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Author Bruce Becker discusses his book Give Satan the Credit He Is Due and his podcast "Bible Threads." Bruce joined the leadership team at Time of Grace in March 2009. His past ministry experience includes serving as the lead pastor of two Lutheran churches and as a denominational leader responsible for providing ministry resources, training, and support to churches. He is a respected church consultant, public speaker, advisor, and published author. He has a professional doctorate in leadership and ministry management from Trinity International University in Chicago. Bruce lives in Jackson, Wisconsin, with his wife, Linda. They have been married for more than 40 years and have four adult children. They enjoy spending time with family, bicycling, landscaping, and gardening. Also this second hour, Shane Idleman will share insight from his article "Christian Nationalism: Do Both the Left and the Right Have it Wrong?" Shane Idleman is the founder and lead pastor of Westside Christian Fellowship, in Lancaster, Ca. and now Leona Valley, Ca. He also began the Westside Christian Radio Network - WCFRadio.org - in 2019. His sermons, books, articles, and radio program have sparked change in the lives of many. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

0 (0s): Good morning. Welcome everybody. Let's all stand together, Lord. We thank you for this morning. We thank you for providing us reign. We pray that you'd be here with us, that our worship would be pleasing to you. 1 (31s): for all that you've done. 1 (3m 15s): gray. 1 (4m 5s): for all that you done for me? Jesus. 1 (4m 46s): For all that, you've done. Fool. Oh, razor razor, razor. 1 (5m 31s): me. humble ourselves worthy of 0 (14m 52s): Praise and honor, we worship you this morning. Pray in Jesus name. Amen. So like for the past eight weeks Charlene's been here and she's really polished at getting you guys to talk to one another, but I'm back. And so it's okay to be awkward. You just got to turn around and make friends, you know, it's a time to fellowship. Amen. 0 (15m 32s): Amen. All right. Good morning. Harvest Church good morning. It's a rowdy bunch this morning. 2 (15m 44s): It has it's. It's nice. It's a little chilly outside, but nice and warm in here. Hey, just want to say welcome. Glad you're here each and every one of you. Thanks for joining us online as well. Hey, if it's your first time joining us, I just wanted to let you know that we have a gift for you. If you go over to the info center right here in the breezeway between the lofts and sanctuary, we have a gift for you. We would love for you to fill out info cards. Find out more about you, just ways to plug in and just got a couple announcements. First one is the Thanksgiving baskets. Food baskets are being collected by next Sunday. Next Sunday is your last day to turn those in. So there's a list where we're just trying to love on the community of the families in our community that, you know, need a little extra help this Thanksgiving. 2 (16m 30s): So if, if, if, if you've got, if you're willing, there's a, there's a list of different food items that we're trying to collect, and that will be due by next Sunday, November 20, November 15th, next announcement. And we have this sisterhood night of worship, and that will be just Friday, November 13th at six 30 here in the sanctuary. And that is for women of all ages all the way from they said grade school to grandma's are invited to come for that. It's going to be worship sharing a fellowship and fun details can be found at AGU harvest.org/sisterhood. And it's, it's gonna be a great night. I'm excited for you. Gals. 2 (17m 11s): Next is just a few opportunities to plug in and we have some, we have a welcome team, cleaning team, kids, ministry, team safety team, and then, and then a group host or facilitator. There's all different ways to plug into Harvest Church and to get connected, you can, you can find out how to connect by going to our app or a website and plug it in that way. Dave gave me this little sheet. There is a volunteer for holiday wind ensemble as well. Dave has all the details on that. I just have a simple slip of paper. So talk to Dave, if you're interested or do you have the skills to play in the wind ensemble? I do not. So I should not talk to Dave about that. And then lastly, we Wednesday is the veteran's day. 2 (17m 53s): So we want to honor those who have served in our country. And so if you have served, we actually asked you at this time to stand up both in the loft and here in the sanctuary, just come on, keep standing up, standing, remain, standing, remain standing. We want to just take this time. We want to take this time to honor you and thank you for your service. And let's, let's just say a moment of prayer, all right, for them, Lord, we thank you for those who have served, who have put their lives at risk to protect the freedoms of those. They, they, they haven't even known Lord. 2 (18m 33s): We thank you for all those in, in this room, at home, in a line and, and throughout this country, Lord, and what do we do? We lift up this country to you at this time, Lord, with all the craziness in our, in our nation. Lord, we just ask for wisdom and direction. Lord God, thank you for those who have served in jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Thanks. You all. That's all. That's all I got. Thank you, brother. Appreciate it. 3 (19m 2s): There are flannels all over the building today, all over the campus. It's a flannel Sunday. Isn't it? It's it's been kind of cold. Hey, you notice we got some of our plumbing back in place, so that's good, right? It's good to good to have plumbing in a developed nation. It's good to have money. So we have one of the think Mike Apadaca for coming in and making sure that the black top was all fixed for us so we could drive in and out and here. So thanks to Mike and thanks to rich Brown and his crew for getting the plumbing done. They're still working on it, but we have plumbing in this building and in the loft and in the U building, we do not have plumbing yet in the parsonage, but we're getting there. So be patient with us. We we're, we're just, it's just a slow process, but the water main is fixed and the sewage line is fixed. 3 (19m 48s): And so things are getting better. We'll get rid of the port-a-potties this week. So that'll be good. Porta-potties are great if you're at a fair, but they're not growing or a carnival or something. Hey, since we've had such a wonderful time with our plumbers recently, I've got a plumbers joke. You guys ready for a plumber's joke. So this guy hires a plumber. He's got a leak under a Sikh under his sink and the guy the plumber shows up and he's underneath the sink and comes out after about an hour. And he hands the guy that hired him, a bill for $400. And the guy said, man, I'm an attorney. And I don't make that kind of money. You've been here for less than an hour. The plumber said, yeah, when I was an attorney, I didn't make that kind of money either. 3 (20m 33s): Do you guys get that? It's it's bad. Right? Okay. Good. Somebody gave that to me. I did not pay them for that joke though. So that was, that was good. We had the title of the message today as we get into Colossians, chapter three is how do we 4 (20m 48s): Follow God's word? How do we, how do we follow God's word? That's the, that's the, the million dollar question as we open up, God's word, how do we follow it? How do we do that? So let's go ahead and stand up. But we're going to pray and ask the Lord for gifts to give us wisdom as we open up the scripture. And so Laura, we want to know, we want to know how do we follow your Word as we open it up on a regular basis and try to find instruction, therefore, our lives. So often, it's just hard to walk it out. Lord, easy to read about things, hard to live it out Lord. And so I know it's my desire, and I know that it's our desire as a church to want to be able to live it out. We want to know what it means to follow and how to do that. 4 (21m 30s): So Lord, I pray that there would be really practical tools given to us today, practical and helpful tools that will give us the ability that capacity, the understanding how to, how to actually follow your Word. So God as we open our hearts and minds to that, I pray that there would just be a download from heaven God that whatever blinders we have on would be, would be would, they would just fall off Lord like cataracts. They would just fall off our eyes, Lord, whatever hardness we have in our heart around the word. And just maybe our lack of understanding about how to walk it out or our frustration with it. Lord, I pray that that would just go away as well. 4 (22m 10s): That would just melt away in jesus' name. And our hearts will be tender and ready in our minds to be excited. And we'd be hungry Lord for the things for the word of God, for the things of God. And so help us, Lord, we pray. Thank you for your presence here today. God we've already felt it in worship, Holly. That was just so powerful and so good. And, and I am praying that the balance of the service has we open up your word would be, would be the same, would just be powerful and good. And then as we wrap up with more song God that it would just, it would just put a big old exclamation Mark on this day and give us the grace to follow you and to trust you wholeheartedly. So bless us. We pray, help us. We ask Lord in Jesus name, amen. 4 (22m 51s): You can be seated and you can be, 3 (22m 53s): How do we follow God's word, number one, we're going to get right to the first point. We have to understand what the word says. When I say the word it's capital w God's word. We have to understand what the Bible says. That's, that's kind of where we, we have to start. We have to understand what it says. We're going to get into some pretty tough texts today. If you've read ahead, you, you know that it's, it's difficult stuff that we're going to be talking about today, but it's not impossible stuff. It just requires that we understand what the word says so that we can do what the word says. So we're going to do our best to explain what the Bible says about these areas of submission 4 (23m 34s): And that this text is talking about today. Nobody likes submission really. I mean, it's difficult. I kind of grates against our flesh. When we have to submit to one another, whether it be to a boss or to an 3 (23m 46s): Elder or to a spouse, we don't really run toward the idea of submission, but it is God's 4 (23m 55s): Best plan for us. 3 (23m 57s): It is absolutely God's best plan for us when we understand what God means when he tells us to do certain things. So out of the gate, I'm just going to jump into Colossians chapter three, verse 18. We're going to take a few minutes to talk about 18 and then 19, and just, and just unpack the whole chapter all the way to chapter four, verse one. That's what we're going to end up today. It says this 4 (24m 21s): Wives, you know where I'm going, right? 3 (24m 25s): Submit to your 4 (24m 27s): Husbands. 3 (24m 31s): So no tomatoes. That was wonderful. Thank you for not throwing tomatoes at me. Cause I didn't write this. I'm just happened to be preaching it today. Wives submit to your husbands as is fitting for those who belong to 4 (24m 45s): The Lord. 3 (24m 47s): I'm just going to say, and I wrote out some things because I wanted to make sure that I say that I say them properly. This is the proper order. Two things. When it comes to husbands and wives, we can't apologize for that. And we don't actually have to apologize for it. When we do, when we do what God asks us to do the right way, he's actually got a plan. He didn't just throw this out there, spitballing some, some random idea about marriage relationship. He actually has a plan that he wants us to understand for our marriage relationships. So this is the proper order to things. When it comes to husbands and wives, we can't apologize for that because when done right, there is nothing to apologize for. 3 (25m 33s): So wives submits, she submits not as one who is inferior to him. So we're not talking about superiority versus inferiority. We're not taking, talking about position. We're just talking about order of things, the order of things. So she submits not as one who is inferior. So I want us to understand that that women are not inferior to men. 4 (25m 56s): And anyway, do you hear me? 3 (25m 59s): Women are not inferior to men in any way 4 (26m 3s): Way. 3 (26m 6s): So she submits that as one who is inferior to him, nor in violation of a Christian ethics, but honoring her husband's responsibility and authority as head of the household. So God has actually placed men in charge of the household. And so that's the order of things. And we're going to understand more about what that looks like as we unpack this text, the amplified Bible says, wives, be subject to your husbands out of respect for their position as protector and their accountability to God. So men are actually what will be held accountable for our relationship with our spouse in way that we lead our wives. So wives be subject to your husbands out of respect for their position as protector and their accountability, accountability to God as is proper and fitting in the Lord. 3 (26m 57s): So God has made the man head of his wife. We don't have a slide for this next verse, but it says this first Corinthians 11 three says, but I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ. So men have a head who is Christ. The head of why of a wife is her husband. And the head of Christ is God, is there is there is God superior to the son. No they're equal. They're equal in God, they're equal in the Godhead, but yet there's an order of things. There's a submission there where Christ is submitted to the father. And we see that throughout his whole earthly life in ministry, we see him constantly submitted. 3 (27m 40s): He said, I only do what the father tells me to do. I only say what the father tells me to say. He is completely submitted, even though there's total equality at the Godhead totally equality between the father, son and the Holy spirit. How do we follow God's word? We have to understand what the word says. This is the order of things so that there can be peace and leadership, proper leadership in the home. If there's no clear leadership, strife and unrest is the result. I've seen this over and over again where there's a weather where there's a lack of leadership. There is always strife in the home. There's strife and unrest in the home when there's a lack of proper leadership, but where there is godly, loving, humble leadership, there is peace. 3 (28m 30s): So when I think of healthy male leadership and marriage, I think of pastor Ron D I do. You guys have been married for 40 years. He's got a great marriage after 40 years of being married. And if you look at Ron's life, so I've been working with Ron for about 12 or 14 years, pretty full time here at the church. And so I have a, I've had a chance to watch his life for more than a decade. And I've been so impressed with his leadership. So while Ron is the head of his household, he is so incredibly gentle. He's gentle and strong at the same time, his gentleness and his strength makes it easy for his wife DJ to submit to him most of the time. 3 (29m 14s): I'm sure even DJ has a hard time submitting at times, but because Ron is gentle and strong at the same time, it makes it easier for his wife to submit to him. Ron is also gracious. He is humble, he's loving and he's fun. And Ron is the same person in the office that he isn't at his home. He's, he's just, he's just faithful through and through. He's a godly man full of grace. That means he extends grace. And so because all of these things are true, it makes it easier for his wife to submit to him. I would say that Ron is a great model for us as men, as husbands, man, we will do well to model our leadership after pastor Ron. 3 (30m 2s): I think it's just helpful to have a real life person that we can look to and model our leadership after our role, as leader of the home. 4 (30m 12s): All right. What does submission look like? 3 (30m 16s): And what does submission look like? Wives are to submit to their husbands as long as submission, as long as submission doesn't cause disobedience or compromise to God and his word. So women have a responsibility to submit to their husbands. As long as that submission doesn't violate their submission, their ultimate submission, 4 (30m 34s): Two God 3 (30m 38s): Wives are to submit to their husbands voluntarily. It should be done as, as an active obedience to the word of God, to the person of God. And I also want to say that even as wives submit volunteer voluntarily to their husbands, they're not to submit to men in general that that's not what the Bible says. It doesn't say that women are to submit to men in general. Now, if there's a leadership thing that requires a woman to submit to a man, that's fine. But there's also times when there's there's men who need to submit to the leadership of a woman. What the scripture is talking about here in Colassians. It's not saying, Hey, women are submitted to, or to be submitted to all men. 3 (31m 21s): It says that women are to be submitted to their husbands. That's what the scripture says. So the wife is to submit volunteer voluntarily to her husband, not to men in general. This is kind of what submission looks like. Submission is not to be abandoned when the husband makes a mistake. In other words, per perfection is not the make or break factor. When deciding to submit, sometimes women will submit as long as their husband is doing well or making wise choices, your husband is not going to be perfect. I'm a husband for the last 30 years. I can, I can tell you that we're not going to be perfect across the board, but even when in our imperfection, it's important that wives submit to their husbands, trusting that the Lord is leading the man. 3 (32m 3s): Even if he's making mistakes, there's ultimately God's plan we'll we'll we'll come to fruition or we can trust that God will will help. Even when our husbands are making mistakes, even when men are making misses. 4 (32m 16s): I hope I said that correctly. All right, husbands, you're next? You thought you were getting off the hook today, right? You were so on the hook today. So 3 (32m 28s): Even as I talked about the role of a godly husband and, and, and pointing to Ron, as an example, husbands verse 19 says you're to love your wives and never them harshly. What if you love your wife as Christ loved the church and never treat her harshly, she won't have much problem submitting 4 (32m 48s): To you. She just won't. 3 (32m 51s): She is won't most, most women want to submit to a godly man who loves them and treats them well. The amplified Bible says this in Colossians three 19, husbands love your wives with an affectionate sympathetic, selfless love. That always seeks the best for them, Then that good man, we have this huge responsibility as leaders of our home to make sure that we're leading the way that God would have us to leave and do not be in a lead in the way that God would have us to lead and do not be in bittered. The amplified continues do not be in bittered or resentful toward them towards your wife. 3 (33m 34s): Because of the responsibility 4 (33m 35s): Marriage, we have a huge responsibility is as husband. 3 (33m 42s): How do we follow God's word? We have to understand what the word says. Number one, number two, we have to approach the word with humility and teachability. As we rely on the power of the Holy spirit to give us the grace to follow. This is part of the deal. We will never effectively follow God's word. If we don't approach the word of God with humility, with teachability, relying on the power of the Holy spirit to give us the grace 4 (34m 8s): To follow. So husbands, if you're having a hard time, loving your wife, pray, pray, and then obey. 3 (34m 19s): I'm going to give you a 14 different ways that you can love your wife. 14 tangible ways that you can love your wife. So get out your pen. 4 (34m 29s): So I write this down and I, 3 (34m 35s): We should've put your name in the, in the place of love. So I put love is love is love is 14 times. And so I'm going to say for me, I'm going to put the, my name in there. So where it says love is patient. 4 (34m 49s): I'm going to say Steve is patient. Alright. Mike is patient. Rod is patient. Larry is patient. Love is patient. Love is patient love is patience. It requires a great deal of patience to express the kind of love that God would have us love our wives with we, we have to be patient. Yeah. 3 (35m 17s): With our spouses. They're different people than we are. They think differently. Not worse, not better, just different 4 (35m 24s): Love is patient. So put your name in there. I will be patient love is kind. Steve is kind, that's my, that's my directive, the Lord that I will be patient. And I will be kind. When you figure out how to be kind to your wife, the sky's the limit, your, your marriage will be amazing. Some men are just jerks to their wives. We don't treat our wives the way that they deserve to be treated. We must be kind to them. 4 (36m 6s): We must absolutely be kind to our wives. So Steve is kind, love is not jealous. Love is not boastful. Love is not proud. Love is not rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable as guys, sometimes we give ourselves permission to do all of these things. We've had a rough day, so I'm irritable. 4 (36m 47s): You don't have permission to be irritable. So when you're irritable, acknowledge the fact that you're irritable and get over yourself because God is bigger than your irritability. I'm telling you from experience. I used to be more irritable than I am now. I'm not perfect, but I'm not quietly. Quite as irritable as I used to be right, is I recognize that I can't be irritable to my wife and expect her to lovingly submit to me. And I can't be irritable to my wife and expect to have a good marriage. She's not, it's just may have an okay marriage. We may get by and not go through a divorce. 4 (37m 29s): But as that though, the high water Mark that we want is that we, we just want to not divorce. Holy cow, their marriage is meant to be delightful and wonderful and life giving your spouse is actually meant to be your very best friend, the person that you want to be with more than any other person. 0 (37m 57s): Yeah. 4 (37m 57s): And yet we're irritable and rude and proud at times. If you catch yourself in that place, catch yourself and don't give yourself permission to be in that place any longer. Maybe you need to take a longer path home, but drive home so that you can kind of get all of the junk from the Workday out of your system. Pray through, say, Lord, I'm going to, I'm getting ready to go home. And I don't want to be irritable. When I get home, I've had a terrible day. I don't want to carry this into my, my home life. So you pray on your way home, turn off the radio. When you pray or turn on Christian worship music and you worship, but out of your system, but you can't go home irritable 0 (38m 39s): Or rude and expect your marriage to be good. You want your, 4 (38m 44s): We should be good. Do you want your sex life to be good? Fix 0 (38m 46s): All that stuff. I'm telling you, 4 (38m 49s): Everything gets fixed. When you go home with the right attitude, 0 (38m 56s): It's not irritable. 4 (38m 57s): It keeps no record of being wronged. Keeping a ledger, mentally, emotionally in your hearts, 0 (39m 7s): Keeping 4 (39m 7s): A ledger of all the time did you've been wrong? Burned that thing. It is. It is like a cancer in your relationship. Love keeps no record of being wrong. Love does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices when the truth wins out. So love does not say I told you 0 (39m 28s): So 4 (39m 31s): There's no room for that kind of garbage in our relationship. That kind of ah, love rejoices. When the truth wins out, we're not trying to catch each other misstepping or making a mistake. We're not trying to catch each other, doing the wrong thing. We're trying to catch each other, doing the right thing and celebrate that leverage choices when the truth wins out. So when you see your spouse doing something, that's great. Thank them. And praise them for that. 0 (39m 59s): Spouse makes you breakfast. Say thank you, 4 (40m 6s): Your spouse, presses your underwear. Say thank you. Say thank you. Just be grateful, 0 (40m 19s): Right? Have 4 (40m 19s): An attitude of gratitude with everything in your relationship. Just say, just say, thank you. Thank you. Goes a long way. Hey, thanks babe. For making me a lunch. 0 (40m 29s): Right? Thanks 4 (40m 31s): For irony. My shirt. Thanks for keeping the house clean. I noticed you. You cleaned the house today. Thank you. Hey, thanks for taking such good care of our kids by really appreciate how you love our grandkids, 0 (40m 47s): How you invest 4 (40m 48s): In them. That just means so much to me. 0 (40m 49s): Thank you for that. Acknowledge out loud, 4 (40m 54s): The wonderful parts of your partner acknowledge out loud to them and let them know how much you value them and care for them. Love never gives up. You say I've tried all of this stuff and it just keeps backfiring. Keep going, keep going. Pray for a tender heart for your spouse and women wives. When you, when you begin to see your husband change and begin to adopt some of this truth, this revelation from the, from God's word, man, run to it. The ways that I'm asking men to love their wives, wives, I'm asking you to love your husbands the same way. So while I'm putting them in on the hook here, I'm also putting you on the hook. 4 (41m 37s): Your marriage will be amazing. It will be better than it's ever been. 0 (41m 44s): 4 (41m 50s): 30 years of marriage. I tell you, our marriage is better than it's ever been. 30 years. Sometimes we think it just kind of winds down till we die. Just kind of like, Hey, it started out good. It's this kind of white, white wine itself down. No, man, it can be ramping up. Never gives up. Never loses. Faith is always hopeful. Love endures through every circumstance. I wish I could say I made all these up, but they're right in first Corinthians 13, first Corinthians 13 helps us to understand what it means to love one another. 4 (42m 31s): This is the way that God loves us. And he said, I love you this way. Go and love others this way. How do we follow God's word? We have to understand what the word says. It means we have to crack it open. We have to get that Bible opened up every day and understand what it says. And even if you're only reading a little bit, get it in your heart, get it in your mind. We have to approach it. We have to open up God's word. We have to get into it with humility and teachability, not checking a box saying, Hey, I read my proverb of the day or my Psalm of the day. I check the box. What did it say? And what did it speak to your soul? 4 (43m 12s): What does it speak to your spirit? Approach it with humility and teachability is we rely on the power of the Holy spirit to give us the grace to follow. I say this all the time. Everything that God asks us to do in his word requires the supernatural power of the Holy spirit at work in us to get it done. I can't love my wife this way, this way, unless God's loving through me. And last I'm also experiencing the love of God this way and acknowledging and recognizing it that his, he is so patient with me. God, God has never been rude or irritable with me. 4 (43m 53s): He just isn't. He's just not that way. He challenges me through the Word and through the spirit, he'll convict my, my, my life of sin of bad judgment. He'll he'll challenge me, but I never feel beat up by the process. I'm always like Lord. Yes. Thank you. Right? That's that's we don't have to roll over with our spouses, but man, when we, when there's time to bring correction or challenge or a hard conversation, but it needs to be done with love. Don't be irritable. Won't serve your purposes. It won't won't help your marriage. Next first we're done with husbands and wives. 4 (44m 37s): Can we all breathe? There's enough there to last us for the rest for the next 30 years. Amen. Children obey your parents for this pleases, the Lord children obey, always obey your parents for this pleases, the Lord. And then the kids are like, God got it. I thought I was going to get out of this and not have to be held, held accountable here. What does obedience look like? As far as it pleases the Lord children always obey your parents as far as long as it pleases the Lord. If a parent is asking a child to do something immoral, illegal, the child has absolutely has absolutely has the responsibility to disobey, to not do what their parents are asking him to do to do this is God's design. 4 (45m 26s): This is what I think God's design is. God's design is that godly parents would lead well. Their children with integrity, humility, kindness, and good boundaries. And by the way, those 14 things, you can love your kids the same way you love your kids the same way. Let me read that again. God's design is that godly parents would lead well, their children with integrity, humility, kindness, and good boundaries so that children will grow up understanding godliness and the biblical difference between right and wrong parents. You want to lead in such a way that you parents, you want to lead in such a way that you would want your kids to grow up and treat and raise your grandchildren the same way. 4 (46m 12s): I've got five grandkids. And I want my kids to raise my grandkids really well. And they're doing a great job by the way. 0 (46m 20s): 4 (46m 27s): Parents in such a way that your kids though, they may disagree or not understand. Now we'll be able to one day see that you were right. So right now they don't have the capacity to, to see the reasons for the decisions that are made. They just don't. They don't, they don't see any more than, than we understand all of God's ways for, for the way that he parents us. We just don't understand. We don't have the capacity. So don't parent haphazardly. Don't love conditionally don't have favorites or show favoritism, be consistent, be humble, be loving, be gracious. 4 (47m 9s): Verse 21 says, fathers do not aggravate your children, or they will become discouraged. It's tough to parent. It's tough to figure out how to parent kids who are going through adolescents and going through hard stuff. It's tough to parent, little toddlers who were getting into everything. It's tough to parents, kids through all of their stages of life, but God's grace will give us the ability to do it in such a way that they won't be discouraged. They can get corrected, but not be discouraged. They can, they can have boundaries, but not be discouraged. They can understand, even as a, as a young child, they can understand. 4 (47m 53s): And through adolescents that they're being disciplined because they are loved. They're being raised in a, in a loving atmosphere, Ephesians six, four in the amplified, it says fathers do not provoke your children to anger. Do not exasperate them to the point of resentment with demands that are trivial or unreasonable or humiliating or abusive, nor by showing favoritism or indifference to any of them in difference, but bring them up tenderly with loving kindness in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. 0 (48m 28s): Okay, 4 (48m 28s): This is heavy stuff. Isn't it? It's like really strong directives for us in our relationships. It's not easy stuff, but it's what the Bible says. And if we give it an opportunity, we'll have great families. And maybe you're here today. And you say, man, I've already blown it. It's too late. Start doing all of this stuff now with your adult kids, with your, with your grown kids. And if it's too late and they just don't want to have anything to do, we do with you just let the grace of God wash over you. Just repent of it. We've all sinned and fall short of God's glorious standard. So just say, Lord, I, man, I wish I would have, I I've. I limit some of the things that I did as a young parent Lord. I wish I would have raised my kids differently. 4 (49m 8s): In some areas I do God's grace was sufficient and they turned out really well, but I'm wishing, I wish I would've done some things differently, but God's grace is sufficient and I've had to go back and apologize to my kids. For some things. My daughter brought it up recently a few years ago, we, we all sat our kids, my wife and I, we sat our kids down. I forgot we had done this, but she brought it up to me and we sat and they were all adults at that point. And we just apologize for any pressure that we, we might've put them put on them as, as pastors, kids, kids have enough pressures without having pressure from because of what their parents do. Holy cow. 4 (49m 49s): And so we, we weren't sure if we had put any undue pressure on them, but we want to make sure that we apologize in case we had. So we said, well, we don't, we don't know if we did a great job with you guys. Well, I'm sure we made some mistakes. And so we just want, we just want to say, sorry, will you forgive us? And, and there was grace extended there and, and health restored, maybe in areas where health needed to be restored. So maybe you've made mistakes. You have, if you're human, you made mistakes. You do, you have a pulse. Yeah, you do. You've made a mistake. So, so just be humble and apologize for that and watch what the Lord will do to restore relationships. 4 (50m 32s): Maybe you've got a broken relationship with adult kids that have been going on for, for decades. I grew up with an absentee father, absentee father, and he was just, he was gone my whole life, some, a couple of times growing up and, and he's, he's kind of in his own way. Apologize. It has been helpful. It's kind of acknowledged, you know, and he made some knucklehead moves along the way and, and in his own way, he's kind of apologized and that has to be good enough. Right. And he's listening in dads. So that's, Hey dad, that's good enough. He always listens to my sermons, talk about him. 4 (51m 16s): And he's like, Hey, you probably didn't want me listening in today. Did you? I said, no, I want you to listening in dad. So in his own ways, he apologized for his own past mistakes. And that's good enough. We need to extend grace because even some of the policy, some even sometimes we don't even know how to apologize. Well, but if we can just get to the heart of what's being tried, we have, what is being said is just extended grace, your relationships with your parents and your grandparents and your kids and your grandkids will just be better. Children will have a much easier time obeying if they're obeying good and godly parents, not perfect parents, but good and godly parents. And they'll know the difference. They may not understand it now, but as they get older, they will understand the difference. 4 (52m 1s): Children. Even if your parents aren't good and godly, you still need to obey them. 0 (52m 7s): I do 4 (52m 10s): Obey them with humility, with humility and trust as you obey God's direction for your life. No perfect parents. So trust the Lord as you do his will. All right, let's get off the family a little bit and talk about slaves. 0 (52m 29s): How much time we have, we got time. 4 (52m 32s): 22 Colossians three says slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything that you do, try to please them all the time. Not just when they are watching you serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. So slavery in our culture is not really a thing. Although in the, in the world, it's a thing. It's a, it's a very real thing. One commentator wrote while slavery is certainly undesirable. And I would S I would add slavery is not just undesirable. Slavery is it's it's deplorable. No person should own another person. The commentator wrote while slavery is certainly undesirable undesirable. 4 (53m 14s): Paul goes, Paul's goals did not include restructuring social institutions. So we often wonder why didn't Paul directly attack the institution of slavery. Well, God had other goals for him. This is what I wrote. 3 (53m 30s): God's goal. Isn't always to restructure social institutions. His goal is to make disciples who will through their godliness point, people to a better way of living. And in that call some to the work of restructuring social institutions. 4 (53m 44s): Well, my thoughts go to William Wilberforce, 3 (53m 49s): William Wilberforce, as a British politician, philanthropists, and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade and native of York Shire. He began his political career in 1780, eventually becoming an independent member of parliaments in 1785. He became an evangelical Christian, 4 (54m 9s): Which 3 (54m 9s): Resulted in major changes to his lifestyle and a lifelong concern 4 (54m 13s): For reform. Yes, 3 (54m 17s): God is first and foremost concerned for the reform of individually 4 (54m 23s): God 3 (54m 24s): God is concerned for the reform of individuals. And he knows that the reform of culture can follow. As individuals are reformed. Paul's major concern was not restructuring social institutions. His major concern was the discipleship of 4 (54m 38s): Men and women. And 3 (54m 40s): Out of that, out of that, God would call people to reform social 4 (54m 45s): S social issues. And so 3 (54m 51s): Some of you are called to reform social injustices, and some are called to other things. And I would just ask you to figure out what you're called to Paul understood what he was called to. And he kept that in his sights, 4 (55m 6s): Listen to what he wrote 3 (55m 7s): In first Corinthians seven, seven through 24, 4 (55m 11s): He said, 3 (55m 12s): Verse 17, excuse me. He said, each of you should continue to live in whatever situation the Lord has placed you and remain as you were when God first called you. This is my rule for all of them 4 (55m 24s): Churches, for instance, a man who was circumcised 3 (55m 27s): Before he became a believer, should not try to reverse it. And the man who was uncircumcised when he became a believer should not be circumcised 4 (55m 35s): Now 3 (55m 37s): For it makes no difference whether or not a man has been circumcised. The important thing is that he keeps God's commandments. Yes. Each of you should remain as you were, when God called you, 4 (55m 47s): Are you a slave? Don't let that worry you. But if you get a chance to be free, take it. 3 (55m 55s): And remember, if you were a slave, when the Lord called you, you are now free in the Lord. And if you are free, when the Lord called you, you are now a slave of Christ. God paid a high price for, you said, don't be enslaved by the world. Each of you, dear brothers and sisters should remain. As you were when God has called, when God first called, 4 (56m 14s): How do we follow God's word? We have 3 (56m 16s): To understand what the word says. We have to invest our heart and mind in the word, and we have to do it. We have to approach that Word word of God with humility and teachability is we rely on the power of the Holy spirit to give us the grace to follow it. Number three, we have to believe the Word that we have a master in heaven. Often. We don't believe that this is true. We're going to see this in the text. We have a master in heaven, and we have a Lord in heaven. We come to faith in Jesus. If we confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart, that God has raised him from the dead. We shall be saved. If we confess the Lordship of Jesus Christ, that's the first step of being saved. Confessing the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We have a master in heaven. Who's, who's telling us how to live our lives, and it's not negotiable. 3 (57m 2s): It's not a pick and choose scenario. We read the Bible, we understand it. We do what it tells us to do. That's just the way God designed the scripture for us sees everything. And he knows everything. And he's just in fare. And he's given us things to do hard things to do. These are, these are not these. This has not been an easy text to preach through. These are hard things that God asks us to do, and they require real heart change, real transformational change so that we can align our lives with his word back to Colossians. Paul wrote work willingly at whatever you do as though you were working for the Lord, rather than for people. 3 (57m 48s): And so we're not in a slavery economy of slavery situation in our culture, but we all have employers. Most of us are working and we have people that we work for. So we can overlay this verse in our risk, in our responsibility to our employers, work willingly at whatever you do as though you were working for the Lord often, we're like, I'm not, I'm not doing a good job because I don't like my boss as a Christian. That's not, that's not even an option as a Christian. That is not even an option. You have to work as though you're working for the Lord. Christians should be the best possible employees in a, in a workplace often. 3 (58m 33s): It's not the case though. Christians aren't having good erect. We don't have a good reputation in the workplace because sometimes we can be lazy or we, we excuse our behavior because we don't like our boss or the circumstances. Listen, we need to work as though we're working for the Lord, rather than for people remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward and that the master you are serving as Christ. So it's not just a Sunday morning. I submit to God scenario. It's a 24 seven. I submit to God scenario. It's 24 seven. Like I always submit to God, that's the goal like the Lord I'm going to submit to you no matter what. So whoever I'm working for, I'm going to submit to that person and work for them as though I'm working for you, Lord, because you're my, you're 0 (59m 22s): My master. First one, 4 (59m 25s): If I, but if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you've done for God has no favorites. And then our last verse, Colossians four, one masters, be just and fair to your slaves. Remember that you also have a master in heaven. So there's two sides to every coin wives. You gotta submit to your husbands husbands. You have to love your wives. Following those 14 things that I talked about in first Corinthians from first Corinthians 13, 0 (1h 0m 3s): 4 (1h 0m 7s): We have this powerful responsibility and powerful opportunity to align our relationships in such a way that God has honored in such a way that divorce isn't an option divorce isn't even on the table because we're so in love with each other, that it's not even something that we would consider. It's not always easy to follow God's word, 0 (1h 0m 33s): But 4 (1h 0m 33s): If you will try to understand it and approach it with humility and teachability, while relying on the power of the Holy spirit, to give you the grace to follow, we can trust that our master in heaven will take care of all of our needs. So some of us are married to hard people. 0 (1h 0m 55s): So this stuff isn't easy. 4 (1h 0m 58s): I don't pretend that it's easy. Everything that God asks us to do requires the power of the Holy spirit at work in our lives. It's doable when we've got the power of God at work in us and with us and through us, it's doable. It's doable. All of the impossible things or the seemingly impossible things that we read in scripture are doable. When the power of the Holy Spirit's at work in our lives, all of these things are possible. All of the things that God leads us to do in his word from Genesis to revelation are doable and possible. When we rely on the power of the Holy spirit, when we're approaching the word of God with humility and teachability filled with the Holy spirit. 4 (1h 1m 40s): So maybe you're here today and you just need a fresh infilling of the Holy spirit. I'm just going to pray that over us, that we'll be freshly filled Ephesians five talks about our need to be constantly filled with the Holy spirit. Somehow we leak, I guess we leak and we need to be refilled. So I'm going to pray that the Holy spirit will fill us to overflowing so that we can have the capacity to believe God for the things that he's instructed us in his word. Does that sound good? Go ahead and stand up. And if you're here and you need a new filling of the Holy spirit, just raise your hand. I'm not gonna make you come forward, but if you're here and you just say, Lord, I pray for those whose hands are up. God my hands are up. 4 (1h 2m 23s): God I, I feel like I need it like multiple times throughout the day. I just need to be refilled. Somebody cuts me off on the freeway and I'm angry and I need to be refilled. Lord, forgive me for that. Lord does have a bad thought, Lord, forgive me for that Lord. I'm up against a hard situation. I need to be refilled with the Holy spirit. God, do you know the scenario of everybody's life here? The relationships that they're in, the problems that they're face, the difficulties that they, that they're up against Lord. I just pray that each, each person would just feel in a real, tangible it, if possible, just physically and spiritually, that we would feel your presence. 4 (1h 3m 8s): Just filling us with grace and power to do what you've asked us to do. Lord and, and belief and confidence and faith Lord in the things that you've asked us to do, believing God that ultimately it will, it will, it will be good for us Lord. So God, each of us, we, we have our hands up and we just ask God that as we stand here, prayerful Lord, that you would fill us and that's, you would continue to fill us daily as often as we need it. Lord God for the task, for the responsibilities in front of us, God help us to be great husbands and great wives and great employees. 4 (1h 3m 53s): Great employers, Lord, help us to be just incredible Lord. And as we trust you with our lives, Lord God, as we worship, help us to worship Lord in spirit and in truth. And I there's just something powerful that happens when we worship, when there's just, there's just an anointing, a filling that happens, Lord, I just pray God that you would fill us and anoint us for your good works. The good works that you've called us to today. Pray that none of us would be overwhelmed, but we just have the strength to do it. We'd have the faith to do it. So help us, Lord. We pray. Thank you for this time. Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's worship 1 (1h 4m 36s): was ballroom God has the with the melody, with deliverance from me. 1 (1h 11m 13s): I'm no, Lord. 1 (1h 15m 19s): It's only by some crazy miracle. It's hard for us. We receive Steve Bray. We asked for your power to walk in your ways to live. As you want us to live to love people. As you want us to look, we asked for your power this morning. We thank you. We praise you Jesus name. Amen. 1 (1h 16m 0s): Thank you guys for coming to church today for tuning in online, have a great week.

Welcome!   For being locked down do to this Pandemic there is certainly a lot of technology in the news this week.  So let's get into it.  President Trump issued an Executive Order to protect our Electric Grid from using equipment not manufactured in the US, Microsoft Teams is under attack, Phishing and Ransomware are in the News and What will Post-COVID Business look like? So sit back and listen in.  For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Automated Machine Generated Transcript: Craig Peterson: Hey everybody, welcome Craig Peterson here on WGAN. It is quite a week. I just can't believe how fast time is going. So many people are at home with nothing much to do, they're watching Netflix, et cetera, and I am busier than ever just trying to help people out and I'm going to be doing more free training and stuff over the next couple of weeks. Now I've just been so, so busy. I don't know if you've heard any of my features here on the radio station. They're supposed to have started airing, I guess we'll see if they do air, but I'm putting together these kinds of filler things that are a couple of minutes long. The whole idea behind them is to really help. People with just various technology issues. You know, me, I'm focusing on security because that is what seems to be lacking the most, and especially when we're seeing what we're seeing right [00:01:00] now, which is all kinds of people. Just getting everything stolen from them. It Is crazy what's happening.  You know, we're all working at home right now to some degree. Many of us, obviously you still have to go in and. You know, in foodservice and manufacturing, et cetera. But even with that, the bosses aren't necessarily all there. Some people are getting sick and are staying at home for very good reasons. I think we'll see more of that in the future. Someone gets sick instead of the old American worth work ethic of going in and getting everybody else sick. I think we're going to see a lot more of the, Hey, I'm going to stay home because I'm not feeling well. This is going to be interesting because so many companies have these sick policies, sick day policies that I've never liked particularly. I think some of those will change too, but what is going to happen here in our post-COVID world, right? We've got this COVID-19 of [00:02:00] course the Wuhan virus causes the disease. it's also called, what is it, C O V I D SARS-2? Remember SAR. SARS had a much, much higher death rate than COVID-19 is turning out to have. But there are many, many people that have this. And we've seen some statistics now coming out saying that even people that are staying home, this one hospital this week did some, a little bit of research and found that 60% of their patients had quarantined in themselves at home. Now that tells you something too. We, we still don't know enough about this whole WuHan virus and the diseases that it might cause. Some of the symptoms we kind of know, obviously when it comes to respiratory problems, is an acute respiratory disease, which is what SARS is. Yeah, we know the basics of that, but man, the stuff we've been hearing about people having circulation problems, having legs amputated, even people who are [00:03:00] in good shape, you know, I hate to see it, but I can understand a diabetic having problems, right. And maybe ultimately having a leg amputated because of circulatory problems that come with diabetes or circulatory problems that come with being morbidly obese or even just obese. Those all kind of make sense to me, but. I don't know there's just so much we don't know. One of the things we're trying to figure out is what does the business looks like?  What is going to happen? And there's a great article that came out in the computer world just this last week that is talking about telecommuting. I think it's really kind of an interesting thing because what we're talking about is a disease that's going to be affecting us probably for the next 18 months to two years now. I don't mean like the whole country or world is shut down for that period of time. Obviously that would be catastrophic to everyone. We would have people dying of starvation if that were to happen, but what I'm talking about is really kind of like what happened with the Spanish flu. You know, every last one of us has had that flu that happened in 1918 and unless you've been an absolute hermit that I've never had any food, you didn't grow, et cetera, right? It just sticks around. And that's going to happen with his WuHan virus. Well, it is going to be around forever, frankly, now that it's been thrust upon us, however, that came to be. Depending on whether or not we've got a vaccine. We've got some really good treatment when they're in place. That's really going to be the point where we try and get back to usual. I don't know. It's so many businesses are doing layoffs. One of my sons. His boss was just furloughed and a couple of his team members were furloughed. He's [00:05:00] kind of low end to management. He has a team that he supervises, and so the supervisor, one of the supervisors of the team supervisors got laid off. So when the business gets back going again, are they still going to have that extra layer of management in the middle? I don't think so. And some of these team members that were laid off are not necessary, you know, not, not talking about my son here, but just in general. But some of these team members that have been laid off in businesses are not necessarily the best of employees. So what does that mean? The owners and executives and businesses are going to have to find themselves running businesses in very different ways. I talked this week a little bit with Matt. Of course, I'm on the radio pretty much every morning during the week on different stations, but I was talking about what is [00:06:00] happening. What are we looking at? Where's this going? And one of the things that came up was, Hey, listen, we have these executives at the C-level. We have all of these people down, the front end, is that going to change the way most businesses work? And obviously I think the answer to that is yes, right? Absolutely. Yes. The vast majority of the burden to put together these new businesses and new operations is going to fall to the people in information technology. That's exactly what we are doing. So we've got to have it, executives, starting to talk about what does the business look like going forward? What should they be doing? How can they have an infrastructure that works for the employees and that is safe and secure because the bad guys have [00:07:00] redoubled their efforts and there are so many opportunities to them now because there are fewer eyes watching everything? Right now. Working from home is a term. That many people are using. And frankly, if you want to guarantee that the business change is going to fail, maybe you just call it working from home. Telecommuting on a corporate basis can work, but that's not everybody. That's not where we're all going to be here when we're talking about these multibillion-dollar companies. Barely any of them had true corporate work at home or telecommuting pre-COVID-19 now, some of them did in some cases, but frankly, the big distinction between work from home and corporate telecommuting is that [00:08:00] they thought work at home was an occasional thing for convenience. So, or you're not feeling well today. There's a blizzard, there's a big storm out there, or there's a power outage at the main office because they're, they're doing some construction. Some businesses also said, Hey, listen, every Friday during the summer, you know, you want to stay home once a month or whatever, just go ahead and do it and work from home. That's not corporate telecommuting. Telecommuting is where the employee or the contractor, these people who are working on a gig basis are based at the remote location full time. Now I've talked a bit about the gig economy. And gig workers before on this show, and I've talked about it many times on, on the radio and TV, but in case you don't know what that is, the gig economy is a major change. We started to see a few years ago where people, particularly businesses, were looking and saying, Hey, listen, we don't need to have all of these people on the payroll. Because in reality, this job is part-time. So why would we pay someone full time when it's a part-time job? And why would I have one person working at it when I could have three, four, or five people working at it when necessary. So all of a sudden there's an uptick in my business. Instead of having to try and find someone else, hire someone else, bring them in or, or turn down the work because I can't possibly handle it because I only have this one person who was part-time before. What we ended up doing is saying, Hey, How bout we just find people to do this one narrow thing, and the more narrowly the task can be defined, the better of the businesses because the cost goes down. [00:10:00] The more complex a task is, the more expensive it is. And you look at something like Amazon Mechanical Turk in case you're not familiar with that service. Amazon has, there are people who maybe some of you guys are doing this, who sit there and do very small, very narrow tasks for typically a fixed price. So it might be, get me the phone number and name of this doctor in this town. And you're paid a penny or whatever, 5 cents for doing that very, very narrow task. So they can go ahead and they have someone else saying, find me the name of all of the doctors that meet this criterion in this town and get me their names, their phone numbers, and their addresses. Much, much cheaper to break all of that down to the business. So they're looking at things like Mechanical Turk, but they're also looking at sites like Fiverr, which I've [00:11:00] used before as well. F I V E R R.com and if you go to fiverr.com in fact, let me go there right now while we're talking, you can find people to do almost. Anything for you. It says right on their homepage here, find the perfect freelance services for your business. And most of these are very narrow tasks. And their original idea is you, you know, five bucks, they discharged five bucks for it. And, you know, isn't that. or more reasonable thing than having to have an employee and having to have all of the expenses involved. All right, so I'll stick around. I wanted to finish this up here. A little bit of wandering and meandering as we're talking about. What does the post-WuHan virus world look like in the business space? You're listening to Craig Peterson, on W G A N and online at Craig Peterson dot com. Craig Peterson: Hi guys. Craig Peterson here on WGAN and of course online at craigpeterson.com. We were talking before the break, a little bit about the post-Covid 19 world. And I started talking about the gig economy and what it really is, what does it really mean to us? And I was just talking about a website called fiverr.com which kind of defined the whole gig economy for a while, frankly, for a number of years. And now there are more sites out there as well. But really Fiverr is the place to go online. So they have things like design a logo. Customize your WordPress website, doing voiceover whiteboard work for people. SEO, which is search engine optimization, illustration, translation, data entry. Those are kind [00:01:00] of their top categories, and you can go there. You can find what people are doing, what they're offering, what's the best thing for you, for your business? What might you want to consider? If it is really quite good and there are a lot of true experts that are making there. Their talents available to businesses now it's not just five bucks to do something. Some of these are a lot more expensive and some go on an hourly basis and, and I've used a number of other websites in the past in order to get people to hire people to do things. Upwork is one of the other big ones. U P W O R K.com. Check that one out as well. Whether you're looking for help or you want to provide help and sell some help. But upwork.com is another good one that I've used. And in both cases, I can go and post something and say, Hey, this is what I'm interested in. Having done and people will bid on it [00:02:00] for you. Now, a little inside tip here you might not be aware of in that is if you want people to bid on it, they have to be aware of it, and the only way they're going to be aware of it usually is if you reach out to them. So you have to do a bunch of studying and research and advance so that you know who looks like they might fit for you, and then you have to send them an invite directly because most of these people, especially the good ones, are not sitting there just waiting for a general. Query to come in, Hey, I need somebody to do a logo. Now they don't pay attention to that because they are in demand. So you have to find the people that you want to do. For instance, your logo, whatever the work is. So you'll go online, you'll look around, you'll look at their samples, they've posted, you'll find a few people, and I've found usually in order to find somebody that's good. I have to reach out to as many as 50 five [00:03:00] zero people on these websites to get the attention of somebody I really want. So if you are top-rated, it's phenomenal. They have ratings like at Upwork they have really great ratings and stuff for who some of the better people are. It really helps you with your decision. So when we're talking about the future, it's not just telecommuting. Or you might have lost your job. So what do you do now? I know, for instance, one of our listeners here, Linda, she reached out to me and I helped her with some, or actually one of my techs helped her out with some of the problems she was having. because she has lost her business actually, I think it was, and she's trying to start another one by doing website evaluation. You know, that's a perfect opportunity for somebody. To go to Fiverr or Upwork and see if they can't dig up a little bit of work as well. Now when you're first starting out, you're going to have to look at [00:04:00] those main feeds and you're going to have to comb through them and approach people. And you'd probably have to do stuff for really cheap until you develop a reputation. Cause you have to have people giving you those five-star reviews. But it's going to take a little bit of time. Now, one of the big questions that come up is payroll taxes. And when we're talking about the gig economy, the IRS has a set of standards that are in place that help you evaluate whether someone should be treated as a contractor or if they should be treated as an employee. And there's quite a bit of IRS case law if you want to call it that, IRS rules and regulations that have come out of the IRS courts that are paid by the IRS and judges work for the IRS and they get to decide what's right or wrong with you, right? But, there have been a lot of cases that say, Hey, listen to, here's where the line is drawn between a [00:05:00] contractor that you can pay 1099 and somebody who's W2. And that line that we're talking about is, is not just, Hey, they're working at home. Yeah. They're working from home. Well, do you supervise them? Do you give them the work that needs to be done? Are you setting deadlines? Are you telling them what equipment or software to use? You know, you need to talk to your attorneys, reach out to your accountant to figure out what all of those rules are and how they apply to you. But it, this adds yet another little twist to it. You know, it's one thing if you have just this limited task and you hire them once to do the task, like, okay, I need a logo design, or I need to have this changed on my website, or. Whatever it might be, and that's all well and good and that probably fits the contractor definition. Probably don't even have to 1099 them if you're using one of these sites like Fiverr or [00:06:00] Upwork because they're going to take care of it for you. Some of these sites will do tax withholdings for people and there's a lot of things they'll do, but where they are living also now. Will it affect your payroll taxes? So let's say that you're going to keep people on as employees and your businesses in New Hampshire, but they're living or switch it around here cause it doesn't work for New Hampshire. Right? But let's say they're living in a different state with a different tax jurisdiction. And you are your businesses in a state that has income tax provisions. I know in the Northeast we have some agreements between the States because of, of course, New Hampshire has no income tax and they're the ones that are always used for these things. But, there was an agreement between the state saying, Hey, listen, if they live in mass, you have to pay mass taxes. If you live in New Hampshire and you work in mass, you have to pay mass taxes. If you never ever stepped foot in mass, you have to pay mass. No, you don't. But did you see what happened in New York where? The governor of New York has come out and said, Oh yeah, by the way, all of you people that volunteered your time, if you stayed in New York for more than two weeks, you need to pay us income tax even though you were a volunteer. It just gets crazy. Right? So how do you keep track of all these jurisdictions? And if you're hiring people that live in some other state, they're in Illinois, they're in California, they're in one of these blue States that has crazy regulations and high taxes. Now you have to worry about all of that sort of stuff. Okay. It is really going to be difficult. The employee's home is in Atlanta. The company needs to treat that is an Atlanta office or Bureau in every way. If what's the legal [00:08:00] nexus? I've seen cases where just having a phone number from a state was enough to say, yeah, you are a resident of that state. It's really kind of crazy and not just a resident. I'm talking about businesses here. You have a business nexus there, so you have an Atlanta phone number and you don't have an office there, et cetera, but somebody answers that phone. Even if it's not in Georgia, you could get nailed you. Do you see what I'm talking about? This is absolutely going to be a huge, huge different corporate telecommuting is going to just drive us all crazy. Frankly, and in some states, you have not just the state tax, but you have a County tax, you have a city tax, all kinds of different local taxes at different percentages. I remember I had some stuff going on in Washington state, and it was different [00:09:00] tax rates, even for sales tax. You've been on the County, you were in. It, it kind of gets crazy. So, you're going to have to change their tax status if they're doing a hundred percent of their work in that other jurisdiction. And I think that's going to end up being a problem for a lot of people. So keep, keep an eye on that one is, well, ultimately this is going to lead to I think, nothing but confusion. Anyways, we'll move on to another topic when we get back enough about all of the taxes and things you're going to have to worry about with people working from home. But boy, there are a lot, no time to let your guard down because of Corona fraud. Is a huge threat. And what's we'll talk about what those real-world threats are. So stick around. We'll be right back. You're listening to Craig Peterson on WGAN online, Craig peterson.com Craig Peterson: Hello everybody. Welcome back. Craig Peterson here, WGAN, and of course online at craigpeterson.com. Talking a little bit, of course, it is hard to avoid this, how it got into the post-COVID world out there. What does it really mean? We're just talking. In the above telecommuting and how it's really going to cause some stresses on businesses. And you know, we've already talked in weeks past about how it's going to help businesses with a number of different things, including helping them with their ability to cut costs on, on travel and office space, et cetera. But there are a lot of other things to consider as you just went over. Oh, now we got to talk about what is happening to us at our homes and our businesses from, of course, the security side,  because it's no time to let your guard down. Coronavirus fraud is a huge threat and it's been growing. We're seeing constant warnings about it from the FBI and from. These are various security companies that are out there. Certainly, we're getting all kinds of alerts from Microsoft and from also the Cisco people, but the scammers, the bad guys out there are just constantly reusing old ways of hacking us. And they're using scams that they've used forever as well. And that's part of the reason why I always talk about making sure you stay up to date. It's more important to stay up to date right today than it ever has been before. And scammers are rehashing. Some of these campaigns, kind of like the, remember the Nigerian [00:02:00] scams way back when? Some of those are back now in a bit of a different way. So we've got countries now, and of course, our States are starting to try and get a little bit back to normal here that got some paths to recovery. And in many cases, they're trying to get rid of some of these lockdown restrictions. But meanwhile, the crisis has brought out the worst in these con artists out there. And there's a great article by Ammar over at, we live security talking about some of this thing because. Really, they're exploiting every trick in their book when it comes to trying to defraud people. They've been trying to impersonate legitimate sources of information on a pandemic. We've talked about that where they'll send out an email saying, click here to look at this map of the pandemic, and there might be ads on that or might even be worse. Various types of spyware, obviously the that they're trying to put on there, but they're trying to defraud people and they've got also these fraudulent online marketplaces set up where they're offering deals on everything from hand sanitizer through toilet paper, eh, some of the masks and things. In fact, we just saw it was like a, what was it, $250 million, or maybe it was $25 million, refund from the Chinese for some state that had ordered some of these N95 masks that, that did not meet the standards. So. The scams are everywhere, and as I said, States are getting nailed in this as well. And the most popular, by the way, COVID 19 map. If you really want to see what's going on, you should go to Johns Hopkins University and there's a professor over there by the name of Lauren Gardner at civil and systems engineering, a professor who's working with some of her graduate students. To keep this up to date. So you can go there right now. and it says it's Coronavirus dot EDU, which is, of course, John Hopkins University, which is one of these teaching universities, that is a teaching hospital, but they're showing how many deaths globally, more than a quarter-million. Oh, almost what is getting close to 80,000 deaths in the United States. I also saw some really interesting numbers that were published this week in a scientific journal about how, you know, we're, we're looking at these number of deaths and we say, okay, 80,000 deaths, which is always horrific, but a. Normal flu year would get us what, 40,000 to [00:05:00] maybe 80,000 right? We had a really bad flu year a couple of years ago, but they delved into the statistics behind it. Now, this is where it's really kind of gets interesting because when you look at those statistics behind the normal. Flu, the flu pandemic, I guess they really are. it turns out that the statistics are heavily inflated and they, it's done because we don't track flu deaths like we're tracking the COVID 19 nowhere near as much detail. People that might have died of bacterial pneumonia in years past who were to be counted as a flu death. Now that is a bit of a problem. Right? So what do you do when you have these bad statistics? They're saying that some of these years where we reported 20,000 or more flu deaths, [00:06:00] actually may have been a thousand deaths in reality. So, Right. Any, anyway, so I'm kind of rambling a little bit here, but that brought it up when I was looking at this Johns Hopkins map here in front of me, how many people have died? How many people have recovered? It turns out that at this point that this COVID 19 flu is definitely more fatal. Then the normal flu season and the article I was reading in the journal were saying it could be as much as 44 times more fatal than an average flu year. Now that's really bad, isn't it? When you get right down to it, 44 times more fatal. but we don't know yet. Right. That's kind of a bottom line on all of this. We just really don't know and we're not going to know for a while. Anyways, back to it. [00:07:00] These maps, and I'm looking at a picture of one right now that was in, we live security.com, which is a map. It looks a lot like the John Hopkins map, and it probably is actually, and on top of that, it's got an ad for, you might need disposable coveralls with a hood protective suit. Now. Is this good? Is this not a good suit? They say, click on that to see it on Amazon. And Amazon certainly could have these for, for sale, but are they really sending you to Amazon or are they sending you to some other site out there? Right. What are they doing? They've got a live chat. They've set up. It's, it's really kind of amazing what the bad guys have done. They put a lot of work into this. The world health organization. you know, I don't know, the bigger, the higher up a government or non-governmental entity is in the food chain, [00:08:00] the less I like them, but they do have their own dashboard showing you what they think is going on. With the Coronavirus, so you'll find them at who dot I N T, which is the world health organization international, and they've got a big warning right on their homepage. Beware of criminals pretending to be the world health organization. they will, they're saying they will never, they, the world health organization will never ask for your username or password to access safety information. They'll never send email attachments you didn't ask for. They'll never ask you to visit a link outside of. Who dot I. N. T. They'll never charge money to apply for a job, register for a conference, or reserve a hotel, and they'll never conduct lotteries or offer prizes, grants, certificates, or funding through email. So that gives you an idea of the scams that are being pulled [00:09:00] right now when it comes to the world health organization. So don't let your guard down everybody, these emails that are going out are a real problem. They've got fake one-stop shops for all of your pandemic needs. That's a problem as well. Just just be very careful where you go. I'm looking at some emails as well. They've got tricks and there are many of them are the same old tricks they've always been using. Don't fall for the tricks. All right. Stick around. When we get back, we're moving on again. We're going to talk about this new executive order from President Trump. Is it going to make us safer? You're listening to Craig Peterson here on WGAN and online Craig peterson.com. Craig Peterson: Hello everybody. Welcome back Craig Peterson here. You can find me on pretty much any podcast platform that's out there. One of the easiest ways is to go to Craig peterson.com/whatever your favorite podcast mechanism is. iTunes is kind of the 500-pound gorilla. They're not the 800 anymore. They're just 500 and you can get there by Craigpeterson.com/itunes. Craig peterson.com/spotify Craig peterson.com/tunein whatever your favorite might be, you'll find me right there. So let's get into our next kind of controversial topic. And this has to do with President Trump's ban. Now it went into effect on May 1st, so it's been around for a couple of weeks. It seemed to be something that was released kind of at the spur of the moment. And it has to do with cybersecurity and the critical infrastructure. Now, you probably know that I ran for a couple of years, the FBI's InfraGard webinar training programs, and we did a whole bunch of training on critical infrastructure stuff. That's really kind of the mandate for InfraGard, but critical infrastructure. Now, just look at all of the jobs with Colvid 19 that were considered critical. The critical infrastructure really encompasses most of the economy nowadays. Even law offices are considered critical infrastructure. He said with a chuckle. Now that can be a problem. It can be good. It can be bad. It really kind of all depends, right? But bottom line, when I'm talking about critical infrastructure, I'm talking about the infrastructure that literally runs the country. There's one of the most overused words in the English language, literally, but in this case, [00:02:00] it really does. We're talking about the infrastructure that controls our electric grid, the infrastructure that controls our telephones, our smart devices. Obviously the infrastructure that controls the internet, the infrastructure that controls our sewage systems, our water systems, the whole electric grid, all the way up to our houses. That is the major part of critical infrastructure. Obviously our roads are considered critical infrastructure and the bridges and, and all of the ways of maintaining them. That's all pretty darn critical because without those commerce comes to a slowdown, dramatic and maybe a grinding halt and people die. Think about what happens if a whole region loses power, which happened here, went back in Oh four, I guess, and I think that was the most recent time. It happened in a very big way in, [00:03:00] was it 86 up in Quebec? And the one in Quebec was because of a bit of solar activity and the one here, you know, I've seen attributed to a bunch of things. The most recent one was that. Our power outage was probably done because of a probe into our electric grid, looking to see if they could potentially hack it and it ended up tripping one of these sites, one of these major sites that are used for distributing electricity, and then that tripped another, tripped to another, tripped to another and before we know it, we had a major cascade failure. So all of that stuff is very, very critical. If, if you've been in a hospital, you know how much they eat electricity. Now, hospitals, of course, have generators for the most part, and that's an important thing for them to have, right? You want to be able to have power if the power [00:04:00] goes out. So, okay, I get that, and that's a very good thing. But at some point, if you don't have access to, let's say, the diesel to run the generators, or maybe they're natural gas generators and you can't run those. What ultimately can you trust if you're a hospital. Because if the whole region loses power, so let's say New England, we lost power in all of the new England states, including New York State, New York City, maybe New Jersey. So we're talking about a five-hour car ride in order to get beyond where this particular power outage occurred. That means even people that have generators are going to run out of fuel because they, the gas stations aren't going to work. Most of them don't have. Pumps. So the trucks can't really deliver it cause the gas station doesn't have electricity. They can't be on, they just don't know what's happening. So they're going to have to send trucks to New Jersey or someplace to try and pick up diesel. And if it's even broader to say we had another Carrington event, like what happened in the mid 18 hundreds where there was a major solar flare that knocked out everything in the country. Now back in the mid 18 hundreds that weren't such a big deal. Today it would be huge. So between those two, obviously having a more localized power failure is better. How about the sewage where it all backs up maybe into the streets? How about the water supply where we just can't get water. Because it shut down. So many of these devices are now part of our internet of things, and that's a real problem.  So President Trump signed this executive order that prohibits operators of the United States power grid to buy and to install any electrical equipment that has been manufactured outside of the US they're even going so far as to provide funding and finances to remove some of this equipment from our electrical infrastructure. You probably already know that we are not allowing these Chinese firms to build our new five G infrastructure or any of the equipment that's in it either. Then here's the code from the order. I further find that unrestricted acquisition or use in the United States of the bulk power system, electric equipment designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied by persons owned by controlled by or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of foreign adversaries augments the ability of the foreign adversaries to create an exploit vulnerabilities in bulk power system, electric equipment with potentially catastrophic effect.  I think he's right. We're seeing these power grids, water grids, et cetera, being attacked. And much of it's coming through the internet of things like keep warning people about, it's, it's really, it's just absolutely amazing. So let's go back. I went and checked in the news, cause I had heard about what had happened over in Israel. And this is May 7th okay, so this week, this is very, very recent. Israel is blaming the US for Iran causing a widespread cyberattack on Israeli water and sewage facilities during April. This was a report that came out from Fox News on Thursday, and according to the report, [00:08:00] Iran used American servers to hack into the facilities. A I've talked about this now for 20 years, and, this whole part of it just really bothers me. They used American servers. Most of the time when the bad guys are using American servers using American computers, what they've actually done is they have compromised a server. 20 years ago we were talking about how Al Qaeda was videotaping the beheading of Americans and distributing them worldwide using American servers. Isn't that amazing? It's shocking. It shouldn't be shocking anyways to all of us, but that's what they were doing. They were using servers that they had hijacked. Now here we are 20 years later and Iran is using these servers to attack. [00:09:00] We know that our servers here, our desktops are being used, they're being compromised and then use to do denial of service attacks. Many other types of attacks out there. So it looks like President Trump might have been a little bit ahead of the game here. I'm looking at, the article here that I'm seeing on the Jerusalem Post. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the issue at last year's cyber tech conference in Televiv saying that Iran is attacking Israel on a daily basis. We monitor it and prevent it every day. They are threatening and other ways. What is important is that every country can be attacked and each country needs a combination of defense and attack capabilities. Israel has such an ability. So think that through a little bit. I know here in the US we have the ability to attack back, no question about that. Now, I also found [00:10:00] online over at, Analytics India magazine online, and this is from a couple of weeks back, three weeks ago, cyberattacks on the critical infrastructure of India is a worrying trend. So let's see, we've got the US that we know has had the critic, our critical infrastructure tack. We know your Iran appears to be responsible for Israeli. Critical infrastructure attacks, and according to the prime minister, they're being attacked daily. We've got India, and here's another one. This is the Czech Republic. This is just a quick search that I did online to find out who's been attacked lately. And this is from April 20th so what about three weeks ago? Attempted cyber attacks against several hospitals and an airport in the Czech Republic show. The coronavirus pandemic has not slowed down the West digital adversaries. So the leaders over in the Czech Republic are saying that they were able to stop these attacks, but they're getting more highly sophisticated attacks all of the time. Czech's top cybersecurity agency has warned, expected imminent serious cyberattacks against us healthcare sector aimed at disabling computers and destroying data. So in many cases, it's ransomware. In fact, that's the number one threat right now against our businesses in the US, it's still ransomware. Can you believe it? It is still ransomware. We are still not protecting ourselves and our business. It just drives me nuts. And that's our, we'll do some more training about this in the next few weeks here. This is particularly problematic right now because we're, we are in the middle of a pandemic. We do have hospitals trying to treat patients and they are under attack and they are getting ransomware and some of these big ransomware bad guys out there. I've said, Oh, no, no, no, we're not. Going to, Hey, if we do take control accidentally of the hospital's computers, we're just going to release it right away. We're not going to hold them ransom, and yet they have been, so be very careful. Everybody, this is, this is not going away anytime soon. They are going to continue to attack us. So when we get back, let's talk about something fun here. Let's talk about what the James Dyson Foundation is doing for our kids. You're listening to Craig Peterson here on W G A N and online CraigPeterson.com/subscribe make sure you get my weekly newsletter so you keep on top of all of these new stories for the week, and I'll be on with Matt Wednesday at seven 30. Craig Peterson: Hey everybody, welcome back. Craig Peterson here on WGAN. I'm on every Saturday from one til three and I am so grateful you guys have joined me today and all of the people that have been signing up today from my newsletter, by the way, when you sign up, I've got. Three little special surprises that only don't even mention when you sign up. So we'll be getting those over the course of the next week or so. Some really great tip sheets, some tools that you can use in order to help make sure your home and your business is properly secured. And hopefully by now. they've started running my little features and those are going to be fantastic. I'm trying to generate a couple of weeks so we can put them up and keep them fresh. But it, it kinda goes into some details of, you know what you should do. So let me, I'm going to put one in here right now. Play one of these features. This one's on passwords. Just give an idea of what these are so you can kind of keep an eye, an ear out for them. I was going to say an eye, but it's obviously an ear. Have you ever heard the term poned? While you might have been poned? Hi, this is Craig Peterson here with a security blink about something known as powning. Poned means that your account has been the victim of a data breach. Your username and password have been stolen from a third party. Now there's an easy way to find out if your account login has been stolen. Troy hunt started and still maintained a website called have I been postponed? He's collected the records of almost 10 billion user accounts from the dark web. Think about that for a minute. If you have an online user account, the odds are that your account data is online, out in the dark web, and the bad guys are using the same information they're finding on the dark web to send you phishing emails recently that's included scareware emails that are threatening to release some information about you. If you don't pay a Bitcoin ransom to prove their point, they're including your email address and password they found online. I'm contacted by listeners every week because these emails truly are scary, but are best ignored. How do you find out if you've been a victim of a data breach? Although it's safe to assume that you have been, you can just go online to have I been poned.com. Troy will let you enter your email address and he will search his database to see if your account information has been stolen. So what should you do? Get one password. It's the best password manager I've ever found. Use it to automatically generate a new password for you. For every online account, you have. One password will also automatically check to see if your account is listed on have I been pwned. To find out more about pwned accounts and password management and to find out how best to use them. Visit Craig peterson.com/compromised. So that's what we're doing, putting them out. I think that sounds pretty good. I heard it sounds really good. I'm thinking of the future ones, I'm going to do it a little bit less scripted. It just sounds too highly produced. I don't know what you guys think. Let me know. Just email me@craigpeterson.com I love to get a little bit of feedback from you. Well, let's get into our friend here, James Dyson. Now, in case you don't know who this is, James Dyson, that's spelled D. Y. S. O. N. He's a British inventor, and you probably know him best via his vacuum, the Dyson vacuum. It's really kind of a cool thing. Definitely overkill, but this thing works on the principle of cyclonic separation. And they used some of the similar technology too that Dyson did in order to make some very cool bladeless of fans that you can get. I really liked these things. They're absolutely amazing. He has designed a whole bunch of things. I'm looking right now at his Wikipedia page, and of course, they've got a picture of his bagless Dyson vacuum cleaner, which is really what got him into most homes, most people to understand, but he has been very, very big in inventing things over the years. I like his air blade hand dryer, which you will see at many bathrooms, probably more of them as you go forward. It does use ultraviolet light in order to clean the air. It doesn't spray it all around. I do not like and I have never liked the air dryers and bathrooms. It makes the spread of germs inevitable. It is a very, very bad idea and yet. So many people just think it's fantastic, right? So much easier. We don't have, to use paper towels, which are frankly much better. They spread the disease a lot less. So the Dyson air blade is a very, very cool, hand dryers, kind of like a squeegee. Air to remove water rather than trying to just blow it all away or evaporated with heat very fast drying, a lot less energy and safer too for us in this COVID-19 day. Anyways, let's get into what he's done right now. He's trying to encourage kids to do a little bit of experimentation. He has this fantastic PDF that you can download by going to the James Dyson Foundation website that you can just search for online, James Dyson, DYSON foundation. Now a few, our parent, [00:06:00] grandparent, if you're homeschooling because there's no more school for the year, or you're homeschooling because it's just a great thing to do. You're gonna want to check this out. It would have been handy when my wife and I were homeschooling all of our kids as well, but he's got these challenge cards is what he's calling them, and there are a total of 22 science challenges and 22 engineering challenges. Yeah. It's just so cool. One of these, the first one reminds me of when I was a kid, cause I remember doing this in school and this is how to get an egg to fit into a bottle without breaking it. Now, back then when I was in school, of course, it was a milk bottle, but what they're doing is they want you to get a glass bottle that has a mouth that smaller than the egg. You're going to put that egg into a glass of vinegar and make sure it's completely covered.  So within two days, that egg is going to be very rubbery. Do you remember doing this? You guys ever done this? Then you heat the bottle in hot water. Obviously make sure that you remember a taut, okay. Use a tea towel and your handle it, and then rest the egg on the neck of the bottle. You don't want to put it so the narrow end is down over the mouth of the bottle. Then as the Air inside cools down, it's going to contract. Right. Expand contract, right as you heat and cool. So. The bottle is going to contract a little bit. The air is going to contract a lot. And you're going to have a vacuum inside this bottle, so it's going to suck the egg inside. So cool. And then the card goes into some detail. How does it work? It talks about the protein and what kind of acid is in the vinegar and what ends up happening. It actually [00:08:00] changes the chemical compound of the egg, which is what makes it rubbery. They've got this underwater volcano thing, which is so cool. This is a colorful underwater volcano that you can make very simple, again, ping pong balls and making them float using a hairdryer. It talks about the Bernoulli Bernoulli effect, which is, you remember I first learned about when I was starting to work on these new hard drives that had just come out and how har, how the heads floated using. Bernoulli a fact, a balloon, kebabs. Can you put a skewer into a balloon without popping it? So they explain how that works, what to do, what not to do. Liquid densities, just a whole ton of them. A geodesic dome is their first engineering challenge. Let me see if I can pull that up on my screen because this is pretty cool to make. Make sure you grab this, send it to your kids, grandkids. Use it yourself. Measuring the speed of light weather balloon. How to make a paperclip float. Yeah. Surface tension. Right. Skipped, fire extinguisher, scared pepper, dancing raisins that so many cool things. A lava lamp. I've always thought those were the coolest things. Did you know that some of the best random number generators out there right now are actually using lava lamps? A whole bunch of them. The visible link and then the Geodesic dome is you're using these jelly sweets and cocktail sticks and putting them all together. And how is it done? Talks about Buckminster fuller. I just love this stuff. I don't know about you guys, but it's so simple. Marble runs the kids can make, and it's where marble is running down the outside of a box and how you guided spaghetti bridges. See, all of these are cheap, strong as this drinking [00:10:00] straw. Not the crappy paper ones, but a real drinking straw. Electric motors. Yeah. Anyhow, check it out online. Of course, there's a link to it as well @craigpeterson.com you can go there. You can see all of this week's articles, and if you are a subscriber to my email list. You will already have it in your mailbox, should have gone out to this morning. So double-check your email. If you did not get it, just send me an email to me@craigpeterson.com that's Peterson with an S O N.com and just ME. Right. Me, it's me and Craig peterson.com and I'll be glad to double-check as to why you didn't get it. Hopefully, I didn't get caught in a spam box somewhere cause we send out thousands of these things every week. And you never know if someone, if people don't open them, I don't know if he knew how this works, but if people don't open them, like on Gmail, Google mail, if they're not, people don't open them. They assume, Oh, nobody's interested in this. And so it gets a lower priority until all of a sudden Google thinks, Oh well. This must be spam because people aren't opening it. So make sure you open it and download any graphics that are in there. Cause that tells Google and everybody else that, Hey, you care about this email. If you turn off the remote images, which is what I normally do personally. but when I get a newsletter, I always make sure to turn it back on. so if you got the images, then Google or AOL or Hotmail or office who 65 whatever you're using will know that it is a good email. It's valid. All right. Stick around. When we get back, we're moving to be on we're going to talk a little bit about Microsoft teams and some phishing that's been going on. You're listening to Craig Peterson here on W G A N. Craig Peterson: Hello everybody. Welcome back. Craig Peterson here on WGAN online and craigpeterson.com. We've been covering a lot of stuff this show today. We just talked about these challenge cards and if you're interested, if you didn't get that URL, I'm going to give it to you again. I love these things are great for your kids, grandkids coming over for the day, whatever it might be. Go online and go to either look for James Dyson's foundation or just go to my website craigpeterson.com. You'll find it there under the radio show, but the James Dyson Foundation is who published these things they're absolutely phenomenal. We also talked about President Trump's executive order banning foreign electrical equipment from getting into our grid. Looks like they're trying to remove equipment that's already there. After the attacks that have been mounted all around the world against different [00:01:00] countries is no time to let your guard down. We've got Corona fraud in a very, very big way still, so we talked about some of that, what that's all about, and telecommuting in a post-COVID 19 world, what does that look like? How is that going to affect our businesses, our lives, our jobs, et cetera? So if you missed any of that, you can just go online to Craig peterson.com check the podcast and you can listen to it right there. I've also been trying to put them up over on YouTube and put them up on Facebook from time to time. I'm going to get better about that. I absolutely have to because we've got to get this message out to everybody, and if you have shared my newsletter with friends or some of these webinars I did. Two dozen over the course of a couple of weeks if you shared any of them. I just want to thank you guys so much for doing that. This is such an important thing for me to get the word out. That's what I've been trying to do for. Decades now because I got nailed as a small business owner by one of these pieces of nasty where there was out circulating at the time, and I really don't want it to happen to you or anybody else. And it really upsets me when I see some of these advertisers who are deceiving people. Just this week I broke down one of these ads I was hearing for VPNs. And every word they were saying was correct. But if you get into like the legal definition, if you're sworn in, it's the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, right? It's not what it's supposed to be. What does that mean? Well, the truth, you know? Okay. So did you rob that store? No. Okay. That's the truth of the whole truth might be, no, I did not Rob that store, but I heard Jane robbed the store, or I know Jane robbed this store or that would be the whole truth. So they, they're talking about their VPN product. And they're talking about how it can keep your data away from prying eyes. Well, yeah, it's kind of true, but it also exposes you to even more prying eyes. You see what I'm talking about when I say not the whole truth. So that's why I've been doing all of these free little training and also been doing lots of stuff for some of the paid courses and training too, because we've got to help people understand, and that leads us to what we're going to talk about right now, which is Microsoft teams. And now Microsoft teams are not bad. It's software that you can get as part of your now called, [00:04:00] Microsoft three 65 subscriptions, which can be good, right? And teams are what you need in order to have collaborative work and to be able to do collaborative work. But just as a quick word of warning, the only collaboration system out there right now that has full-audibility and all of the features that are required by some of the more advanced regulations is WebEx teams. But anyways, on all of these fronts from the Microsoft teams through, you might be using Slack, which is another very popular one, and even WebEx, but we're seeing a whole lot of phishing emails, and there's a warning that just came out here this last week that. People, particularly people who are working in industries such as energy, retail, and hospitality. There are some hackers out there right now that are attacking people specifically pretending they are from Microsoft teams. So they're trying to steal the access credentials of employees who are working from home. And what we've been finding is that many of the people who are working from home right now are. You know, they're, they're not being supervised by the security people. They're using a home computer. It may or may not be up to date. It may or may not have reasonable security precautions on it. It can be a real problem. And when they are getting an email like this, if you ever get an email that looks like it's from Microsoft or looks like it from a vendor that you've been using. If you're in the office, you might lean over to somebody else and say, what do you think of this email? Do you think this is legitimate? Or you might report it to your people, your security people, et cetera. But we're finding with people working from home that they're not double-checking it. And so they're clicking on a [00:06:00] link. They think, Oh my gosh, I'm not using Microsoft teams properly, or I mess something up and there's something I have to do. I got to recover this. I got to figure this out. And in fact, what it is, is that the bad guys out there that are trying to hack you realize what it is that you're trying to do, which is get, just get my work done, right? Just get the software working. So they have been directing attacks to the people. That is a little bit more ignorant in some of these ways. All right. Now at this point, it looks like most of these attacks are not highly targeted. In other words, it's not spearphishing. So it goes right back to what I was talking about earlier. Those emails that we were getting from the Nigerian Prince, right? They are general. So they're unlikely to mention your username and Microsoft teams, even your company. They are just generic and they can be sent to anybody. And so the hackers have taken a list of different companies and what businesses they're in and have been trying to direct them to those businesses. Now, the URLs that are in these, oftentimes we're finding that they. Are using multiple levels of URL redirect, and the idea behind that is to throw off these malicious link detection tools that are out there and to hide the actual URL of the final domain that's being used to host the ultimate attack. Isn't this something. These people are doing. So I did some training here on using Cisco Umbrella, which is a product that we sell, but you can buy directly from Cisco. It is specifically designed to help prevent these types of attacks, and I think it's really important that everybody use that installs it right. Get the free version if that is what you need. If you're a business, you should talk with me because there are special business levels that are not offered on the umbrella website, but special business versions that allow a lot more tracking and a lot more granular control. But make sure you have this in place because even with the multiple redirects, the odds are high that Cisco umbrella is going to be able to attack that. All right. So one message is impersonating the notification that's received when a coworker is trying to connect with you or contact you via teams. The other one is claiming that the recipient has a file waiting for them on Microsoft teams, and the email footer even has legitimate links to. The Microsoft websites, you know, Microsoft teams, application downloads, et cetera. And in one of the attacks, these phishing emails containing a link to a document hosted on a site used by an email marketing company. So we have to be very, very careful. And especially now we're, we're working more at home. We are going to be continuing to work more at home, move most of us anyway, and we are using these collaboration tools and maybe you don't have access to your normal texts of people that you would text support people that you would have access to. So double-check all of that. Well, when we come back, we're going to talk about the biggest threat. To the small, medium enterprise space. You're a small business, your small office, your home office, what it is, what those numbers look like, and what you can do about it. And we will be back in just a couple of minutes here. This is Craig Peterson, you are listening to me on W G A N or online at Craig, Peterson.com stick around. We'll be right back. Hey, welcome back everybody. Craig Peterson here. So glad to have you guys. I really enjoy helping out and I love getting those emails you guys send to me. You're so kind. They're just on some of the compliments and some of your suggestions. It's just fantastic and you can reach me directly. By sending an email to me@craigpeterson.com now, I get a lot of emails, particularly lately, so if it takes me a little bit to get back to you, I apologize in advance, but we do try and get back to all of the people who reach out, but you know, that's not always possible. Just a matter of life, I guess, in this day and age. All right, so let's move on to our next topic for today, and that has to do with the biggest threat out there right now for the small business space. And I was looking at some numbers here during the break. I'm trying to [00:01:00] figure out, so, so what is. Going on. We, we've talked a lot about phishing. We talked about what was just happening here in some of the online space. Things you need to look out for and what, what we're really talking about here when we call talk about small business, the biggest threat is. Ransomware to realize that. How long has ransomware been along? Been around? Excuse me. How long has it been out there? How long has it been attacking us? We have some statistics out there. I'm looking at right now from health net security saying that 46% are small, medium businesses have been targeted by ransomware, and 73% have. Paid the ransom. Now, paying the ransom can be cheap. It can be expensive. It really depends. Of course, the FBI suggests you don't pay a ransom because of two reasons. One, it doesn't guarantee you'll get your data [00:02:00] back. In fact, half of the time when a Ransom's paid all of the data is not. Recovered. And the other reason is it shows the bad guys who will pay ransoms, which means, Hey, listen, guys, you guys are paying a ransom.  Maybe we should go after you again because unfortunately, many of the businesses that have been hit by this stuff don't properly update. their security and those are the companies that ended up coming to me. Right? They should have come before the ransomware hit, not after the ransomware hit and not after they had a second problem. You know, if, if you've got somebody who's providing you with its services. And you have been, you know, ransomed. Don't go back to them to try and fix the problem. It's like, well, who was it Einstein that said that the same thinking that created a problem cannot solve the problem. And we've seen that again and again and again, but paying the ransoms. Here's what it costs right now. 43% of SMBs said they've paid between 10,000 and 50,000 to ransomware attackers. 13% said they were forced to pay more than $100,000 now, I can guarantee you any SMB out there, well, if you're like 500 employees. Huh? It's going to cost you more than a hundred thousand. But, uh, you know, if you are a company that has less than a hundred employees, it's not going to cost you more than that. Not even close to it, but paying the ransom doesn't guarantee anything. If you are a bigger company, we're seeing the average cost of one of these attacks being over a million dollars, because if you're trying to recover, you're trying to do the. Great. You got to notify all of your customers, your customers, find out that you've been hacked and that you had ransomware, you had the lost business while you were down. You [00:04:00] have a lost reputation after you get back. Okay. It's just absolutely amazing. Now. Businesses that are in the B to B space like mine, right? I'm, I'm a business to business. In other words, my services, my security services, the hardware, everything. We're selling to businesses. I really don't deal with consumers, although we've certainly helped a lot of consumers out there, listen to the radio show, but the businesses that are in the B2B space are. Saying that about 80% of them, this is self-evaluation. 80% of them are prepared for an attack to some degree or another. They've at least taken some preparatory steps. People, these businesses that are selling to individuals. In other words, B to C, business to consumer, it's about 20% less. All right? It's crazy. 28% of SMBs admitted that they do not have a plan to mitigate a ransomware attack. So it's very important to get all of this stuff together because the bad guys are coming after us. You've got to have a plan. You've got to prevent the attack. So what do you do? Since ransomware. It is right now really the top threat it gets in via phishing attacks. It gets in a lot of different means, but it's really a saran somewhere. That's the bottom line. I would suggest something here because I know you guys. It is so frustrating trying to do updates. It's even more frustrating when you install an update and it breaks something. Right. And frankly, the update thing comes up in the middle of doing something. You say, Oh, I'll do this later. So you put it off. Hopefully, you're running the pro version of Microsoft Windows, not the home version that doesn't let you do much of them put off. And then they'd remind you the next day, Oh, I gotta do this. I gotta remember to do [00:06:00] this. And then you delay it. And in my training, I talk about what the best delays are to use, depending on what kind of business you are, but you gotta kind of figure that out. What are the best delays, uh, between the time Microsoft tells you that you should do it and, and when you absolutely need to do it? So you're sitting there and saying, ah, last time I did this, I had problems and took me a day to recover and I lost all of that work and I don't really know what I'm doing right. I don't know if I should legitimately install it or not. Right? Have you guys had those questions? Yeah, I bet you have. Send me an email me@craigpeterson.com if you've ever had any of those types of questions go through your mind because I think it's normal. Those are the same questions that go through my mind, my team's mind. So what we end up doing, of course, is doing a bunch of online research, at least we understand a little bit about what needs to [00:07:00] be done and how to do that sort of evaluation, right? We're kind of security professionals, so I get it, right? You're sitting there wondering, what should I do? So because of that, let me tell you the secret. Cause it really is a secret. Obviously try and stay up to date. Obviously have windows defender turned on and UpToDate, as UpToDate as you can get it, but I mentioned it in the last segment and if you want more details, go back to the last segment. You can find that online@craigpeterson.com under my radio show. But listen to what I had to say there because probably the best thing you can do. It installs and uses Umbrella. Cisco umbrella is available for free. There are home versions, there are family versions, there are paid versions. They do not sell any of the, you know, the real business versions on their website, and you can always email me@craigpeterson.com if you have some questions about which one's best for you. But what we deal with typically is the enterprise versions. I'm even using the enterprise umbrella. That my company sells at my house, right. In order to protect everything appropriately. But what happens with ransomware is it has to call home. Usually, when malware gets onto your computer and it establishes a foothold, one of the first things that do is call home. So it calls home and says, okay, I've got this computer. What do you want me to do? And the more modern ransomware will give lists of the files that you have on your computer. He liked that. And so it asks, Hey, listen, the files on your computer are this, that, and the other thing. So a bad guy, I'll look at the names of the files on your computer, and if it's interesting, they'll get on your computer. They'll poke around a little bit. And that's why there's such a variant in how much the ransom is. Sometimes they'll demand multimillion-dollar ransoms for the data if they think that you might be worth it. If you are a town, for instance, you're a city like Atlanta. Look at this. They've been ransomed what, two or three times we know of. So the first thing it tries to do is call home. The first thing some of this phishing email does is try and get you to one of these sites where you can get the ransomware. Umbrella, Cisco Umbrella is designed to stop both. It's available for free. Install it. Now I have a course on it and I may be giving that course again. An absolutely free course. We'll see soon, so I'll make sure on my email list so you get it, Craig peterson.com/subscribe. Craig Peterson: Hey, welcome back everybody. Craig Peterson here. Hard to believe the time is almost up, but you know, because that's the way that

HAT: Sick Day 2   Feeling this bad MUST mean I'm on the way back to the living! Right??? Have a joyful weekend!

Are you looking for Mr or Mrs Right? Have you ever thought that you married the wrong right person? God is the source of all fruit that we bear. With God's help I and you can bear the fruit that makes us become the person we need to be.

  Understanding and Buying Holiday Travel Insurance   Learn the nuances of buying travel insurance so you're actually covered for unforeseen accidents, delays, sickness, theft and more.  Many claims are denied because people don't understand their policy. Don't make that mistake and learn what to buy.   Why Buy Travel Insurance? You buy holiday insurance to help mitigate some of the lossesyou face when your holiday doesn’t go as planned, especially through no fault of your own.  Without insurance, you can be out a significant amount of cash for bookings you are no longer able to use. Americans now spend close to $3 billion a year on travel insurance, and that’s up almost 20%!  I buy holiday travel insurance for every trip I take. To me, it’s a small price to pay for piece of mind in case something goes wrong, plus I have 24 hour assistancewhen something does go wrong.  It's super important to UNDERSTAND what travel insurance is and the types of things it can cover.  It doesn't cover 'stupid' or negligence like being under the influence.  And it's only to try to make you 'whole' not compensate you for your loss.  So in an approved claim, you in effect, get back the money it cost you had the unfortunate event not taken place.  In this podcast episode, I get to better understand travel insurance in my interview with Phil Sylvester of World Nomads.   Links Mentioned:  Active Travel Adventures podcast   World Nomads Insurance quote  Costa Rica podcast episode Tanzania safari podcast(Mickey faceplant!)   The Best Travel insurance can cover things: Before your trip: You or an immediate family member gets sick or dies Your tour or cruise gets cancelled (in fact this just happened to me after I already bought my expensive plane tickets and some non-refundable Airbnb’s before and after my tour) Your flight gets delayed   During Your trip: Your bags get lost, damaged or stolen You miss your connections due to other delays Something you booked gets cancelled You get sick or injured (or worse) Your destination experiences a natural disaster or terrorist attack   HOW TO FILE A TRAVEL INSURANCE CLAIM Before you go: Put in the cloud a copy of your travel insurance policy.  Make sure you know the 24 hour Assistance Contact number and your policy number. READ YOUR POLICYduring the grace periodto make sure that it will cover the risks you don't want to assume.  Please don't ignore this! Something happened...What Do I Do? You will need to call the Assistance Hotline and have this information available: Your current contact phone number Your policy number Be able to describe the problem Be able to tell them your location   World Nomads is my 'Go To' insurance company when I travel for an adventure because they "GET" adventure!  Virtually every adventure I cover on our companion Active Travel Adventures podcast is automatically included in their standard policy - unlike many travel insurance policies!  If you use my links you'll be helping to support the show - at NO additional cost to you -Thanks!  Kit   Not all companies cover all problems that can happen before and after your trip.   Before purchasing any travel insurance policy, you should understand how the policy will help you if these events occur:   MEDICAL NEEDS   What if I get sick or hurt BEFORE my trip?  If you or an immediate family member gets seriously sick or dies and you need to cancel or delay your trip, your travel insurance can kick in.  Note that if these same loved ones get sick or dies while you’re traveling, you are also usually covered to get back home where you are needed. For you, you would need a doctor’s certification that you are unfit to travel or you, your travel buddy or immediate family member be hospitalized , or God forbid, dies. What about dental?  If you have sudden dental emergencies, like an infection or an accident that breaks your jaw, these are the kinds of things most policies will cover.  But they will deny getting that crown you wanted. It covers sudden changes to what were healthy teeth for things that can’t wait until you get home.   What if I get sick or hurt ON my trip?  Travel insurance is NOT health insurance, so most policies do not cover pre-existing conditions.  If you have a pre-existing condition, then be doubly sure to read your policy. Some policies will allow for pre-existing conditions if purchased far enough in advance.  But if you get hit by a tuk tuk in Bangkok or get Dengue Fever in Brazil, this is when you’ll be glad to have travel medical coverage. This kind of coverage takes care of in and out patient medical care, prescriptions, ambulances, etc.  It won’t however cover you for stupidity like getting drunk and passing out on the street to then get hit by said tuk tuk. It will get you healthy enough to travel so that you can either finish your trip or get back home to where your regular medical insurance will kick in. Also super important:  make sure that the activities that you are planning to do are covered under your policy. Many travel insurance policies do not cover adventures.  That is one reason I recommend my affiliate partner World Nomads.  They understand adventure and virtually everything I cover on the Active Travel Adventures podcast is automatically included with their policies.   If you get sick or hurt and are in such bad shape that you need to get home NOW, then you will be glad you have:   Emergency Medical Repatriation  If you get so sick or injured that you cannot continue with your trip, you may require emergency medical evacuation, which can cost over $300,000 -- Ouch!  But if you’re in a country that doesn’t have shall we say, the most advanced medical care and hospital system, you want to buy travel insurance from a company that will get you out of there and into the hands of quality doctors and facilities pronto.  You want a company whose medical team can decide whether to help rearrange your trip to accommodate fixing your problem or figure out the best way to get you out of there, whether by ground ambulance, air ambulance, sea level aircraft, helicopter evacuation, flight changes and upgrades with medical staff if need be.  But what happens in a truly worst case scenario: What if I die on my trip?   Look over your policy to see if it will cover bringing your body home.  Some will pay for the local burial or cremation. Some will pay for the cremains to come home, some with some without a loved one as escort.  Choose your policy based on what you want covered here. Note also that suicide or deaths caused by alcohol or drug abuse will not be covered.  Most policies will also exclude pre-existing conditions. If one of your immediate family members dies while you’re on your trip, this is usually covered.    PERSONAL BELONGINGS   What about my stuff?  How does travel insurance cover my belongings?    Baggage:    Delays:  Most policies cover getting some necessary items if your bags are delayed for a certain period of time.  This will include things like necessary toiletries, perhaps a jacket. Lost:  The carrier has lost your bags.  Most policies cover a specific amount of loss.  If you have fancy electronics, jewelry or cameras, you may need a special rider.  Also check with your homeowner’s insurance policy as you may have coverage there already.  Likewise, some credit cards are now offering some travel insurance that can cover several of the items we are talking about today.  Review your credit cards to see which offers the most comprehensive plan and then consider booking your trip with that card. Damaged by carrier.  If the airline, for example, busts your bag roughly throwing it onto the carousel, this is usually covered. Stolen.  Assuming you weren’t careless and forgot to get your bag off the bus, or you didn’t go to the restroom and leave your bag in the lounge, if your bags get stolen and you’ve taken reasonable precautions, stolen bags are usually covered.  You must file a police report to file a claim. And before you buy a policy, make sure that the country you are living in AND the country you are traveling to are covered under your policy. I see that some do not cover Brazil, for example.   OTHER PERSONAL BELONGINGS: Note also that most prescription drugsare covered if stolen. Stolen Passportsare often NOT covered, so check with your policy.  I think it’s a good idea to take a photo of your passport and visa, and then email it to yourself and a loved one.  I also keep a photocopy in my purse and suitcase. I’ve never had need to use them, but I’m sure if I do, I’ll be grateful for this foresite.  If someone uses my passport fraudulently, my travel insurance company can also help me here. Credit Cards.  If your credit card gets stolen, it’s not usually covered by your travel insurance policy, but your company’s hotline may be of some assistance.  They MAY cover getting the new card to you. On the copy of your passport, write the last four digits of your credit card number and the toll free international or national number to reach customer service if you need their help.  This is what you take a picture of and email to yourself. If your credit card gets stolen and you then don’t have another to continue your trip, this is not considered a trip interruption because you can devise a backup plan. There are limits for the total claim and for an individual item. Say $1000 total and maximum $500 for an item.  So if only my $750 camera got stolen, I could only claim the $500. If you’ve got fancy stuff, consider getting a rider unless you are willing to absorb the excess loss.   Motor Vehicle Accidents Your travel insurance policy probably WON'T cover the damage to your vehicle so MAKE SURE if you rent or drive a vehicle that either your normal auto insurance policy covers you WHERE you will be driving. Otherwise, you will need to purchase the very expensive optional insurance that the lender will offer.  CHECK BEFORE YOU LEAVE SO YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO! So the bottom line is, your travel insurance should cover the medical costs of the accident, but not the physical damage to the car.  CAVEAT:  You MUST be driving with a valid license for that country (which may mean an international license) AND not be under the influence or otherwise breaking any laws.   COUNTRY ISSUES What if there’s a natural disaster?   In April 2015, there was a massive earthquake in Nepal, killing over 9000 people.  Most travel insurance policies will kick in to get you home after a disaster, but you need to examine your policy before you buy it, or during the free cancellation grace period afterwards.   If you get hurt in the disaster, then the medical issues we already discussed kick in. If the airports or other transportation systems are shut down, or your accommodations get destroyed or your tour company cancels, this is where you’ll be glad that you have travel insurance coverage.  A natural disaster is likely to kick in several components of your travel insurance policy from trip interruptions, delays and cancellations, to possibly some of the medical coverages. A good travel insurance company will have a 24 Hour Hotline to assist you in making arrangements to help solve your crisis. Note that if a major typhoon is forecasted to hit the Phillipines next week, and you decide to book a trip there during this time, that clause would be excluded because the natural disaster was a known entity.  However, if you booked your trip three months earlier, they could not forecast that particular typhoon. Your policy will usually cover you if you follow the advice of authorities. So that could mean cancel the trip if they are advising evacuation, but no insurance kick in if they do not.  Also, if the authorities advise evacuating , but you decide to watch the storm and then get hurt, you’re going to get denied.  In a similar vein, let’s talk about terrorism.   Terrorism There are limits to the terrorism clauses, but if the even is unforeseen, as most terrorist attacks are, then whatever medical or interruption clauses that might be triggered provided you did not book your trip AFTER the terrorist event.   You can’t utilize this clause if you simply get nervous about traveling some place and want to back out of the trip.  Authorities would have to recommend that people no longer advise visiting a place for the trip cancellation or interruption to kick in.  I had assumed, wrongfully, that when I purchased my travel insurance for my upcoming Middle East trip, that if the terrorist threat increased, that my insurance would kick in.  NOT! There would have to be a serious incident in the places that I am going for me to utilize this clause.   Bottom line is you need to really READ YOUR POLICY during the grace period.   Bottom line is you need to really READ YOUR POLICY during the grace period.   Lots of claims get deniedbecause people are not following the policy guidelines or terms.  For example, again on my Mid East trip, my trip expanded from my original tour. My policy requires me to be covered from door to door from my house.  So the first policy I paid for is null and void because I am now traveling both before and after. So I learned my lesson. Completely plan my trip BEFORE i buy a policy.     Certain companies have guidelines as to WHEN a policy must be purchasedrelative to the date of the first deposit.  If you have an expensive trip in mind, it doesn’t hurt to poke around the insurance website ahead of time to see what the purchasing time windows are.   Then one you’ve planned your trip, add up the NON-REFUNDABLE PORTIONS.  Some things like many hotel rooms you can cancel, right? So don’t include those.  Tally up how much you would be out of pocket if you have to cancel your trip. That’s how much to get the quote for.   Travel Insurance companies calculate rates based on the following: Total cost of the non-refundable parts of the trip Your country of home residence Your destination or destinations.  If you are going several places, generally they want you to list the furthest, but double check so that you are following the rules.  It is worth the call to find out. On my upcoming trip, even though I will be spending the most time in the US, the furthest country is Jordan, so I was instructed to input Jordan.  I noticed my rate quote was the same, however, I didn’t want them to have any loophole to squiggle out of if I have a claim. Your age.  The older you are the higher the cost. Your pre-existing conditions, especially if you want to cover them.  If you have pre-existing conditions, it pays to shop around. Some will allow coverage if bought far enough in advance. How comprehensive you want your policy to be.  Are you adding pre-existing conditions, a jewelry or electronics rider?  If you are going on an adventure, is your activity covered or do you need a special rider?   What about other insurances? Credit Cards.  As mentioned, some offer a skeleton coverage of certain items listed above.  It doesn’t hurt to use a credit card that offers some travel insurance, but I don’t think it’s a good substitute for a comprehensive policy. Travel Agent or Airline coverage:  When you check out, often you’ll be asked to get travel insurance to cover your purchase.  This will only cover the ticket you just purchased. If I am traveling domestically and think that it will be pricey if I have to go home unexpectedly because of Mom, I might buy it, but I usually still prefer the comprehensive policy. Also keep in mind that some agents will sell you a cruise cancellation policy.  This technically is NOT an insurance policy. I still say, stick with a comprehensive policy.   How to Choose Which Travel Insurance and Get a Travel Insurance Quote I recommend World Nomadsbecause they understand adventure and they have a real person review all claims, instead of a machine.  Their policy basically, as it should, requires that you use common sense and don’t be stupid or do stupid things.  And if you’re head is on straight, they are there to help you out when something goes wrong. Your goal is not to make a profit off of your claim, just to not be out of pocket.  I find them affordable and are usually my go to. They do have policy limits that mean I can’t always use them (like my really long and expensive Mid-East trip), but they are my general ‘go to’ insurance company.  If you use my link, you can get a quick travel insurance quote and at no additional cost to you, you’ll be helping to support the show.  If I can’t use them, then I use: InsureMyTrip.com  I like this website because I can easily compare travel insurance policies and then pick the right policy for a particular trip and my risk tolerance for that trip.  They also have a third person advocate, so if you get denied a claim you feel should have been honored, they can step in and take a look and possibly help. Whichever method you use, I find it easiest to buy my travel insurance online.     CAUTIONS: Cheap travel insurance may not be good travel insurance.  READ THE POLICY. You get a grace period for several days up to two weeks.  During that time, you can review the policy to see if it is the right fit for you.  If you see that you missed something, you can cancel and get your money back so you can find a better policy. You are most likely going to have to upfront a lot of the expensesand then get reimbursed.  I would recommend bringing a credit card with a high limit in case of an emergency.  Otherwise come up with a back up plan (ie, a family friend or relative that may be able to front you some cash). Complete Transcript Note: This is a machine trasncript bound to be full of boo boo's. I provide it (unedited) so that those taht prefer to read rather than listen to the show have the means to do so.  I apologize for any errors:)   Kit: (00:00) Okay. Kit: (00:02) Six months before my husband passed away. Kit: (00:06) Okay. Kit: (00:06) We were sitting in our office and our desperate right next to each other and bill was in remission and somebody had called me to ask me do something. This is in November, asked me if I wanted to do something the following June. And I said, no, I couldn't really plan cause I didn't know what bill's health had been like because his cancer had come back twice already. And so I was just kind of keeping things in limbo. When I hung up, he said, listen kid, I'm feeling good right now. Why don't you go take a trip? All I'm feeling good. And after a couple of years of medical and the stress of bills, cancer and just all the drama and the rentals weren't doing that well. And so anyway, I said, that sounds really sweet. I said, I have always wanted to go to Africa. I knew that would be some place but with never want to go. Kit: (00:47) He said, well go if you can find somebody to go with you. So I emailed my girlfriend Mickey. I said, Hey Mickey, do you want to go to Africa and go to safari within 15 minutes? She emails back. Yeah, let's go. So here we are November and we decided we're going to go on a safari in January. So we ended up driving to Washington d C to get our visa because we didn't trust mailing our passport there and getting it back in time in case there's a snafu because at the time was so short, had another story for another day about the Snafu that happened on the way to the DC. But anyway, so we finally, we go off on our adventure. We head to Turkey for a few days to kind of recoup a little bit of the jet lag before we head into Tanzania. We land at like two o'clock in the morning as all the flights seem to, or picked up by a tour company who takes us to this nice little eco lodge that we're supposed to sleep for a couple of hours, get up, have breakfast and go out in the safari. Kit: (01:38) Everything's great. We've got this cute little room. It's got the mosquito netting. It's kind of cute. Nothing fancy, but it's nice. We sleep maybe two or three hours, get cleaned up. We're walking down this dirt path on the way to where the restaurant area was in the lodge and single file path and all of a sudden I hear Mickey Stumble and I turn around and she does a face plant and just smooshes her face in. So we are in this backwoods area and she's just bleeding and her nose is smooshed and we can't even use the water from the faucet cause it's not sterile enough. So we had to use bottled water, try to clean it and the people at the lodge couldn't have been any nicer, but we just, they just didn't have the, the medical facilities there. Finally we get the doctor and the doctor actually recommended that she be flown to Kenya for treatment and she's like, no, no, no. Kit: (02:32) I just want the stitches and the doctor does it. Everything's fine, no infection. But he doesn't let her go out into the Bush on the safari because of the risk of infection. She'd be too far away from medical care. So she ends up having to spend the entire five day safari time at that lodge, which in hindsight turned out to be a good thing for her because a, she ends up making friends and family members out of everybody she meets and she still keeps up with all those folks this many years later. But B, turns out also that she gets car sick and 70 something years old needs to use the restroom a lot. Not a good combination when you're in a jeep and a safari bumbling around on, on rocky rutted roads. So anyway, end up being a blessing and thank God that she bought the travel insurance even though it took a while to get all the paperwork and all that. Eventually she was reimbursed for the expenses. So today we're going to be talking about travel insurance and I've got an expert on travel insurance and travel safety with us from world nomads and we're going to learn all the ins and outs of travel insurance, what to look out for, what you should be looking for. And without further ado, let's get started. Kit: (03:43) Welcome to the adventure travel show podcast. I'm your host kid parks. Today we're chatting with Phil Sir Vester from world nomads, the company I now buy my travel insurance from. And in full disclosure is also an affiliate of active travel adventures and the adventure travel show. So Phil is a travel safety expert for world nomads out of Australia and he's here today to answer all of our questions about travel insurance. Bill, welcome to the program. Phil: (04:08) Thanks very much for having me. Kit: (04:10) I know people are gonna think travel insurance sounds kind of dry, so let's get people off with a good start and let's tell them some fun stories to show them. This is going to be a fun show. Tell me your favorite happy ending travel insurance story. Phil: (04:23) Oh, we have so many. Oh, okay. Here's one. There was a Florida guy and he was doing base jumping in Switzerland, would you believe? And ended up hanging on a rock ledge quite a way off the ground and was quite badly injured. He got rescued and we got him back home to Florida and because of his head injury it had to be a low altitude flight. You can't just put them on a regular commercial plane, but we got him home and he made a full recovery. So, you know, that was very expensive for us, but it was a great outcome for him. The downside of it is we don't have a base jumping anymore. Kit: (05:01) And one reason I, I should note, the reason I switched to world nomads from my previous carrier is because I cover adventure travel and I didn't realize a lot of the things I was doing wasn't covered under regular policies. Phil: (05:13) Yeah, yeah. Look, we've got, ah, you know, I think it's about of, uh, over a hundred, nearly 200 adventure activities that we will cover. And generally they're ones that are not covered by other people as well. But you know, there are certain things that we don't cover. You know, like if you wingsuit flying or as we'd like to call it plummeting, uh, you know, it's not going to be covered. Kit: (05:37) Oh, I've seen video of that. Yeah. Now that's pretty cool. It was crazy. We don't cover anything that the bar is set, so I've got to be able to do it. And I'm 58 years old and I'm only in reasonable shape. I'm not like a super athlete, so for the most part we just do hiking, biking, paddling, nothing too crazy or too adrenaline kind of stuff. Yeah, so I bet you you also have some pretty interesting, weird stories Phil: (05:58) of just like freaky things. Can you tell us one of those and then we'll get into some of the nitty gritty? Okay. We've had three broken penises. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. I'll explain this. All right. Just stick with me. Okay. Where are your tone joins the bottom of your mouth? There's that little bit of skin there that sort of, you know, little, yeah, that's a frenulum. All right. Men have got to, yes, the other ones down there, if you tear that it plays a lot and there is an operation that you need to reattach it. It's called [inaudible] to me. I see. And we've had that come up with three times. People that have been away on holiday and they've been having some, you know, some wee time with their partner and something's happened and it's got torn. Kit: (06:46) That's a different kind of adventure than what we cover on this show. However. Phil: (06:50) Yeah. Okay. Uh, okay. Yeah, let's hear it. Few years ago there was a, a customer traveling in India and noticed he had an insect bite and it was getting, you know, kind of itchy and whatever. And then he noticed that it was actually moving underneath there and something that laid its eggs under his skin. So he went to the doctor and the doctor said, go buy a piece of mate and strap it to your lake because the lava inside the maggots inside will be attracted to the role made on the outside, not the inside. And they did, they all lift his leg and went into the meat and he threw it away. We paid for the doctor's appointment, but he had to buy the piece of meat himself. Kit: (07:29) Well that one seems like you came out pretty good on that one. Phil: (07:32) [inaudible] Kit: (07:34) so let's, let's, let's talk a little bit about why should people buy travel insurance? Just to like a, a brief thing. Cause I'm gonna ask you some more detailed questions, but just kind of give us a synopsis of what should be going through our heads when we say, oh, we've got this great trip. Why should we cough up a little extra money? Phil: (07:48) Because there are always unexpected things that happen that mean that you're not able to go on the trip or continue the trip or I have to end it early and these are things that people are just not planning for. I mean who would know a volcano would go off in Iceland and ground or flights in Europe who would know that you know you're going to get hit by a BMO when you're crossing the road in Indonesia, who would know if a close family member is going to be suddenly very ill, which means you have to stay home. These things you can't plan for it. You don't know they are unforeseen. And this is what travel insurance is there for, to make sure that you don't end up out of pocket and don't forget. And travel insurance, it's insurance, it's not compensation. So it's going to make sure that you end up financially where you were if that thing had not happened, but it's not going to compensate you for a bad experience. Kit: (08:42) Right, right. And actually the reason that you just brought up about the a loved one or something, that's the main reason that I started buying travel insurance is I have elderly parents now, it's just an elderly mother. But at 93 and a half years old I that I might get the call one day. I travel so much that I need to go home instantly and they stick it to you at the airfares. And some of them, the tours I do are extraordinarily expensive and I just don't want to be out that much cash. Phil: (09:07) Yep. Yep. Well every sensible willed out. Kit: (09:10) So let's, let's talk about, that's one of the key things that most policies covered and that's trip cancellation. So I'm going to ask you about a couple of different things that I know of about trip cancellation. You can tell me a little bit about what are the kinds of things we need to be looking at. One of which is like natural disasters. You talked about the Iceland and weather things like who decides how bad is a disaster and how does all that work? Phil: (09:32) Well it varies a little bit. I mean it's pretty obvious with the volcano cause when it goes bang, that's it. You know an earthquake, same thing but a a natural disaster. If you, if you check out like the State Department's travel section, they will put up warnings about when things, you know, when they advise you not to travel to a destination. That's a big key factor. The British Foreign Office also do those warnings as does the Australian Foreign Office defect. So we kind of take that is you know the Bible basic. If they say to their citizens, don't go here, then you are not, you can't travel against the adviser. View of the old covenant h case is judged on its merits as well. We have underwriting teams everywhere and they will look at events and they'll go, well this has happened. How has that kind of impact our travelers? And so they will, you know, we're, we're constantly monitoring things that happen around the world. Phil: (10:27) But basically if it works this way, if the, if there's been, you know, some sort of incident in the place that you're going, if the planes are still flying there, if the hotel still open and you know, the roads are still open, you're going. But if any of those things are not happening, you know, like you can't get to it. The roads blocked. The hotel has been forced to close. The tour has had to be canceled because of this incident or you know, there's no, no flights going in and out of the destination, then that's the taste. Kit: (11:00) All right, let's, let's take that a step further with terrorism, which is unfortunately something we have to deal with these days at the State Department, let's say, uh, I'm actually this fall going to several places that are a level two, which it's advise a little bit more caution than the level one. If the State Department moves at two a level three does that kick in the insurance because now it's more advisedly not to go what is level three? So I think it's four levels. So level three is saying, Eh, not a good idea. Like Nicaragua right now is a level three and that they're almost in civil war. Phil: (11:33) Yeah, no you're good for level three but you know, don't go near any of the protests in the streets of Managua. But you know, if there's no advice, no level four advice, then you, yeah, you can use the travel insurance has not yet been cut off. Kit: (11:48) And then now on the the death or a serious illness of a loved one, what are the parameters? Who defines loved one? Phil: (11:55) Look, it is actually defined in the policy wording in the PDS. So yet somebody asked us, we did get a question, somebody said my dog died. Does that count as a close family member? We're really sorry and we understand how you feel about your dog. But no. Yeah, it's generally siblings, parents in laws, but it probably wouldn't extend to cousins. But again, every case is judged on its merits. I mean, if you're sharing your life and you're living in the same house as a cousin and it's a cousin that dies, then we'll, we'll say to that, Kit: (12:31) okay, that actually sounds pretty fair at fair than I would've thought. Um, how about, and then sometimes there's coverage for layoffs if you get laid off and now all of a sudden cash could be a problem. Is that typical or is that something you need to look for? Phil: (12:43) Okay. It does happen. The amend, the one of the other providers as we've got [inaudible] policies for US citizens is if you get called up for military service or you get called up for jury duty or if the business that you work for goes into liquidation, you know, it goes bankrupt and you're required to be there to help clean up and things like that. So there's a lot of reasons why you can cancel around those sorts of areas. Kit: (13:08) Yeah. It sounds like you're actually using some judgment calls, which is nice cause it sounds like it's some of the things that are above and beyond what, what you read in the actual policy. Cause I've looked at the website kind of extensively. So you've talked about the weather and then also if you miss a flight or a connection through no fault of your own. How's all that work? Phil: (13:27) Okay. This is complicated. If you, which lots of us do because you know we'd like to book our own trips and our own flights. If you book a flight from destination to destination B, stop over it with the intention of going to destination C and you book airline number one for a and B, but you book airline number two for B and c and you miss the connection. That's your fault. That's your problem. You didn't allow enough time to be able to make the connection. Whereas if you had booked from a to B to c with airline one the whole way through, it's their responsibility to get you to see. So if you're held up or delayed or your missy connection in destination B, they will sort it out for you and they will put you on the next flight. But in the first scenario where you've got two different airlines as far as airline two's concerned, when you just don't show up, they don't know where you've come from, they don't know you've got a connecting flight, you just haven't showed up. And airline one has, when they eventually get you to destination B, they fulfilled their commitment to you. So it's your fault for not allowing enough time to make the connection in between. So don't leave it a couple of hours if it's really important that do it. Stop over, have a day in the, in destination B. Yeah, Kit: (14:43) that, that's actually happened to me and d was not covered. So I get that one. Now Phil: (14:48) we will book our own cheap flights and we like to make it up ourselves. Right. I get that. But just have to be aware that you leave enough time. Right. Right. Now what about the lost or delayed luggage? How's all that work? You obviously have got to report it as soon as you can at the airport. Always keep those baggage tickets. They stick on the back of your boarding pass varies from, cause I'll take it, you've got not just Americans listening and maybe it's some British people this, no, no actually we are. We're international and we have over a hundred countries. We've got like 13 different policies that cover people from around the world and the wording unfortunately slightly different in the mall. So generally though, if your luggage is delayed for more than 12 hours, in some cases it's only six hours, but you know it's like say 12 hours, check the policy wording, you can then go and spend and get some essentials to make it up. Phil: (15:41) That might mean that you need to go and get some new underwear. You need some toothpaste, you need, you know, some pajamas a you, it may be in a cold climate and you need a new jacket or something like that. You're entitled to go and get those up to a certain amount, which I think is around about $250 a day. And you can claim that back now if it's gone for more than 24 hours, I think there's 24 24 hours. If it's that and then it's considered completely lost, then it's basically as if it's been stolen and we'll pay out the maximum benefit that we've got for your luggage. Now let's switch gears to something that's, that can be really, really expensive and that's medical. So let's, let's talk a little bit about if somebody's got a preexisting condition. For example, a lot of our listeners are over, let's say over a certain age, over 60 a lot of people that we interview here, and they may have diabetes or they may have some heart conditions. Phil: (16:34) How does all that work? Again, with like I said, 13 different policies and different wordings and what have you said, check the policy in the world nomads policy for your country of residence. But there are some of those conditions which we do cover. But if it's not on the list of things we do cover, then we don't. And if you are traveling and something happens that is related to that condition, it won't be covered. So we are not necessarily the right policy for you cause not all policies are everything to everyone. So the reason you should read the policy wording is to make sure that it's right for your circumstances. So you, if you have a preexisting medical condition, you may need to go and choose a different provider who does on their own providers who have screening processes and they will say, yeah we'll cover you for that for an extra premium or no we're not going to cover you for that but we'll cover you for this whatever. We're not one of those because that just adds a layer of complication and slows things down. We are a different type of travel insurance and we might not be right for you. Okay. Now would that be something, do you know of going to like ensure my trip back calm would be a good resource to do that? Sure, Yep. I know of the brand in Australia that has a screening process, but I'm not aware of, I don't know. Kit: (17:49) I used them before I switched to you, but I don't remember them ever asking me about any preexisting conditions. So I guess the bottom line is to read your policy in check while you still have the grace period. That's going to be the only time you can get your money back. If it turns out you inadvertently bought a policy that's not suitable for you. Uh, how about if you have an accident or sudden illness or you eat something? Oh boy, you got sick. What do you do then and what kinds of things are covered there? Phil: (18:15) You have medical bills, so if you're overseas and new VOR, ill look, if it's a minor complaint, find an near clinic and get the medicines that you need and what have you and keep the bill that you get from the clinic and then submit that and you'll be reimbursed if it's a major incident and you're admitted to a hospital. Sadly, when you're admitted to the emergency department, as soon as they've stabilized you to make sure you're not going to die and they've stemmed the bleeding, one of the next people you will see will be somebody from the front office with a clipboard and they're going to be asking you how you're going to pay for this treatment. I'm serious. The person with the clipboard turns up and that's when you go, here's my world nomads policy number, give them a call and they will call our emergency assistance teams and we will swing into action there. Now our in house medical teams will liaise with the people treating you to make sure you're getting the best possible treatment. We will assess the hospital that you're in and decide if there's actually a better one nearby and if it's possible medically advised to move you to get the better quality care and we will pay the bills up front so you can concentrate on getting well rather than having to find your credit card in your wallet. Kit: (19:33) Right now when my girlfriend Mickey, we were in Tanzania and she had a really bad fall and they wanted to fly her to Kenya. She chose not to. Would that have been something when the locals are even saying you shouldn't get that treated here, you better go into the next country, you get better treatment. Is she a doctor? She's not. The doctors were saying exactly she adult number cause she's stubborn. The start ended well but if everybody's saying Eh, you know cause a lot of places we go to our go to may be a little dicey when it comes to the medical scene there. So Phil: (20:07) yeah call, call our emergency assistance team and no it shouldn't be called in emergency. It's like customer assistance team and traveler assistance team. Really like give them a call and say look this has happened. I've had a fall. The locals here and saying don't get this treated here. Go to Kenya. What do you advise we will, you know, you'll probably end up speaking to our in house nurse or our in house doctor who will make the best assessment they can over the phone. And then if it's decided that, yeah, okay, we can't tell from here, whatever, and you do need better treatments so it will get arranged and we'll get you somewhere where you're going to get quality care. And I got to say, if the locals are saying don't do it, I would whoa, Kit: (20:49) you hear that Mickey? Uh, it just, it's, it's so hard cause you know, you, you're so excited to go on your trip and we are walking to breakfast the morning of our safari and she just does this face plant and just smushed her face in and she's just, and she's also, you know, be fuddled and you know, just, it just wasn't what you're expecting that day and you know, surprises happen. And she was just being shook up and stubborn. She's like, no, I'll just go ahead and stitch me up here. So whatever. Like I said, it ended up working out fine, but it was a little traumatic morning. She's pretty tough then, right? Yeah, she's very tough. She's very tough lady, so she's pretty cool. Yeah. All right. So now let's say what, is there any kind of coverage amounts we should ask for or is this something that you have a choice on or how does all that work and any recommendations there? Okay. Phil: (21:41) In Australia, the United Kingdom, we're kind of used to travel insurance being the way it is through world nomad. But Americans are kind of used to a different type of insurance won't see you. This is the value, this is the cost of my trip, this is a value of my trip. And then you get charged and certain percentage of that of the cost as your premium at doesn't work that way. With world nomads, what determines the cost of your premium here is the maximum benefits payable. So you know there was a limit of say $1,500 on lost luggage. So that's the maximum benefit that you can claim and given. And then you go across all the other benefits against which you can claim that determines what the premium will be. So if you are going on a $500,000 trip to tens and year, your insurance premium determined by the, the better maximum benefit of Alpha will be saved. I don't know what it is. I'm making this up. Maybe you know a $150 if you're going on a $50,000 trip to Tanzania, it will still be $150 because of the maximum defined benefit that's payable. So you won't pay any more if you're going on a luxury trip as if you going backpacking somewhere. It's the same because it's defined by the maximum benefit possible. Kit: (22:59) Okay, so so it's so it looks like we need to look at the policy to see what the coverage limits are and if we see that there's a huge gap between what the coverage limits are versus our trip. And most of our trips aren't anywhere near those kinds of things. I've looked at your policies, everything that I've covered so far for the most part outside of maybe Kelly would fall within those ranges. But if you're doing some extraordinary luxury trip, you need to check that closely before you buy. Did I get that right? Phil: (23:26) January. The thing that happens most often is people have got really super duper expensive camera equipment and the maximum benefit for the leading camera is not going to replace it. You know, you might have a $5,000 camera and it's not going to be covered by our benefit limit, but in that case, people who've got big cameras that generally are a part of some sort of professional association or Semiprofessional Association and you know, or photography club or something like that. And those clubs generally will have insurance policies for their members to cover their equipment. So you make sure that your camera equipment is covered in some other way. The world nomads policy has got that equipment benefit level and if that's not sufficient, then you know, you should look at getting additional insurance to cover a specific item Kit: (24:14) and US citizens at Leisha check their homeowners policy because sometimes in particularly we have a rider, you may have coverage there. Phil: (24:20) Oh totally. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. A lot of home policies will cover it. Things like laptops and cameras when you take them out of that out of the house. Yeah. And they often have higher benefit limits than we do at world nomads. So you know, so you walk into breakfast in Tanzania and you fall and split your face open, but also smash your camera. We will do the medical stuff, but don't claim the camera from a, the camera damage without his claim. The camera damage with your other insurance Kit: (24:47) and when you buy something expensive, make a copy of the receipt because a lot of times your credit card company will offer some insurance because they figured we're going to forget all about it. So that's another little hidden insurance benefit that you may have and not even realize you have now also gets a little bit confusing with the insurance with the Schengen travel insurance in Europe. Can you explain a little bit about that? That whole thing was kind of new to me anyway. Phil: (25:10) You know, the USTA that you need to get into America, which is you have to apply for clearance for these at free entry. It's kind of like a visa to say you don't need a visa. Right. That's what's going to happen in Europe as well. You're gonna need to apply so that they can screen you beforehand to say that you're eligible for visa free entry. That's all that is. Kit: (25:32) I thought there's a requirement for travel insurance with that now too. Uh, Phil: (25:36) probably a requirement for medical insurance. So your travel insurance will cover that. Kit: (25:40) Oh, okay. That's probably what they're going after. Okay. All right. Yeah. So yeah, cause I understood that you had to show some kind of proof of insurance. Phil: (25:47) You've already got travel insurance, which includes medical, you see if you've only taken out trip insurance, so you have any cupboard, you know the flight that doesn't include medical, which is why travel insurance is as an all encompassing trip insurance, medical insurance, evacuation insurance as a combined product. That's why that's better to have because as you say, and you know you're going to have travel insurance anyway. Kit: (26:12) Right, right. And then also I read too that sometimes some travel agencies and cruise lines and all that, they'll push travel protection, which is quite different from travel insurance. Can you talk about that a little bit? Phil: (26:25) Yeah, that, that's like the trip detection. So what they are doing there is they are selling a product and you can buy it at a kiosk at airports in the United States you are offering insurance against the cost of that travel ticket so it doesn't cover anything else. It doesn't cover your medical costs. It probably doesn't cover loss of your baggage and what have you. But if the flight is delayed or the flight is canceled, then you can make a claim for insurance compensation thing that to cover your costs that you've lost. So it only covers one thing and they are making around about, I would suggest, I don't know for sure, but I reckon they're making about 50% commission on that insurance that they sell you. Kit: (27:07) Yeah, that's about what I read too. So, yeah, so it's not necessarily a good value. And, and people are getting confused between protection and insurance or what they have in their mind, what they're buying. Phil: (27:18) Correct. And they're using the word protection for that reason. Kit: (27:22) Is there any tips you can give us about how to not only just evaluate insurance policy, but also the company behind it? Because there's, you know, everybody's heard of the nightmares, oh, I bought insurance and they didn't pay anything and Blah, blah, blah. How we evaluate looking at a company Phil: (27:40) such a major, it's really great for that. Go onto the company's website, find their Facebook site, find that, see what people are saying, go on other travel forums, see what people are saying it as well. Because you know, read it is a great place to find information like that as well. It is such a heavily regulated industry worldwide that there are no dodgy operators. You're not going to buy insurance and it's not properly bad. It just doesn't happen. So you're pretty safe with going who maybe you choose with the product that they are offering, which is right for your circumstances. It's very, very, you're not, you're just not going to fond an insurance company that goes bankrupt. But their processes for handling claims about whether they are good at that or not, we'll be very, very clear on social media. But don't forget as well, lots of people get very upset on social media of like, oh, I paid all this money and they won't pay my claim. Phil: (28:34) There's not an entitlement to be paid for something. You actually have to play by the rules. And in lots of cases, people you know, have done things which are not covered. We had a case recently where a customer was upset, they got altitude sickness was, they were in Nepal and they were at 4,900 meters, but they had purchased a policy that only covers up to 4,600 meters and now it's only 300 meters and can, yeah, but you know, that's what the policy wording said. You know, that's the one you chose, but then you've done something different. You've just, so maybe you originally plan not to go above that altitude, but then suddenly you found a reason to, he could've called us up an upground new policy to get covered, but you didn't. So now you're saying, oh, it's not fair that you've rejected my claim. We ended up paying by the way, because you know, yeah, it is only 300 meters or so, but a lot of the complaints that you get, Oh God, they won't pay my claim. It's, yeah, it's because you don't qualify to get it paid. Kit: (29:37) Okay, and then that brings up the other thing too is a lot of times are mad because they might've done something negligent or they might have been under the influence or can you talk a little bit about that and maybe give some stories about that? Phil: (29:49) Yeah, sure. Here's an example for you. For Australian customers who go to Bali a lot, it's very great destination. We go there a lot. It's very close by. It's like our Cancun place. 60% of the claims that are made related to motorcycle injuries out of Bali, we reject because they are not licensed to ride. They're not wearing a helmet or that under the influence or what we call the unhappy Trifecta. All three drunk, no license, no helmet. And they crash and fall off like a client, sorry, not happening. So we reject 60% of those, uh, those, those requests. Kit: (30:28) I like beer. So if I have one beer and something happens to me, I'm not covered. Or do you have to have a certain limit or, or, or is there a, a formula that you use? Phil: (30:38) Yeah, every case is judged on its merit. Somebody will assess your claim and they will make investigations and they will get the toxicology report from the hospital where you're admitted and we'll find out how much alcohol was in your system. And then they will make a person, a person will make a decision on whether your state of intoxication may have contributed to what happened to you. So there's no hard and fast rule because common sense prevails. And I know people will find this hard to believe. But it is true if we get somebody and you know, these are people that we care about, these are our customers, these are our, you know, these are nomads. We want them to travel. We will look and go, well under this part of the policy, we wouldn't pay that claim. But, uh, there's a contradictory part of the policy over here that says we are able to, to pay it. Phil: (31:29) You know what, let's use that one and pay the claim. And as long as you can justify that, I mean then we can, we can look after you and we're gonna we don't, we don't want to strand people in hospitals with huge bills. If there's some way that we can find that is going to pay it, then we will do that. So some a person is making that assessment on your claim. So, you know, we try and put as much humanity into that as we possibly can. But if you're over 0.05 or 0.08 or whatever the legal blood alcohol limit it is in the place where you have the accident, then it's very likely that it's going to be, you know, a contributing factor. But look, if you've had one drink and your sensibly walking back to your accommodation rather than riding a motor scooter and a vehicle Koreans off the road and hits you, you could be as drunk as a skunk, but as long as you know, because that was somebody else's fault, you did not contribute to what happened to you. Phil: (32:24) So it's interesting as well by the way, because we were looking at this now that they've legalized cannabis in Canada and it's like how do we treat that? And there is such a, you know, people do go to destinations because cannabis legal or at least dispensed in places in the United States and the same thing applies. But the, in Canada, the government has said if you are intoxicated, if you are under the influence and you have a traffic accident, then you will be judged. So the Canadian government advisers don't smoke and drive at all. And we would be kind of following that advice as well. So that's the rural set up there. But I mean it's really easy to determine what your blood alcohol level is, but not quite sure how it is to determine how intoxicated you are by cannabis. So go easy. Kit: (33:13) And then also if somebody is, we do a lot of hiking on this program. If so many clients at the top of the mountain, they're just too tired to come down. You don't send a helicopter for them, do you? Nope. Nope. That's their problem. Right? Have people tried? Phil: (33:28) Sure. We've got a massive problem with that in Nepal at the moment because there are lots of helicopters operating there and a lot of very tired and grumpy and saw people at the tops of Trex who can't face another four days trekking back. And it is a problem. And, and if they are claiming to have symptoms of altitude, mountain sickness, altitude sickness, then first priority is to look after their welfare. So, you know, they will get medically evacuated and yeah, and it's, it's a problem if you are at the top of mountain and you haven't planned well on up, what will happen is night will fall, a blizzard will come, the local Alpine rescue team will be throwing in an action and they will come and get you off the mountain and put you in a hospital. Then that's where your travel insurance takes over and we start paying your medical bills and we are canceled and miss trips and all that sort of stuff. So No, there is no helicopter with the world nomads, you know, our little symbol Sanchez, the little sort of in command, there's no helicopter with cheers plays and on it that will come and get you. Sorry, Kit: (34:42) I definitely get that. You've got so many people that are hidden to Nepal, they're not doing their training, they have no altitude prep at all. And then they just wanna be able to show an Instagram that they did this or they did that. So now I totally get that you shouldn't have to pay for somebody arriving woefully unprepared. Phil: (34:57) Why would you put yourself in that position in the first place? I mean, it's like airbags in cars, right? So people go, I've got their bags so they stopped wearing their seatbelt. You know? Why would you put yourself in the position where you haven't planned appropriately, where you may find yourself too tired to get back down where you've gone? Why would you do that to yourself? Kit: (35:14) Well, they may not have the experience to know. Yeah, maybe. I think with Instagram and, Oh, I've got another question coming up about that. You know, they, they see people doing all these things and they want to do it and they may, you know, I heard of somebody thought she was going to the Appalachian trail, pushing a shopping cart, you know, I was like, has she done any homework whatsoever before she started out? Phil: (35:35) Well, here is another about travel insurance. All right. We don't cover the stupidity. Seriously. You're doing a really dumb thing. We don't cover that. Kit: (35:43) Got It. Got It. All right. What about people that are not traveling so specific with specific dates? And this is a very personal question because I got a really complicated project this fall that I'm going to multiple destinations over the course of several months with time in between that I haven't really, I haven't booked the flight yet. I book the tours, booked the conferences, so combined it's too much. So do I do an individual policy or do I do chunks of policies or how, how do I do something like that? And what do you do with people that are just traveling nomadically and don't really know where they're going to be? Is there annual policy or chunk policies or what do we do? Phil: (36:22) Well, you can get a policy that covers you for the world worldwide. So let me get this straight. So you're going away and then you're coming back at an indeterminate time. At the end of all of this, you're not coming back home in between. Correct. By a policy right now because you've already outlaid money on tools and what have you. Get a policy now that covers the dates that you're going to go. And if you don't think you're ever going to come back, then get worldwide for up to six months. Now. Federal regulations when you can't do more than six months at a time, but you can renew your will nomez policy while you're on the road. So you just get online and extend it. And if you've got worldwide then you can go anywhere that you like. But if you know you're going to a specific region, you can get a policy for Asia, you can get a policy for South America out of world nomads. So it doesn't really matter where you go within that region. Kit: (37:12) How about some credit cards bragged that they offer travel insurance? Can you talk about that? Phil: (37:17) Yeah, sure. And they do. And the policies are generally underwritten by the same people that are underwriting, you know, specific providers. But you again have to read the policy wording to see what they cover. They often have a higher deductible than a it standalone travel insurance provider. And there may be criteria around how it's activated. Do you have to tell them beforehand? Do you have to have paid all of your trip portion of your trip or pay for on the credit card. So make sure you know how it's activated. Then check who the emergency assistance company is that they are using. Cause it's not, you know, somebody in your bank who's going to help you and you're in trouble. They've, they've got service provider, find out who they are and you know you can make an assessment of those as well. And the other thing is what is the emergency assistance number that comes with your credit card insurance? Phil: (38:12) You have to dig around pretty hard to find that sort of information. And the other thing is you don't know exactly how much you pay for that. They go, it's complimentary, it's included in your credit card. But they don't tell you how much that travel insurance policy is actually costing you. You've got a willed nomads, you know you're paying, you know, $109 for that policy, but you get this complimentary, not free, but complimentary travel insurance and they're stinging you for it. It's all the charges that you're paying for that. So it's actually not very good value either. And just on a personal level, if you're, you know, if you've just face planted in Tanzania, are you really going to call your bank to look after you? Why wouldn't you know like let's get a, you know, let's get a specialized travel insurance provider to run it for you. I don't know, like it's there and if it suits you again, you know, like I said, we'll know him as policies. I'm not going to be perfect for everybody. Maybe the one that comes with your credit card is perfect for you, then go for it. Kit: (39:16) What about to a, sometimes our car insurance here in the states covers, at least in the United States, I've never, I can't remember overseas if I rent a car, I'm covered on that. Does that translate in travel insurance when you're traveling outside of the area or can you talk about that a lot? Phil: (39:35) Well, you'll so unsure about it. I'm pretty sure everybody else's does. My American car insurance cover me for that excess damage waiver. I think they call it, Kit: (39:45) does my car coverage? If it says it does, does that cover a scooter in Vietnam for example? I have no clue. Phil and I went back and forth on this auto insurance and what's covered and what's not covered, and I edit out all that junk because the bottom line is, is you need to check with your auto policy here at home first and see what is covered there. And if it doesn't cover you where you're going, you're going to need to buy whatever the insurance is at the place that you're going with whatever the vehicle is, whether it's a scooter or a car, whatever. And the key thing is, is you've got to make sure that you have a valid driver's license for the location that you're going to be in. And that might require having an international driver's license. You have to wear the hell about or follow whatever the rules of the roads are in that country. Kit: (40:30) And you can't be breaking any rules, which means you can't be under the influence and you gotta be following the law. So your travel insurance basically will cover the medical problems if you have an accident and assuming that you are following the rules but it will not cover the auto vehicle damages. That's what your auto policy needs to cover. And if you don't have an auto policy, you need to buy one from the company you're renting from. So that's the bottom line. And some policies may cover your deductible on auto accident but not the actual accident. So I can not emphasize more clearly you need to read the policy, you get a grace period after you buy the policy, you download the policy, you actually read it and see is this a suitable policy for you and are you willing to take the risks that are not covered. Your policy will spell out in black and white what is and what is not covered. And you cannot expect them to make exceptions. That's just the way it is. Okay, so let's switch gears and let's talk about stolen baggage. Phil: (41:37) The biggest problem we have, and it's a little unfair, is what's what's considered to be unaccompanied baggage. If you are not paying proper attention to your belongings and they get stolen, the loss may not be covered. And sometimes that gets down to, oh I just put it on the table now turned around for one second. And it's like, yeah, well that was unattended baggage as opposed to, you know, I, I left it over there and walked away to another shop and came back, which is quite obvious. So sometimes it can sound really unfair about the way it is treated. So please look after your belongings. Don't put your cell phone down on a table and turn around just for a second. Cause in some places that we traveled to, they are or can be solid on the black market for like, you know, a month with wages for somebody local. So look after your belongings, don't leave them unattended. And don't be surprised if you do and your claim is questioned. Kit: (42:40) Let's, so let's talk about theft. You're walking through the markets and somebody snatches your purse. Phil: (42:46) So you had it on under your arm. They still grabbed or they cut, they cut the strap and ran off with that. Yep. Is that covered? Yeah, it happens all the time. Hatton. Just recently, actually a friend of mine works for a big international airline and they have had two or three of the cabin stuff, have had the handbags snatched by motorcycle thieves. You know, they ride by and just pull them off. There's an Australia woman who died because of that, about three or four years ago. So yeah, look, if you're injured in that, yes. If the bag has got valuables in it and it will often have things like your passport in it, yeah. Then the cost of replacing those items will be covered. That is absolutely. They left lots of baggage. Yes. It's covered. Plus you may have been injured as well, so we'd cover your medical bills Kit: (43:34) and so what kind of proof do we have to present to you? It's something like that. I mean, I don't take a picture of what's in my purse. How do we have to show you that we've actually had a loss? Phil: (43:42) Well, it's pretty obvious with a passport. I don't have it. I can't leave the country. I need to go and get a new one. If it's something like a camera or something like that, and you should do this with all of your positions that you take away. Nobody keeps the receipts when they bought stuff. You know, maybe you've had your camera for five years and you don't know where that receipts gone and what have you. But to prevent fraud, we're going to need some sort of proof that you owned it in the first place and some sort of proof that I actually was stolen from you. So the proof that you had it in the first place, if you've got the receipt, great, nobody does. But if you tape, you're the one person that does,

Memorizing Scales, John Cruz, Soloing with or without a Scales, and how Two Cs Do Not Make a Right Have…

Sunday, on Pieces of Alice Radio Show, my guest will be Community Activist and CEO of status KNO apparel, Bernard Creamer Jr. This weeks topic: Its Just Music, Right? Have the music of today gone too far with the lyrics? Some says, 'it's just music". But isn't music suppose to inspire and not degrade? Join me on Sunday to discuss the change in music. We will be discussing today's music.        

Craig is on with Jack Heath talking about the role Alexa played in a New Hampshire murder trial. These and more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Related Articles  Amazon Reportedly Ordered To Hand Over Echo Recordings In N.H. Murder Trial --- Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors. Airing date: 11/19/2018 Double Homicide - Can Police Get Information From An Alexa Craig Peterson 0:00 A good morning everybody. I sent out some emails to a few people this last weekend. Hopefully you got it on Saturday. If you are on my list, I'm going to be doing a quick one to group a six week course here. Well, not even course really. I'm going to be helping out a small group of friends with business security. So we're going to be walking through everything. I'm giving them just tons of great information. Everything from the employee handbook sections they need sounds like four dozen different employee handbook session sections, what they should be doing with their computers, what they can do for free how to make this all work some some serious training for a C levels within organizations. That includes business owners. And the idea at the end of this is they'll know who to hire, how to hire them, how to select our managed services provider, or even a break fix shop all of the questions they should ask them everything. So this is a beta program people are going to have to apply to get into this program. I think it's going to be a phenomenal thing. And I've already had quite a few responses. So if you think you might be interested, if you are a sea level or business owner and you want to get your arms around security are my people doing the right thing? Why did the IT guys always clam up when I asked him about security? Right? Have you have any of those types of questions and make sure you send me an email let me know I will this week. I think probably I don't know that this week. A lot of people are probably out for Thanksgiving but I'm going to send out a quick email but let me know and I will send you information on how to apply to be in this program we are charging for this program because it's going to take a lot of my time to guide this group. It's a beta program that's going to be leading edge but just email me@CraigPeterson.com if you are interested, get your arms around the security there and your business. Alright, so this morning I was on with Mr. Jack Heath. And we talked quite a bit about this double homicide that happened in New Hampshire and explain in more detail what type of technology is being used by these IoT devices Internet of Things the the Amazon Alexa is the Google Home Unknown 2:27 Craig Peterson joins us on the auto fair listener line and interesting article Craig hopefully doing well. Jeff Jonas, you're talking about this on Friday is a Lexus speech protected? This goes to a case where the the technology the locks, it may have heard something that ties into a double homicide in Farmington almost two years ago. Unknown 2:52 Yeah, good morning, Jack. It does. I spent some time talking about this case on my show this weekend. Very in here. Yeah, it's very interesting. Because we're bringing more of these devices in your homes. You mentioned the course the Amazon Alexa, Google has the Google Home. Apple has it theory. And there have been a couple of cases now. And this one is making some national news where the prosecutors felt that there may be information that's contained within that device, in this case, and Amazon Echo bottom line on this for people that do have these devices, the prosecutor doesn't really understand how the technology works. So I take a second to explain it. But also that the prosecutor may not be entirely wrong here. So jack, what happens with these devices nowadays is they're constantly listening to everything going on the environment. So that part the prosecutor has, right However, they are locally listening for their wake up word. So I'm not going to save the way help word. But you know, when you address these things, you call it by name. And then you give it a command. So nothing's going up to the cloud. Unless the device has been modified, nothing is going up and to the cloud and kill it hears its wake up word. So in the case where there was a double homicide, what would have happened is, it would have hurt the whole homicide because the the detectives in the case think that the original action took place in the kitchen, which is where the Amazon echo that they seize was located. So they think that they probably heard it and it probably did, but that Amazon Alexa sitting there is not going to be sending any of that data to the cloud. And it's only stores a few seconds worth of sound on the device locally. And then it rights over it again, now where things so they're not going to get anything from this and let's the murderer, someone else called out the wake up word, then that 32nd stream of data and it's usually only 30 seconds max would have been sent up to Amazon. And Amazon does keep it now where it might be interesting. And we've seen this before is in a case where maybe someone with crime of passion patch use the Alexa earlier in the day. So they might have ordered pizza, or they might have asked what the weather is tomorrow, etc. In those cases, that device is recording the boys and uploads it to the cloud. In fact, you can go in with any of these devices online and in the apps and listen to the commands that's been given. So in that case, the prosecutor could go to Amazon and say, Hey, listen, we need the recording and listen to see if the murderer had or the accused I had previously use that device, maybe an hour or so before the burgers and then there's a crime of passion. And now they have some suspect at least they have the voice of the suspect now in in the pre or price previous case. In the non New Hampshire case where they went ahead and subpoenaed amazon for the records. Amazon resisted them saying no, we're not going to provide that data to you. And ultimately the guy who was charged with the crime conceited and said to Amazon Yeah, go ahead and release it. They listened to what recordings were and ended up dropping all charges against the guy because there was nothing incriminating on them but it's an interesting question an interesting problem and it's got national prominence now Jack Unknown 6:45 Well, it does and these things are so like you saying your home now and you don't think of what's captured Do you think of sort of what's live and what's happening you know, you know Alexa it's like the ad you know play me some Whitney Houston you know they're not thinking Alexa Bose final score last night of the bears game you know, people aren't thinking of what's picked up right or what's captured Unknown 7:06 right and you know that thing what was the score the bears game that has been used in divorce cases before not not because it's the bears not the Patriots. It's been using cases before because a boyfriend or a girlfriend of the spouse comes over and uses the Alexa it's all recorded in the spouse notices wait a minute now this isn't my playlist this isn't the music I like and and who the heck like the bears and so they have the voice of the cheater and the GD right there on the device it's been used in court that way before it's funny Unknown 7:43 how people used to say careful of stay on the phone the government might be listening and now it's like let's practice listening device into our house and set it up Unknown 7:51 Isn't it funny and and what what else were we told don't get in cars with strangers right and don't take candy from strangers now Now we call a stranger give them money to get in their car and get takes it places guys the whole world just changed entirely hasn't it? Unknown 8:06 Yeah Unknown 8:08 interesting stuff and you know again this is that was a pretty pretty well known double homicide case in terms of pristine solvents murder and a friend Unknown 8:22 you know I guess the whether or not they can get suspect from this and who knows if they're gonna you know there's such a legal ramifications right Unknown 8:30 yeah and Amazon is going to continue to resist from what they're saying right now and really the only way they would be able to release it without any problems is for the owner to say yeah go ahead and leave those records but in this case apparently the owners debt because I imagine it was hers at the time yeah so it isn't please Cassidy I doubt they're going to get anything but maybe they will but they're certainly not likely to get a recording of the murder as it happens like what happened in the Saudi embassy over in Turkey now here we go there's a Unknown 9:05 Alexa can help solve that but they have plenty of video they have plenty of video and other stuff to know that a mystic a show he was not leaving that console and alive. All right. Thank you, Craig. And have a great great Thanksgiving. Unknown 9:16 Hey, thank them people right now on our homepage. If you go to dir there is a an article about travel on Thanksgiving. Google has mapped it out where you should go where you shouldn't go and when it's a really great article. Unknown 9:32 Alright, thanks. Thanks, Craig. Appreciate it. We come back checks out over the financial show airs. Unknown 9:36 Hi everybody. By the way. Have a great Thanksgiving if you don't hear from me, although I'll be on again Tuesday and Wednesday this week. And of course my radio show this Saturday, but I might love Thanksgiving. It's a great time for families and friends to get together so enjoy yourself. Take care. Bye bye. --- More stories and tech updates at: www.craigpeterson.com Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating: www.craigpeterson.com/itunes Message Input: Message #techtalk Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at: www.twitter.com/craigpeterson For questions, call or text: 855-385-5553

Boom, what's up guys, this is Steve Larsen.   Today we are gonna talk about recycling stories.   I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today, and now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.   The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt, completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.   Join me and follow along as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business. Using only today's best internet sales funnels.   My name is Steve Larsen, and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.   What's up guys?   Hey guys, thanks so much for tuning into to Sales Funnel Radio.  I was on stage a little while ago, and I was teaching, and there was one question that comes up every single time when I'm teaching script building, when I'm teaching any kind of story-telling, anything like that.   One of the things that always comes across is, "Stephen I don't know what stories to tell that will break someone's belief patterns and make them want to cause a purchase to happen?".   And I say, "Okay cool cool cool, that makes total sense everyone goes through that first of all. So if you're feeling that, don't worry about that."   Second of all though, what you gotta understand is you don't always need to come up with new stories, right?   So this episode is called Recycling Stories because what I want to do is share with you guys how I do that. So what better way to actually teach you to do that than show you actually me doing that. Does that make sense?   So what I did is, a little while ago I actually decided, this is something I've never done before in front of a live group. I've done a lot of funnel building but live script building!   Guys script writing is hard. Just know that it's one of the hardest parts of funnel building overall.   Putting the pages together, that's some easy stuff man. That's easy stuff. You drag and drop, you're done. Script writing though, that's not easy. And so what I wanted to is...   I thought how cool would it be if I actually went and built a script live in front of an audience, and it made me a little bit nervous - I'm not gonna lie -because it's not an easy thing to do.   We'll spend days coming up with one headline, you know what I mean? And so to write a whole script, not just the headline? That was really challenging for me to do that. It was a lot of fun though.   It took me 12 hours. It was in front of an audience of about 75 people, and I built an entire webinar script from top to bottom. The whole thing, top to bottom. And what I was trying to teach them and share with them in this part, I just ripped it out, and I'm gonna share with you guys here.   I'm building the actual webinar slides live. I recorded my screen doing so and walking through and talking through each slide. So that's actually what we're gonna cut over to in here in just a moment.   But what I want you to understand, see and notice is that for a lot of what I'm doing for that webinar - this is for my product - it's called My Funnel Stash...   "Oh crap, wait just a second. Eh, there we go!" (Stephen goes to get something - he comes back with a fake mustache and some red and green sunglasses - He puts them on and continues to talk).   ...I'm doing it for a product called "My Funnel Stash." It's a play on words. It's all the funnels that I've been building, and that I built over at ClickFunnels.   It's gonna sound a little conceited, kay? But no one really else is gonna have the opportunity to sit next to someone brilliant like Russell Brunson and learn right at the feet of a master for that amount of time.   When I left, one of the things that Clickfunnels did which is brilliant, is Russell was like, well I don't always wanna be just the one funnel builder, so they created an internal agency.   I don't know that ever anyone else ever is gonna have the opportunity to do the kind of thing I did. For that reason I feel a little bit of a mantel to share with you guys some of the things that I was doing over there.   Please note, that's one of the reason why I talk so much about Russell Brunson is because I feel a little bit of a responsibility to share with you some of the things that made funnel building successful. And why someone like me, I was building funnels ahead of that time, but the finer points of it that made it actually work and stick.   This is super cheesy I know, but I actually sent out Clickfunnels colored glasses and a funnel stache, stash with the actual stash of funnels that I used to build 500 funnels next to the guy.   What was interesting about this, after doing the amount of funnel builds that I did at Clickfunnels, I need you to know and hear me now: "Funnel building success has very little to do with the pages, okay?"   You can have a funnel that is limping along on one leg and be totally fine, very successful. Completely fine.   Now please go in and make your funnel tweaks, make them good, but if your funnel is only working because of little tiny tips and tricks inside the funnel, then your offer sucks. Right? Your script is terrible. That's just the fact. Take it from a guy who's made a lot of them. Understand what I'm saying here.   So what I need you to get, this is a longer episode, but I'm trying to share with you guys how I'm recycling my origin story in different products, and how that's totally okay to do.   Scriptwriting, that's really where the rubber meets the road. Before Clickfunnels existed, that was the always the most expensive part of building a funnel with a traditional team - because copy is what does the selling.   I can feel my stache starting to fall over here. I'm getting animated, it's like sweating. Anyway, so guys this a little bit of a longer episode, but we're gonna cut over to a segment that I've chopped out where you're gonna see me recycle the same story for different things, and that's totally fine.   My origin story is still my origin story. So if I'm gonna go sell a product over here, or sell product over there, or sell product over there - those are different products, but I still have the same origin story. I can't change my background.   So how do I recycle my story in a way that fits the other things that I'm selling without making it obvious? And so that's what I'm doing. I'm actually script building. I'm live script building, and I'm taking from a lot of other webinars that I've built to go in and rip out different things and elements to fill out the requirements to make a good origin story.   So again, what is that?   Let's wait again, one more moment. (Stephen goes to grab something)   Okay, a lot of chopping in this one. Sorry. I went and grabbed my copy of Expert Secrets. Anyway this one script inside of your origin story is incredibly powerful. And I know this is gonna be a long episode, but just bear with me.   If you guys a listening on iTunes, if you're listening on the podcast, that's awesome, just know that I'm gonna cut over, and you can still listen, but I'm gonna cut over and literally share my screen as I build out the intro section to my webinar script.   This script did 30 grand in the first week with no ads spend and just a few mentions. Isn't that awesome? That's crazy cool. How did I do that? A lot of it has to do with the script. A lot of it has to do with the way that I pre-framed it and how I built the pressure ahead of time.   You guys are like, "Stephen I can't you serious with this thing on." And honestly, I can't either! I'm trying not to look at the screen over here because I look like a freakin' goofball.   Anyway, check this out. Check this out.   The epiphany bridge script, you guys are gonna watch me us the epiphany bridge script in the wall I tell my origin story.   This is what sets the pace, this is what sets the foundation in the buyers minds so that when you tell the three stories, of secret one, two, three, they're actually in a state to receive them. And this is why it's so important, so powerful. Don't jack up your origin story.   So what I thought, how cool would it be if I rip out and just share with you guys. So it's gonna be like 20, it's like 30 minutes, okay? It's like 30 minutes, but you're gonna hear me explain each slide.   You're gonna watch me explain each one of the steps going through the actual epiphany bridge.   (Steve points to his fake "stache") This thing is actually falling off, but I want you to see how important this is. This is funnel building. The other stuff, I'm not saying...   I'm a funnel builder, I build funnels like crazy. I built two more of them yesterday - which is awesome. They're single page ones, but they're really intense, oh my gosh, they were hard.   But anyway I want you to know at the core of it, if you can't do the thing I'm about to share with you guys, man, choose a funnel style that requires very little copy and/or just learn how to do this.   I didn't know how to do this. I got like straight D's in English. Seriously in pretty much all of high school and a lot of college. I'm not an amazing writer. I'm not. I don't know amazing punctuation. I'm not good at that crap, okay? But I wanna teach you marketing writing. I wanna teach you marketing English, or whatever nationality you're from. There's marketing language.   I'm gonna teach you the language of marketing. It's its own language. It's its own vernacular. It's its own way to present. It's its own way to come across and actually give your people what they should hear in order to cause a buying decision to happen. That's the core.   That is why I can leave an amazing job at ClickFunnels (which did cut me to the soul.It cut me right down to the very core to do that), but it's the reason why three days after I left I had a converting funnel up which made 36 grand without any ads spent. It's because of what I'm gonna share with you in this clip.   So I know this is gonna be a long episode, just get over it. Get a piece of paper and see what I'm doing here.   For those of you guys who are on iTunes, I never normally ask you to do this but come over to the YouTube channel and watch me as I literally record my screen in front of a live audience, fielding their question. Watch me go in and actually build out the introduction section of my webinar   it's what I use no matter what product I am selling. Yes, even for a book.   One of my best funnels right now is this amazing high ticket funnel. Guess what script I freaking used to sell the high ticket thing? The webinar script, guys. I use it everywhere. It's not just for freaking webinars. It's not for something that's only a thousand dollars. I use it for everything.   So please understand that's where my passion comes from. When people read this a lot of times, they're like, "Oh this is about a webinar script" No, no no no! This is the most powerful sales script you've ever seen in your entire life.   I did two summers door-to-door sales, I was a telemarketer, I was good at both of them. This is the most powerful script I've ever seen in my entire life and I don't want you to jack up the intro of it. So again we're gonna cut over here - watch my screen as I do this, bear with me, I know it's a little long. It's not normally this long for these kinds of episodes, but I think you're really getting a lot of value from this, and if you do, please, please, I am begging you, share this.   I'm sick and tired of so much garbage information out there that misleads people. "Oh you're not converting because you don't have the right slogan, the right mission statement," that's bull crap, okay?   You don't know how to sell. That's the issue. And I wanna teach you how to sell. And you're gonna see how I do it inside this episode.   Guys, thanks so much. I know I'm fiery, but this is how I feel about it. This literally saved my family financially to learn how to do this.   And if you wanna do the same, if you're in that same kind of spot...   My stache is falling off.   Learn how to do what I'm gonna share with you. And if you like it, turn around, please share with other people and spread this around. I'd really appreciate that. It convinces iTunes that I'm actually worth my salt. It convinces iTunes that, "Hey, we should actually rank and push up even more." I appreciate you guys.   This is like a thousand downloads an episode now, and I really appreciate you guys checking this out. It really means the world to me to be honest. But man, we're just starting, okay?   And I'm so sick of how much noise is out there, and "little motivated papa Larsen's" coming out right now. Just know that.   But anyways, let's cut on over, you guys watch me actually go and record my screen and share with you guys how I do this. I care about you guys too much to not share this and get a little passionate over it.   Go over, grab a piece of paper, press pause for a sec if you need to. Please share this if you guys enjoy this. I've never shared this part before, and I've never live built what you're about to see in front of an audience ever. I always do it on my own.   Thanks so much and let's cut over now, bye.   I wanna answer the question. Now we dove into pretty deep in the last time I went through and I built this stuff.   I know some of you guys, this is the first time you've been in here, but some of the stuff I'm talking about I've already gone through, so I'm gonna move on....   There's two introductions. I have effectively introduced the webinar. There's two introductions in the introduction section. There's two sections of it, okay?   Section one is: "What is this webinar?" If I don't answer that question, that's a bad question to leave on a open loop. So some questions you can leave on an open loop. That's a bad one. That will cause confusion. Confusion is a no and they run away.   So I have to be able to introduce the webinar and then I've gotta introduce "Who the heck is talking to me and why does he have freaking stache on?"   So there's two sections in the intros.   Section one, intro the webinar.   Section two, intro the speaker.   Now for those of you guys who are pitching other people's products, that is where the issues kinda comes in a little bit. Not an issue, but that's where it gets challenging 'cause you're like do I introduce, for my case funnel building secrets, do I need to spend time introducing Russell, they still gotta know who he is or they're not gonna care what I did. What I used to do. And then I gotta introduce ClickFunnels, and the positioning gets a little bit weird.   That's why I always encourage you guys to do webinars for your own stuff, not that you have to do it but at first it's an easier pitch to go for.   So I like using this slide a lot. I use this slide multiple times." Yeah. Mr. Steve huge eyeball's Larsen, who are ya?" Why am I doing that? It's because I want them to feel like "oh, this guy's just kind of a fun guy." You know like moss. That's pretty funny. This is where you brag about yourself and if you're nervous to do that you kinda have to get over that.   So I say things like I say things like, "Hey what's up, my name's Steve Larsen, I was the lead funnel builder at ClickFunnels for two years, I built almost 500 funnels while I was there. I was Russell's right-hand guy. I helped create the original Two Comma Club Coaching Program which helped a lot of people get a million bucks and a lot of others also make six-figures which is also awesome, right? Anyway, I'm a Two Comma Club coach now and I've left that though to go and make my own Two Comma Club funnels."   And this is where I start, you gotta show off a little bit. I like to go in, now this is where that transition, I use the intro to me, they wanna know the credentials, what's the fast punch, here's the credentials, here's why you are awesome.   But the next thing though, this is why this guy's able to come speak about this stuff. Now the next thing I do though is I use this as an advantage to catapult me into the beginning of my origin story.   So the origin story here: For me, I'm gonna tell the story. Now let's go back, let's consult this real quick. Let's consult, bam. Now here's the origin story for me this is the story:   "Funnels saved my family financially after 17 business tries." This is true story, right? And I'm gonna go in and tell the story. Now I restructured just a few of the other stories in the layout, but I'm gonna use the second slide as far as who are ya as an intro to me. And I found that transition works quite well every time I do that. So this is the outline of it:   "Look, we had no money. Asked dad for money, said no, figure out how to use the resources that you have. It was out of love, he wasn't like no are you kidding, he's a rock star. And I was like crap, so I started studying different asset types and I ran into Rich Dad Poor Dad and he said there's three different asset types. I was like what if I try all of them. I chose business last." This is a true story.   "I chose business last because I thought it meant that I was greedy if I was gonna go do it. That's a real false belief I had. So I did paper assets first. That's one of the three asset types from Rich Dad Poor Dad. That's like the gateway drug for most entrepreneurs. Then next I went into real estate. I did a lot of real estate stuff. And it's not that I didn't have a little success with each one of those things but there were some things that made it challenging like in real estate, like truly, if you're gonna kill it it's best to have some money down.   Same with like paper assets, stocks and options in trading and I borrowed 15 grand. I borrowed 15 thousand dollars to go to some stock classes. I was freaking hustling.   17 tries later I ran into Russell Brunson. And I was like this guy looks like he's 13, I don't know if I'm even gonna trust him." Some of my initial reactions, kay? Just same thing as everyone else says and I was like, "Hey check it out, if you say these funnel things work let me try it. And so I did and started taking on clients and started bootstrapping my way to different things and that's how I bootstrapped my way to the event and became such a fanatic.   "Before I met Russell that they knew who I was when I got there because I was the guy always writing into support, pushing the bounds of their software. Literally their coders would go and try to keep up with some of the things I was begging for them to get done. And so when I got there I got five job offers." So I'm gonna tell that story quickly. And that's the origin story.   But I'm also gonna in and I'm gonna talk about one of the first funnels I built that was actually a good success. So that they see, right, it's a origin story.   The origin story is the backstory of why you are in the thing you are in. I'm talking about funnels so I gotta answer the question: "Why did you choose funnels?" And I gotta answer that question in a way that's slightly emotional - in a way where they can logically, although it's emotional, see how and justify: "oh it's reasonable, I see why he's doing what he's doing. That makes sense."   And when I do that, man the next three stories are really really easy to get good reactions from.   So the first thing I'm gonna do here is I'm going to introduce myself. Right? And I'm gonna talk about how I got a radio show, actually got on the radio, two times in the last few weeks. It was really fun. Oops.   There's the family and I'm like "Oh look, isn't that funny, I love that picture of my little girl putting her finger in her nose. She was supposed to be a flower girl and was walking down the aisle as a flower girl totally picking her nose." Funny picture. So I put that in there. I put that in, I'm trying to be raw. Guys, trying to be real. Why else would I wear a freaking stache right now?   Right, I'm trying to be very open like: "oh man, this dude is real." And I'm trying to help them see that. Bring your walls down, bring em down, bring em' down. That's really what I'm trying to do here. I'm gonna put the other radio show in too. 'Cause it fits the fits the audience here. Let's see. There we go. Bloop. Crazy how many downloads there are on both these now. So I'd probably put some animation in. Here I got a radio show. Gets over a thousand downloads an episode now. How cool is that? Thousand downloads an episode now.   I also have another show. It's not as old but it's already doing about 400 downloads an episode and I am obsessed.   What I want you to know is guys, I'm obsessed. I am obsessed with this game. I eat, drink, and sleep this stuff. My family's been there. They are my biggest support team ever. The whole thing starts with the family. Bam. And that's my intro into how I begin my origin story.   Cool, so it'll be like a little animation. First that one then I'll animate in the others.   Then this is where I'm gonna talk about origin story internal and external desires.   I need to go in and I need to paint a picture over my desires, right? And some conflict, the backstory. So the backstory for us and I like to use this one a lot, guys you might be noticing like, "Stephen you're using the same stuff from other webinars?" Yeah, okay? Your story can be repurposed into other things.   It doesn't need to be this brand new thing every single time.   It's still my origin story. It's not like it changed. All right? So I'm still gonna use it.   Look at that hottie (Stephen looks at a picture of his wife on their wedding day).   I can use the exact same stories. It doesn't need to be, right, and I can sell different products with it 'cause it's still the way I got into stuff. So I go in and, I tell the story:   "We got married, this is how small our apartment was."   So I'm gonna hit a wall here. I'm gonna hit a wall and this is the wall. I need to hit a wall and the wall is we got nothing. In fact look right here at this picture. You guys see this is literally a picture of our apartment. I didn't try to take it blurry on purpose, it just is blurry.   You know those lose weight commercials? Like the before pictures always like black and white suddenly no one can find a color camera anymore and they're like looking all weird at the camera. You know? And after pictures they're like shredded, suddenly the picture's in color. This looks like I tried to set it up. It's how it actually was. Any way. I was like: "Check it out, I actually drew a fireplace on the wall with a crayon. We had no money. We got married weeks before Christmas."   Suddenly it's like oh crap, it's hitting the fan, and it hit the fan. "We had no cash. I asked my dad for money I was like what if I go asked him for money." I have an epiphany. And so I like to use... So I went an I started asking, I was like "Man student loans are on the way."     We use pictures to depict different aspects of the story, okay? The pictures are just guiding the major elements in the story. You know what I mean? Let me save this quick. The pictures are guiding the elements in the story, that's all.   "So I asked for money and that's the very room, that is the building where I asked my dad for money, and he said "no, can't do it." And I was like "Crap, all right, what's my plan?" So that's the next part.   Remember guys I'm just following this thing. We're right here. We're almost done with the intro, kay? Is this making sense? You guys with me? You guys seeing how this could apply in your business? Just keep going. A bunch of trial closes all at once.   We've got 74 of us on now, this is awesome guys. Appreciate you guys being on here. Hope you guys are liking the stache. Can't wait for you guys to get yours.   So right now I gotta go plan. Here's the plan. The plan is, this thing is like falling apart. "The plan is I gotta start studying how on Earth am I supposed to make money? I don't know how to make money? I've been studying business in school, but they're not actually teaching me how to make money. So I started studying. I started studying and started learning.   One of the guys I started studying was a guy named Robert Kiyosaki. And he told me about the three different asset types, and I still got his voice in my head: "Well, the first thing you gotta do is the three different asset types."   I don't know if you guys ever listened to him but his voice kinda sounds like that.   "The three different asset types and if you're wise you're gonna go and you're gonna get one of these kinds of assets and just stick with it." And he sounds like that. And I was like, "Well, I don't know what to do. What if I try all of them? But I don't wanna try business, that sounds way too hard, I'm not gonna do that." So I was like "Ah, so I started running, running, running, and I started acting." - meaning I started, I should clarify that 'cause in one of these I say I started acting, but that sounds like I actually was an actor.   I'm gonna hit some conflict here. Now you see I'm just following it. I just make a slide per epiphany bridge script. Or epiphany bridge step here.   Boom, first thing I did is I started taking action. I should change it to that. Started taking action. Whoops. Action. Started taking action. And I went through, and I borrowed 15 grand and went and started doing this and anyway...   I know all you guys are very focused entrepreneurs here, but none of you guys have ever had shiny object syndrome? Well yeah me either, so I went ahead, and after a while, I was like "This is hard!" I was whiny.   I was whiny and I went and I checked out real estate. And I got 300 phone calls in one month. I was putting those little paper signs up all over the place. Again this is all true, I'm not making any of this up. I put those paper signs up all over the place. Looking for buyers, looking for sellers.   I got 300 phone calls and started matching buyers with sellers and doing a double escrow. I'd up the price a little bit during close and take my money, anyway. And that's what I was doing. Until I realized there really are limited options when you really still are completely broke. Flipping in that way, it's not that you can't make cash... Anyway, right?   And I need one more conflict slide here. I'm almost done with the intro, and then I'll come over here to your guy's comments and your chat, okay? If you guys got anything come let me know.   And so you see how I came up with a plan, and I walked myself going through the plan, but there's an issue with the plan. The plan was to try these three asset types, and the reason why I'm doing that is because they can logically see how that is a logical thing to do. "Yeah, why wouldn't you try that?" It's because I'm trying to them as the protagonist in my story.   They're not even gonna experience the same things that I did, but the power of story is this:   "Right now I'm sitting in my office, downstairs my little girls are playing. I can hear them right now. I can actually smell the aroma of some good food. I think my wife is making some food and if I were to walk downstairs right now we'd have our kitchen table there, and the countertop and she usually likes to put food right on the countertop, and we go serve up and then go sit at the table together." Okay, stop! How many of you guys just imagined your own office? Wait a second, and you imagined your own house? Oh, baby! Wait a second, but I'm describing MY house. But you thought about your house? Did you think about your own kitchen? I was talking about my kitchen. My kitchen table is completely perfect square, and it's brown, it's made of wood, it's beautiful. I was talking about my kitchen though. But wait you thought about your kitchen? Huh. And the countertop, did you think about the aroma of food? Did I even describe what food it was? No, but you thought about food. And you thought about good food. You thought about little kids playing and hearing them squeal around and stuff. Right. Wait a second, but I'm talking about MY story! Isn't this fascinating?   This is the power of stories. The reason stories are so powerful. If I can logically, inside the epiphany bridge script, get them to get inside my story, they will effectively have experienced, on an emotional level, the very same story that I experienced.   Even though MY kitchen's different than their kitchen. Even though MY dad told me different things than your dad might of, or regardless. Does that make sense? The power of story is that it takes the backgrounds and the experiences of each listener and it combines them emotionally even though the scenes are different - the facts are the same. The emotions can be the same. That's the key, and that's why stories are so powerful.   So what's my plan? "Oh I'm gonna, I don't know, I gotta make money," and I guarantee everyone's thought that who's been on the webinar, right? "Oh man, I gotta make money too somehow." So I gotta come up with some kind of plan, so I'm gonna do what he said, "Business assets, real estate, paper assets." So I just started doing it, and I didn't wanna seem greedy so I actually purposely didn't go for business first. Guys, that was a really stupid thing that I did, but anyway. I went straight to paper assets, and I borrowed cash.   How many of you guys have borrowed cash to go to some person's course before? Right, I know, me too. That's crazy I found out that he's actually teaching stuff he knew was outdated. Now I call that dishonest. Right? They're walking through with me: I guarantee I'm not the first person they've spent money on and not been successful with.   So then I went off on my own I just started doing more real estate stuff. I finally turned to business. I went 17 tries over the next three or four years going for these different kinds of business. How many tries have you guys gone through? Right? Have you counted them? Anyways 17 tries later I was doing two summers door-to-door sales, telemarketing, ebooks, diamonds, that was an interesting one, websites, traffic driver for Paul Mitchell, right? Anyway, and I thought the issue has gotta be me.   And I want them to say that about themselves. That's why I bring this up. You guys liking this? I was the issue. So I'm gonna use some of these same slides from a few other webinars because they work and the origin stories, it doesn't matter.   I'm still gonna change some things in the notes here and customize it based on the audience that's listening. But I can lead them down the psychology and why things are the way they are there. Kay?   "The issue must be me. 17 tries later, still not enough money to actually support us, it's gotta be me. There's no other reason. I can't even think of another reason why I haven't been successful at this game yet." Why am I saying that? How many of you guys right now there's 75 of us on right now. How many of you guys right now have asked yourself that question? Kay?   This is me doing this old story, if I know what your false beliefs are when you see this new opportunity, I use what you're saying to yourself inside of the new story. Inside of the new story. That is what combines, that is the bridge when you join in the conversation inside the customers head that's what that means.   That's why if you don't know who your customer is it's really hard to know what stories they're telling themselves and it's really hard to tell effective new stories. Very challenging.   All of this game starts with the who. Who, who, who, who, who, kay?   Anyway, I'm sure, I know, I'm positive, 99% of people have asked that question. Anyone who's successful has asked themselves that question. How come this isn't working? And they start doing this self-defeating thing, and that's fine - it's a natural thing. Every one of us has done it. But when I say I've also been through it oxytocin hit. It's the chemical of connection. It's the hardest one to get. "Man, this guy gets me."   Man we're going freaking deep. Deep! So I think through, and one of the things I wanna ask myself is what are these top entrepreneurs right, so I'm gonna pose a question here and at this point emotionally I've got them in this place where they're very open to me. They're very open to me. They've come through very similar to what  I've gone through.   I've answered questions about who this is? I've stepped to the side with them. Side by side. The positioning I'm taking:   Look little testimonial of people who've actually done what I'm talking about here so you know I'm not crazy. "Now who am I" Cool, here I am. There's some credentials now, it's actually going to the origin story itself. "Oh man, this guys actually all right. I connect with this guy. I've had the same questions in my life." Yeah, that's why I freaking talk about the stuff I do. That I came up with a plan. Have you ever done any one of these things ever? I guarantee it, right? So I have them in a point right now when I ask a question, this is very key, very key moment inside of the origin story. Where I ask the next question, and the question that I ask myself is "So is there a new way?" New way. Now I haven't brought in much of the new way yet.   . Anyway, we're almost done with the origin story here. Section one here. I haven't brought in too much new way yet. Still kinda focused on the old way but I'm gonna describe the old way through another mini story:   "So I started asking myself, what are the top entrepreneurs actually doing to make cash? Are they doing the real estate thing? I know some of them are. They're doing paper trading, paper assets, I know they are. Right?" And so I ask this question because it means they are gonna ask the question to themselves. If I pose a question, that's like cool mind control. If I said," I wonder what's in this orange bottle?" You just asked the same question, kay? I just literally entered your head - 'cause the human brain can't stand open loops. We gotta close the loop. "Wow, what is inside of this?" Right?   "How does Stephen have so much energy?" It's me entering your brain. Oh yeah. All right. "What are the top entrepreneurs actually doing to make cash?" And I wanna guide them through the section called old way. If you don't know what I'm talking about, page 114 in Expert Secrets talks about this.   Long journey. I'm sorry, this is part of plan. Right there. It's part of the new plan. And especially in a webinars this is very key. When we compare: "Look how crazy it was compared to what's happened now. Do you wanna know how?" Awesome, the rest of the presentation's about that. Does that make sense?   This is one of the ways you hook them to the end. Right here:   "So I said, man, what they weren't doing as I started looking around what I started noticing is that every one of these guys, none of them, none of them had websites. None of them did. Right? Not ones that are cash flowing 'cause no one could get them to cash flow. They were doing VC funding. They didn't have business plans and this went against everything I had been studying and learning, went against all my marketing degree. Everything that I had been doing up until that point."   Now let's see where we are right now. Conflict, right? So for me, I'm trying to help them see logically where I'm coming up from. And "I started studying I realized what they did have was this thing called a sales funnel." Kay?   And we're not on new way yet I'm just duplicating the slides here and honestly by the time I get through origin story on a webinar I'm typically around like 30 minutes. "Guess what they did have? Sales funnel."   All right I'm leading them through this epiphany as I go through it, kay? I was like "What's a freaking sales funnel? What's a sales funnel? That looks like a website. I don't know, I got a website, I know what to do. But I started studying all these different guys, and I ran into this guy..."   Okay, and this is where we start getting into again plan. New plan again: "I ran into this guy that looked like he was 13 years old. Is he even old enough to shave? I don't know. Should I even trust what he's saying? And I started studying his stuff, and I became a fanatic."   I like to have these things pop out as I talk about it.   So I'm like, "I ran into this guy named Russell Brunson I didn't know who he was. Is this dude even? I wonder if he's legit? Does he shave?" You know what I mean? And again I'm entering the objection that's inside their head. Right? They might be like, "He looks really young..." so I'm gonna say that "He looks really young."   It's interesting how much you can control this stuff. I'm gonna ruin you guys, I'm gonna ruin you guys.   Last night my wife and I were talking late, we were just chatting, and she's been asking a lot about sales psychology stuff and it's been kinda fun and she's getting into a lot of real estate stuff. I actually truly love real estate still. It's something you use a lot of, anyway.   Funnels are a great way to get a ton of cash real quick. What do you do with it once you got it? So real estate is the way we're moving. So she's diving into real estate guru-ism, and I'm being the funnel guy. Dance like a monkey in front of the camera guy.   So anyway, and I make these each pop up. And I was like: "Man, let me show you, so you guys know what I'm talking about. I saw this guy and his name was Russell Brunson and I was looking at him and I was like there's no way this guy knows what he's talking about. So let me... Let's see if it works? Like, check this guy out. I saw this course he had called DotCom Secrets, and I got it. Remember I've gone through 17 tries here. Suddenly things started working. I was like what the heck and I became kind of a Russell fanatic. I got his book DotCom Secrets then I went through Dot Com Secrets Ignite. Then I actually went through 108 Split Tests. I carried it in my backpack for months. Then I got the Perfect Webinar, this guy's crazy. I'm actually making cash from this. And again I was keeping it small 'cause I kept testing with all these little clients I was getting, but lo and behold stuff started working."   Anyways, so that's kinda how I roll it out like that as I'm saying it.   "And the biggest thing I learned from him was exactly what he was talking about which is this..." And this is where I really dive into new way/case study.   Now in this scenario I've actually done new way and case study, I'm doing both. So for the first one here I'm actually gonna do here's the new way, then I'm gonna walk through a case study just to destroy any additional false beliefs that people might have, kay?   This mustache is starting to get a little itchy.   The biggest thing I realized is that, all right, you guys I'm gonna start right there, again I'm using things from other things I've already created before.   A lot of things, if you've already made something like it's an asset forever, not just for just that business you're selling or whatever: "The biggest thing I realized is that funnels make me money and websites make me broke" Later on, I talk about a website, one of my very first websites and I show it to you. It's very funny. Anyways that's coming up in the plans. It's terrible. It was completely awful. It was for an artist. And so what I'm gonna talk about in this next little bit here is I'm actually gonna walk them through a crappy funnel that I had at the very very beginning.   We are now in case study. We've just gone through new way so now we're gonna dive through case study. Let me just clone this a couple times here. And I'm the case study, that's fine. Again if you don't have a bunch of testimonials, it's okay to be the case study on your own. So I'm the case study in this case. Which I have been. And I'm walking them through my origin story. They're still logically following me:   "This is one of the first funnels I built that was actually quite profitable. This is my crappy CD funnel. And I went through and I actually creating these different funnels and literally funnel hacking Russell. This is, I made this, I don't know, I got a ClickFunnels account very shortly after ClickFunnels left beta like a month or two afterwards. And that's one of the first ones I built. So this is like three and a half years old. But this is what I did. I literally modeled what he did. And so I went through and I just modeling exactly what he did and I went in and I bought everything in his funnel. Everything. All right so you guys can see this. I bought everything in his funnel. Every little piece in there."   And remember what I'm going through right here is I'm going through origin story to break that down a little bit more:   "I had no money so then I starting studying assets then I started building funnels."   I'm gonna compare a then versus now and that's what's coming up. That's why I'm doing this. A then versus now which is very powerful:   "I bought everything inside of his funnel, and I saw exactly everything that was in there I was like 'crap,' this might as well be my business model, why would I do anything different?"   "This is the beginnings of one of my very first funnels ever, and next thing I did is I sketched out the funnel itself. I don't like the little, I like centering it. I sketched out the funnel itself. Sweet I did the 7.95 thing, a 97 dollar thing, a 297 thing, and that was it. I was like sweet. I did the exact same thing literally. So my funnel after I went and did it looked exactly like this. This was it. Looked exactly like this. Then I built the entire funnel. And that was it, that was the funnel."   And so remember this is a case study so now the results need to come on in. So let's talk about the results:   "And the results are in. I was like what the heck. I made 18 thousand dollars in student loans my first year of marriage. And this funnel in a year did 60 grand with no ads spend. What! Completely changed our life. Totally changed our life you guys. 100%. This completely changed our life. That make sense?"   Kay, now I got them in this really interesting spot, and I'm like what if... Let's go back here to our assets. Conflict:   My funnel sucked, and I'm gonna talk about that:   "Guys, it did not do that at first. It was terrible. It was only after I modeled what I saw that Russell guy doing."   So the old way, right, the old way I don't build the funnel first. So that's one thing I didn't talk about up here is I went:   "he first time I went, and I built this thing sucked! Sucked! Everyone say sucked! It was terrible. I lost so much money.  It was crazy kinds of money. Time, I lost a lot of time. I didn't know what I was doing and this did not sell well at all. And I'm like well I might as well go in and free plus shipping funnel, right? The results are in, and we made 60 grand from that but how cool is that?"   Now I'm gonna do a then versus now. That's what this is called in script building. I'm gonna do a then versus now. Let's go back over here. New way/case study. Then versus now, right here. I'm talking about results so we're right here so then versus now so I'm gonna go in and I'm gonna grab the results from and those are pretty good. Not bad, not bad. That was okay:   "But you've gotta understand I did way better  - in a years time I was doing about four grand a month:   "The funnel's success had everything to do with the way I built funnels after this."   Had nothing to do, meaning literally the order of the way I built things in and what I wanna go through for the remainder of this is to show you this, check this out:   "The first time I went, and I launched it we did 60 grand, not bad. I know you guys are like "oh" but check this out: "This is the first month of the new way launching the exact same product. Look at that. Almost exactly the same amount of money in one month with no ad spend. That was in one month. So you guys, isn't that interesting? So I wanna share with you guys, alright so here's old way..."   Again we're pulling old way verse new way. So let's grab a text box. This making sense? It's making dollars. Alright, this is the old way. What! Let's make that text white, we'll make shape fill that red. Bam old way. Here. And that's pretty good, awesome. What! I wanna talk about the new way, though. And I'm gonna have this automate in at the exact same time. (Stephen finishes working on the intro to the script.)   Oh yeah!   Hey, obviously a funnel's already dead if you can't even get anyone to opt in, right? So I spent four hours teaching an audience how to get high opt-ins. When they work, and when they don't.   If you want access to that member's area where you can watch those replays, just go to freeoptincourse.com to create your free members account now.  

This message titled life obstacles could be called faith obstacles just as easily. In truth I hope that we can recognize life-s obstacles as test of our faith. With that said I hope that you are able to make connections as to how our adversary Satan troughs out many obstacles in our life. What we should be able to see is that these obstacles are meant to keep us from getting fully into Gods plan for our lives. These obstacles however large they may appear are truly no match for the God in which we serve, as I hope we see in our message today. So do you experience life obstacles- You just said yes of course I do. Right- Have you connected these obstacles with things which are intended to distract you form the very things God is doing in your life- Have you been able to say to yourself or even others that these obstacles where simply a test of your faith- Or did you miss that factor entirely- Have to been able to hold to the faith in our Lord and see how God brings even those seemingly high mountains down to their knees before you as you claim victory of the obstacles in life by the power and might of our God- Have you been able to recognize how faith and obedience play a very big part in overcoming life-s obstacles-

Visit www.BrianMarc.com/blog for full transcript, videos and quotes related to this episode.   Welcome everyone. It’s Brian Marc Zimberg, number one best-selling author of “Stop Smile Breathe Be” and creator of Access Points - The Modern-Life Meditation Plan”. Welcome to episode one of “Awake Life”. In today's video, we're going to take a look at the Big “E” word in spirituality, and that's “Enlightenment”. What is it really? Why are you interested in enlightenment? In fact, why is it important for you to be interested, if you're not interested in enlightenment. Odds are, if you're watching this video right now, you're already on a self-help journey of wanting to be better and improve yourself. And then you’ve probably gotten to a point where that was exhausting, and you're on the spiritual journey, where you want more peace and more happiness in your life.   So this show is called Awake Life and we're going to explore what is it to “awaken”, and what is it to live an “awake life”. So many of you probably have already gotten to the point, or maybe you're at the point right now, where “you think you’ve had enough of this life, then hang on, (singing) because everybody hurts” - excuse my bad voice - but you know that's the truth of it, you know? Life can be a grind, life can be a struggle, and odds are to get to the place of awakening, spiritual awakening, or interest in enlightenment, you first usually come to a place where you're ready to just give up.   You know, Buddha said “life is suffering” because basically, all our desires lead to a temporary fulfillment. So let's look at the context of your modern day life, because I'm really interested in the practical understanding of what is in enlightenment in a modern context? You see we live in a modern world, I mean, if you are desiring enlightenment because you want to run off and be a guru, and live off, and be a monk in a mountain somewhere? Because you can do that, right? But no. Odds are you have a life, you have a family, you're in the context of this world.   So Buddha said that desire leads us to things that are “temporary fulfillment”. So if we look at that in the context of our modern life, we achieve things. We’re told our whole life we can go get something and achieve it. So we learn how to be achievers, and when we achieve something, how does it feel? Think of something you've achieved in your life. It's temporary. We have a temporary moment of achievement and it feels good, and we can be excited, exhilarated, and other people around us can be excited for us, but it slowly fades away. Right? The fulfillment, that happiness, fades away. When you have a relationship and you get “love love love love love” and all the sudden you're whole, and you’re complete by another, it tends to… fade away.   We can learn the skill of relation and sustaining this love, but understand that everything you grasp in the outer world... fades away. That happiness doesn't last. You buy a nice car that you want so bad and it makes you feel great in the beginning, right? It’s like when you buy a cellphone, you take care of it good, and it becomes, whatever it gets chipped and it’s like OK… who cares? Because it gives us this temporary fulfillment, and we realize that that gives us temporary happiness. And at some point, that material, you know, illusion, becomes not enough. And we get to this point where we have this disillusionment, right? We either start feeling frustrated, or we realize there's something more to life. We feel this sense of pain, or meaninglessness, or what the hell is the point of all this already?  And a warning along the journey, you should know, if you're in that space right now, is that there's this existential funk that can happen there. You know this, what's the point?  And it's, I feel like giving up. I want to quit.   And when it goes even deeper, that's really where depression and even suicide can ensue. Where it literally seems pointless and meaningless. And I’m sure many people out there have felt this way, kind of like… I give up. What's the point? Or, am I screwing up my children? Or, I can't hold it all together. I'm sick of the holding it all together. Let's be honest with each other here. It's exhausting. Life can be exhausting trying to keep it up, and keep it together, based on what you've been told it's supposed to be about. (sigh) When you realize that -  it's key. It's a key disillusionment, and if you've already been on the journey and you’ve realized this… “Amen”! If not, it's coming for you. That's why you're here. There's no mistaking in our meeting right now.   So first off, it is not pointless and meaningless, it's actually full of a point. The point is that emptiness is not meaningless, but is actually fullness.  It’s fulfillment, and when we discover enlightenment truly, we discover true fulfillment. We discover fullness. Endlessness. We discover emptiness that is vast, infinite. That, you are one with that which is whole. You are already, complete, now.   So you know, along the road, we kind of have this dawning of “this isn't enough.” There has to be another way. There has to be something more. I want to know the truth”, right? I want to know what's real. I want to stop lying to myself. I want stop living “out of program”. I want to stop being “stuck in my mind”, and I want to live from reality. I want to live from truth. And we dawn on the idea of spiritual enlightenment. Spiritual awakening.   You know first, before we can really talk about what enlightenment really is, we need to take a look at what enlightenment is not, OK? There's a lot of misconceptions, and myths, and misbeliefs, and understanding about this, and it keeps us kinda on the spiritual journey, on a hamster trail, trying to get to a destination. Often people think of enlightenment as this final permanent state, right? “When I reach enlightenment, I'm going to have, I’m going to be blissed out. I'm only going to have have positive emotions. I'm only going to feel blissed all the time. It makes me grin, you know? That’s enlightenment.” Or maybe enlightenment is that you can turn to a light body and disappear. Now I'm not saying that that can't happen, but the truth in the matter is enlightenment isn't those things. You still will be a human being. You're still, emotions will still come and go, you know? Some of the greatest sages still died of cancer, right? Osho had back pain. Paramahansa Yogananda did preserve his body and had a glowing light, but he was a yogi. So is the goal of enlightenment for us each to be a yogi? You see, there is development of our consciousness, and maybe we can be moving towards a light body, but let's get real for a moment. What is spiritual awakening? It is waking up… to reality.   So let's take a look for a moment at when you have a nightmare, or you have a dream, alright? You probably can remember a time where there was someone trying to kill you in a dream. Somebody was chasing you. You were scared. Can you remember that time? Think of a bad dream you had, and then you woke up. You're like, “Oh, it was just a dream”. Now go back in the context of that dream. In the dream it was real. Right? You didn't know you were dreaming. Like, if a lion is chasing you and wants to kill you, salivating, running after you in your dream… you're going to feel fear. You're going to be running. You're going to be sweating. You're going to be... scared, right? You're going to be… suffering. But when you come out of the dream, you wake up.   So it's very possible, my friends, for you to start to recognize that these atoms and molecules, that your photons are seeing me and seeing this world, that you're buying into the thoughts in your head, and you're calling that “reality”. It's creating your suffering. It's creating the struggle of your life. It's time to wake up. It's time to wake up and realize it's just a dream. [Sighs] Yes, it IS real in the context of creation, in the physical manifestation of infinity. And you, as an individual, have the divine birthright to awaken to the truth of who you are. To awaken. I mean, imagine the glory of the opportunity, through all this evolution. What is it? Billions of years going by, coming to this individuation and form. Your D.N.A., possible to turn back on its own awareness, and awaken to its truth. For life, for G-d, to awaken in the creation… at itself.   You know that's the difference, of what we call, in the Hindus, Leela and Maya.  Maya, the illusion of life, right? We're caught in our minds. We’re caught as an individual. We’re separate, therefore, we can be destroyed, and life as a survival. We’re a survival animal. We're stuck in that process.   When we awaken, when we step out of the dream, right? When the lion isn't real, and the fear is false evidence appearing real. But not because it's a good teaching. Not because it’s a good idea, but because we really have a shift. This shift is crucial, because when you’ve awakened, which if you already had an essential experience, you’ve already awakened… then something… without a question… without a doubt, you know that you’re freedom itself. That who you are, is love itself.   In the moment of spiritual awakening, if you've been there already, you know, call it an essential experience. If you had that moment, for me, it happened profoundly and deeply in Joshua Tree Desert in 1996. At the end of a mushroom journey, on the come down. I felt, like, a light hit my chest. It was beyond just that… It was clear to me that everything was One. That I was whole. That I was it. That I am it. That G-d is it. That everything is One. Everything is perfect.   In this essential experience, we break through the veil of illusion. We see the wizard on the other side, and we get the cosmic joke. Right? We really even have the cosmic laugh. Right? Have you been there? Where you (laughs) Have you been there? Where you have that cosmic laugh where it’s just like, “Oh my gosh, I've been caught up in believing I’m me, and then this, and all these trips…” and you just see crystal clear, the beauty of infinity. That you are it. See my dear friends, enlightenment looks like you right now. Enlightenment sounds like me right now. This is it. Exactly how it is.   You probably maybe heard this story were they asked, I think Lao Tzu, “What did you do after you were enlightened?” And he said he “had some tea.” (laughs) He had some tea. Why? Well it’s the same as “before enlightenment chop wood, after enlightenment chop wood.” See the essential realization is that it is endless, infinite, and it is now. And It’s not held. It's not held in any time or space. It’s not held in any concept or idea. There is no you. There is no nothing. It’s endless, endless, endless. And it's joy. And it's freedom. And that's you, right now. Enlightenment, looks like you, now. All the good parts of you. All the bad parts you. Enlightenment looks like you.   So if you had that moment of realization, that spiritual awakening, we could say, then what happens along the spiritual journey is this chasing of the state of enlightenment, right? This finished place, where you're just going to be enlightened all the time. Now there is a shift, and that shift begins with that essential experience, where we are more identified with awareness itself, right? Like the background becomes a front, and the front becomes the background. Your story, your individual story, your centered Me, becomes the background, and the background becomes the front.   (sigh) That is a shift that is profound. We could call that enlightenment, where you're more identified with the truth of who you are, infinity, than you are with this individual mind. And in that, there is just love. You see, in this, I just want to tell you, “I love you”. Why? Because there is truly no other. There truly is no other. That absolute reality you have probably already realized. And if you're a person out there, who’s like, “Wow. I'm just beginner. I haven't realized that…” In a moment in nature, remember a time where you saw some awe inspiring vista. You looked out at some beautiful sunset, or some sunrise. You’re just (sigh). You're “awe” struck. Right? In that moment, there's no you, almost. Everything's connected. You're there, but you're not there. You're whole. You're complete. There’s a moment of peace that we've all had out in nature. We have that moment in orgasm too. So you've had this moment. It may not, you may not define it as a spiritual awakening because you didn't have this clarity of like “Wow! I’ve just been chasing my tail. I get the cosmic joke, and I see infinity, and I’m it!”   But it will come for you, that's coming next if you're on this journey and you're here listening to this video right now. So how do we really experience that shift, and allow this enlightenment, this awakening, to fall deeper and deeper? There is an end to being asleep, but there is no end to waking up. We let go. Greater than ever before. Not in the concept that we think letting go is. Take our hands off the steering wheel. We surrender to this discomfort of this unknown, and we drop. We fall. There's no end to infinity meaning infinity. If you already recognize that that Oneness is truth, absolute baseline, then it's time to start noticing that you're trying to get back to an experience that happened in the past. See now, this is really crucial. These experiences we've had in the past, they’re not it. You see, in an enlightening experience, we have sensation. We have feeling. We have bliss, right? So we have experience. We have sensory. We have emotions. We have thought maybe even, but all that comes and goes. It is all pointing to the stillness, the infinity, which is beyond concept. Beyond thought. Beyond experience. Beyond emotion. Beyond sensation. It was all there to point you to that. And then all that fades away. And we get back on the journey, and we're trying to get back to this feeling and this experience.   You know, there was a student of mine years ago, his name was Bill. He suffered from depression for years. He was on a spiritual quest for thirty years. Depression. He had been a Vietnam vet. He was in halfway houses, post-traumatic stress, a lot of different issues that plagued him, and he was a devoted spiritual seeker. He tried mystery schools. And different teachers that had rules and structure and hard core stuff, but his greatest experience, before meeting me, came from this “out of body experience” that he had. You see, he said, in it he felt so “free”. He was no longer his body. The “crap” of life was like… gone! Like, he didn’t have to concern himself with the struggle and the suffering of life anymore. He could just be free, and at peace. And his whole journey from there on out was to “get that back.” Right? So we get on the spiritual journey, we attain these realizations and these epiphanies, and so we start to collect them, like they are achievements. It is time for you to give up your spiritual treasures.   For those of you on the spiritual journey, it's time for you to stop, and give up. It sounds crazy, but like when I said to Bill, “give up” this feeling that you want to get back to. “Give up” this experience. “Give up” this experience that you think you had in some past. It doesn't serve you right now. We need to get and understand that your past experiences are not it. Enlightenment is right now, as it is. And, in fact, when you realize that infinity, right now, by not following the thought out of your head, right now, and you stop believing your thoughts for a moment, then infinity, enlightenment, is right here. And it doesn't know a past experience ,or remember what it's supposed to be trying to get to. It's clean, it's fresh, and it's new. Stop trying to get there, and you already know so much. You've got to give up knowing, you know? When you don't know, you know… when you know, you don't know.   It's time to give up your attainments. Time to give up your knowing. Your philosophical understandings. When your intellectual identification with your mind is just clouded by a bunch of past experiences and understandings, that even your own realization in your own enlightenment is in the way of your own true-heartedness, then it’s time to stop. I'm inviting you to “call off the search.” You know, the great line by Papaji, that many of us might know. See, to really hear this right now, in this video, in this moment, you can have a deeper awakening that you've ever had in your life. You can actually have a shift deeper than you've ever known.   So the way to really start “living” an awake life, and deepening in your own awakening, is to finally “give up the search”. (sigh) Start inquiring into who you are, and why you are here, right now. Right here. Be willing, for a moment, to just stop. To call off the search. Call off the search for happiness. Let it go. Be willing not to follow the next thought out of your head. Give up the hope of enlightenment. Give up the avoidance of what you feel is uncomfortable. For a moment, just stop for a moment. what is here? Forget everything that can be forgotten. What is here now? Excellent.   So, explore that. Right? Explore being-ness. So, if you're someone who's deep on the journey, it's time for you to let go of all your experiences. All your knowledge. All your understandings. And recognize, moment-to-moment, that every time you're in your thoughts, every time you're in your individual perspective that knows these things, that had these experiences, that thinks it should be more enlightened and more experienced somewhere else, in that moment, you're in your thoughts again. You're in separation again. To have a true transcendence, moment-to-moment, of individual thought, of separate self, is when we align ourselves with Oneself. Right here, right now. And in that, there’s a fluidity. A moment-to-moment opening. Vulnerability. A willingness to welcome whatever arises and falls. I invite you to that right now. Please. For all of us and for you.   And for those of you who are maybe thinking you're a beginner, or you're just starting out of this journey, or, you know, you're somewhere in between. I want  you to notice with me right now, that you “are”.  Just say, “I am”. That you “are”. That you are is this IS-ness, you see? You “are”. And, you know, they say “fake it until you make it”? Well, “everything” in the real self-realization in the realization of infinity, Oneness… “Everything” is connected, and Everything is One. In a lot of my teachings, I call it “Your True-OneSelf”. OneSelf. That's you. So fake it till you make it? Hey, how about right now, look down the floor where you’re at. Is it being? Is it? It is. Wherever you are, look up at the sky or the ceiling. Is it? It is. Your mind can say it's a color. Your mind can have definitions and labels about things, but it “is”.   Start noticing that “everything is”. Start noticing that “you are”. There is no other. Everything is OneSelf meeting OneSelf. When you can take on that perspective, even if you haven't had the shift of living in that perspective, when you can choose, when you're caught in struggle, when you're caught in feeling bad and you're trying to get rid of a bad emotion, you can just accept that everything is “yourself meeting itself”. It's OneSelf.   You’ll have a different opening to life, noticing that “is”, that you “are”, that being “is”… everywhere. Everything is just “being”. And any moment you can shift to that perspective and an openness. A beauty of life. You know in that essential experience, we have this total sense of perfection.  This total sense that everything is perfect. That everything is OK. The stream is leading you where it is, and your lifeform, your journey, is all accumulated to this moment right now. You're hearing me right now in this moment, and this invitation to allow yourself to finally be. To explore being. If you think you know this already, I dare you to drop that idea that you know it, and explore your “being” deeper.   So, thank you for joining here. You know we're going to jump in here really start ripping this apart, you know? Really looking at “what is awakening” and “what is it to live an awake life?” Looking at different aspects of this “spiritual journey”. The truth is, it is all spiritual. You know, right? It’s not “I’m a human being having a spiritual experience, but I’m a spirit having a human experience?” It is all spiritual, my friends. And when we start living in the mystical context, and the beauty of perfection that is actually who and what we are, then there's a shift in life right here and now. Nothing has to change. All emotions are welcome. Good and bad can happen in life. The story can play out, but you could know that you already are whole. It’s your divine birthright to understand the perfection and beauty of life, moment-to-moment. Even when there's horror. Even when there's pain. I love you. I send you all the love. I send you all the blessings. So, until next time, here's to living an awake life, from your True-OneSelf, and into the greatest expression of you.  

“The Girl on the Right” Have you made outside-the-norm choices for your life?  Do you long to do something meaningful, even though you’re in your “second 53 years”?  All you need is a little inspiration and some encouragement to take that first baby step?  This is the podcast for you! This episode is inspired by a face book graphic…several little girls in ballet class paying attention to the teacher, but “the girl on the right” is hanging upside down on the barre by her knees!  The caption is:  “Be like the girl on the right”. Research led me to four women who chose paths not traveled by their peers: Agree with their politics or not, they lived “girl on the right” lives!  Juliett Gordon Low:  Founder of the Girl Scouts http://www.biography.com/people/juliette-gordon-low-20766743 Maggie Kuhn:  Founder of The Gray Panthers http://www.britannica.com/biography/Maggie-Kuhn Carry Nation http://www.britannica.com/biography/Carry-Nation   Peace Pilgrim http://www.npr.org/2013/01/01/168346591/peace-pilgrims-28-year-walk-for-a-meaningful-way-of-life