thing from the markdown Flavors like that almost feels like its own like ecosystem. You know what I mean? Brett: Well, yeah, and I haven’t tried to adopt everything Panoc does because you can als, you can also use panoc. You can pipe from Apex into Panoc or vice versa. So I’m not gonna try to like one for one replicate panoc, Christina: No, no. Totally Brett: do all of panoc export options because Panoc can take HTML in and then output PDFs and Doc X and everything. So you can just pipe output from Apex into Panoc to create your PDF or whatever Christina: And like, and, and like to, [00:51:00] and like to me, like that seems ideal, right? But I feel like maybe like adopting some of the other things, especially like, like their grid, you know, table, things like that. Like that would be cool. But like, that feels like that’s a, potentially has the, has the potential, maybe slow down rendering and do other stuff which you don’t want. And then b it’s like, okay, now are we complicated to the point that like, this is, this is now not becoming like one markdown processor to rule them all, but you Brett: Yeah, the whole point, the whole point is to be able to just run Apex and not worry about what cex you’re using. Um, but grid tables are the kind of thing that are so intentional that you’re not gonna accidentally use them. Like the, the, the, the impetus for Apex was all these support requests I get from people that are like the tilde syntax for underline or delete doesn’t work in Mark. And it, it does if you choose the right processor. But then you have to know, yeah, you have to [00:52:00] know what processor supports what syntax and that takes research and time and bringing stuff in from, say, obsidian into mart. You would just kind of expect things to work. And that’s, that’s why I built Apex and Christina: right? Brett: you are correct that grid tables are the kind of thing, no one’s going to use grid tables if they haven’t specifically researched what Christina: I right. Brett: they’re gonna work with. Christina: And they’re going to have a way that has their file marked so that it is designated as poc and then whatever, you know, flags for whatever POC features it supports, um, does. Now I know that the whole point of APEX is you don’t have to worry about this, but, but I am assuming, based on kind of what you said, like if I pass like arguments like in like a, you know, in a config file or something like where I was like, these documents or, or, or this URL or these things are, you know, in this process or in this in another, then it can, it can just automatically apply those rules without having to infer based on the, on the syntax, right. Brett: right. It has [00:53:00] modes for cram down and common mark and GFM and discount, and you can like tell it what mode you’re writing in and it will limit the feature set to just what that processor would handle. Um, and then all of the flags, all of the features have neg negotiable flags on them. So if you wanted to say. Skip, uh, relax table rendering. You could turn that off on the command line or in a config file. Um, so yeah, everything, everything, you can make it behave like any particular processor. Uh, but I focus mostly on the unified mode, which again, like you don’t have to think about which processor you are using. Christina: Are you seeing, I guess like in, in circumstances like, ’cause I, in, in my, like, my experience, like, I would never think to, like, I would probably like, like to, I would probably do like what you do, which is like, I’m [00:54:00] going to use one syntax or, or one, you know, processor for one type of files and maybe another and another. Um, but I, I don’t think that like, I would ever have a, and maybe I’m misunderstanding this, but I don’t think I would ever have an instance where I would be like mixing the two together in the same file. Brett: See, that’s my, so that’s, that’s what’s changing for me is I’m switching my blog over to use Apex instead of Cramdown, which means I can now incorporate syntax that wasn’t available before. So moving forward, I am mixing, um, things from common mark, things from cram down, things from multi markdown. Um, and, and like, so once you know you have the option Christina: right. Then you might do that Brett: you have all the syntax available, you start doing it. And historically you won’t have, but like once you get used to it, then you can. Christina: Okay. So here’s the next existential question for you. At what point then does it go from being, you know, like [00:55:00] a, a, a rendering engine, kind of like an omni rendering engine to being a syntax and a flavor in and of itself? Brett: That is that, yeah, no, that’s a, that’s a very valid question and one that I have to keep asking myself, um, because I never, okay, so what to, to encapsulate what you’re saying, if you got used to writing for Apex and you were mixing your syntax, all of a sudden you have a document that can’t render in anything except Apex, which does eventually make it its own. Yeah, no, it is, it’s always, it’s a concern the whole time. Christina: well, and I, I wouldn’t even necessarily, I mean, like, and I think it could be two things, right? I mean, like, you could have it live in two worlds where, like on the one hand it could be like the rendering engine to end all rendering engines and it can render, you know, files and any of them, and you can specify like whatever, like in, in, in like a tunnel or something. Like, you know, these files are, [00:56:00] are this format, these are these, and you know, maybe have some sort of, you know, um, something, even like a header files or whatever to be like, this is what this rendering engine is. Um, you know, with, with your projects to have it, uh, do that. Um. Or have it infer, you know, based on, on, on, um, the, the logic that you’re importing. But it could also be one of those things where you’re like, okay, I just have created like, you know, the omni syntax. And that’s a thing that maybe, maybe you get people to try to encourage or try, try to adopt, right? Like, it’s like, okay, you can always just use common mark. You can always just use GFM, you can always just use multi markdown, but we support these other things too, from these other, um, systems and you can intermix and match them. Um, because, because I, I do feel like at a certain point, like at least the way you’re running it yourself, you have your own syntax. Like, like, you know. Brett: yeah. No, you have perfectly encapsulated the, the major [00:57:00] design concern. And I think you’re correct. It can exist, it can be both things at once. Um, but I have like, nobody needs another markdown syntax. Like there are so many flavors right now. Okay. There may be a dozen. It’s not like an infinite number, but, but there’s enough that the confusion is real. Um, and we don’t need yet another markdown flavor, but we do need a universal processor that. Makes the differentiations less, but yeah, no, it’s, I need, I need to nail down that philosophy, uh, and really like, put it into writing and say, this is the design goal of this project, uh, which I have like hinted at, but I’m a scattered thinker and like, part of, part of the design philosophy is if someone says, Hey, [00:58:00] could you make this work? I just wanted a project where I could say, yeah, I’m gonna make that work. I, I, I’m gonna add this somewhat esoteric syntax and it’s just gonna work and it’s not gonna affect anything else. And you don’t have to use it, but if you do, there it is. So it’s kind of, it was designed to bloat to a circuit certain extent. Um, but yeah, I need to, I need to actually write a page That’s just the philosophy and really, really, uh, put, put all my thoughts together on that. Christina: Yeah, no, ’cause I was just kind of thinking, I was like, ’cause it’s so cool. Um, but the way that I would’ve envisioned using it, like I, I still like, it’s cool that you can mix all those things in together. I still feel like I probably wouldn’t because I’m not you. And so then I would just have like this additional dependency that it’s like, okay, if something happens to Apex one day and that’s the only thing that can render my documents, then like, you know what I mean? And, and, and if it’s not getting updated [00:59:00] anymore or whatever, then I’m kind of like SOL, um, Brett: Maku. Do you remember Maku? Christina: vaguely. Brett: It’s, the project is kind of dead and a lot of its syntax has been incorporated into various other processors. But if you built your whole blog on Maku, you have to, you have to be able to run like a 7-year-old binary, um, and, and it’ll never be updated, and eventually you’re gonna run into trouble. The nice thing about Unix based stuff is it’s. Has a, you can stop developing it and it’ll work for a decade, um, until, like, there’s a major shift in processors, but like, just the shift to arm. Like if, if Maku was only ever compiled for, uh, for, uh, Intel and it wasn’t open source, you would, it would be gone. You wouldn’t be able to run it anymore. So yeah, these things can happen. Christina: [01:00:00] Well, and I just even think about like, you know, the fact that like, you know, like some of the early processors, like I remember like back, I mean this is a million years ago, but having to use like certain, like pearl, you know, based things, you know, but depending on like whatever your backend system was, then you moved to PHP, they maybe you move, moved to, you know, Ruby, if you’re using like Jekyll and maybe you move to something else. And I was like, okay, you know, what will the thing be in the future? Yeah. If, if I, if it’s open source and there’s a way that, you know, you can write a new, a new processor for that, but it does create like, dependencies on top of dependencies, which is why I, I kind of feel like I like having like the omni processor. I don’t know if, like, for me, I’m like, okay, I, I would probably be personally leery about intermingling all my different syntaxes together. Brett: to that end though, that is why I wanted it in C um, because C will probably never die. C can be compiled on just about any platform. And it can be used with, like, if you have, if you have a Jekyll blog and you wanna [01:01:00] incorporate a C program into a gem, it’s no problem. Uh, you can incorporate it into just about any. Langu
What would it change in a trades business if the sales team stopped waiting on leads and started owning the pipeline? In this episode, Jordan White tells Chad Peterman how he moved to Nashville with a beat-up truck, slept on a kid's couch, and built a high-end roofing company that grew from $2M to just over $20M in four years, almost entirely off door-to-door hustle. Jordan breaks down how he and his partner built a visionary/integrator partnership, fed the business first instead of chasing early distributions, and created a culture where clean-cut, young hustlers can make multiple six figures by knocking on doors in affluent neighborhoods. The conversation connects directly to HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and other home service leaders who are tired of blaming "the market" or "this generation" and are ready to build a scoreboard-driven, people-first sales culture instead. If you lead a trades business and want a place to work on your leadership, culture, and growth strategy with other owners who get it, get plugged into The Arena, the private community built for home service leaders who refuse to coast. Join The ARENA - a CSTG Community (powered by our media partner, PeopleForward Network) Additional Resources: Connect with Jordan White on LinkedIn Learn more about SeekOne Roofing Subscribe to CSTG on YouTube! Connect with Chad on LinkedIn Chad Peterman | CEO | Author Learn more about the Peterman Brothers Follow PeopleForward Network on LinkedIn Learn more about PeopleForward Network Key Takeaways: From top sales rep to founder – how Jordan left a "safe" high-commission role to launch a roofing company in a brand-new market. Visionary and integrator for trades growth – how he and his partner split roles so the business isn't dependent on one person. Reinvesting profits to scale revenue – why they let the business eat first and delayed big distributions past $10M and $20M. Building a door-to-door sales machine – the recruiting, training, and culture that turns hungry talent into "shark" closers. Scorecards, KPIs, and accountability – how tracking numbers removes drama from coaching and drives higher sales performance. Marketing and builder partnerships for recurring revenue – how retail marketing and custom homebuilder relationships create predictable, long-term growth.
Recorded live at FMI 2026, Omni Talk Retail hosts Anne Mezzenga and Chris Walton sit down with Justin Weinstein, EVP, Chief Merchandising & Marketing Officer at Giant Eagle, Inc., from the Simbe booth. Justin shares an update on Giant Eagle's progress since their last conversation, including how the company is reinvesting in stores, sharpening value, and doubling down on fresh and quality across the business. He discusses how Giant Eagle is thinking about store prototypes, department level differentiation, and how trends like GLP 1s are influencing merchandising, space allocation, and customer engagement. The conversation also explores agentic AI in grocery, where the hype is real but still evolving, and why operational rigor, real time insight, and strong partnerships are critical to serving customers when it matters most. Key Topics Covered: - Progress on Giant Eagle's growth and reinvestment strategy - Store of the future thinking and department differentiation - Value, pricing, and promotional focus - Fresh, protein, and nutrient dense foods - GLP 1s and implications for merchandising and space planning - Agentic AI and its role in grocery commerce - Operational execution and real time visibility through technology partners For more insights from grocery and retail leaders, continue following Omni Talk Retail's live coverage from FMI 2026, recorded at the Simbe booth. #FMI2026 #OmniTalkRetail #GroceryRetail #GiantEagle #Merchandising #RetailMarketing #FoodRetail #RetailTechnology #Simbe
Chris Naugle ( @TheChrisNaugle ) & Caleb Guilliams go head-to-head debating whether you should borrow against your whole life insurance policy to purchase cars and other liabilities. They disagree over the math and opportunity cost, as well as comparing their philosophies behind their positions. Watch the full interview: https://youtu.be/m2goBXyB27M Buy Your Tickets to the Life Insurance Summit! Click Here: https://betterwealth.com/summit Want a Life Insurance Policy? Go Here: https://bttr.ly/bw-yt-aa-clarity Want Us To Review Your Permanent Life Insurance Policy? Click Here: https://bttr.ly/yt-policy-review 00:00 - Introduction 00:18 - Why Use IBC for Cars? 01:35 - Calculating the Cost of Financing vs. IBC 02:24 - Negotiating a Car Price While Using IBC 03:35 - Dealerships Making Money on Financing 04:20 - IBC is a Process 06:06 - Volume vs. Rate 06:34 - The 4% Loan vs. 6% Policy Loan Scenario 07:38 - Chris Disagrees and Explains the APR 09:35 - Modeling the Math (Chris vs. Caleb) 10:48 - Paying Back the Policy at the Bank's Rate 12:33 - Loan Repayment vs. New Premium 13:28 - Opportunity Cost and Capital 15:07 - Disagreement on the Logic 16:24 - Personal Preference for Moving Capital 18:57 - An Alternative Strategy (Leasing and Reinvesting) 20:24 - Consistency in Teaching Money Concepts ______________________________________________ Learn More About BetterWealth: https://betterwealth.com ==================== DISCLAIMER: https://bttr.ly/aapolicy *This video is for entertainment purposes only and is not financial or legal advice. Financial Advice Disclaimer: All content on this channel is for education, discussion, and illustrative purposes only and should not be construed as professional financial advice or recommendation. Should you need such advice, consult a licensed financial or tax advisor. No guarantee is given regarding the accuracy of the information on this channel. Neither host nor guests can be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss incurred by applying any of the information offered.
Ready to elevate your laundromat? Learn from the retail industry how to make small changes that create a big imact on customer experience. Stan Sugarman, owner of Oz Laundry in Atlanta, shares what he learned from his vast experience in the retail and real estate industries to create his remarkable laundromat in this episode of The Laundromat Millionaire Show with Dave & Carla Menz.Referenced Links: Our Guest's Links: Oz Laundry: https://www.ozlaundry.com/Our Sponsors: H-M Company Drain Troughs: https://www.draintroughs.com & LaundroBoost: https://laundroboostmarketing.comOur Website: https://www.laundromatmillionaire.comOur Online Course: https://dave-menz.mykajabi.com/sales-pageOur Youtube channel: https://youtube.com/c/LaundromatMillionaireOur Podcast: https://laundromatmillionaire.com/podcast/Our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laundromatmillionaire/Our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/laundromatmillionaireOur LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-laundromat-millionaire-menz/Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laundromatmillionaire/Our laundromats: https://www.queencitylaundry.comOur pick-up and delivery laundry services: https://www.queencitylaundry.com/deliveryOur WDF & Delivery Workshop: https://laundromatmillionaire.com/pick-up-delivery-workshop/Suggested Services Page: https://www.laundromatmillionaire.com/servicesWDF & Delivery Dynamics: A Complete Business Blueprint: https://laundromatmillionaire.com/wdf-delivery-dynamics-a-business-blueprint/The Laundromat Millionaire Insurance Program: https://laundromatmillionaire.com/insurance/Wholesale Laundry in Alabama: https://www.alaundryman.com/Eastern Funding: https://www.easternfunding.com/Laundry Cares: https://laundrycares.org/Atmosphere TV: https://www.atmosphere.tv/Presso: https://getpresso.com/CCI – Fascard System: https://www.laundrycard.com/products/fascard/Cents – LaundroWorks: https://laundroworks.com/Alliance ProCapture: https://alliancelaundry.com/news/alliance-feature-ends-lint-issues/Previous Episode with Craig Madson on Procapture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zbp5xwruBETimestamps 00:00 Episode 112 Intro – Stan Sugarman00:54 Spotlight: The Laundromat Millionaire WDF & Delivery Workshop2:18 More Customers, Not More Equipment05:50 Stan's Background09:10 Creating Oz Laundry12:09 Lessons for Laundromats from a Retail Perspective17:49 Reinvesting and a Longterm Mindset20:46 Laundromat Business Model21:31 Pivoting with Presso25:24 Equipment Brand and Mix27:31 Payment Systems and Coins vs Cards30:49 Laundromat Journey Challenges and Changes for the Future34:59 Advice for Prospective Laundromat Owners36:38 Marketing a New Store39:14 Importance of Competitive Analysis41:33 Future Growth & Replacing Yourself43:11 Contact Information44:00 Tax Advantages of Laundries45:08 Final Thoughts
We sit with Visit Bentonville CEO Kalene Griffith to trace how a destination management approach turns visitor spending into daily life upgrades: better parks, a busier library, a thriving community center, and a steady calendar of film, cycling, art, and sports events that fill rooms and keep families out playing after dark. From Phillips Park and Lawrence Plaza to Memorial Park upgrades, Kaylene lays out how small, targeted investments add up to a livable, lovable city. Looking ahead to 2026, we explore a bold slate of priorities: a unified wellness story that connects spas, trails, and healthy dining; added cycling and sporting events, and more. The new destination master plan pairs resident feedback with a growth blueprint designed to protect what locals love while welcoming the world. If you care about sustainable growth, hospitality careers, and how tourism can raise quality of life, this is your playbook.Learn more at visitbentonville.comA New American Town is here to help you plan your trip to Bentonville, Arkansas. From guides, events, and restaurant highlights. Find all this and more at visitbentonville.com and subscribe to our newsletter. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and LinkedIn. You can listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, CastBox, Podcast Casts, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, and Podcast Addict.
Before discussing today's show, I'd like to provide some updates on what to expect from the podcast in 2026. First of all, there will be no more Behind the Sessions episodes. There could also be changes in the frequency of episodes at some point, but we'll see how that goes. Life shifts and different needs arise that are pulling me in other directions. Everyone has times when shifts are needed to make space for pressing needs, and that's what I'm experiencing in my life. I'm still excited about the show and the ten-year milestone that we'll reach in 2026. Remember, the archive of episodes (almost 500!) is always available through our website. Today's episode brings important information about how parenthood changes everything, including your sex life. There are new complexities to intimacy and sex after having a child, and parents need to be prepared so they can protect their connection. Our expert guest answers questions about why passion fades, the sexual-emotional cycle that couples get stuck in, and the path back to each other in your relationship. Join us to learn more! Dr. Rebecca Howard Eudy is an AASECT-certified sex therapist and the author of Parents in Love: A Guide to Great Sex After Kids. Certified in Emotionally Focused Therapy, she helps couples navigate sex, desire, and connection in the whirlwind of parenting, even when life and kids make it feel impossible. Show Highlights: Understanding the role of a sex therapist, what sex therapy entails, and Rebecca's journey to be a sex therapist Identity shifts and body changes that come with having a baby can greatly affect your sex life. There is much shame and stigma around talking about sex and sexuality. The need to be flexible and curious with your partner Factors that impact a couple's ability to connect and be intimate: time, hormones, exhaustion, and resentment Focusing on the “micromoments” to show your connection to your partner Common themes in sex therapy for new parents Reinvesting in the partnership and understanding each other's intimacy needs The need for disconnection and solitude (Everyone needs alone time!) The difficult mental shift from “Mommy mode” to adult partner Dealing with mismatched levels of desire, which could become more pronounced after kids Dr. Rebecca's tips for finding your way back to your partner: Become comfortable talking about sex. Be flexible during the early-parent years. Be open to other intimacies besides intercourse. Consider scheduling sexual activity. Make sure your partner feels seen, appreciated, and desired. Find ways to protect your time for intimacy. The importance of pleasure in all forms of intimacy (“Nobody wants bad sex!”) Resources: Connect with Dr. Rebecca Howard Eudy: Website, Instagram, and Parents in Love: A Guide to Great Sex After Kids Call the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline at 1-833-TLC-MAMA or visitcdph.ca.gov. Please find resources in English and Spanish at Postpartum Support International, or by phone/text at 1-800-944-4773. There are many free resources, like online support groups, peer mentors, a specialist provider directory, and perinatal mental health training for therapists, physicians, nurses, doulas, and anyone who wants to be more supportive in offering services. You can also follow PSI on social media: Instagram, Facebook, and most other platforms. Visit www.postpartum.net/professionals/certificate-trainings/for information on the grief course. Visit my website, www.wellmindperinatal.com, for more information, resources, and courses you can take today! If you are a California resident seeking a therapist in perinatal mental health, please email me about openings for private pay clients. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
As we close out 2025, we're wrapping up more than just a year. This episode marks the conclusion of the Machine Shop MBA series, a collaboration with CLA and Modern Machine Shop built around insights from the Top Shops benchmarking program. What started as a practical exploration of shop metrics ends with a much bigger question: what truly separates shops that survive from shops that endure? For this final chapter, we're joined again by Brent Donaldson of Modern Machine Shop, who helped kick off the series earlier in the year. Drawing from hundreds of shop visits and years of benchmarking data, Brent helps us connect the dots across operations, finance, leadership, and strategy. Together, we reflect on a clear shift happening across manufacturing: moving away from pure "rise and grind" thinking and toward intentionally designed systems. Throughout the episode, we revisit five deceptively simple questions pulled directly from the Top Shops survey. These questions challenge assumptions and expose where real opportunity lives. From RFQ response time and revenue per employee to reinvestment discipline, standardized scheduling, and succession planning, each one reinforces a central theme we've explored all year. Rather than chasing the next machine or relying on one big customer, the most resilient shops we see are building repeatable processes, measuring what matters, and reducing dependence on tribal knowledge. This conversation serves as both a reflection on what we've learned through the Machine Shop MBA series and a call to action as we head into 2026. If there's one takeaway we hope sticks, it's this: the shops that last aren't just collections of people and equipment. They are systems. Designed on purpose. Improved on purpose. And built to outlast any one individual. Segments (0:00) Wrapping up 2025 and closing out the Machine Shop MBA series (0:36) Why we created the series and partnered with CLA and Modern Machine Shop (2:25) Why you need to head to the 2026 IMTS Exhibitor Workshop (4:34) The shift from viewing shops as machines and people to viewing them as systems (7:52) Moving from survival mode to disciplined, systems-based thinking (12:33) Top Shops Question #1: RFQ response time as a competitive advantage (15:55) Top Shops Question #2: Revenue per employee as a true efficiency metric (17:15) What's Your Method? The unique financing process with Methods Machine Tools (26:47) Grow your top and bottom line with CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA) (27:37) How automation, workholding, and systems increase output per person (32:16) Top Shops Question #3: Reinvesting in equipment, software, and training (36:50) Why consistent reinvestment beats sporadic big spending (37:51) Top Shops Question #4: Standardized scheduling versus tribal knowledge (40:22) How poor systems create stress and constant firefighting (43:05) Top Shops Question #5: Leadership and ownership transition planning (46:01) The Top Shops 2026 Benchmarking survey opens February 1st, 2026 (47:27) How benchmarking accelerates maturity and reveals real gaps (48:19) How we use the Top Shops survey as part of annual strategic planning (49:19) Looking ahead to 2026 and continued collaboration (50:00) Why we love the SMW Autoblok catalog and quality (51:11) Final call to action and why benchmarking matters Resources mentioned on this episode Why you need to head to the 2026 IMTS Exhibitor Workshop What's Your Method? The financing process with Methods Machine Tools The Top Shops 2026 Benchmarking survey opens February 1st, 2026 Check out the SMW Autoblok catalog and quality Connect With MakingChips www.MakingChips.com On Facebook On LinkedIn On Instagram On Twitter On YouTube
Dan Abel Jr. is the Chief Chocolate Officer of two beloved St. Louis-based companies: Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Company and Bissinger's Handcrafted Chocolatier. Dan occasionally goes by another nickname: “Willy Wonka of the Midwest.” But no matter what you call him, he'll never forget his roots. Dan is a 2nd Generation Chocolatier & son of the founder of Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Company. Along with his two siblings, Dan oversees the operations of both Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Company and Bissinger's Handcrafted Chocolatier. Manufacturing, distribution, national sales channel and product development are the key areas to Dan's focus. Currently the Abel family is expanding its manufacturing facility, adding a bar and a café – and Dan is very instrumental in the construction management and development of both concepts while continuing to push growth. Dan is married with three children –enjoys playing golf, gardening with his young children and spending time with his family. In This Conversation We Discuss:[00:00] Intro[00:32] Sponsor: Taboola[01:48] Growing ventures through deep personal ties[03:01] Finding purpose through early hands-on work[04:29] Optimizing small resources for maximum impact[05:53] Building presence through hands-on outreach[07:56] Leveraging sampling to win customer trust[09:00] Sponsor: Next Insurance[10:12] Creating impact with hands-on marketing[15:18] Callouts[15:28] Attending trade shows to drive direct sales[16:35] Sponsor: Electric Eye[17:44] Sponsor: Freight Fright[19:44] Acquiring companies to accelerate growth[26:11] Delivering customer value despite COVID pressure[30:25] Creating connection through thoughtful service[31:41] Reinvesting in technology to enhance experience[34:34] Experimenting with old and new strategies [35:25] Solving problems through direct involvementResources:Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on YoutubeHandcrafted Artisan Chocolates chocolatechocolate.com/Handcrafted Chocolatier bissingers.com/Follow Dan Abel Jr. linkedin.com/in/dan-abel-jr-15541765Reach your best audience at the lowest cost! discover.taboola.com/honest/Easy, affordable coverage that grows with your business nextinsurance.com/honest/Schedule an intro call with one of our experts electriceye.io/connectTurn your domestic business into an international business freightright.com/honestIf you're enjoying the show, we'd love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!
Most people think becoming a millionaire requires outrageous risk, insane luck, or some genius idea no one else has thought of.But the truth is… the fastest way to seven figures is surprisingly boring.No flashy moves. No overnight miracles. Just three simple steps — repeatable, predictable, and available to almost anyone willing to follow them.I call it The Boring $1 Million Playbook. And once you hear how it works, you'll never look at wealth the same way again.Let's dive inChapters00:00 The Boring Path to Wealth02:40 Building a Business: The First Step11:14 Reinvesting for Growth: The Second Step18:19 Investing in Assets: The Final Step
Most people think becoming a millionaire requires outrageous risk, insane luck, or some genius idea no one else has thought of. But the truth is… the fastest way to seven figures is surprisingly boring. No flashy moves. No overnight miracles. Just three simple steps — repeatable, predictable, and available to almost anyone willing to follow them. I call it The Boring $1 Million Playbook. And once you hear how it works, you'll never look at wealth the same way again. Let's dive in Chapters 00:00 The Boring Path to Wealth 02:40 Building a Business: The First Step 11:14 Reinvesting for Growth: The Second Step 18:19 Investing in Assets: The Final Step
In this episode of the SwineTime podcast, host Dr. Spencer Wayne sits down with Damon Vander Maten, Director of FarmBooks at Pipestone, to dig into one of the biggest questions farm families face: When is the right time to reinvest in your farm assets?Damon brings extensive experience analyzing farm financials,helping producers make sense of balance sheets, debt loads, cash flow, and long-term planning. Together, Spencer and Damon walk through practical, down-to-earth ways farmers can evaluate whether to repair, replace, or rebuild barns and other infrastructure—and how to decide which part of a multi-enterprise operation (pigs, cattle, crops, etc.) deserves capital first.Key topics include:How to know if you're financially ready to invest, usingsimple rules of thumb like matching your percent equity to your age.Prioritizing repairs vs. new construction, and why youshould fix barns before they start hurting production.Comparing returns across your operation—hog barns vs. crops vs. cattle—and how to identify where capital truly pays off.Using financial ratios like current ratio and debt-to-equity to understand your “purchasing power.”Market cycles and timing, including why down years often present the best opportunities for expansion.Build, remodel, or rent? Damon breaks down how to compare the real return on each option.Whether you're a producer weighing your next building project or simply trying to better understand your own financial position, this conversation offers clear, approachable guidance on managing farm assets with confidence and long-term vision.
#705 What if you could build wealth by revitalizing one of the most overlooked industries in America? In this episode hosted by Kirsten Tyrrel, we sit down with Dave Menz, the Laundromat Millionaire, who turned a failing, run-down laundromat into a multimillion-dollar empire by focusing on one key principle: serve your community better than anyone else. Dave shares how modernized laundromats are transforming neighborhoods, why customer experience is the ultimate differentiator, and how even with zero business background, you can start small and scale big. From flipping "zombie mats" to creating full-service laundry hubs with delivery, Dave reveals the untapped potential hiding in plain sight — plus the emotional rollercoaster and sacrifice that come with the entrepreneurial path. This is part one of a two-part masterclass that will forever change the way you view the laundromat business! (Original Air Date - 4/28/25) What we discuss with Dave: + Turning "zombie mats" into assets + Serving community as wealth strategy + Differentiating through customer experience + Importance of modernized laundromats + Three ways to enter the industry + Hidden demand in overlooked areas + Comfort and design as market edge + Full-service laundry model breakdown + Reinvesting profits to scale + Entrepreneurship as emotional growth journey Thank you, Dave! Check out Laundromat Millionaire at LaundromatMillionaire.com. Check out Queen City Laundry at QueenCityLaundry.com. Follow Dave on Facebook and LinkedIn. Watch the video podcast of this episode! To get access to our FREE Business Training course go to MillionaireUniversity.com/training. And follow us on: Instagram Facebook Tik Tok Youtube Twitter To get exclusive offers mentioned in this episode and to support the show, visit millionaireuniversity.com/sponsors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode, the operators discuss the financial realities of scaling an e-commerce brand, discussing the discipline required to manage cash flow and the strategic decision-making behind reinvesting profits versus taking distributions. They explore the critical timeline for when a business can realistically generate free cash flow, debating the merits of allocating capital toward inventory, product development or team expansion. The conversation also covers advanced financial strategies like dividend recaps, the "Rule of 40" for measuring growth against profitability, and personal approaches to managing wealth and generational assets once liquidity is achieved.Chapters:00:00:00 - Introduction00:02:48 - Managing Cash Flow and Reinvesting for Growth00:25:53 - Using Debt and Dividend Recaps for Liquidity00:39:31 - Determining Cash Targets and EBITDA Margins00:53:18 - Managing Personal Wealth and Generational Assets01:05:30 - Understanding the Rule of 40 and P&L MechanicsPowered By:Fulfil.io.https://bit.ly/3pAp2vuThe Only Cloud ERP Designed to Efficiently Scale 8 and 9-Figure Brands. Northbeam.https://www.northbeam.io/Postscript.https://postscript.io/Richpanel.https://www.richpanel.com/?utm_source=9O&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=ytdescSaras.https://bit.ly/9OP-YtdescSubscribe to The Marketing Operators Podcast here:https://www.youtube.com/@MarketingOperatorsSubscribe to The Finance Operators here:https://www.youtube.com/@FinanceOperatorsFOPSSign up to the 9 Operators newsletter here:https://9operators.com/
Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingPros Shop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into one sleek, digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, David Roman and Lucas are joined by Kyle Buenger, owner of KB Mobile Programming. Kyle shares his journey from burnout in a traditional shop environment to launching his own mobile programming business in Phoenix, Arizona. The discussion centers on the importance of proper financial planning, including pricing and insurance, for independent technicians. It also addresses the challenges and opportunities of working in a market with limited diagnostic talent, as well as the need to develop systems that support growth and long-term sustainability.00:00 "Inconsequential Things Won't Change"09:04 "Initiative to Solve Programming Issue"13:05 "Starting Work and Progressing"18:45 Honda Accord vs Ferrari Debate21:50 Maximizing Mobile Repair Profitability27:55 Managing Expenses with Steady Income32:48 "Progress Over Fear of Loss"39:37 Raise Prices and Build Value44:04 Avoiding Tool Salesmen48:27 "Work Dispatch and Programming Process"53:22 "Investing and Reinvesting in Business"01:00:04 Diagnostic Testing and Routine Basics01:08:20 Tampered Seat Belt Leads Trauma01:09:47 Unwanted, Costly, Certified Repairs
In this episode of Creatives Grab Coffee, Dario Nouri sits down with N'tchidjè Doumbia, founder and creative director of Great Things Studios, a Montreal-based video production company known for its cinematic commercial and corporate work.N'tchidjè shares his journey from music videos to full-scale agency operations, the growing pains of scaling, and how his company maintains creative quality while managing client expectations and large-scale productions. The conversation digs into leadership, team culture, and how the best studios evolve from purely creative shops into strategic, relationship-driven businesses.Topics Covered:00:00 – Intro & background of Great Things Studios05:00 – The shift from creative to strategic production work09:00 – Managing big clients and keeping creative control14:00 – Why relationships drive long-term agency success19:00 – How to scale a team without losing culture25:00 – Leadership lessons and defining your company vision33:00 – Balancing artistry with operational systems41:00 – Reinvesting profits into talent and technology46:00 – The creative risk of saying “no” to bad projects50:00 – Montreal's evolving production landscapeKey Takeaways:Building a scalable studio requires structure, not just creativity.Strong client relationships are your most valuable business asset.Leadership means trusting your team and protecting creative integrity.Knowing when to say no is crucial for brand longevity.The Montreal video scene is diversifying fast, offering global opportunity.
Send us a textWe show high‑earning W‑2s how to cut taxes now, not months from now, and convert savings into immediate cash flow. We walk through year‑end tactics, stacking limits, overlooked credits, and why adjusting your W‑4 can supercharge wealth growth.Ready to slash your tax bill? Schedule your free consultation and let's strategize your tax savings together! Book now at: https://www.prosperlcpa.com/applyTake our free Tax Planning Checklist & learn about what tax savings may be available for you in our minicourse at https://taxplanningchecklist.com At the very least, get on our newsletter to gain access to free live events and exclusive insight you won't find anywhere else: https://www.prosperlcpa.com/subscribe• Foundational strategies for high‑income W‑2 tax reduction• Year‑end actions still available in Q4• Real estate limits and how to stack credits• Turnkey short‑term rentals and cost segregation• Capital gains planning and expense acceleration• Solar credits and bonus depreciation on rentals• Adjusting W‑4 to unlock cash now• Reinvesting savings for compounding growth• Strategic Roth conversions in low‑bracket years• Building a multi‑year plan to preserve wealthGo to Prosperal, ProsperWithan L, CPA.com slash opportunity report, and you'll talk about how we can put that together for youProsperoCPA.com slash apply if you want to get started
Don swats a studio bug, then swats down the idea of dividend-driven retirement portfolios. Drawing on Jason Zweig's interview with Richard Thaler, they explain why retirees should focus on total return—spending from a diversified portfolio rather than chasing yield. They hit Robinhood's profit model, bid-ask spreads, and the need for automatic-enrollment retirement plans. A listener call leads to a discussion of Social Security timing, debt-free retirement, and (yes) hodgepodge-itis—Don's term for chaotic portfolios. Things wrap with a jailed investor's question, some gallows humor, and the usual banter about holidays and compliance. 0:04 Bug chaos and phone-line reminder 1:41 Why dividend-income portfolios are a trap 2:50 Jason Zweig & Richard Thaler on total-return spending 4:18 Total return beats “high-dividend” illusions 5:39 Robinhood's option-spread profits and the myth of “free” trading 6:15 Schwab vs. Robinhood: relative honesty in bid-ask spreads 7:43 Thaler's take on missing retirement plans and automatic savings 9:05 Anniversary talk and the failed “Debbie Show” experiment 10:15 Back to Thaler—why most workers still lack plans 11:39 Tesla options example showing 7 percent spread 12:05 Case for national retirement depository & hybrid Social Security 13:33 Hodgepodge-itis defined (and owned by Don) 14:51 Low call volume and the Mariners' hangover 15:52 Listener Kevin asks about dividends vs. selling stock 16:53 Reinvesting dividends vs. total-return withdrawals 18:17 Dividends reduce company growth potential 19:45 Why high-yield chasing kills diversification 20:07 Caller David, age 67, plans retirement & asks how to prep 21:55 Social Security timing advice—benefits rise monthly 22:50 David's details: city pension, deferred comp, house, no debt 24:07 Getting professional fiduciary advice before retiring 25:23 David's crypto confession and $3K Ripple gamble 27:27 Jail-bound investor asks where to park money 30:18 Don & Tom debate investing from behind bars (humor intact) 33:19 Columbus Day scheduling confusion & closing banter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In Part 2 of The Dwayne Kerrigan Podcast with John Karpov, founder and CEO of Action Home Services, Dwayne and John go even deeper into the mindset and systems behind Action Home Services(AHS), a leading landscaping and exterior construction company serving Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area. From almost losing his residency to scaling an $8M business while facing deportation, John shares how he built structure, leadership, and culture around his immigrant grit. He opens up about redefining fulfillment, transitioning from survival mode to leadership, and how relentless personal growth became the cornerstone of his company's 50% year-over-year growth.John reveals his leadership playbook — from reading 2 books a month to building over 1,000 SOPs and investing $1.5M in professional development for his team — and how staying humble, hungry, and human is what keeps him grounded through every phase of growth.If Part 1 was about survival, this episode is about scaling — with purpose, structure, and soul.Listen to Part 1 HEREWatch Part 1 HERETimestamps[00:00:00] — Dwayne opens with: “You can only run a business so long by running the fastest.”[00:01:00] — John's incredible story of his wife's visa approval and their shared “never give up” destiny.[00:05:00] — The immigration battle: how they nearly lost everything waiting for permanent residency.[00:07:30] — The miracle timing that let them stay in Canada and the lessons learned living on the edge.[00:10:00] — Reinvesting every dollar into the business while facing uncertainty.[00:13:00] — Scaling to $10M+ before age 25 — and not feeling like it's an accomplishment.[00:17:00] — Dwayne and John explore scarcity versus hunger — and how the immigrant mindset fuels drive.[00:19:00] — John on never feeling “done” and why fulfillment comes from helping others succeed.[00:22:30] — The breakthrough realization: happiness is in the journey, not the destination.[00:26:00] — Daily fulfillment rituals: reading, training, and prioritizing sleep.[00:29:00] — Building structure and delegation into the company's DNA — leadership by design.[00:31:00] — Creating organizational charts, head of departments, and scaling through people.[00:35:30] — Learning to lead through education: 100+ conferences and a book club culture.[00:38:00] — Investing $1.5M in personal and professional development and $40K in books.[00:41:00] — Company reading list and rewards program: from “Unreasonable Hospitality” to “Good to Great.”[00:45:00] — John's transparent leadership: open-book finances, KPI education, and growth accountability.[00:49:00] — Over 1,000 SOPs: how structure scales culture.[00:53:00] — Turning every mistake into a process and every error into a lesson.[00:56:00] — The ROI of structure: new managers finally saying, “I love that it's organized.”[00:58:00] — Why immigrants often make exceptional employees — grit meets gratitude.[01:00:30] — Dwayne's reflection on the power of sacrifice and the immigrant spirit.[01:02:00] — John's final advice: “If you need my help with your business, I'll be there for you.”Key...
I Sold My Practice—Then Bought It Back: Why I Reinvested in Athlete's Potential In this episode, Doc Danny Matta shares a major announcement: he and his wife have reinvested in Athlete's Potential, the cash-based physical therapy clinic they originally founded, grew, and sold three years ago. Danny explains why he decided to buy back in, what's changed since selling, and how this move aligns with PT Biz's broader mission of transforming private practice ownership in the profession. Quick Ask Help us move toward our mission of adding $1B in cash-based services to physical therapy—share this episode with a clinician friend or post it on your Instagram stories and tag Danny. He'll reshare it! Episode Summary Full-circle moment: After selling Athlete's Potential to their clinic director, Jake Swart, three years ago, Danny and his wife have now bought back into the business as partners. New role: Danny will serve as a strategic growth advisor, helping scale the clinic through expansion, systems, compensation redesigns, and brand growth—without running day-to-day operations. Why return? After years of coaching clinic owners at PT Biz, Danny missed the hands-on, in-person side of brick-and-mortar ownership and saw an opportunity to reinvest in a clinic—and a leader—he truly believes in. Shared vision: The goal is to build the largest cash-based clinic group in the U.S.—potentially reaching multiple eight- and nine-figure revenues. Reframing success: Selling a business doesn't mean it's bad—it can be the right move for growth, but coming back can also reignite purpose and balance. Lessons & Takeaways Gratitude for your work: Owning a clinic is a privilege—few professions allow you to directly improve lives daily in such a positive environment. People first: The best and worst part of your business will always be the people. Growth happens when you give your team opportunities to rise with you. Big vision, bigger team: If your vision isn't large enough for your staff to see themselves in it, they'll leave. Growth should create opportunity for everyone involved. Balance matters: After years of remote, online work, Danny recognized the importance of being physically present in a mission-driven business again. Entrepreneurship reality: Not everyone is wired to be an entrepreneur—and that's okay. The goal is to create a place where great clinicians can thrive with freedom and stability. Mindset & Motivation Brick-and-mortar is special: In-person work brings community, culture, and real connection that can't be replaced by virtual meetings. Scaling through systems: Growth requires clear tracking, compensation systems, and recurring revenue models that align with mission and culture. Utopia for clinicians: The future of PT could be high-level clinicians working in thriving, well-run cash practices that offer better balance and fulfillment. Reinvesting in purpose: Sometimes the right move isn't a new business—it's doubling down on what you built and believe in most. Notable Quotes “We just put our money where our mouth is—with a significant monetary and time investment. I think the future of these businesses is massive.” “The best and worst part of your business is the people. Put them first, and they'll help you achieve your vision.” “If your vision isn't big enough for your staff to see themselves in it, they're going to leave.” “Being in person is special. It's something I missed deeply.” Pro Tips for Owners Audit your leadership: Ask yourself if your staff has clear growth opportunities within your company. Track what matters: Know your key numbers—capacity, margins, compensation ratios—and use them to guide expansion. Keep culture alive: Host in-person events and celebrate wins to strengthen team connection. Invest in people: The right partnerships and shared vision can take your business farther than solo effort ever could. Reignite purpose: If you're feeling disconnected, step back into what made you love this profession in the first place. Action Items Reflect on your clinic's vision—is it big enough for your team to see a future there? Revisit your compensation and growth plans to ensure they align with long-term retention. Host a team appreciation event or dinner this quarter to rebuild connection and purpose. Document your systems and metrics to prepare for future expansion opportunities. Programs Mentioned PT Biz Part-Time to Full-Time 5-Day Challenge (Free): Get clear on your numbers, choose your path to full-time, and build your one-page business plan. Resources & Links PT Biz Website Free 5-Day PT Biz Challenge About the Host: Doc Danny Matta—physical therapist, entrepreneur, and founder of PT Biz and Athlete's Potential. He's helped over 1,000 clinicians start, grow, and scale successful cash-based practices across the U.S.
When it comes to settlement strategy, some law firms (and clients) prefer to get as much as they can as quickly as they can - maybe leaving money on the table for the sake of time. Other law firms would rather hold out for larger figures, especially on the bigger cases. GGL law is a litigation-focused PI firm that takes a unique approach. They set a value to every case that comes through the door…and they hold to it. From day one, they prepare to litigate and fight for the maximum value. This ensures that they are doing right by their clients and increasing revenue for the firm, all while building their reputation in their community. In this episode, we cover: How internal expectations are set - and consequences when expectations aren't met. Setting and fighting for the maximum value for cases. Reinvesting in employees to avoid burnout. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/. https://youtu.be/L-0hO6Gt9i8
Welcome back to the Empower Her Business Accelerator podcast! I'm your host, Philippa Channer, and today we're diving into the powerful topic of optimizing your cost structure for maximum profitability—and trust me, this is the kind of work that separates struggling solopreneurs from strategic, scalable business owners. We're in week two of our October series on cost structure, and today's episode is for every entrepreneur who's ever looked at their expenses and thought, "Where is all my money going?" Last week in Episode 200, we laid the foundation by categorizing your expenses and spotting financial leaks. Now that you've had your "whoa, I spend how much?" moment, it's time to roll up your sleeves and turn insight into action. Before we get into the details, I want to invite you to explore the Entrepreneur Incubator—my signature four-month done-with-you experience designed for entrepreneurs ready to bring structure, clarity, and sustainable strategy to their marketing. Inside the Incubator, we clarify your brand, build a 12-week content strategy using my Content Clarity Canvas, and give you personalized support with one-on-one coaching and monthly implementation check-ins. If you're tired of spinning your wheels when it comes to your online presence and want a real strategy that sticks, book a free consultation using the link in the show notes below. ⏱️ Episode Timestamps & Key Segments (00:00) Welcome & Entrepreneur Incubator Invitation We start with a quick recap of last week's episode and I share an exciting invite to join the Entrepreneur Incubator—a strategic support system for those ready to scale their marketing and brand clarity with confidence. (01:30) Strategic ROI Thinking (02:15) Tool Consolidation: Smarter, Not Smaller (03:10) Smart Swaps Over Simple Cuts (04:10) Re-Evaluating Reoccurring Services (05:10) Reinvesting for Smarter Growth
In this episode of The Personal Finance Podcast, Andrew answers 15 listener questions ranging from Solo Roth 401k strategies and crushing $117,000 in student loans to whether a 19-year-old should build credit and how to pass brokerage accounts to your kids without tax headaches. He covers retirement account drawdowns, traditional versus Roth decisions based on tax brackets, why high-fee mutual funds usually lose to ETFs, and whether you should sell when investments jump 15%—delivering straight answers to the money questions keeping you up at night. Today we are going to answer these questions! Solo ROTH 401K: should I max out ROTH employee side before employer pre-tax side? Or split? How long can I leave my 401k in Fidelity before needing to roll it over to a new employer's plan?If I haven't maxed out my Roth IRA, would it still make sense to open a brokerage account? I've maxed out my IRA for the past 3 years. Should I contribute more to my 457B? How can I pay off $117k of high interest student loan debt and stay motivated? Should I start a Roth IRA for my grandkids now or start them an index fund? They're 5. I'm 19 with $20k+ invested, should I start building credit? I have 2 investments — mutual fund (high fee), ETF (low fee). Both high return, should I stop the mutual? How should I go about drawing down accounts when I begin retirement? At age 30, approx what income does it make sense to invest in traditional vs Roth 401k? Should I “lock profit” every time my ROI hits >15%? Or should I leave it? (Reinvesting will 3% fee) How do you pass on a taxable brokerage account to your son? We're coast FI. Should I just do 401k until employer match and add to brokerage as a bridge?Why money market over HYSA for high yield earners? How Andrew Can Help You: Listen to The Business Show here. Don't let another year pass by without making significant strides toward your dreams. "Master Your Money Goals" is your pathway to a future where your aspirations are not just wishes but realities. Enroll now and make this year count! Join The Master Money Newsletter where you will become smarter with your money in 5 minutes or less per week Here! Learn to invest by joining Index Fund Pro! This is Andrew's course teaching you how to invest! Watch The Master Money Youtube Channel! , Ask Andrew a question on Instagram or TikTok Learn how to get out of Debt by joining our Free Course Leave Feedback or Episode Requests here. Car buying Calculator here Thanks to Our Amazing Sponsors for supporting The Personal Finance Podcast DELL: Get a new Dell AI PC starting at $749.99, at Dell.com/ai-pc Indeed: Start hiring NOW with a SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to upgrade your job post at Indeed.com/personalfinance Acorns: Start investing automatically with Acorns and get a $5 bonus at Acorns.com/PFP Chime: Start your credit journey with Chime. Sign-up takes only two minutes and doesn't affect your credit score. Get started at chime.com/ Thanks to Policy Genius for Sponsoring the show! Go to policygenius.com to get your free life insurance quote. Shopify: Shopify makes it so easy to sell. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/pfp Go to https://joindeleteme.com/PFP20/ and Use Promo Code PFP for 20% off! Links Mentioned in This Episode: 10 Ways to Prevent Identity Theft (and What to Do if it Happens to YOU!) How to Protect Your Finances Online (And Prevent Getting Scammed!) How to Protect Your Finances Online (Right Now!) Connect With Andrew on Social Media: Instagram TikTok Twitter Master Money Website Master Money Youtube Channel Free Guides: The Stairway to Wealth: The Order of Operations for your Money How to Negotiate Your Salary The 75 Day Money Challenge Get out Of Debt Fast Take the Money Personality Quiz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
B2B Marketing Budget Allocation: The Sustainable Way Small Teams Should Do ItIf your marketing budget keeps getting cut or ignored, it's not you—it's the model.In this episode, we break down a practical B2B marketing budget allocation for small teams. We explain why top-down and bottom-up alone fall apart, how to validate messaging before you buy reach, and how to shift from BOFU-only spend to a balanced brand + demand mix that compounds.We share the path we use with our 5 BEs framework—start lean and organic, prove the message, then use paid to amplify. You'll hear realistic ROI guardrails, when to rebalance spend, and how category (established vs new) should change your split.Tune in and learn:+ How to avoid the top-down and bottom-up budget traps+ The “validate, then amplify” approach that saves cash and increases impact+ ROI ranges and a stepwise shift from BOFU to demand + brandIf you're a B2B marketer in a small team, this is the clearest way to plan and defend your budget—and actually deliver revenue impact.-----------------------------------------------------
For years, we've been told that retiring business owners would flood the market with companies for sale. The truth is that most of them are holding on longer and for good reason. In this episode, Ed Mysogland shares market data that explains why owners are staying put. He explains the investment math influencing their choices and the costly mistakes made when they stop reinvesting in their business. Ed has advice for buyers, sellers, and advisors who are keen to preserve business value in a slow-moving market. In this episode, you will: Understand why business owners are no longer retiring at 65 Learn a realistic timeline for selling a business Maintain reinvestment to protect business value Highlights: (00:00) Meet Ed Mysogland (02:32) What is the silver tsunami? (04:43) Why business owners are reluctant to sell (08:54) Reinvesting in the business to keep its value (12:41) Advice for buyers, advisors, and owners Resources: Rethinking the "Silver Tsunami”: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rethinking-silver-tsunami-ed-mysogland-hxbwe/ For past guests, please visit https://www.defendersofbusinessvalue.com/ Follow Ed: Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmysogland/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/defendersofbusinessvalue/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bvdefenders
Welcome to BCI Cattle Chat! In this week's episode of Cattle Chat, the full crew is in the studio to discuss reinvesting in your operation. They also talk about feeding calves and manure scoring. Finally they go over risk management strategies of all kinds. Thanks for listening and enjoy the episode! 5:10 Reinvesting in the… Continue reading Reinvesting, Calves on Feed, Risk Management
Target Market Insights: Multifamily Real Estate Marketing Tips
Mark Kohler is a bestselling author, entrepreneur, attorney, CPA, and the founding and senior partner at KKOS Lawyers. Specializing in tax, legal, wealth, estate, and asset protection planning, Mark has helped thousands of small business owners and investors align their tax strategies with their real estate and business goals. He is also the host of The Main Street Business Podcast and Directed IRA Podcast, educating entrepreneurs on practical ways to build wealth and save taxes.
It would be wise to take the time to learn about dividend reinvestment, including tax onsiderations and how this strategy fits various financial goals and market conditions. Today's Stocks & Topics: PDI - PIMCO Dynamic Income Fund, Market Wrap, AMD - Advanced Micro Devices Inc., 7 Things You May Not Know About Reinvesting Dividends, VTGN - Vistagen Therapeutics Inc., NLR - VanEck Uranium & Nuclear ETF, LNW - Light & Wonder Inc., Retail Trade, Compound Analysis, ADBE - Adobe Inc., Crypto Lending.Our Sponsors:* Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com* Check out Ka'Chava and use my code INVEST for a great deal: https://www.kachava.com* Check out Mint Mobile: https://mintmobile.com/INVESTTALK* Check out Progressive: https://www.progressive.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Most people lose in STR because they think small.This episode breaks down exactly why $150K–$200K is now the minimum to win, and how to outpace the competition by investing in what actually matters.You'll learn: • How Mike's team turned a $715K property into a 26%+ cash-on-cash winner • Why outdated listings are getting crushed in today's market • The new furnishing rule of thumb (hint: it's not $6K per room anymore) • Why “I'll add amenities later” is the biggest red flag from investors • Real-world examples of design ROI and creative deal structuring • How to dominate Year 2 with direct bookings, not just AirbnbIf you're serious about STR, this episode will shift how you think about budget, value, and building long-term cash flow.-Want bookings before you're even done renovating? Just click the link below to get the Free Training.https://go.strsecrets.com/podcast?utm_source=Podcast&utm_medium=Captivate&utm_campaign=T022&utm_content=PreLaunch-00:03:30 – Budget Furniture and Low Investment No Longer Work in B or C Markets00:05:00 – Reinvesting in Amenities Can Revive Underperforming Properties00:07:15 – Pre-Launching With Mood Boards Can Generate Bookings Before Renovation Ends00:09:03 – Investing More in Amenities Can Double or Triple Cash-on-Cash Returns00:13:02 – You Need Direct Bookings—Don't Rely Only on Airbnb and VRBO00:15:01 – You're Competing on ADR Only If You've Maxed Out the Amenity Strategy00:23:29 – Borrow Amenities From Other Markets to Win in Your Own00:25:16 – Don't Wait to Upgrade—Do It Upfront or You'll Lose MoneyGet FREE Access to our Community and Weekly Trainings:https://group.strsecrets.com/
Most people lose in STR because they think small.This episode breaks down exactly why $150K–$200K is now the minimum to win, and how to outpace the competition by investing in what actually matters.You'll learn: • How Mike's team turned a $715K property into a 26%+ cash-on-cash winner • Why outdated listings are getting crushed in today's market • The new furnishing rule of thumb (hint: it's not $6K per room anymore) • Why “I'll add amenities later” is the biggest red flag from investors • Real-world examples of design ROI and creative deal structuring • How to dominate Year 2 with direct bookings, not just AirbnbIf you're serious about STR, this episode will shift how you think about budget, value, and building long-term cash flow.-Want bookings before you're even done renovating? Just click the link below to get the Free Training.https://go.strsecrets.com/podcast?utm_source=Podcast&utm_medium=Captivate&utm_campaign=T022&utm_content=PreLaunch-00:03:30 – Budget Furniture and Low Investment No Longer Work in B or C Markets00:05:00 – Reinvesting in Amenities Can Revive Underperforming Properties00:07:15 – Pre-Launching With Mood Boards Can Generate Bookings Before Renovation Ends00:09:03 – Investing More in Amenities Can Double or Triple Cash-on-Cash Returns00:13:02 – You Need Direct Bookings—Don't Rely Only on Airbnb and VRBO00:15:01 – You're Competing on ADR Only If You've Maxed Out the Amenity Strategy00:23:29 – Borrow Amenities From Other Markets to Win in Your Own00:25:16 – Don't Wait to Upgrade—Do It Upfront or You'll Lose MoneyGet FREE Access to our Community and Weekly Trainings:https://group.strsecrets.com/
What happens when the kids leave, the house goes quiet, and you're left wondering ~ what now? Brigitte Cutshall sits down with writer and fellow runner Rita Lussier, author of "And Now Back to Me." Together, they explore the often-overlooked emotional reality of becoming an empty nester, and the parallels between parenting and retirement.Rita shares how her journey from active parenting to personal rediscovery inspired her book, which resonates deeply with anyone facing midlife change, caregiving roles, or marital rediscovery. Their candid conversation touches on everything from Alzheimer's caregiving to writing tips and the surprising power of dogs, running shoes, and curiosity.Top 3 Takeaways:(1) Empty Nest ≠ Emptiness – The transition can be tough, but it's also a powerful time to reinvest in yourself and rediscover passions.(2) Running is More Than Exercise – Movement can be meditative, help with creativity, and serve as therapy during life shifts.(3) Your Story Matters – Whether you're writing a book or just sharing your truth, your lived experience holds value and can help others.Feeling stuck after a big life shift? Let this episode inspire you to take that first step—whether it's picking up a pen, putting on your running shoes, or reaching out to a friend. And don't forget to check out Rita's book, "And Now Back to Me", at https://ritalussier.com.
Click Here to Get All Podcast Show Notes!What happens when you stop waiting for the perfect timing and start building a team of A-players? Discover how hiring the right people, no matter the size of your business, can skyrocket your success and transform your company from the inside out.In this episode, Sharran dives deep into how to attract and build a team of A-players, and why this is the key to taking your business to the next level. He breaks down the myth that A-players are hard to find and shares actionable insights on how to build a pipeline for top talent, even if you're a small business. Whether you're a solopreneur or running a large organization, this episode will show you why investing in great people is the best business model you can have. Are you ready to transform your team? Tune in to learn what A-players can do for your business and why they're your biggest hidden advantage!“A-players often cost 10 to 30% more, but they can have ten times the impact.”- Sharran SrivatsaaTimestamps:03:05 - The power of A-players: How they impact your business04:22 - Treat recruitment like sales: Reach out to candidates regularly05:51 - Talent over timing: Why the best candidates aren't ready when you need them08:05 - Reinvesting in talent: Building an A-player business model10:10 - A-players are everywhere: Finding top talent in unexpected places12:20 - Build for A-players: How to attract the best talent15:04 - Recap: A-Player Business ModelResources:- The Next Billion by Sharran Srivatsaa - https://sharransrivatsaa.substack.com/- Join the Future Proof Community - https://futureproofsecrets.com/- The Real Brokerage - https://www.joinreal.com/- Top Agent Power Pack - https://sharran.activehosted.com/f/121- The 5am Club - https://sharran.com/5amclub/- Join the 10K Wisdom Private Partner Podcast, now available to you for free - https://www.highlandprime.com/optin-10k-wisdom- Join Sharran's VIP Community - https://sharran.com/vip/- ARC Multifamily Real Estate Investing - https://arcmf.com/- Sharran's Partnership...
This episode features Alice Pope, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Novant Health, and David Krauss, Executive Vice President of Development and Co-Head of Healthcare at ENFRA. They discuss how Novant's innovative energy-as-a-service partnership unlocked $855 million in capital, allowing the system to invest in sustainability, infrastructure, and long-term strategic growth.This episode is sponsored by ENFRA.
What happens when Cincinnati's first nine-figure startup exit gets reinvested into the region's next big opportunity?In this episode, we're joined by Adam Koehler, the Covington-based entrepreneur behind Content Credits. After being part of the Dotloop exit to Zillow for $108 million in 2015, Adam didn't head for the coast. Instead, he reinvested his capital into Northern Kentucky, launching Content Credits to tackle one of publishing's most pressing issues: the paywall.Content Credits gives readers an alternative to subscriptions by letting them pay $0.25 to unlock a single article, helping publishers capture revenue from audiences they're currently turning away.We cover how Dotloop was built during the housing crash, what it was like selling to Zillow, how Content Credits is addressing broken media monetization models, and the role that large exits play in building a regional “startup flywheel”.Timestamps:00:00 – Adam's early design career02:00 – Building Dotloop during the housing crisis06:30 – Selling Dotloop to Zillow for $108M10:30 – Reinvesting in Northern Kentucky real estate and startups12:00 – Why media is ready for disruption14:00 – How Content Credits micropayments work20:00 – Gamifying reader engagement through social layers25:00 – Raising capital with KY Innovation & Keyhorse28:00 – Thoughts on Kentucky's startup ecosystem
In this episode, I sit down with Drue Chrisman, a former professional athlete turned Pink Zebra Moving franchise owner. Drue owns three territories in the Ohio–Indiana–Kentucky Tri-State area, and he's breaking down everything from start-up costs and profit margins to team culture and marketing strategy.If you're researching franchise opportunities, service businesses, or specifically want to know how to start a moving company franchise, this is the must-watch episode for you.
Send us a textReady to slash your tax bill? Schedule your free consultation and let's strategize your tax savings together! Book now at: https://www.prosperlcpa.com/apply Or, if you still need more time, here are some other ways to begin winning the tax game... Take our free Tax Planning Checklist & learn about what tax savings may be available for you in our minicourse at https://taxplanningchecklist.com At the very least, get on our newsletter to gain access to free live events and exclusive insight you won't find anywhere else: https://www.prosperlcpa.com/subscribeThe consumption tax may be your most expensive hidden tax, created when high earners spend profits on lavish lifestyles instead of tax-advantaged investments that build generational wealth. This concept affects both business owners and W-2 earners, as the tax code rewards those who reinvest rather than consume their profits.• The consumption tax occurs when you spend all profits on lifestyle expenses, leaving nothing for tax-advantaged investments• High-income earners who spend excessively on luxury items often struggle to implement effective tax strategies• The IRS incentivizes business reinvestment, charitable giving, and investments in energy and real estate• W-2 earners can access similar tax advantages through side businesses, strategic investments, and withholding adjustments• Creating legitimate business purposes for existing activities can transform personal expenses into deductible business expenses• Reinvesting profits gives you more control over the timing and rate of taxation• Capital gains are taxed at lower rates than ordinary income, creating wealth-building advantages• Consider whether your current lifestyle is financially sustainable when accounting for taxes• Resources like "Profit First" methodology help prioritize profit before expenses• Books like "The Millionaire Next Door" reveal that most wealthy people maintain modest lifestyles to build wealth
I'm breaking down why I'm taking a more cautious approach to real estate investing this year—especially when it comes to big projects. With uncertainty around tariffs, shifting immigration policy, and the rising cost of materials, I'm holding off on large-scale developments and choosing to keep my investments closer to home. Real estate is always about timing, and right now, the name of the game is strategy, clarity, and cash flow. If you're just getting started and unsure of what direction to go, the best place to begin is by getting clear on your goals. I will walk you through why identifying your season of life and your long-term vision is the key to choosing the right strategy. Whether you're listening in January or October, my Dream Planning Workshop can help you map out your financial goals and reverse engineer a plan that actually works. Let's stop guessing and start building wealth with intention. [INVESTOR ROADMAP] Ready to take control of your future? Discover your personalized real estate strategy with our Investor Roadmap Quiz. Start Your Quiz Now and map out your path to success! [RESOURCE] Ready to enhance your child's learning at home? Here are the homeschool activities for your kids! [FB GROUP] Loving the podcast and want to engage more with me and our incredible guests? Join the Owning It and Living It Facebook group! It's where you'll find real estate tips, expert guidance, and a community of investors to support you. Join today and let's level up your real estate journey! RESOURCES: Erika Brown IG: @erikabrowninvestor LinkedIn: @erika brown Wealth Within Reach is produced by EPYC Media Network
In this deeply personal episode, Sahil Bloom joins Ryan Sean Adams to explore what it truly means to be wealthy and why so many high achievers get it wrong. After hitting burnout, Ryan stepped away from the grind to reassess his definition of success. What he found was a framework that reframed his entire life: the Five Types of Wealth. Together, they unpack why net worth alone is a poor scoreboard, how to avoid the trap of “never enough,” and what it means to build time, social, mental, physical, and financial wealth in harmony. This conversation is both a blueprint and a reboot, for anyone chasing more, and wondering why it still doesn't feel like enough. ------
Highlights include:-Why the advisor walked away from a traditional bank model-How he overcame fear and successfully transitioned legacy clients-The surprising benefits of affiliating with an RIA-only firm-Reinvesting in growth: marketing, branding, and staffing-Building deeper client relationships through business ownership-What “freedom” really means for advisors todayIf you've ever felt stuck in your current model or wondered if true independence is worth it, this episode delivers a candid and inspiring look at what's possible.
Samantha Rose is the founder of Endless Commerce, a commerce enablement platform designed to help multi-channel consumer brands scale more efficiently through better infrastructure. A multi-exit founder and investor, Samantha brings deep operational experience across design, technology, and logistics to build systems that support sustainable, scalable growth.Before launching Endless Commerce, Samantha built and exited several consumer ventures, including GIR, an acclaimed kitchenware brand acquired in 2021, and Mvnifest, a full-stack operations and 3PL partner acquired in 2024. Alongside running Endless Commerce, she leads Hologram Capital, where she specializes in turning around distressed consumer brands with strong fundamentals but structural challenges.Whether rebuilding underperforming brands or designing the tech stack she wished existed, Samantha focuses on enabling commerce teams to grow beyond DTC into wholesale, retail, and omnichannel with confidence. She offers a playbook for founders who want to scale without losing operational grip, and a framework for tech partners who want to plug into brands at pivotal moments of inflection.In This Conversation We Discuss:[00:42] Intro[00:59] Building software from firsthand founder struggle[01:45] Solving problems with curiosity and play[03:13] Validating ideas with zero market research[06:42] Executing better instead of chasing new ideas[07:45] Turning demand into a real business plan[09:26] Developing software to solve real-life habits[10:24] Electric Eye, Social Snowball, Portless, Reach & Zamp[16:46] Differentiating in a commodity-driven market[17:23] Building with no modern Ecommerce tools[19:11] Navigating growth without today's tech stack[19:45] Going omnichannel to build retail resilience[23:31] Boosting perceived value with smart bundles[24:12] Shifting from operator to tech builder post-exit[25:31] Reinvesting in brands that need a second life[27:30] Building features from real-world friction[29:28] Avoiding early over-specialization in teams[33:47] Explaining the rebundling era of commerce stacksResources:Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on YoutubeModular, AI-powered commerceOS endlesscommerce.com/Follow Samantha Rose samantharose.co/ Schedule an intro call with one of our experts electriceye.io/connectDrive revenue through affiliates & referrals socialsnowball.io/honestRevolutionize your inventory and fulfillment process portless.com/Level up your global sales withreach.com/honest Fully managed sales tax solution for Ecommerce brands zamp.com/honestIf you're enjoying the show, we'd love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!
In this episode of The Friday Habit, Mark sits down with Chris Tyrell, founder of Chris's Garage Doors, to talk about the unexpected road from seminary student to successful entrepreneur. Chris shares how faith, community, and a deep sense of purpose have guided his business journey—and why giving generously has always been part of the plan.Chris opens up about how a part-time job in the garage door industry sparked a bigger calling. Today, his company serves not just customers, but the greater good—donating 3% of revenue to local nonprofits and using the business as a platform for ministry. Mark and Chris explore the power of mission-driven leadership, the importance of building a strong brand, and the lessons learned from hiring, coaching, and networking.Whether you're running a small business or dreaming about launching one, this episode is full of practical advice and honest insight from someone who's built a business rooted in values—and impact.Key Takeaways:Chris's journey from seminary to entrepreneurship was guided by faith.His company donates 3% of top-line revenue to local nonprofits as part of a mission to give back.Business can be a platform for ministry and community transformation.Reinvesting in your company is crucial for long-term growth.Relationships and networking play a powerful role in business development.Hiring for attitude often leads to stronger team culture and retention.A clear brand and purpose-driven culture can shape every aspect of your business.Business coaching and peer support help provide clarity and accountability.Understanding your “why” fuels more intentional decision-making.Connect with Chris:Chris's Garage Doors LinkedIn
Reach Out Via Text!In this solo deep dive, Jeremiah Jennings shares the raw truth of growing Growing Green Landscapes during a season of intense reinvestment. He reflects on hiring a quality team, battling cash flow tension, and why the 2024 focus isn't on profit—but on process. Jeremiah lays out exactly how he's pushing through uncertainty, investing in coaching, systems, equipment, and people to build a business that dominates in 2026 and beyond. From revenue per man-hour targets to vision casting, this is an unfiltered, behind-the-scenes look at leadership, risk, and the emotional weight of doing hard things. Whether you're at $200K or $2M, this episode will challenge you to get real about what you're building—and who you're becoming.Support the show 10% off LMN Software- https://lmncompany.partnerlinks.io/growinggreenpodcast Signup for our Newsletter- https://mailchi.mp/942ae158aff5/newsletter-signup Book A Consult Call-https://stan.store/GrowingGreenPodcast Lawntrepreneur Academy-https://www.lawntrepreneuracademy.com/ The Landscaping Bookkeeper-https://thelandscapingbookkeeper.com/ Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/growinggreenlandscapes/ Email-ggreenlandscapes@gmail.com Growing Green Website- https://www.growinggreenlandscapes.com/
Welcome to the Triple P Life Podcast! Struggling with cash flow or unsure when to scale your business? Join Dr. Jay LaGuardia as he interviews Heather Parsons, founder and CEO of Summit CFO, in this eye-opening conversation about entrepreneurial success. This episode delivers crucial insights for small business owners making under $1M in revenue. What You'll Learn: Master cash flow management - learn why this is the #1 killer of small businesses Build the right team at the right time - discover when to delegate and who to hire first Create an effective exit strategy - start planning 5-10 years before you want to sell Balance reinvestment vs. profit-taking - understand the 60/40 rule for sustainable growth Leverage AI and new technologies - prepare your business for the future Whether you're just starting out or looking to scale, Heather shares practical wisdom from her journey from military service to corporate success to entrepreneurship. She even reveals details about her free cash flow forecasting tool to help you make better financial decisions. Ready to transform your business strategy? Watch now and discover how to achieve both financial success and life balance as an entrepreneur! Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction to Heather Parsons 02:34 - Host's Welcome and Show Overview 05:45 - Heather's Military and Business Background 08:18 - Common Entrepreneur Challenges 10:06 - When to Invest in Building a Team 13:25 - Timing Profit Expectations for New Businesses 15:40 - Cash Flow Management for Small Businesses 17:52 - Creating an Advisory Board 21:15 - Scaling and Reinvesting in Your Business 24:30 - Building Generational Wealth 27:22 - Risk Management for Entrepreneurs 30:15 - The Value of Having a Business Coach 32:43 - Investment Readiness Checklist 35:08 - Planning Your Business Exit Strategy 38:16 - Job vs. Business: Key Differences 40:23 - Essential Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs 43:10 - Real Estate Investment Strategies 46:35 - Cash Flow Forecasting Tool 49:05 - Tax Planning for Business Owners 51:18 - How AI Will Revolutionize Business
#370 What if you could build wealth by revitalizing one of the most overlooked industries in America? In this episode hosted by Kirsten Tyrrel, we sit down with Dave Menz, the Laundromat Millionaire, who turned a failing, run-down laundromat into a multimillion-dollar empire by focusing on one key principle: serve your community better than anyone else. Dave shares how modernized laundromats are transforming neighborhoods, why customer experience is the ultimate differentiator, and how even with zero business background, you can start small and scale big. From flipping "zombie mats" to creating full-service laundry hubs with delivery, Dave reveals the untapped potential hiding in plain sight — plus the emotional rollercoaster and sacrifice that come with the entrepreneurial path. This is part one of a two-part masterclass that will forever change the way you view the laundromat business! What we discuss with Dave: + Turning "zombie mats" into assets + Serving community as wealth strategy + Differentiating through customer experience + Importance of modernized laundromats + Three ways to enter the industry + Hidden demand in overlooked areas + Comfort and design as market edge + Full-service laundry model breakdown + Reinvesting profits to scale + Entrepreneurship as emotional growth journey Thank you, Dave! Check out Laundromat Millionaire at LaundromatMillionaire.com. Check out Queen City Laundry at QueenCityLaundry.com. Follow Dave on Facebook and LinkedIn. And follow us on: Instagram Facebook Tik Tok Youtube Twitter To get exclusive offers mentioned in this episode and to support the show, visit millionaireuniversity.com/sponsors. Want to hear from more incredible entrepreneurs? Check out all of our interviews here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Business Pivots, Profit Levers, and What's Working Right Now In this episode of the Dream It, Do It Podcast, I'm giving you a real-time update on what's been happening in my business over the past six months—specifically the pivot I made after realizing my former Beachbody model no longer aligned with where I wanted to go. This transition hasn't been easy, but it's been incredibly clarifying. I'm walking you through the five key strategies that have helped me refocus, drive profit, and build in a way that feels more sustainable long-term. Here's what we cover:
DescriptionJaspreet Singh grew up in an immigrant household where success only comes in two options: becoming a doctor or a lawyer. However, despite the heavy expectation from his parents, Jaspreet always has a business mindset. From throwing college parties as a side hustle to building a financial media empire (including a 2M+ subscriber YouTube channel), Jaspreet proved that a high-paying job is not the only way to gain financial freedom — (he even became a licensed attorney and proceeded to never practice law in his entire life, just to prove to his parents that entrepreneurship was his true calling!)In this episode, he breaks down the gritty realities of business growth: how to fund your dreams without traditional business funding, the habits you need to get rid of to get out of a rut, and the mindset shifts that separate the wealthy and the rest. Whether you're battling self-doubt or scaling your business, Jaspreet's no-BS advice will help you in your hustle.Takeaways- It's not about how much money you make, but how you think about money.- Success meant becoming a doctor due to traditional upbringing.- The first real business was an entertainment company.- Mindset is crucial for overcoming business challenges.- You have to be morally aligned with your business.- Every business requires understanding marketing, sales, and operations.- You will face hurdles, and how you handle them matters.- Passion is important, but it shouldn't overshadow profitability.- Learning from mistakes is essential for growth.- You need to keep trying and adapting to succeed. Reinvesting profits wisely is crucial for business growth.- Learning from mistakes is a vital part of entrepreneurship.- Having a clear end goal helps in reverse engineering success.- Creative funding methods can help startups with limited capital.- Hiring the right talent is essential for a successful team.- Avoid complacency and stay hungry for growth.- Reflect on mistakes to improve future decisions.- Transition leisure time into productive learning activities.- Think bigger and set ambitious goals for your business.- Anyone can become wealthy with the right mindset and effort.Tags: Business mindset, Service & Consulting, Business growth, Side hustle, Business fundingResources:- Start Your Business Today: links.upflip.com/42kYLBT- Connect with Jaspreet: https://www.instagram.com/minoritymindset/?hl=en
When you have a profitable trade, what do you do with the money that was earned on the swing trade? Do you re-invest it in another new position immediately, or do you cash out the gains for personal use, or perhaps even transfer it to a long-term account? In this podcast episode, Ryan tackles the question of making the next-right decision in one's trading and resisting the urge to have to "do-something" with the profits earned.Be sure to check out my Swing-Trading offering through SharePlanner that goes hand-in-hand with my podcast, offering all of the research, charts and technical analysis on the stock market and individual stocks, not to mention my personal watch-lists, reviews and regular updates on the most popular stocks, including the all-important big tech stocks. Check it out now at: https://www.shareplanner.com/premium-plans
On today's episode, Andy answers your questions on what is the best way to handle distractions when working on your goals, how to let go of relationships that no longer serve you, and how to learn the best techniques to reinvest in your business as the owner and operator to make it big long term.
Join us on this episode of Fullerton Unfiltered as we dive into our strategic roadmap for 2025. Discover how targeted investments in advanced equipment, exceptional executive talent, and cutting-edge software are set to drive operational excellence and fuel our business growth. LINK Membership Get Brian's Free Newsletter https://www.lawntrepreneuracademy.com/ LMN Mastermind Sessions (Use code Brian). LMN Landscape Software (Interested in checking out LMN and giving it a free Trial? Use our link or the code "Brian" to get the best savings and signup experience possible). Brian's Lawn Maintenance On YouTube Brian's Lawn Maintenance On Instagram www.brandedbullinc.com www.CycleCPA.com mention code: Brian to save $200. www.PostcardMania.com/Brian Zero to $100K!: The Complete Guide on How to Start a Successful Lawn Care Company Brian's Lawn Maintenance "MERCH" Our Affiliate Partners: www.EquipmentDefender.com (Brians10 Save 10%) www.KujoYardwear.com (Brians10 Save 10%+Free Shipping!) www.ISOtunes.com (Save 10%) https://bit.ly/3wzhaI4 www.ProvenLocks.com (Brians10 Save 10%) www.DarwinsGrip.com (Brians10 Save 10%) www.Plow-Right.com (Brians10 Save 10%) www.Ballard-Inc.com (Brians10 Save 10%) www.EarthWay.com (Brians10 Save 10%) www.RhinoHitch.com (Brians10 Save 10%) www.SureCanUSA.com (Brians10 Save 10%) www.ComfortTrim.com (Brians10 Save 10%)
© 2020-2026 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
