POPULARITY
In this episode of The Building Texas Business Podcast, I spoke with Brian Freedman, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, about the region's economic development. We explored the five major industry clusters shaping the area: maritime logistics, aerospace, tourism, healthcare, and petrochemicals. Brian shared updates on aerospace innovations at Ellington Field, including projects by Intuitive Machines and Axiom, while highlighting new opportunities in defence manufacturing. I learned about Project 11, an initiative to expand the Houston port's capacity for larger vessels. Brian explained how this infrastructure project connects to the broader transportation network, particularly the role of trucking in regional commerce. We discussed how the partnership works with legislators and industry leaders to address challenges like insurance costs and maintain economic momentum. The conversation shifted to leadership approaches and team dynamics in Texas business. Brian described how maintaining diverse projects keeps his team engaged and motivated. We explored how the Houston area supports entrepreneurs through community partnerships and mentorship programs while adapting to technological changes like AI integration. Our discussion wrapped up with a look at workforce development in the region. Brian explained how educational partnerships are building talent pipelines across industries. We covered the importance of aligning training programs with business needs while fostering collaboration between municipalities, educational institutions, and industry partners. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS In this episode, I spoke with Brian Freedman, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, about the economic development in the Houston Bay Area, focusing on the recruitment, retention, and expansion of primary employers. We discussed the significant industry clusters in the region, including maritime logistics, aerospace, tourism, healthcare, and petrochemicals, and their impact on the area's economic growth. Brian highlighted developments at Ellington Field, including contributions from companies like Intuitive Machines and Axiom, as well as the emerging opportunities in defense manufacturing and procurement. The episode explored the scale and impact of the Houston port, emphasizing Project 11's role in expanding the port's capacity and the importance of logistics and innovation for regional prosperity. We delved into the leadership style necessary for motivating teams and managing diverse projects, underscoring the Texan entrepreneurial spirit characterized by ambition and a collaborative approach. Brian shared insights on the vibrant business ecosystem in Texas, driven by a skilled workforce, affordability, and a supportive community fostering partnerships and mentorship opportunities. Finally, we addressed challenges like insurance costs and the importance of regional solidarity, as well as efforts to mitigate natural disaster risks and promote responsible development in the area. LINKSShow Notes Previous Episodes About BoyarMiller About BAHEP GUESTS Brian FreedmanAbout Brian TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Chris: In this episode you will meet Brian Freedman, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership. Brian shares how his organization works to recruit, retain and expand primary employers in the greater Houston Bay Area region. Brian, I want to welcome you to Building Texas Business. Thanks for joining us today. Brian: Hey, thank you, Chris. Honored to be here and great to catch up. Chris: Yes, likewise. So let's start with you. You're the president and the organizational name's kind of long it's Bay Area, houston Economic Partnership. Tell the listeners a little bit about what that organization is and what it does, to kind of put the rest of our conversation into context. Brian: Sure, so BayHEP is the short version of it. So we're the Regional Economic Development Group and kind of the, as I like to say, in the Houston-Galveston region. We're three o'clock to six o'clock on the watch, face right. So we kind of go out 225, all the municipalities and cities going out east and then going down south 45. We go a little west of 45, but really that 3 o'clock to 6 o'clock and we're really focused on how do you recruit, retain and expand primary employers in the region with the idea that if you can get great companies located here and have a group of industry clusters that are cranking away every day, that we can have a great place to live. We have great involved residents that are in this area and opportunities for the folks who live here and kind of build what the future will look like for this region. So a lot of good stuff going on and, happy to get into that a little further, we do economic development, recruitment, retention projects. So how do we get companies here? We do some grants and then we're a membership organization is how we're funded. So we have about 300 members, 19 municipal members, Harrison-Galveston County, the port, the airport system. It's really how do you get the leaders of a region to work together to advance what we're doing here. Chris: Wow, I mean that's it sounds like it's easier to say and harder to do coordinating that many organizations and trying to get everybody pulling the same direction. Brian: Yeah, it's a lot of fun and we get to work with a lot of great folks. That's how we met Chris, is that, you know, through some of our mutual connections. But yeah, you know, it's really when you can get generally like-minded folks thinking about what the future of a region will look like and pretty aligned and working towards that effort, it's more of a well, it's just fun and you can create a lot of impact and we're seeing that and I'll be happy to dive into some of the specific projects we're working down here. But I mean, you guys do it too at Boyer Miller. Y'all are working with clients all over the spectrum of types of industry and you have to adapt to what's coming up, what's at you, and be ready for that kind of stuff. Chris: Yeah, no doubt. So yeah let's jump into some stuff. Let's talk first, because when I think of your area, obviously the first thing that comes to mind is NASA and all that's going on around that, and that leads me to technology and innovation. So what are some of the emerging technologies or trends that you're seeing that are kind of helping shape the future of Texas and kind of the business opportunities, at least in your region and for Texas? Brian: Yeah, so I call it kind of the big five on the industry cluster. So everybody thinks about this area for NASA, which we love right, because it really is a crown jewel out here, but I call it the big five right Maritime and all the associated logistics with the port aerospace and aviation, so nasa, but also the great work that the airport system is doing with ellington and hobby, tourism and recreation, health care and all the hospitals that have campuses down here, and then specialty and petrochemical and the energy industry partners and every one of those ecosystem has a ton of stuff going on. So I'm happy to talk about some of those more granular. But a couple of observations. One is that often overlooked in this community and really an asset to the greater Houston region is Ellington Field, ellington Airport, the Spaceport and, if you haven't seen or heard about it, the work that's going on at the Spaceport. They have three new beautiful buildings. One is occupied by Intuitive Machines who just put the first commercial lander payload on the surface of the moon. One is occupied by a company called Axiom that's building the next generation of commercial spacesuits and the next generation space station, and Collins who do spacesuit design in our building and maintaining the current spacesuits. They've set up huge facilities down there and so new stuff coming on. But I'm equally excited about just across the runway is the 147th Reserve Group. So there's a reserve unit out there, a reserve base, and the defense opportunities are pretty exciting. So that's highlighted by the 147th. But almost every branch has a reserve unit out there, save the Space Force, and we're working on that. And so the opportunities with defense manufacturing to come out to do more work in Houston and some of their innovation units and, as mundane as it sounds, some of the procurement opportunities, because when it comes to contracting, having a group of folks here would be a great opportunity for Houston businesses to then pipeline the work that they're doing into the broader defense industry, which can be really exciting. One other thing I'll mention, chris, is if you just look at the path of predictable growth for Houston, right, it keeps going out and we see that on our freeways every day. So there are growing pains that come with that, but for our region it's that steady march down Interstate 45. And so while Clear Lake Lake City are starting to get to fully built out and we're looking at what is the next generation of building look like, what's redevelopment look like For communities Dickinson, hitchcock, santa Fe, to some extent Texas City. Although they've got quite an industrial complex too, there's still space, and so it really brings up the opportunity of we can handle big projects, and whether they're industrial or tourism, there's a lot of opportunity that comes with that. And so, as folks you know, as we get built out further and further, those cities that were, they've always been important cities for the regional ecosystem, but they become major players, and so it's exciting to be able to work with them on that stuff. Chris: Sounds like a lot of opportunity for real estate development. Both residential, retail, commercial, industrial kind of all sectors are going to be playing a big part in that ongoing development in your region. Brian: Exactly right, and part of the the fun part is, you know, every municipality has different targets of what they view their economic development to look like, and so we get to work with all those cities where some may be really focused on industrial, some may want to be bedroom communities and be focused on residential. Our task is to support those municipalities in this region and identifying good players to bring to the table. So who are people that we do want to partner with that can follow through on the projects that can complete them and make them successful? Chris: That's great. I think I saw recently in the news the state of Texas, I think it's had something along these lines, but it's like a fund for the space-related projects and I know I don't know the name and you'll help me with that, but I seem to recall the governor being in town and making some big announcement right after the first of the year. Tell us a little more about that. Brian: Recall the governor being in town and making some big announcement right after the first of the year. Tell us a little more about that, exactly, right? So last legislative session, primarily spearheaded by State Representative Greg Bonin, who's also a Princewood resident he's a neurosurgeon by day and State Representative Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee during the legislative session he had this kind of vision of how does the state become a major player in the aerospace community. That's been primarily a federal and private industry ecosystem and so under his vision and with support of the state legislature and certainly the governor, they put a bill that kind of outlined a direction for the state to engage and the resources behind it. It does a couple of things. One was it allocated about $200 million that would go to Texas A&M to build this A&M Space Institute, and they've actually located that property. It will be built on the edge of the campus of Johnson Space Center, so for those familiar with this area, right on Saturn Lane. $200 million building and, as A&M's laid it out, it will have a giant lunar rock yard and a giant Mars rock yard, with the idea that everybody who's going to be doing hardware testing to send vehicles to the moon or Mars is trying to figure out where they're going to do that testing. And it's very expensive to build, obviously. And so companies are making the decision whether they're going to build that themselves and own it or go lease it somewhere. And if they're going to lease it, where do you go to find a giant brockyard to simulate the surface of the moon? And well, the state of Texas answered that question. So what was so unique about that vision was that everybody who's in that ecosystem now wants to come through Houston Texas to do that work. And so with that comes the. You know they'll be have their lab space there, but they may need offices, they're going to be hiring people, and so you know it really is an exciting project. They had their groundbreaking right at the end of last year. I've seen surveyors out there and they think they're going to have it open in 2026. So an aggressive timeline to get that bill. The other part to that bill was they appropriated $150 million for a grant program to incentivize sort of space leadership projects in the state of Texas, and so they have to set up a whole, basically administration portion of this. So they selected nine individuals to serve on the Texas Space Commission who will review those proposals and evaluate them and make awards. Who will review those proposals and evaluate them and make awards, and then they'll also help advise the state on how they can keep their leadership position in the space industry. The first of those awards about 20 million were released a little over a week ago. A couple of them were studies for best use for really cool stuff hypersonic corridors where to be landing sites. And then another one that is to build assets and capabilities for the Space Force in El Paso to have more of a Space Force presence in the state of Texas, which is pretty exciting. So I'm optimistic about what's to come for them. Chris: Yeah, that sounds very exciting, especially the concept of the $200 million grant to A&M and what that will do to attract other businesses that might relocate somewhere else and bring them here, and then all the ancillary things around hiring and jobs et cetera. So that's very exciting news and I think it'll be just around the corner. Let's maybe talk a little bit about. You mentioned Maritime and the port, and most Houstonians People know the Houston port is a significant asset for our area. Anything going on there that's new and exciting, any kind of innovation that you see when you're working with those entities and, I guess, the port authority itself. Brian: Yeah, well, maybe the first thing when you talk about the port is you're absolutely right just how important they are to this well, to all of Houston, but to the country I mean. The scale of the port is hard to appreciate when you just look at the numbers. But the numbers are just staggering. The amount of capability that comes through there and the innovation really is on the logistics and management for how they move, whether it's container, you know, container containers, the container terminal organization and how that whole orchestra is operated, and the capabilities from there is that the crane's getting stuff unloaded, then onto the trucks or rail or whatever. The mechanism to get it out and then get it distributed to wherever it's going is pretty incredible, and so we're fortunate to have them. We just hosted the new port CEO, charlie Jenkins, who's a phenomenal leader, has a career in service of the port, is the right guy to lead that organization into their next chapter. But he made this comment kind of in passing that the port's operations are about a $3 billion a day operation, you know, and you just go like a day of economic impact that go into that. The scale is really something impressive and that's all the trickle out and secondary effects. But it's amazing, the big thing that's going on with them right now is Project 11. That's the deepening and widening of the channel that'll allow additional capacity to go in there, and it's really writing the story for what the next chapter of the port's future is and Houston as a trading hub is, and so it'll allow for larger ships to come through. The additional investments they're making will allow faster turn and movement of all the goods that are on there. So a lot of good stuff going on. I guess the last thing I'll say is anybody who's driven 225 sees all those trucks and I drive it pretty regularly and see that too and as much as nobody likes driving next to a giant 18 wheeler, every one of those trucks is jobs and prosperity for our region, and so the next time you're driving there and you see a hundred trucks going down 225, that's our economic prosperity moving around our region and, candidly, around the country. It's good stuff. Chris: It's a good point. Yeah, I mean it's. You wouldn't want the roads to be empty and no trucks moving. I mean that's not a good sign. So feel blessed that we have all that you know in our area and driving all kinds of different prospects and opportunities for people. So when you are working with, let's talk a little bit about these member organizations and all the different moving parts you know what are you doing? How do you, I guess, keep things organized and people kind of moving in the same direction? Just, I would think that in itself is a full-time job. Brian: Yeah, it's a lot, but you know it's good stuff. I guess I'll start with a phrase that I kind of live by, which is we have a lot of stuff going on and so we'll find something to get on about. Right, we can always find something to work together on, and so, if you kind of start with that attitude, there's a lot of common issues that really require a lot of work but you can get maybe not perfect alignment, but general directional alignment. And so you know, one of the big issues we're working with right now is insurance. Right, we're all dealing with it. I'm sure you've gotten your insurance bill, but whether it's home or your business insurance, all those things, and so you can find a lot of commonality and ideas about hey, how can we work with our state leaders, potentially our federal leaders, with the insurance companies themselves, to try to manage the cost of doing that and find ways could it be grouping, doing kind of what they do in medical where you can have these larger groups or other mechanisms to try and help mitigate some of the costs? For that I'm getting a little granular, but you can find these little pockets where you can go move the ball down the field and get general alignment and so we spend a lot of time doing that. But we are very fortunate that our membership and generally this is kind of a Texan spirit type thing is hey, how do we go get some stuff done? Right, we want to go work on some stuff we want to go work on together. Generally it's a rising tide mentality and I spent a good portion of my career in industry and there are times where we compete like crazy and that's fun and, you know, makes great products and great opportunities for our customers. There are a lot of times where we need the tide to rise and finding alignment about that we try to be an outlet for that and keep things running. Right Is that we have not a big staff but a staff that can help make sure that. You know, our members are doing a lot of this stuff as volunteers, right, but they're bringing ideas to the table. So how can we make sure that they're staying engaged, that we're checking in on them, that we're helping carry these things and that we're creating a forum to have the right discussions and bring leaders together so we can invite in elected officials over relevant stuff, the right industry players, and bring them to the table and figure out what we can do, and then I guess the last thing I'll say is that manifests itself. We have a very active state legislative agenda. That we're going to be spending a fair amount of time in Austin, federal priorities. That we work with our congressional delegation and then very on the ground working with our municipalities and all the companies that are out down here to make movement. Probably talk all day about little one-offs. Advert Hello friends, this is Chris Hanslick, your Building Texas business host. Did you know that Boyer Miller, the producer of this podcast, is a business law firm that works with entrepreneurs, corporations and business leaders? Our team of attorneys serve as strategic partners to businesses by providing legal guidance to organizations of all sizes. Get to know the firm at boyermillercom. And thanks for listening to the show at boyermillercom. And thanks for listening to the show. Chris: Well it is. You know legislature is in session, so I know that creates a busy time for you. You talked a lot about some of the opportunities and I hope we can talk some more about that, but I do want to ask you at this point what are some of the headwinds that you see you know this region and specifically kind of where you are. You know that could be out there. That you see you know this region and specifically kind of where you are. You know that could be out there that you've got to try to deal with, to get ahead of or navigate through. Brian: I'll start with. It's a great time down here. Just the way that each one of those big five industry clusters is going about is that it's a. You know they're all doing well and have a lot of opportunity that's on the horizon or that they're in the midst of right now, but certainly you know, a few headwinds. One of the things that we're always worried about and we work actively is just natural disaster flood mitigation and storm surge and making sure that we're resilient and prepared for the future, and so the risk from some incident happening. I'm more excited to talk about, when it comes to that, all the things that we're doing to mitigate that. In terms of flood mitigation, the coastal barrier protection work that we've been spending a lot of time on. That's the Ike Dike. It has a lot of names, but most commonly known is that but a system to protect us from storm surge. So one is the risk of natural disaster I don't like it, but it's a real thing, right? The second is that we're in the you know how do we have responsible development? And so when you have a project that comes online, there are, you know, reasonable concerns from citizens saying, hey, is this the best thing to be doing with this piece of land, and so anytime you're talking about a development that's going to take a field and turn it into a thing, people get concerned about that and that's perfectly reasonable for them to be concerned and want to do that. And so part of what I spend time doing is addressing like, hey, here's why this is worthwhile, here's why this funds your local municipality and build more parks so we can have the resources and the tax base that justify expenditures that come elsewhere and make through that. But just the ability for the public's ability to impact development, as it happens, is important. But for them to do that knowing all the ground truth, knowing what the trades are and understanding that, so that if they are concerned about something that they come with that from an educated knowledge base and so that's out there. And then I certainly don't want to get political, but anytime there's an administration change, there's just priorities that get changed. And so we're still waiting to understand all of those. We're kind of watching how things are shaken out in Washington DC and we'll adapt and make sure that we're doing everything we can to put our region in a great posture with whatever those priorities are at the end of the day. Chris: So yeah, to that last point where you're kind of right in throws that change. Right now that's happening pretty fast, so you got to stay on your toes. Let me take you back to the Ike Dike, because that you know something to get after Harvey. Hurricane Harvey got talked about a lot. You don't hear much about it anymore. Any kind of updates for the listeners. That might be curious. Is it really going to happen and, if so, what's really going on down there to make sure it doesn't happen? Brian: And if so, what's really going on down there to make sure it doesn't happen? Yeah, so it's still moving along, you know, and with some enthusiasm. So a couple of big milestones. One is that in December of 22, it became a formal project of the US Army Corps of Engineers. It was authorized by Congress as a project, so that says, you know, they can now go focus on that. And so the next big question becomes how do we pay for it? To answer that, the state stepped up in a big way in the last legislative session and they had previously formed what's called the Gulf Coast Protection District. That is the local entity for that project. That will work with the US Army Corps of Engineers. So that group exists and has monthly meetings. They actually have an office in our suite. We lease an office to them them and they have their meeting in our conference room two out of every three months and then they do a rotation on that. Third, and they've been funded to the tune of about a half a billion dollars from the state of Texas. So they're ready to take significant action. We've been working with our federal partners about identifying where the big dollars come from for that project. It's going to be expensive and it's going to take a long time, but it will be likely done in phases and so that allows it. Where you don't need this one giant tranche of money all at once, you can do it sort of in a series and address the most important aspects of that, like the gates, some of the initial most highly populated areas, in phases. But we got to get federal appropriations for it. So in addition to the state entity being in our office, actually the US Army Corps of Engineers is on the fourth floor of this building and so all of the players for that project are in one building in our area right here, so that when what I'm hopeful for is if Corps moved in about six months ago, anytime an elected leader wants to come down and meet, they'll get every leader for that project in the same building and often meeting in our conference room or one of the core conference rooms. But a lot more can get done. There's sort of the opportunity for water cooler conversations between the state and the fed folks, and so I'm optimistic that the cadence just from that proximity will be helpful to that effort. Chris: Very good, that's good to hear. Let's change conversation a little bit. So, as I said, you're the president of BHEP. You mentioned your staff. Let's talk a little about leadership. How would you describe your leadership style and how do you think that's evolved kind of as you've been in this role? Brian: Yeah, well, I don't know that I can quantify terribly well, but I'm a kind of hey, all hands on deck and let's all just lean into wherever we're going. Right, and I kind of have that expectation of our team that we're have a clear set of priorities generally around the growth of this region and the projects that we're undertaking and that we're just leaning into them all the time and focusing. That I've been. You know I love getting down and into projects and so that's as I've been on this journey. That's been one of the big focus points to me is that you know you need a team to get this amount of stuff done and the size of these projects and the scope and so the ability to trust in the team and lean on them and let them go run with the ball is really important. I've been extremely fortunate that we have a great staff and we have a great membership base that we can lean on to help go bring those things to fruition. But it's a lot of fun coming to work. I think the team has a great time and enjoy the work that we do and you can see the difference that we make because there are buildings. We can point to that, wouldn't, you know, if not for the work of us and the leaders in this community wouldn't be there, and I'm looking forward to seeing that one on Saturn Lane with giant Texas A&M buildings sticking out of it coming through. Chris: It sounds like it's going to be impressive with the rockyards and all. But, you know, it made me think, though your team has a lot on its plate, I would think at times it may feel overwhelming. So, you know, what do you do to kind of help keep the motivation and keep the energy level up for a team that probably, at some points is, you know, starting to get to the end of the rope or run out of gas? Brian: Yeah, diversity of projects and lots of different stuff to work on. I'm guessing and actually I'd kind of turn that question on you, chris, because I can only imagine the type of stress that you guys live under, especially working big cases and big projects. There's one part that is, hey, we're just all in this together, right, and the esprit de corps that comes with. We're tackling big projects and that's just part of what comes with it. But there's another part where you just need to shift gears for a little bit and work on something different and give yourself a little recharge time. But how do you guys deal with it? I'm curious how? Chris: Boyer Miller, yeah that's a fair question to turn around on me. I would say it's similar. I think it's. You know to me that you can't underestimate the power of a team and if you have the right people on the team, there's some self-motivation just within that group, Right. And then I think it is the. We are fortunate to have very diverse type projects. We practice in all industries. So we may be doing a, a deal or a project, but it's in a different industry and there's different nuances that make it exciting. And at the end of the day I think it's the one point you highlighted on you can point to something and we're helping clients achieve their goals. So we can, you know, point to a deal that's been done or, you know, maybe it's a merger of two companies, or one that's grown and now has a new building and doing whatever. But you can point to those successes that you, where you've helped the client achieve, you know something really big for them and their business and their life. And so I think all of that continues the motivation. Yes, sometimes at the end of a big deal, you need just a little bit of a breather, but you just jump right back in and get going. So it makes it fun. Brian: Well, if you'll let me share. So you and I first met in person, had an opportunity to meet at one of your big forums, and that was a bunch of your customers and clients were there, and I love meeting new folks, as you probably saw, and I you know, walking around just saying, hey, I'm Brian, what do you do? And almost every one of them I would ask like, hey. So how do you know Chris, how do you know this group? You know, have you worked with them? And they all had a story. That was exactly that. You know, whatever thing it was that you helped them. We did XYZ project and it was awesome. We use them all the time for all these things. It was just very striking how passionate your customers, your clients, are with the help they've gotten from you guys, and so, anyway, that is extremely commendable and what I've seen from your team has just been amazing. Chris: Well, I appreciate the feedback. It's always good to get that, especially from different sources. So you know, like I think, we're always trying to create raving fans so that they'll keep coming back and tell their friends. So you get a unique seat and I think it's similar. You kind of analogize back to us. I think we get a unique seat to work with Texas entrepreneurs, and that's a pretty cool thing to do, in my view. What's, what would you or how would you describe the Texas entrepreneurial spirit if you could, based on your experience? Brian: Yeah well, I'm a native Texan. I have this hypothesis that part of the reason we're such a proud bunch is that when you go through I don't know if you grew up in Texas, chris but then also this sense of like we can do big things and big audacious things and we can make big asks and ask big questions and go get it done. And so we see a lot of that down here. And so you know, if you were sitting in I'll make this up Iowa and you said you know I want to have a space business and we want to go put hardware on the moon, and you know your neighbors would look at you and kind of scratch their head and in Texas they'd go oh yeah, that's intuitive machines and they're down the street, you should go. You know, go talk to them. They'd love to work with you. So that kind of spirit is really something special. When I was in industry I traveled all over the country working projects. There's something very special about this region, this community, this state, and that translates into why people want to come here. You know we keep Texas and Houston keep winning all these awards for business, new businesses coming here, people moving here, and that's not by accident, it's not by coincidence. It's because we have a great, great story to tell, whether that's workforce and the capabilities, the affordability of being here, the caliber of people you can work with and who your competitors are, and the level of intensity in the game that we play here is high and that creates the right ingredients for a really thriving community, for entrepreneurs, but also for industry any size. Chris: Right, very good. So what advice would you give to entrepreneurs out there that might be looking to start a business, let's say specifically, kind of within your region? If not, maybe beyond that in Houston? What's? Some of the advice you might give them if they wanted to get involved in some of the all the things you've been talking about. Brian: Yeah, dive in. It's a great community and a great ecosystem and there's a reason people are investing here and making a great run at it. We try to make that as easy as it can be. Now it is not easy. There's no illusions that starting a company you know scaling and growing a company all those things are very challenging. So the question I find myself asking I don't know that I'm in a position to give you know this immense amount of wisdom about these things, but what can we as a community and we as an organization be doing to help that entrepreneur? How do we help them build a relationship so that if they're having trouble with a permit, they know who to go ask, who to go talk to If they have a big idea, who might be good partners If they want to bounce something off, a retired executive who they might go talk to about that has the right skillset, so that we can create the conditions for them to be successful? And so that's really how we find ourselves interfacing that ecosystem is how do we put the right players together to go make things happen? Chris: Very good. So the other thing I'm curious to know is what do you see? You mentioned your five big industries. What have you observed of those industries working together to create innovative ideas to help each other? You got to move forward. Brian: Yeah, there's been a lot of. So workforce has been one of the biggest, especially over the last few years, where there's been this really high intensity competition amongst folks. And I wouldn't be surprised if you have been in some of that with, you know, recruiting and retaining high talent attorneys, right Is that? That's been, and so we've spent a lot of time and I've observed a lot of our members in this community go with that as a spirit of, hey, we're not really doing anybody any good If we're just poaching each other's people and you know, and creating pain points and friction between senior executives and those kinds of things. Let's go look at other communities and go figure out hey, what are the best universities and how do we get the professors that are training the students in it to send resumes to our area, right, and that we have a coalition of companies, not just one company has a relationship with one professor and that company benefits from that it's. How do we build that relationship as a community and say to them hey, we have a very strong demand signal, let's work together on things like that and so feeding that workforce pipeline so we're not divvying up the pie, we're growing it. And so, on the workforce side. I hate to be cliche because everybody's talking about AI, but we've had a couple of membership meetings about it. We've been working with partners about integration of it. We've adopted different technologies that have come out of it. But that stuff really, I mean it's the wave that we're living in right now, and so the integration of that into systems, both the how to do it and the mitigation of risk. I think I saw over the weekend that the new DeepSeek had a big not terribly surprised, but had a giant data leak and compromise, and so when you know when you're using that, I can only imagine, chris, I'd be curious how y'all are integrating it. But you know everything you put in there. You got to assume that at some point, somebody you don't want to have access will at least have the opportunity to have access to it, and so you have to be quite careful about how you integrate it. I, just as an aside, how are you guys using it much? Have you all banished it? What's the? Chris: Well, I'd say it's a little bit of both. I mean, we are definitely looking at and finding ways to integrate it. We've adopted a policy, but it starts with, as you mentioned, with us. It starts and stops with maintaining client confidentiality. So there's some systems out there through recognized kind of legal researchers. So Westlaw comes to mind, where they developed AI tool that is solely within their database. So it's secure, it's, it's all legal. You don't have to worry about we were still spot. You still have to check things right the human element of that. But if you're searching, for example, using the AI tool within Westlaw, you don't have to worry about the fake cases you've seen in the news. But our attorneys, you know, if you're going to use it, it has to be approved through the firm which are only a handful. You can't use anything outside and everything has to be double checked by a person to make sure for accuracy, etc. But so it is. I mean, the confidentiality side is a real concern, not just for law firms, for everybody, any company using it, and unfortunately that's just gonna be more and more what we see right. The more that we're moving everything to cloud, you're going to have people coming after it to try to. You know, on the bad side of that and certain countries it's not illegal to be a hacker. So it's just, you know, that's the world we live in now. Yeah Well, you know, brian, this has been a very interesting conversation and the you know, the last time we spoke I came away with the same feeling, and that is, we talked a lot about a lot of opportunity going on in the three to six o'clock region of greater Houston and we didn't even scratch the surface, I'm sure. But my takeaways have been it doesn't matter what industry again, I said earlier, you always kind of automatically think of space and NASA, but it's every type of business you could think of. An industry you could think of Sounds like you've got ample opportunity for businesses and entrepreneurs to start, grow, expand and be there and thrive. Brian: Well, perfectly said, and I think we get a recording. I may use that in some of our promotional material. Chris, that's exactly right. Great time, great place to be and welcome folks to reach out to us to help however we can if they're interested in looking at opportunities down here for that Before I lose you. Chris, one of the favorite questions that you had sent over that I wanted to ask you that you didn't get a chance to ask is what your favorite recreation vacation spot in the state of Texas is. Chris: Well, I'll answer that. I was about to ask you that. I would say if it's kind of a vacation spot in Texas, it would probably be anywhere along the Texas coast to relax a little bit and get some fishing in. Brian: Perfect. Chris: How about you? Brian: We are huge campers, like we love going camping. My kids are eight and 11 and we have state parks pass, and so any day I'm in a state park is a good day for me. But Inks Lake is one of my favorites and McKinney Falls between the two of those. Those are my top two right now, but we've probably been to Keene and we're just checking off the box to hit them all, and maybe we'll upgrade to National Parks as we get a little bit older. But I love our visiting our state park system. They're just absolutely wonderful. Chris: That's great. Okay, last question You're native Texan, so do you prefer Tex-Mex or barbecue? Brian: Oh, I feel like that question is going to get me in trouble, but if you made me choose, I'd pick barbecue. I'll eat it all day, every day, as it shows how about you, how about you? Chris: I think it's a tough one, so I've had some guests. You know, it depends on the day. I probably lean Tex-Mex more than barbecue. But I love the restaurants now that are combining the two, so brisket tacos or brisket nachos or something like that. It's a great combination. Brian: Yeah, there should be an answer all of the above there. Chris: So we're getting close to the rodeo time in Houston, so I have to go with barbecue for now and then back to Tex-Mex, I guess. Brian: Well, I look forward to seeing you at the kickoff event, where we get to go sample a little everything. Deal, that sounds good. Well, I look forward to seeing you at the kickoff event, where we get to go sample a little everything. Chris: Deal. That sounds good. Brian, thanks again for taking the time. Really appreciate your friendship and definitely appreciate what you and your team are doing for all the things business down in the Bay Area. Brian: Well, right back at you, Chris. Thanks for your leadership and all the great work you're doing with your team. Appreciate the opportunity to visit with you today. Thank you. Special Guest: Brian Freedman.
In this episode of Building Texas Business, I met with Chris Gillman, President and CEO of Team Gillman, to discuss how technology is transforming car dealerships in Texas. I learn how his team uses AI and virtual assistants to streamline customer service, enabling online car purchases and digital service scheduling. Their approach to technology has improved both customer experience and internal operations while maintaining strong relationships with car buyers. Chris shares his path from general manager to business owner, including a key moment when he had to terminate an employee who broke company policy. This experience taught him about insurance requirements and legal considerations that protect the business. We explore how Team Gilman adapted during COVID-19 by focusing on company culture and employee development. Chris explained their strategy of reinvesting in staff training and using customer data effectively, which has supported steady growth without aggressive marketing tactics. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS We explore how technology is reshaping the car dealership landscape in Texas, emphasizing the integration of AI and virtual assistants in enhancing customer service and streamlining operations. Chris discusses his leadership journey, highlighting the importance of hiring ambitious individuals and giving them the autonomy to excel in their roles. The episode delves into the challenges and rewards of transitioning from a general manager to a business owner, offering insights into leadership in the automotive industry. We examine the significance of building a strong company culture and the strategies for maintaining employee-centric leadership, especially during challenging times like the COVID-19 pandemic. Chris shares the value of leveraging existing customer data to sustain a market presence without aggressive advertising, focusing on customer satisfaction and long-term business sustainability. The discussion includes the role of technology in employee management, mentioning tools like Paycom and Reynolds for digital transactions and HR processes. Chris emphasizes the balance between short-term gains and long-term sustainability by reinvesting in employees and fostering a growth-oriented environment. We talk about the evolving work landscape and the shift back to traditional office settings, with insights on adapting leadership styles to meet changing work habits. The conversation touches on the impact of recent legislative changes in Texas, such as the removal of state inspections for pre-owned vehicles, and the implications for the automotive industry. Chris shares personal stories and leadership philosophies, stressing the importance of leading by example and treating employees with respect to drive business growth. LINKSShow Notes Previous Episodes About BoyarMiller About Team Gillman GUESTS Chris GillmanAbout Chris TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Chris Hanslik: Chris, I want to welcome you to Building Texas Business. Thanks for taking the time to join us today. Thank you. Chris Gillman: I look forward to it. Chris Hanslik: So let's just start by telling the audience about your business and maybe a little bit about how you got into the business. Chris Gillman: Okay, well, last name's Gilman Been, a family name here in Houston since 1938. I'm a third generation car dealer. We started off in downtown Houston with Pontiac and GMC at the corner of Milam and Pease, and then my father took it over, ran it, did everything, built it all the way up, and I've kind of taken over kind of since then, since my father's passed away since 2011. We roughly have around almost 800 employees and we do roughly around 18,000 cars a year here in Houston. That sounds like a pretty big volume. It's definitely a small family business. Chris Hanslik: Yes, I think it's pretty good volume. Yeah, it sounds like it and so let's you know. Talk about. There's a lot, especially at the beginning of the year, about looking ahead. There's been a bunch of conversations in the last two years about AI. What are some of the emerging technologies that you see now or may be coming as it relates to your industry? Chris Gillman: Well, right now, one of the big things is almost 20 to 30 percent of every service appointment. When you bring in your car for service, when you set your appointment, you are actually talking to somebody. That is an AI virtual assistant that is scheduling your service appointment for you and you actually think you're speaking to a human and that is setting up a pickup and delivery. Or hey, I need to drop my car off at three o'clock, I need a loaner or I need a shuttle you're actually dealing with. I don't want an ai virtual voice setting your service appointment kind of like the virtual assistant. Yeah, it's full-blown. And also, a lot of times, if you're setting an appointment to come in, to come test drive a car, there are tools right now that we are utilizing to streamline and make and make the car buying and the servicing of your vehicle a lot easier. Chris Hanslik: I'm sure most people will love hearing that because almost like death and taxes. Most people say you talk about buying a car and they just like poke a needle in my eye because it's such a painful process yeah, it's you's. Chris Gillman: You know back from way you know me being 47 years old. You know buying a car the way it did in 1985 and 1995, hell, even in 2005,. It's completely different. Now you can get in and out of a car dealership with not only an hour and a half, but the days of, oh, let's go haggle and beat up and go negotiate and oh, hear me roar. Those days are gone. If you want to make the car buying process difficult, you can, or you can make it very simple. Chris Hanslik: Well, you bring up a good point, though right, with the consumers much more informed these days because of the internet way more, and so which? Chris Gillman: is great. By the way, an informed buyer is a better buyer, you know. You know what it was in I think it was 2010. Your average consumer used to visit 5.2 5.5 dealerships before they bought a car. Now it's like 1.3 wow, yeah, so more efficient way. Chris Hanslik: More efficient? I don't. I mean. My sense is that's common across a lot of industries. Right, and with the age of the internet, more price comparing and shopping online and things like that oh, it's just like buying a home. Chris Gillman: You see all the photos online and you look at it and go. You know, you know, back in the day you used to go visit 20 different homes before you bought it. Now you might only look at three. Chris Hanslik: That's a good point. So you got dealerships across the greater Houston area, 800 employees. Anything that you know we talked about technology for the consumer, anything you're using to kind of help hire, manage, train employees, that is kind of innovative. Or using technology to help you there. Chris Gillman: Some of the technology that we're using. You know I'm not here to promote a payroll system or anything like that, okay, but you know we've been able to lower our HR staff by using a company called Paycom. Chris Hanslik: Okay. Chris Gillman: And also our hand. Also our digital handbook is in that we have training videos and all that. That's from the employee standpoint, from the consumer standpoint. We use a company called Reynolds, and Reynolds they're a Texas based company, or they have a company in Dayton Ohio, but they started off in Houston. There's a thing that we call DocuPad, where you do the whole car deal, everything. It's all digital. It's no paper, it's all digital and we are able to also I don't want to use the word FaceTime, but if you are remote, we're able to do a virtual go back and forth so you can sign your paperwork while you're sitting at home or at your office or you can be on a boat fishing if you want to do it, and you can do your whole car deal and you don't actually have to come into the dealership. Chris Hanslik: That's amazing. I've experienced the DocuPad. It looks like just you're sitting at a desk. Chris Gillman: Yeah, it's a gigantic iPad. Chris Hanslik: And I've seen you I mean in action when you have any car that you know you have access to under your umbrella is for sale. I think we were on a day trip and you sold a Tahoe. Chris Gillman: Yeah, just it's. You know, no matter where you are, you know you can have a tablet or a phone and you can do a whole car deal everything right there and there. You see, you know if you think about it we're in the world of the now, yeah absolutely and that's you know. The world has taught, Amazon has taught us that you could buy anything in three clicks. Well, if you want to go buy a $50,000 car in three clicks, I want to be able to provide that for you, sure. Chris Hanslik: So you know, I think we all, born and raised in Texas, very proud to be. What do you see as some of the advantages of having and starting and growing a business in the state of Texas? Chris Gillman: The state of Texas is very pro-business. The state of Texas likes it for people to have employees to create business, to create I don't want to say an economy, but you're generating taxes for them, right? Sure, so they are pro-business and that's, and the state of Texas likes that. And there's a lot of car dealers that wish they were car dealers in Texas that aren't in Louisiana, colorado, california. Chris Hanslik: Yeah, there's a lot. So those are some of the positives. Any challenges or headwinds you see coming maybe specific to your industry or just in Texas in general about operating here. Chris Gillman: Well, just from like Texas, they've just passed a new law and the new law is today's pre-owned vehicles do not need a state inspection on the car. Well, what I mean by that is the car does not for you to get a new registration for your new license plates, you don't have to have a state inspection. Well, you can now have a car with one headlight seatbelt not working, the emissions terrible, bad tires, no brake lights. That is just unsafe for the state of Texas. Chris Hanslik: It seems that way. I'm not sure I understand the logic. Chris Gillman: I have not a clue. I spent a lot of money lobbying and a lot of time in austin texas fighting that deal and I lost really so I'm just curious what was the lobby? It was the support of saying that it is getting rid of the state inspection because that state inspection it hurts the average texan of paying a fee of $25 to have them inspect their car for a safe vehicle. Chris Hanslik: So my view that falls in the definition of penny wise pound foolish. Chris Gillman: You know, in the famous words of John Wayne, you can't fix stupid. Chris Hanslik: So you know, talk a little bit about you know your management style and kind of your approach to leading your team of 800 there at Team Gilman. You know how would you describe your leadership style? Chris Gillman: My leadership style. I've kind of inherited from my father the ready fire, aim type mentality, but something that my father beat into me a long time ago hire people that are better than you. Hire people that are smarter than you. Pay them what they deserve, I mean you know God forbid. you pay somebody what they're worth, right? You pay them what they're worth and get out of their way. Let them do their job and also give them the authority and give them the power to make decisions where they don't have to be overlooking their shoulder, and let's not rule by a committee. I know these are all buzzwords I'm saying, but in all honesty, let them eat, let them earn, let them do what they need to do. You're wanting to hire them for a reason. Chris Hanslik: Put them in let them go, Tell them the job you expect them to do and give them autonomy to do it Correct. Chris Gillman: Say this is your sandbox and give them autonomy to do it Correct, say this is your sandbox, these are your rules. Go build and you know a lot of employees. I would rather have to pull the reins back on them than go have to kick them. Chris Hanslik: Yeah, I use. I'd rather pull the reins and crack the whip all the time around here. Right, it's so true. Right, you want someone that has that ambition and the initiative to go do stuff. Chris Gillman: Yeah, there's you know you can't teach hustle, you can't. You know you can tell when you were talking to someone. Okay, that person has drive, or that guy's a popcorn fart. Well, I mean, it's true, right. So I mean, at the end of the day you look at it and be like, yeah, no, that guy's just, or that person is just not going to get it done, or you look at him and go that guy's going to get it done, but I know I'm going to have to pull the reins back on him. Chris Hanslik: Yeah. Chris Gillman: I would rather surround myself with that guy and then go. Okay, by the way, we'll work on polishing you later. Sure, Sure. Chris Hanslik: Right, it's something to work with, right. So you know, you say you kind of, over the last what 13, 14 years you've been building this company, what are some of the things that have occurred along that journey that you maybe surprised you and wish you had to know, and kind of those hard lessons that you learned along the way. Chris Gillman: But man, you're like man. I'm gonna try to use the word empathy and feeling bad for a situation verse what happens from a business insurance legal world. We had a technician that was working on a car after hours, illegally, with another employee as another employee's car, and the company policy is you have to have a ticket, a repair order, on any car that's in our shop. That is standard rule, that is rule number one. Rule number two working on an employee car is especially, you have to have a manager signature. Number three you can't be working on a car after hours without the shop being open, with management around. Well, this technician and this his buddy, both of employees working on a car after hours. The car goes up on an alignment rack, they don't fully secure it, the car falls down and the car falls on the employee's head and his jaw is just dangling. I mean, it's just terrible. Right ambulance comes. He rushes to the hospital. I find out I was like, oh my god, I'm at home. It's like 8 o'clock at night, I run the hospital. You know, at the time you new, fresh business owner Dad's passed, got all this stuff, like what. So I call the attorney, insurance agent, people. What do I do Right and he goes. Did he violate company policy? Yes, he did. He goes. When you first see him fire and I'm like, have you lost your damn mind? This man is in the hospital car and he goes. Chris, the violent company policy yeah, yes, you have to fire him and I go, but his jaw is dang. He's in this hospital. This is bad. He goes, chris, if you don't do it, I will drive down there and I will do it for you. You need to fire him. And I was like, oh my God, so will do it for you. You need to fire him. And I was like, oh my god, so I went. I saw this guy and had his mother and his sister, his girlfriend, a bunch of employees are all in the lobby like oh this, you know, poor guy, and I fired him. I felt is like a piece like, like just a piece of sand, like a piece of grit, you know. Yeah, and that was the defining moment of knowing, okay, I now live where I was just a normal general manager employee. Now I've gone to business person owner. This is the world now I live in and to me that was like a turning point of know your insurance, know the law, know the HR and when an incident happens which something will always happen, no matter what make sure that when you make the phone call at that time you have somebody you trust that will give you the right advice so you can make the right decision. Because the employee sued anyway and they lost because we did everything by the book, right. But my normal mindset would have been like, okay, let's do this, you know, and I would have done it, I would have handled it differently, but the attorney told me to do it like that. So have good representation, that's a good point. Chris Hanslik: Look, there's the, especially with us being a law firm. Chris Gillman: Yeah exactly by the way Boyd Miller used them. Chris Hanslik: Yeah, the. But there's a fine line right of that, as the leader and owner, having to make some tough calls to protect the business while still trying to show some compassion and empathy towards your employees, because you want to retain good employees, you want to have loyalty amongst your employees where they are true team members, right, and so it's finding that balance. It's not easy. Chris Gillman: Well, it's also that during the hiring process, you know you have someone that has. You know we do background checks on you, okay, and let's just say, let's say you have some bad stuff on your background, right? Well, it's my job to have it. So when female employees come to work, they know that the 879 other employees people, right, you know you have to have that good work environment instead of going okay. By the way, we've got a guy over here. He's been a past felon. It was 10 years ago, but hey, it's 10 years ago, it's past. Like no, I mean, that's probably crossing some of the HR laws right now, but I background check you and if you're a famous words of what Trump says, you're a bad hombre, I don't hire you. Chris Hanslik: Oh man, that's good. So what would you say if you were advising a young entrepreneur, maybe about to start? What are some of the biggest lessons that you would want to pass along? Maybe one or two, maybe three things of. Here's some things that you ought to consider that I did, or I've seen others do, that worked. Chris Gillman: You know, the number one thing I would definitely say is you're going. I'm going to use this example and tell it to a lot of people. At one point in time, babe Ruth was the home run king. He was also the strikeout king. You've got to keep swinging and there's going to be failure. You're going to stub your toe. You've got to find a way every day to get back up on the horse, get back in the saddle, get back in that car, drive your ass to work, figure out a way. It's going to work out If you believe in it and you do it and you hustle and surround yourself with people that believe in the same thing that you do. And just, you've got to keep fighting. It's the fighters that work and people are like oh, that's just cheesy as shit. You know something? I've never met anybody that has started their business and said you know, it just fell into my lap. Chris Hanslik: Yeah, I'll tell you this. I mean we're, I don't know 80 some odd episodes into this podcast and everyone that's come on has said it was harder than I thought. It will be harder than you expect it to be. Expect the unexpected Right. All those things Right, Because it's not easy. Chris Gillman: It's not easy, but if it was easy everybody would be doing it, yeah for sure. Chris Hanslik: So part of that to get to success is you've got to be profitable. Yeah, so let's talk a little bit. I mean maybe your mindset and how you balance getting the short-term profitability to keep the business going against long-term sustainability. Chris Gillman: So one thing I'm going to say, and people kind of get mad at me for saying this, but profit is not a bad thing. Chris Hanslik: Period, period, end of story. That's what you're in business for that's why I'm in business. Chris Gillman: Okay, return on my investment. Not only you need to reinvest into your employees. If you reinvest into your employees, they will bring back profitability and make your business go longer. Put the money back into your employees. That's number one. Number two there's a big thing that we're currently doing is I use the word data mining. Data mining is I'm taking my own current customers that are doing business with me in the service department. They're driving a two to three year old car and I just look at him. I go, hey, would you like the exact same car, one trim level up, at the exact same payment? and the customer goes you're telling me if I can get 2.9 for 60 months. The exact same car, but now this car has leather as a sunroof, has navigation, has Apple CarPlay and they have the exact same payment. Sounds Sounds too good to be true and I go, yeah, and they go, yeah. That's a no brainer. I've spent zero advertising dollars, right, yeah. Chris Hanslik: So you're just looking at what the data you already own. Chris Gillman: Right, I own the data. It's managing my own data and then, I'm leasing that customer and I'm currently doing gas and go. The only thing you got to do is put gas in the car. I cover your maintenance. I cover doors, dings and whatever road hazard stuff on your car. The only thing you got to do is put gas in it and then, when you're done, come back, come get another car. So I am creating my own market so I could be sustainable. Chris Hanslik: Yeah, so like a reoccurring revenue, almost like software licensing right. Chris Gillman: Exactly. But I'm doing that with my own customer base so I don't have to rely on going to go get new customers to go battle 16 other Honda stores, eight other Subaru stores and we're all fighting for that one customer, over $100 on the price of a car. I'm keeping my current customers happy so I don't have to play in that crazy. Oh, let's all go cut each other's throats price war. Chris Hanslik: Yeah, there's so much truth to that. To me, that is transcends in across all industries. We always find ourselves, I think, trying to get the new customer and we lose sight of the existing right and we have this existing customer base. That's gotten our business where it is, and not that you don't want to grow, but you can grow the existing base. You can grow revenue and profit from your existing base if you're smart about it, and not that you don't want to add new customers too right, but it's that current customer already likes you. Chris Gillman: You already have good csi. Well in the industry it's good is customer satisfaction and index. I like to call it constant source of income right yeah, and so your current customer base is. That's where your money is. That's what you need to focus on. You don't need to go focus and go spend thousands of millions of dollars to go find new customers. You already have people that are happy with you already yeah, no, you're right, it's. Chris Hanslik: Yeah. Chris Gillman: You don't have to convince them no, you don't have to give it and they're coming back into your service department anyway. So so they bought the car and they're servicing with you. I mean, do you need to get hit over the head with a two by four? Hey, they already like. Chris Hanslik: Yeah, so you mentioned something to the first point you said was reinvest in your employees. Yeah, when you? When I think about that concept, and which I think is very true, it brings up to mind culture. Right, you're investing in your employees. You want them to like where they are, you want them to see opportunity. How would you describe the culture that you have built or trying to build at team gilman? Chris Gillman: number one. We are trying to build this thing daily on a culture right. So whatever the vision is I'm sorry, the vision that we have up on top, we're trying to really push it down and sometimes the culture from the bottom comes up and we find a way to meet it. It's you know I don't want to say how do I say it. I want you to treat everybody kind of like it's your grandmother right Right. You know, if your grandma's in the room, if you feel like that's something bad, you shouldn't be doing it right? You know don't ask, don't tell someone to do something Unless they've seen you do it first. You know, if you ask someone to go pick up a piece of trash while you're walking around the car lot because trash blows, you know that employee's not going to pick it up unless he sees you do it. You know, lead by example, right. You know, doing stuff like that Giving back into the community, being the SPCA, doing it with dog shelters, buying dogs and training them for blind people, stuff like that donating to cancer, whatever charity that we have going on I want the employees to know that not only am I giving back to the community, but I also want them to know that, hey, your kid's soccer team, your kid's football team, I want to sponsor it, I want to take care of it, and they also feel like it's a good thing for them yeah, okay, so that inclusive, we're going to take care of you. Chris Hanslik: Yeah, we're going to take customer right. Chris Gillman: So like during covid, you know I'll probably catch a lot of shit for this, but you know, hey, it is what it is. Chris Hanslik:During covid, new car supply was non-existent the inventories went down, right prices went down everything. Chris Gillman: Well, I needed also used cars to sell. Well, the only way you get used cars is to take trade-ins, right. Well, we normally trade company average around 50. So for every 100 new cars you sell, we get 50 trades. Well, I sat there and I said hey guys, we need to be trading around 80%. I have people that need to buy cars and I had some people get mad at me. They're like well, what happens if I don't have a trade? I got 20%, but I'm not selling you a car. They go well, that's just not fair. And I go well, okay. Well, I got 20%, but I'm not selling you a car. And they go well, that's just not fair. And I go well, okay. Well, out of my 800 employees, how about I just have to go fire 160 of them and we'll see what's fair? You know it's make you mad or go fire these 160 souls that have nothing to do with it, because the economy is something it wasn't. It wasn't something that I did as a bad businessman. It was just because of a virus or whatever. Right, and next thing I know is they have to lose their job. So I made business rules to keep these employees intact. Now, did I piss off some customers. Yeah, I did but did. But at the end of the day I kept my 160 employees and at the end of the day I put my employees first, over the customer. And some people might disagree or agree with that, whatever, but I put my employees first and that's what makes me successful. Chris Hanslik: I think that's what you've got to do, so they take care of the customer, right? Yes, because if you have customers with no employees to service them, you're not going to have that customer very long either, right? So that makes sense. What were some of the? You mentioned, obviously the shortage of new car supply. I mean, you know, it's nice to kind of be turning the page into 2025 and we're five years now from 2020, which you know is you know a distant past, but talk about some of the leadership challenges you face in keeping the company together, keeping all those employees together oh, well, you know, finding good people is hard. Chris Gillman: It is really hard. There are some benefits to COVID, you know. I mean you hear, you know let's talk about Texas business. Okay, sure, there's a lot of businesses. Talk about Texas business. Okay, sure, there's a lot of businesses that had record years during COVID. Chris Hanslik:Okay. Chris Gillman: Some of them failed, some of them dive bombed, but some guys they had not only record years, but it was crazy. So let's talk about that elephant in the room. Right, there are some people that just got overpaid during COVID Period, end of story. And it wasn't because of their stellar management style, it wasn't because of what they did or what they brought to the table. It was the market that got them overpaid, right, and when COVID went down, then now they have to get back to working, get back to doing follow-up, get back to the basics, get back to the foundation of whatever industry that they're in. And it's made some people lazy and it has created a vacuum or a vortex of people hopping around different businesses because they keep chasing that COVID number that's out there and some of them have come to, okay, you know Now, some of them, it's made them lazy. Chris Hanslik: I've seen it. I call it the COVID malaise. Yes, and just saying we're five years removed and it's still out there. And it's still to me, one of the biggest impediments to your business achieving its fullest potential Right Is getting people. So many people came into the workforce at that time, yeah, and that's all they knew. And they don't know any different. And I mean, was it yesterday, in the last day or so? Right, jp Morgan, everyone's back to work in the office five days a week? Absolutely. Amazon announced it in what October or so, but it started this week and I said for a while that was where the pendulum was going to start swinging back and it's back there where the hybrid work. I don't know if it will ever go away but it is going away in big numbers. Chris Gillman: I had salespeople come to me and go. I want to work from home. And I went great, knock yourself out. And they were like I'm at home. I've, I've been at home now for 10 days and I haven't sold a car and I go, yeah, because no one's knocking on your home door to come by a car. Chris Hanslik: They're knocking on my door, I mean some of them. It just makes sense, right? Chris Gillman: I mean it's just like a you know, some people just need to stay home, I guess. Right, well, it's, you know, covid. Chris Hanslik: Decisions have consequences. Chris Gillman: Yes, they do. Chris Hanslik: Yes, they do. So let's talk about you. Look back since 2011, when you took over. What's the one thing you're maybe most proud of at this moment? Knowing that you still have goals ahead of you. Chris Gillman: I guess one of the things that I look at each dealership like. They have their own heartbeat, you know, instead of making it a blanket, okay, these are the business rules at all. Yeah, we have our basic foundation rules, but each store has its own little heartbeat, you know. Chris Hanslik: And that's from a business standpoint. Chris Gillman: You know, I grew it from three stores to eight stores, so we we've doubled it up, almost tripled it. By the end of this year year we should have a night store. So I would have tripled the business. And just, we're just having fun, man, you know, just having fun, that's, yeah, every day's a new day and I'm not here to be cheesy when I say it, but it's, I don't think I've had one bad day. We're just having fun and every day's a new day and we're just kind of throwing a pickle on the windshield on the window. We're just kind of throwing a pickle up on the windshield on the window. We're like let's just see what happens, man you know. So we're having fun, so I'm sorry that's such a cheesy answer. Chris Hanslik: No, look, if you can't have fun, it's. I mean you won't be able to make it through the tough times, right, right and then they're going to be there. Chris Gillman: So if you don't love it, you know you're, you're in trouble. Chris Hanslik: Yeah, you're definitely in trouble. So well, that's great. I'm going to turn a little bit to some just going to be texas related things. Okay, tell us what's your favorite kind of maybe vacation spot in texas or a place to visit I think south texas is the most prettiest place in the world. Chris Gillman: You know, some people might look at a cactus or or a mesquite tree, but I look at him. You're like, well, that's just a thorny little bush man, but it's too. I love to hunt and I love to fish, so I love South Texas. I love lower Laguna, madre, I just died that whole ecosystem, everything down there. I think there's nothing better in life having a margarita looking at a South Texas sunset man. I think that's just. I think that's the most awesome feeling in the world. I'm sold. Chris Hanslik: I couldn't agree with you more. Well, kind of continuing that then. What about you know? Texas traditions, houston traditions, anything that you just love to do every year? Chris Gillman: So I have been fortunate enough. You know, one of the staples here in Houston is the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, so I'm one of the announcers for Mutton Bustin'. Chris Hanslik: Okay. Chris Gillman: One of the volunteer gets you know. It's just a, it's a, it's an eight second ride for a little five year old, right and a fistful of wool Right. Literally it's a. You know, when they fall off that sheep it's a face full of dirt and a lifelong worth of drift of memories. Yeah, so I love the houston livestock show and rodeo only because I'm an announcer. As a kid my dad used to take me to the art car parade and so now, because of the financial situation, I'm in team gilman automotive, we are the main title sponsor and we have kind of built back up the art car parade. Okay, that's every year, that's in april, that goes up and down allen parkway I've been it. Chris Hanslik: I mean, if no one, especially if you're listening and you're in the greater houston area and you haven't been right, you owe it to yourself to go at least once it's definitely. Chris Gillman: you know, I was sitting there talking to a bunch of kids the other day and all these kids, all these different schools that I've donated some cars to, and they're like what's the one thing? that you can tell us and I go. Creativity takes courage and you know something? Amen, be creative, decorate the car, express it, do whatever you want, and let's just hope to God, the car runs in April so you can go up and tell them I'll impart quality, you know, because there are some cars, man, you're like, ooh, this thing needs some extra oil, right? So those are probably my two Houston things that I do tradition-wise. Chris Hanslik: All right, I love it. So last question do you prefer Tex-Mex or barbecue? Ooh, that's a bold that's tough. Chris Gillman: Save the hardest for the last. Chris Hanslik: That is tough man. Chris Gillman: I love crispy tacos man. I the hardest for the last. That is tough man. I love crispy tacos man. I mean, if you have a great three, three crispy tacos, I think everything else in the restaurant is good. Chris Hanslik: But it's also it's hard to beat a good dry chopped beef sandwich oh well, the crispy tacos you have to actually be able to eat right. Some places you know they're already in the grease and you can't pick them up. Chris Gillman: Yeah no, no, I'm the standard. I like old-fashioned Crispy tacos man. All right, I'm Texas, it's crispy tacos. Got it, chris? This? Chris Hanslik: has been great. Chris Gillman: Oh, thank you so much. Chris Hanslik: Really enjoyed the conversation. Congratulations for what you and your team are doing, not just with your business, but what you do for the community. So with your business and what you do for the community, so really appreciate it. I appreciate it, thank you for having me. Chris Gillman: And if anybody wants to buy a car? It's teamgillmancom. Chris Hanslik: There you go, all right, Special Guest: Chris Gillman.
Today on What's Right: Is the Biden-Harris response to Helene incompetent or intentional? Endless money for everyone but red state Americans The totalitarian left demands complete control of every bureau and institution Trump MUST drain the swamp this time Emptying FEMA funds to import Dem voters The VP debate really was important Thanks for tuning into today's episode of What's Right! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, and make sure you leave us a 5-star review. Have personal injury questions? Visit Sam & Ash Injury Law to get free answers 24/7. Connect with us on our socials: TWITTER Sam @WhatsRightSam What's Right Show @WhatsRightShow FACEBOOK What's Right Show https://www.facebook.com/WhatsRightShow/ INSTAGRAM What's Right Show @WhatsRightShow To request a transcript of this episode, email marketing@samandashlaw.com
In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, We contrasted northern summers' climate and lifestyle possibilities with those of Florida. The conversation shifted to exploring humanity's relationship with money through storytelling and belief. Practical lessons included effective pricing, leveraging qualified leads, and attracting high-quality clients using books. Finally, the discussion provided entrepreneurial growth strategies like setting a quarterly cadence, applying profit activators, and valuing long-term relationships. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS We discussed the serene and picturesque landscape of Canada's cottage country, including the unique charm and beauty of its lakes and legends, as well as the renowned Group of Seven artists. Reflections on the contrast between the tranquil Canadian summers and the balmy climate of Florida, noting the ideal summer months in Canada. We explored minimalistic lifestyle choices that gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the simplicity of a carnivore diet and practical wardrobe strategies. We delved into the whimsical nature of financial decisions and the power of belief and storytelling in investment decisions, with a focus on how a stock's value is influenced by future narratives. We discussed critical elements of pricing strategies, including promise, price, and proof, and the importance of pre-qualified, motivated leads in business, particularly in real estate. Dean shared insights on leveraging books as tools for attracting high-quality clients, highlighting a successful collaboration that did not rely on upfront financial incentives. We explored the eight profit activators and how smaller, intimate workshops can be as effective as larger gatherings in growing businesses. We emphasized the importance of long-range investment thinking and nurturing long-term relationships with prospects, as well as the value of quarterly goals and structured cadences in extending professional careers. We highlighted innovative health practices that can prolong peak earning years and enhance productivity, such as the benefits of continuous health improvements and monitoring. We discussed the potential for creative and productive growth during challenging economic times, drawing insights from historical examples and a book that explores enduring human behaviors. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: mr sullivan mr jackson welcome to cloudlandia. And, uh, keep your feet on the mainland, that's exactly right so you are calling from the northernmost outpost of cloudland and canada at its best beautiful weather it must be perfect right now. Dan: Right, I just got out of the lake. I was in the lake 15 minutes oh my goodness, wow I'll be, very deep, like a week. Dean: Oh yeah, is it. Dan: Uh, that's very yes, that's quite cold. I mean, this is our one, two, three, four, fourth day and so I'm used to it now, but uh bracing yeah, yeah, because the nights have been very cold oh, I think the nights have been. Dean: The nights have been very cold, yeah well we got enough heat or we got enough heat to go around here. Dan: Yeah, yeah, you've had some. You've had some variable weather, should I call it that? Dean: yeah, exactly, I was just telling. I was just telling I need to. Uh, I'm ready to have snowboarding back in my life. That just makes more sense to me. Dan: Yeah, this is perfect. I mean, there's a lot of your. Our listeners may not know this, but there's this great romance to the cottage country in Canada. Dean: Yeah. Dan: First of all, there's a lot of lakes. I mean there's literally in the thousands. I'm not talking about the big lakes, I'm not talking about the great lakes. I'm talking about, like ours, for example, is two miles by two miles. It's almost a circle. It's two miles by two miles, but there's a circle. It's two miles by two miles. But there's a legend that there's a hole in the middle, a very deep hole, and in the logging days they hooked chains to each other and put a weight at the end of one of the chains and then they kept putting the chains down and it went down a thousand feet and it was still not hitting bottom oh my goodness, it's a portal to the center of the earth you know it invites all sorts of adventures, loch Ness. Well, we haven't seen that, we haven't seen that it's fresh. Yeah, well, loch Ness is a freshwater lake, but no, but there's a romance. There's a whole school of art called the Group of Seven and these were seven artists who did these amazing, amazing paintings. Not really natural. They have a real interesting quality to them and they were done from the teens till probably the 40s or 50s probably a 40-year period, seven artists. They're very famous and in Toronto at the Art Gallery, the Ontario Gallery of Art, they have a whole wing that's just the paintings of these men. And then there's a town north of Toronto called Kleinberg and they have a whole museum. There's a whole McMichael gallery. And I never get tired. I've been here for 53 years and I can go in there and just sit for an hour and look at the magnificent art that these people created. Dean: It is beautiful, yeah, yeah you're right, yeah, canada in the summertime. I can't imagine anywhere nicer, you know any of those temperate things. London or England is very nice in the summer. All of Europe, I'm sure. But yeah, it's just, I'm realizing Florida's a little hot yeah, you're late to the realization. Dan: No, I mean I've realized it all along. Dean: It's just that you know. Yeah, I'm starting to re-realize it. Dan: Well, you had some comparison. You had a wonderful week in Toronto in July. Dean: Yeah, three weeks I was there. Dan: Marvelous there. Dean: That's what I mean, you're realizing that Florida's hot. Dan: You know, just between us, Florida's really hot during the summertime, you know, just between us. Florida is really hot during the summertime. Dean: It was just. It was that contrast. I mean spending three weeks in Toronto June and July is it doesn't get much better. It's the perfect time. Dan: So well, there's June and July, and then there's winter. Dean: That's right. Dan: Actually, I think we're in for a long fall this year. Dean: Yes. Dan: And I'm doing this on 80 years of experience that when you have a very green summer, which means there was a lot of rain. We had more rain this year than I can remember since I've been here, and what it does is that the leaves don't turn as quickly, and so we can expect still green trees at Halloween this year. Dean: Oh, wow, Okay, Looking forward to coming back up in a few weeks. I can't believe it's been 90 days already. I'm super excited about having you know a quarter, a coach quarter. Dan: You've had a coach quarter. You've had a coach. You've had a coach quarter. Dean: That's what I mean. I'm very excited about having these coach quarterly Toronto visits in my future. This is yeah, yeah, it's very good. So there I have had. Dan: You've been thinking about things? Tell me you've been thinking about things. Dean: I have been thinking about my thinking and thinking about things all the while. This is, I think I'm coming up another, I think I'm coming up on a month of carnivore. Now, yeah, what it's very interesting to me, the findings. You know it really it suits. It seems like it's a very ADD compliant diet. Dan: Yeah, in that it's really only one decision. Because it's just one decision. Dean: Yeah, is it meat? That's the whole thing. It's like the Is it? Meat or is it fasting? Yeah, it's the dietary equivalent of wearing a black shirt every day. Dan: Well, I wear a navy blue shirt every day. I took that strategy from you. It struck me as a very useful lifetime strategy. Dean: And I got into it during COVID. Yeah. Dan: Because that was my COVID uniform I had. Basically I had jeans and a long sleeve shirt long sleeve t-shirt navy blue by Uniqlo, a Japanese company, and they're the best, they're the best, they're the best. I bet I've worn the one I'm wearing today. I bet I've worn it a hundred times. So it looks pretty much out of the package. Dean: Yeah, it makes a big difference. So there's lots of these arguments for these kind of mono decisions. Dan: So I'm kind of thinking that through, you know, and seeing other places where that kind of thinking applies you know, yeah, what I notice more and more is that my life is really a function of habits, yes, and you got to make sure they're good habits. Dean: Yeah, I'm thinking and seeing that more and more. Like I was looking in some of my past journals over the last week or so, I was looking back, like back to, you know, 2004, and just kind of randomly, you know, selecting the things. And you know, I do see that you're only ever in the moment, right, because every entry that I'm making in the journal is made in real time, so I'm only ever there, you know, and that habit I often I wonder how many miles of ink lines I've written if you were to, if you were how many times I've circled the globe with my journals. It'd be a really interesting calculation, you know. But you realize that everything you've been saying about the bringing there here is really that's absolutely true, like the only thing I'm doing. The common thing of that is I'm sitting in a comfy chair writing in my journal, but you're never, you know, it's all. But it's funny to look back at it as capturing the moment, you know. Dan: Yeah, you know, it's really interesting. I see a lot more articles these days on journaling and just in the context of Cloudlandia and the mainland, it seems to me that it's a way of staying in touch with your preferred mainland by journaling, because every day you're conscious, you're thinking about your thinking and I think, as Jeff Madoff and I have had a number of conversations about this, that as the world becomes more digital and I see no end to the possibilities that you can apply digital technology to something there's a counter movement taking place where people are deliberately reconnecting with the mainland in a conscious way. Dean: Yeah, I'm aware of that. Dan: I mean, carnivore is about as mainland as you can get. Dean: That's the truth, especially when there's something primal about cooking. Dan: The only thing further than that would be if you were eating yourself, which, in a sense, you are. Dean: It's so funny, but there is something magical about that. Can I tell? Dan: you not as full bore as yours, but this is my 33rd day of having steak for breakfast. Dean: Yes, Okay, did you open up the air fryer? Have you had an air fryer? Dan: steak yet. Oh yeah, it's downstairs. We have one at the cottage and we're going to get a new one at the house. Dean: And what's your experience? You brought it with us. Dan: It's not my experience, it's Babs' experience. Dean: I mean your experience of the eating. Yeah, oh no, it's great. Dan: Yeah, oh no, it's great, it's great, it's delicious. Yeah, it's super fast, I mean it's super fast and it's great and, yeah, I'm thinning out a bit, losing my COVID collection. I'm starting to get rid of my COVID collection. Yeah, belly, fat and fat otherwise, and that's great and I do a lot of exercise when I'm at the cottage we have. There's a stairway, a stone stairway that goes down to the dock 40 steps, and so I do it today. I'll do it six times up and down. Dean: Oh my goodness, wow. Dan: And then we have about a I would say, three quarters of a mile loop up the hill, through the woods and back down, and I'll do that once today and I'll do two swims. I'll be in the lake for two swimming sessions and I noticed I really do a lot more exercise here and the whole point is to have it carry over when you get back to the city. Jump start yeah, I've got a great book for you, and the whole point is to have it carry over when you get back to the city Jumpstarting. Dean: I've got a great book for you. Dan: Do you read on Kindle or do you buy actual books? Dean: Yes. Dan: Yeah, that's two questions. Dean: Yes to both. You do both Often. I'll do three Often. I will do the Kindle and the book and the audio. Dan: Yes, well, there's a great book that you'll like, and it's called Same as Ever. Dean: Okay, I like it already, but tell me about it. Dan: And the author's name is Hosel H-O-E-S-E-L First name, I think, is Morgan Hussle. And what he shows? He's got 23 little chapters about things that are always the same and it's thought-provoking and he's an investor. You know he's an investor, but he talks about that. Humans, for the most part humans get smart at everything they do except one. What's that Money? That's probably true. And he says people are more fanciful when it comes to money than almost any other part of their life. Okay. Dean: Well, that's interesting. It's giving me an option to buy his follow-up book which is the Psychology of Money. Dan: I should get that too, too why not? Dean: yeah, all right, he's got some great line. Dan: I mean he quotes other people. He's got the greatest definition of a stock you know, like stock market stock he's got the greatest definition of a stock. I I don't think I think he's quoting somebody, but that a stock is a present number multiplied by a future story. Dean: Ooh, that is true, isn't it? A present number multiplied by a future story that is so good yes. Dan: Isn't that great. Dean: It's so good and true, it's got the added benefit of being true. Yeah, I mean, it's really. If not, what else it's guessing and betting, right? It's like we gauge our guessing and betting on we guess and bet on the strength of our belief in the story. Dan: A present number multiplied by a future story. Dean: Yes, that's wild. It's funny that you say that's a very interesting. I was thinking about a pricing strategy for a client and he was saying I'm sure this has been. There's probably somebody who's said this before, I don't know who, but I was looking at it as that it's a combination of the promise and the price and the proof. And proof is really a story right, a belief that if you have him, you're, if there's something going wrong. Yes, proof is yeah, I mean it's either that, yeah, it's either. You know the promise is the articulated outcome of what you're going to get, that you want that promise, but then the price is a factor of how much that promise is worth and your someone else yeah and the confidence that it's going to happen. You know, it's a very interesting thing I was thinking about it in the context of our real estate that the realtors are will happily pay 40 of a transaction, up to 35 or 40% of a transaction. That's a guaranteed transaction, like a referral. If I say, you know, if you send somebody a referral they'll pay 40% because the promise and the proof is that you already got it. So you're willing to pay 40% for the certainty of it. But when you say to buy a lead, you know to buy leads for $5 or $10, there's not as much. You don't have the proof that those leads are going to turn into into transactions. So there's a risk. There's a risk involved in that. It's really, it's pretty, it's pretty amazing. I've been because you know I do a lot of real estate, lead generation and all kinds in all kinds of businesses. Lead generation and I've really been one of the distinctions I've been sharing with people is the, because a lot of times people ask well, are they good leads? You know, and it speaks to the, yeah, you know objective, yeah, you. Dan: And joe you, you and Joe Polish have a great definition of what a good lead is. I don't remember the exact formula, but it's pre-qualified, pre-motivated. Dean: Yes, predisposed you know predisposed. Yeah. Dan: And one of the things that when we were doing the book deal with Ben Hardy and Tucker Max, before we approached Hay House, Tucker asked me a question. He said well, you're not taking any money, you're not taking any advances, you're not taking any royalties for the book, which was true. So that was a real straight deal. You know why? Because it's a mono decision. Dean: Yeah. Dan: I'm sorry. The book is a capability for me and that's worth all the upfront money. Dean: Yes, yeah, you know, and that was the advances. Dan: You know, the advances were really good advances. I mean, they were six-figure advances. Dean: And. Dan: I said, the reason is I don't want to think about that. I just want to think about the capability that I have 24 hours a day, all around the world of someone picking up the book and reading it, and it's a pre-qualified person. It's a pre-qualified person, in other words, the person who's picking up the book and reading it would have the money and the qualifications to be in the strategic coach. The other thing is that it would pre-motivate them. They're predisposed because they picked up the book. They're pre-qualified because it's meaningful to them. And then the next thing is they'll give us a phone call. You know they'll read the book'll give us a phone call. You know they'll give us a phone call. Or just go on. You know, go on to the website and read all about coach and everything like that. And so Tucker said so we sell a thousand books. What would make you happy in terms of actual someone signing up for the program? And I said one. Dean: Right and probably, probably. Dan: I would want a hundred people Just trying to take care. This is why I'm going to come and do the eight profit Activators. Yeah, and the reason is that those books were right at. About the three books that we wrote were right around the 800,000. Wow, wow, and I could easily say we've had 800 clients pick it up, either picked it up and called us, or called us and we sent them the books. Yes, but it's a marvelous system because it's who, not how, in spades is that I have salespeople out there every 24 hours and they're finding, finding new interested leads, they're developing the leads and we don't have to spend any time until they give us a call. Dean: I think that's fantastic and it's doing. You know, part of the thing is I. This is why I always look at books as a profit activator three activity, which is educate and motivate. That people get educated about the concepts of who, not how, or the gap in the game or the idea that 10 times is easier than two times, and they see examples and see that this really fits, and then they're motivated to call and get some help with that. I'm such a fan of books and podcasts as the perfect Profit Activator 3 activity. Dan: Yeah, I've been thinking a lot about our previous podcast where you took it through the what's the value of your leads. I'm actually a really fan of that yeah. Dean: I love metrics. I'm a big metric. Well, metrics to me are when they are objective and measurable. They are a proof. Dan: Well and predictable. They're predictable too. They're a proof. Do a certain amount of activity, you can get a predictable metric. Dean: I've discovered a metric very much like Pareto in lead distribution. It just got, you know, hot off the press with Chris McAllister, who you know as well. Yeah, chris, so we've been doing a collaboration on, I've been helping them with lead generation and I asked him to do a I've been calling it a forensic census of what's happened with the leads right and leads who've been in for more than a hundred days. So we just looked at the. That's roughly three and a half months basically, and you know, of all of the leads that we had generated, 15% of them had sold their house with someone else, and so you look at that we did the math on the thing, that is the opportunity cost. That is the exact thing that worked out, that the amount of that worked out to be over half a million dollars in lost opportunity. Dan: Well, and that's where. Yeah, no, it wasn't lost, it was just a cost. Dean: Yeah, that's exactly right. Dan: The money went into the wrong bank account. The money went into the wrong bank account. That's exactly right. The money went into the wrong bank account. The money went into the wrong bank account. Dean: That's exactly right. So now that's encouraging right, because I've got now three different forensic census analysis from three different parts of the country with three different realtors that all point to exactly the same thing 15 of people who've gone through a hundred days will do something, and so that is. That's encouraging. You know, I think if I, if you look at that and start to say OK, there's a pulse. That it means that the market. Dan: The marketplace has a pulse. Dean: Yeah. The lie rating and that we're generating objectively good leads, meaning people who want to do. What the promise of the of the book is, you know, yeah. So, that's very exciting. Dan: Yeah, you know, it's really interesting changing the subject slightly. So this author that writes the book Same as Ever that I just mentioned, he said that basically, when you look at the last hundred years, the decade of the 1930s was absolutely the most productive decade in US history. Wow, Based on what. And he said just how much got produced during the 1930s. Dean: Are you talking about the New Deal? No, he's not talking about the New Deal at all. Dan: He's actually talking that the reason was it was the worst decade economically in the United States history because of the Great Depression, but he said it was also the most creative and most productive. And he said that creativity and productivity don't happen during good times, they only happen during bad times, the reason being the things that you thought. Let's put it this way you're going into the 1930s it was one of the hottest stock markets in the history of the United States the 1920s per capita, if you do it in relationship to the population and then suddenly it just stopped and everything that people believed was true, everything that they knew was predictably true, didn't happen. And everybody woke up and said, oh my God. Well, everything we've been going on doesn't work. And he said that's the spur to creativity and productivity. It's not profitability, because the profitability happened in the 1940s and 1950s, but the productivity, the creativity, creating new things that were productive, happened during the 1930s. He said there's no decade like it in US history in the last 100 years and I found that very striking. Dean: I can't wait to read it. Dan: I found that. It's a thin book. Dean: Okay, I was going to say I like that's my favorite. That's my favorite and accessible words. Dan: I like that too. It's a win. And it's a good title yeah, he doesn't use more words than he needs. Dean: I like that. Dan: It goes back to your. I'm coming awake to Dean Jackson's 8 Profit Activators. Dean: Oh good, after 12 years, this is good news. Dan: I'm a tourist, I'm a late bloomer. Dean: I'm a late developer. Dan: You know, but it wasn't that it was stored away, but it wasn't brought right in front of me. But I think there's a lot of very interesting insights that you have here. Dean: Yeah, that's true, and I just find more and more it's. You know it's the same, just feel like it's. So when you look at this one thing you know, if I think about my one thing is this you know, working on the all the applications of this one model and seeing deeper and deeper layers of how it actually how it fits, you know, it is like you asked me 12 years ago what would be fascinating and motivating because I had come out of you know, 15 years I think we I think we were both sitting in our kitchen when this happened, yeah, yeah our kitchen. Yeah, and I remember I was. Dan: I remember I was using that I was I. I remember it distinctly because I think it's the last time I used the landline. Isn't that funny? Dean: that's amazing. Dan: Yeah, yeah, because I had to sit up next to the counter because we've only got one landline. Dean: And. Dan: I said I've got this. So I had to sit on a stool next to you know a counter and I remember the conversation. Dean: I do too, and it was because I was coming out of 15 years of applying these eight profit activators to the growth of one specific business and Joe Polish had just taken that framework and started the I love marketing cast and I realized that's my. I was realizing how applicable that kind of operating system that I had developed for, you know, growing our own business was applicable to all kinds of businesses and that was my fascinating thing and doing it in small groups as opposed to 500, 700 people at a time, and to this day, it's still now 12 years later, yeah. Dan: Yeah, can I ask you a question about that? If you did it differently. Could you do it with a group of 100? Dean: Yes, absolutely, and we've done it with you know, I've done it with 40 or 50. Dan: Yeah Well, if you can do it with 40 or 50, you could do it with 100. Dean: Yeah, once you get past like 14 or so, the way the dynamics change. At about 14, more people, you end up having fractured conversations, and so that's why, the way you do the workshops, you have the opportunity to have people have those conversations, but in groups of three or four, yeah, so rather than having breakouts. Dan: Well, and then there's a tool that everybody's doing the same. Yes, yes. Yes. Dean: You're exactly right. Yeah, and that's an. All of them are all the eight profit activators are there, are tools, you know, there are thinking ways for it and yeah, but it's just such a you know I want to ask you another question to what degree if you think about I think you said you've done about 600 from last conversation of your small groups, that'd be 50 groups, basically 50, 50 sessions. Dan: To what degree do they need to know their numbers to go through the process? Dean: well they. The challenge or the thing is that they don't even know that these metrics exist. So I work from the standpoint of they really, if I can give them the experience of it by. They know the top line and they know you know what they're doing. But it doesn't require the granularity to get the impact of it. You know, to understand. That's where they can get their best intuitive sense of what that is and every single person has a realization that. Let's just say, even the just understanding how to divide the revenue into before unit, during unit and after unit is a big revelation for people and then they realize, you know, a lot of times I was just doing a consultation with a home services company and in home services it's pretty standard to spend, you know standard to spend you know 12 to 15% of their revenue on advertising. But they do a lot of things and they don't know often exactly what's working. But when I pointed out to them that if we take you know, 30% of their business is coming from repeat people who've already done business with them, yet they're measuring the 15 percent on that gross revenue, so their actual before unit cost is is way more because they're spending all the money in the before unit and not really spending much if anything on the after unit, even though it's bringing in 30% of the business. You know and it's so funny because I was sharing with them too I was like to take this attitude of so they do HVAC and air conditioning and so I like for them to think of all the households that have one of their air conditioning units in it to be climates under management, you know, is to get that kind of asset that they've got 20 000 climates under management, and to take that and really just kind of look at what they could do even just with the after unit of their business. You know, it's so. It's always eye-opening for people like to see when you start looking at those numbers and say, wow, I had never, I never thought of it like that. Dan: You know one of the things John Bowen and Kerry Oberbrenner and I are doing a collaboration on establishing the real numbers for entrepreneurism. Dean: Right. Dan: In relationship to wealth and in relationship to happiness, relationship to wealth and in relationship to happiness. So John is arguably the top coach in the world for financial advisors at a very affluent level. So all the clientele are very, so that would be for, and they'd be looking for, families. It would be sort of families and they'd be entrepreneurial families, okay, and I think that the sort of the preferred look is where the net worth of the family is in the 20 million and above level. Okay, and these are the advisors. So John's clients are the advisors who do this, okay. And two years ago we did a survey where we compared the entrepreneurial clients or the entrepreneurial clients. What we surveyed was John's clients as entrepreneurs. Dean: Yes. Dan: Okay, they're entrepreneurs, and there were about 1 of them, 1300. And they were compared to 800 strategic coach clients and we saw all sorts of differences. One of them was the who, not how, factor, that generally our clients made more money per person and worked fewer hours than John's 1,300. Yes, okay, and fairly significant. I mean like percent, different percent. And the other thing was that our clients expected to be busy. They expected to be active entrepreneurs for a much longer period than his clients. Dean: Well, that's the greatest gift right there when you look at it. So you, as the lead by example of this the lead dog. Dan: Yeah, you know what they say about dog sleds you know the dogs in a dog sled. Yeah, if you're not the lead dog, the future always looks the same. Yes, exactly so I'm not looking up anybody's rear end. Dean: Yeah, right, exactly. Dan: Anyway, but the big, thing, if you say we don't have real proof and it would take 50 or 60 years to take a long study to see that we're actually extending people's actual lifetime. But I would say right now we could probably establish really good, really good research that were extending their careers by probably an average of 15 years at their peak earning. Dean: Yeah exactly. Yeah, think about that like in the traditional world. So at that you know I'm 58 now and so in the traditional world it'd be like you got seven years left, kind of thing. Right, it's a traditional retirement age, or what. Dan: And then coach, you'd have 22 years. Dean: I got 22 more years, even just to get to 80. Yeah, you know like that's the thing, and I just proved that it's possible. Dan: Yes, that's what I'm saying. Dean: Yes, that's what I'm saying, yes, that's what I mean. And to be you like, look at, you know one of the. You know the elements when we do the lifetime extender, when you ask people so how do you want to be on your 80th birthday? And you're saying you know, well, how do you want to be health physically? And you're saying, well, how do you want to be health physically? Well, I want to be climbing 40 states of stairs six times a day, swimming twice and hiking around my property. I want to be, recording podcasts. I want to be writing books, I want to be holding workshops, I mean developing thinking tools, all those things. I've been thinking a lot about cadences, you know, and you've really kind of tapped into this cadence of of the quarter. Quarterly cadence is because your days are really largely the same with an intention of moving towards quarterly outputs. You, you're creating quarterly books, you're creating new quarterly workshops and tools. And am I missing anything Like do you have annual goals or objectives? Dan: Or is everything in terms of Well, the only, there's only one. The only one thing that we have, that's annual, would be the Free Zone Summit. That's once a year. So, for example, every week I'm working on the summit which is in February next year, and so I'm always listening in the. So I have a series of speaking sets that people can, and I'm looking, yes, to a large group of people, half of whom aren't actually in the free zone. You know half of them next year, half of them won't even be, you know, in strategic coach. They're team members, free zone members, they're clients of the free zone members and everything like that. So it's a challenge to me because you know coach people, know the routine, you know they come in, they understand what a whole day looks like thinking about your thinking. But for some people this is the first time in their life and the trick is, after the first hour they all feel as part of the same group and they're thinking you know. So anyway, it's a. It's an interesting, but that's only my annual thing. Dean: Yeah. Dan: So I've you know I give a lot of thought to it. I work on it right now, six months, before I'm working on it every week. Dean: Yeah. Dan: But that's the only one that is, and I wouldn't want to, no, exactly. Dean: Do you? It's interesting that you say you're working on it every week. Do you have? Do you account for that in your calendar or do you just consciously like? Or do you say? Dan: Some of it is just, some of it's just my time and it's, it's a certainty. Uncertainty worksheet. So I'm always working within the certainty. Uncertainty, this much is certain already. This is uncertain. So then that's the next week. You have to have certain things move from uncertainty to certainty. Yes, we got the pat. We just got the patent on that, by the way, so that's a good tool. That's good. Yeah, yeah so, but I'm constantly my ears are constantly open. In all the workshops, people are dropping topics. You know. I said, yeah, think there's a, we got a role for you and you know, we got a role for you, because I want to get to people ahead of time, because some people don't come to the summit. So if you spot them as a speaker, you want to make sure that something else isn't scheduled during the time when they come. So, yeah, it's going to be in Arizona this time. Dean: That's what I hear. Dan: It's all very exciting. Dean: Anyway it's very exciting. Dan: You mentioned the quarter. I really take quarters seriously. Other people have quarters, but they don't spend much time thinking about the quarter. Dean: I said it's available. Dan: It's sitting around there. You know, quarters are just sitting around. How much productivity, creativity, profitability can you get out of a quarter? Dean: Yeah, I like that. That's my observation. Right Is that you're the tools of applying three days focus days, buffer days, in a quarterly cadence for the rest of your till 156. Dan: 304. I have 304 left. 304 quarters left. Yeah, 304 quarters. You know David Hasse, whose clinic I can't, you know I can't recommend enough to people, but so we started two years ago with him. So it's August of 2022. We started working with him and we've had eight quarters and when we first came to the very first meeting in Nashville Maxwell Clinic, he said so what are we going to do with? your health over the next 312 quarters right, he had me at hello he had me at hello oh yeah and we've done a lot in the last eight quarters we've done yeah, you know there's a lot of work and but yeah, he's got a deep dive program. It's really terrific. I mean it it's testing, testing, constant testing, and he's very alert to new stuff in the marketplace you know new breakthroughs. Dean: What's your noticing now of your new needs in all these stairs that you're doing? Dan: Yeah, the big thing is I have no problem going up. It's tender going down, and the problem is it's a 50-year-old injury and about 49-year-old injury and so the cartilage is completely restored. Okay, and that's a breakthrough. Stem cells can get things working. Stem cells, can you know they can? What stem cells essentially do is wake up the cells that are supposed to be doing the work or repairing them. Dean: Hey, buddy, get back to work. Dan: Yeah, and the, and this is detectable, this is measurable where? Dean: they are. Dan: So I always thought I'm missing a cartilage. And I went down there, so they and when I say down there it's Buenos Aires, in Argentina, and I've done five, four, four sessions, four sessions in five month period. And now my cartilage is the same thickness going from almost no cartilage in my left knee. It's the same width. You know, the thickness of the cartilage is the same as it was before the injury in 1975. So that's great, but it's still painful. So now he says what's happened is that there's been damage to the ligaments on both sides. And so now I go first week of November to Buenos Aires and they do stem cells on my ligaments, ok, ok, and then we'll see. We'll see what happens there. So wow. Yeah, it's a matter of subtraction. You know you subtract the cartilage as the problem and then you submit and we'll see where it is. But I would say that the drop in pain in a day, in other words from morning till night, it's probably down 90%. Wow, that's amazing. But what's missing is the confidence to start running, because I want to run again and so I've been 15 years without running and my brain says don't run. So I have to relearn how to run. And how about Babs? It's completely fixed. That's amazing, isn't it? Yeah? And the cartilage that was cartilage too, yeah, fixed. That's amazing, isn't it? Yeah, the cartilage that was cartilage too. She, yeah, she had influence, she had actually. She had bone inflammation and she had missing cartilage. So the cartilage is back and I think hers would be equal to mine. The pain is down by 90 wild, wild, that's. Dean: It's amazing, isn't? It yeah we're living in. We're living in amazing times. Well, I'm counting on it. Yeah exactly. Dan: You know it's a present number times a future story. Dean: What a great thing. By the way, that book is going to arrive today, according to Amazon. For me, the money book. The other one will be here tomorrow morning. That's just so, like that's the best thing. Dan: Why can't the I mean after you order it? Why aren't they knocking on the door right now? What's wrong with this world? Dean: That's what I'm thinking. Is that why people call senators? Is that what I need to do is alert my senator? Dan: about this. Yeah, I actually had a great conversation with Ted Budbutt. Dean: Oh yeah. Well, that's great, great US senator from North Carolina, yeah and I just saw that Robert Kennedy just endorsed Donald Trump. He dropped out of the race and joined MAGA. Dan: Yeah, I think it's probably. I was figuring it's worth 3%, do you think? Yeah, that's really interesting. Yeah, I mean, he brings a lot to Trump obviously brings a lot to it, but he brings a whole issue that the Republicans haven't been focused on at all and his whole thing is really about what the food industry is putting into food. Yeah, that that is very dangerous, very negative, very harmful. That's been his big thing, and Trump just came out and said I think we're going to really take a major look at this. Dean: You know, it's very interesting to note that Joe Polish was sort of a catalyst in this regard. Oh yeah, that's pretty amazing. I just sent him a note. Dan: I just sent him an email. I sent him an email. I said RFK Trump always said you were the greatest connector that I've ever met in my life. Dean: Yeah, that's the truth, isn't it? And now you think about the historical impact. You know of this. I think that's you know. It's amazing. He's in his unique ability, for sure. Dan: Yeah, yeah, but yeah, just born unique ability to connect people, positively connect people. Yes yes, yeah, there's all sorts of industries where it's negative, but this is positive, so good. Anyway, back to our metrics, back to our metrics yes. Yeah, well, I think you're working out a whole economic system based on this. I think this has got the making of a complete economic system. Dean: Yes, it really does, the more that I see that each of them have and I'm very aware of naming the metrics right, of naming the metrics right like so out, because each of the before, during and after units all have their own, you know, their own metrics that are universally present in every business but they're differently calculated, you know, and once people have that awareness it kind of builds momentum, like they really see these things. They've never thought about a multiplier index in the during unit, or they've never thought about a return on relationship in the after unit or revenue From where you are right now? Dan: which one is where you are right now? Which one is most important for your own? Dean: you know your own money making for me, I think, one of the most. Dan: I mean you got eight, I know yeah, yeah, the eight are all engaged, but right now August of 2024, which is the one that you're really focused on right now rev pop revenue per unconverted prospect. Dean: Yeah, that's a multiplier If you've already got. You've got a lot of times when we take the VCR formula and kind of overlay on top of it. The excess capacity that people have is often a big asset, you know, and so it's very yeah, it's fun to to see all these at work. You know, as I start to you know, overlay them on so many different types of businesses. Dan: Yeah, no, I'm just really taking I was. Shannon Waller's husband was reading this, same as every book His cottage is. Their cottage is about 10 minutes walk from our cottage and I just picked it up and I've converted almost completely over to Kindle. So you know, so I had it within minutes. Dean: I picked it up. Dan: I read a chapter and I said I'm going to download this. So I downloaded it and I've been reading it for the past four days. But I asked Bruce. We were out to dinner last night and I said Bruce and Bruce is an investor he had a career with Bell Canada. He was 35 years, 35 years with Bell Canada Got a good pension and then he went into investing and I said this is about long range thinking, this is a very long range thinking book and it's almost like these are 23 things that are always going to be the same how you factor that into your investment philosophy, okay, yeah. And then he has a lot of references to Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett because, they're the long range, they're the most famous long range investors and Charlie's dead this year. But Warren Buffett said he said this year. But Warren Buffett said he said you know it's, the biggest problem with investing is the combination of greed and speed. You know, people want a huge payoff and they want it as fast as possible. Yes, and he said you know. And Warren Buffett, he says you know, you can't produce a child in a month by getting nine women pregnant. Dean: It's profound and true. Dan: It's a formula for complication in your future life. Dean: Yeah, exactly. Dan: Yeah, if each child has claims on half of your net worth, you probably have diminished your future. You probably have diminished your future. But anyway, and he says, the proper question is what's the investment I can make that has the highest return for the longest period of time? Dean: Yes, I love that. That's great. Dan: Well, if you take your eight profit activators and see them as separate investments. Dean: Which I do. Dan: And each of them is growing in return. That's really the only stock market you actually need. Dean: Yes, that's what dawned on me with this revenue per unconverted prospect is I try and get people to think about their before unit as making a capital investment. Dan: Well, you are in time attention, probably money, probably money too. Dean: Yeah. But most people think of it as an expense because they're running ads competing for the immediate ROI. And it's such a different game when you realize that the asset that you're creating of a pool of people who know you and like you and are marinating, you know that it makes a big difference Because the gestation period is, if you looked at the people that come into coach for the first time, if you were to look at their ad date in the CRM of when they first showed up on your radar, whether they opted in for something, that it's going to be a much bigger number than seven days. You know that they came in, they got, they talked to somebody and signed up. It's going to be a you know, a much longer period of time and the yield. This is the only way that having that revenue per unconverted prospect really gives you a way of seeing how valuable the people who've been in your pond for three years, five years, seven years I'm sure you have people who have been swimming around Strategic Coach for several years before they become. Dan: One of the big changes that we're making is to switch the attention to those people away from the sales team to the marketing team. That's smart. Because, I have a framework for the salespeople and every time I meet with them, we have 14 full-time salespeople and every time I meet with we have 14, 14 sales full-time salespeople and I say yeses, reward you, noes, teach you and maybes, punish you. So, I said, every week you're looking at your call list, you have to grade them yes, no. Or maybe at your call list, you have to grade them yes, no. Or maybe and I say, go for the yeses first, Get the no's as fast as possible, Okay and make them earn their way back into your prospect list. Dean: In other words just say no. Dan: You know it sounds like you're not going to do it. You know about us. We've had a conversation. We've got great materials we can send you constantly. But you know I'm not going to bother you anymore. And then there's maybes that are just trying to have an affair. Dean: Right, exactly. Dan: No, she isn't with us anymore. But we had a woman who is a salesperson and she had 60 calls over a six-year period with this person. I said I don't know what's on your mind, but he's having an affair. That's funny. It's a nice female voice. He gets to talk to her every month or so. It's an affair. That's exactly right. It's so funny. Anyway, we've shot way past the hour. Dean: Oh my goodness, Dan Well, it was worth it. It was worth it. Dan: I don't know for the listeners, but I found this a fascinating conversation. Dean: Well, I find that too, so that's all that matters. If we had good, come along the ride. Dan: I agree with if we were having a good time. I think they were having a good time I think, I'll talk to you next I'll talk to you next week. Thanks dan, bye-bye. Great, okay, bye.
In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, I reminisce about our wonderful experience at the recent Cloudlandia conference at Canyon Ranch in Tucson facilitated by the legendary Joe Polish. We discuss the importance of maintaining an active lifestyle through routines like DEXA scans. Our conversation explores cultivating daily habits that balance productivity and creativity without overcommitting. Wrapping up, we tackle the nuances of time management as entrepreneurs and commitment levels' impact on execution. Discover how dependability and prudent social media actions shape future opportunities, drawing from Kevin O'Leary's wisdom. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS Dan and I delve into the significance of the series' theme song and its role in their listening routine, based on Chris's reflections. We discuss Chris's trip to Tucson and their perspective on the moderated conference experience led by Joe Polish at Canyon Ranch. We highlight the importance of maintaining consistency and improvement over time, drawing upon the eight profit activators as an example. Dan analyzes a typical day at Canyon Ranch through Chris's recount, emphasizing the value of health checks like the DEXA scan for body composition. We explore the paradox of having ample free time yet facing a lack of productivity due to multiple options. Dan and I discuss the various levels of commitment and how they influence the ability to complete tasks, especially in the entrepreneurial environment. The chapter on trust, money, and social media is explored, examining the challenges of relying on unpredictable and the personal ethos of dependability. We assess the intertwined nature of trust, money, and social media, referencing Kevin O'Leary's perspective on the potential long-term impacts of public actions. reflect on Chris's strategy for managing time and commitments, including his rule against traveling for marketing purposes. The episode concludes with us having a candid conversation about procrastination, commitment, and the challenge of executing tasks without external scaffolding. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dan: Welcome to Cloudlandia. You know, the theme song to this series might be the song that I've listened to more in my life than any other song. Dean: Oh, that's funny I like it. Dan: I was going through the archives and I said you know, I don't think I've listened to any song as much as I have this song. That's so funny. Yeah, I love it Good music though. It's good music. Dean: And good message. Dan: And it, I love it, it's good music, though. Dean: It's good music, yes, and good message. Dan: And it's good message. Dean: It's always a reminder. So welcome back. You've been on the road, arizona. Dan: Yes, how was that? Oh, it was great. We were in Tucson for about five days at Canyon Ranch, and the weather was absolutely superb. In Fahrenheit terms it was roughly about 75. Dean: Yeah, perfect right. Dan: Clear, cool nights, blue skies, no rain and the genius was great. Joe is really in the sweet spot. Joe Polish is really in the sweet spot because he's controlling it now with his interviews and I think that's terrific, because he had six different guests and if they're just giving a presentation, it can be from bad to really great. But what Joe provides, he just does a framework and of course he directs them with questions and he knows the audience, he knows the speakers, so he's doing a great job of moderating and I think that's a terrific move. Dean: I like the new setup too that he's got there, the stage with the kind of environment that's good, nice, the kind of environment that's good, Nice. Dan: Well, let's Proves that, if you just stick with some things long enough, you know it turns really superb after a while if you keep making improvements. Dean: Wow, I can't say enough about that being true. I was really. I've been thinking that about the. I've been going back looking at the eight profit activators as the example of how long you know I would say I've been working on this for 30 years, unconsciously, and the last 20 of it consciously and the distinctions, the reliable, that I've generated from all the ways that we've applied, all the number of data sets and iterations and different applications that are still like, it's just kind of great. It's a shortcut to really identifying what needs to be done, and every new iteration of a durable playbook is adding new distinctions. So much certainty in the things. I just can't wait to see, you know, the next 20 years of that real like dedicated application, because it's not going anywhere, you know. Dan: Yeah, I think you know I'm sort of a stick with things for a long time. Dean: Yes, yes. Dan: And I mean, if people are telling you they're getting value out of it, their checks indicate yes, yes, things going in a workshop and I'm, you know, I'm always seeing new things and and everything like that. But you know, we were. I was just reflecting that this is 35 years for the program, the workshop program, and it's pretty much not too different in 2024 than it was in 1989. I mean 2024 than it was in 1989. I mean it's basically you're doing thinking processes, you're chatting with each other individually, you're having general discussions, there's visuals to represent what's going to happen and all the money's up front. Dean: Yeah, I mean, listen, I call those things durable contexts and what you've got there, like the strategic coach program and the workshops, it's not unsimilar to what 60 Minutes has going for it, the. It's been the same context in sunday night 7 pm tick, tick, tick three long form stories on the most fascinating things in the zeitgeist right now. That's never going to get old. That's really. You know, it's like the same thing. You look at quarterly meetings gathered with your peers thinking about your thinking in a group of people who are thinking the same way. So I think that's the cheat code is understanding what those durable contexts are and allowing the content to fit within that. You know. Dan: Yeah, there was a great old parody, I don't know 20 years ago, and it's the new marketing manager for Coors Beer and he's saying yeah, and he's in a meeting with Mr Coors the current Mr. Coors and he says yeah. He said yeah, we've done a lot of research and you know we feel that the color that we've been using for the labels of Coors beer are not up to speed with what people really like and therefore we're suggesting that we switch the color of the labels. And Mr Coors says I like the color we've got. He says yes sir, yes sir, Mr Coors. Dean: Yes, sir, we're going to go with the color. Dan: And he says we feel that you know the typeface that we're using, the Coors typeface, is from the. It's really from the 19th century. And he said so we're suggesting this new typeface. And Mr Gores says I like the typeface the way it is. Dean: He says yes, mr Gores. Dan: And then he says we're thinking that the bottle is very in old shape, you know, and it's not really up to date with modern design and therefore we're recommending this new shape of the bottle and we want to change the color of the bottle too. And he says to Mr Kors says I like the old bottle and I like the color we've got. Yes, mr Kors, okay, we're all set to go on our new campaign right, that sounds like your conversation when they wanted to change the fonts right, yeah, yeah, yeah, I like Helvetica. We're going to stick with. Dean: Helvetica Awesome, I love it. Well, Dan, what was your? What's a day in the life in Canyon Ranch? You've been going there now for as long as I've known you. Dan: Yeah, 1990 was our first trip, so this is our 55th visit and many years. We've gone twice, twice. Well, it's a nice place, it's very congenial, it's very comfortable and it's well kept up. And, you know, the food is good. They have terrific massage therapists. I mean, they have dozens and dozens of massage therapists, some of them, one of them we have we've been seeing her for 25 years, you know, and there's just a nice quality. It's very predictable, there's no tension, it's very laid back, and so I get up in the morning and, you know, once we're set to go, I'll go out for a walk, and they have a two mile loop around the property oh wow and one of them is quite a challenging hill, okay. So what I could do is I go out and I start working the hill from top to bottom and I do that. I do that for about a half hour. You know. Dean: Up and down, you know gets the heart rate up yeah and now with my repaired knee I was gonna ask do you feel? Dan: the difference. Yeah, yeah, it's. Uh, there's a bit tenderness about especially coming down it's going up is fine, it's coming down. That puts more stress on your knee right and then then we go for breakfast and there's two choices they have sort of a very informal cafe and then they have a restaurant with full menu. And then I do a lot of reading. I read the Wall Street Journal on six days of the week and Babs and I just agree when we're going to rendezvous for lunch. Dean: She does a lot more. Dan: She does a lot more consultations. She does more investigating new things, which eventually I introduced to some of them. But she's much more active. She gets more tests than I do and I do one test probably every year for 20 years since the body composition. Oh, yeah, like a DEXA scan, right, right, dexa scan, yeah, and it's the gold standard as far as I can tell. You know, and then you compare and I got 20 years of records and you know, need some more care. Things are okay here and you know you go there and then the afternoon I'll have at least one massage a day and I do that. But I do a lot of reading. I've got my detective stories, my thrillers, my international geopolitical thrillers, and you know I'll wander around around and I get my steps in, I get my three rings on my apple watch bin and we meet for dinner. We usually do it pretty early and we you know and come home and I'll check the news, internet news and read some articles and then I'm off to bed and multiply that by five days. Dean: Do it again. Dan: Yeah, and you feel revived. Dean: Yeah. Dan: But I, you know, I mean at after 35, 50 years of coaching and 35 years of the company and the program. I don't really get that stressed out for my work. Right, I mean you know I'm in my unique ability. I have certain things to do every day. Dean: There's deadlines. Dan: There's always lots of projects going, and so it's not like to go on to free days, which Canyon Ranch always. Isn't that much of a change for me from? The way I operate on my workday. I'm never doing more than three projects for the day. I have lots of time between projects. I only hold myself accountable for getting three things done a day. My scheduler, Becca, always makes sure I have at least a half hour between anything that involves a meeting with someone else. And yeah, so that's pretty well that I mean. But I get a lot done. I mean I'm more productive at 80 than I was at 60. Dean: So yeah, that's my thing. How much of your time during the week like when you're on a typical home week, work week is scheduled like synchronous and scheduled with other people, versus you saying these are the three things I'm going to work on, or are they always involving other people? Dan: No, I have days when it's just me getting my part of a project done that has to be then sent off to somebody else. But I have days when there's no meetings. The vast majority of them are Zoom meetings, not in-person meetings. Dean: And I have a regular schedule the workshops are in the schedule. Dan: The two-hour catch-up calls that we've introduced for Zoom they're in the schedule. I have podcasts they're scheduled. The only thing that's left up to me is creating new tools. Dean: Right. Dan: You know, and the other thing is new chapters of the current book and that goes off, and then we have recording sessions and so on. But I would say that if I look ahead at a year, 85% of that year is going to be totally known on the first day of the year. Dean: Really, yeah, yeah, like with scheduled slots for when it's happening, yeah. Dan: Very interesting. Yeah, and I've introduced a new rule in 79, that I will never travel for marketing purposes. Dean: Right, exactly. Dan: Yeah, and I will never give a speech. I'll do an interview, but I won't do a speech. Dean: Right or. Dan: I'll put an audience through a thinking tool, but I won't give a speech, so my days of speechifying are in the past, right, right, right. And I won't give any speech for publicity purposes, I only give a speech for marketing purpose. I mean, I'll only do a public, you know, presentation and a movie tool only for marketing purpose. I'll only speak to audiences that are qualified clients, qualified prospects. Yeah, yeah, and that's basically an easygoing tourist's life. Dean: Yeah, exactly, I forgot, that's another thing. Dan: You have a birthday in about three days, right? Dean: That's right. May 10th that's exactly right may 10th. Dan: It's yes, right yeah, so that's what is that friday? Dean: that is friday, yeah, yeah. So that's that one little thing, that one week of time where I'm only 21 years younger than you. I catch up on you for a little bit and then you take over again. Dan: Yeah, I have to give you a teaser before I frustrate you. Dean: Okay, let's hear it. Dan: Yeah, no, it's 20. Dean: You get to be 21 years younger. I got you Right, right, right. Dan: Then it gets taken away from you. Yes, exactly, just when. Dean: I think I'm catching up. Yeah, yeah, a little boost. That's so funny. Yeah, I've forgotten that we're both Taurus. That's something we are very similar. I think that's why we have such an easy friendship. I think because we're essentially a lot alike, I mean our whole being. Dan: I think we're essentially lazy luxury-loving innovators. Dean: Lazy luxury-loving innovators, I like it. Dan: That's pretty true. Dean: It's the truth. You're absolutely right. Yes, yes, yes, in the best sense of all of those words. Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I think both of us exhibit sort of a lifestyle that's different from what we learned when we were growing up. Dean: That's true, yeah, I don't know what instilled it in us, but it was self-discovered. Really, Nobody taught us this. Dan: And we both like shortcuts. Dean: We both have a passion. Dan: It's very interesting I haven't actually driven a car in the city of Toronto in easily 25 years. Dean: I think that's amazing yeah. Dan: And you know I have a limousine company that handles all my scheduled stuff. And then Babs. You know we're very much in sync in terms of what we like to do for entertainment and for socializing we're very much in sync, and what it's allowed me to do is to really notice shortcuts in the city because I'll see. You know, I'm a real map addict. I like maps. And I'll see something I said. I wonder, if you go through this alleyway here and you come out here, whether it's a shortcut when there's busy times and I got about 20, 25 of them in the city that Google doesn't know about. Dean: Oh boy, okay, yeah, you've got the knowledge. Dan: Yeah, I got. I've got the knowledge. Google stays within the framework of what are considered official streets. You know they it doesn't, and probably they have to do that. I mean, that's not, it's not their job to be doing it and and so one of the limousine drivers said, you know, he went to the president of the company, the owner, and he says, you know, we should have mr sullivan up here, he knows more shortcuts than anyone I've ever seen and and the owner of the company. Why would we want the trip to be any shorter? Dean: Unbelievable, huh. Dan: Isn't that? Dean: funny, that's the best. Why would we want it to be any shorter? Dan: No, and I can see his point of view, I guess. Dean: but wow, I can't tell you, dan, how much I'm looking forward to being in Toronto. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Really am. Dan: Now you're coming in. When are you coming in? Dean: On a. Dan: Monday. Dean: The workshop's on a Monday the workshop is on Monday, right the 20th, so I think I'm going to come in probably the week before. I'll probably come in. I may come in at the very latest the 17th, and so I would be available for a table 10 or whatever table they assign us on the 18th, if that works in your schedule, and then I'm going to do a breakthrough blueprint on the 27th, 28th, 29th. So I'm going to stay for at least two weeks. Dan: Are you staying at the Hazleton I? Dean: believe so. Yes, there are the four seasons. Dan: one of the two yeah, because our wonderful French restaurant in Yorkville is gone. Dean: I know exactly. Dan: Jacques Bistro. You know, they basically packed it in at the end of the previous year, so the COVID year started in March 2020. So right at the end of 2019, they packed it in and their son you know, their son and daughter were. I was leaving this was right at the end of the 2019, I was there and I was going down the steps and he said Mr Sullivan, do you mind if I have your picture taken and we're putting together sort of, you know, a panorama of all the longtime guests? And I said sure, and then they they always closed down for the month of January, july too, yeah, yeah, in January, and they never came back. After January it was closed, and so I don't think they were sensing anything, but I think they had just more or less packed it in without telling anybody Because it's all gone. Now it's some other business. It was a very small restaurant, I know because it's all gone now and it's some other business. Dean: You know it's. It was a very small restaurant. Dan: You know I mean they may do, for they may do for almost 40 years with about at most they might've had 40 seats in the restaurant. That wasn't a very big restaurant Right. But let's Select is good, let's Select they sold. The two partners sold. They had been with it for 40 years and they sold and it's. You know the menu is smaller. There's some things not on the menu that I liked, but you know it's great. Dean: Have you been to? There's the new French restaurant in Yorkville, off of you know where, if you go Bel Air basically that where Bel Air meets Yorkville if you continue across Yorkville in that little alleyway, there's a new French restaurant. I think. Yeah, they didn't last. No, they didn't Okay. No, cause they came in just before. Dan: COVID right, yeah, they didn't last. Oh, they didn't Okay. No, because they came in just before COVID right? No, they didn't last at all. Okay, yeah, and I'm just trying to think. Dean: Sophia Is there another? Sophia is another one. I think it's new, but I haven't experienced it. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Yeah, you know, there were a lot of casualties from the, you know. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Actually, Yorkville has gotten a lot less interesting because restaurants have gone out and retail stores have come in oh interesting. It doesn't have the same entertainment value that it did. Dean: Interesting, I may have to rethink Where's the new? Where would be a suitable place for a guy? Dan: like me, the Hazleton is really good. I mean, they're one restaurant there is really good, but you know I would go for Le Select, just for old time's sake. Dean: Of course, yeah, yeah. Dan: And we'll put it in the menu. I have a whole bunch of medical things. Usually on Saturday I go to my biofeedback program. Dean: I go to osteo-stron and I get my hair cut. Okay. Dan: But I can leave off the two medical things that day and just get my haircut. Dean: Okay, fair enough. Dan: And we'll, yeah, put it in for 1130. Would that be good? That's fantastic. Dean: I love it. Dan: Yeah, yeah, it's not table 10 anymore, but we can get the same table, yeah, and that's where we. Dean: That's where we, that's where we launched the podcast series the joy of procrastination was launched right there. Dan: Yeah, what are you thinking about procrastination now, after all these? Dean: years. I think it's amazing. I mean, I think this whole idea of the you know as a superpower, I think it's absolutely true. What I still I'll tell you what I'm personally working on right now is my ability to do what I say I'm going to do. At the time, I say I'm going to do it without any external scaffolding, and I'm realizing that. You know, I'm just now eight weeks into the health program that I'm doing with Jay and Team Dean all together there, and what I've found is that's working really well because it's created the external scaffolding and support and exoskeleton that allows me to stay on track, or create that bobsled run, as Ned Halliwell would say. And so now my attention in May here now is turning to myself. I have, Dan, an abundance of time. I have, all of you know, a consulting client that I talk to on Tuesdays at one. I have a my real estate accelerator group on Wednesdays at three, and then on alternate Thursdays, I have my co-agent call and my email mastery call, and so, all told, it's four to six hours a week of synchronous and scheduled requirement. Right, Then I basically have 100% of all of my time available, and I do. I've always sort of you know having free time leads to having the ability to be creative and do things, but what I find is I often end up in a paralysis of opportunity. you know of that I could do this I could do this, I could do this, I could all of those intentions. You know that I could do this, I could do this, I could do this, I could all of those intentions you know. But I very rarely get anything done. Fits and spurts right, and so that's what I'm really kind of. I'm really trying to figure out the formula for me on that. Dan: That's why I was curious about you know, you know, I would say this that I, if I didn't have obligations, or commitments. Let's say commitments, yeah, like I have, I have commitments. I wouldn't be very productive just on my own Right. I mean, I won't do something just because I want to do something. To see it, it has to involve my team and it has to involve my clients, otherwise I won't do it Right. And so I always have deadlines related to those two parties, and I really like deadlines. I really like deadlines because, you know, and usually I get it done just before it's needed. And the reason I like that is if I just have enough time to actually and I don't have any more time, I just have enough time to get something done, then I'm totally focused. If I've got more than enough time to get something done, then I'm totally focused. If I've got more than enough time to get something done, then I can be distracted by something else Me too. Dean: I realized I started thinking about a progression of the way things are going to get done. Most certainly is synchronous and scheduled is 100% certainty that it's going to get done. Then kernis and unscheduled is also getting done, like that's what other my consulting clients or the people that I work with we don't have necessarily every tuesday at one o'clock or whatever it may hey, are you available to talk? You know, on this day and we put it in the calendar and but it's not like recurring, that, it's not locked in obligation. I usually keep my calendar. You know I schedule those things about two weeks out. And then the next level up then. So that's synchronous and sort of unscheduled, but we'll do it. Then the next thing is asynchronous with a deadline, is likely to get done, but the thing where I want to be is asynchronous at my discretion and that's the most joyful thing, but nothing ever gets done. Dan: That's the reality, right? Yeah, it's really funny. I was having a conversation about it was with someone at Genius Network. You don't know them and they were talking about how they're really into Zen. Know them, and they were talking about how they're really into zen okay, and and you know the oriental, you know that you detach from, you know physical reality, more or less yes, and, and I said, you know I've read things about them. You know I've read things, but reading things about zen isn't them right you know, it's not them. You know, and and said the one thing I've noticed about people who are really deeply into Zen they're not real go-getters. Dean: Interesting yeah. Dan: Yeah, because for them, the things of the world, they're not really real. Dean: You know they're sort of delusional. Dan: And anyway, and I said, I have a really enjoyable engagement with the world. Yes, and it's entrepreneurial, so that makes it more enjoyable. I have nothing in my life that involves dealing with people who are in bureaucratic, private sector, bureaucratic or public sector. I have no nothing to do with anyone like that, and so everyone I mean my entire environment. I'm hearing an enormous amount of sound. Dean: Sorry about that. Dan: What I notice is that I live in almost like a complete entrepreneurial universe. I mean both business-wise and also socially you know, so I don't really know much about what's happening outside of the entrepreneurial world. I mean, I read it. I mean I read it on the internet, but it doesn't really impact on me. You know, I mean taxes do, inflation does and everything like that, but not in a serious way. And the exchange rate between the US dollar and the Canadian dollar is very comfortable right now. Dean: It's about $1.37. Dan: Okay, yeah, I always enjoy that. Dean: It's a nice offset. Dan: Yeah, people say, why do you live in Toronto with the taxes so high? And I says, well, it all depends on where your money is coming from. Dean: Right right, right right, and you know the patents are. Dan: We're up to 19 now. We have 19 patents so far. And that has its own asset value. And yeah, so it's really nice right now At 80, it's really at age 80. So it's really nice right now at 80, it's really at age 80. It's really nice. Dean: Yeah, is that so? I am curious, though, if so, the deadlines. If we think about that progression right Of synchronous and scheduled, synchronous unscheduled with a deadline and asynchronous at your discretion, where's your power zone? Are you able to spend time productively in asynchronous at your discretion, or does what drives your thing be the deadline? Dan: No, I let other people schedule my life. I let other people schedule my life. Okay, yeah so all the dates in the calendar are someone else's schedule and then they have their schedule for me to get the material in, because it always involves some sort of teamwork. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Before a workshop, you have to get the new artwork in according to the production team's schedule, not my schedule. Right and I have some really good rules with that. If it's 80%, good we're going to go with it, even though. I got a better idea at the last moment. I never load them up with last minute requests because from the audience's standpoint it's 100%. It's only our judgment that is 80%, right, exactly. Dean: They don't know. It's 100% of what they got. That's exactly right. Dan: Yeah, I don't know that there was something better that could have been done. They don't know that, so I'm pretty easy with them. Every once in a while there's a last-minute thing and because I never bother them very much, they're up to it. But if it was a steady diet that they had of the last minute, then you'd lose their ability to respond at the last moment. So I never take advantage of that, except there is some situations where you know it's a good idea to do it. Dean: Yeah, that's exactly right. How much of your time is spent brainstorming and sketching and thinking, like, working out an idea for a thinking tool or the content for a book? Because I imagine that's kind of where it all begins. Right, you're coming to the table, yeah, with the idea this is the book I'm to write, and how much of it is you, uh, I'm really curious about, like because I've discovered you know, my power verbs as part of our discussion through the joy of procrastination. But what would be? Do you have time like that where you're? Do you have a notebook that you use, or do you sketch, or do you know? Dan: I'm pretty much um. I'm pretty much a fast filter person, so yes, uh I get the idea and then I go through and I say this is the best result, worst result, and here's the five success criteria. Dean: And by the time I finish. Dan: By the time I finish, the first fast filter I'm launched and then it's right into the introduction, the chapter one, chapter two, chapter three, you know. So yeah but I was talking to a new member of genius network. A great family actually, a father and two sons all joined and it's called the pompa method and it's, you know, getting rid of all the metals in your body and everything. You're living with mold and everything else and so much of sickness comes from heavy metals in your bloodstream and it comes from very, very serious negative impacts of having mold in your house and I think you would be more in danger of that than we would here in toronto. I think florida's can be sort of damp, you know things. I would say that uncared for physical things in Florida deteriorate pretty fast, don't they? Dean: Yes. Dan: And anyway, and he didn't really know me at all, like there was no prior knowledge, when we met and I started talking and he says you know, I'm doing everything well, but not writing books. And he says I have some sort of block to the book. And I said do you have a book in mind? And he says, yeah, I've got notes and notes. And I said you know, the easiest solution to writing your one big book is not do that. What you want to do is write 100 books. Dean: Right. Dan: Yes, right, yes, book. And he says, well, how do I think about that? And I says, well, do you have a good chapter already? If you were going, to write a good chapter in your you know. You know it's a good idea, it's one chapter, it's one idea. Could you write a book on one idea. And he said yeah, but I've got so much more to say. I said I know you got we all do. I said we all got a lot more to say, but we don't have to say everything right now. We can say one thing right now and I showed him one of my books and he said, oh my God, oh my God, but it's so short. And I said yeah, and you can read it in an hour. Dean: I said it's big type too. Dan: It's 14 point type and it's Helvetica, very easy to read. And it's got lots of subheads. You could get the meaning of the book if you just read the subheads. If you didn't read all the text. Just read the subheads and the titles. You could get the meaning of the book, or you could read the cartoons or you could listen to the audible or you could watch the videos, know everything else. And it was like he, it was like a religious conversion. And he says, oh my god, I've got so much things that could become small books. And I said, yeah, the ebook. Research indicates that if your book is less than 60 pages, you'll'll get 85% complete readership out of it. Dean: Mine are 44. Dan: I only have 44 pages in a book and so, going back to your question, I don't have to do much brainstorming because I've done the same format over now. We're just completing number 38. Dean: Yes. Dan: I totally know One of the big problems of writing a book for the first time. Well, how long is it going to be? Dean: and what are the? Dan: chapters going to be. I know it's got an introduction, it's got eight chapters and it's got a conclusion, and then it's got a little section on the program in Strategic Coach. And then it's got a little section on the program in Strategic. Dean: Coach. Dan: So that's why I like repeating good formats, because you're not doing all this guessing. What's it going to look like? I know, I mean, I know what it's going to look like, I know how long it's going to be, I know what the pages are going to look like I know that. So that forces people to procrastinate and stop and everything else, and I've removed all that execution complexity right up front. And then I've got nine other people who are responsible for the finished product Right right yeah, and. I've got deadlines for them. Dean: The deadlines. Dan: You know they're already in the schedule. Basically it's a two-month project to get the book finished and all my deadline dates are in the schedule. They're just presented to me. These are the deadlines I said okay. I'm cool. So see, I'm being managed by other people's schedules and that takes a lot of the uncertainty on my part out of the way. Dean: Yeah, you know, what's funny is I've been thinking about my, because I'm very reliable in synchronous and scheduled things Meeting deadlines and meeting deadlines. Yeah, I'm never, you're never late, you're never unprepared. That's exactly right. That's why synchronous and scheduled for sure I would say you're never unprepared chat at somebody's event or as a guest on somebody's podcast, where I don't have to prepare what I'm going to talk about. I do it in the thing and that's why having the format that I've chosen for my More Cheese, less Whiskers podcast is the guest, is the focus, and I've been preparing for this conversation with them for 30 years and I bring all of that with it. I don't have to think about it ahead of time. So synchronous and scheduled, 100% gets done and it's right in my go zone. What I have been thinking about is if there were a way to think about signing myself to. Have you ever heard the term an FSO contract? It's in the entertainment business. People will contract with a entertainer's company for services of Dan Sullivan. So it'd be entering into a contract with strategic coach FSO Dan Sullivan and that would be a really interesting thing. If I had a way of thinking about myself, detached from myself, as a thing that I could tap into for services of Dean Jackson, it would be an interesting you know, I'm just applying it to myself. Dan: I don't trust the guy to show up Right, exactly, that's the thing He'll be on the way and he'll see something interesting. And then, yeah, you know you have to track him down. It's too much work, you know but I'm like you I'm very reliable as it comes to you know, you know commitments to other people. I'm very reliable. So I said and it's not work for me to do that. So you know, I just never, ever want to disappoint you know, I just never ever. Yeah, and but when I'm just dealing with myself, well it's, it's really loosey goosey, you know. Dean: Right. Dan: Yeah, He'll find some excuse, you know, you know he's very slippery. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Yeah, the neighbor's dog ate the homework. You know, you know, he's very slippery. Yeah, yeah, the neighbor's dog ate the homework you know, everything like that. Yeah, and I I put myself in the gap when I'm doing that, but what I've done is, over the years I've made things I'm really intensely interested in public offerings, in other words, I'm presenting it to an audience and I just things that I'm really intensely interested in. I've connected now with making money. Dean: Right. Dan: And you know, the making of money really makes things official. Dean: Yes, yeah, so yeah, very, I mean it's taken a long time. Dan: I mean, I'm not saying this, was you know, but more and more as I've gotten lazier. Dean: Right. Dan: Anything that I'm actually interested in doing better make money. Right right right, isn't that funny. Dean: That's still the motivator, even though as time goes on 1600s, early 1700s. Dan: He said the making of money is probably the most innocent thing that humans can engage themselves, involve themselves with. He said making money it's really clean, you know it's sort of a really clean activity and there's an exchange and you feel a real sense of accomplishment and achievement. You know, there's just something about something where it has to be good for both sides. It's got a much higher energy impact to it. Dean: It's good for me, it's good for them, and it's not just double the pleasure, it's 10 times the pleasure yeah, and I mean, you know the nice thing about it is that to do it sustainably, there has to be a durable exchange of value. You know it has to be. Yeah, that's what's so? That's what I mean. That's what's so clean about it. Right Is everybody wins yeah. I love that. That's what I love about marketing, you know, is that it's just such a great. I feel really great about being a connector in businesses who can really add value to people and getting the message out to the people who can need that value as much as possible. Dan: And you know the thing is, it's actually the creation of something new, that didn't exist and then, once the exchange has been happened, it exists something new has been created and you know, and it's a, it's kind of proof that you're real. Yes, right, right it's a, it's kind of proof that you're real. Yes, right, right, you know, I mean you have people involved in various you know involvement of psychiatric treatment and you know they said, well, I don't know if the world is real, I don't know if I'm real, and I said well, if you're only asking your opinion, it's going to be hard to pin down. Dean: Yeah, right on. Dan: You have to get some proof from someone who's not you that you know that what you do is valuable. Dean: Yeah, yeah, that's what the that's the true, that's the great thing about capitalism, you know is that it's? Voluntary. It's voluntary, right yeah? Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was watching. You know the Shark Tank guy. He's Canadian, kevin O'Leary. Yeah, yeah, I was seeing him and he was saying he was just telling the protesters on the campus that it's being noted in the job market who these people are and they don't realize the price that they're paying and they have masks. And he said, doesn't matter, we're picking up your eyeballs. He said that every single person who was involved in the january 6th you know the- yes they. Within about two months, they knew who every individual was and where he was, because the technology is now so good. And he said. They're being used at the university campuses by the police and everybody else and every one of you who's upsetting campus life and is doing that, it's noted that you were doing this and if your resume tries to present you're a different person from who you are in the student protest, doors just will be closed to you. You will never get any direct message that you were in the protest, but you'll notice over the 10 years after you go to college and go out in the marketplace that you don't have much opportunity and it's a really good talk. Because he says you think there's no cost to this. There's a big cost to this talk. Because he says you think there's no cost to this, there's a big cost to this. And he says you think you're inflicting the cost on someone else. I have to tell you, over 10 years the cost will be inflicted on you. And I just thought it was a neat little talk. Dean: Yeah, he's a pretty smart guy, I mean just like as a philosopher, you know. Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah and anyway, but I found it interesting that you know this rears up every once in a while. It's a bit like a fever, you know that. But this is very well planned. All these students have been in training for the before they actually show up as a protest. They've been in training by, you know, by activists. You know trainers and the activists who train them are never there. They train them and then you know they're off camera and you know they're tracking down the money sources. These people are being paid, you know. I mean they're actually being paid to do this and everything like that you know and everything like that. But it's an interesting thing how it's harder and harder to do things in secret these days. Dean: I was just thinking that, like back in, you know the fifties and sixties, seventies, eighties, even. You know everything now is is on, everything is on camera. You have to assume that you're every move. Dan: Yeah, they're probably you know, communicating with other people on social media. You know they're yeah they're not just doing this in quiet, for right five, six, five, six days in a row, I mean they what got them out, you know, into the movement was probably social media. Hey, we're going to do this and nothing else. And you should come to a meeting and we're going to do this. And you know, I think late teens and early 20s people don't think too much about that, you know, they don't really think that it shows up. But we're, you know, in our company, we really do extensive social media searches when we have a job, you know, a job applicant. Dean: Oh, you do, oh yeah, deep dive. Dan: Yeah, yeah, deep dive. We had one woman and she came in and you know where our cafe is in the. Toronto office. And she came in and she was sitting out in the, you know, in the reception area and something about her just caught my attention. And then she came in and she was just perfectly done up, you know, I mean her clothes were great. Dean: And. Dan: I watched her as she went through the cafe back to Babs' office and I said she's just too perfect. I said there's something wrong here. And afterwards she left and they were saying, boy, what a resume. She has a resume and everything else. I said there's something too perfect about her. I said I get the sense that something's off about her. So they went searching and they found out that she had a whole separate life as a burlesque dancer. Oh really, wow, that didn't show up. That didn't show up. And she even had a you know like a brand name for who she was in her other work. She had a completely you know and she was in clubs and they're sort of not public clubs and everything like that and not that there's anything wrong with being a burlesque dancer If that's your, you know. I mean, I mean it's not really my, you know my favorite form of entertainment. But you know, but the fact is that she hid the other part of her life, and that's the sense that I got. There's something too perfect about her. There's another side of her that's not being seen, so it will be discovered. If you have another life besides the one that you're presenting, it will be, discovered. Yeah, there's no hiding now, right yeah, and the simple way is just be who you are. Dean: Ah, that's exactly right, that digital split. Yeah, and the simple way is just be who you are. Ah, that's exactly right, that digital split. Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, and the people that we really have long-term relationships with invariably are people who just do they. There's not another them. Right, yes exactly Right, right, right yeah. So anyway, did you learn anything about the way I approach things? Dean: I did. I mean, I think that's you know your organizing context. Like you know, I've been thinking about it in this terms of imagine, if you applied yourself, you know, and this is the applied portion of things and it sounds like your, the fast filter is the gateway into the applied world, right it's? yeah that's that starts. That makes it real because you're making it up and then you're making it real with a fast filter, yeah. And then that, when presented to your project manager or one of your project managers, you know you use the term, you know I mean executive function. Dan: You know you're lacking in executive function. I don't think that's true. I think, from a creative standpoint, you retain a lot of total executive function. I think what I've completely delegated to other people is management function. Dean: Yeah right. Dan: It's not executive function, it's executive execution function. I've got the starting execution, but then there's got to be a handoff. Starting execution. But then there's got to be a handoff and after the making it up stage then I have to hand it off to other people. Dean: I used to try to do the management function and I'm just no good at it. Yeah, and you know you're. The thing about the quarterly book is a. You know that's a viable construct. You know that's a durable context, that you're 38 quarters into a hundred quarter adventure, you know yeah, yeah, and that you know. So there's that sort of rhythm, contextual rhythm, that sticks with it. Dan: Yeah, yeah, that sticks with it. Dean: Yeah, yeah. Dan: It's kind of a future time commitment. You know, like I'm not, I'm 40% through a 25-year project, so that means I've got, you know, I've got 2039, that I hit At the end of 2039, I hit quarter number 100, you know yeah right, and you know, and that gives me an incentive to make sure you're there. Yeah, right, exactly. Oh, that's so funny. Whatever it's going to take, make sure you're there, because you know it won't do if it's just 95. Dean: Right, yeah, no, that's exactly right. I love it. Well, I found this very it sounded very interesting. I appreciate it and I'm very excited about table 10 reunion. Yes, so I'll set that up on the 15th or whatever. Dan: Yeah, you know what I'll do is. I'll say to the Maitre D just for today, can this be table 10? Dean: Yes exactly. Dan: It's only table 10 when Dean and Dan are there, that's exactly right. Dean: I know exactly where the table is, no matter what we call it, it's still there. I mean it's still there, I'm going to put it in Dan at 1130 on the 15th Perfect Table 10. Table 10. Dan at 11.30 on the 15th Perfect Table 10. Table 10. I like that. Dan: All right. Dean: Okay, thank you, so much Are we on next week Yep. We'll be back from Nashville Perfect. Dan: Yeah, we get back on Saturday, so this is great. Dean: Perfect. Dan: Well. Dean: I'm sorry I'm going to miss the big birthday bash, but I'm sure it'll be wonderful and we'll have exciting things to talk about next week. Yeah. Dan: Yeah, good. Dean: Thanks Dan. Dan: Okay, bye.
Mike Johnson Personifies the Staggering Hypocrisy of the "Christian" Right | Is the New York Trial Hurting Trump Who is Polling Ahead in all Swing States But Wisconsin? | The Mainstreaming of America's Neo-Nazi Movement and the Potential for Violence in the Election backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Today on What's Right: Is the Vegas sports market getting over-saturated? IRS agent requests whistleblower status to dish dirt on the Bidens Did Attorney General Merrick Garland commit perjury to protect Hunter? More testimony on The Hill looking really bad for Dr Fauci The timing of Biden's reelection campaign announcement Prague travel tips Thanks for tuning into today's episode of What's Right! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and make sure you leave us a 5-star review. Have personal injury questions? Visit Sam & Ash Injury Law to get free answers 24/7. Connect with us on our socials: TWITTER Sam @WhatsRightSam What's Right Show @WhatsRightShow FACEBOOK What's Right Show https://www.facebook.com/WhatsRightShow/ INSTAGRAM What's Right Show @WhatsRightShow To request a transcript of this episode, email marketing@samandashlaw.com
Today on What's Right: Is the jury foreperson for the Trump witch hunt in Georgia breaking the law with her media blitz? Will the jury foreperson spoil any case against Trump? Even the Mainstream Media is sounding the alarm Biden's pandering cultural appropriation in Poland Far from the first time Biden has claimed to be part of other ethnic communities Kids don't want to drive Buttigieg says he plans to go to East Palestine, Ohio Trump actually goes to East Palestine, Ohio Is Google liable for radicalizing jihadists? The SCOTUS case around free speech and Section 230 Thanks for tuning into today's episode of What's Right! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and make sure you leave us a 5-star review. Have personal injury questions? Visit Sam & Ash Injury Law to get free answers 24/7. Connect with us on our socials: TWITTER Sam @WhatsRightSam What's Right Show @WhatsRightShow FACEBOOK What's Right Show https://www.facebook.com/WhatsRightShow/ INSTAGRAM What's Right Show @WhatsRightShow
Moira McCarthy and Stacey are back to answer your D-parenting questions! This time around, they're talking about a dad who’s a first responder and sees the emergency side of diabetes, advice for young adults with T1D getting their first jobs and questions about teens with diabetes traveling abroad. In our Innovations segment – a new glucagon and previous guest Bob Weisher launches his Invincible Kids app for teens. This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider. Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone Click here for Android Episode Transcription Stacey Simms 0:00 Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dario health. Manage your blood glucose levels increase your possibilities. By Gvoke Hypopen the first premixed auto injector for very low blood sugar, and by Dexcom, keeping you in control with an integrated system for diabetes management. Announcer 0:22 This is Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms. Stacey Simms 0:28 This week, ask the D moms is back! Moira McCarthy joins me to answer your questions, including one about sending a teenwith type one on an international trip for a month Moira McCarthy 0:41 You can’t go from constantly overseeing it for years and years and years to bang letting them go on something like this. And that's why you've got to kind of poke at it. And it's not as much for them as it is for us for parents because we have to get past our own eggs. And that's how you do it. Stacey Simms 1:00 We also talk about a dad who's a first responder and sees the emergency side of diabetes advice for young adults getting their first jobs, and Moira shares a story that stopped her in her tracks, even after 24 years of her daughter's diabetes. In our innovation segment, a new glucagon option and former guest invincible kids takes a big step forward. This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider. Welcome to another week of the show, we aim to educate and inspire about diabetes with a focus on people who use insulin. My son was diagnosed with type one more than 14 years ago as a toddler. My husband lives with type two. I don't have diabetes, I have a background in broadcasting. And that is how you get this podcast. If you are a careful, longtime listener, you have probably guessed that the teenager I was talking about in that tease there. The intro I do for every show is Benny. Yeah, my son is set to go to Israel for a month this summer. It's part of a camp program. I've been sending him to this camp since he was eight years old at age nine. He started going for a month. It's not a diabetes camp. But I took advantage of having more on the show to ask her for some advice. Because even though I let him go, you know, I am nervous about this whole thing. COVID aside, you know, this is a very, very big deal for me. He's super excited, and we'll talk about that in just a minute. With Moira A big thank you to JDRF Desert West. That's the chapter that now includes Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico I believe they had me out for a they had me on zoom. It's so easy to say they had me come by. I hope we get back to that soon. But I did this via zoom, we had a great time. They have an ongoing event called type one talk. And they're bringing in authors, they have an author come in talk about the book read a little bit answer questions. It was a great fun time. I have to admit it was a little difficult to stay up because I know I’m such a baby. But it was on pacific time and I’m on the east coast. And I mean, I'm awake. We did it at I believe it started at 830 my time, and we went on with 10 o'clock. But I mean I'm not in bed, but I'm definitely in pajamas. Usually by which made it even more fun because I think maybe I was a bit looser. You know, just it was more casual in a way then during office hours. But I really enjoyed that. And I got to say, you know, the world's worst diabetes mom had an amazing February and March. You know, the book came out in at the end of 2019. But thank you so much. If you are spreading the word or you've told friends about it, something happened this year, and it has sold more than definitely than I expected this year, but it's outselling some months right around lunch. So I'm very excited and I am working on the idea for Book Two. I'll keep you posted on that. But I'm always happy to talk to JDRF chapters, other groups, a mom group, you know, just to sit and chat. Just let me know. Moira and D mom advice coming up in just a moment. But first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dario health. One of the things that makes diabetes management difficult for us that really annoys me and Benny, isn’t actually the big picture stuff. It's all the little tasks adding up. I mean, are you sick of running out of strips? Do you need some direction or encouragement going forward with your diabetes management with visibility into your trends help you on your wellness journey? The Dario diabetes success plan offers all of that and more. No more waiting in line at the pharmacy. No more searching online for answers no more wondering about how you're doing with your blood sugar levels. Find out more go to my dario.com forward slash diabetes dash connections. My guest this week is my good friend and fellow D mom Moira McCarthy. She is an author, a writer and advocate and so much more. Her daughter Lauren was diagnosed at age six in 1997. And I started the Ask the D mom segment A couple of years ago here on the show. We love getting questions from you Moira and I, as you probably know, are very much aligned to philosophically when it comes to diabetes, which kind of makes sense because I learned an awful lot from her. She's one of my mentors, and I'm so thankful that I had her blog. Despite diabetes and her books to guide me early on in Benny's journey. I mean, even before I met more, I've told this story many times before I was a big fan. And when I finally got to meet her in 2015, we spoke on the same bill at JDRF. St. Louis, I was so excited, I was kind of intimidated to be speaking on the same bill as she was. And that's really how our friendship our in person real friendship started. I bring that up. Because while we're aligned, as I say, we also had our kids diagnosed at very different times in diabetes, tech availability, or even what insulins were available at the time. So you know, 1997, when Lauren was diagnosed, was really different from almost a decade later, 2006 when Betty was diagnosed, I mean, can you think that a kid diagnosed today when they leave the hospital quite often with an insulin pump and a Dexcom? Very different times. So I like that more. And I kind of overlap in that way and have a bit of a different perspective, just in our experiences, but some really good questions this time around. And as I said, I threw one in as well. Moira, welcome back. It's always great to talk to you. I feel like we do this seasonally. Did we talk last year during allergy season? Moira McCarthy 6:19 It's funny, because when's the last time that we did a chat like this to share with everyone? It's been? It's been a hot minute, or Oh, it's Stacey Simms 6:27 been since last fall? Probably before maybe right around Halloween? Yeah, I Moira McCarthy 6:31 can't decide if time is passing really slowly or in the blink of an eye. I just don't even know anymore. But I feel like Stacey Simms 6:39 yeah, this this year is flying by and it's spring, is it really spring by you? It's usually. Moira McCarthy 6:44 It's horrible. But it's spring on the calendar. But that's okay. Stacey Simms 6:49 Well, we had a bunch of really interesting questions this time around. And I thought of you I was in a JDRF discussion. This is a really neat event I did with the the chapter in Las Vegas and surrounding states. So it was a couple of days after I've been there a few times. So I hope to go in person one of these days. But it was like a book club discussion, which was really fun. So I read part of my book. And then we had a whole group discussion. And I got a really interesting question from one of the moms who was there, and I wanted to run it by you. This mom says she's pretty laid back, their son has type one, I want to say he is seven, but he might be a little bit older might be a tween, but the mom says she's pretty laid back really wants her kid to thrive with type one. But the father, her husband is a firefighter. He's a first responder, and he sees in his words, the worst of T1D. So he is very nervous that their son will have, you know, an unhealthy a bad outcome and all these words that he was using, and wants much more strict control, and really wants to get this message across to their son that you know, you've got to take care of yourself, where's the mom just really want to expose their son to the kinds of things that this firefighter is seeing? If all of that makes sense. What do you think about that? Moira McCarthy 8:10 Well, so first of all, what they expose them to would very much depend on his age, and seven and a tween are very different. Right? So we'll just speak more generally, around it. Do our children need to understand the basics of type 1 diabetes, and why they do what they do? Absolutely. Why would you even a toddler, you, you must have done it with Benny that when you're giving them the shot, you say, you know, we're giving you this medicine so that now you can eat your food and it won't make you sick and things like that. And then as they get older, so you want them to understand it. But do you want to educate them in a fear factor kind of way? And to that? I would say no. Now, why is that? Well, that's because a number of reasons. First of all, children have very creative imaginations, and you can plant some really scary ideas in their head at a young age that may take forever for them to get out of their heads. Second, this gentleman, and thank you for his service, right sees the worst because that's his job to see the worst. If his job was to go visit everyone with diabetes every day, he probably wouldn't feel the way he felt. Does that make sense? Yeah. And so he's seeing these very rare, very frightening situations. So what I would say is, if there's any way that the mom and the dad can attend something together, whether it's virtual, or in person where they talk about the holistic approach to raising a child with diabetes, and we can you and I can talk about that a little bit right now for this mom and this dad. But as I've said to you many times, and as we all say to one another, we're not just raising controlled Diabetes, we're raising a full human being. And it's very important that a child grow up, secure, happy feeling cared for, not afraid of what may be around the corner, while at the same time having a basic understanding of why they might need to do what they would do. So if this child is seven, I would say there's absolutely no reason under any circumstance to talk about what that Father has seen, ever add to a seven year old. If this child is a tween 1112, I don't think it's the worst idea to maybe tell a story every once in a while. But I would also be careful of that. Because, again, you don't know if that person you're treating actually takes really good care of their diabetes, and is just in a bad situation you don't know, as an EMT, or a paramedic, paramedic, if there's an underlying illness that they may not know about, and they'll find out at the hospital or something. So, so even though you're there, you don't know the whole history. And I would just be careful around that. One of the things I will say is, I really do know, 1000s of families with someone who has type 1 diabetes in their family, and maybe five have had to call a paramedic, who I know, it's not out of the realm of possibility, but it's also not a probability. It's not it's way closer to never happening than it is to happening. And so based on that, I question whether you should build fear in a child to hope that they will take care of their diabetes. The other thing too is I know from raising my daughter, fear does not work in children. It's the same with everything, not just diabetes, they don't see down the road, they don't see danger, that part of them hasn't developed yet. I would say focus more on how he feels when he plays soccer, or he plays the tuba or whatever it is he does or he plays chess, or he reads, how does he feel them? That's what I would focus on. It's got to be so hard for that dad, though, with what he's seen. Stacey Simms 12:08 Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, the way I answered it was, there's two parts to my answer. And the second part, I credited to you, I promise, because it's pure Moira. But the first thing I said was, we have to kind of understand that there are these issues of access, education, family support. And when, you know, from my experience with this podcast, my audience, the people who as you're listening, now, you are a very different and wonderful and kind of lucky bunch of people, because you are seeking out diabetes education, you now know where to get community support, if you don't have family support. And I do surveys of my audience all the time where these people have plenty of support, you know, they have a, they have community, they have friends, they have family, they have somebody to help them out. And I say all that because my guess and it's a guess. And this is not a value, state judgment, anything on people who call paramedics, we all need them when we need them. But my guess would be that the repeat people that this firefighter is seeing if that's indeed the case, are probably people who do not have the support and the setup that his son have. So it's not a fair comparison, in my opinion, of what his son may experience. And again, we have no idea what he's really seeing, right is a type two is a type one, does it really matter? Right Is this a Is this a father who may also see his son weaving without diabetes in every child that he takes care of? Moira McCarthy 13:38 I was thinking that like I see a car accident, it must just be horrible. I mean, that have diabetes diagnosis is very traumatic to the parent. And it took me a long time to be comfortable is a weird word, but to be comfortable with it, you know, and if it's right in your face, like that, the poor man, but I would also say that you can go out and find the worst case scenario anytime with anything, and then dwell on that. Again, if it's put in your face every day, like this poor gentleman and his job, it's harder to look past, but he's gonna have to find a way to differentiate his child's diabetes from what he does on the road every day. And I just hope that he can, because I can't imagine how difficult it is to see that and then think about your own child. Stacey Simms 14:29 And the second part of what I told this mom to try, as, and this is one of the things you've pulled out of your bag is write down what he is concerned about. And she should do the same. Anything she's concerned about about her husband overreacting and what it might do to their son, and he should write down. I'm not overreacting, this is what I see. And then bring it to the endocrinologist or use the patient portal just to talk to the endocrinologist without your child around especially a seven year old and see what the endo has to say. How many kids in your practice have called an ambulance three times in the last month? Or, you know, whatever he's really worried about? Or if this happens, does it mean that because we've talked about this, most of us kind of make up stuff? Because we don't know. And we haven't, we're afraid to ask. Moira McCarthy 15:15 That's great advice. Stacey Simms 15:17 Well, sure you gave it to me. Moira McCarthy 15:20 But really, that is what I always did is just sort of went to the endo and said, This is what I'm worried about now. And then they would tell me why I didn't need to be worried. You have to trust your medical team to do that. And this, dad's probably going to have to think a little more than most of us have to because of what he's seen, you know, and then I know adults with type one who, when they're super low, prefer to call EMTs and have them come to their house and treat them and then leave without going to the hospital. I don't get it. But I know people who say they'd much rather do that than use glucagon, Stacey Simms 15:53 but I'll try to follow up with them. I you know, I'm in touch with the chapter. So we'll kind of circle around and see if we can find out what happened there. But it is it that's a that was a unique one. When I saw that, I thought oh my goodness. You know, I definitely wanted to ask about it. We got another question. Heather says my son just started his first job. Congratulations. Should I have him give the employer a quick reference emergency form? Or is that not necessary? Right back to our conversation in just a moment. But first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Gvoke Hypopen. and almost everyone who takes insulin has experienced a low blood sugar that can be scary. A very low blood sugar is really scary. And that's where Gvoke Hypopen comes in. It's the first auto injector to treat very low blood sugar Gvoke Hypopen is pre mixed and ready to go with no visible needle. That means it's easy to use in usability studies. 99% of people were able to give Gvoke correctly. I am so glad to have it. Find out more go to Diabetes connections.com and click on the Gvoke logo. Gvoke shouldn't be used in patients with pheochromocytoma or insulinoma visit Gvoke glucagon dot com slash risk. Now back to my conversation with Moira. The question is from a parent asking whether her child needs an emergency diabetes form at work. And this is a young adult, this isn't you know, a 14 year old kid that she's driving to, Moira McCarthy 17:22 you'd say of course, my son just got a job. So he's only 16. But I consider 16 old enough. So I can think that if you are old enough to have a job, even if it's babysitting for people, you are old enough to make that decision yourself and speak for yourself. I think parents should advise their children about what they think might be a good idea. But at the end of the day, that's up to the kid in the work situation. What my daughter would do is just kind of nonchalantly when she started, she worked at a country club catering and in the pro shop. And then she was a bank teller. And what she did is after she started just like you had meters then now I guess it'd be your CGM just pull it out and say, Oh, you know, you guys just so you know, I've type 1 diabetes. If you see me doing this, don't worry about it. If I need anything, I'll let you know. That's it. Stacey Simms 18:12 That's funny, because that's what happened to Benny. He just got a job as a grocery store clerk, he's stocked shelves, is that what it's called? He stock shelves. You know, it didn't make a big deal about diabetes. I don't think he even told them before he started. And then when he was going a little bit on the low side, and he took out his pump where his CGM numbers are and said, Hey, I'm going low. I've type one, I just need to sit down for a minute, you know, I'll keep you posted. I'll let you know if I need anything. And it was he said it was really easy. And of course, I was thinking to myself, the worst amount that I am like, it didn't even occur to me to, like, fill out a form or let them know. I mean, he does take care of it. And I'm lucky that way. But I'm curious and I don't I'm not as familiar with the ins and outs. I want to say legally, but with adults starting these jobs, full time, things like that. Are there ways that they should be disclosing or anything they should be saying or do you think it really is just up to their comfort level? I guess I'm just thinking about, you know, American Diabetes Association guidelines, that kind of stuff. Moira McCarthy 19:13 Yeah, it depends on the job. If you have a job that you're only allowed to like they give you a policy that says you may only eat and drink food during your break and your break is 15 minutes at the same time every day then you need to have a discussion with your boss and say Just so you know, I'm gonna have a tube of glucose tabs in my pocket and and I may look at my CGM and pop one in my mouth but that this is why and, and the rest of it. I think Maren always felt that like if she was at work and she felt like she was gonna throw up she wouldn't have had a form filed in case she's ever sick. So she just sort of treated it that way. Now as an adult working now, Lauren just goes about her day. You know, the people she works with all know she has diabetes because they work with her, you know, and it just Sort of this job now it actually was part of the interview process because she works in prescription drug pricing, you know, so they know but for a teenager, my opinion, I let Lauren make her choice and how she did it. And that's how she did it. I do think that the people you work for and you work with do need to know you have type 1 diabetes, they don't need to know what your basil is, or you know how to give glucagon or anything like that, but they need to know, right? Just for some weird reason, you know, for whatever they need to know. But I don't think you need to go deep into it. Unless it's a very unusual job that has really restricted than I know, like, for instance, cashiers in the front of supermarkets By the way, Benny's not a shelf, stocker. He is a manager of product traffic. Unknown Speaker 20:48 Oh, yes. Moira McCarthy 20:51 I'll let him know resume. But if you're a front cashier, in other words, that's one that you may have to say to your boss, hey, listen, I just need to keep a juice box here and something here. And if I feel low, I'll just eat if I need to stop, I'll, you know, I'll buzz you. And let's just let the other staff know. So they don't think I'm getting some special treatment or something like that. Stacey Simms 21:11 Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I'll link up any kind of advice, legal stuff for people who really do, as you said, you have a job where they can't leave their post, that sort of thing. I assume people like that would probably know what to do at this point. But I'll link that up anyway, just for some good info there. And I'll tell Benny, that it sounds like he got a promotion, he can tell me more about bananas. And it, Moira McCarthy 21:34 you know how much things are stocked. And when they're stuck. Stacey Simms 21:37 It's been really fun. And the timing has been really good. Just as a quick aside, he really just started and we let him because of the vaccines coming out, frankly. So yeah, when he got the job, we knew there was going to be a training period, and he wasn't gonna be in the store right away in North Carolina, it just worked out so wonderfully, that they opened up to grocery store workers. So as soon as he got the job, he was able to get the vaccine. And you know, even though he's not on the store floor all the time, I am certainly much more comfortable. He is now had both, and Moira McCarthy 22:08 I would want that even my kid didn't have diabetes, just because yeah, goes to the supermarket. You know, Stacey Simms 22:13 yeah, I'm thrilled. And he's so happy. It's a it's a nice thing. You know, when your kid gets really their first job, Moira McCarthy 22:19 it's good for them to practice to how to be able to just sort of deal with diabetes on the run while they're working. Do you know what I mean? Like, I never had a problem with Warren thinking, gee, I feel low and popping a glucose tab into our mouth or taking a bite of something and not being like I have to stop everything. Because I feel low. Some people do have to, and they'd have to deal with it differently. But for her, she knew she was going to land in a high pressure job where she's running around all the time. And certainly she has. So now she's glad that she most of the time can just go with the flow with it. Stacey Simms 22:54 You just got to make sure you just eat a lot of bananas and let them know if he's low. Unknown Speaker 22:59 Just tell him to the whole banana don't take bites. Stacey Simms 23:05 Okay, so I actually have a question for you. All right. This is because as we're focusing here on Benny some more this summer, COVID permitting, he is planning to go with his summer camp. This is the camp where he's gone every summer since he was eight years old for a month. And at this age, they go for a month to Israel. So awesome. Unknown Speaker 23:27 I know. I'm so excited for him. I'm crossing my fingers for Benny. Right. Oh, Stacey Simms 23:32 so again, COVID permitting, we have been talking to the group, this is not their first child was type 1 diabetes, who will be going he's pretty easy going. But we are going back and forth on what would I like? What would they like my biggest concerns that we are addressing? And I don't know the answer to really is just about how much does he need to take with him every day? I don't because they're on the move the entire time. I don't know if there's like a home base where they'll have all the stuff or if he needs to take everything every day. But that's neither here nor there. My question is for something like that, you know, knowing that everybody does things differently. But would you have any kind of non negotiables for a teenager traveling with a group abroad or somewhere far away for a whole month? Moira McCarthy 24:19 So when Lauren only went for two weeks when she was a cig go to Israeli that she went to Washington DC, which is the first time she went really far away for two weeks, and there was no nurse or anything. We talked to the endocrinology team, and she came up with a plan that she felt she could be comfortable with. And the endocrinology team was okay with that. So I said that's fine. And part of her plan was I mean, there was no share them. But part of her plan was she did not have to report numbers to me through the day and it worked out fine. I mean, I don't know what her blood sugar's were when she was there, but I know she came home and had a great time. The thing that I could say let's go to the extreme and then go backwards from that. So let us you're not negotiable, as you have to see as numbers on your phone all the time. We've talked about this before, you don't know what he's doing, you don't know what the temperature is, you don't know what he ate for breakfast that day, it's only going to get in the way of the experience, if you want to manage it. And I know you don't. But if you wanted to manage his diabetes remotely from America while he was there, it would be crazy for both of you. And he doesn't need that. So I would say that pick a time every day, that would work for him, that isn't too awful for you, your time but if there's a time, that sort of works, maybe he could check in at that time every day. And if they're in the middle of something, you can just have a phrase that he sends you to say, super busy. Everything's great. Love you. Sure I can talk tomorrow, you know what I mean? Or something like that? Because that would just make you feel that the thing about this that I think is super good is his camp friends are going with him, right? Absolutely. Yeah. He's in an environment where everybody already knows and supports everything he needs. So it's almost like you're taking the camp, that you work so hard to help him be comfortable with me he in the camp works so hard with and just moving it to Israel for a month. And that makes it kind of extra good. Right? Definitely everyone around him if he was going alone, and he hadn't met anyone, and it was all new. Maybe I'd have some other suggestions. But given that, and I think you can do it, Stacy, I think you can let them go. And you know what, this will be great practice for college. Stacey Simms 26:39 Well, we I will be calling you every day, we actually have one non negotiable that we have always had for Canada. And that is, and it is not actually up to him. It's up to the people with him. And that is if he throws up more than once in 24 hours. I get a phone call. Moira McCarthy 26:56 Oh, absolutely. I wasn't even thinking of sickness. Yes. Right. Right. That's I know you were thinking Oh, like with my kid without diabetes. Oh, good point. I Stacey Simms 27:05 was always thinking that, you know, we're really fortunate. I'm going to knock wood or something that you know, Penny doesn't get ketones very easily. Now, I've just jinxed myself. Moira McCarthy 27:13 All right, good lord. Stacey Simms 27:15 I'll say a Kenahora, too. But I don't know why I said that. But but to illustrate the point that I've always felt that that's the biggest danger when I send him away. It's just camp is dehydration. People not recognizing high blood sugars, you know, having an issue like that. And I figured that's something to look out for. So that's my really my only non negotiable. The other thing that he is asked because I asked, you know, he made he made the plan more he made the plan for this that we're proposing Unknown Speaker 27:43 grasshoppers Stacey Simms 27:45 is, he said, he's probably gonna forget stuff, if he's got a bag that he's got to be repacking every couple of days. So the call that you mentioned that daily check in, he wants it to just be a photo of his backpack. Unknown Speaker 27:57 Oh, that's brilliant. Stacey Simms 27:58 And just say, Hey, mom, my stuff is here and knowing that he has to text me about it every day. And I think we'll do it before he goes to bed because it is a seven hour difference. Yeah, he first proposed Why don't we do it at breakfast every day? And I'm like, because Moira McCarthy 28:10 it will not be breakfast time here. That's right. You know, what you might want to think about is how and you can do this now? How can he scaled back what he needs to carry every day when they go up? What can stay in his suitcase? Like if you could get a pen with some rapid acting insulin? Yeah. Then if his pump site goes bad, even if he's gone for the whole day, he doesn't need a site change and stuff like that, unless he really wants Unknown Speaker 28:38 No, no, that's a good point. I think he'd be into that. Moira McCarthy 28:40 Yeah, like, minimize what he needs to carry during the day, and then keep the other things there. And they may also if they're staying in the same vehicle, that's bringing them around to places you may be able to have him tuck a little bag into like the trunk of the bus or whatever, like ask the bus driver, can you just put this somewhere and have like, a couple sites in it or something? Unknown Speaker 29:06 Give us a gift? Unknown Speaker 29:06 They use the same? Yeah, yeah, we'll Stacey Simms 29:08 find out. All right, I'll work back I like that I Moira McCarthy 29:11 left. Those are both reasonable. Both reason things, you know, and that's super cool that he's thinking ahead about and understands what he might, you know, who doesn't forget things, I pull out the driver three times and pull back and now my sunglasses Oh, my wallet. Stacey Simms 29:26 I had to come back into my house. I was running a quick errand. And I had forgotten one of the errand had a package in the house to send back so it happens all the time. Moira McCarthy 29:34 So I think something for people who are listening to think about if you have a young child, and you're thinking, Oh, I'll never be able to do that. This is why as they're growing, it's really good practice to give them age appropriate freedom, whether it's play in the backyard on the swing set while you're not out there, you know, or ride their bike around the block with their friend at the appropriate age. I'm saying And as you let these things happen, you work your way up to sending your kids is, Unknown Speaker 30:07 you know what I'm saying? Moira McCarthy 30:10 Go from constantly overseeing it for years and years and years to bang, letting them go on something like this. And that's why you've got to kind of poke at it. And it's not as much for them as it is for us parents, because we have to get past our own Nxd. And that's how you do it. So you've done that. And now, Ben is going to reap the rewards of your being willing to put aside your fear for him so many times over all these years. Yeah, you. Well, thank Stacey Simms 30:37 you more. And I'm glad you said it that way. Because one of the interesting statements that people make to me, and I know you get it, too, as well. Wow, I could never do that. Because I would worry, as though I'm not right. All kidding aside, the first couple years, I sent him to this camp, I would wake up at four o'clock in the morning, the first week or two that he was there. And I would wake up thinking that's it. He this was the stupidest thing I ever did. This is terrible. What was I thinking? And he's fine. Right. And so it was, it's our fear. And it's, it's still there. You've heard me kind of groaning over here about going and making all these noises. I am nervous, but I know I have to let him go. So it's it is about it really is about facing those fears. And little by little, I will never forget the first time I let him go play in the snow. Moira McCarthy 31:24 That was terrifying. Oh, God, everybody goes low in the snow. So the way I always say it, and I know some people think it's hokey, but I don't care. I'm a hockey person. So whatever is, in my opinion, the most loving thing a parent can do is to set aside their own fears on behalf of their child's success and happiness. Yeah, within reason. You know, if Ben, he wanted to try lighting a barn on fire, I'd be like, check your blood sugar first. Just kidding. But you know what I'm saying? Yes, Stacey Simms 31:54 you got it, you just got to do it. And it's, it feels really hard. And it's scary. But when you start to get to the other side of it, it's wonderful, right? It's what it is wonderful it is. I know that sending him to this camp and diabetes camp was great and helped him in different ways. But sending him to this camp, I think has been the seminal experience of his childhood, it has given him a gift of independence, friends, confidence, troubleshooting, you know, crazy things have happened. And they don't necessarily call me because he manages it with the help of the people that are there. Moira McCarthy 32:33 And think of how much easier it would have been for you to just say that you can't do that. I know your sister went but you can't because you have diabetes, and instead of him moving toward this independent, funny, awesome young adult who's gonna thrive in life, he'd be not doing the things he wants to do, because he never would have experience knowing that he can, right. Yeah, good for you. Stacey Simms 33:00 Oh, I'm only I'm only quiet because I'm very superstitious. Moira, and I know it's silly. But I worry, we have to move on from saying nice things about Benny. Moira McCarthy 33:10 I have a friend whose daughter went to South Africa on an exchange program and had type 1 diabetes. And when she was there very far away from her parents, she had to have her appendix out and it was fine. Everything was fine. Her parents didn't get on a plane and fly one of the adults who oversaw the thing stayed with her. The hospital knew type 1 diabetes, everything was fine. Wow. Stacey Simms 33:34 Okay. All right. I'm gonna start wrapping us up here, Moira, but before I do, you posted something really interesting the other day and I want to ask you about it you spotted? Well, I'll let you tell the story. But you spotted an adult who looked like she needed help with a low blood sugar. So tell me about what happened. Moira McCarthy 33:51 So it's really strange. I've been swimming a lot. And I go to deep water exercise class. And so in deep water, exercise class, you you're exercising, but you're kind of looking around. And this pool is huge at my club and way, way, way over the other side, in the shallow end, where they do physical therapy and little kids swimming lessons and stuff. Just on the corner, my eyes saw this woman and it was like, she looks kind of wildly funny, you know. And then I saw who I realized is the physical therapy instructor go over and kind of take her by the shoulders and bring her and sit her down on the step in the pool in the water. And I thought I don't know why she just had the book. I thought she's having a low blood sugar. And then I saw the club manager come in with a can of juice and she opened it up stick a straw on it and they were handing it to her and I thought oh, that's what it is. It's a low blood sugar. But as I watched the woman struggling with it, and clearly wishing that it wasn't happening, she wasn't showing that visibly and some of it I may have just been projecting, you know, but I watched it and and I didn't go over to offer help because I was so far away and I I had feeling that this woman just didn't want attention, but she needed attention. And what struck me as I watched it and thought about it was, I had, you know, it's been 24 years since Lauren was diagnosed, my family is raised millions of dollars and we're not wealthy people. I do the ride every year, I used to do the walks, you know, I speak at places, and sometimes you just feel like, Lauren seems like she's doing really well, maybe, maybe I should move on. And I don't ever really feel that way. But just sometimes you're tired, you know. And when I watched her, I thought, I have let myself forget that even though my daughter is down in Washington, DC with an incredible job, thriving career, thriving life, that's her reality. You know, it's easy for me to forget that because it's not my body. And it's not my mind, and it's not my diabetes. But it was a stark reminder to me that I will never regret raising my daughter to be tough about this and just live her life and not let it stop her from what she's doing. But I need to remember that raising her to do that doesn't mean that it's easy, right? Unknown Speaker 36:16 Yeah. Oh, Moira McCarthy 36:17 I feel renewed. I feel like I can't stop. I have to keep trying because it doesn't go away. And I guess the way that I said it a long time ago that I'm remembering right now is my daughter's fine, but this is not okay. And I think watching that poor woman, not wanting to be getting the attention not wanting to be low trying to get things going get when in my head. I'm like, No, you need protein. Diabetes mom, we found out in my in my exercise group, and she was to glaze over and I'm like, Stacey Simms 36:55 well over that. Peanut Butter crackers in your bathing suit. Moira McCarthy 36:59 I think that watching it was sort of a gift to me because it reminded me to respect the disease and to keep doing everything I can to make it better for all those people like that woman and like my daughter and like Benny and like everybody else, right? Yeah. Yeah. Stacey Simms 37:17 I'm so glad you shared that. It's just you know, those reminders are so important along the way. As you know, as you said, Lauren is an adult she's not at home. It's wild to think about I still can't believe Benny's driving. 16 It's, I know we only got a couple more years before college. Moira McCarthy 37:34 Yeah, Lauren's moving into her own apartment she's lived with her old college roommate said she got out of college. Oh, wow. Next week, she will be living completely alone for the first time in her life. And she's very excited about it. So it is Stacey Simms 37:49 good for her. And I'm sure she'll have the the juice and the crackers with protein. You need a protein? Well, normally, this is where we would say Where are you going? Where are you speaking, but we're getting there. We're getting there. And later this year, perhaps but it's I think it's still fun. I know really sick of virtual, but I gotta say I love the connection. And I'm doing something really fun with my local chapter, which is now a couple of states my local jdrf chapter. And that is later on in April, and I'll be posting about this on social. They're doing like a spirit week. It's a very clever, fun idea that every day is a little different. And I am hosting a big trivia game at the end of it. And I'm very excited. It's all gonna be diabetes trivia, but nothing, you know, nothing stodgy or boring. And I'm really excited to do this and I hope I get to do it for more chapters. Moira McCarthy 38:41 That's a great idea. That'll be a lot of fun today and I help tape the upcoming virtual gala for my chapter in new languages now the Greater New England chapter so I'll be speaking a little in that but mostly that night will be about martinis from home and fitting perfect titles and stuff like that. But um, Stacey Simms 39:01 you have Martini earrings, or did I make that up? Moira McCarthy 39:04 You make that up that I may have had them and I don't remember either. You know, me and my whimsical jewelry? Stacey Simms 39:10 No, I know what it was when we did last summer we did Hollywood Squares for friends for life. And you had a martini but you Moira McCarthy 39:18 had I was acting like Joe and morally but it was water just so you have a martini at 9am never Unknown Speaker 39:30 never before 1030 Stacey Simms 39:31 see I'm just a I'm just a frustrated game show host one of these days maybe I'll get to do my dream career. I'll digital and runaway to do card sharks. Moira McCarthy 39:42 Dr. Oz can do. I don't see why you can't move Don't get me started. Stacey Simms 39:46 Well worth Thank you so much. It's always so much fun to to check in and I appreciate you answering one of my questions this time around. Moira McCarthy 39:56 It's the first time I've ever answered a question for you right Unknown Speaker 39:59 ah Moira McCarthy 40:00 It's good to talk to you again. Stacey. We'll do it again soon. Announcer 40:09 You're listening to Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms. Stacey Simms 40:14 As always, I will link up Moira’s blog and more information, how you can find her books and all of that good stuff. And I should mention here, you know, we talked about camp a lot and how great non diabetes camp can be for your kids. I am taping an episode. I hope to have it out next week, but if not, it'll be out the following week. I want to be quick on this because camp is coming up or at least you know, Camp registrations. If you if you're doing sleepaway camp, they may have already closed but I want to talk about camp. So I'm working on an episode or roundtable with parents who have sent their children like I did to non diabetes, sleepaway camp, and adults who went to non diabetes sleepaway camp as kids so we can get some best practices in and more of those non negotiables, like I mentioned in my chat with Moira. And that should be out. Like I said, I really hope next week, but if not the week after that, all right innovations coming up, we're going to talk about a new option for glucagon. And a new step forward for some folks that we've talked to previously here on the show. But first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dexcom. Dexcom has a diabetes management software called Clarity. Do you use this for a very long time, I mean, longer than I'd like to admit, I thought it was something that just our endo could use. But you know, it's really helpful. And now I actually have it on my phone, you can use it on both the desktop or as an app, it's an easy way to keep track of the big picture. I find I use it when we're adjusting things, you know, which I felt was not stopped there for a while. But at age 16 Benny is kind of leveling out on growth and changing basil rates, at least for now. And Clarity really helps us see longer term trends. The overlay reports help context about his glucose levels and patterns. And when you share the reports with your care team, it's easy for them to get a great idea of what's going on and how they can better help. managing diabetes is not easy, but I feel like we have one of the very best CGM systems working for us find out more go to Diabetes connections.com and click on the Dexcom logo. In our innovations segment this week, the US FDA has approved a new glucagon option they have approved Zegalogue. I hope I'm saying that correctly, is an auto injector and a prefilled syringe. And it is pretty amazing that we went for so long, I mean pretty much until a year or two ago with one option. And now we have three. So Zegalogue joins Baqsimi the nasal glucagon and the Gvoke Hypopen which is a sponsor of this program, you heard me talking about them earlier. Zegalogue will be available in the US later this year in June for ages six and older diabetes mine has a terrific article as they always do on Zegalogue with all the information, although not a Pronunciation Guide couldn't find that anywhere. But apparently they had initially thought to launch this as brand name hypo pal, but they dropped the name I'm my guess is that it was too close to hypo pen, you know the Gvoke Hypopen from Xeris. And, you know, I wonder if I'm not only marketing, but there were other concerns about that. This round of glucagon is also being used, interestingly, for the investigative clinical studies with beta bionics. That's the islet pump, the dual chambered insulin glucagon pump from Ed Damiano that we have talked about for a very long time here, but this is the brand of glucagon that they have been using. That is not to say that they couldn't use another one. So the next time we talk to the iLet folks, and I've been working on that we've been going back and forth on scheduling and the like, but we'll get it and I will definitely ask them about this. It's also worth noting that Zealand, the company behind this, if I haven't mentioned them yet, that Zealand and Xeris the hypo pen folks are both studying a mini dose version. This would be small doses of glucagon, where you're trending lower, you don't need the emergency. A lot of parents use this for stomach bugs. Maybe adults too. I'm more plugged into the parenting side of things. I know insulin camps have done this so many glucagon is a popular off label use. It's definitely not FDA approved. But these two companies are now already studying how they could launch a mini dose version probably a couple of years away. interesting to think about. I want to bring you up to date on another story we've been following last August we talked about which year from invincible. This was a website an app to help caregivers to help schools to help nurses and teachers and I guess what you'd call non healthcare personnel. You know, the the front desk Secretary that's who was in charge of any diabetes for many times when there was no we had no full time school nurses elementary school, how to teach all these people how to better support their students. Bob was diagnosed with type one when he was 18 years old. He said he was totally unprepared to deal with everything and he built invincible, he says to make it easier for kids to grow up with type one. And he just launched a new app. And it is fourteens invincible helps teens living with type one, build independence and have fun doing it. I have not taken a look at this, I apologize, I will see if any will take a swing through it. But we put it in the Facebook group if you'd like to take a look. And I love what he's doing here. Teens are tough man. I'm interested to see what the reaction is on this. What he does have on his side is that he has taken into consideration feedback, input, all that stuff from actual real teams. And you can see some of that and some of their feedback on the website. So this is not just somebody kind of coming into the community and thinking they know what to do. This is someone from within the community who has a lot of experience that has taken a lot of time to ask the right questions, and to admit what they don't know. So I'm excited to see what happens with invincible and Bob, I wish you all the best. Hey, next week, we are back to good news. I need your Tell me something good stuff, send it into Stacey at Diabetes connections.com. post it in the Facebook group or just DM me on social media. I'll be asking because I love to share your good news stories. Stacey Simms 46:12 Before I let you go a couple of things to look forward to in the next couple of weeks. I mentioned the trivia I'm doing for the JDRF chapter here in Charlotte. I guess it's now the Carolinas chapter. And I'm really excited to do that. I am just a frustrated game show host as you know if you've listened to some of the silly episodes we've done over the years. I love this my college radio station group, which sounds a little weird, but we have been doing trivia once a month since I don't know since the pandemic started maybe since last March. That's a really tight knit group. We have a reunion every year. And it's just so much fun. I am so bad at that trivia because it's all like 90s music. It's it wasn't a news radio station. Although it did have news. It was a hot AC pop station, adult contemporary music for those of you not up on the radio lingo. And I was there in the late 80s, early 90s. But it's just really fun. Anyway, long story short, I'm doing a modeling my trivia over that good time I have with them every month and it's going to be a lot of fun. It's not going to be scientific diabetes questions. So if you can join me for that if you're in our local area. If you think that sounds fun, and you'd like me to come to your chapter or group, I will be more than happy to do this for you. And we'll have a lot of fun. All right, thank you, as always to my editor John Bukenas from audio editing solutions. Thank you for listening. I'll be back in just a couple of days with a classic episode, so I hope you can listen then. Until then be kind to yourself. Benny 47:38 Diabetes Connections is a production of Stacey Simms Media. All rights reserved. All rounds avenged
If Knowledge is a Tool, What are We Building?Let’s Review• In the New Testament gospels, Jesus presents love as the ultimate end of a moral life. Mark 12:30-31• Christians often are obsessed with “absolute truth”.• There is the world as it really exists out there (what we call reality), and then there is the world as someone, or something experiences it (umwelt).• Does the Bible give us access to “absolute truth”.• The Bible is contextually human.• The Bible is interpreted by humans.• The Bible is not God.• Three Different Kinds of Truth• Fact Truth – derived by logic and science.• Meaning Truth – sharing of human experience (includes religion and faith)• Wisdom Truth – navigating life well with the goal of love. The Need to be Right• Is the life of faith about being right? Is it important to make sure others get it right? Or is this about loving people no matter what?• For most people, the need to be right outweighs the need to be loving.• In the Bible there seems to be no tension between truth and love because the highest form of truth is wisdom, and the highest form of wisdom is love. • Jesus is about the way we live our lives and not just the facts in our heads.• It is a vision for life that utilizes facts, meaning and wisdom in service to love. The Need to Know More· There is often the belief that the world will be made right when we get all the facts straight. Truth is a Tool· Facts are to develop the progress of character (2 Peter 1:5-8)· Fact truth and even meaning truth (or faith truth) stops short of the goal of building a better life (wisdom truth). Love is a National Treasure· Knowledge is a tool to get to the treasure.· The Christian faith is often built around privileging our intellect rather than character.o Everything is in service to love (1 Corinthians 13)o Knowledge knows its place as a tool for love (1 Corinthians 8:1-3) Knowledge is a Motivator not a Manipulator· When we use our opinions and knowledge as a manipulator then we are not motivated by love. The Bible is often an Idol• The Bible is straight up difficult.• Difficult to understand: Ezekiel 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iziuvkci4yM&feature=emb_logo• Difficult to apply properly: Deuteronomy 25:11-12• Absolute truth has become an idol in the American church.• The use of the Bible is instrumental in this development. • When the Bible is held up as the Word of God then it becomes imperative to use every syllable of it. • Ironically, the Bible itself only calls Jesus the Word (John 1:1)When the Bible is Bad for You• You can “prove” anything from the Bible if you want.• When the Bible becomes a faithful and trusted guide to lead you to Jesus then it can be used to build love.
In this very busy segment, Craig addresses a number of tech issues that are in the news right now. First off BEC scams. Business Email Compromises are also commonly known as Spear Phishing scams and target executives. In the past, many came from outside the US but this has changed. Next, he discusses what happened with Excel and the loss of some Covid data. Then he explains why the IRS is looking at Cryptocurrency on people's tax returns. So let's get into it! For more tech tips, news, and updates, visit - CraigPeterson.com --- FBI, DHS says hackers have gained access to election systems The IRS Is Being Investigated for Using Location Data Without a Warrant Clear Conquered U.S. Airports. Now It Wants to Own Your Entire Digital Identity. 5G in the US averages 51Mbps while other countries hit hundreds of megabits IRS may put cryptocurrency question at the top of 1040 to catch cheaters Publishers worry as ebooks fly off libraries’ virtual shelves 25% of BEC Cybercriminals Based in the US What's Really Happening in Infosec Hiring Now? --- Automated Machine-Generated Transcript: Craig Peterson (2): [00:00:00] We're talking about the misuse of our data by these data aggregators. What's it being used for? What can you do in order to maybe not stop it, at least slow some of it down? What government's doing to us, frankly. Hey, welcome back everybody. Craig Peterson here. So we were talking about these data aggregators and what they're collecting on us. Well, the most recent stuff that they started collecting is information from the apps we're using. Typically we're talking about apps that are free apps as opposed to paid apps. While we're using them we're giving away information about our location. This became such a problem that really came to the attention of Apple and Google both now. Google has had very kind of fine-tuned stuff for many years in Android that tells you the app wants this, wants that, wants the other thing, and frankly, that's pretty darn handy. Isn't it? What Apple has done is, Apple has tried to make it very, very simple for you. Far fewer options. When it comes to the granularity of what an app is asking for. Apple forces these app developers to only get or ask for the absolute minimum that they need. The more recent versions of Apple's iOS and Android have built into them now, a request so that when an app is asking for access to, for instance, your location, this GPS data, it will pop up a little warning. Apple in the latest release of its operating system it did a really nice thing. In fact, I think it was late in iOS 13, they added this, but it started reminding you every once in a while that this app is using your GPS. For instance, in the background, you want it to still be able to use it. They added it a while ago. Hey, by the way, You can just restrict it to having access while you're using the app. So when you're looking at those little popups, come up on your Android device or your iOS device, keep in mind. Okay. What is this app for? Why do I have this app? Oh, because I want to Tetris. Why would an app that is playing Tetris need access to your contacts? Why would it need access to your location? Why would it need access to any of these things? I like the way that Microsoft has gone with Windows and Apple with its operating systems and Android, where it is giving you definitive have warnings now about what apps want. Many of these apps still sell the information. Remember Google is in the business of selling information about you and selling your information as well. So if you have Google maps on your phone, even if it's an iOS phone, you may well be leaking your personal information to Google, and then it goes to the data aggregators. Apparently what the Senators are worried about here is that the IRS had gone out and got data that we didn't receive under a warrant. A letter here from the Inspector General says we are going to conduct a review of this matter, and we are in the process of contacting the criminal investigation division about this review signed by Jay Russell George, who is the Inspector General. That was his response back to the Senators Warren and Wyden. So I like this, right. I like what she's trying to do here. I don't think that they should be able to get this data without a warrant of some sort. But it's happening every day and it isn't just the IRS. It is many other agencies out there that are getting this data and that's what kind of concerns me. So let's move on to another real problem here and this is our personal identities. Remember I mentioned at the top of the hour. This whole airport thing, right. Where we've got TSA out there and they are chartered with, let me put it that way, trying to keep us safe. I think that's a wonderful thing. We used to have airlines and airports that are paying for security. They can still do that. And in some cases they do, but most airports have TSA agents there now. Have you noticed that there are two programs that are being actively used? You've got one, which is the prescreening. So you go, they take your fingerprints, they take all of your identity and they look you up. Okay. And they are checking public records by the way. They're checking to make sure that you buy oil for your home to heat it. If you're in the Northeast or you have an electric bill in your name and that all of the address rest all add up to gather. They check, of course, criminal records as well, but again goes back to the data aggregators and then they say this person no criminal record. And they are pretty much who they say they are. It looks like they're a decent, upstanding citizen. So we are going to l, have them this little pass. Now that lets them be pre-screened. It's a little easier at the airport it's a little faster get through. Although now so many people are pre-screened that line is slowed down a lot. So now there's another program that you might've noticed? Well, there's a couple of others as NexUS and things, but another one you might have noticed, which is called CLEAR. I have a friend who swears by CLEAR because he just goes into the airport Bam he's through TSA. What clear does is it is taking your biometric information and is doing the background check that we talked about before. A real problem for getting through TSA. Right? Is it a real problem? Has it been a real problem for you? Because what CLEAR is doing is making it so that it just takes seconds to pass through TSA. But here's what you're doing. They've got all of your personal information. They've got your driver's license. They now have your biometrics. They have your Iris information from your eye. So they know who you are. They can recognize that eye. Think about biometric information here for a minute. If you are on locking a door, using your fingerprint, that fingerprint scanner has to have that biometric information. Many businesses, many buildings now will unlock doors based on your face. Again, biometric information. There are more advanced systems that listen to your voice. There are systems that watch your cadence as you're walking because those are all unique to individuals. That's what they're doing in China right now, too. You're wearing a face mask, but they can still identify you. There is a problem with having this type of biometric information. I think it's a very big problem. Hey, if you go to "Have I Been pwned.com" and you find that your password and your username were leaked in a hack of a website, let's say. What do you do? Well, of course, first thing, first, you change your password and you make sure you're not using it anywhere else. What do you do if your biometric information is stolen? We'll be talking more about that when we get back, you are listening to Craig Peterson right here. Stick around. Cause we'll be right back. Of course, we're always online, Craig peterson.com. --- 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 Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at: www.twitter.com/craigpeterson For questions, call or text: 855-385-5553
On this episode of the Healthy, Wealthy and Smart Podcast, I welcome Eric Miller on the show to discuss how to maximize the value of your physical therapy practice. Eric Miller has been in the financial planning industry for over 20 years. He is the Co-Owner of Econologics Financial Advisors and the Chief Financial Advisor. He has a degree from Capital University and is a Registered Financial Consultant® and licensed insurance agent. He takes pride in helping practice owners become the financial heroes of their own stories and has taken this passion to over 600 families in the past decade. In this episode, we discuss: -How to maximize the value of your practice -The business systems that add the most value and are most attractive to potential buyers -Financial considerations when planning your exit strategy -Simple strategies to minimize your tax bill every year -And so much more! Resources: Econologics Financial Advisors Website Econologics Financial Advisors Youtube Eric Miller LinkedIn Econologics Financial Advisors Facebook A big thank you to Net Health for sponsoring this episode! Learn more about the Redoc Patient Portal here. For more information Eric: Eric Miller has been in the financial planning industry for over 20 years. He is the Co-Owner of Econologics Financial Advisors and the Chief Financial Advisor. He has a degree from Capital University and is a Registered Financial Consultant® and licensed insurance agent. He takes pride in helping practice owners become the financial heroes of their own stories and has taken this passion to over 600 families in the past decade. During this time, he’s had over 15,000 conversations with practice owners regarding money, investing, practice expansion, practice transitions, taxes, asset protection, estate planning, and helping them shape their financial attitude toward abundance. Econologics Financial Advisors is an Inc. 5000 honoree for 2019 as one of the fastest growing companies in the US. Read the full transcript below: Karen Litzy (00:01): Hey, Eric, welcome to the podcast. I am happy to have you on. Eric Miller (00:05): Well, thanks, Karen. I'm really excited to be here. Yeah. Karen Litzy (00:08): Before we get into our talk on, you know, how to maximize the value of our practice, in your bio, I read that you're a registered financial consultant. So can you explain to the listeners what that is and maybe how that differs from a financial advisor, an accountant? What is the differentiation there? Eric Miller (00:31): No problem there. So I think when people hear that I'm a financial advisor, I mean, people kind of have the same impression that all financial advisors are alike, so to speak. And that's not always the case. You know, there's some financial advisors that specialize in working with you know, ministers and teachers and all different kinds of professions. I just happened to work with private practice owners. Now, as far as am I licensed to do what I do in the financial world, there's something called being a fiduciary. And when you're a fiduciary, that basically means that you have to do what's in the best interest of your client, not all financial advisors adhere to that standard. What's called a registered investment advisor and we're held to that standard under the SEC guidelines. And then as a registered financial consultants, it's a designation that I picked up along the way. And it just basically, you know, there's certain criteria that you have to use to be able to get to that designation that's system. Karen Litzy (01:41): Got it. Yeah. So, you know, we were talking before we went on and it's kind of like if you're in the physical therapy world, which I am, and you go on to become, you know, like a clinical specialist in orthopedics or a clinical specialist and in pediatrics, it's like going on for a little bit extra education and certification and what you do is that right? Okay. That's exactly correct. Perfect. Perfect. All right. So now let's get into the meat of this interview. So today we're going to be talking about how to maximize the value of your practice, perhaps plan for an exit of that eventually. And we're going to weave in some critical tax strategies that you might be able to use to save you money. So no one likes to leave money on the table. No one likes to feel like a dope because they didn't know what they were doing. So, let's start with maximizing the value of your practice. So first, what does that even mean? Eric Miller (02:42): That's a great place to start because I think people automatically assume that when I say maximizing your practice value, it's just about money, right? It's just about, Oh, the, you know, what's the enterprise value of my business. And then that leads into, Oh my gosh, he's going to talk about like profit and loss and EBITDA and all these really technical terms. But in my viewpoint maximizing practice value. Isn't just about money. It's about the other parts of owning a business that you get value for like time, right? Like you would want to build a business that gives you a lot of time. You'd want to build a business that gives you great relationships with either your employees or recognition from your community. So when I say, if you're trying to maximize the value of your practice, it's not just about the money. Eric Miller (03:31): It's about all of those other things, because you know, you look at it, most people that own a private practice that is your largest investment. You know, it's like the thing that provides the most cash flow to your household, and it is an investment and anybody that's owned a business for any period of time knows that it's something that you have to care for. And that you have to make sure that you're treating like an investment and putting in the time and the money to make sure that you get the most value out of it. That's our definition for that. Karen Litzy (04:04): Yeah, absolutely. So how can we as practice owners then maximize the value of our practice. If let's say in the event, we want to sell it, we want to exit our practice in whatever way we want that exit to happen. Eric Miller (04:21): There's definitely some key areas like, yeah, you have to kind of assume the viewpoint of a buyer. Like if I'm going to buy your practice, Karen, like what are some of the things that I would like to see in place that would allow me to give you, you know, top dollar for it. And I think number one is your personnel organized? Okay, do you have organized personnel? Do people have job descriptions? Do they know what they're doing? Do they know who to report to? So, you know, I think that that is that's key because obviously if you have people in your organization that are aligned and are all kind of working together, you know, you're going to have a really powerful organization. If you can do that, if you don't, then you're going to have, you know, this scattered business that everyone's kind of doing their own thing and that's not good. Eric Miller (05:13): So that's certainly one thing. And then of course, just having good stable systems that are built in your business so that there's procedures that people have, that they can follow. You know, there should be an organization chart somewhere where people know like who's in charge of what I think that's going to all add value to your business. Certainly if you look at like the facility, what's the facility look like, is it in good shape? You know, do you have, if you lease the building, do you have a good lease on it? You know, is there new carpeting is, I mean, is it a nice place where people feel safe to come to, you know, certainly a buyer's going to think about that. And then I think from an income standpoint, obviously you have to be solvent. Eric Miller (05:57): You certainly don't want to have a lot of, you know, outstanding accounts receivable out there. You want to make sure your books are up to date and current, you don't owe any back taxes on the practice. You have multiple income streams in the business that you like multiple services that you provide because no one wants to be reliant upon one of anything. So I think those are all, some really key areas that if you can get those things in shape and you can get them systematized, you're really going to have something that someone else would want and they would value. And they're going to pay you a much higher amount for that. Karen Litzy (06:33): Yeah, that makes sense. So what I'm hearing is you really want to have an organization that's sort of a well oiled machine where people know why they're coming to work. They know what they're doing once they get there and reasonably happy at their jobs, if not very happy at their job. Eric Miller (06:52): Yeah. And I think that you're exactly right. And I think the key as the person that's in charge of it is that you have to know what your role is in that business. So I think a lot of people that are in private practice, and maybe you can attest to this when you first started out, you're just trying to make things happen and go, right. And, you know, as you go on, you kind of realize, look, I'm not just a practitioner, I'm also an owner and I'm an executive and those are completely different roles. And I think over time, if you can really make sure that you understand that those three roles are separate and that you have to make sure you master them to that degree, or at least hire someone that can do those things, that that's really going to create you a valuable practice, you know? Karen Litzy (07:41): And I mean, when you first start out, like I work with a lot of like first time entrepreneurs, you are the owner, the therapist, the executive, the marketer, the pay, you know, you're everything, right? So, so let's say you have a practice like that, where maybe you are a single owner practice, right. Or maybe you have one person part time person. So you don't have this sort of robust, huge practice. Can you sell that? Eric Miller (08:12): Well, you can, you can sell anything. It's just as a matter of how much you're going to get for it. So, again, looking from the buyer's perspective, he wants to buy something. That's not dependent upon one person. He wants something that's going to be basically, he can assume that there's free cashflow there. That is going to be worthwhile to him as an investment. So if you have like a single doctor practice or you're a single practitioner, I mean, you can certainly sell it. It's just not going to go for a very high, multiple, see, most of the practices that we're talking about, you know, are going to sell for maybe like a one to two times earnings. Whereas if you get a bigger organization that has, you know, seven, eight, nine, 12, 20 PTs on staff, there's executives in the office, it's going to go for a much higher, multiple could go as high as eight to 10 of your earnings. So it is, it is that kind of a game, but that's, you know, that's the journey. Karen Litzy (09:08): Right? And, you know, you had said you want to have a lot of systems in place, in your opinion, what are the most valuable or most important systems to have in place within your business? Looking at it from a value standpoint? Eric Miller (09:23): I think definitely having a good financial system is really key because look at what, you know, a lot of businesses, business owners, don't like to confront the finance part of their business, and that's why they don't have much in reserves. And, you know, they're always kind of struggling for, gosh, I can't make payroll this week. And it's just a constant battle when you don't have good financial systems in place, because they're just, they're not paying attention to their money lines. And unfortunately, when it comes to your practice, that that is the most important thing is keeping that practice solvent, which means that there's more money coming in than what's going out. So that personally, I think that's the most important. Some people would say a marketing system is really key because let's face it. If you don't have more patients coming in and buyers definitely going to want to see that he's going to want to see that you are, you have a system in place where you're constantly getting new patients in the door. Right. And then, you know, I think a good quality control system is, is really, really key. Because if people aren't, you know, getting better and you don't diagnose that quickly of, you know, why aren't people getting better because that's what you do as a physical therapist, your job is to get people pain-free, you know, or reduce their pain. So I think that's a pretty key area too. Karen Litzy (10:42): Nice. Yeah. I just had this conversation about the importance of a financial system. Cause I sort of switched my financial system within my practice around, over the last couple of years and it's made such a huge difference. You know, I started looking at the financial system in percentages sort of going off of Mike McCollough, the book profit first. And so, yeah. So how much stays in the business? How much goes to me as an owner, how much goes to taxes? How much goes to profit, how much goes, and then making sure that when that money comes in, it is automatically divided up into those percentages and it's made a huge difference. Eric Miller (11:22): That's so awesome to hear it, does it because you've instilled control over your money right now. Right. And when you look at like what's a barrier for a lot of practice owners is that they don't feel like they have control over their money. Right. And, when you start putting in good control, it's kind of like when you're adjusting somebody or you're getting someone to feel better, right. You have to kind of put control in on that person. Like, I need you to do this and move here and do that. It's the same thing with your money. You have to kind of allocate it so that you know, your expenses are you channel your money to places where it needs to go to handle whatever expense that would be. Certainly, you know, you're yourself. I think, you know, is the most important person that you need to pay first. Karen Litzy (12:07): Well, that's what profit first says. No, it's true. Like, and once I started doing that, it made everything just lighter. So now like quarterly taxes are coming up September 15th or depending on when this airs that might've just been that September 15th date. And I remember like years ago, I'd be like, Oh my gosh, I don't know how, how do I not have them now? I'm like, Oh, totally fine, my money's where it's supposed to be. I am good. Like, this is exactly where it needs to be. Eric Miller (12:43): That actually is kind of like an underlying goal and purpose that I have is I, you know, people always ask like, what's the product of a financial advisor and people think it's, you know, Hey, you know, you made me 20 or 30% or you know, helped me save in taxes. Not really, you know, I like people to feel relaxed about their financial condition and just what you explained to me right there. You're definitely much more relaxed about your condition now because you have control over it and it doesn't control you. That's really awesome. Karen Litzy (13:13): Yeah. And it's a little stressful at first because it's different and it's a change. So I always tell people if you're starting out now start off this way. And Holy cow you'll be so much easier. Everything is just, I feel so much easier. Yeah, just a sense of ease that I now know, like, yes, I have money set aside for this. It's already paid, like it's basically already paid for. Eric Miller (13:39): That's it that's right. But it also does another thing too. It does make you look at and say, you know what, maybe I'm not making enough money in my business because I can't cover some of these other things. And I think that's the most important thing that people have to realize. And I'll go off on a little tangent here, but there's really two basic rules of, for me, income and expenses. The first one is that just get used to the fact that your business will try to spend every dollar that it makes. And then some, and, and that's not just for a business, that's like a government or any household or organization just, it's just going to try to spend every dollar that it makes. And then some, but at the same time, it will also make the exact amount of money. Eric Miller (14:25): It thinks it needs to make to survive. So when I say that, people are like, what does that mean? I'm like, well, look, you know, if you know that you have expenses coming up, somehow miraculously, the business does make enough to cover it. Doesn't it? It's just like, it's just, that's the way it is. So the trick to it is simply to make sure that your reserves and your profit and your taxes are just part of what the business thinks it needs to make to survive. And if you can get that in as what you said as part of that profit first book, I think that's what he's talking about is that it sets the right income target for what the business really needs to make, because that's the biggest outpoint that I usually see with, with practice owners is that I'll ask them, Hey, what's your income target? They'll say, well, you know, I need to make $30,000 a month to pay my bills. And I'm like, well, no, that's not what you need. You actually need 45. If you want to include your profits and building up reserves and paying your taxes that they're operating on a wrong income target. So I think that's really key is to make sure you're operating on the right number. Karen Litzy (15:30): Right. So don't underestimate it completely because I think oftentimes people will just look at, well, this is my rent. These are my utilities. This is my payroll. If you're paying people and these are, you know, overhead costs that maybe we have to pay, you know, phone bills, things like that. And that's it. And they're like, okay, so that's all I have to make. Eric Miller (15:55): That's right. And that's where their demand for income is. But, and if, but if they put in, Hey, I need another $10,000 a month for myself. I need another 5,000 for taxes. I need another because I want to make sure I have reserves. So if I have to shut down for another month, I can handle that. Right. You start putting all those things in. Now the number changes from Oh, 35, I need to make 50. Oh, right. Okay. Well, that's fine. How many more patients do I need to see a week? Right. To be able to make that number, it just gets them, you know, being a problem solver now, as opposed to like, I can't do anything about it kind of mode. Karen Litzy (16:32): Yeah. And I do that. Like people always ask me, well, how many patients, you know, do you usually see a week? And I said, well, it's not, how many do I usually see it's this is what I need to see to make X amount of money per week. So that I know per month, this is what I'm making. And my costs are a little bit lower because I have a mobile practice. So I'm not paying a lease on a brick and mortar facility, but I still have to pay my own rent for my apartment. And I still got to eat. You know, these are all the things that you have to put in. So it's not just, what does the business need, especially if you're a solo preneur, what do you need to survive? Eric Miller (17:12): Yeah. And I think this is where a lot of people, yeah. A lot, a lot of practice owners and entrepreneurs gets, think that their business is more important than their household. And you know, I'm under the, you know, our philosophy, our viewpoint is that your household is like a parent company. Okay. You think about this, you look at all the big corporations out there and you know, people have opinions of them, but they do understand money pretty well. And they certainly understand that let's take Facebook. For example, Facebook owns, I don't know if you do this, like 83 other companies and they're the parent company to all of those other companies, but everything flows to the parent company. Okay. We're your households, no different, you know, you own, you have a, let's say you own a house, a business, maybe a piece of real estate 401k plan, the bank account. Right. Those are all assets of the household. So you really, you know, once you start treating your household, like the parent company, then you set up the system so that, you know, your household you're meeting the goals and purposes of the household people. I think they don't do that. They don't take care of themselves like they should. Karen Litzy (18:19): Yeah, no, I think that's great advice. Thank you for that. Alright. So we've got those financial marketing quality control systems, obviously three very important systems and we can go on and on and systems. That's a whole other conversation. So we will take those and people can run with them as, as sort of prioritizing their systems. So now we've got, we've got all of our systems in place. We've especially our financial system. So how do we plan? Let's say we're getting towards the end of our treating career, whatever your clinical career, whenever that may come. And it may come at different times for different people. How do we efficiently plan for an exit? What do we do? Eric Miller (19:05): As far as like getting the business ready to exit out. Karen Litzy (19:09): Yeah. Like let's say, let's say you're getting ready to kind of exit out of your business. Now we know that maybe you can try and sell it. Or what if you're just like, this is the business is done. You're just done. What do you do? Eric Miller (19:24): Yeah. Well, I mean, I think the first thing you gotta realize, you gotta look at your own financial readiness. Like, can you afford it? You know? I mean, I think a lot of people, they get into a position where they're tired, they get exhausted, right. Because they've been doing things for themselves or I'm sorry, just for the business. And then they just get burnt out, you know? Well, you know, burnout, you know, what burnout is, it has nothing to do with that. It's just that you don't have a bright enough future in front of you. That's what burnout comes from. Right. And I can see why a lot of practice owners getting that conditions. Like I just keep doing the same thing every day and I can't see a bright future for me, so I might as well just sell the thing. Okay. Eric Miller (20:06): So the first thing that I do is just, I try to rehabilitate, like, do you remember why you decided that you wanted to be a business owner? Do you remember like what the purpose was? And if you can revitalize that, I think you can get that person back on track, but look at the end of the day, if you don't want to do it anymore and you want to sell your business, then you know, certainly, you know, hiring a broker can help. Certainly finding someone or just finding another PT that, you know, in the area that would be willing to take, you know you know, sell, you can sell the business to, for Goodwill or it's not going to be very high price, but certainly you can find someone that would be willing to buy practice for some costs. Right. That may just not be very much. Right. Karen Litzy (20:52): And then what, if you were ready to just wrap it up, you don't want to sell it. Are there things that one needs to think about as they wind it down? Eric Miller (21:02): You mean just like, just close it down? Karen Litzy (21:04): You're closing it down. You're moving on to greener pastures, if you will. So you decided to close it down. Are there any financial considerations that one has to think about in that scenario? Eric Miller (21:16): Well, you know, certainly look at how much money that you make from your business. Even, you know, money that through the cashflow that you make, it's sometimes a lot more significant than what people think. And certainly you can own the business. You can just, I mean, if you're a physical therapist, you can just go work for somebody else if you want to. But you know, I think people just have to realize that, that their business does provide them a pretty good living and they just have to analyze that and say, do I have enough to replace that? Or can I go to work for somebody else and replace that income? You know, it's certainly not a good thing to do. You know, there's seven different ways to exit out of business. And that's one of them just shutting it down. It's probably the most, it's the worst way to do it, but I know that it does happen. Karen Litzy (22:05): Yeah. Yeah. What are the other ways you could just name them? We don't have to go into detail. Eric Miller (22:13): So you can die with your boots on, you can close it down. You can sell to an associate. Okay. You can sell to a competitor. Okay. You can sell to private equity. Okay. You can gift the practice to somebody else. Okay. Or you can have your employees buy it through, what's called a Aesop plan. Those are the seven ways that you can exit out of your practice. Okay. Great. What happens with most practice owners is they either sell to an associate to a private equity group, the size of the practice. Karen Litzy (22:54): Yeah. Yeah. And so now let's talk about taxes. Eric Miller (23:03): Yes. So, Oh, taxes. Hey guys, when you could see your eyes got big. Karen Litzy (23:07): Who likes to pay taxes, right. Nobody likes to do it, but we all do it because we need, we need the services that they provide. Right. So let's talk about some tax strategies that might be able to save us some time. Eric Miller (23:21): Yeah. Yeah. I think the first thing on taxes is that you have to realize that your accountant may or may not understand the tax code completely. And it sounds really weird because everyone assumes that they have an accountant, Hey, he's going to try to minimize my taxes. That's not really what their goal is. Their goal is to make sure that you are compliant, that you file your taxes on time. They're not necessarily doing tax planning for you. They're not trying to minimize your taxes. Okay. So I think that's the first thing is that you really have to make sure you're working with an accountant that has the viewpoint that I want to try to minimize this tax bill as much as I can, because it won't happen by itself. You have to be proactive. You cannot take a passive role in minimizing your taxes, or you're just going to end up paying the most. Eric Miller (24:09): Okay. The tax codes, 3 million words, and, you know, no one's going to know every single passage of it. That being said, there are definitely some strategies out there that you can utilize. One that is that I've been talked about a lot is that you can actually rent your house out for 14 days out of the year and you can collect that money completely tax free. And you're probably thinking like, well, how, how would that benefit me? So where this came about was that in a, I don't know what year it was, but if you've ever heard of the masters golf tournament, there's a lot of, there's a lot of guys that have big houses there and on the golf course and they rent their houses out for thousands and thousands of dollars. Okay, well, legally they can collect all of that money, completely tax free. Eric Miller (25:08): Okay. Because the IRS code says, you can rent your house out 14 days out of the year and get that money complete tax free. And you probably thinking, how do I take advantage of that? Well, if you own a business, your business can rent your house out for 14 days out of the year. And as long as you have a legitimate meeting at your house, maybe you have with a key executive or even with yourself, right. You have an executive meeting at your house and you document that, then you can rent, you can have the business pay for that. Okay. It's a business expense. And then you get that personally. And as long as you do it correctly, you can get that money completely tax free. All right. That would be certainly one strategy you can use. It's called the, it's called the Augusta rule. You can look it up online and, and certainly there's. Yeah, yeah. That's where it came from. That's one and, you know, right there, 14 days, let's say that it's a thousand dollars, that'd be $14,000 that you could expense out in your business. And then you can get that personally. Oh, you have to do it right. You have to have a legitimate meeting. You have to like Karen Litzy (26:14): Say it's $10,000 a night. Eric Miller (26:17): I don't know. In New York, you may be able to write. Karen Litzy (26:20): I don't know. That might be a stretch too. Eric Miller (26:22): If you needed to rent out like a hotel or a restaurant, that's what you would need to do. You need to go get like an estimate like of where you would normally hold that meeting just for documentation purposes, but like anything else it can be done. You just have to follow through and have documentation, you know? And I just have the accountant guide you on how to do that. That's certainly that's one that would be, you know, 14, 15,000. So if people have kids, they can put their kids on payroll and they can, you know, show them that would be another deduction that you can use. You know, there's certainly a lot more, I could probably go on all night. But you know, I think another thing that people can do is just look at how they take their income. Eric Miller (27:06): Like you own a business, right? And most physical therapists are escorts. And you know, a lot of accounts will tell them to take bigger salaries than what they actually need to be taking. Right? So you can actually adjust your salary downs as long as it's a reasonable compensation and then take more an owner draws. That's going to help minimize the Medicare tax as well. So it really just boils down to, you know, finding the right information, finding a right advisor that can help you and, you know, provide tax deductions that your accountant can work with to minimize it. It can happen like you should, it's your responsibility. And I say this a lot. It's like, I've never read anywhere where it's my responsibility to maximum fund the IRS. Right? Like I know I have to pay taxes. I get that. But there's no one that said that I have to like pay, you know an ungodly amount of tax. But that's the way the IRS works. They just assume that your money is their money and you have to be proactive to show them otherwise. Karen Litzy (28:11): Yeah. I know this year when I paid my taxes, when I did my taxes for 2019, I was so excited. Cause I only owed like $309 after doing my estimated quarterly taxes, which I thought, well, this is great because I'm not giving them more throughout the year. And in fact I was almost like, spot on. That's pretty good. Yeah. That was pretty good. Because like, you don't want to, like, I understand when people get refunds, but if you got a refund, that means that you gave them more than was necessary throughout the year. Correct. Right. Yeah. Eric Miller (28:53): So it is something that you have to stay on top of because as your business grows, you know, your tax liability personally is going to be higher. So you really have to make sure you stay in good communication with your accounts. Like you should be talking to them every quarter, especially now recently where I think a lot of people have gotten the PPP loan. And if you, you know, if that gets forgiven well, you know, physical therapists didn't really shut down. I mean, some of them did, but you were still collecting money. So you know, you may have, you really have to make sure that you're not going to have a tax problem for 2020, it could happen. So just, you know, just getting in communication with your accountant. I think that that will help. Karen Litzy (29:32): Yeah. During the PPP loan phase and covert, I was thinking, I was talking to my accountant like literally every other day. Yeah. I'm like, does this make sense? Should I do this? Should we do this? Should I do this? Can I do this? Does this, is this the right form? Do I feel, and I did get a PPP loan because in New York, you know, we were done, like when I say shut down, like shut down, nothing, you know? And eventually I started doing more telehealth visits, but in the beginning it was quite scary. And so I said, you know, I better apply for a loan and, and I did get it. And now they haven't even asked, we haven't even filled out the forgiveness paperwork yet, but now I'm in contact with him like weekly, like, is this the right form? Did I fill this out? Right? Is this the right documentation I need? And he's like, yes, yes, yes. You're all good. So now when the time comes, I'll be able to get that in really quick. Eric Miller (30:27): Yeah. And it won't be a problem and you know, you'll have your attention on other things that'll help expand and that's good. And then that's just, that's not my experience. Most practice owners, they kind of don't confront it, they ignore it. And then it becomes a bigger problem down the line. And that's really needless. Right. Karen Litzy (30:44): I think that's how I used to be, but I have now been rehabilitated financially. So yeah, this was great. Now, what are in your opinion, what are the key messages that you would like the listeners to kind of take away from this conversation? Eric Miller (31:02): Well, I mean, you know, for me look, I mean, you can, regardless of what your financial condition is, like, you can do something about it. Right. And I think that's always been a pretty key, you know, philosophical viewpoint that I have. Like, I don't think that there's such thing as an unwinnable game and I know that even things get a little murky and they get a little dark and you know, sometimes you don't really see, you know, the future as bright as it could be, but if you just kind of like, just do one thing right. And complete that cycle of action and then go onto the next, then I think that starts to create more freedom for yourself. Like people get overwhelmed so fast. Right. And there's like, there's so many different things to do, especially financially. Right. That they just, they don't just do what's in front of them while they're doing it. Like just complete one thing at a time. And then you can go on to the next one. Right. Like do the next thing and then go on to the next one. And then to me, that's the key to success, right? There is, is getting interested in something that you don't want to do. Right. And completing it. And I think once you do that, you'll start to see a much brighter future, better things happening to you. Karen Litzy (32:14): Yeah. Great, great advice. Thank you so much. And before we get going, I'm going to ask you the same question that I ask everyone. And that's knowing where you are now in your life and in your career. What advice would you give to your younger self? Eric Miller (32:29): I would simply tell myself that there are destructive and constructive actions that you can do in life, right. And that those destructive actions, while they may appear fun at the time will certainly prevent you from getting to your potential and leading the life that you want to lead. Right. I know we're all young. We all kind of make stupid mistakes and that's just part of the learning curve. But I would certainly tell myself, you know, your personal ethics is really part of your survival, right? And to the degree that you kind of keep yourself in good shape morally, and you do the right thing better things are gonna happen to you in your life. It's going to create more abundance for you. And I would tell myself that is just make sure you pay attention and do the right thing more often than you do the wrong thing. Karen Litzy (33:22): Excellent. And now, where can people find you on social media website? Eric Miller (33:27): Yeah. So if you want to go for a wealthforpts.com wealthforpts.com, you can download a free ebook that we have. You can certainly go to our website www.econologicsfinancialadvisors.com And then we have a YouTube channel, www.econologicsfinancialadvisors.com. And those would be three places that you can go to connect with us. Karen Litzy (33:48): Perfect. And all of that will be at the show notes at podcast.healthywealthysmart.com under this episode. So one click will take you to everything. So Eric, thank you so much. This was great. I was taking copious notes and you know, every time I have these conversations, I'm always thinking to myself, Hey, what do I need to do? What do I need to act on? And you know, a lot of the conversations that I've had with folks like yourself, accountants, even on this program and in my own personal life have just really been so valuable. So I thank you so much for taking the time out today. Thank you and everyone, thanks so much for listening. Have a great couple of days and stay healthy, wealthy and smart. Thanks for listening and subscribing to the podcast! Make sure to connect with me on twitter, instagram and facebook to stay updated on all of the latest! Show your support for the show by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts!
Draft Mechanic Episode #123: Bargain Quest I sure hope you like value! In this episode of Draft Mechanic, you get not just ONE game in the feature segment, but ONE and a half! An expansion too! That’s such a steal! But don’t steal Bargain Quest. But if you want to steal, your dexterity is probably high? Right? Is that a good segue to three games that have dexterity or physical mechanics? I don’t know. But we talk about CTRL, Megacity Oceania, and Flash 8. And, as an added value, Danielle’s going to tell you about Sorachi Ace hops! WHAT A DEAL. 00:45 Show Intro, News & Updates 02:54 Kickstarter Updates 03:30 Kickstarter: Endangered: New Species 08:07 Recent Plays: CTRL 19:37 Recent Plays: Megacity: Oceania 33:39 Recent Plays: Flash 8 46:22 Grey Fox Games Sponsorship Spot 47:05 Six Pack Review: Bargain Quest 48:43 Bargain Quest: Gameplay Overview 55:51 Bargain Quest: Discussion 86:46 Bargain Quest: Final Thoughts 88:21 On Tap: Bargain Quest 93:52 Hop Primer: Sorachi Ace 104:20 Next Final Round & Outro We hope you enjoyed today's episode! Send us some feedback at draftmechanic@gmail.com and visit us on the web at draftmechanic.net! Pick up one of several designs for a Draft Mechanic T-Shirt today! Join our Draft Mechanic Slack Channel, or our BGG Guild (#2470)! We’re also on Twitter and Instagram - follow us at @draftmechanic! Also, Like us on Facebook! Draft Mechanic is a proud member of Punchboard Media, where we all bring something to the table. Check out our diverse group of audio, video and written board game content creators! Draft Mechanic is sponsored by Grey Fox Games. Check out their website for information on all their great games, and sign up for the newsletter for updates direct to your inbox! Our theme and bump music is from the album “Superpower of Choice” by the Liberation Jumpsuit - thanks to the band for their help! Come listen to the full album on our website! Thanks for listening! Please game responsibly and we’ll see you back here again soon for another round! http://www.draftmechanic.net/show-notes/2020/123bargainquest
#empathyforgrief - Break the Silent Struggle With Grief Podcast
Welcome to Mother's Backyard Buzz and #empathyforgriefandloss episode #16 - Part 1 where I want to focus on a "Portal to Another World". Each episode is all about "breaking the silent struggle" around grief and loss. My podcasts are based on my personal grief and loss journey and reflections from my book: My Backyard Garden - A Memoir of How Love Conquers Grief. I'm reflecting on Chapter 1 of my book entitled "A Change of Planes". From my book, I share current insights into this life-changing journey called grief and loss. Thanks for joining me, Debra Hester, as the author and your host of #empathyforgriefandloss podcast. A Couple of Firsts This is an exceptional podcast for me. As always, there are no chance meetings. In Episode #16, you will be hearing a new format. This topic will also have two episodes dedicated to it. This format is transitioning #empathyforgrief podcast to a video series on the Mother's Backyard Enterprises Channel on YouTube. You will be listening to a pre-recorded conversation with my very first guest. His name is Ruben Medina. We met virtually, and I recorded his interview via Zoom as he shared it "live" on Facebook. The discussion includes fun and earnest insights on how to create a Portal to Another World when you're suffering from grief and loss. Ruben not only shares some of his wisdom, but also some of his inspirational music. My favorite song by MC Medina is "Wake Up." As always, loved ones, I hope you find this episode helpful and inspirational. [Recorded Conversation] Medina: So ladies and gentlemen, we are good to go…celebration! Oh man, I wish I had some more noise making material over here! Debra: All right, well for me, it's welcome, especially all your guests! You know this is my first time and I really look at you as a God-sent because I don't think I would have done this alone. So I really needed a partner to get me to this Facebook live experience. And here he is Mr. Ruben Medina M.C Medina and you know, as I said, no chance meetings, right? This was just amazing how we met online and just sort of have a very similar vision. and when I talked to him and understood sort of where his head was I knew that he needed to be a guest on #empathyforgrief Break the Silent Struggle with Grief and Loss. And I can only say that I hope this isn't the last time. Medina: Good afternoon, thank y'all for checking in I got a homie with me. We haven't even met, but I'm calling her my homie because we did on such a deep spiritual level. Her name is Miss Debra Hester and she's got books and she's got all types of stuff. Y'all can't see her right now but we're doing this on Zoom video for the first, I mean this is my first timeYeah this is both of our first time doing the podcast video style, big quarantine style. No masks today I thought about wearing one just for aesthetic purposes but then I thought I should probably have gloves too. And I don't have gloves so we just threw out the whole idea. But we're definitely more than six feet apart right now, so we're good. Debra: I’ll go through the front end about the podcast a little bit. It's all about breaking the silence struggle with grief. This is my 16th podcast of #empathyforgrief. You can get podcasts anywhere you download podcasts. It is available through most podcast providers. What I do is, every podcast I talk about a subject from my book. I wrote this book, "My Backyard Garden, A Memoir of How Love Conquers Grief." And it chronicles the last days of my mother's life. and she was like my everything and I lost her. I had a long time, don't get me wrong and she was ready to leave this world. She had lived a long, healthy life and she was only ill near the end. So that's a blessing in itself. But she told us all these different things. She had a chance to tell all the grandkids, the kids, and her great-grandchildren. What she told me is this is your book. So I actually wrote this book, “My Backyard Gardening, A Memoir of How Love Conquerors Grief. I named it "My Backyard Garden" because my mother said that you know God had prepared her and that she wasn't afraid to die. And that he had told her to help the children because the children go out into the world for the things that they should get in their own backyard, so "My Backyard Garden, is the name of the book. "My Backyard” because she left us with a lot of love. And I struggled so until I realized other people were struggling and I just started creating a podcast because it's a journey. You know grief isa journey we all will take. And this particular episode is about "Portal to Another World." Yes, right? Medina: Yes, and you heard that here first, okay! I said they heard it here first, the MC Medina experience is "Portal To Another World" and that’s where we're gonna take you guys right now. Thank y'all for tuning in! Debra: Exactly! Exactly, and you know as you can tell Ruben is so charismatic, right! He has all these different talents, music! I love his music! If you see the video of this we're going to make sure that his music is in here! Right? Because he has one song, we wanted to play right here that's called "Wake Up" because that’s what we're talking about, you know, wake up. We gotta, sometimes. You need a portal to another world. You need to get away from where you are. And that's where I found myself,I found myself on my way to my mother’s bedside before she passed. On the plane, in the public, you know, breaking down wanting to cry, wanting to throw up, wanting to faint. Everything, but I couldn't right? And that's sort of like how we are today. You know, every time you go out in public, you got to be wrapped up and wrapped your head and hands covered So if there are times when you just have had enough, you know what I mean, out in public and you just need this time to get away. Our minds are wonderful! That's one of the things I want to talk about. You know, if you have been stuck in a public place and grief or loss strikes you. What do you do? You create that "portal to another world.” The way I do it is just imagining that I'm somewhere else.I will close my eyes or keep my eyes open so I won't be really strange looking to folks. But in my mind, I am somewhere else. In that portal.It is under construction and in a few minutes I'm gonna be through that portal and with the people in the place that brings peace and stability to me. So I know you know so much, Ruben, about how to bring peace and how to find yourself and things like that. Tell us how you would do that. Tell us your perspective on that "Portal to Another World" and how to manifest that in the real world. Medina: Oh man, I know I'm gonna get deep with you now. I like how we're starting off in the deep end already. Debra: I mean #empathyforgrief gets deep now. You know we don't make any excuses for taking people where they are or meeting them where they are, how high, low, medium or deep they want to go. Medina: Yeah I like it and you know Hispanic and Black folks, we're not used to the deep end either. We stay in shallow water so this is kind of out of the ordinary for us in that regard, metaphorically speaking. But thank you so much, first of all, everybody being here. Thank you, Debra, for having me on. I'm so excited about this! Hope y’all can see it in my face it should be glowing! It's glowing. It's glowing hard because you mentioned the "Wake Up."I gotta do this if we can. We could even do this a cappella. So check it out, "It's Wake up, wake up, wake up for you forgotten who you are. Travel far from home we come from the stars. Not just above you the one in your third eye. Your golden self, the you who sees through the lies came here to learn to see beyond the illusion, truth about this hyper-dimensional transfusion. Each day a new experience unlocks an old memory. This body is extension of source, accessory, we're all light vibrating to create this form. So do your spark I mean do your part to be a spark in the storm. I'm looking, I'm looking for a lighter. That's all right, do your part to be a spark in the storm Ripples create waves so be the change you wish to see. Act from the heart, love is the only key. Don't stop there because it's just so much you can learn. This world and those beyond keys waiting to be turned. Take a look around what's hidden in plain sight. Sacred "G" and Fibonacci all the way into infinity." Medina: That’s it we got a lot going on there. Debra: That’s word. Medina: Best word right, bars, bars! Debra: Right, right, right, right and you're so right. You know as brown and black people I mean we just know how to have a good time. But we've endured so much, until we just know how to cover up stuff. Don't we? But you know then on the other side is that I think we are connected to source. Medina: Right, we are connected to source. Yeah we're one race on the planet according to all the greats and uh what they call ascended masters or even people like Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle. People who have claimed a certain level of self mastery. Debra: Right, right, we're all connected to source. And sometimes our brothers and sisters who are farther from source we need to help them. I was listening to a lady the other day and she said "I don't want to call people out.” "I want to call people in." I thought that was wonderful, right! We want to call people in; so they can be closer to the source. Medina: Yes! what I say, "we're calling you, from the north to the south side, calling you, y'all gotta come on and take a ride! Calling you! Debra: Exactly, we calling you in!And that's what #empathyforgrief is, you know because I found out that so many people are suffering from some traumatic event in their life. It can be a loss of a loved one. And all of a sudden grief and loss came up after COVID-19. But there have been people who are grieving from loss way before Covid-19. You know with all of the deaths and all of the wars and you know just not having what they feel like they need. All of that's a loss. And now the whole world knows that what it's like to lose your lifestyle, right? People are struggling over losing that lifestyle; but, some of us been losing our lives, and our families and having to deal with it. So, that's what this is all about #empathyforgrief for yourself. Show yourself some empathy! Yeah, show yourself some love, some understanding. That's what empathy is, treat yourself with care and treat others with care and love. Right? And we gotta break the silence. Don't keep this quiet. I mean look at those beautiful verses. Oh, say it again, it's just wonderful! We all need emotional lifesavers. Song: "Wake Up" playing...not just above you the one in your third eye. Your golden self the you who sees through the lies. Came here to learn to see beyond the illusion. Truth about this hyperdimensional transfusion. Each day a new experience unlocking old memory this body is extension of source accessory. We're all right vibrating to create this form.So do your part to be a spark in the storm. Ripples create waves to be the change you wish to be. Act from the heart, love is the only key. Don't stop there cause there's just so much you can learn. This world and those beyond keys waiting to be turned. Open up what's around hidden in plain sight. Take a "G" and Fibonacci all the way into infinity. Wakeup love, for you've forgotten who you are! Wake up wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up for you’ve forgotten who you are. Travel far from home we come from the stars.Manifest your intention with the power of your mind. Meditative freedom and freedom you will find. This isn’t new age jargon this is something that is real. It's something that is lived something you can feel.It's just my art don't believe it for me. Go and journey on your own and share what you see. As collective consciousness together we will grow. Create your own reality as above so below. Source is the course that we're all headed on. Don't be spiritually broke cause there’s nothing to pawn. Dive into yourself and hear the beautiful song of the universe singing like it has all along. Get your strengths from the foods that you're eating. Must have strengths for the words that you're speakin To reach and teach the weary and the weak in, the energy to practice the words you're preaching. Put their words into action like a digital priest. I'm peace it's peace. I'm like a digital priest. Put them words into action like the digital priest. M.C. Medina never gonna stop, never gonna cease. Put them words into action like a digital priest. This peace is peace, I'm like a digital priest. Never gone stop never gonna cease. M.C Medina putting it down like a digital priest. Peace. Wake up, wake up, for you've forgotten who you are. Travel far from home, we come from the stars. Wake up, Love. You've forgotten who you are. Travel far from home, we come from the stars. Debra: So what are some other ways that we can create these emotional lifesavers, through this portal to another world? You know we were talking a little bit about creating at least, that's how I do it. Create it. And I know that you probably do it by creating songs and verses. Right? Is that your way? Medina: I do, I enjoy like you, I enjoy writing. Recently, more of the writing has been going on in my head and I haven't been, like there would be times where I would wake up in the middle of the night and I'm fully prepared. Things start just coming, downloads from source or the great creator spirit as we call it in the Native American organization that I'm a part of. The great creator spirit will inspire us and I'd be popping up in the middle of the night and just start writing stuff down. I want to go ahead and dive straight into it because you've been able to really hack life. I want to do a video series called MC Medina’s 50 Life Hacks. Little tidbits. And you've been able just after having several conversations with you I have seen you have been able to utilize a lot of these life hacks. Now a lot of these life hacks, I'm gonna just bestow the knowledge on to everybody right now. If you want to have a head start in being the best you, you can be or being a "G." And when I say being a "G," I don't mean a gangster or gangsters I mean a god or a goddess. Yes. And for the gender non-specific gender folks, it can be a combination of whatever you want.Okay, so there's no right and wrong here. And be very prideful of whatever it is that you are, please, everybody. So the 12 Universal Laws is ancient knowledge from ancient civilizations starting with the Sumerians, the Native Americans going into Africa, the Ancient Egyptians and then all of that culture infiltrated into what we know as the Ancient Mayans, Incas and the different indigenous all over the world. This is something that I’ve studied. And after speaking with people at the School of Metaphysics in Dallas, I got a chance to speak with faculty and students there.The 12 Universal Laws aka God's Law. Debra: Can you tell everybody metaphysics.. you know a lot of people you know don't understand metaphysics. I mean they may have tried to avoid taking physics in school. LOL! So the metaphysics is a little different than physics so you know we might want to clarify that for people. Medina: Okay, so good that's a good point. We have our physical world which is this vessel that we’re currently utilizing to engage in the five senses and it can do fun spiral things like that. I was in ceremony one time doing Ayahuasca and I did that and it was just one of the most mind-blowing experiences that I had and I was just looking and moving my hands. It was like remembering how important just our breath is. Yes. Type of moment where you're just enchanted by the simplest thing of the mechanics of your hands. Anyways, the 12 Universal Laws, Is that where we were? Debra: Yes, you were about to tell us, I wanted you to tell them about metaphysics and you did that. Medina: So the physical world this is this. and then metaphysics is another way of saying spiritual, esoteric there's more words for this. Debra: Like energy? Okay. I hear energy, waves, things that you can't see. But you can feel. Medina: Yes, there's that. Yeah, for all my empaths out there. Thank you for being empathic. Trust in that characteristic and that gift that you have because being an empath definitely helps us move love into the world. And so yeah so what we're using then is whenever people say catch the vibe or you know can you catch my vibe it's sort of saying are you able to see me with your with your mind's eye with your third eye. And your mind's eye is what we use when we want to visualize a desired outcome. And in visualizing a desired outcome that's essentially like prayer. Because when we’re praying we find ourselves being in gratitude like we're saying thank you God. So we're being in gratitude and then once we express our gratitude now we feel comfortable asking for things, right? So normally we're like thank you God uh for everything that I got now check this out Man, I need help paying the rent this month. Exactly. Right? And so what we're essentially doing is we're visualizing in our mind’s eye different either money being deposited into your bank account. Or if you're a freelance worker it's a check that's given to you somehow. Maybe even electronically, but we're able to visualize with our mind’s eye our desired outcome. Debra: Or health, let me put that out there. Some you know because all of it doesn't have to be...we can heal ourselves to some degree.You know what I mean? You can bring healing to yourself, to your mind and your spirit because a lot of people, especially with my podcast. Ruben, I know you're my first guest. People feel stuck. They feel like they can’t get over the loss of a loved one or something that they've lost. And that’s what you're talking about, right? That's a way to envision how you want to feel. Medina: Yeah. Right? Exactly, exactly envisioning how you want to feel or whatever desired outcome. It doesn't need to be material. It could definitely be even health-related. Mental health, physical health, spiritual health, and emotional health and financial health. So those are the five things that I normally like to cover because I'm into holistic healing and being a holistic advisor and an Ambassador of holistic alternative methods to finding peace. Debra: Love it, love it! Medina: Yeah so and I want to go back to the 12 Universal Laws because whenever we're visualizing things with what we call our mind's eye or our third eye or it's technically in scientific terms known to be the pineal gland. And the pineal gland according to not only ancient civilizations, mystics, doctors and science, it is also doctors and scientists is known to be the seat of the soul. So the pineal gland or your mind's eye or your third eye is like the cockpit of a spacecraft. It's like it's the pilot seat of our space suit that we know to be our physical human bodies, our vessels. And these 12 Universal Laws when we're using our minds eye, pineal gland, third eye, we're utilizing these 12 Universal Laws. And if anybody has seen, there's a documentary that really put things in perspective for me at the time there's a it's a book and it's also a video documentary. It’s called "The Secret” the secret law of attraction. And the secret law of attraction explains it. It’s pretty much like an hour and a half to two hours. I highly recommend the audio book too ladies and gentlemen. It dives deep into the 7th Universal Law which is the Law of Attraction. And the Law of Attraction, now all twelve universal laws are laws that are constantly at play. They're always at work. They're immutable, there's no way to stop these laws. They're like the laws of our whole universe and multiverse and all of creation so that's why they’re called the 12 Universal Laws. Debra: And we're going to have you back to talk about all of them. I know we were focusing on two that you always mentioned to me. The Law of Attraction and then the one? Medina: Yeah and then the very first one is one that i like to touch on and that's the Law of Oneness. Now when we watch and when we listen to "The Secret Law of Attraction, it's like I said an hour and a half to two hours of simply focusing on number seven. They don't even really mention anything about the other 11 Universal Laws. And that's why I want to take a moment to heavily stress to our listeners right now. Not right now, after we get done because we're still dropping a lot of jewels. After we get done, lookup the 12 Universal Laws. Please make yourself familiar. This is ancient knowledge that secret societies and the elite have purposely kept away from the masses. And with great knowledge comes great responsibility. If you find yourself here in this now moment hanging out and chilling with Debra and I, you've called this into your experience. You've asked for this. That's why we are here in the now moment. Specifically telling you to take a note lookup the 12 Universal Laws. The Law of Divine Oneness. The Law of Vibration. The Law of Action. The Law of Correspondence. The Law of Cause and Effect. The Law of Compensation. The Law of Attraction. The Law of Perpetual Transmutation of Energy. The Law of Relativity. The Law of Polarity. The Law of Energy The Law of Gender Medina: The first one I'm going to tell you about is the Law of Oneness and the Law of Oneness specifically reminds us, now don't, I want to express I want to clearly express myself to our brothers and sisters that these 12 Universal Laws are not new to you. It might seem new to you right now. And it may be a little bit foreign, but once you read these 12 Universal Laws you will resonate with them to such a high level in such a heavy degree and high frequency that you will have a sense that you are being reminded of something that you’ve you already knew. Debra: Yeah, exactly, exactly and that's what's beautiful about it too. Medina: It is,now my experiences have been brought upon through traditional Native American ceremonial settings with Ayahuasca and different plants that have led me into these places in our mind of great peace of great harmony and understanding and compassion and acceptance and bonding and bliss and the list goes on. You, Debra, have you had a very life-altering experience with the death of your mother. Debra: Yes, my mother was an empath too. Medina: So what I feel like happened there is because in the Ayahuasca ceremonies it's a rebirth experience. In a rebirth experience there is a certain degree of quote-unquote death that one would experience and what I experienced is something known as ego death. And so how our stories are so awesome and unique and compatible is that you experienced your mother which was a piece of you that you self-identified with and she passed away. That's like a piece of you dying. Debra: Absolutely. Medina: And that's exactly what happened to me in the Ayahuasca ceremony. So this led us to a place in our mind where we had to put our emotions to the side. We had to recognize that we are way more powerful than this self-identification that we have created. And a lot of people say the ego mind creates this illusion of separation and that's going back to the law of oneness. Which is the number one out of the 12 Universal Laws. The Law of Oneness explains that everything is connected in the organic living world. What does that mean to us here on earth? What that means to us is the animal kingdom, the plant kingdom and I like to say the insect and fungus kingdom because those play very intricate roles in our human experience today. Our ability to breathe clean carbon dioxide, oh wait, we breathe in oxygen we exhale carbon dioxide. LOL! Debra: Breathe. Medina: See that is what happens when you get sucked into the oneness you forget about all the details, now. Debra: Right, right, all the terms that have been attached to things. So they're terms that someone has identified as what already existed. Medina: Exactly. Debra: Yeah, it was already here. Air didn't get a name it was, you know, somebody gave it that. Medina: Yeah. Debra: But I want to go back to the Oneness because a lot of my listeners have lost someone. When I first lost my mother I did feel like I had lost part of myself and I did go through a lot of emotions.I think emotions are healthy. I think they are human. Do they help us get to where we need to go if we just keep with them? Or did I have to go through emotions to come to the realization that my mother is still with me? Medina: Well, that's different for everybody because people like you you had a very blessed shout out to your pops because from what I've heard he has a phenomenal, astronomically good job thorough job with raising his children and that's what we we like to hear that about fathers today that’s very important. Debra: And I want to bring him on, too because he's a student of Ancient Civilizations. That's his whole perspective is that we all need to go back to our ancient African ancestry because it's there they formulated everything and it just it's based on a lot of goodness but they, it got used for bad. It got secluded you know exclusive and then exclusive sort of let evil into it and then it manifested itself in a not so positive way. But that's another thing, I know we jumping all over the place. But that’s another thing I wanted to talk about is that. Because my Dad explained that we're moving from the Age of Pisces which is suffering. Two thousand five hundred years. We're not talking about the zodiac signs now we talk about the planetary movement. Not the stuff you say what do you do as a Pisces or whatever you do as an Aquarius, but this is an Age. You know, like the Dinosaur Age. [End of “Portal to Another World - Part 1” Interview with Host Debra Hester and Ruben MC Medina..To Be Continued in Part 2] I want to thank you loved ones for listening to #empathyforgrief podcast episode #16, "A Portal to Another World Grief." I also want to thank my guest, Ruben Medina, and our sponsor, BetterHelp, that's Betterh-e-l-p. Betterhelp offers online, private, professional counseling at a very affordable rate. All you have to do is go to www.betterh-e-l-p.com/move to get our discount and get matched with a professional who can talk with you by phone, text, or video chat at a time that is convenient for you. You don't have to travel to an appointment. You can also enroll in live emotional and mental health webinars that can help the entire family. This is Debra Hester, your host, where I pledge to continue to break the silent struggle with grief and loss. Remember: move forward with more empathy, less sympathy. If you found the podcast helpful, it's available FREE on Mother's Backyard Buzz blog at www.mothersbackyard.org. Podcasts are available on most podcast providers. And remember our new, engaging video versions of #empathyforgrief are available on YouTube at Mother's Backyard Enterprise Channel. #empathyforgrief podcasts are on Force 3 Radio Network. Force 3 Radio streams online at www.force3radio.com airing the podcast now at 3pm CST during their all inspirational music Sundays. Peace & Blessings
In this episode of Leafy Podcast, our hosts sit down with John Vuong. John founded Local SEO Search, where he helps small business owners grow and succeed, giving them a leg-up to compete with more established companies in SEO and being seen on the internet. John also has a podcast Local SEO Today, a tool for business owners and entrepreneurs to help them succeed. John tells us that understanding how Google works and being aware of what customers want and are looking for is how he begins with his customers. He tells us that to start, focus on running a business, the foundational components to operating a successful business and SEO and advertising on the internet is a secondary concern after creating a solid company. John explains how to utilize certain online platforms for advertising by understanding the mode of communication and the purpose of each platform (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) , understanding what’s going on with the users and capitalizing on what is available. John believes life is short, so embrace it and take on the adventure. You can run a business the way you want and do it well so that you can spend time with family and friends, which is what really matters. To learn more about John Vuong, visit: localseosearch.ca Episode Transcript: Female Announcer 0:00 Welcome to the leafy podcast, helping real estate investors and entrepreneurs grow. Say hello to your hosts, Jennifer Gilgoric and Brian price founders of Leafy Legal Services,teaching you how to protect your assets for your business and manage your wealth. Let's start the show. Tammy Geerling 0:18 Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Leafy Show. Thank you so much for being with us today. I'm Tammy, the podcast manager. And on the line we have our awesome hosts both Brian Price and Jennifer Gilgoric from Leafy Legal Services. Brian is the CEO of that service and Jennifer is the COO. They have another awesome guests for us today. So let me pass it on to them so that they can get the show started for us. Hey, Jennifer, hey, Brian. How are you guys doing? Brain Price 0:44 Good, good. Jennifer Gilgroic 0:45 Great. Great. I'm very excited to be here today. So today's guest has a really awesome backstory. And so his life has been this incredible journey. His parents were Vietnamese immigrants to Canada and then through his life. He as he went, he got a paper route. So he's always been an entrepreneur. So even as young, he had a job, he was an entrepreneur, he went on a paper route. Then he ended up doing finance classes there at the university in London on it, Ontario. So that's still Canada. Then he ends up going to England. Then he comes back to Canada gets involved with yellow pages and red pages, actually, which was a startup that was going to compete and they were going to do an actual written, they're going to print out website addresses, just like you had for the phone book. So yeah, this was back in the day. So it's like so cool. And then he managed to move that forward and move that forward. And now he's an SEO expert. So I want us to give a huge round of applause and welcome John Vuong to our show. And he's with local SEO H O Seo search.ca. So welcome, John. I just love your story. John Vuong 1:57 Thanks a lot, Jennifer. Yeah, that was a great Intro. Yeah, it's been a journey for sure. And I'm excited to share some insights along the way. Unknown Speaker 2:07 Yeah. So how did you kind of get through this? You know, going through these different avenues? How did you finally settle on SEO? And and once you walk us through us and I like to hear more about these red pages, I think that's pretty interesting. John Vuong 2:21 Yeah, definitely. So seven years ago, I started this agency, local SEO search. I had no clue about anything technical. So I'm not an SEO background expert by any means. I started my career actually in sales in advertising sales. And I studied business finance, so it was kind of different. But in order for me to get a real job, that was my first job, and I stuck with it, and over the course of many years, I refined my art of sales and marketing. And I got to really understand what my strengths are what I enjoy doing, and Yellow Pages where I was there for five years. The relationships is what really connected me with local business owners, and really wanting to help them grow and stand out because they were genuinely interested in the community, right, like real people supporting real community leaders, right, like computer people. But even before that read pages, so that was my first job actually, outside of university. It was the, it was a great concept. It was competing with the yellow pages. First directory ever going to every single business home office tower, but printed every website, so it was competing with Google, but Google wasn't like taking off at that time yet. Right? So it was called read to and it also came out with a directory read Toronto, but it didn't last it didn't survive. It was a great concept. So I sold a bunch of it because I was a true believer in it. But it just didn't. survive. Jennifer Gilgroic 4:01 I think it's an absolute scream that you are in finance and that you went into finances school, but you end up in sales and you're like a total sales he kind of, hey, let's talk because usually finance people are like, hey, let's not talk so I can like do this right here with these numbers that I love. And you're like completely opposite of that. So I always love it when the journey switches in in changes, and and that relationships are so important. And it is weird when we look back that there was a day before Google, you know that you had these books and everything like that. I have a house that's over 100 years old, and my son we we were we it still has stuff in it from the the lady who had owned it her entire life. She was like literally in her 90s when I bought that. I think it's always been like their house, you know? And we found the old rotary phones. And I was like, show me how you would make a call. You know when we found them and he was like, I had no idea Like whatsoever, and then he was like, so you had to do that for every single number. And I was like, yeah. And if you got the wrong number, you have to start all over again. He was like, wow, this is fascinating, fascinating to him. So it was really cool. So tell me a little bit about how you went from the Yellow Pages. You're doing all this relationship, marketing and relationship sales, because people you know, the biggest part, if you're in advertising sales is not just to sell one ad, you want the people to constantly, you know, be re re upping their subscriptions. And that's part of your compensation, with many advertising sales. It's why some advertising sales reps make really good money. They're good at keeping their people, you know, they're always checking in with them, you know, so tell us a little bit how you went from that in and where you're at now. John Vuong 5:50 Yeah, so at Yellow Pages, so I was there for five years and relationship sales was more of a I don't know Like, I was genuine, I was really like just authentic raw. So I always had a story. And where I was just letting people in on like my journey, right? Like, what I grew up doing, how I discovered like traveling like I love. I had a exchange experience, like going to school in London, England for a year. And I was amazing. For me that really opened up a lot of opportunity for me to see what's bigger and greater than just my local community of working in a small suburb of Toronto, right? That's where I grew up. So for me, it was more about like, just connecting with people and letting them in. And yes, I was able to not just renew people, but upsell, and then of course, it was all about listening to them asking the right questions and finding out what their true needs and desires were right because ultimately, a lot of people were frustrated. They were getting spending more money than ever but not getting the same sort of return. They used to get 10 1520 years ago. And when I hear that all the time, I'm like, so what is going on? Where are people shopping? How are they pivoting? Like, what is the user behavior, right? And as you know, the internet started to take off, Google started becoming more present. Email started to be the main mode of communication, no longer fax machines, no longer telephones, text messaging, like all these new innovative stuff that you hear today, like social media and content, video content, audio, all that is all new within the last 10 years, right. But before that, it was still traditional media, which was newspapers, flyers, magazines, trade shows, billboards, Radio Television, right. But today, it's now podcast, YouTube videos. There's Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, you name it, right? Like there's so many other new initiatives. that technology has allowed users to change their behavior. Being controlling in a different platform in different way, at their convenience, right? So it's just different. But there's still a lot of people consuming information. And you have to understand the users behavior to then gravitate on what is important for business owners. And that's where I shifted, because a lot of people were just frustrated spending so much money and didn't see a good return. Jennifer Gilgroic 8:24 It's very frustrating because it's changed so quickly, you know, it was like 100 years ago, it was still well, we have this directory and local and you go to this guy, and he puts up a little sign, you know, and that's how it was for like, ever. And when I say forever generations, yes, just in our lifetime. It's been you know, going from paper to then television and now you have radio now you have internet now the internet's completely changed and you have this is like weariness to have to as soon as like every other year, there is some new hotness and what Did you know six months ago isn't the same? And I think that there's a lot of business owners, but also people who are frustrated, where do I go to get really what I need? And and oh, now I've got to learn a new app. It's just crazy. So it's amazing that you're on the on the edge of that. How do you not get tech weary? I mean, there's a lot that's in your head. Do you just dump it out as you are constantly knowing new stuff? John Vuong 9:28 Yeah, so I specialized now just on SEO because it's already fairly complex. Digital advertising comprises of email, social content creation in various forms. And then understanding like, what these different apps and software and technology can actually do for a business, right like to either scale and understand the process and efficiencies of it. So you have to really just focus on what you do best. And I continue doing that which is building relationships, meaningful ones with business owners that are I'm trying to help them grow and build a digital presence, right. And what we do is focus just on SEO, because I feel it being very similar to what Yellow Pages provided, which is the organic, natural listings on Google where the businesses are not pushing stuff at you, right? That's advertising, you know, trying to disrupt that user behavior to get someone to either click or call you at that given moment with a creative ad, right. But when you're appearing organically or naturally, someone else is seeking you out. So you're pulling people when and during control. And that's what Yellow Pages provide. So that was more directive advertising versus Creative Advertising. And that's why I feel SEO is still the dominant player for that same sort of medium that people used to spend a lot of money and yellow pages with. Unknown Speaker 10:53 Yeah, that's an interesting way of putting it because yeah, I mean, it is it is kind of like the new Yellow Pages is but You have to kind of put yourself out there and find different ways of attracting people. It's not like in one, one book. So how are you helping people to get in front of more people to get to those those folks that are that are searching for you. John Vuong 11:15 So understanding how Google works is very important. And I feel people overcomplicate things. I always tell people like run a really good business. What I mean by that is, take care of your customers, listen to them, provide an amazing product or service. Understand that value prop what unique selling proposition you're offering, like, understand foundationally what makes a really good business because over the course of many years, I've worked with thousands of business owners that operated for generations without technology. So imagine how did they survive? they relied on referrals and word of mouth, right and minimal advertising on maybe yellow pages or print media or flyers. Whatever may be right, so right, how did they survive? And what has dif different right? Like, the challenges? There's a lot going on today technology has advanced so quickly in the last five or 10 years that people are bombarded with this new app, this new software, this new social media feed, and they're looking for quick solutions, fast ways to expedite to make that hundred thousand dollars in a week because they saw an ad there, right? And they forget that well, maybe one in a million person actually receive that benefit. Everyone else is gonna lose a lot of money and get stressed and frustrated. So why not you do what everyone else used to do, which is grind it out, understand how to run a business and focus on the foundations right? So that's what I always boil things down to like SEO can really help advance a business Once they already know how to take care of the customer, and run a good business, but we cannot help someone that doesn't even know how to run a business because their reputations on the line, there's a lot of other foundational things that are missing. Jennifer Gilgroic 13:13 Yeah, well, that's kind of what we do we do the foundational things on the back end structure so that they don't take themselves before they even get started, because everybody wants to sales come in. But there's a lot of other things you have to put in place in order for that to happen. So I get that. And I'm gonna ask you a question. You know, you were all heavy Google, Google Google. But right now, you know, like, as the time we're taping this, Google and Facebook and Amazon are all in this, like, antitrust. People are willing to break them up. I mean, you know, Google is the Yellow Pages, but it is the everything. It's like the new source. It's like the thing. So do you. Do you think now like, Are you already building your plan for what if they break it up? Like what if they actually split up Google and now People have other products that they can do, you know, there's brave, there's DuckDuckGo there's all these other search engines, you know, Yahoo used to be the search engine. But But now I think Yahoo doesn't that piggyback off of Google Now. They're all like together. But do you have a plan? Like how do you think it's gonna go now that there is so much heat on these these mega monopolies? Which, you know, in my opinion, they all need to be broken up. But you know, I'm, that's just my opinion. But yeah. John Vuong 14:33 So, like every generation, always look at where people the users are going to gravitate towards. So understanding what what channel or what purpose Facebook has, right, like, Who do they target and what's the sole purpose when you go to Facebook? What's the sole person is when you go to LinkedIn or Twitter, right understanding that mode of communication and that platform and medium of choice. So think about zoom and Eventbrite and all those online platforms where you can now do presentations since the pandemic, it's really been elevated, where people are now spending more time in front of a computer pitching and doing a lot more conferences that way. So it's just understanding what's going on, right in terms of the users. And if Google is still and yes, Google's always pivoting, they're trying to find ways to monetize. They're trying to own the real estate, trying to alleviate and not get business owners who are ranking users to click on their website, they will either click on Google's properties right around the SERPs, because that's your prime real estate. They make money through ads, right and retargeted ads, I get it. So you have to understand the whole purpose of the medium. And then how do you capitalize on what's available? Right, right. And I still feel SEO is very powerful, because you can control and position yourself and optimize as that local player. On the map below, right? Because that's still free at this time, but you also have to be weary of what's going on. Right? Because same with Facebook. You know, before, once upon a time a couple years ago, you could organically get position, right? But today, every two times every time you scroll down, there's an ad that appears, right? There's always pushing stuff at you. And it's more like, you're bombarded with stuff that you don't really want to, you know, be there for right like, yeah, so you have to understand the channel and the different media's out there and understand what's going on within and I still feel Google is great, like duck, duck go. It's not like in terms of use. Jennifer Gilgroic 16:45 Yeah, I mean. John Vuong 16:45 1%. Jennifer Gilgroic 16:46 Put that on every single phone. You see, when you have an agreement that every single phone that comes out, it has to have your voice. Brain Price 16:54 if you own the operating system. Jennifer Gilgroic 16:57 Now it's like you can't infer some people. They do all their work. I mean, I know people who literally work off their phones now, you know, the phones are more expensive in some cases than computers, which is nuts. Right? But you do everything you're doing your banking your you have your password keepers, you've got all your things on your phone. And so, yeah, I mean, it's crazy to have it so embedded like Facebook, I mean, there's entire things you cannot do unless you have a Facebook account where you can log in, that are totally unrelated to Facebook. Right? So it's just interesting because there's so much interconnectivity, it can be confusing for people. Yeah, very much so to compete, you know, but that's good. I really love the fact that you still believe in your in this every single day that you can still use it for local people, because that means that local businesses still have a chance to get the people around them for free. And they have ways that they can utilize this technology. So that actually warms my Heart, a whole bunch for that. John Vuong 18:03 Understanding the space, right? Like it's always evolving, but looking for opportunities to capitalize because people get frustrated, spending too much money not getting good returns. So I want to help the little guys. Unknown Speaker 18:15 Yeah. So are there certain things that you always do know? You know, I know things change for hours, there's kind of some basis that you actually do and maybe some of the new stuff that you're looking into as well. John Vuong 18:26 Yeah. So for us, we always look at foundational stuff like understand your client, creating a content journey mapping, and really positioning yourself as the expert, right. So understanding who your ideal persona client is, and writing every piece of content, your website piece is directly driven to those type of people, right, from everything you produce. From video, podcasts, audio, you know, images or written depending on where they're at in terms of the journey, create that content piece for them, and then making sure that You're up to date in terms of like, what's going on what the users want, like they want fast, secure, easy to use navigation. Like, all these things are now behavior. If you don't have it, someone else is gonna, you're probably losing out right on an alternative because they're bouncing off your page to someone else. Right? So just staying current and what's going on, right? Because technology's moving so fast. And as much as you want to stay on top of it. It's kind of scary too, because there's so much going on, right? Like AI. What's going on there? Like they know too much about you already. Right? Is that Jennifer Gilgroic 19:40 right? Yes. I'm like terrified like I can have a conversation with a friend of mine. And then immediately I'll go on, you know, to look at something and ads for that pickup. And I'm like, How did my phone know I was, you know, talking to somebody you know that. Maybe it's time to get hair extensions. My entire timeline is nothing but a hair extension company. Whatever but yeah, yeah, it's weird man. I don't like it. I'm like stay in as much as I say that. I still have an Alexa. So if I Brain Price 20:12 Don't say it. Jennifer Gilgroic 20:16 Oh, yeah, people used to be what was that joke? They used to say, you know, don't say that over the telephone because you never know if the CIA is listening, and then it says 2020 CIA, how do I bake a pie? Like that coming back to? That's cool. Well, so Okay, so what else can you tell people? Right now if they have their own, like website and stuff like that? Is there anything anyone can do besides writing things in the in the tone of the voice for your target client? Like taking it down from I just want to tell everybody in the whole wide world to really knowing who your ideal client is, it's very important. Is there anything else that you can give us on on top of that? John Vuong 20:58 Yeah, so I focused On a lot of service based small, medium sized business owners, like the local dentist or plumber or lawyer or whatnot, Google My Business is a great opportunity. If you haven't verified it, optimize it, make sure you're in the right category, put in all the services that you offer, update it once a week, get good reviews onto the Google My Business Page, because people are checking you out before they call you. And they know so much before they even reach out to you. That's scary, right? They know, they checked out you on LinkedIn, they check out your reviews, case studies, Chapter all your blogs to see if you're credible, right. So as much as you want to put out information, make sure it's consistent along the lines, don't, you know, say one thing and do something else the other channel right? So it's more important than ever to make sure all your assets and all the properties that you own online is consistent has the same tone of voice and has the same good, you know? Good feel authentic feel rawness, right, because end of the day people are gonna check you all. And if Jennifer Gilgroic 22:11 I actually have a really good local thing, so I had a marketing company and I used to help people do this and there was an assisted living facility here in our town, and they did not go out and grab what you say their their property. So when he says that if for anyone who doesn't know what that means, it means like, go to your Yelp and claim your business claim your business on Google, there's actually a little thing when you you put it up, is this your business? You want to claim it because somebody else can claim it. So they had a Facebook page that actually wasn't theirs. It was a it was a well meaning former staff, and so nothing had been updated on it. And there were some like comments that weren't that great, but their Google business showed had a set of pictures, the first pictures that came up That had someone had made a cut is disgusting, but they had messed their bed. That's all I'm gonna say that it was very graphic. And that is the picture that came up for now this is one of the cleanest, nicest facilities. And that picture wasn't even of their facility. Because the flooring was they didn't have that flooring anywhere in any of their rooms. But that was the picture that pulled up. And it was actually a process to pull that listing away, and a verification from the person who had claimed it, who was a competitor of a very small unit to do it. So people wouldn't go to this very large one. I mean, they had hundreds of rooms, a skilled nursing or whatever. And they're like, how can businesses just dropped and we're not getting calls. We're not getting this? Well, as soon as I help them clean that up a little bit just because I knew enough to do that. I'm not an expert like john, who could have probably really maximized that all of a sudden, the phones started ringing. They started getting more residents again, because that false information wasn't out there. So you do want to do that not just for SEO, but also to protect the name and good reputation of your business. So add that to that. Yeah. So I didn't mean to hijack you there. I just had an actual thing I knew about what you were saying worked. Well, we've been talking to john Vong. Am I saying that correctly? I should, yes. Okay. Great. And he's with local SEO search.ca because he's Canadian. Right. So local SEO search.ca. And we're getting to almost getting close to the end. So Brain, did you have any? Some questions? Still? Yeah. Unknown Speaker 24:46 Well, I think that I noticed on your site, you have a free site audit. So why don't you tell us about how what that includes and how people can get and you know, get theirs, their site audited and how you can help? John Vuong 24:58 Yeah, so what we've been trying to do is give and help as many small medium sized businesses as possible. So usually with that someone inputs her website, usually it's a real business that's been in business for a while that is frustrated and need some more of a digital presence, right? Because we need to benchmark you, we need to figure out how we can help. And so we we kind of do a console, a phone conversation first, to see where you're at what you've done, and kind of analyze how we can help. Right? Yeah, because not only do we bring an SEO background and console, we actually go in a little bit deeper because of our business experience. Myself, yes, I have 10 plus years in sales and marketing working with thousands of businesses, but my VP of sales have worked with over you know, a couple thousand clients as well, but he was at Yellow Pages for 35 years. So his experience his insights in how to run a good Business is invaluable for a lot of business owners that are just starting, right. So we try to just help as much as possible. And that's what differentiates us from a lot of other competitors. Brain Price 26:11 Cool. Jennifer Gilgroic 26:12 Yeah, experience like that is really invaluable, especially when they've you've guys have seen it all. And really the best advertising is a good business. You know, you do what you say you're going to do, and you make people happy. And they tell their friends and I know there's the old adage, well, if they're unhappy, they'll tell everybody if they're happy, they're not gonna say word, but that's just being bitter. That's actually not true. People do talk about good experiences, and they do recommend, and even on Facebook, you have local here in Galveston, we have this Galveston is called Galveston gossip or something like that. There's like 60,000 people on it, and people gossip and they talk and they take pictures of things. And they even give shout outs but they also ask questions. Hey, guys, who do you know who can fix this? Or Who's your landscaper? My guys, not doing it anymore. I see that a lot. And people refer to that all the time. And that's just my little town. So you know, there's there's just running a good business and being good people will talk, they will talk and send you stuff. It's which is this. John Vuong 27:15 These are great forums and groups because once you are known and reputable, it's all about like cultivating more opportunity, right? So just do good end of the day, eventually things will come to you and be honest about it. Right? Like don't don't try to you know, do a fast one on people right? Or, you know me like they're so Jennifer Gilgroic 27:38 Basic but yeah. You're right. Don't pull a fast one on me but there's so much click and bead and there's so many people on social just trying to make it or hustle or whatever it is. Yeah, but are they real business owners like really? If you look at any athlete, pro athlete or any successful singer, they don't tell you what they've been doing for the last 20 years. yours. You see them at the pinnacle. So it's the same bit entrepreneurship like, no one sees me doing what I did for the last 20 years. They only see me at now. Right? But how many years of you know the grit and wrongness of hustling and door knocking cold calling and all those other things? sleepless nights and not paying for food? Like all these things, no one sees that, right? Brain Price 28:26 Yeah, absolutely. Jennifer Gilgroic 28:29 Okay, so, as Connect, I'm going to set one more question before Tammy has to take us away but as Canadian who had to live in England, I want you to tell me what English food does there any English food that you particularly liked? Because, you know, back in the day, England was not known for its food. So I'm curious as what a Vietnamese Canadian living in England like for his food. I know that's off topic, but I just have to ask you. John Vuong 28:55 Know, I still love the chips there, which is fine. Yeah, but they were really greasy. They were like dripped in, you know, after you go to the local pub and uh huh. No, no. I mean, it was great. But because I was drunk, maybe but Jennifer Gilgroic 29:14 Man, you can't you can't beat it. Well, that's awesome. Well guys we've been talking to john von john is with local SEO search.ca. If you're a small or medium sized business owner and you're just racking your head, trying to figure out how to cut through the noise and increase your exposure, but you know, in the way that you need to get in more clients that you can take great care of, then go and see him at local SEO search.ca. And Tammy is going to give you more information about us. Thank you so much, John, for being on the show. It was just great Convo. Brain Price 29:48 Thanks. I appreciate it John Vuong 29:49 Thanks a lot Brian and Jennifer. Thank you. Tammy Geerling 29:51 Yeah, thank you, John. And thank you, Brian and Jennifer for hosting today. And we will have all of John's links in our show notes. And you can find us at leafy legal we are across all social media platforms and also podcast platforms. So thank you again so much for listening today. Hope you have a wonderful day and we will see you next time. Bye. Male Announcer 30:22 Attention real estate investors and entrepreneurs. Did you know that real estate investors are a primary target for lawsuits according to the National Survey of the court data 25% of Americans risk being sued in their lifetime. However, if you are a real estate investor, you have a 95% chance of being sued in the next 20 years. Leafy Legal Services helps you protect your assets and strategically grow your business and wealth LiFi legal services our experts at the series LLC and Delaware statutory trust to have the newest and most ideal legal structures for real estate investors leaving legal services at the most personalized and affordable solutions for setting up LLCs property owners are always at risk when it comes to their assets. anonymity is so important. If you own just a rental house and you own your home, you have to protect yourself and your properties from any potential legal issues. Leafy Legal Services have the right solutions to make sure you are happy and feel secure or they offer cost effective documentation that suits their client's needs for a free consultation and ebook visit levy legal services.com They are waiting to hear from you Leafy Legal Services.com. Female Announcer 31:35 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Don't wait take action now. LiFi legal services calm protect your assets grow your business and manage your wealth.
The small business owner said, "Grant, I am working twice as hard and earning half as much...what can I do???" Okay, so I have an opportunity to talk with quite a few small to medium as well as large actually business owners last week. I was talking with a small business owner, I think he's got about five people in his company. And he made a statement. We were talking about the current context around COVID, and the impact of small, small and medium businesses. And he said, Hey, basically, I'm working twice as hard and earning half as much in the current in the current current context with COVID. It made me think about all of the things that it takes to become a successful business owner, a successful entrepreneur, especially during COVID. Right? Is there a set of things that are most meaningful? I started looking at different polls, what different research groups have talked about this one I found was on inc.com. They had done this, this research where they had found that, hey, as an entrepreneur, you're going to have to work hard or you're going to have to do more. And in fact, you got a disadvantage against you right? The cards are a bit stacked against because your larger competitor likely has more resources, you know, focusing on the same task as us. So one of the things you got to do is actually put more effort in if you want to succeed as a small medium business owner. So they came up with this list of items. And the first one they said was, Hey, quit talking about plans so much and just focus more on getting things done. And that's true. You see a lot of just talked about laying, let's just go do something rather than actually getting stuff accomplished. The other is stop being busy. And the thing about the buisiness is, yes, I might go do some work, and it looks like I'm accomplishing things. But if I change my focus to outcome based, right, I'm looking at what are the effects or the results of my activity, it's not the business that wins the award, but rather the the outcomes of that. The third thing they mentioned was be available, especially around the customers right be really available. It's certainly available to your teammates and of course to customers as well. The fourth thing they said that was really helpful for being successful as a small medium business owner was one more rep right? That's kind of got a workout sort of mentality, right? you're lifting weights and you just want one more rep but the mental mentally you gotta be strong enough to say, I gotta go through one more effort one more iteration, until I'm really satisfied with the quality and and what it is we're producing. Another was go to sleep with a plan and wake up with a purpose. I love the way they said that. In particular, what they're saying is try not to go to bed without having some form, have a plan for the next day. That way then when you wake up, you end up having a little more organization and structure to your thoughts as you move forward in the day. I love the saying that says you know, an ounce of mourning is worth a pound of afternoon. And so boy if you can wake up feeling like you have some plan purpose already, then those fresh energies and that high level acuity in the morning can really be beneficial for us as a small medium business owner, create a winning routine was the next thing they pointed out. You know, recently, I was listening to one of those interviews of Jeff Bezos, you know, the CEO of Amazon. And interestingly, he was talking about his morning routine, which is rather slow paced. I think the word he used was putter he likes to putter around. And he takes opportunity for him to just have unstructured time where you can do some free thinking, whatever your routine is, come up with that find that routine. And then and then stick with that. The last thing this particular research pointed out was follow every setback with good with the word good. This one was interesting. It was basically how do you take something that's negative or bad, but try to turn it into a positive statement because there'll be plenty of negative things no doubt. So for example, let's say if I'm talking And if it's time for a workout, how do I translate that into something good? Well, the way they suggest it is Hey, good, I'm work. If I could say it, good, let's work out because I'm tired. I actually think this came from Jocko, who was a Navy SEAL who turned author and podcaster. That's where that tip actually comes from. Sounds like a navy seal, right? Boy talking about being mentally tough for sure. Alright, so as I continued my search, you know, I was I think in about the conversation I had with that small business owner, where he said he's working twice as hard and getting half as much. I looked into another group, and this is on score.org. They were talking about how hard small business owners have to work right. So the first thing in terms of how do we be successful, come up with a good routine, come up with you know how to change our mental model when something bad happens, go to bed with a plan, you know, be available focus on outcomes and so forth. In this second piece, they had some interesting things around, you just got to be able to work hard and decide to work hard as a small business owner. In fact, in one report, one survey that they'd found out of the New York enterprise report said that business owners ended up working twice as much as regular employees, which is kind of interesting, because lots of times we equate, you know, coming into our own small business as here's our step to freedom, when in fact, sometimes what we're not maybe mentally prepared for is, Hey, I'm going to be working a heck of a lot more. Certainly, that's not news to anyone. But mentally we have to step up to it and own that when we decide, hey, I'm going to go do my own business, in fact, found that one Gallup poll found that 39% of business owners worked over 60 hours a week. Obviously, as we talked about earlier, it's not just about the hours but the effectiveness of them just being busy isn't necessarily right at the end. have success, of course. But they did talk about how important it is to find work life balance in that 44%. It said of small business owners take 16 vacation days or more each year. And then 26% took 11 to 15 days of vacation each year. Well, that's certainly good to know that even the small business owners are able to do that. That's that's promising news, no doubt. But despite all that, you know, lots of times when you hear about millennials, people will really give them sort of negative connotation right? We'll say, hey, Millennials are slackers, but turns out that almost 90% in a Bentley University study 90% almost is 89% that were millennials said that they regularly check into their work after work hours, right, which and that that's an amazing study. And so it turns out, the good news is millennials you're cut out to be busy. This owners, right you're figuring out a you can take time off. But you also know that you got to come in and put in that extra effort as well. So not to not not to belabor that. But I do think that we can find that balance right between how to work hard and how to have some time off so you can mentally and emotionally refreshed. That's that's a critical, critical juncture, critical capability. In fact, as I was looking into it, I reviewed this study from this guy by the name of Dr. Michael Gershon. He's the author of a book called The second brain, and he's the chairman of the Department of anatomy and cell biology. That's a big long title at Columbia University. What it was he I thought he proposed a very interesting question. He said, What would happen if everyone in the world got twice as smart, because everything so far that I've been talking about as well got to work hard Obviously, we got to work smart to, certainly we need to improve, you know, our efficiency in our work, etc. But we got to work smarter as well. So one of the things that he, he suggested here, just reading off a few of his items, he said, Look, eat a plant based diet, veggies are really good for you. The other was do focusing exercises, cut out sugar, meditate at least 20 minutes a day, trust your gut when you make a decision. In fact, he goes so far as to say, view your body and your mind as a whole system, which lets make sense. All right. So here is what we've talked about. Like we're going to be successful as small business owners during COVID. And even after but certainly it's more important now than ever. Got to work hard and got to work smart. And as part of that find work life balance. Figure out your winning routine. As Bezos and others point out right? Follow every setback up with hay turned it into a good statement. Go to sleep with a plan. One more rep, you can do it be available, stop being busy and rather focus on outcomes and quit talking about planning so much just go go get go get the results. Well, you know, one of the things that always comes to the top of my mind, given the my, my focus here is in technology as well. I also think that working smart means to automate the pieces that we can, we want to of course, leverage the assets that are available to us. And some of those assets are our information, right? It's our data. It's what are the secret things that are hiding inside of our data that can course expose that right? So tell us here's the insights of things we can go improve on in our business. The funny thing about the AI stuff is that when you apply it, you have to continue to go back and apply it again and again. In other words, when you go apply AI and it gives you some insights in your business. Then you Go make changes to improve yourself working to be more efficient with the resources and the assets that you have. In a few months later, she should just go do a quick another run on it. See how the world has changed how your world has changed because you've applied it. So it's a combination of multiple things we need to do or we're going to go run our businesses augmenting all that with let's leverage technology the right way. Hey, my name is Grant. Thanks for joining and until next time, live right. Thank you for joining Grant on ClickAIRadio.com. Don't forget to subscribe and leave feedback. And remember to download your FREE eBook visit ClickAIRadio.com now.
In episode seventy-six of the Higher Conversations Podcast, Kellee sits down and talks shop with Truckee Yoga Collective co-owners, Hawley Kobayashi & Meghan Ruiz, to discuss Yoga & Business Ethics during a Pandemic. Topics Discussed in this Episode: Yoga Ethics in a Brave New World The Ethics of Business vs. The Ethics of Yoga = How to Reconcile the Two Our Responsibility as Health & Wellness Professionals The Yamas & Niyamas Ahimsa & Satya = Non-violence & Truth On Making Hard Decisions The 3 Tenets = Is it Right? Is it Truthful? Is it Necessary? Spiritual Bypassing = A Plague upon the Yoga World Smoke & Mirrors: Seeing the Hidden Truths On Being Yoga Teachers & Business Owners During Covid-19 Connect with Truckee Yoga Collective: Website: truckeeyogacollective.com Instagram: @truckeeyogacollective Email: info@truckeeyogacollective.com Intro + Interlude + Outro Music: “Tabla Rasa” by Jesse Blake - jesseblakemusic.com JOIN the Higher Conversations Podcast Facebook Group! The VIRTUAL OM YOGA STUDIO is OPEN at kelleerichyoga.com! Practice Wherever You Are! Daily LIVE Yoga Classes offered: Vinyasa, Hatha, Aerial, HIIT + Meditation & Yoga Nidra. JULY GODDESS CIRCLE - New Offering Last Sunday of the Month. 1st Class is ALWAYS FREE - Enter COUPON CODE: FIRSTFREE at Checkout. Affordable and competitive class pricing and packages available. COMING SOON: The Yoga Anytime Online Class Library Join the Global Virtual Yoga Community today! Register online at kelleerichyoga.com. Help support the show by: Subscribing on iTunes & Apple Podcast App Review the show and 5-Star Rating on iTunes & Apple Podcast App - this helps so much! If you give the show a 5-Star Rating with a Stellar Review, please screenshot before you submit & send to me at hello@kelleerichyoga.com for a FREE GIFT - Sankalpa: A Guide to Setting Intentions On & Off the Mat Article: How to Review on iTunes Follow on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Share with 1-2 People you know will love it! Growing a podcast audience takes time, energy, and commitment. I appreciate all of you who are becoming part of the tribe! Stay connected with me on Instagram @kelleerichyoga. With love and gratitude, thank you for listening and being a part of my Dharmic Journey. Connect with Kellee Rich Yoga - THE YOGI POET Instagram: @kelleerichyoga Facebook: @kelleerichyoga & HCP Facebook Group Website: www.kelleerichyoga.com Email: hello@kelleerichyoga.com
Abortion is such a controversial topic, that it produces extreme feeling for and against it. Pro-Life advocates argue that the oractice of a pregnancy is immoral because life has been created by pregnancy.. Pro-Choice Advocates say that an Embryo is not alive due to the fact it cannot breathe outside the womb on it;s own. For the child to be considered alive it must survive outside the womb for 22-24 weeks. So whose RIGHT ? Is america morally in trouble with God for sanctioning this ? Does a woman really have the exclusive RIGHT to choose to the isolation of the MFather ? Comments Featured Episodes Big Bap Big Bap and Friends Big Bap ftwwpc Wrestling Professional Wrestling Podcast ftwwpc Every Artist Podcast Entertainment Every Artist Podcast Every Artist Podcast I Black Pharaoh Media Network Culture I Black Pharaoh Radio I Black Pharaoh Media Network Women On Words Books Women On Words Women On Words
[00:01:12] So today I'm talking with Terry. Terry, where are you at in the world?[00:01:16] Terry: [00:01:16] I'm in the Northeast part of the country, not far from Philadelphia.[00:01:20] dane: [00:01:20] Okay, and what's your big goal for the call?[00:01:22] Terry: [00:01:22] I think my biggest goal for the call is I feel like as a woman that I had so much fear and to overcome some of that fear within business would be great.[00:01:32] You know, not feeling good enough or feeling judged. So I would love to get some insight from you as it relates to that.[00:01:39] dane: [00:01:39] So take a big old breath with me.[00:01:46] I want to say it's very brave in my opinion, for you to be talking about this. It doesn't sound like someone who is a frayed would ask about this. Right.[00:01:57] Terry: [00:01:57] Well, I think maybe because you know, I'm [00:02:00] behind a computer screen and nobody knows who I am asking about it, that I feel that freedom.[00:02:05] dane: [00:02:05] Oh, great. Did you say you wanted to share your social security number with people[00:02:10] on[00:02:10] Terry: [00:02:10] this as well as my date of birth and my American express card?[00:02:14] dane: [00:02:14] All good. Honestly, the expiration and the last four digits on the back, you know, so you have a sense of humor. This is great. So, okay. I'm going to tell you a couple of things. And I want you to hear them with your heart, and then we're going to go from there, okay? Okay. I believe women are especially hard wired to succeed in entrepreneurship.[00:02:39] You are naturally wired from an evolutionary perspective, like you actually as simple as breathing. You can succeed was entrepreneurship, and I will give you very specific reasons why. How is it to hear that before I do?[00:02:57] Terry: [00:02:57] It feels good. I don't know why, but I feel like I trust you. It feels like. You know as a mom, but I certainly have been the entrepreneur of our family as a single mom.[00:03:07] So[00:03:08] dane: [00:03:08] yeah, girl,[00:03:09] Terry: [00:03:09] I want to believe that.[00:03:11] dane: [00:03:11] Great. Let me show you how we can, the most successful businesses, the ones that do well and they sort of effortlessly grow are generally, not always, but generally around. A very deep, painful problem. These successful businesses that do very well also have very strong communities, a deep, painful problem, strong communities.[00:03:44] Women, as far as I can tell, are especially hard wired to see someone in pain and help them and build community. Just hypothetically, let's say you had a million dollar per month [00:04:00] business right now, and it's solving a very deep, painful problem. Customers love you, and there's a great community around it, and you've got a great team who all love you that you've hired to make up for every single one of your own deficiencies, because entrepreneurs are generally just as flawed, if not more flawed than the rest of us.[00:04:23] We just make up for it by hiring people to work in the areas that we're not good at. So if you were to pick two areas to obsess about, it would be about searching for a very deep pain and then building a community around it and learning how to sell and learning how to outsource. Tell me what's happening in your mind right now.[00:04:43] Terry: [00:04:43] I think the first thing that comes up for me, the deep problem is I feel like I'm great at building community, have a great community of friends. My background actually is sales. Not great without sourcing yet. Thank you. So I feel like one of the things that's held me back in life and entrepreneurship is I don't feel like anybody can do it the way that I want it done.[00:05:09] And I'm not willing to accept yet that someone may not be able to do it exactly the way that I want it done, but it would at least get done.[00:05:20] dane: [00:05:20] I like to do this often, but I'm gonna just let you bust this belief right away. There are a lot of people out there that can do it way better than you. Okay. Tell me why you laugh,[00:05:30] Terry: [00:05:30] because I know that's true.[00:05:32] So then my next limiting belief that pops up is like, how do I find them?[00:05:37] dane: [00:05:37] Right? So this is good. Let's just jump to the fear that asks that question. Okay. Are you able to connect with it being fear that asks that question?[00:05:47] Terry: [00:05:47] I think[00:05:48] dane: [00:05:48] yes. Tell me why.[00:05:50] Terry: [00:05:50] Because immediately when you said that the fear that pops into my mind is I'm not good enough.[00:05:54] Like I'm going to be exposed. Like somebody is going to figure it out that I'm not good enough, and then they'll leave.[00:06:00] [00:06:00] dane: [00:06:00] Thank you for being so open with me. I struggle with the same issue.[00:06:03] Terry: [00:06:03] Yeah. I feel like abandonment is a big issue,[00:06:06] dane: [00:06:06] so if I struggle with the same issue and I'm still able to start businesses, why do you think that is?[00:06:13] Terry: [00:06:13] I would say that you've probably found a way to overcome it. By proving to yourself that you can do it, or actually, I'm not sure.[00:06:22] dane: [00:06:22] Take a moment and really just reflect on this.[00:06:25] Terry: [00:06:25] Yeah, I'm not sure.[00:06:26] dane: [00:06:26] Lady Gaga, have you heard of that artist sold out Madison square garden before she goes on to sing. She looks at herself in the mirror and says, I still feel like the ugly bullied, not enough kid from school.[00:06:41] Looks at herself in the mirror, says that out loud in front of everyone and walks out and crushes an amazing show. You and lady Gaga both struggle with the same thing. What do you think the differences?[00:06:52] Terry: [00:06:52] I guess she's willing to admit it and do it anyway.[00:06:58] dane: [00:06:58] That's tons of pretty good. I think there's probably a handful of correct answers.[00:07:02] But the fact that your brain is making connections to make them right now is much more significant than a fight just assumed to tell you we're giving your brain a workout. So it's so fun because you know, and you're like, but how do I find them? Like you have this normal voice you talking, and then when your fear voice talks, it's like, but how do I bet up?[00:07:21] It has this whole identity and character to it. And the reason I don't answer it is because that same identity character is going to be like, well, then what about this? So that's why I stopped answering your questions. Okay, so let's leave this on the table for what makes the difference. We'll come back to it and it's such a pleasure to get to help you, by the way,[00:07:42] Terry: [00:07:42] and I am so appreciative of you being able to help me.[00:07:45] And you know, another intention that I have for this call is able to provide value to other people who might have the opportunity to listen to it, have the same fears and freak outs so that they might be helped as well.[00:08:00] [00:07:59] dane: [00:07:59] I'll get that. Oh, that's really beautiful to hear. I think that that is definitely going to be the case.[00:08:05] This is very exciting. So now let's go back to, but where do I find them? This person that's better than you. Okay. And you said, well, where do I find them? Do you remember? Yes. So let's have you rest in love instead of fear for just a moment. And this can be challenging because fear is kind of a default for you.[00:08:23] It's a very comfortable place. And what feels right. Is not right. Like I'm training very lightly with like yoga and jujitsu and I'm doing that because of past bullying stuff. And I've got my fight or flight triggered off in, and I just kinda like to relax so. I want to know that I can defend myself. So it's very scary.[00:08:52] And he sits there and we're doing yoga, and I say, what happens if I have a feeling come up? Should I like just buckle into it and feel it real quick and then get back into the posture? He's saying, don't let your feelings come, but stay in the posture. Is that, does that make sense? Like that doesn't make any sense.[00:09:05] Is it, you know, Dean, your first response is not always the right response. And I said, what do you mean? And he said, well, watch this. I'm sitting on my butt and he pushes me. He's like, watch when he pushes me and I fell straight on my back. If we were wrestling and jujitsu and I pushed you, your body naturally wants to fall straight on its back.[00:09:22] You would get crushed. If you did that in jujitsu, your first response is not the right response. Instead of being pushed back and falling on your back, you would fall to your side, right? Your first response is not always the right response. So you've got these first responses that you're kind of somehow implicitly trust, like, Oh, well what about this?[00:09:40] And what about that? Because that's what your first response is. So we want to take a breath, and this is difficult, and sometimes it's not. It's fine. I find it to be difficult. We're take a breath, we're going to create a new response for love to emerge. So let me know if you can connect to the feeling of love even in the slightest.[00:09:59] Where's it at in [00:10:00] your experience in your body? If you'd like to get a free one on one with me and beyond this show, you can find out details@startfromzero.com forward slash podcast. Actually[00:10:12] Terry: [00:10:12] it might face good.[00:10:14] dane: [00:10:14] Good. Okay. Some people, it's in their arms, you know, so face. Now let that feeling come through your whole body from your face.[00:10:24] No. When I tell you, you can hire people that are way better than you, what would love want to ask or say instead of fear?[00:10:32] Terry: [00:10:32] That's amazing.[00:10:33] dane: [00:10:33] Good. Take a breath there. Just take a breath into, that's amazing.[00:10:42] Can you feel how that's just more loving in general? Yes. Does love even have a question. Yeah.[00:10:50] Terry: [00:10:50] That's another response. How much free time?[00:10:55] dane: [00:10:55] Well, no. Right now you do, when you're starting a business and focused on finding pain and building community, you're going to have to outsource. I mean, what I just told you is a belief.[00:11:06] You don't have to. You might be able to figure out how to do it with just you and maybe one person. There's something called the four levels of entrepreneurial growth, and the first levels carry a tremendous amount of pride. The entrepreneur doesn't want to ask for help. The entrepreneur doesn't want to join a course or seek a mentor out.[00:11:25] The entrepreneur doesn't want to read a book. They don't want to hire anybody because they have a lot of pride. I can do it better. No one can do it better than me. I'm weak if I ask for help. Now you think about what someone's unconscious level of pride is, or unconscious level of humility, like on an unconscious level, how humble are you.[00:11:47] You can see how unconsciously humble you are based on statements like people are going to be able to do it the way I want them to.[00:11:54] Terry: [00:11:54] Oh,[00:11:54] dane: [00:11:54] interesting. Yeah. I'm glad this is landing and unconscious humility. If you have a [00:12:00] high level of humility and it's unconscious, you will default to seeking help. You won't resist it.[00:12:06] You won't resist hiring. You won't resist buying courses. You won't resist getting books. You won't resist mentorship. Cause you're like, you know what? I need help. And you just get it right away. And I tell you what, if you want to know how to quadruple or quintuple or 10 X the action you take, just imagine how much action you would take.[00:12:21] If you stop thinking and start acting, it's insane. It's absolutely insane how much action you could take. And so it's a nice idea. How do you get there? Well, we work with the unconscious. So what you need to know is we work partially with the unconscious. We also build structures and ways to orient the brain correctly.[00:12:39] Unconscious humility is one of them. So Elan Musk, he wants to go to Mars, right?[00:12:44] Terry: [00:12:44] Yes. I[00:12:45] dane: [00:12:45] think he's going to need help.[00:12:46] Terry: [00:12:46] Absolutely.[00:12:47] dane: [00:12:47] He's building Tesla. Do you think he needs help with that?[00:12:50] Terry: [00:12:50] Absolutely.[00:12:51] dane: [00:12:51] Yeah. I think I mentioned this on a couple of episodes, but it's just worth mentioning again, somebody reached out, they're doing $10 million a year.[00:12:58] He said, you know what, Dane? My business is capped out at 10 million. I'm stuck here. I want to get into software as a service because I know that could scale way past 10 million a year, and I know that, you know, software as a service. I said, okay, great. Yeah, I think I could help you out. So we talked about.[00:13:14] Me mentoring him personally on how to start a software as a service business to get past 10 million a year. And I was like, Oh yeah, that's very possible you could do that. And he said, you know, Dan, the reason that I needed is cause I know I'm going to need help to get where I need to go. Just plain out says it.[00:13:29] And he's making 10 million a year. You're not making anything. Right yet. And you're not even willing to give up the pride. And that's okay because you probably haven't seen it until now. You probably haven't known this is what's going on. Cause fear will probably create pride. It's a good chance. So do you think his attitude of, I'm gonna need help to get to where I need to go?[00:13:53] Got him to 10 million in the first place.[00:13:56] Terry: [00:13:56] Yes.[00:13:57] dane: [00:13:57] Why?[00:13:58] Terry: [00:13:58] I guess because I feel like she was [00:14:00] thinking on a larger scale and maybe that's wrong.[00:14:04] dane: [00:14:04] Well, it's okay. You know my favorite thing about entrepreneurship, Terry, is we can be wrong a hundred times, if that's my favorite thing about it.[00:14:12] Terry: [00:14:12] And I guess he started somewhere, so maybe that maybe,[00:14:16] dane: [00:14:16] what if he knew he needed help right away and what if he saw help right away?[00:14:20] Right? You want to know how we have these like 1617 1819 2020 year old millionaires, 22 year old millionaires that do it so quickly. My guess is that they get help quick. They read books quick, they buy courses quick, they find mentors quick. I am pretty much nothing more. Then the collection of the mentors.[00:14:43] I've had. The people I reached out to to ask for help and the books I've read, the failures that I've gone through, I sit here in front of you being able to counsel, advise and consult and whatever I'm doing because I failed more than you. I've asked for help more than you. I've screwed up way more than you.[00:15:01] Tell me what you're thinking about.[00:15:03] Terry: [00:15:03] Actually thinking about a couple of things. First thing. I guess that my mind is kind of blown because[00:15:11] dane: [00:15:11] I[00:15:12] Terry: [00:15:12] feel like I would call myself extremely humble and I just realized that realistically, I'm extremely prideful and that pride may well have been standing in my way of going where I want to go.[00:15:33] dane: [00:15:33] Well, I think it takes quite a bit of humility to admit that. Would you outsource your laundry?[00:15:38] Terry: [00:15:38] Absolutely.[00:15:42] dane: [00:15:42] I had one of my guy friends over here, he's like doing 200 grand a year as a email marketing consultant. I referenced him often and he's over here and he's like, I'm not going to house. Where's my laundry?[00:15:53] And then he sees me put my laundry in a laundry basket, drive it to a fluff and fold, drop it off.[00:16:03] [00:16:00] If you'd like to hang out with people reading the star from zero book, listening to the start from zero podcast, listening to the book on tape and build businesses with them and do it with people together. Visit start from zero.com forward slash starters.[00:16:21] Pick it up later. It's all fresh and folded, and he's like, Ooh, that is awesome. He's like, I'm gonna outsource my laundry. My girlfriend says it's a product of Midwest conditioning. God, do everything yourself.[00:16:33] Terry: [00:16:33] Originally I am from the Midwest area and I would agree. We grew up like everything. One of the first businesses that I started when my children were really young was cleaning houses.[00:16:45] And so the people would have me clean their house. They would have someone else cut their grass, they would have somebody water their indoor plants, and I remember thinking to myself, do these people do anything? And now I know they're doing things that. Create more value for them to make money or whatever, spending time with their families, then doing those particular things did for them.[00:17:12] dane: [00:17:12] That's wonderful. So finding a deep pain building community around it. What would love have to ask or say about that?[00:17:21] Terry: [00:17:21] I feel like love has to say that you can do it. You just have to open your eyes for the pain around you. But fear is standing right back there saying,[00:17:33] dane: [00:17:33] so let's go back to the lady Gaga. Me feeling not enough, and yet we've built stuff.[00:17:40] I think the difference, it's a couple of things. One. We don't really ever suffer our direct experience, what we feel directly. We really suffer how we feel about what we feel. On a spiritual perspective. You'd say how you identify that feeling. So [00:18:00] fear comes up and then there's another identity of fear that fear is bad and fear needs to be quiet and fear needs to not be there because fear is bad and that's bad.[00:18:10] And fear means something about who I am. When you actually see that you're identifying fear with all your opinions. When fear is just fear by itself and it's not all that bad to feel when you just feel it directly. It's like, Oh, fear. Welcome the friend of fear all by itself. It's all right, but when you have all these identifications about what it means about you and all this and that, then it didn't stop you in its tracks.[00:18:32] So one is how you feel about how you're feeling. How do you identify it? So you struggle with feeling not enough. Then how do you feel about that? Well, does that make you, are you a martyr or are you a victim? Does it make you less than, because you're feeling that? Does it make you feel isolate? Like that one's intense.[00:18:52] That'll shut the brain off right away. And it's important to work with these things in an extremely effective way so they don't perpetuate an addiction of staying with them. And you also don't try to bite conquer it. Like if you watch like YouTube videos about motivation to succeed and achieve, you'll see like Gary V and like, he'll be like the whole cost.[00:19:14] So like you got to get out there and you go to F and this and F and that. You do it, just do it. Just do it, just do it. And then before long you can see that he's got a fear that he's learned how to strangle and be stronger than, but there's another way. That actually is full of wellbeing, and that is to be friend of the fear.[00:19:34] Look at the identification of the fear, allow it to be there as a friend, and then take action. Anyway, so twofold. One is how you feel about it. And then two is I think with the lady Gaga in my instance where we will feel this and we do it anyway, is you believe the voice. We just notice it. Notice verse belief real but not true.[00:19:58] Notice instead of [00:20:00] belief. Real but not true. You don't have to believe that voice, Terry. In fact, so much of the world is taught. It's conditioned in that that's a bad you, you, you believe you're not enough. Let's fix it. Let's change it. Let's correct it. Let's get rid of it. All of those lack love, all of those lack compassion because love is unconditional acceptance.[00:20:21] So we're being taught to change, fix, cover up. Correct. These identities. Guess what happens when we do that? It reinforces that the identity is bad. It reinforces that that identity or character is unwelcome. The fastest way that I've been taught to do this is to find the worst thing. And the worst form of suffering, the worst form of fear, the worst form of I'm not enough.[00:20:45] And make friends with it. If you make friends at the worst aspect of your mind, so linchpin, the other stuff seems to go with it. So let's just experientially try it. And if you can't do it, that's perfectly okay. See what it's like to become like best friends with this feeling of not being enough like a best friend.[00:21:02] It's okay that it's, there really is because it's not who you are. It's. Only a thought. It's a really deep thought. It's only a feeling. It's a very strong feeling, but it's truly only a thought and feeling. It's definitely not who you are. You're way more than this thought. So because you're way more than this thought, you don't need to believe it.[00:21:22] Just become best friends with it.[00:21:24] Terry: [00:21:24] So what does that look like? How does one get from where I am currently? The fear?[00:21:32] dane: [00:21:32] What do you start to feel when you think about that? What's here in this moment?[00:21:36] Terry: [00:21:36] Literally the thoughts that come up for me is I don't know how to do that. I don't know what that means,[00:21:42] dane: [00:21:42] so become best friends with that.[00:21:44] Literally just become friends with, I don't know how to do that. Do you feel the thought and the vibration and the feeling that comes with, I don't know how to do that, like the confusion and uncertainty? Yes. Become friends with that and let me know when you feel like your friend did it.[00:21:59] Terry: [00:21:59] Okay.[00:22:00] [00:22:00] dane: [00:22:00] What's happening?[00:22:00] What's it like. So[00:22:01] Terry: [00:22:01] in my mind, I just created it like it's standing next to me just talking to it, saying, Hey, how you doing? Walk together next to each other, but you're not me[00:22:13] dane: [00:22:13] and you're my friend[00:22:14] Terry: [00:22:14] and you're my friend.[00:22:16] dane: [00:22:16] And how does it feel to be friend, your uncertainty?[00:22:19] Terry: [00:22:19] I just literally felt like I just took a deep breath and that's the feeling that I got a pontoon.[00:22:27] dane: [00:22:27] So it almost switched your body out of survival and into a state of regeneration.[00:22:32] Terry: [00:22:32] It really did. It was like as if I could, because I'm a real obsessor so it was like as if I could let that go and it just didn't have as much power.[00:22:42] dane: [00:22:42] This is how you do it. You be friend, like the worst thing we make friends with the obsessor.[00:22:48] You know, I was taught this for a year before I got it. So you're only on like 20 minutes in here. You're doing really good. I was taught this for a year and then I was so blown away by this guys, step by step system to making friends with your mind that we turned it into a course and we're selling it and we're helping entrepreneurs become friends with their own mind.[00:23:11] They probably quadruple the action they take. Wow. Just by becoming friends with their own mind. The mind is not the enemy. It can feel that way. The mind can feel like the enemy when you haven't been taught how to place your attention. So you just opened a door from survival under regeneration, you kind of feel a greater sense of wellbeing.[00:23:29] Yes. Imagine taking action from that place.[00:23:33] Terry: [00:23:33] That'll be amazing. I feel like I spent so much time in that fight or flight.[00:23:38] dane: [00:23:38] Just open your eyes and look for your own pain and to be friended. So when you open your eyes and kind of like reflect on stuff and look around, what sort of pains do you see through that come to you that you've noticed over the last little while?[00:23:53] Terry: [00:23:53] Honestly, I don't see it yet.[00:23:55] dane: [00:23:55] What's good for you? Even through the word yet on there. So there's a five [00:24:00] question framework that is going to be in the book, and here are those five questions you could ask anybody really these five questions. The first one is what is your most present and consistent problem?[00:24:14] Number two is how do you go about solving that? Problem number three is what happens if you don't solve that problem? Number four is what would be your dream solution or magic wand solution? And number five is would that be worth paying for? If so, how much? So let's try it on. Let's, I'll try it out on you.[00:24:34] Okay. Okay. So Terry, what's been your most consistent and present problem. Income. And how are you going about solving that right now?[00:24:42] Terry: [00:24:42] I do not have a consistent way to follow that right now.[00:24:45] dane: [00:24:45] Are you actually trying to solve it?[00:24:47] Terry: [00:24:47] I am. I mean, my primary weakness is really freight, not providing what I want.[00:24:54] So I am definitely trying to figure out other avenues to create more income.[00:25:00] dane: [00:25:00] Okay, good. That's great.[00:25:05] If you'd like to learn how to make money and you need a path to do it, visit start from zero.com and you'll see a whole context of how you can actually get started. There's a three phase process that you can go through. If you're a beginner, intermediate, or advanced, go there. It'll tell you exactly what to do, where to go, and how to get started, and you don't need money for some of the options.[00:25:26] And if you do have money, you can buy some of the other options. It's all laid out for you with crystal. Clear clarity@startfromzero.com where do you go and what do you do? You'll find out there,[00:25:42] so you are engaged in trying to solve this problem. So what happens if you don't fix this problem?[00:25:47] Terry: [00:25:47] I will continue to be where I am now. It's just going to be difficult. And[00:25:53] dane: [00:25:53] yeah. And what would your magic wand solution be?[00:25:57] Terry: [00:25:57] My magic wand solution would be that [00:26:00] I would find something where I can provide great value to people and feel good about.[00:26:08] What I'm doing make lot of money in the process.[00:26:13] dane: [00:26:13] That sounds beautiful. Let me repeat it. So you provide a lot of value, feel good about what you're doing, and make a lot of money in the process. Is that right? Yes. How does that feel to hear reflected back? Does that sound like it captures it. Yes. Good. So question four is, you know, a wave, magic wand solution.[00:26:30] Everybody listening. So she said it. So just to be sure I heard it, cause it was pretty cool. I made sure I heard it. I made sure I clarified on every point and I also made sure it was complete for her after I said it. Kind of a nice thing to do. Question four. So if you had a magic wand solution, you're providing value, you felt good about it, and you were also making a lot of money, would that be worth paying for?[00:26:49] Absolutely. How much?[00:26:52] Terry: [00:26:52] I don't know. I don't know how to answer that question as much as I could afford.[00:26:56] dane: [00:26:56] Can you tell me more what you mean by that?[00:26:58] Terry: [00:26:58] I feel like it's almost like if I need medicine for something, how much would you pay for it? I would pay almost anything for it as long as I could pay it.[00:27:08] dane: [00:27:08] Is there a dollar amount that you have in mind that you'd like to make.[00:27:12] Terry: [00:27:12] I would like to make[00:27:13] dane: [00:27:13] you say make a lot of money. What does that mean to you?[00:27:16] Terry: [00:27:16] I would be so happy if I could make 400 a year,[00:27:20] dane: [00:27:20] 400,000 and that's the so happy number. What's the unhappy number? Moderately happy and so happy. What's your range?[00:27:29] Terry: [00:27:29] 75 and maybe one 75.[00:27:34] dane: [00:27:34] Okay. And have you ever been very close to 400 I have not.[00:27:38] Okay. So how would it feel if you were around 400 a year?[00:27:42] Terry: [00:27:42] Oh my gosh.[00:27:44] dane: [00:27:44] So I can see how you, if you were anywhere close to that, that would be worth paying for, is that right? Yes. So now the next thing we would do is research different business models. That you can [00:28:00] create different mechanisms to help you achieve that result.[00:28:03] So I'm not responsible for the mechanism that you learn to make 400,000 I'm responsible for finding you and finding your pain and finding your dream outcome. Then I find experts who would know how to get that outcome that you're looking for. Matter of fact, we have a program actually that I think you'd really like.[00:28:24] But the way it worked is I was talking to somebody and I asked them what their dream outcome was, and they said if they were able to quit their job, I want to quit my job. So I found a guy who makes $20,000 a month on bad months, and sometimes he makes as much as $87,000 in a single month. He works from home, he's around his family.[00:28:44] He goes to Disney world on Friday with his kids, and. He has a very repeatable process that anybody could use to build the same business. So I contacted him, asked him if he'd like to teach it, and they exchange for a profit split of 20% profit. All he has to do is show up and teach, and we handle everything else.[00:29:05] We put the course together, we interview him, we structure the content, we do customer acquisition, we do customer support. We do advertising. Yeah. The whole nine yards. He shows up and provides the mechanism. We give them a 20% profit. We sell everything else and it's a good business model.[00:29:21] Terry: [00:29:21] Sounds[00:29:22] dane: [00:29:22] like it.[00:29:22] And so right now we charge at the low end. Because the program's just getting started. But we'll probably raise the price soon as we get more and more students in, and more and more students get results. But right now we charge around $3,000 for that course. So if someone pays $3,000 and they learn how to build a $240,000 per year business, huge value.[00:29:43] So I'm providing a lot of value. I feel really good about it. Students who are really good about it, and we make a lot of money. Everybody wins, right? So tell me what you're thinking about. What's going on in your mind right now.[00:29:55] Terry: [00:29:55] Like, I would love to do something like that. Something that speaks to all my bad.[00:29:59] It's just [00:30:00] like you said, so you have found somebody that you're doing that has the mechanism. And then you're providing to your students and at the same time, everyone is making money.[00:30:12] dane: [00:30:12] Yeah. Everyone gets rich. So how's that fear doing that? You talked about the beginning of the show. Yep. Just like lady Gaga before she plays Madison square garden.[00:30:26] Right. Are you wanting that fear to be gone and go away?[00:30:30] Terry: [00:30:30] No, I feel like it's like off to the side enough that I can see it out of peripheral vision, but it's not taking over.[00:30:38] dane: [00:30:38] What happens if you walk all the way over to your peripheral vision and ask it and become friends with it? It's funny.[00:30:44] Terry: [00:30:44] In my mind, it turns away from me[00:30:46] dane: [00:30:46] probably because you've been turning away from it in subtle ways, but how do I do that?[00:30:51] That's kind of your way of turning away from it. The fears, like, Hey, Hey. You're like, no, no. I'm gonna figure this out. So what happens if you become friends with it turning away from you?[00:31:01] Terry: [00:31:01] I'm almost consoling it.[00:31:03] dane: [00:31:03] Wow. Best stay with that. What's happening now?[00:31:07] Terry: [00:31:07] Yeah, let's just, there were just next to each other and it's[00:31:10] dane: [00:31:10] done.[00:31:11] So you become friends with all aspects of your experience. You go over to the fear, it turns away. You become friends with that. Now it turns back here together. Now you're friends with that. There's nothing that you don't be friend. If you don't want to be friended, you be friend that if you don't want to do this, you'd be friend.[00:31:31] That if you're overwhelmed, you be friend, that if you can't do this anymore, you be friend that. Every thought, every feeling you has have experienced that you can be friend and hold every single one even. I don't want to do this even of overwhelmed. Those are the, especially the ones that you can hold.[00:31:46] It's wild. I don't want to meditate. Be friend to that feeling of not wanting to meditate. While you meditate. So in order to do this, Terry, what you need to build as metacognition, and you can look at metacognition on Google. It's a [00:32:00] significantly powerful word. It's pretty much the primary skill to building freedom over your mind.[00:32:07] With metacognition, you can see that you're not your thoughts. You're not your feelings, you're not your experiences, because you can see them all clearly. You can watch them all. You can see how. You have the feeling of fear come up and you can see six different identifications of fear of fire off all at once cause you've got really good metacognition without metacognition.[00:32:24] You get like bound down, trapped down, et cetera. And we have a course for this that helps you build metacognition mindset, help for entrepreneurs. It's a start from zero.com forward slash DJP difficult judgement pattern. Start from zero to a conference last DJP and it's very affordable. You can scroll and see if you think you'd be a good fit[00:32:43] for[00:32:43] Terry: [00:32:43] it.[00:32:44] Should I do that now[00:32:46] dane: [00:32:46] whenever you want. I mean, it would behoove me if we were engaged in a kind of a sales process on that program to see if it would be a fit is to let you look through it now and have you look through it and then have you ask questions about it. It would help me improve that page and make it better for other people.[00:33:03] Okay. But why don't you, maybe we'll squeeze two minutes in cause we can show people, cause if you've got products, if you've got websites, if you've got things you're selling and you've got people that are curious, you can have them look at it while they're on the phone with you. And it can really help you dial in your communication.[00:33:18] So if you pull up, start from zero.com forward slash DJP[00:33:22] Terry: [00:33:22] okay,[00:33:22] I'm[00:33:22] dane: [00:33:22] here. Yeah. And just look through that and tell me if you have any questions. Now, I'm intentionally not directing you because I'm seeing if the site will do it, and if you probably go to the ask, what do you notice first? What are you looking at right now?[00:33:35] Terry: [00:33:35] I'm just scrolling down. Obviously I noticed the green book with the DJP framework. Ferris. Good. Then I kind of just scrolled through how much more you could do with a clear mind. Here are a few examples, reading through the examples.[00:33:52] dane: [00:33:52] Does the page speak to you?[00:33:53] Terry: [00:33:53] From what standpoint would I take the action?[00:33:56] dane: [00:33:56] Yeah.[00:33:57] Terry: [00:33:57] Yes. I definitely, like if we weren't on this call, I [00:34:00] definitely would have clicked already.[00:34:02] dane: [00:34:02] Oh good. Okay, good. Cause if it didn't speak to you, I would know that I'm missing the Mark and I would need to correct that. So what you can do is click on or go through that green book. It's completely free.[00:34:14] And then if you like that process. And you see it being effective. You can take it to like astronomically powerful levels, like towards levels of wellbeing where there are places, Terry, that you can access within your mind. That feels so good. That the concept of not enough vanishes, like it won't even make sense.[00:34:37] Like there are places you can access within your mind that when the story of not enough comes up, your brain won't even be able to compute what is looking at it. It'll be irrelevant because you know what's interesting is so you're not enough. So what then you might be trying to do is become enough.[00:34:53] Right? Right. But that's an identity. Trying to fix an identity. There's a whole nother game. Where you can go to a place of infinite potential. And in the field of infinite potential, there's hardly any label at all. And so when you get to the field of infinite potential, then you've got not enough comes up and it doesn't make sense to you.[00:35:13] And not only that, but then the story of being enough or being worthy, that doesn't even make sense because it's still a story. It's crazy. It's absolutely amazing. And that's the place you can access. If you buy the program's like 300 bucks, but that's all you need. And then you can work with Brian, who's my mentor on this, and then you access this place of infinite potentiality where there's literally.[00:35:39] The is just like, they don't make sense. Like they come in and you're like, what does that, what is it not enough? What does it even mean to me? It doesn't make sense worthy. Yeah, I guess, I mean, I don't know. I feel infinitely worthy. I don't understand what they're talking about. It's crazy. Cool[00:35:55] Terry: [00:35:55] program.[00:35:55] dane: [00:35:55] Yes, yes, yes.[00:35:57] Terry: [00:35:57] Awesome. I think I'm going to take advantage of,[00:35:59] dane: [00:35:59] I'm really excited. If [00:36:00] you do, we'll be with you every step of the way and you get to meet Brian, which is one of my favorite humans. Well, I'm honored. You'd look at it. I'm honored you check it out and just know that like whether you do that program or not.[00:36:11] Everybody listening to modus, how I sold it. You can look at the site and see if it would be a fit for you. Amazing way to sell something, because if it's not a fit, I'm not gonna force that. Right? Is it a fit? Is it a fit? Sales is about finding a fit, not about selling your product. So that's a big distinction.[00:36:28] So that was what I did then. And then also I wanted to paint you a picture of what's possible with the mind. I'm so excited for you to get introduced to it. The way that you get there, Terry is by just friend. Every experience that comes up until every experience is held. And then you'll start to pop into that field of infinite potentiality.[00:36:48] But it takes time to build the metacognition cause it's a muscle, but then you have it. So good work today. Thank you. What do you think your next steps are?[00:36:56] Terry: [00:36:56] I think I am definitely going to search for a deep problem that I feel like I can solve and then take the other steps. Trying to build a strong community, sell and outsource, and even within my current business is I'm going to look to be less prideful and more humble and outsource the things that need to be outsourced and not be such a micromanager.[00:37:22] dane: [00:37:22] Sounds good. Good job today.[00:37:24] Terry: [00:37:24] Thanks Dan. I appreciate it. Thanks for your time.[00:37:26] dane: [00:37:26] So for years, people have been asking me, what's the big secret? How do I do this? And the answer is simple. My life took off when I had mentors. Too many people try to do this stuff alone and get stuck and give up. Listen, if you haven't succeeded in business or entrepreneurship yet, it's simple.[00:37:43] You haven't failed enough yet. You haven't been around enough mentors yet. If you combine failure with mentorship, you will fly. I had someone say, why are so many people so more success? Still the knee. How come I can't get this right? And they said, well, how many times you failed? He's like, wow. A lot of times I'm like, have you failed more than 10 times?[00:37:59] He [00:38:00] said, no. I was like, you haven't failed enough yet. You haven't been around mentors enough yet. Failure is how you learn. Michael Jordan has missed so many game winning shots. You've got to get out there and fail and how are you going to do that if you're all by yourself, all alone, beating yourself up in your own thoughts?[00:38:14] Listen, I'm going to give you access to my board of advisors, my board of advisors that I talked to sometimes every day I'm going to give you access to them. Every month. Live free to ask questions and get your mindset on straight. They're going to ask you questions that are hard for you to answer. Those are the kinds of people you want in your life.[00:38:32] You're also going to get access to not only the board of advisors, but my entire community, the start from zero community, all the entrepreneurs that are practicing these things, building these businesses. You'll get access to this community and this board of advisors and much more with the new program we've launched called start from zero.com forward slash, starters and you can see it.[00:38:53] And get access to my board of advisors and ask them anything you want. Monthly, you'll get automated accountability to stay focused. You get a community of other people all building businesses with the start from zero methodology. And guess what? You get kicked out of this community if you do not take action.[00:39:09] So it is serious people. So if you'd like access to that information about that, go to start from zero.com forward slash starters and it's about time that we get together and strengthen each other and fail together. Each other back up together and show each other each other's blind spots and ask the hard questions and drive each other to that golden finish line of a business that you don't have to work in a business that provides freedom.[00:39:34] So you can sit around on a Tuesday and watch HBO if you want. All right, start from zero.com forward slash starters.
On the podcast this week, Steven and Sean are wading into some serious (and seriously funny) family drama in the Shawn Levy film, This Is Where I Leave You. So why exactly does everyone want a piece of Jason Bateman? That’s the question we’re aiming to answer in this podcast episode. Is it his sense of humor? His bearded face? The rumor we’re creating right now about his desperate love of artisanal, hand-crafted saltwater taffy? Spoiler warning: we don’t actually figure this question out. What we do figure out is that the family in this movie, the Altmans, have got a whole lot of heavy issues going on. “Dysfunctional” just doesn’t seem to cover it with these folks. The film does a wonderful job of walking a fine line between hilarious and depressing, which is impressive considering it starts with the death of a beloved family member. But hey, even in mourning there’s always room for healing as a family and getting it on with old flames, am I right? Right? Is this thing on? This is a touching movie that we were happy to see and talk about in this episode. It also has one of the best casts we’ve ever seen. Jason Bateman and Tina Fey and Adam Driver AND Jane Fonda?! Come on, how much more greatness do you need? (Recorded on February 19, 2020) Links and Show Notes: More Movies Please! - Libsyn Give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts!: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/more-movies-please/id1500339297 This Is Where I Leave You - IMDb The Kristen Bell episode of Inside of You - Apple Podcasts Shiva - Wikipedia Ben Schwartz - IMDb About Us - More Movies Please! on Apple Podcasts This Is Where I Leave You trailer - YouTube Bella - IMDb Bella trailer - YouTube Beginners - IMDb Beginners trailer - YouTube More Movies Please! - Instagram
If Jesus rose from the dead, then someday we can go to heaven, too. Right? Is that the message of Easter Sunday? If it is, what are we supposed to do in the meantime? What if we don't die right away? Does Christianity have anything to say about what happens to people this side of heaven? What does it say about things like pandemic disease and economic ruin? Pastor Luke looks at Matthew 28:1-10 in "Resurrection."
#NFL: - Today is the day that Eli Manning Retires.. So how will we remember him? - There should be no debate Eli is a HOF....Right? - Is the Franchise tag the best Decision for Dallas Cowboys to make on Dak? - How did the San Francisco 49ers and The Kansas City Chiefs get here? #MLB with Joseph Aguiar: - Are we really making a big deal that Jeter was not unanimous in the Hall of Fame? - Is it unfortunate that Bonds or Clemens will not make the Hall of Fame? - Should the Colorado Rockies trade Nolan Arenado? NBA: - Is Load Management the best decision for Zion and the New Orleans Pelicans? Is it the smart move to make?
This weeks guest is Peter Sumpton. Peter is a Marketing Study Lab - Tutor and Pod caster. Peters two favorite Marketing quotes are: ‘People like us, do things like this’ Seth Godin. ‘The most human company always wins’ Mark Schafer. Peter has worked within the Marketing profession ever since leaving University via various organizations from SMEs to large multinational PLCs in a number of different market sectors including; media and manufacturing. Throughout his careers Peter has held many positions within Marketing, starting as an assistant and working through the ranks to Head of Marketing. In going through this ‘ground up’ journey he understands that although every business is different, through robust and justifiable Marketing Strategies, tailored to a particular industry with a certain target market in mind is where the Marketing magic happens! Having been in the same position himself and want to develop his skill thought a more structured way of learning marketing, Peter knows exactly what it takes to learn, study and master marketing theory and putting it into practice, becoming a Chartered Marketer in the process. The passion and commitment to the profession he loves – Marketing, can be infectious.Links: Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab Podcast: https://marketingstudylab.co.uk/free-resources/podcast/ Website: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk Make Contact: www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton www.twitter.com/cousinp81 www.instagram.com/marketingstudylabWelcome back to the fuel your legacy podcast. Each week we expose the faulty foundational mindsets of the past and rebuild the newer, stronger foundation essential in creating your meaningful legacy. We've got a lot of work to do. So let's get started. As much as you like this podcast, I'm certain that you're going to love the book that I just released on Amazon if you will, your legacy, the nine pillars to build a meaningful legacy. I wrote this to share with you the experiences that I had while I was identifying my identity, how I began to create my meaningful legacy and how you can create yours. You're going to find this book on Kindle, Amazon and our website Sam Knickerbocker. com.Welcome back to the fuel your legacy podcast. And as always bringing on the movers the shakers, the people who are making the transition from living somebody else's legacy, fulfilling building somebody else's legacy to taking ownership. of who they are and who they're meant to be their talents, their identity and bringing it to the world, which is you. So thank you for listening. If you love this podcast, if you've been getting tons and tons of value out of it, go please, and write a review on whatever app you're listening to this on, whether it's iTunes, Google, play, Spotify, Stitcher, wherever it is, go write a review, rank, and review so that more people can hear this valuable content. Today, we're going to be talking to Mr. Peter Sumption something correct pump somebody else. That's correct. Believe me, I've had all sorts, but that's fine. I believe you know that perfect. So Peter something. The cool thing about Peter something is, I love his angle that he's taking on this. So he is a master of marketing. But he calls himself the Lego master of marketing. It's important to as part of marketing, attach yourself something well known, so that people will remember you. So I love this idea of the Lego master of marketing, taking the messy building blocks which we all if you've ever tried tomorrow yourself brand yourself, you know that there is a mess, right? Especially if you have no idea what you're doing. If you've ever played with Legos, you also understand it's a mess, and you can build whatever you want. But with no vision, you usually don't get very much. So all the messy building blocks as to what makes up a successful marketing plan takes them to codify them, make them easily understood so that it looks presentable. And you've got a cool little for me, I don't know why I always think of Star Wars when I think of Legos. But a nice little Millennium Falcon driving around, right? Because that's just what I think. Maybe that's indicative of the time in my life when I played with my legs. Yeah. But go ahead, Peter, let us know kind of your story. Share that transition. What made you leave another really exciting thing to listen to Peter's story very closely. We have not had very many guests here that are in his exact position and the timing of this could not be better. So listen to that. And if he doesn't, if you don't pick it up, I'll draw attention to it after a story but I'm shooting We're excited for this to take it away, Peter.Great, what an intro. Thank you so, so much. And thank you for having me on absolute pleasure. So I suppose the first thing to say is that the whole Lego thing. I remember when I was younger, and that's I suppose whether the story starts and similarly to you, I was into Star Wars and more the space Lego. And that was kind of the first thing that I ever had in terms of Lego the spaceship that I build and break down and build and break down and fast forward into right now. That's why I like to cast myself as the Lego master of marketing. It's a bit catchy, but it also goes back a long way to where I started and kind of a love of Lego. And then from that building a love of marketing. So let's leave the Lego for one side, the moment I grew up in a small town, middle of nowhere and kind of had two choices went to school. Fine family No problem. It's not a wonderful rag to riches story, nothing like that. Pretty standard to be fair. But in the town where I grew up, you had two choices. You either lived, worked there and basically spent your whole life in that town, or you moved away. So, it was my decision that I would go to university. And I had to choose something that I thought would be interesting for the next three years of my life to do to study, flicking through university books, and thinking, Okay, I'm not as bright as I probably think I am. So doctor, dentist, lawyer, that's way out to the field, no chance. This marketing thing. This is quite interesting. I wonder what that's all about. Andlike anybody, the first thing you think of when you think of marketing, or generally most people will think of advertising or communication, because that's, that's the bit we see. That's the bit that everybody sees. And everyone's got an opinion about it. Simple as that. But I liked that about marketing. And I liked the fact that within marketing, it went deeper than that. And a color or a brand or a logo, or even an advert or a con type of communication could change somebody's mindset and effectively affects what they're thinking about a particular company, or a product or a service. So I thought let's have a go at this. So went to university I spent three years going to a lot of boring lectures, spend three years going to some interesting lectures and spent three years playing a lot of football and doing a lot of drinking and stuff that a lot of people do and they go to university and leaving University for fantastic you know, degree happy days. pat on the back. Well done P. Now to get a job, or just some a CV out, I've been to university, I've got a degree someone's bound to pick me up straightaway snapped me up. And I remember Actually, I had this discussion today with somebody that I'm tutoring. And I said to them, I remember sending my first application for a job after university and being nervous about it because I was thinking, I'm going to get this job and I'm going to have to do it. And they're going to ask me questions. And I've never been in this position before. This is a bit strange. I never heard from them and then sent another and never heard from another and never heard from and I suppose all this is up to where I am now. I almost took the first job that I could get just because I wanted to get a job. And a lot of people will be listening and thinking, will you look just to get a job in the first instance, you know, I kill to go to university and get a job and yeah, you're buying right? Some people really struggle to get that job, but it does have a lasting impression on you and it does massively affect The way your life goes and the way it's guided and how you grow and develop as a person and within your, your profession, it just does. So I had a few marketing jobs thought I knew it all thought I knew what good marketing was, sorry, communications based focus straight on the straightaway. And this was pre-internet, by the way. So, anyone that's, that's probably under the age of say 1816. Listening is probably thinking, what did you do pre-internet? Well, this is a good question. Really, what did we do? I can't remember. But fast forward a little bit after those few jobs. And I came to this realization that marketing isn't just about communications, although that is what people see, and believe it to be, first and foremost. And I've got a little analogy for you here and hopefully, this will make sense. Going pre-internet by the way, so let's go School for a second. If you're writing a letter to somebody if you have to write a letter, what do you start that letter with? You start it with somebody's name and their address. You know who you're writing that letter to. And then you go on and you build the letter, you construct the letter main points and then sign it and send it up. What you don't do is write it and then think, who am I going to send this to? And, and that's the bit of marketing that a lot of people even in marketing, don't quite understand. The fact that it's all about I mean, maxing simple, it's, it's all about who you're targeting your market in general. And then the communication on top is very much that cherry on top of the cake. If you don't build the cake First, there's no point in having the cherry of communications. So anyway, this realization came to me and I'd had a few jobs in marketing. And it wasn't my bag. It wasn't something I was passionate about in terms of the industries I was in. And now it comes to the point where I'm at right now. So hopefully your listeners will. Some of them will understand where I'm at either been there or are there are thinking of this. So my current role, I enjoyed it love the people I work with, really passionate about marketing and my profession. But I just didn't have that link to the industry. I just didn't feel that I was fully connected to the industry. So long story short, aboutI'd say about a year to two years ago, I decided I need to do something for myself. I need to build some and that's purely me because I'm sick and tired of working in marketing departments are fighting internally with other divisions to highlight the importance of marketing. I need to branch out and do this for myself build something so I can highlight this to all the people of how you do marketing correctly. Whether that's right A letter or creating a Facebook post, it doesn't start with that post it starts for the buck. So that was about two years ago. So what I started to do, I was already tutoring people through another company I worked with on the side. I went to them and I said, you know, can you help me out here? What can we do how I want to grow and build a business? Can you help me know? Okay, so we can you can partner with us. And we will put people through our books for you and you can choose them for professional qualifications. Now my brilliant that's a great start. Fast forward two years. And now I'm at a position where I'm okay I handed in my notice and I did that. Not quite sure when this is going out. But I did it said the start of October, and by the end of this month that is the end of October, I'll be going it alone. So it's like slap bang in the middle of this transition and the caveat being are the ones that What I want to get across to people that are listening is, there's more than one way to skin a cat, there's more than one way to make money, there's more than one way to leave this job. You can do it instantly. Or you can do it slowly, and I'm quite risk-averse. So what I've done is I've taken my time, I've got to know my audience. And I've got to understand what I want to do, and what my passion is and where that is. And that's led me to today. So I'm at the point of leaving my job and going full time in terms of tutoring people for professional qualifications, mentoring them through apprenticeships, for marketing, but also going into companies and showing them how you should do marketing, how you need to start with your audience. You don't start with the columns. And that's where I am today.Yeah, I love it. So there are a few things that I want to bring out of this story. And then let me take one real quick note here before I forget it.Why we always use this example but we do.Okay, sojust some terminology here. So I understand in Europe and then we'd use started a little bit using it here but not always. But CV is the equivalent of a resume. So sorry, your CV out what the heck is this? Right? Is that a Honda CV know, a CV is a resume, essentially. Okay. And so that's something that had to be built. If you go back to it and this is kind of the example that I want to bring up. How many people maybe this is you maybe it's somebody else, you know, this Listen, you who are listening to this podcast, but the plumber who doesn't fix his toilets, the plumber has broken plumbing in his house and is too busy to fix it right? That is one area that I've seen happen over and over and over and over and over, specifically in the marketing field where people can I can brand You I can help you market I can do all this, but they are not doing it for themselves. They're not even close to doing it from themselves. They haven't branded themselves. They haven't created brand standards, they haven't understood marketing. And so they're trying to sell you something that they are not doing for themselves. And even if they have a wicked awesome portfolio of people they've helped, they're not doing it for themselves. So it's important for you to understand when you're looking for a professional in any area of your life, I believe you should be looking for somebody who is actively doing what they're trying to help you do. They're actively doing it for themselves. They're living what they preach. They're walking the line that they're showing you to walk, and they're on the path.And what's cool about that isthat is Peter Peter is already branding himself. He's creating a brand and this as he said, he first got this idea started working on this one to two years ago. It's not like just over overnight, he decided to create a brand. He's built a brand while he was at his I guess you could call day job or last A form of employment. And that is important to understand that he's built this. Now, where do you start when you build a brand, and this is part of what my messages when I'm talking to peopleis thatunderstanding they have to identify your identity to build off of because if you're going to go build something, especially if you're gonna go build a business, and you're building something that is not in alignment with your values and who you are at your core, it will fail. I don't know how big it's going to get before it fails. But you can only build so big of a building on a weak foundation. Maybe you get away with a first-level story, you're barely surviving, you've got to sell a job with rather than only having one boss, you've got all your customers, bosses, maybe you get a job, but it's your job, right. But to build a legacy to build something long-lasting instruction, you have to start with your identity. And I love that that's the first place you started. logo. Matt, Master of marketing, sorry, the Lego Master Master of marketing that comes from his core something that he connects with from his childhood. It's part of his identity. And so he's bringing his identity his weirdness, right so there's a phrase in marketing What is your weird you need to be able to share what you're weird is with other people. So you remember so that people think about you and your weird could be any number of things my weird if, if you go to my Facebook page, and I'm not a crossdresser, I'm homosexual, right? But I like to do weird things. And if you go on my Facebook page, you're going to see me in some hot pink high heels and a blue suit. Right? And you might think that's weird. It is weird, man. When you go to my page, I want you to remember when I speak on stage, I show everybody this picture when I speak on stage because I want them to think that guy was weird. Was that weird? connects them with me. It says okay, yes, he's a serious businessman and he doesn't take himself too seriously, and that is essentially the sweet spot of my value system. candor, very direct, very honest. but on the same token, very grateful, happy, and somebody who lives in integrity to themselves so doesn't take themselves too seriously. So that's an important aspect of marketing that I love that you did.And there are just a couple things that you picked up on that going back to the plumber. So so and this is why I do what I do. And if a pipe bursts and you're not a plumber, you're going to call a plumber, but you're not going to call anyone you're going to call on that, you know, like and trust, and you're going to call one that knows what they're doing. Hopefully, and it amazes me, the number of people I speak to that is in the marketing department, and they don't know the strategic elements. They don't know what marketing orientated businesses are. They don't know What various acronyms and we've all got acronyms and all that rubbish, but they don't know the fundamental basics. And that put into position, usually. And it's crazy, but it's true. Usually, they're put in the marketing department, because they know Twitter. Oh, you've got a Facebook account, you can do that. How can you? You know, that's like saying to a plumber or saying to your friend, my toilets were broken, you use the toilet? Can you come around and fix it? You just wouldn't craziness? Yeah. And it's like that second thing. The second thing is, you mentioned branding being massively important. So two things on that. My branding is going to do a massive transition for various reasons. And that's when I came up with it like a master of marketing. So if anyone looks me up, it's going through massive changes, massive transitions, and at some point in the very near future, it will be buying on point. Well, that's what I've been doing for the past two years is working out what the audience wants and where I should go. The second thing, if anybody's listening, and they want to build and develop their brand, just remember one thing. And that's all brand is, is a promise that it's as simple as that it is a promise. As soon as that promise is broken, you don't have a brand. So next time you see a brand, take Hershey's, for example. They promise that they will deliver delicious chocolate whether you like it or not, that's kind of what their brand stands for is chocolate delicious chocolate. the best chocolate you'll ever eat. If you eat a chocolate bar, Hershey's chocolate bar and it's disgusting. They have broken that promise. And now you won't forgive them and they'll lose your trade. So just remember it is a promise.Yeah, absolutely. And that's my brand also is going through i would say a more clarification I used to brand myself as Samuel Knickerbocker and feel your legacy and I'm separating the two because as and this is going to happen with everybody. I think you're gonna initially brand one way and Your brand is a constant transformation. So you understand that you're not like locked into one thing and you're out of integrity if you're not sticking to that one thing, but my brand I had to separate because the fuel your legacy side of my brand is taking on kind of a life of its own. And the Samuel Knickerbocker brand is taking on a life of its own, and I wanted to separate those so that might be so my clients can be more specific about what that promise is. Yeah. And I love talking about the promise aspect of it. And understanding what that is specifically with marketing I'm going to touch on another thing that I've seen happen in the industry so if you're looking for somebody to start marketing for you, and you're kind of interviewing different people, the market to start determining where do I send my money? A lot of people they're like, I can write copy, I can write an ad for you. I can split test on Facebook or, or whatever landing pages and you're like, Okay, cool. And can you do this where you can your content creation for meand then we'll do it. The problem is it's exactly what I think is the best.This is probably the best analogy I've ever heard of marketing, the letter analogy, right? They are writing copy, you're paying them to write copy. It's okay, generic copy. And when I say copy that's advertising words. So the words that are in the advertising for people who don't understand the industry, but they're writing stuff, but it's generic because they don't know who they're writing it to. So they're writing this letter and then determining, well, let's just blast it out and see who likes the letter. And then based on if we change three words in the letter, maybe we'll get a better response from this group. They have no idea who they're marketing to. That is an issue. And if you're paying for that level of service, stop paying for it, and go find somebody who's going to help you. At least initiate the conversation of Who are we marketing to? Okay, there's a lot of people out there who will take your money and I'm not saying they're bad at their job. There probably are Really good copywriters, like people who are writing this, but they are only as good as they know who they're writing to. And that's crucial. In fact, when I started working with my brand, and this is one of the reasons why my brand is going through a revision, because all about the mindset of where you're starting, whether it's financial, or or in life, whether it's who you're marrying, whatever it is, what intention Are you starting, so with my branding, and with your your promise, is your promise something that people would tattoo on their body? Right? When you start asking yourself that question if enough people bought into this, would they be willing to tattoo my logo on their body because the meaning of the promise is so it's so grand, and they can get behind the meaning of that promise? And if not, then your brand really, you need to be clarifying your brand a little bit more, and that's why I've changed my logo because I want my logo to be tattooed. I want my logo to, for somebody be like, yeah, I'll wear that on my arm. I'll wear that on my shirt. I'll wear that on my hat because it looks cool. And people are going to ask what does that mean? And then I can tell them, it's an invitation to tell them about this legacy. And that's an important aspect of the logo design of things when it comes to it. But in finance, I was just on a podcast the other day, and the guys like, well, if I have X amount of dollars, where would you tell me to start investing?Beforethat, before I ever talked about investing before ever talk about the copy before I ever talked about what's in the letter. I have to know your values, what's important to you? And that's where it starts, and it's going to start that were everywhere. When you're getting married. You just go look for the cutest person out there. Or do you look for Hey, who's compatible? What am I looking for? And this isn't about making a checklist aboutqualities you want in somebody necessarily. Maybe steve jobs did thatSteve Jobs, actually he had pros and cons. Whether you want to get married, and he's his current wife, while he's the only wife, I think, actually saw that, and she found it funny.But the thing is, like everything that you do in life really should start with, is it in alignment with your identity? If it is great, if it's not, then it's easily dismissable. If you know what your identity is, and your value system, it takes so much confusion out like like, should I do it? Should I not do it, if it passes the identity test, and the value test, there's a good chance that it would be worth doing. And, and to give you some honest consideration, if it doesn't pass either of those, then just pass on it. It could be a great opportunity for somebody else, but it's not you.If people are unsure what they're passionate about, or what got as it took me two years to make this leap. And I'm massively passionate about marketing. That's it's fundamental. It's almost in my blue. I feel like you know, I do this stuff for free, you know, I do in my spare time, whatever it is, if it's about marketing, that's where I come alive. But what I want people or your listeners to think about is that they need to find what they're passionate about. And the best way to do that if, particularly for skeptical about working for themselves or going it alone or not having that regular paycheck is would you be willing to talk about it and do it for free? Try doing it in the evenings and weekends. And the one thing that I always say when people say I just haven't got the time, and I know we're all time-sensitive now. But if you're passionate about something, you will find the time but not only that, I always do it when I'm tutoring and I say you need to study you need to do your research and you always get the old just can't find the time and then I'll say okay, what happened on that soap, you know what happened on that? That comedy program that all that was brilliant. Do you see what I mean? Like, that's an hour that does the first hour a week. Do you watch the news? That's five hours a week. I've just given you six hours. You stop.Yeah. And maybe I mean, this is the reality. Maybe you are the most passionate thing about that soap opera, or whatever it is that comedy show if that's what you're most passionate about, and you could talk for hours about it and start a podcast, start something and talk for hours about it. Like there's nothing It doesn't matter what you're passionate about. A good branding expert, a good marketing expert, and a good business expert can help you turn that into an economy where you're able to add value to others and make money doing it. So it doesn't matter what you're passionate about. Question is, are you passionate enough to do it and does it fulfill you there's a lot of things that I'm passionate about that I would love doing that I'm probably doing for free, but it does not fulfill me the same way as doing what I do on daily basis helping my clients right this morning. I will Wake up and pull up an Instagram.And there were like 12 messages on Instagram.Like somebody, a client that I had helped right before I went to bed. She put on 12 little clips, the 15-second clips on her story about all the things that I was able to help her with. That's incredible. Like, that's like, if you ever want to wake up to something, there's like your clients are telling everybody like a freakin lighthouse. This guy's awesome. That gives you some juice in the morning like, okay, yeah, how do I save these so I can always watch that. So I can always see how much people believe in me and what the change they make in people's lives. And that gets me excited. I sat in bed with my wife, my two boys who are two and a half and nine months old. And we watch this for like two minutes long, two or three minutes long. Do we just watch this about what are we doing? What impact are we having in society? What's that promise and is that promise being kept.And that part that you just described that wasn't monetary that had no monetary value as such as I know she's a client. But that part that gave you the kick that gave you the let's do this. That wasn't monetary. That was because you're passionate about that, and you loved helping somebody solve a particular problem.Yeah, no, I love it. So so one of the things that happen when in this transition, and you're right in the thick of it, which is so exciting for me, but I want you to tell me the story of your biggest naysayer and how you are actively trying to get them out of your head. So you can just drive forward and say, Look, this is where I'm going. I'm not going to pay attention to all the people who are trying to still get me to keep my job you know, it's not too late. I still have it. I turned in my notice, but they would get they would give me my job back if I went in and ask for my job back. How are you silencing those naysayers and who are the biggest ones in your life right now?So the people that I thought would be the biggest naysayers turned out to be big advocates to be fair, so when I decided to make I was fully aware fully conscious that I wanted to do this about a year into this two-year transition if you like. For about a year, I was gearing up to tell my family that I was wanted to do this. And I thought because they're very safe, very secure very. I suppose if you look generation generationally, that even a word. If you look back then that generation was very much, you get a job, you stick at it, then the generation before them was even worse. They probably went through a war, you know, and it's I'm just fortunate to have a job, you know, so so you should be grateful just to have a job. So I was I was not petrified, but I thought it would be a case of that's too risky. Don't do that, etc, etc. Well, I told my dad, he was only ever had one job in his life for around 45 years. Yep, same company. He said times have changed. And if that's what you want to do, that's what you want to do. And I thought I couldn't believe it. They were just, that was the biggest impetus or that I needed to be like, yeah, I need to go for this. Well, the naysayers surprisingly, I haven't had that many, which is strange. But the one thing that I would say is that everyone has their own opinion. And then whatever you decide to do, it will be the right decision, because you'll never know any different. So whatever you do, whatever your decision is, never look back and think I should have stayed that I shouldn't have done this. Because it will lead you to a now it will lead you to this moment to bigger and better things. And the way I always look at it is if I don't leave that company, I could be driving to work The day after I hand the day after I leave, and be hit by another car. And that reality does no longer exist anymore because I've changed that in my life. Now. Now that's a bit of a bizarre way to look at it. But I will never know if that would happen or not. So there's no point in looking at that bolt alternative universe. It's your universe, and you are where you are now. So just think of the full would never Lubbock.I love your brain and the universe. And a while back, I was having a conversation with some colleagues,andsomething that people struggle with. I've seen over my coaching and guiding people through just a financial conversation, but it's everywhere. People struggle with the idea that they are the creator of their universe. And they really, they want to pass that responsibility off onto God off on to others. They're their neighbors. They're the person who cut them off on the road like they want to pass off the idea of creation to anybody else because the idea of that they are the creator of their universe is too incredibly painful. Because they have to realize if I'm the creator, and I'm where I am right now, then it's on me. And that is a terrifying thought. But it's also when you make the transition when you make it past the hump, that is the most blissfully wonderful, happy, joyful thought that you could ever tell me of is that it's my job to create. I'm the creator of my universe, and I determine what my universe looks like and how I view it. I can't control anybody else's actions, but I can control what I'm telling myself in my mind, and that's my universe in between these two years, and what I do, that's my universe and nobody else gets to control that but, but me and for you who are listening, nobody else gets to control your universe, and it's on you, whatever, whatever is happening in life, it's on you. And even if you can't change the physical circumstances of where your life is right now initially, you can change your perception of those physical circumstances which will completely alter your reality. And you can live in a completely new universe there where there's joy, happiness, love, conviction, passion,everything,everything you've ever dreamed of it is attainable by a simple mindset shift. I know you don't like to hear that. Most most people, don't want to hear that. If they're not in the right mindset, but it's the truth. And somebody's got to tell you.Yeah, I completely agree. And I, the other thing that kind of spurred me on to where I am now, and this was very various conversations with numerous people. And we are so fixated on the now and that's fine. You know you know that that moment now. And as humans, we get lazily uncomfortable because that's what we are. We're human beings. We don't like change even many of us die. And it's so hard to change but you, you have to do that for you. No one will do it for you. No one's going to hand you a golden ticket. It's up to you to make that change to make that leap. And the thing that and it's, it's kind of in the back of my mind, but not Not really. It's on the back. It's almost like the safety zone, but I push away. And that's if all goes wrong. I can get another job. Because I've got those skills in the bank. I'm grown in developing a business. I've worked for multiple businesses within marketing. I know my stuff, or I hope I noticed. Okay, I'm coming across like a big so I can always go and work for somebody else. There are jobs out there. I'm not saying I'd walk into anywhere Far from it. But I've probably had say five or six or seven jobs in my career so far. So there might be an eight or nine that could be I'm hoping there isn't, and I make a great success in this business and we all live happily ever after. But there's always that little safety zone that says, if worse comes to worst, there are always jobs out there. It might not even be the job you like. But if that keeps you going while you're still doing this thing that you're so passionate about, then so be it because that passion should override anything. Anything else?Yeah, absolutely. So what would you say the over the last two or three years that you while you've been kind of easing yourself into this idea, and now you're in the middle of a transition? What is one habit mindset or behavior that you've used to start creating your legacy? Afew, I suppose. So the first main habit is I started going to the gym about five, six years ago say and the only way that I was ever going to continue going to the gym. Is that is it? If I made it so that it was like eating and drinking, I had to do it, you know, it wasn't a, if I get time I'll go to the gym, it was a case of, well, I need to eat food, I need to drink water, I need to go to the gym. And it was just part of it there was you know, it was a non-negotiable if you like, and then it just becomes ingrained into your system. And similarly to this. I started doing it on evenings and weekends. And it's putting that time aside and dedicating that time. And that's made me massively conscious of how to make more efficiencies in the time that I've got. And the fact that I've only got say, two to three hours in an evening, maybe say six hours a day at a weekend, if you don't include being with family members and some downtime because we all need that. And it's been massively focused and organized because you are in charge. It's up to you to make those decisions and be very, very organized. So, if anything, it's made me massively, massively disciplined, particularly because as you can see, I'm at home. And this would be sort of my office, the TV there, I don't think that's ever been switched on. So there are so many distractions around you. But if you get in that place where you are massively structured and you know what you're doing, that's when you start to create efficiencies and you get, you can get so much more done. If you concentrate on the things that can keep you moving. That's one thing that I've massively changed. Absolutely,yeah, I love that, you know, just creating the discipline and setting up what are your non-negotiables Have you ever written that down? Like, what is it that you will do every day, no matter what, and just like you said, eating, drinking, water, sleeping, those are things that no matter what they're happening, because your body needs that to survive, and I think if you create that mindset around whatever it is, you need to get done for your passion and that time, that's your you time and then That's, that's a phenomenal habit. So how did you I mean, you're again, you're in this transition this is the best, one of the best ones, because you're in the transition. But in the transition, how, like, Did you plan on? How did you plan on financially supporting yourself through this transition? Do you have a spouse working? Like what is it that you have to go on? That's assisting you in this transition?Absolutely. I love that quick question. And I think it's probably the biggest thing will be people listening probably about the financial aspect. But because I've, I don't know any of my family members thinking about it, that don't have or haven't had a regular paycheck, including myself. I've not had that for how many years is it now for 19 years? You know, I've had that regular paycheck so going from that to not having that is a massive, massive step change. So what happened about a year and a half ago when I decided to take this seriously I started creating, saving. So I was doing work on the side in the evenings and weekends. When I got my regular paycheck put as much as I could aside, stop spending on stupid things. And I don't want to come across as we could have everything. We drank water, and we ate lettuce for a year and a half, nothing like that at all. You know, we've been on some great holidays and things like that. But it certainly makes you look at what you're spending on. Do you need 18 shirts? Then maybe not. If you're in this transition? You know, do you need to spend money on certain things? Probably not. And if you want this to happen, and like us, as I said before, I'm massively risk-averse. So the only way I could make this happen is if I knew I had a lot of savings. So if all went wrong, I could support my family. I've given it 12 to 18 months, so I know if it goes badly wrong. I've got 12 to eight 18 months, if I wanted to, I could just go to a beach for 12 to 18 months on the job. But we don't want that. So just to add to it, it's so I have got a family to support. So it's a case of considering them. So it's just about being prepared. Working out. The best advice in terms of monetary advice for anyone that's looking to transition is write down what you potentially could get in what you know you're going to get in. And then you'll be able to work out how much you need to save to maintain the lifestyle that you've got now. Then you can drop that lifestyle a little bit if you need to. But you must understand how much you will need to support yourself if you had zero income coming in. And ideally, that wouldn't happen but you know, you've got that in the background. So that's where I am again massively risk-averse. So you don't have to throw everything up in the air one day at work and go, I quit, I'm off, you just you don't you couldn't do. And if you're happy to do that and take that risk, do it, you know, if it's in your nature, if it's not sensible about it, get some kind of savings together that you can rely on, don't touch it, don't look at it, just keep putting it in every month. And don't think that everyone's focused on the now think of the future. Think it thinks of 12 months down the line plan for 12 months. Like we were saying, This is taking me one to two years to get to this stage. So I've been planning for one to two years, not just from the brand, not just from the marketing, not just from what I want to do for the rest of my life, but also from the savings and the monetary side so that we are safe and secure for X amount of months.Yeah, I love that because it's it is true. And I would say I'm taking one step further. Even if you're not planning on making a transition, you really should know what is your bottom line. needs to come in every month like you're spending and you need to know Hey, what's my bottom bottom bottom line? food, shelter, insurance, transportation. And then what is everything else that like, if push comes to shove, we can get rid of and understand what is necessities? What's discretionary and then what's like, the extra money that you could be put away somewhere. And understanding how money works, understanding the rules of money and where that money needs to be and how it needs to be in a year from now, how you're going to pull that out. All of those are crucial, crucial aspects that you need to get nailed down, regardless of what your plan is. But especially if you're transitioning, I work with a lot of entrepreneurs who there I'm going to do this business idea and they're super stoked about it. And they have two or three, maybe four good months while they're moonlighting, and so then they quit their job, but they haven't planned really for the future. And they're still in the scaling-up phase. And they're in Me, it crushes them. And it almost scares them to go back out and try it again. And that's I think this skill they just talked about is understanding where you are, where your finances are and what you need. Especially if you have a family, you've got to be thinking of your family. It's not like you're a single guy who goes sleeping this car if things don't work out. Yeah. And I know people who, who are that way they sleep with their office because they lost their house, right? I get that. And I'm all like, if that's you, you go for it, right. But it sounds like Peter and I are pretty close to the same. Like, I don't like a lot of risks. I've got a family. I've got my wife and two kids. I don't want them to feel the stress of me growing a business. And so how do we manage that and it? Did you I'm curious, did you just figure it all out yourself? Or have you did you counsel with other professionals kind of like you're the toilet example? Or did you call somebody who's an expert in that or did you say it Oh, let's see what we can do by ourselves and stuff it under the bed?So I think A very long way around. So what I did for one of those years where I was thinking about it, whereas I documented everything that we are incoming and outgoing, so that this time this year, I know approximately, if I have the same year as I did last year, and that was just doing it on the side, if you like, how much we've got coming in, so how much I will need savings to last us for 12 to 18 months for the next year. So yes, I went to see an accountant and I said, I'm not crazy. And they said, No, you do not give us your money. Know that. They said no, we just have to figure out your finances, etc, etc. Do it in the right way. So I did go to somebody and advise anyone to seek financial advice. Absolutely. 100%. But the best thing you can do is, is just start by writing it down. Exactly like you said, non-negotiables what do we need to survive? What can we get enough if, if at all, not saying get rid of it. Because the one thing that that I don't particularly like in this day and age is, we always hear them say, for this and we say for that, well, I want to go on holiday. So I'm going to put that out on my life. So I can go on this holiday. And there are that many opportunities around that it shouldn't be the same. It should be okay, I need X amount to go on a holiday. Does that mean you need to increase your income by $100 a month? So you can afford a family vacation next year? If that's the case, okay. How can you make $100 on the side, maybe start like that, and then it's not so much of a burden. And then you build it up? Maybe it's $200 that works for you. So it's 300 400,000 and then you've got that balance of Okay, I'm getting close to how much I bring in each month anyway. So maybe it's worth that risk and then you do all the financial stuff, etc, etc.Yeah, I love that mindset that he just talked about. The mindset shift is the difference between fear and scarcity can even make it and, and abundance. Let's start making it let's just add some extra income and let's fulfill our dreams pay for our dreams, paper trips or whatever we want through added income rather than trying to cut back and live within our pennies. How about we just go make some more dollars? Right? Yeah, I love that. I'm curious one of the things that I love about what Peter does is certain industries are completelywhat's the word?Their worldwide industries right and anybody in any country can help you with this if they're good at it, right? And so he's in one of those industries where it doesn't matter where you live, you could call him maybe with a little language barrier. I don't know how many languages he knows I only know English so I am limited to like yes, I say barsen is embarrassing. I have friends who speak six and seven languages and I barely speak English and I'm not good at it. Anyways, so we are we have a certain level of that Google translation certain things can help or we have friends like I have friends who speak other languages to help me but these principles they were all over the world no matter what country you're in. And so how would we go about getting ahold of you? Where do we connect social media websites? Like what is the best way to get involved in your mission, your vision if we want to support you, we want to maybe give you some businesses Okay, let's get you rolling. As you help us get rolling, where do we connect? How can we appreciate that thank youfor my main social media platforms LinkedIn so just look up my name's Pete something simple as that. You can go to a marketing study lab coat UK, which is my website, but like said that's going into transition. So bear with me on how on or you can email me so Peter at marketing study lab co.uk. Okay, and even if it's just for a brief chat of the marketing, even if you want a bit of advice I'll speak all day about marketing. Yeah.I think I think anybody passionate about what they do, they really will, to a degree, they'll give it away for free. Because yes, we love helping they want to see people succeed. There is a point at which just the value of time, we have to start charging for our time as professionals simply because we have a family to feed, right. And that's a that's just a natural thing. We can't get away from certain aspects. But if it's for a short conversation or a gradual conversation over time, and we're coming, I know for myself, if somebody comes, well, what do I do? That's a sucky question. And I don't know how to answer that just like Well, here's a few things. So go figure it out. But if you come to, hey, this is what I've done. This is where I'm at, what little tweak would you make What's one or two things you would change, then that makes it easy for Peter or myself in my profession to say, Okay, well, here are some things that I would work on. Right now. We can give directed feedback because we are we have a starting point. Somebody's coming in and just like well, what where do I start? It's really difficult to help you. So that's some feedback if you're going to reach out to him, come to him with something don't come to him. Like, oh, but let's just chat about this for an hour with no end in mind. That's it. That's essentially let's write a letter with no person that is addressed to the robots that are going to operate. Well there. So this is entering the legacy on the rapid-fire section. I love this section because we get to here really quickly, what are your goals were headed at and what is holding you back? So the first question, I may ask you for more clarification, I would just say clarify it. It's just easier if we say that the first question for sure, but one word to one-sentence answers.Okay, okay.The first question I want to sentence so not a word, round. Okay. So what do you believe is holding you back from reaching the next level of your legacy today?What he's holding me back. He's holding me back. time constraints, I think It's the time time to do everything. So I've had, you know, a year, two years to focus on this, and now it's happening. It's almost like there are so many things that I want to do and get involved in. It's getting that time. Okay,so so I'm gonna clarify this and just change the change time constraints, cuz I've been hearing this one frequently as well. What if it's not time constraints, but it's systems?Yeah, okay. Yeah. I mean, I feel it feel a bit of a fraud because I said halfway through the interview that I'm very structured, and so I am, but there's just so much to doing and get involved. But having said that, that that that is on me simply because it just means that I'm not focused on the main thing that I need to be focused on. Soyeah, it's getting clarity on where I need to focus now. It's not just a side hustle. Sure. And that's something just so you guys who are listening when you're working part-time you're moonlighting as a side hustle. It's very fairly easy to focus on that because you only can do a certain amount. Once you're getting the position and you have a lot more time. Now the question becomes, you have been putting off tons of things, and now is the time to systematize it. So it's not, I wouldn't say is a fraud. This is a natural progression of a business. Now, there's so much more to do because if we're ramping it up. Now is the time to create those systems so that when I say systems, that the issue is not necessarily time the issue is systems to make your time more valuable. So just to kind of give you direction on that. I'm not trying to make Peter look back. I just I've heard this a few times be right outside time. Like what's the other way of saying the time that's a solution-oriented thing. Like what? What is it about time that's stressful? Is there not time in the day? Well, yeah, I only have 24 hours. Well, then, if that's how you're thinking and you're not thinking about a business, you're thinking about a job, right? I have 6 billion people times 24 hours. That's how many hours I have. The question is My employing all those hours or not. And when you start thinking about things that way, then it helps you create a system. That's, that allows you to start building your business. from a perspective of I ultimately want to step away from this sucker and three to five years from now and not have to work. I probably still work as I love it. But I don't want to have to work in three to five years from now if I'm building my business to where I have to be there every day. That is not a business that is a glorified job with too many bosses. So so so next question, what is the hardest thing that you've ever accomplished?Has the thing I've ever be a half marathon, nothing to do with business? Hey, okay, two marathons and now money's gone. So I don't think I'm going to get a full half marathon but that is the hardest thing because I put my heart and soul into it and I got a half-decent time. I think I was seven minutes under what I wanted to achieve. So I was Yeah, it was enough. That's probably the hardest thing. I thought to dothat's cool. So what is the greatest success at this point in your life?The greatest success is?Well, my familyYeah, without a doubt what we've built for ourselves. Yeah, definitely. I love that.What is one secret you believe contributes the most to your success?believing in yourself. Simple as that, I think as you said before is that psychological element? And if you don't believe in yourself, how are other people going to believe in it? And that's not to say you have to be cocky and bolshie and look at me on a great. It just means that you believe that you can add value to somebody's life, and you can solve people's problems. I love that.So what are two or three books that you'd recommend to feel your legacy audience help them get their start?Yeah, so the first one is marketing rebellion by Mark Schaefer. Absolutely. Love it. It's him, it's his latest book. And the main statement that I took away from that is the most human company always wins. And that's very true. The second one, again, really, really fresh book, but it's this is marketing by Seth Godin. And in it, just one quote from it, he says, people like us do things like that. And what he means by that is that you need to find your tribe, you need to find the people that know you understand you, and I like you. Because people like us do things like this.Yeah, I love that. And that's it. That again, that's going down to your promise that's going down to your brand. Like when you're thinking of Who am I dressing this letter to? You're thinking of people like us do things like this. And even if you just use that in your, in your messaging, hey, people, people who want to want to focus on their legacy, and this is their goal for me and I'm personalizing this right if your goal is to feel your legacy and you want to build something you want to be remembered. X amount of years from now, people who want that they do X, Y, and Z and if that's all your campaign is then the people who are like I do want that then now they're going to naturally say okay well how do I accomplish x y&z what is it what is the process of doing these things? Because if that's what people do right if you want to be a millionaire you got to think like a millionaire. Okay. Question is how to millionaires think and where can I get access to more millionaires to find out how they think. And so it says it's the same thing. I love that quote. So now we're going to go into my favorite part of this episode. It's a surprise guy he's been itching he's a man What is it? What is this we're going to find out how in alignment? Peter something is. Are you guys excited about this? I'm excited about it because it's, you just never know. Kind ofmy feeling right now is exactly how I feel about leaving my job and going it alone. I'm excited but petrified at the same time.The funny thing is we're going to pretend that you're dead. Okay? Okay.So we're gonna pretend you're dead, and you have the special opportunity to come back and view your great-great, great, great-grandchildren sitting around a table talking about your life. This is six generations from now. Just think about six generations from now. There's back six generations ago that was pre World War One, like six generations, okay. So, six generations from now, your great, great-grandchildren. They're sitting around a table talking about your legacy, talking about what your life meant and what they gained from it. What do you want them to be saying about your legacy? Peter?Wow, that is a big question. I wish I knew I was coming. Just that he followed his passion, and he stood up for it, he believed in, if I can get it across, then I'm fine with that. And if that motivates anyone, the sixth generation of my family that motivates them to follow their passion Well do it securely, because I'm risk-averse. But no, seriously, follow that passion, even if it's a side hustle, even if it's just a weekend, do what you love of what you do.And just so you guys are clear. I believe that that is absolutely in alignment with the whole message of this podcast because it comes down to what are you doing and being who you say you're being. He's in the middle. He's in the transition, he stepped out on his own because he believes he can do it. And he's following his passion, regardless of what the consequences are. He did his worst-case analysis that hey, can I accept that? I can. We're going for it. So I love that. Thanks a bunch. Thanks for joining us. I know it's a little bit later where you're at than where I am. But I appreciate your insight. I hope everybody goes and takes the opportunity to reach out to you share this on social media and do the things that are going to help everybody gain greater knowledge in Marketing. It's not just about business. It's about life. It's about a legacy. It's about how you're going to be remembered. And what are you doing today to build that? Thank you so much for joining us, Peter.No, thank you. Absolute pleasure. I enjoyed it. Awesome. We'll catch youguys next time on fuel your legacy.Thanks for joining us. If what you heard today resonates with you please like comment and share on social media tag me and if you do, give me a shout out I'll give you a shout out on the next episode. Thanks to all those who've left a review. It helps spread the message of what it takes to build a legacy that lasts and we'll catch you next time on fuel your legacy.Connect more with your host Samuel Knickerbocker at:https://www.facebook.com/ssknickerbocker/?ref=profile_intro_cardhttps://www.instagram.com/ssknickerbocker/https://howmoneyworks.com/samuelknickerbockerIf this resonates with you and you would like to learn more please LIKE, COMMENT, & SHARE————————————————————————————————————Click The Link Bellow To Join My Legacy Builders Mastermindhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/254031831967014/Click here to check out my webinar as well! ————————————————————————————————————Want to regain your financial confidence and begin building your legacy?In this ebook you will learn:- The 9 Pillars To Build A Legacy- Clarify you “why”- Create Daily Action Steps To Launch ForwardWant Sam’s FREE E-BOOK?Claim your access here! >>> Fuel Your Legacy: The 9 Pillars To Build A Legacy————————————————————————————————————
We've got Amina Eastham-Hillier back on the show today. This time around Amina is talking all things Lyme disease. Amina is an experienced Lyme literate naturopath who specialises in testing and treating Lyme disease, Lyme co-infections, mould related illness and chemical sensitivities. Amina is a treasure trove of knowledge in her area's of expertise and today's chat offers a grounded and holistic approach to healing stealth infection and Lyme disease. Mason and Amina cover: Lyme disease. Health sovereignty and the importance of taking charge of your own health. The multifaceted approach required to remedy chronic health conditions. Ticks - "the dirty needles of nature". Principals of prevention, tips and tricks you can embody to minimise exposure to Lyme and other pathogenic bacteria. Inflammation and gut health. Stealth viruses and the havoc they can wreak. Living in harmony with nature, and that includes viruses and bacteria. Who is Amina Eastham-Hillier? Amina owns a successful multi-modality clinic in Noosa comprising of 18 practitioners. With over 15 years of Naturopathic and 25 years of Nutritional practice, Amina successfully treats chronic illnesses and complex cases. Amina is a Keynote speaker presenting to medical doctors and naturopaths at international conferences, medical documentaries, TV interviews, radio, seminars, webinars, podcasts and workshops. Author of “Lyme Natural” Amina won the award for ‘Australian Practitioner of the year’ in 2017 and is currently finalising her second book (Chronic stealth infections – Filling in the missing pieces). Resources: Amina Website Amina Facebook Amina Instagram Lyme Natural Website Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast? A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We’d also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or check us out on Stitcher :)! Plus we're on Spotify! We got you covered on all bases ;P Check Out The Transcript Here: Mason: (00:03) Hey, Amina. Thanks so much for coming back on and chatting with me. Amina: (00:07) Oh, you're welcome, Mason. Thank you for having me. Mason: (00:10) Always a pleasure. I think it was about two years ago that we jumped on, when we were different podcasts by then. Mason Taylor Podcast. We chatted about Lyme, we chatted about mold, mold when just got distributed out. And so everyone in the SuperFeast community has begun to become familiar with you and your awesomeness and I want to continue pointing people in your direction because I've found you always really influential. And watching your Instagram, I love watching you being a practitioner, live and breathe the lifestyle up in your retreat. I love your foraging tips and I love watching all the notes when you go to these conferences, whether it's ... I know you're going to ... What's the conference you're going to this weekend, you're presenting at? Amina: (01:01) Oh, it's actually in September, but it's in Melbourne for metagenics and it's all on fatigue and looking at intricate details of just what's going on with people with fatigue and why are they not getting better? Looking at a lot of biotoxins and underlying viruses and lots of things. Very exciting. Mason: (01:26) Well, I just love watching the adventures because you go along, obviously, and attend and upgrade your skills. You can just really tell you're an absolute nerd for all of this. Amina: (01:36) I do love it. Mason: (01:39) Yeah. I feel like ... You know, we've spoken to you a couple times. I know how deep you can get into the nuance of the body and testings, and really going after and hunting for the source of symptoms. And you work a lot with people with extremely chronic illness. Right? Amina: (01:57) Yes, yes. I do. Mason: (01:59) And we were just talking about the fact, as well, before how when you look down the barrel of either going through western medicine, a lot of people go down that gauntlet and then come out the other side without answers. And then coming into the, for lack of a better word, the natural treatment, going down that route. I can understand why going down the western route is often necessary, of course, but is cozy and comfy because there's this integrated nature where there's a specialist for everything and your doctor will talk to the specialist. On the surface, that's the idea. There's a big web that you know you don't have to think. You're just caught in it. But then if you look down, often, the natural route, the amount of information out there, the amount of conflicting information, of course that's in the western medicine as well but it's that non-integrated web that makes it so difficult at times and you've kind of got to stand up into your sovereignty and be your own hub. Mason: (03:02) I know I send so many people your way when they're dealing with stealth infection or Lyme, as well, because I know ... I read that at Noosa Holistic Health ... Is that Noosa Holistic Health? Amina: (03:14) Yep. Mason: (03:15) Yep. And you were saying how you've really created a hub and how you ask for every single test that's ever been done through the western model or beyond in the natural world and try and create that melting pot. On that, I think it's important for people ... We're going to go into Lyme today. I think it's very relevant in this instance, but know whether we're dealing with chronic illness, whether it's stealth infection, or just a mystery. Finding someone who can create that hub and go and be the detective and be that central point, I just want to know ... obviously, you've created it. I just want to know the extent of which you put importance on that for someone. And then what do you like to see and procure in your patients for them to be able to feel like they have the capacity to start to be that melting pot, themselves, and really feel that health sovereignty while being supported by practitioners? Amina: (04:21) Okay. So first of all, when patients come in initially, obviously I'm listening for what their main concerns are. And I have a jigsaw puzzle template by my side and it literally has about 50 odd pieces and I can squidge them all around if I need to. And this empty, blank jigsaw puzzle template, I actually start writing everything on and it becomes a full puzzle. And I think that's the main thing for the people to understand when I'm first having consultations with them is that they may come in saying, "Have I got Lyme? Is it this? Is it that? What's wrong with me?" And you can never give one person a definite answer because, the thing is, there are often so many things. So there are many pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Amina: (05:19) For example, someone might come in and they think that they've been bitten by ticks or they're not even sure, but they've got chronic fatigue, they've got pain. It might be just random pain, fibromyalgia-type pain or aches. It's often brain fog. Maybe a bit of sweating, maybe not, digestion problems, anxiety, all of the common symptoms that we see that aren't getting addressed with the normal medical models. And we just start putting it together. So I just go through a very comprehensive history and just putting all the pieces. So whether they have had chemical exposure, mold exposure ... I mean, this is a very broad summary of what I do. I think an answer to your question, is that ... Mason: (06:07) Yeah, for sure. I mean, I guess I almost wanted just to make sure everyone had an insight into the depth and level that you'd want to be able to demand or go and find with a practitioner in order to qualify. Amina: (06:21) Absolutely. Mason: (06:22) And then what's the difference? Do you see certain ... the difference between a patient and just some qualities that other patients, you can help imbue in them in terms of not feeling overwhelmed or feeling empowered in the fact that you can transfer? The fact that you, yourself, you've got so many patients, so much stuff going on. You can't hold the constant hub for every single patient. At some point, it needs to bridge over into the patient themself, especially with long-term healing. Right? Is there ... Amina: (06:53) Absolutely, absolutely. So what I like to do, I think it's really important, if patients want to. Not all patients want this. They do like the practitioners to take charge and they don't really want much information. But I think, these days, it's really important to take charge of your health and have it that each person really understands themself. So that's why I really encourage patients to gather all of your past medical results. It doesn't matter how long ago it was. Get as much information as you can. If you had a stool test with a naturopath 10 years ago, get it. Let's put it all together. Let's see, where did this start? Because of the patients that I'm seeing, they're often very chronic, complex patients that often have so many things going on and that's why it's very difficult for them to go to any one place and get a diagnosis. Amina: (07:46) So it's really important for us to gather as much information as we can. And if you haven't had past tests, that's great. That gives us a clean platform to go, okay. Well, now we know what we need to do in the way of functional medicine testing as well as working with their doctor and seeing what treatments they may be getting at that time. But I just definitely, I can't express enough how I think it's important for patients to take charge of their own health in a way of just knowing what's going on, knowing what has happened in their body before they got really sick, and understanding their family history, things ... Even looking at genetics can be really helpful, knowing what their sensitivities are and their triggers, and understanding the state of their adrenals and nervous system, and understanding their gut and being mindful of, "Is my gut going good? Do I need a bit of a detox at the moment?" Or, "Do I need a detox from life? Do I need to sort of step back and go and have a rainforest walk or something?" Amina: (08:56) So just being really mindful of all of the systems. And that's something of a naturopath that I think is really important for us to educate patients so that they know what to look out for and they know how to be their own sort of one-stop hubber and check in on themselves, as well as having the support of the professionals. Mason: (09:16) Yeah. I just don't think it can be said enough. It's a great reminder and I just wanted to bring that up in the beginning because, at SuperFeast, we get asked so many ... every day. It's phone, email, Instagram, getting so many questions and some of them very gnarly and very deep questions. We don't consider our role to kind of play practitioner, we just don't. We continue to stand in the fact that we're doing tonic herbalism and we are standing for a particular philosophy and lineage. However, we don't like leaving everyone high and dry. And so what I feel like I consistently want to do and for the podcast and having these kinds of conversations, is continue to make distinct ... just that simple nature of ... when you say, "Become your own practitioner," I feel like that's quite loaded because I'm prone to this, then I feel the pressure, and I'm very much prone to putting pressure on myself, to have a level of understanding using similar language, that a practitioner would have in a specialised area, of myself. Mason: (10:24) And then with that and put a couple of other things on my shoulders that I'm doing in life, it becomes overwhelming and I feel I'm kind of failing at this. I don't know how to manage my own body. I need to continue to rely on practitioners. But what you're saying, I just don't think it can be repeated enough for everyone to remember. If you just gather all that information so you know thyself, you can understand little patterns and your constitution. You get little clues and then put it into language that ... For me, it's been especially useful. Just put it into language for a lay person or just put it into language that's not charged and easy for you to then go take into your kitchen and your lifestyle because, as you said, just knowing. It can kind of seem like it just gets on repeat. And I just want to make sure everyone's listening. Reading your body and your digestion, watching the way that you're pooing, or your nervous system can tell if you can get that pattern to go, "Wow, it's time for a little bit of a walk. Right now, it's time for a little bit of practice... Amina: (11:21) Absolutely. That's right. And it's just having that understanding. And sometimes, I find when I go through and I put all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together, literally, and then the person can see, "Oh, there's quite a few things going on." Not to be overwhelmed at all, but purely just we can see, look, we do need to work on all systems here because all systems are affected. And of course, I'm not saying to be their own practitioner and treat themselves. I'm very, of course, into seeing a professional practitioner that can monitor and help you with the dosages of herbs and so forth and give you the right medicine. But just, I find a lot of people will bounce around from many practitioners to practitioners, different types of practitioners and still not understand the basics of what's going on with their body. If they could see that, they might not be as overwhelmed and see, "Okay, I need some help with my adrenals," or, "I might need to do a bit of a gut detox. I'll go and see my practitioner," be it naturopath, Chinese medicine, integrated doctor or whoever. And we work together. Mason: (12:34) Yeah. That working together, I don't think it's that rare anymore, but I don't know, sometimes it feels like it. I know that's definitely the biggest thing we get when we're like, "Look, we're really just going to have to encourage you to go and have someone onside, have a practitioner onside." And it can just seem like such a daunting task in the beginning, going and finding someone. But they're out there and if you're on the sunny coast, you know where to go. Mason: (12:59) So I want to dive into Lyme. And I especially just wanted to make sure I had this resource for everyone in the community who is asking us questions. There's just so much that I can do in terms of saying, "You know, read." I like Stephen Buhner's work. Sending to your website. But I just wanted to speak to a couple of things that come up constantly that I feel will be useful, and especially useful for my team, hearing it from you in this context to pass on. Mason: (13:37) For those of you that don't know Lyme disease, can you give a little elevator pitch, Amina, knowing that most people will know and there's many resources for people to get the understanding, including your website. But do you want to just give a little brief update for everyone? And especially your current understanding of Lyme infection? Amina: (13:55) Absolutely. And I must say that my current understanding is just becoming more and more expansive as the years go by. But your traditional textbook Lyme is someone's been bitten by a tick and that tick has given the person an infection of Borrelia bacteria. And as a result, the person gets very sick. So it's a tick-born bacterial infection. That's a very simple textbook example. However, we know that there are ... Now Lyme, I think, has become a bit of an umbrella word. In Australia actually, a lot of practitioners use the term more Lyme-like illness and I think that's probably more appropriate because we don't know exactly what we're dealing with. So there's a lot of different types of Borrelia, not just Borrelia burgdorferi. There's actually a hundred strains or so. Amina: (14:55) There's actually a lot of different types of Borrelia. We know that this Lyme-like illness is not just caused by ticks. We know there possible are other vectors. There's even been talk of mosquitoes. A study in Germany showing that mosquitoes could possibly be carrying Borrelia. I know there are possible other insects that can certainly pass on very similar co-infections, like midgies, sandflies and passing on things like mycoplasma bartonella, that co-infections that often coincide with Lyme patients. Amina: (15:31) And we know that it can be passed on by utero. So if a woman's pregnant, she could definitely pass it on to her baby. Doesn't mean the baby's going to have the full on symptoms like the mother may have had. I certainly have seen quite a few different levels of patients. Some people have a positive Borrelia result, maybe even from a couple of different labs, and they really are okay. They're not suffering from a lot of symptoms. And I've seen people that we test and they've got negative Borrelia and it's not being picked up. Doesn't mean it's negative, but in the blood, the urine, and serum. And they've had lots of tick bites, lots of rashes. Amina: (16:13) So it's a very broad umbrella term. But generally, I feel that now what we're dealing with when we're talking about Lyme-like illness ... the technical name is actually borreliosis because of it being from the Borellia bacteria infection. However, I think we just need to look at the facts that there are a lot of ticks and a lot of other biting vectors in Australia. We know that the ticks carry many bacteria. So rickettsia, ehrlichia, anaplasma, bartonella, which is a cat scratch disease as well. And we also know that Babesia, that's a very common infection in kangaroos and wallabies and is a similar infection to mosquito malaria. Amina: (17:08) And recent studies just last year have come up with Australian ticks ... The one study, they had 21 viruses that they actually found in the ticks and they were actually affecting penguins down south of Australia. But in the studies, they weren't so sure if these particular viruses are going to affect humans, which is a very kind of, I think, controversial subject and could be. So the point is, the ticks are also carrying a lot of viruses. In fact, in this particular study, two of the viruses hadn't even been discovered. No one really knew what they were. So they're pretty yucky things. Hence, we call them nature's dirty needles. Ticks, they really are a bit of a problem. Mason: (17:57) So just back to a couple of things. So you were talking about vectors, the possibility of passing on Borrelia by utero. And I think we got asked this question just after the mold podcast that we'd put out. It was one of the reasons I thought we've got to do a specific Lyme podcast, because someone was asking in terms of whether it can be sexually transmitted or via saliva. Amina: (18:22) I'm not sure via saliva. I, from a practitioner perspective and upon conversations with many other practitioners from Australia and overseas that deal specifically with Lyme, I'd say clinically, anecdotally, yes. It can be passed on sexually, considering it is actually very similar. It's a spirochaetae bacteria that's very similar to syphilis bacteria, which is passed on sexually, of course, and very similar way of presenting within the body. Like, the initial syphilis, you'd get the canker sores and Borrelia, you may get the erythema, target-type rash. May not, as well. And then the symptoms can flare up for a couple of weeks or so and then, maybe, be a little bit dormant for a few months and flare up. That can happen with the syphilis for sure. Amina: (19:16) So I think, yes. And why I think this is because I have seen families that we have tested the whole family and the mother might think she got it from the father for some reason. And upon testing, they all do have it. And the father or the mum says, "I've never been bitten by ticks or not to my knowledge." And then the children have it. So that has happened on a number of occasions. So I would say, yes. Mason: (19:44) Yeah. Okay. So going back to the dirty needles of nature. Obviously, we were talking about the simplicity before with understanding patterns of your body so you can read your body and take very simple actions. And then you accumulate an incredible amount of benefits through taking ownership and responsibility. I think what's confusing, definitely has been for me, is just the simplicity of that. You get lost in just how potent that small accumulation of practicing that, what that can do for your health. Mason: (20:20) In relation to Lyme, I think it's definitely worth something not being paranoid about, yet being extremely vigilant about, especially in the east coast of Australia, where we're at. The same as east coast of America and all these places where, obviously, you just need to be very real and not stay in your little box in your concrete jungle and be unrealistic about the fact that you live within gnarly nature and there is the possibility for many vectors to come and bite you. So in terms of just basic principles of prevention, have you got some just quick tips for people to embody into their lifestyles when they are camping or when they're foraging, as you do? Amina: (21:07) Absolutely. I live out in ... I've got acreage. So every day, I go for a walk through the forest. And with my dog and I sometimes go through long grasses. So of course, the first thing is to make sure that you check yourself for ticks when you get home. So I recommend people wear light clothing if they can and then you can see the ticks. And whenever I've gone for a walk, which is pretty much every morning, I just strip off and just get straight in the shower and those clothes end up going in the wash. I also check my dog, as well, because my dog is running around with me and she does get quite a few ticks, but we get them quite quickly. Amina: (21:48) So just be mindful of that. If it's a hot day and you've got a bunch of clothes, you're not sure ... because it's a lot of washing, otherwise. If you've got a bunch of clothes, you're not sure, it's a hot day, just put your clothes in a suitcase in the car. The ticks aren't going to survive in the heat of the suitcase. Or put clothes in the dryer for a few minutes. But definitely, you just need to check and be diligent about ... and just know, just check all over your body or your nooks and crannies. Amina: (22:19) I mean, I have had quite a few tick bites and, of course, I go straight in with my herbs, my echinacea and my astragalus and garlic, anyway, because I actually am taking my regular immune herbs and vitamin C every day. So I'm keeping my body healthy. So I think it's important to just be healthy, as well, of course. It comes down to diet, all that sort of thing. I mean, that's the extreme, walking through forests and long grass. If you're just going for ... You need to get out. If you're just going in a park or something, just be mindful. There's lots of places you can go where the grass is short. Tuck your pants into your socks sort of thing and just enjoy. I think the benefits of being out in the nature and out in the fresh air is so helpful for your nervous system and immune system, anyway. At the end of the day, you have to live. So this is really important. Mason: (23:22) And it always helps to have ... Well, I like using those tick-specific tweezers, having those around when you get the ... Amina: (23:29) Oh, yes. For sure. Always have good tweezers and you can use things. There are some sort of ... People use citronella and sometimes even a little bit stronger that they can spray onto their clothes, but I think if you're going to brush up against a tree or something like that, that's when you're more likely going to ... if you're brushing up against plants and if you have animals, because animals will bring ticks in the house. So you take your boots off in the house and go and make sure you have a ... get in the shower and just don't be sitting around on your bed sort of thing with your clothes that you've been out in the forest with. Things like that. Just be really diligent. Mason: (24:08) And in terms of if you do get a tick bite and you remove it, are you a fan of popping on dragon's blood? Any little myths that you want to bust around what you should be doing, topically? Amina: (24:23) I actually use ... I've got a medicinal throat spray that's got sage and thyme and echinacea and I actually spray that on the bite. Mason: (24:34) That's a great idea. Yeah. Amina: (24:38) I think if you can use your herbs, topically, I think something like good-quality manuka honey is really good. But otherwise, just keep an eye on it. I mean, if you're going to get bitten by these sort of types of insects and ticks and mosquitoes, you just need to be mindful and just keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't come up in a rash. If it does, then you take further precaution. And, yeah. There's not really anything more I would put onto a tick bite, no. Mason: (25:10) Yeah, great. Just those little things to add to your culture. That's what people, over the years, when I ask ... I always get curious when people have all the herbs. And living in particular areas. Astragalus, for a lot of people, they're like, "Yep, in autumn." And then if I get a tick bite, comes up quite often that they ... just as you said. A little echinacea, even just getting a little bit of manuka inside of you, but they'll take a big does of astragalus, as well, if they have a tick bite. Amina: (25:39) Absolutely. Mason: (25:40) Just as a little precaution. Amina: (25:41) Absolutely. Mason: (25:42) And mushrooms, as well. I mean, you can get the shiitake, maitake, reishi's, and chaga's in and give it ... because there is going to be, at the time of consuming medicinal mushrooms and the beta-glucans they do in astragalus, as well. They're going to get into the bloodstream and you're going to see, most of the time, a direct impact on white blood cells and natural killer cells and macrophage activity. So that's the other one that always comes up. Amina: (26:08) Absolutely. Definitely. I've been using some medicinal mushrooms in my clinic recently. So just some new formulas and I'm just finding, yeah, the benefits are really awesome. I think it's great. Anything you can do to boost your immune system up, but definitely the shiitake, ganoderma (reishi), and so forth are really definitely helpful and part of keeping the immune system as strong as possible. Mason: (26:35) Yeah. I think we've got to make sure we stay in touch for when you really dive into the medicinal mushroom literature. It would really be good just to jump on and have a jam. Maybe at that point, that's what we can do when I get up to the sunny coast and I can come and visit you up there. Is it just called Hillier Retreat? Amina: (26:52) Yes. Mason: (26:52) Okay. I'm coming to visit you up at Hillier Retreat and we can go have a forage, because you've got ... Amina: (26:56) Absolutely. Mason: (26:57) The mushies up there are incredible, especially because obviously, being tropical, you can even find the tremella's snowflake mushrooms. Amina: (27:06) Oh, yeah. There's so many. It's actually fascinating. Every day when I go for a walk, I find new mushrooms and it's just because we've got a lot, there's tree's fallen and it's just the perfect environment. Oh, it's just amazing. Mason: (27:21) Can't wait. So then the other time we get a lot of questions, so probably the most for us is people writing to us and saying, "I've just been bitten by a tick," and they're not used to it. They haven't been in the shrub much and so ... But then after that, we do have a lot of people writing to us, whether it's themselves or their children, identify that it's been a tick bite, possibly, because I know that the rash or the bullseye esha is, I think ... what is it? Like, 60% of the time or something like that, that that..? Amina: (27:52) Different statistics. I've heard anywhere between 30 and 60% of people will get a rash. And if you've been bitten on the scalp or some nook and cranny, you're not going to notice a rash. And don't forget, some of the ticks are so minute, they're nymph, the size of a pinhead, the baby ones you're not even going to notice. You wouldn't even know. You'd just rub it up with a towel and you might not be aware of having one at all. Mason: (28:22) So just to help us consolidate our advice or if we're going to refer people to this podcast, what would be those first steps? What would you be looking out for symptomatically and what would be something that you'd go, okay, now you want to actually turn your head to that and knock it on the head? Amina: (28:39) Okay. So if you know, yes, there's just definitely been a tick or a tick was attached, you might not know how long it's ... If it's just literally crawled on your arm and you feel it attached, just take it off and it's not likely going to have passed anything on too severe. But we don't know how quick. The bacteria has to actually be passed on through the tick's hypostome, it's little, pointy sort of appendage that sticks into you. And it needs to be really actually feeding in a proper feeding moment for the bacteria to release from its stomach. So depending on how long the tick's been on you, just get the tick off as quickly as easy as you can without squeezing the tick. Amina: (29:27) Then, just be mindful. So you could certainly put any sort of antiseptic or a lot we just said, topically onto the bite. And then I would boost up with vitamin C. I would definitely boost up with those herbs. What to watch out for, if you do get a rash, then I would be more than likely, if you get a specific bullseye rash, I probably would recommend just go to a doctor and get a couple of weeks of Doxycycline, at least. Amina: (29:54) If there's no rash ... Sometimes it can just be a bit red and puffy and swollen. Lymph glands swell up. It could just be a normal sort of allergy reaction to the tick because that can definitely happen. So just keep an eye on symptoms and, at this point, I would definitely be boosting up those herbs. Your anti-spirochete ones, so your astragalus, echinacea, as we said. Siberian ginseng, for example. Garlic ginger, which I would recommend you get the practitioner support with that, with the dosages. Mason: (30:27) Would you put cat's claw in there, the uña de gato ? Amina: (30:30) You can, but it's very difficult to get good quality cat's claw in Australia, right now. Mason: (30:36) Yeah, you know what? I stopped stocking it because of that. Amina: (30:40) Yeah, it's very difficult. I would love to be ... I did use it a lot, but I haven't been able to get it for a good couple of years and until I know that my quality sources that I get it from are available and I'm not really trusting any other ones. But there's plenty of other herbs. Andrographis is another beautiful one for these initial infections. Amina: (31:02) So definitely, prevention is better than anything. So boost up on the herbs, anyway, and just be mindful. So that infection, you might not get any symptoms but, if in the next couple of weeks, two or three weeks, you do get some flu-like symptoms, I would go and get tested. As in, go and get checked with the doctor and just get checked. Things like rickettsia will come up quite quickly. You might need to wait about six weeks before the tests will actually show anything positive in those early stages, but I think that's a good cause for, if you have all of those symptoms, the rash, feeling not so good, lymph glands up, and then you get the flu-like symptoms, a bit of fever, it could be not necessarily Borrelia, it could be rickettsia, it could be a bit of babesia depending on the symptoms. So therefore, I would get onto it. Boost the natural packet treatment with your practitioner and you may need to go on antibiotics. Amina: (32:05) I say this very open-mindedly that there is a place for the antibiotics, of course, for traditional medicine or conventional medicine. And we can work together on that. So I think if that is the case, otherwise, if it's just a case of, "I've got bitten and now I'm okay a few weeks later," you've been taking your herbs, eating well, resting, and nothing really flares up, I'd say that you're probably okay, but just be mindful of those. It's the symptoms that come up like the aching joints, the knee pains that, "Mmm, didn't have that before," and you haven't been running or anything in particular, to know that there is an ongoing infection. And it's really ... yeah. Mason: (32:56) I assume it'll be similar symptom presentation in children? Amina: (33:00) Yes, but children often won't explain exactly what's going on, but you'll know. I mean, a child might get fevers. You'd know that. The glands are up, maybe. And if they're young, they'd probably be crying a lot, feeling very uncomfortable, irritable, not feeding so well. The stools might be a little bit loose, showing there's systemic inflammation that's affecting the gut, as well. Rashes, doesn't have to be the bullseye. A bartonella rash can be almost like stretchmarks on the body. Any sort of rash, I think, needs to be dealt with. Mason: (33:37) Yeah. And that was, when I got bit ... I think we've spoken about it. I mean, for some people might be new here, my interest was really spiked. And it was three years ago, and I got bitten by a tick, but it was very micro and it stayed on me for about three or four days and we just didn't catch it and we thought it was something else. And it was at that point, it had been feeding because it became engorged. And at that point, now I understand, oh, that's when you really got to watch it, when that engorgement has occurred there can be a transfer of bacteria. Got it out and then we were a few months away from having a baby and then I went down, the esha presented. "Okay," kind of kept on going. Kind of like, I don't know. I don't know if it was just because I was just so healthy and was just like, "Right, cool. I'll charge through this." And then after a few days, started getting fevery and started getting aching through the joints in my right hand, somewhat in my knees. Mason: (34:33) I'd listened to enough of Stephen Harrod Buhner. You can't listen to him or read his books without coming across Lyme quite extensively. So I was like, "Right. I kind of know what this is." And so at that point, in came the andrographis, the high dose vitamin C's, a lot of astragalus and all that. But it went on for, I think it was seven to ten days it went on and I just continued to deteriorate in fever and just couldn't get out of bed. And then I was listening to one of Stephen Buhner's podcasts and he was just reiterating that, at that point, this is when you ... He's teaching about antibiotic resistant bacteria now, running rampant as many awesome herbalists are. Yet, he's like, "At this point, that's when doxycycline is going to be very useful for you to knock it on the head," and I was just in that position. I definitely had that solid belief that I would never be turning to anything like that for the rest of my life, but yeah. That one Monday night, I was deteriorating thinking, "Geez, we're having a baby soon." Mason: (35:40) I'm at this point, and this is what I want to discuss with you next, I'm at this point where it's possibly able to be dealt with on a surface somewhat level, on acute or subacute level. And I obviously want to ensure that these bacterium aren't able to really dig their way into my system to cause that long-term infection. And so I did. I went Monday night to the emergency in Byron, showed them the rash because, here, they're a little bit more open minded. They were like, "Oh, yeah. We know what that is. Here's your doxycycline dose." And I know a lot of people have been turned away. However, I know a lot of doctors in emergency rooms have turned people away. So I'm not sure if you have any advice there on what they can ask for or say, but that sorted me out in 24 hours. And then I just continued to maintain that protocol of completely supporting my immune system and my nervous system for months. My whole lifestyle was that, but high, high doses of these herbs for quite a few months to get it out. Mason: (36:44) But, yeah. I think it's nice to hear that that's the advice that's still standing, still quite nice and simple... Amina: (36:53) Yeah, I think so because I've seen patients that, for example, they may have been bitten by a tick in California or in Germany and, straight away, they went to a doctor and they were only given maybe two or three weeks of doxycycline or similar. That's the main one, antibiotic. And even just taking it for that very short period of time did make it help their body, but they didn't end up getting a full-on chronic Lyme symptoms, have that go on for years and years. And how long you take it for is really dependent on the patient because some patients, in those acute times, may need it for quite a few months, that particular antibiotic and other antibiotics. But I think if you can just get in there as soon as possible and the herbal medicine, then you've got a really good chance. Amina: (37:48) And we can sort the gut out later. We can deal with the side effects of the antibiotics and we can work on that. It's better to, I think, initially do that. And some people can't take antibiotics, it's as simple as that. So therefore, we have to just do the herbs. But this is in the real acute, black or white, yes, you've got it. There it is and we need to deal with that infection. I think it would be negligent to not have it treated with the antibiotics and using the herbs. So when I see patients that are ... most of the patients I see that are more chronically Lyme, then it's a different story. I do feel it's a different story than if ... It's questionable whether the antibiotics might help them at that point if they've already had it for two years, also, it's like, mm, okay, that's where I probably would go more herbal medicine, but I'd go in very gently. I don't go in with the hardcore antibacterial herbs at high doses, whereas I would with the acute Lyme. Mason: (38:54) Yes. I mean, well that's ... Chronic Lyme seems to be, whenever I see anyone explaining the fact that we will have herxing reactions as you're removing infection from the body or busting up open biofilms, it's always Lyme disease that's used as the example. "Such as in Lyme disease..." Amina: (39:14) Yeah, absolutely. And it's very important to ... it's almost two disease, acute tickborn infections and treating someone that has chronic Lyme that they may not have even known whether they ever had a tick bite or anything but ... they may have a positive Borrelia, they have all the symptoms and then we need to treat it. That's when it becomes a beautiful example of how naturopathy can help by putting all those pieces on the puzzle and treating that person holistically. And if you don't treat all of the systems, if you miss out treating the adrenals, they're going to stay tired. If you don't detox them properly and work on the liver, they're not going to eliminate those lipopolysaccharides, the dead bits of the outer shell proteins of the bacteria upon killing them. Amina: (40:05) And inflammation has to be addressed at all times. The gut's got to work well every day. Every part of the body needs to be working at its best. When I talk about the jigsaw puzzle that I put together, there's so many factors then in chronic Lyme that are pieces of the puzzle then. It's not just about, yes, someone got bitten by a tick. Now we're looking at a full piece of toxins, mold, so forth, and the viruses. Mason: (40:37) Well naturally, because your immune system and your energy levels, your hormonal cascades are going to be out of rhythm during that time if you've had months or maybe years of chronic infection, as well. Right? So naturally, just on the back of that, not to say that there was stealth infection or stuff going on beforehand. Naturally, it's going to come into a ... And it often seems like a perfect storm. I've met a lot of folks, especially around area, had long-term chronic Lyme and they're exhausted from the treatment protocol. I've never seen more of a bit of a jadedness towards how much they need to do and keep their finger on the pulse to get well, when it is extremely chronic. Do you feel like by bringing back a little bit more flow in the sense of understanding the puzzle, understanding how the holistic nature of what phase we're in of treatment and also what the consistent pieces of the puzzle, as you were saying, got adrenal liver. Of course, they're going to be primary. What's your take on managing the mental load and the emotional load of that whole treatment protocol? Amina: (41:50) I think it's important to ... When we talked earlier about just taking charge of your health, you don't have to be knowing what to do, you just need to be understanding what's going on. And then work with someone that can put it all together. So for example, it can be quite simple. I can have someone with many, many piece of the puzzle. All those heavy metal toxins and genetic, MTHFR and pyrroles, and the mold exposure. It's all along there. Mason: (42:29) All the trendy things to get diagnosed with at the moment. Amina: (42:32) Yeah. All of those things. The tooth infection, the mercury fillings. It's all on there, you know? Mason: (42:38) You know what? Maybe a bit of SIBO. I know that's pretty hot right now. Amina: (42:41) Absolutely. SIBO. They've got adrenal depletion from stress that they've had. Usually, there's a period of time when they've had stress. So there's often many pieces of the puzzle. And then we need to sort of put it simply. And simply, I just look at the systems that need, basically, support. So diet. Diet alone can be amazing just to help the person with a personalised diet that's going to work for them. So making sure that they've got enough iron, enough vitamin B-12 for detox methylation, enough protein, amino acids for detoxification again, and neurotransmitter support for their nervous system chemicals. Amina: (43:30) And diet, I think, is such a ... obviously, it's a really important part, but I think it can be so overwhelming in itself for people of what they should eat. "I've got histamine sensitivity and salicylates and oxalates and ..." Mason: (43:44) Yeah. I mean ... Amina: (43:44) It can be very overloading. So I think just bringing it down to really simple, a simple basic diet, simple vegetables, and understanding what works for that patient and what doesn't, because everyone's different. So I think that the diet is the most important thing and reducing any sort of inflammation triggers. Obviously, alcohol, coffee, the basic things that would be better to reduce or eliminate if possible. I like to use anti-inflammatory herbs to reduce inflammation because inflammation is going to make everything worse. And stress is going to make inflammation worse. So we've got to also work on the nervous system, the adrenals for the adrenal support. Amina: (44:35) So in answer to your question of how do we put it all together, I think was what you were asking, is just looking at it and it just really needs to be simplified. Even looking at the liver and make sure the person is detoxing well. Well, you know, it's a case of how you feel when you eat. Do you feel nauseous after you take your B vitamins? That might indicate that your phase two detox pathways aren't working so well. You're not able to tolerate garlic of sulfurs or ... What's going on? Is there methylation problems? We can actually look, by understanding the symptoms, what may be going on there and offer that very basic liver support that might be just a case of having the right amino acids, proteins. Having some tumeric, some broccoli, sprouts. Making sure that maybe a bit of N-acetylcysteine might help just with ... obviously, we're trying to boost the Glutathione and make sure that the liver is doing its job. I love St. Mary's thistle for hepatoprotection and just to help the liver naturally do what it is supposed to do. Amina: (45:38) So it's just about looking at the areas that really need the most addressing. And symptoms of things like brain fog and memory and focus, concentration. That can just be often due to inflammation. So often, just having some anti-inflammatory support. tumeric, amazing. chamomile, calendula, fennel, marshmallow, beautiful herbs that will support gut and inflammation can actually reduce those symptoms just by working on reducing the inflammatory markers. Mason: (46:11) So a couple of things that are coming up. In previous conversations, we've honed in to certain explanations of particular issues using Classical Chinese terminology. And there's one thing I feel like, really, when I've gone down the depths of trying to understand naturopathy and that pathway and tried to ... I know for yourself, as well, I know the immense amount of success that you're having, which is incredible and I feel like, although I get the conversations from people who are in that exasperated state when it comes to not just naturopathy, but all doctors and all the different things that they're trying, and so I always try and not focus on that but really try and find out the key things that are, what's up? What's going on that lead to that exasperated state where someone can't really get on top of it? Hopefully, get through their symptoms and then get on the mend where they have that health sovereignty. Mason: (47:14) Something about the way that you talk about all this, I was trying to figure out why I feel comfortable and why ... Dan Sipple, I don't know if you know him. He's a naturopath down south of Sydney. Amina: (47:25) Oh, yeah. Yeah. Mason: (47:25) Yeah. So he's a good friend of mine. Our personal naturopath, but especially working with my mum. He originally introduced your work to me and he really liked your stuff, as well. I think there's a nice bridging there. Not that you can merge systems. I definitely don't think we can merge and lay over Classical Chinese medicine with naturopathy, but there's something that flows in when you talk that you don't so much purely sit in that, "All right, what's the symptom? Bang. Here, slap this protocol on." There's a looking, and maybe correct me if I'm wrong, but there's a looking for somewhat of the pattern that's leading to the pathology with a particular person and then a desire to understand what's constitutionally going on for them, which leads to a bit more of ... And I know that's the theory a lot of the time in naturopathy and that's the theory of, now, modern, traditional Chinese medicine which has deviated from the classical nature and deals with symptoms, but I feel like theoretically what they say they're doing and what's actually happening is two different things because, and quite often, what's in the way is living it as a way of life. Mason: (48:38) I feel like that's kind of what I feel is there's a bit more flow with the way you're talking about this and possibly why we see you getting such high success rates because there is that little bit of extra time in order to identify what that underlying pattern is, not just focusing on the shiny thing that is the symptom or the pathology. Amina: (49:04) That's exactly right. And one thing I'd like to bring up is what I'm doing a lot of work with at the moment, are the underlying causes of why are the people not getting better, or why they ... Sorry, that's my dog out there. Mason: (49:21) That's all good. Amina: (49:22) Beautiful Jessie. Why people start getting better when they start working on their bacterial infections, but then other symptoms arising and it's viruses. We're just not paying enough attention to the underlying viruses. And I think this is something that I'm really doing a lot of work on and I'm ecstatically excited about because I'm realizing that, when I'm working on the viruses with the patients ... For example, someone in their jigsaw puzzle, they had Epstein Barr virus, glandular fever, when they were a teenager. And they had immunoglobulins tested. So it would come up IGG. So, yes, they had that Epstein Barr virus virus a long time ago. The IGM may not be coming up, sort of active antibodies, but they're still presenting with funny sweats and aches and pains. And this is almost like new symptoms and we know that, with borreliosis and a lot of these Lyme-like illnesses, symptoms do move and change. Amina: (50:29) So looking at it, when you look at the person, you realize they had Epstein Barr virus, they've still got active herpes, or they had cytomegalovirus. Oh. And when we test, they actually had Ross River virus or Dengue fever comes up a lot, Barmah Forest. Coxsackie virus, which is your mouth, sort of your hand, foot, mouth disease viral thing. And what I've realized is that upon further testing ... There's a lab in Germany that, ArminLabs, that's actually looking at more detailed Epstein–Barr viruses and actually seeing that, even though a person had IGG antibodies, they're actually coming up with high levels of lytic Epstein–Barr virus within the cells. It's not the latent Epstein–Barr virus, which shows that basically the virus is now almost reactivating. Amina: (51:25) Now, viruses are not like bacteria. They have their own DNA or RNA, but they're not like bacteria. They have their own organelles. The virus needs to get into a living cell, be it a red blood cell or a bacteria and it uses the cells organelles. So it needs to use our own cell organelles in order to replicate. So if a virus is in a system that maybe that person's not massively healthy or they have low levels of mitochondria, which is your energy powerhouses of the cell, or the cell is not very sort of full on effective at that time, the virus will just sit there and hang out until the cell is more nourished or ready. Or the virus will go and find another cell. Amina: (52:20) Now what happens is, say the person starts dealing with their chronic Borrelia infection or their other bacteria, their gut dysbiosis or parasites, then it's like almost when the person starts getting a bit healthy, then the viruses will start replicating. Mason: (52:38) Oh, god. It's so ... Amina: (52:38) This is what's going on now and that's what I'm feeling is a big area. And I know that there are quite a few other, specialist practitioners that deal with chronic fatigue and retroviruses and things like that. There's a Doctor Dietrich Klinghardt in America that's looking a lot at retroviruses. And I would have to agree, because this is what I'm seeing, as well. And I think being mindful of that, we need to make sure that the person also has viral support and that we understand and the patient understands what's going on. Because otherwise, what happens is they take herbs and go, "Oh, yeah. I did this, but it made me worse." you know a full on Herxing that's not being dealt with because they're not detoxing well or ... Mason: (53:29) Yeah, sorry to cut you off there, but it's really poignant and I feel like it brings up a position where I've sat with so many years, having essentially given people access to tonic herbs and to these medicinal mushrooms and then educating them as much as possible about appropriate ways to integrate these with intention. But then when you get these questions about, "Well, this is presenting and this is presenting, what's happening to me?" it is only so far and I feel like I like presenting five or six different options of what's possibly going on. And the nature of saying it's a detox reaction or it's a herx has, seemingly over the last few years, seemed too simplistic just to put out there. You know what I mean? Amina: (54:22) Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yep. Mason: (54:24) And so just hearing this, it's just further bridging for me. I never expect them to be simple answers that come forth when people get clue ... there's always a chance that a herb isn't for somebody, which is always the first that I like to put forth. And as well, also, doses being too large at a particular time. Amina: (54:48) Absolutely, absolutely. Mason: (54:50) So that gets presented first. And then going on to what comes down the line, which I ... and the general attitude, and I can feel it in you and I feel it as well, is, "Well, this is bloody exciting because there's something going on here." And just hearing that nature of, "I'm getting better," but then, bam, I just get another hit in the face and then I go down again to some new symptoms. That trap, that loop when you are working purely symptomatically and you're not going for that underlying pattern. Or in that sense, you haven't figured the pattern that the reason there's a backlog or a bottleneck within a person who's, because phase two detoxification isn't actually able to occur and because they gut these and actually were able to eliminate, that I feel like ... Mason: (55:39) The word that's coming forth, which you are using in a practitioner mindset, which I feel can very easily be transferred into someone's everyday life before going and looking for solutions from one herb or looking to find the exact reason why you are reacting positively or negatively, seemingly, to a practice or a herb or whatever it is, is you can bring in these very sensible ideas of looking at what is the pattern that your body is going to need to be supported in in order to basically stop that bottleneck of symptoms from occurring? Or even the bottleneck of positive effects from a herb. Mason: (56:21) If you take a herb, as far as I'm concerned, you don't necessarily want to be feeling waves of energizing and vitality straight away. It shows that there was maybe a little bit of a deficiency. Amina: (56:33) Yeah. Mason: (56:34) So that level of sensible nature, that seems like that and you kind of ... I don't know if you feel it. I know I try not to feel dismissive in this nature when I talk to people and go, "Look, back off. I want you to be really making sure that your gut, your nervous system and adrenals and liver," you hit on them before, it's where I land, as well, "are absolutely running on optimal and are optimised so that you can possibly eliminate any of the reactions from occurring in the first place." That's the ideal situation. But sorry, I just wanted to touch base on that because I feel ... I'm going to have my whole team, especially the team who I'm chatting to customers, just listen to this so we can get a bit more context of how to communicate it. Amina: (57:23) Sorry, what were you wanting me to ... Mason: (57:25) Nothing. I just stopped there. I didn't even ask a question. But I did interrupt you when you were in the middle of talking about what's going on, just after you were talking about the retroviruses, that I interrupted you there. But either I can go on with another question or is there any more of that? Because this is super interesting and [crosstalk 00:57:48] Amina: (57:47) Oh, there is so much more. I think it's just something ... Our science, at the moment, we just don't know enough about the types of viruses. Like I said, the tick study that just came out last year showed that the Australian ticks have 21 viruses. There's studies showing that estimations of ... We have 320,000 mammal viruses that are present in our current world and possibly more, but that's just based on looking at different types of animal genre and looking at the types of viruses that might be specific to them. And it's an estimation, but I think it's a reality. Amina: (58:33) And you think about a virus, a virus is the size of a pea compared to a bacteria that might be the size of a watermelon, compared to the size of a red blood cell that would be the size of one of those giant gym balls. So a virus is a tiny, micro, micro, microscopic thing, yet it can be so powerful. I think the whole looking at the retroviruses that mean that the viruses are either RNA or DNA. And the retroviruses, they start off the single-cell RNA strand virus into a cell. They can actually, as I said, use the cells organelles to replicate itself, but they can actually, change themselves to become DNA-type viruses and they actually change the DNA of the cell, because when that cell that now is full of this active virus that's changed itself, and it's now using the human cell's DNA, now when that cell replicates it actually has already some of the viral DNA or RNA within it. So it actually is changing us genetically. Amina: (59:48) And that's actually not a bad thing because, environmentally, evolution, we need viruses. We need viruses. We need retroviruses to change us for evolution. It's normal. That's been happening for thousands of years, but it's just interesting. I think, at the moment, due to the way we are, our toxic bodies, electromagnetic radiation, all the chemicals, glyphosate that's being used. All of that stuff is actually exacerbating this growth of the retroviruses. That's the problem. Mason: (01:00:25) Mm-hmm (affirmative). I'm really happy that you brought up the necessity there of just the fact that we are sharing an environment and we are co-evolving with a virus, because it does bring up that reminiscence of when germ theory was really rocking and we're still in the medical model trying to destroy bacteria and can conquer bacteria when bacteria is, in fact, a part of us and the origins of our cellular matrix that is our ancestors and likewise. We, to an extent, have been evolving and have the possibility of living in harmony with viral loads that'll have that mentality of going to war. Never really going to ... Mason: (01:01:14) If that's the entirety of your mindset towards it, it's never going to allow you to get into what the Tao and what all these ancient philosophies were talking to was to start to get into unison with nature and with the elements. And that's where those basic principles can come about to ensure that you are not overexerting yourself. If you can take the years, and years, and years to not ... you need to alter your lifestyle so that you find yourself being able to come predominantly at the world, I'm really working on this myself at the moment, from a parasympathetic space and ensuring that you are getting your beautiful amount of sun exposure, walking and moving consistently, remaining hydrated, a diet that is working for your constitution and your intuition and is somewhat simple in that nature and not shrouded in dogma, then you've got those basic patterns and principles that will hopefully allow you to get back into unison with nature. And then we have our little tests and our supplements and our things that we can take to help us compensate for the way the world is going for as much as we possibly can. Mason: (01:02:27) So that, to an extent, these bacteria, these nasty viruses, perhaps we can slightly get back into a place where we are living in harmony or able to have our own cells and immune system be able to manage them so they don't lead to chronic illness. And it always comes back to that simplicity. Amina: (01:02:50) It is really about living in harmony. Sometimes I feel like I just want to sort of say to patients, we really need to accept the fact that everyone is going to have a lot of chronic stealth infections. We have up to two kilos of bacteria in our gut. We need bacteria to survive. [inaudible 01:03:15] bacteria beneficial and commensal and then you disbiotic when it gets out of balance. And of course, like I've mentioned, the viral role is an evolution thing. It's not something we can stop. Viruses don't all necessarily have to be bad, but if the body is not in balance, that's when the viruses will affect ... There's a lot of bacterial viral interactions that go on and I think this is what gets missed in these chronic patients. It's not just the fact that they have underlying viruses that haven't been treated. It's the fact that the viruses are now coinciding with the bacteria and actually ... Amina: (01:03:58) For example, there's direct interactions like influenza, just your normal flu virus. When it comes into contact with, say, a staphylococcus-type bacteria, like staphylococcus aureus, for example ... and there's been studies proving this. The influenza virus, it's like a big sort of ... well, it's not, it's tiny, like a round shape and it has lots of appendages, like lots of sticky things sticking out of it, like lots of sort of protease is what they're called, like these cleavers. And the staphylococcus can actually make the viral appendages split. So therefore, say the virus has a hundred little arms coming from it, it splits them so it now has 200 appendages. So it has more ability to cling onto the cell wall that it's wanting to attack or to intrude. Amina: (01:04:59) So the bacteria actually help the virus when it's first initiated into the body to survive. And other ones, like your herpes virus, can actually cause an immune suppression type environment that actually can lead to ... I think there's a gingivalis type bacteria that specifically, if you've got herpes and you've got that particular gingivalis bacteria within the mouth, they're actually going to work together so that the virus can actually survive a lot easier. [crosstalk 01:05:35] Mason: (01:05:35) Mm-hmm (affirmative). So amazing. I don't know. I find that really fun. I find it really exciting. Kind of reminds me just not to be a snowflake with the fact that there are so many opportunistic organisms around us and it's not because they're bad, it's nothing evil, it's just ... Amina: (01:05:57) They just want to survive, but we're all trying to survive. Everyone's doing the best they can, including the viruses. And at the end of the day, I think we're almost ... What I was saying I'd like to say to patients sometimes is that we almost energetically need to make these are friends and we really need to love our body. And that's where it comes down to. It's a very spiritual aspect, I know, but loving ourselves, loving our body, accepting what is and just allowing the balance to occur. Not neglecting oneself, but in the best environment you eat well, you breathe well, you sleep well, you eliminate well, you'd be outside, be mindful, be in nature, do all of those things that you can do to create optimum holistic health. And then because the viruses are going to do what they're going to do and the bacteria's going to do what they're going to do, but we create an environment that everything is in balance and in harmony and no one takes the mickey because, otherwise, they become opportunistic in that toxic environment. Mason: (01:07:03) Yeah, it's like having a bunch of delinquent children sometimes inside, but. And I really appreciate ... We'll bring this home because I know you've got stuff to do, but I really ... having off the back of a conversation that's so practical and in reality, and shrouded in testing and understanding exactly what's going on and which organ systems need to be supported in order to come back to optimal within 3D reality. I 100% agree that, at that point where you mind feels comfortable, that you're moving and you're on top of that, then going in and reestablishing your relationship with yourself and the viral and bacterial and everything else loads that, within you, can often ... I've found it to be often one of the keys. Obviously, there's many keys along the way that will get people over a particular hump. Mason: (01:07:53) And I feel ... I guess that's ... It especially brings up ... I have a friend who does a lot of this work in reestablishing your relationship with the entity of even wifi and 5G. And if you are just doing that and that alone and not being real about what's actually going on on a cellular level, that possibly can be wishy washy, some of us are strong enough to actually ... and I think we can agree upon that just with that reframing can reestablish a flow of Qi and self function in order to bring some protection. But most of all, what it does is it allows us to move forward without an identity that is derived by opposition. When we are opposing our bacteria and we're in opposition to viral load and opposition to this sick state that we're in, we create a massive glass ceiling in what's possible for us to go forth in our emerging identity. Mason: (01:08:52) So I really appreciate you bringing that up. Thank you for that, Amina. Amina: (01:08:56) You're welcome. Thank you. Mason: (01:08:58) I think we've got a couple more. We could probably have a whole ... After you've talked in September, it might even be nice if you'd be up for coming and sharing on an even deeper level what you're discovering and excited about with these viral infections and these ... Amina: (01:09:16) Definitely. Mason: (01:09:17) ... retroviruses. I think, of course, it'd be really fun. And then dive into the mushrooms. And when I get up there, we'll have a deep dive and have a nerd-out on that world of mushie love. Amina: (01:09:28) That'd be
In this episode Tiffanee Neighbors interviews Harrison Wilson and DJ Eidson - President and COO and co-founders at Limitless Minds. They discuss their engagement platform that leverages mental conditioning principles to help sales organizations drive measurable performance improvement across their sales teams. Limitless Minds is a company founded by DJ, Harrison, NFL quarterback Russell Wilson and his mental conditioning coach Trevor Moawad. TIME STAMPED SHOW NOTES INTRO: 00:08 Welcome to WINNING in HEALTH the podcast for winners. In this podcast series, our host, veteran health industry, sales executive and owner of WINNASIUM Tiffanee Neighbors brings you a unique panel of exceptional leaders in business and in sports. These leaders will share their secrets and best practices for winning and leading teams to win in high stakes and highly competitive environment. It's been said that when you sit with winters or conversation is different, let's get the conversation started full. Host - Welcome Welcome to Winning in Health, a WINNASIUM podcast. I am your host, Tiffanee Neighbors CEO and Founder at WINNASIUM. And today we're talking to two high performing former sells at secretaries in the healthcare space, DJ Eidson and Harrison Wilson. They are the co founders of the company, Limitless Minds alongside Superbowl winning quarterback, Russell Wilson and his sought after mental conditioning coach Trevor Moawad. In many ways, this team represents everything we value at WINNASIUM and we are extremely excited to share their stories and the innovative approach. Limitless Minds is applying to mental conditioning in the workplace. DJ and Harrison, welcome to the show. DJ Eidson: Hey, what's up? How's it going? Good afternoon. Host: Tiffanee N. Thank you guys. I'm excited to have you. You guys have launched an incredible, incredible company and I don't know what's more exciting for me to have you guys talk about whether it's your journey to get there or the company, but I think we have the benefit of doing both. So I want to give you guys a chance to one, introduce yourselves, your background and then we'll kind of jump into a little bit about your sales journey. Harrison Wilson: 01:55 First of all, thank you so much for having us on the podcast. We're really excited about this. Spend some time with you. I know you really got a chance to probably spend more time with DJ outside of the walls of the podcast studio here, but I'm excited because I know DJ said a ton of great things about what you're doing and building. So thank you so much for having us. I come from the pharmaceutical medical device space, sales, sales, leadership. I had a journey that was kind of a winding road from different odd sales roles, like office supplies and car sales and enterprise were in a car. And then finally to pharma and medical device. And the journey was really just, you know, wrapped around trying to be like just really good at what I do. You know, I just had that prior to just being really great at what I do and then getting a chance to continue to get promoted through an organization that I was in most recently. And that's where I actually met DJ, this kind of natural organic path that led us to want to do more, do something bigger, to impact as many people as we can to collaborate with my brother who's a cofounder, Russell Wilson quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks and his mental conditioning coach, Trevor Moawad to create Limitless Minds. And so I spent about 10 to 12 years in the sales and in pharma medical device and DJ spent a lot more years than me. Tiffanee, our elder statesman and my uncle, I call him my uncle. Harrison Wilson: 03:15 we're just excited about, you know, kind of being able to bring, come together and build something. And yeah, we're excited. DJ Eidson: 03:20 And Tiffanee, I mean I, you know, it's funny cause I was thinking about your question and I wouldn't know if I shared this with Harry at any point, but my very first sales job, and I remembered this the other day when I, well one of my kids try to do this, I would draw pictures at the dining room table and then I would go door to door and sell those pictures. DJ Eidson: 03:38 He came home with a bunch of money and my mom asked me, where did you get that money? And I said, well I drew these pictures and I sold them to the neighbors. And then so she made me go back and give all the money back to the neighbors. But that was the first time I had like actually, you know, produce something and then sold it. So that I, I want to say I was probably, I don't know, six or seven years old, but I've always had that kind of entrepreneurial spirit. I had the opportunity to get into healthcare and pharmaceuticals. I started out as a sales intern and sold Claritin and Nasonex, you know, parlayed that into a full time job and got into some training and leadership and hospital sales. And you know, met Harry about six years ago at a startup company that we helped really build from the ground floor. DJ Eidson: 04:23 We had this amazing journey of being able to hire people and be able to promote a product that, you know, nobody had really heard of at the time. And that company bought other products. And we grew and we saw that as we were kind of going through that process and that experience, that the thing that set top performers apart was not necessarily the technical training that they had, but it was the ability to be able to navigate through change challenges and adversity that really got them through to that elite top level. And when we had the opportunity to partner with Trevor and Russ, you know, Trevor's kinda, you know, when you look up Trevor Moawad you see the guru, uh, one of the world's best in mental conditioning and he's been able to work in sports and work with people like Harry’s younger brother Russell, University of Alabama, a lot of professional sports teams. But we said, how can we take that recipe that we know works in business and take it from sports and bring it into business? And that's how we formed. And so, you know, about a year, year and a half ago, we launched the company. We've had the opportunity to work with some of the best and brightest and mostly lead business professionals and companies in the world. It's been a really cool journey. Host - Tiffanee: 05:26 That's incredible. We've talked offline and one of the things you mentioned too was that you obviously went to President's Club as a high performer in the sales field. So you had the opportunity to probably remain and choose to grow in the sales profession or sales leadership and executive roles within the space. What made you choose to take this path into entrepreneurship versus continuing to climb into higher levels of sales stream? DJ Eidson: 05:53 That's a great question. And you know, I started out, like I said, there's always been this on me to be an entrepreneur and Harry and I, when we met, we would always bounce off ideas, whether it was how we were going to build our teams or what we wanted to do next. During the time that we met, Harry had lost his father. And then during the time we worked together, I lost my father both ironically to complications of diabetes. So this whole thing about, I remember sitting in a Panera bread with Perry as we were kind of discussing kind of what do we want to do really want to do next? You know, we started talking about the people that we wanted to impact, the people that our fathers had impacted, and how can we create a legacy that really has a profound and positive impact, not just on the company that we were at at that time, but also throughout the world. And so we said, we're going to impact thousands or millions of people. We're going to have to figure out a vehicle to do that. And so we said, what are we good at doing? And who do we know? And, and you know, what's our network look like? And, and so that's how we formed the business. But you're right, I mean, jumping out of that, right? Harry and I talk about it all the time, the career that we built in big business and pharmaceuticals, then healthcare was a great career. DJ Eidson: 06:57 and we had made great impressions on people and we're moving up that corporate ladder, but it was always this tug to do more inherit throughout that word legacy and what type of legacy do we want to leave for our kids and families and just our footprint on the world. And that drew us to Limitless Minds. Harrison Wilson: 07:12 Also. Tiffanee, I think that, um, if you Google entrepreneurship or entrepreneur, the word risk is somewhere in that definition. I think, right? DJ has five kids. I have three. I have three daughters that are seven, four and two. At 35 years old or so, I started thinking about like risks and I'm not really an incredibly risk averse person. I'm kind of moderate unlike DJ. I didn't really previously have this entrepreneurial kind of plan per se until I started thinking about risk and the desire to think about to DJ's point about like our father's passing. My dad died at 55 years old and I thought, man, what if I really just had like 20 summers left, 20 Christmases left, 20 years left to do whatever I'm going to do? Like, am I really just going to kind of take the easy path, the path of least resistance, right? DJ Eidson: 07:59 To DJ's point, we thought about what are we good at, what do we like to do, what I do want to impact people? And the risk part of it was really attractive all of a sudden because I know looking at the faces of my daughters, they're only gonna be as risky and take those leaps if they've seen it done in their own home, in their own environment and their own ecosystem. So by taking a risk and ultimately being successful when doing so, Gracie, my seven year old, as she begins to find opportunities to take her own risks, she's going to have a little repertoire, a little background, a little canvas to say how her father or her parents had taken risks and be more competent in doing so. And so that's part of that legacy that DJ's talking about relative to me is just wanting to really like show my kids what good looks like and what risk-taking looks like and how you can continue to have a growth mindset and think about things and want to impact people. And it's okay to take some leaps of faith and put yourself out there, you know? Host – Tiffanee: Yeah. That's incredible. And that's, I mean, you can't have a better role model than, than doing it yourself, you know, for them being that example. And it's really about not playing it safe and taking those risks. And I think that that's incredible what you've been driven by. I have to ask you guys, you were in one of the largest pharmaceutical companies and did you ever have the kind of training program or experience, the kind of training program that you today offer in the market? DJ Eidson: 09:19 Well, it's funny. No we haven't. At least I haven't. But what I'll say is, is that when we're going and talking to C level and C-suite folks or directors of training or marketing or sales, Harry will often ask that question, you know, do you have a game plan for adversity, change challenges and do you want your people to also have a game plan for that? Oftentimes they say they do. They'll kind of sit there and pause for a second whether or not their people do and then he'll ask them, you know, do you think your people should have a game plan and be trained in that area? And they say, absolutely. And so I think, again, going back to that, it's called soft skills training, I should say the type of training that we deliver, but it often gets forgotten about. Like you know, you'll get training around the technical aspects of the pharmaceutical product that you're selling, the technical aspects of, you know, how to target or route your calls in sales. DJ Eidson: 10:13 But rarely do you get training around, okay, what happens when you spill coffee on yourself? What happens when you lose a major account? What happens when the managed care environment doesn't go your way? And now all of a sudden the pharmaceutical medication that was covered last year is not covered the next year. How do you navigate through that from a mental standpoint and persevere on and then giving people the real actual blueprint of what that looks like to navigate through that. And what we found is, is that much of our training that we received that differentiated us in the business world was not learned in business, but was learned through sports with learn through mentors, was learned through coaches. And so to be able to package that up and pull it through organizations, there's been a tremendous benefit and I think there's a void there. Host - Tiffanee: 11:00 I agree. You know, when you talk about the key to the high performers that you observed in the sales environment, you mentioned their ability to navigate changes, challenges, adversity, and the absence of this, right? This kind of mental conditioning, mental thinking, support, it creates an incredible opportunity. I also see this as an opportunity with the youth. Very recently I was a part of a parent council at my daughter's private school. And the number one challenge in the student population is around stress and anxiety. That ability to build that grit or to navigate the very things you've said, the changes, challenges and adversity. And so I kind of see this theme and this support structure playing itself out. And I'd like to kind of give you guys a chance to talk a little bit about what Limitless Minds is all about and what you guys offer to address and to kind of proliferate the mental conditioning throughout the business industry. Harrison Wilson: 12:03 Yeah, and I think that's a great question, and we'll put kind of position question there. I think that in a quick couple words, what we're about is we're about adversity tolerance. I think that what DJ was pointing on earlier is that whether it's an individual and an organization, a leader in an organization, organization as a whole, it's culture. And to your point in schools, whether it be the staff, the students, student athletes, everybody comes in to an environment with a different level of adversity, tolerance. And that's just maybe based on past experiences and their environment, whatever it might be, but not everybody's equal relative to their adversity tolerance. What we look to do is to provide really clear, concise, unique, modern tools to increase the diversity tolerance of any and every individual and an organization and try to build those up, build that adversity tolerance up so that collectively the organization has a greater adversity tolerance. Harrison Wilson: 12:55 And I think that that's really the difference that we see for elite performers in sports, military or all the way to business, from sales to sales leadership to executives. Those that sustain long term success have that adversity tolerance. And so what we've done is we've created an environment where we can take what's worked for like my brother and Trevor in the sports world and create an environment where you don't have to make $35 million a year to have access to this stuff. Everybody needs a coach. Everybody should have a coach in this area. Why not provide that to them? Right? My brother Tiffanee is five 10 he has no business playing in the NFL isn't, and I can say that right? Cause I'm big brother, right? He has no business playing NFL, but he is a savant when it comes to how he thinks competitively. When the pressure's at its highest, his heart rate tends to decrease and that's not on accident. Harrison Wilson: 13:44 That's success leaves clues and just like a prodigy on piano, golf, tennis, you know that 15 year old Coco golf, right? Who's like taking the world by storm in tennis. She still has a coach, but she's a prodigy, right? That's what's been prodigal from my brother is his mindset and he's had a coach and that's been in Trevor Moawad. And so we just said, why don't we take this, the right access to this across organizations and the like and hopefully schools as we get there. But what we've done is we've created an environment we can do that, but we've also been really important to us is to mobilize the learning because the organizations like these pharma companies, medical device companies and alike across different industries as well that have people that are on the bill. Number one reason why people don't feel like they'd been trained at work is because they don't have enough time. Harrison Wilson: 14:24 So we just found it to mobilize the learning through a digital learning platform and be able to provide podcasts and micro videos and quizzing and gamification and leaderboard statuses so people can kind of have fun and and recognize their learning and be recognized for it as well as the live stuff or the life that's been important to the live keynotes and leadership summits. And then also we've found ways to measure it, which was I think has been really important, especially for our corporate organizations, is identifying a baseline and being able to measure against it. And we've been able to do that, you know, a mindset assessment that's been tremendous help to be able to measure noncognitive skills like grit, growth mindset, self determination, self discipline, adaptability, resilience, etc. And so that's been really tremendous to be able to show organizations where their people start with us. Harrison Wilson: 15:04 And then as they become more educated and trained in the area of mindset, how they change along that journey. And then of course, as you can imagine, how it affects their bottom line is really important too. So we're able to take those measurements and put it up against performance data too and say, Hey, listen, during this 12 months we've measured their mindset twice to this was our assessment. And those people that grew the most in these areas also happened in the ones that were the most from a sales performance standpoint. So when we're able to do that, as you can imagine, are the organizations leaders and sales leaders are, are pretty excited to see that. Tiffany. I think the last thing I'll say around it is what we've found, and I don't know that we knew that we'd find this, but we found this, is that we really have seem to be impacting the middle, the mighty middle, and some organizations might call it, you know, cause there's always going to be, let's say you have a sales team, there's always going to be a top 20% that are people that perform at a high level, typically all the time, year in a year out. Harrison Wilson: 15:54 Then there's your bottom 20% that you know, honestly, they're just not getting the job done. Then maybe they should find excellence elsewhere, right? That oftentimes maybe you're being managed out, but then there's that middle 60 that middle 60 that is so critical to an organization. And if we can move them 5% 10% 8% 11% that's where organizations are seeing a huge jump in performance as affecting their bottom line. I think that's the group we've been impacting the most. And so that's where we feel like the value in this really resides in the differences in kind of how we can impact a sales team. You know, along with the technical sales training that they're investing in for their people. Host - Tiffanee: 16:30 It's almost one of those things where you guys have, in my view, perfected the offering because of the lens that you have approached it from as former sales individuals, you recognize the need for that diversity in different training modalities. So it's not monolithic. Right. I'm also hearing a little bit of that healthcare background as well, coming into play with the measurement, right? So how are we measuring outcomes? So we all sat through tons of training as sales professionals and executives and we don't always, or never really saw how the outcomes were measured and then of course tied back into the financial performance. I think that those pieces that you've articulated are critical differentiators and I think the discovery around the impact of the metal is kind of interesting to me. And I wondered as you were speaking, was this kind of a, I know that you said it was a surprise, but where did you expect your impact to be greatest going in? DJ Eidson: 17:33 I personally thought the impact would be, would be the greatest, like with the individual contributors, the salespeople. But what I found is that actually the leaders are thirsting for this even more than I think the sales reps. I mean, I think the sales reps do, but they're to the leaders first to be that example, the model of what good looks like, to understand the principles, the concepts that we teach, the fundamentals of thinking. And then when it starts there and then it gets pushed down to the sales team, it creates a common language so that, you know, there's certain terminologies that we use, whether in concepts that we teach, whether it's neutral thinking, illusion of choice, pressure's a privilege. It takes what it takes. These are all different concepts that we teach, but when you start with the leadership and then you push it down through the rest of the organization, it seems to resonate well and it seems to stick. I'm pleasantly surprised with it. You always think if something is going to work, you know, but you have to have the proof of concept. You have to actually do it. You have to put yourself out there and to try it. We had this idea and we thought it would work and we've been able to execute on it. I would like to say flawlessly, right? But you know how it is to be an entrepreneur, DJ Eidson: 18:41 but it is turning into a masterpiece and that's where Harry and I, that's what gets us up every morning. That's what we get excited about. Harrison Wilson: 18:48 I thought we'd see a huge impact with like, you know people who have been floundering, right? That are the folks maybe in that bottom 20 as I mentioned before, I thought we'd have a great impact on them and I think there's times where we do. But then if you really think about it, Tiffany, like we had a manager, DJI, both a friend and a manager of ours who would always say a leopard never changes his spots, which we always joke about, you know, his sayings and different things that he says. But to me that kind of resonates this year is like Newmont and 20% are who they are for a reason. You know, and a lot of times it's a lot of other intrinsic factors, you know, and they're keeping them from being high-performers or either it's just a skill set or it's just not in the right environment. Harrison Wilson: 19:21 Or like I said before, there's, there's probably excellence they can find in another environment, in another role and another job somewhere else. It's going to be hard to have an area of weakness. It's hard to flex a muscle that's attribute, right. And so we're motivating. They already motivated. We are moving the group that has a level of motivation. You have to have a certain level of level of motivation to understand that you don't have to be sick to get better. One reason that I think that we did start to hypothesize that we didn't pack the middle of the most is when you start looking at the back end of our engagement platform and you start looking at the data, you start recognizing that the names of the people amongst the sales organization that we're working with are names that the executives, the people at the top of the business, they don't recognize. Harrison Wilson: 20:02 Not the same names that they typically see walking across stage. Right? Is that as those people that kind of had been living kind of like quietly in the, in the sales organization and not making a huge splash, those are the people that tend to be diving into the content more than their peers because they feel like they need it. Like I need this to get better because I've been consuming the same training as my peers that have been going walking across stage every year, but I'm not passing them up. What more is there for me? And that's, I think that's what the middle is finding. DJ Eidson: 20:30 Harry, you know what else is interesting and I know this happens after every event and Tiffany you, you alluded to this earlier, that we'll, we'll have somebody come up to us or multiple people come up to us and say, Hey, how can I get this stuff for my kids? My daughter plays high school basketball, she's years old and I would just love for her to be able to have access to this, you know, to help her with her mindset. And so that's something else too that is an unintended consequence or a great kind of by-product I should say, of what we've been delivered. Host – Tiffanee: 21:00 I too had a blind spot until a recent encounter with the parent council. So I definitely see it as an opportunity or something, a population to look at at some point. The idea that your program and your approach allows impact around an organization versus just at the individual contributor level. As a result, you are able to reach different groups or roles within the organization while also having an organizational impact. But when you mentioned earlier Harry about the approach being more of an engagement platform, I thought that was pretty compelling because it sounds as if you are able to collect a lot of different data points or data from a lot of different places and that can then be used to provide a level of learning or informing back to the organization and I wanted to have you share more about that. Let me know if that's correct and correct. Assessment. Harrison Wilson: 21:50 I think that is correct, right, because I think that the engagement on our digital learning platform tells us a lot about the people and really the people can tell us a lot about the engagement platform and vice versa. Obviously the organization is going to know a whole heck of a lot more about the people than we do, but we are able to like make a lot of hypotheses about the people based on the engagement and then go back and confirm with the client if we're right, usually released. We're directionally, we're on the right track. And what I mean by that is toward point earlier, we'll look at the engagement, we'll identify the top people, and usually it's some sort of mix of the middle and top performers, right? And so we can go back and kind of confirm that and see what that looks like. Harrison Wilson: 22:27 It was really important to us as customization. Where an organization will allow us to do so is to not just like necessarily come out with a program that's out of the box, out of a can. And of course as a business, it's important for us to have that option, but that's not an option that we recommend to be honest with you, right? It's just a program that has content that's out of the box. Every organization is different than their neighbor organization or their peer or their competitor across the street. There's different challenges. There's different nuances that are happening. So if you're going to train adversity, tolerance and mindset, it can be out of the same box. Another organizations getting per se, you know, we have the same kind of constructs and learning tools, but they're going to be wrapped quite differently. So we spent a lot of time with focus groups within the organization identifying the needs, the challenges, you know, kind of doing a SWOT analysis, right? Speaker 4: 23:11 To be kind of corny . That's what analysis, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and identifying what those are for those companies and those organizations. And then trying to create environments where we can simulate those situations and then give them a kind of a, a best case kind of cause and effect kind of outcome. If this, then that environment that they can practice a neutral thinking for example. Or they can understand how choice is just an illusion or they can see how pressures a privilege and then they can start to think differently about it and create a new language at their organization. So I think that those are the things that we're able to help. And I think the outcomes two to those are, there has to be some sort of level of time. You can't expect there to be some sort of reliable measurement or statistically significant environment that's created like over a couple of months or one engagement. Harrison Wilson: 23:54 So you know, you get into six months, you get into 12 months, you get into two years. That's when you can really see what the data really means. And we can even go back and say, during this 12 month engagement, this is what it looked like. And then, gosh, tell us about your retention numbers. How has that change? Right? And we've seen organizations, uh, lower their turnover or in this case an increase their retention, right? And then going back to those people, going back to the group, the universe that we're in front of, and asking them how they felt because it think some of the measurement isn't just, it doesn't have to be just quantifiable. It can be qualitative as well. And so sometimes there's, what are people saying about it? How do they think it's affecting them? And sometimes how they think it's affecting them make becomes reality, right? Perceptions, reality. So I think that those are some of the things that the engagement platform allows us to do and some of the insights that they can provide us Host – Tiffanee: 24:40 That's interesting and industry change way. It reminds me of a topic that's really hot in the it space, especially the health it space and it's around continuous performance improvement. It's almost a part of the agile model and it's almost as if you guys in some ways have applied some of those principles to supporting growth within different organizations and individuals. So I have to ask you guys to give me a little bit of insight into one of your proudest success stories or one of your top improvements. Harrison Wilson: 25:12 You know, obviously we've worked with a number of pharma companies which have been a good place for us to be because we understand, like I said, what some of the challenges are and and changes and adversities that DJ mentioned earlier and understand kind of what those little micro challenges are. I'd like to give you one an example from from there. So we have like a mid size pharma company that we've worked with for a year and some change, and this kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier about being able to track performance growth, what's happening with performers and then again with that hypothesis that will impact the middle. What does that mean? Right. And so I think that's, I'm in in 2018 you're able to impact an organization to the point where we could see both from a kind of like a district level for those that may be familiar with a pharmaceutical sales force, there's gonna, you know there's going to be individual performers and our sales reps, territory managers, and there's a district manager, my manage 8 to 12 of those reps. Harrison Wilson: 26:02 and then of course there's regional and so on and so forth. If my district level being able to identify, again the engagement levels of with our content and then being able to go and say with the people that engage the most, what happened with their sales and we were seeing that this organization was, was already kind of seeing growth, which was great. Again, we're motivating the already motivated, so this organization was seeing 5% sales growth quarter over quarter, which is solid. When you think about a five to $6 billion market cap organization, that's a lot of dollars. But what we noticed is that from a district perspective, from a team's perspective, the district leaders and their squads, their teams that engage the most on our platform, month over month, we're improving like 25 to 26% higher the rest of the nation. Wow. And that was true for month over month, quarter over quarter during 2018 which was pretty cool to see. Harrison Wilson: 26:49 And then we broke that down to a territory manager level. Obviously if that showed up at the district level, it's going to show up at the territory manager level when you break it down for the most part. I think what was neat is, again, it was folks that nobody really recognize those names now know. Obviously you knew who they were and the salesforce was small enough salesforce, about 300 folks give or take, but there weren't people that typically you saw kind of in lights at the national sales meeting or in lights on the weekly highlights and stuff like that. And so it was interesting to see how often people were going to get content and then what was happening with their sales numbers as they began to allow that content to have access to them and to impact them. There's a lot of examples like that where you know, just simply being able to watch the engagement and then marry it with the sales growth for the companies that we're working with that have sales teams and be able to tell that story to an organization, it's hard for them to not acknowledge that the impact is real. Harrison Wilson: 27:41 Especially then when you go to those same people and ask them, Hey, what's been the difference for you? What's been going on? And naturally the mindset training is impacted them, right? And even just these microwaves has impacted them and they're thinking differently about the challenges that exist from market changes to competitors to as long sales cycles to traffic, you know, mourning the personal life that that kind of affects their everyday. So, so that's, that's just one example. Host - Tiffanee: 28:03 That's fantastic. And I think that you were not only brilliant for bringing these two things together, which is the prioritization around mental conditioning and then applying it to basically the sport of sales, right? That function in an organization that is really driven by performance improvement and performance at large. And then for you guys to attach measurement and the ability to really drive visibility into the outcomes right at the organizations level in addition to your input is pretty unique and compelling. And you know, I hope that the audience has gotten a lot of value out of this discussion. I think where you're going is extremely valuable. Having lived in sales for over 21 years and then having practitioner led solution like you guys have developed, the potential is unlimited in my mind. So can you tell the audience how they can get in touch with you, learn more and, and reach out to you guys. DJ Eidson: 29:04 If you go to think big hyphen, go far.com. That's the limitless minds a website. You can also follow us on LinkedIn. Harry's got a bunch of friends on LinkedIn and you can follow him at [inaudible] Harrison Wilson or myself or DJ [inaudible], that's E. I. D. S. O. N. we're also on Instagram, Facebook. But, uh, I think really for your audience and what we've seen, LinkedIn has been an amazing tool. We get comments on that daily in terms of, Hey, you know, we're following what you're doing. I can't believe you're working with that company. There's success stories that are on there that people are just organically sharing. We really did not foresee that out of the gates that we were going to have that much of an impact from a social media standpoint just right away. And so as we're posting pictures and kind of posting some of the people that we're partnering with and companies that we're partnering with desperate and really cool to see. And there's, and there's ways when you're on the website, if you want more information, there's a contact us tab and we'll ask you for a little bit of information about yourself or the company. But we're booking keynotes every day. I mean it's been crazy with, you know, all the healthcare companies and pharmaceutical companies are having these national sales meetings and we're like fully booked pretty solid in January, February. But please reach out to us and we'll definitely would love to partner with you if it makes sense. Harrison Wilson: 30:20 I don't let DJ full year. The reason why he was trying to like make a bunch of noise about my followers, me tell, say this man's secret is that he literally take those two thumbs and just push, connect, connect, connect. Harrison Wilson: 30:37 And I think they stopped him from being the add friends. DJ Eidson: 30:43 Listen, I think it was Michael Jordan that said you miss 100% of the shots that you don't pay. So you know what I mean? Like I got to take some shots. Host – Tiffanee : 30:49 I love it. I love it. Harrison Wilson: 30:51 Carmelo Anthony cause you'd be shooting. Host – Wrap Up: 30:55 You guys are too much fun. I have thoroughly enjoyed having you and I so appreciate you coming on. I can't say enough great things about what you're doing and I just wish you the best of luck. DJ Eidson: 31:06 Thank you. It's been a privilege to be on here. We didn't get to talk about, that's a hometown girl, Virginia. But uh, yeah, we respect the work that you're doing. Keep up the great work. Closing: 31:16 Thank you for joining today's conversation. If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and join us again to learn more of what it takes to consistently win when the stakes are high. For more information on our company, visit our website at www.winnasium.com, that's www.winnasium.com.
This episode is real. Nothing staged and is the madness that is the lives of the guys at the Babbleheads podcast. Take a listen and hear how real tears where shed for the first time on the podcast. This will either be the best episode ever to release on Babbleheads, or perhaps the worst. But it cannot be true art without risk. Right? Is this art? Maybe? Awesome intro and outro music from Joseph McDade, check out his website for more awesome free music!
We know how it goes, you graduate high school, you go to college, you meet the love of your life, you get married, and live happily ever after? Right? Is college romance expected? Is it realistic? Is it even necessary? Let's talk about it. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/savethedateshow/support
This all-star squad built out a multi-team marketing department to support multiple products for their first-to-market fantasy sports content provider. Hear how Veronica Hamel focused her team around the right priorities and hires to scale with speed and purpose. Jeff Singer provides insight into the technical side of integrations while Morgan Lee gives a marketer's perspective on channel expansion. TRANSCRIPT: [0:00:18] Interviewer: Hello again and welcome back to Braze for Impact, your martech industry discuss digest, and this episode is the pain points of scalable production, and I'm so pleased to have esteemed guests with me today from DraftKings. Veronica Hamel, Veronica is the senior marketing director here at DraftKings. Morgan Lee, CRM specialist, and Jeff Singer, software engineering manager. Thank you guys so much for being here. [0:00:41] Veronica Hamel: Thanks for having us. [0:00:42] Interviewer: So where are we right now? It's All-Star break. Right? Is there seasonality to this? Are you guys kind of like in relaxed mode or reset mode or- [0:00:50] Jeff Singer: Definitely, All-Star break is by far the quietest time of year for DraftKings. [0:00:53] Veronica Hamel: From an execution perspective- [0:00:55] Morgan Lee: Yeah. [0:00:55] Veronica Hamel: I think it's quiet, but from a strategy and planning, this is like the peak time of year for NFL. The end of June, early July, is when we're doing most of our NFL planning and when we're starting to have meetings with our executives, and getting them involved in our strategy, and getting their approval, and all of that kind of stuff. So from an execution perspective, it's definitely kind of a quieter time of year, but from a planning perspective, this is like peak time for us. [0:01:19] Interviewer: Right? It's just a different part of the brain. [0:01:20] Veronica Hamel: Exactly. [0:01:21] Interviewer: You just got to switch gears. [0:01:21] Veronica Hamel: Exactly. [0:01:22] Interviewer: That's cool. So for those of you listeners out there, those folks who don't know what DraftKings are, who's got the boilerplate? Who wants to do it in two or three sentences? [0:01:30] Veronica Hamel: So DraftKings historically was a daily fantasy sports company exclusively so really drafting a lineup, and you kind of rack up points, and you score points that you're competing against another player's lineup to win cash. And so historically, we've been exclusively daily fantasy sports and then recently in August of this past year, we launched Sportsbook as well, so now in New Jersey only we have Sportsbook which is just traditional sports betting. Who's going to win the Super Bowl this year, for example. [0:02:00] Interviewer: Gotcha. And you guys were first to market with that. Right? [0:02:02] Veronica Hamel: We were, yes, in New Jersey. [0:02:04] Interviewer: That's very exciting. Veronica, I think you're the most tenured person in the room. Right? You've been for quite a ride with DK. Was it four or five years? [0:02:12] Veronica Hamel: Five and a half. [0:02:13] Interviewer: Wow. [0:02:13] Veronica Hamel: Yes, it's been quite- [0:02:14] Interviewer: Five half and a half. [0:02:15] Veronica Hamel: Quite the long ride. [0:02:16] Interviewer: Jeez. And I guess that wasn't even that long ago, but for some reason in my brain, it's like smartphones didn't exist five and a half years go. I don't know why. [0:02:24] Veronica Hamel: Well, some of the channels we currently use did not exist or weren't being used by us five and a half years ago. [0:02:30] Interviewer: Right. So DraftKings sprouts up in 2012, and you joined in 2014. Right? [0:02:35] Veronica Hamel: Yep, yep. [0:02:36] Interviewer: So what were some of the initial priorities and obstacles that you had to face to get the marketing engine really humming? Like was there a team in existence? Were you kind of the first one of your kind to start out some of these initiatives? [0:02:48] Veronica Hamel: Yeah. So as most startups do, we started out with a pretty big acquisition team, and when I say pretty big, I mean three people. [0:02:55] Interviewer: [crosstalk 00:02:56]. [0:02:56] Veronica Hamel: But we didn't have anyone doing retention yet, so I was the first retention person to come on. At the time, we didn't have a ton of customers, and so the whole point of having an acquisition team first is because you're trying to acquire new customers and then once you have those customers, you then hire and kind of build out a more retention-focused team, and that's what I came in to do five and a half years ago. In terms of the types of things we were tackling at that time, honestly it was getting out an onboarding series. Like, we started out very, very slow, and we didn't have all of the sports that we have now. We were mainly focused on just MLB and NFL. It was a very different time where it was easier at that moment because we had less complexity in terms of sports' seasonality and the number of sports that we had. But we also were starting up as a company, and so there was a lot that we had to kind of take on and figure out how to navigate. [0:03:48] Interviewer: And as far as customer-facing comms, you were basically starting from zero. The world was your oyster. Right? [0:03:54] Veronica Hamel: Exactly, yes. [0:03:56] Interviewer: When you jumped in some of your first retention stuff, was it cross-channel right away? What were kind of the foundations of that? [0:04:04] Veronica Hamel: Yeah, so when I first started, we actually only had email. We had email in what we call site merchandising, so a couple of placements on the site that we were using to communicate to our users, and that was basically it. Those were our two channels that we were mainly using. Email we split into transactional and promotional. That was it. So it was a very few channels, and at that point we actually didn't even have an app. We were exclusively a web-based product. So from there, when we actually launched our app, we started then in push channels and started getting a little bit more into the mobile experience side. Pretty shortly after we got into the push side is both when Morgan joined and when we actually brought on Braze. [0:04:45] Interviewer: So mobile wasn't even part of the game when you were in there? [0:04:47] Veronica Hamel: No. [0:04:47] Interviewer: And now is it the biggest part of your business? I mean- [0:04:52] Veronica Hamel: So in terms of the app, the app is definitely a much bigger part of our business. In terms of the channels that we use, it's actually still a fairly even split. We see a lot of traffic coming from email. Then again, it's mobile email, so people are opening on their phone and going right into the app, so it's a little bit different than kind of when we first started where our mobile web product was interesting to say the least. Now, we've kind of mobile optimized. We both have that in terms of a mobile optimized site, but also we we direct deep link into the app and people kind of have a better experience from there. [0:05:26] Interviewer: Cool. And so acquisition team of three. [0:05:28] Veronica Hamel: Mm-hmm (affirmative). [0:05:29] Interviewer: Adds Veronica. [0:05:30] Veronica Hamel: Yes. [0:05:30] Interviewer: Team of four. And then Morgan joins the following year? [0:05:35] Veronica Hamel: I think it was a year and a half, maybe two years later, like June of 20- [0:05:38] Morgan Lee: Yeah, June of 2015. [0:05:38] Veronica Hamel: 15. [0:05:40] Interviewer: And what was Morgan's mandate when she started? She was brought in. You had one job. [0:05:45] Veronica Hamel: It actually was push. [0:05:46] Morgan Lee: Yeah. [0:05:46] Veronica Hamel: So when we brought her in, we were starting to experiment with push and kind of other different channels. And so originally the team was so tiny. It was me, you, Robyn, Jesse. [0:05:57] Morgan Lee: Yep. [0:05:58] Veronica Hamel: So it was pretty small, and at the time it was kind of generalists. Everyone had to do a little bit of everything, so I think Morgan got a pretty solid foundation of everything. But pretty quickly thereafter, her mandate was push and kind of figuring out this new channel that we were bringing on. [0:06:13] Morgan Lee: Yeah. So I guess it really started off with email and learning how to code an email because that's all we were doing, and then we had one website where we were sending push notifications, but it was like once a week maybe. It wasn't really a strategy. It was just kind of, "Oh, we have a big contest this week. Let's send a push notification." [0:06:32] Interviewer: And so still no mobile app at this point, or it was just kicking off? [0:06:34] Morgan Lee: We had the mobile app. [0:06:35] Interviewer: Okay. [0:06:36] Morgan Lee: Yeah. And then, yeah, for me, I came on and, straight out of college, was just trying to learn everything that I could about email marketing, and mobile push, and CRM, how to send an A/B test, stuff like that, so I think it really helped me build a foundation for a lot of the skills that I have today. [0:06:56] Interviewer: Gotcha. And so your focus was push. Is this when you started to move? I mean eventually after you hard-coded some emails. [0:07:05] Morgan Lee: Yeah. [0:07:06] Interviewer: You moved away from the generalist perspective, and people started kind of focusing and like doubling down on channels. [0:07:12] Morgan Lee: Yeah, I was kind of email and push for quite awhile actually because we had different life cycles. So I was managing the inactive life cycle, just trying to get people to reactivate, for NFL mostly. And then as part of that we started... I did email, but then also it was like specializing in push and figuring out the best campaigns to send users. [0:07:36] Veronica Hamel: We've actually had a number of different organizational structures, so we've gone kind of back-and-forth between doing it at the life cycle level versus doing it more at the channel level. So we had a push expert, and we've kind of gone back-and-forth a few times, and I think ultimately it's really where you are in your business to know whether or not which one makes sense. So we're currently more at kind of a user perspective, so we've got all of our different teams. Like, we've got some calendar-based teams, and they're all doing all of the different channels versus being really specialized in one. It's all based on what you're trying to do with your users and where you are in your life cycle as a business, I guess. [0:08:18] Interviewer: Meta. That's cool. And so, yeah, I mean also... Jesus... Having the agility to be able to kind of switch the dynamic and chemistry of your team. I mean I guess it's crucial. Right? Sometimes people just kind of stack broken stuff on broken stuff, and it's like, let's let it work itself out. [0:08:35] Veronica Hamel: Yeah. That's one thing that DraftKings has always been really good at is being agile and kind of changing with the times, and reorging, and trying to figure some things out. Maybe a good time to bring in Jeff because that was a big reorg that we had that has been kind of the most impactful, I think, from the marketing perspective, is adding a platform layer and adding some engineering resources to us. And that's something we never had before, and it basically was that. It was one of those times where we had said, "Hey, this isn't really working. Let's try to figure something else out." And we decided to invest some engineering resources from the marketing perspective, and here we are with Jeff. [0:09:13] Interviewer: And here he is. What a good segue that was. What an intro, rolling out the red carpet, Jeff. [0:09:19] Jeff Singer: Yeah. So as Veronica was saying, engineering historically hadn't had much of a mandate to help CRM. There was a Marketing Platform team, but it had been very focused on the acquisition side and sort of site merchandising type thing, so some of the critical sell flows along the app but not sort of the actual retention and- [0:09:43] Interviewer: Right, [crosstalk] products. [0:09:44] Jeff Singer: The things that Veronica's team was focusing on. So I kind of came into the Marketing Platform team with the mandate of just like, "We need to figure out this whole CRM thing from an engineering and product perspective." And so actually my first week, I went to Braze LTR. [0:10:01] Interviewer: Hey! [0:10:02] Jeff Singer: And it was a great way to really deep dive because I had no prior experience in the marketing world. [0:10:08] Interviewer: This was like three years ago? [0:10:09] Jeff Singer: No. So this was last year. [0:10:11] Interviewer: Last year. [0:10:11] Jeff Singer: Yeah. [0:10:12] Interviewer: Oh, right. Because you'd been with the company for- [0:10:13] Jeff Singer: I joined DraftKings in 2015. I hadn't moved over to marketing until 2018. [0:10:19] Interviewer: So you were at LTR last year? [0:10:20] Jeff Singer: Yes, I was at LTR last year. [0:10:21] Interviewer: Oh, cool. [0:10:22] Jeff Singer: And also my first exposure to the marketing world basically, and- [0:10:26] Interviewer: It was a lot. [0:10:27] Jeff Singer: It was a great- [0:10:28] Morgan Lee: He's grown up on Braze. [0:10:29] Jeff Singer: It was a great way to learn a lot about marketing really fast. [0:10:33] Interviewer: I love it. That's so cool. And so what were some of the first things that you were kind of tasked with? [0:10:38] Jeff Singer: So one of the things we had been working on at the time is... For a lot of the transactional emails, we had a previous engineering driven system that would basically take the things we knew that was going on with the user at the time, and transform that into some text, and call Brace to say, "Hey, basically this is the text, go send this email." That obviously isn't great from a marketing perspective because it makes it really hard to iterate. Like, if the turnaround time on changing the text or testing something new out is a month, you're not really going to be able to get anywhere fast. So one of the first things I did was kind of help move a transition over to have those emails be based off of events in Braze and then allow Morgan and Veronica's team to really iterate quickly on those emails. [0:11:27] Interviewer: So who brought Braze to the table? Like, when you made this switch to marketing is it around the time that... I mean you guys have been using it for awhile at that point. [0:11:35] Veronica Hamel: Yeah, so we started out using Braze just for push. So actually that's not true- [0:11:41] Morgan Lee: For any [crosstalk 00:11:41]. [0:11:42] Veronica Hamel: [crosstalk] messaging. [0:11:42] Morgan Lee: That's how I became like the Braze expert because I was doing push as a mobile channel and then we started off using Braze, and it was like, "Okay, another mobile channel. Morgan, you can take this, and kind of run with it, and figure out basically how we want to use the in-app channel, and how we can use it to upsell users, and cross users over to different sports." And it just kind of became another channel that we could use for upselling and crossing users over and reactivation. [0:12:11] Veronica Hamel: So it actually came from our product team. [0:12:14] Morgan Lee: Mm-hmm (affirmative). [0:12:14] Veronica Hamel: So our product team had brought on Braze as a way for us to pop notifications in the app itself. So if there was like a place where rather than them kind of having to build a new placement or a new pop-up at any given time in the flow, they hooked us up with basically the ability to be able to use the in-app messaging for us to be able to manage a lot of those pop-ups. Whether it was like, "Hey, user, take the survey, rate your experience," all the way through to we have a user or a player out in the lineup, and we need people to know. So we were using it more for the product side, and then we had kind of realized, "Hey, this is pretty intrusive to the customer experience." On the marketing side, we actually would really like to use it and manage it to make sure that it's being used properly and really being used to benefit the user experience rather than just kind of pop-up notifications everywhere. [0:13:07] Interviewer: Gotcha. Cool. So we've got Morgan working with in-app and push. We get Jeff in the mix. He's going LTR. He's learning all this stuff. You guys start to scale, and it's with sophistication. So I mean how does the nature of your business complicate email marketing? Is it pretty nuanced? [0:13:23] Veronica Hamel: Honestly, it's not just email marketing. It's all marketing. The big thing for us is the complexity of the business. Even when we just had DFS, it was a ton of different users, and we know so much about them that you want to be able to use that data to personalize and give them a better experience, but we almost had data paralysis. We had so much to use that it was kind of hard for us to know, well, what's the most important split or the most important for a segment to create? And from there just getting more sophisticated. So that was when we just had DFS. Then we launched two more products. So we mentioned that we have Sportsbook, and we're live in New Jersey. We also have Casino Games within embed in our Sportsbook app, in New Jersey as well. So basically we now have three products and now- [0:14:09] Interviewer: And that's all owned by you guys, you all- [0:14:11] Veronica Hamel: Correct. So that just increases the complexity because now you have users that are playing one only. So you're playing only DFS, only Sportsbook, only Casino, or we've got people that are playing kind of all of the combinations in between of of all of the different products. [0:14:26] Morgan Lee: The sports world too is changing daily, and we have contests daily, and you can basically bet on any sport, so it's just constantly moving and changing, and especially for email which is a channel that is a little bit more difficult to personalize. Like, you receive an email in your inbox, and that's it. It's not going to change. [0:14:46] Interviewer: A lot of tools out there for that. [0:14:47] Morgan Lee: Yeah, Braze has definitely helped. [0:14:49] Interviewer: So, again, let's wind back. We're talking about multiple products, multiple channels. How do you even manage that? I mean was this going on before the multiteam things started happening or did that kind of bring about the need for a multiteam setup? [0:15:08] Veronica Hamel: I actually think that was one of the biggest reasons why we then decided to invest Marketing Platform resources. So engineer resources for our marketing team was... As soon as we got to a place of having multiple products, we were managing the complexity on DFS. It was difficult, but we were managing it, and we were kind of coming up with some different solutions for us to use. But as soon as we kind of got into this place of having three products... And one of our biggest advantages in that space is actually that we have a customer base already who might be interested in those other verticals. And so in order for us to be able to leverage that and do it well, we needed some sort of automation, and we needed to be able to better personalize to these users without manually creating 10 different versions of a campaign. And that's kind of what we're working on now. [0:15:54] Jeff Singer: Yeah. [0:15:54] Interviewer: I haven't seen any of your campaigns because it's none of my business, but do you guys work with Canvas? Do you use that cross-channel... You know throwing promotions between people across products to kind of get them deeper and deeper into the DraftKings bubble? [0:16:09] Morgan Lee: Yeah, I think right now we're using mostly campaigns, but we have setup some things as a Canvas. Jeff was talking about how we're moving all of our push notifications, the transactional ones, over to Braze as one of the big projects that we're working on. And we're building all of those in Canvas so that we can test copy, and test personalization, and how we kind of want to alert users of tickets, and stuff like that. [0:16:38] Interviewer: So the three products are Sportsbook, DraftKings Live, and Casino? [0:16:44] Veronica Hamel: It's Sportsbook, Daily Fantasy Sports, and Casino. [0:16:47] Jeff Singer: There is also DK Live, but that's- [0:16:50] Veronica Hamel: DK Live is more of a content platform. [0:16:52] Jeff Singer: Yeah. [0:16:52] Veronica Hamel: So it's like complimentary to our products. [0:16:54] Interviewer: Oh, cool. [0:16:54] Veronica Hamel: Yeah. [0:16:55] Interviewer: And do you guys plug that as well? Do you have whole campaigns around it? [0:17:01] Veronica Hamel: It's mostly secondary, so it's kind of in the same campaigns that we're doing. We're already talking about placing a bet, or we're doing whatever, and then we're also giving you content in order to have you make better decisions in drafting your lineup. [0:17:13] Interviewer: Nice. Any other cool tech toys or strategies that you guys are using? [0:17:18] Jeff Singer: So one of the interesting things in our industry is that there's so many different regulations, and almost every state has different regulations around what users are allowed to do, and that's probably going to continue to happen with the way the regulations seem to be shaping up in the U.S. Around sports betting and casino. So we've actually been playing around a little bit with Radar for being able to trigger things around knowing where people are and kind of adding more location context to some of our campaigns. [0:17:50] Morgan Lee: Yeah. And we've also been able to personalize messaging in campaigns using Radar. It's different to say, "Hey, enter this contest," but it's even more personalized where you can say, "Hey, thanks for entering this stadium. Plan DraftKings tonight because you're already there watching the game." So I think that aspect too has been really cool for us. [0:18:13] Interviewer: Did you see the CEO of Radar, Nick Patrick, at LTR when you were there for that first time? [0:18:18] Jeff Singer: I actually didn't, but I think- [0:18:19] Veronica Hamel: Yeah, funny enough, I actually think that's exactly where this came from. [0:18:22] Interviewer: Oh! [0:18:22] Veronica Hamel: Yeah. Yeah. [0:18:23] Morgan Lee: I was blown away. I thought it was a really cool product, and I was like, "Veronica, we should really look into implementing Radar," and we kind of ran with it. [0:18:33] Interviewer: What? [0:18:34] Jeff Singer: Yeah. [0:18:35] Interviewer: I got to let the marketing team know this. This is fantastic. And so now you guys have the multiteam difference from what I have come to understand. You have your calendar team and your triggers team. I mean how did the idea for a multiteam setup come about and was it difficult to rally support from that executive team, right? Because I mean I guess it's kind of you, Veronica, who has to kind of round up with Dan and kind of let them know this is a priority. This is what we need to invest in. [0:19:05] Veronica Hamel: So in terms of us deciding we needed it, basically where we ended up landing was 95% of our effort was really going towards these calendar-based campaigns that were, "Enter this contest today or place a bet on something that's happening today." And we weren't really focused enough on user life cycle, so we had some kind of set it and forget it onboarding treatments, but we weren't paying enough attention to things like better notifications for a better user experience, or you've got a player in your lineup that is projected to score zero points because they're out for the day, and all kinds of these small different things that were both user experience and player life cycle that we just didn't have time to focus on. When we were focused on the things that were happening today and tomorrow, we filled up 99% of our plate, and we just never had time for anything else. So we decided to kind of break off a team and have them very specifically think about things that are a little bit more user life cycle. It was made possible by Jeff and his team. So in order for us to be able to do a lot of these things, we needed these kind of event-based triggers and data that we were able to then use in Braze to trigger those communications. So it kind of was both. We weren't focusing on it, and we realized that there was a huge opportunity, and too, we now had the resources in order to be able to enable this team to be effective. [0:20:27] Interviewer: Gotcha. And so, like you mentioned, you just didn't have the bandwidth because there's just so many of these high possibility conversion moments around user behavior. Right? And you just can't grab them all. So when you expand to these two teams, was there concerns that it could be too much? Every little thing they do, they get a ping, and maybe it's overwhelming for a user? [0:20:51] Veronica Hamel: It's a great question. When we started thinking about how we would setup this team, we also started thinking about needing a Preference Center and needing the ability for a user to opt out of very specific communications. We also then were piloting an internal tool. We were working on [inaudible] prioritization. So to make sure that a user could only see one contact in one day from the broadest sense, so there's still obviously transactional emails that a user can see, and transactional notifications a user can see in the back-end. But if we were trying to get a user to... Either they're inactive, and they dropped off, and we're trying to get them to come back to the site on some specific promotion that we know that they've reacted to in the past versus, "Hey, it's MLB All-Star break, play in that.' We started kind of prioritizing the life cycle campaign above the promotional campaign, so we were trying to be a little bit careful with that. But these two can actually speak a little bit more to an upcoming project that we have on Preference Center that I think is probably going to help that even more. [0:21:52] Morgan Lee: Our Preference Center right now does have some communications that you can opt in or opt out of. We have leagues where you can play contests with your friends, so there's a lot of notifications in your league if someone posts a contest. So we have some of those, but it's not as personalized as we'd like it, so we want a notification center that includes push and email and also has a lot of the different trigger notifications that we've added. So we have a push where if you have an injured player in your lineup, you can receive a notification and letting that user know that the person is out, so having a preference for that. Also, user preferences in terms of what teams they like, what sports they really like. So that's also a project that we're taking on, hopefully pretty soon, Jeff. [0:22:43] Jeff Singer: NFL's coming up, so we've got- [0:22:44] Morgan Lee: Yes,. [0:22:45] Jeff Singer: A lot of other things too. [0:22:46] Morgan Lee: Yeah. [0:22:47] Interviewer: Are you guys big sports fans? Is it a prerequisite to join? [0:22:50] Jeff Singer: Definitely not. [0:22:51] Morgan Lee: No. [0:22:51] Jeff Singer: I mean I am a pretty big NFL fan. There's a lot of people here at DraftKings who actually aren't sports' fans. I remember having to explain once to someone on my team, what I touchdown was. [0:23:06] Morgan Lee: Oh, wow. [0:23:06] Jeff Singer: Yeah. [0:23:07] Veronica Hamel: So [crosstalk 00:23:07]. From a marketing perspective- [0:23:09] Jeff Singer: Maybe that's an engineering thing. [0:23:10] Veronica Hamel: Yeah. That's definitely an engineering thing. From a marketing perspective, I think it depends on what they're going to do. So it's definitely not a prerequisite, but we do tend to hire, or we try to hire people that at least understand or want to understand because they're writing a lot of the copy, and they're talking to our players. [0:23:26] Interviewer: I was just going to say copywriters. [0:23:26] Morgan Lee: Mm-hmm (affirmative). [0:23:27] Interviewer: Right? [0:23:28] Veronica Hamel: So from our perspective, it's much more important for people to kind of understand sports and have a couple of people. We do a pretty good job of almost having a balance between the super heavy sports fans that can kind of help and share some of that knowledge. And then more of the like creative, innovative marketers, we're not going to turn someone down if they're an awesome marketer but just don't understand sports. It's just a balance of making sure you have the right amount of both on your team. [0:23:53] Interviewer: I mean it might be an idea to update the onboarding process at DraftKings to teach some of the... You know Football 101. What is a touchdown? How do I do it? [0:24:02] Veronica Hamel: Well, maybe on the engineering side at least. [0:24:03] Jeff Singer: Yeah. [0:24:05] Interviewer: So with this dual team structure, do you guys see an expansion to even more teams outside of Calendar and Trigger, or what does the next evolution kind of look like from your perspective? [0:24:17] Veronica Hamel: Yeah. We actually just added a second team that is kind of cross product, and so we have someone that is very specifically focused on tech tools and process, and we're working with Jeff's team pretty heavily on trying to get to a place by the end of 2019 where we're pretty automated. And that has been a lot of work on both his team and my team in terms of coming up with the strategy and figuring out how do we test some of this stuff first before we just turn on automation and make sure that it's actually valuable. And automation is so broad that it's been a lot of strategic conversations around, "Let's bite off a piece of it, automate that, and then move forward, and kind of sequentially get to a place of better automation." So we have someone, Jesse, who actually was my second hire at DraftKings, and used to be Morgan's boss, who's been working very closely with Jeff's team on kind of automation, and tech tools, and process. And that's been really helpful to kind of push things forward a little bit faster than they were moving before. [0:25:20] Interviewer: What other things in your stack are you guys working with? You mentioned Radar. [0:25:24] Veronica Hamel: We use Segment today. [0:25:25] Jeff Singer: Yeah, we use Segment pretty heavily for some of the event stuff I was talking about earlier. I know we're evaluating some kind of analytic tools. That's more on the product side than the marketing side, but as far as being able to understand how many of our users went through some flow and then the result of where they ended up. [0:25:46] Interviewer: So between the three of you, you've seen a nice handful of iterations of the marketing team here at DraftKings. Do you have any like parting words for our listeners that are trying to build out a marketing org and balancing/juggling priorities? [0:26:03] Jeff Singer: I think a big thing for me is just staying flexible and kind of being able to react to opportunities as they come up. [0:26:11] Morgan Lee: Yeah. And I think so too, and it's actually gave me an opportunity to kind of move my career in the way that I wanted to. So I started with mobile, got really invested in that, and then learned a lot about Braze, and so that's now helping me on the triggers team where we're using a lot of the features in Braze to trigger notifications. So honestly think it can be good for a team to grow, and people can specialize and learn more about what they want to. [0:26:38] Veronica Hamel: Yeah, I'd say the biggest thing is don't be afraid of change. Again, we've gone back-and-forth between segment-based to channel-based a couple of different times, and I think it really just depends on where you are as a company and what makes sense at that time. So hopefully, we have hired a great team of people who are super flexible, and they're willing to learn new things, and kind of take on new opportunities. And that's been the biggest thing for us, and just having a team that's flexible, and is willing to learn, and change with the times has been the most impactful. [0:27:10] Interviewer: Don't be afraid to change. Stay agile. Will I see you guys at LTR this year? Maybe? [0:27:15] Jeff Singer: Yeah. [0:27:15] Veronica Hamel: Probably. [0:27:15] Morgan Lee: Yeah. [0:27:16] Veronica Hamel: We usually go. [0:27:17] Interviewer: Excellent. All right. [0:27:18] Veronica Hamel: Maybe we'll find another cool tool that we want to use. [0:27:20] Interviewer: I think you just might. Keep your eyes and your ears open. [0:27:22] Morgan Lee: Let us know who's going to be there. [0:27:24] Interviewer: Absolutely. We will send you guys the lineup. So Jeff, Veronica Morgan, thank you guys so much for being here. Or, you know what? Thank you for allowing me to be here in your headquarters in Boston. [0:27:34] Jeff Singer: Thanks for coming. [0:27:35] Morgan Lee: Thank you. [0:27:35] Interviewer: And thank you guys for joining us as well. Take care. [0:27:38]
There's an old joke (and a famous website) comparing programming languages to religions, but the analogy is truer than it might seem at first blush. Logic structures are everywhere in scripture. Pair programming strongly resembles the intensive 2-person style learning found in all orthodox Jewish Yeshivot.In part 2 of this conversation, we continue to explore how your religion - the one you grow up with or grow into - is very much like a module you've inherited as a code owner. Listen or read the transcript below. Leon: 00:00 This is a continuation of the discussion we started last week. Thank you for coming back to join our conversation. Josh: 00:06 Welcome to our podcast where we talk about the interesting, frustrating and inspiring experiences we have as people with strongly held religious views working in corporate it. We're not here to preach or teach you our religion. We're here to explore ways we make our career as it professionals mesh or at least not conflict with our religious life. This is Technically Religious. Leon: 00:29 Um, I'm curious about, uh, again, some of the things, you know, the ways that we look at this, for example, uh, with consequences. You know, if you, if you do, if you are that cowboy coder and you break that module, you say, "Ah, I can write a better one of these and I can...", You know, and all of a sudden what happens? Like the entire code is an operable and I think that religion has a similar thing. Somebody who comes in and says, uh, you know, I know that there's these religious tenants, but we don't have to do this thing that's not important anymore. And the whole thing falls apart. Josh: 01:05 Hey, Mormon Mormonism had that. Leon: 01:07 Okay. In what way? Josh: 01:08 Well, so Mormonism was founded on the idea of a, of restorationism. Um, so that the, the idea of, um, truth had to be restored. And one of the truths that was restored by Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, was the idea of, of polygamy. And that was carried on after his, his, uh, death, uh, murder martyrdom, however you wanna frame it, um, in a, in a jail. Um, and Brigham Young carried that on. So, you know, Joseph Smith had like 34 wives. Um, Brigham Young had 57, I think, some number like that, but when Utah wanted to become a state, um, the US government said there's no way. We are not letting a bunch of polygamists, um, uh, obtain statehood. So in, um, the mid 1890s, 1895, I think, um, Mormonism dropped polygamy. And when they did that, there was a huge rift that was established, uh, in the church. Um, there today there are Fundamentalists, uh, Mormons or Fundamentalist LDS, um, who still practice polygamy. Uh, even when Joseph Smith was, was killed, the idea was, you know, who's going to take over, um, the church split then the, um, his, his, uh, son Joseph Smith, the third cause Joseph Smith was actually Joe Smith Jr. So his son Joseph Smith, the third, um, started a, another religion. Um, so like these riffs, um, they, they happen and they tear apart, um, really good teams, you know. So again, you know, Mormonism had it right. It was as, "Hey, this thing works really well for us except for we're going to get rid of it..." And it breaks. So when you, when you do that within technology, when you do that within a programming language, when you fundamentally change the core of who a, of your technology, you can piss a lot of people off. Patrick: 03:09 Nobody likes a fork. Corey: 03:10 [Background] No! Josh: 03:10 Nobody like soft fork. Leon: 03:12 Oh, he took it. Okay. Corey: 03:13 Yeah. Patrick got it. Before I could, yeah. This is, this sounds exactly like you're forking or branching off code eventually off of, you know, GitHub or do you think about just Linux in general? I mean, especially apropos with Josh, uh, talking earlier about, you know, being scared of Linux, you know, this is, this is exactly what Linux did. You have your Debian and you have Red Hat and you have Minz and you have Cinnamon. You have all of these things because everybody has said, oh I can do it better or I can do it, I'm going to do it differently. Or you know, and it's just this chain that comes on down. Our open source projects have this all also, I mean the number of times I've had, you know, to especially in my current job to hey this, this one feature works great man, I needed to do this other thing that I will, I'll just fork it and just use it for my own purposes. New Speaker: 04:03 [inaudible]. Leon: 04:04 yeah. Patrick: 04:05 Isn't that the point of theology really? Which is you have four different projects that are all forked from the same root. And there's a lot of people who will love to be opinionated and argue with you all day that their one particular implementation implementation is the one true and only implementation at anyone else who gets excited about anything else is obviously wrong. But the reality is that they are all forked from a common set of service requirements. And that th that really the point of theology is to establish some base, uh, almost, anti-patterns. Exactly. But a set of a set of common frameworks that everything else descends from and as long as you can see it from those original design requirements, then you don't have to worry so much about the specifics. Leon: 04:54 Right. So I, yeah, I like that idea that, that religion in in one respect is establishing both patterns and anti-patterns and saying, you know, this, these are the things that work well and you know, or tend to work well and that's uh, based on observation of Millennia and the wisdom of the sages of the language that's doing it or the religion or whatever. And here's some anti-patterns that we've seen and here's why. So I think that that's, that's good. I was also thinking about, again, back to the idea of consequences that um, in code, you know, we talk about bad code and you know, uh, you know, the program just doesn't run, but that's not the worst thing that can happen when you run bad code. It can actually destroy the host system. You can actually do physical damage to the system with bad code. And you can certainly wreak havoc with data, with the, with the tribal knowledge of a corporation. With bad code, you can delete entire databases and you can, you know, you can really lose the essence of what's going on. And I think that people who try to take a religion or a religious, uh, philosophy living structure and then bend it to their will and change the foundational principles really do end up destroying the host system, in this case, the society. Um, and they have, you know, they have the risk of destroying the data that sit, that societal knowledge of how we do things, the, even the societal identity of who we are, um, that religion poorly implemented can have that, can have that consequence. Um, so I think that there's, that that similarity again of, as, as programmers, we know that there's actually a lot at stake if we, if we don't test, if we don't implement correctly, if we don't follow, you know, I would say proper procedures, best practices, that it's more than just, oh, your module didn't run, "Haha. Sucks to be you." Like we can really like mess up badly. Y2K is a great example of the potential risks of what could have happened. Doug: 07:03 And one of the advantages that you get them is as coders because I can really mess things up. [Don't ask me how I know]. Um, but as a result, when you take that into, when I take that into my religious life, I'm careful with how I handle the attributes of my religion, the beliefs of my religion. I have been known in some conversations to go ahead and question people who were really, really solid in, uh, you know, in their belief of something that was wrong and really irritated some people. And, and I'm more careful about that now because I now know that I have got the capability to break things, to break people, to actually make their lives worse. Um, if I go ahead and use what I know about how my religion works, how my code works to essentially make it, make things break. So I'm really careful about drawing people out to make sure that they really are making a mistake. It used to be that I would assume that if something went wrong, it was probably somebody else on the team. I now assume it's me. I mean I'm in nine times out of 10, I'm right. But so I'm much, much more careful about how I do what I do in coding. But I'm also very careful about how I do what I do in my religious community cause I don't want to break that community. Leon: 08:21 All right, so I'm going to ask you folks, cause you guys are, our programmers are real programmers on a Script Kiddie. Um, how often have you had this really elegant, really concise, incredibly compact piece of code that you realized you can't put into the final program? You need to expand it out, make it longer because you knew that the people who are going to come back later to troubleshoot weren't going to understand your super duper concise version. You needed to expand it a little bit and is not the code version of putting a stumbling block, stumbling block before the blind. Doug: 09:00 Yes. Many times. I mean one of the, one of the tenets is the person who kind of come into code later. You're never going to be as smart as the person who wrote it in the first place. So you really need to write it for a dumber programmer cause that person coming later. Maybe you mean? Well now when I was teaching programming, I mean I actually had a really beautiful piece I used to call it, I was teaching c and it it would take a digital number and turned it into binary and it was like a two line recursive piece of code that was just, I mean I called it programming poetry. Um, none of my students got quite as excited about it as I did but it's nothing that I would ever put into a real piece of working, uh, code because most people have trouble understanding recursion to start with and this stuff was so spare that it just, you had to spend a half an hour just to finally grasp what it was saying. So the, the trick is to go ahead and find something that works but that regular people can understand as opposed to you on your most brilliant day. Corey: 10:01 I mean we have a similar thing though in in Judaism. I mean you, you always think about there are patterns that we always, that we have to follow. We have these set lists of things, you know, uh, solid principles Uncle Bob Martin has yeah. That, that we follow and these are your journeys and we have ideas at the rabbis, you know, either you're added safeguards and those are pretty much what our design patterns... Leon: 10:31 OK, right. Corey: 10:31 ...are, this, these, these rules. And of course, one of the fundamental rules of this all is you're not putting a second one on top of one on top of another decree. Basically, you're not putting a pattern around another pattern that that's just, it's in and of itself, its own anti pattern. Leon: 10:49 Right, right. You don't put a fence around a fence. Corey: 10:51 Yes. Patrick: 10:52 That would be nice and code. Yeah. Leon: 10:54 Right. Because yeah. Too many layers of, of extra, um, ... Corey: 10:58 Too many layers of that distraction. Yeah. I mean, as an example, I remember I was on a project where the, the project that the code was, the project was supposed to have been delivered six months earlier and the guy who was their architect had spent months just doing the architecture and he had over architected it to the point where even the simple html tag was its own function and it, it bogged down the system and it just made it so impossible to where it looked beautiful. But it was so impossible to work with and to actually create the code that no wonder this project was running so late. Patrick: 11:41 OK, there are no, there are no zealots in software. Speaker 6: 11:43 Okay. There shouldn't be. There are certainly are. Patrick: 11:48 Right. Well, what if, and this goes back again to the kind of community aspect of great, like what if the best religions are the ones that are religions of attraction in the same way that the best projects are the ones that are project of attraction and there is no right or wrong, um, what there actually is as a sense of fellowship around a um, um, a goal. And that those projects which tend to drive the most engagement are the ones that are most welcoming and where there are this disparate set of voices, each with their own opinion. And there is no, you did this right, you did this wrong, you are an elder, you are new to this. And instead that the projects that are the most successful with technologies are the ones that build fervor, naturally because people are just excited to be a part of it, right? Like that. And that as the ultimate anti pattern that removing judgment from it and letting it be a project of attraction is the one that builds really healthy communities around a particular type of technology that actually survived. Leon: 12:50 Right. And, and I'll also say that to your point about judgment, that uh, both religion and programming, um, individuals come, come to those groups and they say, I want to improve, I want to be better. But there's a really big responsibility and there's a, there's a dance that has to be done about giving correction. That, in religion, Doug, this goes back to your point about being careful about what you say and Patrick, what you just said about you know, about code, that if, if I invite someone to say, "Hey, can you evaluate my code? Can you, you know...?", I'd like you to look at my, you know, lifestyle, my choices and offer your perspective on it. That's an invitation. If that invitation is not extended, someone who offers uninvited their correction, whether it is code or religion, is really crossing a line and has a very real chance of driving that person away in both cases. Patrick: 13:51 Right. I think, not to drop the observability word here, but I will... Leon: 13:56 There we go! Patrick: 13:57 So much of it ends up being like, how do you instrument a religion, right? Like, is it, are you looking at, you know, are you looking at latency? Are you looking at CPU utilization and memory? Right? Is it about how it affects the end user or is it about you? And like a, a bunch of really discrete metrics about the infrastructure. Because if you measure something, let's say, what is the 'peace' metric here? Right? Leon: 14:20 Okay. Patrick: 14:21 What is the faithfulness metric as opposed to, oh, I do the Hokey pokey and I turned myself around and I get up and I get down at the right times and I say all the magic right words. It's like where do you put the metric on it to determine whether it's doing the most good or not or whether it's the best for you or not. So there's an opportunity to uplevel. I think we tend to get way too granular into the practice instead of the outcome. Oh, and I'm talking about code now in technology, but yeah, I mean like putting, putting metrics in place that are not sort of minimum acceptable performance metrics, but instead like, where's the delight here? Where's the thing where we're going to move forward? And those tend to be more crowdsourced, end-user focuses. And not so much about everyone who's already converted or everyone who's already practicing the right way. But like people who were new to it. Like is this actually something that a community would want people that would be attractive and would draw people to it? Or is it insular and it actually excludes people? Or it makes you feel like you're always trying to catch up, uh, because you're afraid of being judged? Leon: 15:23 Right. But I will say that in both religion and code, there's the aspect of people wanting to work hard at it. The, the joy doesn't mean that it caters to the lowest common denominator and makes everything easy and low risk and low work and low stress. That both religion and code work best when you're asking people or you're offering people an opportunity to grow. And that means sometimes facing some relatively uncomfortable elements of themselves, but not in a way that breaks them, It's in a way that strengthens them. Patrick: 15:58 but aren't, they aren't the best projects. The ones where you can get to 'hello World!' 10 minutes after you, uh, get clone. Um, but also the ones that you can spend hours every night digging into the code base with more and more detail and opinion and history about why the thing ended up the way it was like aren't the best projects, the ones that are open that there is no idea of this person is an expert and this person isn't and it's accommodating to people who are interested in technology and excited about automation and learning how to, to really think beyond a prescription and get to the part where they're using their passion and it doesn't matter and you don't judge them for you, you welcome them to the project regardless of of their experience level? Corey: 16:44 Yeah, I mean that's one of the key things that I, I've had to adopt being a team lead now at my company is I've got a number of developers who have far less experience than I do it. It's a matter of not just getting them up to speed and making sure that the team is enjoying the process and make sure everybody is excited. I mean, we work on the accounting module and accounting, you know, you can get kind of boring. Leon: 17:12 It's not the sexiest module in the program. Doug: 17:15 Hey, hey, hey, I like accounting. Corey: 17:19 Yeah. I mean, Hey, I'm Jewish. I love counting money. Leon: 17:21 Oh God! Corey: 17:21 Also, don't get me wrong... Leon: 17:23 Corey! Patrick: 17:25 We should have video for all the head shaking. Corey: 17:27 Do we have a legal department? Leon: 17:32 [Groaning] OK, keep going Corey: 17:32 But there is that, that, that element of having to bring people in and making sure everybody is taken care of. Then leading back to what Patrick was saying that I want to make, I need to make sure as as the team lead, that everybody's in the right place and everybody's in a good place for it and for this project to move forward and for us to all collectively get this across the line and get to the end where we're supposed to be. Doug: 18:01 Evangelical Christianity when it's done right, in my opinion, of course, but because of course I know what's right, you know, uh, but evangelical Christianity when it's done right is both welcoming in the beginning, but has that ability to grow and your joy and everything increases over a period of time. Evangelical Christianity as it's portrayed generally in, uh, the media and in most people's minds is that whole judgmental hitting you with the Bible. You know, you're a terrible person judging the world. Uh, and it's unfortunate that, that, that's the impression it's gotten. But that's because there are a number of people who are Evangelical Christians who feel it's their job to fix the rest of the world. The reality is, it's like in the Christian world, we're not supposed to be judging the world. It's not our, that's not our bailiwick. It's not my job to go ahead and fix everybody else. We're, we're actually supposed to fix ourselves. You know, when you come into the Christian community, you're, you're essentially are guided by the community and to grow in that community, but your job is not to go ahead and fix everybody that's outside. Leon: 19:13 Okay. So I think that puts to bed, uh, some of our ideas about the ways in which our religions are like our programming lives. But I don't think it's a perfect match. I think there are situations in which it does fall apart. Um, for example, we were talking about consequences, you know, of our choices. And while there are a lot of similarities, I don't believe that a core memory dump is the same as spending eternity in hell for those people who have such things. So, um, what are some ways in which our religions are not like programming? Where does this not stand up? Doug: 19:46 With consequences? Leon: 19:48 With anything. Doug: 19:48 I'll tell you. Well No, I'm gonna say with consequences because the, there's a couple number one, 9 times out of 10, if you screw up in code, you know, like really soon. I mean, if you're working in a compiled language, it doesn't compile. If you're, you know, you run your tests, your tests fail. I mean, you find out right away. You can sin really badly in most religions. And it doesn't, the reason why we have televangelists that sleep with their secretaries for months and months is because you don't, God does not immediately hit you with the lightening bolt when you screw up. So the, the, the consequences in religion tend to come at a longer range and people being not quite as focused as they should be, might think that they got away with it. Uh, whereas programming is a lot. Um, it's, it's kinda in your face. Now. It is possible to have an era that doesn't show up for years later. You know, they do exist, but for the most part, if you screw up, it hits you in the face, right now. Leon: 20:50 The feedback loop is much tighter. Okay. Doug: 20:52 Really tight. Corey: 20:53 The other thing is, I mean, we have, you don't have too many people bouncing between religions as much as you have people bouncing between coding languages. I mean, in a given day. Sure. I'm primarily a .Net developer, but I work with Angular. I've worked with, I work with SQL, all these different languages and you know, bouncing between them like, oh, this cool feature on this. Oh, this cool feature on that one. And so, you know, you don't really have that as far as the religious context goes. Leon: 21:23 Fair enough. Okay. New Speaker: 21:24 So I'm going to be adversarial here. I'm going to disagree with Corey and I'm going to agree with Patrick. I think that more and more in the world we're seeing people who are bouncing between a religious observance. Um, and, and Doug, I'm going to be a little oppositional with you as well. Um, if I, I think, I think people who are in high demand religions, um, have a very clo...or very tight feedback loop. Um, you know, so for example, within Mormonism, uh, in order to go to a Mormon temple and LDS temple, you are required to have a temple recommend. That is something that is issued to you every two years after you, uh, go through, uh, an interview process where there are, I think 12 questions that, uh, assess your, your spiritual and physical, uh, worthiness. Um, if you screw up, um, like, I guess I did when I said I didn't, I no longer believed they will revoke that, um, temple recommend. And you can no longer attend the temple. So there are definitely religious observances out there. Um, I call them high demand religions. And where there, there is a very tight feedback loop. Uh, Jehovah's Witnesses. If you are deemed unworthy by the Council of the Elders, um, you are shunned. Uh, and those are two between Mormonism and, uh, and Jehovah's Witnesses. Those are two that I'm very familiar with. So I, I think that, I mean, maybe there are some religions that are really like code and that the, that that feedback loop exists. Um, and so, I think fundamentally we have a problem here, uh, on this podcast and that is that we have self-selected some people that are rather altruistic, um, and have a very broad view on both religion and technology, right? What we need here are we need some very coarse fundamentalists. Um, some people who are very dogmatic. Leon: 23:30 [Laughing] Josh: 23:32 Um, I mean, maybe we're talking about going up to the Linux forums as Patrick suggested earlier. Leon: 23:37 Oooo... Multiple people: 23:37 Oh yeah. Oh,. Leon: 23:39 I feel called out. Patrick: 23:40 Okay. Apple forums. Multiple people: 23:41 Apple, that's worse. Josh: 23:45 [Laughing] It really, Oh, you know, we're, we're, we're talking about, um, in a very pragmatic and, uh, holistic way the way that we want religion to function. The reality though is if we look out into the world that's not the way that, that religion necessarily functions. Um, you know, there's a reason that there's a really bad church in Florida that, um, travels around the United States, uh, shaming and shun...., Shaming people for things that they do. And I'm not even going to mention their name cause I just don't like them. But those people are religious. And for those who are listening, I am air quoting, you know, my little heart out here. They are, they have a very profound religious observance but they would not fit in well with this group here. Leon: 24:32 But I would, I wu... I would also argue that that flavor of whatever of lifestyle is exactly, we are talking about with consequences that a religion where you've changed the base tenants and you've started to really veer away can actually do damage in the same way that code can ruin, you know, a societal structure or it religion can ruin a societal structure that your code can ruin your data structures. Um, I wouldn't call that a[n] effective or even a legitimate, uh, religious expression, and I've realized that I've alienated them and I'm okay with that. Um, I would, I would also say. Doug: 25:12 They're not going to like you! Leon: 25:12 that's fine. I'm good with that. I, I consider that a plus. Um, I also think that, um, to a few points that were brought up, the bouncing between religions, I think that there's a difference between people who bounce between basically, I won't say fundamentally, but basically Christian religions going from, uh, and, and I'm going to, I'm going to express in betray my lack of nuance when it comes to Christianity as a whole. So feel free to dog pile on me if I'm really wrong on this one. Corey: 25:45 [Background] You're wrong! Leon: 25:45 Thank you! That, I want to point out the other Jew just did that, but um, to say that, to say that, you know, bouncing from say Presbyterian to, uh, to um, Catholic to something else is a lot different than bouncing from Buddhism to Judaism to Hinduism that, that you're really, you know, those are some radical shifts, but you can have somebody who bounces from say Perl to C# to say Delphi and you know, very gracefully goes between those,... Patrick: 26:24 What if it's not about the language at all, right? Maybe it's about what if it's about service requirements, right? And that the demarcation, um, much like with an app server where it's requests come in and then the code itself is abstracted by whatever happens on the back end. And so what the requesting client sees a request and they see latency and they see data completeness or resiliency or availability. These are all things that they see. And then the actual code behind it, the, the design patterns, the way that it was compiled, the unit tests that were part of that acceptance delivery, the way that it was deployed, all of that is concealed to the end user, right? So what if at the end of the day, it really is just about the services that you deliver and that the way that way we choose individually to make the sausage that delivers that service don't matter. What if it really is about the service delivery and that taking yourself and your theology and your dogma out of that interface is what actually delights users, is what actually encourages people around you to hang out with you, to engage in conversation and the rest of it, and so that taking that whole idea of opinionated platform, judgment, patterns, correctness away in the same way with application delivery, is the goal. It's how do we measure whether people actually enjoy engaging with us and they don't need the details. And in fact the details distract from an opportunity to have a great interaction and to do, to leave the world a better place than it was. That the details do matter and they matter, especially in terms of being concealed or at least not being forward with the details and said being forward with the service delivery. Not with the details. Josh: 28:07 Listen, We can't ever have Patrick back on the show. I am just going to say that right now. He is far too levelheaded. Leon: 28:13 [Laughing] New Speaker: 28:13 Uh, yeah. Sorry Patrick. Patrick: 28:17 Well listen, I think about, I think about technology literally 90% of the time, the fervent and my handle. There's no joke about that, but I'm not kidding. I spend probably the remaining 10% of my time thinking about cosmology and theology and morality and the rest of it. Like "Why am I here?" I mean like the whole point of, of, of religion is that we evolved an organ of our brain that is designed to engage mysticism that allows us to go beyond, you know, being 12 years old and realizing our mortality and you know, as a cave person jumping off of a rock because you realize that this whole thing is eventually gonna come to an end. So you have to put something in there like the human experience is about mysticism. So like you're, I don't want to say you're picking a flavor and putting something in there, but like recognizing that it's about that user interface that's for the, the great faiths, the great religions that have been around for a long time. Theologies that that thought, whether it's theologies or it's um, uh, software approaches that were year in and year out. Like if you look at some really great Cobol coders from back in the day and you compare to the code that, that a lot of people are writing now and feel like no one has ever followed this pattern before. Of course we have that. It's that it's really about that longterm goal. And it's really about delivering services. Not about the patterns, the specific patterns that you use or the words that you say or the the verb tokens that you use or how it's compiled, or is it interpreted that doesn't matter. It's like what happens after the demarc point. Thanks for making time for us this week to hear more of technically religious visit our website, TechnicallyReligious.com where you can find our other episodes. Leave us ideas for future discussions and connect to us on social media. Corey: 30:01 .Net! Patrick: 30:02 Go but optimized for Google, so GoLang. Doug: 30:06 Delphi. Leon: 30:08 Perl! New Speaker: 30:08 Guys, guys, please, can we just unite against our common enemy? All: 30:12 Php!
The saying goes: “Never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance”. This is the same idea as “weirdness points”: you can only bother people a certain amount before they go away. So if you have something important to bother them about, don’t also bother them in random ways that don’t matter. In writing about science or rationality, you already risk sounding too nerdy or out-of-touch with real life. This doesn’t matter much if you’re writing about black holes or something. But if you’re writing about social signaling, or game theory, or anything else where the failure mode is sounding like an evil robot trying to reduce all of life to numbers, you should avoid anything that makes you sound even more like that evil robot. (yes, people on the subreddit, I’m talking about you) I’m not always great at this, but I’m improving, and here’s the lowest-hanging fruit: if there are two terms for the same thing, a science term and an everyday life term, and you’re talking about everyday life, use the everyday life term. The rest of this post is just commentary on this basic idea. 1. IQ -> intelligence. Don’t use “IQ” unless you’re talking about the result of an IQ test, talking about science derived from these results, or estimating IQ at a specific number. Otherwise, say “intelligence” (as a noun) or “smart” as an adjective. Wrong: “John is a very high-IQ person” Right: “John is a very smart person”. Wrong: “What can I do if I feel like my low IQ is holding me back?” Right: “What do I do if I feel like my low intelligence is holding me back?” Acceptable: “The average IQ of a Nobel-winning physicist is 155”. Acceptable: “Because poor childhood nutrition lowers IQ, we should make sure all children have enough to eat.” 2. Humans -> people. This will instantly make you sound 20% less like an evil robot. Use “humans” only when specifically contrasting with another animal: Wrong: “I’ve been wondering why humans celebrate holidays.” Right: “I’ve been wondering why people celebrate holidays.” Acceptable: “Chimpanzees are much stronger than humans.” 3. Males -> men, females -> women. You can still use “male” and “female” as adjectives if you really want. Wrong: “Why do so many males like sports?” Right: “Why do so many men like sports?” Acceptable, I guess: “Why do male sports fans drink so much?” Use “males” and “females” as nouns only if you’re making a point that applies across animal species, trying overly hard to sound scientifically credible, or arguing some kind of complicated Gender Studies point that uses “man” and “male” differently. Acceptable: “In both rats and humans, males have higher testosterone than females.” 4. Rational -> good, best, reasonable, etc. See eg here. Use “rational” when describing adherence to a good cognitive strategy; use “good” etc for things that have good results. Wrong: “What is the most rational diet?” Right: “What is the best diet?” Wrong: “Is it rational to invest in bonds?” Right: “Is it a good idea to invest in bonds?” Acceptable: “Are more rational people more likely to succeed in politics?” (if asking whether people who follow certain cognitive rules like basing their decisions on evidence will succeed more than those who don’t. Notice that you cannot sensibly replace this with “good” or “best” – “Are better people more likely to succeed in politics?” is meaningless (unless you switch to the moral value of “better”) 5. Optimal -> best. I feel kind of hypocritical for this one because the link above says to replace “rational” with “optimal”. But if you really want to go all the way, replace “optimal” with “best”, unless you have a specific reason for preferring the longer word. Wrong: “What’s the optimal way to learn this material?” Right: “What’s the best way to learn this material?” 6. Utility -> happiness, goodness. Use utility only when talking about utilitarian philosophy. Wrong: “Will getting more exercise raise my utility?” Right: “Will getting more exercise make me better off?” Wrong: “What is the highest-utility charity?” Right: “What is the best charity?” or “Which charity helps people the most?” The same applies to “utility function”. Wrong: “My utility function contains a term for animal suffering.” Right: “I care about animal suffering.” 7. Autistic -> nerdy. Use autistic when referring to a psychiatric diagnosis or a complicated package of sensory and cognitive issues. Use “nerdy” when referring to people who are book-smart but lack social graces. Wrong: “Haha, my friends and I are so autistic, we talk about physics all the time.” Right: “Haha, my friends and I are so nerdy, we talk about physics all the time.” 8. Neoreactionary -> right-wing, far-right, reactionary. Use neoreactionary when talking specifically about the philosophy of Mencius Moldbug, if you think you’ve looked into it and understand it. If you’re just referring to far-right ideas, use far-right.
We discuss the recent elections in Spain. Socialist come to power in order to defeat the far right! Victory for the Left or for the Right? Is this how to fight Fascism? What does this say for the US elections in 2020? Good Overview of Election Results What’s Left? Website: Podcasts: iTunes: stitcher: Googleplaymusic:
Chris Husong is a market expert in the hemp industry. Accounting for the challenges of public perception, legal challenges, and the burdens of science to prove the claims for hemp benefits have all shaped the climate in which hemp is used today. Born in Texas, Chris moved with his parents a few times throughout the country, studied theology in California, worked in finance and telecom, and after confronting his own biases, discovered that the hemp industry needed legitimatization. Teaching the skeptics, directing messaging for correct use, and ultimately using education as the chosen tool for sales, Chris shared with GCP why the truth behind hemp is the only way to properly build its acceptance.https://elixinol.comFacebook: @Elixinol https://www.facebook.com/elixinol/LinkedIn: @Elixinol https://www.linkedin.com/company/elixinol/Twitter: @ElixinolCBD https://twitter.com/ElixinolCBD?lang=enInstagram: @Elixinol https://www.instagram.com/elixinol/KBMD CBDhttps://kbmdhealth.comhttps://gutcheckproject.comKBMD CBDhttps://kbmdhealth.comhttps://gutcheckproject.comWhy should you buy a $0.99 now the bag because it's no ordinary bag can save you 20% of three or more items you can fit inside some call that magic others say it's the eighth wonder of the world but whatever it is this the best way to save you 20% outbreaks filters wipers and more quality parts helpful people that snap a no no dissipating up auto parts store's loss was last minimum three exclusions apply conference 10 3119 well it's a gut check project this is episode number eight project we check our egos at the door and they get your health in check I'm here with your host Dr. Kenneth Brown I'm Eric Rieger Doug Brown I doing today I'm doing fantastic episode number eight holy cow I feel like we have the words flying through these episodes every time we come always a better guess today is no exception at all this is gonna be really exciting now is to be very exciting is your mind when you said episode number eight remember that show it is enough I don't want that to be the theme as well as Rabbi and it won't be today she was incredibly excited we have on today Christian song long term market experience within the hemp industry and he has me setting it is getting an incredible tale of coming from a world of high regulation in telecom and in banking and basically what the hemp industry means to America he's got lots of interaction stories and what it takes to make people understand the importance of hemp and how to accept the message of me what did you can you gather out of that amine Christmas we met at first two years ago yeah so my my initial meeting of Christmas two years ago that's we told the story before will repel your facts right and I walked by the lexical booth and another salesperson other than marketing person Christine Thiel grab me and the thing I remember most about that is Dave Christine and Chris all super tall like this is a really tall child apparently hip will make you taller I know you call me someone will be involved with that company so we could do some real basketball or something you know join the election all basketball team what you honestly if you're in listening to get your project today if you've ever wondered about hey look at him is new to me and I'm not really sure what to think that's that's okay today's episode is really kind incredible as Chris can walk through what it's like to to not just look at Hampton say minutes taboo that's taboo it's okay so many people started there and he's got a lot of experience in helping people understand the benefits behind him and what he can do to change their lives for what I love about this is that he comes from these industries are so regulated and she had to transform that into an industry that is so misunderstood you know when you look at that you look at his bio he only looks on website it says it is skilled in helping people and companies overcome their psychological creative and strategic barriers so that they can achieve the professional personal and creative goals so more than just be the chief marketing officer this guys can be my life coach break through all those barriers yet when Ken and Chris Chris's got a lot of a lot of expense he actually went to theological theology school in not in California but were to talk about that for sure yes that means because just think about the transition nearly everything he's gone through in and of course and he's either great guy can't wait from to join the show hit the bottom of the hour course that they were have KPD KB MD's corner where basically Dr. Brown will die do like he's been doing the last seven shows in address some recent research topics and get tiny previews about what to talk about your two minutes yeah so what we always like to do is try to have a bootable format here so everyone knows what to get it into the show so we know we have a fantastic guest I also want to talk about some recent science it's out there so we have forcefully graduate student that helps us out and she sent a really cool article about ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease the same disease that killed Stephen Hawking right I have a very personal tide of this because when my good friends Dr. Russell Veronica in San Antonio a gastroenterologist that I've trained with and with medical school with his father unfortunately passed away of this so I saw this article which to my knowledge the first one that actually looks at ALS and CBD ties in perfectly because we have Christmas song near chief marketing officer now we can't make disease claims what we can say is look it may help some of these different diseases where there really is no treatment and this is a really cool study that I wanted didn't and it's also even said that because today shows can be so incredible and that the way we learn how to balance real information and what we can legally say as a marketing person and then what the consumer can do with both of these angles to kind of piece these puzzles together much like the episode we had last time in stem cell oh yeah you know this fascinating cool stuff you like why don't more people know about this will Chris has to deal with that every day is like no we can say this we can't say this oh my goodness yes is be fantastic if we did this but we have to do it this way because his background I think is a perfect background coming from the super regulated industry to an area that is so gray that you really need somebody very disciplined like him to sort of take the reins and that's why think election all such unique company yet without question let's get some of the paying the bills out of the way and first off the bat love my tummy.com/spoony what could that be in reference to well I believe you're talking about my baby trying to I am trying to so we talk about how our transit was initially developed for bloating and digestive issues change in bowel habits abdominal discomfort what I am seeing a whole lot of which is really cool really getting into this practice of just coming up in the next few weeks that are professional triathletes we have different bodybuilders and things like that that we have slated to come in one of the things we do realize is that the polyphenols in trying to actually increase blood flow to the muscles so that you can have better performance in just about everything so the polyphenols go to your: where your own colonic archer will break them down into anti-inflammatory and basically antioxidant species so that you can recover from workouts and you can actually increase blood flow so not only is it good for bloating but I encourage everyone to go to love my Tommy.com/spoony put in the spooning code SP 00 NY and get 10% off I just answered you did bring up athlete hotrod teal is the only NSF certified for sport product out there indicated for bloating what is it me so if something is NSF certified for sport specifically it means that 1/3 party the NSF foundation has taken the product and they made certain that everything you mark on your package is truthful date they can be backed up that the claims that you have for your studies are verified and that every single product it makes up the composite award the product itself is clean if you're an athlete you don't have to worry that something you and a girl you're going to take with the NSF certified for sport moniker on it might contaminate a sample or might not do exactly what the ad the labeling says so NSF certified for sport is the same thing that Richard dietitians there with MLB NFL NCAA Olympics Olympics they look for that little mark to make certain that when they recommend a supplement or an over-the-counter supplement or aid to their athletes that it's on there so they know that it's a it's a clean product and John Teal features that endorsement that's also because a lot of companies don't have that we pay to play for that eventually I think that what we should have is a KB MD endorsement over here was just means that we like the product to say absolutely right some quick follow-up from from my last week show one of the coolest things as people began to take in Dr. Wade McCann as if he didn't check out episode seven go back and listen last week if you have any questions about stem cells the future stem cells what it's like to market stem cells in this FDA over regulating environment even know you have truth in your hands go back and listen episode seven but once Wade McKenna finished his his episode all week we received email I even got texts stem cells are good for hair growth stem cells can actually help me with my sciatica that I've been dealing with for a few years it's amazing what people don't know about stem cells and then how many people said I thought whenever I used quote unquote cord blood that I was using stem cells and it turns out that you're just not so anyway last week's feedback to getting feedback from last week I got a ton of feedback I actually got a ton of feedback people were I got a lot of calls people wanted to go I think a lot of people actually call me how to actually get into Dr. Wade McKenna's practice of which I think is also because when we have some real like that they can make it make a difference I mean when I sit there and think about this we are completely under utilizing everybody with analysts on the show so far photo bio modulation stem cells once you get into the science you like wow the site speaks for itself much like CBD yes science much like outrun to the science hold its own yeah and that's a cool sinks within a marketing gimmick it's none of this and that's what Chris is going talk about how do you how to stay above how do you stay above the bar where everybody else is trying to play a marketing game and usually want to get out there and help people that's remarkable whenever you look back and you does mention it photo by modulation with James Carroll and talking about stem cells last week with the Dr. McKennitt the parallels that were running here with the CBD industry or hemp industry and what the FDA basically is doing because the FDA is it it it playing all three of those we got truth and results so true and you just can't cannot see it's crazy but anyhow if and you can always go back and check any of our previous episodes you can always go to iTunes and search for gut check project so be sure to subscribe and share with the print so speaking of share with a friend sought a shout out and we need a little help from our audience here only give a shout out to my friend John Demoss who texted me and said while really liking your show when you do your Instagram post make sure that you have closed caption and Eric and I stared each other like great idea and we are complete newbies to this kind of thing so like how do we do that if you know how to do that please hit us up so that though we can start put in the closed caption or whatever it is on history now do you want even better if you're interested in sharing with us you would like to I guess audition to be our Instagram helper let us now go to KPMG health.com find connect shoot us an email in the form and I will holla back at you I promise we don't know what were doing with Instagram really want to know before next week because we've got the basically an Instagram start coming on the show and so we've got we had a really cool show next week also but today is the one that were focusing on so please iTunes you to YouTube you can also do the gut check project channel you can subscribe and share there as well that we are always here in the Sony studio you can always listen live it spoony.com so smutty.com iTunes get check project YouTube gadget project thank you so much subscribe and share so Dr. Brown let's head into KPMG corner what's on the corner today well let's talk a little bit about some personal stuff start this is kind of interesting I'm a little bit embarrassed about this what you know how when sometimes it's too close to you and you don't know what's going on well my mom unfortunately she fell hurt her shoulder about three months ago and she's been rehabbing Kent and I was just talking to her and I just went oh my gosh did I not send you CBD that are not and she owes no I don't know you know I tried something like that some hemp oil what she tried screws that endure anything else like okay let me send you something so I sent her some bottles with some vitamin D and sufficient oil because I believe in using these fatty acids to really help brain information in such large Dr. couple days ago and she was post be doing three more months of rehab and she goes okay and it's so exciting I don't have to go to rehab anymore my shoulder feels great it actually back to normal this is after you sent everything this is after center about two weeks of using the CBD and so she's Artie on trunk Hill always has been for quite a while but so after sending the CBD and now embarrassed because I'm like oh my gosh my own mom herself and that would be something owed to the patient immediately you just forget when it's too close and then my sister who's actually black belt in aikido and she's always been yourself open to students rose to banged up my mom gave her a bottle and she just texted me this morning said oh my gosh that works so well the key to this Morgan talk about this with Chris that there are differences in different types of CBD and what is out there how you market so my personal story is sorry mama should be given to to three months ago just was too close to it we got so much stuff going on and you know fortunately better late than never she's doing great yeah I know that's a it's of these brothers, interesting so you said in another we can touch on Chris but when James was on James Carroll from outdoor laser he talked about imitators right and then last week with the with Dr. Wade mechanically talked about imitators or people that don't administer stem cells appropriately or may not actually even be utilizing stem cells but saying that they are or putting in chemicals that will destroy destroy those that are not probably not to their own fault I just don't know enough about it because the reality is we talked about this is CBD industry and I'm I tell my patients this I said I would get into a loop of the science would explain a little bit we have this new brochure that explains a little bit and we get into the fact of what your end or cannabinoid system is how it links the nervous system and the immune system put you back in balance that is so simplistic because the reality is were going to see a field of medicine called Endo Kanab analogy and your Genesee specialist called Endo Canavan allergist's share I'm convinced of it sure any of you have a hepatology ST have the endocrinologists there is actually no reason why you would have an Indo Campanella just as we begin to learn more that CBD absolutely totally agree right it's about you anything going on in the personal life personal life at the boys I mean honestly the boys are doing great. During off-season basketball who ended up I know that seems like add the theme but that's that's really what they're into but I did go shoot with my youngest earlier this week and I learned that dad dad is the worst basketball player in the household now Matt can drain from all points of the court I'm just I'm no match anymore there faster than I am and now that he's basically 6 foot tall and 15 and gauges about 61 now in 1730 I just not much I can do with with either one of them so very much dominate brain I headed down to Kaleo FX this week though oh that's right you want one of my favorite conferences to be great conference it's a chemist think that immediate which is so busy just to go this week will unfortunately I have to go to Newark New Jersey and film a national commercial for archer until Roger entails time to take out her until the next level were to be doing some national commercial so I would love it really affects would love to be helping out at the election all booth pate BMD CBD booth trash and talk about trying to learn the on the entourage effect without an CBD but I don't fly up to New York in the true commercial which I'm a little bit nervous about the Wilson estate bowing on the head Keith Michelle Noris tune into your commercial as soon as it airs big shot today and they are the one to put on file with X they do a great job if you never been that appealing effects in Austin Texas it is what's your time you going to be introduced to a bunch of different things that could probably change her health and that's how we found CBD out and say I'm very partial to pill effects last year I give a talk and one over really well talked a lot of people had to be able to get their books it was really exciting you just it just fun to see a like-minded community I did the mojo 50 show this morning we're talking about sugar and the paler community does not really eat M&Ms those guys do M&M tasting Delphi lot M&Ms of failure effect listen if you have M&Ms you to balance it out with much until Fisher 100% totally so yeah you just have a great time hello effects I will make you feel better about you not been know to beat your sons because the only person that can warm Lucas up is my daughter Carla because both my wife and I are incapable of even even hit the ball back against those guys don't know probably know why it's super humiliating I I feel memo Mike is it embarrassing that the youngest person in the family is the only person I can warm Osama before matches and vice versa they want each other up it's really cool that's get down so I'd have any hits on the on the corner before Chris joins us will I do want to bring up one thing here I will bring up an article I was try to bring up one article to talk about just now woman talk about marketing Christmas songs it's about marketing a lot of people look at the big deal I want to tell everyone about this and so on I really like to look at disease specific states And the article that we can achieve that in the beginning here is an article related to the meta-analysis was published in the Journal of neurochemistry here this year just couple months ago and what it looked at is it did a meta-analysis which is a compilation of studies usually meta-analysis I have in the scientific literature are considered to be more robust picture taking a lot of studies putting them together and this is looking at ALS known as anti-atrophic lateral sclerosis Lou Gehrig's disease is a devastating disease and as I had mentioned earlier it actually took the life of my good friend Dr. Russ of Ron Ike whose guesser Alderson San Antonio and we actually saw his dad his father correct we actually saw this progressive disease and that's the deal about ALS eight what it does is if you're unaware of it I find it to be one of the most devastating diseases out there there's a book called Tuesdays with Maury that I read back many years ago they commit a movie about it also censures about the progress the progression of ALS and somebody that where there is a caregiver helping them out and you get a feeling about how it just slowly chips away and what it does this damages the nerves that control muscles so over time all of your muscles weaken to the point where they cannot contract eventually hitting the diaphragm so you can't read you lose the ability to speak because you can't control your tongue you lose the ability fine motor movement changes first because the small muscles go and you can't button things and it is just a debilitating but you keep your mind eventually you have some mind changes and they don't really understand why it is they believe there's a small genetic component but really what it is it's an excitatory issue with the nerves releasing too many of certain chemicals that eventually do not allow the do not allow the muscle to contract on the words and try to sting like muscle doesn't work so this was quite a while ago I've been in practice for 17 years Russ and I with both med school and fellowship together it was during residency so were talking 27 years ago 25 years ago I do know anything about CBD fat I know they must be in touch two years ago so this study came out red actually showed that they looked at mice and they looked at their ability to travel distance they looked at their grip strength that she put them through some sort of little American ninja course where they had them hang upside down on the net so like a Jacob's ladder, it was it was it was really it was fascinating that I made a run a wheel what they did is they they actually looked at those that had that were given CBD and those that were the control group and what they showed across the board in this meta-analysis is that those mice I'm sorry let me preface that the mice were genetically predisposed to have ALS so they all had a lot okay okay and what they did is that they showed that the mice that were on CBD could actually run further the mice could cling long-running that they actually increase the grip strength running real activity and they had improved survival and they did not have weight loss when they looked at all the studies something stood out to me that was very interesting they were all given CBD one particular study that they look that used a Madrigal inhibitor now what Maggio is is that's the enzyme that breaks down to AG one of your Dodgers and of cannabinoids in one of these days were to get into the deep science about the inner cannabinoid system gets all complex that's a drug it's in study and it's called KM L 29 so it's fascinating that the FDA's over here try to regulate right and in the background you've got drug companies try to develop drugs to manipulate the system if they can figure out that's awesome but is really interesting because the macro inhibitor was not as good as the traditional CBD and so what they found is that CD1 and CB to agonists in other words CBD significantly delayed the decline of motor function when compared to the control group and they showed a consistent 12 to 25 days longer of normal motor function in the mouse world what you doing is really improving that so right now there's no treatment for this they've got a couple drugs available one called real you tech and one called red Dick Reddick Have Not Even Sure That That Was around When Ross's Dad Was Sick They Said That It Could Potentially Slow down the Progression by a Month or Two While the Superexpensive Month or Two That's It I Member at the Time When We Went outside and Rushes Flying All over the Country Thing Is That Everywhere There Were Trying Everything They're Looking at Using Creatine and Different Things like That so Here We Have This Deal Where We've Got Eight Now You Can't Just Translate Mouse Models to Humans But It's Really One of the First Step in Trying to Figure Some Stuff out My Deal Is That We Know That CBD Helps in Many Different Ways and I'm Not Saying That This Is a Disease Claim I'm Not Saying That This Is Functioning and Will Help but It Certainly Can't Hurt and Might Help Right so When You Have a Very Specific Disease Group like ALS to Desperate Group with No Significant Treatment I Think It's Fascinating That These Guys Went to the Trouble of Putting Together This Mouse Data to Actually Try and Figure This out so Here We Have Grip Strength Upside down Running All of It Which Means That There Is Some Potential That This Could Actually Help This Very Devastating Disease and Is Very Small Group of People Because It's Rare but When It Does Affect You It Affects Everybody It May Affect One Person so the Number the Thing We'll Talk about Is When We Say Disease Oh This Is the Incidence of This Disease This Is the Prevalence of This Disease As Somebody Who Lost My Dad at a Young Age It Affects More Than Just the Person That Dies Share the Prevalence or the Incidence of the Disease Affects Everyone Around Them Right so I Think That If We Can Help Those People with ALS If You Know Anybody with ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease This Is Something That May Be Showmen We Can Certainly Forward This Article to Anybody That Would like to so Include Any of the Studies That Utilize a Mouse AMI All All of the Drugs They Began and and and Started There to Try to Find out If This Is a Workable Model and Unfortunately with Today's Highly Regulated Environment He Can't Just Keep Going Forward but Were Trying to Help People Connect the Dots This That CBD Is Safe to Take and You Shouldn't Have Any Serious Side Effects Certainly by Consuming CBD It Just so Happens That in This Mouse Model We Saw These Improvements Draw from the Conclusions What You Will But This Is What I've Seen and I Mean I Think That Were Hinting In the in the Correct Direction I Just Think That It's You Know This Is Work Were Offering Hope Church When Scientists like This Do This You Just Offer Little Bit of Hope And It Is a Devastating Disease and We Just Want to See People and Just Offer Them Something an Alternative Right And If They Can Even If They Feel a Bit Better Well We Got 20 Seconds Left Here in Just a Moment We Are Going to Be Joined by Chris Who Song the Vice President of Marketing Communications Analytics and off a Hemp Industry Marketing Expert Is Going to Be Incredibly Silly Very Exciting and Super Excited Let's Do the Seal Here in about Two Minutes Dr. Kim Brown Here a Host of Check Project with Lycos Eric Rieger Eric Regency and Mojo Guys over There and Overhears Really Talk about Our 20 over Bloating I've Seen in My Practice That I'm Trying to Is a Whole Lot More Than Just a Floating Product Yes It Does a Whole Lot More Than Just Exploding Because of the Polyphenols That You Find Keen on Trying to Get Your Exactly Right the Polyphenols Are Those Molecules That We Find in the Mediterranean Diet It Makes Vegetables and Fruit Very Colorful What Are Some of the Things These Polyphenols Do Eric These Polyphenols Can Actually Stop and Nation Help You Have More Energy Thinking Have You Antiaging and Polyphenols Are Great Athletes It Sounds like It's Your Health: More People Than Just Loading Tell Me How It Is Taking out Front If You Want to Go so 2002 Capsules Three Times A Day Facing Me with You Aren't Bloated and Just Want to Polyphenol Intake Everyday Three Chances of a War for You to Love My Tummy.com/Are You Tired of High Cable TV Rates Sign up for Dish Today and Get a $500 Bonus Offer While Supplies Last Loss Locking Your Price for Two Years Guaranteed Call American – Your Dish Authorized Retailer Now 800-570-6630 800-570-6630 – 800-570-6630 Authors Required Critical Negation 24 Month Commitment Early Termination Fee Any Automakers Friction Supply Call for It Looks like You're Losing I Am I Losing Weight I Am Losing My Lost about 10 Pounds How Are You Doing It Funny Name but I Done It with Review Zone RAD Use Zone.com and the Stuff Works It's Unique It and All That the Molecule Bissonnette Found in That I Can Tell You Is It It so It Makes You Feel Full and He Keeps Your Mind Off of Wanting to Overeat and Also Boost Your Metabolism If You're Done and More Guy Try It Today It's Gonna Work for You like His Work for Brad and Countless Other People Read You Zone.com Are IDUs Zone.com Okay Welcome Back to the Second Half Hour Episode Eight of the Gut Check Project I Married Grigor Joined by Your Host Dr. Kent Brown and Now We Have the Vice President of Marketing Communications at Alexa and All Mr. Chrissy Song Chris Welcome to the Show Thanks for Having Me Absolutely Absolutely Better Radio Voice Than You and I Both Well Yeah Well You Guys Have a Better Face for One of the First Things He Chris Asked Where He Sat down and Said Do You Guys Do One Headphone or Two and Then Can Analogize That We Do We Do to Because We Didn't Know How to Do That so Anyhow I Just a Quick Reset Thank You for Joining the Show Thank You Again for Having Me Actually Catch a Project Is Brought to You by Arch on Teal As Well As KB MD CBD You Can findkbmdcbd@kbmdhealth.com and it just so happens that Chris may happen to know a little bit about KB MD CBD As Well Please Think Our Dialects and the Power Power by Licks and All so Chris You We Are Now in Dallas That's Where Our Studio Is Siam in Dallas Here with You Guys Thanks for Having Me I Grew up in Plano Just down the Road Just I Know That That's Also That's Where I Live Right Now Sam Right on Teakwood Okay All Right in the Middle Was Back When There Was Still Some Farmland in That Region Roads That Were Definitely Not Paved Back That Well While You Have Made Your Journey All the Way to Being a Market Expert but It Was You Got Zero Stress Remember I Was Told about Russ and His Dad yet Will He's Just Call Me Right Here Is Try to Call Him to Let Me Describe a Little Bit about about His Experience Home on Such a Crazy Timing to Rent a Van Fantastic What Will Look at That Set up Well in the Meantime While Were Getting the Call Set up Which This Be Our First Time We've Ever Had Live Taller All for You Chris That's Awesome Though Our Weight Much to Say Go Wildcats for Plano West Guy While Nice Nice Sticky Big Absolutely so from Plano You Are You Hello When You Plan to Graduate High School There No so I Was Born in the Fort Stockton Texas Home Right Now Where Judge Judge Roy Bean the Hanging Judge a Hanging Judge Meant to Write Also the Largest Groundhog Population in Texas That at the Time Did I Know That I Seconds Probably Pretty Pretty Have Been Doing down There but No I Moved to All over Texas with My Dad Is an Engineer for General Electric Okay so We Were All over the Place and Then Moved to California Right and I Graduated College out There and Jumped around All Sorts of Places since Then Is Your Degree in Theology Theology Yeah That's Right This Is Great for What I'm Doing Preaching about Hemp and CBD What May Think That I in All Honesty When You Find That There Is Actually Quite a Bit of Similarity and There's Going to Be A Lot of Congruent Messaging Well There There Is A Lot Of Congruent Messaging and and We Can Get Super Deep on It If You'd like but Overall Community, Theology or CVD Will Get the Loan Both of Them Get Real Deep on Both but That Because I Think Are Highly Connected I Think One of Them I Don't Know How Far You Want to Get into This Right Now but CBD Itself I Think It's Is One of the Main Things in the Unit Can Have Annoyed Systems and Allows All That Better Empathy Sure Which Is What Is Causing so Much Disregard and Disconnection in Our Society Right Now Right and If We Can All Take a Significant Amount of Quality CB and Improve Our Ability For Our Brain to Connect with People and and Not Have Social Anxiety And Connect to People Then Were Going to Actually Build Improve Our Culture and and Not Not Have All These Great Divides so I Would Assume That Probably Whenever You Are Studying Theology That That May Not Have Been Your Attitude Towards CBD or Hemp Products or That Was Even on Your Radar Though My Gosh Cannabis in CBD and Hemp Was Bad Sure You Know the Devils We Write Back Then and That It's Definitely Not Something That I Supported I Told My Kids Said No Don't Do Dumb Stuff Listen to Dad and Don't Do Drugs and Cannabis Was Definitely One of Those Things and I Had to Change My Tune Much Later in Life and My Mom Actually Group Cannabis and Marijuana While She Was Raising Us in Texas and Oklahoma and Back What Was Illegal She Was like One of the Original Member That Was – She Is Original OGE That so and You Know I I Being the Rebellious Teenager Decide I'm to Put Our Three-Piece Suit and Go Learn Religion and You Look down from My Port Perch on People and Obviously I Had to Humble Myself and Admit Mom Was Right the Whole Time That Is so Fascinating I Don't Want to Break the Story Whatsoever but I Think We Have Our First Because This Is Going All Dr. Russell Running San Antonio He Is Patched in And Russ Can Hear Us Morning Man This Is Also My Was That Obvious He Heard the Show This Morning Was Talk about You and Your Dad I Appreciate That That Means A Lot It Does so Russ Whenever You Found out That Your Dad Had ALS When When You Look at the Options That Were on the Table What and in You Being Physician What Did You Think of the Landscape and What Did You Think the Options Would Be For Him and Then Now Looking Back to What What Cans Talking about in Terms of CBD and ALS What I Mean I Lost My Dad You've Lost Your Dad Can Lost His Dad and You Know It's It's No Fun for Anyone Any Always Wish That You Had the Experiences of Technology Later What What Do You Wish You Could Take Back to in Time from What We Learn Now She Mentioned That My Dad Started Get Sick with ALS Back When Can Our Medical School Diseases Just Initiated This Really Is and They're Just Just Seated Man Who Was Pillar of Strength and It Just Wait, Wait Enough and Where They Couldn't Hold a Hammer He Could Climb a Ladder and the Most Devastating Part of That for Us Was When He Studied the Single Ball Ballparks in Ankeny and Carry on a Conversation and Eat Well Anymore Back Then There Was Nothing for Writers One of Those Diseases like Pancreatic Cancer You Got It Sorry I Just Not Then We Can Do and Then I Moved down Here to San Antonio Started Launching Residency and Fellowship and Hooked up with Carding Jackson Was a Neurologist down Here Amazing Woman Who Runs a Big ALS Clinic Here in South Texas and I Started Flying My Dad down Twice a Year and She'd See Him in an Even In Her Clinic It Was the Experimental Things of This Kind of False Hope Was Some Anti-Inflammatories There Wasn't Anything That Worked and There Are Days When It Looked like It May Be a Little Stronger and Days When He Wouldn't Now 15 Years Looking Back You Know That He's Been Gone There's Been so Much Advancement in so Many of These Neurologic Diseases and It's These Natural Types of Things That Seem to Keep Coming up As Potential Cures for This and Have Even Had an Opportunity to Have Him Try Something like This Back Then I Did My Right Arm for Combat and I Would Believe That You Don't Get Back That's I Think When You Talk about Suitable Were What Is Referring to Is the Ability to Swallow the Ability to Form Wet so I Remember When Your Dad Would Come Visit and We Would All Go to Your We Would Gather His Residence Would Go to the Pool And She Would Mumble Words That Only a Wife of 30 Years Could Understand and She Would Translate so He Was Still Completely with It Couldn't Communicate but That Kinda Shows Also the Bond That Husband and Wife Can Have Watching Your Mom Be Able to Understand What Your Dad Was Trying to Say Was Very Touching to All of Us In Talking with Him and That's the Part He Hated the Most You Got Your French Don't You Go out Yes and Cocktails Have a Dinner You Care Phone Conversation When You're like That Friends Don't Want to Hang out with You Anymore Because It's Hard and Embarrassing to to Say I Don't Know What You're Saying so There Were Times When My Dad Loved to Drink Beer I like to Drink Beer I Were Small-Town Nebraska I Would Grow up up There so When He Got to That Point in His Disease And He We Had the Decision to Finally A Peg Tube Feeding Put Two But into His Stomach to Swallow Much Anymore When You Come down Here and I Cannot Would Sit around and We Drink Beer and Dad Would Set Some up in Achieving Stringent Squared Together and It Was Awesome and and One of the Greatest Things I Remember Doing with My Dad Back and When He Got to Where He Couldn't Talk Was I Flew up and Picked Him up and Took Him up to Minnesota Went Fishing and Camping for Weekend We Sat around the Campfire We Just Drank until I Can Really Talk Either Loved It but That's What That Disease Did Nothing We Tried Were I Think That What Were Seeing Now with This Is That We Can Talk on the Mode of How Potentially the End of Cannabinoid System Works in These Neurotransmitters No Rust We Have Christmas Song on the Show Today Is the Marketing Director of Licks and All and He Was Just Tell yet He Was Talking about How His Mom Actually Was The Original OG Is Raising Her She Was Growing Marijuana and He Went to Theology School, Rebelled The Opposite Way like If You Are a Pastor You Really Grow Weed If You're Growing We Bellied Theology School You Find out You Know What You Go Back to the Things Parents. It Worked and It Made Sense Mom Was Right I Long Yeah Yeah I Mean I Joke That All the Time. I Grew up My Dad Was Yellow Country Music and Bud Light Not Solid to Rock 'n' Roll and Drink Out Of Date Now 50 and I Listen to Country Music Drink Bud Light Back Here at That Time That Often Did That Because You Find Those Things Were We Did Know Hey Rossiter – Neurology Practice Are You Incorporating Type of Natural Alternative Anything like That Big and Real High Population of People That Are Educated on the Younger Patient Population That I Have an Initial Internet Savvy and A Lot Of Them Come to Me Already Knowing A Lot about These Things and Having Read A Lot about These Things It's All out There When You Look Which Having Awesome so I Do I Have Acrobatic Doctors That I Work with I Have A Lot Of Patients on CD Oils Not Just for Things like This That Were Talking about but My Miles to Christ in Crohn's Patients with Chronic Nausea Patients My Chronic Pain Patients like Everything It Works for Some and It Does Percent Doesn't. Well I Want to See How It Was with What You Can Find Is That and What I Found Is That Not All CBD Is Created Equal And so with Some Things and so We Have Chris on Right Here and That I I'm Very I Think I Have a Similar Mantra Have A Lot Of Patience to Come into Being There Already Though I'd Artie Tried to Be like My Mom Tried Hemp Oil Which Probably Was Hemp Seed Oil Now That I Think about It in the Will and so It's like All Things You Know Not All Seabees Created Equal That's Working to Get into Today for the Rest of the Show Talk about This How Do You Market That How You Get the Word out That Just Because You Tried This Blanket Term CBD You Know You Gotta Really Make Sure That They Got a Certificate of Analysis and All That so I Want to Do If You Had Patients and It Didn't Work on Listing the Rest of the Show Because It May Be That the Power Dialects All Brand Is What You Really Need That's Exactly What We Need to Hear Some I'm Glad You Get Thanks for Involving Me and Bring Back Member My Dad and Mandalay Castle Being Vulnerable and Talking about That I Think It's Important for You Know I'm the Same Way Love Talk about My Dad It's Been You Many Years Now 30 Years since He Died so I'm Lucky Enough Still Have My Dad but My Fondest Memories Are Him Drinking Coors Light on the Boat Name for Court like Nebraska State Aire's Stepdaughter Russ I Was Met Together and That Means That We We with Some Real Lean Years Were We Were Broke Ass Med Student and Your Dad Will Visit And We Would Purposely Go to Bars with a Wood Offers like Specials like in This Bar It Will and You Don't Medical Whatever I'm Agreed As I Am Still a Bud Light like You Have but You Know Such Such Beers like 50% Was like I Was like Yeah Yeah Johnny Jerilyn $4.55 Dollars to Run I Got My Recall and in This Is Awesome That Your First Call Every Now and Certainly I Deftly Appreciated I Appreciate You Guys and Will Keep with the Man Thanks for All You Do Appreciate It I See Russ Well Chris to Talk about Beer Similar Talk about Boys You Know What I'll Say This I Remember Listening to a Podcast Were One of the Reasons Why Beer May Be so Popular Is Because the Hops and Actually Have a End of – You Have a Cannabinoid -like Molecule so My Understanding Is That That Was All Made up All Really Got Some Some Marketing Guy Used His Powers for Evil Instead of Good and That the Two Companies That Are And It Kinda Leaves What You're Talking about Not All Seabees Made Same Two Companies That Were behind Those Actually Had to Admit That There Was Those Studies Were Completely Phone No Kidding Yeah That Is Fascinating I Was Feeling and Have Chris Consider Just Burst Bubble to Be Dropping Some Truth Bombs Now That's Awesome What We Were Just Wrapping up so You To Get into the Hemp Industry Because Krista Talked about His Trek from from Fort Stockton to Plano out to out to California and Then You Spend a Little Time in Germany Germany Where I Did Learn A Lot about Beer Dealer Lot Is Three and Half Years on the High School There and Going to Prom and Castles and All Sorts of Fun Stuff That's a Little Different Doing for like We Did Were in Plano Where I Would've Would've Done It Sure Sure so Then after School You Then Get into Some Regulatory I Figured out This Beeper and Pager and Wireless Things Can Be a Big Deal so I Started Selling Cell Phones and Pagers and You Know Five Dollar Minute Type Technology in and Got into the Technology World and Got into When Sprint Was in One Market You Can Only Use Her Cell Phone in Fresno Okay and Then the Only Been Growing since Then Moved from There into the Finance World and Helped with A Lot Of Regulatory World and There and Open Market under A Lot Of Rules and Regulations and While I Was There I Met a Guy Who Is Doing Documentary on Campus and He Was Put Together All These Different Case Studies and All These Different Videos and Clips of These People That Have Been Healed by Campus and at That Time I Was like No Bunch of Stoners and You Just Want You with the with the Theology Background You Carry a Bias with These Going into These Other Careers Are More Open-Minded at This Point What Based on My Initial Upbringing by My Mom Who Is Very Open Minded I Was I Was Always Questioning Authority and Questioning Things and through That Entire Process Even Going through Theology School I Was Questioning Everything around Me You Know the Minute That and Again I Don't Know How Deep You Want to Get into Religion Here but the Minute That I Heard about Their Profit Care and Oh How They the Canonization of All of the Books and How They Got into the Bible I Started to Start Questioning A Lot More and You Know They Trying Teach You That the Bible Is 100% the Word of God and Then You Decide to Figure out That Is about 15 White Guys in a Room to Decide Which Books Are in the Bible and You Only but Little Doubt in Your Head Sure I Don't I Don't Know That 15 Guys Can Agree about Anything and Deftly When Trust Something like That That's Guiding so Many People's Lives Divided 15 Guys in Room so It's It's Definitely No Been Something I'm Always Open-Minded and Looking at Things and Questioning Things I'm Click to Decide and Slow to Change My Mind so I See Something That's Right and Usually Jump Right in and Stick with It May Be Too Long and Then Dismantled That up but I Learned My Lesson Sooner or Later Click to Decide Slow to Change My Mind That Is a That Is a Great Line This It's like You Make a Decision but You Don't Have To Make the Right Decision to Make Your Decision Right That A Lot Of Times I Mean We've Already It's That Little Cliché but Sure Enough Perfect Is Sometimes the Enemy of Good Brian and I like to Move Fast and Make the Decisions What I What I Believe in My Gut I Think That If More People Moved That Way Things to Get Done A Lot Faster in Love Things I Think Doubt Self-Doubt Challenges A Lot Of Us and from a Marketer And I like to Empower People to Make the Right Decisions and Given the Right Information That I Learned Early on in My Sales Careers That When People Tell You Know It's It's Primarily Because They Don't Have Enough Information to Say Yes the More Information We Can Give Them the More Education We Can Give Them Then They Can Move Forward So It's Just That Self-Doubt That Little Gut Thing That We Need to Move Them on Let Me Answer Question Measured Market Are One of the Things That I Have Run into with My Colleagues to Coworkers and Things Is That When Somebody Is so Entrenched in Their Belief They Get This Cognitive Dissonance Where It's Almost like There Is a Logical From Then on Transits and Religion Parallels That Tremendously If There's Anything That Has Cognitive Dissonance Is When Somebody Has the Religion and You like Look Just Saying That This Is like You Said It's 15 White Dudes in a Room You Know Maybe It's Not Everything I You Know There's A Lot Of Things I Grew up Catholic so I'm I'm I'm a Recovering Catholic and We Do Know There's There's A Lot Of Things I Look Back on Them like Ha Knows A Lot Of Things Were Really Good about It Right Discipline You Know Learning Empathy Learning These Different Things Learning to Be Held Accountable for What You Do There's Higher Good Buyer Doing All This of the Stall That There's Times That I Took Away from Theology and Take Away from Christianity and Many of the Religions That I've Studied but Absolutely One of the Things That Jesus Did Many Other of the of the Profits They Questioned Authority May Question Things and so It's Really Important That We Teach Our Kids Only Teach People to Question You Know Why Is CBD Bad by Wise Cannabis Bad You Know That Doesn't Make Any Sense and You Know If You Really Want to Get Deep on Some of the the Conspiracy Theories of How This All Got Legally Illegal We Could Get down That Road to Because It Is Crazy Will It Tell You What First of All Is Not All Right Thought Would Be Going off Right into A Lot Of Parallels That with This so What I Want to Ask You Is a Marketer How Do You Was a Marketer Overcome This Cognitive Dissonance so Primarily It's Education Right What What Sit in Front of Me and What Changed My Mind Is Facts I When You Look at Some Kid Or Some Mom or Some Dad That His Life Has Been Changed Because They're Taking CBD on a Regular Basis They Went from Not Being Able to Talk To Being Able to Talk No They Went from 300 Seizures a Day Two No Seizures but Those Type of Things You Can't Deny Right Something Is Working so If You're Able Then to Dig into Why Is That Not like Rafael Mitchell and Started Right He Went to Discover the Why We Get High Right Many Found in a Can-Am Annoyed System and Then He's Figured out There's More Than One Cabinet to New There's A Lot Of People Don't Know Who That Is Identical I've Read A Lot about Him Please Explain Who He Is Sort of the Godfather Godfather in the Can-Am Annoyed System and He's the One That in an Israel Went to Go Does Study Why THC Affects People And He Threw His Studies Found the Indo Cannabinoid System and the CD1 and CB to Receptors and Why We Get High and Started Been Digging into the Plant In Finding That There's Many More Cannabinoids and Found CB Juan and CBN and CBG and All These Things and He's Really the One That It Brought This to the Forefront for Everyone and Only Because Return for Why People Get Hot and Move Forward from There A True Scientist and Also Somebody Who Discovered Something That I Did Learn about Med School No Is 9% of Medical Schools Now Teach about That Night I'm Surprised It's Not Really I Think That's Higher Than What I Would've Said I Would've Said 0% It Said to Me It Still Shocking That Is That Low That It's Ever I Mean I Understand Coming from Medical Field Where You Were Taught about It so That Makes Sense Right but Even 9% of Sure All the Doctors out There How Much Impact Just This One Camp Mind Is Made Can You Imagine If 20% of Our Doctors Knew about How This Mean the Doctors That That I Talk to Every Day You Know They Run the Gamut Summerlike Yes All Day In Summer like Crazy I Lose My License Right and That's the Education Back to What Your Talk about How You Change the Minds What a Link Small Has Done and Work with People like You Is to Make Sure That Those Influencers of the Health and Wellness World Those Health Professionals out There Those Doctors Are Equipped with Education Because There to Make the Biggest Impact You Know I Can Go Sell a Bunch of This Online and All Search Ads up There and Click Send It There but What We've Decided to Is Focused Primarily on Helping Health Professionals to Learn about Our Product Because There Can Make Big Impact in the Community so That I Think That That Is All I'm Sorry about That I Think That's Paul Paul W Are Found When Joy Was Here She Was Describing Your You Paul Gabe Your Etiology Is Not so Much Just to Move Product It's to Educate the World so That This All Become Something Bigger Hundred Percent Hundred Percent Our Founder Paulino Is Pre-Much a Citizen of the World Now He Considers Himself One of Those Guys That That Doesn't Belong Any One Country That Belongs to the All of the World and He's Trying to Make Big Changes CDs Just One of Them You Know He's Been a Hen Pioneer since the 90s Right and Made the Very First Hemp Bar Because It Had so Many Omega-3's and Omega Sixes and Nobody Was Getting Those Essential Fats Right Now You Have To Get Them from Meat Is What They Were Trying so Need to Know You Can Get It from the Plants and You Can Start Getting Those Things Because You Could Lit so Many People Implant Diets Were Deficient And There Is No Reason Because We Had Hemp Constantly When I Met You and Chrissy Feel They Will Affect Two Years Ago I Knew Nothing Was in Two or Three Working up on the Third One Now Is at Three Bad Is Probably through Your Probably Right Because I Give a Lecture Last Year Yes Is Your Go to the Third Value about so What Happened to Me Was I Just Walked by the Booth and I Was Just That Christie Just Said You Discredited Love You Bunches That Happens When Everyone Christie Just Brought Everybody and She Such a Great Evangelist Shoot She Has but It Was Literally It's like I Don't Know What You're Talking about What I Did Your Enthusiasm Send a Case to My Office Area and I Gave Away the Whole Case You Can Take Any Blog I Talk about I Did Well but One Bottle and What I Found Is That I Guess Maybe Got to Get to 24 I Think I Had 22 People Come Back after the Bottle Run out the Big Bottle of 3600 It's I Want More Know It Okay Run Something And I Gave It to I Didn't of Insiders Ate the Cost and Elect Someone to See Unbiased Just Predicate Event Just Tell Me What You Think and a True Scientist but True yet so I Had like 22 of 24 People Come Back to What Okay Were on to Something Now I Need to Start Teaching Myself Now I Need to Really Start Educating Myself And It All Starts with That Starts with Just the Domino Effect And That's What's That's What I'm Doing Right Now Working to Be Talking A Lot about the Actual Science of Stuff and Disease States That I'm Helping Not Claiming But Supporting Supporting Exactly Just so You We Kind of Hit A Lot Of Different Topics Here but Said Some Things That We Can Carry over into the Next Hour That I Think the Listeners Are Really Liking at Your Approach Chris Which Is Basically You Said You'd You Should Become Double Challenging Dogma You and You Really Should If You're Going to Find Something That Doesn't Just Mean Looking at Hemp and Saying I Think It's Taboo but I Need to Find out More about It to See If I Can Change My Mind There's Also Incidents We May Say Hemp Is Everything but I Need to Make Sure That It's Everything That Everybody Says That It Is Absolutely and Then Then We Also Need to Talk about the Environment That Allows Us to Foster This Kind Growth Because There's a Reason If I Remember the Story Correctly That the Discoveries Made in Israel It Wasn't I Wasn't Able Only One Able to Have Those Kinds of Experiments Here to Find Indo Cannabinoid System in a Stateside Because Our Government Prevented That from Happening so the Fact There Were 9% of Med Schools It's Surprising That It's Grown That Much of the Same Time It Should Be Hundred Percent so We Can Get into Some Really Deep Topics in Terms of How Do We Carry This Message Forward How Do We Make It Available to More People How We Present the Facts of the People Know That You're Not Selling Them Snake Oil That You're Not Telling That You Know It It Fixes Broken Bones and Lowers Your Gas Bill Because It Doesn't Do Those Things Really Get Bored but Actually I Think Fixing Broken Bones Lowering Gas-Filled FDA and FTC Has No Problem with Those Claims but It Is That You and I Could Probably Make a Correlation to the Lower Gospel If I Wanted Regulator System Brings a Homeostasis You Don't Need to Turn up the Heater Comes to the Practical Application of a CBD Is Really Where Your Expertise Is Because You've Made This Journey Right You Made This Journey of I Don't Believe in It to This Is Incredible I Gotta Spread This News in the Right Way to Do so Would You Are Much More Well-Rounded Than I Was Anticipating This Is Really Cool You Got One of the Things You Get a Very Calm Nature but I Would Have This Nervous Energy about My Gosh I'm Sitting on This Just Amazing Thing Wire but As Everybody Get It But You Seem Very Meth Methodical about It I Should Say Well I Have I Do Have What Is Known As Very Laid-Back Nature People Been Thinking I Was High My Whole Life When I Want to Buy Weed from Me When I Didn't Have It so It's Just in My Nature but Absolutely I'm Very Thoughtful about How We Communicate This Because It's Important You Know There Is A Lot Of Weight To What Were Doing This Is a You Know Even Bigger Than the Internet Boom in the 90s and Skin to Change A Lot Of Things Now If You Think about It CBD And Him Could Replace the Entire Johnson & Johnson Catalog So That Hits on Something That We Can Deftly Take the Next Hour to Think That That the Listeners Have Got to Email about It Already That Specifically Want to Know How Can We Put Facts and Research behind Were Going to Do in the Next Hour We Can Deftly Talk about What It Is That a Medical Practitioner Can Do What It Is That a Consumer Can Do What Is in Allied Health Professional Can Do so They Can Better Spread The Message to Allow People That Are Suffering or Just Sibley Want to Improve Their Quality of Life and Him and Him Products to To Their Rather Daily Routine to See If They Can Basically Get a Better Balance so Homeostasis Homeostasis Act about Getting Back in Balance Well That Is Going to Wrap up This First Half-Hour with Chris He Saw Will Be Back Here about Four and Half Minutes Thank You Seems to This Is the Only 24 Hour Take Anywhere Platforms Dedicated to Food and Fun Clear Spoony If Our Townhall.com, or VP Biden 20th Democrat to Announce His Candidacy for the Parties Residential Nominating Widens One of the Most Recognizable Names in Politics the Most Experienced Candidate in This Field and at 76 Seats Second Oldest Face Questions about Whether His Age and More Moderate Record Are Out Of Touch with the Democratic Party Featuring the Younger and More Liberal Contenders Correspondence Agar Magali American University Political Science Professor James Thurber Says If He Hopes to Win Biden Will Have To Find a Way to Connect with Younger Voters He's Really Running against His Own Record to a Certain Age and He Has To Persuade a New Generation That He's Got the Right Ideas Help America and Them President from Writing on Twitter This Morning Welcome to the Race Sleepy Joe Russian Pres. Putin Says She'll Be Briefing Both Beijing and Washington on His Summit with North Korean Leader Kim Jong June Says Cam Expresses a Willingness to Give up His Nuclear Weapons If He Can Secure an Ironclad Security Guarantee First A Woman and Her Two Young Children Died on the Family Car Was Caught up in Floodwaters Rolling Plains of West Texas about 75 Miles Southwest of Fort Worth Storm Prediction Center Meteorologist Matt Mosher Says One of 21 to 2 Inches of Rain Is Falling in West Texas Although Some Areas Did See a Bit More Not That Normal Rainfall Amount over It Adds up over over Dating Week so It's Been a Pretty Wet Winter In That Area and so That's What Caused The Flooding Issues to Homes in the City Hall Office of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh Been Rated by FBI and IRS Agents No Word on Exactly What They're Looking for Stocks Are Mixed on Wall Street This Morning Right Now the Dow down Sharply It's off 203 Points on the NASDAQ Is up 38 Points One of the stories@townhall.com Fast-Track Student Loans Can Get Your Student Loans Out Of the Vault Stop Any Wage Garnishments Stop Collection Calls and Stop Seizure of Your Tax Refund Give Yourself a Break to Stop the Stress and Get Your Student Loan Payments down to As Little As $25 a Month Based on What You Can Afford to Pay 800-709-4395 800-709-4395 800-709-4395 800-709-4395 Use the Expenses Blue or Yellow Pills to Charge Your Sex Life Are You Thinking about What We Can Promise You the Same Results from 3 PM If You Paying $20 a Pair for the Other Parents You're Getting Taken to the Cleaners Same Results for Less Than Three Dollars More Than $16 Account for the Same Restaurants Right Now We Will Get 44 Blue or Yellow Pills 23 Discrete Shipping You Can Save More Than Hundred Dollars Our Pharmacy Prices Right Now Your 44 Pounds over 700 and Qualify for Free Shipping over Pain, Right Now 218-647-3800 21864738 Henry 186473 That's 800-218-6473 Now You Can Fly Anywhere in the World and Paid Discount Prices on Your Airline Tickets Flight to Date Alignment Harassment to Read or Anywhere Else You Want to Go and Pay A Lot Less Guarantee Quality International Travel Department Right Now Low-Cost Airlines 800 452 1075 800-452-1075 That's 800-452-1075 Okay Welcome Back Project Is Going to Be in Second Hour of Episode Number Eight I Married Grigor Join with Your Host Ken Brown Ducked Him around after All Just Here in Dallas or Plano Texas As Well As Song the Vice President of Marketing and Communication for Election All Will That Last Half-Hour Was Very Light Very in Writing Those Funds All Inroads Lead to the Truth but Everything Good Starts with a Peer Conversation of Beer in God Patient While I Have for All of Our Listeners If You Ever Listen to the Spinning Network Which Is the Host Network of Gut Check Project Be Sure and Check out Mojo 50.com and You Can Also Find the Morse Code Brenda Morse Hosts a Great Show on Their It Starts Every Day 1 PM Eastern That Is Brandon Morse of the Morse Code You Just Talk to Brandon Not Even 20 Seconds Ago in the Hallways You Return Back to the Shed I Did and I Was on Their Show This Morning at Say What Whatever He Is on I Want That Energy Just Truckloads of Energy He Does Tons of Writing Is a Copywriters Got Several Shows That Guy's Got a Good Beard Punishing My M&Ms Right Yeah Yeah I've Been You Know What I Got Beard and Good for Everybody I Think I'm on to 1/2 Years Growing This One Right Now in the Is All I Can Do I Went down to Skin Yesterday Does Not Back up What I'm Really 40 Years and One More Mention Here in Our Live at Reduced Going to Be KB MD CBD Minima Right Works for the Company Licks and All the Powers This and There's a Reason behind That the KB MD CBD You Can Find a KPMG Health.com Is Physician Recommended by the Physician and Sit across the Table for Me Right Now So We Can Get into Some Really Neat Topics in Terms of the CBD with This Man to My Right Mr. Chris Her Song and We Just Finished the Last Half Hour Talking about Essentially Finding the Truth and It Doesn't Have To Be All One Direction or All Another Direction It's Okay to Question Even Your Own Your Own New Revelations in Terms of What You Think of Him or What You Think Driving a Car Everything Should Always Be Open for Question Would You Say Chris Yeah I Think I Think Absolutely That to You to Find Your Truth and and Search for and Find out What Works for You I Mean We Were Just Talking Earlier How You When You First Met Us Got 24 Bottles of Our Product 22 People Came Back to Get It A Couple People Cited Didn't Report Being CBD Itself High-Quality CBD Is an Amazing Product I Think Everybody Should Be Taken Every Day but Some People Decide That You Don't Not Work for Them and That's That's Okay Well It's Really Interesting Because One of Things We Talked about Though Let's Get into from a Marketing Standpoint We Purposely Our Brochure What I Wanted to Address Was a Couple Things That My Patients Always Talk about Number One Why Did I Get Involved with That Number Two What Is Your and a Cannabinoid System Get Back in Balance One of the Things He Can Help and More Importantly Which Is My Favorite Panel Here Is Why Is the Powered by Alexa and All Brand Different from Other Brands That's in There Is so Many Good Reasons to to Work with Alex on Work Find a Quality CBD and There's Other Quality CD Companies out There but I Say I'm Partial to Alexa Now but It Is Important That You Know You're Mine and That's the Truth for Just about Everybody Mean I Became Vegan about Two Years Ago and Note the Reason I Did That Was A Lot Of the Same Reasons That You Guys of Been Talk about Your Fathers in Your Your Your Parents Is I Looked at My Dad and I Looked at My Mom and I Said I Don't Have Healthy Genes I Make a Change and in a Questioning What's Going on but I Needed to Make a Change in That's White and That's I Got into the Hemp Industry and I Need to Make a Change so I Had to Do Some Health Conversations and What That Did for Me It Got Me More Connected to What I Eat But I Get More Connected to What I Put My Body so I Look at the Labels Right I Look at What's Going on That's Why to Begin I Absolutely Think That That's What You Need to Do You Doing When You're Looking at CBD Where Did It Come from Who Made It Now Is It Organic What Country Did It Come from Doesn't Have a Certificate of Analysis Can You See That It's Clean Mean We Get to the Point Where Were Controlling the Grow Where We Control the Water Rights We Know Where the Water Came around Really so We Go Way All the Way down to Temps an Amazing Plant Right Yeah It It Basically Filters the Soil It Actually Is Good for the Environment but Let's Start from the Very Beginning Here so This This KB MD Health CBD Tell Me Where This Came from So Beginning to End so It Came Out Of Your Hair It Came Out Of Your Head Right. That's Right Then and What We Found Is You Coming to Us and Just Going Hey This Is Amazing This Is Working for RFR My Patients Is Working for My Client And I Need To Be Able to Provided in a Form Factor That Fits Your Protocols and We Were Just Excited about Beating to Partner with You on That Because We Want to Be Able to like We Talked about Earlier Is Educate People Right and You're Doing Such a Phenomenal Job of Educating People How to Better Run Their Lives and Heal Their Lives and Give Their Body Information to Heal Itself And What We Really Love Is That That CBD That You Work on Is Our 3600 Format It and We Been Using That Formulation for a Long Time and You You Put Some Formulation Changes to It That the Size Form Factor and Allowed It to Even Be Better and We Love That That Model We Go to Trade Shows All the Time Going to One This Week Pay the Effects Will Go to Autism One We Go You Guys Are Doing Autism 10 Yeah We Go Every Year Fantastic We Love Is Only I've Got Just for You so in the Future with Probably One Is Autism Autism Is Mid-May Mid-May Fortune Will Be Able to Do the Surgery A Lot Of Travel Coming up but Let Me Tell You What Working to Be Publishing Probably the Most Comprehensive and Scientific Review It Geeks Out I Mean to a Level That I Have To I Mean I'm Trying to Figure out How to Make It a Little Bit Easier but You Almost Can't Dance to the Point Where It's like You Need This Science That's the to Show the Most Educated Group of People That I Go and See Most of the Time Is Autism Group Right It's It Scientist Date Those Moms and Those Parents That Are Dealing with That Are More Educator and Cannabis and Diet and and Looking at the Details of What I'm Putting in My Body Than Anybody That I've Met and As Such and More Interesting No Group of People and What's My Favorite Part Is They Won't Let Us Leave Right We Get There Early We Leave Late Every Day Because They're Just Coming up and Saying I Need This Is Working for Me I Need This Is Working for Me What I Guess Was Two Weeks Ago When I Brought up the so like I Said Every Single Show We Do Some Sort of Science And One of the Articles That I Brought up Was Out Of Israel Where They Actually Looked at the Ananda Biden to AG Level Specifically Nana Might Be the One That's Always There Which Is an Endo Cannabinoid and They Showed In Autism Spectrum Disorder Almost Unequivocally Their Lower So the Deck Stacked against Him Right There You Need to Raise It up to Get Them to This Point so It's Almost like It Is a Essential Nutrient If You Are on the Autism Spectrum Disorder so I'm Very Passionate about That Myself Yeah and and I Am to Have in It It's Very Similar to Some of the
Type A Women Are you a type A- achieving women, successful in many aspects of their life: career, family, finances but they don’t feel as successful in one area of their life: food & body? If that’s you, this episode is a MUST-listen. Susan is just like you and she shares her journey. Her journey to find peace with food and body using the Going Beyond The Food Method. The Going Beyond The Food Method is designed to help women 40+ that are successful in their career, family and finance but feel unsuccessful with their body and weight remove the emotional blocks that keep them stuck: tunnel approach to their weight via diets and exercise, negative thoughts patterns towards their body, and low self-esteem finally stop sabotaging with food and engage with their body from a place of compassion so that they can be at peace and live fulfilling life right now! What I’ve found over the years is that most women that are successful in most aspects of their lives except their body feel like they’ll never be able to lose weight. They’ve tried everything: all the diets, over exercising, personal trainers and nothing works. Frustrated, so they end up self-sabotaging with food in secret as a way to manage their feeling of guilt. What they really want is to feel confident and healthy in their body, to be free from food obsession and live life on purpose and satisfied but most of them are stuck and feel ashamed. So the mistake they make is that they attempt to control what they eat in hopes to finally lose the weight. They end up dieting and restricting even more which feels like self-punishment and self-loathing (brute force) themselves as a way to motivate themselves. When in reality, what they only need to do is to remove the emotional blocks of self-loathing and worthiness that keep them feeling stuck: feeling worthiness and self-loathing and engage with body from a place of compassion instead judgment and finally stop sabotaging with food. In this episode I discuss Susan’s journey - from using food as a weapon to beat herself up to Going Beyond the Food and making peace with food and her body How hard-working A-type women who are used to being in control can also achieve success with food and their body The role that our beliefs play towards achieving Food Freedom and success in all aspect of our lives Last episode was an interview with Molly Bahr, a Health At Every Size expert. She talked about the act of dieting as the greatest predictor of weight gain. Most of us know diets have failed us and continue to fail us. The older we get, the worse it gets… it’s not just failing us physically on the scale but also emotionally and mentally. In fact, the side effect of food and exercise obsession is leaving us feeling overwhelmed, stressed and terribly anxious. We want to be confident and healthy but we know diets don’t work… but we feel we have no other choice. Right?? Is there another choice other than dieting? This interview episode will rock your world. Click here! Leave me a review, if you enjoy the show and would love to encourage and support my work, leave me an honest review using this link, click here. For a podcaster like me, reviews are like a fuel... and I would appreciate hearing from you more than I could possibly say! Here's a quick tutorial on How to leave a review. Links mentioned in the episode Info Session - Academy Registration NEW- Live Workshop Registration Free Assessment - Quiz Join the Academy - Register Here Susan's essay on Christianity Submit a question for the next episode If you want to submit a question for Stephanie's next episode, click here and join our free and private community. Reach Stephanie Website Facebook Instagram YouTube Email ***For your information - some links above may be my affiliate links, which means I get a small commission if you click on it and make a purchase. Doing so is no additional cost to you, but helps me tremendously. Your support is SO greatly appreciated, so thank you in advance if you choose to do so***
Health At Every Size The act of dieting is the greater predictor of weight gain. Most of us know diets have failed us and continue to fail us. The older we get, the worse it gets... it’s not just failing us physically on the scale but also emotionally and mentally. In fact, the side effect of food and exercise obsession is leaving us feeling overwhelmed, stressed and terribly anxious. We want to be confident and healthy but we know diets don’t work... but we feel we have no other choice. Right?? Is there another choice other than dieting? Yes, there is... Chasing health instead of weight loss. Adopting compassionate and healing behaviors towards our whole self. The truth is weight management isn’t a guarantee of health. What?!?! Yup... and now enter Health At Every Size. A movement and scientific approach to health that isn’t focused on weight but instead what really drives health in humans. In this interview, Molly Bahr takes us through the Health At Every size basic principles. In this episode I discuss What is HAES: Health At Every Size 101 The collateral damage of dieting 'What Conventional Health Books Get Wrong, Leave Out, and Just Plain Fail to Understand about Weight' Last episode I shared my interview with one of the graduates of the Fall 2018 Going Beyond the Food Academy. It was a vulnerable one as she shared her personal journey going beyond the food and transforming her relationship to food and her body. Indeed, her inspirational story proved that the journey to body confidence and peace with food and body image is possible and quickly achievable if you... If you get committed and invest in yourself! For Erin, the transformation led her to have peace of mind and body confidence... and yes, peace with food. She is now on her way to healing other parts of her life seeking the next best version of herself. Learn more about her story through this interview episode. Click here! Leave me a review, if you enjoy the show and would love to encourage and support my work, leave me an honest review using this link, click here. For a podcaster like me, reviews are like a fuel... and I would appreciate hearing from you more than I could possibly say! Here's a quick tutorial on How to leave a review. Links mentioned in the episode Info Session - Academy Join the Academy Free Assessment - Quiz Molly's Instagram account Resources: HAES Manifesto: HAES HAES book Podcast Episode 117: Body Kindness Intuitve Eating Guide & Body Image Guide for kids Submit a question for the next episode If you want to submit a question for Stephanie's next episode, click here and join our free and private community. Reach Stephanie Website Facebook Instagram YouTube Email ***For your information - some links above may be my affiliate links, which means I get a small commission if you click on it and make a purchase. Doing so is no additional cost to you, but helps me tremendously. Your support is SO greatly appreciated, so thank you in advance if you choose to do so***
A canine charity event ends in an epic fight. Right? Is that what you heard too? Plus Hot Goss featuring Rachel Scanlon! GOSSIP was written and directed by Allison Raskin. Produced by Rachel Wolther. Sound Design by Casey Holford. Featuring performances by Amanda Perez (Mia), Allison Raskin (Bethany), Victoria Rowell (Valerie), Beth Littleford (Rockin’ Robin), Rachel Scanlon (Mayor Alice), Igor Hiller (Florist Martin), and Kunal Dudheker (Phil). For more information, visit gossippodcast.com. You can binge listen to all episodes of Gossip now on Stitcher Premium. For a free month of listening, go to stitcherpremium.com/gossip and use promo code 'GOSSIP.'
Click above to listen in iTunes... I've come to know and be increasingly amazed by Dana. His knowledge and skillset never ending and very impressive. Dive into this episode with notes to learn how he's using the Dream 100... What's going on everyone, this is Steve Larsen, and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio. 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. How's it going everyone, I am super excited for today. I have a very special guest on. Please go stop whatever else you're doing. Again this is another one. Take a piece of paper out, write down notes, write down inspiring things that come to you. This is the kind of episode that not just has the ability to teach you a lot, but have a direct impact on the thickness of your wallet. I'm very excited for our guest today. I have known him for quite some time. I'm always extremely impressed with everything that he does. I want to welcome to the show, Dana Derricks. How you doing man? Dana Derricks: What's up man? Hey, thanks for having me. And for anybody that's listening, if you're in your car, pull over, put your hazards on. Just stop what you're doing. Tell your dog to go away. Your about to get hit with some gold here. Steve Larsen: This is awesome stuff. Thanks for being on. Anyway, I've been just been super impressed with you. I think honestly the first time we met though was we were redoing the homepage of ClickFunnels and Russel's like ... I remember I came in one day and Russel was like ... He was like, "Hey man. Dude I got Dana Derricks man. He's going to come on over and he's going to help us rewrite the entire, all the copy for ClickFunnels' homepage." And I was like, "Cool. Wait, who's this?" "He's the goat farmer." I was like, "Wait there's a guy ... There's a goat farmer who's an internet marketer?" He's like, "Yeah yeah yeah yeah." And then you came out and you showed up, and you had overalls and like, sweet straw farmer hats. And I was like, "This guys is the man." And like ever since then I've just been diving into your stuff. I'm super impressed with what you do. Dana Derricks: Dude, thanks man. I'm glad I have one fan. Steve Larsen: Whatever. Dana Derricks: No, that was so much fun and don't forget what ... By the end of that trip, what did you end up wearing home? Steve Larsen: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. So he came in one day, just so everyone on the show ... He came in one day, it was one of the last days, and he had a full chicken suit costume for me. What was ... You gave Dave a massive bear. Russell had ... He was the gorilla right? Dana Derricks: Yeah. Russell was a gorilla, Dave was a bear, you were the chicken. Steve Larsen: That's right. And I thought that it'd be funny to ride that on my motorcycle home. So I did. And we'll put that - Dana Derricks: And... Steve Larsen: In the show notes. Dana Derricks: Yeah. Please. And can we put the picture? Can we dig up the picture too? Steve Larsen: Yeah. I'll go find the picture. I'm just writing that down. Dana Derricks: Oh man. So good. Steve Larsen: Chicken. Dana Derricks: Such a good sport everybody. Steve Larsen, everybody. Steve Larsen: Oh thanks man. Appreciate it. Well hey, just so ... If you guys don't know, if you're not aware, Dana Derricks is one of the, I would say foremost experts on this whole concept that I feel like is extremely kind of gray, cloudy. A lot of people don't understand it, but it's this whole thing around the Dream 100 and how to actually implement it. And I mean you literally wrote a book on it right? And when did that come out? Dana Derricks: When did the book come out? Steve Larsen: Yeah yeah. Dana Derricks: I think it's been out for about eight months. So probably about towards the end of last, of 2017. Steve Larsen: Okay cool. Now before, before you were doing Dream 100 ... So I mean, first of all, how did you become an advocate of Dream 100? How did you start doing it yourself? Was it ... I mean, I know the story, but for everyone else who's listening, like how does a goat farmer who's also a copywriter, who's also an internet marketer overall product creator, go directly into Dream 100 stuff as well? Could you give us a little backstory there? Dana Derricks: I know. Everybody at this point is probably thinking, "Stephen, what is wrong with you? Where did you find this guy?" Steve Larsen: "Who is this guy?" Dana Derricks: Yeah. "What's happening?" So yeah. So I guess a little bit of a backstory that got me into the Dream 100 was I'm the type of guy that's going to try everything, and then figure out what works and what doesn't. And when I figure out something doesn't work, I just keep moving. Like, so I always say like honestly, there's two things about me that work well. Like, number one I'm too dumb to overthink things so I don't get paralyzed by that. And then number two, for every ten things I try, one of them works and I'm thrilled. Like I'm so grateful for the other nine that didn't work so that I could get those out of the way to find the one that did. Right? So like for me, like I look at like major league baseball right? The best in the world, on the planet, go up to the plate and they end up getting a base hit or you know a single, double, triple home run only three out of ten times. Right? Like nobody goes over four out of ten. So what's happening the other seven out of ten times? They're striking out. They're hitting the ball and getting it caught. Like bad stuff's happening almost over two thirds of the time. Yet like, us in business we go and try one thing, we step up to the plate and we expect to hit a home run, and then when we don't we're like devastated and never want to step up to the plate again. So for me, I was not ... I wish I could share this amazing story of how I fell in love with the Dream 100, and it was this love story. But reality is dude, I tried everything. So back in the days of Google SEO, like, Google AdWords, and then YouTube, and then Facebook, and then like all these things I tried and tried and tried, and it just like, it sucked and I failed. I kept failing, and failing, and then I realized, "Wait a minute." I was already doing the Dream 100 before I even knew what it was, and that was the only thing that ever worked for me. So that's why I got obsessed, doubled down, wrote a book about it, and all that other good stuff. Steve Larsen: I mean, how did you first find out about it though? Was it straight from Chet Holmes course, from Russel's stuff, from ... Where'd you learn about it? Dana Derricks: Yes. So I actually first figured it out through Russell. I think he had something ... One of his things was like the lost chapter on the Dream 100, and he just kind of described what it was, and then he was talking about Chet and I was like, "Oh man. I have sifted through many stacks of hay looking for this needle, and I finally found it." And then I grabbed Chet's trainings and it was like game over from there... Steve Larsen: So what ended up happening. I mean you read this thing, and you go start implementing. Like what did you do first? Because there's a lot of ... I feel like there's just a ton of misconceptions. Everyone thinks it has to be this package, or it has to be this ... I don't know. I think we all over complicate it a bit. Like what did you end up go doing? Dana Derricks: Totally. So well, the first that I think everybody thinks when they first learn about the Dream 100 is, "Oh my gosh, I've already kind of been doing that. Right? I didn't realize it." So for me, the big epiphany immediately was, "Holy crap." So for those that don't know my story, I grew up in a town of, I kid you not, 512 people. Steve Larsen: Oh no way. Dana Derricks: Yeah. My graduating class was 30 and we had a big class. Steve Larsen: Wow. Cool. Dana Derricks: Yeah. So my life growing up, because we didn't have a movie theater, we didn't have a grocery store in town. We had nothing. We had a bunch of cows and not even a goat. Like what the heck? Right? So football was our life, and I love football so much that I didn't want to stop playing after high school. I wanted to play in college. And nobody from my school, or area for that matter, played in college or did anything after high school. Like it was just, like we're too small. Nobody knows about it. Like it's not for real. So I'm like, "Screw that." So none of my coaches ever played college football. They don't know how to help with recruiting and all this. So I'm like, "Screw that. I'm going to do it myself then." And basically what I did is I created these ... Well first I started with ... I printed out a list of 40 schools that I potentially wanted to play football for. And then I made a packet for each school, like literally a box, and in it had like the highlight tape, a letter of recommendation from a coach, a personalized letter addressed to the coach that I was sending it to, all this stuff right. And I mailed all 40. And I was like, "All right, sweet. Let's see what happens." Two weeks goes by nothing. I'm like, "Wow that was a waste of time." Third week, I get called to the principal's office which for me is not a good thing. Like, "Oh man. What did I do?" I go in there and there's a football coach in there, and I'm like, "Whoa." He's like, "Are you Dana," and I'm like, "Yeah. Who are you?" He's like, "I'm Coach so and so." And he's like, "I'm here to recruit you." And I'm like, "What? You're here to recruit me? You came all the way to my town?" He's like, "Yeah," and then day or two goes by and then I get called back in and suddenly there's two coaches in there from two different schools at the same time. And I'm like, "Oh my gosh." And I remember like ... Yeah. Like my principal pulled me aside and he's like, "Dana when is this going to stop. It's really disruptive." I'm like, "I'm sorry Mr.C, it's like a broken fire hose. I can't do anything." So long story short, because of the Dream 100, I didn't even realize what it was at the time, I ended up getting a pretty major football scholarship, and I'm the only person in the history of my school that's ever gotten any sort of athletic scholarship, and it's 100% thanks to the Dream 100. So that's like the first emotion you go through I think when you learn about the Dream 100 is like, "Oh my gosh. Why didn't I know about this sooner? I was already doing it." You know? And then it turns into, "How do I now leverage the crap out of this in what I'm doing today here and now?" Right? So what I did, just really quick, was I wrote out a list of my Dream 100 right then and there and I remember, I'll never forget, Russell was at the top of my list and I looked at it ... This was not that long ago either. This was only a couple years ago. I looked at it, I'm like, "There's no way that I could ever get that guy to ever pay attention to me or do anything with me." Right? And I erased it. I literally erased it, and then I was like, "Oh maybe." Right? "YOLO." So I put it back up on the side of the list, like with an asterisk. And I'm like, "Eh. Maybe." Right? And then fast forward like couple years, and then I go up, get to meet you and hang out with Russell, and speak at a Funnel Hacking Live, and all this other crazy stuff, and it's all 100% thanks to the Dream 100. Steve Larsen: So for everyone else also, before we started this Dana is an amazing copywriter. He's amazing and Dream 100, and between those two topics I asked him, I was like, "Which one do you want to talk about?" And he said, "Which one do you want to talk about?" I said, "Which one gets you the most frustrated and mad?" And he immediately said, "Dream 100." Why is that? Before we dive into some how you actually put this together, how come the Dream 100 gets you most ticked off compared to copywriting which is also very important? Dana Derricks: I love this question. So for me it's because I feel like it's sort of a tragedy that most ... Every single business isn't ... Like first of all that everybody just doesn't know about it, number one. And then every single business or entrepreneur isn't using it. Like to me that is such a tragedy. And for some reason, like I still don't know why. For some reason when people think of traffic and getting people into their funnels or eyeballs on their offers, or whatever, they instantly think, "Oh Facebook ads. I need Facebook ads." And for some reason, like that apparently is the only traffic source in the world. Right? Like, it's just this crazy misconception and the reality is is the Dream 100 is a much ... How do I want to say it? It's a much more sustainable approach because it will never go away. It worked 50 years ago, it works now, it'll work 50 years from now. And it also ... It's free. I mean it's targeted eyeballs on your stuff for free. And it's all about ... It's really not that difficult. It's just building relationships with people. So that ... I guess that fires me up is like why everybody thinks they need to have Facebook ads or whatever else when they could be using the Dream 100 instead. Steve Larsen: Yeah, I feel like maybe that is part of the issue though is like, most internet marketers now are ... We're just spoiled. I mean before Facebook days, I mean how did everyone get the traffic that they needed. It's exactly what you're talking about right now and I feel like that's ... Not that Facebook's a bad thing, but I don't know how to drive ads. Like I don't want to go learn that stuff. I feel like Dream 100 is so much more long term sustainable, higher leverage sources of eyeballs than going and ... Anyway. And learning that stuff. So you mentioned real fast, you said, "Okay. I went and I ..." It's funny because Russell was number one on mine also, and I was like, "Eh, we'll see. I don't know." How did you make your list? I feel like that's the ... Do you feel like that's the reason people actually never do this? Like one of the choke points? Or how do you actually put it together? Dana Derricks: I think that's a big one. And that's probably the most common question I'm asked when I'm talking about it. Yeah. It's like, "Who was my Dream 100? Who was it?" And I'm like, "Well ..." So finally I came up with a very simplistic equation I can give you and your listeners if you want it. Steve Larsen: Yeah. I'd love that. Dana Derricks: So basically it starts ... It doesn't start with your Dream 100, it starts with you and then your customer avatar. So it's literally this simple. Who is your customer avatar? And that to me is a function of who do you want, as well as who do you not want? So it's who you want, minus who you don't want, equals your customer avatar. Right? And then so I've got my customer avatar, because if you don't have that then the Dream 100 is a very complex, difficult thing because you don't know. Right? So all right. The next question is, where are your customer avatar? Like where do they hang out? Right? Is it certain Facebook groups? Is it associations they're in? Is it ... Are they buying the same book? Are they all subscribed to the same software? Do they listen to the same podcast? Like if you can figure out who your avatar is, figuring out where they are is not that hard, and then wherever they are, whoever owns and controls the group that they're in, the groups I should say, or the audiences, that right there is your Dream 100. Steve Larsen: Interesting. So you go from your customer avatar meaning who you want and don't want, and then you go from where they are, and then who already has them. Dana Derricks: Exactly. Boom. Done. Steve Larsen: Who has them. I'm just taking notes. Dana Derricks: Sure. Steve Larsen: Who has them. Okay, so then from that point, like ... So I'm just ... From when I've launched a lot of stuff and I've got Dream 100 stuff all over my office right now. What ... Huge believer. Huge believer. So I'm excited I get to - Dana Derricks: Yeah man... Steve Larsen: I feel like ... I mean I like to sit down and start creating somewhat of a campaign for each one of these people with a blend of personalization, but also my ability to do it kind of en masse. You know what I mean? To each one of these people. I don't know if that makes sense. But what do you do next to actually get a hold of them? Are you going one by one for each of them? Are you doing something mass that kind of blankets all 100? Dana Derricks: Great questions. So I actually, gosh this is just a little bit off topic but it helps to kind of illustrate this. So how build my system around what's working is I do everything the hardest, longest way possible and then that becomes my system. So for example, if I launch a new offer for something, like if I have a ... If I come out with a new $2000 book right? I will find the person who is absolutely unqualified to buy it, who might want it, but who's totally ... Like for example, maybe they're totally broke. Right? And I will literally go through and answer every single question for them, and have 1500 back and forths if I have to, to then have basically, after the point of first contact to the point where they actually buy the thing, which is like a humongously long duration of time and effort. That is my system. Right? So that is now my system because very single objection basically has already been taken care of, and those are now all scripts that I can use for the next person. So I do the basically ... That's how I look at everything. So for my Dream 100, like let's say I have a target. And I'll use more of a short term target. So like a smaller kind of, more accessible one. Because Russell, that's a long term play. Right? But like a smaller one that you could start the conversation with already is like ... You definitely have the elements of personalization, so figuring out ... And this all comes obviously from ... So for those of you that are Dream 100'ing Stephen, you're in the right place because listening to his podcast is a great way to get his attention and get to know him, and the second secret sauce I'll tell you is, buy all of his stuff. Okay? So there's a correlation usually between how much access you get to someone, and how much money you've spent with them. So - Steve Larsen: That is fascinating actually. Dana Derricks: Right? Steve Larsen: Man. You say too much good stuff man. You got to slow down. I can't write that fast. Dana Derricks: Yeah. So for me it's like, I'll just pick ... So when you're starting out, it's really critically important to just pick one that isn't years down the road, so don't go after Tony Robbins on your first one. But also don't go after somebody that is already in your network that you could get a yes from without even having to go through all the hoops of all the other stuff right? And then just figure out what it is that can just showcase to them that you care about what they say, and you listen, and you consume their stuff, and you buy their stuff. Right? So I've had people ... I learned this myself, they're like, "Well are you ..." I wanted to partner with software companies before and they asked, "Well are you a subscriber of the software?" And I'm like, "Good question." Right? Like, "I should probably get an account and get to know it really well before I should expect them to want to do anything with me." Right? So that's the beginning. If you're not already doing that, then it's going to be really really difficult. But once you are, then ... Because it's like you're part of the community right? And - Steve Larsen: It's funny that ... There's a few times I've tried to reach out, or someone reached out to me, and they're like, "How do I learn this?" I'm like, "You serious? I have a course on this." They're like ... You know there's been times when ... Anyway. I don't know how else to say yes, amen, ahh, little hallelujah, lights coming down. What he's saying right now, please visualize bright shiny objects and things in the sky because that is so gold. Dana Derricks: That's funny man. But yeah, like if you think about it, makes total sense too. Like, if you're already ... And the other ... To take that a step further, is if you can contribute value to their community, right? So like for me with Russell, I have intentionally ... I don't ... I love helping people, but like I'm not getting paid and I'll go into the ClickFunnels community, the Facebook group or whatever, and I just go help people. I'm not there, I don't have an agenda. I don't have ... I'm not selling them. I'm just going in there and helping. So if they have a question to something that I know the answer to, I'll spend five, ten minutes helping them. Steve Larsen: Which you're so good at man. I've seen you pop around all over the place doing that. Like I watch you do that all the time. You're such a ... Ah, it's awesome. Okay cool. Yeah. Dana Derricks: Thanks man. Well hey, see I'm glad somebody notices. Steve Larsen: I do man. Yeah I turn back around I'm like, "Man this group doesn't even ... It's not even active anymore. Or this." I'm like, "Man, Dana wrote a long incredible response to that. This is cool. He spent a lot of time on this." Dana Derricks: So yeah. Because if you think about it, who's the perfect person for a guy like Russell to put on stage at his live event? Somebody that the community already knows, likes, and trusts. Right? Somebody that has invested in him and what he's building. And then, not only like monetarily. Yeah I gave him a lot of money to get into his inner circle, right? But also like, I spend quite a bit of time, and energy, and effort on helping his people for free. I don't ask for anything in return you know? So it's like ... That's a deadly combination for anybody to ... How can you say no? Right? Steve Larsen: Right. Oh interesting. Dana Derricks: So if somebody's saying no to you, ask yourself those three things. Am I already buying their stuff and consuming their stuff, and in the community? Am I contributing to the community? And have I ... What was the last one? Oh. I think, have I given them a lot of money? Steve Larsen: Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Okay okay. So once ... Let's say ... Let's say ... Right. Because there was some point when Russell's like, "Wow. I'm now aware of Dana," and you realize that he is. How do you move forward? I feel like that's one of the other major questions kind of from the community that happens. They'll be like, "What do I say to him next?" You know, "When do I drop, 'Hey we need stuff?'" What's the steps forward after you've gotten their attention? Dana Derricks: This is like the second most frequently asked question is like, "I don't know what to say to him" or "I just feel like ..." Whatever. And I'll share quick like ... So Lady Boss, Brandon and Kaelin Poulin, amazing human beings, I work with them. They're in my intensive I call it. It's kind of like a course mastermind blend. And they build a $10 million company off of paid ads. And I'm just thinking to myself, "Holy crap. If I could make $10 off paid ads I'd be thrilled," right? And they're like, "We should probably try this Dream 100 thing." And I'm like, "Yeah you probably should. Good idea." So three days before Funnel Hacking Live, Brandon the action taker he is, he enrolled in my course and then he's like, "You know what? I got a guy I think I'm going to put in this spot." So because they're a big company, they can just by having a full-time affiliate partnership management person. Right? So he ends up being Brandon's brother, and his name's Jeff. He's awesome. And Jeff asked me three days before the event this exact question right? Because Kaelin was going to be on stage, which is an amazing opportunity for people to know Lady Boss, and I'm sure there are people in the sea of the 3000 plus that they could potentially work with somehow right? Or they know somebody that they could. So Jeff's like, "Dana," he's like, "I'm really new to this. What do I say to people?" And I'm like, "Jeff, this is the only thing you have to make sure you say. Everything else just be yourself, but this is what you have to say. Before you end any conversation, just ask the question, 'How can we help each other?'" That's it. If you can just get that question out there, they may not have the answer immediately, but at least it gets their mind going, and number one it like tells them what your agenda is. It's not, "Hey can you do Lady Boss?" No. It's like, "Hey. We want to help each other," and that's kind of how it was for me as well with Russell is I got on his radar, and then you know it's like, "How can I help you with what you're doing? How can I help ClickFunnels?" Right? And then that's how it came to, "Hey. You could probably help me by coming out here and knocking this copy for the homepage." Right? So a really long winded way of saying like, if you can just always have that question in your mind, "How can we help each other," then it just takes care of the rest. Steve Larsen: You know, it's interesting, with that approach, which I absolutely love because it comes from a place of friendship, and adding value, I mean you think about Dream 100 ... I mean, doing that 100 times, I mean it's easy to see how ... You easily could have a full-time position with somebody just doing that alone. Managing those relationships, working on the next pieces. Is there ever ... What's the point in the relationship after you've been adding value, because I'm sure it's different for everybody. We're all different, but is there a time where ... Because some of them probably come up and go, "Hey. Let me promote your stuff." But then there's probably other times you have to come back out and say, "Oh my gosh, he's not getting it, or maybe I do have to be a little more forward." Like how do you approach somebody and say that without sounding ... After you've given value, they know you're there, they know you're there to help, you've clearly developed a relationship. What's the way that you approach them and say, "Promote my stuff?" Dana Derricks: Love it. So I basically relate it to marriage. So me personally I would never get down on a knee if I didn't know the gal was going to say yes. I just don't want to be the next YouTube marriage proposal fail video. Right? Steve Larsen: Which are great to watch. Dana Derricks: Oh yeah. As a viewer. Yeah. So I look at it the same way as like ... Like I ask myself, "Have I built up enough goodwill with this person," whether that's buying their stuff, consuming their stuff, being in their community, contributing to their community, or whatever. Contributing directly to them. "Have I done enough of that for them to say yes to what I'm going to ask?" And if the answer isn't a clear yes, I just keep giving value. And usually for me, it's get to the point where people will ask me, "How can I help you?" Like all the time. That's one of the most common asked questions I have is from people just when I see them at events and stuff, and it's like, "How can we help you?" And then I'm like, "Hm. Well let me think about that for a second..." And then it's just the perfect ... So that's the thing is like, can you confidently say yes you've built enough goodwill up for them to say yes. And then number two, if not just continue to give them more value somehow. Steve Larsen: That makes total sense. Okay okay. So we've gone through ... Okay. Gone through how you make the list, psychology of ... I love your approach by the way. That is just pure gold. Choose the hardest way possible because that becomes a system. That way all the objections popup and you can address those in scripts. Things like that. Just brilliant. How to actually ... What do you do with the Dream 100 next? How can we help each other? On to promoting. Okay. You are notoriously known in the inner circle, in pretty much everywhere who's ever come in contact with you, for your incredible packages that you do send. Dana Derricks: Oh man. Steve Larsen: Could you talk a little bit about the way that you do that? I know that Dream 100 itself is not packages, but obviously that is a strategy and a method. Could you tell us a little bit about what it is that you're sending out and what you're working through as you go through each person? Because I've heard some pretty amazing stuff get sent around from you. Dana Derricks: Oh man. Well do I have your address? I'll have to get it. So yeah. Russell talks about ... Because somebody asked him this once, and he had a great response. He said that he likes to theme things. And I didn't even realize that I was doing it, but he mentioned me as well. But he does superheroes. You know. So that kind of takes some of the question out of what you should be sending is if you can latch onto a theme. So for me, obviously goats. So I've got ... Let's see if I have one. Oh I must have sent it out. Oh no I have one. Hold on, wait for it. Steve Larsen: Is that the screaming goat thing? Dana Derricks: That's the screaming goat. Steve Larsen: Nice. Dana Derricks: Oh I got to get you one man. Oh my gosh. That's the best way to crush any awkward silence ever right there. Steve Larsen: Just play that. Dana Derricks: Yeah. So my stuff is really goat related. And then the other thing that I look at is ... And the other thing, if you're creative you don't have to spend a lot of money. I know that's a concern for people, and at the end of the day though this stuff is so valuable, as soon as you get one, yes everything's paid for. So I keep that in the back of my mind. That keeps me going. But as far as like making it stand out and be cool, because I get stuff ... People send me stuff and I hope ... I don't care if they're listening or not. Steve Larsen: It's a lesson. It's a lesson. We're all good. Dana Derricks: Yeah. Like I love you guys. Keep sending me stuff. There is a difference though between something that somebody personally put together in a box, and somebody that just sends me a gift from Amazon with like a gift card, or the typed out thing from Amazon. Like both are cool, and you doing just the Amazon thing is better than 99% of people. But like there's something to be said about that hand touch and stuff. So for me like, I guess my creativity comes out because one of the things I sent to everybody in the inner circle that kind of got everybody kind of, I don't know, in a frenzy was - Steve Larsen: Yeah.. Dana Derricks: Yeah. Was a wizard stick. So long story short, my dad lives in Texas, I'm in Wisconsin and I like to send to his Christmas gifts. So a couple years ago I bought this weird like weed puller thing where it's like you don't have to bend over to pull weeds out. It's like ... You know what I'm talking about? Steve Larsen: Yeah yeah. Totally. Dana Derricks: And I open it up from Amazon or whatever, and then I forgot. Threw the box away and then I was like, "Oh man. It's like 4:50 PM on a Friday. I need to get this out to my dad." So I went to the post office and I'm like, "Do you have a box that this would maybe fit in?" And they're like, "No not at all." And I'm like, "Oh crap." But he's like, the post master was like, "But we could send it like that." I'm like, "What?" He's like, "Yeah." Like picture basically like a shovel. Essentially a shovel. He's like, "We could send it just like that." I'm like, "Wait what? You don't have to put in a box?" He's like, "No." So basically, picture the shovel. They just printed off the label, and then like stuck it to the handle of the shovel, and then the shovel got sent in the mail just like that. Like no box. And so I'm like, "Huh. You don't have to put things in boxes. That's amazing." So I sent out these wizard staffs or whatever, and I zip tied a wizard hat on top, and didn't put it in a box, and all these sticks essentially showed up at people's mailboxes and it was just this big crazy viral thing. And stuff like that that's just way more memorable and exciting when stuff like that shows up than just a box from Amazon. You know? Steve Larsen: Yeah. Yeah yeah yeah. Let's say ... Okay. So I've identified my Dream 100, I've contributed some things to the community, I really want to do things to grab their attention, what are some of the ... I mean, how much money are you spending on each one of these packages? You mentioned it could be cheap, and sometimes that's better, but how much money per package do you expect, or ... I guess that's the question. How much money do you expect to be spending on each one of them? Dana Derricks: If I can keep it under ... So depends on the target too. I segment my Dream 100 with A, B, and C. Steve Larsen: Oh really? Dana Derricks: Yeah. A is being like the top, B is being like middle, and then C is being like quick wins. Reason for that is because another things that people ask is like, "Well how high should I shoot?" And if you have all like, Russell, Gary V., Grant Cardone's on your list, like it's not that it won't happen, it's just that's not going to happen any time soon. You know? So I learned an expensive lesson from my football scholarship. And that was I ended up playing in a division two school, which they still give great football scholarships, and mine was a huge one, but wasn't a D one school because I listened to the doubt in my head that I was never good enough to play D one so I didn't even print off any D one schools. I really regret that to this day. So I just had B's on the list. And so if I'm looking at ... Typically for a B campaign, or even some C's, if I can keep my packages between $20 and $40 a piece, I'm pretty happy with that. But again, there come ... It comes with like, pretty relentless followup. Because if you just sent the box to somebody, good luck. But you got to do more than that. You know? Steve Larsen: Right. Right right. Followup process. What does your followup process typically look like? Dana Derricks: Oh man. So - Steve Larsen: Because you're a beast at this man. I'm pumped to hear this. Dana Derricks: It's very extensive. So ... Oh man. Do you want the whole ... Not like the whole thing, but do you want to know the extent I go? Steve Larsen: Yeah, totally. I do. Because I feel like what people do is, let's say I go put the package together, I go to the mailbox, I drop the thing off. Boom. I've now done Dream 100. You know? That's kind of it, and people kind of like rinse their hands. "Yes, I get my success cookie for the day." But it's really not over... Dana Derricks: No. It's just beginning. Steve Larsen: You're brilliant at this part. I'm so pumped. Dana Derricks: Thanks man. So that's like ... If you're running a marathon, that's the gun that just started the marathon. But you can go home with your marathon number on, and you've dressed up, and congrats you participated, but you didn't finish. Right? So for me it's like, I'll send them ... For me really the lumpy mail is permission to follow up with them. That's all it is. Because if I send somebody a gift card, or I don't care, wizard stick in the mail, like I have the right to follow up with you now. Right? I've spent money, invested time and money into you, now you don't have to work with me, or say yes to what I'm asking, but you do have to reply. Like that's the decent thing to do. So I will then send them an email followup, and it's never like, "Hey did you get my email?" Like have you ever had somebody message you 17 times on 17 platforms saying, "Did you see my email?" Steve Larsen: Yeah. "I called you. I called you. I called you. I called you." You're like, "Oh my. I know. I saw it, okay?" Dana Derricks: Dude. Yeah. Like we saw it. Like - Steve Larsen: It drives me nuts. Dana Derricks: Right. But if it's like, "Hey did you see the package I sent?" That's a different ball game. That's like, "Whoa you spent money on me, and you took the time and energy to cut through and go to me in the mail." Right? So I'm always like, "Hey did you get the box yet that I sent," or whatever. And I'm not like ... I'm never annoying about it because like, I'll look at the tracking and make sure the thing was delivered before I'm like, "Hey did you get the box?" And they're like, "No, what box?" Right? It's like ... So that ... So it's basically multi-channel followup. It's really ... It's extensive. So it'll go from emails and Facebook messages and whatever they are on, and then if I get no response from them, and I know that they're potentially seeing my messages and I've gone to the extent of like, two, three, four weeks of followups, next is a dodge ball in the mail. Steve Larsen: Wait you send them an actual dodge ball in the mail? Dana Derricks: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Steve Larsen: So you're calling them out? Dana Derricks: Oh yeah. If I have their address, they're so screwed man. Steve Larsen: I didn't know you do that. That's funny man. Dana Derricks: Oh yeah. Well that's because you've replied to me. Steve Larsen: Oh that's funny. Dana Derricks: So dodge ball. Rubber snakes work really well. It's literally ... And it's always ... Here's a thing. It's always got to be around humor though, and sarcastic, otherwise it's just ... It wouldn't work. So like the dodge ball's like, "Come on man. You're dodging me." And they know I'm not going to stop at this point. And the rubber snake, I think it's just to hilarious to think of the thought of them opening a box to see a snake inside. Like, it's just so funny. So I've never had to go past the snake, but the next one ... This is kind of naughty, but I will, I am prepared to send a certified with like a W9 inside that basically says, "All right man, have it your way. If you don't want to reply, then I guess you can pay the taxes on all this stuff I sent you." It's all a big joke, but that's the extent. Like people don't see ... They think you ... Like you said, they just send something and then all these good things happen and it's not. You have to really work. Steve Larsen: You have to really keep going on them. Dana Derricks: Yeah. And just be ... But being like ... Not badgering them though either. Steve Larsen: There's a line. Dana Derricks: Value. Yeah. For sure. Steve Larsen: Okay, so someone ... Is the package ... I've heard you say this before, but just for everyone listening. Is the package the first thing you send to them? Dana Derricks: No. So what I've found is ... I'm not sure the number, like the percentage. I'd say it's close to half. Probably close to half the Dream 100 deals I've made, I've never had to send anything in the mail. Steve Larsen: Wow. Dana Derricks: Yeah. So that's more of like, it's in the tool belt, it's like a special kind of like drill. Right? You can use it when you need to, but you don't have to use it. So for me it's like more so cutting through the noise, and then giving me permission to continue to followup. Steve Larsen: Interesting. Okay. You just turn up the heat when you get to packages. Dana Derricks: For sure. And then also though, it's also about nurturing too. So I send my existing affiliate Dream 100 people, like my number one affiliate last year, I sent him ... I think I probably told you this before, but I sent him a big screen TV and surround sound just out of the blue. Right? Just to keep him happy and yeah. So that's when it comes back in is really just spoiling people and giving them gifts and all that good stuff. Steve Larsen: So ... Okay. So I mean you've given a lot of ways to actually pull this off, to get attention. As far as like pulling off a JV with them, and them ... Could you go through some of the practices that you have when someone says yes. Like, "Yeah I'm super super excited to dropout." You know, my people [ Dana. I've heard a lot of people that go by ... I don't know. They'll pull like a URL up. There's a whole lot of like small little isms and little practices that are out there. Do you mind going through just a few of those? Dana Derricks: Yeah, sure. So is this ... What's the goal? To get them to promote? Steve Larsen: Yeah. I guess as far as like they've said yes. As far as pulling off the JV with them. What are some of the things that you do to make that go smoothly? Dana Derricks: Sure. Great question. So the number one hurdle that you'll have to get through first is getting them to actually do it. Because all these people will tell you yes because they don't want to disappoint you or whatever. But few will actually follow through and do the promotion. Steve Larsen: Interesting. Dana Derricks: Yeah. And Russell talked about this too. He said ... I don't know if he's faxed me this or where I heard it but, he said for every hundred people you target, you'll probably only end up with maybe about six that actually do the promotion with you. And of those six probably only about three will actually be worth all that time and energy. Steve Larsen: Totally believe that. Dana Derricks: Yeah. Right? So I break it down like this for ... And my students do it this way. So it's like, first things first. Once we're to the point where we think we can ask, we do. And then when they say yes, we're always selling the thing that sells the thing. So it's not like ... It's getting the calendar. Getting it penciled in on the calendar. That is like the next win we need. That's what we're trying to sell. If we can get that dang spot locked up, I can remember there were ... I was on the phone with the CEO of very well known company in our space, and he's just like, "Yeah we're booked through whatever." And I'm just like, "Dude. You know what? That's totally cool. Let's just do October. Right? How's that? Like, October clean for you?" He's like, "Yeah, yeah okay." And then I'm like, "All right cool. How about the 12th?" And then just getting it on there because if they're going to be like, "Oh I want to look at my schedule, I have to view calendar, I'll have to get back to you," or whatever. But more friction right? Steve Larsen: Sidestep. Yeah. Dana Derricks: Yeah. So I found too like where it was ... Excuse the sirens this is a big deal for a town of 1000. Steve Larsen: You're good. No worries. Dana Derricks: So like, also I've been surprised too where like I had it penciled in, I'm thinking, "Yeah they just told me that so I would keep them happy, or keep me happy." And then they actually did do it on that date and time. So it was like, "Wow, this is awesome." So that's the first big thing. And then making sure that you take everything off their plate. Because the minute they thing that they're going to have to lift a finger for this, they don't want to do it. Right? So from beginning to end, we do every single thing. We will create all the swipe files for them to send out. We'll create all the affiliate ... I call them co-branded funnels. So if we're pushing a webinar for example, it'll be a co-branded webinar funnel. We'll offer to host a webinar if they are cool with that. And then we deliver everything to them about like two weeks in advance just so that everything's done. And then we followup and make sure. That's what's really cool about having an affiliate manager is that they kind of take care of all that, but like we'll make sure that every step of the way is covered so they don't - Steve Larsen: That's fascinating. Oh man that's super ... Okay wow. That's crazy cool. And what do you when you ... Because I mean, I'm sure it happens right? You go out and you're getting ... I mean I've had those people ...I've had this happen also. Like you go out and someone says yes. You get the few yes's. Six say yes, three actually do it. What do you do with those other three? Dana Derricks: Good question. So - Steve Larsen: Is that when you send them the W9? Dana Derricks: So if they've said yes but you just haven't got it scheduled yet, right? So I would try, just throw it way out in the future, and if you still don't then there's something there they want to do something with you, but apparently the way that it presented was ... That might not be what they're actually going to be comfortable doing. So I would like at trying to down sell it somehow. So if it was originally, "We're going to do a, you know, a joint venture webinar together," maybe starting out with a Facebook live might be better right? Something that's a little bit easier them to not have to fully commit to, or even just like doing an email to their list or something like that. Because even that's going to be better than nothing, and if you look at ... That's another thing that we ... Is pretty cool. So if you can do something successful with them, even if it's something small, you can go back to them and do something big. So you know, look at Russell with Grant Cardone. He went to 10X last year, and basically wasn't given ... He got on stage, and he was allowed to pitch kind of, but he wasn't allowed to do half of what he asked to do. Steve Larsen: Right. The true Russell style. Dana Derricks: Exactly right. Grant's like, "We're going to do it my way." He's like, "Okay, fine." And Russell did it Grant's way, got some wins out of it, but then look what happened the next year. Russell go to to go there and call the shots. He said, "I want this. I need that." Grant and his team said, "Okay. Whatever. You proved yourself last time." And then boom. Closes $3 million in an hour and a half. Right? But he would have never been able to do that had it not been the year before doing it Grant's way, doing it smaller, doing it in a way that Grant was more comfortable with. Steve Larsen: That's cool. That's cool. Okay. I know I'm just pounding you man. I got one more question for you. Scenario is, right, you go off, you've done the successful ones with the three, you're obviously continuing to work and warm up the leads for the other 97 as you go through. With the ones that you have done it with though, what's kind of your play as you move forward? Are you hitting them again for the next promo? Are you ... I guess post successful campaign, what kind of actions do you take with that person? Dana Derricks: Yeah. So for me, especially like once you've figured out who's good, for me it's like how can we integrate? So I just want to turn and take it to the next level. So for me personally, like let's say that I'm JVing with somebody from my course, and we do a webinar together, kill it. We do five, six figures together, whatever. I want to work with that person. I don't want to just do once a year, once a quarter. I want like full on, how can we work together. So I always offer ... What I've been doing a lot is I'll create a bonus module for whatever their thing is, if they've got a course. I'll come in there and basically teach a bonus module, or I will throw in my book in their value stack, or whatever just so that I can get not just access to their audience, on the one off promotions, but for every single buyer that comes into their world, they see me and the affiliate doesn't have to do a thing. Right? And it comes back to value. Like this module I make, it's not like a pitch necessarily. There might be call to action. There is a call to action of course, but this is value, value, value and it's always enhancing the thing that they already sold. That's kind of the secret there. So I look at integration after a successful one. Steve Larsen: Oh man, that's interesting. That's so cool. Man you have just like, just divulged. I have a full page of notes. Just given so much. I just appreciate that like crazy. I mean right, there's only a few people that ever really even written about this topic. The Chet Holmes. Amazing Chet Holmes, Russell himself, and you. That's it man. Like those are the options. I know you have a book that has come out and is amazing. You have a lot of people ... I have a lot people who'd come and ... The book's incredible. And I'm very very excited for it. Where can people go get the book? How do they find out more about you and follow you? Dana Derricks: Yeah. For sure. For anybody that's kind of vibing with this, and you're like, "Oh man, that sounds a lot better than running Facebook ads or running after the next shiny object," Stephen and I are totally Dream 100 junkies, and I'd love for you guys to do the same. So it's called The Dream 100 Book. Actually had the foreword written by Russell. It's pretty cool. I think Stephen's read it. Steve Larsen: Woo-hoo. Yeah. Dana Derricks: There is a caveat. Actually listen to Stephen's advice. So one of things you have really made famous Stephen is the concept of sell it before you make it. Right? Which I love by the way. I actually did that. Stephen said to do that - Steve Larsen: No way. Dana Derricks: Yeah dude. So I sold a copy of The Dream 100 Book, my first copy, for $2000 before I wrote one page of it. Steve Larsen: No way. I didn't know that. Dana Derricks: Yeah dude. Because Russell says writing a book is similar to giving childbirth. Which is...None of us know, but it's probably true. And so there was no better incentive to write a book than to have somebody on the hook for two grand that's waiting for it. Right? So anyway, that's the caveat. It is $2000. However, because Stephen was so gracious to put on a chicken suit and drive around on a motorcycle in Boise, Idaho - Steve Larsen: I secretly just loved it. I was excited. Dana Derricks: Yeah. I mean if he didn't like it, he was putting on a good show. So for you guys listening, if you're vibing with this, I'm actually going to let you guys get a copy of it for free. Steve Larsen: Holy crap. Dana Derricks: I don't do this really for money that much anymore, so I'm cool with that as long as you guys don't share this with the rest of the world. [inaudible 00:48:48] The mad buyers that paid two grand for it. So the link is going to be ListentoStephen.com. ListentoStephen.com. Steve Larsen: That's cool man. Appreciate that. It's S-T-E-P-H-E-N. Yeah? Dana Derricks: Correct. The good spelling. Steve Larsen: Yeah, the good spelling. The biblical way. No but seriously, just echo what Dana's saying here like I ... Funnel's nothing without traffic. And especially as an entrepreneur and those of you guys who were listening. I know you guys are go getters. This podcast is getting a significant amount of downloads daily now and I thank you all for listening, but what I want you to know ... And that's the way that I think about it too. Russell thinks about it, Dana thinks about it. Like all these top guys, they're not out looking usually for like this little tiny trick insight of a platform. Right? A Facebook trick. A Twitter trick. They're not looking ... That's not how they do it. Instead, they outsource that piece of it, because we all know it's still important, and they go focus 100% of the time on developing these kinds of relationships. So anyway, I'm super excited. That was very very generous of you give that Dana. So it's ListentoStephen.com. Dana Derricks: Totally. And you all should listen to Stephen. Keep listening to him. Steve Larsen: I appreciate that. Well thanks for being on the show man, and where can everyone go to follow you as well? Dana Derricks: So being the farmer I am, I don't think I'm on instant grams. I'm over on Facebook, or DanaDerricks.com, or just keep listening to Stephen, and every once in a while I'll probably pop up. Steve Larsen: Absolutely. All right. Hey, thanks so much for being on the show. And everyone go to ListentoStephen.com and get the free copy of ... It's literally called Dream 100. Was two grand, for this audience it's free. Dana Derricks: Go get it. Steve Larsen: Boom. Just try to tell me you didn't like that. Hey whoever controls content controls the game. Want to interview or get interviewed yourself? Grab a time now at SteveJLarsen.com.
Join ReWatchable as we discuss Buffy 7×14, “First Date,” and Angel 4×12, “Calvary.” Superfans: Caitlin and Maj Newbies: Brittany and Ariana Fun Facts: Brittany is stressing about playoff football (along with Caitlin). Ariana has been watching Kevin Probably Saves the World and finds it delightful. A wild Amy Aker appears and Ariana is back to working at Wolfram and Hart! Happy Anniversary, Maj! One year here, forever in our hearts. Caitlin’s fun fact is not so fun since she is teaching an 8:00 a.m. class. Buffy season 7, episode 14, “First Date”: -Synopsis -Ariana is not impressed with how this episode downplayed the events of last week -Giles’ flippant behavior is getting out of hand -“You didn’t even call.” -How serious is the First? -Ashanti in her prime makes it to Buffy! -“There is no way Ashanti would got out with Xander.” -What are they doing to these characters in season 7? -These series are going to intersect. Right? -Is the First rallying troops in Los Angeles? -Andrew is trying! But can we trust his motives? -Principal HOTTIE is so uncomfortable -Did they stretch out the Principal Wood reveal too long? -SPIKE KILLED NIKKI WOOD -Is there a comic for this? -The First makes itself known to Wood and gives him some insight -James Marsters is doing a great job as soulful Spike -Spike in puberty versus Spike at 40 — EXCELLENT -Favorite Scenes -Favorite Lines Angel season 4, episode 12, “Calvary”: -Synopsis -Let’s name check this episode for a hot second -“An experience of intense mental suffering” -Brittany finally gets to talk about Angelus -What a great villain. WHAT A GREAT VILLAIN. -Angel is actually observant, but maybe he isn’t willing to use everything he knows -Angel needs to actively work on being good; it’s not in his nature -“I need that on a pillow.” -The soul is missing: DUN DUN DUN -Gunn and Fred break up — angry, sad, happy, all the emotions -Stick to your guns, Gunn -Lilah has been a JOURNEY -“He does love a convent.” -Fred’s character has taken a few steps backwards. Where is her agency? -Wes continues to be the worst -DB is a great actor. Such a great actor. -Was the spell actually just to trick Lorne? -Cordelia who? Can anyone catch on? -So much science questioning, not enough time -Favorite Scenes -Favorite Lines Listener Feedback: -We saw this Wood thing coming from a mile away. Well, part of it anyway. Ariana’s Assumptions/Brittany’s Brainstorms: –Buffy season 7, episode 15, “Get It Done” –Buffy season 7, episode 16, “Storyteller” Contact us! Email: rewatchable.podcast@gmail.com Twitter: @Re_Watchable Tumblr: ReWatchablePodcast.Tumblr.com Please rate and review us on iTunes!
The first half of the season flew by with all the killer drama and relationship turmoil. We had our last episode until next year and boy was it a doozy. The show closed out it's "Black Hood" story arc with a killer arc and yea, it wasn't quite what we expected. The red herring turned out to not be such a red herring after all. Or was he? Brad and our fellow writer Meg who does the written weekly recaps have their own theories about that reveal. Hit play and listen in as Brad and Cort break down this week's fall finale and then check out Meg's conspiracy theory here. Before this episode, the show has been steadily running on all cylinders. What did you think of the reveal and what lasting effect will it leave on Betty and all her friends? The show also re-awakened the iconic love triangle from the comics with that smooch between Betty/Archie and then reuniting Ronnie and her Archikins at the end of the episode. Hope remains for Bughead, though, RIGHT???? Is it wrong that I semi wanted the killer to be Betty's dad so he'd be out of the way for Alice/FP to make things happening? What's your poison? Barchie, Bughead, Varchie, or are you all about Josie/Cheryl? When is poor Kev going to get some more love and not of the hook-up variety? Where is Sherriff Keller and his Mayoral Boo? We have so many weeks to wait until the show returns in January. I guess we'll be rewatching all the eps and continual speculating whether or not the janitor was the very bad man who terrorized the citizens of Riverdale and will they ever bring back Tony Todd? Only time will tell. Until then hit play and listen in as we chat about the last two episodes. Be sure to drop us a line on Twitter or our Brad and Cort Talk Podcast Group on Facebook .
Photo by Seth Schaeffer Click here to download.You're an artist--that is until you have kids and you no longer have time for art. Right? Is there a way to create while still holding on to who you were before having kids?In our Season 2 opener, I talk about how to approach creativity while still being a parent. Listen to my interview with Youngman Brown of YourCreativePush.com.Click here to listen to the interview. Music:"Batty McFaddin" by Kevin MacLeod"Filaments" by Podington Bear"Just Watching" by Podington Bear"Biplane" by Podington Bear
Brad Post, Create the Movement Liz Montgomery, Create the Movement Brad Post, Create the Movement: All right! This is another addition of Create the Movement podcast. My name is Brad Post. And I’m sitting here with Liz Montgomery. Liz Montgomery, Create the Movement: That’s right. B: Liz, how are you doing today? L: I’m doing excellent. Thank you. B: Awesome. Well, we talked last week, kind of about, when a new client comes to us, what we look at. Right? What do you want to talk about today? L: Well, we talked about what we assess initially with them. So, today we’re going to talk about, now that we’ve gathered all that research and information from them, and from their online presence we see what reputation they have and so on. Now, we go, “Okay. What is the best way for us to create a marketing strategy for them? And what tools do we have to do that with?” B: Okay. Perfect. L: So, we’re going to talk through those. B: Kind of the marketing strategy. I think one thing about talking about their marketing strategy is there’s a lot of services that we can offer. Right? And those are…we kind of broke it down into seven different services, for the most part? L: Yes. B: Which are: websites (kind of their overall website), and I’m looking this up because. So, kind of the way we do business we have seven different things that we look at. We have seven different core values as a business. We have seven different services. There’s seven different colors in our new logo. And so, to kind of break down the services we have: search engine optimization, paid advertising, search engine marketing, content (which is blog posting), web design, branding, social media, podcasting, video development. I think that’s seven. Right? L: I think that’s seven. Yeah. B: And a lot of it depends on the client’s budget. Right? L: Okay. Yes. Definitely. B: Because, you know, we could offer them all of those services. And the next thing you know they’re like L: “I only had $30 to spend this month!” B: Exactly! L: I don’t know if I can cover all of those services. B: So, that’s kind of the first thing we look at is, and you know, let’s talk about your marketing budget. A lot of companies don’t really have that. Some of them do; some of them don’t. They’re just like, “I don’t really know what we’re willing to spend.” So, I think we just kind of look at that and, you know, offer the services, and base it on what research we did. Right? L: So, yeah, once we have an idea of their budget, then we can say, “Okay. Here are the seven tools that we have that we can apply to your online marketing campaign, or online marketing presence.” And then, we want to look at what the business is, and which services are going to benefit them the most. So, like for, get the most bang for their buck. B: Right. L: So to speak. Right? Is one type of business going to need more social media services, or is another type need more web design? For example, I think I said the other day, like a, someone who makes dresses for dolls. A doll dress making company. B: Okay. L: They’re going to want an Instagram, a Pinterest. They’re going to need a lot of image-driven content. So, folks can see what they’re creating, and what they’re making. They’re also probably going to need an online store, if they plan on shipping online. Whereas, like, and I’ve maybe used this example before, an attorney, who is like an aviation attorney, okay? And they get all of their business from referrals. So, different airlines say, “Well, we only use these ten attorneys for the service.” And they’re on that list. So, for them, because the CEO of American Airlines isn’t going to be looking for their attorney in the search results online, right? Or on Facebook, necessarily. They’re going to that list. Then we want their website, their money, to be invested in a beautifully built, engaging website. That the design is nice. The user interface is nice. And it’s getting all of the quest...
How to make an atheist in five easy steps! (Okay, maybe not quite THAT simple.) Phil and the gang discuss Dr. Peter Boghossian's new book, A Manual for Creating Atheists. What does he get wrong? Even more importantly, what does he get RIGHT? Is faith a "flawed epistemology?" Is it an epistemology at all? The answer may determine the fate of western civilization as we know it!
Myth of Mr. Right - Is there one right person for me?
Myth of Mr. Right - Is there one right person for me?
You may have heard that DC's relaunching/rebooting/re-whatevering their entire line. We certainly have, and rejoined by Nathan, we're here to discuss all 52 titles, from the Batmen to the WildC.A.T.S. to the...questionable decisions made by just about everyone involved. But hey! It's not us to be cynical, right? Right? Is this thing on? Plus: news and Formspring questions!
Episode 65 - Visualization, Impulse control - The life giving freedom of self control. Narcissism is not freedom, What does it mean to say no to your self? Repentance is a word a lot of stuffy religious people have sole in order to control people through fear and shame. Real repentance is, in part why your reading this right now. Your looking for change, looking answers, Right? Is something in your behavior controlling you? Your not in control of your own flesh? Not in control of you? If your seeking your are repentant.Music by Ruth, Against me! and Jonah 33.